Monday monday.

Fun day on Saturday with friends. Wedding work on Sunday.

Invites are almost all done. Goodness, enough blogging was done on them, right?

I have the goal this week of cleaning my poor poor apartment and also gluing on the roses we have onto centerpieces to see how many centerpieces we have and how many to go. FINALLY another project other than invites. Whee!

The place closed before I got there on Thursday, so I'm going to TRY and get willow branches this afternoon after work. I may call the place so as to hold them to their "oh sure, we'll be open till 6" claim. My foot. I got there at 6:01 on Thursday and the place was closed up and silent as a nunnery. I suspect some folks left early. Cheeky suckers. But they're selling nice willow branches, so I mustn't complain too loudly. If all else fails, B can get them this weekend, but I'd rather avoid that since his car is smaller than mine and thus, the branches would be a PAIN to transport.

Got two new Noelle Dass prints this weekend. I LOVE HER WORK. I got "Pig Blowing Bubbles" and "The Joy of Homecoming". LOVE THEM. I also got "Simple Pleasures" for Baby Stenz -- her request after perusing the prints and loving that one. The prints are wonderful and totally brighten up my office. Eh, heck with it, I'll post pics below:

"PIG BLOWING BUBBLES"

"OTTERTOPIA"

(mine has a smile on his face)

"MUST... GET... BALL!"

"THE JOY OF HOMECOMING"

"I DROPPED MY BANANA!"

Aren't they great!?

This weekend will be crazy-- I'm back east to see my sister's graduation. And down to visit B on Wednesday. Oh yea, and the wedding is in less than 50 days. AH!

Centerpiece Construction

First of all, the cats have been no help. They just laze and get into things (thus why all my laundry on the bed has been pushed onto the floor). Those nutbrains.

So, the centerpiece construction begins with balloons. They're all about the same size (thus the centerpieces will be about the same size. I tape them onto cups so they're easier to dry after they're paper mached.

Note: Drying place must be away from cats. On top of the fridge= good because much more air circulation than say, the bathroom. Plus, if they fall, it's not onto carpet. I use phone book pages! VERY easy to work with, and you don't get that newspaper gray all over your fingers.

More on the construction in a later post, but I also wanted to show off my roses today. I have been working on them for so long! I cannot wait to actually put them on the structures and see how many centerpieces I have. Here are a few loose roses (each about 1"-1.5" in diameter).

And here is my pride and joy box!! It's a 2' high box and 2' wide, and a little over 1' deep. There are HUNDREDS in here, definitely well over a thousand. Believe you me, this box is staying far away from the furball terrible threesome.

Next steps:

* Paper mache more balloons.

* Then flip them over and paper mache the bottom part (where they are in the cups).

* Let all that dry.

* Then paint the paper mache red.

* Let that dry.

* Stick done paper mache balloon into ceramic pot,draw line around balloon where pot hits balloon (that's your stop line-- don't put any roses past that point because they'd be hidden in the pot).

* THEN, I can glue on the roses. HOPEFULLY SOON!!!!!

I'd like to get all the paper mache done at once, because it's really a PAIN to have to do again and again. Get the mess done and over with, you know? I'm finding that most things with this wedding are better done in mass quantity. It lets me judge better how much is done and how long it took me to do a bigger chunk. Plus, it is more time efficient (no time lost between lots of small tasks).

Roses...

Dang these roses take a long time. I guess I actually only had the box a little less than half full, and then with my work last night, it's about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Yikes. I really did chug away on them. I'm almost done with the TON of cut-outs I did last weekend. I'm really hoping that when I put these all together they end up being like 7+ centerpieces. If it's only 4 or so, I will be a bit depressed.

So, I didn't even get to the balloons. I may do them tonight, I may work on roses. One or the other or both, definitely!

Oh, and just as a reminder--- here is what I am working on. Each rose is individually made. I think there are close to 200 on this one, but I will count when I make the next one.

Daily goals...

I'm going to see how this goes... Starting today, I'd like to start posting daily goals. Sometimes my list of things to do gets very overwhelming, and I think posting a goal early in the day for what to accomplish in the evening is a good thing. Baby steps-- one goal at a time!

Tonight, 4/7:
* Finish entire box of roses (I'm about 2/3 of the way there!)
* Paper mache balloons.

I have to allow the balloons time to dry, and then I have to paper mache the bottom part, and then I have to paint them when they are all dry, so I hope to get part 1 (the most time) done tonight.

Last night I was tired... went to the grocery store, came home, ate dinner, and wasn't very productive. I have to get better!!!

Work

This week, B's taking on the tasks of:
1) hotel reservations (he needs to find more rooms)
2) wedding assistant interview(s)
3) ordering groomsmen shirts & ties.

I don't envy him the interview things... but I think he'll handle it with ease. I think 4 interviews and we'll know whom we're hiring. And these aren't formal interviews; just quick coffeehouse type meet-ups.

I am working on roses. I HAVE to finish the centerpieces this week, or I feel I will go mad. HAVE to. Last week had some break-down moments and lack of productivity as I had to deal with some people situations, and I was not nearly as productive as I needed to be.

I've found that if I cut out a TON of patterns and then glue them (rather than doing, say 20 at a time), I'm a lot more productive. Here's hoping.

We bought cups yesterday so I can do the paper mache. I wanted them all to be uniform, but I didn't want to go to a ton of expense buying balls or something for each one. So, I bought a bag of balloons, I'm blowing each one to the same approximate size, and I'm paper mache-ing each one. I could glue directly onto the balloon, but I"m too scared it will pop and roses will go EVERYWHERE. The paper mache, once it hardens, is solid and the balloon is no longer needed.

I'm not sure how many roses I have right now. A good centerpiece requires around 200. I have more than that right now. But, I'd rather fill up the box I have right now and then start gluing, that way I'm not demoralized when I find out I only have roses for only x number of centerpieces.

Next weekend: invites.

Things are really getting busy...

There are a lot of projects on the table right now... Thought I'd list the immediate ones, partially for my organization, and partially, well, to post.
*
Invitations: B's finishing step 1 of the actual invitations down south; they should be ready to come up by next weekend. We'll work on step 2 and 3 the weekend of 4/3. I'm working on envelopes at home right now, and I'll get the outer envelopes from B this weekend so I can start labeling next week.
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Placemats: 56 have fabric on them, which means another 44 need fabric. We're planning 100 for now, and additional ones can be made if we get more than 100 rsvps. Then, all 100 need ribbon and backing. Goal to get this done: 3 weeks from now.
*
Giftboxes: We've done nothing! Well, we have all the supplies. I need to cut and glue paper on to all of them, as well as make the contents. I think the making will occur the weekend of 4/3 because baking can happen while other stuff is happening.
*
Registries: Will be finished up the weekend of 4/3. BBB's will take a while though... there's a lot to go through.
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Website: Needs: photos for a few things, hotel information, and registry links and info. I think that's it though!
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Centerpieces: My big project this week and next week during the week. I sit at home and cut and make paper roses. No joke. I made probably about 40 last night and cut probably about 70. Not very productive, especially considering each centerpiece needs about 200 roses. UGH.
*
Lanterns: Our friend, Tiana, it cutting circles and folding, B is doing the same. Our friend, Jenn, is stapling and making lanterns. So, while I NEED to staple the petals I have, I have to work on centerpieces the next couple of weeks. Those take greater importance right now.
*
Food: I need to do a test-run of the rouladin to double make sure the freezing/thawing process doesn't ruin the integrity of the item. This is more to please my parents than me... I've done this before! Ugh. But I suppose it will make me happy too. Food preparation should begin the first week in May. I figure 1.5 months frozen is an ok time. I plan on freezing the rouladin in gravy so as to keep it moist in the freezer. Spaetzle will be made probably the first week in June.
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Tablecloths: Need to be made. I have the material... but I think I will use the material I have on chair covers first, and then possibly use the remainder or buy thicker material for the tablecloths.
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Chair Covers: Need to be made. ASAP. We will be measuring the hall this weekend, as well as taking detailed measurements of the chairs. Then it will be a matter of cut and sew for me. I need to get these finished soon. Hopefully by mid-April.
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Yellow Lanterns: Haven't even begun to be made. Eek. I figure we'll probably need about 200 of these.... They will be easier than the regular lanterns because these only need to be hung on a vertical strand... but still.
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Hiring Workers: One has been hired, the other 2-3 need to be. This will occur in late April/early May.
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Flowers: Need to be ordered. Probably this weekend. I need to also order other items for the flowers, and that will probably happen online or I will call local florists.... that will probably occur next week.
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Menu Cards: Will occur late-April, once I do a test-run of the rouladin.
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Name Cards: Will occur mid-June, after we've hunted down all the RSVP folks.
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Church Decorations: I think we're going to do all-white. There had been the hope of doing color, but B and I discussed it, and we like the idea of lanterns in the church done in all white. Thign is though, white will show staples more, so we may glue these lanterns. 28 rows, each side, so 56 pews to hang on, times 3 lanterns each = 168 lanterns. I have beautiful white satin ribbon to hang them on. B & I think it will be a nice way to tie the church decorations with the reception decorations
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Dress Rehearsal: I need to fill out the card reserving things. UGH. I keep forgetting. B and I need to decide who will provide the meat... probably a local BBQ place.
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Cake Decorations: I have to get started on these. Maybe a day in the next week or two can be devoted to these....I will probably start after 4/3 weekend because I want to do a few more practice ones and get B's input.
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Rose Droplets: It depends on whether we get the centerpieces done with enough time. I'd like to have 3 rose droplets on the back of each chair at the reception, but if we dont' have time, these will become lanterns instead.
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Table runners: Need to be sewn. This shouldn't be too complicated.
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Wine Glasses: Need to be cleaned (they have logos on them right now... extras from an event) and have charms put on.

There's more, but you get the idea....

Centerpieces

So at long last I'm posting a picture of the centerpiece. Well, of one of them (there will be 15). This didn't take the shortest time to make (there are something like 200 paper roses on there!), but I love how it turned out.

I wanted them to be all pretty much uniform, and so the question became: HOW? I bought a package of balloons, and then I flour/water paper mached the balloons. I figure, that way the shape will be approximately the same for all of them. That dried, then I painted the mache red so that any of it that showed through would be red (thus not noticeable) and not newspaper-y. Then I glued on the roses. I made a stencil for the roses, so that way they're all about the same size. What's great is that they all LOOK different because they're individually made and rolled. I like that they're tightly clustered.

B learned how to make these too. He was helping me. SO CUTE! Gosh I love him.