Paint

 

Everyone has heard of freezer paper tutorials at this point.  I'm late to the party but what a party.  My twin sisters turned twenty-four and one of them (the teacher) got a rad tote bag.  My bag making method is basically two big rectangles sewn together and then turned inside out and then sewn again (my mum calls these french seams, I assume she's right) and then handles.  Here is my incredibly simple explanation of how to freezer paper stecil with the shakiest iphone photos ever:

 

I printed my design out on regular paper (and the BIGGER and simpler the design the better when you starting) and I taped it onto a cutting board.  Then, with the shiny side down, I taped a layer of freezer paper over it.

 

 

You could trace and then cut but I just used an exacto knife and cut through both the regular paper and the design beneath.  You are aiming to have the negative space intact so I cut tiny bits out of the E rather than worry about keeping the E intact.

 



 

Then I placed the E with the shiny side down onto the fabric and ironed it on high without the steam setting.  I paid extra attention to the edges because I wanted the edges of the E to be crisp.  Then I painted my fabric paint on with a foam brush and when I was done I peeled off the freezer paper and left it to dry (no photos of the painting part,  I was unnecessarily concerned and got paint on my fingers like the glamorous mess I am).

 

 

And then I made myself this knitting project bag.  Can I stencil hearts on ALL THE THINGS?

Cards, Birthday

Do you send birthday cards? I try. I really do. When I read the Happiness Project last year one of the resolutions that resonated most strongly was her resolution to send an email to her friends on their birthdays. There are a lot of people I love and it’s not really sufficient to just love them alone in my apartment, I need to reach out. So I’ve been trying to send birthday cards religiously. Even if it’s the only time I reach out in the year it’s something and the thought of getting a card and mailing it in advance of their birthday seems to mean a lot to people.

 

  For a while I bought Rifle cards in bulk but at this point, with David in school and in a much more expensive city, we are DIYing. This afternoon I sat down and designed four cards that will hopefully cover the birthdays of sisters and friends and cousins and coworkers and the babies of friends. I thought tomorrow I’d swing by the printer and get a bunch run off and keep them in my desk at work with regular old Paper Source envelopes. I’ve set up my birthday alarm and hopefully I’ll keep on top of it. I hope they print well.

 

 

All cards the product of me and my computer.

 

Friday

Paper Quince from West Elm

 

My experience with West Elm has been really mixed,  I ordered Christmas presents that were then backordered (after I paid) until March and only after ten calls and a bunch of really unattractive tweets did they acknowledge this and then attempt to make it right (which looked like just sending half the order and canceling the other order).  Then for birthdays I gave it another shot (because my brother REALLY needed this and my sister needed a house warming gift) and they came and they were beautiful (if slow).  So the fact that I have a deep and abiding need for this rug is source of irritation to me.  Despite the mixed bag that is WE, I'm loving their paper flowers and they have inspired me to try making some of my own before I buy some.     These crepe paper pink flowers are my favourites and this crepe paper bouquet is fun, a few of these on my desk might be just the thing.  

 

Crafting, a trip to Eastern Market, some roast chicken and a special project for the twins birthday are all on my weekend agenda.  I hope yours is scrumptious. xoxo

We Are Making Candles

Because we cannot make sisters-in-law love me, and we cannot make more money and we cannot make time move more slowly. I have made 40 of these buggers with a 50lb bag of soy wax and have only about 40 more to make. Our papel picado arrived, and our bistro lights, and David is power washing my parents barn tomorrow, and I am putting in my 2 weeks notice at my soul crushing job and I am packing the glasses and frying pans and bowls that people who love us have given us, and I am packing the painting of the street my grandmother lived on in Connecticut in 1963 and the table cloth my parents bought for their wedding in their apartment in 1979. I am sewing a comb onto my grandmother's veil so I can wear it. I am cudding my dog and cat a lot. I am wrapping people I love around my like a wool blanket and drinking lots of tea. I sunburned my nose today in the pool. Three weeks from tomorrow.

David Gets Pants

Mini David that is. The tie is just a stand in until we decide what colour ties the real guys will be wearing. Fruit cake here they come.

Goings On

I know it looks as though weddings have not been progressing but really I'm just a bad bad lazy blogger. Recently in the wonderful world of weddings we have wrapped groomsmen's gifts in brown paper and tied them with string, we have gotten our hair sorted, had a third dress fitting, gotten our gorgeo envelopes back from our gorgeo calligrapher (photos will follow, I promise) and various other crafts which for now are top secret. More deets to come.

Sleepy Bride

Normal people go on diets and star rubbing De La Mere into their skin like no one's business and they take hydration RATHER seriously. No me. I have basically stopped showering, an extra half hour of sleep will always beat a shower. My legs are insanely hairy, I am breaking out and I am subsisting primarily on Pop-Tarts and salt and vinegar chips. Why am I blogging if I am too busy/sleepy to shower? Because I can do it from bed, if I could shower from bed, I might do that.

In the meantime, I made this peg doll Hannah. It's going to be on a mini Scottish fruit cake. I KNOW. I have a half made peg doll David but suits are a mite harder to make than wedding dresses for peg people.

A Brief Update/In Defense of Crafts

Not as much packing has gotten done as one might like at my mum and dad's house but I set about using my mother's tiny craft drill to make peg doll Hannah and peg doll David. Some people I really respect in the wedding bloggy universe are pretty anti craft/anti DIY. If you are not a DIY person then getting really really into making peg people in the months leading up to your wedding seems like a really bad idea. If you are, in general, a super insane crafty maniac (I made tulle flower hairclips and glued feathers onto bobby-pins and make pushpins and magnets and paper cranes like no one's business) then it makes sense to craft like usual for your wedding. Which is a long winded explanation of why I am making these. Also because I don't have an extra $135 for the real thing.

I'm not posting a how-to because they aren't my idea and you can kind of figure it out if you need to. I'm kind of figuring it out as I go. When they're though I'll post pictures. The littlest sister found a three dollar frame and an estate sale and is painting it white for a chalkboard. We haven't yet done the chalkboard painting. We'll see how that goes.

Table Numbers

I was worried. I'm not now. These are perfect. And I'm not worrying about it anymore.

Table Numbers by the very clever Olivia Kanaley

Oooh Ahhhh for Napkins

Is it worth the extra $100 and millions of hours of labour to make 100 napkins out of this fantastically fantastic fabric? I could pick three or four or five colours and it would be so magnificent....

Wine

We like cheap wine. We buy it by the case. We like it better than wines that taste twice as much. We are, as I have said before, very young. Since we are doing the reception in my parents old barn we can buy our own wine by the case (and beer by the keg and scotch and vodka and gin etc by the handle, we know and love our alcohol) and I think these fantastic labels stuck on our cheap out bottles would be LOVELY.

Now the question is: to pick one for the red and one for the white or to just randomly throw a bunch on a bunch of different bottles. And what to write on them? "Hannah and David 7/17/10" is just not that cool. Any thoughts?

found via I-DiY

Guestbook

Guest books suck. This is well regarded as fact. Which is why there are typewriter guestbooks, and index card guestbooks and why Martha (why do I LOVE YOU SO EFFING MUCH WOMAN?!) has an entire photo gallery of crazy-ass suggestions.

Liz at Chic on the Cheap is a genius and made a photo book of pictures of family weddings going back to the early 1900s that people could thumb through and look and and sign. Apparently it hangs out around their house and people look at it when they come over. Holler. I especially like this idea since all four of my grandparents are "no-longer-with-us" and it I like the idea of placing our wedding, our marriage within the greater context of our families. I am the oldest daughter of an oldest daughter of an oldest daughter of an oldest daughter. My mother married a foreigner and my grandmother did too. Let's acknowledge and rock these things in a guestbook. Please.

Deanna, the very very cool illustrator who documented her wedding shenanigans here, and her husband put together a book of photos, movie tickets, receipts, notes and letters and used that as a guestbook. Much much cooler than a typewriter (note: typewriter is super cool, just don't understand what I'm going to DO with all that typewritten paper. What to DO with it is the issue, ditto index cards and vintage postcards).

So dear David: Can I please have some wedding pictures from your family past? Since I have a lot of mine floating around.

Pictures: Top is Mum, June, the third generation to wear that dress, bottom is my great-grandmother, also called June, the first to wear that dress.

And Maybe

And maybe these, hundreds of them, and several of these. All hung at different levels from the barn rafters. I think that might make the idea of a barn wedding slightly more fan-effing-tastic. As would real glasses and spoons.

I promise I will start remembering where pictures came from. Martha pouffs are clearly from Martha