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Oh My Darling

Uncategorized August 13, 2011

Dan and I are supposed to be going on our annual family camping trip tonight, though the weather keeps threatening rain. I love camping, but I hate camping when it rains…
I finished off the flower girls dresses this morning, now all I have to do is hem them. I also finished up this set, which I call “Oh My Darling…” I used a cute vintage-look poly-cotton blend for the body with a red and white cotton accent and some beige lace. The hot pants button-overall style, but are attached along the waist band elastic. They sit about 2″ below the belly button, which is a nice height if you are short through the torso, but like the look of high-waisted knickers.
Dan is at work today until 1pm, and then we are heading downtown (which is literally our backyard) to check out the classic car show! It’s one of Dan’s dreams to build a vintage hot-rod… and make it a hybrid! I like this because it means it will be quiet…

29 Days

Uncategorized August 12, 2011
Today is 29 days until the wedding. What do I have to do?
  1. Purchase the bunches of flowers for the table arrangements, which I am doing tonight.
  2. Alter 1 bridesmaids dress
  3. Hem 1 flower girls dress, and complete sewing the other
  4. Order the wine
  5. Confirm the guest count with the caterer
  6. Order the favors
  7. Complete the programs & birdseed bags based on final guest count
  8. Provide the DJ with a song list
  9. Purchase mason jars for the flower arrangements
  10. GET A MARRIAGE LICENSE!
I’m so looking forward to the big day, and I can’t wait to see all of my friends and family all together again – I think that’s one of the best parts of getting married.
I have no expectations of how this is supposed to go, but I do have some hopes for the big day. I hope it doesn’t storm, I hope people stay out of the way of my ceremony, since it is happening in a public park! I hope I don’t feel awkward having my picture taken (camera shy!), and I hope I don’t trip over my dress.
What have I learned from my DIY wedding? People will tell you the the wedding is “your big day,” which is a partial truth and really should come with a caveat. The wedding is all about the Bride & Groom, but only after thorough consultation from everyone involved in the wedding. It is a practice of compromise, consideration, and care, which I guess is a lot like a marriage. The most important key to a happy wedding, is diplomacy.
I’ve really enjoyed (most of) the process (NOT the Wedding Trade Shows!!!), and can’t wait for the big day… and then the day after when we can relax and enjoy our lives as newly weds! Then… have some babies! I’ve been spending too much time with my best friend’s adorable, little ginger-baby. Between that, and reading about Jennie’s second pregnancy at Two Skinny, One Fat, and Little Lucy over at The Vintage Wife, I’ve got the baby-fever bad…
As a reward for my awesome wedding-planning skills, I treated myself to some perfumes from For Strange Women on Etsy a few weeks ago and I got them in the mail two nights ago. I’m positive I ordered from her years ago, but I think she was using a different name, because the scents are so familiar! I absolutely love the way they are packaged, and I feel like a dainty Victorian Lady every time I use them. My favorite is November, which coincidentally is also my favorite dreary month. I’m wearing Astral Projection today, which is a citrus-y scent. I find the scents smell even better when applied and settled into your skin for a few minutes. What surprised me the most, was how long lasting the scents are…

Drafting all day…

Uncategorized August 11, 2011

I had yesterday off, and drafted 3 new styles of panties, all based around a high-waisted early ’60’s style. I have 1 plain that I will silk screen, 1 ruffled, which I call the “pannier bloomers,” and one that buttons, overall style. I am always so ambitious on my days off, but never get nearly as much done as I hope…

I did get out to meet with my cousin, whose band is providing the music for my wedding ceremony, to discuss the processional and music. I am so glad we are keeping things simple. I am so not stressed about the wedding I feel like I must be doing something wrong. All I need to do at this point, is order the wine, confirm the food when the RSVP’s get in, order the favours, and finish up some crafts…

I’ve been reading a lot about the riots happening in London over the last few days… I hope my readers in the UK are safe and sound. It’s sad to see the destruction, but our economic and social state is in such a wreck, it’s no wonder people are resorting to violence. I do not condone it, but I understand it.
It’s a scary state of affairs lately, with the US threatening to default on loan payments, riots, countries on the verge of bankruptcy everywhere, people losing jobs, losing benefits… I feel grateful to be in Canada where we have remained somewhat “untouched” as of yet… Everything feels so uncertain.

“Silk Screened” Groomsman’s Ties

Uncategorized August 9, 2011
I wanted to buy ties off of Etsy that were silk screened with the grooms-people’s monograms… unfortunately the seller did not respond to any of my emails requesting pricing and some more specific information… So, I sent the ties to Toronto to be screened, but we could only find people who could do the iron-on-transfers… I decided I’d just have to do it myself.

So I googled “DIY Silk screening” or something along those lines, and found a great tutorial on how to turn a piece of organza, some Mod Podge, and an embroidery hoop into a silk screen. I picked up some fabric ink and voila.
Essentially, all you do is paint around the “negative space” with a thick enough layer of glue to fill in all of the holes. I then scraped a generous layer of the “ink” over the screen (after it had dried), and you have your image. It would have been easier with some emulsion, but this was the next best thing.

I’ve really enjoyed printing on fabric – like I did with my buntings (just used a paper stencil for those), and I’m going to start experimenting with some more “complicated” screening, using different colours and screens.
It’s hard to believe but we’re only 30 some odd days until the wedding… Sunday afternoon was my Bridal Shower which was unbelievably amazing. My cousin went above and beyond and set her already beautiful up like a country tea-party, with a variety of iced teas and the most delicious food. I was spoiled beyond belief with gifts, and received the nicest “guest book” signed by all of the generous ladies who attended – so many of them had such nice things to say about me, it brought a tear to my eye when I read it after I got home. Dan’s Mom gave me an heirloom dress, made by her aunt – it’s beautiful and I’d like to wear it the day after the wedding.
I feel somewhat undeserving of all of this attention, just because I’m getting married, but I am enjoying it! It’s nice to be reminded that you’re loved.

Life Update…

Uncategorized August 4, 2011
So, Dan is employed at the moment, doing a “Trial” period at a shop in town. The hours are almost too good to be true and we actually get weekends off together! The best part is, they are paying him a decent wage. What did I learn from this whole cafuffle? Unemployment is not the end of the world… and that Dan and I are pretty darn thrifty.
I am going down to 4 days a week at my job and will re-assess the situation shortly after the wedding and honeymoon. My immediate plan, aside from sewing wedding stuff and alterations, is to sew a bunch of ready-made few of a kind accessories, panties, rompers, dresses, and camisoles to re-launch Ohhh Lulu in October, just in time for Christmas.
I am getting some new props for Ohhh Lulu photo shoots, including this Dress Form from Vintage Style Mannequins, and plan on doing a fall-harvest photo shoot, conveniently in the beautiful field behind my parents house.
I also want to start doing some small-time advertising. I had a great opportunity to put a banner on The Vintage Wife’s Blog. I had her link back to my blog, since Ohhh Lulu is currently “oh vacation.” I’ve had a lot of traffic and success without really trying, so I’m hoping advertising will increase sales. Do you know a highly-travelled blog that offers ad-space?
Tomorrow I have my first dress fitting. I love any chance I get to put on my dress and I can’t wait until I have pictures to show everyone, because let’s face it, the dress is one of the most exciting parts of the whole thing!

6 weeks ’til W day!

Uncategorized July 31, 2011

The count down is officially on. I have 6 weeks until I am a “Mrs.”
I finished off my last two Etsy orders and have put Ohhh Lulu on Vacation Mode. I’ve jumped head first into wedding crafting.
Last night I went a little stencil crazy – hand cutting stencils, words, phrases, laurels, flourishes… I stencilled french lovey-dovey phrases on some rough, natural coloured burlap, and cut them into a bunting banner to drape across the head table. Because I made my own stencil, the bunting cost me less than $10 to make, and I have a ton of burlap left over, enough to likely make 3 more buntings.
Our ceremony is going to be very informal – no seating, just standing room, no ushers… so I wanted to have “help yourself” signs for the programs and birdseed bags, as well as a “Sign the Guest Book” sign for on the guest-book table. I picked up two picture frames from a charity shop for $3 a piece, cut a stencil out of cardstock, and painted on some scrap muslin.
I am getting so excited to see the whole thing come together!

Favourite Blogs…

Uncategorized July 27, 2011

I’m so excited. I am snagged a banner spot over at The Vintage Wife, which is one of my favourite blogs! I’m hoping to see my banner go up in August, which will link back to my blog – since my Etsy shop is currently on Vacation until after the wedding.

Amy Winehouse

Uncategorized July 25, 2011

I hate to jump on the dead-celebrity bandwagon, but I’m going to anyway.

I really loved Amy Winehouse’s music. I loved her voice. I loved putting on Back to Black and singing it around my apartment, by myself, in Toronto. She sang so much of what I felt at that point in my life.
Her death is sad, but not surprising. It’s sad that she became famous, more so for being an alcoholic and drug addict.
I’ve had the misfortune of watch someone I love be changed forever by his experience with addiction. What Amy’s family is going through, is every addicts family’s worst nightmare – a terrible, but very real nightmare.
The thing that really bothers me about the media attention on people like Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen, and Amy Winehouse, is that it makes drug addiction and alcoholism “ok.” These highly successful, wealthy, creative individuals are clearly addicts, but they maintain some seeming level of success. Doing drugs, drinking to excess has lost any sort of taboo, and for way too many people has become just your average Friday night. Drug use, and I mean hard drug use has largely become “ok” because everyone is doing it!
TV Shows like Intervention, which I admit, I am very guilty of watching, also glamorize the addicts life. They are showered with attention & love & camera crews, and whisked away to some by-the-sea rehab facility where they are free to play guitar and sing songs about finding Jesus.
This is not the reality of addiction. Dirt, filth, anger, desperation, pain; that is the reality of addiction. Most addicts, and their families – who have likely at this point incurred legal costs, had their possessions stolen, pawned, and bought back – can’t afford the Betty Ford Clinic. They are lucky to have a community Methadone clinic, with very little psychological or emotional care.
I guess my hope out of every “drug death” is that people will wake up and realize that drugs and alcohol are dangerous and our view of them, as a society, is horribly skewed. No addict wakes up and makes the choice to be an addict. It can happen to anyone. Drugs and alcohol do not care who they hurt. It can happen to anyone. It happens to the best people, the best families; it tears them apart and hurts everyone around them. It changes everyone involved. Forever.
I feel for Amy, but I feel more for her Family. I know they are suffering, but I bet they feel a twinge of relief. No more worry, no more anger. No more waiting for “that phone call.” I hope they can finally get some peace.

Wedding and Ohhh Lulu News!

Uncategorized July 25, 2011
The wedding is coming so fast now. For the longest time it felt like I had so much time to plan and decide on things, and now it’s a month away!

I got to work on my wedding programs this year. I used blank greeting cards as my “cover”. They were on sale at Zellers (soon to be Target, which makes me sad) for $11 for 40. I picked up two and will use the left overs for Thank you Cards for my Shower.

I used a “Marrying Picture” My soon to be nieces drew of Dan and I as the cover page. You can’t really see it very well, as the picture got kind of washed out (I need a new camera), but you get the idea.
The middle has all the usual boring “thank you” and who’s-who and order of ceremony, by my favorite part is the past page, where I put in a wedding-day word search! I used Puzzle-maker.com to generate a word search and just copy and pasted it into my booklet.

I bound the booklets by punching a hole about 1″ down from the top and bottom edge, along the fold. This actually makes quite a nice binding. A word of warning – punches can be very sharp, and if you are punching while sleepy, you run the risk of punching nearly all the way through your finger-tip, like I did. Not pleasant. We stamped on paper bags for the front page title, cut them out roughly and made the corners fancy with a paper punch you can get at any craft star. All in all our programs cost us $45 – would have been less if I had already had a fancy corner punch… that cost about 1/4 of the cost of the invitations.

So, we have our programs, birdseed bags, invitations mailed and are starting to return, ring pillow, 1 of 2 flower girl dresses, place cards, guest book, chalkboards (and easels) for seating arrangements… What else am I forgetting?
I’m looking forward to the big day. I picked up my dress last week and it is so beautiful, looks really cute with the shoes and the shoe clips I bought off of Etsy. I am looking forward to relaxing a little after the wedding…
And here is the BIG news. I am going to be devoting a lot more of my time to Ohhh Lulu in the very near future. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and I’ve decided, after the whole heartbreaking house cafuffle, that I need to do this. We have nothing to lose. I talked to my boss last week about either not renewing my contract, or proceeding with just a couple days a week. This is super scary and exciting for me… as well as a huge relief – my “Day Job” has changed considerably since I started and as much as I’ve tried I just am not cut out for the lube business. I think anyone who has been following my blog can tell, I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for too long. I’m so excited to really “live my dream” even if it means it’s a huge failure, at least I can say “I tried.”


Are you as anxiety ridden as me?

Uncategorized July 22, 2011

I have anxiety issues. I psych myself up about the littlest things. Does anyone else do this? I can rationalize and tell myself to just chill the eff out, but its easier said than done!

I submitted a link to my shop and blog to Hello Giggles yesterday… but accidentally added a “k” to Ohhh Lulu in the URL. DOH!
What’s the worst typo you’ve ever made?
I remember a colleague of mine at a previous job, at a textile design studio, was preparing handouts for a new collection of fabric. One of the designs was named “Funky Flowers.” Well, I guess she missed the proof-read step and handed them out reading “Fu_ky Flowers.” You can fill in the blanks!
I once handed in a resume to a job I really wanted, with my phone number typed wrong. I followed up with them a week after handing it in, they told me they had been trying to reach me but my number had been disconnected! Maybe they felt bad for me, but I ended up getting the job.
I guess sometimes seemingly bad things can lead to unexpectedly good things.