Checking in on a Friday morning in an effort to keep the blog updated. Why am I home, you ask? Because I am voiceless and generally feeling under the weather. I thought I was doing pretty well in the last two months - avoiding any colds, finally building up the immune system... But alas, it has caught up with me. It's not terrible at the moment; it's definitely not as bad as it could be, but since I have to work at the library this weekend, I figured a day of rest would do me some good.

I used my morning rather productively, planning the up-coming school week. There are just so many exciting activities coming up! It's reading month, Valentine's Day, and 100th Day! We are going to do an author study on Eric Litwin, play with cloud dough and hunt for buried treasures, and hopefully, if all goes well, make our own book using Book Creator. Yup, I bit the bullet and bought the app for our class Ipads. Hopefully we'll get some good use out of it. All this might sound a tad ambitious, but I'm pretty hyped-up about it. Have I mentioned that I love teaching Kindergarten?

As for a wedding update, I have finally finished putting together almost all of our invitations. I am only missing a few peoples' addresses, but it's okay because I'm only planning on sending them by the end of the month or early next month. I know it's a bit on the early side if we're following strict wedding etiquette, but I would rather be a keener than having to rush and stress out at the last minute. Some sites and books seem to suggest that if you send them too early, you risk people misplacing or forgetting about their RSVP. After discussing the idea with Pat, my mom, and my trusted bridesmaids, I figured that most people would rather know sooner than later, and I think getting all the RSVPs back on time will be a challenge whether I send them now or in a few months. Also, I wanted to get them out before my shower invitations go out (I don't know exactly when this is happening since the shower is a surprise, but if I had to make a guess, I would think March).

Here is sneak peak of the invitations.

I bought a few do-it-yourself invitation kits from Michael's when they were on sale for $9.99 (regularly $39.99). I think mine were being discontinued, so I guess that's why the were so cheap. I can't seem to find any link to them online. Then I used Photoshop to play around with the design and fonts of each element of the invitation. The front of the invitation states that we are getting married, and also includes the location and the date. As you can see, I also added a little starfish made using this Martha Stewart punch. On the back of the invitation, there is a pocket to hold the RSVP card and envelope which guests will need to send back. I also added some extra information like driving directions and hotel accommodations. Even though it took quite a long time to design, print and assemble all of these aspects, I can't deny that it was lots of fun.

Tonight my mom is supposed to come over to help me assemble some favor boxes that I am in the processing of making with my silhouette. Another time-consuming - but oh so rewarding - DIY project to embark on! It's going to be a busy weekend. Cheers!

**Great, just great. While spell-checking this blog post, I realized that I mispelled one of the words in my invitations. Good times. I guess I jumped the gun when I said the invites were almost all ready. It's going to be a busy weekend indeed.

A bright Saturday morning awaits me. The house is a mess, but I'll get to that later. Right now I am enjoying cats purring, coffee, and blogland. I have discovered that She & Him tickets go on sale at noon - the concert is July 3rd! Ohh that will be a delightful time of year. School will have just ended, I will be in full-throttle wedding mode, and an evening on the town to see such great performers will be just what I need. I am assuming my lovely sidekick will be a good sport and tag along (let's hope!). Too bad none of my friends seem to share the same musical tastes, or would want to go.

Last night, right after work, I went for a quick trip to Plattsburgh to help my mom finalize her dress choice for the wedding. She had gone down the week before and found a dress she loved, but was worried about the color. Pat and I had to convince her that the shade option (which was slightly different than the color of our invitations) was fine, and that she wouldn't want to be matchy-matchy anyways. She was debating between a lighter and darker teal color, and we steered her in the direction of the darker, which will look better on her based on other dresses that she tried. Because of course they don't have the actual size in the actual color that you need, that would just be far too convenient. Anyways, I'm glad that we were able to get one more thing checked off our list. Here's what the dress looks like. Ignore the ridiculous gloves (what is up with that?). It fits my mom very well and she was quite thrilled when the lady in the dress shop kept referring to her as a hip momma, and how she wouldn't look good in any of the frumpy, traditional mother-of-the-bride assembles.

 

Today I think I will (hopefully) finish assembling the invitations and maybe work on some favor boxes. I am attempting to make them myself with my Silhouette, but I have had less than perfect results so far. We'll see how that goes... I may abandon the idea soon and move on to something more simple.

 

Have a great weekend folks! 

Well hello there world! Oh how I have missed blogging! I have been so terrible at it over the last few years. There was a time I used to update weekly... ha! That feels like ages ago. I would like to think that I could go back to that, but I won't keep any promises until I get back into the groove of it again.

What I like about keeping a blog is looking back at it over time. Seeing what went on, what we were going through, what I was thinking, feeling, doing. I like feeling that I've left a mark, that I capture the moments in some form as they passed. It all goes by so fast. I think I spend too much time browsing the blogs of others when I could be focusing that energy more productively.

Here is a bit of what's been going on lately.

We are selling (or at least trying to sell) our house! Long story. Not something that was foreseen, but we are going to go through with it in the hopes that we will be happier elsewhere, in a detached home. Having shitty neighbors really sucks. This is all happening, hopefully, within the next few months before the wedding. Oh right, of course, did I forget to mention?? Since my six month blog-hiatus, we got engaged!! Kinda big news around here!

Patrick proposed while we were on vacation in Bermuda. We went on a cruise last July, and he popped the question on the bow of the boat one evening after a romantic dinner.

I have been documenting the process in this gem of a book, which I highly recommend to anyone planning a wedding.

We are getting married on July 20th. It is an exciting time, but also a very busy time. I would like to share the process on here, so maybe that will be my motivation to keep the blog going.

As for right now, it's time to unwind after a long, dreadfully cold week. Temperatures reached -40 with the wind chill. We feel like hibernating! Thankfully, we made it to Friday night! We are just about to cook some salmon and open a bottle of wine. Here's to weekends, even if they do pass by all too quickly.