The Long and Winding Road

Much has happened in the past 4 months. We moved in with my future in-laws to save money (not nearly as bad as it sounds), we both picked up new hobbies (him: model-making for profit, me: we'll get to that in a moment), and we FINALLY took the plunge and booked a wedding location. I know for most people the actually getting married is the part to be proud of, but for me, committing to spend $10,000 on 8 hours is way, way harder.

We're getting married at the Sausalito Presbyterian Church. Neither of us are Presbyterian, or very religious for that matter, but they're happy to do weddings of all faiths so we're in. And its sooo pretty inside.


Did I mention that the wedding is in 4 months? And I have about 40% of it planned? Not bad for a week and a half of work. Our photographer is Aung Photography and we're getting a great deal since he and my love used to work together. For music we're having another work person to DJ. We're doing an early afternoon reception with hors d'oeuvres, cupcakes, dancing, and drinking followed by having everyone who wants to keep going back at our house for a casual party (NO HEELS) of dinner, real drinking, and wii playing.

Save the Dates are going out tomorrow, and I don't want to post about them until the one person who reads this gets theirs (Hi Carissa!), but I just finished them and I'm too excited so here's a sneak peak.


BTW, I am way more excited than I should be about getting married while these stamps are still valid, but I freakin love them. It may have been the second thing that popped into my mind when we decided to get married so soon - maybe. The save the date process has been overall a ton of fun, and I'm really happy with how they came out. The total so far is only at $106 including shipping, but I have about 35-40 more that just popped up (Thanks, Grandma!). A tip on DIY print jobs: laser color copiers can not print watercolor accurately. You're 1,000x better off using your ink-jet printer at home.

In other news, I've been slowly breaking into the cupcake/candy world. There's at least one store in Texas that is going to start selling my caramels and I made these cupcakes for a little boy's carnival themed 5th birthday party.


All in all, unemployment notwithstanding, things are very happy over here in the north bay.

Perfect One

The more I think about it, the less I care if my Love sees me in my dress before the wedding. I know that he will like me in anything I choose, and I don't feel like I need his approval on a dress, I just don't think its important. I showed him pictures from when I tried on dresses and he didn't even realize there were two different ones.

My dad didn't see my mom in her dress and they still got divorced so I don't think following superstitions makes a happy or lucky or long-lasting marriage. And a dress in a dress shop with my hair unkempt and my makeup not done is not the same as a dress walking down the aisle accompanied by a veil, curly hair, and six inch eyelashes.

At the end of the day, the dress isn't important. I let him see me in my dresses before we go to family parties and really, that's all a wedding is.

i love you, you love me...

I was at the gym yesterday and realized that my love of pink has turned to a love of purple. I seem to be going back through the color choices of my single-digit years. I had purple nails, a purple towel, a purple phone, a purple water bottle, and purple pants. As soon as I realized I got super self-conscious.

Then today on sfgirlbybay her Ode to Domino's My Deco Files the color purple was the theme and I LOVE them.

(See more at sfgirlbybay)

ma meilleure amie

Well, I survived midterms. I got some sketches out of it, and have to add accessories and expand the floor plan over the second half of the semester. Its been nice to step out of my comfort zone of 'Modern Design" and finally have the knowledge to execute what I envision onto paper. I think that to be a good designer you have to have a strong knowledge of all types/periods of design. I also think that set design would be really awesome to get into. But not if I have to live in LA.

My best friend came to visit and I tried on wedding dresses for the first time. We went to Glamour Closet in SF and the store was lovely. Only sample sizes, and since I have no job, I have no money, but we learned a lot about fit and color. Also, I have to lose 20 pounds to fit a sample size dress.



So we scheduled time with a personal trainer friend of my Love's and promptly went over to Paulette and bought 14 macarons and developed a crush on the french boy who works there.



Then we made our way over to Miette and bought two more sub par macarons and ate them in a park where a man had a parrot.


My Love bought us some tulips in a pot and they're beautiful, but floppy. I watered them and put them in the sun, but they're soooo tall and I am not a good farmer.


Then we put a fuzzy bug we found by our mailbox on a weed that's growing in our plumeria pot. I like the weed better than the plumeria that never bloomed, but lost all its leaves and is now a stupid stick in a tea cup pot.


I love that the new Chemistry.com advertisement features two gay guys.

Pictures look like crap when I upload them through blogger. I don't know what's wrong...

Money Honey

That being said, I don't want a donkey.

(via emily blows your mind)

Friday Night, 1:30am.

34 police cars
with lights and sirens blazing
just drove by my home.

hope no one is dead.
i'm sure at least one is gone.
life in the east bay.

its supposed to rain.
no sun, no trips, and no fun
all freakin weekend.

homework by moonlight.
not sexy and not awesome.
i fear the future.

3EB and Butch
sing their songs in the darkness
wish i could be there.

But Its Better If You Do

I have had exactly 0.5 seconds to do anything crafty. But I've been doing school work like crazy and they're pretty craft-intensive, even if they're lame. So here's a site model and a shading for color rendering.

I'm very proud of the shading. Its the first I've ever really done and we weren't allowed to draw outlines for anything, so I think it did pretty well.

Its been raining like crazy and I got to wear rain boots today. I also am not working another day until March. Sucko.

Also, the love of my life got me a WiiFit and two books. Which is sufficient re-payment for making me read Angels & Demons.

Oh and one more thing: I want to get married here. The barn is awesome and they have a tent on-site. Also, the gardens are effing SWEET.

a dead tree covered in christmas ornaments >*


I love it. We can't afford it. Or anything. Patience. I'm trying to remember what MUNI taught me about patience.

Time To Dance!

Look!!


Rumor has it that it tastes like sweet tea, not like vodka with a little bit of sweet tea flavor. Shots go down smooth and its more dangerous to Southerners than Long Island Iced Tea. If we end up doing signature drinks instead of an open bar I want grown up Arnold Palmers!

Also, I've been obsessed with this song for too long. Don't get the rest of the album. It all sounds the same, but not as awesome.

Lights Out

Its been a strange day in the land of Me. We were up until 4 because my Love works the door at a club and he got off late. My cat, who was the picture of love earlier in the night:

Turned into the devil incarnate:
Those teeth dug into my wrist starting at 4:30 and he would not shut the hell up. I gave him food, he had water, I got out more toys for him. At 6 I had to get up and sleep on the couch so Love could get some sleep. Finally, a real benefit of not working: I can take one for the team without being grumpy and resentful.

My rainy, sleepy, annoying day turned out pretty well. Check out the afternoon sun and eventual sunset:


This one was taken in "sunset mode".

This one was no setting.

This was with the "Cloudy" light setting.

None of them are totally accurate. Its annoying, and I'm not sure how or if I can fix it. Its the same kind of frustration I have when they say something on TV is pink but it looks red or orange. They're professionals and they can't get it right, how am I supposed to do it?

Pour Some Sugar On Me

I just found THE bakery. They will be doing every cake I ever need or want for every occasion that could possibly need a cake. Birthdays, Weddings, Holidays, Sundays, EVERYTHING. They are exquisite. (and start at $600.)




I Dream of Cake

Happy Endings

Well, I'm officially jobless. It was only a matter of time, and I'm supposed to be re-hired in March or April, but in the meantime I'm trying to relax and enjoy having the time to do all the things I always said I'd do if I didn't have to work. So far I have gone to the gym a couple times and watched a lot of Ellen reruns. Not what i had in mind.

I wish we had a budget and date set for our wedding, but we don't, so I can't really work on anything for that. We were discussing options and I thought the San Francisco Zoo might be cool. I mean, it has a freakin' carousel for crying out loud!!


But my love says it will smell like the elephants and it is not romantic. Even after pointing out that the fees were a small fraction of all other locations he was not having any of it. He picked out this place:

It is exactly what I pictured before I started looking into fees. $7,000 for a Saturday wedding for up to 150 people. If we have a Northern California wedding we're looking at a guest list of about 200 people.

If we end up with a large budget for this thing (which i have wishy-washy opinions on) I believe we're going to end up at Disneyland. I KNOW, I know. I hated the idea at first. Now, I'm a little bit (ok, totally) sold. Please keep in mind that we got engaged in front of the castle in December.

We could get married in front of the castle. the CASTLE people (person?)!


Realistically, we're not getting married at the castle. No matter what. You have to wait until the park closes and then they need time to set everything up. On Saturdays the park doesn't close until midnight. 10 on an off day. And I am not going to pay off the park to close early. I'd rather elope. So more likely we're looking at the gazebo at the Disneyland Hotel.



Please ignore the flowers and massive wedding party. as our flowers will be better and our wedding part smaller. I don't even think I know that many girls...

And look what I would ride in!

The guys in the little outfits like in Cinderella crack me up. Then the reception we'd want to have in the Disney Animation Attraction since my Love is an artist and its his favorite location. In case you've never been, its a huge hall with screens of all different sizes and they play screens from different movies with music. Its way cooler than I make it sound.


I would also do rounds. I'm a little confused about how long tables at weddings really work.

There would be an Electrical Parade rehersal dinner ( my favorite party of Disney) and a Mad Hatter Tea Party brunch (my favorite Disney movie).

Its perfect in its cheesy, we're only gonna do this once kind of way. I also think it would be awesome to have a picture of us and our friends and family on the Tower of Terror in wedding clothes.

To top it all off, a Southern California wedding means that we could get the extraordinary Max Wanger without having to ship him up to us!

New Girl

I made a light box! The first of my many crafty aspirations, it only took me 10 minutes and $1.29.


You're supposed to use "small flash gear" or a regular bulb with your camera balanced to tungsten light, but I don't have flash gear of any size and all my lamps are fluorescent and not bright enough so I used the only tungsten light I have: a 15w desk lamp from Ikea. Not bright enough, but good enough to test with.

The results were pretty good! I definitely need a brighter light and a bigger box...perhaps another layer of trace paper on the outside, but I'm very pleased with the possibilities.

This one was touched up slightly with iPhoto. Not much, cause I'm not that good.



Make your own via Strobist!

Introduction feat. Orion

Sometimes I think my cat is the only one who really gets it.