081 - A gift for my lovely ladies

If you remember some time a go I made this felt flowers to use on my girl’s gift, and I actually changed my mind so many times about how to make what I’m about to show you!
 

Ok girls the flower is all your allowed to see…

(If you’re one of my BM DO NOT read on, Please!! –

Si eres una de mis damas NO LEAN este post, por favor!!)

080 – The day is getting close

And I’m not talking about our wedding day, I’m talking about a day we have waited for 9 months...

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... we will finally be reunited!!

Yeah! In exactly 12 days from today I’ll have my visa interview, and hopefully a couple of weeks later I’ll be on a plain with baby Curly, on my way to go marry Mr. Poodle - YAY!! …And even though I’m extremely excited about that, I’m not so happy about the packing, the amount left of paperwork Curly and I need to travel, and the fact that I’m still struggling with the emotional aspects of this move.

079 – Poodle goes sexy

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Ok maybe not this kind of sexy! but I do think feathers are HOT!

Recently I started thinking about two things, what to wear for the Boudoir pictures I plan to make for Mr. Poodle and what to wear for our after party. So since I don't have those kind of sexy clothes on my closet I started the search for ideas.

( This is one of those post YOU CAN NOT read if your name is Mr. Poodle! Muchas gracias Amor! )

078 - A Bee’s Life: El turno de Miss Poodle

… Because you think you know, but you have no idea…
I’ve always wanted to write that, and here is a post that it finally works for. No, I don’t think I’m an MTV superstar, but this series is kind of like MTV’s“Diary”, but the Weddingbee version! 
So now, mi historia…

A little background:
I was not one of those girls that dreamed about weddings, but there was one thing that caught my attention early on in my life: Barbie dolls’ clothes. I couldn’t have cared less about the dolls, but I was interested in the clothes. I made my first Barbie wedding dress out of toilet paper when I was 7 years old.
Dresses were the only thing I knew about weddings when Mr. Poodle and I started to talk about wedding planning. Feeling extremely overwhelmed, (I was so clueless about the whole wedding world) I started Googling every single wedding term (in Spanish). The week after Mr. Poodle told his parents about our engagement, I got a package from my FMIL with a big fat wedding planning book and a few bridal magazines! It was exactly what I needed (Thank you again, B!). I read everything she sent me. One of my magazines had an article about the best online wedding planing resources.

Finding Weddingbee:
That magazine lead me to The Knot. And like many of you, I was overwhelmed by all the information. But most of all, I was overwhelmed by all the tiny little details that had not-so-tiny prices.
In one of the magazines, I ran into a weird acronym.

I had no idea it was going to be the magic word… DIY!  (How did I manage to live without that word?) I had no idea what it meant back then, but once I typed it in to  my browser, magic happened. Besides finding the actual meaning, I found tons of DIY projects made by (my now fellow) bees. The DIY tag was what actually hooked me to this site, and in no time I found myself stalking Weddingbee!
Yes! It was the most beautiful discovery! There were actually other brides making projects for their weddings, they were talking about the same problems I was going through, and there were also boards where brides helped each other in the nicest way I’ve read. At that point my mind was blown! I wanted to be a part of this community!

Applying to Bee:
At a really young age I found out that I had a huge love for sharing and teaching. I would often be the one offering help to my classmates and sharing my ideas. Helping has always been something that made me smile. So, being able to share my ideas was my main temptation to apply to be a bee.
I started my wedding blog because I wanted to share with and include Mr. Poodle and his family in the process. (Before I started blogging I would email them each idea I had and would attach pictures or PDF files… it was a mess!) Second, and more importantly, I saw blogging as a really good chance to practice and improve my English.
I didn’t actually consider applying until one of my blogger friends, FlipFlopBride, suggested I do so.
But in my mind, the chance that I would be accepted was so tiny! Why? My main concern was that my English might not have been good enough for the blog. But I fought all my fears and filled out an application with butterflies in my stomach. After I read Mrs. Penguin’s post about the application timeframe, I was ready to push SEND!
Only a few days after I sent my application, I got an email from Weddingbee, and I was SO EXITED! I was accepted! And, the best part was that I was introduced the very next day! Everything happened so quickly that I could hardly sleep for those next few days. Instead of dreaming about my wedding, I was dreaming about Weddingbee instead! I was so amazed by all the kind words and the fact that I was a bee!

Why Miss Poodle?:
As I’ve show you all (in pretty much all of my posts), the reason I chose poodle is because of my dear baby poodle, Curly. But by the time I got accepted, there were also a lot of weather icons available, and they were all so cute! I felt so tempted to be Miss Moonbeam or Drew Drop, but in the end, I thought about my personality and the fact that I’m so much like my dog: I’m really goofy, and I literally jump around whenever I get excited. So, Poodle WAS the perfect fit for me. (Mr. Poodle is still bummed that he doesn’t have a manly name… I bet he would have been happier being a Power Ranger! LOL)
Beeing a BEE:
I can seriously say that I’m not only addicted to WB, but also to blogging. Each time I do something, or something happens to me, I take a crazy amount of pictures and I’m thinking about how I can blog about it.
Being a part of this community has allowed me to fully enjoy wedding planning, even though it’s sometimes been crazy and stressful. The fact that I getbto inspire a brides to get back into crafts, and the thank you emails I sometimes recieve has brought tears to my eyes! Yes, I’m pretty emotional. I admire so many of the bees, and I think I’m really lucky to be in such an amazing group of talented ladies (and guys!).

Advice?
Well, I still think of myself as a relatively new bee, after all, I’ve only been one for only 8 weeks. But here are some tips I’ve learned during my short time as a blogger:

• Many bees talk about finding your voice. I think I’m still on the search for mine, or maybe I’ve found it, but just don’t know I have yet. I think blogging with confidence is important.
• Just like in life, not everyone will like or relate to the situations you’re in or the decisions you’ll make. There will always be people that won’t agree with you, and sometimes you get really negative comments. When that happens, you need to raise your head up high and keep blogging. When you blog, you put yourself out there, and you’ll need to grow really thick blogger skin.
• A picture is worth a thousand words, so sometimes the best way to showcase an idea in pictures or in drawings. I read blogs by scrolling through the pictures first, and then I read the blog. So pictures, to me, are very important!
• Be yourself, but always keep in mind that ANYONE can read waht you’re writing. So, always be careful with your words… don’t write something you wouldn’t want someone out there to find and read.

So all I have left to do is say THANK YOU to the hive! Thank you for inspiring me, reading about me, and for all the support… you rock!
Besos! - Miss Poodle <3

077 - Amazing news!... and "The beggining"

 I Officially passed my medical exam for the visa! YAY - Some of you would wonder "But didn't you already share with us that your case was approved?" I know! Visa process are looooong and there's a gazillion steps, what I was celebrating back then  was getting our NOA2 (Second notice of action) after that, our case was sent to the US Embassy here in Chile, where they scheduler our interview, but before that I needed to pass my medical exam, witch I DID officially yesterday! Now I'll have to sit patiently again until my interview the first week of October, so cross your finger for me :)

 Now, since we dont have one of those "aww..." proposal stories, I thought I should share the story of how we met instead. On my very first post I shared a little about how we actually met, yes! it was while I was hitchhiking...

{ This is not the picture of the day I met Mr. Poodle, But back then I thought it was SO FUNNY to have a picture of me hitchhiking, because I thought it was "one of those things" 
I would never do - Seriously!}

Back in December 2006 I went to California on a work exchange program, I worked on a small Sky Resort on the San Bernardino Mountains; everything was pretty new to me and I was the only one on the resort that went all alone (All the other international went there on groups of friends). I stayed with 10 more Chileans and Argentinians on a house – I know! CRAZY! our house was a complete mess hehe.

On my first week at work I run into a shocking discover - This happen to me because Iwas so excited about being hired that I didn’t pay attention to this little detail - there was NO public transportation for the workers! (ok there was one Marta buss each morning, but not the kind you will trust to be on time each day) :O - so almost against my will I found myself hitchhiking to work :(.

We did small 2 to 4 people groups with the other Chileans I lived with to hitchhike (I completely hated it the first day - I was sooo embarrassed!).

On the second day, my roommate and I jumped in and just like the day before, I sit next to the driver, because I was the one not SO scared about chatting on English. But this time the driver was a guy (Si, era Mr. Poodle!) he was extremely nice and funny - I think his sense of humor completely caught my attention so  after I jump out of the truck (without asking him if he did work there) I thought "Yay! today was SO much better!"

Later that morning I was outside changing a trash bag out of a frizzed trashcan - What a girly thing to do on a cold winter morning? (yup I did whatever they ask me to do on the resort) So I saw him again - walking my direction on his Sky Patrol uniform - with a weird look on his face he offered help (I was kicking that trashcan as hard as I could to break the ice on the bottom) he tried hard to show how strong he was, kicking it "like a man", but didn't work - It was not the most romantic situation but there was sparks all over!! :)

{ Really fast I realize our personalities were a perfect match - California 2006}

It was almost a love at first sign kind of thing, after seeing each other for the first time, we would often look for each other around the resort. A month after we first met we started dating. When the sky season ended I stayed a few extra weeks to travel around, he then asked me to stay to see him graduate from the Fire Academy.

{ How could I say no to that handsome man! :P - Joshua Tree 2007}

Fast forward about 2 years with a few trips for the both of us (to go see each other), and we finally decided that we didn’t want to be apart anymore and started the paperwork for a fiancé visa (You know it Mrs D’orsay, we can buuuu! together!), this normally takes about 4 months, but we were hoping it could be faster – Um Nop! We are already pass the 6 months mark and I’m still living in Chile, but I’ll be moving soon so I should NOT complain :) - USCIS I love you! hehe


I’m sure there’s a lot of really funny/sweet/not so normal ways of meting your Mr. on the hive! Want to share yours?  :)

076 - Packing up your wedding?

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Moving is never an easy task, I’ve moved more than 10 times in my life, but only once before to a different country, back then I was only 7 years old and I could not understand why I had to leave all of my toys here in Chile, why I was not allowed to bring all of them with me to Argentina? – Well now, 20 years later I KNOW!!

I’m at the point where I need to start packing so I can know the weight/size of all the things I need to carry with me, and the ones I’ll have to ship to California. I’m starting to wonder how much of my stuff I’ll be able to take there, I’ve had feedback form people over VisaJourney, but the one that moves on all cases are guys, and well, they can fit everything on two suitcases, CRAZY!

I’ll be carrying with me most of my wedding related items, why? Because I’m a crazy bride, I’ve been putting so much work/love into my projects that I just can’t ship those and give a chance for them to get lost on the mail (yeah Mr. Poodle and I have lost several presents/letters over mail on the last two years) The good thing is that because I knew I had to travel with my projects I’ve been only making small and light projects, so I can carry them easily.

Last weekend I finally finish and start the packing on one of my dearest and more time consuming projects: My origami flowers, this little guys have being with me for over two months, yeah I was that crazy girl on the subway folding flowers, SI! That was me again on the waiting room of the doctor, I folded every time I could and after several hours (and the help of MOH, sister and mom) we fold 1,025 purple pedals, and that’s exactly 205 flowers, because it was easier to transport them as single pedals we didn't glue them together, that's for later, hopefully I'll get help on that task too hehe

I'm so glad the folding is over :)

But now I had to think about a way to store the pedals so they would not get damage, at first I thought about just filling spots with those after I pack my clothes, but I found out there are super delicate, that was not an option, I had to do something else, I had to pack them :(   (Sad face because that means I had to arrange them = time consuming)

{ So glad that I have one of my favorite companies on this task: Curly! - On the right my fat bag full of purple pedals }

{ So I slowly arrange them on piles of ten, then tie them on packages of 50 }

{ Slowly and very carefully started to tie them! I can't tell you how frustrated is to have a pile almost ready to tie and having the collapsed on your face in a big explosion - yeah! 

be careful dont get them too tight }

{ The almost done picture!! yay! - and si esos rulos en la izquierda son: Curly lol }

Now after packing this I got to really feel for destination wedding brides, how you girls do it? have you experience packing really close to your wedding?

075 - Seating card Inspiration

This was definitely one of the thousands of things I learn by staking WeddingBee - Since I've attended only two weddings in my life and both of them had someone guiding me to my seat, I had absolutely no idea what a Seating chart and seating cards were until a few months a go, funny huh?

Now that I've been drawn into wedding waters, I've found so many cool/fun seatings ideas that I had to share my favorites.

This first one was one of the ones I likes the most! because we wanted to give our guest a tiny bottle of Pisco as a our wedding favors. That way we could share with them my traditional liquor, but since we want to offer "Pisco Sour" at the reception, giving them more Pisco might be too much. I love the idea of mixing the favor with the card though. :)

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Another idea I loved was to hang the cards on a rope and tie them with clothespin, this is a classic! Love IT! but I dont want to use all that paper on making labels.

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 Now since we have no "official" favor, I thought it would be a cool idea to mix whatever we use as favors to hold the name and table like this cool DIY coasters project, but again too much paper involve.

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So then I searched for some more ideas, maybe seeds on a bag, like the next left image? or those cute nest?

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Maybe Apples or Compasse? Mm I think, I rather stick to my initial idea of something edible as favor.

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Because of that I though about using other non-paper surfaces to write our guest names, and maybe they can be grouped  arround a wood frame with their tale number! SO I though about rocks.

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Or maybe wood, very small pieces, I am still not sure what road to take, but I think once we define what our favor is going to be I could use them as my name surface, or maybe I should just stick to wood and rocks?

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Are you using a non-paper seating card? if so would you like to share? have you seen other ideas I should look at?

074 - Outdoor Chapel

On one of our first "wedding related" conversations Mr. Poodle and I decided to get married in California, because of that we didn't need to to put much thoughts on the venue task, it was one of those things that comes naturally and obviously; every single one of Mr. Poodle's family get-together take place on "the ranch", So he asked me if I wanted to have the ceremony-party there? - Um, So I thought: we dont need reservations to match our by time unknown date (we had just applied to the K1 visa), we can use it for as long as we want, we can be as loud as we want (we might get complains by a bird or two) and it's free? - That was rotund YES!

Having the place set I started the search for Ideas and Inspiration to transform the ranch into our dream wedding venue, if you remember I already shared the fact that the ranch is not the normal "surrounded by green with a classic wood barn" that's why it will not be as easy as attaching some lights to make magic happen. There will be a lot of work involved, happily Mr. Poodle's family is willing to help us as much as they can! yay!

As most of you when Mrs. Frenchie show us this amazing venue, I wished we could use a place like this, but we need to be real, even if we had the money we could not build that *just* for our wedding!

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BUT! we could build something else, a place more "us" to be our own Chapel!

Mr. Poodle's dad is a contractor, so he's collecting material to build our very own version of this amazing outdoor Chapel :) How cool is that?

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The first time I saw this pictures (Probably the same week we talked wedding) I felt in love with it! I email pictures to Mr. Poodle and FMIL, hoping they would like the idea so we could make it, waited patiently (ok biting my nails)  until they wrote back saying they would love to try our own version! :)

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I really think all the hard work ahead will be justify if we get one cute picture of the "grand entrance" like this one. I know, I'm obsessed over this project, the "Outdoor Chapel" was actually my first wedding related dream *blushing*

Then another item cross my mind and when I saw the next picture, I fell in love again, HAY! - On the ranch there's no animals, so there for no hay needed, but I again email FMIL to show her my inspiration pictures, and like the first time, she supported the love I had just found for hay (she's still way more supportive with the love I have for his son tho- lol)

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I love the idea of using hay, but we definitely need to be careful, because on the first wedding pictures I show you, the contrast between the white chairs and the old wood, is what I loved the most. So I need to re-design the 3D model I had made for our Chapel so it doesn't look like an overload of old wood and hay. But I dont complain! after all, how cool is to have a hay couch full of different color pillow?

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So the hay idea was sold!, no chair at this girl's ceremony :) just HAY! - Then I started thinking of not having chairs at all, like this next wedding pictures (even though they did had some normal chair)

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I am still not sure what rout to go, either chair-less  or maybe chairs only for the reception, I have never being on a "hay" seat so I don't really know if my concerns are justify. I know the ceremony will not be long enough for people to get uncomfortable sitting there, and I'm planning on covering the hay so they dont get their clothes dirty. But eating is a whole different situation.

Have you been to a "non conventional seat" reception? have you experience the hay seat? if you did would you recommend it?

073 - My Girls’ Dresses - Part 2: BM Sister

The sewing frenzy is ON!

I figure that since I'm asking for your advice on the dress I'll wear "to make it legal" I should star kicking the pending projects I have on the sewing department so I can phisically be able to sew my "other" dream dress :)

If you remember I show you all the first of  My girl's dresses: MOH not so long a go, after I post about it I realize i forgot to mention one little detail I was attempting to conquer. I wanted MOH dress to be REVERSIBLE!! how cool would that be? Of course she was excited about the idea too, she would have the purple I wanted as one dress, and the purple she picked (a much darker one) on the other side as dress number 2! and here a little peek of the MOH dress and a close up to the inner fabric color and texture.

{ I really liked the contrast on the different colors and textures fabric }

But now to the dress story I wanted to share!

This is Poodle sister :) She is a 15 year old girly girl, crazy over Jonas Brothers and one of my best friends. She means the world to me, but when it comes to design for her, she can be a pain in the butt. Like any normal teenager she changes her mind prob every day - Um ok I do that too, so I should not complain! lol

{ Poodle sister and I at her Middle School (Educación Básica here) graduation }

Anyway, we saw probably 50 different dresses so she could have an idea of what she wanted, on a month she changed her mind 6 times, so even though I was on a risk that she would change her mind again, I started cutting fabric with no turning back. We started with the bottom of her dress, she wanted pockets and a different feel to what I did with MOH's bottom dress.

{ For the bottom I cut two big circles, folding the fabric leaving the clear color 2" longer }

I sew everything like she wanted and moved to the top. As usual I used my dear newspaper to make my pattern and measure it on my sister, because well I'll make my DIY dress form after the wedding :)

{ I measure and play with the newspaper and tape to fit the desire form }

{ Then I cut the newspaper pattern to both of the fabrics, I also made a little piece to tie the center }

{ I pin everything on place to sew it easily - on the left you can see the details of the bottom part }

I sew everything together really fast so by the time Sister Poodle was out of the shower she could not change her mind - lol

{ Here's the first fit, I still needed to sew the details on the front }

I cut sister Poodle's head on that picture because she was not happy with the way the dress fit her.

A little behind the scenes - while I was figuring out the dress and sewing like a crazy woman guess how was on my lap the whole time!?? ... yeah! your right! CURLY! Every time I made him leave he will wait until I had to sew again and jump to my lap, but I was almost done so I call my sister again.

{ There's no way to make him leave when he's comfortable hehe }

On the first fitting she was giving me the "I'm not wearing this dress" kind of look because she said the ladies were feeling weird, but I fixed the problem, finish the front sew the straps to the back and force her to take her pajamas to "really feel" the fit of the dress.

{ Second fit and FINALLY a happy face!!! }

After the second fit she loved it!! I still need to iron it, but I really liked the way it looks :)
Happy BM = Happy Bride!

{ Final dress! two done, two to go! }

Now the dress is done, but I though we could spice it up a little bit by adding a sash with some little flowers on the waist - So in order to convince Poodle sister this idea could work, I had to show her the flowers I wanted to use. Trying not to burn my fingers like I did with my Hair flower, I created 4 of this flowers in different sizes.

{Sealing - sewing - ready! }

This is the story of the second dress so far, I still need to convince my sister we can do something else to the dress, but I'm happy for today. I got her to like the dress and I'm happy with that, mission accomplish!!

But I could really use any input or ideas,what else would you add to this dress?



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Previously:

My Girls' Dresses - Part1: MOH

072 - A dress to make it legal

A few months ago, Mr. Poodle an I decided we were going to marry “on paper” months before we say “I do” next January at his grandparents’ ranch.

Even though neither of us wanted to be legally married before our wedding celebration, we had to go this route after finding out that I wont be able to work until 3 to 4 months after we file for my AOS (Adjustment of Status - that’s the step that follows the legal marriage). It takes that long to get a Green Card (job permit) in the mail.

So basically, we had two options:

• I could move there and work on the wedding planning for about two months, forget the idea of trying to get a job, and we would get married in January and apply for AOS after that. This would give me an extra 3 to 4 months to sit on my butt and try to find something to do after the wedding.
  
• OR, I could move to California and we could just sign the papers to “make it legal”, and apply for the AOS as soon as possible. I could use the time waiting for the AOS to process to craft and go crazy over our wedding related tasks! This way, the timing would work out almost perfectly, giving me just a couple of weeks after the wedding to start the search for a job.

We decided the last option was the way we wanted to go and also decided that the “legal date” will not be important to us. We’ll celebrate our anniversary on our wedding ceremony date, not the “legal date”.  Actually, none of our friends know about this (only our families - and now YOU! :P). Plus, I don’t want to be address as a MRS. after that day, because we are not giving that date the symbolism of the “BIG STEP” we will be making. We will call each other husband and wife only after our January event.


So, it’s not a big deal, and I bet Mr. Poodle will wear short pants and a shirt that day. BUT, I’m a girl!!! I can’t help it! I need a cute DRESS!

I know I’ll have some other occasions to wear cute dresses to, like a shower (If I happen to have one) or the rehearsal. But I know we will end up taking at least one picture that day, and I don’t want to be in shorts and a shirt.

I still have a lot of work to do in the sewing department (finishing the top of my dress, table runners, and 3 BM dresses), but I’ll have nothing else to do once I move, since I’ll lose my actual job. (Yay! Oh no, I mean… boo. :P) So, another dress project would be great!

So, here are my inspiration dresses!! I though it would be nice to have a “bridal-looking” dress, with soft colors, a wavy look, and cute flower accessories.

 - Rose and Ruby Inspiration

Maybe a little hint of color like on the right ones?

{ Dresses From Rose and Ruby - via Beauty and Lace }

Then I headed over to one of my favorite places where I like to web window shop—Anthropologie! I found these two cute little dresses that I really liked. They’re not totally bridal, but I could easily wear any of these  again!


- Anthropologie Inspiration

{ Clustered Pedals Dress by Anthropologie }

{ Behind-the-Clouds Dress by Anthropologie }

Then, I stumbled upon Sika Designs. I’ve had these dresses saved on my computer and needed an excuse to make something similar ever since I started the search my wedding dress. I was so blown away by these  cuties!



- Sika Designs Inspiration

{ Dresses from Sika Designs - Fusion Collection }

{ Dresses from Sika Designs -  Wonderland and Spellbound Collection}

I have so much inspiration in my head that I need some help choosing an option, because I like everything, and I can’t make 3 dresses!

As far as we know, we’ll be signing the legal papers soon after I move to California. So weather will not be a huge factor, and I could pretty much wear any of the above dresses.

[POOL]

• Rose and ruby Inspiration - Soft colors, lace, waves and ruffles
  
• Anthropologie Inspiration - Solid colors with soft details
  
• Sika Designs Inspiration -  Stamps with "retro king of looking" shapes
  

Which of the dresses do you think I could continue to wear on a daily basis?