Valentines day engagement announcements

All of the week before valentines day, and most of that weekend too, we were working on these cards. It's been years since I've let a project get the better of me so completely as this one did. It was a huge long project, with one complication after another, and in the end, we made more compromises that I really like to. Not as much bang for my buck as I usually like to get, effort wise.

But looking back a couple of weeks later, people seem really touched by them for the most part, and I am always a fan of the hand made and personalized. So I am glad we stuck it out, and I am really glad if it made you happy.

Our table still looks like this! But, I kind of like it in a weird way. Tea, paint, flowers, rulers, cutting mats, paper, bright colors, a heard of fine Japanese pens. These are things that make me happy.



The stencil, envelope lining, and envelopes. The only envelope that fit the cards came from Paper zone (a really awesome paper warehouse - you've got to check it out if you live in the Seattle area), and they were clear. So, we lined them :)


I liked thinking about people as we were making them & what they might like.


This was the original idea more or less, before compromise #27. They were meant to be paper dolls - revisiting the lords & ladies, combining them for v-day. I do still really love this idea, but cutting out intricate braids with an exacto knife through 3 layers of thick water color was not a realistic option. Maybe we'll come back to it some day, and find a better way to make it work. Especially now that we know where the paper zone is, and have access to a whole new world of materials :)

Sleeping in Libraries

Erik found this flickr pool and I'm somewhat delighted. I always love to see people sleeping in libraries, there's a certain level of comfort and intimacy needed for it so I always take as a sign of library success. And usually take their picture too.

Wedding website

I was planning on saving this for a little while longer, but I seem to have accidentally published our engagement photos, so here we go!

This is our lovely wedding website. I'm very pleased with it, and was very lucky to have found one with such nice layout options. It's still under construction. In fact, there's not much there, except a few pretty pictures, and a pretty layout. Speaking of - does anyone want to write my bio for me?

Also, please note : THE WEDDING DATE HAS NOT BEEN SET. I had to make one up in order to make the site. We are almost certainly NOT getting married on Aug 1. It's a Monday. Who wants to get married on a Monday? Nobody. That's just an invitation for things to go wrong. So please don't circle your calender, or buy plane tickets, or even think about it being on that day. Cool? Cool.

fruitandpaper.projectwedding.com

Password on request - y'all know where to find me to ask! And if you don't, just leave a comment on this blog post

Wonderful friends

A couple of days ago I came home to a sweet little package on our front porch. My friend Rosei put it together, and she is a master of the care package. It's not the first time I have photographed the unwrapping of one of her gifts, they are always just so special and magical.

On creativity

Lately I've been hearing from a lot of people "I wish I was as creative as you"... and it makes me sad. I honestly don't think of myself as a super creative person. I have trouble producing on demand. I tend to synthesize ideas. I am always better at editing, than creating from scratch. And a lot of my designs are influenced by the material. i.e. if I'm quilting something, it is limited - it has to be a quilt design, and is nothing like something I would draw or paint. In fact, if you give me a set of limitations, I'm better at finding my way out of them - it's a bit like problem solving. But if you give me a blank canvas, more often than not, the result is not pretty.

Anyway, I'm not trying to get down on myself, and it's certainly not the praise that saddens me (acknowledgment gives me the warm fuzzies). I like most of what I make, and I always enjoy the effort. With a bit of practice, I think I get good at some things. But I don't think it's a special talent, and it is not something that comes naturally to me.

My little sister is one of those people with a natural - and very special - talent. Everything she touches drips with raw creativity, and at 12, she already has a mostly cohesive style. She has brilliant ideas. She can draw something, and not just make a cute picture or a pretty picture, but something that captures the personality and expression of her subject. I am so so proud of her, and always so excited to see what she can do.

I don't know if she'll chose a creative career, but if she does, I know that most such careers are an up-hill battle, requiring an enormous amount of work. And she has a kind of mad genius quality that lets her do some things that no one else can do, but also makes some things more difficult.

With projects like the proposal, I think of her. When I run into an obstacle - like buying the wrong materials, or getting sick, not having enough time or being too lazy, or feeling like I just can't get something to look that way I want, I think of Asha. I want her to feel like these are all things that can be overcome, and that you can do anything you set your mind to.

So it makes me very sad when you tell me you think I'm more creative than you, or that you wish you could make things, or that you are discouraged. I was really hoping that you'd say the opposite. That you were encouraged. That you tried something new. That you love it.

A little info about wedding planning

I have been amazed by 2 things over the last week. The first is how many people love Erik and I, and the lovely things they've had to say to both of us. The second, is that the first question everyone has is whether we've set a date... Even when it was only two days after the engagement. Don't most people find a venue first? I'm confused about this.

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad everyone is excited for our wedding! I am too. I was in fact worried that people wouldn't care much, since we dated for so long first. And, mostly, I was dead wrong. So thank you for asking :)

But, it's going to be a little while. With the economy as it is, and our somewhat expensive house, and a bit too much traveling, and no trust fund for this sort of thing, we're going to have to save our money carefully. And if you want to make a little donation to the wedding fund for holiday and birthday presents, that is very much an option.

The loose plan is to gather ideas and save money during 2010. Hell, I've been gathering ideas from creative and lovely weddings for a long long time, so this isn't terribly different. Somewhere around the new year, we work out a budget, and start making decisions. I love the idea of an august wedding in 2011 - but that is an idea, not a decision :) In the mean time, here are a few ideas I thought you might like to hear about:

My dad suggested this lavender farm we visited last summer - you can rent out the whole house, and the lavender farms are filled with a wonderful light refreshing scent of lavender. These are a couple of pictures I took while we were there:





Or we could have a windy wedding, on Kite Hill. With billowy bridesmaid dresses, kite flying, and ribbons for kids.



And decoration themes perhaps in fruit,



and paper.







Both of which are things that Erik and I love, would allow us to be very creative, and would be inexpensive!

I already want to make everything myself :) I know I'm going to have to pick and choose my projects carefully! There are so many good ones, and eventually, there will be so little time. I will probably wind up doing as much on my own as I can, and spending all of our saved up money on flowers, food, and a venue.

There are a few things I can tell you that are certainites. For many good reasons, it will be a small wedding. I'd really love to invite everyone, but I know myself and Erik, and this is going to have to be an itty bitty one. The second is that it will be somewhere outside - in the pudget sound area. Washington, or perhaps Canada. The fourth is the time of year. It will be sometime when flowers are in season. I am a plant junkie, and I am totally willing to let my addiction run the show. The fourth is that it will be awesome. Otherwise, why bother?

Wedding website to come, in the following months. Stay tuned!

Proposing finale: A partidge in a pear tree

The morning of Sat, Feb 6th, I made Erik go out for a bike ride first thing. I had already prepped the supplies to make my pear, I just needed a few hours to do some sewing and embroidering. I had to separate the embroidery thread to get the beak and feet so teeny, but I really love how it all turned out - this was my favorite gift. I love the creams, neutrals, dusty purples and too-bright aqua pins. I would love to make something else in this pallet!





When he got back, I got ready to go out. I may have fussed a bit too much with the outfit - when I get worked up about anything, I tend to focus on some random detail. But Erik was patient, and put up with a lot of shoe/dress/tights options. I didn't realize it until after we left the house - but we matched the two turtle doves perfectly. I wore a navy blue dress, dark purple cardi, and layered periwinkle and mauve sheer floral tights (that wound getting us a bit of attention while we were out). And he was a hair warmer than the little grey bird, in a very light dull brown... but close enough to make me smile.

I had had some trouble finding a ring to go with this final gift. I bought a ring sizer online, and was going to buy a ring online too - but the sizer never came, even when I prompted the seller, and she resent the package. So I grabbed a ring we had lying around that I thought fit him (I was wrong! But he wore it anyway), something I could match to a sweeter ring, and tried to squeeze in a couple of shopping trips between all of the crafting. I wasn't having much luck, and thought about browsing at pike's that Saturday as a last resort. If I needed to sneak off to buy something, I could always tell him I was going to the fabric store. That morning I changed my mind, and decided I was done fussing with the project, and wanted to spend such a perfect day more present with Erik.

I tucked the old ring into the box, stuck the box in my bag, and we headed out. He hadn't gotten my little sister Asha a birthday present yet, and was a little late, so we were going to do some last minute shopping at the market. It was the perfect day - sunny and warm, flowers were blooming a bit. We found some gifts I think she'll really love, and we grabbed some snacks to go for the ferry.

We wound up on a sunset ferry, on a really remarkable evening. The bay was glassy, the sky a bright violet.



I gave him the box, with the little package of cards on the top. Even as he was looking through the cards, he still wasn't getting it. I had to point out that the pictures matched up with his gifts. He was so funny! I think when he realized, he was so overwhelmed he almost felt a little bad, and said "I can't believe you did all this for me sweetie." But he took my hands, and said yes.


We wound up shuffling around until we were sitting next to each other on the same side of our little ferry booth, holding hands. We were quiet for just a moment, and then the intercom broke in. The ferry's captain announced that someone had just gotten engaged on the boat. We looked at each other shocked - how did they know? Until we realized the names they mentioned belong to someone else, and we both laughed.

When we got home that night, we found the ring-sizer in the mail.

Proposing part eleven: 2 turtle doves

A simple gift. I wanted to spend that Friday evening with Erik, and knew I had a lot to do the next day.

The funny thing is, while I was drawing it, he walked over and handed me a little thank you card, gave me a hug, and told me thanks for all that I do for him..... On the back of this drawing, before I started, I had written "Thank you for being my friend<3". Ha ha! Did I mention we also managed to get each other the exact same birthday gift this year? (a particular type of sake pitcher, designed for serving sake chilled)

Please note the colors of the birds, for the next post.

Proposing part ten: 3 French hens

Three french hens. What do French hens look like? They are FAT.

I adore these, so so much. Making them was a joy, and I got my second wind on this whole project. I was once again so excited to make these things for Erik, to surprise him, to tell him all that I had been working on, and about the ring, and about how excited I am to be with him every day.



He hung them up at his office the next day, and texted me this picture. I take that to mean he likes them :)

Proposing part nine: 4 calling birds

When I first came up with this crazy idea, to do all of these crazy things, this was the first gift that sprang to mind - a small quilt, with 4 calling birds.

It was also the first thing I worked on - making the birds themselves over maybe two weeks. Erik thought they were valentines presents for friends, to start with.

When I came home late one Wednesday night, and started sewing things onto the birds, he didn't notice until 11 pm that it was becoming a quilt. I finished the center parts, and realized it was too plain. So I made a last minute decision not to compromise on this gift. I made the teeny sets of squares at the four corners, and finished off the cover piece. But, it hasn't been quilted down yet - it has no filling, or backing. And I knew then that I prob wouldn't have time to finish it for a week or two. Right after I finished proposing to Erik, we spent a couple of days on the phone with relatives, and then I launched into my next project....

But, I think it will be worth the wait to finish off this little quilt nicely.