I’m back! I hope all of my blog readership (which consists of my best friend and my mom and dad) didn’t think I’d given up on this project. The last month has been absolute insanity. So here’s a quick recap before we get into today’s post:
First of all, our social was a fantastic success! After all the stress, planning, gathering of
prizes, selling of tickets, and working to ensure the night went off without a
hitch, I am happy to report that everything went relatively smoothly. Or at least I think it did. The night went by so fast that I’m not sure
what happened. One minute I’m writing
numbers on the prize bags, the next minute I’m pulling out large trays of meat,
and the third minute I’m throwing out half empty drink cups and telling Guy We
Haven’t Seen In Eight Years to stop hitting on my bridesmaid and to go the hell
home so we can clean up. I learned
quickly that it certainly goes by a lot faster when it’s your social compared
to someone else’s.
Another thing we learned:
never underestimate the ferocity of hungry drunk chicks. My mother worked to create the most amazing
cupcake display known to man, with 18 different specialty flavors in gorgeous
wrappers. However, the problem with
that, is you cannot set up a table filled with sweets in the middle of a hoard of woo girls and
expect them to stand back nicely while you place your handmade, exquisitely delicate
signage in front of each type of cupcake and then stand back to admire and take
a picture of your excellent craftsmanship.
As soon as the first cupcake hit the table it was like...
FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!
And my MOH was having to throw elbows to try and keep my
mother from being stampeded. Thankfully,
she made it out alive, and I received a million compliments on her delicious
confections.
We owe a huge thank you to our families and wedding party,
who really stepped up and helped us immensely with this event, as well as to
all the wonderful people in our lives to attended our social to support
us. We love you all!
The one picture of us from before the night started...
Immediately after the social, I had 4 days to get ready to
leave for Grey Cup with my cheer team.
Between tying up loose ends at work, laundry and packing, ensuring our
routine was ready to go and not leaving the hair team behind (which almost
happened) there was no time for blogging.
Grey Cup weekend was also a great success! My feelings would best be described in a
song:
And a photo:
Immediately after getting home from Grey Cup, I had 4 days to
get ready for a two week trip to Germany for the World Tap Championships. By this time, my life is in complete
disarray. I’ve been living out of a bag
and in airports since September, and I haven’t even had time to think about my
wedding much less blog about it. But I
returned home in one piece last weekend after many a delayed flight and missed
connection and had a couple days at home with my love to relax, decompress and
recover from jet lag. And what’s the
best way to do that? Why, with wine and strassing!
I received my Swarovskis in the mail a while ago, as I
mentioned last blog post, and they have just been sitting there, taunting me,
ever since. So when I sat down to work
on Aislin’s belt, I thought it was a project that was going to be completed
over a number of weeks, but I finished it in two days. Turns out, strassing for small people? Much faster.
Strassing on a flat surface? Much
easier. Strassing with Clear Diamond
Swarovskis? Much SPARKLIER! Is sparklier a word? I don’t care.
It is now.
As I posted before, Aislin’s dress looks like this:
Look at that punnum.
Isn’t she adorable? Squee.
But the front of it is much too plain for my taste. So I started with a piece of plain white silk
ribbon, and used an embroidery hoop to keep it taut and in place while I strassed. I was also concerned the glue would seep
through the ribbon and onto the table, so I wanted to keep it up off my work
surface. Turns out it held up well! When I put the first row of crystals on, I felt
that same overwhelming feeling when I started Meadow’s tap shoes, because it
seems like such a big project with such little stones. But I worked about one square inch at a time,
and it went pretty fast!
You start with some ribbon....
...you pull it tight...
...and you get down to biz.
I measured Aislin a couple weeks back at dance class
(dance! Awe, she’s doing so good...) and
she’s 10 inches from hip to hip, so I added a bit more for growth and worked on
one half at a time, meeting in the middle.
I think I finished the whole thing in about 6-7 hours. I’m getting pretty fast at strassing now,
which is good because I have a giant pair of size 9 pumps to finish before the
wedding.
Progress...
Usually worked in square inches...
Almost halfway....
Just about done!
And voila, the finished product! I feel sad that these photos don’t do the
belt justice, because it is so sparkly and cute. I tried it on her at dance last night and it
looked so bloody adorable. She’s going
to be such a little doll. :) So now I’m excited to strass more things for
her outfit! Shoes! Hairpiece!
Flower basket! She will probably
blind everyone walking down the aisle, hahaha...
Finished!
I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas season and a Happy
New Year! I will be back after the
holidays with lots of wedding planning fun!
Happy Wedding Wednesday!!!
~M
