Monday, July 13, 2009
Newlyweds!!
Greetings from our nest of wedded bliss! We had an absolutely awesome and magical wedding in Alaska. I have plenty of show & tell, and plan to recap all the other projects I was too busy to chronicle at the time. Look for all-new exciting entries here soon, after I'm done wading through a few zillion more photos. In the meantime, we'll be testing out all our lovely new dishes and kitchen gadgets, despite the fact Kitty is sure every gift we have received is a cat bed. Thanks everyone, for all the great cat beds!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Countdown to Adventure!
A mere week from today we will be getting married! And we leave Nashville the day after tomorrow! Of course Redbeard is already packed, while I am simultaneously making about six lists of things to remember to do and pack before we leave. I confess, the closer we get to Wedding Time, the more things I want to cross of my list and not bother with. Fun things: Check. Everything else: Forget it. I nearly swore off having a cake altogether, because the thrilling prospect of having two weeks off of work was somewhat dampened by the thought of having to mess with cake. Lucky for me, Father of the Bride of Redbeard is on the job, getting the baking out of the way so there'll just be the Making Awesome left to do by the time I get to Alaska.
Keeping with the spirit of The Very Last Minute Possible (I do well under pressure of deadlines!) I had a very satisfactory makeup trial with Delaney last night. She knew just the right gold dust to pull from her treasury of tiny vials of sparkly things. Magic transformation! So rest assured, I will look fancy. Way better than that Clinique counter makeover I got for the prom in 10th grade. I was afraid of doing lipstick, (I can never seem to pull it off), but we found a winner.
Obviously, I'm VERY behind on blogging everything that's been created thus far, but I vow to cover it all in recaps after the big day. We will have WiFi at our rental house, but I may or may not give a crap about the internet while I'm on vacation. However, for those of you celebrating our adventures from afar, tune in to Twitter and follow my cousin Sarah (user sarahstood), who promises to post wedding updates from her magical handheld technology device.
P.S. - Apparently today is International Steampunk Day! This bodes well for our final wedding projects. Bust out your goggles and pocketwatches and think of us!
Keeping with the spirit of The Very Last Minute Possible (I do well under pressure of deadlines!) I had a very satisfactory makeup trial with Delaney last night. She knew just the right gold dust to pull from her treasury of tiny vials of sparkly things. Magic transformation! So rest assured, I will look fancy. Way better than that Clinique counter makeover I got for the prom in 10th grade. I was afraid of doing lipstick, (I can never seem to pull it off), but we found a winner.
Obviously, I'm VERY behind on blogging everything that's been created thus far, but I vow to cover it all in recaps after the big day. We will have WiFi at our rental house, but I may or may not give a crap about the internet while I'm on vacation. However, for those of you celebrating our adventures from afar, tune in to Twitter and follow my cousin Sarah (user sarahstood), who promises to post wedding updates from her magical handheld technology device.
P.S. - Apparently today is International Steampunk Day! This bodes well for our final wedding projects. Bust out your goggles and pocketwatches and think of us!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Revising plans, preserving sanity
The wedding is TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY! We are contemplating this thought as we have a lazy Sunday recovering from our respective parties - a "Nerdy Bachelor BBQ" and a surprise pajama party girl night, both resounding successes.
AHEM. Not just clearing my throat - The Dress has A Hem. Not a complete one, mind you, but it's almost there. Maybe today?
On the hairdo/haircut decision, I vacillated constantly between horror at how much salon visits cost, and panic that I could not possible spare the time even to visit a coworkers house to get a free haircut. The one place I could think of within walking distance of my Wedding Project HQ happened to be closed on my only days off. Every time I made an Official Decision I came up with some excuse not to follow through. Well. Not much time left. Bathroom Sink Special it is. This morning while Redbeard slept off yesterday's Shiner Bock, I administered my usual DIY cut and color, and you know what? It's fine. It doesn't look amazingly sleek and fancy, but for that matter, neither does any other part of this wedding. My dress is quite obviously handmade and imperfect. I don't think I'm capable of high fashion. I will look quite exactly and reasonably just like... Myself. I tried on the headband I made with the new 'do, and it looks Just How I Wanted It, and the only styling I did was rub a towel on my head when I got out of the shower. Problem solved.
In slightly wedding-related news, we saw UP, the new Pixar movie (in 3D! a treat from Delaney and Austin!) and it had a surprising amount of vintage pulp adventure goodness involved! Flight caps and goggles and battles on a giant airship! Not to mention it was completely touching and beautiful and romantical as well. Anyone still grasping for a hold on our wedding theme concept should keep this movie in mind.
AHEM. Not just clearing my throat - The Dress has A Hem. Not a complete one, mind you, but it's almost there. Maybe today?
On the hairdo/haircut decision, I vacillated constantly between horror at how much salon visits cost, and panic that I could not possible spare the time even to visit a coworkers house to get a free haircut. The one place I could think of within walking distance of my Wedding Project HQ happened to be closed on my only days off. Every time I made an Official Decision I came up with some excuse not to follow through. Well. Not much time left. Bathroom Sink Special it is. This morning while Redbeard slept off yesterday's Shiner Bock, I administered my usual DIY cut and color, and you know what? It's fine. It doesn't look amazingly sleek and fancy, but for that matter, neither does any other part of this wedding. My dress is quite obviously handmade and imperfect. I don't think I'm capable of high fashion. I will look quite exactly and reasonably just like... Myself. I tried on the headband I made with the new 'do, and it looks Just How I Wanted It, and the only styling I did was rub a towel on my head when I got out of the shower. Problem solved.
In slightly wedding-related news, we saw UP, the new Pixar movie (in 3D! a treat from Delaney and Austin!) and it had a surprising amount of vintage pulp adventure goodness involved! Flight caps and goggles and battles on a giant airship! Not to mention it was completely touching and beautiful and romantical as well. Anyone still grasping for a hold on our wedding theme concept should keep this movie in mind.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Paper goods withdrawl
Paper nerd that I am, the invites were really "my thing" that I fussed over for ever and ever, and now that they've been sent out... I think I'm unnecessarily creating ridiculous projects in my mind to play with paper some more. Maybe guests need paper flags to wave! Maybe I need to recycle all the leftover invitation paper into mini notebooks! Maybe I need to print custom stationery for everyone in the wedding party! I've had to rein myself in from this craziness, wrap up the important things (dress and headwear!) and save my final triumphant paper demonstration for the programs. (And the thank-you cards, of course!) Additional fun projects will be saved for any remaining minutes out of those precious five free days I have between now and leaving for Alaska.
I figure most folks reading this blog are invitees that have already stuck our invitations on their fridge, but I thought I'd do a quick invitation recap for anyone else who is tuning in to experience our wedding story through the interwebs.
I ordered my boxes and boxes of paper from French in every adventure-worthy shade of brown I could find. Most of the art and lettering I did by hand, and printed out with my tank of an archival digital printer. Redbeard requested a map while we were watching Indiana Jones one day, so I drew one of those too. Credit for that "tentacles" bit on the reply card wording also goes to my fella. He wrote several versions, but I edited them down for mass appeal by omitting the really specific obscure literary references and any mention of scantily clad damsels in distress. If anyone wants to have a full-on over-the-top Cthulhu-themed wedding, Redbeard be happy to write all the copy for your invitations.
These are just scans... I'll take some nice fancy photos later to make them look extra sassy. (Not pictured: the enclosure with our costuming notes and reminder of our Tennessee party.)
And here's Redbeard working hard to collate all the pieces during our envelope-stuffing party.
I printed chocolate brown envelopes with a gold key and affixed a paper label since my experiment with gold ink on the brown paper was UGLY. After debating for days and days about what kind of calligraphy to do for the addresses, I ultimately decided no fancy script was necessary and took a cue from Todd Klein's lettering for Tom Strong. The post office lady cluck-clucked at me that my address labels were not affixed securely enough, so if anyone is missing an invite, blame the brutal USPS robots for bending, spindling, and mutilating them. One unexpected development following the distribution of the invitations has been that several people objected to remitting the reply postcard, claiming it was necessary to keep all the pieces together for their collection. Aw shucks y'all, I'm flattered.
I figure most folks reading this blog are invitees that have already stuck our invitations on their fridge, but I thought I'd do a quick invitation recap for anyone else who is tuning in to experience our wedding story through the interwebs.
I ordered my boxes and boxes of paper from French in every adventure-worthy shade of brown I could find. Most of the art and lettering I did by hand, and printed out with my tank of an archival digital printer. Redbeard requested a map while we were watching Indiana Jones one day, so I drew one of those too. Credit for that "tentacles" bit on the reply card wording also goes to my fella. He wrote several versions, but I edited them down for mass appeal by omitting the really specific obscure literary references and any mention of scantily clad damsels in distress. If anyone wants to have a full-on over-the-top Cthulhu-themed wedding, Redbeard be happy to write all the copy for your invitations.
These are just scans... I'll take some nice fancy photos later to make them look extra sassy. (Not pictured: the enclosure with our costuming notes and reminder of our Tennessee party.)
And here's Redbeard working hard to collate all the pieces during our envelope-stuffing party.
I printed chocolate brown envelopes with a gold key and affixed a paper label since my experiment with gold ink on the brown paper was UGLY. After debating for days and days about what kind of calligraphy to do for the addresses, I ultimately decided no fancy script was necessary and took a cue from Todd Klein's lettering for Tom Strong. The post office lady cluck-clucked at me that my address labels were not affixed securely enough, so if anyone is missing an invite, blame the brutal USPS robots for bending, spindling, and mutilating them. One unexpected development following the distribution of the invitations has been that several people objected to remitting the reply postcard, claiming it was necessary to keep all the pieces together for their collection. Aw shucks y'all, I'm flattered.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Deco clay flower explosion!
I finished the bouquets last night! All that's left is to carefully package them and ship em on up to Alaska. Here are a few quick snapshots in the studio... Some well-styled natural light shots would be better, but hey, I finish stuff in the middle of the night, you know.
Here's my big voluptuous arrangement.
The "leaves" are the same fabric I used on the boutonnieres, scraps of Redbeard's old khaki pants.
Four similar but non-matching bouquets for the bridesmaids.
And two small bouquets for our mommies.
Here's my big voluptuous arrangement.
The "leaves" are the same fabric I used on the boutonnieres, scraps of Redbeard's old khaki pants.
Four similar but non-matching bouquets for the bridesmaids.
And two small bouquets for our mommies.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Re-prioritizing
Hello out there, blogland. I'm still here, and as you probably imagined, up to my ears in wedding projects. I guess being too busy making stuff is a worthy excuse for slacking on the blog. I wish I had a bar graph or a little shaded in thermometer of progress to show you all the developments that have been made in various areas. Dress: 95 % complete. Bouquets: 98% complete. Tablecloths: 75% complete. Programs: still in my head. File under "not going to print it until the people we think are in our wedding party actually have plane tickets." Rings: more complicated than we imagined, but nearly ready. Weapons: 80% complete. Did you even know we had wedding weapons?! Ceremony: lurking in both our minds and notebooks, yet to be finalized.
I went to set up a basic wed-site from a template after ours bit the dust, but freaked out when I saw the automatic ticker in the corner counting down the days, as I had yet to think of it in so small and unreasonable a number! Alternatively, I set up a temporary blog with all the important info on it so it can be found if necessary. Our original web address now redirects appropriately. And I am capable of taking a deep breath and calmly informing you that a mere 33 days remain until our wedding. The part that induces a panic attack is noting that within this number, I have only SEVEN days off of work. Those are the days that I usual have a craft marathon and spend all day in the studio, and considering out of those seven I have a wedding shower on the horizon, a bbq this weekend, and you know, many delicious bon bons to make for book club in a couple weeks, it's even scarier.
So I'm doing my best to re-examine my priorities and see if I can just eliminate anything, in the interest of my sanity and the mental health of those around me. I did actually let someone HELP me with a project last weekend, that was a first. (Thanks Ali!) One thing I know I'm willing to say "pffft" and not worry about anymore is my hair. My original plan was to do some super lovely old timey fingerwaves, to be as much like a 30s movie star as possible. I ordered this book and was set to study up and be a master.
However, consider the following facts:
1) Even if I became a master, it would be quite impossible for me to successfully do this on my own head.
2) I don't have any friends in AK in the hair business (that I know of), and my wedding party will be quite busy preparing and setting up on the big day.
3) I already involuntarily paid $85 for a one-day hairdo once this year and anxiety about spending that much for WEEKS afterwards, so I pretty much don't need to do that again for at least ten years.
My conclusion? Spend a reasonable amount on a professional haircut before we leave for Alaska. Then my hair looks sharp, as opposed to this self-inflicted sloppiness I make do with for budgetary reasons. It lasts longer than a day, will make me feel spiffy, and topped off with a fabulous handmade headband = hassle-free wedding hair.
Coming up next: pictures of projects, I promise! What do you want to see first?
I went to set up a basic wed-site from a template after ours bit the dust, but freaked out when I saw the automatic ticker in the corner counting down the days, as I had yet to think of it in so small and unreasonable a number! Alternatively, I set up a temporary blog with all the important info on it so it can be found if necessary. Our original web address now redirects appropriately. And I am capable of taking a deep breath and calmly informing you that a mere 33 days remain until our wedding. The part that induces a panic attack is noting that within this number, I have only SEVEN days off of work. Those are the days that I usual have a craft marathon and spend all day in the studio, and considering out of those seven I have a wedding shower on the horizon, a bbq this weekend, and you know, many delicious bon bons to make for book club in a couple weeks, it's even scarier.
So I'm doing my best to re-examine my priorities and see if I can just eliminate anything, in the interest of my sanity and the mental health of those around me. I did actually let someone HELP me with a project last weekend, that was a first. (Thanks Ali!) One thing I know I'm willing to say "pffft" and not worry about anymore is my hair. My original plan was to do some super lovely old timey fingerwaves, to be as much like a 30s movie star as possible. I ordered this book and was set to study up and be a master.
However, consider the following facts:1) Even if I became a master, it would be quite impossible for me to successfully do this on my own head.
2) I don't have any friends in AK in the hair business (that I know of), and my wedding party will be quite busy preparing and setting up on the big day.
3) I already involuntarily paid $85 for a one-day hairdo once this year and anxiety about spending that much for WEEKS afterwards, so I pretty much don't need to do that again for at least ten years.
My conclusion? Spend a reasonable amount on a professional haircut before we leave for Alaska. Then my hair looks sharp, as opposed to this self-inflicted sloppiness I make do with for budgetary reasons. It lasts longer than a day, will make me feel spiffy, and topped off with a fabulous handmade headband = hassle-free wedding hair.
Coming up next: pictures of projects, I promise! What do you want to see first?
Monday, April 20, 2009
Incidents with poor timing
1. Our wedding website (and my entire personal website) are down, thanks to the hosting company that has changed names/owners so many times since I put up my site in 1999, I don't even know who to call and yell at. I hope everyone can find their way through the interwebs to this blog for any important updates and contact me with any questions.
2. I have a cold, or some ghastly seasonal allergies. This is not convenient at all, and breathing only through my mouth while I was sleeping induced dreams that it was our wedding day and I was STILL working on finishing my dress. While I was wearing it.
2. I have a cold, or some ghastly seasonal allergies. This is not convenient at all, and breathing only through my mouth while I was sleeping induced dreams that it was our wedding day and I was STILL working on finishing my dress. While I was wearing it.
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