And this is what happens when you don't have a job....

Photo courtesy of marthastewart.com

Sorry, loyal readers, that I haven't been terribly up on posting as of late. I've been suffering through this bout of shingles, and have been super doped up on pain meds and pretty sleepy. But, luckily, the shingles seem to be almost disappeared and I've decided it's time to rejoin the productive members of society. So yesterday I decided to buckle down and work on one of our DIY projects - envelope liners for our Save-the-Date cards.

It's not that we NEED envelope liners, but if you don't have a job yet because of the crappy economic climate, and you're spending your days rearranging furniture, making calls on behalf of a presidential campaign (go Obama!), and doing wedding planning (i.e. playing on The Knot), envelope liners start to almost look like fun.

So....if you find yourself as bored as I have been lately, here are some instructions for some handy dandy envelope liners to spruce up your boring envelopes.

What you"ll need:


Paper
I went with wrapping paper from a neighborhood store in a black and white almost-but-not-quite damask print. Each role was 5' x 30" and only cost me $3.99 (yeah, even wrapping paper is expensive in NYC ;)). I ended up using a little over two rolls to make 85 liners.

A cutting surface
I pulled out my handy dandy rotary cutting mat from the DIY pocketfold project

A cutting tool
Again, I pulled out the rotary trimmer from the pocketfold project, but a paper cutter or even a pair of scissors would also work - though I believe the process would be much slower)

Metal ruler
Pretty self explanatory

Adhesive
I used Elmer's washable glue stick (it's what FI came back from the store with ;)). You could also use glue dots or double-sided tape, but this actually seemed to be the easiest and most cost-effective way to do it.

A bone folder
Indespensible. If you don't have one, go buy one. You'll use it in sooooo many projects.

Oh...and don't forget your envelopes. ;)

Step 1

The first thing you'll need to do is measure your envelope. The width of your liner will need to be the width of your envelope MINUS 1/4 inch - ours ended up being 8 3/4" (for a vista print envelope that matched the oversized postcards).

The height of the liner can be a bit more tricky. Our envelopes were flatter (not pointy) flaps (hurray for easy!) so I just measured from the bottom of the envelope to right beneath the gum on the flap to get the height of our liners - 6 7/8".


Step 2

Cut your paper. I realized that I could fit three liners in the width of the paper, so I simply cut the roll into 6 7/8" strips. I then cut each of these strips into 8 3/4" chunks. I was able to get 3 liners per strip; 24 liners per roll.


Once each liner was cut, I needed to cut the corners for the flap. Getting the right angle was a bit tricky, but here's what I did. To get the angle, I measured the distance from the edge of the flap (where the flap meets the body) to where the glue strip ended. See picture.


And this is where having a cutting surface with a grid and edge rulers comes in INCREDIBLY useful. I was able to simply line the top edge of the liner up with the edge of the board (conveniently next to a ruler) and the side edge of the liner with a grid square. I was then able to place my metal ruler on the liner at the corner of the grid square at the appropriate height (in this case, 1"), and on the corresponding measure on the ruler at the enge of the mat (in this case 3/8" away from the edge of the liner). Then I was able to simply cut along the ruler to get instant perfect angle. I know it sounds incredibly complicated, but one's you do one or two, you'll fly through the rest of them. (Enlarge the pic and you'll be better able to see what I mean).


Step 3

Insert liner into envelope, print side up, trying to make sure the liner is centered in the envelope.

Step 4

Fold down the flap of the envelope, and use your bone folder to make a light crease. Don't press to hard at this step, or your likely to have a double line when you do the next folding after the glue.

Here's FI FINALLY helping. He wouldn't agree to do the glue, but he finally stopped grumbling enough about me asking him to stop playing Final Fantasy to do Step 4 for me.

Step 5

Life the flap of your envelope, but leave the liner folded down.


Step 6

Insert a scrap piece of paper between the liner and the bottom of the envelope, then use your adhesive to lightly coat the back of the liner.

Step 7

(Doing it this way definitely helped to make sure that the liner laid flat with no wrinkles). Push the liner onto the flap, and lightly tap it down. THEN fold over the flap and liner, and use your bone folder to smooth it out and make sure the liner adheres to the flap. This time you can press harder, because you want a smooth, sharp crease.

Step 8

Open the flap and admire your handiwork. :)

Step 9

Admire handiwork when combined with DIY STD's. Pat yourself on the back for being awesome. ;)

Questions? Leave 'em in the comments section, and I'll get to them as soon as I can. Happy lining! :)

STDs!!!!

No, not STI's, silly. Get your mind out of the gutter! ;)

S - T- D s (Save-the-Dates).

FI and I had a little quality bonding time this weekend (translation: I let him watch yet another Simpson's episode in exchange for some Photoshop help) so we were able to buckle down and get our STDs designed and submitted to Vista Print for printing. We ordered 100 glossy oversized postcards with envelopes for $17. Not too shabby. :)

No idea why the colors are all weird (it's supposed to be grayscale with lime green wording on the front, and a black and white back), but whatcha think?

UPDATE: Why I will NEVER vote for Palin

Remember the controversy I pointed out at the end of this post regarding Sarah Palin and rape kits?

This is what I said then:

"Palin failed to address the fact that sexual assault victims in Wasilla were charged $300 to $1200 apiece for collection of evidence in their cases (i.e. rape kits). NOTE: Palin did not institute this policy; it was in place before her election. However, I am disheartened by the fact that during two terms as mayor she failed to address the policy. Thumbs down to Palin on this one."

Unfortunately, new evidence (i.e. the Wasilla annual budgets) has come to life, proving me wrong. A new article from the Huffington Post explains everything very well, and is even nice enough to provide you with links to Wasilla's budgets so you can do the math for yourself if you happen to be a doubter. Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacob-alperinsheriff/sarah-palin-instituted-ra_b_125833.html

The gist of the article? The former police chief of Wasilla (the one Palin fired) had included a line item in his budget requests to cover the cost of exams for sexual assault victims. The police chief Palin appointed after firing the previous chief HALVED this budget request in 97-98, and then halved it again in 98-99 (that year he only spent $205 of the $3000 he requested). Palin either (a) had to have known about the change in policy requiring sexual assault victims to pay for their testing kits, because, as mayor, she had to approve the budget, or (b) had to have fallen behind in her mayoral duties, by not thoroughly investigating requested budgets.

Either way, this is disgusting. Again: NO WAY, NO HOW, NO to McCain / Palin!

Congratulations Brooke and Erik!

Yesterday I attended the wedding of fellow knottie and friend, Brooke, at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan.


Beautiful bride, beautiful wedding, and a super fun reception. :)

Congratulations, you two! Best wishes for many, many years of happiness. :)

Why this Feminist Bride Wants NOTHING to do with the McCain / Palin ticket

Disclaimer: Sorry Transatlantic Bride - I found your post so interesting that I decided I'd do one, too. ;)

And what better place to post my complaints about this year's republican ticket's failure to promote the interests of women than here?

Leaving aside the fact that I find this pick INCREDIBLY insulting (I'm sorry, but I don't vote based on the sex of the candidate - my vagina does not have a voting booth hidden inside, thank you very much), neither candidate seems to really be doing much - correction ANYTHING - to help women. For McCain, it's pretty easy to find flaws - his voting record is out their for the world to see. For an inexperienced first terms governor, it's a bit harder. Largely because she hasn't yet told us much of what she stands for.

And now, what you've been waiting for. A (brief) list of things McCain and/or Palin have done, or as the case may be, NOT done, to assist women and girls in the realization of their rights:

• McCain skipped the vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. He later said that had he attended the vote, he would have voted against it because women "need education and training" rather than a bill that guarantees pay equity. [Source: http://tinyurl.com/6gufa3]
  
• McCain has repeatedly opposed comprehensive sex education and supported abstinence-only education. [Source: http://tinyurl.com/6oc6a7] For more info on why this is specifically anti-woman and anti-girls, please see Legal Momentum's recent report "Sex, Lies and Stereotypes: How Abstinence-Only Programs Harm Women and Girls," available at http://tinyurl.com/5e8xjq
• McCain voted to keep the Global Gag Rule, preventing millions of women around the world from receiving access to reproductive health care by denying funding to any organization that even MENTIONS abortion (note: these organizations do not have to perform or refer clients to abortion providers in order to be denied funding).[Boxer Amendment to S.600, vote 83, 4/05/05]
• Voted to de‐fund the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an organization that provides family‐planning services – not abortion – for the world’s poorest women [Boxer amendment to FY’06‐07 Foreign Relations authorization bill, S.600, 4/5/05]
  
• Declined to help reduce the need for abortion and improve maternal health by opposing effort to require insurance coverage for prescription birth control, improve access to emergency contraception, and provide more women with prenatal health care[Murray motion to waive Budget Act to allow vote on Murray/Reid prevention‐package amendment to “Partial‐Birth” Abortion Ban Act, S.3, 3/11/03.]
  
• McCain has publicly and repeatedly stated that it is his goal to overturn Roe v. Wade
  
• McCain voted to maintain restrictions on access to abortion for women in the military, even if they use their own money [Murray/Snowe amendment to FY’04 National Defense authorization bill, S.1050, 5/22/03]
  
• McCain supported the Federal Abortion Ban, even though the law contains no exceptions for the health of pregnant women [“Partial‐Birth” Abortion Ban Act, H.R.1833, 12/7/95]
  
• McCain voted to restrict funding to Title X's Family Planning Program. [Motion to Invoke Cloture; Family Planning Amendments of 1989, S.110, 9/26/90]
• McCain voted NOT to amend the federal bankruptcy code to prevent people who commit violence against family planning clinics to avoid financial responsibility for their actions by filing bankruptcy [Bankruptcy Reform Act, H.R.2415, 12/7/00; Schumer amendment to Bankruptcy Reform Act, S.256, 3/8/05]
  
• McCain voted against an amendment that protected Medicaid funding (funding that is used to provide thousands of low-income women and girls with reproductive and other health services) from being cut [H.J.R. 2, Vote #21, 1/23/03]]
• McCain voted against requiring health insurance carriers to cover the cost of contraception. [Murray Amendment, S.Amdt 258 to S. 3, vote 45, 3/11/03]
• McCain opposed legislation that required that abstinence only education curricula be medically-accurate and scientifically-based. [Lautenberg/Menendez Teen Pregnancy Prevention Amendment, S.Amdt. 4689 to S. 403, vote 214, 7/25/06]
• McCain voted against the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), which established criminal and civil penalties for those who use force, threat of force, or physical obstruction to interfere with access to reproductive‐health facilities [Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, S.636, 5/12/94].
• Sarah Palin opposes abortion in all circumstances, save where the woman's life is in danger. She opposes abortion even in cases of danger to a woman's health, and in cases of rape or incest. [Source: http://tinyurl.com/5uptw8]
• Palin failed to address the fact that sexual assault victims in Wasilla were charged $300 to $1200 apiece for collection of evidence in their cases (i.e. rape kits). NOTE: Palin did not institute this policy; it was in place before her election. However, I am disheartened by the fact that during two terms as mayor she failed to address the policy. Thumbs down to Palin on this one.

If you'd like more information on McCain's anti-woman policies, you can read this fact sheet. It covers his vote on all things reproductive rights related (NOT just abortion-related) http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/assets/files/mccain_fact_sheet.pdf

Got something you think I should add to the wall o' shame? Leave a note and I'll do my best to fit it in. And stay tuned for the next episode of Confessions, where I reveal precisely how I think the Democratic ticket IS addressing women's issues.

A Feminist Bridal Shower?

So my mother has been helping to coordinate my shower (yes, I know *gasp*), but mainly it's the travel arrangements. We've been trying to come up with a date that works for my cousin (who's supposedly throwing the shower), my sister (my MOH who works an ungodly number of hours each week), my FMIL (who's pretty active with her church and community), and me (who happens to live a thousand miles away from all of these people).

Anyway....

I thought with all the talk about showers going on, I'd post this little tidbit I found on feministing.com (if you don't already go there as your morning wake-me-up along with your coffee, you should). The author talks about her attempts to find shower games that aren't quite as blatantly sexist as this one:

Everyone is asked to share the chores around the house that they hate the most and the reason why they hate the chore.

The chore is then replaced with the word "sex" and reread aloud. They then end up with . . . "I hate sex because (the reason they hate their chore)"

(You know - because all women simply must hate sex ::eyeroll::)

She's right, of course. Think of all of the bridal showers you've been to. Now think of the games. Games like "What's in the Bag?" where guests are supposed to write down all of the items they think might be in the bride's purse and get points for guessing correctly - because, of course, we all know that women simply live out of their cavernous purses (note: I didn't even OWN a purse, let alone carry one until I broke down and bought a Coach bag to carry my laptop); or the Apron Game, where guests are supposed to pin cooking utensils all over the bride and then recite them from memory, because, of course, women are the cooks in the family (nevermind the fact that I can burn water, while FI is generally a decent chef when he finds the time).

You know what I'd really love? A shower game that deals with MY interests - not the interests of some stereotypical (I might even say mythical) bride-to-be. Like instead of bridal bingo, let's play women's rights bingo.

Anyway...so now I'm ever so slightly terrified that I'll be subjected to some horribly sexist game at the shower, and then I'll just have to say something (because that's just who I am), which will put a damper on the whole "fun" part of the shower.... And, yeah, yeah, I know I should be grateful that someone is throwing us a shower. And I am, really, I am. But is it too much to ask that the sexism be toned down as much as possible?

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Wow...Apparently Going to the Gym Actually Works

I ran out of my personal training sessions at Equinox about a month ago, and haven't purchased anymore, largely because personal training is sooooo expensive and I'm currently still unemployed. Unfortunately, to be quite honest, without my personal trainer to force me to go to the gym I've been REALLY lax on face-time there. As in, I think I may have gone twice in the last month. :(

And then today I was looking through photos in Picassa, and came across these two: one taken when I first purchased my dress back in early April (before I started training) and one taken at the end of May (after about 12 sessions).

Who knew that spending 15 hours at the gym could cause such a radical difference in appearance? Just looking at these I can see a lot more toning in my arms and shoulders - the two big problem areas for this dress - and that was after only fifteen of the thirty sessions. Guess who's going to be forcing herself out the door to the gym three times a week as soon as she's healthy enough again...

I've Got Spots on the Brain

Given my current shingled condition, I suppose it's only natural that I'd start thinking about spots in general. And that thinking leads me to a more northernly part of my body - my face.

As a teenager, my skin was pretty flawless. I think I can count on one hand the number of blemishes I had before I turned 24. But then came the ravages of adult acne! ::insert appropriate horror movie scream here::

Since I hit my mid-twenties, I've been plagued by cystic acne on my chin and along my jawline, clogged pores in my T-zone, and a TON of whiteheads on my forehead (not to mention the lovely lines popping up around my eyes and the deep furrows I'm noticing above them).

Those OTC treatments haven't seemed to do anything (except maybe exacerbate the condition); I've heard great stories (and HORROR stories) about things like ProActiv so I'm really wary to try them; and the solutions offered by my general practitioner haven't really done anything to clear my visage. So what's a bride (or groom - 42.5% of men between 20 and 29 report experiencing acne) to do to make herself picture perfect on her wedding day, especially given the prevalence of unforgiving HD videography?

With only six months to go until the big day, I've decided that some professional help is in order. I have an appointment with a dermatologist set for Wednesday, and hopefully he'll be able to offer some solutions to get my skin in tip-top shape by March - although anytime before then would be great for me, too. ;)

But I thought these were just mosquito bites....

Hello loyal readers, and welcome to Day 2 of my medical misery.

*grumble*

So, as I'm sure you've read below, I was pretty productive during my bar trip, cutting out all of my pocketfolds, and gluing more than half of them. FI and I and the FILS (hurray for acronyms!) took a week and went down to Holden Beach in North Carolina. Overall the trip was great - sun, sand, ocean, jellyfish (okay, so the jellyfish weren't all that great), but it was nice to get away from the city for awhile. I spent the week building drip castles, frollicking in the ocean, working on the invites, and watching our soon-to-be awesome President and my fellow dems speak at the DNC.

But..... I've been feeling pretty under the weather since we got back on Saturday afternoon. Just generally pretty achy, stiff neck, headaches, etc. And the bug bites were driving me insane!

And then three days ago my side started to get really tender to the touch. I had a couple of "stabbing pain in my side episodes" while we were at the beach, so yesterday I finally gave in and went to the doc expecting her to tell me that "yay, once again you have pyelonephritis."

But nooooo. That's not it at all. After waiting for TWO HOURS in the waiting room (because the receptionist wasn't back from lunch and no one else could check me in ::eyeroll::), she ran some tests and told me that nothing was wrong with my kidneys. I mentioned the stupid side pain, and she asked to see. I show her the bug bites on my abdomen, and then she asks to see the ones on my back. I turn around, and she gasps. I roll my eyes and say:

Me: no, no that's just my birthmark (I have a HUGE birthmark that covers my entire back and docs always freak out the first time they see it)

Her: no, I know that's your birthmark. I'm talking about these ::points to what I thought were bug bites on my back::

Me: Yeah, those bug bites suck.

Her: Those aren't bug bites.

Me: Well then what are they?

Her: Let me get the doctor (she's was a CNP)

Me: (internal monologue: what could those be? Am I dying? Dude, she's wrong, those are totally just bug bites)

In walks the doctor.

Doctor: Yep, that's shingles all right.

WTH? Seriously? I have shingles? ::insert stream of curse words here::

So now the right side of my abdomen and back are covered in an itching, burning version of adult chickenpox. *sigh*

The bright side? Apparently once the chickenpox virus reactivates and you get shingles, it's really rare to get it again. So I guess I'm just getting it out of the way early (most people don't get it until their 50s or 60s). And at least I didn't get it the week of my wedding, like one unlucky groom I heard about on the Nest....

Now I'm off to apply some more Benadryl and down some more Advil. Till tomorrow,

~ Heather

And here's what I did with my bar trip...

And here they are. The long-awaited directions for making you're very own fabric covered pocketfold invitations.

As a disclosure, I found the original directions on how to make these here. However, I found the pocketfolders to be a tad small, and I found some easier and less wasteful ways to build the actual folders, so I thought I'd share my way, too.

Enjoy!

p.s. I still have aout 12 yards of black dupioni silk fabric if anyone's interested. *hint* *hint*

Note: I'm going to echo the original designer's (Tanya) warning to test your fabric before you go buying the entire stock you'll need for this project. You'll want something that will stick to your cardstock with adhesive, but that the adhesive won't bleed through. Like she mentions, stretchy fabrics won't work well, and neither will heavy fabrics (i.e. velvets, suedes, etc.). You'll also want to test the fabric with whatever cutting tool you're using to make sure it doesn't fray. To be honest, silk dupioni CAN fray - quite extensively - because of the nature of the interwoven threads. That being said, it looks so entirely awesome when it's finished that I highly recommend it anyway. ;)

Stage One

Determine what size you would like your actual invitation (the part with writing on it) to be; you can then extrapolate from these measurements. When I ordered a sample pocketfolder from www.cardsandpockets.com, I realized that the size of the pocketfolder was 5x7, making the inner invite quite a bit smaller; I wanted our actual invite to be 5"x7". I knew I wanted this larger invite, and I knew I also wanted one layer of backing betweeen the invite and the pocketfolder. So I took the size of the invite, added 1/4" all around for the backing, and 1/4" for space between the backing and the edge of the pocketfolder. To make a pocketfolder for this size invite, the cardstock needed to be 17.975" x 8" (the missing .025 is to make folding easier and make the folds lie flat). This will give you a pocketfolder with the following dimensions I doubled the width on these when I ordered the cardstock so that I could cut two pocketfolders from each piece, meaning fewer cuts and less wasted silk.

Stage Two Order your supplies - see my last post too see exactly what I ordered.

Stage Three Lay your fabric out, and place your cardstock on top of your fabric. I was able to get two sheets of cardstock - or four pocketfolders - per each "row" of fabric (I could have fit three pieces per each row had I turned the last piece on it's side, but then my neurotic brain would have had a fit, because one piece of cardstock would have had the threads from the dupioni going vertically instead of horizontally - use your own judgment as to whether this would annoy you). Cut out your cardstock and silk, leaving at least 1/2 inch between each piece of cardstock, and between the edge of the fabric, like so:


Stage Four

Tanya had it right. If you can do this step outside - do it outside. It WILL be messy. If you can't do it outside for some reason (like you're staying at a beach house and sand is flying everywhere, or you live in a major Metropolitan area (e.g. Manhattan) it can be done inside, but you'll need to do it in a non-carpeted area, and you'll probably still want to have a few old newspapers handy to lay down to soak up the overspray.

You'll want to lay out the fabric near (but not so near as to be contaminated by overspray) your spraying area, and smooth it out as best you can. Then, lay the cardstock on the ground (or newspaper if doing inside) and LIGHTLY mist the cardstock with your adhesive, following the directions on the can. Like Tanya said, "IF YOU CAN SEE THE CARDSTOCK GETTING WET AND DARKENED FROM THE ADHESIVE, YOU'VE USED TOO MUCH." Try to avoid streaking and wet spots - these will just soak through your fabric. The cardstock should just look slightly tacky - in my experience, it developed a *slight* sparkle sheen when it had the right amount of adhesive on it.

Stage Five

Turn your cardstock over, and carefully place it sticky-side down onto your fabric. LIGHTLY tap the cardstock to make sure it sticks, then immediately flip over the fabric and cardstock and smooth everything out. Note: DO NOT try to smooth it out until you flip it over - trial and error told us if you smoothed it out on the cardstock side instead of the side you can cause irremovable wrinkles. If you're doing two pieces of cardstock per piece of fabric, it helps if you smooth from the center of the two pieces to the edges of the fabric. Tanya recommended letting this dry for at least half an hour, and if you have the time to kill, it's probably best. We were trying to power through as many as we could in our short time at the beach, however, and found that fifteen minutes was plenty, especially if you were doing them in batches.

Stage 6

Using your cutting instrument (I used a Fiskars handheld rotary trimmer), cut your cardstock in half, and trim away the excess on the HORIZONTAL edges. While Tanya set things up to cut some of the cardstock away along with the excess fabric, I simply used the metal yardstick lined up against the very edge of the cardstock to cut away nothing but the fabric. This is definitely easier with two people (because of the need to hold the yardstick steady while applying pressure with the cutting instrument), it can be done by one person if you need to.



Youll end up with stacks of cardstock looking something like this (the ones at the bottom):


Notes on this step:

(1) Tanya recommends using an exacto knife because her rotary trimmer was dulling to quickly cutting through fabric and cardstock. I found that the exacto knife "ripped" at the fabric too much, so we switched to the handheld rotary trimmer. And because we were primarily cutting fabric (we only made one cut to each piece of cardstock - to cut the two folders apart), the blade lasted a reasonably long time. When you notice that your fabric isn't cutting cleanly, it's time to change the blade - otherwise the fabric will start to fray.

(2) Tanya also recommends that if you do happen to notice the blade not going all the way through the fabric, to use your scissors to cut them apart to prevent fraying. This is a tip worth saving /repeating. Repeated tries with a dull blade will definitely fray your fabric.

Stage 7

Using your fingertip, spread a *small* amount of your liquid adhesive onto the cut horizontal edges of your pocketfold. As Tanya noted, YOU MUST PERFORM THIS STEP TO KEEP YOUR EDGES FROM FRAYING! The brand of glue that I used really did take about 30 minutes to dry - sometimes longer.

Note: All of my pictures of finger smearing from this part are blurry. BUT I can say that Tanya's way definitely was the best. If you hold the bottle with your thumb and first two fingers, you can smear the glue with your ring finger from the same hand, and keep from covering yourself or your pocketfolds in unwanted glue. It took me a few tries to get to the point where I could comfortably hold the glue while smearing, but once I did, everything went much more quickly.

Also note that if you're doing this step on more than one pocketfolder at a time, you will need to have a place to lay them all out to dry. And you CANNOT stack them on top of each other. You will inevitably get *some* of the glue on either the cardstock side or the silk side, and when you lay one on top of the other, they stick together. We learned this the hard way and had to throw out to otherwise beautiful pocketfolders. :(

Stage 8

Now it's time to cut out the "folder" and "flap" portions of your pocketfold and glue your edges. For our pocketfolders, I used the following measurements:


I had originally planned on using the rotary cutter to cut out the necessary portions, but soon discovered that a round blade doth not cut corners well. ;) Scissors really are your best friend here. Then you'll need to do the same gluing you did on the long (horizontal sides) to your flap and folder:

Note: Your life will be MUCH easier if you make a template first so that you'll have the template pieces for the pocket and flap to trace for each one, instead of measuring each and every single pocketfolder.

Stage 9

Almost there! Now (after letting this new round of glue dry, of course) it's time to fold your pocketfolder. Using the chart above, I drew lines on the cardstock side using a pencil, then scored each of those lines using a ruler and the back side of a common household butter knife, then used the bone folder on the fabric side (gently!) to make the folds as crisp as I could:



Stage 10

I have no idea how I didn't get pictures of this, put the final step in creating your pocketfolder is to create the actual pocket. This is where your adhesive tape comes in useful. I placed strips of tape as shown in the diagram above (the red lines were the adhesive), folded the pocket over and pressed again with the bone folder, and......TA DA!

A "finished" pocketfolder. Of course, I don't have my invites or inserts yet, I haven't glued down the invite backing, and I haven't attached the ribbon or the name card to the ribbon, but here's what they look like in their primal state:

Nifty, eh?

Hope this helped someone else. If so, send me pics. I'll create a lovely DIY gallery of all of our wonderful fabric-covered pocketfolders. :)

Invites - the supplies arrived!

About four or five months ago (I think...time flies when you're planning a wedding) I found "my" invitations. A set of dupioni silk-covered pocketfolds. I was in love. They were magnificent. See?
I found them on Wedding Bee. Me, being the ambitious, slightly neurotic person that I am decided that I simply HAD to have them. But, being frugally conscious, I also decided that I couldn't buy them ($20+ per invite? Hells no!). Which left DIY. Luckily, the Wedding Bee member who posted these fab invites in a contest there was also a knottie, and had put together a bio of directions for making them. What follows in this post (and a soon to be directions post) is an update of her directions (set for making 100 pocketfolders), tweaked with some tips and tricks I discovered.

I put off making these forever (we'll say it was because I was interning, finishing up law school, and studying for the bar ;)), but then finally decided that my bar trip would be the absolute perfect time to get started on this ambitious project. Last Thursday, I took the plunge and ordered the supplies I needed to make 100 pocketfolders. What supplies, you ask? These supplies:


Cardstock
I ordered 55 sheets of black cardstock and 110 sheets of gold cardstock from Anchor Paper's Express Store, for an astonishingly low price of only $76, including shipping. I had them cut the black cardstock into 17.975 x 16 inch squares (to get two pocketfolds per piece), and the gold cardstock into 7.75" x 5.75".

Fabric
I ordered 25 yards (calculation mistake - apparently I'm bad at math when I'm tired *sheepish grin*) of midnight black dupioni from Fabric Freak on eBay for $11.50 per yard + shipping. I actually only needed 12 yards, so I'm in the market for either (a) someone to buy the leftover yardage, or (b) someone to suggest something nifty to do with 13 yards of black dupioni silk. Note: I highly recommend this seller. They had the best price I could find for the quality and quantity of silk I wanted, shipping was super fast (I won on Thursday evening, it arrived Tuesday), and their staff was incredibly friendly.


Spray Adhesive
I used Krylon spray adhesive. For 100 pocketfolds, I needed approximately 1.5 cans.





Clear Liquid Adhesive
I used Tombow MonaAqua, and it worked great. Whatever you use, MAKE SURE IT DRIES CLEAR. Some liquid adhesives dry a milky color.





Rotary Trimmer I used a Fiskars handheld rotary trimmer and it worked wonderfully. Just make sure to buy replacement blades (I purchased a pack of five) and change them when necessary. Cutting through the cardstock wears out the blades, and a worn out blade = frayed fabric.




Adhesive (Tape) Dispenser
I used an EK Success Dotto Dots Dispenser (make sure to get the permanent dots, not the removable ones).







Necessary, but not pictured (I'm pretty sure you know what these look like. ;)):

Scissors
Make sure to get a freshly sharpened pair, again, to prevent fraying.

Metal Yardstick
A short ruler really won't do if you're using cardstock this size. Trust me, you'll thank me later for making you buy the yardstick. Also, make sure to get a metal one. Blades cut through the wooden and plastic one, and the metal makes a sturdier base against which to press your blade to get a straight cut.

Rotary cutting mat The trimmer I bought came with a smaller one (pictured above). That worked...sorta. We left midway to purchase a larger one that permitted us to make one cut instead of many smaller cuts.

Coming soon: Step by step instructions. :)

The New Name

I must be the worst blogger on the planet. I'm officially done with the bar, I don't have a job yet, and I STILL can't find time to blog? Yeah...I suck at blogging.

But my slacking aside, I thought I'd point people's attention to the fact that the name at the top of this blog has officially changed - to "Confessions of Feminist Bride". I'm hoping that this might free my inner writer to post more often. Because, you see, I'm afraid I'm not finding this whole wedding business thing to be nearly as exciting as all of my activist political goings-on. And E08 on the Nest has officially redeemed my wedding planning exuberance in my fiance's eyes. ;)

Don't get me wrong, I'll still be writing about my ever-so-exciting weddings finds and plans (e.g. you're bound to soon see the mess that I will be creating out of the dupioni and cardstock I ordered to create invitations) but I think I'm feeling like the new and improved name will allow me to focus a little more on the things I am finding most important about the institution of marriage right now, i.e. the inequalities is can foster, and the potential it has too erase those inequalities.

To start things of (and yes, I know this isn't exactly wedding related, but it's family-related, and many would consider that part and parcel of marriage...), I'm reading this phenomenal book by Susan J. Douglas and Meredith W. Michaels. I stopped by my favorite neighborhood bookstore while I was packing for my bar trip vacation down to Holden Beach (hurray for sand between your toes!) and picked up "The Mommy Myth." I'm not that far into it yet (I have to admit that I read some fluff on the way down here - "Angels & Demons") but so far I'm finding it excellent. It's an intellectual, yet incredibly humorous and entertaining, examination of the ways in which motherhood has been idealized to such a degree that it is unattainable by many, if not most, women. Definitely pick it up when you get a chance.

Until later (probably tomorrow when the silk arrives),

~ Heather

What's In a Name?

Wow...so my apologies for being away for so long, but studying for and taking the NY bar exam kinda saps your extra time and energy. For realz. But I'm finished now (HURRAY!) so I have some free time to play around with wedding planning while emailing lots of resumes and waiting for the job calls to start coming in.

During this awe-inducing period of a lack of required things to do, I thought I'd share my thoughts on the ever-pressing name-change debate. The day after the bar, I stumbled to my laptop, booted up, and went to my fav wedding website, the Knot, for a day of lazing on the couch, watching bad made-for-tv movies and knotting.

The first question I noticed seemed like a simple one: "Help a feminist address her invites." Ah, but of course, on the Planning & Etiquette board, NOTHING etiquette related is simple. In my women's studies-trained, feminist-minded brain, addressing an invite to:

"Mr. and Mrs. John Doe"

is the ultimate in a line of sexist wedding etiquette related nonsense. Do women who choose to change their last names also lose their first names in the process? In the mind of the world's great etiquette nazis, apparently so. But then, I'm of the opinion that words MEAN something; they have a material effect in the world (i.e. the words we choose can change the world - for better OR worse). In this case, refusing to acknowledge a woman's first name once she's married is a de facto erasure of her identity.

And it's not as innocent as it looks. For instance, when I questioned other brides about WHY an invite had to be addressed this way, I was told that it was "tradition," "etiquette, "and that adding the woman's first name either (a) separated the man's first name from his last (apparently a gasp-worthy etiquette blunder) and/or (b) it was simply "too wordy." But when I asked whether addressing an invite to Mr. and Mrs. JANE Doe would be appropriate, I received silence. A very telling silence. Because, obviously, this second option would be just as brief as using John Doe, yet no one was willing to do it.

Women (and men) have fought too long and too hard to bring women OUT of the shadows simply to have them thrust back into darkness due to some antiquated notions about who the head of a household is or should be. Following a sexist tradition just because it's "tradition" is an inherent acceptance of the sexism behind the tradition - and that's just wrong.

This debate, of course, sparked a new debate. Should married women change their names at all? Was it anti-feminist to do so? Asking the question is, of course, itself loaded. Why not ask if married men should change their names? More and more are deciding to hyphenate both names or creating entirely new names in the process, so the procedure isn't SOLELY related to women any more (even if the overwhelming majority of name change applicants are female).

Women getting married are often forced to endure criticism no matter what choice they make about thier surname. If they take their husband's name, they criticized for beind too traditional. If they keep their own, they criticized for being a (*gasp*) feminist, and told that their children won't feel connected to them, told that their husband's name might die out (oh the horror). And god forbid they hyphenate their last names. Because, after all, what if your hypothetical child then decides to marry someone with a hyphenated name. The world might just explode from the chaos that would create!

And for women who are well-known in their fields, the task is even more daunting. What if your clients (both old, current, and new) don't recognize you anymore? For lawyers, particularly, this can be an issue. In New York (as elsewhere) an attorney who changes her name must wait for board acceptance of her new name (which can take anywhere from 1 month to a year) before she can practice under that name.

Reports indicate that more and more women are choosing NOT to change their names; not surprising given the hooplah that one has to go through to make sure that social security cards, credit cards, banks, mortgages, student loans, jobs, insurance policies, retirement plans, magazines, etc all must be notified of the change.

This upsurge in non-name change marriages has led to a post-feminist backlash. More and more women are speaking out against those who keep their given surnames, claiming that women should be "free" to change their names to their husbands without "feminists" badgering them about their personal decisions. While I agree with many that the decision to change one's name is a personal one, I think that the societal implications of a personal decision should also be considered. For women, changing one's name upon marriage is based upon a sexist tradition, denying married women their autonomy, and the decision to follow this tradition shouldn't be made lightly. However, changing your name doesn't HAVE to indicate your acceptance of sexist values. Many women do not feel any connection to their birth surname or feel a distinct dislike for it (enter the Butts, Bottoms, Weiners, Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorffs, as well as the simply unfortunately named - Ms. Ginger Snaps- here). Others weigh their attachment to their surname with their future husband's attachment to his against their desire for a common name.

I think my point is that, as any good feminist will tell you, every woman should have the right to change, or not change her name as she sees fit. Feminism is, after all about permitting women to make their own choices about their own lives. I guess all that I would ask is that this choice be made intelligently, with full awareness of the historical beginnings of the practice and to the current societal implications of changing one's name, and not blindly done to accomodate "tradition."

.....

For what it's worth, our invites will be addressed to: Mr. John and Mrs. Jane Doe (assuming spouses share the same name) or Mrs. Jane Doe and Mr. John Smith - etiquette be damned. But I'm still not sure precisely what I'm going to do in terms of my own name change. The feminist in me is screaming that I shouldn't give in, that I should keep my current surname - but given that (a) I'm not yet terribly well known in my field, (b) I have no real attachment to my surname (it's not my birth name), and (c) my fiance actually has some level of attachment to his last name, I'm leaning towards changing it.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

Va Va Voom Hair

I was originally planning to wear my hair half up, and half down like this (apparently a very popular look for knottie brides, evidenced by the number of bios in which this pic appears):


But after seeing my epics (and determining that I REALLY hate my jawline) I think all down is the best way to go.

We're aiming for a "modern vintage" look for the whole affair, and my dress is rather 40's-esque glam, so I'm thinking something like a modern take on screen siren Veronica Lake might be in order:


Flipping through the most recent Martha Stewart Weddings issue while waiting for the ever-late 1 train I discovered these looks. I think they would go perfectly w/ our "vintage modern" wedding, and with my vintage-inspired mermaid gown.

(pics courtesy of Simone Carvallie and Piccione)

I absolutely LOVE the glam 40's curls these looks have. Now I'm off to send an email to Sam Hill at Salon Cherry Bomb to see if this is something he can recreate. Wish me luck! :)

Primp and Pretty, Round II

I think I have officially found a make-up artist.

I had originally thought of booking with Heidi McKenna and had arranged a trial with her. The trial went well; the make-up looked good, but I wasn't entirely thrilled with it. Plus, Heidi used a lot of coppery colors on my lids and apparently I have an allergy to the red dyes in a lot of make-up colors, including coppers - my eyes were entirely swollen the next day (totally NOT Heidi's fault - I had no idea I was allergic to red dyes).

In any case, when we had our recent epic session, my photog recommended that I check out Nancy with Brideface as a possible alternative. I had researched Nancy before, and had concluded that she was probably a tad bit over our price point. That being said, when my photog confided that Nancy was the ONLY person she let touch her own make-up, I decided it was worth at least a trial.

The trial with Nancy went FABULOUSLY. I am VERY fair and matching foundation to my skin is always a challenge. Nancy managed to do it perfectly. And the lashes - oh, my. I have naturally long lashes, but I was still infatuated with the falsies that Nancy applied. If you're on the fence about whether or not they're "necessary," they are! ;) If you want that nice, fluttery look when batting your eyes at your fiance on your wedding day, you'll definitely want these. Just make sure that your MUA uses individual lashes, not strips, and BLACK glue - my photog recently shared that some MUA use white glue to attach the lashes, and it shows irl, and in pics.

Also, Model in a Bottle is a godsend.

My trial was at noon, and I didn't remove the make-up until 11:00 p.m. This stuff is amazing!

Anyway, here are the shots. The first was taken right after we left the trial. The latter two were taken ELEVEN hours later. Were it not for the shine (damn you, oily skin!) and the lack of lip gloss, I could swear they were taken at the same time.

Did I mention how much I loved the false lashes? ;) So watcha think? Wedding worthy?