Happy (Belated) Fourth of July!

Hey everyone!  I hope you all had as awesome of a weekend as I did!

(Make sure you don't miss my post from earlier this morning, though!)

First, I made a flipping awesome pie to bring to Bryan's parents' house:

Seriously...how freaking cute is that?  It was a cherry pie - and I don't even like cherry pie!  But Bryan loves it, so I made it for him.  And I actually got the idea for the star top from the packaging for a pie pan I saw in WalMart last year! And although it didn't cut well (it all fell apart) it was actually a lot easier than doing a tradition latice top so I definitely plan on doing this again in the future!

And we played outside in the sprinkler with the dogs:

 I love this picture:

 But this one is my favorite; I have no idea how I caught her mid-shake like this:

And I remembered to take a picture of my flowers:

And that picture is adorable because Tyson is standing on the edge looking up at me like "see Mom, I know I is not allowed on the pretty flowers!" hahahaha

And that's all for now - did you do anything fun for the Holiday Weekend?

DIY Bride-zilla - ROAR!

Yeah yeah, I forgot the link again.  But yesterday I posted on Weddzilla about my little DIY meltdown, and it's actually quite amusing (if I do say so myself)!

Go check it out, and leave me some comments - I haven't really been feeling the love from anyone other than my Aunt lately, lol!

Seriously - When Did It Become JULY!?!?!?

Ummm, yeah, this morning when I was writing my post about the big change in my life I seemed to completely forget that today is the first freaking day of July!!!!  Yeah, ummm, 2 months left of planning ::cue squeals of excitement mixed with shudders of nervousness::

Seeing as it is a new month, I can't forget to share with you my plans:

Oh yes, July will be a busy one...

On the non-wedding related front my last day at my current job is July 13, and I start my new job on July 18.  Then I have a hair appointment on the 30th.

Now, on the wedding related front:

• This weekend - finish my damn invitations
• July 7 - mail said invitations
• July 9 - Make candy buffet bags/tags
• July 10 - Turn the DIY string balls into DIY string ball curtains
• 14th-15th - Since I have two days off before I start my new job I plan on making sure to finish my shoes (so they'll be ready for my second fitting) and probably work on my topiary balls as well as my pearl bouquet
• July 17 - Bryan will be helping me make columns for our ceremony space
• July 18 - I'll have my second fitting!  (and I promise to try and get more pictures of my hoarder seamstress' house!)
• July 24 - finish the topiary ball thingies that will be used as cocktail hour centerpieces
• July 30 - make bar signage (what's available as well as signature drinks)
• July 31 - I'm hoping we'll have gotten some RSVPs back and we can start the seating chart!

Definitely going to be a busy month - but it doesn't even compare to what August is going to look like!

Are you going to be having as busy of a July as I am?

And don't forget you can always check out my calendars and timelines on my "Countdown to the Big Day" tab!!!

Big Life Changes...

...are always scary, but 90% of the time they are for the best.

Yesterday I officially resigned from my job.  Let's face it, I was miserable here.  As much as I liked {most} of the people I worked with, and I feel horrible leaving given that one of my other coworkers just left (and our group only has 4 people in it) I have to do what's best for me emotionally and financially.  I'll be starting at my new job on July 18th, and I'm very excited!

I had given my current company a chance to match the offer that my new job gave me, not because I wanted to stay but as a courtesy given the only two people left have less than 1 year experience here between the two of them.  When the director of my area told me that they weren't going to be countering, and I simply responded "Okay" he looked a little dumbstruck.  Bryan and I think he might have thought I was bluffing about having another job lined up, but that would be really stupid if you ask me.  So after he stared at me for a moment he goes "And to be quite honest, Amanda, I'm offended you were even looking at other jobs considering all the opportunities we've given you."

It took every fiber of my being to prevent me from either laughing or blowing up in his face.  First of all, he was not the director of my area when I was initially hired, so he had nothing to do with that.  And unless you count an obscene amount of work and responsibilities (and given I had just graduated from college and didn't have any sort of mentor ship because two other people from our group quit last summer) with absolutely no compensation or recognition as "opportunities" they've done nothing but under appreciate the amount of work I've put in here.

And after that, I felt like a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders.  I'm excited about my new job, I was actually afraid they would counter the offer and I wouldn't be able to turn down the additional salary even though I don't like my job.  But I'm still slightly offended.  It just proves that management here really has no idea what it is that I do, and they're going to be in for a big surprise when I leave.

But - at my new job I get to wear open toed shoes, and I'll actually get paid for overtime!!!!!!  And I'll no longer have to walk past the Planned Parenthood Protesters on my way to work!  Part of me felt like it wasn't the best idea to switch careers with my wedding coming up so quickly, but there's no day like today, and I've decided to take Skinny Bitch's advice and "dedicate myself to creating the life I want."

As for working out (yes, it is still Fitness Recap Friday) I only did twice this week...but that's better than the past two weeks!  I did HIIT 15 on Monday and Fire 45 on Tuesday.  Tuesday night I knew I would be approaching my boss the next day and I took all my anxiety out on that kickboxing workout.  I'm amazed my arms didn't go flying off my body I was punching so hard, hahaha.




And since I'm quite proud of the progress I'm making on shoe number 2, I just have to show it off:

Isn't she purrrrty?

This weekend is more invitation extravaganza - I'm hoping to get them in the mail by next Thursday.

Any big plans for Fourth of July weekend (wedding related or not)?

Shower Me Baby!

In my Weddzilla Post from yesterday (I know, I know, I'm the worst at remembering to link to it) I talked all about my recent Bridal Shower and showed off how I got my DIY skills from my Mom, lol...enjoy!

This is BETTER Than a Fitness Recap...

Soooo, I didn't work out at all this week again.  ::bad bride-to-be, bad::

I swear, I am 100% back on the wagon tomorrow.  Someone please give me an e-kick-in-the-butt and make me work out!  The hardest part is just getting it back into your routine.  Mleh.

But, I have an even better post for you!  And it's about boutonnieres!  You may remember from this post about how excited I was about how my first attempt at a Pearl and Brooch Bout went, well after days of scouring Ebay's Vintage Costume Jewelry Section I think I finally have all my brooches (actually, I think I have too many, lol).

So, I need 1 for Bryan (obviously), his Best man and three groomsmen, Man-of-Honor Sam, each of our Dads, and Ring Bearer-Spencer (so 9 in all).  First, I'll remind you what my completed one looks like, which may end up being Spencer's since it's the littlest brooch:


$.99 + $4.95 shipping (I was pissed about the shipping cost
on this one)

 And then here's a picture of all of them together (they're all completely different):

I'll save the important ones (aka Bryan's and Sam's) for last, but here are the rest in order of how much I like them:

$1.99 + $3.99 shipping

This came in a lot that was $4.25 + $2.71 shipping
There were 9 brooches in all, I'm keeping 5 and plan on
reselling the other 4

$.99 + $3.50 shipping (and it came with clip on earrings that
I plan on re-selling)

This came as part of a lot of pretty freaking
awesome brooches (I'm actually wearing one
of them on my blazer today) but the whole
lot cost $8.27 + $4.95 shipping and I'm going
to keep some of them and plan to re-sell the rest

$1.25 + $2.95 Shipping

$.99 + $2.49 shipping

$4.99 and free shipping

I would really like the first one (the one with the rhinestones going down the stem) to be Bryan's Best Man's, but if he prefers a different one I'll have no problem letting him choose.

Now, for Bryan's...and he actually said he wanted this one before I told him I wanted him to have this one (because it's more special than the rest):

$1.99 + $3.10 for shipping

Seriously, the picture doesn't do it justice at all.  And because of the way it sort of folds in, I think it will look amazing once I add the pearls.  Such a great find on Ebay!

And now, for MOH Sam's - obviously his has to be spectacular.  And seriously, it has to be completely different than the rest of the guys' because he's my freaking MOH!  Meaning a) he's like the third most important person there (after Bryan and I) and b) he's technically on my side, so he shouldn't blend in with the Groomsmen.  Alright, enough talk:

I'm slightly obsessed with it.  I don't like the flower thingy in the middle, but that will be covered by the pearls anyway.  But I really just couldn't believe I found a leaf brooch that had purple rhinestones on it!  This is the only one that isn't actually vintage.  It's from China.  And it's made to look like it's vintage.  Whatever - I'm not picky - it's freaking perfect and only cost $5 (with free shipping).

So in all, I spent just under $60 on brooches - but that's including the ones that came in lots that I plan on re-selling other pieces from.  And, since I don't think any of Bryan's friends will want to hold onto their bout after the wedding, I might ask them to return them to me so I can remove the pearls (I only used wire to attach them, no adhesive) and re-sell those suckers too.  Heck, for all I know, I could make money off of these! lol

Anyway, I'm super excited about them, and I want to start working on them but I'm not allowed - I have to work on my invitations!!!  I didn't even start them last weekend (::bad DIY Bride, bad::) so technically I'm behind.  I have all the layouts ready to print, I even have the layouts created on my gypsy to cut everything, I just need to actually print them, and actually cut them, and assemble them.  Please, dear Buddha, don't let anything happen to my cricut while I'm in the middle of this project, because seriously - I would die.

Have you had any luck on ebay for wedding related stuff? (Because seriously, Ebay has rocked my world - crystals for my shoes, pearls for my bouquet, brooches for the bouts...)

First Fitting - A Pleasant Surprise!

So, you may remember from this post, that when I actually got my wedding dress it was huge on me.  Huge is an understatement, actually.  If it didn't have that one sleeve, I'm pretty sure it would have fallen down.  Yet, when I had my first fitting this past Monday, it wasn't ginormous on me.  And no, I didn't gain back a ton of weight, but there's actually a pretty simple explanation why.

First, let's recap.  When I originally tried on (and bought) the dress, the sample size actually fit me like a glove.  Here's a picture from that day:

I have no idea why that is coming up sideways, but you get the point.  But in that picture a) they had laced up the internal corset, and b) I was wearing a bra (which had some padding to it). 

Then, when I went to pick up my dress, which we had ordered the exact same size as the sample, it was MASSIVE:

Seriously, I was lucky that sucker was staying up.  But a) they didn't take the time to do up the internal corset, because let's face it, they already had my money, and b) I wasn't wearing a bra because I didn't plan on wearing an actual bra on my wedding day.  It was actually slightly disappointing.

So I was prepared to have the seamstress be a little terrified by how much would have to be taken in on the dress.  Let's face it, I don't even have a figure in that second picture, and it's supposed to be form fitting.  But when I got into the dress, she immediately laced up the internal corset (to my desired tightness) then handed me some push-up bra like inserts to shove in there, and magically the dress basically fit (except it was still much too big in the hips) and I looked like a woman again (praise Buddha)!  Check it out:

I'm not really sure why I'm standing crooked, and don't worry I'll get to the part about the seamstress being a hoarder in a second, but SERIOUSLY!  That dress is freaking hot again!  In that picture she had already pinned the hip section so it even looks like it fits in the hips.

I look like a woman again!  And if I hoist what's left of my boobs up just the right way (they kind of disappeared when I lost weight), I even look like I have a little bit of tasteful cleavage!  I couldn't be happier.

My second concern with the dress was how on Earth were we going to bustle it.  Little recap, here's what the back of the dress looked like:

Well, my seamstress may be a hoarder, but apparently she knows what she's doing.  She pinned up the back how she plans on making the bustle and it looks pretty damn fabulous...

So basically, she needs to make the bustle, bring in the hips, shorten the straps of the one sleeve a smidgen, and sew in the cups.  It will not be a total dress overhaul!  And we actually have to take off quite a bit of length, so I asked if she could save the tulle for me so I can use it to make my birdcage veil and/or fascinator.  I'll go back on July 18th to try her on again and that's when she'll tell me how much the whole thing will cost me (she wants me to have a chance to see her workmanship before trying to get any money out of me).

Now, onto the fun part.  Let me start by saying if I didn't have a great relationship with my Future Mother In Law, I may have thought she was trying to sabotage my dress.  First of all, as you've already picked up, this woman is a hoarder of all things seamstress related.  There are patterns, and fabric, and garments everywhere.  She even had a loom upstairs in her living room - no joke.  I'll try and snap a picture of it with my cell phone when we go back.  They don't have any normal house stuff, just seamstress stuff, in boxes, everywhere.

Secondly, she lives in the middle of freakin' nowhere.  She works with 2 different bridal shops as well as working out of her home.  Since I work during the day, I couldn't go to the bridal shop, so I had to go right to her home.  This is what the trip looked like...

 So we pass a barn and kind of chuckle.

 You can't really tell by that picture but there were some ancient looking horses and cows grazing in a field - according to the GPS we were 2 minutes away from the ladies house...

 As we were about to turn into her neighborhood, oh look - all the mailboxes for her street are down here on the corner...I wonder why?

 That would be because she lives on a dirt road and no mailman wants to drive down there!!!

And that is what is across the street from her.  I would have loved to take a picture of her house (she had chickens) but she was outside and I didn't want to be rude.

It was quite the adventure; at one point we were thinking - the GPS must be wrong.  But oh no, my seamstress whom I am entrusting to alter my wedding dress is a hoarder that lives in the middle of a farm (basically).  But heck, she's busy as hell, so she must be pretty damn good if all these people can get over the hoarding and the farming and bring their gowns to her, right?  I guess we'll see on July 18th!

Was your first fitting an adventure?  And seriously, if your future mother in law recommended a hoarding, farmer seamstress - would you have a slight fear she was trying to sabotage you? haha

Sorry I've Been Quasi MIA

But life has been nutty lately!  Seriously, I feel like I'm losing my mind - way too busy!  And, I didn't even get seriously started on my invitations last weekend so this weekend I have a date with a 4-pack of redbull, my cricut, and my printer!

But anyway, it looks like Weddzilla is finally getting back into the swing of things, and my post about my shoes went live today - you can find it here!

I also had my first fitting this past Monday, so I promise to be back soon with a post about that!  Don't hate me...life is just too busy right now!

Random, Random - Who Wants Some Random?

Yeah, so, I didn't work out this week.  At all.  I'm ashamed of myself.  But I promise, I'm back on the wagon starting tomorrow!

So, instead I have a lot of random-ness to share with you.  Let's start with Skinny Bitch...there have been a few pages of my calendar recently that I really like.  I actually like them so much that they're hanging up in my cube at work, haha.  And here they are:

The first two are actually my favorite.  June11/12 is probably my very favorite.  Especially since I haven't exactly been happy with my job lately, and I've been feeling just overwhelmed with life yet underwhelmed with myself.  I just have to remind myself that I do have control, and I can create the life that I want.  I already have an amazing fiance, caring friends and family, I just have to figure out what I want to do and do it.

I like the affirmation because let's face it, we don't tell ourselves that we love our bodies enough.  And regardless of where you are in a weight loss/gain/maintenance journey, you should love the body you've got!

And I like the last one because I'm sooooooo bad at remembering to hydrate myself!  So that sucker is front and center - on top of my computer monitor at work - to remind me to drink more effing water!

Next up, some beauty finds!

So, I get my hair done at Ulta, and while I'm "processing" I shop, haha.  Well last night I found (and fell madly in love with) the Pop Beauty Bare Texture Kit eyeshadow pallette.  Seriously, swoon.  If you're looking for an awesome new eyeshadow pallette, I 100% recommend this one:

Personal Photo

And here's a blurb from the description (stolen from the Ulta site):
Bare hues to subtly frames your eyes as our added POP eye-brightening hue adds bursts of color - so you have the option of going bright for night! Kit also contains POP Beauty's famous Eye Magnet Primer for durability and a defined eye that stays that way all day or night! Line and blend mini brush duo included. This is all about the texture! Frolic along with matte, shimmer or full-on glitterati pigments! Play, combine and mix texture & color to truly define your peepers!

Seriously love it.  I had trouble picking out which colors to use this morning...I ended up going with barely lining my eye with the top row farthest to the right, did top row farthest to the left for my lid, middle row - middle section - top left for the crease of my lid, and a little hint of the green that is in the middle of the top row on my tear duct...

Perfect look for work, if I do say
so myself!

I also bought, and am now obsessed with, CoverGirl natureluxe "gloss balm" (I got it in "cabernet"):

Personal
Photo

I like that it isn't sticky and adds just the right amount of color and glossiness.  And it has SPF 15, which is always good to have in the summer.  And since it's CoverGirl (aka not obscenely expensive) I might have to go to Walmart to see if they have it so I can invest in a few more colors!  The one I got looks super dark in the tube, but it really isn't.  That's my favorite kind of lip color though!
And finally, on today's random agenda, gotta throw in some Wedding Related fun, right?  Well, I've started working on my second shoe - and no, I haven't gotten so sick of it that I wanna stab my eyes out with the tweezers that I use to place the gems yet.  A little less than 2 hours worth of work (I do have to actually eat during my lunch, not just bedazzle shoes) and we are well on our way:

Starting off sucks...once you get a good bit done, it becomes much easier.

That's all for now - still quasi dreading starting my invitation suite this weekend, but you can't avoid the inevitable!  Just keep your fingers crossed for me that everything goes smoothly...

Do you have any random-ness to share on this lovely Friday?

So Much Wedding Excitement to Share!!!!

First of all, let me apologize for being MIA for the past week.  Going home for my bridal shower (more on that later) and then trying to get ready to start working on my invitations (eek) not to mention that stupid thing called my job, I've just been running around like a mad woman!

But, we shall start at the beginning...my flight home last week was delayed for 3 and a half hours!!!!  I hate airports.  In my mind airport = hell.  People are either in too much of a rush or they aren't moving fast enough, somehow it has gotten to the point where people think being in an airport gives them a right to look like they just rolled out of bed in public, and the chairs are always uncomfortable.  Needless to say, being delayed 3 and a half hours didn't really put me in the best mood.  But apparently, Jet Blue does a lot more than give you cookies and free TV on all of their flights!

First, they brought out all the snacks that are available on the planes (chips, cookies, soda, etc) and let us help ourselves.  Then they ordered pizza for us!  Yeah, they totally had 20 pizzas delivered to the airport for us to eat.  Then they started playing trivia and if you got a question right you got a $25 credit towards a future Jet Blue flight.  Then they said they were going to draw a winner out of all the people who had answered questions correctly for the "grand prize."

I totally won the grand prize.  I never win anything.  I was pumped.  It was Red Sox tickets for a game that I would no longer be in Massachusetts for but, do you know what this Sunday is?  Yeah, it's Father's Day.  Know who loves the Red Sox?  You guessed it, my Dad!  So I got to be the best daughter ever and give my Dad pretty awesome tickets to the Sox game this Saturday.  And that totally made up for the delay.

My Bridal Shower was on Saturday, and it was absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait to tell you allllll about it, but I forgot my camera at home.  My mom mailed it down and it should be here any day now, but I'm not even going to bother writing about the shower until I have pictures to share with you as well.

But, at some point during the shower someone decided to drown my phone.  They tried to clean it up (as in, they dried off the outside) but when it wouldn't turn on and I pulled the battery and a bunch of water came pouring out it was pretty obvious what had happened.  I minorly freaked out.  Being without a phone makes me feel naked.  Being without a phone when I was flying back to Pittsburgh the next day made me want to vomit.  I don't even know how to use a pay phone anymore.  So, BM Kim and I went to Verizon.

First, there was nothing they could do, I could have a replacement sometime next week.  Then I threatened to cancel my contract.  They asked if I wanted to talk to customer support, I said yes.  They dialed the number that brings you to the automated system.  I damn near exploded - but chose to continuously press 0 until a human came on.  As I'm on the phone the Verizon man magically found a phone he could give me as a loner.  I was livid.  If I hadn't said "yes, I want to speak to customer support" he wouldn't have even looked if there was a phone they could give me temporarily.

At this point, probably 45 minutes had passed.  Then we spent the next 2 and a half hours waiting for him to figure out how to set that phone up with my number.  TWO AND HALF HOURS!!!!  Did I mention we were still in our absolutely adorable bridal shower outfits?  But they just could not get it to work.  And they finally went and magically found a new Thunderbolt (the phone I have) to give me.  I was like "Seriously, I thought you didn't have any more thunderbolts???" (my phone is still under warranty).  And his asshole response was "we don't have any replacement thunderbolts, this is a new one."  Took him all of 5 minutes to get that sucker working.

My theory is that they couldn't set up the crap-adelic phone on my plan because I have a hardcore unlimited data plan and that sucker probably wasn't even T-9 capable.  They weren't going to downgrade my plan so their system wouldn't allow them to put that phone on my plan.  But whatever, I have a new phone now, it just took 3 and a half hours.

Then I went out with Kim that night, flew home the next morning, and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing because I was exhausted!

Enough ranting and raving though...onto a much more important topic - wedding day accessories!

I've probably mentioned I've been working on applying crystals to my shoes during my lunch at work and last week I finished my first shoe!  Then I made a little flower to clip on the front the other night!  I have a post for Weddzilla all about it, but Weddzilla has been wonky for the past couple days, so I'm going to at least show you a picture:

Isn't she purty?  But, like I said, more to come on that once Weddzilla catches up with all the pending posts!

Then last night I decided to try out yet another idea for a boutonniere for the guys.  This time I was going to use pearls (like my beloved bouquet) and I came up with the idea to mount them on a gold leaf brooch.  BEST IDEA EVER!  And now I have even more of an excuse to troll ebay for vintage brooches...

And my absolute favorite picture:

Seriously, couldn't be happier!  I love when I come up with good ideas.  Not only does it look fabulous but it's a freakin' pin!  How much easier could that be for the guys?  And they'll be all different leaf brooches (you can see some that I've picked up already in a few of the pictures).
And, I officially finished making my pocketfolds last night.  Let me tell you, cutting, scoring, folding, assembling, and embellishing 85 freakin' pocketfolds kind of sucks.  But they ended up costing me pennies a piece, so I can't complain that much, not to mention I get the satisfaction of saying I made them all!  Blood, sweat, and tears baby - that is what is going into this whole wedding (minimal blood though)!

So this weekend begins the actual assembly of the invitations.  I'm kind of pumped, kind of dreading it.  The design isn't that complicated, but my Cricut is going to get quite the workout!  But none of you get to see them until I've mailed them out - sorry!

I think that's all for now.  Don't hold your breath for a fitness recap tomorrow since, ummm, I didn't work out at all this week!  Someone please blog-slap me, I totally deserve it.  And my first fitting is on Monday.  Who doesn't work out at all the week before their first fitting??????? Whatever, starting Saturday I am 100% back on the exercise bandwagon!