Wedding Only a Week Away!! Last Minute Little Stuff...

I can't believe how fast time is going by, seriously.  My wedding is exactly a week from this coming Saturday!  That's so crazy to think about because it feels like yesterday when I was procrastinating thinking it was still months away.  And now it is so close.  Since we are having a destination wedding, we do have to be ready with everything even sooner.  We are leaving LA on Wednesday to drive up to Tahoe, so everything's gotta be done before then.  That really only gives us like 5 days.

Most of everything is done, but I've been super stressed out this week since I had to do my last minute touches.  I've been working on some crafty work pretty much every night after I get home from work and the gym.  I've been going to bed at after midnight and getting up around 5 am.  I'm the type of person that requires at least 7 hours of sleep a night in order to function.  So this really has not been fun for me.

Mostly this week I have been putting together gifts for my bridesmaids.  It sounds easy but really was time consuming, since I had to run around and gather a lot of material.  But I think at this point I am actually done with a lot of it and can take a breather.  I think I am happy with what I've done so it's all worth it at the end!

One of the presents I got my bridesmaids is these pretty pink swarovski crystal earrings.  I thought earrings were a good thing to get because they can have something sparkly to wear during the wedding (but they don't have to wear these if they don't want to), and also keep them to use for other occasions.  The earrings came in white boxes, which I wasn't too crazy about.  So instead of buying new boxes, I decided to buy some paint and glitter to personalize them and give them some life.  I stuck with my pink theme with the boxes.  I never had a wedding color, but I think now it is pink.  This is mostly because the bridesmaid dresses turned out to be pink.

So I just painted the boxes with pink acrylic paint and used this light pink glitter glue to write their names on top of the lid!  These are what I used.  Loved that little brush thingy.  I got it for 50 cents at Michaels on Monday night!

So now the pink earrings go into a pink box:

And then I decided that I needed a place to put these boxes.  Like cute little gift bags or pouches.  I was browsing online at work, and came upon this website called papermart.com and they have TONS of bags, papers, fabric, etc. for very good wholesale prices.  The company is located in Orange County and they ship same day so I ordered some cute pink mesh pouches with feathers on top.  Uber cute.  They arrived like a day or so later which was great.

This is what the pouch looks like.  It's the perfect size - about 3.5 inches high inside when closed.  I stuffed it with some shredded paper string thingies I got from Michaels to make it look fuller.

You can also pull the strings to cinch the top, which looks so cute.  This is what it looks like now with the pink earring box inside:

I now have 3 cute little bags for the girls!

I think I spent like $14 for 10 of these pouches.  They come in packets of 10 so I do have some left over.  But they are cute enough to keep around for christmas or birthday events later.

I also have my gay friend as my "man of honor".  Of course this meant that I had to get him something else.  He is not a flaming gay man and will not wear pink crystal earrings.  Lol.  

It's always hard to find presents for guys I think.  There's the generic ones you get for guys, like cuff links, flasks, ties, etc.  And it's just as hard for gay guys.  I really couldn't figure out exactly what he would have wanted, so I just got a Dolce & Gabbana money clip.  It's nothing special, but he's a brand name whore so he will probably like it!

The only thing is the picture shows black but I actually got the only color left which was navy.  I haven't even seen it since I got it online and it arrived all wrapped up.  I didn't want to open it and mess with it.  So I hope navy is really only navy under certain lights.  Though I did hear navy is "in" right now!  Hahahaha, that's what I will tell him.

I didn't want him to feel left out, so I put his name in glitter too. 

And then I also put it in the pink feathery bag!  Haha!  It barely fits, and when it's inside the bag I can't cinch it closed.  Oh well.  It will work.

So these earrings and bags are only a part of the presents I'm getting the girls.  I also got the silk robes from a long time ago that I wrote about.  And I got these faux fur wraps for them to wear when it gets colder at night.  Tahoe is nice in September - weather is in the 70s during the day, but it gets colder when the sun sets.  I got these wraps from ebay actually for only $18 each!  For that price I was like whatever.  One of them arrived tonight and it's not bad at all (I made 2 different orders), totally worth $18.  But the others are still on their way and I hope they are here before next Tuesday.

If they don't arrive before I have to leave town, at least I will have one!  Hahaha.  I like this wrap to go with my dress, since the dress has pearls on it and so does the wrap.  So it goes well.

So the day of my wedding is actually one of my bridesmaids birthday!  It was a total coincidence as I did not realize it at the time we picked the wedding date.  But she's cool enough to sacrifice her day for mine, so I thought I'd get her something else.  I bought this really cool ABS cuff for her.  It's gold with white opal.  Super cool looking and totally her style.  I actually got it on ideeli so it was like $50.  I think I might also get her a cake or some cup cakes on the day of the wedding.

I couldn't believe that this cuff didn't come with a box though.  It's a very wide cuff so I had trouble finding a jewelry box for it.  So when I was in Santa Barbara last weekend and was shopping in Nordstrom, I just asked them for a gift box.  It turned out to be the perfect size.  So it works.  I have no time to worry about getting a cuter box.

Hmm what else have I been working on?  Oh yeah, also for the girls, since I originally planned on having them wear different colored dresses I made these sashes to tie it altogether.  But since I then decided to have everyone get matching dresses, the sashes were kind of useless.  I felt like it was such a waste though!  So I cut out the organza flowers I made and made them into hair pieces!  I think it will be cute even though they are champagne colored and the dresses are pink.  We'll see how they look, it's not a big deal if they don't end up being used.

The back looks rather home made.  But well, they are home made!  And you can't see the uneven circle at all from the top of the flower, so whatevers!

I now just need to get everyone a big gift bag so I can put everything inside and make it look presentable.  See?  Still not done with gifts yet!

I made myself a hair piece too, and I used some fabric from my wedding dress.  It is still getting altered and I'm supposed to pick it up this Saturday.  But my seamstress gave me some material she cut from the bottom hem to make stuff with.  It worked out well in my hair piece.  I'm not sure if the photo shows.  But my hair piece is made of white organza sheet as well as the sheer fabric from my dress.  They look slightly different and gives the flower more depth in person.

I think I might put a little bit of ostrich feathers in it too.  But I haven't done it yet.  Will get to it tomorrow!

And then the last DIY project I've worked on this week is the flower girl basket!  I went to Michaels and got a cute little basket for $3.  Then I decided to glam it up a little so I glued some fake orchids on the sides.  And then I used the same fabric from the wedding dress to make bows on the sides and around the handle.  My flower girl is my mom's friend's daughter who is 8 years old but obsessed with weddings already.  She's uber excited to get this "job", so I wanted to make it cute for her.

You know how when you cut organza, the edges kind of become frayed?  Well, I decided to use my glitter glue, yes the same one I used to write people's names on jewelry boxes, to glue the edge of the bow.  That way the edge will not keep tearing and it will have some pink glitter on it!  I think this basket will look cute on a little girl.

I think that's about it for now.  I am still working on my drink menu!  And then we have to pick out songs for the DJ which is actually harder than it seems.  I have no idea what song to walk down the aisle in.  We have to figure out the schedule with the photographer, pick out photos to play on this digital picture frame we plan to have at the guest entry.  And then I have to attend to all my last minute beauty appointments.  Basically I don't think it will end until the very last minute.  I wish I had a couple more weeks to finish everything!  But it is what it is.  

My fiance has it worse.  He still needs to get shoes, shirt and tie for the wedding!  He's even more of a procrastinator than I am I guess.  And he doesn't even know for sure if one of his groomsmen can make it to our wedding since he just sold his house and needs to move into a new one by our wedding weekend.  So it's all a little stressful for me trying to make sure everything happens smoothly.  I guess if we end up being one man short on his side then so be it!  Good thing I'm not a bridezilla, I can see these kinds of things being disastrous for someone wanting everything to be perfect!

DIY Bridal Sash Project

I haven't written much this week because I've been busy working on my new DIY wedding project every night after work.  Let's just say I've been arts 'n crafts inspired.  My dress doesn't require a sash or anything, but my "bridesmaids" will.  Ok I say bridesmaids in quotes because I told my friends to wear whatever they want, and I'll just tie a sash around them to make it look more uniform.  I just don't want people to have to go buy matching dresses and go through all the hassle just because I decide to have a wedding.  I told them they can wear any solid colored rich jewel toned dress that they already have.  So far 2 of them have decided on their dresses - one is royal blue, and another is burgundy.  So I hope the other 2 (or maybe 1) wear like a rich jade color, and a color of another family so they can be completely different.  How great would that look in pictures??  I don't have a wedding color because I can't be bothered, so I decided to go for a neutral color as the sash - I chose champagne.  I think it will go with pretty much any color dress they get.

So at first I thought of just getting them a simple sash.  But then I thought why not put a little bit of decoration on the sash.  I looked on etsy and there's tons of different bridal sashes out there that people can make for you in different colors with some flowers or jewels on it.  But they kind of cost a lot - the absolute cheapest I found that wasn't butt ugly was $60.  And they don't even look that complicated to make on my own!  So I said F it, let me just take a stab at it myself.  After all, I just finished making my bouquet and it wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it would be!

I thought getting the right materials for the sash would be hard, but it was actually really really easy.  I just took a trip to Jo-Ann Fabric & Crafts and they had everything I could possibly need!  I got champagne colored organza for the flowers, and the exact same shade of satin ribbon (I got 2 inches wide, but 1.5 would probably work too) and thread.  I also got some shiny buttons for the center of the flowers, as well as some good scissors and I was good to go!  I was in and out of there within 20 minutes.  For all the material that I got, which was way more than I needed, it cost me $30.  Compare that to over $200 to pay someone to make me 4 sashes!  Ha!  I feel smart.  Lol.

Here are the 2 finished photos of what I made.  I will lay out the steps I used to make my flowers in case anyone is interested!  The first one I did on my own by trial and error (I basically tried to figure out how to make these flowers by staring intensely at some organza flowers I found on etsy).  The second one, I watched some YouTube videos which were helpful.  There are tons out there.  YouTube is a freaking life saver.  I can't believe so many nice people take the time to video tape, well, everything!

Ok, there they are!  The following are steps to making them, they are very very simple.  So read on if you are interested!

First one:

I cut a strip of my organza roughly about 4 inches wide.  Then I cut the strip into 4 X 4 squares like this:

Then I cut flower shapes out of the squares.  The petals can be any shape of course.  But I just opted for a simple regular flower petal for my guinea pig trial run.  I hand cut them, but I suppose to make them more uniform, you could draw a shape first then cut.  But I figure that natural flowers aren't perfect anyway, that's what gives them character! As you can see below, my shapes are kind of really not that pretty looking on their own.  Also, I tried to cut some bigger and some smaller ones, so that the finished product will look more natural.

Ok then you just keep cutting shapes and layering them.  I cut about 10-12 per flower, but if you want a fuller flower, just cut more!  You can stack the squares and cut a few at a time.  I cut one at a time at first and it took way too long!

Keep stacking and stacking...

See, even though the shapes are not perfect on their own, they look pretty good when they are all layered!

Then I just took out my needle and thread, and sewed the organza sheets together, including a shiny button on top as the center of the flower.

And there it is!  Done!  All I had to do next was sew it onto the ribbon.  I cut the ribbon to be about 2 meters long to give it enough room to tie around the waist.  If they end up being too long, I can just cut them.

I actually took a hot glue gun and glued some of the bottom layer - the one closest to the satin ribbon, onto the ribbon so that the flower doesn't droop when you put it on.  The organza sheets are very light, so if you don't do that, gravity will for sure pull them down.  

I made 2 of these flowers, and sewed the other one slightly above the first onto the ribbon.  Of course they could be even leveled and that would look great too.  I just wanted to try something different.  The placement of the 2nd flower was actually the hardest part for me.  I had to re-do it 3 times.  The first time I put it on the wrong side, and then 2nd time I put it too far away from the first flower and you could see some ribbon between the 2 flowers.  I didn't like that.  But 3rd time was a charm!  Here's what it looks like on me!  Not half bad for the first attempt, huh?  =)

After I made the first one, I decided it would be cool to make each sash a little different.  So everyone can be unique and it looks more modern.  This time I got smart and watched YouTube for tips before staring more at pictures on etsy.

Second sash:

The beginning is very similar to the first one - I cut out strips from the organza and cut them into 4 X 4 squares.  Then I cut flower shapes out of them.  Again, they don't have to be perfect at all.  I used about 12-15 sheets per flower this time.  I don't have any pins, so I put my needle through the stacks of organza to keep them in place while cutting.  See the stack on the right.

And then I layered the 2 stacks I cut out, and ran my needle and thread through the center.

Then I twisted around the different layers of organza with the thread through, so that they are not perfectly stacked.  And then I folded it into half and gave it a few stitches:

Then, I folded it perpendicularly to the first fold, and gave another few stitches.  The whole point of this is to sort of scrunch up the organza sheets from the bottom so that the petals will stand up and become more 3D.

I actually then repeated some more stitches on the other side, whatever you want, as long as it looks good when flipped over.  Here's what mine looks like!  Just be sure to play with the petals and make sure their placement looks natural and effortless.

So I just repeated the steps and made a 2nd flower just like this.  Then I sewed them onto the satin ribbon.  I also used my hot glue gun and glued the bottom of the flowers onto the ribbon.  This flower doesn't have a flat bottom like the first one, since I had scrunched it and sewn the bottom so it formed a point.  That's why it was more important to glue it to make sure it doesn't fall to one side.

This is what the finished product looks like on me.  This time I made sure I paid closely attention to the placement of the 2nd flower so that it was the same level and close enough to the first one.  I only had to sew it on once!  Score!

So I really like my sashes!  I hope my friends will too.  If they don't, then they can forget about being my bridesmaids in quotes.  Hahaha.  But seriously, this was so easy to do and saves so much money.  I will have lots of organza and ribbon left over, so I will be making more flowers during holidays/birthdays as decorations for presents!  It's a nice touch.  I love my new found love for arts and crafts!  Oh, maybe I'll start selling sashes and bouquets on etsy too.  Undercut others by $5-10 and probably can sell a few.  That's still a huge profit margin.  LOL!  

I also think I can make more flowers for myself as hair accessory for the wedding as well.  I like the look of the flowers on the 2nd sash for hair.  They look just like some hair fascinators I have seen that cost over $100 retail.  I love the soft and romantic feel.  All I have to do is glue a clip to the back of the flower and put it in my hair for less than $1.  There's so many different ways to make them and use them, the possibilities are endless.  

I will cut out different shaped petals for my next 2 sashes, and hopefully create different looks!  Maybe I'll attempt to create roses (they look a little harder per YouTube tutorials).  I will post more then.  

My DIY Wedding Bouquet

Ok, so my wedding bouquet DIY project is done, and I'm ready to show off my handy work.  I actually can't believe I made a bouquet as I've never done any floral arrangements before.  So it's amazing to myself that I was even able to put everything together into a bundle!  YouTube tutorials helped.  But I guess mostly you just have to get in there and do it.  Surprisingly it wasn't all that difficult given the proper tools, such as pliers, floral wire, floral tape, and a hot glue gun!

I'm not 100% sold on my own bouquet yet.  Lol.  My fiance says he likes it, but what else could he say after watching me struggle for hours.  I am glad I have something for now, and I can still consider buying either a vintage jewel bouquet or fresh flower one from a professional.  But nevertheless, here are some pictures I took of my work!  I tried to go for a more rustic look given that my wedding will be surrounded by mountains and lake...

Remember these flowers I bought a couple weeks ago:

I used most of them, and now they look like this:

View straight from the top

Side view

Slightly tilted to show the more "colorful" side

So there it is!  I tried to add different pops of color, as well as some bling without making it look too crazy.  I do believe it was as good as I could have done, and I actually enjoyed the process.  So regardless of what happens, I had fun doing it!  So maybe I should hold it proudly as I walk down the aisle and not be self-consciously thinking that everyone else hates my bouquet!  Hehe.

My New Painting!

An art wholesaler came to my work building for a couple days last week to display and sell his art.  He had some really nice original paintings that were painted by his sister in Bali and then shipped here by boat.  I hate spending money on mass produced generic art work, which is why most of my walls are still empty.  I think maybe from some of the pictures I've taken, you can see a huge painting on my wall - it's kind of the only decoration art work I have right now.  A friend painted it and even though he's not an artist or anything, it's still original!  Well his wife is a celebrity and she worked on it as well, so maybe I can resell it one day... hehe.

So I took the opportunity to get one of these unique paintings last week.  At first I wasn't sure if it would go with my place, but I love it now!  The colorfulness of it definitely brightens the place up and gives it a very interesting look.  My walls are a tannish color, which I think looks fine with the painting.  Unfortunately I haven't put it up on the wall yet so I don't have a picture of it hanging up.  It's going to the space above the couch in the living room.  But I did take a picture of it when it was displayed at my work building.  Here it is!

The wholesaler guy told me that his sister painted it based on a photograph he took at the Borobudur Buddhist temple in Indonesia (one of the 9 world wonders).   Being a wholesaler, he takes her paintings to different art galleries in LA, and they always sell really well, especially the monk ones.  But of course if you buy it from the art gallery, the price will be $1000-3000.  He was willing to sell this one to me for $250 which I think is a great price for any original art work, let alone something this unique and big!  The painting is about 4 X 3.5 ft canvas.  It took her a week or so to finish it, but she refuses to sign her paintings because the culture there is different - people do not want to draw attention to themselves.  So apparently, some guy bought 5-6 of her paintings from one of the galleries here, and signed his own name on them!!!  Wow... that's pretty shady.  Maybe I should sign my name on it too and proudly display it as my own work!  Hahahaha.  Kidding, of course.  I can't believe someone would outwright steal this poor Indonesian woman's hard work!

So anyway, this seller has a permanent studio in Venice.  Maybe I can stop by some time later if I feel like I need another painting!

DIY Artwork

I've been living in my place for 6 months now, and I'm still having so much trouble finding stuff to hang on the walls!  I think it's mainly because I'm indecisive and can't pick a theme.  I only have one (huge) painting that probably has shown up in the background of some of the pictures I've taken, which was painted by a friend and given as a gift.  Otherwise all my walls are pretty much bare.

Well my fiance inspired me earlier this week by buying a canvas and spray paint to make a very "Z-Gallery"-like artwork consisting of names of cities we traveled to on our latest trip which was to China. This is what he did.  I like it!

So it makes it personal, and not like some mass produced artwork from Ikea or something.  Not that I have anything against Ikea - I love Ikea actually!  But I think when it comes to art, I rather invest in art of value (like buy one expensive piece of work a year and collect for a lifetime would be a cool idea), or make personalized artwork myself.

This is a similar design from Z-Gallery:

Ok, so I decided to follow suit and do a couple of my own thing.  I remember that back in college, I was really into graphic design and art history.  Obsessed really.  I memorized all the names of famous pieces from pre-historic time to the present, the artists, the exact year they were done, the history behind them, what kind of influence they had and what influenced them, etc. etc.  In fact, I wanted to be some kind of art major, I even considered being a music major and auditioned for piano with Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. But I decided eventually to opt for business economics for more $$$ potential upon graduation.  I was a practical kid.  I'm actually glad I made that choice because I like what I do now, and I can still do artsy stuff as a hobby instead of depending my income on it (though I rarely have the time).  So I dug up a computerized Picasso interpretation I drew back then in Illustrator of the Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.  This is what the Picasso version looks like.  I believe the subjects are 5 hookers.  What can I say... LOL:

And this is what my not-quite-as-cool-but-free version looks like:

It was actually a lot of work to complete this!  Because I drew everything by hand, and tried to make it resemble the Picasso version as much as possible color wise and shape wise.  I should've done the fruit plate though - not sure why I skipped that part.  I think I might have to go edit it.

So I think that I will be framing this and hanging it up on my wall so I can have my own "Picasso"!  And I think it would also be great if I do a couple more Illustrator drawings of different Picasso pieces to make a series!  These are not that big - like 2 ft x 1 ft each, so I can hang them side by side in the hallway or something.  It's a fun exercise anyway, I just really enjoy silly stuff like this. 

At least that's a start to covering my bare walls!  I still need more ideas though because I have a lot of wall space so feel free to throw them my way!  Hopefully slowly it will all come together.  This whole owning a home thing, is really a lot of work!