Stuff getting done.. and minor panics over nothing.

So, yes..

We have small person's outfit for the wedding sorted. You know this is all spoilers, right? ;)

She looks like this (but will have a matching flower in her hair and hair properly done). That flower pin is just one I had around.

The shrug is finished as you can see. I'm not super happy with the rolling neckline, but the front and bottom are ok and I don't hate it enough to rip the whole thing out or anything.

Then, I have been making the "real" flowers (after all those trial ones.)

My ones for the dress are done, except for the beading.

I think they will be like this, going down one side of my dress, just above the hip. They have grey crystal beads to go on.

 

That's a pair of dressmaking scissors for scale. I've started the other flowers for Flower Girl of Cute and Lady of Awesome's hair but my thread is refusing to thread and I can't find my needle threader and its late and I am cross. So I stopped and decided to post here to feel like I am achieving stuff.

Other stuff has happened. His Lordship has his shiny new suit and is stressing over my dress not being ready (hello! I can't control that!). And he got his teeth fixed. I wish I could say it looked nice but I can't because he wouldn't show me. :(

Most of the quotes for the tables are printed, but I might reprint some larger as I had more room than I thought.

I still need to finish the flowers & beading, cut the table runners, try to get hold of my future sister in law to make my jewellery already, assemble those frames, pick music and bake biscuits.. not much, right?

Last couple of days I keep having these odd panic thoughts.. "What if everyone hates the location? What if they think my dress is ugly/weird/boring/unflattering? What if I don't look like me? What if it pours with rain? What if the families argue?" This is truly not what I want my brain to be doing. Most annoying.

Oh, you found some.

Yeah okay, so he was right. He found some vases we are both happy with, and they are in budget.

I spent months, and he sorted it in an afternoon... sigh...

In other news.. the flowers, they are growing...

 

I think I have now tried almost every version of flower making that doesn't require synthetic fabric.

This one is my favourite, despite me repeatedly saying I wanted soft looking flowers, not silk duponi. It's just looks better, and will hold the shape better when on the dress. So I'll be using dress offcuts to make the flowers for my dress more than likely.

I also have been working away on that bolero shrug.I've doing the ruffle. It has sleeves, back etc. And has been checked it fits more often! Ah well if this one's rubbish I've give up on the idea ;)

Argh! I got vetoed. Again,

His Lordship has decided he really doesn't like the bottles.

He'd been waiting to see if they grew on him. (They didn't.)

/sigh

So I'm now hunting down some little vases.. or something similar. I have a lead, or three so we shall see..

I should never have agreed to him having veto powers :-P~~~~

Table centerpieces... I haz a plan.

Here is what I think the centerpieces will look like, pretty much.

I need to go buy some fabric for the runners, but this is the basic idea. There will be different quotes in each of the frames. His lordship thinks the hearts are too big (out of proportion) and while I sort of agree, I dont have a better plan. They basically work though, so I'm going with it.

On the tables they'll look more like the one on the left, but I wanted a close up so you could see them nicely. If I get time, I'll get the stuff to make proper mats for the frames but they are ok as they are, so I won't stress about it too much.

I love my hair.

Well, like it's going to be for the wedding anyway. I love it so much, and it fits the headpiece perfectly I think.

Hair and make-up done in these pics.

(I'm ignoring those crow's feet... where did they come from?? I'm sure they don't belong to me!)

Two months to go!!

So I finished the bolero.
But.. I'm really not happy with it. The sleeves were abnormally over long. I tried fixing this by making a cuff, which was ok, but then I blocked it.

The whole thing.. relaxed... a lot. So now its a bit big, and doesn't hang nicely. I'm feeling a bit annoyed.

I'm thinking I might finish the other crafting I need to and then maybe pulling out the whole thing and remaking it into a simple top down cardigan. If I run out of time, I'll just buy her a new cardigan.

So on that note.. the other crafty stuff.

I've been making felted hearts. Here is that one I showed before, but felted. 

And this is what they look like when they are being made. This is the kit from my handbag.

They are pretty quick to make, a little over an hour for the knitting, then stuffing sewing and felting. I'm planning on doing the last steps as a big batch.

 

I'm also collecting these.  I wanted little glass bottles or white ceramic bud vases. But it turns out its cheaper (and just as nice in my opinion) to acquire them by drinking.  These are the 200ml bottles you get San Pellegrino drinks in (e.g. limonata or aracina rosa etc).

Can you guess what these are? ...

Gloves. I don't know if I'll wear them or not, I am starting to wonder if I'll have too much going on. But we'll see. They are just shorty fingerless ones.

And this is the last of the supplies for the table decorations! When I have everything together I'll set up an example and take a pic.


Oh and I have a hair trial booked next week! Will consider posting photos ;)

Update.. with shoes... and pretties... (really long sorry)

So... it's been a busy few weeks, punctuated with me catching a cold and being sick for over a week. I am in fact, home sick now, after giving up on getting better at work, since that was just making me steadily sicker after being off for several days, then back, and now off again. Stupid cold.

I am hoping that this means I will have an awesome immune system come the wedding and not get sick again though.

But! Onto better things...

Much progress has been made. Let's go through a brief list and then if you're not interested you can skip forward or stop reading or whatever.

• Invites arrived! Yay! And they are nicer than I expected. And will be mailed next week probably. They can stay secret 'til they arrive in mail boxes I think... (people we are seeing in the meantime are getting handed theirs of course.)
• Flower girl dress arrived.
• I bought some shoes.
• The long awaited fabric samples arrived.
• We booked a celebrant
• His lordship ordered a suit.
• I'm nearly done on flower girl bolero.

So... Flower girl dress. She's very happy with it, and it fits which is good. I think the straps are a tiny bit tight, and I may replace them with some black satin ribbon to fit better come closer to the day.

 

This will go with a green bolero and new black shiny shoes probably.  I can't believe how grown up in it she looks!

 

These are my shoes, which I love. I was going to get some granny style grey boots, or some green or grey ballet flats, but these are really nice, fit well and I really like! (Plus were very reasonably priced.. under budget bonus, yay!)

Finally the fabric sample arrived! Hurrah! This has lead to some interesting back and forth. I was able to discount the creams right out as they are very buttery yellow. Almost tea stained colour. So then, I'm picking between and ivory and an "arctic white". Having looked at them at night time mostly, I thought the white was the go, but now looking at them in daylight, comparing to the grey chiffon for the underskirt... I'm not sure. The ivory doesn't look as yellow in this light and looks a bit softer next to the grey chiffon. I'm still undecided. I know I can wear either with my colouring, so I don't know.
(Incidentally, that was another decision. I decided to go for a solid pale grey ruffled underskirt. The thought of the stress of trying to hand dye mottled grey chiffon on a deadline? Yeah, maybe not. If I still have 6-7 months to the wedding with time to fix stuff ups without stress? I'd consider it. But I've decided there will be enough natural gradiation in the colour of the skirt with the layers to still get the overall effect I was going for.)

We booked a celebrant. Yay. It was all very easy, and she seems reasonable. We need to go down in a couple of weeks to meet her and sign paperwork and such.

His lordship is getting a suit made. I'm really happy about this, as I think he will actually be substantially happier with something that is more his style (retro-loving man he is) than just going for a rental/jacket/whatever. And he will at least he wear out of his again. ;)  It's going to be charcoal grey, with retro detailing, but modern cut. Probably with a waistcoat (cos he loves waistcoats). There's a great tailor in Mount Lawley that does made to measure suits, and specialised in period suits, so I think it will all work out well.

I'm also about to start seaming up and doing the ribbing on small persons bolero-so-she-doesn't-freeze. The pattern ended up being very oddly written (thanks Ravelry for the warning!) So I ended up making a LOT of modifications, including redrafting the entire front of the pattern. If I have realised how difficult it was going to be, I could have written a pattern from scratch, honestly. I think I may have overdone the sleeve length very slightly, but hopefully it will all work out. No photo because it's just a big pile of knitted green. (It's knit in one piece).

That is all. It's all pretty much just ticking along. I think not being steadfastly attached to one idea is helping, so if I can't find something exactly like what I want, I find something else. No big deal.

You can tell when you really love something...

Sorry part two of flowers will have to wait... my headpiece arrived!!


I LOVE IT.

...You can probably tell from the big grin on my face ;)

(excuse shiny bad flash photo..)

Making flowers.. part one.. an adventure

So I'm planing on making some fabric flowers. Some for my dress, maybe stuff for other miscellany if they work.

There are loads and loads of tutorials on the net for this. After much reading, they all seem to bow down to this.

1. Cut out a basic flower shape from lots of fabric. 
2. Then, either:  
1. fold them into quarters and sew them together or,
2. sew them together in a stack
3. At this point you can :
1. Leave them as they are
2. Stack them with more to make it bigger
3. (If they are synthetic) burn the edges carefully until they curl.
4. Add a bead or diamante or pin to the centre to hide the stitching

Pretty much all of them come down to variants of this technique, and all those fabric flowers I've picked up largely use this as well (unless they are the 'real'  fake flowers, not fabric ones.)

So... I have a stack of fabric in a mix of colours (greys/whites/ pale green) and fabrics (synthetic and silk, chiffon and satin and duponi) bought on sale at Textile Traders. (yay for half price sales).

Step one. Iron them all. I didn't bother washing them because they should shrink cos they aren't getting washed later ;)

Step two... admire the pile of fabric.

Step three pick one and start cutting out the flowers. I'm using the basic Martha Stewart template because I am a detail oriented idiot on some things and the idea of a generic "flower" I draw freehand makes me uncomfortable. And the green chiffon because I got extra of that because there was a flaw, so the lady gave me extra for free :)

Stack them unevenly.

Decide there isn't enough and cut out another stack.

Pin through the stack.

Thread a needle and sew a little fold in one direction, then mush it and sew it the other way.

Turn over and marvel that these things cost so damn much in the shops.

Wedding shawl blocked and done.

Sooo glad I did 3 repeats of the centre and not 5!

I finished it!!

My shawl is done. I need to block it though and sadly it's too late now to do so :(

Can't go to sleep on a wet bed full of pins. Tomorrow night, however... :)

Pre-blocked sneak preview...

My daughter's clever...

Just remembered something worth sharing. We were discussing with a friend how we knew that not everyone will likely be able to come to our wedding, since its a destination wedding and therefore costs etc. and that we completed understood, etc.

She looks up from her game and comments, "Or maybe everyone will just come because they love you."

And goes back to her game.

I love my kid. :)

A little heart (unfelted)

Just before getting dumped into the washing machine with some towels. It's about 6cm across the widest part right now.

Things are ordered...

The Lady of Awesome's dress.
The Flowergirl of Cute's dress.
And my headpiece...

I love it. Very casual and bohemian and pretty.


Now if only those fabric samples would arrive!

Looking for the small-sized pretties... and some larger ones too...

So. My Lady of Awesome and I had a definite win this week.

I sent her a link to a bridesmaids dress site. This one. They have lots of nice dresses in a large range of colours and styles. And I would wear some as dresses. So (to me anyway) not bridesmaid of doom stuff.


So we're comparing notes, my LoA and me, and... we both independently picked out the same dress in the same fabric as a favourite. How awesome is that??

This dress (though in grey/white not pink/white).

I know I'm spoiling the surprise. If you want to be surprised so shouldn't be reading this blog. :-P
Probably paired with a sage green wrap, like these lovely ladies...

From somewhere on the interwebz, I know not where. But I copied it, because, 'Hey! my colour scheme!'

I was also sent this lovely dress but my mother-in-law to be..

Which is lovely. Apparently she and small munchkin spent some time looking at all the pretty dresses and this is one she liked. I told her I *might* knit her a cardigan to wear with it in green. She asked if it could be grey, (child 'o mine..) but I told her if it was green, she'd match the LoA.. and then we had much enthusastic nodding. :)

So now I am looking at girl's cardigan patterns .. and trying to decide if I can overdye my grey left over Kidsilk Haze a darker grey or green... I'm worried about it felting. It felts if you look at it sideways. Which I need for my gloves.. those striped ones I showed a while back. I did post those, didn't I?

Oh shawl at 78%.. At this rate it will be done 2 months early. Which is why I am even considering knitting a cardigan for the Miss. That extra hour knitting time on the bus each day makes a big difference!

Getting On with it....

Yay. Hello folks.

So this week.. Been very busy at home as I get sidetracked with making a baby blanket for a dear friend.

But I've mailed out half the save the date cards and the other half will get mailed tomorrow after I inadvertenly left the at home. Oops.

In other news, i have booked hairdresser and make up - but make up lady might have to cancel as she's taking holidays around then. Not sure what i am going to do then - I don't trust my own abilities in that area too well.

Oh! And we have awesome nice not-pushy photographer who is a friend of my sister in law, who happens to be a professional photographer :)

So I'm working on that to do list.

And please tell me you love my save the dates and make me happy :)

Inspiration board in progress

Very much in progress.

I'm looking at invites right now, as you can see from the samples across the top. I'll slowly add to it..

All things forrest-ish.

So I said I'd do a post about the trip last weekend didn't I?

We had a lovely time! The resort is quite secluded, overlooks a lake. The above photo was taken on our balcony, we stayed in a lakeside room. They also have chalets. The restaurant (which is where the reception will be) has floor to ceiling windows overlooking the same view. It also has a fireplace, and an adjoining room  that will be used for all the kids (they'll get their lunch there, plus it will have a range of kids friendly supplies - colouring stuff, DVD etc.)

Food is tasty, and we can do the wedding on site to remove the need for (any more!) travel. And of course with the view, we won't need to go overboard on decorations (just chair covers for the mismatched chairs and table decorations). They have enough accommodation to cover if all the guests happen to want to stay there, including cabins for families or couples wanting to share as well as the lakeside rooms. (I rather think there will be a lot of people staying the Friday & Sat nights.. kind of a wedding weekend party! Yay!)

There is an amazing area nearby - Beeldelup Falls. If we could have crammed everyone onto the viewing platform, we'd be getting married there, but no such luck. Photos will be taken there assuming its not pouring with rain. Similarly, worst case scenario if it's raining for the wedding, we'll be able to do it inside. (though it will be a little cramped!)

Getting married on the lawn overlooking the lake isn't quite exactly the "married in the middle of the forest" thing I had in mind, but we weren't able (even enlisting the help from the lovely ladies at the visitor centre, and much driving around) to find something that was what I had in mind and were groom/guest access-friendly. But the lawn overlooking the lake will be pretty, if a little less forest-feral. But also better choice given inclement weather. So there it is.

I also spoke to the very nice florist in Manjimup who wrote me down and told me to talk again to her in May :) And got the card for the local hairdresser, who was sadly really busy and couldn't talk (even on a Monday morning :(

And that was pretty much the trip. Very relaxing, and we both had a great time.

p.s. I order my fabric swatches today, hurrah! Will post on those next.. plus finding a Save the Date design I like.

Pretties.

Okay very quick update. (I should be doing housework :P)

Shawl is now 30% done.

Venue was great! Will be posting out Save the date cards once we confirm the guest list.

And look how pretty these hair things are: 

And lots more of them. That's just a quick taste.

Knitting is happening, I'm looking at invites and we're going to check out the venue!

So happy and excited.

We finally found a date that both A and I can make it away for 2 days (overnight) to check out the (potential) venue.  I'm really looking forward to it. (Plus, rough time at work at the moment, so I could do with a mini break.)

I've also hit the 20% complete mark on my shawl (so my spreadsheet tells me) .. this is what it looks like. That's a 50c for scale.

I've also been checking out plans for invites. I was going to make something myself, but am thinking (based on stuff I've seen online) I may well be able to buy something that is very close to what I want much cheaper (and with little to not stress or effort on my part). So I might yet do that. Sadly, while I have a deep love of letterpress, I can't justify that price.

For example, I love this one at Poppy Letterpress.. I'd get it printed in darker green (with black text) I think. Sigh. Pretty, but I just can't justify the cost, when I want to spend money on other things. Like food. (See, I love my guests. They will care about food, not about the beautifully printed card.)

I also went to look at fabric. (Mostly so i could get an idea about what my dressmaker was talking about when she kept mentioning different fabrics. I sew, but I'm far from a seamstress). Just looking at the amazing laces made me almost consider a lacy dress because good lord they were gorgeous. (Many were $250+/meter, but still... very pretty). And I tried to think of a good reason to buy sheer white fabric with tiny red bows sewn on, but .. no. Not really. Red's unlikely to be a colour for the wedding, so even making something for little miss was out.

Oh and since I have cleaned up the study, I'm thinking I might put together a inspiration board. The boy will probably think I am crazy, but we're used to that, right? I might post pictures if I get into it.

Dumb/Awesome things that stop me sleeping.

Dumb cos.. well, I should be sleeping.

Awesome because... I realised I am a doofus. I don't need cute coloured ballet flats for the wedding. /slaps self

I have a deep and long abiding love of boots! I should be using this as the best excuse ever to buy kick-ass awesome boot goodness! I could be looking at boots right now!! (this would be where the not-sleeping part kicks in). They may not even match my dress, and I just don't care!!

Boots I loved a long time ago that I may consider..

Need to not be stillettos, ideally with a chunky vintage heel, though wedge or flats (or something I can walk on uneven ground in probably ok).

I'd consider anything from an ankle to below the knee.

Link me if you have suggestions, ladies!

I like these, and I know I'd wear them at every opportunity afterwards. But... very black for the dress..

Oh and I like these. Even if totally against the vibe I was going for, I probably wouldnt care!

 

 

No, I never really did lose my goth boot loving self. Damn, why did I have to get old!

Oh and these... I could probably actually wear those, even if the brown wouldn't sit as well with the grey.