Flowers and Burns

Oh hello blogging world! I have such great news!

1. My orchid charms came in the mail. I experimented yesterday with making the necklace I loved and FAILED because I didn't realize that the necklace I was copying was actually a fake lariat and needed a clasp. After one hour of driving around this cow town, no one sold chain, so I'm back to waiting until I can get to Micahels. Which is likely Friday. Gah!

I'm ready beads!

2. I finished my flowers! At least, they were done until about 3 minutes ago when I took pictures and ended up unwrapping the ribbon on the bridesmaid bouquets just by touching them. Oh well. Lots of glue every inch or so and a new wrap will solve that fairly easily. Until then, here are the pictures... (note: These pictures suck! The lighting is horrible in here today and my lens is filthy. Also my arm hurts, but that's coming)

Note the pearls on the handle. Oh yeah...

Bouts

BM bouquets. Happened to take it from the only angle that makes it look flat, of course. GAH!

My bouquet again.

3. Yesterday, while taking pizza out of the oven I got this.

IT HURTS SO BAD!

I blame Mr. Sunshine who was caught up in his video games. So much so that the pizza was burning, I was trying to salvage our dinner, the dogs were winding in between my legs and he kept saying "one minute!" instead of helping me. Long story short, a dog tripped me and I fell on the oven. Holy crap does it ever hurt! It actually looks a lot better than it did, and I am attributing that to Burt's Beeswax's Foot Balm. Sound stupid, but I knew burns needed moisture and this stuff is the thickest, stickiest, most moisturizing lotion I own. By god does it work! Now that it's not red anymore (just burned), I'm going to polysporin and Vitamin E in the desperate hope it fades before my wedding.

Oh well!

Anyone else have pre-wedding injuries?

~Miss. Sunshine

Necklace Supplies are Here!

Readers, I AM SO EXCITED!

I posted a while back about these DIY necklaces I am doing for my bridesmaids and I decided to do this style...

Pretty, no?

 It's a lanyard style necklace, which means it doesn't have a clasp and the size of the necklace is adjusted by pulling the stone through the hoop in the orchid. I love the style. What I *don't* love is that I bought a chain to create this beauty and it is so small it won't fit over your head! Oh well, eh? Anyways, it's back to the drawing board. Worse comes to worst I can always try one of the other styles I saw.

Also, getting some unexpected RSVP "no" responses. Some of which are expected and some of which are not. Kinda sad.

That's all over here... going to start dinner, finish the last bridesmaid bouquet, head off to Walmart for necklace supplies and then hang out in front of the TV all night. I swear I will get to report cards later! (hehehe)

~Miss. Sunshine

Into the Swing of Things *please vote!*

Man was today ever a productive day! I accomplished the following:

- finished three bouts (not sure if I am doing one for my dad, as I'm not doing coursages for the moms, but we'll see)
-finished my bridal bouquet except to glue pearls where ribbon intertwines
-finished one bridesmaid bouquet, except to glue pearls down the centre
-finished one bridesmaid bouquet, except was short one paper towel roll (lots at work though!) so I have to wait until tomorrow to finish up my tutorial on how to create the perfect handle for faux flowers
-finished writing that last damned invite from hell. Took forever to get an address, so the rest went out weeks ago
-updated my RSVP list with the correct information
-started thinking about how to package my favours... and need your help!


Okay!

I was inspired by the wedding bee to create these cute (and I mean tiny and cute) wedding favours. After filling 60 jars with some seed, I am out of ideas for how to package them. Every label I attach is GIANT, as these are small. At the same time, I don't want to kill them by packaging them in a box and taking away the rustic feel to them. So I am not sure what to do.

Here is the favours:

For the record, American and Canadian quarters are the same size.

And here are some ideas for packaging I have come up with:

Not these exact ones, of course, but the box shape.

I've seen these bags everywhere and they would be easy to use and see through.

A cute box with a flip open top?

Spice up a "boring" box?

Help me decide! I have a feeling this will be the next project to tackle.

~Miss Sunshine.

Missing You: The Trials and Tribulations of Heat

I failed to mention this yesterday, but I gave in, after a month of having an indented finger and got my ring resized. All that is left is a slight tan line and a normal looking finger...

I miss youuuu!

 All day yesterday I went to play with it, and it was not there. I went to take it off for my morning shower, and it was not there. My mom said I should joke and tell people the wedding is off. I joked and told Mr. Sunshine I could go pick up some guys now.

But alas, I miss it. It's almost like I am missing a piece of me and a huge symbol of our love and commitment. I hate it! And one week? C'mon Peoples Jewellers! You should know that one week will be a long, dreadful time for the average bride!

Truly, I think this is Karma for bragging that my ring fit a stock size perfectly... and now I am 1/2 size bigger in the summer.

T minus 6 days to go and then it will be time to have my wedding band sized up as well. At least it's free!

Miss. Sunshine

DIY Fail: Krylon Magnetic Spray Paint Review

I said I would update, and I am doing so in seething anger.

KRYLON MAGNETIC SPRAY PAINT IS A WASTE OF MONEY, TIME AND COMPLETE GARBAGE.

I sprayed four layers of magnetic spray paint on my board before covering it in two THIN layers of chalkboard paint (which they actually have a project for on their site!). This morning, knowing it was completely dry, I put a light advertisement magnet on. It fell off. I tried one of those rare earth magnets I have hanging around. It fell off.

NOTHING STICKS.

So, going back to my project, I would HIGHLY recommend that if you want your board to be magnetic you put a piece of metal in lieu of the mirror/wood you are painting. Ensure the metal is magnetic, as not all metals are. I would then cover that in chalkboard paint. Alternatively, if you live in the US there are other magnetic paints available. The container of paint that you brush on by Krylon, however, has just as horrible reviews.

As for me... I guess the magnets are out and cute writing with a chalk pen is in. *sigh*.

~Miss. Sunshine (isn't) Smil(ing).

DIY: Vintage Style Magnetic Chalkboard

As I mentioned in a  previous post, I have started, and due to impatience, completed my magnetic chalkboard to hold my escort cards. Without further ado, a DIY How-To...

Materials:
-screwdriver
-board or cardboard to spray paint on (DO NOT USE A GARBAGE BAG LIKE ME)
-magnetic spray paint  (BEFORE YOU DO THIS... PLEASE READ HERE FOR UPDATED INFORMATION REGARDING KRYLON MAGNETIC SPRAY PAINT)
-chalkboard spray paint
-primer spray paint
-spray paint in your favourite colour
-vintage frame (mirrors are awesome, but not all spray paints will adhere)
-sandpaper
-soft cloth

STEP ONE:

Find a mirror.

Sexxxxyyyyy

STEP TWO:

Disassemble the entire thing. BE CAREFUL NOT TO DROP ANY IN GRASS.... Oops.. If you have a big heavy mirror like mine, carefully take it out and lay it somewhere safe.

I swear the ants stole it.

STEP THREE:
Sand the mirror and frame lightly with 220 grit sandpaper. This will help everything to really stick.

STEP FOUR:
Layout cardboard or a hard surface (I will soon explain why grass and garbage bag doesn't work) and put your frame and mirror on it.

STEP FIVE:
Spray paint primer on the frame. FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS! Being lazy and doing it quickly will result in drips, then dry time, then sanding, then repainting. I promise you.

Plastic bags bunch up and blow in the wind causing missed spots, rubbed off paint and streaks. BAD IDEA.

STEP SIX:
Spray the mirror with 2 or more coats of magnetic paint. Ensure you read the directions for drying time and how long you have to wait between coats. I believe the Krylon was 30 minutes to four hours, but it was dry to the touch much faster than that.  
DISCLAIMER: I have now read that the magnetic paint sucks and won't even hold up a magnetic letter. I will be testing this soon and let you know. If this board is NOT magnetic, it would defeat my entire purpose, putting me into a huge rage.

Sorry.. it was silver and sunny out, so you can imagine the glare!

STEP SEVEN:
Spray the mirror with two coats of chalkboard paint. Again, read the directions carefully before applying.

Remember that sunny day I was talking about? This is actually the same patch of grass as above.

STEP EIGHT:
Prime the back of the frame by flipping the dry frame over and giving it a good coat. This part really isn't THAT important, because you won't see the back.


STEP NINE:
Once the frame is dry, spray paint with a coat of your favourite colour. THIN coats are best because they do not drip and such. I hung mine from a tree because I was in desperate need of a hard, flat surface and didn't have one.

The wind blowing it around made it a bit blurry. Sorry!

STEP TEN:
Once everything is dry (don't be like me and think, Hey! It's not coming off on my hand! It's still not dry after 10 minutes. I swear), assemble.

Tada! The back (minus one screw).

STEP ELEVEN:
Touch ups if you are like me...

You can barely see it, but I took the paint off the corner.

STEP TWELVE:
Hang and enjoy. Don't forget to prime the chalkboard before use or it will never be the same!

Sexy!

Beau-ti-ful!

CAUTION:
-prime before painting will require one versus ten coats
-if it looks like it's barely covering, you are doing it right. Repeat that step over and over again rather than going closer and adding more
-gloves save nails
-doing this in the grass will lead to: Grass marks, streaks, drips, ant stuck to your frame, pollen stuck to your frame, spiders spinning webs and dirt on the back.

Back to Lovin' It!!

Man, am I ever back in the DIY swing of things! And all because of this:

My preeecccccioooussssss!

Now to the backstory on this whole thing. Months ago, when I was first engaged and looking on Pinterest for every find on the internet, I stumbled across this gem someone had pinned from Etsy.

Magnetic escort board, complete with button magnets. I know. I fell in love too. From here.

I fell in love. And not that "oh it's nice love", but that "OMGZ! I MUST SHOW THIS TO EVERYONE I KNOW SO THEY CAN BASK IN ITS GLORY!!!" love. In fact, I did show it to everyone I knew. And do you know what they all said? All of them said something to the effect of "Great seller, cool store, but that's almost $400 Canadian for the frame and shipping."

Hello reality check, goodbye my first love.

But I'm a DIY'er, so you know I was gonna kill it hard, which led to at least 10-15 different (and failed) trips to thrift stores, and 6 weekends of garage sale shopping. So today, when I saw this gem, Mr. Sunshine cringed a little and I went YES! He couldn't see past the horrible gold and ornate shape, while all I could see was white and black. Cream and black? White and grey? The rest was to be determined.

So, with my reveal coming up in the days to follow (spray painting takes time!), here is a quick breakdown of the cost of this beauty...

Mirror: $15 (I talked them down from $20. It was after 9am, after all!)
Krylon chalkboard spray paint: $7.50 (Michaels with coupon.... but later saw it for $5.99 at Canadian Tire!)
Kryon magnetic spray paint: $7.50 (Michael's with coupon) PLEASE READ MY HORRIBLE REVIEW AND FIND A BETTER OPTION FOR YOU!
Spray Paint Primer: $8
Cream Spray Paint: $5.50

TOTAL COST: $43.50

With that sounding high, keep in mind I have at least a half bottle of magnet paint and will have at least a half bottle of chalkboard paint left, as well as an AWESOME chalkboard/magnet frame we can hang on our wall!

Anyone else copy a design to be cheap ... er... frugal?

~Miss. Sunshine

The Pre-Wedding Exhaustion Break

Guys, I have a problem. A big one, actually, as a DIY bride-- I can't get back into getting things done. Seriously. I am so lazy and tired after long, hot days at work that I feel and look like this:

I might not be Spears, but yep. That's me!

My to do list isn't even extraordinary, by any means. I have flowers, bouts, escort cards, some gifts and ONE MORE INVITE to do, with the rest being busy work-- but I can't get into it.

So I'm on a break. A long break. Hopefully something will break this lull!

The Neglect of the Blog

Man I have been SO bad! I do have lots of great excuses though-- I promise. My last post was on May 15th, and it has been wild around here since. The 16th I did a huge order for the new school I'm going to, which meant I wasn't home until close to 9:30. The 1 7th I was exhausted from the day before and went right to bed. The 18th kicked off my birthday weekend...

The 18th was a really bad day for me. Work drama led to many tears and the most wonderful fionce in the world asking me if he could make it better by taking me to our first drive in of the year. Of course I was thrilled! We packed up the car, got our Manchu Wok, visited the Bulk Barn and headed off to see the worst Jonny Depp and Tim Burton movie of all time. Seriously, you might have to pay me to sit through "Dark Shadow" again. It was still fun to go, but by the time the cute love story came on at midnight, Mr. Sunshine had been asleep for a few hours and I was ready to go home.

The 19th I spent the morning with my soon-to-be mother-in-law as we went to Ikea! It was actually a lot of fun and we got to chat and spend some time together. I only bought three things, two of which were needed and one of which was a $2 impulse buy... but who wouldn't love Bob?

Bob had no stand, so he was only a toonie!

After our long adventure, I came home where Mr. Sunshine and I cuddled until we went to bed.

The 20th, or yesterday, my sister invited me out so we could celebrate my birthday a day early since she was busy today. We went to Orfus Road and Yorkdale Mall where I only bought a dress and she bought tons! It was a lot of fun to hang out, though, and her fashion sense is impeccable, while I have virtually none at all. After our long day of shopping we went back to her place and watched a movie before I left for home.

I made the hour drive and Mr. Sunshine wasn't answering his phone, which was starting to annoy me. At first I figured he was out and about, but as I got closer to home and he still wasn't answering, I got suspicious. I pulled into the driveway and he threw a white sheet away and then told me not to look in the backyard. Of course, I wanted to look, but he told me not to ruin my surprise.

He gave my our new playbook (he bought it Saturday when I was out with his mom and I love it!!!) and confined me to the front rooms of the house for about 20 minutes before coming back and announcing it was ready... if I wanted to see it early. Of course I did! I went into the backyard and saw this....

Not the actual hammock, as a ghost stole the batteries from my camera, but the same hammock.

I was thrilled! I laid down and he pulled out a zero gravity chair to go with it, for all my sun bathing needs. Love!

After that we went for a walk, watched tv and we were both dead asleep soon enough. Well, minus the hour where the neighbours shot off fireworks in their tree canopied back yard, lit by their 9 year old son and I was convinced our house would burn down.

Today is the start of my actual birthday and it's going great! Mr. Sunshine made me a beautiful breakfast and I am on my way over to my parents soon to eat a very early morning cake.

To be continued soon....

The Life of a Teacher

Well readers, I'm running out of DIY time-- fast. In fact, it feels like my DIY time has come to a very abrupt end. Why, do you ask? Because I am a teacher. Not just a teacher, mind you, but a teacher who is moving school next year. With less than 5 weeks left to go I have report cards to write, classrooms to pack and $70 of my very meager classroom budget (as a hint, that's about 10% of what I have to spend on paper, paint, supplies, etc for a year) to spend.

What does that mean exactly?

Well, that is hours sitting in front of the computer sorting through comments and pouring through notes. As this is a play based classroom and there are no worksheets or tests, this is hours of watching videos, interpreting data and seeing what information I have little on. This is the end of the year wrap up by having them complete small tasks for their teacher next year. This is realizing that the report card writing system has crashed and all my data has been lost *grr*.

Oh the joys!

In the moving aspect, this involves cleaning out all the crap I have acquired over the last few years, putting it into boxes, loading the boxes in my car, and moving it all to a new location. I hate to tell you, but that is totally the worst part! At the end of June, that will be opening every sensory bin as a "water table" and encouraging my students to clean all the toys that remain in hopes that the ringworm, flu, cold, chicken pox, wart and rash germies have been sufficiently worn off.

And you know what? As much as I complain, I love my class! I love my students! I love being able to share in new discoveries and moments with them. I might get frustrated when I discover that on my day off three of my students used plastic hammers to smash all my poker chips to bits (all I saw was dollar signs waving as they ran down the street), but I get so excited when those same students play with a Frisbee relentlessly until they discover how throw it properly. I might get frustrated when some students get angry and hit a friend, but I cherish the memory of the first moment that they get angry and restrain themselves.

While on this, I have to share one of my absolute favourite, FAVOURITE memories! Last year my teaching partner and I started Kindergarten "think sheets" that a few students used. Basically, if they were told to go to "have a rest" enough times or if they did something that was a very bad choice (hit someone, swear, etc), they had to draw a picture of what they did or what they could do next time and then we would fill in the a sentence about it that had a "The choice I made was to _________________. Next time I will________________."

This boy in particular had kissed a girl in our class on the lips. It visibly upset the girl and we explained to him how it made the girl's heart hurt. This boy was very empathetic and you could see he was sorry, but as it had really upset the girl we wanted to make a point to him and had him draw a picture. Afterwards I asked him why he had drawn three people and who they were. He explained it was him, the girl he kissed and another girl. Confused, I asked him what I should write. He says. "The choice I made was to kiss one girl. Next time I will kiss two girls instead!" When I asked him why he said that he thought the girl was mad because he had only kissed her and no one else in the class. Haha! I loved it : )  For the record, we worked that one out and he never kissed anyone again (except his family), but it was a classic moment. This is the same boy who used to play "prince and princess" and go dancing to classical music around our gathering area.

Any memories you have that you treasure? Do you enjoy your job?

~Miss. Sunshine

Overhaulin'

Don't mind the ever changing look of this site for the next few hours. I'm attempting to overhaul this blog in a way that makes more sense for me without throwing my computer through the wall. Wish my luck!

~Miss. Sunshine

Up and Coming Projects

As I was in search of a DIY or two, I thought I should update with my "to do" list of up and coming projects (and tutorials).

0.5: Complete bouqets and bouts. They have been sitting on the desk for a LONG time now.
1: Complete wine glasses (99.9% there!)

2. Make necklace and earrings for bridesmaids that look something like this...

Off to the side?

Or perhaps this...

The way this is done you can make it longer or shorter by pulling the gem down through the orchid.

Or even this....

A little busier, but still a possibility.

I bought 6 of the three sets of orchids and 10 single orchids, so the possibilities right now are endless, which I love! I also bought some cute gems for the ends of the necklace. Seeing as creating my own bridal necklace and bracelet was the first I've gotten into real jewellery making, I am hoping and praying for this task.

3. I want to do an escort board that looks like this:

How much fun are those magnets? Seriously?!

But in my own way. I have already made 50 buttons that are multicoloured and fun, but have had NO luck finding an intricate and fun frame for under $30, and I'm cheap! I am hoping that by scouring more garage sales, something will eventually turn up.

4. Make a bunting for our card box. In case you haven't seen it, our card box is AWESOME. Mr. Sunshine and I found it at an antique place near us. It is an old Canada Post mail box that is all rusted out and shitnat. Just need a sign so people know what to do for it!

Isn't it just awesome!?

5. Figure out the rest of our centre pieces and do a mock up using the grasses I just bought and am forcing Mr. Sunshine to look after.

6. Design and create Thank You cards with help from my lovely sister.

7. Print and assemble our wedding tree so guests can sign their name.

8. Create a few floral displays to put in the vases we have bought and perhaps a throw away bouquet, but not sure on that one yet.


Any tips or advice for what needs to be done in, now, just over 2 months. *breathe Miss Sunshine! Just BREATHE!*

~Miss. Sunshine

Dress Fitting, Take One

Now I have no pictures or proof I even had a dress fitting yesterday, but it happened. Let me set the stage for you here... I was exhausted to the point my eyes were burning and it was only 5 pm. The dress fitting was at 7:30. My mom and soon to be mother-in-law drove me to where my bridal salon is (and sister) to eat dinner and browse the mall before the fitting. It was the first time that my soon to be mother-in-law would see my dress and the first time myself or my mother would have seen it since I bought it.

We ate dinner, I downed more coffee and pop in a futile attempt to stay awake, and then walked around the mall for an hour. Afterwards we went to the dress fitting.

I felt like my legs were made of lead, but wanted to enjoy myself. I felt my heart fluttering everytime they said "Miss. Sunshine's Dress" and was smiling the best I could when I saw it. I was so scared of the dreaded 'dress regret', but didn't feel it when I saw it again. I got into the dress, was done up, and looked in the mirror and smiled. It's still beautiful. I got hemmed up and then my mom asked me if I wanted to try on my veil.

My mom's eyes welled up, my future mother-in-laws eyes welled up and I was so happy and looked fantastic! But you know what? Being so tired, I couldn't get that excited. I looked beautiful. It all came together so perfectly, I can barely explain my thrill, but all I could muster was a "yes, it looks great together". I ended up taking off my dress, getting my clothes back on, the bill was paid and we left.

I slept all the way home.

On the one hand, I am glad I will look beautiful on my wedding day. I am glad that it looks just how I wanted it to. I am so thrilled the pearls don't look funny, but look quite beautiful.

On the other hand, I almost wish my appointment had been another day so I could have really seen my dress in action.

Oh well.

I am picking it up on the 23rd of June, so you know I'll be trying it on again soon!

~Miss. Sunshine

DIY: Glitter Wine Glasses

Well, this whole DIY started with the need to make/buy/create something to fill my SUPER sexy monogrammed bags I had made for my bridesmaids. What, I asked myself, would I do? My sister's was an easy "aha!" moment as I saw these cute glittered wine glasses on pinterest and thought back to that time I went to her house and drank wine from a drinking glass.

Yeah.

And she LOVES wine.

I don't get it either.

Anyways, without futher ado, DIY Glitter Wine Glasses!

Materials
- Glitter (I used packets from Dollarama because I kept this budget)
- Modge Podge (I used matte because I didn't want to take away from the sparkle of the glitter, but not sure what would be best)
- Wine glasses (20 oz for me!)
- Paint brush. I used the sponge brush and loved it.
- Container for glitter
- Paper/something to shake glitter off onto and back into container
 - Krylon Clear Coat

Step One:
 Clean and dry your glasses really well. If not, the modge podge might not stick right.

So clean!

Step Two:
Choose your glitter and dump it into a cup/container if it doesn't have a way to pour it nicely. I mixed together several small packets for most of mine, but was able to cover the entire base and stem with only one packet.

The Dollarama Sparkles. I liked them because they were super fine and had a variety of colours.

Two lightest blues mixed and swirled together in my pouring cup, which was way too big.

  Step Three:
Cover your cup's base, sides of the base (oops!) and stem with modge podge using your brush. I found a spot on the stem where it started to flare to end my glittering, but you might choose a different area. To make a good, straight line at the top, I inserted my hand into the cup, held the brush lightly to the stem and moved my hand in a circle to make the brush make a line. It worked like a charm.

I'd say the more the better, unless it is too much and drippy. But you want it to be mostly solid coloured.

Step Four:
Pour sparkles over the modge podge. I have NO pictures of this because, well, it was messy! What I did was pour over the stem first, then, when I was out of sparkles, put it back in the cup and poured over another area, etc, etc until I was done.

Step Five: 
Set to dry.

So nice! The light sucks, so the colours aren't perfect here, but close. Lots of shine too!

Step Six/Seven (TBD):
I haven't done this step yet, but I will tell you what is next. After these dry I will modge podge them again with no sparkles. I did save some sparkles in case there are bald spots. After the next layer of modge podge to seal these suckers in, I am going to spray the glitter with a layer of Krylon Clear Spray Paint. I bought this a LONG time ago to seal a cup that Mr. Sunshine got from kids at work, but have used it for countless crafts since. I love it!


TOTAL COST
For four glasses, this was a fairly cheap craft! I spent the following:
$5-- 4 glasses @ $1.25 each from Dollar Tree
$3 -- 3 glitter packs (and tons left over) @ $1.00 each from Dollarama
$3 -- Modge Podge small bottle with 50% coupon from Michael's
$0.10 -- foam brush a long time ago on sale from Michael's
$Free$ -- Krylon Clear Coat. Considering how little I'm using anyways, maybe $0.25 worth of it?

Total before taxes= $11.10


Anyone else find a great DIY gift they've completed?

~Miss. Sunshine

What a Crap Day

I know I said I wasn't going to update for a bit, but I had to update this:

I got my first ticket.

That's right. And it wasn't one of those $50 fines for something stupid, it was $325 for running a red light! Having never had a red light camera ticket, I found it was very interested how they provided me with THREE pictures, just in case I couldn't figure out it was me, along with the time and the time the light had been red when I blew it..... 0.002 seconds.

Now, I'm not one to fight things unless I feel I was wronged, and I feel wronged. I completely remember this day because I had just changed lanes to behind a transport truck and as I was backing off, we went through the intersection. I couldn't see over the truck until it was too late to stop, and at that time it was yellow. I remember going through the light, having seen it had turned red, going "Crap... oh well. Not much I can do now."

So Mr. Sunshine helped me rattle through the ideas of what to do. We were given three options: Fight in court, fight by phone if you live more than 75 km away, or plead guilty and pay. I have two days to decide to do option 1 or 3. I cannot take Friday off work, so that leaves today only to fix things. The big problem? To fight it and argue about the transport truck hindering my view (whom you can clearly see in the picture), I would have to take today off work JUST to go to the court house that is already 20 minutes from my work to wait in an hours long line to submit my paperwork. I would then have to return on the day they request (which will of course have to be June 7th when I have a very important conference to attend), and spend HOURS waiting around to be heard.

With no demerit points taken and no license suspensions or issues, and of course, with Mr. Sunshine's blessing I have decided to pay the fine and suck it up. It sucks, but I did run the light and I don't have the time to spend two days in court, especially during report card writing season.

*sigh*

On the other hand, it makes me so sick thinking about it. I must be too much of a perfectionist.

Well, one 14 hour day has been completed with two more to go. Last night I went to a Kindergarten Conference and it was quite good, as it is every year. I learned, I networked, I met up with a bunch of people I know and only see when I am at Kindergarten events. It was great. Tonight is parent council and the agenda seems to be quite short, so I am holding them to it. I am exhausted to the point where I am going to be buying red bull and 5 hour to stay awake for everything. Then I'm going to come home, go to bed early, and do it again tomorrow.

Anyone else having stress? Any tickets that caused you chest pains (hehe)?


~Miss. Sunshine

Busy Bee!

We picked up our CD of engagement pictures yesterday and you KNOW I am dying to post a few online, but I am really busy until Saturday, unfortunately, and then busy again Sunday. In fact, DIY has gone out the window (although I know what I'm tackling next) for the next little while.

New priorities include report card writing, workshop tonight, parent council tomorrow and dress fitting Friday with mother's day celebrations all day Sunday! So busy! Hopefully I will post again soon!

~Miss. Sunshine

Need a New Project

Because I am so bored! But let's recap today first, shall we?

Mr. Sunshine and I headed out around noon today and looked at antiques. We found... well... nothing, but we both like looking anyways. After antique hunting we came home, cleaned up the house and then went out looking for open houses to peruse. One cool house and one lame open house later we decided to walk the dogs.

Then I decided to mail our invitations.

And I almost cried.

I have heard, many times, on many blogs, that when you mail those invites it is a bit heart wrenching. I think it's because you spend so much time creating them, painstakingly designing, cutting, folding, gluing, assembling and burning yourself with them, that when they are sent out is it almost sad.

As I think about this, I think I can actually list all of the sad parts:
- All my hard work is in the hands of Canada Post. Need I say more?
- It's all becoming official.
- I have very few days left of wedding planning and DIY's, which I'm actually enjoying doing.
- It means that we can't cancel our wedding now. JUST KIDDING MR. SUNSHINE! You know I'm gonna marry you no matter what!

Anyways, as I walked away, my heart a little sadder, I told Mr. Sunshine that it was sad and I wanted to cry a bit. And do you know what that wonderful man said? He said, "But at least you did it with your whole family."

So of course I looked over and saw all of them staring up at me and just wanted to cry more because that was so true and so happy! But I didn't. Mostly because we were on the main street and I didn't want to look like a fool outside the town post office.

Who couldn't love a face like that?

 But now, here I am, at home and with nothing to do. Six invites left to go out, bouquets and bouts to finish, escort cards and menus to complete and that's about it. How sad is that? I've spent all day scouring the web for some new ideas of DIY's and found a few to keep myself busy, but this truly sucks. Maybe when I go for my fitting on Friday I will hate my veil or boots or jewellery and then force myself into another project to keep busy. Wouldn't it be nice?

~Miss. Sunshine

Falling in Love All Over Again... (Semi-DIY Post)

With wedding stuff.

Haha! Tricked you! Or not.

Today when I went to my mom's I got to see my veil again. HUGE backstory on this, so here it goes...

When I went to buy my dress way back in January I knew I for sure wanted a dress that didn't show too much cleavage, was either a lace sheath or a drop waist gown, and it had to be very "me". As a result, I fell in love with *my* dress (which I cannot post on here because of damned Mr. Sunshine!). Anyways, there was really only one thing I knew I had to have, and that was a cathedral length veil.

I've never been one to dream about weddings as a little girl and imagine the perfect centrepiece or guy, but I sure as hell always had the perfect veil. For me, it was a veil that was long, flowing, delicate, beautiful and just... right. As I was blinging up my dress while trying it on they brought me a short elbow length veil, and I didn't love it. I asked for longer and fell in love! The veils I tried on were gorgeous with prices tags to match them. Anywhere from $400-$1000 for the veil only. I couldn't justify it and knew I could get a deal if I looked around.

One day, while looking, I stumbled on a tutorial for how to make your own veil. I figured for the $15 in materials, if I screwed it up completely, I wouldn't be totally upset. Let me tell you, it came out beautifully! I carefully measured and cut the tulle. I made a template and cut out a perfect rounded edge. I bunched like a pro and sewed it to the comb. I tried it on and part of my died of happiness!

But it wasn't enough.

I wanted more.

So I went online and decided to learn how to bead the edge of my veil. I painstakingly learned that there were three methods to this total madness. The first is to hand sew on each bead (and I estimated I would need 2000 or so). The second was to bead together strings of beads and then sew or glue each strand on. The final method was to hand glue each bead. Needless to say I did the second method.

$30 in AB swaroski crystals and $20 in pearls later, plus several tens of hours of time, I had about 20 one foot strands of beads. I hand knotted each strand to the veil 30 times, and then cut each thread. I also glued the ends of each strand together to ensure that there were no gaps. It took almost 100 hours, but it looked gorgeous. To finish it off I bought a variety of different sized pearls and glued them to the comb to cover the bunching. I fell in love.

Then disaster struck. The strands were coming undone and the beads were coming off! On top of that, the 30 knots in each strand had been cut too close to the knots and those were coming off too! I almost cried and swore and screamed, but instead I grabbed out my E-6000 and glued that sucker firmly to the veil in way too many places.

So back to today.

Today I saw my veil hanging in the closet for the first time in months and nearly cried. It looked like everything I could possibly imagine and more. It was so beautiful, delicate and with just a touch of sparkle-- I couldn't believe it. Hours later I am still thinking about it and it made me think-- maybe I should be "ignoring" my DIY's for awhile after I've done them so I can truly appreciate them. Maybe seeing them scattered around the house everyday is taking away from my appreciation for the beauty I am creating.

Anyone else have these types of moments?

~Miss. Sunshine

Dress Disasters

My bridesmaids dresses have been what I can only call a disaster. The bridesmaids picked out a dress that was $250 including taxes. Originally they were paying for them, so I found them online through netbride for $170 including taxes, plus duty and customs. Of course that was estimated at about $40 and ended up being $40 PER DRESS. So now we are in these dresses for $210 each.

But it gets worse.

Because they chose the dress from a website, we had to order them from a website using measurements. So we painstakingly measured ten times JUST to be sure and I ordered the appropriate sized dress. Or so I thought. These dresses came in Thursday and are TOO BIG. Way too big. My sister, for example, will need the bust taken in about 2 inches. Insanity!

So with all this wedding stress going on, I delegated the task of finding someone to hem and take in these dresses without ruining them, because I can't do that right now. My mom, stressing as I was, decided to do this and found a tailor with great recommendations. Today I call the tailor and apparently she used to actually custom make bridesmaid and bridal gowns, but got out of it because she hated the bridezillas.

What does this mean?

A happy me now :)

As of next Monday those girls will be fitted poked and prodded until the dresses are ready for some reconstructive surgery, and the tailor is quoting us about $50 per dress for the hem and side seams.

In the end, this crazy gamble didn't break the bank, although it certainly didn't save much money! The place I got my bridal dress does have this dress available, but for $250+ alterations (around $40 for the hem alone) we are thankfully not broke yet.

Any one else suffer from an online bridal disaster?

~Miss. Sunshine

May the Forth Be With You!

You know it!

 Okay, now that that tidbit is done on this fine Friday, a story about Pedro.

Mr. Sunshine and I moved into our little house just over a year ago and we were warned not to go too far into the back yard because a groundhog lived there. I grew up in the country and am well acquainted with gopher holes, garter snake nests and fox burrows, but Mr. Sunshine grew up in the city and had no idea what we were in store for!

Well, last year we only ever got close enough to see this:

Giant mound of dirt, a.k.a. Pedro's old house

And this year, PEDRO HAS APPEARED! In fact, Pedro, as Mr. Sunshine named him, has now come to make very regular occurrences in our backyard, just wandering around, and has even started a new home under the giant rock of death. Our only sad news is that we have never been able to take a picture of poor old Pedro because he is so shy. And we had a flood last night, so no idea if he survived it.

Pedro's new home!

Are you still alive Pedro? Did you survive the flood? Did it require the building of an arc?

Poor, crazy Pedro.

Oh, and we also have no idea if he is the same elusive groundhog as last year, or perhaps this is actually Pedrina. No clue.

With that being said, Happy Friday! I hope everyone is enjoying their creature comforts tonight :)

~Miss. Sunshine

(and Pedro)

Not actually Pedro, but a good represenation

The First Wedding Planning Fight

Now, I have to say, before I write about this, that I am quite impressed that it took until 11 weeks out to have a fight about this! I'd say we did okay!

Now the fight.

Yesterday I was putting together a projected seating chart, which is really, really quite hard! Anyways, I put together the seating chart and Mr. Sunshine looks at the list and goes, "Where's so and so?" (We'll call him Bob). I say, "Who the heck is Bob?" And he goes, "You know? Bob? I go out for drinks with him all the time?" Needless to say I am now COMPLETELY confused because in 2 and a half years, Mr. Sunshine has not gone out with anyone named Bob! But apparently he stopped around the time he met me and he already told Bob he could come to the wedding.

This annoyed me, signficantly, for a few reasons:
1. I just finished all the invitations and now I have to do another one.
2. He has to track down a new address.
3. Our food quote was for 60, we are already at 61 and now this will be 63.
4. We likely have to add a new table.
5. IT IS MONTHS AFTER WE MADE THE GUEST LIST.

I think number 5 bothers me the most, only because Mr. Sunshine was forced to look over that list almost monthly since January and just now tells me about Bob and his wife.

So after a bit of frustration and Mr. Sunshine playing the "but you have so many people coming from your side" and me playing the "Gah! Those are my parents friends, not mine!" and he playing the "Okay we don't HAVE to have them, I guess", he won and I added them in.

I mean, I would have added them in anyways, but it's annoying!

Did someone change your guest list on you near the end of the planning process? Did it cause any issues? What about your first wedding fight? What was yours about?

~Miss. Sunshine

A Very Productive Sick Day

As I mentioned previously, I took today off sick since I spent yesterday hunched over coughing and lost my voice. It was a VERY productive day, too!

One thing I was proud of is finishing most (almost all!) of my invites! I am only waiting on 5 addresses and they will be complete. Here is the sexy back of those suckers and the giant pile of "Yay! I'm done!" invites.

W for... well... our last name. And wickedly cool :)

I never thought I'd say this... BUT I HAD TO HAVE NICE STAMPS. Seriously. No one will even notice.

Also, I stumbled across this gem http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/thank-you-gifts-vintage-inspired at the good old weddingbee! I never thought I would consider making a favour-- mostly because I couldn't find anything worth making, but then I saw this. At less than $0.50 a shot and with the cutest little idea ever, I couldn't pass it up. So, after begging for where she got them, I went out and purchased 11 packs of sparkles and beads from dollarama.

The ones on the right-- they are the microbeads and not the sparkles.

As a teacher I saw sparkles and went.. YES!!! SPARKLES!!! The microbeads, of course, came out of the package and left not a spot of residue. The sparkles required an hour of washing to get all the fricken sparkles out. I hate you sparkles.

And I bet I'll still have to wash most of them again...

But in the end, I am left with 66 micro-mini bottles that I will fill with seeds and add a cute tag to and I will get a cute favour. How small and adorable are these, you ask? Here is a comparison against my new favourite pen that I used to write my invitations and just about anything else wedding related.

Ahhhh! So cuteeeee!

Anything you've started last minute and fallen in love with? How much were your favours per person? Did you do favours? Change your mind at the last minute?

~Miss. Sunshine

Soon... Soon that will be us

I am writing this compliments of a vapourizor that ran all night providing comforting wet humidity into my crap lungs. So, compliments to that, before we begin.

I am very active on a sight called "Weddingbee". Love it. I tend to go on at least once or twice a day to read the blog or see the board or even ask a few questions of my own. Since we have hit the "less than three month mark" a few days ago, I have started seeing those boards in a new light. It used to be I'd look at the recaps of weddings and scour for decor and music ideas. I used to look at ceremony pictures and look carefully to see what type of dress, flowers and signing table was used-- but not anymore.

Today I was looking through a recap and all I could see was love and happiness. All I could think about was "God... I can't wait for that to be us."

With most of the wedding now complete except choosing music (which is Mr. Sunshine's job), finishing flowers and bouts (almost done), gathering pictures and frames (almost complete) and grabbing a few last minute items like fans and flat shoes, I have started to really enjoy my last few months as an engaged woman, which I hadn't really got to do up until now.

People say they hate or love these long or short engagements, and I'm on the fence. The time between Mr. Sunshine proposing and our marriage is 7 months and 2 days. It might sound like a lot, but if you think about it, it has been over 4 months and I still haven't enjoyed our engaged time yet! There is always some pressing matter to be dealt with. On the flipside, it will be over and done with quite quickly and I won't half to be engaged longer than we were dating for. I would think it would be hard to start if your engagement is too long.

Regardless, what is done is done and Mr. Sunshine and I are quite happy (right Mr. Sunshine?). Today I am going to finish off the invitations I have addresses for (4 more to finish and 8 more to get addresses), maybe finish a bridal bouquet and bridesmaids bouquets, and perhaps those bouts can stop bothering me and be finished as well!

Are you enjoying your engagement? Was it long? Short? In between?

~Miss. Sunshine