D.I.Y. Debut

Finally, I can show you what I've been up to these past three months. I couldn't really talk about each of them one by one because... well, it's kind of hard to take any quality pictures when you're borrowing your DSLR camera, as a lot of my old posts might have shown you. Besides, I find it better to dump them all in one sitting, don't you? Haha.

Thanks so much to Tita Lianne from Sugarpuff Photography for the amazing pictures!

It all started with a sketchbook...

One of the things I'll miss the most about prep is writing and drawing my ideas in this journal, even if the debut shouldn't be the end of my entries. I guess this is the first time writing a journal wherein I truly didn't think about what I was writing except for the gist of it, of course. I just let the words flow~ Haha. I'm not really a journal-keeping person (says the girl who tries to maintain a blog harhar) except for all those fictional ones that I have to "script".

I can't wait to look back at this book and see what took up most of my time between August to October 2013, haha.

The Cake

Expectation, reality. Haha, but in fairness, I love how the cake came out, it complimented the party beautifully! I guess an entire ombre-on-the-inside cake is way too ambitious too anyway, but I really love the color blending. Thanks so much to the bakers from Cravings for achieving this so beautifully.

Painting everything...

From the watercolor invites... (these are the originals, I scanned them in and laid them out on Publisher so you could fold them into actual cards! I apparently fooled a lot of people into thinking I did them one by one... hahaha)

...to the poster paint menu cards (I actually had to go through several trials of this because of the changing menu, haha - but I loved food tasting and taking reference photos, although making the food look appetizing with poster paint was a liiittle challenging. Thank God we tackled the color wheel at school before this so finding and mixing colors was easier for me and with this medium then)...

...to watercolor signs and banners posted on the events page and at the candy buffet...

...to the watercolor background on the Freedom Wall, which also took several tries to perfect because the mother/"manager" had a few changes... hahaha.

I'm quite proud of the turnout of several days scattered with hard work, I can't believe it's all collected into this, haha. The whole thing really upped my appreciation for painting and watercolor, that's for sure.

The Souvenir Bag

Aside from the adorable candy buffet provided by Ate Jaz from Sweet Nest (who also did the gorgeous table set-up, backdrop, registration front, and provided creative ideas for so many things) my Mom suggested we have canvas bags for give-aways (aside from the tiny notebooks we hand-stapled and the paper of which we got from our usual supplier, Emerald, near Anonas station) and found the Rehabilitation Sheltered Workshop for the National Capital Region. We learned the bags are hand-crafted by persons with disabilities and even got a discount. They work so efficiently, we got the final bags a day after they started. Also, I sent them a preliminary study for the logo and they were able to Photoshop one for me (because I had no Photoshop at the time haha) and the two-tone print was included in the package.

Seriously, if you guys want to custom order bags or are finding a supplier to sell them, check out the RSW and their website here. You're supporting persons with disabilities as well as getting amazingly crafted quality bags and other products.

Miscellaneous Signages

Before we went to the salon Ate Jaz asked me to drop by so I could write on the black side of some illustration boards. I'm not so good at calligraphy yet so it took me a while (and a looot of erasures) before I could finish these hahaha. Luckily, I wrote a poem beforehand for the toast, but I really chickened out on saying it mostly because it was so cheesy hahaha. But oh well, both of them turned out quite nicely~

***

Like I said, I'll really miss stressing out on party preparations (even though my amount of stress is nothing compared to my parents' hahaha) and working on everything. The party passed like a dream - a four to five hour whirlwind of a dream filled with people who were hopefully happy, and things that took me by surprise, and things that hopefully went as planned, and then suddenly it's all over. Three months of hard work coming into something like this. But hey, in the words of the immortal Dr. Seuss, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

I'm looking forward to being legal, and even if I do have to be careful where I tread now that was one hell of a party, and I'm so glad to have spent my first day of being legal with the people I love (even though some of them unfortunately couldn't make it) and in a way that really captured my me-ness hahaha. Even though I stressed about the party not being about "me" it was still one of the most memorable experiences I've ever had. :)

Belated Happy Halloween, everyone! :D

Do It Yourself Debut

School takes a heavy toll on the relationship between a girl and her blog, but I stopped by regardless of an English paper due this Friday and a paralyzing clogged-nose-and-almost-fever combination to let you in on my plans for the next... three months? Haha.

I've never really given my 18th birthday much of a thought. I'm not the kind of girl who wants to feel like a Princess one day by asking eighteen of her friends to talk about her and dance with her (probably mostly because I don't have enough guy friends?), so I spent about two weeks in conflict about whether I still wanted to hold a debut or not. I do want to hold a party, but what would people be doing for, I don't know, approximately 5 hours?

A couple of days ago I had the idea of holding an Open Mic party just so I would have something to fill in the time. I kind of hate how I didn't think of it earlier, because I know three months before my party isn't the best time to start planning. I don't even have a venue yet, as of now.

Another thing I've decided on is to go all-out Martha Stewart on this thing. Yes, I'm planning on D.I.Y.ing my debut - undoubtedly my biggest, scariest project to date, because as much as I like going to parties, I'm not the kind who's had a lot of experience.

I'm taking pegs from places like MarthaStewart.com, Pinterest, and one of my crafting idols Lorra Elena Angbue-Te Or. However, a lot of the D.I.Y.s here are central to weddings and kiddie parties. The debut, after all, is a Filipino tradition - I admit I had, and am having, a hard time looking for nice inspirations for a non-traditional debut, since I've only attended less than ten so far and a lot of them only involve the whole shebang.

I came up with a "hard copy" Pinterest, an extra black-bound blank book from school to document my journey... I might be able to post some pictures here, if I have time. Hopefully, I will have the time. Hehe.

Wish me luck. :)

In other news, WE HAVE A NEW BUNK BED. HOO HAH!

UPCYCLE CHALLENGE: The School Skirt

Hey hey hey, it's Grad season again. (Maybe I shouldn't say "again". It is, after all, my first and last time graduating High School.)

Now, here in the Philippines, a lot of High Schools require uniforms, whether private or not. Just recently my schoolmates found a very interesting piece of Topshop clothing that looks exactly like our uniform's skirt. This got me to thinking: so we aren't very far from being fashown, after all.

My friends/batchmates Corinne and Riva thought about modifying our own school uniforms so that they could be more wearable in public and less harmful to space in our house and the environment. I (used to) have at least four in my closet - one for each weekday, plus a couple of spares from previous years. The material, to be quite honest, is pretty hot and heavy (excuse my language) and isn't your usual casual, go-to kind of cloth. More on that in another post.

This post, however, is about promoting a project - something of a collaboration by girls who DIY not only from our school but from other schools as well.

According to Wikipedia,

Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value.

My first ever Upcycle Challenge focuses on, as you might've deduced from before, school skirts and how versatile they can actually be. Make your school proud and flaunt just how resourceful and creative people from your alma mater come from!

Here's the poster I came up with:

I'm itching to see not only my batchmates' entries but also anyone else who'd like to take up the challenge.

If you want to join this Upcycle Challenge, comment with a link to your blog/Instagram/tweet/etc. post and I'll include it in my UC:TSS master post some time in April, when I'll expect a couple of entries already up. :)

P.S. I'm probably going to keep just one uniform intact, for posterity's sake. Hihi.

Cosmic Love {D.I.M. Galaxy Canvas Shoes}

So there's this new thing I'm trying called Did It Myself. Since I'm terrible at formulating Do-It-Yourself type tutorials, here's a chronicling of things that I - proudly! - was able to do myself!

***

If there's one thing I'm grateful for the hipster community for, it's turning space into a trend.

Quoting the inimitable Hank Green.

Seriously, how could you not like these? Or space in general?

Quite unabashedly, I love galaxy prints simply because they're so pretty (...I get really guilty when I like something just because it's pretty).

Once upon a time I bought these Vans canvas shoes. I thought they were pretty cool back then; besides, they fit me (they're a Men's 11). I have a hard time finding shoes that fit me around here (which is why I treasure the nice shoes I actually have). Now I think they're really ugly; besides, I was never able to wear them with anything that really matched. I've always wanted to do something to them. So when I saw Lorra Angbue-Te's post on D.I.Y. Glitter Shoes I finally decided to get off my butt and do it.