{diy: soft speech bubbles}

Prepare yourselves -- it's going to be a pretty photo-heavy week here at RedRed. Two new cameras (mine and Tilly's), plus a camera-themed birthday party coming up on Saturday. Phew. We'll need our shutters cleaned at the end of this week.

Today, I was making some of the props for the party. I love the idea of little speech bubbles for guests to hold, and set about making some myself out of poster board.

Have you ever tried cutting poster board? It's tough! You hack through one layer, find the tricky board in the middle, and by the time you're through to the other side, you've run out of blade. I tried scissors, a box cutter, an extra sharp fancy paper knife. What worked best, in the end, was Justin's pocket knife and it's seven inch serrated blade. I was very scared for my cutting mat (and my fingers, too), but luckily both survived unharmed.

The edges, though, looked a little rough. Okay, very rough. Like I'd cut them blindfolded. At night. One-handed. With a blunt chainsaw.

Enter half-a-yard o' cream fleece. I simply lay the poster board bubble on top of the fleece, and drew around it, leaving about an inch of extra fleece all the way around.

Ah, the scent of a hot glue gun hard at work. I put a thin layer of glue all around the edge, and pressed the fleece up (being careful not to put my fingers directly over the hot glue -- it burns even through the fleece).

Then, with a quick trim of the excess fleece from the back, the boards were covered. The fleece did a lovely job of softening the hacked-up edges of the poster board.



A few snips in a bit of felt, and we had our messages. Obviously, 'Cheese!' was needed...



... and when I looked through my stash of rejected letters I'd cut for our 'Stars at Night' hanging, the letters spelled out 'Hooray'! Perfect.

To attach the letters, I simply turned them all upside down and gave them a hearty spray with Krylon adhesive. There's a another nice smell for you. Not.

So, there you go. How to make speech bubbles for your photo booth that don't look like something Edward Scissorhands could have made. I can't wait to put them to use...

{three cheers for three years}

Today marks three years since our wonderful wedding in China. And to celebrate three special years together, we've immortalised ourselves onto china! 

Inspired by Donna Wilson's Meg and Beardy plates (which I wrote about here), we loved the idea of a more personal set, that we can eat off or hang on the wall as we fancy. I found Porcelaine pens on sale at the craft shop, and we used two plain white plates that a previous tenant had left in Justin's apartment many years ago. Nice.

Yes, this is Justin writing me a card in front of me. I've accepted that this is how he works. At 8:30am on whatever birthday, anniversary or celebration it might be, Justin runs to Walmart to pick a card. And then writes it while I watch!

We sketched out our designs for the plates on paper first.

And set about trying to make the silly pens work. We shook. And shook. And shook. We pressed. And pressed. And pressed. The brown worked well, for a few minutes. The black never really got going. And the red was only good for giant uncontrollable splodges. I'm not very impressed with Porcelaine.

But, we persevered, and really enjoyed it. Especially the splodging of cheeks!

Here's a photo of us for reference. I was drawing Justin as he was three years ago, i.e. with the facial hair. More of a Goatee than a Beardy. He was drawing me after a day of sunbathing, I think -- hence all the freckles!

And, just because I gave RoboPanda such a bad rap last time I mentioned him, here he is looking sweet. In truth, he's one of the funniest presents Justin's gotten me. And probably the most talked about. (But no, I don't want the big Mama Panda version, as Justin sometimes threatens to buy me!)

Thanks to all those who were there to celebrate with us in Beijing, and to all those who've helped us grow stronger over these last three years. We love you!

{finer china}

Justin and I will have been married for three years next Saturday. And this year, we're switching it up a bit, and taking a break from the whole trying to surprise each other with presents thing (which, let's face it, can be pretty stressful for everyone -- poor Justin worrying that he'll get me something I don't like, and poor me worrying that I might be opening another RoboPanda. Go on, click on it. Yes, he really bought me that.)

So, what we're doing this year is starting a collection. I got very inspired by all these lovely hand-drawn plates, and thought that the fact that we were married in China the country meant that we can have china the plate as our little theme every year. (Rather than having to find something leather for our third year, as tradition would have us do!)

Meg plate and Beardy plate, by Donna Wilson

Blossom and Bill tray, by Isak

Summer Pizza Plate by nitchii

Bear plate and Wolf plate, by jimbobart

Nestled Mini-Dishes by baileybowls

So, I offered Justin the choice: we could treat ourselves to a fun designer plate from the selection above, or we could have a go at drawing our own. (I'm not sure which option I was hoping he'd choose!) 

He picked making our own, and so that's what we'll be doing during one of Tilly's naps next Saturday. We both love the idea of recreating Donna Wilson's Meg and Beardy, but as portraits of each other. I love Beardy's beard, so might be painting an earlier, hairier version of Justin. We'll see. 

We'll be sure to show you the results!

{a first wedding}

We're back from our weekend of wedding fun in Oklahoma, with great memories and new confidence in Tilly's ability to survive on little sleep. We're thinking of changing her middle name to "Party Animal". 

Luckily, her party dress was finished just in time, and Miss Rufflebottom even had a chance to practice her dance moves in it before we took off. (Good job I snapped a few pics then, as I forgot my memory card for the trip, and so am sadly lacking in photos of the actual wedding!)

What you can't see, concealed by layer upon layer of ruffle, is that I skipped out on using buttons altogether. Instead, we've got snaps. Yes, maybe poor Fiona Bell (the pattern designer) is preemptively rolling over in her grave. And yes, maybe we did have to hastily resnap poor Tilly up a few times during the wedding when she popped open. But it worked in a pinch. 

Much eating, dancing and meeting of family was had. Tilly even tried the wedding cake -- which, it turned out, was an excellent way to give a tired baby a boost of energy at 10pm!

Hope you had a great weekend, too. And that you got a little more rest than our little Party Animal!

{a love story in two parts}

As our third wedding anniversary approaches, I'm planning a little book of us -- a handmade little collection of memories of how Justin and I met, our first date, our trips together, our story.

The problem with writing our story is that there are many details that we remember differently. Justin would say that we met on my birthday, a week into the fall semester; I would swear that we met four days after my birthday, the weekend before classes started. Maybe you and your partner are the same way?

So, I thought I'd try to come up with a way to tell the story from both points of view. How he tells it, how I tell it, next to each other. The whole truth.

At the moment, we're still in the data collection phase. I've jotted down a few prompts -- when, where, favourite parts -- and packed one copy up for Justin to take off on his next business trip. Yes, complete with a pen, so there's no excuse for him not to fill them out!

How exactly it'll come together, I'm not sure yet. Hand-written, printed? With photos, souvenirs, and maps? I've been itching to try binding books -- any advice, for a complete beginner?

So Much Love

There are some people who would go to the ends of the Earth for you.

Okay, China might not quite be the end of the Earth, but I'd say it's pretty close when most people were coming from America, England, or Denmark.

And when I think back to our wedding day, as well as being filled with love for my husband, I'm overcome with how much I love all of the people who made such an effort to be with us on that special day.

Immediate family, second cousins,

friends from childhood, friends from university,

some people I hadn't seen in years.

But somehow, over the course of the week of sight-seeing and fun before the wedding, it stopped being important how exactly people were related, or how long it had been since we'd seen each other. All that mattered was that we were in Beijing together, and that each of these people had chosen to be there with us.

No doubt making sacrifices of time, money, and other plans to do so.

And I feel so incredibly grateful to these people, who showed us that our family really means something to them. It's not just a word you use to define how so-and-so is related to you, it's a real bond that drives you to be active and connect and show those people that they matter to you.

So, this date reminds me not just of the beginning of my marriage, but of the wonderful family I have, who don't just say they 'would' go to the end of the Earth for me, but have done it, and proved it, and are stamped on my heart in a way that won't ever be forgotten.

Two Years

Two years ago today

with the Great Wall of China just visible

through the mist of the mountains behind us

we were married

Two years ago today

with our family and friends smiling

beneath pink parasols beside us

we started our life together

Two years ago today

we would never have dreamt

we'd be so blessed

and about to become three