Everybody play,
play it so safe,
No one wanna mess,
mess with the rules.
So, it looks like the 90s are back! I love it. Riot grrrl love all round. I was too young to appreciate the riot grrrl movement of the early 90s but if this new look and sound from Kate Nash makes as much impact as her previous work I’m really looking forward to the next few years of music, fashion and feminism.
A couple of weeks ago Oh Happy Day posted this fantastic cupcake stand template that you can print out and build yourself. The metallic gold example is gorgeous (using white card and gold spray paint) but you could print onto any card with a pattern or colour to fit your theme.
This week we’ve printed and collated all of our invitations ready to send out at the end of this month. I’m so pleased with the outcome. The colours, the typography and the beautiful illustrations by my friend Taynee Tinsley.
We ended up doing three variations on the invites; a day time invitation, and evening invitation (for guests who come to the reception only) and another day time invite which says “Andrew” as opposed to “Andy.”
Andy’s mum requested the Andrew versions after we sent out the Save The Date notices (which said Andy) because none of the Walton side of the family know Andy as that, only as Andrew. Rather than send them all out with “Andrew” on them we decided to have two versions as all of our friends and my side of the family know Andy as “Andy.”
Along with each invite I sent out an illustrated map to the venue and an RSVP card with a stamped addressed envelope. I liked the idea of using a postcard for the RSVPs with our address on the back but I already had a large number of mini envelopes left over from the Save The Date cards and it was easier to use those than it was to print back to back on the RSVP cards.
As well as the invites, RSVP cards and maps I’ve also been designing menu cards, a seating plan and I plan to do orders of service too. Hopefully I’ll also do a few extras to dot around the wedding as well.
All of the designs I created myself in Adobe Illustrator using the custom illustrations by Taynee Tinsley and the fonts; Strangelove and Quicksand. It was quite important to me to have fonts in the print designs that I could use in a website too. I did dabble with lots of different and fun fonts but I eventually returned to the same fonts as I used on the Save The Date cards.
We’ve stamped and addressed all of the envelopes ready to send out day time invites to close friends and family. We’ll then hand out some evening invites to a few friends six weeks before the day. Hopefully that should give us plenty of time to receive the RSVPs, chase them up if need be and make sure that everyone who should have an invite definitely gets one.
This bridal party look is so similar to my own that any doubts I had are completely gone, this looks stunning! I am in love with the floral bridesmaid dresses paired with nude shoes, all of the hair styles, wild flower bouquets, grey suits and that flower girl? What a cutie! via Ruffled blog.
We both were on our own individual roller coaster of depression, denial, angst, and wanting to die. A roller coaster we stayed on for 13 years. And while we were each on our own separate coaster, our kids were on the ground watching us, wondering why we were on a ride that we weren’t enjoying, and why we couldn’t be on an enjoyable ride all together.
Ashley – In which I feel compelled to start a blog
This lady felt compelled to start a blog, just as I did. Similar to me she knows she has a story to tell. I just haven’t started telling mine yet, I’ve barely scratched the surface.
Reading her story brings so many things to my mind – I’ve been in those same situations, not with my partner but with my parents. I was one of those kids on the ground, trying to work out why my parent’s were putting themselves through this.
One phrase she uses is “mixed-orientation marriage” – I’ve never heard this before. It is an interesting phrase.
Unfortunately Ashley’s blog was born so she could speak out regarding the campaigns which are against gay marriage and the promotion of therapy to “fix the problem.” These campaigns directly affect Ashley’s family and the community to which she belongs. If only the people behind these campaigns would realise how much their work actually does more to push gay men and women away from God.
Please don’t email someone and ask them how to do everything. Hack away at it first. Find your own way first, then ask for if there’s any suggested adjustments. Ask EDUCATED QUESTIONS.
Bonnie D. Stroir – Self reliance in Roller Derby
P.S. I made the Raggy Dollz roster (B team), I’m not sure whether we have any bouts in the next three months but at least I won’t be a “floating” skater when it comes to scrims, finally I belong somewhere. Hopefully that will give me something to work towards and a team to feel part of again. Hopefully.
This track came on at the after party for Fight To The Finnish on Saturday night. We’d had a fantastically successful event that day, my week had not been so good but this song was actually the exact thing I needed to hear.
This week the bout team selection committee will meet to pick the June-September roster of 20 All Stars (A team) and 20 Raggy Dollz (B team) – all of our teams for bouts between June and September will be picked from those 20.
In order to be considered for roster selection each skater must have at least 50% attendance. I looked at my attendance a few weeks ago and saw that I only had 40% but there was still time to make it up. If I attended all sessions between then and the selection date I could get 59%. Uh oh, pressure.
I attended all 4 hours of our Sunday session and hurt my knee in the last 10 minutes of scrimmage. Not a big hurt, but still hurt a little – enough to need an ice pack.
The mid week session came around and I hurt my knee again during the warm up. Frustrated, I just left and went straight home. Knowing that it probably meant I wouldn’t get my 50%. Lots of pouting and some tears ensued in disappointment with my short temper and aching body.
Fast forward to Friday when we are asked to do our self assessment forms (our time to have a say on our bout selection scores), I check the attendance sheet again and it says I’ve just managed to scrape 60%. Big surprise!!
But after all of those ups and downs this week – maybe I shouldn’t put myself forward? I’m still struggling to make it through a whole practice, physically and mentally. I will enjoy one practice but then not enjoy the next. But to wait another three whole months before I can be considered to bout again? Torture.
Tick tock, tick tock,
Tick tock, tick tock.
Take a chance you stupid ho.
What you waiting for?
So, I submitted the form and put myself forward for selection. Now I await the results.
Hearing Gwen tick-tocking on my Saturday night out, perfect timing.
For a crafty wedding or party theme these table numbers would look stunning. So many possible ways to fit them with your own theme too via Paper Moon Weddings.
This week I posted on Facebook for ideas for our wedding favours. Andy’s mum has kindly offered to arrange little glass jars with hessian cloth top and a ribbon for each guest. I just need to decide how to fill the jar.
68 comments later here’s the list my friends produced…
Now, some of these suggestions are more useful then others… I could give each of my friends the item they suggested. But it was just nice to see which were the most popular – some people got very passionate about defending their suggestions!
Here’s the promo video we did for next week’s Fight to the Finnish roller derby tournament.
Eek! The nerves are setting in. Fingers crossed for a great turnout.
I also found this article which should prove very useful for future events: Promote your roller derby event for free.