New Beginnings

Hello all! Spring is here! No... for real... it's been like 75 degrees! We'll be starting up the garden again and we're taking new members. If you're interested, please email elmctgarden@gmail.com or call (732) 835-8344 ((732) 835-VEGI).

I'll be taking a back seat in garden admin because of this...

He's one month old now. :) You'll certainly see us in the garden this summer, but Michele, Elm Ct. Garden co-founder, will be taking over the blog and email and membership.

Happy gardening!

Shannon

Sco's ring

I am in love with Sco's ring - not as much as I'm in love with him, but the ring is awesome.

We found this Japanese artist living in Brooklyn who makes these rings and other jewelry on NOTCOT.org, a wonderful blog of art and design that Sco looks at just about every day. Her name is Sakurako Shimizu.

Sakurako takes a voice recording and then laser cuts a hole through metal in the shape of the sound wave form generated by the sound recording program. She makes necklaces of giggles, bracelets of bell chimes, and wedding bands of a spouse saying "I do" or something else.

Giggle Necklace

I Do Wedding Bands

We recorded my voice saying "I love you" and sent it in an email to Sakurako. We met with her in Brooklyn to discuss the ring and which metal she should use. She is so sweet. Apparently, we're the first people for whom she's made jewelry that she's actually met. She bought us brunch, too. :) We were smitten with her (Sco's cringing at the use of that word, I'm sure) and her jewelry, but I only just learned that she's socially responsible, too! She only uses 100% recycled gold and precious metals from Hoover and Strong. And her prices are very reasonable. I just loved the whole experience.

Our rings together on a funky flower

Eco-wah?

Have I told you about our plates? When my caterer said he might not have the staff to use real dishes, he suggested disposable plates. I said I wanted to have a "green" wedding. He said, "No problem. We can get green plastic plates." Yeah... not what I meant. We started thinking of eco-friendly, disposable options (though it did occur to me to ask people to bring their own plates.) We looked into bamboo plates since bamboo (a grass) is much easier to replace than trees, but it didn't seem to be all that biodegradable. Styrofoam was obviously not an option. Plastic didn't seem very good either. Enter Verterra.


Their plates are pretty, made from renewable resources, chemical free, and are fairly traded.


After collecting fallen leaves that would normally be burned, Verterra applies steam, heat and pressure to transform the leaves into durable products that will naturally compost in 2 months.

VerTerra products are made in South Asia, where employees receive fair wages in safe working conditions and are provided access to health care.

Raindrops keep falling on my head...

But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turning red. Crying's not for me.

I don't know the rest of the song.

I know things can change and their forecast only goes until just before my wedding, but The Weather Channel says...



I hope it doesn't rain. I do love the rain, but...

My little ring

My ring is back! Yay! What? Oh, you didn't know it was gone? Pardon? Oh, you didn't know I even had one? Oh, yeah. I do. I mean, I was going to tell the whole engagement story and all about the seven rings, but... What? Um, yeah. Seven. I'll get to it eventually. It's a long story.

In the meantime, back to my ring's return. One of the little pearls fell out, so I had both pearls replaced (so they'd match... duh!). I just got it back today.

I put it inside the sample ring for Sco's ring. (That's another long story that I'll get to eventually.)

Look! Sco wears a 13. I wear... a 3.5. That's right. Three and a half. Babies have fingers that small.


It's one of the many reasons I'm making it do double duty - one ring for both engagement ring and wedding ring. Adding just about any kind of band you can imagine looks stupid on my freakishly small fingers.

Fire!

My hanging jar lanterns with candles have been approved! I met with the grounds keeper at the site today expecting him to take one look at my sample lantern and go, "You want to put THAT in MY trees?!? Fire in a jar held up by twine?!" Instead, he said, "Oh, that? That's no problem. I'll even have my guys hang those up for you." SWEET!!



Sco and I tested them out recently and they look gorgeous!! I jumped around all giddy then and today. I'm glad there's more giddiness than screaming and pulling my hair out. Over all, there has been little in the way of panic during this whole wedding planning process.

Happy! :)

Basket o' Flops

Yesterday, I thought, hey, I need a basket of cheap flip flops for the dance floor in case any ladies' feet get tired from dancing in heels. (I am definitely not the first to think of this.) I went to Michael's. They had them on sale for a dollar a pair! And their baskets were on sale! I got 15 pairs of pink flip flops and 2 green baskets with my store credit. (That was from buying tons of silk flowers when I thought I was going to make my own dress and cover it in flowers and then came to my senses and they said "Uh, store credit.") It took 20 minutes to get in and out of the store with what I needed. Only about 2 hours from the moment I decided I wanted to do it and that was because I was still at work when I decided that.

Here they are in the back seat of my car!


Sorry the picture is so crappy - camera phone, shaky hands, you know...

The quality of the shoes is pretty decent. I don't know what I'll use the little basket for yet - bathroom amenities, maybe?

Happy!

OOT! OOT!

I know. OOT is a stupid acronym. Out of Town. As in bags - little gift bags for guests coming in from out of town left in their hotel rooms. I really like the idea. (The acronym, not so much.) It's just a little something to make out-of-towners feel welcome after a long trip. After a great post by Miss Peep Toe at WeddingBee, I drove around to three Targets and called my mom to go to her Target in Virginia to get these bags. They're perfect! Eco-friendly, reusable bags - for a dollar. And in pink and green! Now, I have to find stuff to put in them. A bunch of apples won't really do.

I mean my pink army. Yeah.

I'll spare you the details. They're wearing pink now. Pale pink. And they'll like it, dammit.


Dresses from J.Crew (again)

Truth be told, I disgusted myself with my indecisiveness and whining. Any of these girls would wear a potato sack if I told them it would make me happy. (Hey... that gives me an idea...)

I love them.

Green wedding, green shoes!

I have green shoes! No, not eco-friendly, although I am trying to do that for most of the wedding, but actually green in color.


Image courtesy another bride with good taste

My mom and I found them in Nordstrom. I LOVE them. Mommy picked them out. Thanks, Mommy!

Now, I just have to learn to walk in them. I have 7 weeks. Plenty of time to overcome 30 years of walking in converse and flip flops, right?

I've started the process gradually. For a few weeks, I wore 2 inch heels 2 days a week to work. Last week, I wore the 2 inch heels one day and 3.5 inch heels on another day. I actually did quite well.

My darling friend Linda, who lives in heels, gave me an invaluable piece of advice last Christmas. I was wearing a pair of 4 inch heels and dying (but they're so pretty! They're the silver ones!). She told me to rock my weight back into my heels and let my heels take the brunt rather than the ball of my foot. Why had no one told me that in all my life before? It totally works!

And they're off!

Invitations! Invitations! They're mailed!! Well, some of them. On the day that they arrived, I showed them to Sco and he suddenly remembered that he wanted to invite 7 or 8 more people. I had not ordered many extra invitations, so I kind of flipped out and said that those people were getting black and white photocopies of our invitations. Actually, I think we'll be ok, but some people may actually get color photocopies... Sorry. These, of course, will be sent to the people who don't really care about that kind of stuff.

Image side


The invitations really came out beautifully. And no RSVP card! Ha! Convention be damned! Responses can be sent via email, phone call, or through our wedding website. It saves paper, postage, energy, and my sanity. Very eco-friendly and Squid-friendly. Of course, there are some people on the guest list, particularly the ones nearing 100 years old who might not be that into RSVPing on the WWW. I'm going to whip up a special response card just for them. And there are still some people I need addresses for! I'm such a slacker.

Text side



There's also an accommodation insert with a map of the wedding site on the other side. That's the whole thing. Simple. :)

Blog and Blogback :)

SmartyPig noticed my blog post about using their online piggy bank as a wedding registry for a down payment on a house, and they blogged about it. :) It really is a nice way to save for anything; they have great rates! I hope parents encourage their kids to use it to teach them to save up for something they want rather than charge it. For too long, we've been a nation of conspicuous consumption and debtors. For our own financial security, let's be savers! (Let someone else buy the new sports car to stimulate economy if you have no savings and/or you're in debt!)

So, I blogged about them, then they blogged about me, now I'm blogging about them blogging about me. My head is going to explode.

:)

Starting to suck less

This is the list from my previous post of "stuff I suck at."

1. Catering - check
2. Photographer - check
3. Map for invitations - check (actual invitations - not yet)
4. Finding a rain location - maybe check
5. Ordering tables, chairs, etc. - tomorrow maybe?
6. Flowers
7. Favors and gifts
8. Decorations - Mommy's helping
9. Wedding rings

Things are coming along...

My Armless Army

My last blog post got some of us thinking... Maybe we should go for the J.Crew dresses after all. There were all sizes, all colors available last night while I was sucking at Photoshop.

But this morning, there were no more size 0 (a couple of my bridesmaids), and 2's and 4's only came in "chartreuse". (a couple of my bridesmaids are in this range) Then, the frenzy began. One of the blondes is a double 0, so she suggested she get a 2 in chartreuse and have it altered. I was texting and emailing all of them at once. I had one blonde waiting to buy the pink because I wasn't sure anyone else could secure a pink. Then, when it didn't look good for more than 2 pinks, one lovely girl suggested we go all green. The blondes were more into the pink until they looked at the color again - actually the green would be better. I'm calling it green, though it's a very yellow green. I wouldn't call it chartreuse, either. Whatev. More frantic texts: "Everyone! Buy green now!"

I think everyone's just about on board. Presenting...

My Armless Army

Ah Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

Too funny! (To me, anyway.) Ha ha ha ha! I've been sitting by myself, laughing at my horrible Photoshop skills. I started the think that maybe I should prescribe the dresses my bridesmaids should wear, since they're all having trouble figuring out what I want or finding what they think I want in stores. There's a J.Crew dress I kind of like and the colors are kind of cool - not exactly what I had in mind, but colors I'd be happy with. So, I started photoshopping their heads on dresses... Brace yourself...







Ha ha ha ha ha!

Whew!

The original model in the pink dress is from Ethiopia - a little darker than my bridesmaids, so I tried to lighten the arms and legs. Fail. Then I copied the legs to use on the armless, legless, headless manquin wearing the greenish dress. Sco asked why I didn't just use the polygonal lasso tool to copy the arms, too. I said it was too hard. He said no it's not. I said I don't want to. Fail. Then I cut out the heads and half-ass stuck 'em on the bodies. Fail.


I get my skills from "You Suck at Photoshop."

Pogo Photo Booth

Here's what I'm thinking - photo booth guest book. It's been done before - not a new idea. I'm considering buying a Polaroid Pogo printer. It prints photos on 2"x3" sticky cards and doesn't require an ink cartridge. It uses Zink (Zero-Ink) paper. You can print via Bluetooth from a camera phone or from a digital camera hooked up via USB cable. Guests would take a picture of themselves with the camera attached to the Pogo or their camera phone, print it out, stick it in the album and write a little note.

There are some issues with this... I might need someone manning the "photo booth" for several reasons. One, it's so small, someone could steal it. Because we're not in a secure location, someone could conceivably sneak in and nab the Pogo or the camera or both. Two, people might need some guidance. It's pretty simple, but even with instructions, it might be just intimidating enough that some people won't use it. Three, it only holds 10 sheets of Zink paper at once. Someone might need to be there to reload it.

One option I'm considering is building a box for it and the camera. It would hide the camera and printer, with a hole cut to expose the shutter button on the camera and a slot for the picture to slide out. It would have a door in the back so someone could load the paper occasionally. I still might need someone to stand there for that.

Another potential issue is that people might want to redo their photo too many times if they don't like how it came out. The box thing makes this more likely, I think, because the wouldn't be able to peek at the camera's display before printing.

Pogo image source

Photo booth picture: Sco in a real photo booth

Jars, jars, jars

Every nook and cranny of my apartment is filled with jars. My friends and I have been collecting them for use in our wedding - hopefully as hanging lanterns, but that will depend on what the fire marshal says.

In spite of having so many free jars on hand to recycle in this lovely way, I think I need to buy some jars. Cookie jars, specifically.

As I've mentioned, we're having cookies instead of cake. While the caterer will provide the cookies, he will not provide the pretty jars to put them in. And I don't usually buy my pickles and salsa in 3 gallon glass jars.

So, I'm on the lookout for cute, vintage-ish cookie jars. Preferably clear. Go forth, my jar-hunting minions...






empty jar photo credit: P.J. McAdie, flickr

cookie jar source: Real Simple

Registry Indecision

I keep logging on to our registries at Crate & Barrel and B3 - not to see if people have bought us presents, but to change things. I'm so indecisive. Do I want a cork cutting board or a bamboo one? Or one of these cutting mat thingies? We don't need much stuff, but the stuff we have registered for is replacing really crappy stuff. I don't want to be stuck with crappy stuff anymore, so I keep changing my mind.

SmartyPig is easy - no decisions required for us or our guests. It's where we've registered for our house fund. It's a public online savings account. Because we don't need much stuff - I mean, we are in our thirties and have a lot of stuff already - we're asking people to consider helping out with our house down payment. Which actually brings me back to the indecision thing - if we're going to be buying a house in the next couple of years, who knows what we'll need? I don't want to register for a bunch of pink towels to match our pink (yes, pink) bathroom in our apartment when we might move to a house with nice taupe walls. And do we really want that much stuff to have to move?

But I do really want knives that don't snap in half when cutting crunchy bread.





image source

Stuff I Suck At

So, here's a list of things I haven't done yet. Most are things I've at least started. Please shame me into getting these things done.


1. Catering
2. Photographer
3. Map for invitations (my fabulous niece is being held up by my procrastination)
4. Finding a rain location
5. Ordering tables, chairs, etc.
6. Flowers
7. Favors and gifts
8. Decorations
9. Wedding rings
And much, much more!

I'm considering using a caterer I use for work all the time for my wedding. He has the best cookies, and I asked him to throw in a few extra for "tasting" with my last order from him for a recent work event. A delivery guy brought in the food for my event. He handed me the extra cookies I'd asked for and asked why I'd gotten the extra cookies. I explained that I was considering his company for my wedding. He said, "Oh! You're getting married? When's the wedding?" I replied, "June." He got this wide-eyed look and said, "Wow. Your wedding's in June and you don't have a caterer yet?!"

"Yeah, I know. I suck."

Bridesmaid dresses!!

So... This is the part I suck most at. I was going to say "this is the part I suck at" but then I realized, I kind of suck at a lot of this stuff. Bridesmaid dresses. In general, I hate bridesmaid dresses because they look like bridesmaid dresses. So... I told my six (yes, six) bridesmaids that they could pick their own dresses provided they stay in a given color range. This is quite a trend lately, and I like it. Then, no one is stuck in an unflattering dress that they'll never wear again. One of my bridesmaids already has one in her closet! I grabbed some paint samples from Home Depot to mail to the bridesmaids. Um, they're still on my desk. I haven't sent them yet. But I did just scan and email them! Here they are:


The green is not totally accurate, but close.



And here is my bridesmaid JS in her dress she has in her closet already.



















And here are her sparkly shoes that are the right green.















We think we can dress it up with some jewelry or some other embellishment. What do you guys think?