Spelling>crafting (for today)

My name is Claire, and I’m a spelling bee junkie. One of the few benefits of not having a traditional job: I can set aside time to pursue other things. Today was the preliminaries of the National Spelling Bee, and so, for much of the day, I was in front of my computer playing along. While I am not perfect, spelling is one of my strengths, so this is just fun.

Also, today begins 30 Days of Creativity, which is kinda like NaNoWriMo for crafty people. I am, in theory, supposed to create something every day during the month of June. I don’t think I’m off to a good start. Does my spelling list count? It is 25 pages in my little notebook. 🙂

See, I got most of them right!

Crafting for my sanity

Some of you might know that these last few weeks have been rough for me. So I’ve been crafting to get through the long aimless days. As you saw in my last post, I learned to sew, and since then, I’ve made a robe, and I’m working on a skirt. But things are looking generally up. I have a new job, a wedding in less than 2 months, and I’m prepping for a move after the wedding. I made this afghan to get rid of some yarn. Yet somehow I still have a lot of yarn. Anyone want to speculate how this happened?

Also, Penny is a camera hog.

I’m sew crafty

I have finally conquered one of the few needlecrafts that I haven’t been able to do. I can sew. I’ve tinkered with sewing machines before, but I had never sat down to learn for real. (Thanks Mom!) Sewing came surprisingly easily, except for making the bobbin and threading the machine. And cutting straight lines. I cut like a kindergartener.

After two days of work, I made a tote bag!  I think this might be another addiction, but I can think of worse addictions to have.

Check out my craft therapy:

Oh blog, how I have missed you

I hope you all have missed me too. It’s been a while since I posted, but a lot has gotten done. We’ve set a menu, ordered a cake and flowers, chosen some lovely tuxes for the guys, and designed our invitations.

So I’ve suddenly found myself with more time on my hands than I’m used to. It’s been an adjustment, but I’m loving having more time to craft. Here’s what I’ll be using as decorations for the side of the pew. (Inspired by this link. Warning: Project Wedding is very addicting.)

I’m very happy with it, as I’ve been able to work some newspaper in. It’s how Lee and I met, and I had wanted it because it was so us, but couldn’t find something I liked that wouldn’t require ridiculous amounts of time.

OK, so that’s 2 down, 16 to go. Lucky for me, I have more than 2 months to go.

Also, Penny is growing up, and she’ll be 1 soon. Look at how adorable she is!

Engagement photos are here!

Lee and I had our engagement photos taken in Milledgeville a few weeks ago (fitting, as it’s where he proposed) by the wonderful Brittany Thomas http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brittany-Michelle/145577615224.

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Stand back…I’m going to try Indian food

I just finished cooking garam masala chicken…and just finished eating it too. And it was delicious.
Plus you can’t go wrong with some mango lassi to drink. The only thing missing from my wonderful meal: naan. I really wanted that delicious bread. Too bad I have to go Atlanta to get it. Oh, well, jasmine rice worked too. I think everyone should try Indian food at least once. It’s not all spicy and curry-filled.
All this tastiness stemmed from visiting Olive Forge this weekend. It’s an herb farm in Haddock/Milledgeville that has some of the best teas and a huge selection of spices. Plus the couple who run it are the nicest people.
So I came home with sweet basil, lavender flowers and of course, garam masala. Also multiple types of tea. And handmade buttons.
I’ll end this post of rambling about food with some lovely photos. But also, blog readers, be very excited. Lee and I have had our engagement photos taken, and we should be getting them in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

Here are the lovely roses Lee sent to my work on Valentine’s Day.

And as, promised, my tasty Indian food.

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I’m a slacker/I love the internet

Once again, I haven’t posted in a while. Mostly because I hadn’t done much more than work for my paycheck. But the great address roundup has begun. And this is where I sing my praises to the internet. I don’t know how I would be doing this without it.

Luckily my family has a nice address that covers everyone, but then you have to track down the college friends who aren’t around to ask. Thanks to Facebook, we’ve got a lot of the addresses we need. How on earth did people do this stuff before the internet and cell phones? Enlighten me please.

But yes, the big day’s only five months away. Wow. Still so much to do. But right now, I’m baking cookies due to cat withdrawal. Penny’s getting declawed.

So much for my being a humane pet owner. Penny’s clawed the couch, my guests and me, and despite my best efforts and copious squirts with a spray bottle, she hasn’t stopped. My apartment’s a little too quiet and uneventful right now. Hence the cookies. My coworkers will be pleased.

Now for something completely different

Yes, I know it’s been a while. Life’s been crazy, and work has been particularly awful in the last week or so. Too much going on, not enough people to do it. You know the drill, but I should at least be grateful to have a job, I guess.

Today’s blog post is written by guest blogger/wonderful fiance, Lee. This will be published in the Covington News annual bridal guide, which as news editor he put together, and naturally as the groom-to-be, he was the obvious choice to write the introductory column. Enjoy!

Putting a wedding together has a lot in common with putting a newspaper or magazine together. It takes a combination of different elements, provided by many people, that all have to come together nicely into a single arrangement. Article copy, photos and other page elements are neatly reflected by dresses, tuxedos, caterers, ministers and more. Crud, I just scared myself again.

Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Lee Sandow, 24, of Covington. I do the page layout of the Covington News for a living, including paginating special publications like this Bridal Guide. Also, in October, I asked my wonderful girlfriend, Claire, to marry me.

She said yes, so let’s fast forward to now. We’ve set a date for July of this year, picked a location and asked her pastor to wed us. She bought her dress a few weekends ago, and from what the bridesmaids have told me, it’s purple and orange, and somehow features feathers. I think they might be pulling my leg.

There’s still a bit to do. More than a bit, to be honest. My married readers are probably chuckling to themselves right now about how much of an understatement that just was.

I’ll admit, all this planning has been more difficult and time consuming than I expected it to be. So many elements are reliant on others, and as each decision is made, it raises only more questions that need more decisions.

For example, the bridesmaids will be wearing cyan. Unless we change our minds again, but let’s assume we won’t. So from there, we need to figure out what flowers will go with that. And from there, what do the tuxes need to look like? What other decorations will we need to match? What about everything in the reception? Should our save-the-date cards and invitations match?

We’re both designers, so we’re sticklers for a theme. What that theme should be made up more than a few hours of deliberations, trial and error and eventual consensus. The good news is that while we might occasionally have differing opinions on the finer points of this whole wedding thing, we’ve been able to meet in the middle and not have any serious disagreements. That’s probably a good sign.

So to make this bridal guide, I put together a list of everything that goes into planning a wedding. Then I asked my married coworkers to tell me what I had forgotten to add to the list, and once they had (the list size doubled, by the way) we all set to writing. Now it’s time to put it together and see just how much my fiancée and I have to do. It may be a lot of work, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m a chameleon

No, I haven’t grown scales, but I have been second guessing my colors. From the moment I started thinking about the wedding, I just assumed aqua, black and white. But since ordering my dress, it doesn’t seem right anymore. Of course I’m changing them to orange and purple just like my dress ;). With feathered centerpieces.

No, seriously, I kept thinking about the summer. I felt the need for color. Less chill and a little happier. So I went to the other end of the spectrum for a bit, and explored rich corals and reddish oranges. But it didn’t quite click either. So, I’m back to my aqua. I’m told that people instantly associate it with me, and I’ll be adding a little extra color.

This little hiccup has made me realize how hard it is not to buy into the wedding cash cow empire. You think you don’t need much, and it’s true, but you see something adorable and can’t resist. So you’re tempted to buy stuff, and it all adds up, and then you’re contributing to that statistic that weddings are now ridiculously expensive.

I think these little things are so cute, and I can still do it myself (I think). Wedding planning is much more fun when your bridesmaids love them some Martha :).

Though I’ve scrapped my original crafty idea, I’m still determined to do crafty, cute things. My wedding wouldn’t be right if I didn’t make something. So, armed with new ideas, I’m ready to take this by storm. You might get a preview of a motif I have in mind.

Also, thanks everyone for reading, and I love reading your comments. It’s nice to know that people are interested in what I’m writing.

I said yes to a dress

Yesterday was the long awaited bridal store appointment. My entourage (bridesmaids, mother, mother-in-law) came together, and went to a shop called Wedding Angels in Roswell. After trying on 5 or 6 different dresses and weighing veil options, I chose a perfect dress for me. And oddly enough, I had that moment where I knew that the dress I had on was “the” dress, but without the crying thing you always see on Say Yes to the Dress.

As my fiance reads this blog, I can’t give out photos or details, but we’ve been telling him that it’s orange and purple; we just couldn’t resist those Clemson colors. Depending on the time, there’s feathers too.

My dress will be ready in June, just enough time for alterations for my short self. But I have still have so much to do, that’s just one decision knocked out.