Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I've been spending most of my blogging energy at robots and candy. It's been really nice to write whatever I want and not feel like I'm disappointing those who come here to read about my wedding progress.
We mailed invitations and I am having a blast getting RSVP cards back. It's like I mailed out a bunch of little surprises for myself. I got the biggest handful of them today and have only received one "no" so far. While none of them have been from the people I wanted to RSVP the most (family members I thought might not make it in from out of town), I love getting things in the mail and knowing that people have, in fact, received my lovingly assembled and hand-embossed invites.
Both of our wedding bands are the correct size and in our possession. I had my first fitting and am no longer petrified about a bustle making my dress ugly. I have ordered and received bridesmaids' gifts.
All I can do is sing that awful Europe song all the time... "It's the final COUNTDOWN!!"
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
new and different
*ahem* Announcing the new and different blog Robots and Candy. I kinda followed Kait's lead on the jump over to Wordpress but more than anything, that's where my non-related wedding stuff is gonna live from now on. This space is gonna be wedding junk only. Less clutter, more wedding. Bam.
We decided on flowers! We're going to go with the one and only florist I made an appointment with. Hooray!
Bridesmaids dresses came in yesterday. I got a call today saying that my veil came in. My shoes came in last week. I can officially wear my whole outfit to my wedding now. All of the pieces are in town.
I have my first fitting appointment on April 1. Nothing like making a serious appointment in April Fools Day. I'm not really expecting any surprises in that my dress just needs to be hemmed and bustled, but that's when you get surprises, when you're not expecting them.
Jon's ring came in a couple days ago and we picked it up last night. It's awesome. The store only carried 4mm and 6mm bands, but the 4mm was too narrow and the 6mm was way too wide. We ordered a 5mm without even seeing one and it's really cool. Now we just have to wait 2 months to wear them. Less than 2 months. Like 59 days or something crazy like that. Eek.
We decided on flowers! We're going to go with the one and only florist I made an appointment with. Hooray!
Bridesmaids dresses came in yesterday. I got a call today saying that my veil came in. My shoes came in last week. I can officially wear my whole outfit to my wedding now. All of the pieces are in town.
I have my first fitting appointment on April 1. Nothing like making a serious appointment in April Fools Day. I'm not really expecting any surprises in that my dress just needs to be hemmed and bustled, but that's when you get surprises, when you're not expecting them.
Jon's ring came in a couple days ago and we picked it up last night. It's awesome. The store only carried 4mm and 6mm bands, but the 4mm was too narrow and the 6mm was way too wide. We ordered a 5mm without even seeing one and it's really cool. Now we just have to wait 2 months to wear them. Less than 2 months. Like 59 days or something crazy like that. Eek.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Caution! *contains actual wedding planning content!*
Be careful, Ladies and Gents. This post actually consists mostly of wedding planning information, unlike most of my other posts on this, my wedding blog. Whoa.
Yesterday was my appointment with the one florist who could make an appointment on a Saturday. A few of the other places that I talked to only make consultation appointments during the week. Now, don't get me wrong, I value my weekends off. That is my personal time and the Saturdays that I do work totally infringe on the time I need to recover and prepare myself for another week. That being said, people who are getting married apparently don't work day jobs. Apparently if you want flowers at your wedding, you either work part time and don't work days or you can randomly disappear from your job for hours on end during the day. Whatever.
The good news is that the florist that I really liked is the one that could make an appointment with me. Mom, Kait, and I trucked down there and entertained this lady for a little bit while I attempted to explain what I thought I wanted. This was difficult since I know very very very little about flowers. We had also been given so inaccurate information about hydrangeas from another florist. He told me they were so fragile that they'd wilt halfway through the ceremony. This is apparently just not true. Yes, they should be in water as long as possible, but so should most flowers. The other good aspect is that since the blooms are so large, you can use one to make a bouquet very full. And they are exceptionally Southern and match all three colors of our color scheme. Bam. Done. The only problem is that she's going to call me Monday or Tuesday with how much it will cost. I'm terrified.
Afterwards we went to the Emory Road Garden Center out in Powell/Halls to look at Pansies for our centerpieces. In attempt to cut down on flower costs, we're not going to do our centerpieces through a florist. We're gonna make a trip to the garden center or Lowes and buy a few flats of pansies, slap 'em in a galvanized wash bin, tie some ribbon on it, and call it done. I think it's gonna be great.
We poked around looking at pansies and then went and got our nails did. That's clearly what you're supposed to do when you're out with your mom and your best friend on a rainy Saturday. Run some wedding errands and then let someone else beautify you. Awesome.
We also already got our first wedding gift: bomb-ass sheets we registered for at Bed Bath and Beyond. Despite my previous distaste for "Bloodbath and Beyond," the girls in the registry department have been the nicest and most helpful in my registry experience. The Belk lady frightened me with her fast talking and excitement about Wilton Armatele (which is difficult to understand when she says is really fast and you've never heard of it before.) The girl at Williams Sonoma might have been helpful if she hadn't been so busy. Instead she practically tossed us a scanning gun, asked us if we new how to use it, and mentioned we should register for things in price groups before sending us on our way. The Bed Bath and Beyond girls at least seem to be excited for you, but not overly pushy. They're willing to wander around with you if you want them to or just leave you alone and check up on you occasionally. I give it 2 thumbs up. Two awesomely manicured, acrylic-nailed (currently pink) thumbs up.
Today we are at Jonathan's recording studio for a bit while he does some work before we go to the gym. After the gym will hopefully be a trip to the mall to buy Jon's wedding band. Fingers crossed.
Progress!!
Yesterday was my appointment with the one florist who could make an appointment on a Saturday. A few of the other places that I talked to only make consultation appointments during the week. Now, don't get me wrong, I value my weekends off. That is my personal time and the Saturdays that I do work totally infringe on the time I need to recover and prepare myself for another week. That being said, people who are getting married apparently don't work day jobs. Apparently if you want flowers at your wedding, you either work part time and don't work days or you can randomly disappear from your job for hours on end during the day. Whatever.
The good news is that the florist that I really liked is the one that could make an appointment with me. Mom, Kait, and I trucked down there and entertained this lady for a little bit while I attempted to explain what I thought I wanted. This was difficult since I know very very very little about flowers. We had also been given so inaccurate information about hydrangeas from another florist. He told me they were so fragile that they'd wilt halfway through the ceremony. This is apparently just not true. Yes, they should be in water as long as possible, but so should most flowers. The other good aspect is that since the blooms are so large, you can use one to make a bouquet very full. And they are exceptionally Southern and match all three colors of our color scheme. Bam. Done. The only problem is that she's going to call me Monday or Tuesday with how much it will cost. I'm terrified.
Afterwards we went to the Emory Road Garden Center out in Powell/Halls to look at Pansies for our centerpieces. In attempt to cut down on flower costs, we're not going to do our centerpieces through a florist. We're gonna make a trip to the garden center or Lowes and buy a few flats of pansies, slap 'em in a galvanized wash bin, tie some ribbon on it, and call it done. I think it's gonna be great.
We poked around looking at pansies and then went and got our nails did. That's clearly what you're supposed to do when you're out with your mom and your best friend on a rainy Saturday. Run some wedding errands and then let someone else beautify you. Awesome.
We also already got our first wedding gift: bomb-ass sheets we registered for at Bed Bath and Beyond. Despite my previous distaste for "Bloodbath and Beyond," the girls in the registry department have been the nicest and most helpful in my registry experience. The Belk lady frightened me with her fast talking and excitement about Wilton Armatele (which is difficult to understand when she says is really fast and you've never heard of it before.) The girl at Williams Sonoma might have been helpful if she hadn't been so busy. Instead she practically tossed us a scanning gun, asked us if we new how to use it, and mentioned we should register for things in price groups before sending us on our way. The Bed Bath and Beyond girls at least seem to be excited for you, but not overly pushy. They're willing to wander around with you if you want them to or just leave you alone and check up on you occasionally. I give it 2 thumbs up. Two awesomely manicured, acrylic-nailed (currently pink) thumbs up.
Today we are at Jonathan's recording studio for a bit while he does some work before we go to the gym. After the gym will hopefully be a trip to the mall to buy Jon's wedding band. Fingers crossed.
Progress!!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
hey did anyone notice?
Did you all know I'm getting married? Like an adult?
Did you all know I'm an adult?
That's pretty much news to me.
Did you all know I'm an adult?
That's pretty much news to me.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
take that, fasteners!
Ohhh zippers. You thought you could outsmart me. You thought you could be too difficult for me to figure out without asking for help or looking up tips for how to master you online. But you didn't know how tenacious I am. You didn't know that my desire to make an appropriately size baggie for my snacks could overpower my frustration with sewing in a zipper.
I am totally your boss now.
Hippy dippy snack bag v2.0 is just the right size, has a functioning zipper and is much more attractive and durable than my initial attempt. I won't feel bad for tossing it in the washing machine. It's awesome.
Just so you know, it's a hippy dippy snack bag because it could *not* be a "tree-huggin' hippie crap" bag. No one wants a crap bag. And because I know that my Mom and Grandma might find a fabric bag for snacks to be a little bit crunchy. I mean, it's a little hippie for even my standards. And I quit eating meat. Again.
Aaaand before you start criticizing, I know that I'm not an expert at sewing. Many people could have whipped up what I did in half the time and it would probably even have looked better. But those people can get off the internet and get back to sewing their homemade Snuggies (Seriously, it's just a robe that you put on backwards. Wow. Is a blanket too hard for you? Maybe you shouldn't be running around with straight pins and scissors...)
Now I'm gonna go ride my new bike.
hippy dippy snack bag
I don't know if you all have noticed, but my recent blogs typically have nothing to do with wedding planning. The beginning of wedding planning is really interesting and involves picking things out, finding "the" dress, etc. The middle of wedding planning, in my case, involved the holidays and kinda taking a wedding planning hiatus. I assure you everything will get done and the wedding will happen and be fabulous. I also assure that this post will not be wedding related, but I promise to put a picture of my cat at the end in case you get bored.
Loosely wedding related, I've been on my aforementioned fitness kick. The fitness kick is closely related to my "save the planet" kick. We quit buying bottled water and using our aluminum water bottles. We have always recycled, but now I'm obsessive with it (I take a Diet Coke to work everyday and bring the can home to recycle it because I can't bare the thought of putting a perfectly recyclable item in the trash). Fast forward to last week. I realized that three days in a row, I had used and thrown away a Ziploc bag. So I decided to use some of the extra fabric laying around to make reusable snack bags and post on here my first attempt at a tutorial.
Step one: Dig up some fabric. I decided I'd be an expert quilter a few years ago and needless to say that didn't happen so I had some leftover fabric.
Since it's just plain ol' cotton, nothing that will be damp, ooze, or have any sort of sticky wetness can be put in this bag. I was planning on using it for trail mix so that wasn't really a problem, but I did decide to line my bag. This made this exponentially more difficult, but I knew that when I started.Step two: Cut out two pieces of each fabric that are the same size and shape. In my version of crafting, nothing is an exact science because I'm impatient. My best friend from high school and I met in Home Ec, where we agreed ironing our fabric before we got to sew was bullshit because it delayed the instant gratification. I did however wash and dry this fabric since it's going to touch food. Pin the pieces right sides together on three sides.
What I *should have* done was pin and sew it together on three and a half sides, but I didn't really "plan ahead." Because that's for losers.Step 3: Turn what you just sewed together right side out. You could totally stop here and have a not-lined, two color bag. But then you'd have to put the zipper in right away and trust me, you wanna avoid that for as looooong as possible.
Step 4: Pin the "outside" right sides together so that the seams will run up the sides of the bag. I wanted the teal color to be outside, not that janky lime color, so I pinned it so the teal was inside. Sew that shit up.
Step 5: Here's where the pictures drop off because I decided it was up to you to figure out the zipper. I had a hard time and I won't show you what happened. There was cursing. I was angry. I did in fact stab myself with a straight pin trying to pin the zipper to the fabric. Also, this was the part where it would have been REALLY FREAKING HELPFUL if I had finished that edge that I mentioned earlier.
Step 6: Pour yourself a stiff drink if it's after noon and you just installed a friggin' zipper because you're saving the damn planet. Take a couple pictures of your Blackberry in said bag to prove that it can contain things. Notice that when using your Macro setting on your camera that you can see all of the fuzzies on your touchscreen phone.
If it's not after noon and you're zipper looked like mine did, you don't get a stiff drink and you're gonna want to cover up where you stitched the zipper. Find some ribbon and THE BEST THING EVER, no-sew hemming tape. I have these items on hand because last year I was going to make a Christmas tree skirt. I made the skirt part and was going to decorate it with ribbon, but was so angry by the time I got done that I just quit. We had a lame looking plain blue felt tree skirt that promptly got covered in cat hair and disintegrated in the washing machine this year.Step 7: Cover up your nastiness. If you've never used the no-sew tape, I am telling you right now, DO NOT GET IT ON YOUR IRON. IT WILL RUIN YOUR IRON. We have an old cheap-o iron and that works just fine, but I got a little bit of tape on it and was horrified. I managed to salvage it, but if you have a nice iron, be very very very careful. And don't say I didn't warn you.
This is the bag's good side. And no, I'm not going to show you its bad side.
You see that brown stuff on the ironing board there at the right? That's where I wasn't careful with the hem tape and glued some pants to my iron and then assumed the iron wouldn't stain anything. At least it wasn't the pants I guess...It's bigger than I had intended. I guess when I was "measuring" at the beginning I was imagining more of a seam allowance. Whatev. Now I can put *more* trail mix in it. It's a little crooked and wonky, but it is handmade with no pattern or real measurements (or rulers or yard sticks). Ideally I'm going to make a few more so that I don't have to put a small amount of something in a huge bag. Maybe I'll show you those too. Maybe not. Here's my cat.
Monday, March 2, 2009
10 pounds?
I have officially lost about 10 pounds. Jonathan has two five pound hand weights and I picked them up yesterday and was shocked. I knew I was feeling "lighter", had noticed changes in the way my clothes fit, and had watched the number on the scale get smaller, but this was the first time I had felt what ten pounds was exactly.
So in celebration and necessity we went to Old Navy looking for cheap clothes for me to wear (especially work pants) while I was continuing to lose weight. I definitely went down a size there, but I had forgotten that when it comes to clothes at Old Navy, I can pretty much only wear their shirts. I needed pants. All of my pants are too big! The pants that were my "skinny" pants that I could only wear once or twice a month are now the only pants that fit. And one of those pairs is even a little big and slouchy now. So there was no depression based on feeling overweight, but there was massive frustration in that I really loved the clothes I tried on! I really wanted a pair of mint green capris to wear on biz-cas-Fri. I really wanted a pair of relaxed cargo pants. I really wanted a pair of blue chinos to replace the khakis I have. But none of those fit me right. I know I'd oddly shaped, but wow.
So I am still working on losing more weight and finding a place where a girl with a full chest and big butt can buy clothes. Where did I shop before???
So in celebration and necessity we went to Old Navy looking for cheap clothes for me to wear (especially work pants) while I was continuing to lose weight. I definitely went down a size there, but I had forgotten that when it comes to clothes at Old Navy, I can pretty much only wear their shirts. I needed pants. All of my pants are too big! The pants that were my "skinny" pants that I could only wear once or twice a month are now the only pants that fit. And one of those pairs is even a little big and slouchy now. So there was no depression based on feeling overweight, but there was massive frustration in that I really loved the clothes I tried on! I really wanted a pair of mint green capris to wear on biz-cas-Fri. I really wanted a pair of relaxed cargo pants. I really wanted a pair of blue chinos to replace the khakis I have. But none of those fit me right. I know I'd oddly shaped, but wow.
So I am still working on losing more weight and finding a place where a girl with a full chest and big butt can buy clothes. Where did I shop before???
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