Tutu Mania!

So everyone on Pinterest has been seeing the adorable homemade tutus that are "so cheap and easy" according to every pin description. 

And, I can tell you, they are pretty easy to accomplish. It doesn't take a lot of skill. What it does take a lot of is:

Time

Patience

Tulle

First:

Determine what you want

Do you want a tutu that stands out like a ballerina? 

Do you want a knee length tutu skirt? A full length one?

Do you want a tutu dress?

Do you want a tutu table skirt?

Second:

How big of an area are you covering?

Is it a baby?

Toddler?

Child?

Small adult?

Large adult?

Side table?

8' round?

12' rectangle?

Third:

How do you want it to attach?

Do you want it on a ribbon you can tie?

On elastic you can slip on?

A "tutu" top or headband?

Fourth:

Materials

Ok. So. Once you've answered your core questions you get to start to look for materials. I will tell you personally I've gotten things from China (eBay), save-on-crafts, & Joann fabric.   There are TONS of places to look. Those are just my go-tos. 

To give you an idea of how much tulle it truly takes I'll post my completed tutus below with approximate yards and time. 

Custom "ballerina style" tutu skirt for infant and headband. 

1 bolt of pink tulle

54" x 25 yards

1 spool of 2" zebra ribbon

1 baby headband

Time: about 2 hours

My neice's 1/2 birthday baby carrier skirt

This started out as an attempt at a table skirt. I ended up running out of tulle. 

1 bolt (54"x25 yd) white tulle

1 bolt sky blue tulle

1 bolt pastel blue tulle

5 yards of 1/4" thick elastic. 

Time: about 2 hours

Flower girl skirts

1 6 month floor length flowing skirt

1 6 year old floor length flowing skirt

2 yellow knit headbands

1 bolt (54"x25yd) stiff burgundy tulle

1 bolt normal burgundy tulle

2 large spools (6"x100yd)

2 yards burgundy lace cut in strips

Time: about 6 hours

Adult tulle skirt

4 bolts (54"x25yd) light pink tulle

2 bolt (54"x25yd) taupe tulle

1 large bolt (60"x40yd) ivory tulle

1 spool 2" ivory satin ribbon

Time: about 8 hours

This guy was a beast. I'm 5'7 and it was knee length. I'm a size 16 and it went around me. It was a MONSTER. 

But it turned out beautifully for my boudoir shoot. ((Warning almost nudity. Covered boobs in hands.))

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Close if you don't want to see my hold my boobs in my hands!

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Ok you were warned. 

Good luck in all your tulle adventures!

Tell or show me your tulle tales in the comments!

DIY Flowers

So as many of you may know, I'm a Floral Designer by trade. I did all of my own flowers for my wedding and would never suggest doing that, but if you're trying to save money and can handle the stress...I'm going to give you a tutorial. 

First:

Decide what flowers you want. 

Not all flowers are year round. Some are only in season certain months. Also, some only come in specific colors. 

This site has a great list of lots of the flowers you can get in which colors and their names. It also has great pictures for sizing options as well:

https://weddingtips101.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/flower-names-by-color/

Second:

Check to see if they are available at the time of your wedding. There are two ways to do this. Google: x flower in (month you're getting married). 

Or go straight to the websites that you will be ordering from and check to see if they have a month-month availability section once you've looked at that flower. 

Third:

Find them and price them. 

Locally: farmer's markets are great places to get flowers locally. Also, many Kroger stores will have a good quality and variety of flowers available for small bunches. 

If you are buying in bulk there are some sites online that sell to the public (and that ice used and know are reputable)

Http://samsclub.com

Http://flowerexplosion.com

Http://fiftyflowers.com

If buying silk or dried flowers to add to your arrangements I suggest:

Save-on-crafts.com

Afloral.com

Etsy.com (and search for specific items. Read reviews before you buy, but I've had positive experiences with sellers on etsy). 

Step Four

Order your flowers. Schedule the delivery for 2-3 days before your event so that your flowers have time to be delivered, come back to life, and be made into arrangements. 

ARRIVAL DAY

As soon as your flowers are delivered bring them inside. Cut open the boxes they will look like this:

Use scissors or a knife to cut open the box and unwrap the flowers. They will be wrapped in plastic (and possibly also cardboard)

If wrapped in cardboard they may look something like this:

As you unwrap the plastic keep

The small pouches of "plant food." It will look like this (about the size of a tea bag):

Take this and add it to buckets or vases of water. I normally put mine either in 5 gallon buckets (from lowes or Home Depot), or spare vases if I want to keep them in smaller group:

Before you place the flowers in the water you need to take a few steps:

Remove all leaves that you know you don't want / will fall below the water line. 

Cut the stem off at least two inches at an angle

This will allow the plant to soak up more of the nutrients and keep it alive longer. 

If it is a flower that needs to "bloom" put it in sunlight. 

If it doesn't need to bloom put it somewhere cool. 

If you have a basement that can be a cool enough area. Or if you keep your house in the upper 60s that should be fine. They will live longer if kept cool. 

DAY 2

So "Day 2" is after your flowers have had the opportunity to soak up the flower food and try to bloom out. If some still need to bloom leave them in sunlight while you work with others. 

Arrangements such as bouquets can be made and put back into water afterward to stay alive. Remember to get fresh water and flower food before putting your arrangements into a container to give it maximum life. 

I cut all of my arrangements with blunt ends. It doesn't give it as much ability to soak anything up, but it also keeps what was in there inside. So say you "dye" a flower. The food coloring the flower soaked up will stay in the flower after you cut from a pointed to a blunt end becaue you've stopped it from "going back out."

Arrangements that are completely wrapped in ribbon should not be put back in water. It wont do anything except get your ribbon wet. So put those in the fridge away from the cooling apparatus so they don't get freezer burnt. 

Arrangements that are small such as Boutineers and corsages should also be kept in the fridge to stay fresh. 

For more delicate flowers try to keep them cool for as long as possible (hydrangeas especially). 

EVENT DAY

Take the flowers from wherever you are storing them and put them into something to carry. If they're in cases I generally use a clothes basket with towels weaved between the bases to keep them steady. Put cooled pieces inside a cooler bag (like you get at a grocery store) for transport. 

Cooler bag from SAMs club

Once you arrive at the location put the arrangements either in a cooler or somewhere dark and cool until time for use. (Or if you're getting married in gal or winter and it's below 50 degrees outside you can leave them outside). 

Don't forget to wipe off the ends of bouquets before handing them to he bride or bridesmaids (if they've been in water). And to put corsage pins with corsages and Boutineers so they can be attached easily. 

If you have any questions or would like a price quote on what it would cost to have your wedding done by me visit: http://marlipaigefloral.com

Memory Table

So, for my wedding (back two and a half months ago), I had wanted to do something to honor our families (and the lineage of love we both came from).

At another wedding I had done flowers for back in April, I saw a "memory table." Where she put photographs of family members who had passed on to honor them. So, I took this idea and tweaked it.

My Grandma and Grandpa (Maternal)

Ian's Paternal Grandparents

Ian's Maternal Grandparents

My parents

My Paternal Grandparents (Nanan and Papa)

Ian's Parents

My Aunt Sistie & Uncle Grady

So combining all of these old photographs (plus a recent one of Sistie and Grady's daughter (Claire's) wedding), I put together in frames (of various shapes and sizes but all white) a memory table. 

In 8 x 10 frames: Our parents

In 5 x 7 frame: A photo of us

In 4 x 6 frames: grandparents, aunt/uncle, and cousin

In addition to the frames I added flower petals, candles, and a metal bird cage / lantern (that held a candle) and matched my 5x7 frame (both from IKEA).

I loved the way mine turned out, and I loved that I got to share the lineage of our love with all of our guests. If you've been looking for a special way to honor your family at your wedding, maybe considering a memory table should be on your to do list.

Items:

Birdcage Lantern. Ikea. $18

Wire Picture frame. Ikea. $5

8 x 10 Frame. Michaels'. $10 / each (clearance)

4x6 frames. Dollar Tree. $1 / each

Yellow Frame. Michael's. $2 (clearance bin)

Branches. Big Lots. $18

Candles. Hobby Lobby. $10 (set of 6)

Petals. Sams' Club. 

Prints. Walmart. 

4x6: $0.09 / each

5x7: $0.59 / each

8x10: $2.84 / each

Doable. Affordable. Beautiful.

Working from Home

So, I've been "working from home" with my Floral Business for two years now. I start year 3 TODAY! But, I've been looking for other ways of income. Because...the floral business isn't a constant thing. Sometimes there are lots of weddings and sometimes there aren't any.

So, someone introduced me to "Instant Rewards." I'm an instant skeptic because I've been burned by Mary Kay, Arbonne, and other MLM and "get rich quick" schemes in the past. Generally speaking nothing good comes from someone saying they have a work from home job or a business opportunity on the internet. So, I started digging.

I typed "Instant Rewards" and "Instant Rewards Scam" And "Instant Rewards Complaints" and even on sites that usually contain nothing but scathing reviews like ripoff report...I found overwhelmingly positive responses. The people who had negative things to say said things like:
"It's a MLM SCAM!" but they didn't say why...
"They'll cheat you out of money!" But the company didn't do that. They were "cheated" by not canceling their free offers before the time limit was up.
"This is such a waste of time!" And i'm sure if you don't put any effort in (or minimal effort. Nothing happens without hard work) it probably is.

But  my favorite response to those people was "If it's a scam it's not a very good one....they don't get any money from you...." and that's true. They are a marketing company. Their main goal is:
Get people to their site
Get people to sign up for free trials (or not free trials) of products or services
The companies that advertise with IR then pay IR for getting new customers in their door (hoping that either they like the product enough to stay, or that they forget the signed up and get charged).
And in return, IR pays you for your time.

It seems pretty simple right?

Everything I've seen and read makes it sound REALLY simple. I mean, it's not hard at all to sign up for things, try them out, and then cancel them if you don't want them. So where is the work?

You don't get paid for things YOU sign up for. You have to get others to sign up. That's where people call it Multi-Level-Marketing. IR calls it Turn-Key. The person who signed you up gets credit for you once you've completed "1 point" worth of offers (for example if you sign up for ancestry.com that's .05 points. And if you sign up for Free Credit 360 that's .25 points.). But after you've completed that "1 point" of offers...you can start signing people up and making money.

So the work comes in finding people to sign up. But Instant Rewards helps with that. They have training videos (like the one below) to help you understand and get started.
http://youtu.be/qiuxCF3oiXM

 They offer posts that you can copy and paste onto sites like facebook or craigslist or any other site to share with people. And they give you your very own referral link (like mine:  http://www.60.instantrewards.net/index.php?ref=630529 ) where they can sign up and give you credit for their products and services they sign up for.


So why am I telling you this? Because not only do I want to make money (hey, if you click my link and you complete the 1 point's worth of tasks, I get $$), but also, I know how hard this economy is and how hard it is to find ways to make money...and I want YOU to make money too! I know that sounds like such a crock, but it's true. I've been jobless (traditional working for someone else jobs) for two years. Making ends meet with your own business that fluctuates like flowers is HARD. If I didn't have my husband, I don't know how I'd make ends meet. But this is something that I can do, I can set my own hours for, make money on my own time and terms, and have a semi-constant income on top of my flowers.


There is no membership fee. You don't pay to sign up. You don't pay a monthly fee. You don't pay Instant Rewards anything EVER. You simply pay for the products and services you try out (or put in credit card information and still get it free as long as you cancel before the 'free trial' is up). That's it. You pay for what you use. And all businesses require start up costs....just think about even getting a new job at an office...you might need pens or notebooks, new clothes that were business appropriate...this isn't any different (or maybe even cheaper). I only bought things that I thought I'd use (or wanted anyway), and then I signed up for the free offers that I'll cancel before their time runs out (you have to use it 75-90% of the trial time). And then, when others sign up under me, I'll get money deposited directly into my PayPal account. It is literally that simple.



So, sign up, look around, try it out. You really don't have anything to lose. Do your own research if you want. Try to find negative and positive reviews. Weigh the odds. But...in the end, I think you'll realize (like I did) that you have so much to gain from at least trying to make this work. And NOTHING to lose.

So sign up by clicking my link:
http://www.60.instantrewards.net/index.php?ref=630529

Sorry. I've been away.

Im Sorry, I fell off the face of the earth. I'm going to try to get back to trying out things and reviewing again. 

I've been a little busy

I now work full time for myself

Http://marlipaigefloral.com

I do wedding and event flowers and planning. I also do non-event flowers, but to date it's been weddings and a corporate event. 

Speaking of weddings...I HAD MINE!

And of course (crazily) did my own flowers. 

Photos courtesy of my photographer, julie Adams of Adamson Photography (http://julieanddavidphoto.com ) and bob Schlag, personal friend, and owner of a bright arrow Photography. 

I will make individual posts about some of the process of the wedding. As well as start back on non-wedding posts as well. 

Love

MarliPaige

Christmas Cards

I'm So, it's the most wonderful time of the year again, and that means CHRISTMAS CARDS! My husband is not as enthusiastic as I am. Apparently he had to hand sign them every year, and his mom sent out quite a few. He was ambivalent when I told him he didn't have to sign, just have his photo on the card. 

Nonetheless and not withstanding, Christmas cards are some of my FAVORITE things! Whether they're store bought, hand made, digitally made, whatever. I love them!

So I looked all over the net for Christmas card deals. They abound, so, no worries if your aren't made yet. The card I wanted was at http://shutterfly.com and I made them during a promotion where I got 25% off my purchase and expedited shipping for the cost of the lowest level ($14.99). Expedited was "guaranteed" by 12/10, but they came 12/5, just two days after I ordered. I was really pleased. 

So, if you're looking for quality cards and a helpful interface, I recommend them highly. I also just used them for my wedding book. So, they are on my praise list at the moment. 

Here's just a cell phone snapshot of how ours turned out. 

Trust me when I say these iphone pics don't do It any justice. They're amazing quality in person. Plus, I love the adorable pun. "Having ourselves a MARRIED little Christmas." Adorable. 

On a less happy note, I've seen floating around the net stories of a six year old girl, dying of cancer, who is asking for Christmas cards for her last Christmas. I can't imagine the heartbreak she and her family are going through, But I can share the story and her address. Because te outpouring of love trough these cards...may be just what she and her family need to have some peace this Christmas.

Engagement Photos

All credit for photos goes to Julie and David Adamson of Adamson Photography. If you live in the greater Atlanta area and are looking for a quality wedding photographer, I highly recommend them.

"family" photos (with Bailey)

Soulmates

Nerds

Lovey

Silly