Miscellenia
Published on April 17, 2011

An apology and a contest

written by The Dreamstress

First, an apology to all of you for my uncharacteristically morose, grumpy, and negative posts.  I just realised that I have written four posts in a row that complained about something or mentioned the word ‘boring’.  I’m not sure what has gotten into me.  I’m usually a regular little Pollyanna and suddenly the world sucks.  Maybe it is the advent of winter.  I really try to keep this blog happy, informative, and entertaining.

So now I’m working on being happy and bouncy on the blog, and so far it has worked, because…

…Woohoo!  I’ve found something Royal Wedding related to get excited about!

The design sketch for Grace Kelly's wedding dress

Based on your fantastic suggestions to yesterday’s rather morose post, I’m hosting a ‘design a dress for Kate’ contest.

Here’s how it works:

You design a wedding dress for Kate.  Use any sketching, collage-ing, computer etc techniques you want.  Comment on this post, and link to your design, which should involve one image which measure at least 500px across, and a brief paragraph about materials, inspiration, which tiara you think she should wear, or flowers she should carry, or any of that sort of stuff.

Designs must be in by 12 Midnight NZST on Sunday the 24th, one week from today ( remember that NZ is a day ahead of most of the world).  Then I’ll put them all up in a post, and you, the readers, can vote on which one you like best.

Voting will close at 12  Noon NZST  on Fri the 29, just in time for the royal wedding to start.

I’ll combine your votes with votes from myself and my resident fashion expert  (hey, there have to be some perks to running a blog!)    and the resulting winner will get everything they need to be a glamorous vintage bride (or just a glamourous vintage fashionista)…

  • Something old:  An beautiful vintage Japanese gold and silver fabric clutch with updated beading (using my Grandmothers vintage beads) by yours truly.
  • Something new: A darling little emergency kit with space for needles, a few wraps of thread, a scatter of safety pins, a tiny pair of scissors, a trio of painkillers and a few bandaids – everything you need for the big day or a night out, with the kit holder made out of…
  • Something borrowed: official, commemorative royal wedding fabric courtesy of the fabulous Mrs C from her recent jaunt to the land of the monarchs.  It’s fantastically awful.  You’ll love it.
  • Something blue: A vintage gold and blue diamante brooch which reminds me of the Strathmore Rose tiara, rumored to be the tiara that Kate will wear on her wedding day.
  • And a NZ sixpence from some date prior to 1967, when NZ switched from the pound system to the decimal system
  • Also major bragging rights.  Duh!

I’ll take photos of all this fabulousness and add them to this post first thing tomorrow.

The Strathmore Rose tiara, which breaks down into three brooches

But wait…there’s more!

There will be a second winner!  The one who designs the dress the dress closest to the one that Kate actually wears will also get a prize, a fabulous, exciting, scrumptious chocolate fish, the traditional NZ ‘not-actually-a-prize’ prize.

OK, so it’s actually the traditional NZ booby prize.  But it’s a good booby prize.  It’s a chocolate and marshmallow fish shaped prize of deliciousness.  What’s not to like?

And you can have the bragging rights about your wonderfully royal taste.

Elizabeth the Queen Mother in the Strathmore Rose tiara

Elizabeth the Queen Mother in the Strathmore Rose tiara

So get designing!

14 Comments

  1. Kay Morgan says

    This is a superb idea!

    I can’t wait to see all of your wedding creativity in action.

    Cheers!

  3. Steph says

    I give you a hug. Negativity is ok, we can’t always be Pollyanna, especially when the seasons are f*king with our poor little N. Hemisphere minds and I totally get that.

    Well, I didn’t really give a fig what Kate would wear, but I want to win your goodies so I’ll put my brain to the task and come up with something. Contests are the zest of life, right? 🙂 What fun.

    • MrsC says

      Oh Steph I don’t think either you or our Dreamstress could ever be said to have little minds 🙂 Really BIG ones, yes!
      Wonderful idea, genius even. Golly now I have to think of something. I may have to imagine that she isn’t on a wedding dress diet though, except maybe consisting of chocolate…

  4. Hana - Marmota says

    Wow, that Grace Kelly design! Thanks for digging it up for us. 🙂 I love that dress (although I’m not sure about the skirt, and love her civil wedding skirt suit more).

    I actually have a wedding in the family. One of my sisters is getting married in May. I think now I can spill the beans to people who don’t really know her, because she’s already spilled the beans to people who do know her… 😉
    But I’m not sure I’m up to designing a royal wedding fabulosity… although I could certainly try. I’m not really excited about the wedding either, I totally agree with you… what I’ve seen of Kate online looked boring to me, too. I wonder how that happens.

  5. Gail says

    That’s alright.
    You are a human being with feelings. I still found your post entertaining and beautiful as usual. Also I’m happy that you found something about Grace Kelly’s wedding that YOU LIKED.

    • Gail says

      Sorry typo there.

      Also I’m happy that you found something about this royal wedding that YOU LIKED.

    • Caroline says

      Oops! I must have done it twice! It wasn’t working before so I may have posted several duplicate comments. (-:

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