DIY Hell

June 23, 2010

Hey, remember when I was all, “I’m taking on two DIY projects and that’s enough for me!” and I was talking about the ribbon on the tables and the pinwheels? In the last week I have lost my mind.

First, I decided to make my own dress from a vintage Vogue pattern published in 1955. Since it’s a very uncomplicated pattern I’m not concerned. (When I was 17, I took on a prom dress that involved boning and a corset back, I can totally handle this.) And then I decided to make 100 origami butterflies. Yeah, and not this origami butterfly – this origami butterfly.

I’ve made two. It took me an hour.
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Now, I could “blame” Martha Stewart for this, but the truth is I love Martha Stewart. I love that she offers ways to have really beautiful events without always dropping a ton of money. For every imported Peruvian cherry blossom grown by monkeys in the biodome she talks about, there’s a DIY solution that looks just as classy. This season’s Martha Stewart Weddings is ALL DIY, and it sparked a touch of insanity.

This picture, it turns out, is the solution to my escort card woes, it just led me to a project I didn’t see coming initially and some bonding time with my friends. (I somehow have five friends that enjoy folding paper into tiny animals. I’m not really sure how I lucked into that.)

Now, I should be talking about the 1,000 yards of ribbon that we ordered for our tablescapes,* but because I am a genius (see: “This is Patti, stuff happens to her”), I ordered 400 yards of the wrong dark green ribbon. In an interesting observation of personal growth, I actually didn’t get all that upset about it. I spat out a curse filled Tweet, and then talked myself down from the ledge by posting the ribbon on Craigslist.** I was angry, but only had myself to blame. Even though I had ordered samples, I was distracted when ordering and selected “evergreen” from the dropdown instead of “emerald.” Being angry with yourself is no fun, so I got over it. So, tune in next week to see me lose my mind over measuring twice and cutting once about 4 million times.

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The 600 yards that I didn’t have to return:
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Hey, you know, this will make for more interesting posts in the future for sure. If I destroyed 40 envelopes addressing save the dates just imagine how many sheets of origami paper I’m going to be pitching across the room.

*Line forms to the left to slap me.
**One of the reasons I ordered color samples was because the wholesaler I was ordering from doesn’t accept returns. Once I really calmed down, and slept on it, I wrote them a nice email and they responded within 10 minutes saying they actually would accept the ribbon in return and credit me the money I had spent. That is wonderful customer service, folks.

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