My Hair Jewelry

Last night I finished my hair jewelry!



It is a silver filigree brooch with an onyx in the middle. The brooch is nestled into black lace and has 3 circles of blue tulle behind the lace. The whole thing is sewn on to a small hair comb.
Since our colors for the wedding are blue, silver and black, this fits in.

The brooch in the middle belonged to my grandmother, who died a few years ago. She was the wisest, most accepting person I've ever met, and I miss her nearly every day. I always wear something of hers on special occasions; this way I get to have her with me.

I knew I wanted to incorporate this brooch into my wedding outfit, but didn't know how. I'd had a couple of ideas before this one, and once I'd conceived of the hair toy idea, I knew I had it.

I am so pleased I'll be able to wear her brooch in my hair.

In other news, my elder daughter has started making the beaded necklaces she, her sister and I will wear. They are looking VERY pretty. I shall have to post pictures of them when they are done.

On a roll

Last few days I've been really getting into wedding prep mode (and out of prepping for class mode; yay!). We've accomplished a lot in the past couple of weeks:

Got a nearly full first draft of the ceremony
Finished the playlist (that was a big project)
Bought label maker software which will help us make cds, favors for our guests.
Talked to my daughter and arranged for her to organize the playlists and make said cds.
Got to work on some other favors (and invited a friend to help me put them together).
Started making my skirt/bolero combo for the friends' wedding (yay for sewing forms!)
Got decorations for the ceremony spot for the family wedding.
Got some work done on the prenup (the least fun part of this).
Got some beads for my daughter to make matching necklaces for herself, me and her sister (they are my bridesmaids).
Been practicing walking in my wedding boots, and breaking them in.
Started working on my hair accessory.
Talked to my hair stylist (and friend) and set up hair and make up appointments (her wedding gift to me).
Reserved tables/chairs/linen from the rental place.
Finally got the prototype for the center pieces we're making. Now we can start constructing the rest.
I think that's it...
We have 3 months to go but want to finish the planning by the end of august.
2 more months and much more to do!

And then there were two

A few days ago I posted the Saga of the Ring. In it I explained the ongoing story of my engagement ring. I ended that post by saying I was wearing the skulls ring, the pre-interim engagement ring that would let me try the size for a few days before committing to the size for the wedding band.

Today the mailperson brought us another package (after the sewing form already arrived) and this package contained the interim ring. It's beautiful, and unusually cut. It has an onyx and a tiny little diamond set in white gold. I love it.
I moved the skulls over to my right hand and am wearing the onyx one on my ring finger.
They are making me smile

Pictures? Sure!



The Onyx and diamond ring. I love the unusual cut of the stones and the setting.







The skulls. I love how mischievous they look. They have itty bitty onyx crumbs in the eyes.

Sewing Form

My dress form is here!
Being merely a passable seamstress, I've been stressing over making my wedding skirts. They are to go along with my corsets, made by a very good seamstress, so they need to look good.
Up till now my clothes sewing experience has been mostly for the kids and that mostly when they were little. I've sewn a few skirts for me as well as a dress or two, but nothing fancy. Also, I usually sew with cotton (used mainly for quilts).
All of the above means that I've been worried. I got some fancy taffeta and more fancy satin, and I was worried I'll mess them up.
So I got some muslin for a mock up of the skirts, and a sewing form. This way I can actually hang the skirt on a form that resembles me instead of on a coat hanger or spread on the floor (which is the way I've done things up till now).
The sewing form is adjustable so I can make it just my size.
And today it arrived at the house, which means I can start making my two skirts.
Yay!

Profile picture

The picture I've posted here is the result of a combined effort. AJ and I were looking for an element to use in the friends' wedding celebration. We need a button for our guests to wear that will identify them to the bartenders at ZinZanni.
We spent a long time looking at buttons and trying to figure out what to say/put on those buttons. My cousin joined the conversation and immediately said, how about no text, but an image that combines visual elements of both of you. From "AJ" to "Skull" took about, oh, .02 seconds. And the morning glory for Tamar was not much longer. I typed "skull morning glory" into google images, and there it was! All we needed to do was a bit of cropping.
Another project for the wedding done.
Yay!

The Saga of the ring

My engagement ring is worthy of an epic poem. Really, like, a long and wonderful poem.
The ring is a joint creation by AJ and his father. I picked out the stone (blue sapphire) and the metal (white gold) and they did the rest. AJ found a design he likes and his father, who is a gem cutter, among other things, is making it. It is a product of a lot of love and attention.
It is also not quite ready.
When we got engaged, in very late February, AJ talked to his dad and they came up with the plan. AJ wanted to wait until I had the ring to tell people (other than our families) about our engagement. His dad agreed to make the ring by the end of March.
He bought the material, and the white gold ring to set the cut stone in, and set to work. Gem cutting NOT being his job, this project would get done when he had time on the weekends and such. He went into this with so much enthusiasm, I was really touched.
The first stone chipped.
The second stone, which took a while as Dennis (AJ's dad) had other stuff to do, ended up not looking right and he scrapped it.
The third stone would NOT stay glued with the epoxy. And every time it fell off, the cutting process had to be done from the begininig or the angles would come out wrong. At this point, I think, Dennis started seeing this as a challenge.
This was in Mid-may and I was getting anxious. Let me explain. It isn't the ring itself. I couldn't ask for a more meaningful ring, and I have decades to wear it. So the anxiety is not about the ring itself or the timing. It's about the wedding band.
Let me explain once again:
I was unsure about the ring size the lady at the store told me. I figured it's ok for the engagement ring to be a bit loose as I would wear the wedding band next to it and it could hold it in place. But in order to get the wedding band, I wanted to wear the first ring for a bit and see how the size actually feels. Also, since I'd like to wear both rings on the same finger, I wanted to know what the shape and finish of the engagement ring is so it would match the wedding band.
So before we could get the wedding bands, I wanted to not only see the engagement ring, but also wear it for a week or two.
Last weekend we visited AJ's parents and heard the continuing story. Dennis is now on the 4th stone. The third one got ground in the wrong angle and was not salvageable for this project. The fourth stone was on the lapidary machine and in progress, but it would not be done during our visit. It will be done, and it will be beautiful!
I saw the ring, and tried it on. It was a bit loose. I was also dehydrated that day so I'm still not sure if it is the right size. However, I did see the finish and so that question's been answered.
AJ and I decided to get me an interim ring to wear for a fortnight to test the size (don't ask me why I am so unsure of this...I don't know why). We went online and found 5 rings we both liked and AJ planned to buy one of them so there would be some surprise to it.
The next morning he told me he'd found a different ring! This ring is silver and has 3 skulls in relief on it. The joke here is that he asked me if I'm antsy enough to wear skulls and I said yes. So he got me skulls! He also got me one of the 5 we'd looked at but that will take a bit longer to get here.
I am now wearing the skulls ring (the interim interim ring) and am seeing that the size of the wedding band does indeed need to be a size smaller than the engagement ring. So things are all figured out. We are ready to get the wedding bands.
I will have 3 engagement rings altogether!
And the one designed and made by AJ and his dad will be the bestest of them all.

Planning trip in Southern California, and corsets

This past weekend we drove down to southern California to take care of some planning details. I, thankfully, am on summer break and so there's time. Friday night the girls went to their dad's for a few days. Saturday I went to Shira's softball tournament (which was very good, and exciting) and then came home, woke AJ up and off we went. Sort of.
Getting out of town took a while.
But we finally made it. We drove to visit our friends in LA who are integral to the wedding. They are a married couple and the woman will be our officiant while her husband will be AJ's best man. All of this makes them important and we went down to talk with them about various details. Since we're having 2 wedding celebrations we need them here for both and were worried about their ability to be gone from home for over a week. Luckily they said they could do it!
So the plan is for them to drive up, stay with us, do the first celebration, then hang out, do the second celebration and only then go back home.
We also talked with them about duties and tasks and started working out the ceremony details. Very exciting. We figured some things out and have a clear way to go. Yay!
On a personally exciting note-we went to visit the fabric district in LA. So much fabric!! I was giddy. I was also, unfortunately only able to walk around a few stores as they were near closing. The main goal was to find material for the corset our friend is making for me for the wedding. I found some that could work; she found the perfect one online. This weekend is fitting number 2. Wheee!

DIY

I am a fairly crafty person. I've been known to paint, draw, and do beadwork. I sew quite a bit and used to knit and do needlepoint as well (though I cannot do it comfortably any more). This, coupled with some difficulties finding the sort of things we wanted for wedding purposes, let to a decision to make most of the stuff ourselves. Some I am doing on my own, some we're doing together, and some will be done with the help of others.
We did our invitations ourselves, with pretty paper, some supplies from the scrapbook aisle, and our trusty computer and printer. We are pleased with the way they came out. Also, we just received an email RSVP because the son of a cousin thought the paper was so pretty he hid the RSVP from his parents and they cannot find it to send it back (how cute is that?).
Now we are on to the center pieces. I've tweaked a creation I found on Offbeatbride.com for this. The original design can be found here: http://offbeatbride.com/2009/01/diy-ornament-bouquett.
Originally it was a bouquet but I've changed it around to make center pieces for our tables. This process has been harder than I expected. We've gone through a lot of trial and error, some wrong material, some broken material, and lots of time. I think I have it now and am constructing what I hope will be a good prototype. The problem has been finding the right size ornaments and figuring how to affix them properly. Also, figuring out what we wanted to put them in since nobody's going to hold them. We also toyed with the idea of lights, but can't make it work the way we want. Tomorrow I plan to finish making the prototype and see how we like it.
Pictures will come when I have it.
And now it's time for tea.