Getting Back on Track

New invitation design! What do we think? It's much, much more me (and Jesse), because it's modern with a slight classic feel... I don't know, I just like it a lot more than the previous one I was trying on.

Also, I am trying to get my bridesmaids inspired and excited about shopping for their own dresses, since I'm the nicest bride ever and not choosing hideous dresses for them to wear once then throw away. Here are a few examples of dresses that they could certainly strut their stuff in down the aisle.

A nice print, perhaps a little short.

Very vintage. Great colors though.

Summery.

This one satisfies me in so many ways. It's kind of ridiculous.

This one is almost perfect. Slightly too informal, but perfect for a BBQ, which is what our wedding really is. Hell, dress it up with a great pair of heels and necklace and this bridesmaid will have captured my heart! Ooh! Or take off the tie (yes, it's removable), and add a different belt!

I think this is lovely, and depending on what the other 3 wear, one of my girls could definitely sport this.

This one also tickles me. I'm not digging the bow...or the hem...but I love the stripes and color combos. You know what, let's just take it apart and make a new dress with this fabric.

Of course they can choose something more "bridesmaid-y" if they want, but I am stressing the idea of buying something they will wear again. Even though I have a ton of dresses I've only worn once....it's a girl thing. What's wrong with us?!

Snooze Fest

Since this mess started out as a wedding blog, I might as well include something regarding weddings every now and then.

In an attempt to save money on what can turn into quite the expensive affair, I've taken it upon myself to make my own wedding invitations, among other things. The Save the Dates and RSVP cards were easy, nobody cares about those anyway, but creating a unique and creative invitation is exhausting!

This is what I've come up with so far, and it's okay, but frankly it is not what I had envisioned, and I'm totally bored with it.

So please, judge for yourself and get back to me. Luckily I've got 6 months to figure it out! Wow, 6 months really doesn't seem very long when I think about everything I've still got to do. Yikes.

As a visual reminder, here are the STDs and RSVPs.

...Oddly similar...

I think the only things I'm excited to make are my dress and fabric flower bouquet! And perhaps the fun little boutineers. I suppose I would be having more fun if I weren't such a good procrastinator, filling my time with baby clothes and a cute puppy.

Tiny Dress Form!

Oh my! I am so excited to announce that I am now able to actually get some idea of what my Tiny Dresses and Sweaters look like on babies! Disclaimer: it's not the real thing. But for how many children I know in my life, which is very close to zero, this is as close as I'm going to get. And I'm super excited about it! I have my lovely soon to be husband to thank for little.....I don't know.....Darla. I would rather call it Hank but it will usually be wearing a dress so Hank just seems a little threatening.

Here is Darla all dressed up in the Zippy Tiny Dress (available for sale here)

And here is my newest invention, the Reversible Tiny Dress! This side is pink and white striped with little boy blue buttons.

And here we have the reverse side which is brown and blue striped on bottom, with a top sporting a lovely flower pattern.

And here is Darla, the Tiny Dress Form, naked. Still awesome! I can't wait to get a shiny new dress on her! All of my Tiny Sweaters are too small, but that's just motivation to make some bigger ones!

Tiny Sweater

Eventually this Indian Summer will start to fade with the changing of the leaves. Green will give way to yellow and orange and the ground will crunch under our feet. Soon we will all be searching for our favorite sweater stashed way at the back of the closet to warm our chilly shoulders when Autumn sets in. And if you were one of many to have a summer baby, the little tyke is just about ready for his first changing of the seasons, but rest assured he won't get cold, because my new Tiny Sweaters will keep him cozy this Fall and Winter!

Tiny Sweaters are fully lined for extra comfort and warmth, with fun buttons and a custom made animal patch to jazz everything up. Any little guy will be happy sporting a sweater showing off his favorite animal! Of course, Tiny Sweaters can be made for gals too.

The Giraffe Tiny Sweater will be available at Eel & Ermine, but I plan on making a few more for Tiny Dresses on Etsy. Or you can just contact me with your special request.

(Rooster Tiny Sweater has been claimed by a little chicken)

Tiny Sweater: fits age 6-8 months. 100% cotton. 100% one of a kind. $75

Tiny Dresses

New Tiny Dresses are here!

These two fit girls 12 - 18 months.

These four fit girls at 6 months.

Soon, very soon hopefully, they will be ready for sale on Etsy! If I haven't already mentioned, these cute little dresses are for people age 6 months to one year, or so; depending on whether your child is on a hunger strike or fattening up for hibernation this winter. Each frock is made of a nice comfortable material that grows in the wild in one way or another, no synthetics, so your little lady can be stylish and comfortably itch-free.

Each dress is one of a kind and can be purchased through Etsy for $65 with, get this, free shipping! That's right, free shipping. I know, pull your socks back up.

If you can't wait for me to get my act together and post these on Etsy, they are also available at Eel & Ermine in San Francisco.

Introducing...

Dexter! The newest member of our family is a long little Dachshund puppy we named after our favorite fictional serial killer. Really it's just a cute name that suits the little guy, and he does get pretty vicious with his toy dragon, but most of the time he's a little lover.... probably because he sleeps a lot.

August has brought us lots of new things, mostly information that both eases our minds and causes new amounts of wedding stress. Jesse and I took a trip to Montana to sort out the details of the big even next summer, and after lots of research, paid deposits and talks with family members, we have decided NOT to elope. Although I think more people should. That being said, THIS is where we're getting married!

The barn is massive, and we were lucky enough to check it out on a day when someone else was preparing to be married there. I'm hoping to use what interior decorating skills I don't have to do a slightly nicer job of decorating, but this huge old barn has lots of potential.

So, with Save The Dates already sent out, and multiple venues already booked, it looks like there's no turning back now! My grandma said she'd see me next summer "if the wedding is still on" she's such a realist, it's charming.

Also, if anyone is looking for a photographer, we're using Green Door Photography. Nicole Wickens is an amazing photographer who I'm completely in love with and I'd kinda like to be her best friend. She has a very sweet dog named Roxy who will greet you at the door (green, of course) and her time and dedication to her photos is very apparent. We are sooooo pleased to be working with her!

Progress

There comes a time when procrastination hides it's ugly head and progress pops in to say hello. Recently I've just been trading one for the other on any given task, but as far as all my wedding stuff goes, there has been a huge success! Save the Dates are done! And I don't just mean the design, I'm saying they're tucked away into their shiny brown envelopes and just waiting for postage, then it's see ya later, get outta my life, time to move on to bigger and better things.... like invitations and RSVPs. Ugh. The agony of figuring those out is yet to come. So for now, I present my simple, handmade, completely unique, nobody else has 'em, custom designed STDs (that's Save the Dates in wedding-speak)! And when I said simple, I meant it. Also, my typewriter has no exclamation point, so everything that comes out of it is pretty matter-of-fact, which I'm rather fond of.

Honestly though, if you have Photoshop and a printer, you really don't even need artistic skills to make your own invitations. Although I can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would, it's really annoying and time consuming. But artists aren't known for their sanity.

Tiny Dress Factory

I don't care much for children really, they're messy and loud and have complete disregard for anyone else's feelings or obligations. But boy are their clothes cute! There is something about a dress or a pair of pants that is just so much better when in miniature form. So in light of this, I've turned my sewing station into a one-woman factory of tiny dresses. Of course holding a full-time job, looking for new employment, planning a wedding, and being an all-around awesome person does take up most of my time, but I've managed to squeeze out four of these little adorables so far, and I don't intend to stop anytime soon. They will soon be sold at a store in San Francisco, which I will disclose the location of once the dresses are actually in-store, but until then, or during or after, I am selling these for $65. The second dress in line is refurbished from an old button-up plaid shirt I no longer liked to wear, or perhaps never wore at all. Point being, if you have an old shirt you don't like the fit of, but love the fabric... I'll turn it into a baby dress for you!

New Things, Old Ideas

Every now and then we all feel as though our lives have been turned upside-down. This has been one of those months. Apparently when my life is on it's head I travel at 1000 miles an hour, feeling as though there isn't enough time in this life to accomplish all of the things I need to do. And, of course, when you're trying to do everything at once, it seems as though nothing really ever gets done. BUT, I've managed to accomplish three things this week!

The first, which was really the second, is a tiny little dress for a tiny little person who hasn't poked her tiny, yet completely disproportionate little head into this world yet. If she grows like most little girls, she should be able to wear this dress at around 4-6 months or so. And it even has a little pocket for her to put things... like car keys and a cell phone.

Secondly, which in real time was finished first, is the fourth painting in my series of Haitian women. I'm not titling any of these, I want their feelings to speak for themselves, or for you to speak for their feelings on your own. Whichever. I've really been enjoying painting these ladies, I'm kind of sad to move on. Maybe if I'm lucky another natural disaster will occur somewhere in the world and I'll be able to paint about it. Oh a girl can dream.

And thirdly I ordered new business cards! No visual though, just in case they don't turn out the way I hope. It's not superstition, it's ego.

Distressed

I thought that since I'm successfully putting off all production of wedding business, due to a severe case of procrastination, I'd share some of the paintings I've been working on. I have been extremely moved by the images I'm seeing coming out of Haiti recently, after the earthquake to be specific, and I thought that I'd probably like to take advantage of the people who are taking advantage of the distressed people there. If you know me at all you know I cannot even think of a painting not containing some sort of winged or furred animal, so I've incorporated an indiscriminate sort of bird into each piece to tie them together; as if the theme of distressed Haitian women isn't cohesive enough. One, or possibly two more paintings are on the way. When I'm finished I'll paint a chicken, then I'd like to have a showing somewhere. I'm leaving that in the hands of someone more skilled than I at public relations.

Hopefully soon I'll resume production on wedding junk, because we all know how quickly 13 months tends to fly by when you have way too many things to do. I'd also like to learn how to play golf, because I'm fairly certain I'd be good at it.

Key Words

I'll make this brief today, I have things to do.

I'm working on a series of paintings inspired by the earthquake in Haiti, so of course I'm spending hours searching through thousands of photos posted online of various Haiti-related things. I type into Google "haiti woman covering face"... and among other images, I am presented with this.

Neither is this woman Haitian, covering her face, (that I can tell) or relevant in any way to the subject matter of which I am searching for. But I guess they got one of the key words right. I've gotta give Google credit for that.

A Productive Day

Recently I purchased a huge box of scrap fabric from a wonderful little boutique in North Beach. At the time I was thinking that I may have paid too much for it... until I looked through it! I've struck gold! This box contains the finest silks, wools, linens... it's a treasure trove of amazing fabric. Some of the pieces are smallish, too small to make a dress or a skirt out of anyway, so I've made these terrific brooches! Here are just a few of the brooches I've made today, two of them already have homes, but they're so fun and easy to make that I'm sure I'll have an army of them by the end of the week.

Lesson learned today: Scrap fabric combined with mixed bag of buttons = AWESOME!

Another tiny creation as of late is this little dress I made for a 1 year old. Fun, stretchy fabric combined with snaps at the shoulders to accommodate giant baby head. And buttons of course.

Bits From a Mini Vacation

We did it! My fiance and I finally got out of town last weekend, for a mini vacation in wonderful wine country. Here are some bits... because we didn't manage to take many photos, they're all from one (of many fabulous) dinner.

I wish we could escape like this every weekend...

This and That

Hi friends. It's Monday again. And with that I've decided to throw in a colorboard, which is pretty much all thanks to the many hours I spend browsing the blog 100 Layer Cake. I love this blog, I love everything about it. Even if you have no interest in weddings, or the planning of them, it's worth giving a look just for all the visual and creative stimulation. And it provides links to so many amazing blogs out there.

Anyway, my favorite colors have always been brown and seafoam green (which can easily be confused with seafoam blue, although very different)... and white. White is not a color, of this I am aware, but I do love it so. That being said, choosing the colors for our wedding was the first thing I actually accomplished. Piece of cake! I also happen to enjoy each of these little pictures individually.

I'm also going to report today that I've decided to make my own wedding dress. Initially I wasn't going to, but one fateful day last year brought me to a "discount" wedding gown shop, where I was forced against my will to try on some of the most hideous wedding gowns you have ever seen. One of them actually fit me perfectly and was hilariously fun to wear. I could have had a flock of sheep under the dress and it would have been my little secret! But it was shortly after that day that I decided the only way I was going to get the perfect dress was if I made it myself.

And that's when I discovered Elizabeth Dye of the English Dept. Elizabeth is a designer in Portland, Oregon (hello friends!) whom I am just so impressed with. All of the designers at the English Dept. make gowns that are so tasteful and well thought out and not your typical gigantic wedding gown billowing with a thousand yards of fabric. Who wants to wear a 50 pound dress in the middle of July on the one day you've been working so hard to look your best for? Yuck. Here are some of the dresses that I really like, but you should just really check out the website. They design regular clothes too, the ones to be worn on a day when you're not making life-altering decisions and feeding everyone you've ever met.

I kind of want to stand in a room full of paper lanterns now too. Looks nice.