Consider the Veil

I am having the hardest time deciding on a veil for my dress! I know I want a functional veil (not just decorative), but my dress is below-the-knee/tea length and I’m feeling very hindered by it (veil wise).

I’m considering a blusher,

finger-tip length (elbow length has been vetoed by my fiancé),

or cathedral.

Cathedral is the favorite option of my dearly betrothed, but will is look weird with a shorter dress? There’s a famous picture of Audrey Hepburn with a long veil

(actually it sort of looks like a hooded cape) and short dress… I just can’t tell how long it is.

What veil would you choose if you were me? And does a long veil with a short dress look tacky?

P.S. Here is a picture of the dress I’ve ordered... just in case you forgot.

Dress Saga

The story of my dress has been evolving since before my wonderful, loving, charming fiancé proposed.

We knew we were going the get married eventually… so I’ve been planning for the past 2-3 years (give or take). I knew we wanted to do something vintage since we wanted to have a swing dance. So I started looking at patterns. I wound up buying this one for about $59 (which I knew I would regret). It is an actual vintage pattern; as in I-touched-the-envelope-and-it-disintegrated type vintage. I sent it to my grandma to see what she could do. She said although the envelope was fragile, the pattern was fine and uncut.

However, it wasn’t my size.

So I found this vintage pattern form Vogue.

This is newly printed but in a vintage style. But then we realized (before I bought it, this time) that the boobs of my grandma’s dress-makers dummy are too low.

So I started looking around at actually buying a dress. (We could still use the pattern, but we would have to hope for the best where my boobs were/are concerned.) Then I ran across this dress

and I pretty much fell in love! The problem was it was being sold on some Chinese scam site. So I did some research and finally found the original maker.

It’s a dress made by a small company in London (and only London) and it costs roughly $8,000.00 in American dollars! Ack! No dice!

But I really really wanted the dress. So I kept looking. And I finally found a site that I thought could help me. It’s kind of another Chinese "scam" site… but this one (surprisingly) had amazing reviews! Brides had sent in pictures and their measurements and the seamstresses there had recreated the dresses almost perfectly! The only negative comments I found were from people who thought they were buying the designer gowns. The materials are possibly a little less fine, but let’s be honest for a second:

This dress has to last one night!

Frankly, I can barely validate spending more than $80 on a dress on a good day… let alone one that is only worn once! But I’m realistic; wedding dresses aren’t cheap.

As a bonus, some of the brides had mentioned that this site did dress customization. One bride wanted the bodice of one dress and the skirt of another,

and they did it!

That was kind of what did it for me. I wanted the dress so much, but I sort of hated how low the original back was. So I contacted the company.

The dress style I wanted wasn’t on the website, and I wanted the back to go up higher like on this dress.

(Which I happened to find on the same scam site I originally found my dress on. Oh, the irony!)

Not even 12 hours after contacting them I had a reply… they said they could do it! We agreed on a price and on materials for the dress. Then they made a special listing for me and I took the plunge! Even with shipping the whole thing cost substantially less than $300.

I am still pretty nervous. But the die has been cast! I should have the dress in a little over a month. (Mid to late February) Then we shall see if I made a mistake or not.

Time to Play Catch Up!

I’ve been absent for a while… again. And while life has gone on, there are some things I ought to catch you all up on before I can really jump back into this blogging thing. Things like:

• School
• Jobs
• Wedding stuff
• Boots the cat
• Slimming down
• Christmas
• Pictures
• Etc…
• Etc…
• Etc….

And not all in that order.

So the question is… re you prepared for the sudden barrage of blog posts I hope will follow?

I am.

5K

Today I signed up for my first 5k!

And what, dear readers, do you suppose could possibly persuade me to do 5K?

Zombies!

It's a zombie 5k obstacle course.

Participants will get 2 flag-football style flags to represent their health... and for the zombies to go after. There will also be heath stashes around the course, to replenish after a zombie attack... if you can find them.

What I like the most is that you're not out of the event if you lose your flags. You just can't win the prizes. (1 prize for first girl and 1 for first boy.) But I already know I'm not in the event for the prize. I'll be happy to finish the 5k and all the obstacles along the way.

What can I say? I have lofty goals.

I would also like to get out with one flag intact... but I'm not hopeful. I already know that when the zombie apocalypse hits, my only chance of survival is to hunker down and hold out. And/or get to Wyoming. Fewer people, fewer zombies. Know what I mean?

Anyhow, I need to raise $25 for the Ride to a Wish foundation (the sponsors of the program), so if any of you out there in blog-land would like to pitch in a few dollars, I'd be more than grateful!

Snip-Snip!

For a long time now I've said that I wanted to cut my hair off. I have a list of reasons too:

1. It gets in the way.
2. I don't do anything with it but pull it back.
3. If I do try something with it, it isn't worth the effort.
4. I'm sick of cleaning hair off the sink every time I brush my hair.
5. It's distracting.
6. Etc....

In short, it had to go! And it finally did.

Here was my inspiration picture:

I think Gennifer Goodwin and I have a similar face shape, so I figured this was as good a cut as any.

I have one person in the whole world that I trust with my hair... and she's worth it every time! So here is a shout-out to my girl, Rachael, at Salon Mosaic. And if you go there, tell them I sent you. You never know... there might be referral perks!

So here's how it happened....

I find that I regret chopping my hair off less if I donate it. It's hard to regret a good cause, you know? So goodbye hair, hello new do!

Ta-da! She nailed it!

Amazing Sushi

As many of you know, I have this crazy affinity for sushi. And while I don't discriminate, I do have some favorite sushi places.

Yama's is my favorite... but a close runner us is Kotobuki.

This place is interesting from the start, but their sushi selection makes it extraordinary! The two most interesting sushi rolls I've ever had are only to be found at Kotobuki!

This is the Godzilla roll. That's Joseph's hand in the background for reference. It's about the length of my forearm and twice as big around... I have small forearms. 2lbs of fish and rice. It's really good for the first two pieces. But if you're trying to eat the whole thing it gets difficult fast!

Sadly, I can't eat that one anymore. Too much shellfish, and you can only substitute so much before losing the integrity of the roll... if you get my meaning.

This is my absolute favorite. I don't know what it's called... and I'm not even sure it's on the menu. (We know one of the sushi chefs there.) It's served on fire for a reason: it's a warning. This has a sauce made out of Hawaiian peppers and little bits of them sprinkled on top. This roll is KILLER, and delicious to boot! My favorite bits are the onions on top. They catch a charred flavor from the fire and just make the roll really come to life! Yum!

With any luck, I'll have more sushi adventures to share with you later!

The Results Are In!

So there's good news and bad news, dear readers.

Good news: I can, indeed, post from my iPad... (yay!)

Bad news: It's totally not worth the effort. Mostly, it's the imaging part that proves a pain in the rump.

1. I can't add pictures from my iPad's memory, I have to copy and paste them in.
2. Once they are in, I can't move them.
3. Also, once they are in, I can't scroll up and down in my blog post...
4. even if I just start typing, the page won't scroll down to keep up with me and I can't see what I'm doing.

So, all-in-all, it has been decided: no iPad posts.

Which is really too bad! I've been carpooling with Joseph for my class days and since he has to be there waaay before my first class, I wind up with a lot of free blogging time. I've tried bringing my laptop, but Lappy is a bit unwieldy. *pats computer affectionately*

See, this semester I'm playing the bag-lady. I have my backpack full of textbooks, notebooks, and papers (and iPad)... although I think I may be able to reduce the textbooks by half. But I'm also taking an elementary art class (as in teaching art to elementary students) and we have to bring our supplies to EVERY CLASS! These include (but are not limited to) markers, pencils, crayons, acrylic paints, brushes, scissors, tape, a pack of construction paper, and a very large (14"x17") pad of drawing paper. The general art stuff fits well in beach tote I have. The drawing paper... fits in nothing. Right now I'm carrying it around in the plastic bag it came from the store in. I know… I’m nothing but class.

Solutions are being investigated. I'd really like to bring Lappy as well... but we shall see. This weekend we're going to try fitting everything into a rolling bag.

Possibly, this will save my shoulders.

Assuredly, this will make stairs much more challenging.