Entries Tagged as: wedding

Wedding Veil Ordered – Check!, Crazy Relatives – Check!, Wedding Mania – Check!

September 13th, 2007, Comments (10)

Oh, I'm so off! I feel completely discombobulated. This cold is kicking my butt. I'm so over you, cold! Take a hike! I've got one of those racking coughs goin on that makes my brain hurt and sleep difficult. Despite that, I'm attempting to find my rhythm again.

Saw a great movie last night with the fiansor. If you need a good hearty laugh and you have a silly sense of humor (and you don't mind a little bit of over the top violence...there is a bit of gore in it, but it's not scary at all, it's all in the name of comedy), you might just love this movie, "Hot Fuzz." It's from the makers of "Shaun of the Dead" which I found to be funny, but also scary and I think it did give me nightmares. "Hot Fuzz" didn't give me any bad dreams. It wasn't scary, just ridiculous. It starts out a little slow, with silly British humor and then all the sudden it shifts into complete mayhem. I don't want to spoil the story, so you'll just have to go rent it yourself.

Had some more wedding discussions with the fiansor last night. Trying to figure out the shape of our ceremony, which is a little stressful and then all these little pieces like where we're having a rehearsal dinner (there's not enough space for that in our apartment), do we need a limo to pick up parents and grandparents?, and why won't the coordinator at our venue call us back?? (grr) Too many details to keep in my head and this is just the tip of the wedding iceberg. I always found the image of a Bridezilla to be a truly ridiculous image and even though I definitely haven't gone to that level of nuttiness, I am beginning to sympathize with women who lose it momentarily. Because when that woman flips out about place cards, it's so not about the place cards...it's about their cousins who won't tell them what food choice they want before the venue's deadline, and their parents bugging them about what tie color they should wear when she couldn't care less, and the friend who insists on bringing their baby even though it's an adults only reception, and the coordinator who hasn't been returning her phone calls in a month, and their mother is flipping out because they didn't see every single fitting and choice made in person, and some relative who is upset because they heard there will be bacon in one of the appetizers, etc...So, when she starts crying and yelling about place cards, you just have to give the girl a hug and not tell her that the place cards don't matter because she knows that and she's just super overwhelmed. I mean, getting married and saying your vows is a big enough life event to have to deal with and then having to plan this huge monster of a party on top of that is enough to make any girl, except maybe the martha stewarts among us, a bit batty. And oh boy, do I wish I had more Martha Stewart in me right about now.  However, after chatting and laughing with the fiansor last night, we both know that the day itself will be perfectly imperfect and fun and romantic and a whirlwind. My brother is getting married next weekend and then there will be only 3 weeks til my wedding. O.my.god. And so, posting may be erratic to say the least. Bear with me. :-)

And how bout some fun links before I head off to my mom's for a make-up trial? Sure.

-Thursday, September 27, Marisa of Creative Thursday is having a one-day Creative Thursday event where she's encouraging anyone who is interested to do something creative. Read more about that here!
-I was telling all the girls in Maine about where I got my fantastic purse. I picked out the fabric and purse design at a purse party/bachelorette party last year for my best friend. A rep from the company who makes them, called 1154 LILL Studio came out to the house with bags of fabric and purse styles and we got to spread them all out and play and design a purse (which was then made in Chicago and sent back to us.) It was so much fun and I use that purse nearly every day. You can go on their website and design your own purse online or go to one of their stores and do it in person. Much fun. And today I got an email from them saying that they're now selling their fabric alone which could be great fun for making curtains or a pillow or your own style of purse. The name of the company is from the address where they started out in Chicago and it was all started by a woman with a great idea. Their fabrics are great and if you've got one of their stores near you, I'd definitely check it out.
-This website for a cat cam invention absolutely cracked me up. Apparently, the camera attaches to the cat's collar and then takes pictures at regular intervals. On the site you can see examples of the inventor's cat, Mr. Lee's, travels. I love the pics of him coming upon a cat friend and then the various adventures they go on. Too cute!
-Anthropologie just opened a store nearby and now I can much more easily spend time browsing their super fun way of arranging a store. There stuff is expensive, but every once in a while, I do enjoy shopping there for a special occasion dress or fun knick knack. I happened to get many tea pots and accessories for my bridal shower from friends and family and I am just loving my new collection of tea pots and cups. I need to get some shelves to display them I think. I decided I had to have this cup and saucer for my collection since it is the one featured in the painting I bought from Jessie! And I bought one new fall outfit including this adorable sweater which I'm loving to pieces.

Ok, that's all for now folks. Have a wonderful evening!

Plenty to Do!

September 12th, 2007, Comments (9)

I've got so much catching up to do! I'm way behind in emailing people back, so if you've written, please don't think I'm ignoring you, I'm just way behind in lots of things at the moment.

The barn at Jes's "Plenty to Do Farm"

I had a wonderful, wonderful time in Maine at Jes's mini art retreat. It was really just what I needed...a wonderful getaway in a beautiful location with an amazing hostess, spending time with great new friends, lots of art-making, good food, antiquing, and laughing. It was so much fun spending time with the super sweet and talented Jes, Tammy, Mindy, Heidi, (and Susan briefly!) We did a fun art exercise by starting with a canvas and creating a background and then passing it on so that each of us did something on everyone else's canvases. In the end we turned out 5 collaborative pieces of art that were completely different and lots of fun!

Mindy and Tammy hard at work

Saturday night we had plans for dinner at a nearby restaurant. We all changed out of sweaty art clothes and headed to dinner and when we got there, we walked into a dining room with a table set for five and at each place setting was a pot of mums with a pretty fairy wand stuck in it. For a moment I thought, "It looks like this place was decorated just for us! What's going on?" Well, these lovely ladies had planned a lovely little surprise wedding shower just for me. I was so incredibly surprised, I nearly cried. What a wonderful gesture. I'll be forever grateful for it! We ate dinner, played games that Tammy had put together, had dessert, and I got some wonderful gifts: art from Tammy and Susan, a super cool picnic basket full of goodies from Jes, a beautiful set of chopsticks from Mindy, and a delicately decorated container with candles and matches from Heidi. It was such an unexpected treat.

My fairy wand, made by Jes!

The previous night, Jes and I drove out to Tammy's restaurant and enjoyed a delicious dinner on the water. It was a wonderful evening. Jes and I got a little mixed up on the way back (because I can't read directions backwards...doh!), but we did get to see a couple drunk guys playing rock, paper, scissors in a parking lot! :-)

On Sunday, Jes, Heidi, Mindy and I went out and did some serious shopping at a flea market. I think I got enough paper goodies to last me for a year! hehe... I'll share pics of those later on. Besides the fun paper goods (books, pictures, etc), I also got a collection of old keys and clock parts, a funky old button, some lace scraps, and a rhinestone brooch (maybe for my hair for the wedding?) After we'd worked up an appetite we lunch and shopped around some more before saying our goodbye's and heading home. I had such a wonderful time, ladies. Thank you again! There are certainly more photos to share, so more later...

I had a bit of a cold over the weekend and it's gotten a little worse, so after taking yesterday to try and rest and get better, I'm a bit frustrated that I'm not all better today, but what can you do.

Tomorrow is my second hair trial. Hopefully that will go well! Oh, and I bought my veil online. I found someone who makes them online and I hope that was a good choice...seems like anything but the way over-priced salon veils would be a good choice at the moment.

Breathe, Breathe

August 28th, 2007, Comments (15)

Art that was made over a couple evenings and there are some sketches I did earlier that I may or may not post as time allows. In this piece I was inspired by the gorgeous art of Bailey Saliwanchik whose art I saw online at the Three Graces Gallery. My piece below, "Woman with Lilies" is about 11"x14" with acrylic and pencil on watercolor paper.

I like how she turned out. I was also inspired by one of Jessie's latest art piece which is why I had to scoop it up. :-)

In other news, I'm feeling a sudden time crunch. The days are folding in on one another so fast and I feel slightly suffocated. My hair/make-up trial (hair wasn't good and my mom's allergic to her make-up) didn't go well a few weeks ago and now I'm scrambling to find someone else. Arg. Trying to remember what keeps me balanced...making art, getting exercise, laughter, not too much caffeine, quiet time, good self-care, playfulness. The r.s.v.p.'s have started to come in which is fun, but also reminds me how close this wedding is! Ack! Double Ack! Anticipation was never my strong point. So, please excuse previous and future blathering about how much closer the wedding is every single day. Heh. Deep breathing.

The Weekend and some Art

August 26th, 2007, Comments (10)

The shower was really lovely. My mom and best friend did such a great job putting it together and I had a great time. They did a tea theme with iced and hot teas and finger sandwiches which reminded me of when I was little and my mom would cut the crust off my bread. My mom found these adorable tea bag rests for favors and my best friend set up a scrapbook table for guests to make their own page as my guest book. She also arranged some games including one with questions and answers that she'd asked the fiansor by email earlier and people had to guess how many I'd get right. There were questions like where was your first date, what's your most annoying habit, what do you love most about her and what do you think she loves most about you? Some of them just didn't apply to us (like who is your (and her) celebrity crush? I guessed Fabio for both and he said Carrot Top for both. heh.) , so I got 12 out of 20 right which was pretty good I think. :-)

Yesterday's art was decorating little thank you bags for my mom, sister, best friend and future sister in law for their help with the shower. It said "From my shower to yours" and had shower gel and a loofah thing inside. I got that idea from the best friend who got it from the knot. :-) I decorated the bags with little umbrellas and rain drops, but forgot to take a pic. Ah well. Thursday's art, "Bird Silhouettes," is above. I've been playing with it and I want to do another version of it at some point cause it's not quite what I want. I still like it, I'm just having trouble bringing my idea into reality as it's a very fuzzy vision.  It's on watercolor paper with watercolors and ink. And then the piece below, Friday's art, "Butterfly Woman" is a just playin around with caran d'ache piece and that's just what came out.

The fiansor's family has left for NYC and we're home relaxing at last. Ahhhh.

p.s. The show at Nahcotta where I'll be showing my Subway Stories is running from September 12th - October 7th. And the opening is Friday, September 14th from 5 - 8 p.m. And I'll be there! :-)

Wedding Designs

August 25th, 2007, Comments (21)

There is so much that goes into a wedding. It's a lot of work! The rewards of hard work are there too though, like after all the back and forth with a designer and then stuffing and hand addressing and stamping a bazillion envelopes, I am so pleased with the result. I've blurred out some names and details.

InvitationclosedInvitationopenpic

And below, you can see a bit of the envelope, stamps, and those two adorable painted tin birds were purchased in Boulder, CO and I'm thinking about having them top our wedding cake. :-)

Long discussions with family. Juggling who dances with who, who walks with who down the aisle gets complicated in a complicated family like mine. But we're working it out. No one wants anyone else's feelings to be hurt. After a day of feeling stressed and sad, I'm starting to feel calmer and ready to snuggle up in bed. Have a great weekend all y'alls!

For Now

August 24th, 2007, Comments (6)

Art to be posted later. Started something last night and I'm not sure where I'm taking it. What I know is that I wish I had a big wooden panel to paint it on. Something tall and skinny. I wonder if I can get a panel cut like that locally?

I've got a new post up at the Blue Tree blog with all my Subway art together with sizes and prices and information about the show they can all be seen at next month at Nahcotta in Portsmouth, NH. Nahcotta also has a blog here and they featured a piece of my subway art there the other day which was awesome. Nahcotta is a gorgeous space and I'm excited to see (in person) the art of so many talented artists I've admired online (and meet some of them too at the opening!) Oh, I just popped over to their blog and saw the postcard for the show (looks great!) and saw that they're running a cool contest, so do go check it out!

Last night, after a very full day, I found myself feeling exhausted. I sat down and watched a long documentary on Katrina, When the Levees Broke, on HBO. It was devastating and at one point, out of nowhere I started to sob. I know I can get overwhelmed by the smallest things, but it's the big things on top of the small things that really overwhelm me. Sometimes there is too much sadness to know what to do with it. I contribute in my own small ways, through charities, through art, through being a decent person. But I feel so small in comparison to so much suffering. Of course, it's the stories of individual people and their suffering that broke my heart. It certainly puts things in perspective and makes me grateful for the life I have. But it also makes me furious with our inept government. How could they turn their backs on such a disaster? I don't understand.

For bit of a lighter tale, here's a conversation I had with my mom this morning about my bridal shower tomorrow.

her: "So, what time are you going to get there tomorrow? I'll be there an hour early."
me:  "Ok, so do you want me to be there early?"
her: "Well, I'd like you to be a little surprised."
me: "Ok, so would you like me to show up on time, with the guests?"
her: "Well, it might be nice to have you there a little early."
me: "Mom, just tell me. What time would you like me to be there?"
her: "Oh. Well, let me think about it."

Oy vey. From our conversation I'm guessing she'd like me to be 15-20 minutes early and I just want to make her happy, but I wish she'd just tell me what she wants sometimes! I do this sometimes too, this beating around the bush. I'm working at being more direct and this crazy-making conversation makes me even more determined to do so. So, I'll be driving up with my future mother and sister in law and showing up early, but not too early. Heh. I've just gotta laugh. I get all uncomfortable with the focus on me, so this will be a nice, but tiring day. And I'm sure I'll come home with my arms full of new towels and kitchen appliances and maybe some lingerie. ;-)

Hyper Adrenaline Loopdie Loops

August 23rd, 2007, Comments (7)

Up wayyyy too late last night, fiddling around with this and that. I'm all hyped up about this weekend with the fiansor's family visiting and my bridal shower on Saturday, plus I had a wedding dress fitting today and dropped off eight "Subway Stories" pieces for the show at Nahcotta (which is going to be so great! more on that later.) I just wanted to drop in to show you the latest in the Subway Stories series.

The top one is "Central Square" and is 8"x10" with acrylic and collage on panel. And the second is "Longwood" and it's 6"x6" with acrylic and collage on panel. Both of these were named after particular subway stops. Longwood was the stop closest to where I went to college (hence the artist with the big portfolio) and it's also the stop closest to the hospital district of town, where I spent much time as a child with all my (now resolved) kidney/bladder issues. Not fun. So, that stop is a weird mix of memories for me. Central Square is a real funky place in Cambridge, just a stop away from Harvard Square. It has an odd mix of stores and a diverse mix of people. I particularly love it because of the two great art stores there and the club where I had one of my very first shows.

Heh, I just noticed, I can see my signature in these. It took me a long time to remember to sign my work. And in this case, I remembered to do so because I knew I was taking them to a gallery. I've always tried to make my signature small and inconspicuous. I don't want my name to interfere with the art. But I've had people have to remind me to sign my art before (and after) I sell it, so I'm trying to be better about that. Ahem. I've got issues.

Anyways! I got 90% of the invites out the door today. Whew! What a relief that was! The remaining ones are going to some of the fiansor's relatives (mostly in Greece) who won't come, but we'll send the invite anyways. So, I need to go and get special postage for those. And there are a still a couple friends who seem intent on not giving me their addresses. Grr. And the dress fitting...I've had such issues with the dress. I bought it after trying on sooo many. Spent more than I was planning to, but got a good deal as it was a sample dress. It needed some major fitting work and when I tried it on at the first fitting I got a little spooked that it wasn't going to come together well and that I'd look like a sparkly disaster. Well, today was the second fitting and the bodice part fit perfectly. It allowed me, for the first time, to see what my dress will truly look like on me (without clamps all over the place). The hips need to be taken in, the hem has to come up some, but it's coming together. And she also began to pin my bustle. Who knew I would care about these things, but I had a particular kind of bustle in mind and the seamstress, without my saying a word, suggested just the one I wanted and pinned it so I could see what it would look like and oh, yay, it's awesome. So, joy of joys, I feel thrilled about my dress. The fiansor couldn't understand why it was so important to me, saying I'll look beautiful no matter what (insert awwws). But I want to "feel" beautiful. Know what I mean? So, I'm thrilled that I felt beautiful. Now, I just need to figure out this hair debacle and we'll be all set with the beauty side of things.

What a big to-do this wedding stuff is! Ack! Ok, I've got more fun stories about my trip north today, but they'll have to wait as I'm off for a quick dinner with a friend who I haven't seen in ages. (I'm a terrible hermit of a friend.) Ciao for now.

Mindless Doodling and Rambling

August 20th, 2007, Comments (19)

One of the tricks of doing art every day for a period of time (at least this works for me) is to loosen your idea of what art is. Lots of things lead to art, including play and scribbling and experimenting and making a royal mess. Hehe. This comes in particularly handy on days with time constraints with lots going on and not a lot of energy or time left over for creating. Saturday was busy and I wasn't feeling great, so in order to keep creating, I needed to simplify. I took out a watercolor pad and some new nibs (for calligraphy) and played. I had purchased some new nibs for addressing my wedding invitations and needed to play with them first. And my general exhaustion after a long day was calling for some mindless doodling. The writing here was just what popped out.

Last night, after addressing many invitations and my mind a pile of mush, I pulled out one of those little plastic box of watercolors and played. I was inspired to play with watercolors by this week's Inspire Me Thursday challenge. I'm bummed I didn't get to the DNA one from the week before, but I'll get to it eventually. This watercolor below was the result of some play. Just laying down color on wet paper. The two big forms of color suggested fall trees and I went with that. Fall is definitely in the air.

The invitations look lovely and I'll share those later. I had a hair and make-up trial on Saturday. The make-up was great and the hair wasn't so great, so I'm in a bit of a pickle as to what to do about that. Hire someone else? Go back for another hair trial? Well, I guess that's why we have a trial. Rumph.

I've got a few more Subway Stories pieces in the works, gotta varnish and prep the finished ones for hanging and then take them off to a gallery on Thursday when I'm up in NH for a wedding dress fitting. I may be saying this ridiculously often, but I can't believe how close the wedding is! Ack! Less than two months! (It's Saturday, Oct. 13th, by the way.)

Lots to get done and so I'm off...like a fall leaf riding the wind, like a suit at the end of the day, like the t.v. late at night, like a horse at the races, like the months that scream by the older you get.

Art and Other Details

August 17th, 2007, Comments (10)

Here's another subway piece. This one is smaller, 6"x6". Cute, eh? Another in the Subway Stories series, called "Orange Line." I've got more in process, but here's one for now.

Doing my best to not feel overwhelmed at the moment. I feel a little behind the 8 ball and I've got a lot goin on. Wedding invitations came in and they're gorgeous. I'll post pictures at a later date. Saturday morning I have a hair and make-up trial. I'm so hopeless with make-up so I need the help. All the sudden the wedding is getting really, really close! Eeks! My shower is next weekend and I'll be doing a very relaxed bachelorette party (something like paint your own pottery with some girlfriends). I'm working on a bunch of projects and trying to just keep breathing and keep approaching it all with calm and steady baby steps. It will all get done.

Spent the day with my best friend and her new baby, putting together invitations and stamping envelopes, and cooing over a cute baby face. :-) I feel body, mind, soul tired. Time for bed!

The Hungry Wedding Dinosaur

July 26th, 2007, Comments (15)

Dinosaur_2 Geez Louise, where has the week gone. Wait, never mind, I know where it's gone. It was eaten by the wedding dinosaur. Chomp, chomp! It's my fault for procrastinating about a bunch of things or not simply procrastinating, but adding more and more options and having the worst time figuring out how to create some random, perfect *fill in the blank* (invitation, flowers, centerpiece, etc) that will fit in with my creative, romantic idea that represents who we are as a couple and ahhh! Then add a weekend full of well-meaning, but crazy-making parents including the fiansor's parents visiting from NY and by the end of it, I was seriously considering eloping.

Yesterday we met with our venue coordinator to go over food choices and timing and she was so together that it made us both feel good about the wedding again. I've come around to the philosophy that nothing is ever perfect and I'll feel better if I just make choices and move on. There's plenty to do still, but things are coming together. Oy. I would never, ever, ever, be a wedding planner. This is so not my thing. A lot of it has fallen to me to take care of and I'm getting through it, but boy oh boy, I'm looking forward to the planning being over, so I can enjoy the actual day!

I got some art together to ship out today and worked on invitation wording and ran some errands. I do have some art that I've been working on slowly, so I'll have that done and up soon. I've been reading, but I'm not quite caught up on all the blogs I love to read and I've bookmarked a ton that I want to comment on, I've fallen behind and it's hard to catch up! I had to squeeze in some late night hours of reading the final Harry Potter book too (I'm so sad it's over!) I've got a meeting with the florist on Friday and I'm "hosting" (at my mom's house) a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law on Saturday, so there's more wedding craziness ahead, but hopefully in the next week I won't feel quite so crazed and I'll be able to fit in more art!

Speaking of art, has anyone ever used a product called "Sheer Heaven." It sounds dirty doesn't it? Maybe that's just my mind, but it's just a vellum-like paper. 

Other randomness: What do you think about a tree as a favor? Would you rather have food? I love the look of this "tree in a box".

p.s. I got the dinosaur image from this page of dino clip art. Feel free to save it, print it and color it in on a rainy day. :-)

p.s.s. I once won a hat decorating contest in 5th grade for covering a top hat with plastic dinosaurs (all from my little sister's collection. She was a big dino fan.)