I need a long weekend to recover from my long weekend

best. weekend. ever.

More to come when I can form coherent thoughts again (and when people get around to sending me photos from the bachelorette.)

Dewdrops

Some photos from Cville, two weeks ago:

Happy Friday!  Wish me luck that my hungover self doesn't act like a fool at my shower on Sunday morning.

Bachelorette weekend here we come!

So excited for the bachelorette party all set for this weekend.  In preparation, my sister and I spent some quality time at the mall this weekend, shopping for cute mini dresses for "my last night of singledom" except that I am not getting married until September - but I digress.  Minidresses.

So this is what I bought, from Bebe (a store I have never so much as entered before. )

Open Stitch Cutout Dress by Bebe

and here is the largest picture I can find of the back.

I thought this was an excellent celebration of the (16.7!!!!) pounds I have lost.  My sister did not think it was scandalous enough.

Then I picked up this little guy, to go with my current trend of large necklaces:

Love.  From Forever 21, a store I will never enter again.  We literally spent 25 minutes waiting to buy this thing.

When I was walking back to my car, I went through Nordstrom, where they were having a Chanel event.  Since I had nothing else to do that afternoon, I had my makeup done, and finally bought some foundation to use at the wedding.  This is what the technician did with me:

At the time I thought, waaaaaaay too much makeup.  And looking at this photo, I am thinking: why did I feel like I had so much makeup on?  I mean sure its more than I usually wear, but it doesn't seem outrageous.... One of those things I will need to work out before the real thing, I suppose.  But I am so happy with the new foundation :)  And I am sure sometime this week I will actually wear some.

Bring on the best girlfriends + drinks.  I am ready.

DIY: Dances with Ladders

Two weekends ago, I spent some quality time in Charlottesville, about 9 and a half feet up in the air.  The ceiling of my parents place new place desperately needed some paint (soot stains are quite distracting, as it turns out.) and Brandon and I volunteered.

This is what the living room looked like before:

To get the ladder we rented back to our house, I literally held onto it through the sunroof:

And these are some goofy shots of us painting:

 

 

We spent more than 16 hours painting, over two days, but somehow... halfway through painting, I decided that we MUST paint the end wall some crazy colour.  Brandon's initial response was: "No scope creep!" and I was so impressed by his professional terminology that I almost conceded.  Almost.  No one ever accused me of being that restrained, however.  So we painted one wall blue, too, just for kicks.

After.  With the blue wall.  I don't know that you can tell from this photo, but the ceiling is soooo much lighter than before.

And then when we finished, we treated ourselves to this:

Delicious cheese crackers :)  Good weekend.

Some things I learned from letterpress

In light of my post on APW a week or so ago, I wanted to re-examine how I felt about the process.  Here are some things I have come up with:

I am a teensy bit of an overachiver.  Or as polite people would say, "intense."Also, I have a strong tendency to get cocky once I think I know how to do something.

I really care about paper.  More than I even knew before.

Many things that appear simple are harder than they look.  One of the most difficult parts of the whole process for me was rolling out the ink.

People who you would think would have no interest in letterpress ( and arguably still don't ) (teenage guy cousin) will be fascinated by any process involving handmade machinery.

My father may be way more stubborn than I am.

Bending over a table for 8 hours hurts more now than it did while I was in school.

Most people who receive my invitations will not have an inkling of what I went through to produce them.

You can solve almost any problem by doing enough research on the internet.

A good backup plan is worth its weight in gold, but not having to use it is even better.

I use fancy words without really meaning to.  My sister will continue to mock me for this.

Explaining a process you learned largely through trial and error is tricky.  Doing it in fewer than 10,000 words is extra tricky.

I am my own worst critic.  As it should be.


We will see how this goes, but I am excited to see what happens on the other side of wedding bells.