Birdlings

Well, I have Tof (my white-bellied caique and also my engagement gift; rings aren't the way to lure me in) to thank for pulling out my sewing machine and basking in happy, crafty thoughts. I've been so set on blasting through the spring term so that I can start allocating more attention and time to the wedding, that I haven't really noticed that my creative daydreaming has been dying on the vine.
Honestly, I wouldn't have minded being shocked back into craft scheming in another form, but Tof has his ways, which generally consist of pooping on everything, chasing toes, hand wrestling, and in this instance, chewing on my Wacom tablet cord.Which is a definite no-no...

As in, "You're two chomps away from finding yourself in a roasting pan."

Thankfully, I caught him in the middle of trying to strangle the cord, so his life was spared.
With my Wacom in dire need of protection of a seven inch bird that thinks he's more ferocious dog-bat than bird, I scooted off to Jo-Ann's and finally made something. And it felt so good! It's gotten me quite into the spirit of summer and all things crafty, including wedding and apartment shopping.
Just two more weeks to survive!

It Is Finished!

They're finished, and I couldn't be happier. Well, I couldn't be happier about them being done, but my perfectionist side shrieks to be heard. :D Early on in the process, we decided to make the envelopes ourselves. Being the paper bag lover that I am, I had to create them from bags from the Publix I work at. We then bought a 30-page stack of multi-colored paper and spent hours trying to find ourselves the perfect tree with roots. After that, we scoured for appropriate fonts. The Wolf's dad happened to have some leftover resume paper, so when my OCD side reared it's ugly head and proclaimed that the invitations weren't thick enough, I cut and glued the paper on to the back. Needless to say, I'm not very repentent, though the Wolf still shakes his head. ^_^
We had ourselves a very pretty production line going; me fussing over the envelopes not being envelopish enough, and the Wolf sitting on the bed, patiently tying string around each invitation.

I love DIYing. And I'm still glad we did it (hey, we only spent $21.85!), but there are some cons. For instance, before we settled down to making our own on the computer, we thought we'd use stamps like the ingenious and oh-so crafty Sara Cotner did, but that didn't work out. We ended up stressing ourselves out and spending $96.57 on a project that just didn't work due to either lack of creativity and/or good planning. So if you're dead set on making your own, good deal! Just go at it with a strong idea of what it is you're looking for. :]

I feel like we finally plunged into the icy lake and find ourselves enjoying the water, whereas before, I cringed to put a toe in. Things are clickin'! They're moving! And I cannot wait for August 15th to come!

The next on my list of things to conquer are dresses. Should be good fun!

21 and Finals!

Well, hello everybody...luckily this blog isn't under too much scrutiny or I'd be a horrible person. We haven't updated this in months I think. But basically, that's because there hasn't been much to say.

I've been quite busy with classes and Oblivion. Yvonne has been quite busy between her classes and Publix and going to Oregon over spring break. We're getting really close to being able to send out our invitations, but artist differences are setting us back right now. That's the problem when you get perfectionists working on a simple task...

We also reserved our Honeymoon location at the lovely Wildberry Lodge in Asheville. That took a lot of looking around, because good honeymoon spots are really hard to find. Either you're looking at a Hampton Inn, a slightly expensive and run-down nice place, or a posh super-expensive resort. Luckily, the Wildberry Lodge seems to be none of those, which is why it was so hard to find.

Incidentally, to get Yvonne into college, we got married. I know this may sound strange, but it really doesn't change anything. Except that we're working on getting my ring now. Tungsten is my choice and we should be receiving it in the mail soon!

Hopefully when summer hits, we'll be able to be a bit more relaxed...

February already...

Wow, time flies by like none other when you're in school and staying busy. (Wow, Yvonne, you left a ridiculously small blog, you made it sound like you'd really posted something. XD )

So yeah, our invitation are prepped and ready except for our RSVP cards. Which means we need to set up a webby. But for that we need to get some good pictures and a gift registry, which all take time. The one thing I have tons of, but always seems to disappear exactly when I need it.

But this time before the wedding is kind of awkward. I feel like we should be doing stuff to get ready for it, but there's nothing we can do without a buttload of work and creativity. Now, we could get a dress, but they're all rather ridiculous, so we're going to have to try to find something else. You'd think dresses were designed to make the bride look like all sexiness and a box of chocolates, but usually they just look awkward and stuffy. Go casual goodness!

Speaking of that, I suppose I should wear a tux. But I don't think I will. I don't really know what I look good in. With my body shape, I feel awkward in anything that tucks in really. And jeans just don't seem right. (Not to mention that while my clothes now are okay, I completely would take much more earthy and tough clothing. Light metro clothing is nice in a way, but not my style.)

And I think I will digress for a second to complain about technology. It apalls how many wonderfully complex systems there are for "integrating your life with the internet" like iPods and things that can tell what music you're playing and post it on you blog and constantly update your life, which seem really cool, but only if you do things their way and purchase many expensive and somewhat imperfect products. I saw an ad for Blackberry which advertised that you could buy music on it. OH GREAT, NOW I CAN SPEND LOTS OF MONEY! On probably filling a small hard drive with annoying DRM that will be lost when you drop you new toy in the lake. Capitialism is kickass, but so many retailers don't care about long term reliability or warranties. They just tell you to throw it away and buy a new product. It would be nice if I were that rich. XD

Beads

Why is it so freaking hard to find a dress without beads?!?!

More to come, I promise. XD

Nose to the grindstone...

Well, just for everyone's information, things are cooking along nicely. I'm working my butt off at engineering, which is why I'm not so chatty. And my fiance is generally overwhelmed with life and trying to work on invitations..

And since my fiance has yet to post since our NC trip, I shall update. You see, we decided that we would do the invitations ourselves. The first thought was on the computer, but Yvonne got burnt out with that. So we went to craft stores and bought stamps and paper and inkpads (and an embosser for her). Except it turns out that she doesn't like anything we bought really and thinks it's all too much work. I had a *lovely* sample invitation made out, but she rejected it. So she's back to the computer, trying to create something. This is one of those times when tastes simply don't agree...(and this is one of those things that I just have to suck it up about.)

Well, our self imposed deadline for putting the invitations out is Feb. 1, so we have plenty of time to decide.

On a side note, we've finished our first maritial counseling book with my parents and are now onto the pastor's program. He's making us write love letters to each other...that we have to read aloud to each other in front of him. Which takes the magic out of it as far as I'm concerned. But oh well, Yvonne wants to be married by one of their pastors...so onward!

Ya-Dow!!!

Or at least that's how it sounds when Hiro (from Heroes) yells it. Ah well. Translation: I did it! Success! Woop!! Heck yes! (etc.) In case you're out of the loop or neither of us have gone into detail, the Wolf and I are in North Carolina, mostly vacationing, but on the look out for possible wedding venues and (insert huge sigh of relief) we found it! Or at least we're fairly certain we've found our "location of love" (the Wolf sarcastically mutters). More later.