Old Photos for the Slideshow

[That's me in the middle!]

[Baby Mo and Mother]

The boy's mother (soon to be my mother too, weird!) requested a slide show for the Chinese banquet, so I'm scanning in pictures of the two of us from the 80s and 90s. (It's still up for debate whether or not to play it at the western wedding, mostly because we have to pay for projection.) I dug into my parents' closet last weekend and unearthed some photos that I have never seen before. These are two of my favorites, I look pretty cozy!

Owl Cookies

[Owl cookie favors by Etsy seller TScookies]

It's almost as if these were made for me. I just want to bite all their heads off they're so cute.
Check out more goodies here.

Thank You...onto Happier Topics!

Thanks to everyone for your kind words, advice, and support about my last post. You all keep me sane! I'll update you with how everything fits. [Note to people going dress shopping--take comfort into account. It's an attribute that definitely was not on my radar!]

Onto happier items...aren't these speech bubble chalkboards adorable?? Even more adorable are the photobooth pictures from Photojojo's photobooth party. We are having a fabric backdrop photo station and these would be really cute as props. You can get the whole speech bubble set from Playing Grown Up!

[I think my style is getting too obvious, I actually tried on the dress the girl in the last photo is wearing. I didn't get it, but maybe if I had a billion colorful streamers and an awesome frame to walk around in I would have. Maybe I should go back and try it on again.] :)

[From Photojojo]

I also bought a new toy, a polaroid camera which I intend to use in Vegas, our wedding, and Japan. With the three months I have away from school (40 hours of work is going to feel like a vacation!) hopefully I will have time to make some book projects from the polaroids.

[The Fuji Instax Mini 7S Camera]

A Dress That Won't Allow Me To Hug

I am so glad that I am done with the bridal salon and alterations. Not only did they temporarily lose the fabric from my dress, but the alterations were $275 over what was originally quoted and I kept getting frustrated because the dress just did not fit correctly. I'm so tired of hearing "that's what it's supposed to look like" for a dress that I probably have seen more times than any other garment I've ever purchased in my entire life.

The dress doesn't stay up comfortably. There isn't much fabric in the back that can keep it up. Pair that with my sloping shoulders, and it makes it doubly worse.

[This was taken with the unaltered dress, but the shoulders were still doing that today. I hope it's brought in tight enough so that it isn't a problem.]

Today, which was to be my last fitting, I moved one inch and the whole top almost fell off. I stood outside the dressing room trying to flag down the seamstress, and when I showed her what was wrong, she told me that it wasn't that bad and that she can't bring it in much more because the sleeves would dig into my under arms. AHHHHHHH!!!! I can't believe I just paid more than my monthly rent for a dress that won't stay on properly!!! I'm going to flash everyone as I walk down the aisle, it'll be either holding my dress up or holding my bouquet... Stay calm.

I then proceeded to hunch over to make my point to the seamstress, and again, the whole thing fell off. What do you say to that, hmmmmm?? Not much you can say now!
"Oh...Ok, I'll see what I can do," she said.

She came back and pinned the shoulders even more, and finally the top didn't fall off. Huzzah! She sewed it on the spot, and I waited in the dressing room and tried it on one more time. It fit a lot better, but it is definitely not that comfortable.
"Better?" she said.
"Yeah...a lot better than before." I started hunching over, moving my shoulders, putting my arms up, and then I tried to move my arms forward. I couldn't do it. She saw my look of despair.
"It's just for one night," she said. "Keep your arms by your side and stand up straight like a princess. You don't want to make this motion," and then she moved her arms forward like I was trying to do, the same motion you would do if you were hugging someone.
So, basically what you are trying to tell me is that I can't hug people on my wedding day by wearing this dress. Seriously? No gigantic hugs for all these people that flew in for our wedding?? Hugging is like one of my top five favorite things in life, right next to holding hands and puppies! Why wasn't I aware of the lack of hugging potential in this dress when I purchased it??

"Ok...yeah, I think some tape should help keep it in place too, I'll try to remember to keep my back straight that day," I told her with a straight face. I got dressed, took the dress, and never looked back.

I'm worried that I won't feel comfortable in my dress the day of the wedding and will be constantly fidgeting. It makes it even worse when I think about how much money I spent--and for what? A dress that I can't hug people in or feel comfortable because I'm afraid the top will fall off my shoulders? Le sigh.

If you see me at the wedding and I do not put my arms out, it is not because I do not want to hug you. It is because I have become a slave to the wedding dress.

A Bachelor Party or Your Birthday?

My birthday is the Saturday the week before our wedding. It also happens to be the same week that the boy's group of guy friends have the week off from school.

The idea was brought up to have a bachelor party/weekend in Vegas the week before the wedding when they are all free--aka, the weekend of my birthday.

At first I said "What!?! That's my birthday!" But now I'm realizing that there might not be a better time for them to go. And I got to have a bridal shower, he should some sort of male bonding trip, no?

How would you react if your partner planned to take off with his/her buddies the weekend of your birthday?

Should I encourage the trip and just do something else?

What's On Your Do Not Play List?

Garth Brooks, The Village People, Nelly Furtado, Creed, Hanson, Rod Stewart, Bryan Adams, The Thong Song, Shania Twain, ZZ Top, Lou Bega's Mambo #5, and Haddway's What Is Love? are some of the highlights of our do not play list. I also have this unreasonable disdain for Pink. I just can't stand her. Although, I do think these songs would be awesome karaoke songs with a tambourine in hand.

I hope my DJ doesn't cry when he sees this list because there are a lot of artists on it. And, for the record, most of these would be great for karaoke. Especially The Thong Song. But don't quote me on that.

What's on your absolutely under no circumstances will you play this song or I will DIIIIIE list?

Married in Vegas

[Little Chapel of the Flowers]

Our good friends are getting married in Vegas in a few weeks at the Little Chapel of the Flowers (woohoo!) and in addition to sharing in their happy occasion, we're also getting a mini holiday, so I'm doubly excited.

This will be my first time in Vegas since I was 15. Needless to say, things have changed since 1998. Anyone have any recommendations on what to do/eat/drink for a weekend?

We definitely want to eat good food, and after reading Julia's post I'm thinking Bouchon might be a nice choice for a dinner date. We originally planned to go to Mesa, but I don't feel like I've done enough research yet, like asking all of you lovelies!

Thoughts? If not Bouchon, then it looks like I can at least eat some cookies at the bakery.

[Bouchon Bakery]

Nothing Is Going To Change...I Think

Occasionally I get the question "Do you think anything is going to change when you get married?" and I am generally pretty honest and say "No...aside from me saying 'husband' instead of 'boyfriend' once in a while, I don't think anything is going to change."

Truth is, I pretty much already feel married. There are few people left in my life who knew me pre-boy. They call me "Mrs. HisName" at the grocery store and the bank. People greet us as one unit--"Hey! It's HisName and MyName." We live together, are on the same cell phone plan, aren't changing our names, and have a pet together. [Side note: Despite being attached at the hip, I've noticed in recent years, and maybe I already did this, that I try and distinguish myself from him as much as possible. As a simple example...there was an incident where I was buying running shoes, and without knowing I picked out the women's version of the shoes he had. He was thrilled ("Hey! You liked those too? So cool, we can match!") I on the other hand insisted on trying other shoes. End side note.]

But maybe I'm wrong. What do you think--does "being married" change a couple that has been together for a long time? What was different once you "tied the knot"?

Some Glue+Some Plates=Cupcake Stands!

I took a trip to my local thrift store and picked up any pink or red plate I could find. And then I bought some epoxy and glued them on top of one another like this very famous craft. The red cake stand you see is not something I bought at the the thrift store, but from Target during Valentine's Day for $10 each. It was cheap enough, but for all of the other plates and cups in the photo I only paid $15! It is nice to pay so little after looking at cake stands for $100+ dollars. Of course, those stands aren't crooked with gray epoxy smeared on them...but $15!

[So...if you decide to this craft, please don't stack your ceramics lopsided like mine. Um...maybe no one will notice when it's full of cookies and cupcakes?]

[I'm also slightly annoyed with myself by not realizing that the epoxy is gray, and therefore visible to anyone looking closely at the stand. Again, nothing that a bunch of macarons obscuring the ugly grey goop can't fix!]

[The whole lot of them! So far I have nine plates, but I don't think even 100 cupcakes will fit on these, especially with some macarons taking up space. They are also kinda fun to make, so I'm tempted to make three more for twelve total.]

Roughly 50 more days to go. Cupcake stands, check!

Will Lollipops Melt?

[From Candy Warehouse]

I'm considering having one of these at each place setting, but I'm scared they will melt since we're outdoors in July. I might do a melt test this week with one. 

Other than the melting problem, cute no?

ADD: The caption for this item is kinda funny. 

Elegant Whirly pops in swirling red and white candy cane colors. These lollipops have a fabulous cherry flavor and feature a sturdy, longer-than-average stick that helps you enjoy them without accidentally licking the knuckles and fingers of your hand that holds the stick.

...does anyone accidentally lick her hand when licking a lollipop? I can't say that I have, but good to know that the stick is nice and long.

Burnt Out

This is the third attempt at writing this post, because I feel like the last thing people want to read about is how burnt out someone is...but since this blog is about my life, and because I have not written anything in a while, I thought I should update it despite it not being about puppies and rainbows--I'm up to here (motions hand over head) in work, school, and wedding. I wish it wasn't so, I wish I could just work on my DIY projects starting today and watch those episodes of LOST and GLEE I've missed, but unfortunately, I have to plow on through May until my quarter is over and when a work project is done. And then I can breathe for a little bit before July 3rd rolls around. 

I keep having George Banks moments. I haven't stolen hot dog buns yet, but I continually have to tell myself "it's cool, this is not the end of the world" with recent customer service snafus (this is one recently...the bridal shop lost my fabric from alterations and made me wait 30 minutes before telling me they didn't have it and couldn't find it...this was after telling me that their mother would know where it is, but that she was on a trip in Tahoe because she was going cuckoo from menopause--TMI! TMI! TMI!...don't worry, they found it, I was just already 20 minutes away on the freeway when they did.) 

I'm just tired. 

How are you all doing?  

Happy Mother's Day!

I couldn't spend the day with my Mom, but she got a M.A.C gift card to buy some new goodies for all of the wedding events she will be bombarded with this summer. 

Happy Mother's Day everyone!