Fool's Gold

Figgjo Norway 'Market' mugs and candle stick holders. 

I found these in the oppy. I screamed. The lady got scared. Love the detail. Love everything. 

My Creative Space

The space odyssey is back - thanks to Kirsty for hosting again this year!

This week I have been playing around with paper, lace and buttons. We wanted the placecards for our wedding dinner to be really personal, so I've decided to create photo cards. Brown for the girls, white for the boys. Quilted background sewn on to the card, and photo sewn on to the mini-quilt for the boys, lace and buttons for the ladies. I am not sure about the stamp writing, in fact I am pretty sure I don't like it,  so I think I will borrow my inlaws' old typewriter and write names in small across the top. This weekend I shall be mostly making baby quilt backgrounds!

Also featured are my favourite little birdie salt and pepper shakers from Dorothy and Evelyn - I love them so much I haven't been able to bring myself to actually put salt and pepper in them.

Here are some detailed shots of the cards.

The Dress

I love these dresses by English Department on Etsy. Not in my tiny price range and not a style I could possibly wear, but I think they're beautiful.

Edit: I also love to read the blog written by the designer, Elizabeth Dye. 

I ordered a dress on Ebay pretty soon after we got engaged - I'd fallen in love with the cut and the plainness of it and I could imagine me wearing it and dressing it up with some vintagey accessories (planning to stick a birdcage on my head etc). The dress did not deliver. It delivered on being pretty and nice and not pricey at all. But the colour was off and it just didn't look right, actually, it didn't make me feel right. I've since kind of revised my words of wisdom on wedding dresses - I am still not at all in favour of spending thousands of dollars on something that makes you look like a piece of cake. I am equally not in favour of spending a lot of money on a dress you'll only wear for 4 hours. But it's got to be the right one - and it's got to make you feel good - so if you're looking online or on Etsy, you need to budget for having the dress you order altered so that it fits perfectly. And you've got to be quite ruthless - if it doesn't work, resell it. 

And, even if you order online - no one should miss out on the fun of trying on cakey dresses (and maybe also getting your awesome and mildly mad sister in law (to be) taking pictures in the changing room).

We went to Brides of Melbourne and at one point I had to hold my nose and lean against the mirror I was laughing so hard. I found most of the dresses horrid and the fabrics all felt nasty and cheap. And of course these dresses are all "custom made" because they are sewn together and constructed in China or Thailand, where it's cheap. I don't like that at all. I found one pretty amazing and affordable dress in a little shop that may just be it - it's a lot more weddingy than I thought I was every going to go, but maybe that's a good thing?

Deborah Louie

via here

Deborah Louie is doing a couple of quilting classes at Amitie soon. Quilt Queen Kate recommended her very passionately - I don't think I will make it along this time round so I will need to wait.

In the meantime I am planning to make a (wonky) wedding quilt using a pattern I found on the Purlbee. I am pacing myself and trying to think carefully about colours and motifs before I start. I am thinking of either putting our initials on there, which seems a bit dry. Or creating little special blocks with a bit more meaning.

In other news, we are getting our wedding rings, the only truly expensive thing in this park/pub wedding, made for us by Melbourne designer Amy Renshaw. I feel these rings are important and I want to get them done by someone whose work I love. Also totally supporting local artisans *high five*. 

HappyMaking

This kind of made me cry. In a good way.


Sarah & Rupert Wedding 16mm Film from sarahandrupert on Vimeo.

my rant will go on and on

We just had the first ever meeting with a wedding celebrant and it was AWFUL. Felt like buying a car (a Porsche when all I want a vintage Fiat Cinquecento!), plus the lady forgot to ask ANYTHING about us. I have recurring nightmares of her jumping out of a cake full of confetti in the middle of the ceremony and singing the theme song from Titanic. We fled.

What's massively cheered me up is that the lovely Jess emailed a link to this wedding.
I absolutely love it. Exactly the kind of slightly crazy handmade love-filled scenario I'm after.

We have thought about our invitations and there will be two different sets - the first one will be a mixtape CD with a handmade booklet invitation mailed out to everyone attending the Melbourne wedding, and the other one will be a card and treasure map pack sent out for the Munich wedding. I would love to print these myself but I don't have any experience in printing and I don't have a Gocco either. I will either need to get them printed or somehow ebay the hell out of a Gocco.

Some beautiful invitations I've seen elsewhere:

via The Bride's Cafe (thanks Sallly)

via Polka Dot Bride

 via Polka Dot Bride

 via Polka Dot Bride

Able and Game card

home

Calm down
what happens
happens mostly
without you.

 Josef Albers

 Image via DesignMilk

Image credit

Sorry about this, but I have to hijack this space for sharing some of my delirious excitement about my wedding. I looked at some things online and it appears that people spend CRAZY lots of money on their nuptials. Pumpkin-style carriages, wedding coordinators, 5 layers of cake on the bride's head, lavender-coloured bridesmaid dresses - do you want a destination wedding or a home wedding? Have you remembered to hire a private jet for the grapes from France that will be flown to Melbourne and turned into wine that will spell out your groom's name when spilled? I say it works for some people and I would really love to attend a wedding like that, but for me.... no.

So we have come to the conclusion: we will have an outside wedding in the midst of winter in a garden somewhere in June featuring fairylights and handwarmers and champagne drunk out of picnic glasses. There won't be bridesmaids and there won't be 80 people. There will be 30 people we care about. So we can talk to them. Then there will be dinner. Because this bride is always hungry.

But that being said, if you know of any gigantic bridezilla wedding I could gatecrash, please let me know! I do love those kinds of parties.

Hello 2010!!!

I spent the New Year somewhere near Abu Dhabi on a plane - after an involuntary 2 day stopover in Abu Dhabi, due to some projectile vomitting on my part. That, ta da, in typical 2009 fashion marks the end of a mildly rubbish 2009 and the beginning of a fabulous 2010!!!

2009 had lots of good things.

good reads. for example.

interesting baking. discovering yummy craft supplies. craft success.

going home. meeting my niece. seeing my friends.

looking like a horse-faced version of James Dean at The Wall in Berlin. (note: must not pull same face in wedding photo).

always having someone similarly unphotogenic at my side.

christmas with the family. a tree with real candles!

for the best thing 2009 had to offer, see previous post.

I hope you have a wonderful new year with many great successes and celebrations, lots of laughing at things going wrong, lots of friends to laugh with you and a nice pair of heels to kick perfectionism in the butt.