almost 79

Happy Birthday, Grandma.

Ruth Dorgan (Sept. 29, 1929-July 27, 2008)

This picture was taken in November 2007.  This was the last time I saw Grandma, but she didn’t know who I was, or who Kinsley was.

I’d rather not remember her like that.

Sale

Papeterie is having a sale on select letterpress designs.  Unfortunately, they are still out of my budget, but I thought I’d share with you.

(Link)

Sweet bird jewelry

Luna Necklace from Etsy seller sweeter than me

Wouldn’t this be the perfect necklace for a bride with a bird theme?  I am in love with the bird craze!

Matching earrings too!

Craft Night

K and I spent the evening trying out Yoonie’s peony tutorial.

Here’s K with her peony.

Yes, the button in the center of her flower is goofy.  It’s a pink sparkly dress.  It’s what she wanted.

It’s also tiny.  After she went to bed, I made a bigger peony.

I decided to sew my peony together with orange embroidery thread instead of putting a button on it, cause that button thing was a little bit of a pain in the you know what.

Aren’t they cute?  I have another idea for them, I’ll work on that later.

Time’s a wastin’

Seriously, I think I spent days looking for a tutorial on how to make a peony out of something, paper, fabric, felt, tissue, anything.   And I was sad to find that apparently the crafting word does not see peonies as I do.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I found tons of great flower-creating bloggers who were eager to share their floral genius.

I particularly liked these

NutMeg Designs Fabric Flower

Wise Craft’s fabric flower

Much love for the newsprint fabric!!

Molly Chicken’s raggy flowers

Artsy-Crafty Babe’s fluffly flower

Then, I was reading blogs via Google Reader and this little joy ran across my screen.

Yoonie’s Felt Peony!!!

I am so happy to have found this.  About 5 other blogs I read have posted about it too, but that’s ok.  These beauties are sure to adorn something, I’m just not sure what!!

Shortcake is the bomb!

Thank you so much, Miss. Shortcake, for posting those delicious photos from White Aisle today.  You have solved my wedding day jewelry dilemma by leading me to possibly the most gorgeous budget jewelry around.

Back when I was on my hunt for invitation inspiration, I browsed through White Aisle’s website, but I only looked at the invitations.

Botanical remains my all time favorite and I wish wish wish we had the budget for those, in letterpress.  Unfortunately, we don’t.  But here’s some blog love for them anyway.

I mean, really, how gorgeous are those?

I don’t remember these during my invitation search, but aren’t they gorgeous too?  And they totally fit my theme.

Anyway, enough about invitations, and back to the topic at hand.

Jewels.

I’m not a very big jewelry person.  I wear the same earrings every day, and the same rings, and once in a while when I’m in the mood, I throw on one of two necklaces.  I do not spend a lot of money on jewelry.

So, when Miss. Shortcake’s post today came accross my google reader, I was in awe.

Those earrings are gorgeous.   Plus, they aren’t too big, I can definitely wear them again, and they are affordable.  But, I’m not really sure they fit my idea of what I wanted for wedding day jewelry.  The bodice of my dress is very intricate.  I know I won’t be wearing a necklace, because I feel like it takes away from the dress.  I’m also opting for a birdcage veil instead of a semi-cathedral, also to avoid taking away from my dress.

This broach and earring set is a little bit more my style, but according to the websit, those earrings are 1 inch in diameter.  That’s kinda big.

These are really really cute too!  But, I’m just not sure they fit my image.

Here’s my dress again, for reference.

Maybe I should wait until my hairpiece is done.

Oh, I forgot all about that, Myra Kim is designing my hairpiece for me!  Yay!

Anyway, what do you readers think I should do about jewelry?

Shopping Spree

Today was very productive.  That is, if spending money is productive.

I had not one, but two 50% off coupons burning holes in my pocket.  The first was from Michael’s.  Well, I, like many other brides, plan on doing the Martha Stewart Wrap-Around Labels.  I didn’t like Martha’s template, because I’m just that OCD and I need all my fonts to match.  Including the address labels.  Anyway, we are using white stationary, and I wanted to print these myself, so using label paper was out, cause I want them pink.  Therefore, I needed a Xyron.

There is my new darling with a refill.  The refills at Michael’s are 40% off this week, so I couldn’t resist.

(see messy dining table, I’ve also taken over the dining table with craft/wedding stuff)

Then I went to JoAnn’s.  Our JoAnn’s is brand-new.  Like, a week and a half new.  Columbus is breathing a sigh of relief, as we no longer are forced to shop at Hancock’s.  To celebrate the grand opening, they gave away 50% off coupon’s when you signed up for the mailing list.  Done.  On my first trip, I bought a rotary cutter and self healing mat (kinda wedding related, for guest book quilt).  They informed me at checkout that my coupon is good once a day, every day until Oct. 2.  Then I went back on got pinking shears (totally un-wedding related).  Today, I went back and bought my rehearsal dinner dress fabric.  Blush silk dipioni.

6 yards of silk for $45!!!

And while I was looking for 11 3/8″ buttons for this dress, I found these.

That’s right, vintage peony buttons.  I have no idea what I’m going to do with these.  But I had to have them.  (I bought all of them.)

Any ideas for what I should do with my peony buttons?

What a deal!

I’ve been struggling with centerpieces lately.  My first plan was to make paper peonies out of crepe paper, a la this Martha Stewart kit.

I even found a place where I could buy enormous amounts of pink crepe paper for next to nothing.  These may still find themselves somewhere…maybe centerpieces for the rehearsal dinner.

Then, I found this on Martha Stewart.

These paper peonies are amazing.  They sell them for a whopping $35 dollars a piece.  If I had an endless budget, I would buy these a put one on each table.  Unfortunately, I do not have an endless budget.  I have a tiny budget.  But, the nice lady tells you how to make them, so I tried.  It was a pain.  A huge pain.  I am still trying to get paper pulp out of my blender.  And it would have taken ages to make all those flowers (20+).  It took me 4 days to figure out I was not going to make one.

So there I was, back at square one.  I’m still doing these, using our engagement photos and some pre-cut mat board.  I think they will be square instead of triangular.

I have roughly 20 60″ round tables in the main gallery, plus cake table and guest book table.  I’m sure there are some other tables I’m not thinking about.  I want to incorporate squares, peonies, and candles.  And hopefully still keep our engagement photo centerpieces alive.   And, since we are not having “dinner” or a seating arrangement, I have no use for table numbers.

I head over to flickr.  I love flickr.  It makes photo search so much easier.  Here’s a little sample of what I found.

( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 )

I really love the fruit in the centerpieces.  I also love the square vase.

Next, I’m on the hunt for the goods. Head over to Save on Crafts.  This is a great resource.  Need some tulle?  They got it.  Need some curly willow, they got it too.  How about some muslin?  They have that too.  Today, I want square vases.

Guess what?  They got ‘em!

Now there is another decision I have to make.  Save on Crafts has lots of choices.

There’s square in every size possible.  And there’s rectangular.

This is the size I want.  4×4x4 square.  They are $3.99 each at save on crafts.

This is 4×3x6.  They are the cheapest “square-ish” vase at Save on Crafts.  They are $1.99 each.

I’m not happy.  Jamali Garden has “glass cubes” in the 4×4x4 for $3.75.  But to get that price I have to buy 24.

I think these win.

4×4x4 at $2.50 each for 1-17, and $2.25 for 18 or more.  Perfect.

Now, for the flowers.  I need peonies.  Live peony bloom are, according to my florist/best friend/bridesmaid, going to cost me $15 dollars each.  OMG!  I must find a cheaper alternative!!

I looked at Save on Crafts, their peony blooms are like $6 each.  I hunt all over the internet and visit Michael’s, Joann’s, and Hobby Lobby.   The silks are either way expensive or really cheap looking.  Then one afternoon, I’m hanging out on the internet and it occurs to me to check Pier 1.  I used to work for Pier 1.  I spent my whole paycheck on candles and papasan chairs, and silk florals.  You can’t order off their website anymore, which is totally depressing, but they do still post prices.  Silk peonies are on clearance.  They are $2 each.

Today, I head for my local Pier 1 (after stopping at our brand new Joann’s and using my 50% off coupon to buy myself some pinking shears).  They have 80 stems.  I call Matt.  “Let me get this straight, you want to spend $160 on silk peonies?”  Yep, I sure do.  “Well, your dining room table will have to wait.”  Ok, that’s fine with me if it’s fine with him.  I sat myself down in the floor, gathered up all my silk peonies and told the boy at the counter I wanted them all.  He looked at me as if I had a horn sprouting in the middle of my forhead.

Look at them all piled in the corner of my living room, aren’t they gorgeous?

I love them.  They are so pretty.  Now, I just need to get BFF/BM out here to put something together.

Invitation Stamping Trial, and Error

My Impress rubber peony stamps came yesterday.  Remember these?

So today, I went to Michael’s and picked up some ink pads and clear embossing powder.

And here’s what happened.

And the outcome?  I love!! the embossing.  I love my little stamp for the back of my favors, and I love my peonies.  I am not happy with the fuchsia pink ink.  We will have to search for a different color ink pad.  Something a little more blush.

What is your favorite little detail in your stationary?

I have a problem

With Shoes.  I’ve already ordered my shoes.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t drool.
I can’t afford these anyway.  But they are delicious!!

All from FootLux.com