The littlest member of my family.

Everyone, i'm officially presenting to you, Sophie. The littlest member of my family. She's 12 inches tall and weighs 800grams. She's a bundle of energy, the house is filled with the pitter patter of her little feet. She snuggles with me in bed and is great company when she's not trying to bite my fingers off.
As you can see, she is highly fond of running around at breakneck speed when given the chance.
Another thing she is fond of is picking up random bits and pieces found on the floor and carrying it with her like she's just come back from doing the morning's shopping.
She rarely barks which is a good thing, seeing how her presence has to be kept in absolute secrecy at the moment, due to the fact that her current living quarters aren't very fond of furry balls of activity.
Although she is beginning to annoy Mommy by; testing her patience, nipping at her ankles like she's hearding a big sheep, barking back when being told off, chewing on her hair when mommy is trying to get some sleep, nightly trips to the loo and being greeted by stinky doggy breath in the mornings. She is still highly adorable when she wants to be. And nothing beats a soft welcoming furry ball of energy who is sincerely thrilled to see you at the end of a long day's work.
This is a picture of Sophie and her Daddy. Everyone say: "awwww...."

How can i not DIY flowers for my wedding.

Another thing that we DIY for the wedding was, flowers! Flowers, one of the most important elements to set the right tone for your wedding. Have too much of them steals the attention away from the bride, having too little makes the affair drab and plain. Hiring a florist to do up all the flowers would cost an arm and a leg. So, the only way to have fabulous flowers and save a fortune on them would be to do it yourself. About 3 weeks before the wedding i had begun preparations for the big floral project. Time was spent on hunting for the best floral supplier, types of flowers that are in season, best color pallette to suit the wedding, writing down a list of items to source in m'sia (with the help of one of my bridemaids) and countless hours of watching you tube and e-how.com on how to make your own bridal bouquet and boutonnieres. Not to mention hours of hanging out at borders and dymocks, perusing books on floral arrangements and techniques. Having some knowledge in floristry will help a lot or this will all seem like an impossible task. Did i mention i used to work as a florist's assistant, in a past life? *wink* So it was from a long long time ago, before i met my prince charming, that i had decided, doing up my own wedding flowers is something that i'd really really want to do for myself. I can't apologize enough for not having clearer pictures of my flowers, but i was just too preoccupied to make sure that my flowers would be perfect for the wedding to be taking a step by step pictorial of how i made them. So here are some snippets for your enjoyment.
I used, roses, hyacinths, lisianthus and tulips. In a mixture of white, cream and pink. Flowers were sourced from the prahran flower market. After all that research, i can honestly say that they had the best variety with the lowest prices.
Cream roses that i used mainly for the bridal bouquet and my 3 bridemaids bouquet. Aren't they lovely? These are white and pink lisianthus. They're a very feminine and frilly sort of flower. I wanted to use just the lisianthus for the bridal bouquet, but realised that they cost wayy too much, and you need more of them compared to roses. So i know roses are a bit 'traditional' but they are way more affordable. So at the end we used the lisianthus to complement the roses instead. My hyacinths were in white and baby pink. They have a lovely smell, but try having a dozen of them in your room, highly toxicating. I'm glad these flowers were in season. I used these with tulips as centerpieces for the long banquet tables. The end result was amazing!
Ivy leaves for the boutonneires. I couldn't get these from the florist, because according to them, they're not in 'season'. I didn't need a lot of them either, just a handful of leaves, so the hubs and i improvised, and did a drive around the neighbourhood with a pair of scissors. I'll leave you to guess how we got these. I'd like to thank the neighbourhood for providing me with my greenery for the wedding. Voila! This is one the maid of honor bouquet. I complemented the cream roses with a fringe of pink lisianthus around them. This was one of my favorite bouquets.
Thats my bouquet, but its only halfway done in this picture. I added white lisianthus around my rose bouquet. I didn't count how many roses i used, but the end result was a rather heavy bouquet.
Flowers were completed 2 days before the wedding. We had to keep them fresh in the fridge.
This is one of the boutonneires that i made. I used an assortment of flowers for different VIPs of the wedding. The pink and white tulip were for the mothers of the bride. Did i mention that i had to decorate flowers around the wedding cake as well? haha. thats another post to talk about...

Another wedding DIY project

So its been a week since the wedding. What an amazing 2 weeks it has been. My family's gone home. Life's back to normal again. And now i have time to blog!! I've been wanting to do this post a long time. About 3 weeks before the wedding I randomly decided to; make my own veil!! I had an existing veil, it was a short one, that only covers half the face, a.k.a blusher veil or birdcage veil. Goodness knows why I had wanted a short veil back then. Ask the rebel in me i guess. And i'm glad i decided to go with the long veil at the end. Adds so much more romance to the whole affair. Anyways, here a pictorial account of how to make your own veil. The process is surprisingly easy, and knowing that you made your own veil for your wedding just puts that much more satisfaction into preparing for the BIG day.
Materials needed: About 2meters of tulle, depends on how long you want your veil to be. Get a color that matches the dress. I wanted a really long veil, so i got about 2.5 meters to be safe. Plastic Comb, sewing needles, nylon thread and some really strong thread to secure the veil to the comb. I even got some glass beads to sew onto the back of the veil, which was why i needed the nylon thread.
Prepare a really big space to layout your tulle. DO vacuum or make sure that the floor is clean and free from bits of dirt and stuff, you don't want it sticking to your tulle. The basic shape is a long oval, folded into whats shown above. I didn't have enough rulers so i had to improvise with one ruler, and 1 cardboard tube but it worked good enough. It might be a little hard to picture it now, but the smaller 'semicircle' is meant to be flipped over to cover the face, and the longer 'semicircle' is the back part of the veil.
I think this is called a running stitch. Honestly I am extremely clueless when it comes to sewing jargon. But i'll try my best to explain what i did here. I did this 'running stitch' on the folding line using the length of the cardboard tube as a guide. You can sew along the entire folding line, but i'm told the result would be a more puffier and voluminous veil, i decided not to go with so much drama, so just a portion will do.
This is the fun part. When you're done with the sewing, pull on both ends of the thread and this is what you'll get! Pull the tulle together nice and tight and make sure it fits the length of the comb. I got it right the first time. *extremely proud with self* The strong thread is used for this.

Finally secure the tulle to the comb. I have zero sewing skills, so i just went with my gut feeling, and did loops around the comb. So yea, go with your gut feeling and common sense. Make sure the tulle is secured tightly around the comb. You don't want your veil to fall off during your wedding.
Once you're done, this is how your tulle should look like. You can leave it plain or you can add some interest to it, by sewing on some pearls, crystals, beads, lace, ribbons, grandma's dried potpourri collection... go crazy with it. But remember, it's suppose to look elegant not trashy, and don't sew any embellishments on the portion that covers your face, you don't want your sight to be blocked by beads while saying 'i do' to your hubby to be.

Btw, I actually went to the bridal shop to find out how much would a veil cost. They range from $80 to $200 depending on the length and how much detail is put into it. I spent about $40 on mine, which would prob cost about $150 from a bridal shop. *extremely proud of my own money saving efforts* And I actually enjoyed the whole process of making my own veil. So any of my girlfriends out there who's planning to walk down the aisle soon, give me a buzz and i'll be glad to make a veil for you.