Wedding Season!

Tis truly the season of weddings! We have 4 weddings to attend within 2 weeks and with 2 of them being that of close girl pals' so yep, I am really feeling the effect of running around. Feels like I'm getting married all over again haha! One wedding was on the monday that's just past while another biggie one is happening tomorrow! How exciting! We had a bridal shower last Sat for one bride-to-be but unfortunately the photos weren't in my camera so those will have to wait. Matt did snap shots of my 7-month belly though!

Prior to the bridal shower, we had a little jewellery soiree cos the bride (for tomorrow) wanted to thank her helpers by giving them handmade trinkets ~ it turned out to be a whole day affair! See us hard at work on a saturday afternoon:

Naturally it was up to moi to finish up whatever remained uncompleted. Total tally? 10 bracelets and 5 pairs of earrings! Due to time constraints I was only able to photograph the earrings but hopefully I can sneak some shots of the bracelets during the wedding proper!

The bride wanted something more old-fashioned and victorian with pearls to go with her lace gown so we found these antique-style sterling filigree clasps that allowed her to wear her earrings in 3 different styles ~ 1) with the baroque pearls above 2) sans the pearls 3) just the diamond studs alone! Very versatile!

Sterling earrings with peridot, rhodolite garnet and moonstone to go with the bride's burgundy dinner cheongsam

Rose earrings for the two bridesmaids

And a little gift from the bride to Val (my bridesmaid and godma of baby challenger!) to go with her funky pink cheongsam. I would have worn my silvery lilac cheongsam too if not for the fact I can't fit into it right now! :p It'll prob take the birth, total breastfeeding and at least 6 months of hardcore exercise for me to fit into it again. Sigh.

It'll be a super long day tomorrow so I'm off to prepare for it ~ I always can't help feeling all excited about weddings, especially when you've seen the couple progress from friendship to courtship to saying their vows! Just hope I can hold back the tears tomorrow - you never know with the hormones now! :p

Happy days and happier news!

Remember this pair of earrings I did for a friend who was getting married in April? We finally got to see pictures of her cosy wedding in Canberra, Australia and oh wow, the couple looked so happy and blissful I just know they were meant for each other :)

A close up of the lovely bride with her custom earrings

The happy couple ...

and my favourite picture from their album

~ a moment of sheer happiness immortalised forever~

Can you blame me for having a soft spot for weddings?

On a more personal note, this has been a little secret waiting to burst out for a long time and we think perhaps it's about time we shared it *shy grin* ~ Matt and I are expecting our first baby!! I'm well into my 15th week now and the worst of the sickness part has thankfully past, although I still get the occasional sick days when the toilet bowl is my ole trusty friend. Life has taken a dramatic turn with the preparation for this new addition to the family - for one my appetite has changed drastically! I used to adore Japanese food, ramen sushi sashimi ... everything! But now just the smell of the shoyu sauce is enough to make my stomach churn. No more fried and oily food for me, simple plain old porridge and all things light please! And yes, Yakult is now my best friend cos of the slow digestion that comes with being preggers.

Guess the hardest part to manage would be the crazy fatigue! No longer can I expect the body to cope with the usual demands of work - whenever I forget to pace myself and allow breaks, it shows later in the day. My face turns pale, my legs go weak and I feel like throwing up all over again. I guess it's a learning process of adapting to the demands of pregnancy! It's wonderful timing that my dear friend Chris the baking goddess is also expecting her first child, she's much further along than I am and she's been such a wonderful trove of sound advice for me! We're saying how nice it'd be that our kids can grow up as friends together haha!

Right now the Oriental Rose studio is undergoing transformation from the messy workroom into the baby's haven so we've (or rightly Matt) been moving things around A LOT. My workspace and computer have been moved into the lounge temporarily while work is being done in the baby room :) We're also heading back to England this Friday for 2 weeks to attend the wedding of Matt's older sister Clare. Hopefully we'll be able to bring back some of Liam's old baby clothes! If only we were able to find out if Baby is a boy or girl before we leave but i guess Baby is shy and wants to keep us in suspense a while longer.

Thank you for bearing with me during this period of frequent absences! Please rest assured I've been working hard still on accumulating enough pieces for a tea party in September when we return! The last few tea parties were sold out pretty early and I'd hate to disappoint the folks that can't make it as early so I'm working to have more more more! pieces this time round. It might take longer than expected in my current state but it'll be well worth the wait :)

See ya all again in 2 weeks!!
xoxoxo

Teddy bride loves photoshoots!

A uni friend of mine wanted to get a wedding set as a present for her friend who's getting married in June and I couldn't be more pleased to do it up for her! I've also done up matching earrings which aren't in the picture cos they were notoriously hard to photograph for a lousy amateur like myself. This little teddy bride has been sitting by my computer screen so I used it in my photoshoot on a lark. Hee. You can tell she is very excited to be my model cos she loves happy occasions, like a wedding!

More orders finished!

I was counting stock for April's Maad and was dismayed to find what a long way it still was from my target number of pieces! That, despite all my long eye-straining hours and major hoarding. Sigh. Good news is I'm slowly marking back orders off my list and here are some pieces I recently completed:

You hold my heart

This is a modified version of the Mercy necklace I did last year with a victorian hand charm and a handmade "pearl" word charm amidst the vintage white flowers .

Daniella

Commissioned for someone's birthday, someone sweet and petite I'm told :)

Wedding earrings lot

Michelle and Haydn are a lovely Australian couple we had the privilege to befriend during their few months in Singapore ~ They will be heading back home for their April wedding soon and I couldn't be more thrilled to have been approached to do up pink earrings for her bridesmaids and a pair of creamy ivory earrings for her full lace gown, which was described as victorian romantic somewhat reminiscent of Jane Austen's heroines. Doesn't it sound simply divine?

The best part was finding out that we had both got our bridal gowns from Margaret and our bridesmaid dresses from Olive Suite. Guess we really share similar (good) tastes! :) All the more I had to do her earrings heh. Ooh i'm really relishing doing wedding jewellery!

wedding clips you've been waiting to see!

Haha I'm finally uploading very incriminating clips of the wedding ~ We finally collected the videos, both full-length and MTV so it's gonna be time for a helpers' reunion soon!!

1) Wedding dinner (very romantic)



2) Wedding dinner (comical)



3) Oops Liam trips over my long train



4)The best of all ~ Check out everyone's tum tum!

in the mood for love?

Just received more photos from weilin's camera and wow! These 2 shots totally make me feel like I just stepped off the set for In the Mood for Love ~ think maggie cheung and her high-cut cheongsams minus the poofy hair. Thanks babe, love these pictures!

Me and the sillv babeDerek, Weilin and moi
vivien and weilin in a classic moment captured for posterity A picture says a thousand words. How true.

Chris is getting married on Sat!

Hey hey, chris the baking fairy is tying the knot this Sat and we'll be there to see her at her best! She's been such an amazing influence in my life even though we've only known each other for short while. Guess the fact that we have very similar family background helps! :) She's a brave and strong woman with a sensible head on her shoulders, plus she's a really fun person to be with! And did I mention her baking? Just check out what she made as my wedding favours ~ yummy chocolate cups with sponge cake filling, banana slices, dark chocolate mousse, strawberry halves, chocolate "cigars" and white chocolate icing that says "M&Y"!

And at our wedding - Kris, Chelsea, Chris and Chern Wei
Congrats babe and hang in there! :)

hen party pictures!

Yup, good ole Val has finally uploaded the pics fr her camera so here they are! Being the nice sensible girls that we are, we opted to have some food at Tapas Tree and yummy pudding at the Chocolate Factory before heading back to our room at York hotel for lotsa muscato and TABOO!! No bartop dancing or strippers or pole dancing I'm afraid. Just good clean fun with a bunch of fun wacky girls! As the night went on, people started slurring and making all sorts of hilarious blunders... a real night to remember! Check out the fairy wings, they're our official hen party wings and it stays with me till the next babe's turn to get hitched! And yes, that's an authentic hula outfit with real coconut husks all the way fr hawaii, courtesy of ann marie! (who got sloshed and ended up our hula girl for the night haha)

Girl friends are still the best! :)

I'm back!!

What can I say? The last few weeks have been a blur with the wedding going on and family staying with us... I wish I could have shared more abt the silly things that happened, the painful parts of planning a wedding and the joy of having loved ones with us. Unfortunately transferring internet access and basically other gas, electricity stuff over to the new place is a real challenge. But my internet (and workstation) is finally up and running so I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things (and replying the hundreds of emails sitting forlornly in my overflowing mail box)!

It was hilarious on our first night in the new house, which by the way was the weekend before the wedding so yes, we are very brave souls. We wanted to take a shower, only to realise our showerhead was faulty and our sink pipe leaked. Tried other toilets only to find out 4 out of 5 sinks leaked. Then we tried to hang our towels, only to realise we forgot abt bathroom hooks. When we got hungry and thought abt whipping up some food, we found we had to get the gas pple in to do some hooking up to the stove. Very pathetic moment. Esp. with relatives who just flew in around.

Anyway I've got to run now to send the last brothers and sisters to the airport, plus pick up the wedding albums. They're out!! *happy jiggly dance* Can't wait to upload the wedding photos!
P.S. Check out my flickr for the pictures, uploading them right now!

the big count down

4 more days to the wedding... running all the errand bits, wondering what we might have forgotten and memorising the 2 vows are killing me!! Somehow I just can't get the order of the verses right :( Just had my teeth cleaned this morning, popped by the florist again, bought more stuff for the day... and heading out soon again for the final gown fitting where I'll learn to walk with the train! And have I mentioned the church rehearsal's tonight? We're still rushing the slides and music!

Ok I'm starting to hyperventilate with the list of undone stuff, think I better go finish up more stuff before I start screaming my head off. Muaks pple and keep me in prayer pls!

From a nerve-wrecking bride-to-be

crazy times

Things have been insane!! I'm so sorry if I have been slow in answering emails, we've had to shift our stuff's over to the new place, where we'll be staying from tonight onwards. Unfortunately the internet and cable access aren't up and running yet, while my PC's still at the old place so yup, very inconvenient indeed. Haven't had time to work at all, or even unpack our stuff, and with family arriving everyday, it's been nothing short of madness. So yes, I promise to upload pictures soon, esp. of the girls' night! Which was great fun, but left me with a horrendous hangover. Still need to clean the apartment, get more crockery, move more furniture and pick up relatives at the airport later. Great way to spend the Sunday huh.