Craftyminx

Wedding Wednesday - Coming Next Week!

Just wanted to let you all know what I have planned for next wednesday -- A surplus sale!

I'm selling off the stuff we bought and didn't use for our wedding or the stuff we did use that's still in great shape. Here's a peek of what will be up for grabs: 
Lots of ribbon, white lights, silk flower bunches, and other random things. All information will be posted with each item in a big cartel store, which I will link to here next wednesday at 12pm (noon) CST. Payment will be through PayPal. I can't set anything back for anyone or break up any of the sets, except for maybe the lanterns (I'm still thinking about that though). Everything will be priced at half of what I paid or lower. If you're interested in anything, save up some pennies and meet me here next week :)

If you have any questions, ask them in the comments below and I will get back to you asap!

Happiness is...

Towers of beer and the lovely Jemellia @Coop Ale Works for Stash Bash



IKEA fun with Levi.



Awesome thrift store couch. Leaving it in the store did not make me happy :(



Thrift Stores and 1/2 price Estate Sales with Levi.


Pretty organs. Left at the store again :(




Mountains of vintage clothes (you'll see more of these tomorrow)


Going out. I don't look happy because I sent this to my friend with a sad face text haha. I totally wore an awesome vintage mumu to the clubs. It's one actually from Hawaii.



Mardi Gras at the gay bars.




One of our favorite dinners (Butter Chicken)

Feeling springy

The new blog design is up! I decided to go ahead and switch it over after midnight last night since I was still up. It definitely makes me ready for spring to be here!  I've highlighted some of the the new features in the screenshot below. I'm most excited about the tutorials page. It took me hours upon hours to make and then I decided I hated the way I styled the images and re-did the whole thing. So take a look around and let me know what you think. :)

Also, I wanted to let you all know about another project going on in the blogosphere.

My Girl Thursday and Little Tree Vintage are hosting a Spring Style event called In Bloom. Five days of vlogs and posts from various guests all about spring style on a budget. I'm very excited to see all the wonderful videos that will be shared in the next five days. So check out their blogs (add both to your rss readers so you don't miss anything) and get ready for some crazy spring style inspiration! 

A Granny A Day: Week 7

Each granny square image above will lead you to the individual post for more information.

My first image map! Special thanks to this post  from www.poweredbypastries.com for helping me figure out how to do the darn things. Now you can go to each square's post for more information instead of having to go through all of the granny a day blog posts to find the pattern you're looking for :)

I believe the new blog design is finished! This was probably my fastest design process ever (3 weeks). I guess I'm getting better with navigating typepad's crazy design elements. I'm working on moving the entire blog over to advanced templates so I can have even more control over everything, but I need more css training before I do that. I'm making sure everything is working right over the weekend and Monday will be the big unveiling and back to regular posting. Thanks for hanging in there everyone! There was no way I had time for regular posts while spending every evening in front of the computer screen working out css or designing sidebar images.

Here are some peeks into my sketchbook:

 

Under Construction

Construction of the dance floor for our wedding.

Heads up! I'm working on a spring blog re-design this week so posts will be scarce. I think I'm more excited about this makeover than anything. We're also doing some spring cleaning and organizing at the house this week so my time is very limited. I love spring and the newness it brings!

A Granny A Day: Week 6

Get more info and see which patterns I used here. 

You get a little overlap action this week. The first four are from the color scheme I started with and the last three are from the color scheme I'm working with for March. I'll be returning to the old scheme after I finish March's set of squares. I'm loving all of the flower squares. They make me feel like spring really may be almost here!

Speaking of spring, I'm working on a springy blog redesign! I'm loving it so far and I can't wait to share it. :)

Thrifted Thursday

One of my goals this year was to start looking through clothing more as I thrift. I've been finding way too many awesome things, including some things I can actually wear. I usually look through the baby and kids clothes too since we have children in our life (and a new niece on the way!). I'm developing a new weakness for adorable vintage baby clothes. I still have a vintage mug and sheet addiction too. Our house is slowly being taken over by awesome vintage. I'm glad Sheldon loves me as much as he does or me and my vintage wares would be on the streets! :)

Wedding Wednesday - On Being a Plus-Size Bride

I bet you thought Wedding Wednesday was over. To be honest I did too, but I guess it wasn't ready to be put to death just yet. After our wedding feature on Broke Ass Bride Monday I received a really sweet e-mail from a soon-to-be bride who wanted some reassurance about being a fellow plus-size bride. She didn’t want to offend me (and believe me I wasn't), but wanted some advice on how I felt about being a plus-size bride. She said, “You looked so great and I want to feel how you look like you felt. I want to look back on my photos and feel happy, not embarrassed.” This really touched me and made me realize that I never really went into the plus-size bride thing on my blog. Believe me, it’s not because I didn’t think about it. I guess I felt that none of you cared about it.

When I look at my photos I usually remember what an amazing celebration it was, how horribly hot it was, and the fact that I snorted while walking down the aisle as I tried to hold back tears. But there are definitely times I'll notice arm fat here, or my stomach sticking out there. It happens and it doesn’t normally upset me. I'm not saying a hormonal day doesn't make me feel bad about myself, but on a normal day I am pretty self-confident with being a big girl. I actually felt like crap the entire day of my wedding. I was pms-ing big time (too much information?), I woke up with a migraine that didn't go away until it was time for me to get ready, and I was bloated. But all of that melted away as soon as I saw Sheldon at the end of the aisle. I know that's cliché but it's totally true!

I don't really even remember much about the day, I just remember how much love and support there was from everyone there and how much fun we had.

Self-confidence is really important but here are some other tips that might help you feel better about being a plus-size bride:

The dress -

Custom is a better option for bigger gals because you can get something that fits you perfectly (I’m a size 16 on top and a 22 on bottom so finding dresses that fit is almost impossible). In fact, I think everyone should have a custom made wedding dress, or at the very least a professionally altered one. You're a bride and you deserve to have something that fits you perfectly and you usually can't get that from a bridal box store. Shop around. Chances are you can find someone who can make you a dress cheaper than it would be to buy one, especially in the plus-size market. In fact, one of my friends that was married a month after me was a plus-size bride and she had a really cute custom dress (we had the same photographer too!).

 If this isn't an option for you, just make sure you get something you love that looks good on you and your body type. The knot has a really good article on finding the right style of wedding dress for your type. Try it on without a support garment and make sure it feels comfortable without something sucking you in. This is just my little advice because there was no way I was wearing spanx in 95-degree weather with 80% humidity, especially while I was crampy and bloated. I made my dress to look great if I decided to wear something underneath but still look good if I decided to let it all hang out, which a good dressmaker will help you do too.

Thankfully, my mom and I are both adept at sewing and made this our special project spending about 3 months making my dress. You may not notice it in all the photos, but we still didn't have the fit right at the top (even after taking it in a week before the wedding) and it kept gaping open for everyone to see. I think I lost weight from stress and not eating. Oh well, free show everyone, gather round (you can see an example in the photo below).

Photos -

I highly recommend a professional photographer. Talk to you photographer about your concerns. As a professional they will already know how to get shots that make you look your best, but knowing your concerns will help them know how important it is to you. They can't create magic with their lens, but they can use different angles to make you look the best you can look. When I look through the photos family friends took at our wedding, I realize more and more that Robyn knew what she was doing and that's why I look so good in her photos.

Ask your photographer if they have photographed any plus-sized brides before and ask if you can see those photos. It is important that you see how other brides like you were photographed on their big day. Robyn had some plus-size brides in her online portfolio and they all looked great. I get really mad that the big-time wedding photographers in our area don't put any photos of plus-size brides on their sites. We live in Oklahoma, and I know they are shooting some plus-size brides!

Offbeat Bride is a great wedding website that has a tag for plus-size brides. I would check this out for more reassurance. All those ladies look great! I know it helped me realize that I'm not the only bigger bride out there. We’re not the ones that are usually featured on the popular blogs and magazines so it's easy to feel alone in the bridal world.