Left over wedding decor

As you may have heard, Fraser and I have been working on fixing up and unpacking our condo for a good two years.  Now that the majority of the renovations are done (just some little touch up projects left), we can really focus on unpacking all of these boxes that have been sitting here for ages and enjoy our home and our things! What a concept!  

A lot of our unpacking is actually just trying to purge like crazy and see what we really don't use or need anymore and what fits in our lives (and house).  I found it super satisfying when I got around to sorting through our left over wedding stuff because most of it ended up being recycling and donations! I can't believe we just packed all that crap up after the wedding and shoved it in the spare room for it to sit for a year and half taking up space! Oy!  

I did want to keep a few things to remind of our magical special day - and one of those things were my homemade pom poms! I painstakingly crafted hundreds of tissue paper and yarn poms for months before our celebration and even though the tissue ones went straight in the recycling, I couldn't part with the adorable little fluffy white yarn ones I spent so much time and love making. But what do you do with a garbage bag full of white pom poms? Apparently put them in apothecary jar and pop them on the main bathroom counter! Behold:

Now whenever I'm washing my hands I can be pleasantly reminded of all the fun we had on our wedding and since these poms are wonderfully enclosed in glass they won't even become a giant dust magnet! Ho ho! Bonus! I even bought the jars on clearance years ago so they were just empty vessels waiting for a decorative purpose. Double bonus! I'm certainly thrilled with how this little project turned out and how wonderfully it fits in with our bathroom colour scheme. So how about you? Did you keep any of your wedding paraphernalia around? How do you use/display it? 

my life lately

As it turns out, my spot of unfortunate illness has done wonders for my wedding planning! I've been enjoying all the handmade crafty ideas out there on the internet and have been collecting them in one heck of a wedding pinterest pinboard! Check out how it is coming along so far:

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All this time resting and healing has finally given me the chance to browse wedding ideas and has left me  ultra occupied with planning out our upcoming casual celebration and not a moment too soon since July will be here before we know it! Oh my! Fraser and I have already covered the wedding basics (venue, food, booze, guests) and just need to throw the decorating and final bits together to finish up with a lovely (and very crafty) party! Bring on the poms and thoughtful details!

In other news - all this illness and scheduling for the summer has forced me to make some tough decisions. After being set back so badly with sickness this spring and non stop flare ups since the winter I really need to put my health up on the priority list and will not be doing any craft shows this summer in Victoria. It is really a hard verdict to come up with since I love doing markets here but with my health, the wedding (and honeymoon), renovations, and moving going on I just can't put any more on my plate or my stress levels will make me burst! Oh dear! So it's decided - I'm taking the summer off markets and will start it up strong (hopefully) around the holiday season.  So in the meantime I can focus my energies on getting better - and after that - crafting up loads of fun for my wedding! It is a once in a lifetime event though - so I'm hoping to make it a good one! What do you think? Any wedding tips for me?

everything is coming up pompoms!

While my body is busy trying to heal itself from the unfortunate chest pain terribleness of costochondritis, my hands have been busy making loads and loads of pom poms in preparation for my wedding this summer! Here's a hefty stack that was feeling particularly photo friendly the other day:

Aren't they just lovely? Like fuzzy little yarn children ready to be stabbed with twigs and arranged in wonderful bouquets for the big party! Hooray! I figure I will just keep on pom-ing until I run out of yarn and hopefully that will give us enough to make one heck of a pom-pom statement at the wedding! What do you think?

White it is

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I am super thrilled with all the thoughtful opinions some of you gave me on dying (or not dying) the wedding dress I found and after much debate - I've decided to do both! Ahha! I'm going to keep the dress white for the wedding (with some colourful accessories) and then after I'm done with the celebrating I can dye it for further use! Oh what a plan! There is no chance of me potentially messing up my miracle of a find dress and I still get to enjoy it as a fun colourful summer cotton dress in the future. Perfect!

Well not that we've sorted that out - I need to figure out the rest of my outfit! What kind of shoes are casual wedding celebration appropriate? Should I go for a ribbon or sash? What about accessories? Hair? Oh crud there are too many decisions...I don't know if I'm cut out for this. 

to dye or not to dye - that is the question.

Well blog friends - as most of you know by now, I am getting married this summer. Fraser and I have decided to skip out on the traditional wedding type things (ceremony, fancy formal event, speeches and general sappiness) and instead are throwing a fun post-marriage party with close friends and family with good food and drinks! How perfect! We've got most of the details worked out (venue, invites, caterer, booze, lots of decorative pom pom bouquets) but with only a few months left until the big event I was feeling a little pressured to find something to wear. I wanted something I could wear over and over again, is flattering and tea length, and wouldn't break the bank. I found a few vintage dresses online (that of course were sold out/not even close to my size) and was aiming at something with a high waistline, flow-y bottom, cotton, and in a nice minty light blue or other light pale skin friendly tone. Then it was just a matter of finding the time and energy to  attempt to find something suitable! Oh my!

Last week Heather and I were having our usual Thursday get together and decided to take a trip to Oak Bay to check out some little shops.  She had told me about a cute vintage/consignment place there she read about and we thought it might be a good place to start looking for dresses.  When we first entered the shop we were pretty confident we weren't going to find a single thing.  We went to the back racks of endless fluffy wedding dresses and prom-like shiny formal gowns and looked at the hundred or so dresses that were pretty much polar opposites of what I was looking for. On the way out the door we searched through one of the more casual racks at the front (for a second time) and both came across a nice cotton summer dress that we had apparently missed during our first look over. It looked darling and even though it was far from my size (it was an 8 when I wear more like a 12-14 these days) but I tried it on anyways. The verdict? It magically fit! This wondrous mystery dress zipped up, was flattering and a nice modest "just past the knee" length! Oh dear! What are the chances? The time I rustle up the nerve to go dress shopping and the very first dress we find/try on works? Oh! To top it all off - it was a budget friendly $65. Score! Behold (in all its poorly lit wonder):

Oh I love it! It's so simple, feminine, comfortable, and fantastically cotton for that potentially scorching hot desert day in July! Heck - it even has pockets and is a lovely doily-esque eyelet material:

The downfall? It's white. Ok, so I know the majority of the western world is all about the white wedding gowns, but I'm really not.  I imagine a coloured dress would look better on my super pale ginger skin and would certainly be more wearable in the future.  I bought it with the intention of dying it, but now I'm waffling. I'm not totally set on how it would turn out from dying it (the fun mystery of dying pretty much anything) and haven't found any fabric dyes in suitable colours. I even researched places to get dresses dyed but nothing was local and no one could guarantee anything. Ack! I couldn't imagine trying to dye it and destroying it and then having to painstakingly find a replacement to fill its void! Oh decisions! So I thought I would plea to you, my wonderful blog readers, to help me with the dilemma! I also thought I'd share this ultra flattering picture of me and my dress for further  dress related reference:

Ahaha! Always with my eyes closed. I'm so photogenic. So - what do you think? Should I take the plunge and dye it? Keep it white? Perhaps add a nice coloured belt or sash for a pop of interest? I'd love your input! 

dandy dandelions

With only a few months left before the big day, my mind is getting consumed with wedding planning. All the details seem to be coming together, and in case I haven't spilled the crafty details - we're skipping flowers for the celebration and doing pom poms instead! I'm particularly fond of these yarn and twig dandelions from Apartment Therapy (link):

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Oh my! I really love how simple and fluffy they are and figure if I start now I may have enough pom poms ready for July...looks like I'm going to be busy! What do you think? Pom poms for the win? 

A sneak peek!

Since I've been a busy little bee working away on our wedding invitations (that I was actually hoping to get out last month some time...) I thought I'd share a little sneak peek of how things are coming along! Now, don't get your hopes up too high, there is loads of work left to do - but here's the prototype for a sticker to seal the envelopes:

OoOo! I'm thrilled with how things are coming and can't wait to get them finished, printed, and out in the mail! Oh my! What a dream! What do you think? Any guesses on our invitation theme?

Lace Headpiece

As I proceed on with my wedding planning I've come to the conclusion that I do not want to get a high priced white ball-gown as my wedding dress.   Instead I would love to find a reasonable, colourful, tea length dress that is both flattering and useful again in many future circumstances! Hooray for practicality! I am however I little concerned that nothing will set me apart as the actual bride at our reception part I'm hoping to solve this with some sort of bride-like lace hairpiece like this beauty I saw on pinterest (link):  

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As it turns out, finding lace bits that I actually like (and aren't covered in pearls, rhinestones, and sequins) is much more difficult than I thought it would be. Rats. After many months of searching everywhere I finally came across one piece that might do the trick and is wonderfully subtle too:

I really like how it isn't overly frilly but just fancy/doily enough to be special.  Now I just need to get some starch and somehow work this into a hair band for my undecided hairdo for the big celebration! Oh is that all? Hmm. What do you think? 

DIY Party Animals!

I have always been a sucker for little plastic animals. They're such an easy way to add some much needed fun and whimsy to your home and if you've got rad dollarstores like Dollarama they're even inexpensive! Well, when I stumbled across these extra exciting party hard adorn pals over at Makezine (link) I just had to share them! They're ready to party on!:

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Aren't they wonderfully cheerful? I love the idea of using them as party decorations and think they would be just splendid hanging out on a cake! Now since most of the plastic animal projects I share on here involve plastic dinos (link and link), I must stick to my dino loving ways and say how extra awesome they'd be as prehistory themed party animals instead! Could you imagine? I think I need to work these into my wedding celebration decorating somehow! Oh the possibilities! I could even glitter some up and add little mint, cream white, and gold colour schemed details to them to go with my wedding colours! Oh my! I'm excited. How about you? 

June!

Yay! It's June! Another month is upon us and I've got loads of goals! Number one on the list? Crafting - and lately its involved a whole lot of paint mixing on my end:

In fact, I've really been enjoying whipping up some muted tones and I didn't realize how much I love just working with colours! Fraser even took me to Michael's the other day and got me a few new paintbrushes too! What fun! Once I'm done my current painting project, I've got loads of other crafty delights up my sleeve and I'll be filling you in along the way on all my crafty progress! Hooray!

As for other June festivities, we've got Fraser's 32nd bday coming up tomorrow (yes! tomorrow! What an old man!), some specialist appointments for me (yay getting healthier!), and a few projects around the house just in case the crafting somehow manages to not take up any glimpses of spare time.  I've also been giving a lot of thought to wedding plans (*gasp*) and am ever thankful that I am friends with an event planner! So far my wedding thoughts are:

1. No ceremony, no fluffy dress, no frills

2. My guest list needs dramatic cut backs in order to have a venue I'd like

3. This is already more work than I imagined

4. Casual is the way to go on this one - it's a celebration after all! 

and

5. The will be pom poms. (oh yes, lots of pom poms)

Here's to hoping June is one of the best months ever and exceeds any expectations I've set out for myself. I'd also love to point out the charming sponsors for this month and the blog and encourage you to take a peek into those four lovely ladies blogs for some non-kate reading! If you're kicking yourself for missing out on sponsorship (shucks, I read minds don't I?), it's never too late to ad swap! Drop me a line and we'll chat! Also if anyone has handfuls of advice for a "non-reception" type wedding I'm all ears! What are your June plans?