In my quest not to cram...

Tadah! An arrhae pillow.

I've been ticking off my list the different handmade items I'm preparing for my sister's wedding this July.  So far, we're done with the Save-the-dates and the couple's seal (will post photos of those soon).  We also did a quick course on fabric flowers while Clarisse was in town.

Fabric flowers for her entourage!  Clarisse learning how to make fabric flowers.

I mean to finish her headpiece, then their signing tree, then focus on their invitations.  Sounds like a plan, huh?  Just sharing in photos the process of making my sister's arrhae pillow.  I made an earlier one to serve as her ring pillow.  Another check off the list, and a handmade item closer to a heart-made wedding.

It starts off with crocheting a little doily, which I made in the company of yesterday's amigurumi class.

Materials assembled!  Items include satin ribbon, linen cloth and organic cotton.

Sewed the linen to make a pillow with my trusty Brother.

Once sewn, I stuffed the pillow with the organic cotton I've had in stock from Ritual.

After closing up the pillow, I sewed the doily onto it, keeping the stitches inside and away from view.

Will keep posting the items I finish!

Scribbling again

My latest signage/calligraphy project.  Gouache on primed canvas.

Happy Easter!  :-)  I've been dying to resume my writing here, and in the middle of deadlines and tasks, I'm stealing a few moments to do this update.  I figure this is the kind of thing you just have to go ahead and do, as between projects, my family and loved ones, wedding preparations (for my wedding and for my sister's), travel, and life in general, you just really have to stick your leg out, or literally jump off the train for a few moments to get what you want to do, done.

Anyhow, I've returned to nurturing my romance with letters.

Text from the Mole and the Owl.  Recent calligraphy practice.

In high school, I developed an interest in calligraphy from one of my teachers who was formerly a Pink Sister (a cloistered religious order).  She would write me these notes in a lovely gothic type, and I asked her to teach me.  We never really got around to having formal writing sessions, but I studied her pens and the way she wrote, and got myself some pens of my own.

I always wondered though about the elegant script type of calligraphy, the delicate cadence of wide and narrow strokes.  I thought they could be achieved by varying the way I held my gothic nibs.  So when I joined Fozzy's calligraphy workshop at CraftMNL last year, my eyes widened (the heavens opened and the lights danced before my eyes to a crescendo of angelic voices) at seeing how flexible nibs worked.

Amazeballs.  Photo from CraftMNL's Instagram.

And since then, I've been hooked!  Nowadays though I find myself doing gouache or watercolor type and signages for a number of different occasions.

For my sister's wedding.

Directional signage for one of our events.  Watercolor paper mounted on an embroidery hoop.

Will be posting more projects soon, but for now, a shoutout to the world that my romance with scribbling and type has been rekindled.

Jay ♥ Czacza: The Actual Setup

Vintage imagery + Typography + Heat transfer = His print

And as plans went, the winds leaned towards the tempestuous, especially when it applied to the reception preparations.  The fluctuations on the number of guests, tables, table configurations, etc. increased in the days leading to the big event, but Czacza was the picture of ease and grace.  Even as she dropped by the night before to see the centerpiece porcelain items and drop off the printouts of the wedding rules, she was composed (as she matter-of-factly told her groom that she couldn't deal with his shoe selection issues at the moment) despite relaying all of the last-minute concerns.

The Hers print.  :-)

I still don't have all of the photos of all of the handmade details (the "Just Married" heat transfer buntings, the fresh flower bouquets of the entourage), but let me share some items we were able document.

The boutonnieres looked like this!

The boutonnieres were made from canvas, hemp rope, dried misty blue flowers and pearl.  I had fun experimenting with the ombre effect.

Bouquet and a detail of the backdrop.

Instead of sticking to just blue, the entourage bouquets incorporated pink, so we added those hues to the centerpieces as well, with hydrangeas, berries and astrumeria.  The hydrangeas were more whitish than bluish, and since these aren't that easy to get (we had to reserve these about a month in advance), we had to make do.  The original plan for pink roses for the entourage had to be changed to pink and cream carnations and mums with berries (gosh, I have to get photos of those).

Detail and top view of the varied centerpieces.

We had varied centerpieces, incorporating the bottles with the decals, porcelain tea cups and bowls with floating candles, using vases and varied sizes of mason jars to hold the flowers, votives, and decorative ceramic balls.

Using embroidery hoops with heat transferred designs in the backdrop.

For the backdrop, we had a frame constructed, and incorporated printed designs hanging from embroidery hoops of various sizes, as well as doilies, lace, ribbon and string.

Embroidery hoops and doilies!

The beads from the original setup for the centerpieces were strung from the backdrop instead.

The floating candle waits to jump into the teacup.

We did the table numbers in embroidery hoops too.

Doilies and ribbon for the seats.

Enderun was a pretty venue.

All in all, we were pretty happy with how it turned out, and were glad to have been part of Jay and Czacza's special day.  And for a first handmade styling gig, we sure learned a lot.  This was a team effort, with Mom and Dad pitching in (making me go to bed at 5 AM), Lex being a sport in the sourcing of items, and Gemma and Nikki helping during the setup itself.

Here's to handmade details! ♥

PS: The awesome wedding coordinators were Jets and Rhona Battung of Canaan Celebrations.

First Styling Gig! Jay ♥ Czacza

So a while back, I posted on silkscreening doilies for a friend's wedding.  It was also for this same gig that I prepared this sample rustic bouquet of fabric roses.  Since the fabric bouquet seemed too minimalist for her, I tried my hand at arranging a fresh one.  And since the wedding happily took place last July, I can now post pictures of how everything turned out!  :-)

First off, the sample setup.  The bride specifically requested for hydrangeas, and thankfully Lex and I were able to source these.  I learned though that fresh flowers are really tricky.  Their availability depends on the weather, the farm's disposition, transportation, etc.  For the setup, I was able to get hydrangeas that had bluish/purplish flowers.

Hydrangeas are lovely, aren't they?  They're also very thirsty flowers.  I learned though that they can last for quite a long time even when cut, as long as they're in water.

Then I tried to think of how to add a touch of charm.  And the first thing I thought of were doilies!  So I got to work having a screen made, and made a few for the setup.  They ended up in varying shades of gray, so I had to note that when I went into producing all of the doilies needed for the reception, I'd need a big batch of a pre-mixed gray.

I also thought of using stickered bottles for the centerpieces.  The decals used had nice romantic words and graphics.  I hadn't quite seen these at a setup before (then again, I don't look around that much), but then I just liked the idea.  The bride agreed.  :-)

I used jute string to hang a sparse curtain of blue beads (for the blue element of her wedding motif), and put in these decorative ceramic balls.  The bride actually suggested these in her pegs.  I love the way candles can totally change how a simple setup looks, so I learned how to make floating candles, and got some ceramics and glassware.

The sample rustic bouquet, and the setup from top view.  The bride vetoed the dried tree-stuff on the table.

I also got some succulents, put them in odd, charming porcelain and added them to the table decor.

Setup details!

And voila!  I was pretty happy with how it turned out.  Little did I know what a challenge it would be, replicating this to a reception setting of more than 120 (the guest list grew--these things apparently happen in the process).

My next post will be how the actual wedding setup turned out.  :-)

Franco Turns 1!

It isn't everyday your one-and-only nephew turns 1!  For Franco's farm-tastic party, I made barn buntings!  Well, I did it with a bit of help from Lex, and a really helpful stranger.

And here's the finished workshop drying over at the Craft MNL workshop.

So I made this design with the original intention of having it laser cut onto light blue and red pieces of paper.  My sister-in-law is an interior designer, and so she had his color-themed party all set up.  Thing is, I ran into a bit of trouble with having the paper either lasercut or plotter-ed.  So I went to the next best thing--screen printing!

The screen printing spread on the left, and Jeric, a really nice stranger who happened to be there (and who also happened to have 15 years of commercial screen printing experience on his belt).

I did the drill: prepared my design, and sent it over to Andrei and Sheina of Hocus (with my profuse apologies for having a last-minute screen burning request).  They had the screen ready in no time though, and so Lex bought some red textile paint, I cut up some extra canvas I had, and we were ready to roll.

As I prepped the table and laid out the stuff, a stranger who had been spray painting outside happened to settle on our half-door.  Feeling a bit self-conscious (as I'm hardly a pro at screen printing), I started up a bit of conversation.  Turns out the stranger's name was Jeric, and he had been helping out at his family's screen printing business for quite a long time already.  And being the helpful person that he is, he gave Lex and I some pointers that turned out some pretty nice prints.

At the farm at Hahndorf.  Franco's buntings are strung up on the side.

So fast-forward to Franco's party.  :-)  It started out to be a cold and rainy day, but it soon got brighter and sunnier.

The goodie bags Shar prepared, and the toy balloons Eleanor brought (that were awesomely shaped by some of Franco's guests).

Mum prepared her special pancit (cellophane noodle dish), and poses with Clarisse on the left.  A view of the open field facing the shed at the Hahndorf Farm.

Hahndorf is about a 20-minute drive from my brother's area in Adelaide.  It's a German settlement with a main avenue lined with quaint shops.  I loved the fact that Franco's party was at a farm!  The kids had an awesome time with the animal show, and getting up close to our furry (and woolly and feathery) friends!

The birthday boy in a semi-serious moment on the left.  And on the right, Franco poses with Daddy and the tiny pony!

Geez.  The thought of my older brother having a little boy who just turned one is kind of...nostalgic.  He's such a happy baby too (my nephew, not my brother), so Mart and Shar are doing a fantastic job of raising such an adorable little boy.  :-)

"Happy 1st Birthday Franco" spelled out on the most amazing tasting lemon tarts I've ever, ever had.  And a snapshot of inside the barn, in the area where the chickens run around.

Birthday cupcakes on the left, and on the right--our woolly friends huddle to stay warm.  The lambs are such cuties!

Mum swipes a lemon tart from the tray, not knowing they spelled out Franco's birthday greeting (those lemon tarts were that good).  And Franco leans in to his cupcake candle as Mart and Shar blow out the flame.

Franco's guests spend time with our feathered friends on the left, Eleanor and Tom after marathon barbecuing on the right.

It was an awesome way of turning 1.  And I'm really happy that the family was nearly complete, and in attendance for it.  Later that evening, we Skyped with Dad and Lex in Manila.

Dad saying hello, and Franco telling Lolo "I'm 1!".

Handmade goodies can make an occasion quite lovely, but it's the love that weaves the occasion into one that imprints itself onto your ♥.