Christmas - Love it & Hate it

Seriously, I love Christmas, I love the shop decor, the music, the food (especially the roast beef), the ornaments, the tree, and even the soapy Christmas movies. But I simply hate the hassle of wrapping the presents and stressing my brain cells for gift ideas. And I absolutely hate giving gifts whose fate would end up in some dusty storeroom or worse re-gifted!!! It feels so warm when my recipients used the gifts I gave them, its like receiving a pat on my pack.
Every year, I keep telling myself, its ok, just chill and relax. If the person doesn't like it, so be it, it's really not the end of the world, and seriously must I make so much effort even thinking of the gift wrapping too! I really must let go of the details. Will I succeed this year :(

Today I started sorting the gifts that I have been 'accumulating' for the past months, I cant remember which month I started my Xmas shopping but I'm not known for my super efficiency character for nothing. I decided not to do any theme wrapping this year, just used up the current wrappers and ribbons I had. Since I will be moving house in a few months time, I didn't want to have too many craft supplies lying around. Only managed to wrapped 5 presents in one morning, too lazy to continue.

I found a fabulous website for free Christmas tags download, the resolution is good and the tags turned out great.

http://orangeyoulucky.blogspot.com/2009/12/holiday-labels.html

Audrey Hepburn's Necklace

I needed a necklace for Audrey's role in Breakfast at Tiffany's, and I 'm getting a bit desparate cause I cant seem to be able to find it in any of the shops. I had a window of 3 hrs before going to Mandy's party. I managed to put together a necklace with some parts and an old vintage brooch. Very pleased with the end result, looks like a Cartier doesn't it?

I even squeezed in some time to wrap Mandy's gift, I finally used my Suzy's tags, so cute!!!

Kanzashi Flowers

We are having a movie theme night for the office year end party, and Nat wanted to be a geisha, I was curious what sort of hair accessories they wear, so I did a bit of googling and I found Kanzashi Flowers. They are absolutely gorgeous and I cant wait to start making. I spent more than 5 hrs experimenting this afternoon and I'm not satisfied with my hair pin. Need to be more patient and meticulous like the Japanese in order to make the perfect Kanzashi flower, I failed miserably :(



My Tsumami Kanzashi Creation
I used pink floral fabric to create the flower petals and finished it with a pearl button. Instead of using the same fabric to create the 'flowy' petals, I used ivory organza and complete it with a dangling pearl. I wanted to do one more strand of petals, but the thought of cutting and folding 10 more petals, I decided to just leave it as it is.

More than 7 hrs on this, definitely not something I want to sell.



I changed my mind after seeing my photos, added one more strand, makes a lot of difference. Slightly better :)

Just chill

Been going thru some crazy times in my life now, so I need to take a break to smell the flowers, do nothing, and just be by myself. Taking a break from crafty dots for a while.

Will be back before xmas :)

Alice's Dress

Yesterday, I received a request from a friend to help her think of a dress for her daughter's alice in wonderland party. I've always been a fan of alice, so I'm really excited on this little project. I'm already thinking of making a blue tulle skirt for the little baby, and I need to figure out the apron construction. I dun have a sewing machine, so this is not going to be easy.

Meya's Pink Princess Party

Its really tough getting up at 8 am in the morning, when you sleep at 3 am the night before. Its indeed a big struggle, told myself after today's lunch, I can finally have a good night rest. My photographer is late, and the food is moving fast. I managed to take some, but I really hate to post my ugly photos, but this is really all I could shift out from the lot.

I placed a canopy (Ikea) for the food table, I even pasted pink felt to cover the coloured flags. Most of the food are propped up on boxes, I'm very happy I finally get to create a food table, being wanting to do it for a loooong time, for my past events, I never get any request to design a buffet table.

I had a lot of trouble with the tissue pom pom, they just dun stick to my ceiling. I was really getting fustrated, cause the pom poms are supposed to be the main decor, in the end, only a few could stay throughout the party. But thank goodness none drop during the party. Whew!

Planning Meya's Pink Princess Party - Time to press the panic button

I hardly blog at this hour, obviously I'm still up trying to do Meya's Party stuff. My darling husband saw me struggling earlier on trying to do up the 'Prince Goodie Bags', and he sort of stick his head to see how he could be of help.

I had some ideas, so I did a mock up and he patiently helped me to cut ribbons, draw a couple of lines, stick double side tape, and gave some comments. All this while, he did not complain at all at the amount of work I'm putting myself through for her party. I think he knows that my intention is just to give my one and only daughter a party she really love.

I have no time to take photos of the bags I have done tonight. Will only do it on actual day :)