Slow and Steady

I had a dream last night that it was our wedding but there was a craptastic lace arbor at our alter and not our fabric strip backdrop. Gross. Wasn't too much of a nightmare per se, just a little unpleasant and weird.

I got over it quickly. On to cooler stuff. In two days and some change, our wedding countdown clock on the right hand side of my blog is going to start counting down in double digits instead of triple. I am super psyched! Also, Kyle and I are 6 days from our engage-iversary. I will go more into that in 6 days, and maybe he'll take me out to dinner ;) And today is my lovely parents' real anniversary!! Cool beans yeah? 24 years! Isn't that crazy?? I wish I had some pictures but my parents are still old school and still have all their pictures in albums at home. Weird, huh? I had to scour my sister's facebook page to even find this:

(Like my hand placement?? Very family portrait of me :p

Kyle, me, Dad, Mama, Brother Keith, Sister Jordan)

I am excited for their 25th because it's such a milestone. Crazy to think that you could stand someone for that long. I mean, even your kids only have to be in the house for 18 years, then you get to get rid of them :) AND, on top of that, you have to stay with your kids, you don't have to stay with your spouse, you're stuck with your kids. Especially in a time where the divorce rate is so high, I'm very happy to have their example of functional, happy matrimony to look up to. I think the only thing they fight over is rules in Scrabble :D Who doesn't??

Anyway, these are some things on my mind this dreary Monday morning. I am working on some stuff at home, not getting too far, but I do have one thing to share:

Not quite sure why I made four, now that it comes to it... But here they are!! My bridal hair flowers and companion pieces for my bridesmaids! Each one is completely finished, with hair combs attached and everything. I am so happy with how they turned out. No one has to wear them, but I thought it would be a nice option to have.

That's all I can think of at the time. I will try to get some more stuff done and have good stuff to show you!! Maybe getting a few invitation steps crossed off *fingers crossed*

Any of the brides-to-be have any weird dreams lately? Any other news??

DI-Y are you doing this to me?!?!

I wanted to comment on something that's been bothering me that I haven't been able to put my finger on. First though, I have a confession... I'm a bad delegator...

I know... shocker.

Well, it's made me feel a little overwhelmed (I mean, not really, I'm having too much fun, but just bear with me, I'm trying to make a point) because I'm expecting myself to do a lot of stuff by myself over the next few months.

I thought to myself 'Self, this is possibly a dumb idea, you are going to get swamped and then mess up all of it (or not finish any of it).' "Nonsense!" I said aloud- and everyone looked at me funny- "I'm awesome, and I don't need anyone."

I started feeling like it was me against the world (or in truth, me against myself, of course). I work best under pressure, and this was just another challenge that I was going to defeat. I realized though that no one is making me take everything on by myself, and that I'm the one creating the challenge. I hear lots of brides-to-be say things like "I'm having a big *insert wedding project here* party and bribing all my friends to come and help with food and booze."

Now why didn't I think of that??

Well, I did, of course, but not only do I have stupid expectations and particulars that I am certain will put everyone off, but I'm always worried I will not be able to communicate them to people and it will be all my fault that it's done incorrectly. Now, that sounds awful, I have faith in my friends/family, I'm just a really really bad delegator (I shouldn't even say that; I haven't even tried!)

The crux of all this is that I would try if my bridal party lived closer, and it makes me sad a little bit.

One bridesmaid is in Baltimore and pregnant (2 hour drive, plus sore back), one is in Boston and working her butt off (7 hour drive, plus missing work) and the other is at Virginia Tech and supposed to be studying (8 hour drive, plus bad grades). If I ever got over feeling bad about interrupting their lives for my selfish needs, I would still be worried that I would not be clear enough in my instruction to them and end up wasting an entire weekend! No good all around.

So this is what has been bothering me. I have a crap ton of ideas floating around in my head and some of them are poorly materialized at this point. I have nothing to dole out to anyone, the invitations are too specialized and personalized to ask for help on, and all other projects are either one man jobs or not completely conceptualized yet, so I am sorry to say I will continue not asking for anyone's help.

Please no one think it's an affront to you. I'm not asking anyone for help, so it's not just you, I promise :)

I hope to get a few more projects done this weekend and have some great pictures to show. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Not as much as I promised but still results

As the title suggests, I'm here to bring tidings of a finished (or mostly finished, I haven't decided yet) project! I promised more than I'm about to show, but this weekend ended up being a lot busier than intended...

Kyle and I went to look at suits this weekend and I cannot believe how difficult it was to find what we were looking for. Everyone looks at me funny when I tell them we're trying to find a brown suit... They especially look at me funny when I tell them that we've been unable to find a satisfactory brown suit:

 
Something like either of these two. You can always find them online but rarely in the store. That's not the only problem, there's a lot of things that look like brown through a computer screen and then won't look like brown in real life. Because of this, neither of us is comfortable making a purchase like this online.

Even in the store, unforeseen and surprising complications arose. Suits that were supposedly brown did not look brown to either of us.

We saw a lot of suits like this; 'brown heather' or heather brown or whatever. That's not brown, that's grey. Well, according to a lot of stores, that's brown, and that is not at all the color we are going for, sooooo, no, it's not, stop lying to us.

Does that look brown to you?? According to the website, it's called "brown sharkskin"

......

Really?! I know what you're thinking, because I thought the same thing: this can't be prevalent, just an isolated incident, right?

Wrong. Hugo Boss had one like it, Armani, Neiman Marcus, and then everyone else just had NO brown suit. Oh, Lord and Taylor had amazing brown pants, exactly the color we were looking for, from a company named Zanella... who only sells pants...

Really?!?! So, finally, we started talking to the sales associates who told us that they were having a made-to-measure trunk show in a few weeks where all the designers would come in and measure the guys and tailor-make a suit and you could pick the color and style, etc... This seemed to be the only option, just to get someone to make a brown suit! Then the sales associates tell us that the prices are in the $2500-$3000 range...

...........

Really?!?!?! This is more or as much as every dress I've purchased! We were hoping to spend no more than $500 on his suit because we would never ask the other groomsmen to purchase $3000 suits of course. I feel bad enough asking them to spend $500 (but most places have buy one get one half price or something deals so that will get resolved :)).

So we're kind of between a rock and a hard place, because Kyle finally said he would bite the bullet and get a tailored suit and the groomsmen would just wear another color. But then I couldn't help thinking that this whole debacle has made me feel like no one wants brown suits which means Kyle would never be able to wear the suit again because everyone would make fun of him. He said he would just ask some pimps where they get their suits, because if they come in purple and leopard print, they must make pimp suits in brown.

Hardy har har.

Anywhositz, all that is to say that our entire day was eaten up by suit shopping (and seeing a movie to make ourselves feel better) and then we had my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary/birthdays the next day! So I got nothing done wedding-related this weekend...

Except take some pictures!

Now, I know that the white railings make it a little difficult to make out, but this is the completed entrance for the pavilion at Riverdale!!! Doesn't look like much, I know, but I really think it's the white railing that's taking away from it. Regardless, because the fabric strips are so small through most of this, you're not seeing the ombre, because there is none to see! But here's the coup de grace:

Ha, I just realized that with the lighting being as it is, and with the way this is hanging, it looks dark up top there where it should look very light, but the point is that HERE'S THE ALTER BACKDROP!!! I have to admit, I have a hard time seeing the ombre, but I do see it faintly, and look how nice it is when the wind has its way with it:

This was exactly what I was going for! I just haven't decided yet if I'm going to maybe cross-cross or braid some of the strips to get more texture out of this. I think I'll try it and then just see how it looks. I'll keep you posted! Must get back to work now, but invitation work begins soon; might not be much to report, but I will not be a stranger!

How are everyone else's DIY projects going??

Don't hate [me]

I'm almost embarrassed to post today because I have been such a bad blogger, but I promise, especially with a weekend coming up, that I am going to get my camera/memory card fixed slash get a new memory card finally and have ALL the things to show you.

So, a lot of stuff has been happening but weird circumstances prevent me from being super psyched about them... For example: the hair flowers are done, as I mentioned in my last post, BUUUT by done I mean done except for having a hair comb attached to the back of them. I feel I can't actually cross that off the list until they are actually really completely finished.

I finished the alter and entrance fabric backdrops!!!! It kind of happened so fast that I couldn't believe it when it was done. HOWEVER, I have no where to hang them in the house, I don't have two posts close together like this:

From which to hang the backdrops and get an idea of how awesome they are + a picture so you can see how awesome they are. This has made me depressed too, I don't want to cross these off the list until I actually can hang them somewhere and make sure they're as awesome as I think they are.

Once I get the chair backdrops done this weekend (which will take even less time than the big backdrops because they are smaller AND they hang on the back of chairs, which means I don't have to stumble around my stair railing and some floor lamps trying to get the things elevated) I will get Kyle to hold the backdrops up (he's tall and has an impressive arm span) and I will take some gall dern pictures!!

I hope to write a more detailed post about how I stained them and how I cut the strips and made two backdrops - one the inverse of the other! Help me to remember (my sister reminded me that I have yet to write a cake post since I actually signed an agreement with our baker and settled on a cake design! And I keep forgetting to write that post). In the meantime, the title of this post is about my latest to do list that is word heavy and picture-less. Sorry. But I promised a more detailed invitation to do list post and here it is:

(First sample of invites we printed, to make sure all spelling and grammar and color was right... it is, Kyle is printing these out at work as we speak!!)

• Order envelopes (outer envelopes, inner envelopes, response envelopes)
• Order paper
• Order lotka paper for trifolds and vellum to cover invitation
• Buy burlap for belly bands and twine to tie invitations and feathers for decoration
• Order seal
• Address and stamp envelopes
• Self-address (with free Shutterfly address labels) and stamp response envelopes
• Cut vellum to size
• Print out invitations
• Rip lotka paper to size and fold into trifolds, glue pockets for RSVP/response envelope/hotel info
• Rip invitations to size (rough edges)
• Decorate invitations with stamps and colored pencil (like the Save the Dates)
• Put invitations together: glue invite into trifold; put RSVP, response envelope, hotel info, etc... into pocket; wrap with burlap and twine and decorate with a single guinea hen feather
• Stuff invitations into inner envelope and apply wax seal, stuff inner envelopes into outer envelopes, seal, and send!

I do feel like I'm being a bit unfair because I should have written this to do list long ago since I started preparing for invitations long ago. HOWEVER, seeing as how my overall to do list is so depressing right now, I need a little encouragement in the form of a majority-completed to do list :) You have to admit that it feels pretty awesome to make a to do list for the first time and cross off more than half the stuff on it right away.

Lastly, I've been a little preoccupied because a few weeks ago Kyle told me he got us tickets to see my favorite band of all time:

Incubus!!! I have been in love with Incubus for almost 15 years, particularly their melodically beautiful lead singer Brandon Boyd:

who looks awesome when he's singing and sounds even better:

and also looks sexy when he's being creative:

Kyle has been in love with them for as long as he's been with me. Kyle plays guitar... so does Incubus' guitarist (go figure):

 Mike Einziger can break bad...

And Kyle really likes his style. He is awesome and multitalented. ANYWHO! We have seen Incubus together every time they've been in town (and I saw them once or twice before I met Kyle) and so this time was going to be routine. Their new album "In Now Now, When?" is awesome so we are both super psyched. Kyle got us great tickets:

Right where the red star is, right smack dab in the middle of the first section. Pretty sweet spots! But then I heard about an auction to support their charity Make Yourself Foundation that included tickets in the pit (you know, that area right in front of the stage) PLUS a meet and greet before the show. Now, I've never bid on eBay, ya'll; I always just buy whatever has a "Buy it now" option because I get a little too over-excited a little too easily and my heart starts pounding in my chest and it doesn't feel good; feels like a panic attack.

Well, did I mention that Incubus is my favorite band of all time? Well, they are, so I sucked it up and signed into eBay and camped out by Kyle's computer, which is brand new and super fast and has two monitors - I looked like a Wall Street broker!! And guess what...

I WON!!!!

I. could. not. believe. it!!! I am still over the moon about it. For not much more than we were already paying for tickets, we now get even better tickets and we're going to meet our favorite band! As in, Kyle will be able to pick Mike Einziger's brain and I will get to stare lovingly at Brandon Boyd and just beg him to speak some more.

The concert's not for a month, but people, I need help with some good things to ask/talk about or I swear to you I will spend the whole time drooling and telling him I like his mouth. I can't think of anything else!! Except maybe 'nice tats'...

WHOCARESIMSOEXCITED!!!!!

Anyway, it's getting late (I spent too much time staring at Brandon Boyd pictures) but if you've made it this far, thanks for reading and I will leave you with a few inspirational photos for no reason at all since this post is so text heavy. Please tell me though about any of your eBay experiences, ever won anything awesome???!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

BUBBLES!!!!!

EEEEEeeeee

So, to get some bad news out of the way first, my make-up artist... or I should say, my maybe make-up artist at this rate, canceled on me TWICE this weekend. So I didn't get a make-up trial this weekend...

But on the plus side, I decided to go to the Lancaster Flower and Craft warehouse anyway!!! I realized that when Rikki canceled on me... twice, I was more upset about missing out on my shopping trip than the make-up trial... so I went. Was it a waste of gas, yeah, but geez-o-man was it fun. Check out some awesome stuff I got:

 
 
I got more stuff than this, some fantastic lanterns, the cracked milk jars, just to name a few, I can't remember everything! I had a blast, I filled two carts... for real. Not as bad as it sounds though; I got two of those crates and they were big. I am so in love with the Flower and Craft warehouse!

I came home and put everything in our only spare bedroom, and for the first time, we have a wedding room!! My dress [du jour] is hanging in that room as well, it's where the yarn orbs are chilling, it's where the fabric backdrops will hang when they're done, and the hair flowers will chill in there too!

Oh yeah! I finished those!! I keep forgetting to take a picture though, so you don't have to believe me. I'll show you proof soon. In the meantime, I was trying to say that I'm super excited just to walk into that room and see all that wedding goodness, just to see all the love that's going into it.

Kyle and I finally decided on invitation wording... I think, and he's going to print them out on his fancy work printer and then I get to start work on the invitations!!! Both my bridesmaids have ordered their bridesmaid dresses, and Kyle and I are going to look at suits this weekend...

A little under four months and things are happening!! I'm getting super excited in the sense that every now and then I'll just be sitting on the couch or something and get a little heart palpitation; as if my heart is counting down the minutes, and getting excited when it realizes that we only have about 165,540 minutes left!!!!!

I don't want to check the to do list quite yet, because even though I feel pretty good, I know we still have a lot to do! Back to work!! Finishing the tea staining for the fabric backdrop tonight.

What it's all about

Just read a blog post today from OnceWed and it really resonated, I mean, all it was was an interview with a florist, but they asked her for her 5 favorite things about weddings. This is what she said:


Tell us 5 things you love about weddings? 
1. Cake!
2. The meshing of two families for the first time
3. The amazing energy of two people coming together to profess their love to the world.
4. being able to express who you are to your loved ones by creating an environment that is completely yours.
5. the feeling that you and your mate are invincible for a minute. that nothing can stop you from being your best.

It is really on point and I am in love with her favorite things! I mean, I've never really thought about what my five favorite things about weddings are, but I do love my man so so much (sorry to get mushy) and it brought to my attention that we have decided to write our own vows and I wish I could be as simply eloquent as this random florist (No offense to her, it's just today was the first I ever heard of her)!

I also wanted to make our invitations more personal than "Mr. and Mrs. so and so request the honour of your presence" blah blah blah, but whenever I try to make it personal, it comes off goofy and silly, which I love, but I don't think it's appropriate.

I think in both cases, I've been going about it the wrong way; I've been trying to stick to some format, and I know that if I just write from the gut (read: heart) it will come across correctly. I think that although Kyle and I are pretty goofy, I do want the romanticism of our relationship to come across. We have these rustic romantic invitations, rustic venue, romantic color palette... I think I need to stick with what I know.

I'm not quite comfortable yet sharing our invitations (first, because we haven't sent them out yet, obvs, and second because I'm disgusted with the wording I've got so far) so I apologize for the wordy post, but I really felt like getting across my five favorite things about our wedding (in no particular order):

1. Us! Finally making legal what we wanted all along, so that we can start our life together
2. Creating a day totally unique to the two of us, and collaborating together to really make the perfect day
3. Sharing the intense love we have for each other with our families, testifying that I'm his and he's mine forever
4. Pampering ourselves for awhile with hugs and kisses and good wishes and smiling faces; I really just want as many of our loved ones to be there as humanly possible
5. The awesome massive party that will ensue after all that lovey dovey stuff :)

Actually, all kidding aside, this is part of where my disconnect is coming from, I tried to make the invitation wording fun because I want to reception to be fun, but I want the ceremony to be romantic and filled with love... so how do I do that? My first thought was to keep the invitation wording fun but really focus on writing uncharacteristically serious vows, but again, irreverent invitation wording just doesn't seem appropriate. So I think I am going to try to balance them... somehow. Again, I think this means just writing, from the heart-gut without trying to adhere to some format.

The invitation will have all necessary information (date, time, location... duh!) but other than that, I'm just going to invite people the way I want to invite them! And I'm going to write my vows to Kyle, and not from some 'Intro, Body, Conclusion' format I read out of a text book.

Do you agree? Disagree? Do you think that invitations have to follow a specific format? Do you think hers and his vows should follow the same format??

I feel like a professional!!

I did something! Wanna' see??

It started out like this:

Two cups of extra dark tea...

And a damp piece of cloth laying on some trash bags!

So I set out tonight to make me an ombre piece of cloth! (did you read my cowboy accent?? Ombre is so country sounding!) I set out a couple trashbags, marked the trashbags at 6 inch intervals and wet the cloth and wrung it out. I believe this cloth is about 2.5 meters long and maybe a meter wide (? - it's folded in half longways)

I put the tea in one of those restaurant salad dressing bottles... you know, the clear versions of those ketchup/mustard bottles at diners.

ANYWHOSITZ! I squirted my extra concentrated tea on the bottom six inches of the fabric, and as I expected, it didn't color the fabric as much as I had hoped it would; tea is not dye, so it doesn't stain fabric as well as I had hoped. But that's ok!

It actually worked out to my advantage: The tea didn't create dark blocks of color that made blending difficult.

Blending was very very easy! I just used my hand to push the tea up the fabric. I kept putting more and more on the bottom and pushing it upwards. I gradually diluted my tea and worked my way up the fabric, I kept putting more on the bottom to try and make it darker.

Finished product! Just a tip, I mean, not sure if it's a tip, not sure if it will make a difference, but I didn't wring out the excess tea, I rolled the whole thing in the trashbags and carried it outside. The tea drips downward, so it continues to the bottom to hopefully make it darker. I dunno' but I can hope. Well, I shouldn't even say that, I do like it the way it is, it's not so in your face or anything. I'm only worried about washing it making the color fade. We'll see!

In the meantime, I found a better place to hang it and there it will stay until it stops dripping tea all over the gall dern place.

Ta da!!! I'll take some better pictures in better light, I mean, I'll show it once it's actually ripped up and turned into a backdrop. This whole thing was ridiculously simple, I didn't even get dirty! I'm sure real dye would have given a much more defined ombre, but I like the subtle color and I really like how easy it was the blend the color up the fabric. The Marth Stewart link I posted a few posts ago (right below the picture of scarves) contains a video that was exactly my protocol. She's the man. I wish I could scratch this off the old to do list, but no so fast! There's a lot of fabric ripping to do yet, but I'm encouraged by how easy this was. Even if the fabric ends up being not dark enough for me, I think I can just do the same procedure over again to deepen the color, but we'll see if that's even necessary.

For now, I ombre-d!! I'm so excited!! Did anyone else tackle a new skill and surprise themselves??