Testing the Waters with Fabric Bouquet

This is the first fabric bouquet project I've ever been a part of. Me and my friend made a shot of making one for her sister's wedding. It's our first project together and our first time to make one. As agreed, aside from the requested hair piece, I'll make the fabric flowers for the bouquet and she will put all the pieces together. But because of the excitement, I joined the fun.

What I did was I made a flower that somehow resembles Tulip. The colors of the fabric were a mix of cream, pink, and lavender - the bride's choice of colors. I added some sparkly accent on the center of the flower. The handle was wrapped with jute string and the bouquet was surrounded with pink tulle and some lace under. 

Overall, we were amazed how this DIY bouquet came out. We never knew that with simple materials, some creativity, and a dash of imagination we were able to create something that would be a part of a lifetime memory. 

And because of this, I began my fabric bouquet journey. 

Little Girl on Her 5th! ♥

Today is my daughter's 5th birthday and we are so proud of all her achievements at such an early age. 

Her celebration, this time, is a bit different from her previous birthdays. Since she's in school already, she requested to celebrate her birthday with her classmates. She specifically wanted to blow candles on her birthday cake, have some ice cream and eats snacks with her friends.

And we obliged. *smile*

Now that she's 5, she can really appreciate and truly enjoy such celebrations. She knows it's her day and she's been excited the whole time!

She's been doing a Birthday countdown, every day!

Every time she wakes up or even at any random time, she would always ask me, "Mommy, how many days before my birthday?!" And she really squeaks when I say it's getting nearer. Until one day, she's the one who's already reminding me how near her birthday is. Lol! Kids!

After her celebration in school, we had one surprise for her. From the school, we went a different way that is very familiar to her. She was already wondering and asking if we're going to swim. And no, I didn't answer. Instead, I continued changing her uniform to a swimwear. Until she realized and got really really excited! Lol! She loves the water, she just loves the pool. Hopefully, we could get her to attend swimming lessons so she could fully enjoy the waters. Now, that needs to be taken cared of, it's a bit hard to find swimming lessons here in Bohol.

Then after our swim, we went home and took some rest - well for her that is because I cooked dinner! *grin*

The day ended with sumptuous dinner over at my half-sister's place. It was really fun, especially the part where she opened her gifts! There's a lot of cheering going on!

Happy Birthday, my dear CL! Thank you for continuously giving us laughs with your wild and crazy antics, surprising us with your witty talks, for melting our hearts with your sweet gestures and I love yous, for being smart, and for being such a good girl.

I love you, my Little Girl!

♥♥♥ 

Nia&Bella's 1st Batch of Poppies

Doing these fabric flowers was a hit and miss affair for me. The hardest part in creating fabric flowers are determining the measurements, the thickness, and the perfect fabric to use to get the possible outcome you've been targeting. 

Being a first timer back then, I was determined to master my craft through trials and errors. of course, to achieve my goal there were a lot of fabrics burned and wasted. But nevertheless, the time and effort were all well spent because I have already figured out the right "ingredient" for my craft. 

One of the examples of my trials were these small organza flowers. Really, organzas are the hardest fabric to work with and the longest that I've learned to work with because they easily melt! If you're not that good in controlling the burning, nothing will be left from your material. And because of this, I don't advise to use organza for small flowers. 

   

This, on the other hand, I used a white ribbon and cut out small pieces to form this fabric flower. However, it looked flat. I wanted a fabric flower that somehow looked real. So I didn't continue on making and using the same ribbon/fabric again. 

Now, this peach fluffy fabric flower was a success. However, I didn't recreate the center because it was very time-consuming to make. Instead, I used different types of beads for the center detail. The use of faux pearls, crystal beads, and semi-precious stones accentuates the fabric flowers and made them more beautiful. And because they turned out perfect, this became an all-time favorite in my shop and sold out fast. I even had a huge version of these used in my 1st fabric bouquet. 

The City Port

"A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. Sail out to sea and do new things."

- Grace Hopper

My First MTO (make-to-order): White Morning Star

During the early years of my fabric flower making, I accepted a project that I thought I cannot do successfully. I accepted a made-to-order job for the first time. This client, who is a regular now, specifically wanted a flower made of organza fabric. 

For me, organza is one of the most difficult fabrics to work with. It's very delicate and easily burns. So if you're not good at controlling the fire during the burning process, you'll end up a lot of pieces with a big burnt hole. And that's not good.

Armed with white organza fabric, I made a few samples for the client and agreed with a chosen design. From there, I made a few tweaks on the pattern from the original sample I did - and that's what I used for production.

Thankfully, the client liked what I did. I made 86 pcs. and it's overwhelming to see these flowers - I never thought I could finish that much! And what's nice about this, is these babies are now in Australia! The client used them for an invitation card bound to Australia. So you couldn't imagine how happy I am when I heard about it. Very worth it!

And of course, it didn't stop there. I already made more in different colors - yellow, black, pink, green, light blue.

If you're wondering what name I gave for this collection, that would be Morning Star - the definition of my client's name.

The Little Girl and the Corn

It was supposed to be a fun vacation in the south with my family, yet we didn't fully enjoy it. Just as we arrived in Cagayan de Oro my little girl already had a low-grade fever, only to find out next day that she was having a Chickenpox.
Why of all day?! 
In the end, we didn't get to attend the family reunion and we didn't get a chance to go to Davao to visit her ninang. But nothing can stop this little girl, she still had wonderful memories from her first visit there. She still got to play with some of her cousins, she danced her heart out on the dance floor, and vigorously removed the corn from the cob or as we call it lobo og mais.
And to my daughter: next time my dear, we would create wonderful memories on our next visit there, and hopefully, your daddy could come with us. *smile*

Heartbreaker Ride

Oh you TransAsia, you never fail to break my heart! Why do I always have an adrenaline-rush-kind of a ride with you?! I hope, someday, when we get to our next adventure again, it would be a calm and smooth sail. 'Til next!