BeeBlog

So, since the Sparkly Orange Bird was the goofy beginning of our matrimonial story, we thought it would be super cute to have the same artist (the fabulous Jenny of bubbletime.etsy.com) create a cake topper of equally silly proportions. And she succeeded with flying colors.  Just look at this crazy thing:



Seriously, how can you not smile? 

And it sounds as though my mom has truly outdone herself with the cake she selected: it sounds like it will match the spirit of the Sparkly Birds very nicely.  But you'll have to wait for pictures of that...even I don't know what it looks like! Ooooh, surprises!

Not done, but certainly dress-shaped:



When finished, it will be shortened to show the crinoline.  There is also a jacket and a sash, but one thing at a time!

A few cryptic pics of dress progress for you, since I love how the pieces of a garment are one weird mobius  strip until like the last 3 steps....


E.T. phone home!

This pattern has lots of those fun little tiny pieces that you sew almost all the way around and then flip them right side out.  Joy.  Let me tell ya, it may not be a proper sewing notion, but a chopstick is reeeeal handy for this...


And when you've turned this piece right-side out you've made...a bunny?!?



OK, and one that actual shows some features of a recognizable garment!

No lie: the bodice of this dress has 18 pieces. What was I thinking?

OK, now I knew wedding stuff was expensive, but wow I had serious sticker shock with invitations.  Luckily, we both were pretty into the idea of making our own anyway!

We started with a very basic but tasteful invitation kit that I could run through my printer.  I was really excited to find something that was a)cream rather than blind-you-instantly white and b) did not have bells, flowers, bows, rings, glitter or fake gilding.  Blech.  It was unbelievable how many tacky kits were out there! 

To make it special, one-of-a-kind, and (most importantly) really, really cute, I commissioned a special double version of Etsy seller craftpudding's  adorable "loving squirrel" stamp.  



We bought some decorative papers and flower-shaped scrap-booking brads at the craft store, stamped the squirrels onto the nice paper, cut them out and attached them to the invites with the little flower brads. Voila! In the time it took to watch Sense & Sensibility for the umpteenth time, we had made 100 of the cutest invitations ever. I even got a little extra artsy and added a coordinating flower brad to the RSVP card.

The first 38 reasons can be seen here, occupying every flat surface of my studio.





These are thirty eight 5" paintings I am doing for a children's art & furniture manufacturer.  They will end up as 6" stretched canvases which will be introduced at a trade show in September. Fingers crossed that they will be a success!


The other 32 reasons are right here:



Yeppers, 32 pieces of fabric, lining, contrast bands and interfacing that will eventually be a wedding dress.  Wish me luck!

OK, so I've been meaning to blog the progress of my very DIY wedding and, let's just say, I'm a little slow in getting around to it.  Well, better late than never...

Part the First: How to Get Your Man to Propose

Buy him a sparkly orange bird from bubbletime.etsy.com!*



Well, that's what I did anyway.  I had no idea they were imbued with magical pop-the-question vibes!  And to all those nay-sayers who say it was mere coincidence that I gave him this on the very same night the M-word was mentioned, well I say "poo!" to you.

*OK, so Ryan really likes this stuff.  Your results may vary.


Part the Second: The Fruits of your Labor

I'm not the kind of girl who wears jewelery on a regular basis (in fact, I am more apt to be found wearing a goofy felt pin of some sort), so  knew I wanted a really unique engagement ring.  Also, since we were just about to buy a house, I definitely did not want the whole 2 month's salary thing (not to mention the ethical issues involving diamonds).  So, with the help of the ladies of Richmond Craft Mafia, we trolled Etsy and IndieFixx for a fun, pretty, and affordable ring.  I fell in love with this ring by ornametal right away, but I kept looking just so I didn't pick the first thing I saw. 



Turns out, after a week of searching, I realized it was the very one I wanted.   (Funny, we did almost the same thing when we bought our house: we bought one we fell in love with the first day out!)