How can you not be excited about the greatest event in the world?

It's June my friends. June. The month of the World Cup. And boy is the fever on!!

World Cup has always meant a lot to me and now it's meaning a lot to Athalia as well. She's a fervent supporter of Germany and Spain. I support what she likes to call "the dirty Italians". Of course, there's the English and the Dutch for me too. Our rivalries are heating up, and I think the only safe ground for our kids next time is Argentina. Or France. Actually no. That might get them killed.

And so, here's a toast to many late nights, many roars of joy, sobs of defeat, and may this World Cup be the best one yet!

Ring IV: Mockups

Having chosen our design and deciding to go with gold, we brought our thoughts to our friendly local jeweler Sofia and look what she turned out in one week! Mockups!

I don't even know if 'mockups' is the right word because these are the actual rings that we'll be wearing, just unfinished. If you look closely, there are red lines where some trimming needs to be done, and red dots where some stones will be placed (on Thay's ring) but by and large, that's it! And we absolutely love them!

I mean, look at them! Could these rings have been forged anywhere other than in Middle Earth itself? Could anyone other than ancient dwarven goldsmiths have done this? I wore it and immediately felt like a king. I mean, if I were to ever sprout a beard while wearing this ring, I'll get shocks from testosterone poisoning and my chest will explode into a million swords! Swords, I tell you!

Athalia: Can I get you a drink?

Fergus: Yes, I think I need to calm down.

Athalia: Ya think?

Fergus: Writing this post is giving me hypertension.

Athalia: Come, let me finish this up for you...

Yes, it's me, Athalia, and I must admit that the rings also had me falling in love. They looked strange on the display tray but when I put mine on, it immediately looked like it belonged. The colour was just right, the mobius twist was strong but not overpowering. And yes, those little stones...

Fergus: I'm back.

Athalia: I see you've stopped shaking.

Fergus: Can I see the picture agai...

Athalia: No, wait!

Fergus: Garrrkk gweargh gwarkkh!

Athalia: Oh dear. Sorry, readers. I think I've to tend to my fiancee for a while. Tata!

Wedding decor: Poms, poms and poms

I loooooove fabric poms. Look at the strings of frilly joy!

They're real easy to make (tutorial here) and can be done while watching TV, sitting around yaking or going to cell. Hehe. Really, it's just drawing circles on fabric, cutting them out, folding them into quarters and stitching six together. Repeat 1,000 times. Piece of cake.

These larger, hanging poms don't even require stitching, just hot-gluing onto a styrofoam sphere (tutorial here).

I plan to make these to decorate the edge of the pews like this:string the smaller poms across the chapel like this:

and stick individual poms around every other place like this:

See why I need 1,000 poms? However, I'll settle for how ever many can be reasonably made.

Best part is, we're going to reuse all these in Muar for the garden dinner - with the addition of fairy lights! I think that it'll look as lovely as this. Minus the tent of course.

Sigh. I love poms.

Fourth birthday of the year

We celebrated my brother-in-law CP's birthday last Friday and to call it anything less than a gastronomic shangri-la would be to lie! Lie, I tell you!

Eating started off with tapas at the cafe in the National Geographic Store and then the real dinner happened at L'Opera. The tortellini, when bit into, gave birth to sensations I had never known before. And I had a Cuban beer, this Bucanero Strong - I swear, this thing was brewed with the spirit of the revolution itself. Castro himself would have closed his eyes just to savour its taste.

Alas, describing food can never really come near actually eating it, and as an object lesson on what gets lost in translation, I shall show you only the most austere, the most sedate photos from our reel. Anything more, my friends, will kill you.

Ring III: Golden

Yes. Our rings will actually be golden in colour. It's fashionable these days to go with "silver", ie white gold or platinum, but I've always thought that a simple gold ring was the most charming and quaint thing. Fergs was initially sceptical about the idea of anything in gold looking good - tsk tsk to him letting modern marketing dictate his taste like that - but after a few "looks vintage" and "that's what our parents all had" pitches from me and some internet pictures, he's fully behind the idea.

Dear readers, let me continue to dispel the notion that gold means a garish, bright yellow Poh-Kong horror:






Aren't these rings so elegant and refined? I later learned that this pale, glossy sheen is called an European finish. My ring will have this finish, while Fergs is going for a matte finish like the ring on the right above.

I can't wait to show you the mock-ups we received!

Monogram

Up until a few weeks ago, the word "monogram" would be for me the unloved, lonely sister of the record label Polygram. But apparently it's not. It seems that a monogram is a logo-like design that usually comprises the initials of a couple that's getting married, bridged by a plus sign or an ampersand. It's big in the wedding scene, or so I've recently discovered.

Which means that I've been handed the juicy task of digging through all 679 of my fonts to pick out some of the more suitable ones for our monogram. Of course, the one we pick (which may not even be in the picture here) depends largely on what message we want to convey through typography. Are we trying to say we are very oldskool vintage? Or very delicate girly, perhaps? How about edgy literary? Pop arty? Subtle? Patterned? Generic?

Still, a lot more goes into a finished monogram than the dull encircling oval I lazily made last night. Vines? Circular lines? Repeat motifs? My education in wedding art design just keeps on going on.

So, what do you do with this thing called a monogram? It seems, quite a lot. Other than getting it on all your printed material, you can further brand your wedding by printing it on your napkins and aisle runner, arranging it on the wedding car or in your bouquets. Or have it embroidered onto the train of the wedding gown. Or tattooed onto the face of the 4-year-old flower girl. Yes, that should leave a lasting impression, especially for the flower girl. Superduperidea!