How to Know What You [really] Want

A while ago, I was asked by a friend to help with her daughter's wedding day. To boil it down, I get to tell people where and when to go, and what to do when they get there.  Basically, it's the perfect job for me - being bossy and ubber-organized.  I was that kid who used to direct (and show) plays in her back yard.  Not much has changed. 

Are you familiar with the tv show 'Wedding SOS?' where there is a 'wedding godmother' of sorts who goes around granting wishes to the bride and groom when they need them most?

Yeah.  It's going to be nothing like that. 

All the details are being planned by the bride and groom - I'm lending some creative services, but most of the ideas are theirs.  I can't wait!

Recently, I was over at my friend's house (the MOB) to help figure out centrepieces for the dinner table.  The bride wants 'elegant vintage'  or a 'Great Gatsby' feel and specifically said 'nothing too rustic.'  She's said she's super-keen on the idea of vintage tins, silvers, and overflowing flowers for the tables. 

Here are a recent collection of photos she sent along for inspiration:


Photo #1

Photo #2

Photo #3

Photo #4

Photo #5

 

Photo #6

Photo #7



Photo #8



All of them are gorgeous, right?!  YES!  But they're not all the same.  In fact, they're all pretty different.  And the reality with table centrepieces is you just can't do that much.  It's best to keep them simple - and elegant. (or simple and funky; simple and cute...whatever floats your boat). 

So how do you figure out what someone really wants? 

1.  Get an immediate visual image

If you're a visual person like me, you look at the photos for a minute and you can pick it out.  Let's play..."one of these things is not like the other."  Go on and scroll through the photos again.  Is there one photo that sticks out from the bunch or doesn't seem to belong? 

Did you say Photo #6?  (and probably Photo #3, if you want to be very particular.  Which I especially like to be!). 

Right.  Photo #6 has very vibrant colours and seems to be the only photo with vintage tins in it.  Go on and have another look.  It's true, isn't it? 

Hmmmm....let's continue.

2. Create a word map (or even a word cloud!)

Word clouds were all the rage in advertising and marketing a little while ago.  I think the trend has mostly passed...which means I'm just about ready to hop on it.  I never said I was hip, people.  I just get things done. 

You can make your own word cloud at Wordle.  Just enter in text, or, in this case, list all of the words you come up with for each picture. 

For example...here's picture #1 again:




Photo #1

 

I see these words:

White
Purple
Silver
Books
Glass
Blue
Flowers
Brass
Rustic
Porcelain






Do this exercise for each of the photos and then enter the text into Wordle - and create your word cloud.  My word cloud looked like this:


Based on the word cloud above, the bride is looking for table centrepieces that feature GLASS, specifically JARS, the main colours WHITE and GREEN (probably mostly from the flowers) with accents of Pink, Yellow, Blue, and Purple.  All of this will be tied together with SILVER highlights for a little 'bling.' 

She doesn't want anything: rustic, brass, sweet, bright, orange, country, modern, vintage or funky. 

Ummmmm.....so what's left? 

3.  Figure out the opposites

If you're struggling with the 'do not's' list, think about what the opposites of these words are...and you might find some of your 'do's in that. 

Rustic /= Urban
Brass (gold in colour) /= Silver
Orange /= Blue
Country /= Urban
Modern /= Traditional
Vintage /= New
Funky /= Conventional

From the list above, Silver and Blue have been mentioned above, so make sense.  We're left with a few words that don't seem to fit into a 'vintage, Great Gatsby' vibe the bride wants.

SO...

4.  Be honest and look for more specific examples

Maybe this bride doesn't want as much 'vintage, funky' flair as she originally thought.  Maybe she wants to focus on a more traditional, classic feel, with some vintage touches for interest's sake (read: decorate silver, cut glass mixed with glass mason jars, coloured glass, silver candle sticks)

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE VINTAGE TINS!!  They're such a great idea - it would be shame to waste them.  Plus, they're cool.  Real cool. 

But it doesn't fit into what the bride envisions for her table centrepieces. That's ok.  Why not incorporate it somewhere else in the wedding? 

The bride also wants this for her dessert table:

I think it would be perfect to incorporate the vintage tins on the dessert table.  It's already got the rustic, vintage, funky vibe going on...and vintage tins would compliment, not compete, with this look.  Also, be willing to realise that the thing you didn't think you wanted (*ahem,*, mason jars) is in almost every picture you like.  Embrace mason jars.  Seems like they're also 'a thing.' 

In conclusion, this is a bit subjective...obviously, it would be best to get the bride to come up with the words for each picture; the results would likely be more accurate.  But she's in New Zealand.  Apparently there's a time difference or something.

 

You don't have to use this process for just weddings...you can figure out your personal 'style' this way (for clothing, decor, makeup etc.).  Easy as 1-2-3...4!

 

Happy planning! 

Double Trouble: Steamer Trunk and Vintage Crate (from scratch!)

I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this Steamer Trunk project, that's for sure!  It's both time consuming and tricky - but it does look loads better when it's refinished!

 

Here are a couple of 'Before' photos of said trunk.  You can't tell from these pictures, but the top of the trunk was badly weather-damaged and the hardboard on the lid was unsalvageable.  It was like a soggy book!  I had to replace the hardboard which meant removing all of the hardware on the lid! 

 

The inside of the trunk does look like it may have been the site of a body-haul...but I assure you, it's just some sort of pink dye.  Obviously something leaked!  I have yet to tackle the body of the trunk, but it will have to be stripped down inside...I'm now debating about whether I should take it apart entirely.  It's quite difficult to put back together!  We shall see...

After spending hours yanking out the original nails and hardware, I de-rusted them (everything, everything, everything was rusty).  Instead of using that pink chemical stuff to remove the rust, I decided to be cheap environmentally friendly and try a more natural approach.  I boiled up a brew of vinegar (my favourite - good for everything!), salt, dish soap and some water.  I boiled the hardware in this for...not long, maybe 10 mins, making sure all the hardware was under the water.  Then I used a stainless steel scrubbing pad (you know, the kind that look like silver balls - to begin with - and you can get at the Dollar Store).  I rinsed them and dried them well.  Rust be gone!  At least mostly, and good enough to be sprayed with some Rustoleum Black Semi-Gloss spraypaint. 
 

I removed the misshapen hardboard and dismantled the wooden frame of the lid so that I could strip off the old paper lining and refurbish some of the wood.  I filled in any holes I could find with wood filler and put carpenter's glue in any splits that had formed from the old nails.  When it was dry, I give it a really quick sanding (like, I practically just brushed the sanding sponge over the wood three times) and then the wood also received the same Rustoleum paint treatment. 

I had the good people at Home Depot cut my new piece of 1/4" hardboard to size and I covered the inside with a turquoise leopard print paper - no pictures of that yet.  You will just have to wait in anticipation! 

At an auction recently, I picked up 4 burlap sheets for FREE (they belonged to the auction client, who I knew personally, and she was happy to get rid of them.  I'll take your garbage anyday!).  I washed the burlap and dried it in our dyer.  FYI, check burlap frequently if you're going to dry it.  It would have been good for me to frequently change the lint tray.  Burlap is messy stuff!  I also hung it outside for days to let the wind blow off as much fluff as I could.  When I was ready to use it, it was in pretty good shape and only needed a bit of a brush down before gluing - I used an old dried out paintbrush. 

I used plain old white glue (again) mixed with a little water to glue down the burlap.  I used a lot of glue, both on the hardboard and then over top of the burlap.  I tried to be even with my application on the top and really get the glue into the weave of the burlap.  It took a while to dry, and when it did it was nice and stiff - and durable. 

I had a bit of an internal debate about whether I should have spray painted the hardware silver or gold rather than black, but in the end I stuck with the black...because I didn't have gold (or bronze) spray paint, and that's what I thought might look best.  I like the black on black. You can't see them in the pictures, but the nails I used to put the hardware back on are pewter and make a nice contrast - not too severe.  If I decide to stencil on the top of the trunk (a shipping company name or some such thing) I think the black on black is a good choice. 

The top is mostly finished except for a few places I need to add some nails (I ran out).  As I said I'm trying to decide how best to tackle the body of the trunk now...so it's just sitting in the workshop until I figure it out.

On Friday afternoon I came how with these in my trunk.  I'd been waiting to find a good reno somewhere in town and it turned out that a restuarant was gutting its insides - just for me!  A very lovely labourer pulled all of these lath and plaster slats off of their wood frames, with his bare hands no less!  Very impressive!  I loaded them up in the car and then let them sit out in the awesome rain storms we had on Saturday.  No need to wash them by hand when you can just leave them out in the rain, right?  I am soooo lazy resourceful!

The idea is to turn these slats and wood pieces into a Vintage Crate, or a series of crates, really...a la this: 

 

{In other news, I was asked to coordinate a friend's daughter's wedding on the day of the wedding as well as help pull together some of the 'artsy' details.  So let me get this straight:  I get to make things and boss people around?  And you'll pay me?  All my dreams have come true!!}

 

*ahem*

 

So, I thought, how hard can this be?  Not that hard, really.  This project was quite simple and rewarding as I was able to finish the making of the box in just a couple of goes.  I couldn't find the above picture until just now (who knows why?) and my subsequent crates will look a bit different (and use fewer slats), but it will all work out in the end.

 

First I had to knock all of the old nails out of the slats and figure out what sizes I had to work with.  I wanted to keep the cutting I would need to do to a minimum.  

I ended up using the original nails I knocked out from the slats to hammer into the pine boards I was using from the frame.  I had these boards cut to size at Home Depot, too. 

Some of the nails needed straightening out, a task easily accomplished by knocking them against the cement floor with my hammer. 

I hammered the slats onto the frames, and then cut slats for the ends and hammered those in, too.  I threw together a haphazard box in (what felt like) no time (but was actually a couple of hours...what with the nail hammering, wood sizing, cutting, and all). 

Of course, I haven't taken a picture of the completed box - that's next on the list.  Stay tuned!