One month

Penny's first month came with a steep learning curve. The first few days were blissed out, a blur of cuddling, visiting, feeding, and changing. She was so little, so she really swam in most newborn clothes. It was cold in March, so we kept her in sleep n' plays mostly (like footie pajamas). Her coming home outfit was one that I bought her, a white pajama with shamrocks on it, since she was due on St. Patrick's Day. We are so lucky that Penny has an older cousin, though - she already had a huge wardrobe to choose from!






Cory's parents (her MawMaw and PawPaw) came up for the birth, and her MawMaw stayed with us for a week! It was so nice having her here, and she got lots of quality time in with the baby. The second week, my mom (her Nonie) came every week day and helped clean, cook, and take care of Penny. She wasn't short on attention, for sure! Cory and I are so lucky to have great parents and so much help.









She has been sleeping in her crib since the first night she came home, so we wouldn't have to transition her into it. During the day, though, she napped wherever was convenient, like her swing or the pack n' play. She was always pretty happy and calm, unless she was hungry. Although it turns out, she was hungrier than we thought. At her two week appointment, she was still down 12 ounces from her birth weight. At four weeks, she was still 6 ounces under birth weight, so we started adding in some formula, and she instantly started sleeping better.





Toward the end of March, we made our first road trip as a new family! We went to Louisiana to see Cory's family, and go to our friend Adrian's wedding (Cory was a groomsman). She did wonderfully in the car, and MawMaw babysat her for us two nights in a row! The rehearsal dinner and wedding were so much fun, and it was really great to introduce Penny to everyone. She also came with us to Cory's cousin's birthday party, and to his grandparents' house. She is a great little traveler.

Here she is with my Nana and Papa:

One month old!

Expectations vs. Reality

On having a baby:

Expectations: You won't know all the answers. Duh.
Reality: Most of the time you know all the possible answers, and have no idea which is the right one, and every time you ask someone for advice it will be different. You will trust your pediatrician, but you will still wonder if you're doing the right thing.

Expectations: Falling totally in love with my baby, instantly.
Reality: Being instantly wowed by my baby, but taking a while for the deeper bond to develop.

Expectations: Not getting enough sleep.
Reality: Getting even less sleep than that.

Expectations: Being a parent would be fun.
Reality: Seeing my husband become a parent would be powerfully emotional (and fun!).

Expectations: Being an emotional wreck the first week back at work.
Reality: Being glad to have an outlet for adult conversation, and a full paycheck again.

Expectations: Being a "different mom" who wasn't part of that exclusive "mommy club" that seems to exist.
Reality: Being glad to have friends who have been through the early stages of motherhood already to know I wasn't alone in my frustrations about parenting, and to share in the joys that seem mundane outside of that perspective.

Expectations: Wanting to break out of the house often, and socialize as much as possible (with baby).
Reality: Being torn between being sad for not being invited to many events (wanting to socialize) and trying to keep the baby on a good sleeping schedule (wanting to stay home).

Expectations: Breastfeeding would either work or it wouldn't, and I would adjust accordingly.
Reality: Breastfeeding sort of works, and we do a combo of nursing and formula.

Expectations: Seeing her smile would brighten up any bad day.
Reality: Even better than expectations.

Penny's Birth Story

I want to go ahead and write this down before I forget the details (and I'm sure I have forgotten some already). I had a wonderful pregnancy. I felt so happy all the time. I wasn't sick much and didn't gain much weight. It had taken us a while to get pregnant so I was grateful for every day of it.

Toward the end, my blood pressure started to go up. It never turned into pre-eclampsia, but I did have a couple of short stays in the hospital for testing (a couple of hours at 35 weeks 6 days, and a couple of days at 36 weeks 6 days). I was on bedrest from the first hospital visit until delivery, and eventually put on medication for my blood pressure. Penny looked great at every ultrasound, but they were monitoring me very closely. Finally, my doctor said it was time to go ahead and induce at 37 weeks, 6 days. I was due on March 17 (St. Patrick's Day!), but Wednesday, March 2 at 4 am found me and Cory in the lobby of our hospital, checking in to have our baby!

I got called back around 4:30, and they hooked me up to an IV, checked me, and strapped on the monitors. I was worried about getting any pain meds too early because I was trying to avoid a C-section if the induction didn't go well, so I didn't get any right away. I wasn't feeling any pain that early, anyway. I was really shaky because I was so nervous - this wasn't how I had pictured having my baby! My nurses were really great, though, and Cory was so supportive. I made him take notes so I would remember when everything happened, and he acted as liaison for all the communications with friends and family.

By around 8am, the doctor came by and broke my water. After that, the contractions really picked up! I was starting to have to breathe through them. They told me it would take 20 minutes for an anesthesiologist to get to the room to have an epidural, and just to let them know when I was ready. I still held off for a while. I really wanted to experience labor for myself. The best way I was able to describe it that day was, "it feels like my uterus is in a trash compactor." Haha! My personal goal was to make it at least halfway dilated, and then if I was miserable I would get the epidural. I had to get to the personal point where it was scarier not to get it than to get it. The contractions got a lot stronger, and after getting checked again, I went ahead and got it. It took on the left side stronger than the right, but they rolled me on my side and it evened out.

Around 10am or so, the family started coming to the hospital and asking to visit. I had been worried about them all seeing me in a lot of pain, but since I had already had the epidural, I let them in. Cory's family had come up from Louisiana the day before, so we had all the grandparents there, plus my grandparents, my sister and her husband, Cory's brother, and our friend Sarah. It was a full house! Everybody came and hung out for a while, and around 12pm I think, I got checked again and I was already at 8cm. I told everyone I wanted to take a nap to rest up for what was coming up, but we all kept talking and visiting, and an hour later, I was ready to go! So much for that nap!

The doctor told the nurses to get ready and have me practice push while she went back over to her office to continue her regular schedule of office visits. Little did she know I didn't need much practice! They had me push for about five minutes and Penny just came right on down! They called the doctor back, and then I had to wait and not push while we waited for her to come back. Once she got in, it was all business. Another 10-15 minutes of pushing, and at 1:41 pm, out came our little girl! I immediately started crying, and they put her on my chest. Ten fingers, ten toes, beautiful and healthy and pink. 6 pounds, 13 ounces.

My blood pressure improved as soon as I delivered, so we both went home on time and in great shape. Our little family. :-)

photo by Charbonnet Photography.

FO: Elenka dress

I'm going to start posting some of the things I'm knitting. I've been bad in the past about not finishing a few projects, so I figure I'll post things as I finish them. FO means "finished object," and I just recently finished knitting the Elenka dress from Knitty for my niece, Katie. It's made with a cotton yarn called Cotton-Ease.

Here's the final product - this was a really fun pattern and went quickly!

Changing gears a little...

So, it has been a really long time since I've blogged! I've been getting multiple requests to start blogging again, and I have a really great reason.

photo by Charbonnet Photography

Penelope Ann

born 3/2/2011 at 1:41 pm

We love our Penny so much! Look for more posts soon!

Making a wedding cake, part 1

Recently I was asked to make a wedding cake for my friends, Chris and Beth (hey guys!). I hope they don't mind me writing about it here! I thought it might be interesting to other people to see just what goes into making a big, layered cake, and it might also turn out to be a great outlet for me to record what I learned to be a better baker in the future.

I went to get the ingredients last night, so the plan is to do all the baking tonight and tomorrow night, do the icing and initial setup Friday, and final assembly and decorations Saturday. It's going to be a hectic week!

The main thing I had to figure out before getting started was how to schedule the baking. I only have a few pans, so I'll need to reuse them. I first wrote down everything I needed to mix and bake:



Next, I wrote down each batch I would need to bake, and what pan would be needed. I moved the batches around until I came up with a schedule that would allow each cake to cool while a different pan was being used.

The main thing I have to figure out in the next two days is the cake board situation. I think some people make a base out of plywood, but I think that might be more than is needed here. I'm planning to transport the layers separately anyway, and just assemble on site a few hours before the reception, so I might just double layer the regular cardboard cake boards. It's going to be two very busy nights, but it will be fun, too!

Edit: I forgot when I wrote this that I will actually be doing a 9x9 middle layer of vanilla, not 8x8. So the schedule is a little different, but the concept is the same! The cake will be a 12-9-6 three tiered cake, for even proportions.

Little things

Now that we've been in our house for over half a year, I'm definitely starting to notice a few things that need a little improvement. While our budget doesn't allow for major renovations or anything, I can't wait to make a few tweaks here and there.

- Fixing the latch on our gate. We've gone as far as taking the old one off (not a big problem, as it was mostly broken), but we have the new one and haven't put it on yet. We may be investing in a drill soon; I think it will come in handy for more than just this project.

- Putting trash cans in every room of the house. This one is really minor, but I've noticed there are a couple of rooms where trash seems to accumulate because it doesn't have an immediate place to go.

- Hanging things on the wall. We have a couple of things, but our den and living room have pretty much nothing at all. Also related...

- Hanging some window treatments. We have nice blinds on all the windows, but I'd like something soft and modern to frame them up a little.

- Refinishing the kitchen cabinets. Our cabinets need repainting, and they have nickel bathroom drawer pulls as handles. I'd like to change those out.

- Gardening! I generally think of myself as having a black thumb, but we have a couple of really nice hydrangea bushes, with a lot of weeds growing around them. They would look so much nicer weeded and surrounded by fresh mulch!

We will have to do some major projects in the next few years (roof, possibly plumbing), but while we're still paying off other debts, I think it's a great time to tackle some of these other jobs.

Checking in

Well, it's been two and a half months since we got married, and I thought maybe it was time for an update. Plenty of things have changed in that time - the temperature is hitting 99 instead of a mild 70, the humidity is out in full force, my hydrangeas are in bloom, and the house is more organized. One thing I have noticed that hasn't changed is our relationship, for the most part. There are subtle changes, like the fact that we get to call each other husband and wife, and the fact that we are realizing that we come first to each other, instead of relying more on our own families. I do feel a lot more like Cory and I are really our own family.

Really, being married has so far been really fun, and nothing crazy! The wedding was a blast, and the honeymoon was relaxing and calm, as I hoped it would be. Really, I have thought here and there about picking the blog back up, but I'm not sure what to write about. I'd really like my blog to have a focus. I tend to have my hand in so many different projects, I'm wondering if anyone would have any interest in reading about them. Coming up in the future, I'll be making a wedding cake, and hopefully learning to use my sewing machine, as well as getting myself into a little gardening. Plus, I am always doing little things here or there. We'll see.

For now, I leave you with one of my favorite wedding pictures:

3. Last minute details

I'm still running around, trying to get a few last minute things done. Cory picked up his tux yesterday. I need to get him some black socks and me some pantyhose. I worked on signs for the bar and the guestbook today, and I still need to pack for the honeymoon and put together an emergency bridal kit (safety pins, band-aids, etc.). We are meeting our DJ tonight, but I am keeping the music a secret until after the wedding. I wrapped the gifts for our parents last night.

It's slowly starting to sink in that I am actually getting married this weekend!

Now if only the forecast would stay nice, and the pollen would just go away! No sinus problems for a month and now I've got a runny nose. Yuck!

4. Money dance

Have any of you heard of a money dance? It's a wedding tradition popular in Louisiana and in some cultures. Basically, the bride and groom go up on the dance floor, and men line up to dance with the bride while women line up to dance with the groom. Each person gets a few moments with the bride or groom and gives him or her some money, to wish the couple well and start off their marriage.

It's a nice way to get to spend some time with people during the reception, and I have been to weddings in Louisiana where they did this dance, but I'm really torn about it. My family hasn't ever heard of it, and I'm guessing they aren't the only ones. I don't want anyone to think we're being greedy by having a money dance, and I don't want anyone else to feel like we're bucking tradition by not having one.

Have you ever been to a wedding that had a money dance? What are your thoughts? I'd love some input on this one!

5. Winding down

I know we're getting close to the end, because my to-do list items are getting smaller and smaller. Huge items like "book the honeymoon" are gone, and replaced with littler things like "print out directions for the honeymoon."

In fact, we don't have any big things left except to meet with the DJ later this week to finalize the music. My list for today was "print directions to honeymoon place, buy mascara, and print pictures for parent gifts" and I'm almost done.

I intentionally left the first half of this week open so I wouldn't have much to do, and I could feel free to get all the little things done. I've even paid all of the bills we have due up until we return from the honeymoon! It's a great feeling.

6. A great wedding present.

My boss gave me the day off on Thursday because of the wedding! Thanks, boss!

That makes a week and a half off for wedding-related festivities and the honeymoon. I know I'm going to enjoy it!

7. The last stand

Or, my last big bash as a single lady! I actually don't have any pictures from the day at all, but to me that's okay because we were having too much fun to stop and document it.

I started the day at 9:30 at Gould's Spa, where my ladies had gotten me the bridal package! It included a massage, facial, body polish, lunch, and a mani/pedi. Awesome. I felt so wonderful when I left there. Then, we stopped by my sister's to spend time with her sweet baby, after which we met everyone for dinner at Macaroni Grill.

Dinner was sooo good. I had the grilled pork chops and mushroom risotto (I love risotto), and two peach bellinis. We finished it off with tiramisu, one of my favorite desserts! From there, we hit up Fox & Hound for drinks, including shots and a bottle of champagne compliments of my awesome friends. At the end of the night, we headed back to my house where I sat and hung out with a couple of my girls, talking and sharing stories. It was a great end to a fabulous night!

I can definitely say I'm ready to be married, but I hope I get many more wonderful nights with these girls, for sure!

8. Woo, party!

We finally got the liquor situation resolved. We are serving Cosmopolitans, as well as Jack Daniel's. So we'll have my favorite drink, and Cory's (Jack and Coke, actually). I'm really excited about this, because it saves us half the money we'd spend on an open bar, but we still got enough liquor for everyone who might not want beer or wine. I think it's going to be great.

We're working on the music for the ceremony/reception stuff, so hopefully I'll be able to write about that soon. Tomorrow is my Memphis bachelorette party. It should be an awesome weekend!

9. We're on the 10-day forecast!

It will be interesting to see if this holds up. I fully expect it to change a million times before the actual day.

10. Finished with the decorations!

We have everything ready to go to bring to the wedding! Guestbook, decorations to hang, and even a box for people to put cards in at the reception. It looks like a stack of presents, and it says "cards" with our monogram below it. It turned out really cute. Now, all we have left to do is get ready for the honeymoon, decide on the music, and get the liquor situation straightened out.

Here's our card box, which I think took less than ten dollars to make:

11. Informal poll

Trying to narrow down the liquor situation. Please comment if you can!

1. How long do you usually stay at a wedding reception (number of hours)?

2. How many drinks would you have while hanging out at a party for about four hours?

3. What are you most likely to drink: wine, beer, vodka, whiskey, none of the above, or a combination?

12. What's in a name?

I always knew that when I got married, I would change my name. People who know me pretty well know that I'm not close at all to my father (parents are divorced), and I just don't have much attachment to my last name. When I was little, I always wanted a normal last name (mine's a word, but not very common as a surname), and I figured being married would be my chance to have that.

Well, those of you that know Cory know his last name's not common at all! But, it's still a change, and I'm really looking forward to having that symbol of my new identity. A lot of women drop their middle names and add their new last name, so their name goes First Maiden Last, but I'm actually really attached to my middle name, so I'm keeping it.

We've gotten our first couple of cards addressed to us as a married couple, and it's pretty neat. I've tried to practice my new signature a couple of times, but it still feels too weird. I'm going to keep trying, though! It's much harder to get my hand to scrawl something different than to think of myself as a married woman. You write the same thing over and over for 26 years; it's the name I wrote when I learned how to write. I guess just like anything, it will get easier over time.

13. The Bochelor

Okay, so we're not talking about Conan O'Brien's The Bochelor. It's more like Bachelor Party. Cory went away this weekend for his bachelor party in Louisiana. Lucky guy gets two weekends in a row of bachelor parties!

Meanwhile, I spent the weekend hanging out with my girlfriends and doing housework. I got to see I Love You, Man (which was awesome), and attend a friend's shower and bachelorette party. It was kind of fun going through that with the new perspective of having just recently been to my own showers and bachelorette party. I will say that I have a new appreciation for RSVPs, and will always try to come to someone else's shower if I possibly can! It meant so much to me to see the people that made it to mine.

With less than two weeks to go, the next laid-back weekend I will probably have will be as a married woman. Here we go!

14. Two weeks

Two weeks.

Two weeks until I put on that white (well, ivory) dress.

Two weeks may be a long time if you're in The Money Pit, but for those of us not in Hollywood, it's not very long at all! It's amazing to me that when he first put that ring on my finger, it was 35 weeks before the wedding, which we hadn't even planned yet.

In 14 days I will marry a man who makes me laugh, challenges me intellectually, understands me, empathizes with me, and loves me, heart and soul, wrinkles and all. We will be our own new family, with our own identity. That part is worth so much more than all the flowers and food and music.

I can't wait.

15. Something...

Old, new, borrowed, blue, right? Technically, there's also supposed to be "a sixpence in your shoe," but I'll have enough shoe comfort problems that I'll probably avoid that.

I have had several people ask me if I'm going to do this ritual, and what I'll do for it, and the answers are "yes," and this:

Old: My freshwater pearl necklace my uncle gave to me for my 8th grade graduation.
New: My wedding dress! My mom got married in jeans, so that wasn't an option.
Borrowed: My mom's pearl earrings (because she has real ones, and I don't).
Blue: My garter has a tiny blue bow on the inside, meant as a "something blue."

It's a pretty neat feeling to know that I'm going to be a small part of an old tradition that many brides before me have done. A little bit of history carried with me for a little bit of luck.

16. With these rings...

... well, you know.

17. Final payment - done!

Well, we went down to the ballroom and made our final payment there. It's a great feeling to have almost everything paid off! The only major unpaid item on our list is just the DJ. Here are some of the details we finalized:

- We're going to have three kinds of wine and three kinds of beer. For the wine, merlot, chardonnay, and white zinfandel, and for beer, Budweiser, Bud Light, and Miller Lite. I think that should hit the perfect range of everyone's taste (at least of the people that I know have a preference!).
- We will have the cocktail area blocked off before the ceremony. Everyone will enter into the main ballroom for the wedding, then go to the lounge for cocktails while they change over the room (15 minutes, I think). Then the ballroom will be opened up and people can hit the buffet or the dance floor.
- Also, for you Memphis fans, if they are playing during the reception, there is a TV on the wall behind the bar, so we will ask them to put the game on. In return though, try not to check the score during the ceremony if you can help it - it's going to be short!
- There is free parking for ballroom guests. Either lot behind the building (or if you're in front of the building, they are behind or to the right) are free to use.
- The menu! We're having chicken tenders, mini hamburgers, Swedish meatballs, a fruit and cheese display, a veggie tray, crab stuffed and Italian spinach stuffed mushrooms, and assorted pastries (which we are told includes chocolate covered strawberries). And cake, of course!

We also finalized the layout of everything. I think it will be awesome! It's nice to have such a big piece of the puzzle in place.

18. Wedding brain

Scatterbrained.

That's the only word I can think of to describe how I've been feeling the past couple of days. I've been having trouble concentrating at work, and it seems like every hour or two I get interrupted by something for the wedding. Sometimes it's a phone call; sometimes it's an email or even just my thoughts. I have a mental checklist that grows and retracts as I suddenly remember something or forget something else.

We're 18 days away from the wedding. I'm trying to enjoy the time we have before the big day, but sometimes it's hard to stop and look at the big picture when all the details are screaming out at me.

19. Ceremonial stuff

We went back and forth about whether to have readings in our ceremony. We aren't regular churchgoers, and we don't have favorite romantic poems or anything like that. When it came down to it, we decided that the ceremony that would suit us best would be simple. So it will go something like this:

The preacher will welcome everyone and say a prayer. Then, we will exchange wedding vows, using the traditional words. We will give each other the rings that have waited patiently for the past few months, and then receive a blessing from the preacher. After that, we will turn and face the people we love, and be pronounced Mr. and Mrs.!

It's short and simple, and I love it.

20. Poofy balls

I've done a few things myself for the wedding, and my current DIY project is these tissue paper pom-poms from Martha Stewart.


The idea is to bring some color into the space and bring the eye upwards. I think they're turning out really cute! The only thing I'm worried about is bringing 30 of these guys up into the ballroom and not being able to hang them. Haha, oh well. I'm going to ask about that when we go to make our final payment.

Here's a picture of the ones I've done so far:


They're a pretty fun and inexpensive way to make cute decorations.

21. All the ladies in the house

I had the best bridal shower this weekend at my godmother Tanya's house. I arrived early with my three Memphis bridesmaids, Kim, Sarah, and Tammy. Kim ordered the prettiest cake - it was a spring green with white scrollwork; a vanilla cake with almond buttercream. It was delicious, but so was everything else! We had meatballs, taco dip, artichoke dip, herb cheese and crackers, chicken salad, and more.


We played some great games like bingo and had a purse scavenger hunt. We also played a game where everyone had to answer a quiz about Cory, and then everyone got to watch me answer the quiz in front of everyone. I got the best score out of the group, which is pretty appropriate. The unfortunate part is that for every question I got wrong, I had to stuff a marshmallow in my mouth. I could only keep a couple at a time without gagging, so I kept having to eat marshmallows to get more in there!


I got some wonderful gifts, too. Everyone was so sweet, and we got a lot of great serving pieces that I am really excited to get to use. Having showers sure has made me want to host a party of my own. Maybe when all this wedding hoopla calms down, we can have a really great one!

22. Cutting through the red tape

Or going along with it, anyway. Today we got our marriage license! It was a (not) fun-filled day that began with us waiting four hours at the DMV to get our new driver licenses with our current address on them, then off to the county clerk for the marriage license. The desk was surrounded with lace and tulle and pictures of married couples; it looked cheesy but cute. It only took about 15 minutes to get everything signed and printed out, and $97.50 and two signatures in a very large book later, we were on our way! The marriage license register book is actually pretty neat; you really feel like a part of history thinking about how many people have written in that book and all the others that preceded it. We even had to give them our parents' names and where they were born.

It's a great feeling to have this big step out of the way, because now, no matter what, we're getting married. Even if the flowers don't show or the food tastes horrible, at the end of the day, we will have done what we set out to do. Hopefully getting our license on Friday the 13th doesn't mean anything bad for the wedding!

23. TYVM

I am very proud to say that we are completely caught up on thank-yous from the shower in Baton Rouge a couple of weeks ago. Of course, we're probably about to have another round from the shower this weekend, but it's nice to feel caught up.

I've never been a big thank you note writer, mostly because I don't usually keep cards around, and I feel awkward because I never really wrote them growing up, either. I've kind of come around to thinking they're pretty cool, though. It's a neat feeling to see that someone liked your gift and acknowledged it with a traditional note in the mail. I have gotten some thank-yous from people whose baby showers I attended, and I really appreciated them. I bought some cards on clearance at Target that are super cute and match our wedding colors, so it's great that I didn't have to spend a lot, because obviously they didn't come with our invitation suite (because we didn't have one).

It does help that I actually have people's addresses now, because of all the wedding invitations. Planning a wedding does wonders for completing one's address book!

24. It's all in the timing

I have been working really hard to make a timeline for the day of the wedding. You wouldn't think it would be that difficult; just get ready and show up, right? Not so much.

The general idea is to work backward from the time of the ceremony. I know we want to take our pictures before the ceremony because it will be dark afterward, and before that of course, we have to get ready. I'll have a hair appointment at some point that day, too, and I need to make time to eat. Also, I need to approve the floral setup and set up a few of my own decorations at the site.

I think the hardest part is figuring out how much time we need for each item. For example, at first I thought two hours would be the right amount of time to get ready, but then I thought, "All we need to do is put on makeup and slide into a dress. Am I going to sit around bored for over an hour?" So I've been rethinking and tinkering with the timeline. I'm not 100% happy with it, but we're getting there.

25. Music

Cory and I are still trying to decide on what kind of music to have in the ceremony. Because we're not having a church wedding, we'd like to have secular songs that we both like or have some kind of meaning to us. It's a lot harder than it sounds! It's amazing to me how many songs aren't really that romantic when you listen to them. It probably also doesn't help that we don't have the most conventional taste in music. I like a lot of pop songs, but I would never have "I Swear" in my wedding or anything like that. I like the idea of our wedding having its own musical signature. We've looked at a lot of stuff by the Vitamin String Quartet (they do instrumental covers of songs), and we've looked at a lot of other songs, so we still have some work to do.

At least we decided not to write our own vows! I would love to do that, but I don't know how either of us would ever come up with something we felt worthy. A mixture of traditional and modern would definitely be how I would describe our wedding.

26. Cocktails

We are still trying to make a decision on what kind of cocktails to serve at the reception. We are having a beer and wine package, and would love to provide one or two cocktails to serve along with them. We have several friends and family that aren't really into beer or wine, and we want everyone to have a great time and party, and feel like they have drink choices they will enjoy.

We've thought about something with Jack Daniels (even just Jack and Coke, one of Cory's favorites), and maybe a Cosmopolitan or something else with vodka (I love the fruity drinks). We've even thought about serving hard iced tea like with sweet tea vodka.

Have you ever been to a wedding that had signature cocktails? What do you like to drink at a wedding?

27. Paying it off

Well, we have finally reached the part of the planning process where we are starting to pay off some of our vendors. I am proud to say that we have paid off the cake and the flowers, and really the only expenses we have left are the DJ, food, and hotel. Of course, I can't pay for our hotel rooms until we use them! We will make final payments with the DJ in a couple of weeks, and with the caterer when we have our final head count (two weeks before the wedding). It looks like we are just barely going to make our minimum of 100 people, which is just fine. We are so lucky to have 100 people in our lives who would travel or spend the time to witness our marriage. We are less than four weeks away (and so far, under budget, too)!

28. Engagement pictures

We went to take engagement pictures today, and it was so much fun! We got together with our photographers, and headed downtown for a day of pictures. I think Cory and I both felt really self-conscious a lot of the time, because we're not used to being the center of attention so much. I guess we just have to get used to that part, because I'm sure more than a few people will be looking at us on our wedding day, too. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day (all pictures by Charbonnet Photography):

29. RSVPlease send that card back in

Today's a short one. I just want to send up a call to the cosmos - we have a week until the response date, and we're still waiting to hear from over 50 people! I'm not looking at anyone in particular (Cory's family), but we do have to make decisions on food and knowing how many people are coming might help that. Not looking forward to all the phone calls we'll have to make, for sure. I promise in the future to always send my RSVP right away.

At least it makes going to the mailbox a little more exciting.

30. Fitting in the dress, and fitting the dress to me!

Okay, I won't be showing pictures of my dress, but I thought I'd at least talk a little about how the alterations went. It doesn't sound exciting, but it was pretty interesting, actually. We went a little over a month ago to see the alterations lady at David's Bridal, and I got all the layers of stuff on for my dress, and we went to work.

I knew it was too long (I'm a shortie - 5'2"), but there were several other places that were just too big or too weird on me. I'm a true petite, short waisted and short legged, so she had to pin it on the sides and through the bust, too. Plus, there is an asymmetrical drape over the front, so that had to be shortened since the hem was being shortened. The halter neck was way too big, so that was pinned, and then we had to create a bustle. Mine is a five-point French bustle, and basically the point of it is to fold up the back of my dress so that the train does not drag on the ground at the reception. You leave it down for the ceremony, and bustle it for the reception so you can dance all night without anyone stepping on your skirt!

I got to try on the finished product last night, and it was so worth it! The dress fits me to a T (I guess that is the point, isn't it), and I feel really ready to be a bride. It was the first time I tried it on that I didn't want to take it off.

31. Registering... is fun?

Today is the one month mark for the wedding! It's amazing to me that all the work we have done in the past seven months will be finished, and we'll be getting married. Of course, there are still some things to do (I have a dress fitting today, even), but it's nice to see it all come together!

We registered several months ago, but there are some things I have learned since then that I would love to have known beforehand. For instance, when someone tells you that you can return a gift if you want, even if you don't plan to you should take the receipt! We got a gift at our shower that was a duplicate of one that had been shipped to our house that we didn't know about. Now we have the choice of trying to ship back the one we actually registered for (and like better) or try to get a receipt from someone who lives 500 miles away.

Also, I would have kept a list of what we thought of every time we said, "I wish we had one of those" or "That would come in really handy." That's the kind of stuff I feel like we're missing from the registry - like TV trays (which have since been added)! I don't want to add them this late because I'm trying not to look at the registry at all, because people are actually buying from it now.

I am glad we registered early. You do have to watch, especially at places like Target, for things going out of stock on clearance. Just know that if you register for something seasonal, if you wedding is more than a couple months away, it might not be there when the season your wedding is in comes around. Also, Cory and I went to two stores, but I took my mom to the other one. Cory got to pick out stuff he was interested in at Target and Bed Bath & Beyond, but he's not interested in serving pieces or anything by Martha Stewart (though he did like the Hotel sheets we registered for), so Mom went to Macy's with me.

Registering is fun; it's full of excitement and hope and you can have a blast thinking about how things will fit in your new life together. I would just recommend bringing a snack! We got really tired and hungry at the end, because you do spend several hours in the store. It was totally worth it, though.

32. I can't think of anything clever to say about veils.

When I first got engaged, I didn't think I would be the kind of girl who had a traditional veil at her wedding. I love the vintage look of a birdcage veil, like this:

from Whitney Lee Photography

As I tried on my dress a couple more times, though, I started to have second thoughts. What if I regretted not having a wispy traditional veil? We tried on a few at the store, and I really started to fall in love with the idea. I went home and stewed about it, and ended up getting one like this:

from David's Bridal

I have to say, I'm still a little torn about it, but I think what I might do is have the long veil for the wedding, and switch to the short one for the reception. Best of both worlds? I hope so!

33. BP in the BR

Bachelorette Party in Baton Rouge, that is!

Right after the shower, the girls and I headed over to the Melting Pot for cheese and chocolate. It was so yummy! We had a cheddar cheese and a white cheese blend (that included blue cheese) for the appetizer fondues, and then for the chocolate ones we had a Turtle (dark chocolate, caramel, and pecans) and a Sex Kitten (white chocolate, marshmallow creme, Bailey's, and Oreo crumbles). After all the food at the shower, we didn't think we would really be that hungry, but somehow everything mysteriously got eaten. :-)

Christon had organized the party and had goodie bags for everyone with tiaras and necklaces. Mine was a special tiara with a veil, as you'll see in the pictures below. She also made a picture frame with a mat inside for everyone to write "advice for the bride." All the girls wrote such sweet things, but I was good; I didn't cry!

I don't have pictures yet of the Melting Pot or the place we went immediately afterward (the Texas club), but the last stop of the night was North Gate Tavern, and we had a blast there, too! We ended up staying until closing. There was a band playing, and a couple of our other friends were there and buying us drinks. We danced and laughed and had a great time listening to the music.

Here are some pictures! Not pictured are Cory's sister, Stephanie (who left after dinner to see her sweet baby) and my friend Christy (who had an exam coming up, so she had to leave early - I was so glad she made it out with us that night!). All images from Tiger Weekly.

Julianne, me, Erin


Amanda and Christon


Everyone that made it to North Gate! Amanda, Chris, Julianne, Christon, me, Erin


Us with the owner, Sam


Soon to be family - Cory's cousin Cade and his wife, Erin. How cute!

34. April showers start early...

We went to our first shower this weekend. It was a couples' shower given by Cory's family in Louisiana. It was so much fun! There were around 40 people there, mostly family, but several of our friends came. I don't have any of the pictures yet, but I wanted to write about it so I didn't forget everything.

His sister Stephanie organized most of it, and did such a great job. She made all the decorations blue and green (like our colors) with touches of brown. She even bought green and blue flowers for all the arrangements, and made centerpieces for the tables from clear, square vases filled with blue and green candy. The cake was from Ambrosia bakery, and was a vanilla cake with half Bavarian cream filling and half strawberries and cream filling - so delicious! There was a ton of food - jambalaya, Boudin balls, taco salad dip, baked beans, salad, chips and dip, cream puffs, eclairs, brownies, and probably other stuff I can't remember, too. Everyone really went all out on the buffet.

We got a bunch of things we registered for, including a lot of kitchen stuff. My favorite thing was from Stephanie and her family - a Wii Fit! Cory and I played with it some last night and it's really fun.

I had such a great time at the shower. I can't wait for the next one!

35. Flowers in her hair, flowers everywhere...

We're out of town right now for our couples' shower in Louisiana, but I wanted to post at least a few pictures. Here are the inspiration pictures of the flowers for our wedding. We are using Aaron Fowler at Anything Grows florist.

For my bouquet, ivory roses with green orchids peeking out. From The Knot.

For the ladies, a mixture of green flowers. I think this is a great pop of color! This picture and the next are from Style Me Pretty.

For the groomsmen, just a couple of buttons. Cory will get something like this plus an ivory rose, like my bouquet.

I love these flowers because they are modern, colorful, and still have that romantic touch that flowers bring.

36. Cake!

It took us a while to figure out what we wanted our cake to look like. I knew I wanted something simple that incorporated our colors without looking tacky or like a kid's cake. Then I found a cake on Style Me Pretty that I knew would be our inspiration cake.




Ours will be very similar, except the bottom tier will be round. It will have aqua fondant ribbon around the base of each layer, and a white scrollwork design on the white icing. For accents, we will use flowers like the ones in the picture.

As far as flavors, we are pretty sure that most or all of the cake will be vanilla, but I'm debating having the middle layer being something different. Have you ever been to a wedding where the cake wasn't vanilla, but you loved it?

37. Invitations

One thing I knew I wanted to do myself was the invitations. I didn't go overboard with detail and artistic flair, but I tried to make them simple, but unique. I used Adobe Illustrator to design a circle logo with our wedding date on it, and used it with a polka dot ribbon at the top. Then I found a great script font for our names and a simple font for the information.



I designed our RSVP's, too! They are postcards (cute and saves on postage, too). For those, I designed a simple scroll frame logo, with our names in the same script font as the invites.



I think the coolest thing about making our invitations has been seeing the RSVP's come in the mail. Kind of neat to think that my artwork is making its way through the postal system to me from all over the country!

38. One more check off the To Do list - honeymoon booked!

I am so excited to say that we finally took care of booking the honeymoon! We had been going back and forth about this for awhile, because I really wanted to go someplace with a beach, but beaches aren't Cory's favorite place (he's not fond of the heat). Also, we were debating how much money to spend (well, neither of us really wanted to spend a lot).

We talked about going to an all-inclusive like Sandals, which I would still like to do one day, but it was just out of our price range for right after the wedding. We also talked about going to San Francisco, but I was worried that being there for a week, with food, hotel, and airfare, was going to be just as pricey. We have some friends that are part of a vacation rental network, and we thought about going someplace through them for a bargain price. But a lot of the places were near the beach but not on it. So I did a little hunting around and found a great place in Destin. It's a condo on the beach called Sealoft, it has private beach access, and it has a Jacuzzi tub in it!

Here she is!

The weather in Destin in early April is mid 70s during the day, and mid 50s at night, so it's warm and sunny but not too hot for Cory. With the beach right there, we can go out to the water or just enjoy watching the surf from our patio! Really, I think the Jacuzzi was what sealed the deal for him. I'm just glad we can look forward to it now!

One last picture - the view from our patio.

39. Pretty maids all in a row

When it came to the bridesmaid dresses, my first idea was to have all of the girls pick out a color dress near aqua, from wherever they wanted. Kind of like this (from my aim is true):


So I spread the word, and when my beautiful maid and matron of honor heard about it, they decided to make it even easier on me! They actually preferred going to David's Bridal (where I got my dress). So I picked a particular color, and all five of the girls got different dresses in that color.

What is so great is that I didn't put any restrictions on the style, and all five of them ended up picking different dresses, which was exactly what I wanted in the first place! That way, everyone feels comfortable because they are in the style they felt was the most flattering to them.

I can't wait to see how they all look on the big day!

40. The location.

I never really thought too much about where I would get married until I got engaged. Then, all of a sudden there are a million questions. Would we get married in a church? Would we get married outside? What date were we even thinking about? What would we have to rent ourselves, depending on the venue (like tables and linens)?

We decided to pick April as the month, and choose the date based on availability at our favorite venue. Because we're not regular churchgoers, we figured we would probably not get married in a church. I did a little research and fell in love with the Pink Palace. Then I called. As much as we loved it, the venue was way too expensive for our budget.

So what next? Well, my sister did some Googling for me and came up with a place called the Balinese Ballroom. We made an appointment the next day, and the loft style ballroom, with its hardwood floors, huge windows, and downtown setting, totally sold us. Tables and linens were included, and the fee was really reasonable, so we put a deposit down that day! The last two weeks in April were booked, and we really wanted to get married on a Saturday, so that led us to our date: April 4, 2009.

The only real regret I have is that we did not check to make sure that the ballroom was handicap accessible (it isn't). We have a couple of relatives in wheelchairs, and we only thought of the number of guests when we booked it, and not about any of the individual needs of our guests. I know not everyone will run into this problem, but I wish someone had made me think about it beforehand. We think we may have found a workaround, but it was something we wouldn't have had to worry about if we had planned for it.

41. Fun stuff - colors!

I think one of the most fun (and at the same time, difficult!) things to do for the wedding was to pick the color scheme. We didn't really have a "theme" we wanted per se, so we tried to just narrow it down to a couple of colors that could tie everything together.

We went to Home Depot and picked a bunch of different paint samples, and mixed and matched until we came up with a combination of lime green and turquoise. The turquoise was a little dark, so we lightened it up to an aqua, and it ended up looking a lot like the color scheme of this wedding.

Style Me Pretty is a great site with lots of beautiful weddings, and I'd recommend it to anyone trying to figure out what they want their wedding to look like! Snippet & Ink is another site that has tons of different color schemes. You can even select one color you like and look at all the others they have paired with it.

I love our color scheme because it's fun and lively, and really matches the tone of our spring wedding without being too feminine. I can't wait to see it all come together!

42. Probably the least fun thing to talk about...

The budget.

I'm generally an open person when it comes to things like this, and budget weddings are definitely the trend right now, so I'm just going to put it out there. I wanted our wedding budget to be $5000.

It's currently about $10,000.

Yes, we are paying for this wedding ourselves. And with wedding averages in the mid $20,000's, we're not doing too badly. Our goal is to pay for the wedding without going into any debt, and right now I think we are doing pretty well on that. We have even come in under budget on some items, like our wedding rings (I got mine from a jewelry store that was going out of business)!

Here are some things we are doing to save money:
* No favors. Well, we are technically having matchbooks with our name and wedding date on them, but they came in at around $30 for 200. Most of the time, people don't even pick them up!
* No programs. Everybody looks at these once, then throws them away, and that's if they even look at them. Need a better argument? See here.
* I bought my dress at David's Bridal for $349, and Cory's tux is free because his groomsmen are renting there. I found a veil I liked at DB, but instead of buying it there, I got it for $30 cheaper on eBay.
* We price shopped for our location. Ours is $1200 but includes all table/linen/plate/glassware rentals. The first place we looked was three times as much and didn't include anything!
* Our wedding and reception are in the same place. Only one location fee, and no need to rent transportation.
* We're serving wine and beer instead of doing a full bar, but we have the option of buying a couple types of liquor to bring if we want. This is saving us around $800.
* I made our wedding invitations myself. Instead of paying 3 or 4 dollars per invitation, I probably spent around $1, and they have my own personal design!

There are lots of other ways to save money at weddings, and we did have a couple of splurges. But our cutbacks in other areas are allowing us, at this point anyway, to stay under our budget.

43. Where it all started...

I guess if I am going to start on a new path with this blog, I should begin at the beginning. The proposal.

It was August 1, 2008. We were in Baton Rouge for the weekend. Cory's parents had just bought some land in southern Mississippi, and we went there for the day to see it. It was really quiet, kind of in the middle of nowhere, and very relaxing. We walked around the property, went fishing for awhile (Cory almost caught one, but that was the closest we got), and then went to dinner with his parents before heading back to the city for the night.

We had talked about going to our favorite bar in Baton Rouge, the Chimes, for a few drinks when we got back, but I was starting to get tired and took out my contacts. I was sitting at the bar in the kitchen, picking at some leftover fried chicken from dinner. Cory, on the other hand, wasn't tired at all! He wanted to know if I still wanted to go out, but I didn't really feel like it after our long day. Then, he told me, "I think we should go out and celebrate." My immediate reaction was, "Celebrate what?"

At that point, he got down on one knee, and pulled out the ring!



As you might guess, I really wasn't so tired anymore after that. I said "Of course!", and put the ring on my finger, and it fit perfectly! He picked it out himself, and had told no one until proposed, and it is such a beautiful ring. I love looking at it still because it reminds me of that day and all the effort he put into finding the perfect ring and surprising me.

44. Hm, blog, what?

I haven't written in this blog in a long time. I am setting a new goal for myself. I am getting married in 44 days. Every day until then, I am going to write a blog. I want to have something to remember my wedding by, other than just a couple of pictures of the day, and maybe it will help someone else trying to plan their own wedding! Anyway, stay tuned!

Product review: Stila Plumping Lip Glaze

Lately, I've become a lot more of a makeup junkie. Not like the type that works at MAC, all drag-queened out, but I just like collecting makeup, and trying out lots of different kinds. So, I'm going to start blogging about the kinds I try. I figure I might as well pass on what I'm learning to other people who might try the same things.

I've avoided lip products for awhile. I might pick up the occasional lipstick or whatever, but for the most part, I tend to emphasize my eyes if I'm doing makeup. That being said, I went to Sephora a couple of weeks ago and got a sample of this awesome stuff. I liked it so much, I went back and bought a full-sized one (in Cherry Mint).

I love the way the gloss feels, a little tingly but not painful. It's not too sticky, either. The color is sheer and flattering, and there's just a tiny bit of glitter in it so it's not too annoying (I usually hate glittery lip stuff). I like it enough that it's my go-to lip gloss for summer. At least for now, anyway.

HBO new series: John from Cincinnati

Did anybody else watch this show? More to the point, did anyone understand it?

John from Cincinnati is a show about a family of surfers. Mitch, the retired-due-to-injury surfer; his wife, Sissy, who is about the biggest hippie I've ever seen; their son Butch (Butchie), the retired-due-to-heroin surfer; and his son Shaun, the junior surfer.

Also, there is randomly some guy who supposedly is not named John and not from Cincinnati. He repeats just about everything everyone says, and nobody really knows who he is, but everyone assumes someone else knows.

I'm really not quite sure what to think of this show. The characters are interesting enough, but the show is pretty fast paced for a pilot. I feel like the dialogue assumes we know more than we do. This might be a device to pull us in farther, but it made me feel alienated from what was happening.

Give me some feedback if you're watching this one. I haven't decided if it's going on my To Do list or not.

Knitting, and also complaining about things -- plus, those little silver balls

Wow, the title of this blog seems so harmless, right? Not for some people.

I found out recently when I was listening to a knitting podcast (yes, I knit; I'm still learning, but mostly I am just trying out different podcasts of all types) that a company is trying to eliminate all instances of groups naming themselves Stitch 'n Bitch (or any variant thereof). The company, which I will not name here but you can see in the Wikipedia article, has a cafe with that phrase in the title, and trademarked the name of the cafe (not the phrase itself). However, they are sending lawyers out around the internet, patrolling and forcing removal of Yahoo! groups and CafePress accounts that use the phrase (not the name of the cafe). So, basically, all these little communities are being removed or forced to change their names because a company is trying to claim rights to a phrase first used around the time of WWII.

As Ophelia Ford might say, "That is duuuuuuuumb."

On a related note (related in that it is something dumb being done in an area of interest of mine), do you remember those little silver balls people put on cookies and cakes and stuff. They're called dragees, and they are now pretty much outlawed in California. There's a lawyer there who sues any shop that sells them because he considers them "toxic." Here is an excerpt from this article:

"Napa lawyer Mark Pollock takes silver dragees very seriously. He started suing to force dragees off the California market when he was a Solano County prosecutor in the early 1990s, and got the spice giant McCormick to stop selling them in the state. Now an environmental lawyer in private practice, he sprang back into action last spring when dragees surged back into vogue after Martha Stewart used them on holiday cookies."

Now, they do contain silver, which can build up over time and become toxic. But you'd have to eat quite a few of them, don't you think? Not to mention, I haven't heard anything about this guy trying to outlaw silver dusting over cakes and stuff, which is pretty popular, too. The FDA classifies dragees as non-edible, but they are basically hard sugar balls with a silver coating. I've always been more afraid of breaking a tooth than being poisoned.

It just goes to show that no matter what kind of fun you're having, there's always going to be a buzzkill out there.

I'm going to try to go back to more regular blogging, now that I'm up on my new computer (Windows Vista, ooh shiny). I'll try to think of something a little happier for my next blog!

I've been a little lax on the blogging...

Work has really picked up lately, and with that and some extracurricular activities, I haven't had much time to blog. I'm about to go watch the American Idol results, though, and I thought I'd make my predictions.

No commentary for this week, mainly because I don't have time, but also because I think last week's votes are going to decide the eliminations. For those of you who don't know, they didn't kick anyone off last week. Two people go home tonight.

My predictions for the bottom three: Blake, Chris, LaKisha

Going home: I can't decide! Definitely LaKisha. My guess is Chris, but I hope it's Blake instead, based off his decision to do "Imagine" and his bizarre version of "You Give Love a Bad Name."