Bag "Bliss" - Step One

One minute I'm completely in love, beaming from ear-to-ear, practically glowing with excitement. The next, I'm mad as can be, utterly disgusted, and ready to physically tear to pieces that which I adored only a moment before.

Don't worry, my unsteady relationship issues are not with any particular fiance, but rather with our favor-bag-chair-covers. They have quickly made my shortlist for "worst-wedding-decision-ever-made", but know I say that simply because I have only 12 days to finish all 120 of them. During that time, I'll be rolling out a three-part series on the subject, in which you'll realize why making one's own chair covers is not a popular wedding trend.

(For catch-up on how this project has evolved with time, read my prior posts here and here and here and here and finally, here.)

Taking a focus on the first stage of mass production, we have the silkscreening. Though I've shown the YUDU process before, here's a quick and dirty video of Sak and I highlighting the repetitive process:

Screen-printing with the YUDU from penga on Vimeo.

Half of the pile we started with -
...Have now literally flooded our home in the form of drying bags.

On the living room floor...

On the back of the couch...

On the dining room floor...(don't worry, we swiffered beforehand!)

"Oh, the big waterfall of bags!"


We printed in several shifts - first the mon design on the front, then the "label" on the inside. Some days I wonder why we didn't just go with a smaller monogram or catchy saying, but oh well, too late now.

We printed straight through three jars of white Speedball ink (superior to YUDU ink in my opinion due to it being thinner and less likely to clog up the screen).

We printed so much our original burned screen's emulsion faded out (after about 80 or so prints). A new image had to be etched.

And the list of "crap-I-screwed-up" pile grew large. Good thing we bought the extra yardage!

But they are all printed now.

THEY ARE ALL PRINTED NOW.

You have no idea how good it feels to say that.

Some small tips I have for the process:

-Don't be stingy with washing the screen out. We were on a roll printing 20, 30, 40, 50 bags...and then the paint started drying into the screen! This can permenantly ruin an expensive $20 screen, so don't get greedy. Take a break, wash the screen out, and always use fresh paint.

-After washing your screen out, let it dry completely. Don't rush with a wet screen, that's how you get the emulsion to wear off even faster. Take a hair dryer to it if you must, but let it dry COMPLETELY.

-Invest in some screen blocker. If part of your emulsion does fall off, you can use the blockout to plug up any holes, without having to re-expose a whole new design.

-Check the underside of your screen between each print. We noticed that sometimes bits of fabric would stick to the back of the screen during a print, therefore creating spots on the next print. You have to pick the lint off if your fabric is prone to shedding.

-If your image isn't coming out cleanly, sometimes it's better to flood the screen more rather than press down harder. Too much pressure can cause the ink to bleed.

-To print on dark fabrics, make sure you use opaque ink. Anything else just seems to fade away.

*Phew!* To anyone considering a YUDU, don't let my frustrations sway you - it really is an amazing machine. Just make sure you give yourself plenty of time and test fabric to get the hang of it!

And though my journey through screenprinting (for this project) is over, we still have a long road to travel before we make it out of the tunnel. Next, we'll cover the sewing process!

What's been the biggest bane of your DIY existance? How did you prevail?

Hair to take the Heat

Have you ever decided to style your hair, only to realize that the more you poke at it, the worse it looks?

Sadly, this is the story of my hair-life. So here's hoping the professional can do better. *Raises nalgene water bottle to toast* If I'm lucky, maybe my stylist will have magic hands!

(Page from Beauty Pop, a manga about rivaling hair stylists!)

Now before I begin pulling out the inspiration pictures, let's talk about the general idea. I really want to have my hair down, as it makes me feel a tad less self-conscious about my shoulders (which ought to belong on a professional swimmer).

But Penga-Mom is having none of that.

"Your hair will be in your face and ruin all the pictures!"

Yes, that's true. So we'll pin the front back a bit. But not so much that all the hair falls in the middle of the back, instead of on the shoulders, where it belongs.

(Images pilfered from Project Wedding)

"But it's Hawaii, it'll be too hot for your hair to be down!"

Again, Penga-Mom has a point. I'll probably want to shave my head due to the Honolulu-heat. Plus, the humid weather may just crumple and destroy any delicate, romantic hair waves. I might have to tie it all up for manageability.

(Images from Project Wedding)

The grand-master-plan is this: Try out the lose, unstructured style with simple flower pins holding hair out of my face, and then see what it looks like when said curls are wrapped into a simple bun. Maybe I can convert back and forth, if it's easy enough? And then, with my sheer luck, the intermittent tropical thunderstorms will start up and then I'll have even a third hairstyle - wet dog!

What kind of hair are you planning on? Are you trying out a 'convertible' look?

Make'n it Up as I Go

Notice: DIY posts and drawings will be a little sparse in the weeks to come, since I've got now only 15 days in which to finish my labor of both love and hate - 120 bags of mass destruction.

On the other hand, since my hair and make-up trial is quickly approaching, I guess I could talk about some girly frou-frou now. Which should be interesting, considering that I live with a man, work with (mostly) men, make friends with (mostly) men, and act like a man.

Ohh, manly gaming-stance.

Okay, so maybe I don't really act like a man. But I must admit that most of the more feminine aspects of wedding planning (hair, dresses, jewelry, makeup, etc) scare me a little since it's all relatively new territory.

However, onward soldier, to the point of this particular post! - Makeup!

Typically, I use only a little foundation/concealer/whatever pale colored powder is lying around for my seriously dark under eye-circles, some carmex on my lips, and a line of liquid brown eyeliner on my upper lids. That's it!

So how do I step that up for the wedding day? Hopefully a little better than that trip to the Macy's makeup counter the hour before senior prom.

Yeah...*shudder*

That time around, I made the mistake of not knowing what I wanted (as well as being a teenager who didn't plan on buying anything from the overworked rep).

So this time, I'm going in prepared with ideas and wads of cash. The following is a barrage of looks that I like (after which I'll try and analyze any noticeable trends):

(All images taken from Project Wedding)

What do all these have in common? Well, I see a few trends -
1) None of them have under eye circles whatsoever.
2) None went overboard on the eye make-up.
3) Plump, red, lips!

So from this information, here's what I'm going to tell my hair and makeup artist -

-I don't want to see my under eye circles. In fact, can we make my face as shadow-free as possible? One smooooth, matte surface, please.
-Please make my eyes bright and big (like an anime character?). But please hold the purple and blue eye shadows, none for me!
-I love my lips (sung like Larry the Cucumber of course). They are small and plump and cute, so please emphasis that with a warm, glossy color.

Here's my un-made mug for reference -


What do you think, can I make this look work? Should I go for something else? How did you find your makeup style? Through photos of gorgeous people that look nothing like you, or from the supreme knowledge of already understanding what works best for you?

Easels Get A Paint Job

While perusing Daiso one day, I happened upon a guestbook epiphany. What if we had mini easels with canvas you could paint and sign the back of?

One per table?

Well, Sak and I found our 20 easels, courtesy of every bay area Daiso there is. Only problem? They were white easels, not black like what I had in mind.


Time to break out the acrylic paint!

Two coats needed...

...And we're set!
Now they're ready to be taken over to Hawaii with us and put into Sak's family storage unit.

The stands were simple enough, but the concept is still causing me a bit of trouble. Let me ask you for help defining the best way to make this idea work. First, I'll be putting a backing onto the 4x6" canvases so that people can "sign the guestbook". I eventually want to hang up the 20 or so painted red & black pieces in a collage/mural in my home. They'll paint with brush pens, not actual messy paint.

Now, what kind of mural?

Should I outline one overall large image, and have each table "color in" appropriately, to piece it together at the end like this:

(source)

Or should a sample of what they should draw on a tag, and get everyone's interpretation of a similar image like this:

(source)

Or should I give them a free-for-all, and let them draw whatever it is they want? (Oh, I foresee the abstract art scribble!)

(source)

How much artistic freedom would you like as a guest? Or would you rather just sign the back and leave the scribbles and coloring to someone else? Are you having any off-the-wall logistics problems with your guestbook?

Cakie! - The Lights Come On

In a glorious end to a week of fails, these cuties came in the mail last night:

My cake power poles! A huge shout-out and thank you to Ashinwi, who gave me the link to the pole-selling shop!

Now, since wood poles are for sissies, I'm going to have to paint them silver for some tubular steel pole action.

I'm thinking silver edible paint? That way I won't have to worry about poisoning anyone.

(source)

Should I should paint them myself, or have our baker (whenever we find one) do it for us? Do I hold onto them, or give them to the baker six months out? What if they lose them? (I guess I guess the safest bet is just to ask the baker.)

The next question is, what to use for cables?

Wire, I think, would be too unwieldy. I can just see a piece coming undone and springing a big hole right into the side of the cake. *shudder*

I do have jewelry wire, which is a little less rigid, that we could use -

Or maybe some embroidery thread (though I'd have to get some in black)?

In any case, I'm pretty excited about this cake now. Sak and I will have to visit a hobby shop and get a cute little LED lamp for the top.

..And only somewhat unrelated, but undeniably adorable:

(source)

Little streetlight place card holders! *swoons* These would be so neat for a vintage/romantic Audrey Hepburn-type wedding. Or it would be neat for those that name their tables after cities/districts, since each card looks like a little street sign. I love it, but unfortunately it doesn't mesh too well with my decidedly Asian theme-vibe. Oh well, just thought I'd share anyway! :)

Why is everything in miniature always so cute? Does silver paint make your tongue sparkle? What do the power poles look like where you live? (The construction tends to differ by area.)

Put it in the Bag

In addition to our fabulous chair-cover-bag-favors, which we have only 20 days left to finish *lurches and twitches in anxiety*, I think we need some more things to force upon our guests.

Why, you ask? Isn't the bag enough? Sure it is, but if you give a mouse a cookie...he's going to want to put something in that bag, no?

I admit, I'm one of those free-stuff-snagging-hoarders. I used to go to job fairs just to get the free stuff off the tables (not just the junky pencils and keychains, but you know, the good stuff, the laser pointers and interesting gadgets). When I go to a wedding, I keep the program, the escort card, the placecard, heck, even the menu card - and of course, the favor. Usually I have no where to put said items, since bringing a giant "stuff" bag to a wedding would probably fall under the no-no-you-crazy-woman list.

So I'm solving the problem for people like me by supplying the stuff bag. Let's stuff it, shall we?

While sifting through my Oriental Trading catalog for said undersirable knick knacks, I happened upon this:

(source)

True, it's just another organza bag that you stuff with jordan almonds, but - it's a totally cute flower shape. How awesome would this look with little red candies inside, sitting on each guests white, round dinner plate?

And everyone loves candy, right? According to every modern wedding site I've seen thus far, people prefer edible favors over knick-knacks. At least people who aren't like me. So I think this will work out quite nicely.

"I must have it!" I state out-loud to myself. Click, click, onto the internets.

Moments pass, minutes pass.

"Where the heck is it?!" For the life of me, I can't find it on their website. So I do a google search instead. It pops up momentarily and I sigh in relief until...

IT'S SOLD OUT.

Don't you hate it when this happens? Yes, for the third post in a row, FAIL! (But I promise this is the last consecutive one, at least.)

So I'm going to try calling them up and backordering them. Or worst-case, buying them at a marked up price from a third party seller. Cross your fingers for me!

Has anyone else had their plans shattered by an unavailable item? What did you do about it?

Well Suited - Or Not.

Ready for some more fail? I've got plenty.

My grand-master-plan before Thanksgiving was to get pics of Sak and our brothers trying on suits in Monterey so I could post some awesome pictures.

Well, that didn't happen, for two reasons. First, apparently most shops don't let you take pictures.

Huh?

I guess it's similar to how some bridal shops won't let you take pictures in the designer dresses, but Macy's said no pictures. I didn't bother trying at Men's Wearhouse, for the second reason.

Nothing fits my fiance.

Macy's took one look at him and said, nope, not going to happen. Men's Wearhouse put three different jackets on him before coming up with some elaborate tailoring scheme I'm convinced would not be worth the effort. Banana Republic had nothing smaller than a 32 waist (we need a 27).

His chest is too flat (can I say that about a guy?), so he couldn't "fill out" any of the jackets. His arms are also too short, but that (I'm told) is an easy tailor fix.

So I tread lightly across poor Sak's masculine pride and asked the salesman - "Do you think I could try a children's suit?"

Luckily for his pride (and only his pride), his shoulders happen to be normal-man size, so a boy's size probably wouldn't work.

And since the boys want to match, we ended up not getting anything for Sak-brother or Peng-brother either.

So what do we do now?

The salesman at Macy's suggested Sak try the Nordstrom's in San Jose. We both supressed an inner snark-laugh at this, but it makes sense despite the stereotyping. Of course you'd send the small Asian man to an area with plenty of other small Asians.

So the new grand-master-plan is this: Sak and I go to Nordy's in San Jose, and after we find something that will fit him, we'll take down the "part number" of the suit, and have Sak-brother try on the right style at Nordy's in LA. Peng-brother will just have to spare a weekend to come up to San Jose himself, since I don't think they have a Nordy's in San Luis Obispo. I wonder how hard it will be to fit my 6'3" bean-pole of a brother? Hopefully easier than my 5'2" FI. Sak-brother is the only normal sized guy around, it seems.

Penga-brother and Sak, two extremes!

And if, for some unforseeable reason it doesn't work out at Nordy's - we're going to the Chinese Bridal shop in downtown San Mateo, and have something custom made.

Any other options you can think of? How are you getting your men dressed? Any difficult sizes to accomodate?