What I Wore Wednesday

Something new for you today, readers. I know you're excited for a non-wedding post! Okay, so the thing is I have gotten into a bad habit the last year or so. I got into the habit of wearing sloppy clothes. Sweats, yoga pants, tshirts and tank tops.

In my defense I was working as a preschool teacher for a big portion of that time and it's much easier to play with 3 and 4 year old children when you're not inhibited by tight jeans and get messy when you're not wearing something very nice. But as the weather has gotten really nice this summer and I finished teaching at the preschool, I found that I was still living in my comfy clothes.

My feelings of self-worth went down as I continued to wear sloppy clothes. I stopped feeling attractive and lost interest in making an effort with my appearance. But enough is enough.

There is a movement in the blogger community to hold oneself accountable on personal appearance for stay-at-home-moms with a pictorial record of what they have been wearing. Forcing themselves to make the effort to dress nicely once a week can make a big difference. So that's what I'm doing.

So no, I'm not a stay-at-home-mom, but I'm still going to do this challenge for the whole year. Every Wednesday I'm going to post a picture of what I'm wearing. I actually started this last week and have found already that I am trying to dress better on other days as well. So here are the photos from the last two weeks:

 

So there you go. Two weeks of dressing with care. 

Keeping in Theme

One of the biggest decisions I made was regarding color. See, I really like color. Lots of it, patterns, mismatched and sometimes in-your-face loud.

disclaimer- I might just like to think I'm this way about color.

The thing is though, I couldn't make a decision regarding colors when we got engaged and started planning this wedding. So I decided not to make a decision on a single color, but to use them all!

A rainbow wedding it was!

Image via: Want That Wedding

See, that was easy. Now I could use any color I wanted and however I wanted to. Most importantly, I could have this awesome crinoline and still be within the theme.

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I have to admit though...sewing tulle and netting made me feel like this:

Image via: Tumblr

I solemnly swear to never again work with this much tulle and netting. What was I thinking?

Is there something that took a lot longer and was a lot harder to do for your wedding than you initially thought? Was it worth it in the end?

One Ring...or Two.

Since October we've been working on our wedding rings. Sometimes I wondered if all the headache was worth it. I spent hours searching online for the starter band for our designed rings. Checking cost and deciding whether the price was right (Man, I could have used Bob Barker for some giggles during this time).

GIF via: Tumblr

In early December we bit the bullet and bought the starter rings. We wanted Celtic knot rings with a solid back and were going to get our jeweler, Grant Muir, to put on gold rims from the rings we were gifted from Jeff's grandmother.

Image via: Irish Shop

We ran into shipping issues with the holidays and our rings didn't arrive (from Ireland!) until mid-January. Grant called us the day he got them in and set about making our rings. Yesterday we left home after work to Golden Bay where Onekaka Arts is at. This morning we were able to go see and pick up our rings.

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I have to say that they fulfilled our dreams and wishes. They really do. Grant worked with us back in October to design the rings and he was able to finish them up to his high standards as well as our wants while keeping it under budget. Our rings cost more than any other part of our wedding, but they're worth it. With two generations of yellow gold surrounding our design, these rings are a legacy we're keeping to pass down to our own kids someday. It's wonderful to know that there's something old in our rings as well as the new.

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In thirty days I'll be giving Jeff his ring and he'll give me mine. We are so excited to wear our bespoke rings everyday.

Did you go a little over the top on your wedding band design? Anyone else re-use family rings to start their own?

Embracing my Hippy Side

For our wedding I asked Jeff's niece to be our flower girl. She's an adorable 3 and a half year old. Her dad will be standing up next to Jeff for the wedding, as he is the best man, and so I figured we should be quite limited when it comes to dramatic antics from the kiddos in the wedding party.

Personal photo: Alice on Christmas Eve 2012

What I didn't think much about was what she was going to wear. I guess my approach to this wedding is more, "As long as it fits in the overall theme, then I don't care what you wear." There's never been a set color scheme and so that is (hopefully) going to create a beautiful array of colors at the wedding. What I did find out was that Alice is going to be wearing a pink dress with grey fabric flowers on the waist. It's cute, but I thought that since I made something for my ring bearer, I should do the same for my flower girl. Enter inspiration:

Image via: Bridesmaid Bouquet

I love floral crowns and if our wedding had gone more in the direction of ethereal and hippy, I would be sporting a floral crown myself. So I thought Alice could have one since I can't. :) I set out to the dollar shop and bought a variety of bright flowers to use. I also went to Spotlight (the equivalent of Michaels) and got floral tape.

Two episodes of Friends later and I had this:

It was relatively easy to make the crown and I'm surprised I haven't made one before now. When I took the crown over to Alice's house to give to her, she put it on, grabbed the basket and went outside to pick flower petals to practice her job. A-dorable. I only wish I had my camera at the time and had captured this moment.

Did you make something special for each person in the wedding party? Do you sometimes wish you could walk around with a floral crown on? I do!

Jeff's Big Project

For the wedding Jeff has had only a few projects that have been his responsibility. One of which he recently finished.

Since we started planning our wedding, I became obsessed with the idea of a sweetheart table. The possibility of not sitting at a traditional head table was really appealing to us.

Image via: Green Bridge Guide

Image via: Christmas Lights and More

Since our wedding party is only us and two other people, having a head table seemed silly. Both our BM and MOH have significant others and children, so it would have been silly to make them sit apart from them or put all of us at the same table. It is convenient that we are able to have a sweetheart table then!

I gave this job to Jeff because is a master at building things. Seriously, the man may never remember my birthday without my reminders, forgets to buy flowers or do something special on certain holidays or special occasions, but he will build me anything I want. That's how much he loves me (plus he enjoys building things, so that helps). We decided on a rustic table design because that is who we are and that is what we want. I left it at that and let Jeff figure out the rest. So here's a photo journey of his work:

Now our table is finished and sitting in the kitchen with our current dining table. I think it's a little silly to have two tables in the house, but it means I have more space to deposit things once I walk in the door. Oops! For decorating the table, we are going to put a skirt around it so I can sit un-ladylike and not worry about people being able to see up my dress. I'm a casual girl, I can't deny it. This table is kind of my inspiration for decorating our table, minus all the succulents because we can't afford that.

Image via: The Vines Leaf

So what do you think of Jeff's work? Isn't he wonderful?

What did you decide to do for seating at the reception? Will you stick with a traditional head table or follow the current trend of a sweetheart table? Did you also think I was going to get a heart-shaped table like my mom thought?

Some More DIY

As we are really close to 40 days from the wedding, I figured I should really be pushing to get things done. There's always one or more things that I am doing and I do have trouble finishing something I've started. Oops.

I went back and forth a lot on whether to have a garter and do the garter toss. Mostly I side with not doing it...images like this one haunt my nightmares.

Image via: Lover.ly Photo by: Apple Moon Photography

I really don't want a picture of my new husband and I with his head between my legs. Umm, I don't think so (although this bride seems to be finding this situation HILARIOUS). So as much as I don't want to do this particular tradition, several friends who are coming to the wedding really want this. So far our wedding has really been about the two of us and who we are.

I don't really cave much to our friends or family in regards to our wedding, so I thought I could give them this one (and the bouquet toss). I really hope that we won't have a super embarrassing time of Jeff's head up my dress as it's a shorter dress and this is just too awkward to do in front of our parents and his grandmother. Nana does not need to see this happening!

So we will have a garter toss. Now I needed a garter. I found some stretchable lace on Etsy for a bargain at 10 yards for 8 dollars plus shipping. I also found a fabric flower pattern to print out from a friend and used that to create the flowers for the garters.

floral pattern cutouts

freshwater pearl beads in the center of my silk flower

two garters

I made the larger one first and decided I liked it too much to use for the toss. So the small one I will slip on for the toss so I can keep my pretty one. Not that I have any reason to have a garter at all, but hey, who cares, right?

I also have been working on my crinoline again. I have three ruffles attached now and five broken sewing machine needles. I hope that this is not a continuing trend. I don't have enough needles to keep going!

pinning ruffles

the pile of ruffles remaining to be attached

Did anyone else make their own garter? Did you find yourself changing your mind about a tradition and actually liking it in the end?

It's Push Time

It's getting so close, hive. I can't believe it's only 51 days until the wedding!

Image via: Tumblr

There's still so much left to finish, but I know I'll get there. And if I don't? Well, that will be okay. At least I'll be married to the love of my life after that point. Even if things aren't perfect and finished (which they probably won't be).

A close friend of mine got engaged two days ago and she is uber-excited to plan their wedding now. K came over today and asked about a million questions and went through my wedding binder to see what she'll need to do in the upcoming months. It's exciting to see someone close engaged and to be able to give them the advice that I've found over my planning time. After two hours of wedding chitchat and ideas, I bade a fond farewell to K and got back to business. See hive, I've been struggling with motivation lately. I don't want to finish any of the projects for our wedding and just want them all to take care of themselves at this point. But no one is going to do it all for me, so I pulled on my metaphorical big-girl panties and started work. Today I finished the glass bottles for our aisle arrangements for the chapel. I also think these might just end up on our sweetheart table after the ceremony. Hmm, that's a good idea. Okay back to the bottles.

We managed to find two pairs of colored glass bottles:

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But counting out the rows in the church and we needed a third pair of bottles. I found two bottles at the recycle center in town and decided that I could paint them. There are TONS of how-to's on painting glass jars and bottles available online. So after reading a lot of them- the agreement was on these two ingredients:

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One writer suggested watering down the glue and food coloring, another suggested heating the water and using gel food coloring in addition to the glue. I used regular old liquid food coloring from the supermarket and added it to water and mod podge. It was a very watery liquid that I used on the first bottle:

all I needed: wax paper, mixing cup, brush, glue, food color and clean glass to paint

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Something wasn't quite right. We wanted to have a bold color on the glass, not some wimpy tint to it. For the second jar I tried just using the mod podge and food coloring- no added water. Much better.

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I then went back to the first bottle and did a second coat without water. Both bottles ended up with two coats of the yellow mod podge and this is what I ended up with:

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They're still not as bright as I would have liked, but I do like them more now.

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Don't they look nice together now? For the chapel we're going to have these hanging from our awkward pews (Jeff's job to figure out) and filled with wild greenery from the Jelinek family farm- probably manuka and wild heather.

So I can tick one thing of my list of projects to finish up before the wedding. Oh, make that two- I made up a little sign to go next to our fingerprint guestbook explaining what people should do. It has this little clip-art with it:

Image via: Google

All I need to do is print out that sign and find a photo frame to hold it. I also need to find baby wipes and a couple nice pens for signing so that will all be complete and ready to go. I will get things done. Now if only I could tackle the rainbow crinoline with such ease!

Did you ever find yourself at a point where you couldn't be bothered to do anymore work towards the wedding? How did you get yourself motivated?

It's a New Year!

I can't believe how quickly 2012 went. I feel like it has been a momentous year and that it's only the harbinger of the momentous year ahead of me! So just a few things to remember about the last year:

1. Reached a milestone in my dating history (longer than 5 months!)

2. Got engaged!

3. Finished my Masters Degree!

4. Got my first ECE teaching job!

5. Started my garden from the ground up, it's all what I've planted this year so far! (While there may be more weeds than veggies still, I am proud of what I have accomplished.)

6. Started a new job in the healthcare sector.

7. Completed a pre-marriage course with my fiance and learned a lot more about each other before we commit publicly.

Goals for 2013:

I had a friend write on facebook recently about how she is not making resolutions this year. A resolution is easily broken and we all know how New Year's Resolutions pan out (take a look: I've only kept one for 3 months max). So she, and I, are making goals. Goals seem much more attainable, don't you think? So here are a few goals I have for this year.

1. Finish Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I'm four days into this and already it doesn't hurt quite as much after I finish and it's a little bit easier to get through. Don't get me wrong, I still swear at her.

2. Get married to the love of my life! We're at 55 days and I'm so excited to be able to call J my husband soon.

3. Drink 1.5 liters of water every day. That's two large bottles of water. I have them in the fridge and I am trying to up my intake of water.

4. Successfully garden this year- harvest and save as many veggies as I can so we buy less.

5. Lose 10 pounds by the end of February. I won't be the size I was when I move to New Zealand, but I would like to lose a little weight before the wedding. If I can complete the 30 day shred, I will be well on my way to achieving this goal.

6. Do at least two kiddy outfits a week to sell while I am not employed full-time. I just need to manage my time a little bit better, that's all.

Those are pretty good goals to start the year off with. I hope that I can reach these goals and will be proud to say that I have done these. We got up late this morning to start the year and during breakfast/lunch J said, "We're getting married next month." Oh. My. Goodness. Time to get busy and finish all the wedding crafts I have yet to do, and finish my dress! See you soon!

What are your goals for the new year? Are you looking forward to anything?