2009 was a great year...

...cannot wait for what 2010 brings!

Free *Cute* Printable 2010 Calendars

I thought I was going to be forced to spend my morning designing a 2010 calendar in photoshop, but thanks to Chicago Girl Gone Mild I can begin my End of Month/Year reports instead.

Click HERE and scroll down to choose from 7 different free designs!

10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling...

Guilty as charged.

Read more HERE

Happy last hump day of the decade!

Not too shabby for a Monday

Back into the office today after 3 much needed days off.

This little guy was waiting for me in my cube...

Isn't this a great idea instead of the ususal 5lb chocolate Santa co-workers usually give you? I love it. I'm looking forward to drinking a little bubbly with the hubby tonight while packing up the Christmas tree.

In case you are wondering, I'm wearing "Bastille My Heart," by OPI, a gift from Santa.

the wintry weather prevented our first married christmas together...

merry christmas!

two month anniversary and updates

I think we can all agree it's been a crazy couple of weeks and will continue to get busier as we approach 2010. I honestly, cannot believe it's been two months since the wedding. Some days it feels like years and others, merely days... so that being said:

Happy two month anniversary, Andy!
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I have so many things to share, but so little well used time! Sitting on the couch ensconced in a Snuggie and watching bad TV is winning out over blogging and Christmas baking. I am nearly recovered from my post-wedding depression of sorts (read: laziness) and am SO excited for our first Christmas as marrieds, but hopefully not the smug kind.

Here are some upcoming blog posts you can look forward to, assuming I find my camera cable and stop watching Steven Segal, Lawman:
· Created a Wedding album on Blurb
· Attended Pottery Barn decorating class with my Mom
· Bought many "ownership" pieces at said class
· The husband took his last undergrad final
· Made Pumpkin Pie cupcakes (yay!)
· Failed at making Pumpkin Pie fudge
· Photos and projects from the wedding!

Hope you’re all staying warm and safe this week.
+I highly recommend making a mug jug of hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps to fight the cold!

imagine

John Lennon
October 9, 1940 - December 8, 1980

ahhh, thursdays!

I'll be working on a hot dog from the newly opened Portillos!

December: in like a hybrid-wolf...

...out like a angsty vampire?

I had intended to post a nice "Happy December" festive post today, but boy, did some crazy stuff go down waaaay too early in the morning.

Here's the photo I was going to use:

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At 5:15 this is how things looked in our neighborhood:
artist's rendition
When we saw it Lebowski began barking his head off and I was flashing my mag-lite in the beast's eyes, trying to scare it, but that just seemed to draw it closer. Then it started to circle us! I tried my best to channel Cesar Milan and stay "calm assertive" and slowly back down the driveway towards the house, but it followed us. In my head I was thinking "Crap! Now it knows where we live!" and then realized how ridiculous I was being. Luckily, the garage door closed in time or I don't know what I would have done.
I know that if the creature wanted to chase us it totally could have and then ripped our faces off. The creepiest part was looking out the kitchen window and seeing it sitting all relaxed in front of our unit looking directly at me. It does know where we live!

I called Animal Control later this morning, but they simply told me that if it's a coyote there's nothing that can be done because they're protected. I didn't believe one of our neighbors when he told me that the people that lived in our unit had their dachshund killed by a coyote, but now I'm a believer. I just hope that the vampire attack that happens around New Year's Eve isn't too painful (boooo! lame!).

If anyone has some self-defense against giant labrador-sized-hybrid-coyote-wolves, please, please let me know!

decorating our home

This weekend we set up the tree while watching "Home Alone," which I sadly/amazingly mouthed along to all of the dialogue. I tried to only say some of my favorite lines out loud ("Fuller, go easy on the Pepsi" or "Santy Clause doesn't visit funeral homes little buddy") in order to make our marriage last the weekend ;)

To my surprise, Julia over at Hooked On Houses revisits the "Home Alone" House on today's post.
Enjoy!

wtfotos

our wedding photos didn't arrive today as promised.
since my grandma doesn't have the internet, she'll have to wait until christmas to see our wedding proofs.
:(
sometimes you don't get what you pay for.

Happy Black(out) Wednesday!

Normally, I spend the Wednesday before Thanksgiving experiencing a mini high school reunion back home. Years of experience have taught me to know my limits because there's nothing worse than a table filled with aromatic Thanksgiving Day fare when all you want to do is sleep.

Last year we hosted our first Thanksgiving, which was wonderful. We joined our families together and watched the Macy's Day parade Rickroll unsuspecting viewers. More importantly, it was the first time I saw Planes, Trains, and Automobiles - a true Turkey Day movie.

If you haven't seen it - it's a MUST - you should probably just buy the entire John Candy collection.


This year we'll be putting 300 miles on the car in about 14 hours... Hope you all have a wonderful and thankful day tomorrow.

Midnight Sun

Have you read it or heard about the scandal? It’s Edward's version of Twilight. I’ve gotten through the first 5 pages and stopped. I think I’ll be saving it for a while…

from here
I’m still coming off of the post-wedding depression and knowing there’s still some unread, yet unfinished version of Twilight out there makes me happy. It’s like the day after Christmas when you’re incredibly happy and grateful for everything, but there’s that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you know it’s over.

I know I need to stay in the moment more, and I’m working on it. Designing our wedding albums will be a great way to remember and reflect on the events – don’t be shocked when the photos begin popping up everywhere!

If you’ve finished reading Midnight Sun, let me know what you think!

Destination wedding photos received!

Last night we received our official login for the wedding photos! Yay!

Here's I rated each section:
Web show - A+ these are the photos included in the slideshow from our wedding celebration
Getting Ready - B
Portraits1 - B +
First Sight - A
Ceremony - C This has nothing to do with the "change of venue" but it seems as though many of the important photos are missing from the photo roll, but I'm impressed based on how poor the lighting was...
Portraits2 - B+ the photos on the beach make up for the poor lighting and ties/hair akimbo
Reception - B my *new* aunt and uncle took some spectacular detail shots, I plan on including them in the album we design

Without further ado, the moment you've all been waiting for... drum roll please!


There's no easy way for me to tally the final number of photos, but I'd say 85% are great.
It's the other 15% that are spoiling bunch... for me.

Let me just say how happy I am to be getting the physical photo files and online album after 44 days - I am THRILLED!!

That being said (Curb reference, anyone?), I'm a little disappointed in the final results. It seems like they could have used an extra week to wrap up the job, but I'm not sure that's something I should have offered in my follow-up email last week... "How's it going with our wedding photos? Do you need a deadline extension?"

Okay, I know everyone's their toughest critic, but I'm kind of surprise at the stuff that was overlooked in the finishing of the photos... lack of cropping, glistening beads of sweat cascading down the side of my love's face during our close-up, the "why the heck is this photo included" photos, the absent "presentation of the couple" (maybe the only other photo they have was worse than what's there - IMG_3374, if you're following along), I'll let the slight the farmer's tan lines on my arms go, but the wings of hair and our ring bearer's tie could easily be corrected with the Cloning tool, right?

I'm just going to cherry pick the best photos and make my own album, obvs, but is it within my rights to ask them to clean up the images we want to get printed?

I mean, surely you'll notice these things in the the wall-sized canvases we plan on hang thoughout our entire house and give as gifts to all of our friends and family (just wait until that awkward gift exchange ;) ). But in all seriousness, I will be asking that the photos we want printed be cleaned up. They could really go from good to amazing, that and my free photoshop trial has expired.

Hey, did I tell you that we did a lap around the room since there was no aisle? I thought it was pretty funny/fitting, but those photos aren't really there either... Oh, and thanks for listening!

More photography updates

This whole wedding-photo-thing is becoming quite irritating. I realize we're not anyone's only clients, but we had a tiny-ass wedding. C'mon! I've already sacrificed having personalized thank you's made, but with Thanksgiving next week we're going to have more family together than at Christmas so I NEED the photos in hand!
Tim Brown Photography - Days since event: 40 (6 weeks come Saturday)
They will try to send the photos out Monday so they're received by Wednesday... TOTAL breach of contract btw. I realize they spent time on our slideshow needed within two week of the wedding, but that was in the contract. Plus, there goes my Blurb discount! I just hope the photos arrive in time for Thanksgiving!

Erin Lenore Photography - Days since event: 25
Should be done by the end of next week... Cutting it close if I want to show any family members photos over the holiday. I've gotta give the girl some credit since she's in the middle of midterms.

I'm pretty sure I don't want to play the "beach of contract card" with them, but it's just so frustrating!

What do you think I should do? A request to have the photos guaranteed to arrive Wednesday seems like the nicest option. Thoughts?

love it!

One of my funny girlfriends sent me a hilarious someecard (aren't they all? both girlfriends and someecards):

Here are the other New Moon cards:



Not sure why they had to specify, "from Twilight"...


Looking forward to seeing it this weekend!!

Still No Pro Photos...

37 days
907 hours
54,443 minutes
3,266,625 seconds
Since we were officially married!
We were promised photos in 4-6 weeks and it's been 5 weeks. Call me Bridezilla, but I'm calling the photographers if I don't get anything by Saturday.

I feel like I need to justify my bitching:
My memory is horrible, in general, but my memory of our wedding day is spotty - at best. Neither Grandmother has seen more than a few random shots that family members were able to take throughout the day. Come on, not even a few "teaser" photos on your blog or website? And the video slideshow they sent as expired...
Even more importantly, I was hoping to get Blurb wedding photo albums made in time to qualify for their holiday sale (through 11/24). I'm taking a Blurb webinar tonight, so hopefully I can learn some amazing shortcuts to cranking out 4 albums asap to get that discount (assuming I have photos to place in said albums!).

Has anyone used Blurb to design a photo album? How'd it go? Worth the price?

Sick + New Moon

Sorry, I've been a real bum about blogging lately, but you should see the house. So organized and clean! I was worried we'd never find a place for our wedding gifts... Remind me to post some "before & afters" soon.

Anyway, I've been sick since Saturday night, but I nothing's stopping me from this coming weekend:

The hubby's Entrainment Weekly subscription started today
and this beauty arrived last week:

Isn't it so nice to have something to look forward to?
Plus, the much needed motivation to clean up all the post-wedding stuff covering the guest bedroom?

My mind grapes are more like raisins...

It's a Blurgh kind of day, so here's a funny article on The Language of 30 Rock. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

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Wedding photo anticipation

I'm completely dreading getting our professional photos back. Oh, sure I tell everyone that asks that I am dying to see them, but the truth is I am terrified of just exactly how disappointed I am going to be...
My expectations have been extremely high for our wedding photos since my nightmarish search began. There were soooo many photos on my "must shoot list" that were not taken at our wedding - even more disappointing there was only one shot of Andy and I on the beach together, facing the camera so I know there were no "casually walking hand-in-hand photos," silhouette portraits, or even less importantly our iPhone photo.
The photographers emailed me back today, they will be uploading our slide show Saturday morning. Unfortunately this allows little time
for troubleshooting the download/DVD burning process and even less time for me to accept there's photos that were taken. I guess the only thing I can do is prepare myself to be disappointed so if the photos turn out to decent it will be a nice surprise.

Lazy Lady/Bad Blogging Bride

I have been riding high on the wedding wave for over a week now. It. was. amazing. Sorry for not posting any wedding/honeymoon recaps yet!

However, now that I'm back in the Land of Lincoln I just can't seem to get motivated to do anything. There are huge piles of both clean and dirty laundry all over the house, gifts that arrived while we were gone and a bucket of mail to sort. (It doesn't help that my daring husband decided to unpack his two suitcases in the middle of the dining room.) I can't wait to see the photos we took, but alas they're trapped in my camera and I don't have the motivation to search for the cable needed to unleash them.

As excited as I am for The Wedding: Part Deux, I don't want it to all be over (at least that's the most logical reason I can come up with for missing deadlines and procrastinating). I have 23 remaining tasks to complete by Friday... but watching 3 episodes of Mad Men while curled up on the couch with the boys just seemed so much more appealing last night.

Tonight I MUST get some shit done. For reals... Maybe a Grande Pumpkin Spice Espresso after work?? Suggestions?

bon anniversaire, mgm!

thanks for being with me on the most special of days
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all you need is...

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j'aime la mer

when you look closely, it's everywhere...

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lovely day

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my first full day as a mrs.

How did I do?+

all i want is you

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wedding day

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see you on the flip side

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away we go...

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This is it!

This will be last post as a single lady (does the Beyoncé - Single Ladies dance move) but don't fret, I'm leaving you with daily scheduled posts.

Thanks for reading along with all of the wedding planning ups and downs and leaving supportive comments. I know it's cliché, but I can't believe our wedding day is finally here. After all of the projects and planning, I'm looking forward to marrying my best friend and beginning this new journey together the most (the 80º temps will be a bonus).

My to do list has dwindled, the wedding website is updated, and the DIY projects are nearly done - I just have to find a unique guestbook for the small group of wedding guests. We're not bringing our computers, but I will have my new iphone *squeal* should you need to contact me!

Remember: love is all you need,
Ms. Rachel

happy birthday, mon amie!

I hope it's a lovely day! +

Great Zeus' Beard!

Updated wedding Weather forecast:
At least the evening will be delightful. I liked the on-the-fence 30% chance of rain better.

Cloudy with a chance of $&*%balls

Today The Weather Channel wedding planner I mentioned was updated:
Awesome.

Coupled with this:
It's going to be a close call weather ;) or not the wedding is held outside.
I realize the weather can change dramatically in week, so I'm not too worried. Also, the South has typical afternoon showers and then clears up quickly.

Please keep your fingers crossed!

thank you for the birthday wishes!

Yesterday was a lovely day.

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Thank you all for the cards, texts, and facebook messages!

wedding-related randomness

I'm entering the home stretch.
Nearly everything for both wedding events is done. Still waiting on a dozen RSVPs and then I can turn in my banquet orders. The linens came, my mom says they're quite nice, but I won't see them before the event. I am writing two MASSIVE checks this week for photography and the destination wedding reception... ouch. Right now I'm praising Jesus since my "check engine light" magically turned off after 2 days and hoping he'll keep an eye on my available credit card balance. Hair trial with Megan on Thursday (also The Office Wedding episode!) and much needed girl time.

And what's with people around the office telling me "it's not too late to back out" and "good luck, it's all over now."? Really? Reeeeeally? Just because your marriage/any-relationship-you've-ever-been-in/life failed, don't put that shit on me. Here's what you can go do:


Also, I heard at statistic on Oprah's Mad Men episode that the average age for a woman to get married in 1964 was 20 and in 2009 it's 26. I'm just squeaking by on that one! I wasn't quick enough to come up with an excuse so now I have to have lunch with coworkers... argh. At least it's free and I can get a pumpkin-flavored drink.

Around the house, we've got our suitcases out which makes things feel more real. Lebowski loves jumping in and out of them, but it makes me nervous (even though pets with casts are too cute, I don't think I could handle the dirty looks at the dog park). Today was the 3rd morning in a row that little Lebowski threw up at 4am. Same time everyday, not sure what that means. I don't know if we need to feed him more or less food for dinner, but it's not good. Andy's also coming down with something so the plan is to disinfect everything and eat loads of oranges. We're considering taking Airborne as a preventative, but haven't tried it before.

Have you tried Airborne and if so, do you recommend it?

bon voyage, wedding dress!

This weekend, I tried on my dress for the last time before the big day... it's cleaned, pressed, and ready to go. She will begin her journey to the island on Friday. Luckily, she will be traveling in style in her own upright closet so there will be minimal wrinkling (hopefully)!

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She fits perfectly. Therefore, in no way can I gain or lose weight, in between my wedding day and my wedding celebration. This might be a problem since I was planning on gorging on our honeymoon.

Although I can't show you photos of my actual dress, here's a hint: it's from the Jasmine Haute Couture Fall 2009 line!

the waiting game...

yesterday was the deadline btw. and we also had our tasting... it was delicious!

happy birthday to me!

An early birthday gift arrived this week:

















by Emma Gordon London
I can't wait to carry this with my wedding dress!
Thank you Aunt Betty and Uncle Don!

It's never too early...

...to begin obsessing about wedding weather!

Surprisingly, The Weather Channel has a thorough wedding weather website (love that alliteration!) that takes historical data and averages into account to generate a "Wedding Weather Timeline."

In 6 days I'll be able to see:
Your Wedding Day Forecast, including high and low temperatures, chance of precipitation, and more!

Here's how it's looking right now:
Keep your fingers crossed - it's still hurricane season!

Wedding DIY Frenzy!

Today my Photoshop trial expired, so of course, I was up late last night printing like a mad woman. Luckily, the list is getting much shorter. This Friday we go back home for our final tasting and to drop off everything we can't take on the plane. So I've got 2 days left for projects unless I want to take one less pair of shoes on the plane with me ;)

I CANNOT wait to show you actual photos of what I've been crafting, but for now, my inspiration:

Water bottle labels:
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Programs:
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Place cards:
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Seating signage:

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Children's Activity books:
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