January was busy, much busier than most normal months, and those seem to be busy enough. I managed to get a lot of the loose ends of the wedding squared away, and I also managed to get some time to myself. It was great all around.
Favorites of January:
+ cinnamon roll coffee
+ wedding planning
+ sleeping til 11 on Sundays
+ babysitting for the tiny ones
+ playing Hedbandz with Darcy and Jeremy and Greg
+ new Moleskine
+ spending time with my camera (I needed that)
+ blog planning
+ having a good audit
+ photos with Greg
+ gaining a few pounds
+ new clothes
+ lace
Instagram is still my favorite. I know a lot of people have signed up for Vine, which is similar to Instagram, but in video form. I haven’t jumped on the wagon yet, and I probably won’t in the near future. I don’t have time for any more apps! I already check FB, Instagram, Twitter, and Flickr. I am trying my best to spend as little time off and away from my phone, not add more, even if it’s in short 6-second clips. Life is much simpler without the distraction.
Life has been crazy busy. While I’ve been living and breathing wedding planning, I’m trying to get used to driving this new chair, which is easier said than done. It’s a few inches wider than my other one, and it screws me up. I had crashed more than once into door jams. Woops.
I’m getting super serious about gaining weight (again) too. I bought some good protein drinks, plus a lot of stuff to eat throughout the day. Not necessarily bad stuff, avocados and pasta mostly. And ice cream. Mmhmm.
I put a few new prints in the Etsy shop.I had originally made one for my sister to frame, and I’ve been asked a few times where I got. Well, here they are!
I think my wedding could be categorized as a Mashup-Of-Pinterest-And-Crazy-Carrie-Ideas. It started out yellow and gray, and when I picked my dress, lace changed the whole thing again. I found this idea originally on Pinterest, and I decided to use the lace I already had picked for our table runners and centerpieces to finish it up.
I love it. No, really, I love it. It turned out a million times better than I dreamed it would. In fact, I thought I would be buying another book and trying something else because I would mess this one up. But no, this book will be around for many years. On our bookshelf in our new home one day.
I started by painting the front cover and back cover in an ivory paint (they were originally black) and then wrapped them in a piece of the lace that will be laid on our tables. I knew that if it looked messy, it would be okay. I wanted it to look somewhat imperfect right from the beginning.
Then I started wrapping lace and hot-gluing. It didn’t take long. Maybe a half hour. <3 The lace flower was the finishing touch, until I found those little pearls on clearance at Hobby Lobby. I couldn’t pass them up. And as I expected, it was perfect.
I love people looking at us and thinking “Ah, they are so in love.” (I’m looking at you, Jim.) Because we are. I love people knowing that.
I am going to be a little sad when all the planning becomes real, and it is over. Not sad in a depressed way, just sad like we are closing that part of our relationship. I am so excited to open the MARRIED part though. To start a different kind of planning (the house and babies). To start life together.
Being engaged makes me feel a little like Cinderella. Everyone ask questions and wants to know the details. It seems like a wedding piques interest on a whole different level. It’s fun to gush over some things (invitations that I have still found myself smitten with) and hard to keep others hidden (the dress. I want to show you so bad, but I want even more for it to be a surprise). I am getting into high gear with things and am determined to have every single thing ready on 4-27-13. It’s work, but it’s so fun. I need a few extra hours in my day, but thankfully I have a flexible job that allows for some planning on breaks.
Being engaged is my favorite, but I can’t wait till I’m a wife.
I don’t know if it’s my hormones or the fact that we are getting married in the near future (down to double digits now!) or that everyone is having babies. But I am having baby fever bad.
I want a little one (boy or girl–it doesn’t matter at all), and even though I need to be patient (I think we should probably be close to done with our house before we plan for a baby) I wish I could be in the pregnancy stage already. The getting-the-nursery-ready stage. The big-belly stage.
I’m not scared to have a baby. I have been an aunt since I was 5, and I know what it takes to be a good mommy. And Greg is going to be a great daddy. Our kids are already lucky, right!?
Spinal cord injury doesn’t stop me from having children–but, of course, there are more risks. For me, the joy and excitement of being a mommy will far outweigh any risk to myself. As long as we have a healthy, happy baby. I have recently reconnected with a girl (woman, now) whose injury level and function are very similar to my own….and her baby is just a few months old. I basically squealed when I learned she was a new mom. I am going to have a million questions for her later on, and I am comforted that she won’t mind.
So, I give it a year. We’ll check back in on this topic then and see what’s happening. Maybe there will already be a nursery and baby ready to come. Maybe we’ll just be starting the plan. But there is definitely a plan for a plan.
I was set from the very beginning that I would design my own invites, all the way through. There was no doubt in my mind that I could do it, and make them pretty.
I have finally finished them up, and they are (almost) ready to send out the door.
I designed the invites in Illustrator and printed them on Paper Source 5×7 gravel flat cards. The RSVPs were designed to fit in 4-bar envelopes, and they were also designed in Illustrator and printed on sunshine 5×7 flat cards. The envelope liners are cut from Echo Park gray and white chevron paper. They’re simple and happy, and I love the way they turned out. Better than I expected.
I added paper doilies inside so that it ties in with all the lace that is now incorporated throughout our entire wedding. I didn’t want two whole separate avenues with these, and I wanted the lace to make sense. To me, it does.
A DIY wedding wasn’t really in my agenda, but I am so glad that I have been in charge of every step of the wedding now. It means so much to me that people like it, and I hope that they see how “us” every aspect is.
This pretty little thing turned 6 last Saturday, and she was loving it.
She had a very pretty pink party on Sunday, and it was fun. Sandra made the huge tissue paper flowers (attached to sticks from the yard), and Payden made the pink strawberry double-layer Hello Kitty cake. She even made her own fondant.
We survived the audit. Survived and did better than expected (in my mind anyway). This past year was full of changes and additions to my job. I took on tracking energy consumption. When the Safety Manager was fired, I took over a good chunk of safety tracking, and it all slowed me down on quality issues. So I was nervous that I might have missed something really important along the way.
But he didn’t find it, if I did.
I can breathe again. (And get cracking on this wedding.)
So this weekend is about taking it easy and hanging with my boy, who I must say is very supportive when he knows I am stressed. Another reason to love him to bits.
It’s audit week, which means I’ll be quiet. And stressed and working weird hours. Our audit isn’t really the normal audit that everyone thinks of. It has nothing to do with money or accounting. Our audit at work deals with ISO. Job procedures and records and keeping track of the right information that customers might ask for later.
My part of the job deals with keeping it all up to date and organized and available when requested. Documents need to be reviewed every year, signed, and put into books for production guys to find. Training records need to be checked for completion. Internal audits will be looked at. Plus more. It’s a long process to go through, and though we work hard throughout the year to keep it in order, it’s always a scramble to the finish line before the audit.
This year, I am both stressed and strangely calm at the same time. We have gotten a lot done and caught up, but Mandy has been sick, and she’s my right hand when it comes to audits. Our manager, Dave, has been out on vacation and now sick since before Christmas. I hope it all falls into place. If not, we’ll be fine and fix whatever problems the auditor finds (it’s a new guy this year, sigh).
I’ll gladly welcome a good slow day at work and good night’s sleep at the end of this week.
+ I wish for motivation. I am going to get the wedding done on time!
+ I wish for patience. I have to learn to go by other people’s schedules rather than only my own.
+ I wish for courage. With so many changes happening, I am going to have to get used to being brave.
+ I wish for memories. April is going to be full of so many reasons to be happy.
+ I wish for fun, to relax and fill every moment with happiness.
+ I wish for simplicity. I want to center my life around the essential people and things that I want to be a part of my future.
+ I wish for sunshine. Because sunshine makes everything better.
+ I wish for creativity. I want to crank out ideas and decide which ones I want to make available to others.
+ I wish for laughs. I love laughs.
+ I wish for inspiration. By the end of the year I will be feeling dry of ideas. I’ll need as much help as I can get.
+ I wish for understanding. I am going to be making big changes, ones that will be hard for me at first, so I am hoping for understanding on everyone else’s part.
+ I wish for comfort. Holidays and comfort go hand-in-hand.
I picked one word I wanted to focus on this year. A word I want to use over and over and be present in my everyday life. I wanted a word that I don’t just say, but a word that I can live.
My word for 2013 is: wish. It’s a magical little word that packs a lot of hope and optimism into it four little letters. I want my 2013 to be full of wishes. Small and big. Simple and complex. Slow and fast. Easy and hard. I want to wish for something every single day – even if it never comes true – It means that I am motivated to move forward and work for it.
Considering that this year is going to be busy (I’m tired already) and stressful (My hair might turn gray), I am making goals that are easier to achieve than goals of years past. In fact, that’s half the reason I made no goals last year. It felt great, but I also missed knowing that I had a list in front of me of things that I wanted to accomplish. 2013 is just going to be simple on goals – not outrageously long or hard, but achievable and markable. I’ll keep track of them here (of course).
And they are:
+ more pictures with Greg (at least one a month! We are so hit & miss at remembering to get us together)
+ steady savings on money (no extra spending on ANYTHING unessential)
+ journal 3x per week
+ get 3 paid photo sessions
+ read 10 (or more) books
+ phase out of Facebook
+ send snail mail at least once per week (does not include bills)
+ 3 DIY projects from Pinterest
+ instagram once per day (minimum)
+ have a house built (duh)
+ go bowling
+ visit 2 different states
+ learn to crochet something with a pattern
+ GET MARRIED!
In The Process of Living 