Miss Manners would not approve

I have finally finished printing the wedding invitations.  And it feels AWESOME (except for the part where I printed 60 info cards with a grammatical error on them.  oops. But I am not reprinting! Unless my mother notices it (before reading this Mom or it doesn't count.)) .  But before I tell you about them, and show you pretty pictures of them, you get to hear about my charming experience trying to address the envelopes.

I addressed the save the dates in this fashion:

Mr and Mrs. John & Jane SoandSo

for two reasons.  

1. I am not comfortable with Mrs. John SoandSo.  I am not and will not ever be the female appendage of my male counterpart, and I will always choose to use both people's first names.  They can call themselves Mrs. John SoandSo all they want, and I won't judge anyone, but I am not going to thrust it on anyone.  My mom still gets birthday cards from my grandmother addressed to Mrs. DadsName, and my mom  has only been married to him for 30 years now.  I am really not looking forward to trying to explain this to people, and am touchy on the subject.

2. almost everything is do is wordy and verbose and unnecessary, so why would I miss the opportunity to use both a tiny and between names and a fancy ampersand?  I only get to send out so much correspondence in my life people, and I want to use as many characters as possible!

So for the full-on invitation, I did some checking on the infallible internets.  And apparently, what I was doing on the save the dates is "wrong" for 2 reasons:

1.  HEAVEN FORBID we separate the man's first name from his last name.  If we did that, he might forget his last name or something!  Which is another reason you need to take his name when you get married, because he needs more reminders. (Ugh I am sorry, I am snarky today.  My stance on this subject is not, you are a fool if you change your name it, is YOU do whatever YOU want, because you want it and not because someone else says you have to. )

2.  Apparently using "and" and "and" is redundant.  Really?  I didn't need you to tell me that - I have eyes, and I can see they are in fact the same word.

So I decided to turn to the ultimate wedding authority: the Kn*t.  Hah.  And what do you know?  They say I can use Mr and Mrs. John & Jane SoandSo if I want! (They do acknowledge it is a bit verbose.  Deal with it, I am verbose.)  And people, if the Kn*t has jumped on a bandwagon and off some stuffy high horse, I think it should be fine.

Now if only I could get over the grammatical mistake....

Heller&Heller Project of the Month: Wedding/Anniversary Toasting Box

This project was a speedy commission, for a family friend who had been searching for a box of this kind for ages with no success, and a wedding deadline to meet.

The box was designed to hold their crystal toasting flutes, a bottle of champagne, and a box of note cards.  The box was on display at their wedding, where guests were invited to write a message on a note card for the couple.  Then on their one year anniversary they would open the box, drink the champagne, and read the messages their family and friends had written for them on their wedding day.

The box is simple, clean-lined, and very classic.  It lets the beautiful wood veneer do the talking, without any overly complicated profiles or tacked-on embellishments.  The inlaid S's are the couple's initials, based on Victorian-era monogram design.

The interior is lined with a forest green suede, with velvet ribbon to keep the flutes secure.

Latest project completed: Chair Cushions

I am quite pleased with them, not in the least because I got that fabric as a remnant at JoAnn's at about 80% off the original cost.  Hah.

Yes, I promise to stop taking photos using only my phone...eventually.  But until I get a real camera, ie the DLSR I have been pining for for years, this is what you get people.

Ours is a hazardous profession...

Unfortunate Exacto incident at work today.  Arts and crafts can be dangerous.

A bit absent-minded lately

Brandon picked these lovelies out.  Spring is here!

I thought to myself the other day, I haven't written on the blog in a while.  But honestly, most of the time I just don't have too much to say (that other people want to know about...I have LOTS to say.  All the time.)

So here's whats been going on recently:

Wedding planning is swimming along as smoothly as these things can.  Bridal party gifts are bought, I am more than halfway through producing invitations, and talking about any of this appears to bore my nearest and dearest to tears.  So mostly, I just have a good time working on it by myself.

Weight Watchers....seems to be working.  Fingers firmly crossed, but I am sure working out 5 times a week isn't hurting either.  Must keep this up.

My parents just bought a second house, which closes in a month.  I am trying so hard not to be full of jealous rage:  mostly, this translates into throwing myself onto their home improvement projects, or at least scheming about them.  Just finished a 3 tab spreadsheet about the improvements needed for the old house before we sell it (in 2 years.)  Easter vacation is our first trip to the new digs, and I am excited to see my new free vacation spot :)

Oh yeah, and we booked a honeymoon.  wheee!  This is where we're off to, with our hard earned life savings:

Sandals Grande St. Lucian.  Please forgive the Barbie/Ken photos that they've included - I don't understand how seeing other people creepily cuddling is supposed to entice me to their resort?  

A couple of new things for H&H furniture, and I am really excited to share a recent project in the next few days, not the least because it is wedding related.  (Wedding-related furniture!  A combo of some of my favorite things!)

My parents are in Hong Kong, as my mom is there on business and my father, the kept man that he is, decided it would be a good chance to sightsee.  There should be 1000s of photos when he gets back - I'll try and cull the best and post some here, for your enjoyment.

But in the meantime, I leave you with this, the one photo they have sent me so far:

Toppers for the grooms cake.  So. Excited.

how many fish?

I have finally achieved my secret wedding objective:  obtain a blue and white vase shaped like a fish.  We have spotted a few, which Brandon always rapidly shot down.  But not today.  Behold:

This one even has a curved tail!  Amazing.  I look forward to the many compliments I know I will receive on my taste in decor.

*Photos taken with my phone using the Vignette app demo.  Think I am going to have to buy the real thing, as it makes me very happy.*

happy monday

just because.

I will this to be a good week.

One more project to cross off

SOFA            IS            DONE!!!!!

I wish I had a photo of what it looked like when I bought it, but here is what is looks like now:

oh, you want to see what it looks like without my hubster on it?

ok fine:

sooooooooo happy to be done :)  Thanks Mom for sewing the cushion covers for me!  I might stick to less complicated things from now on.....maybe.  I am already disturbingly encouraged by this success.

Letterpress Followup

So I wondered why I wasn't getting a great impression when I pressed the save-the-dates.  After a lot of research, here is the answer:  because of the felt I was using as packing material.  Turns out, the felt encourages the plate to punch through the paper and leaves the impression out the back, rather than compressing an impression within the thickness of the paper.

So I acquired some "hard packing," in the form of pressboard file folders, and here is the result:

Look at all that detail in the lantern that I totally lost when I inked the plate!  I will absolutely  use this lantern as a blind impression on other pieces of the wedding stationary:  right now, I am thinking the menus.

I am so happy with this.  Which is an important part of the next step:  the main invitations.  Because I've finally come up with a design I adore, and it relies on the blind impression actually leaving an impression.

Once I'm done pressing with these plates, I am excited to cut them up and use the motifs to print other things.  Very cost effective!  So excited :)  Can't wait to show the finished suite!

Dancing in the dark

from Trailzombie's Blog.  This is just like our experience, but with no headlamp.

Boxing class was cancelled the other day, so instead, D-Day and I decided to go on a run, as there's a local trail near her house.  Really, this was just my excuse to meet her dog (still cutest dog ever, in person.  I don't think I ever get tired of watching an expressive dog, they have the most amazing ability to communicate with you using only their eyebrows and ears.)

So we drive out to the trail and realize - its fully dark, and the trail is not lit.  

Hmm.  

To be fair, we made a valiant effort.  After 3 minutes of running down the trail, including an incident where I almost ran her off the road (apparently no glasses + no lights = I see even worse than usual.  Who knew?),  we decided to cut our losses.  So we headed back to the road, and jogged an uneventful loop up to Ballston.

And then on the way back, I got to meet her dog again :)  Just as cute the second time.  Gotta get me one of those, one of these days.

Oh wait, one more gem...

fml.

Awesome.  Just what I needed to cap off a stupendous week.

Take me out of the oven, I am done.

sometimes, its the kind of week where a bird poops in your tofu.

Seeya next week, I've checked out.

He loves me, he loves me not...stupid internets

Sometimes I feel like I don't spend enough time on the internet to actually have a blog.  Which is to say I spend plenty of time on the internet, but not doing what the cool kids are doing, apparently.

I am the kind of person who phones up my fiance and says, "hey I just found a hysterical video of two people who do a fake first dance to Baby Got Back!  And its choreographed and everything!" And he says, "Yeah babe.  That video came out 6 years ago."

Oh.

Sometimes I wonder what I actually did at college.  Distressingly, the answer seems to be worked my ass off.

I resent the implication that I need to join Twitter to keep up with you folks.  Whatever happened to emailing me?  Bah.  (cue mental image of Dr. Evil doing the macarena.  "I'm with it!  Dakka dakka dakka...)  I suppose to keep up with all you fresh young things I should go get my Twitter name now, just in case someone else decides they want to be Missallocation (see what I did there?  I crack myself up.)  Sigh.

But I did buy the plates to print my wedding invitations today :)  And so far, without having printed any of them, I really love them.  We shall see.