Crafty Frustrations

Well, Tuesday came and went without burlap dyeing, but I started off this morning with a whistling teakettle to make a giant vat of extra strong tea. I left the sun tea brewing (not sure it can be called sun tea when no sun broke through the gloom, but that was the theory)and started to prepare the burlap. Once I tore off the multiple layers of plastic I began to see the fabric with new eyes. The color was a warmer brown than I thought and I decided to jettison the idea of dyeing the burlap. Big relief, and I think the lawn appreciated the generous tea bath.

I started to print the digital Santa Barbara County lemon labels on the fabric sheets I bought for my ink jet printer. In order to size the images, the labels had to be imported into a word document and then printed. Sounds easy, but this is where the nightmare began. Each of the cotton lawn sheets cost three dollars so I didn't want to make too many mistakes, but my printer kept jamming. I hated wasting all that money, so I decided to try having them printed at Staples. Unfortunately, the finished print was very faded--these sheets only work on ink jets. Coming home, I took my printer apart, washed off all of the rollers, notched the top corners on each sheet and pressed masking tape along the leading edge to weigh it down as it went through the printer. Even with all these precautions the printing only worked 60% of the time. I'll have to invest in two more packages tomorrow.

The fabric labels will be placed on the burlap table runners, a different one for each of the 20 tables. There will be ribbon frames to make it pop on the burlap. I'm going to add a thicker ribbon of a second color in addition to the brown one in the picture.


Starting a different project tomorrow--wedding flags!

New and Improved!

When I finally decided it might be time to update my blog I was delighted to find a few new design options. With a point and a click Oh, Margaret! is now sporting a more whimsical look. There were several other templates I liked, but in the end I thought they were just too pink. Oh, Margaret! and pink are simply not compatible.



I'm also sporting a new hat these days. One that seems to be taking over my life--at least for this summer. I suppose I could wear a traditional Mother of the Bride chapeau on September 25th but since my dear daughter won't be getting married in an English garden I don't think any ornamental headdress will be required. Considering I have a spectacularly large head I am thankful to be spared the ordeal of trying to purchase a hat for the special day.


I am learning that even simple weddings are of course not that simple. The creative side of wedding planning is very fun, but the execution of all our simple ideas is turning into a very complicated process. At the moment I am surrounded by tulle, burlap, ribbon and lots of yellow, green and brown fabric strips. I can't quite imagine how all this will magically turn into Nora's perfect wedding, but I foresee a lot of material for future blog posts. I also foresee generous assistance from crafty family and friends!

On Tuesday my challenge will be to dye 20 yards of natural-colored burlap (future table runners for the reception) into a perfect shade of warm camel/khaki/tan. Unfortunately, this is what one must resort to when one waits too long to order the right color of burlap from the online fabric store. I envision this involving a gigantic vat of sun tea and 2.5 yard lengths of burlap. The process worked with the little 4" burlap square I stuffed into a pyrex measuring cup for 20 minutes...I'm keeping my fingers crossed.