Old School gifts unwrapped

The 2 types of gifts that I gave out for xmas this year.

Doesn't this bring back some old school memories?

Designed the graphic and got a shop to print it on tote bags for me. Totally love how it turned out :)

Merry Christmas!

Forget about the calories till next year! It's time to eat, drink and be merry =))

Have a very Merry Christmas and a great 2012!

Wishing everyone good health and happiness in the comin' year!

A Garden Party

Received an enquiry about 1.5wks back to quote for ROM decor at Krish Restaurant @ Rochester Park. I am actually quite excited because I have always loved garden weddings. Hotel ballroom banquet was never my cup of tea. How I wish Singapore has four seasons, then we can enjoy garden weddings in the cool breeze of spring. Whenever I mentioned to anyone about having a garden wedding here, they will give me 'the look' and say "no aircon, very hot".

Went down with my partner one Sunday evening to check out the Krish Restaurant. Love the decor! The restaurant design is vintage with a bit of old english flavour, excellent for a nice cosy party. Suitable place for ROMs or small wedding celebrations away from the hussle and bussle of the city. The indoor dining area allows room for simple DIY decor and little knick knacks like those found on Etsy Weddings. With some creative ideas, a nice touch can be added to the wedding.

Source: Krish website

If you prefer something outdoors, there is the bar area which exudes a different feel in the day and night. There is a full shelter now unlike in the photo so you can still enjoy the 'outdoors' without being dampen by the rain in equatorial Singapore.

Source: Krish website

Since it was almost dinner time, we decided to settle our dinner there. The food was quite interesting too, it was Indian fusion. We ate the Tandoori Stuffed Chicken Roulade and Seared Sea Bass for mains and shared the Fudge Cake for dessert. I like the slightly sourish couscous from the Sea Bass dish. I think it was blended with tamarind, very nice flavour and appetizing. The overall experience was good and the place is quite accessible. Approximately 10-15min walk from Buona Vista Mrt Station.

Some pictures of the food. Pardon the poor quality as I took them with my mobile phone.

Tandoori Stuffed Chicken Roulade

Seared Sea Bass

Fudge Cake

Have an old school xmas!

Thought for a long time and decided that this will be the theme for this year's prezzies. Check back on Boxing Day to see what's in there :)

I want my mom's vintage wedding gown!

Wedding gowns these days seem to have lost their simple beauty compared to those worn during our parent's generation and earlier. I wouldn't mind wearing my mom's 1980 wedding gown for my own wedding next time. But she didn't keep the gown and obviously looking at her waistline then, no way I can fit in! Have always been a fan of vintage inspired clothing, bags and shoes. So if I ever get married, the wedding will definitely have a vintage flavour.

The gowns these days are more fancy and elaborate like fashion pieces. Unlike past gown designs which involved using quite a bit of lace giving them a very classy feel. Some of them even if worn today, will still look pretty good and not dated. With that said, not everyone can carry off the vintage gown look. I like those from the 50s - 60s era, just like this piece worn by Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco.

If you are looking for vintage inspired gowns, check out The Vintage Wedding Dress Company and Wedding Dresses 100. They have really simple and classic designs. One thing for sure, those dresses look easier to move around in compared to bottom heavy pom gowns.

Make up trial

Suggested to my gf some months back to do a make up trial before her actual wedding day because the look that the make up artist came up with for her photoshoot was rather passe. And she complained to me that the make up artist used eyeliner on her lower lids despite her objecting to it. Seriously, either you are aunty or Captain Jack Sparrow, this liquid liner on the lower lids is dated. Unfortunately, she didn't do a trial before her photoshoot.

Thank goodness she agreed to my suggestion and I accompanied her to do a trial yesterday. Again the make up artist insisted on liquid liner on the lower lids. I knew it would turn out horrendous but agreed to let the make up artist try it so that we could all be convinced that it ain't gonna work. After that I suggested to her to use eyeshadow instead and it came out much better. But before we settled on the right colour she kept using the darker colours which didn't suit my friend because it emphasized on her eyebags. The whole make up didn't come out fantastic but it was probably the best the make up artist could do. For an old school bridal studio with an aunty lady boss, I think we can't expect too much.

Then we went on to the hair. The earlier hairstyle was all let down and with the frills on the shoulder area, it appeared a little too heavy. So I printed a few hairstyles which I felt were suitable and showed them to the make up artist. It was a simple loose / messy style that is combed to one side. Relatively simple actually, I did a few of such styles on my own before by referring to Japanese magazines I bought. But she took a pretty long time to figure it out. The techniques she used were quite old school too. Not quite what I wanted, but the final outcome turned out alright. Definitely much much better than what was used for the photoshoot.

I think I can do a much better job on the make up and hair as a non professional. And I personally think that it is very important to engage the right make up artist and photographer. The photographer seemed to have over photoshop the photos.

I hope the make up artist remembers what she did yesterday and replicate it on the wedding day :)

The sweetest thank you~

After helping out at so many weddings, this is probably the first time I received a thank you card =) I have to keep this card safe cos the couple has inked down that they will be my slaves during my wedding next time. Hahah

Both of them have thanked us 'brothers' and 'sisters' many times. When Serene thanked me in her thank you speech, it was a really touching moment and I almost teared. But really, I must thank them for putting their fullest trust in me to manage the setup and decor.

Thank you Oink & Bu!

The BEST dance wedding!

This has to be the best wedding I have ever attended!! Despite the unhappiness with the hotel and banquet director earlier, everything turned out really well. The banquet managers were prompt, professional and helpful, thus allowing the smooth running of the wedding.

I not only got to feast on the food but on the two dances put up by Terence & Serene as well. That was the first time I watched them perform. It was really really awesome! And well, since it was a dance wedding, all the 'brothers' and 'sisters' were made to do a flash mob. There was only one rehearsal and none for some like me who couldn't attend the rehearsal. So how did we learn the dance? via video. Hahaha good thing the instructor choreographed simple steps and we danced to Party Rock Anthem. Everyone started taking out their iphones to revise the moves during the dinner. Lolll but it was really fun~ All the nervous feeling just disappeared when I went onto the dance floor =))

After that the dance floor opened and it was nice seeing the guests take onto the dance floor. The song playlist brought back memories from the ole' salsa days and it was nice meeting some of the ole' salsa mates :) Glad to see that some of them are still dancing~ Hope the dance school will start their intermediate waltz class soon.

The only complain I have was the professional emcee who tried to play a prank on me. At 7plus just before the banquet, he called and said that he will probably be able to turn up at the wedding only at 9pm. I was like what!?? After that he said it was a joke. Then I asked again what time will he arrive, he said 8.30pm. I was like what?!? Are you serious? For the second time he played a joke. Seriously, it was really unprofessional to play such a joke at that time or even at all.

But overall it was an awesome event ^-^ Like I said, THE wedding of the year and I am glad to be part of it.

All done for Terence & Serene's Wedding!

Finally done! I am veryyy pleased and looking forward to the wedding this Saturday =)

Angbao Cylinders

Sign for the entrance

Sign for the snack corner

Flowerballs Galore!

Finally done with the flowerballs for Terence & Serene's fuschia oriental wedding theme. Gonna use them for cocktail table ties and other decor around the reception area.

Got my inspiration from the chinese silk wedding flowerballs while walking along Chinatown. But wanted something more modern and classy so went to do a search online to see what I could find. Found this interesting tutorial on oncewed. A pretty useful DIY idea for weddings. Piecing together is easy but lotsa fabric cutting to be done.

My 'helper' Mr P :)

I used fuschia organza and sewed the pieces together instead of gluing them on a chinese lantern or foam ball to give the flowerball a 'light' feel. Try it out with different types of cloth and colours to get a different effect.

One item off the checklist, now left with the angbao cylinders and signs to complete in 1.5wks. Oh gosh!

DIY ideas using rubber stamps

Got this alphabet rubber stamp set during one of my impulse purchase a few weeks ago. A very useful DIY tool for making cards and other decorative items. And it didn't take long before it was put into good use :)

Bride-to-be Serene was preparing a scrapbook with cards for guests to write their wishes. But the DIY envelope to house the cards in the scrap book proved too much work for the couple. So they decided to concentrate on preparing the wish cards and deal with the scrapbook after the wedding. So she asked if I have alphabet stencils as she wanted to design the card with their initials. But my stencil is a little large for the card and to use a stencil for 250 cards will be quite an effort. So I suggested to lend her the stamp set and paper punch and wala!

Photo by: Terence & Serene

Congrats to Don & Elsie!

Another Happily Ever After ^_^

Thankfully the pink I chose for the corsage matched the bridemaids' dresses. *phew* And it always gives me great satisfaction to see my works "in use" =)

Wedding of the Year!

Less than a month to my favourite couple Terence & Serene's wedding :) Wedding of the year because I have been entrusted with quite a bit of the creative and decor stuff as well as the running of the dinner. I am very excited! Looking at the programme they have in stored, I know that it will definitely be an interesting night to remember.

This is the colour theme that the couple decided on.

And being kiasu, I got my outfit and accessories picked out 3 months before the wedding.

We met in September to brainstorm on the design theme for the decor. It didn't take us long before we decided on 'modern chic with a touch of oriental flavour'. Off we went one Saturday morning shopping for all the materials needed.

The rest will be Dawnut's imagination :) Check back to see our progress leading up to the BIG day on 26 Nov.

Elsie's Corsage - Done

This was suppose to be the end product to complement the pink bridesmaid dresses. But yesterday, the bride-to-be decided that she wanted the roses to be pink instead due to superstitious reasons using white roses. So last night I scrambled to look for pink paint to stain the white roses. As the the wedding is next Saturday, I will not have time to sew a new set of corsages with pink roses. I felt that the pink roses and pink dresses will be a little overdose, but if it makes the bride happy, nothing else is more important :)

The 10 Commandments

Photo by: Ray Yeo

Designed this for the 'gatecrashing' on Bee's wedding in Sep. All thanks to the very kind bride who couldn't bear to see her knight in shining armour get 'tortured' by us, he got away with relatively easy tasks! But we will definitely keep tabs to make sure he fulfills the 10 Commandments! ;p

Elsie's Corsages - In Progress

It has been a busy busy few weeks doing stuff for two weddings coming up on 5 Nov and 26 Nov. Was tasked by Elsie to make corsages for her bridesmaids to match their pink dresses. The wedding is on 5 Nov, so I am running a little tight on time since the corsages will need to be hand sewn. Managed to squeeze in some time before dinner on Friday to conceptualise and shop for the materials at the same time in under 30min. Talk about being a fast shopper!

And it all started with 2 jars

One day in 2008, a friend asked if I could help her dress up 2 glass jars which would be used as 'Ang Bao' (Red Packet) jars for her wedding. She wanted something different from the conventional boxes so she bought the jars but didn't know what to do with them. I felt it was an interesting challenge to transform the jars into something unique. So without hesitation, I agreed.

Her wedding theme was "Garden Fairies & Toy Soldiers". So I started thinking of how I could decorate the jar to bring out the theme. Then a 'lightbulb' moment struck me, maybe I could dress them up as a miniature of the bride and groom. Shared my idea with close friends and family, and they felt it could come out quite interesting because they have not heard of or seen anything like what I described. And so, the first pair of customised wedding jars came out from Dawnut's Factory. That started it all......

All about Dawnut

Dawnut, a nickname given to me by my good pal Timo way back in secondary school. He must have been craving for doughnuts when Dawnut came into his mind. Since then, Dawnut has been pretty much a part of me. So this blog name came to mind quite naturally.

I had an interest in doing craftwork since I was 5. My mum would send me to the neighbourhood Community Centre (now called Community Club) for craftwork classes during school holidays. And each time at the end of class, I would walk out proud and happy with my masterpieces.

I think my mum's motive then was probably to get some peace and quiet for at least 2-3hrs. She claimed that I was a very talkative kid and silence around the house meant that I probably dozed off. But well, I guess she didn't expect that I got hooked onto craftwork till today :)

Over the years, I picked up a variety of craftwork from origami, 'friendship bands', beaded jewellery during my pre university years to bear making, quilting and clothes making in recent years. Hobbies to keep myself occupied during my free time and sources of inspiration for unique handmade gift ideas for friends and family.

I like creating new things and exploring interesting ways of doing craftwork. Perhaps after seeing my creative works, friends started asking me to design and create items for their happily ever after events. You can browse my works by clicking the page links on the left side of this page. If there is something I can do for you, drop me a line at dawnutsfactory@gmail.com.

Cheers!

Dawn ^-^