Damn Size 0!

So upon trying on the dress, I realised I shoulda gone one size smaller. I guess it was my bad as I thought I should have been a size zero when I checked the sizing charts on the website but the brain's thinking to self, no way! No freaking person alive should be a size zero! So I bought a size 2. Don't get me wrong, I think the fit is still fantastic and I love love love the dress and the superbly effortless fit and I'm probably more a size 2, really, if not for the boobs. The only thing even the best super maximer bras won't save, so I guess I gotta go get it somewhat altered to fit so I can bend down on my wedding day with some modesty. Neways, I needed to tweak up the back, add a sash at the waist, maybe a flower and some serious ironing, me thinks it's all good! Here's a pic:

Oh wait, is that bad luck?

It's Here!

I can't believe it arrived so fast! My dress, signed sealed delivered, all mine! Am a little nervous to try it on but will gather the strength. In a while.

Boy oh Boy

What a sad state this blog's in. It started off really promising (hey, 2 posts in 6 months! *pat on the back!*). So now that the house stuff's pretty much done, I don't wanna be talking about our boring kitchen nomore, well, at least not this time. I'mma talk about me wedding planning!

I know most brides would already have like picked out, confirmed and deposit paid and paid for wedding venues, dresses, invitations and everything else probably 12 months too early. Should I be worried that I've only got three things ticked off my to do list? Venue, ticked. Wedding cake figurines, ticked. Dress, just about ticked.

Venue: Booked it right before we left for Melbourne for a holiday which was like 3 weeks back. RM500 deposit and it's done. Can you believe it? RM500? Deposit?

Wedding Cake Figurines: Checked and checked! Bought it on Etsy.com, like super priority right to get wedding cake figurines when we're not even sure we were going to have wedding cakes? Neways, I ordered it online and had it sent to Chan Heng Joon in Oregon and he's (finally) picked it up from the post office. Saw it on webcam and it looks pretty cute (despite Chan Heng Joon claiming he could have done the same thing for me for five bucks!)

Of course ours will look slightly different being that Arvin's pretty 'tanned' , so I chose the tan suit with a Yellow tie and dark brown skin for Arvin and mine's pretty much like the one here if I remember correctly, maybe with black hair or something. Phew, I'm so glad the wedding cake figurines are done with! Can you believe I waited till 3 months before the wedding to get these? Atrocious.


Now the dress: I initially wanted to have a dress tailor made by my partner Violet's mum, she made the wedding dresses of all my sisters' and her group of friends and friends' friends and they are seriously gorgeous. I had the Monique Lhuillier 'Scarlet' dress in mind and was pretty set to go ahead with making that one. The budget was to try to do it below RM1500 which was quite unrealistic since you've got to spend at least that amount just to buy the lace cloth.

So another idea I was playing around with was to buy a vintage 50's prom/wedding dress, you know the kind with all the fluff and the big skirts which would be pretty cute for an outdoor wedding. Striked this option out in the end cause these dresses normally fall just below the shin and I didn't wanna show off my chunky legs for the wedding. My pre-wedding excercise goal was to tone up the flabby arms and covering every other part up so doing both arms and legs would be too much work obviously. So strike 2.

Option 3 was to just buy a dress retail. Since all you can find in Malaysia are either gawdy organza dresses or cutout backless tartlet bridal dresses, among others (I mean seriously, why anyone would want to look like Scarlett O'hara on their wedding day is beyond me!), I thought I'll just buy it, where else, online! Of course it did occur to me I haven't tried the dress, how to buy, etc etc. but I think I'm pretty confident with this buy from J. Crew. Behold the Silk Tricotine Robin Dress:

And then, I browsed the Fall 09 season catalogue which hasn't been released yet and I saw this!!:

Too gorgeous! So my plan is to have the back altered, remove the cross straps at the back, sew it back on straight and add the lace portion peeking out from under the cowl neckline! Should be quite simple, I think. Ahem.

Of course me being the bargain hunter queen, I didn't buy the dress directly off J. Crew, it was retailing for USD325 so a quick search on Ebay and I found the exact same dress in size 2 for USD129! (go me!) So including shipping to Malaysia for an extra USD20, the total would probably be about RM500! I just love a bargain! Considering that my first first first choice of dress was a satin sheath dress very similar to this J.Crew one I bought while doing my usual shopping for ShopU for RM29, five hundred bucks is a big big trade up. Let's just hope it arrives, if not the next dress I buy has got to be at least RM500 bucks cheaper.

So there, with the rate I'm going, I'll be done with the wedding planning in no time! *faint*

Where Does 4 Months Go?

I thought I was going to do this whole thing were there will be like updates every other day, minute details of our progress with the house, the day by day transformations. Quite obviously, we've fast forwarded, skipped and hopped over a couple of months to arrive here now. All I can think right now is, where the heck did those 4 months go? It can't be fair to feel like only a day has past in my head but outside it, days and months have speeded past. I doubt my head will ever catch up with real time (explains alot, really, my friends would testify to this).

Does this account for 4 months' work when there are still 80% of things I wanted done before we moved in still undone? Let's talk kitchen (obviously my favourite spot :P) cause, urm, that's all the pictures I have right now. :)

So this was before:

About 60% through with the kitchen:




And right about now:




*Loves* my kitchen! Have used it approximately:
3 times - for baking
2 times - for cooking
10,000 times - for...toasting bread. Hehe..

The Before

It'll probably be a couple more months, maybe years even to get to 'The After' post, but in the meantime, baby steps.

I guess some would say we're having it easy since the whole place is pretty much post-ID, post major reno etc etc and I would generally agree. We have it shitloads easier. Easier in the sense that we're just taking someone else's idea lock stock barrel. The hard part am thinking, is trying to make our half complete abode completely ours.

So when we do finally get to that 'The After' post one day, I would like to pull up this first post and see just how far we've come to making No. 59 ours, and ours only.

So, the before:

View from outside. The hallmark of true Malaysian homes, the double storrey terrace link house!


A red wall to greet our guests as they step in, not our idea (previous owners'), but we like it anyhow.

I quite obviously am very very excited about the super duper spacious kitchen.

Will get more before pics once we have em keys tomorrow.