Where’s the DIY line?

If I won $10,000 for my wedding, this is what I would do it with.

Glyncora + Mark (Wedding Video in Maui, Hawaii) NDE by Marrone from Marrone Video on Vimeo.

I’m sure you can see why I love – now please give me the $10,000 it probably cost to make this.

Like, I love it. It’s beautiful. My friend Fussy Russy sent it to me last Fall, to rub it in my face that my wedding was about a year away.

Well, GUESS WHAT FUSSY > The wedding is in 29 days and I’m ready to rock.

So I have been doing some snooping around on how I can get a video like this done. I would love a wedding video – to remember the day, to send to friends and relatives who couldn’t make it, to have just one more way to cherish it and see it from perspectives that maybe I couldn’t or didn’t and to catch moments I didn’t see.

On the one hand, there are some seriously talented videographers in Southern Alberta – SNAP Weddings has great stuff and came recommended as did Imago Cinematography. Seriously, go to their sites. Check out their stuff – that is talent.  They do beautiful work, and just seeing their demo sites makes my heart melt. I want that.

On the other hand – that’s gonna set baby back. And this is a bit of a game time decision, something that I absolutely KNOW that I want, but to call a spade a spade, I don’t have the kind of cash to make this happen at the level I know I want it.

When you are hiring a vendor, you are always taking the risk that it won’t turn out exactly how you want it. When you are doing something yourself, you are always risking that it won’t turn out the way you want it. It will come as no surprise to you, that I am someone who prefers to take risks and ownership myself, instead of having someone else to blame if something doesn’t turn out exactly how I want it. I feel bad fugging around with other peoples work – I will fug around with my own stuff until I am blue in the face.

So here is my rather hilarious dilemma.

1. Hire an amazing company to do it for me – to capture it all. For a rather large price tag.

2. Buy three good quality, hand held cameras and have select guests film for portions during the night. Then, buy a Mac and do all the editing myself.

Both will set me back in the k’s, but one less so than the other. One will be a professional job, one will be a hack job. One will leave me with a cherished memory for the rest of my life, one will leave me with a cherished memory and a MAC I need rather badly for my consulting business.

Thoughts??!?!??!

eff bomb crafting: lacey, burlap lavender bags part deux

I had a revelation this week. Literally – a light bulb went off in my head and I am thrilled decided to perk up. This is how much of a genius I am. I was at The Social Page, tearing my hair out over my programs and other day of stationary and Claudette and I were messing around with place cards. And I was telling her that blah blah my table runners are burlap and so I don’t want the place cards to be brown because that’s too brown and then she asked me what colours my linens were and I said white – and we both kind of stared at each other. And then it dawned on me that my main colour is basically cream. And that, my friends, doesn’t really work now does it?

Some people might say that’s a bit perfinicky – and 5 weeks out, don’t I deserve to finally start being perfinicky!? – but truthfully, you can’t have a cream and rose and taupe based centre piece with WHITE LINENS AND WHITE NAPKINS. Cream and white don’t match – they clash. So thankfully, I was able to send Gracey at SER a quick email. Because honestly, I would have been so disappointed had I not realized that until the day of, setting up and I have these white linens and everything else is cream and brown. Seriously, that would have caused a melt down. Crisis averted – THANK YOU Claudette and Gracey :)

So you all remember where we left off with this craft last time, non? It was a glorious crafting day – I sat in a park, I listened to Michael Buble, I was not attacked by a single bird, it was so relaxing.

This is how far we got – remember? Meow you remember. Part Une complete!

So again, from August Long’s Craftcation, I was able to not only complete the 30 lacey, burlap lavender bags but because we were at The Cpt’s parents house and in their gorgeous backyard, I was able to test them out and see how they look.

In short – this truly is a miracle craft. It turned out exactly how I pictured it in my mind. That never. Ever. Happens.

They kind of remind me of little bunny rabbits, which are my favourite ‘nanimals. Yes – I love bunnies but the animal I was in another life was clearly a giraffe. The red hair, the freckles and the spots, the long neck, the “aristocratic profile” (i.e. pronounced nasal cover). I think we can all agree the resemblance is pretty obvious.

ANYWAYS> the creating the design of the outside of the lacey burlap lavender bags was far more time consuming, and full of trial and error and than the inside. Doing the inside was easy, and satisfying! Finito!

Tools:

• Bulap, lacey bags
• Ribbon of your choosing – I use the stuff you get for .69 cents a roll at Michaels. And surprise surprise – I used cream and pink.
• Your lavender – I got my in bulk, 13 pounds for about $30 from Lavender Luxuries on eBay.
• River rocks – if you live near a river or something, collect them from a free source. I am always wary of collecting “free” rocks from parks and stuff, because usually that means the City paid for those rocks, put them there and some yuppie parent will come out and scream at you not to steal the rocks while her kid sits next to you, eating them and staring at you. So I found a whole bunch of like – I duno, vase rocks? – at Michael’s for $1 a bag. BAM!
• Something to pour the rocks and lavender into the bag with – like a funnel or a little measuring cup

Step 1: Put a handful to a cup of rocks into the bag. Creates the base. Depending on how big your bag is and how many rocks you have, but you want a heavy weight at the bottom.

Step 2: The bag should kind of be killed up about a quartre of the way. Fill up two more quartres with lavender.

I don’t even know why I took photos of these steps. The photos look like something else, he he he.

Step 3: Add some more at the top (for good measure? ) There is no reason to do this whatsoever so if you’re short on rocks, then this step is completely unnecessary.

Step 4: Here’s a step that my new “Rule of Crafting” – think liberally. Buy more than you need, cut the river longer than you think you need, use more glue – you get it. I cut the ribbon about 12’’

You can tie your bag two ways – one, take a little rubber band, pinch the bag together and secure it with the rubber band. Then, arrange the folds as you’d like, tie the ribbon around the pinch in a pretty bow and take the rubber band off.

Or you can free style it, like I did. I did okay free styling but if you get frustrated, try the rubber band thing.

VOILA! So then I did a test run of what the aisle would look like with my little aisle markers. Now, they will be spaced out way more at the Ranche House, and  I have 30 of them, so that should cover a lot of ground.

So I’m in love with them – you? In order for them to site up straight, I propped them up on little pine cones that The Cpt’s parents pine cone tree (no, I don’t know the specific species of evergreen the pinecones come from) Cute! They have a little rum-pum-bum!

eff bomb crafting: $1 doily frames

You heard me. One. Dolla. This was one of the larger crafts on last weekend’s Craftcation To Do list – I had been mulling about what I was going to do about table numbers and menus for the big day and then I came across a sale for unfinished frames at Michael’s – 66 cents EACH. Bam. So I bought 50 – of course I did – and I especially bought 50 of them without having any clue of what I was going to do with them. I do almost everything cubed. I things three times more than necessary – drinking coffee out of nalgenes, eating pounds of almonds at a time - just because I'm a ringding like that. It’s all cubed. They should just call me CFBCubed. Yo.

So I walk up to the counter with 50 frames – the check out girl asked me if I was “doing some crafting this weekend”? What kind of a question is that? No, I’m shopping at a big box craft store on the Thursday before a long weekend looking for a recommendation for a good accountant. I’m using these 50 frames to tack up arrows on my hike so I can find my way home once I rescue the wizard from the flock of rabid seagulls. I’m actually taking these apart for the wood and I'm going to donate it to build a puppy preschool. Come on. Don’t make me answer that.

So I walked out with 50 frames, feeling proud that a) I got them for .66 a piece b) I didn’t sass that girl to third grade and back and c) it was go - time. Craftcation!

On the Sunday, The Cpt and I painted them with a suede colour of acrylic paint – two coats on the front and one coat on the back. Even though I didn’t know what I was going to DO with them, I started there. Because I know that as long as they matched our colours, they would find a home somewhere.

Normally, I post pictures of what that process looked like but I’ll tell you why I’m not going too. I had about as close to a freak out as I have ever had on the holiday Monday and The Cpt was not only sweet and patient, but he also started vacuuming as soon as he saw me start to hyperventilate, which was nice for both of us. So to return the favour, I’m not going to post photos of him crafting shirtless in his parents backyard. Just this once.

Thinking back to my doily covered bridal shower thank you cards, it struck me what these could me made into! To heaven and back, you're about to fall in love...

Tools:

• Unfinished wood frames
• Acrylic paint the colour of your choice – why acrylic? Because it’s dirt cheap. You’re not painting a frame that you’re putting a Group of Seven in.
• Sponge brush – to paint the frames - .69 cents each
• Tacky glue – on hand
• Doilies – pack of 30 at Dollarama for $1.25. It’s true, it’s overwhelming in there but go in with a list and you can usually make it out in one piece
• QTips – on hand.

Step 1: Once your frames are painted, line up a doily on top of your frame. Position it appropriately – the fun is seeing the pretty pattern so try to use as much of the outer edge as possible.

Step 2: Using the edges of the frame, crease a fold into the doily to create a pattern of where you want to cut the doily out to fit the frame

Step 3: Sniperoo! Cut along the crease lines.

Step 4: Line your cutouts up and glue those suckers down. I use Tacky Glue and I use a QTip to apply it. I ran the glue along the edges of the frame, where the doily would sit and then a few dabs in the middle. Afterwards, I applied more glue on top of the doily itself to kind of seal it down. The key is to keep the edges down so it doesn’t rip and get all snarly puss on your. Don’t be afraid to use a little extra glue to make sure it’s held down, the discolouration on the frame is tres minimal. In fact, it only made it more shiny.

Voila! C’est fini!

As for the burlap in the middle, I’ll show you that another time. FML burlap is beautiful but a jerk and a half to craft with sometimes. Thoughts? You love? You hate?

A gift from me to you, gentle readers!

eff bomb crafting: bridal shower thank you cards

No no, thank you.

Aren’t I funny? I had the most amazing bridal shower – it was exactly what I dreamed it would be, not that I spent a lot of time dreaming about my bridal shower. Besides the fact that it was epically long because I wouldn’t stop telling stories about every single guest, it was such a blast. My favourite part? All of it. But if I had to pick, I loved the shower game. Everyone had to write down one truth about me and then make up a lie about me. And everyone traded and had to read them out loud and then I had to tell everyone which one was true – which was always followed by ANOTHER story. Some of the lies were kind, some of the lies were shocking but of course, it was the truths that were ruthless. RUTHLESS.

Example:

Alix was once put in a chokehold by a guy at a bar wearing a t-shirt that said ‘Sleep with me’.

So that’s how it’s gonna be, eh? DEITRA!

One of my favuorite new crafting pastimes is definitely stationary. Although I am a Social Page addict, I am learning the enjoyment of making personalized stationary but I am love love loving the feeling of sending out something I made, the joy of having some receive a piece of mail and last but not least, enjoy receiving a piece of mail that I made by hand, just for them!So of course, when it came to the task of sending out the Thank You cards for my shower, which according to wedding folklore takes forever as it is, I decided to add ten more steps to getting out my thank you’s and made the stationary myself.

I was incredibly, incredibly inspired by this pots from Sparkle & Hay, my FAVOURITE blog. Avie Designs did the most adorable stationary – I love it. I searched forever and ever and ever for doilies that were full sheets like these ones, but alas, you can only find them at Rite Aid for $1 in the US. To ship them to Canada would cost me like $60 or something. Snarly puss. That will not do.

Tools:

• Plain cards and envelopes, of your choosing. You can buy these anywhere – Michaels, probably WalMart. They don’t even have to match. Or you can make your own cards by folding over a piece of paper. I have no idea how to make envelopes but I’m sure if you have enough glue and enough wishes from your genie in a bottle, you’ll figure it out.
• Doilies – of the dollar store variety. I got mine – 30 for $1.25 or something. They go a long way, trust me. Dollarama rules!
• Tacky glue, as usual
• QTips: to apply the glue, as usual
• Ribbon of your choosing, I choose skinny cream and pale pink (easier to tie skinny ribbon)
• Plain piece of paper / pencil
• Optional: Stamp and ink
• Optional: Fancy pen (colour of your choosing)

Step 1: Decide where you want the doily pattern to sit on your card. Then, using a plain piece of paper, trace the width and depth of that area to create a little square or rectangular stencil.

Step 2: Using your brand new stencil, trace cutting lines along the outskirts of your doily. I recommend keep the doilies stuck together for this, as opposed to pulling them apart as you may be tempted to do. It’s easier to cut 6 at a time than one at a time. You could be able to get a minimum 6 cuts out of every single dinner plate sized doily. Does that make sense?

You need two doily pieces per card, one for the front side and one for the back side. You can either have them both be the same or use two different stencil shapes to make two different patterns. I used two stencils because I’m a loser like that.

Step 3: Gluey gluey glue glue. Take your QTip, dip it in the glue and run it around the edges of the doily pattern. Then, put more glue on the edges of the card, all except the edge of the card that opens. So the right side of the card on the front, and the left side of the card on the back.

Step 4: Cut 6 – 8 inches of ribbon. Take your gluey QTip and put a dab of glue on either side of the card, along the edge that opens, under the doily you just laid down. Snuggle you ribbon inside, right over top the glue and give it a pinch. Do that for both sides and you’ll have a loop of ribbon, like in the photo below.

Step 5: Optional: So you have your stamp that you love because it says something cute and lovey dovey and fine. For this craft, I am obviously subscribing to the cute and lovely dovey-ness of life. Take your stamp, and stamp it. Der.

My stamp said “All you need is love” which I think it actually pretty sweet. And true. Then, take your little fancy pen and write something on the back to the effect that you made the card. My said “Handmade with love by Alix”. You have to take the glory of your handmade goodness when you can.

Step 6: Snippity snip the ribbon you attached, right at the top of the loop. Hopefully you actually did cut the ribbon to be 6 – 8 inches long so the tails are long enough for you to make a bow. Because I learned THAT the hard way. First, write your message in the card and then viola! Tie your bow!

You’re about to fall in love with this next set of blurry photos …

Step 7: Now we’re onto the envelope. You’ve written the address on the front, you’ve tucked the card safely inside. Now, take a piece of ribbon that is as long as twice the width of the envelope. So take your ribbon, run it from one side of the envelope to the other and then back again and you have twice the width. Snip!

Step 8: On the backside of the envelope, there are two side panels that sit under the flap. Put a little smudge of glue in about the same place on both sides. Attach your ribbon by giving it another good pinch.

Step 9: Now you kind of have a loop, tuck your flap in, and seal it shut. Next, snip the ribbon into two tails by cutting at the very top, centre of the loop (like the last bow) and then tie the tails back up again.

NOW we’re c’est fini!! Pop it in the mail with your cutest stamps and you’re off to the races!

Craftcation–and a reason to scowl at me.

So we’re 6 weeks out officially. I’m feeling good – feeling prepared – starting to feel excited. Feeling like I need to actually start doing a few things that I kept thinking would never actually need to get done because I can wait until August to do that and August is like a YEAR away and oh look, it’s August.

Everyone keeps asking me how I’m doing – I’m doing fine. I’m more concerned about the projects that le wedding is kind of taking me away from – the Centennial Stampede Queen and Princesses contest commences September 1st and we crown our Centennial Queen on October 3. I’m sad I’m missing that, I’m worried because there is a lot of promotion that needs to happen – including getting 500 people out to the Final Ride at Hebson in Okotoks – and I’m going to miss most of that. With work, we’re having a Friends and Family event, a staff BBQ and I’ve got the Vic Marathon in October to boot. All projects that will keep chugging along, full steam ahead without me. But I hate to miss the fun, non? Isn’t that the point of working hard?

So I’m doing fine – I’m not sweating the details. I’m just not a perfectionist. I don’t have the patience for it. I am more of a broad thinker. And besides, there are so many other things in life to worry about and lose sleep over. Mind you, it’s easy for me to feel that way. In my real life, I work at the Missing Children Society of Canada – the only organization in Canada that actively searches for missing children. There’s something to lose sleep over. Not the spacing between the pin stripes you painted on the back of your table numbers.

This weekend, to get a jump start on our 6 weeks out, to give ourselves a break from our SUANA of a filthy, dusty condo and to get some much needed sunshine, The Cpt and I took a Craftcation up the road to Silver Springs. Mama and Papa Cpt were out at the cabin, so we pilled in the car, and we spent Sunday afternoon crafting in the backyard. Then we had some peeps over for a BBQ (kickin’ it old skool – throw a party when your rents aren’t home!), stayed the night and went back to crafting in the morning. To be honest - it was so refreshing, like we’d been on a mini vacation. A crafting vacation. A Craftcation.

Beyond being just what we needed – we did get a really good start on about 4 projects. But as with every project – there are ups and downs and and ins and outs and hums and haws and ways you could do it better – ways to make the project easier on yourself. As I attempt to keep my cool as much as possible with le wedding, I’ve been giving my mental crafting game a lot of thought lately, as it is a release for me – here’s a trick in my back pocket that might make your crafting easier on you.

So I’m a broad thinker with limited patience – which actually is not great when it comes to crafting. But I’ll tell you what I do after every craft – although I never, ever worry if the craft isn’t perfect (as long as it fits with an overall vision), I always play this video to myself in my head.

Papa EWoody spells it out

I know. I KNOW. Tiger did a bad bad thing – a few of them. But EWoody is giving him a solid scolding – from the grave – in this commercial and I think he asks some important questions. I think EWoody and I share a lot more in common than just our last names and ultimately, I think this is a good piece for self reflection.

• Be inquisitive and promote discussion – while you’re crafting, read blogs, ask questions, post on Facebook walls, on Twitter, in forum discussions. Find out the path that others have taken before you set out on your own
• Find out what your thinking was – for real. Ask yourself not just what you thought, but why you thought that way and what got you to that place? Was your conclusion emotionally driven? Did you only want to do that craft because that chick you hate did it really well and you want to out craft her? Did you only insist on using that supplies because you’d spent a fortune on it and didn’t know where else you might use it?
• Find out what your feelings are – do you hate it, love it? Why? Are you proud? Are you excited to show it to a particular person? What part of you does it speak to – what does it reflect of you?
• Finally, did you learn anything? – What can you take away? That glue guns are hot? That it’s best to measure twice? Always buy double of what you need?

Also before you comment, know that I don’t care if you don’t like Tiger.

Expect 4 new crafts this week from Craftcation – 4!