6 months

EEEEGAAAADSSSS! 175 days to go...how? How did we go from 700+ days to 175?

As you know, we've been pretty busy this past month with wedding stuff:

• We sent out our STDs, (HAHAHAHAHA that joke never gets old) no not that, save-the-dates people. It's funny to look back on them and realize that I have "save THE date" in all our pictures, but I had obsessed for weeks about how I wanted to be different and have it say "save OUR date." Whoops.
• We were able to introduce our wedding party to one another. I probably spent 100 hours (no joke) working on the magazine, but I have ZERO regrets. I would do it again if time decided to roll itself back.
• We picked our caterer! I'm not going to tell you which one we picked, we need to keep some level of mystique you know. Rest assured, you will not be dissappointed.
• My Chinese dress is coming along...much slower than Barbara had originally planned, so it is a good we started months in advance. Right now the hold up is obtaining the fabric I want. I'm much too lazy to drive down to NYC to purchase it, and far too paranoid about purchasing it online. So, we have to be patient and wait until my friend has some free time to pick it up. She's an aduitor and seem to recall that it's tax season.
• We obtained hotel blocks at the local Westin. Oh yea, we want to pamper our guests. Yes, we know that Westin's are expensive, but in our part of the woods and with my mad negotiating skills, we scored a great deal. Rooms will be $99/night (+11.7% tax), self-park (unlimited in and out privs) was reduced down to $8 from $11. We were not able to get them to throw in free Wi-Fi in the rooms, but there is complimentary Wi-Fi in the lobby. They are setting up an internal website just for booking rooms. As soon as we have that info, we will link it on the Travel & Accommodations tab. Keep in mind you are not required to stay at the Westin. You are welcomed to stay at any of the handful of hotels next door to the Westin, just let us know where you are.
• We ordered paper for our invitations. There is a giant box of paper and envelopes sitting on our bedroom floor (the floor of the guest room is full of other wedding related crap).
• We met with our floral designer, Karla of Karla Cassidy Designs. People, Karla ROCKS! I can't even begin to tell you how awesome she is. We did not interview any other florist. She was just it. Done and done.
• We booked hair and make-up vendor for all the ladies (mom's included). We will have a hair artist AND a make-up artist onsite the morning of to help get us all dolled up. My trial run is scheduled for May 1. I'll keep you posted with lots of pictures.
• Oh, oh, oooohhh! We have wedding bands! Well kind of. Jake has his and mine is purchased but sitting at the jewelers in Oregon. I'll have it physically in May when I see my MOH (maid of honor). don't worry, I'll write a separate post on this and include pictures because I know ya'll are nosey and want to see.

Whew, that's a lot don't you think? Between all of the aforementioned hub-bub, we jetted to Oregon for a really quick trip and visited my family and friends. We figured that if we didn't go now, we wouldn't be back until 2012. The thought of that just brings me to tears. 

Countdown:
7 months
8 months
9 months
11 months

12 months

13 months

2 miles of twine

Oh bakers twine, your presence has swept through a new generation of crafters in the wedding world as well as crafting in general. People have found a new use for you, that is so much more than just being wrapped around a box of baked goods. You are so main stream that even Crate and Barrel sells you. And here's the kicker, you come in more than just 3 colors now (red and white, blue and white, white).

Bakers twine and I go way back. Try a year. I saw an image of bakers wrapped around a box and just like that, I had to have it for our wedding.



via Style Me Pretty



I'll have you know that I'm not just following a trend, but rather it makes sense, I'm a baker! But a year ago while folks in the wedding world were purchasing a product called Divine Twine, I didn't. Not because I didn't want to, but because they only carried 3 colors at the time and red was not one of them!!! I researched high and low, I even thought that I'd try and wait for Divine Twine to release new colors, but at that time, they weren't. I found red and white bakers twine...A LOT of it for cheap. I mulled over it for awhile, 3400 yards (yes 3400 YARDS!) was a lot of twine. It was only $9 ($17 after shipping). But what if the red wasn't as red as I'd like? What if the white wasn't really white? Well it's not even $20 and I'll just use it to wrap up boxes of cupcakes, right? So I pulled the trigger and ordered it.



via We Sell Coffee



Damn that's a lot of freaken twine. But guess what, it looked dirty (at least I thought so at the time). So I went back to Etsy, where I had originally started my search. I struck up a conversation with MyFriendAmy. Before you knew it she sent me a small sample. It was brighter! It looked so much better than the commercial stuff I purchased in bulk. I proceeded to clean Amy out of her red and white bakers twine stock, 200 yards. She sent in in the cutest little box.



personal photo



At last, I had my twine. Get this, months later, Divine Twine releases new colors...red being one of them. What. The. Crap.

Fast forward to last night, we received the cutest wedding invitation wrapped in twine, twine from Divine Twine mind you. I immediately pulled out my collection and compared. No surprise, Divine Twine is so much brighter, even then the stuff I purchased from Etsy.

*sigh* It's ok, no one but me will know the difference.

3600 yards = 2.045 miles

Winter wonderland

Those of us living in New England have had quite the winter, and February has only just begun! Storm after storm, we've ben hit with 70+ inches of snow since January. During the last big one, Mother Nature was on a rampage, spewing snow, rain, freezing rain, sleet, oh and not to mention, the freezing temperatures. But like usual, the day or two after are filled with bright sunny days.

It was on one of these beautiful days that Jake emailed the following to me:

I wish I knew how to use your camera... the frozen trees outside look awesome but I don't think my point and shoot will do them justice.

I'm a little particular about my toys. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I grew up with two younger brothers and had to share everything, most of which was almost always ruined by one of them. I thought about just ignoring the message all together, buuuuuut Jake has been a huge supporter of my hobbies. And with my current photography itch, he wants to be apart of it. So this is as good as any time for him to jump in and learn how to use the fancy dSLR.

To understand my response, you need to know that Jake requires explicit instructions. I mean EXPLICIT. For example, taking out the trash really means take the trash out, put in a new bag, and put the lid back on the bin. Jake interprets it literally as taking out the trash.

If you really want to use it...


1) put strap around your neck (make sure that if you drop the camera, it just ends up hurting your neck instead of falling to the floor)


2) support the camera and lens with your left hand from underneath


3) turn the dial on the left side to auto


4) turn the camera to on (button on the right side)


5) remove the lens cap

6) bring it up to your eye, push the shutter button down to focus (you'll see at least one square light up in the view finder)

7) when it's focused on the thing you want, push the shutter button all the way down


If you want to zoom, turn the lens (not the ring closest to you...the one with all the numbers on it)

I'd say he did pretty damned good for his first time. Take a look and see:

 

Red dress - muslin fitting #2

Here is a quick refresher of what my dress will look like:

My dress as designed by me and Barbara and Charles of Anchorage Nine.
Sketch by Charles Gryor Flores DeRupé.

Here it is after the second muslin fitting:

Please excuse the crappy self portrait.

Please excuse the crappy phone photo. Apparently, I have shaky hands when it comes to taking photos with my phone. It's O.K., you can say it, "OMG it looks like crap". Both Barbara and I agreed that the photo does not do the muslin justice.

• The collar isn't quite there yet, we were trying to decide how we wanted it with a flimsy piece of cotton and lots of sewing pins.
• The shoulders look wider than it actually will be.
• The bodice is bunching because the edge of the fabric are not pinned in.
• The skirt is:
• super wrinkly
• 2 inches too long
• too wide. in this photo, it's a full circle, it will be reduced down to 3/4 of a circle for the next fitting.
• And that black thing you see on my abdomen? That's a frog button, it is definitely too big and the wrong color.

Now that I'm staring at this photo, I'm wondering if I need to lengthen the bodice by just a tad...it looks like I have a really short and boxy torso right now. Maybe it's just that bad of a photo?

Because of all the adjustments we've made, Barbara and Charles will redo the muslin instead of continuing to work on this one. While they do that, I will work on bribing someone to negotiate, purchase, and deliver the fabric for part of my dress. The bodice will be made from a traditional silk brocade. The material that will be used for the skirt is still undetermined.  

Dragon and pheonix pattern from Pearl River Mart.

Previously:
Red dress: muslin fitting #1
Milestone: Red dress