Ring! Ring!

Rings are fun! And the boy was very easy. Here's the back story on the boy's ring.

Way back before we lived together when we were still in college, my lovely boyfriend gave me a promise ring. It was a very simple, delicate little swirly shiny with a small diamond in the middle. It was awesome. We agreed that what this was, was he was promising to one day ask me to marry him. I felt like I wanted to make a promise to him as well, a promise to say yes. So I bought him a promise ring with Viking Runes that said "My Promise to You."

He adored it. I did goooood.

He lost it two weeks later. He was devastated to say the least. A few weeks later, he bought himself a stainless steel replacement because his ring finger felt nekkid and he felt terrible about not wearing one. So, for the past year and a half or so, we have both been promised and ringed.

As you know, I have since gotten a new ring. And will eventually get yet another new ring. So will boyface. And he wanted something very similar to the forever lost Viking Rune promise ring.

Ta-Da!

Yes, you have to follow that link to see my VOILA moment because Blogger has gone crazy and won't let me upload the image... So this will be a pictureless and link-filled episode of smacking my computer.

So, with the boy's ring picked, I move on to my ring.

My first impulse is to get diamonds from my mother (my engagement ring is made up of diamonds from boy's mother, so it's very special) and make some sort of heirloom set. The wedding band would then look like this.

Unfortunately, mom doesn't have enough diamonds in the size that would work. She gave me four out of a necklace, but I will have to see if I can incorporate them. Regardless of diamonds, the ring will still have sentimental value. Mom gave me her wedding ring from her first marriage (with my dad) to sell for the gold. So, technically, it is still very much a gift from my mother.

I still really like the idea of the "wrap" style as displayed on my original ring. So, I could very well just get a very pretty simple gold band that wraps my engagement ring. This is still a very big option!

I am kind of... giving another idea a test drive. Since boyface got his very personalized, very different wedding band. I want to at least give some thought to one of my own.

So here goes, the links and the explanations:

I heart art nouveau (see: art history major). So this is kind of my inspiration.

The first ring: click me!

I love the way there is filigree on the top and bottom so the ring is kind of boxy (?). In fact, i really heart that. I don't heart the very kind of paisley looking design. Stick with the shape of the ring on this inspiration.

The second ring: click me!

I love the combo of wrap style and box style. I like the subtle etching, I'd like it a little more filigree-esque but we could work with this ring. It's delicate, and that looks good on Me - Captain Skinny Fingers. However... I'd kind of like a way to work my four diamonds into this... Hmm...

The third ring: click me!

This one is a little too "rosy" for me. But I like the way they worked the diamond into the design of the ring so it's not just chilling out there being a diamond. Can we work this into a sort of swirly filigree design?

The fourth ring: click me!

Oooh! What potential! Not to keen on the outside border part... but its got pretty swirlies... that look like they could somehow hold onto a diamond or two!

The fifth ring: click me!

Wow. Wow wow wow. You took my swirls and put my diamonds in them. Awe. some.

So... that was the progression of thought for the creation of this ring. I want to somehow combine number 1, number 2, and number 5. Boxy, delicate, filigree, diamonds.

Now, I need to continue test driving this theory. Bounce it off a few logical people. Mom. MoH. Maybe even FMIL because she worked in jewelry and can tell me if its possible. If I get a green light on my idea, I will go to our jeweler and lay it all out with my budget and see if we can mesh.

If this idea is retarded and I get a logical reason (this will probably come from mom... she's usually good at talking me out of my crazy ideas by grounding me with logic). Or if the budget/physical-possibility just isn't there, I'll go with a simple, delicate white gold band that follow the line of my engagement ring. I'm kind of okay with either, really.

Let's see where we go with this... Options options options...

-Bo. J.

Remembering My Greatest Inspiration

I hate to admit it. But yes, most of this wedding is about me. Trust me, boyface doesn't care about the difference between 'purple' and 'aubergine.' He doesn't care about peonies, or snowflakes, invitations or RSVP cards. And he shouldn't, these are things I care about because I'm me, and this is fun. But his side is a little purer than mine, isn't it? He listens to me talk about cake and table layouts and bridesmaid dresses because the guy knows that on this day filled with eggplant fabric and white peonies that he couldn't really give a shit about, he is going to marry me. And that is why he says "I'm excited." Not because we'll have pictures of centrepieces (squeal) or because aubergine pops out really well from the snow white table clothes (double squeal).

So... really, inspiration boards (too lazy to make) and wedding magazines be damned... he is really the greatest inspiration for this day. I wouldn't want to celebrate half as much as I do, I wouldn't want to go through all this trouble trying to figure out table layouts and ceremony wording if he wasn't so freakin exciting himself.

So while this wedding is one gigantic art project in the crazy right brained world I live in, at the end of the day you know what's the clearest image that I'm waiting to see? Our first kiss, our first dance, and our first pictures. Snowflakes on the tables are pretty great, and my centrepieces are going to be awesome. But, like my boyface, to me these little things are just things.

So... I'm done gushing now. I can't wait to sit down and do our hot cocoa jar favors. WOOT!

-Bo. J.

Procrastinators of the World, UNITE---tomorrow...

Right now, I should be cleaning because we have quite a few people (ok, 4) coming over tomorrow to watch the Flyers play their Game 7 of the Stanley Clup Semi-Finals. (Boyface is a huge Flyers fan... let's go Rangers) Normally, four people wouldn't be a big deal... but in 700 square feet... four people plus 2 plus a 40lb dog is a lot. Especially when 700 square feet is a mess as a result of full time job, wedding planning, and general laziness. But I'm about halfway through and I wanted to share my photoshare cards (all kinds of sharing going on up in herr)

So, first here is my inspiration, courtesy of my daily wedding crack, weddingbee.com:
click me!

If you're too lazy to follow this link (I know there are some of you out there), I'll explain. It's been one of those weddings things since probably the mid-eighties. A little disposal camera at every seat for you to take your personal pictures and then leave for the Bride and Groom. After the wedding, someone collects the cameras that guests actually left on the tables (because you know people took them all the time) and then someone else gets to go and develop hundreds of dollars worth of pictures of what? People eating, blurred flashes... It is a miracle to receive good pictures... anything worth all of that.

This is the modern version. We all know that some of the best pictures you can get may not be taken by the photographer who, let's face it, can only be in two places at once. We also know that most people these days bring a digital camera with them when they go to McDonald's (check out Facebook anytime) so there's a pretty good chance that they'll bring their faithful digi's to your wedding.

This is your chance to solicit pictures from everyone at your wedding without paying a dime. People can simply upload their pictures (the good, the bad, and the ugly) and then anyone can order the ones they like or simply look at them any old time. Why hasn't somebody marketed this yet?

I'm sure they have, but I went the cheap and artsy route.

At work (while diligently not working), I set up a photo share site with Shutterfly, my personal photo printing website of choice. I also set up an email using wedding related name and password (because all photoshare sites make you create an account in order to upload pictures... I thought this would deter people.) Once all that was set up, I made a card and printed it on business card sheet using my newly chosen wedding front from Dafont.com.

Then I popped those babies out while watching America: The Story of Us Sunday night. Which is increda-interesting but since this night I have missed an episode and I am sad.
Here is my wording and my glorious font. For most people, I think this will be pretty easy. For old people, I think they'll just email me their pictures. I put step by step uploading instructions on the front page of the website. Let's hope people can figure it out...
I wanted to dress them up a little bit. So I returned to my faithful snowflake stamps. I lined them up like this so I could get a cool little design. (Side note: by this picture in my editing process, I had remembered how to make squares in Paint so I could block out text without scribbling over it. Much less time consuming...)
In process... I found that this glass worked really well for using the clear stamps. It's too small for any sensible amount of liquor... um liquid, anyways...

Upload of the stamp. I love the way these stamps look with the aubergine ink. It's awwesome I heart my colors.
And this is the way the stamps look on the individual cards. I think it's subtle and kind of fun because the snowflake is just peaking. And no two will look alike because I am not consistent with my stamping. Yay!

But I wasn't satisfied. It kind of seemed... plain. The back is aaaall white. So I decided to spruce that up a little as well.

If I'd known I was going to do this, I could have stamped them all before I popped them out. Instead, I'm laying them out two by two and stamping them. I think it looks better anyways. I love this flurry stamp, it's just so whimsical and fun. See, a formal wedding can have FUN in it as well. At least, mine can...
I love, love love the way this looks. It kinda makes you feel like it might be snowing eggplant snowflakes in some magical wedding forest...

A bunch of them all laid out. I don't know if guests will think these are friggin cool as I do. But I'm pretty impressed myself.
Can you tell I love these things... aaah flurries. It's the simple things that make a bride happy.

Bo is helping as always. What I would do without his endless support I just don't know.
These are the supplies I used. The flurry stamp is stuck to the side of a fish holder thing that Mr. Future Hubs doesn't use so I commandeered it. He wasn't happy to see it covered with purple ink but I assured him I can get it off when I'm done. As of writing this post, I am not done.

I've got a few more of these left. (A few being a ton) And I want to round the corners but my corner rounder failed me so I need to go to Michaels (Oh torture) today to get a new one. I think then they'll be perfect. I'm really excited about something people are going to lose or forget.

I have decided that since I talked so much smack about getting a lot of stuff done in advance, I need to start outputting. I have started a few projects but haven't finished any. I still haven't finished the Guest book cards. But I do have the stuff to get the actual French Memo Board together. I actually had recruited boyface to help when I realized my ancient stapler doesn't open so I can't staple the fabric to the canvas. So... that's on hold.

Will return with crafts finished! This I promise!!

-Bo. J.

Laid Back Bride

Alright... so I have decided (just now... literally while walking back from the bathroom to my office) to change the direction this blog is going. Or at least the direction advertised since the blog direction had a mind of its own anyway. In case no one noticed, I changed my title (most of it, anways, if I changed the "Hell Year" part, the URL wouldn't make sense), and I think it kind of shows a nice little contrast between what this year is (hell) and how I handle it (all chill-like).

I'm not a stresser, not a pusher, not an arguer. Nonconfrontational to a T. Most of my friends know that I am pretty much laid back when it comes to most things. 'Whatever' is a word that comes out of my mouth about a million times a day (sometimes in a dismissive, angry, eyerolling way - because if people want to be difficult, I can't change them by being difficult back. It's my own giving-in kind of way of taking the high road [aside, this one usually sounds something like this: what.EVERRRRR] - but most of the time in a cool, smooth, 'It's whatever baaaaby' type of way. [this one usually sounds like this: whatevah])

Aaaanyways, when I started this blog, I guess it was mostly to complain. But at the end of the day, I don't really have much to complain about. And, honestly, that's not really a good basis for a blog anyway. Especially one written by me, who just doesn't get all bent up enough to complain anyway. Not about these things anyway... Journey's 'Don't stop believing'? I'll complain all day!

And, let's face it, I was doing more blogging about what I was doing, how I was handling things, and flaunting my CRAFTY (there, I said it) nature than any actual complaining or telling any devastating stories.

... so now I've run out of things to say. New direction for blog, nonreaders!

Coming soon - Photoshare cards! I haven't been doing any ham sitting (if I was, I swear Jillian Micahaels would haunt me... more on that later) I have actually been doing SOME things. Will have pics up soon!

Ciao!

-Bo. J.

For da Mummies

I guess I have to just break down and admit it... I'm crafty, creative, and DIY all the way. I prefer creative over the other two... for some reason "crafty" conjurs up images of cat ladies and women who consistently give poorly glued gifts whose houses are covered from top to bottom in felt and whicker. People with TIME and ROOM are crafty.

But, I must confess, I qualify with none of the above stereotypes but I guess that I am crafty. Even though I think that my definition of crafty is more like... creative, bored, and unchallenged.

In any case, I have picked up the hobby of making chocolates. I don't actually make the chocolate itself, I get the chocolates melts from a local shop (try to avoid Michaels for this one... there is a small business in town that I'd rather support) and melt them down to either put into molds or covered other things with (or, as I'm finding, make other things out of). I actually really enjoy it (I also enjoy when I ask MOH to come over and help me with any given chocolate project and we end up dipping strawberries into said chocolate) and I do believe I'm getting pretty good at it.

I try to give chocolates as personal gifts. Last Christmas I made peppermint bark and snowflake shaped chocolates (hmm... wonder where those could pop up again...). For this Mother's Day, I wanted to make oreo truffles for FMIL. I also wanted to send some up with NY with my parents. They go and see my stepdad's mom and aunt who live on Long Island. I got the recipe here and regardless of the fact that mine don't look half that perfect, they were super easy and fun to make! (Oh... and now looking at it... I forgot to put vanilla in mine... CURSES! Oh well... MOH thought they tasted good... and no one has to know...)

So basically, you take oreos and grind them up, mix them with cream cheese, roll into balls, and cover with chocolate.

Before I start let me preface this with a few tips that I learned from experience:

1. Read the recipe. It calls for Vanilla Extract.
2. Check to make sure that you have enough milk chocolate melts before starting instead of only making half a batch of milk chocolate and then being forced to hope your recipients like dark chocolate...
3. Do a practice run first... that first batch never comes out right...
4. Save a truffle for your fiance... woops...

Here is about how ours ended up looking:

Our oreo cream cheese balls (sans vanilla) chilling in the fridge... and no, that's not a bottle of wine right above it... or a tub of port wine cheese in the back corner...

That's one little oreo cream cheese ball floating in a sea of scrumptious chocolate... mmm

I could have taken more time on this step to make them look more perfect... but we had already walked 3 miles that day and were pretty freakin tired.

They look dericious and that's really what matters, right?

This is dark chocolate in a squeeze bottle.
You drop the bottle in water to melt the chocolate and
then you can do such things as...
Pretty little swirls and stuff...
Ok, so some are a little malformed... but as long as they're edible...

Here they are all nestled in their cute little boxes
The dark chocolate with milk chocolate swirled ones...
They came out a little more uniform than the first milk chocolate ones

I love the boxes and the ribbon we found! Such a nice little presentation!

For my mom, I did something different. My mom is a salty person. (Don't ask... the caramel coated apple fell pretty far from the french fry on this one) Mom dreams of potato chip ice cream and pretzel cake. So instead of endowing her with more chocolate (she still hasn't eaten all the chocolate covered cherries - her one sweet weakness - from their tenth anniversary in March) I thought I'd make her a special surprise.

There are few salty things that can be improved upon by chocolate. The except proves the rule... Chocolate covered pretzels are by far one of my favorite things ever. So... here you go MaMa.

Pretty self explanatory... dip pretzel rods in melted chocolate...
You can prettify if you like, I drizzled some dark chocolate over them.
The two vertical ones were saved for MOH and I. It was our reward for working our butts off!

Yesterday after a crazy day at work... I made some more with blue-tinted white chocolate.
I was a little wonky... but I felt like getting funky so I actually wrote mom on a few
Mom's all packaged up and tied with my awesome ribbon!

I know that wasn't really wedding related... but do you know how easy it would be to make chocolate covered pretzel favors or something? So I have shared my ideas with anyone who happens to Google "Plan Wedding" and "Meh" and "Hell"

Now in week 2 of crazy May... I am signing off to change the laundry and take a nap...

-Bo. J.