kind of stoked

today 3 packages are on their way to me, all should be arriving by friday (i hope)

1. veil i custom ordered from etsy seller Simple Beauty Veils
2. shoes from Gilt.com
3. two tour books of Israel from B&N - the Fodor's Guide and the 2010 update of Lonely Planet (very excited to plan our trip - just over a month away!)

invites printed and picked up by thursday

mom and sis arriving friday

saturday schedule:

• tailor shop for alterations to sis's BM dress
• drop by bakery to assess apple strudel as a possible alternative to wedding cake
• bridal shower
• change clothes (hehe - there may, possibly, probably be a sequin skirt involved)
• bachelorette party...

sunday:

• bye to sis :(
• crafting invites with mom, beau and others unknown
• if time stopping by another bakery
• bye to mom :(
• (lab to get data... not fun but necessary)

the DIY-wedding and graduate school and having a life

I was initially planning on diy-ing as many things as possible for the wedding. Especially things that seemed either easy and/or way over priced (huppah, flowers, veil, invitations...). Well, over the past few months many of those plans have been thrown out the window (or defenestrated as I would generally say- Beau would be disappointed if I did not use my favorite word in a total appropriate context). The flowers (for my family's sanity) were the first to go. The huppah was nixed from the DIY-list a few months ago when our florist came in a few hundred dollars under our budget and I was so swamped that I decided to throw money at the problem.

The most recent addition to the "just pay for it" list is my veil. Over the last month I realized that I really don't have the time, energy, (possibly) skill to make a veil I would be happy with, so off I went to the bridal store... and as I initially suspected my (VERY) plain veil is priced around $120 - not cool.

Disappointment.

Annoyance.

Frustration.

Then, AH! Etsy!

Serendipitiously (truly, while not even looking for veils) I found Simple Beauty Veils and now Lora is making me exactly the veil I want, and answering all my SUPER annoying questions, like - "do you think the clear plastic comb or the small wire comb will be less noticeable and less likely to get tangled in my dark curly hair?" Obsessive much? yes! Extremely nervous? Hell yes! Super stoked that my veil is being handmade by a real person not in a sweat shop, out of quality materials and for about 60% less (including shipping) than a bridal store veil all in about 2 weeks? Duh! Yes! So, I may not be DIY-ing my veil, but I feel good that at the end of the day it's one less thing to stress over, and that I'm not completely giving into the WIC.

And just because a post, isn't a post with out pictures - here are some of Lora's beautiful veils currently available for purchase.

"Sweet Pea"

"Gracie"

"Tiny Double Blusher"

- possibly my favorite, just not for me, please someone buy this

*All images from Simple Beauty Veils

holiday crafting

I don't usually craft, but I saw this tutorial (via Green Paper Co Blog) for making gift bows out of magazines and I had to try it. Its actually quite simple, and not hugely time consuming. I made 8 bows in about an hour and half (while watching hulu), and the first one took considerably longer than the rest.

My first attempt - made from the front of a Macy's catalog.

I also made a small one out of the scraps of the first one - much more difficult.

The rest were made from pages of a JCrew catalog

Most, from pages like this one - I think they result in interesting patterns and textures.

My favorite.

Beau's favorite is the one with the spots.

*All images by me, expect the page from the 2009 JCrew Holiday Catalog

Happy Thanksgiving

In honor of Thanksgiving, pictures of my mom's famous Turkey Log (from last year).

First, you de-bone the turkey and remove some of the excess breast meat

Second, you grind the excess meat and liver with herbs and spices to make the filling

Third, you roll the turkey and tie it together

Finally, bake your turkey log and you are ready to eat!

final save the date

So after conferring with Tammy and Beau we picked a pictures and I finished the save the dates. We ordered them from Magnet Street last night after a lot of "are we sure, we can't really return them, are they perfect?" from me. Magnet Street wasn't the cheapest option, but the magnets come with envelopes - major bonus, and I know that they make good quality products. I also found a 10% off coupon online - sweet!

We bought the "PrintReady" 3.5x4 inch magnets - basically these are ones that you make completely on your own as opposed to uploading a picture into a design that they have made. Hopefully they turn out.

Here is the final design.

My words of advice:

1. proofread
2. Proofread
3. PROOFREAD!

I had already checked and double checked and rechecked my image to make sure it was perfect and exactly to their specifications, and I had uploaded it and was about to pay when I decided to check just one more time. OMG, its amazing I did, because as I looked upon my creation, I nearly fell out of my chair with horror. The date was wrong. I had apparently asked people to save the date for my wedding which had taken place about 6 months ago on 05-30-09! Oops! Luckily it was an easy fix. I re-uploaded my image and we were good to go, and in 7-10 days I will have my completed save the dates and envelopes, which give me plenty of time to gather the last of the addresses and make address labels.

Save the Dates

I have two pictures that I'm deciding between, your opinions would be helpful. Please try and disregard Tammy's watermark on the pics - it will not be on the final version. The quality of the pictures is also not great because I wasn't using the high res images - this will also be fixed for the final version. Also, these are just drafts of how the text might be arranged. Please feel free to let me know what you like/dislike about each.

* Images by Tammy Swales, STD design by me.

The New Computer Blues

I finally have my new computer - its awesome! But I still miss my old one... everyday I have a new frustration at something that didn't transfer correctly from the backup - like the dates of many of my photos are just wrong now, and required complete reorganization. Today, I was annoyed because I realized that my fonts didn't transfer! AND, the two main fonts that I used on the wedding invites were ones that I downloaded from random websites (not my usual go to - DaFont) and I have no idea how I found them, where they came from or even their exact names. Its going to bug me all afternoon, until I can get home and try to pull the data off my backup manually. (BTW - I know I'm being a huge brat, but I wasn't ready for a new computer and it still pisses me off. Clearly I'm not through all the stages of grief)

more crafts

So at the end I completed two projects this weekend.  

First, I finished my special surprise for my special friend - pictures after s/he sees it.  It was super fun to make - I can't wait until the reveal!

Second, I finally started and completed an "art" project for my living room.  Our apartment is BIG (one of the good things about living in the ROC - cheap, good housing).  There is lots of wall space and we don't have nearly enough stuff to fill it with.  Months ago I conceived a project, bought all the supplies and then they sat in my closet until this past Saturday.  I think I finally decided to make it because our e-pics are this coming weekend and I want some of them taken in the apartment.  

Anyway, here is the end result of my "art" project.  Beau and I really happy with the way it turned out - it was super simple and really adds a lot of ambiance to the room.  (BTW - just so you get an idea of the size - that is a queen size futon, the shelves are each approximate 2.5 ft wide and there is still about another 5 ft of room not shown in the picture)

*Pictures by me

new craft project

working on a special project for a special friend... hehe!  

teaser picture of some of the materials

*Sorry for the crappy quality photo - it was taken on my iPhone

invitation expansion

I recently did more work on my invitations.  I now have a "suite".   They still need some work, but I'm happy with how they are coming together.  Like last time I shared, the green is coming out too brown, the purple seems to be OK.

Invitation

RSVP card, front

RSVP card, back

(because we are iPod-ing instead of a DJ)

Thank you card 

(will be printed on the front of a folded card)

The penis veil.

The Beau's sister is getting married in a couple weeks and tomorrow is her bachelorette party.  I was put in charge of "the fun".  I bought penis straws, a bachelorette version of pictionary for the limo, some lei's as prizes AND I went a little over board on craftiness and made a veil; a lovely veil, that just happens to have some penises on it.  

my attempt at being a little artsy with my photography...

It was actually surprisingly simple to make, and not particularly time consuming.  The most annoying part was attaching the penises.  I couldn't find small plastic penis buttons or charms so I ended up using penis candies from Spencer's.  They kept falling off when I used hot-glue, so I moved up to super-glue and so far it seems to have worked.  They just need to last till tomorrow evening...

(*all images by me)

Halloween Party

All of The Beau's friends have a "holiday" that they are responsible for hosting.  Some of the "holidays" include the Superbowl and Park Ave Fest, which, while fun, are not holidays - but that isn't really the point.  While at a wedding this summer his friends decided that we needed to step it up and choose a holiday.  They initially suggested St. Patrick's Day, which I vetoed and quickly countered with Halloween, they accepted.  I love Halloween, and I'm so excited that we get to throw a Halloween Party because now I get to go and buy decorations, come up a great costume and (best of all) use my burgeoning skills with InDesign to make an invitation!  Almost as much fun as designing the invites was using my new favorite website DaFont to get Halloween fonts.

Bellow is my first invitation attempt.  Its not very good, but I was so excited about all my new fonts that I couldn't choose just one.

This is my second attempt - better, right?

BTW, all the images are also fonts that I arranged into pictures.

PS - Thanks to Doctor Whimsy for being a great friend and wedding mentor, and also for introducing me to DaFont!