She’s trying to drive already. Scott is sharing all of his childhood places with Ellie and so far we’ve returned here several times. Ellie is a fan. She’s turning into a 2 year old. She’s already acting like one and is fiercely independent except when she wants her mommy or daddy. Then she’s relentless. However, she’s excellent at preschool dropoffs and is very brave now about school. I am going to have to learn to figure her out at a faster pace as she’s now starting to just grow mentally far faster than I was prepared for. Have patience with mommy sweetie.

Ellie received a beautiful art easel made by her grandpa Perry and she is in total love with it. I’m excited to see her want to express herself and her love for good art supplies. (I must encourage this :) ). She wants to draw any chance she gets.

Yes, here she is. My little pickles. Hard to believe she was so small when she first arrived. Now she’s one of the taller kids in her class.

So much in one year…new baby, new city, new job, new house. I’m so glad we decide to meet all of our goals at once. Now I can relax a little. ha.

Ellie, you’ve been so busy! Crawling, standing, growing teeth (2 almost in and 3 starting!). You’ve been trying to say the words “baby” and “momma”, but you’ve decided to be selective when using them. You love to babble and have created numerous noises in the past few months. Two of my favorites being raspberries and clicking your tongue. You LOVE the swing. The above picture is you and your first time on the swings. This obviously was after you calmed down from screaming with glee at the top of your lungs. How come we hadn’t done this sooner!?

Halloween. That’s right, your parents dressed you as an archaic cartoon character. Even archaic to your parents, but hey, you’ll learn what classic animation is if it kills me. Some things never go out of style. We didn’t exactly take you trick or treating but we did parade you around the new neighborhood before bedtime and sucker you into a bunch of photos. You hated that bone in your hair btw. Thanks for humoring me for at least a little bit.

And now…your first birthday is approaching and I can hardly contain myself. My sweet girl, it’s hard to imagine last year before you were here and now how much you’ve grown and changed in the last year. You’re developing quite the expressive personality and I’m constantly entertained by you. I love you, baby.

Baby stats: Ellie

• 16 lbs. 11 oz.
• 26″ tall
• drools. a lot. (we suspect teething but have yet to see anything breaking through)
• Blue eyes (a pretty dark blue which didn’t change to brown surprisingly)
• Light Brown Hair like Dad..including his widows peak hairline. It’s growing in large patches which is leading to unexpected cowlicks but are cute.

Likes:

• Her feet. This should actually be LOVES her feet.
• Anything that plays music. Her favorite toys are her “ipod” and “remote”.  A daddy’s girl to the bone obviously.
• Applesauce, carrots, peaches.
• Rocking in a chair with Daddy
• Sesame Street

Dislikes:

• Sitting in one place for too long
• People using their ipads or iphones while holding her and not sharing

Ellie, you are the BEST sleeper like ever. Your parents adore you for this and if you’re 16 and reading this now….it might be good leverage for a car. You always greet us in the morning with huge smiles and what I call a “happy dance” of kicking your legs and giggling. Even on the cranky days you still are easy going and have reasons for being upset when you cry. You love going for walks and are starting to notice the puppies. They will allow you to pet them in small increments, but I don’t think Maisy will forgive the Eyebrow yank anytime soon.

After Ellie was born, we decided it was best that I stay home for longer than the normal maternity leave allowed by the University. This ultimately meant I had to quit. However, the university is contracting with me on some projects so it’s not all over. I’m still trying to find some kind of schedule with Ellie. We have our good days and some are just ‘I need my mommy at all times’ days. I’m learning to take it in stride and not panic as I’m at least staying busy. Staying home all the time for 2 months wasn’t fun and even still going out with Ellie is still a little intimidating with her still pretty little. She’s getting bigger everyday though and she’s getting quite the personality. Scott found a great job in Austin that was too good to pass up so it meant a rather brisk planning to move here. We’re renting a great house for now until the condo sells. Then we’ll start looking for a real house.

I’m still freelancing from home and so far I haven’t really been having to look for projects, so maybe I can keep going for awhile. Socializing for now has been pretty minimal and I do get a little cabin feverish. Yes, going to the grocery store on the weekend is a fun thing now. I know this will get better as Elliebean gets older. Getting back into reading at least.

and now…more Elliebean pics from her 2 month checkup day. Her third is coming up so I figured I needed to do this before that happened.

Others reactions:

Mia, our schnauzer, is completely obsessed with her. She only gets to stare at her for now, but I can tell Mia is going to be her protector as she gets older. She gets up with us in the middle of the night for Ellie’s night time feedings and gets worried when she cries.

Maisy isn’t quite ready to share her opinion just yet, but mostly has lamented the loss of her chair once again to me and Ellie occupying it for feedings.

Ellie so far…

LOVES her daddy. She fits perfectly in the crook of his arm and will sleep soundly. Daddy is a ninja-swaddler and makes sure she’s comfy when going to bed. So far (knock on wood) Her sleeping has been getting better with hopefully a more established routine. It’s either that or we’ve gotten used to less sleep. She loves to make faces which her father seems to think she’s taking after me on that trait. No clue what he’s talking about here.

On the way back we did some Geocaching and stumbled onto Sculpture Ranch for Pharoah’s Treasure. There is a huge property out there filled with sculptures some of which are really awesome. See the pictures below. Apparently this painter/sculptor/artist from Italy settled in Texas to make a gallery out in the middle of no where. It feels wired and disjointed to find this in east Texas. Definitely recommend if you’re driving through Johnson City it’s worth the stop.

Here’s a sampling of pics from our trip, but visit our Flickr page to see all of them

Front and back of our wedding Geocaching coin. The tracking code has been removed.

Each guest at our wedding back in March were given a Geocaching Coin as a party favor. This post is an update on the coins progress as they’ve traveled around the world, and they’ve been busy!

Geocaching is a geeky treasure hunting game where people hide and seek treasures hidden around the world. Someone starts it off by hiding a cache somewhere in the world and recording the cache’s GPS coordinates on-line. Then later others will try and find the cache with nothing but the coordinates. When they find the cache, they will take some treasure and leave some treasure, typically the treasures are: small toys, pins, or similar objects. The fun part of Geocaching is the adventure of finding the cache and exploring areas where you would not otherwise go. The best caches take you to an interesting spot; one with a great view, an historical place, or tell and story.

Geocaching Coins, like the one we gave as a party favor, each are stamped with a unique tracking code. The code is registered on-line with geocaching.com. When a Geocacher finds the coin they will log it on-line. Then when they visit another cache in the future they will leave the coin for someone else to find. Using this we are able to track the coin as it travels around the world.

View Geocaching Coins in a larger map

Our coins have been on the move! Only a few coins have been released in the wild. I suspect that many guests are holding on to them waiting for a vacation where they can release the coin at some exotic location. Or possibly they think the coin is too cool to release? Either way, the coins that have been released have visited some exotic locations: Las Vegas, San Diego, Hawaii, Canada, the Great Lakes, Ireland, Germany, and numerous towns around Texas. They have seen beautiful sandy beaches, the great lakes, awesome cities, and even spent the night in a castle. Someday, if we win the lottery, Tina and I may trek to all these places. Until then it’s cool to watch the journey from afar.

Total Miles Travel: 28,683 miles! (as of October 2011)

That is enough to traverse the circumference of the Earth.

Special thanks to all the cachers out there who have picked up one of our coins and placed in another cache, thank you!

Here are a few pictures taken by the Geocachers:

Tina: So…do you feel any different?
Scott: uhm. not really.
Tina: me neither.

So there you have it people, not a huge difference. Other than Scott getting used to wearing jewelry and me trying to change my name. The latter is more difficult, but Scott may have a different opinion. The name changing so far has been quite an experience. Note to other brides changing their name at the DMV, fix your hair and wear make-up. They WILL be taking your picture again. *Sigh* learned that the hard way.

Here’s my take on it. I would rather have it this way than feel like I’ve been transformed or something new. I didn’t view my wedding as a big pep rally (Team Awesome!) but rather a cozy celebration with family and friends whom we hope will continue with us on our journey. As of now, our journey consists of trying to get rid of over 200 peacock feathers… know anyone? I can hook you up people. That’s where I think true happiness lives… in the small little details of life. Scott and I can appreciate that, and that’s what makes our marriage awesome. Seriously, how many couples can discuss hamburger recipes and the best place to walk 2 little schnauzers?

The wedding pictures are available…we included anyone else who would share their photos on our website. BTW, I LOVE how well the moustaches went over before the ceremony. It was a last minute thing while preparing the programs, but I think it set a nice informal, but fun tone for the wedding. Thanks for making that work people. We’re all in this together so we might as well make it fun. We are going to try to get our wedding on a couple of wedding blogs just for fun. We’ll let you know if we make it.

One thing we’ve noticed though is people not hiding their coins. I knew it was a long shot to introduce this obscure hobby as a wedding favor, but seriously, try it… it is so much fun and you spend quality time with your loved ones.

Also, always bring your iphone. I’ve been getting hooked on iphone photography and hipstamatic, rocks! They even have a way to print your photos! just make sure your camera is set to high res and they can print up to 30″! I’m about to test this out fairly soon and considering using them for business cards.

Hipstamatic photo of Scott with two Schnauzers.

Scott and Tina after the ceremony

In addition to the traditional vows both Tina and I wrote personal vows to each other. Here are the vows:

From Scott to Tina

Tina I love you and promise to continue loving you forever. Our relationship will be a place of security and friendship from which we both may grow. I cherish your creativity and will provide you with the support to be courageous with your talents. We will face the challenges that fate hands us together just as we will celebrate our fortunes together.

From Tina to Scott

Scott, I love you and promise to continue to loving you forever. I know my life with you will be filled with love, laughter, and trust. I will always encourage you to be true to yourself. We will continue to grow together, and fall in love a little more each day. I promise to love and support you in all of our adventures in life.

Now we’re off to the reception!

Ceremony

The ceremony will begin at 6:45pm sharp. Please arrive 15 to 20 minutes early to allow time for seating and parking. We expect the ceremony to last 30 minutes with a reception immediately following. The ceremony site is out doors with an on-site alternative in case of inclement weather. However the weather forecast at this time looks good at a nice 77 degrees. Also, please remember we are requesting no gifts, as your presence at our wedding is all we need.

The dress style for the ceremony is “Dressy Casual”. For men this means: Trousers with a polo or button down shirt and a sports coat if you prefer with casual driving loafers or boots. For women this means: Dress, a dressy pants look, skirt with a sweater, or blouse with nice shoes or boots.

Directions

Larger Version

The ceremony is a few minutes outside of town at the Greenbranch. Below is the address along with driving directions, make sure you double check your route if you are using a GPS navigation device because they are easily confused by the area.

From Bryan/College Station exit highway 6 at Briarcrest Dr and turn left away from town, you should pass a Cracker Barrel. Continue straight on the road, it will change names to FM 1179, for 2.4 miles. Take a slight right turn onto Steep Hollow Road. Travel for 2.3 miles and look for signs that mark the entrance to the Greenbranch.

I will be going to Design Camp in a few weeks after the wedding and one of the classes I’m taking is an iphone photography class using an iphone app called hipstamatic. Luckily, I started playing with it early to make sure I had downloaded all the fun stuff. It turns out that the makers of hipstamatic created a special free lens just for SXSW. I wasn’t able to go this year due to wedding circumstances….(design camp was the consolation, but I think I’m totally fine with that). Anyhoo, I’ve been using that free lens constantly and think it’s my favorite. We went to Wolf Pen Creek Park yesterday to soak up the awesome day (i keep looking at the weather and I’m very hopeful our wedding day will be just as pretty).

What a great day to do nothing. We did do a lot yesterday, but this was a break from it all. It makes me very grateful for all the awesome, wonderful people in our lives and our upcoming wedding. I keep pinching myself mentally (yes, it’s possible) that I get the honor of being Scott’s wife in just a week. I hope I can do it without crying. I’ve always been annoyed with myself for being overwhelmed with emotion for certain things. I just want to enjoy it and be happy…but the whole idea of it hits me at once and boom waterworks. I’m going to try to put most of this in writing this week, and hopefully I can emotionally wrap my head around it and just be relaxed and happy. Not a teary eyed happy. Either way, happy. I love you, sweetie!

First an update: T-24 days and counting. We’ve so far gotten first draft of the wedding vows, a list of signs I need to make and design, a final meeting at the Greenbranch, and a visit from Pastor Dan on Monday. (Dear Pastor Dan, please forgive me but everytime I see you, I hear Forrest Gump in my head screaming “Lieutenant Dan!”)

Last week was full of wedding stuff. Scott and I had a final meeting of going over final stuff at the Greenbranch. Alexi, my MOH, Sandee, my cake, caterer, and Michelle, our newly appointed wedding planner person came to the meeting with us. Michelle is a friend of a friend (well, I call her friend now too) who recommended our photographer to us awhile back and has since decided to begin wedding and event planning (www.craftedweddings.net) in Bryan/College Station. Not the overly frou-frou ones mind you, but the really fun and creative ones that are totally personalized and alternative, which around here, is hard to come by. She’s got great ideas and I’m totally happy she’s helping us out the day of.

Anyhoo, the meeting went very well. I actually got talked out of some of the lighting plans I had, but really, I’m a bit relieved as we’ll now have less to do the day before.  I bought candles so everything should be nice and romantic.

The rest of the week was getting prepared for the flower power party. I am so lucky to have friends who are willing to drive 2 hours to be put to work making flowers. We previously had taken a class in Austin at The Stitch Lab on ribbon flowers and were excited to put all that knowledge to work. I highly recommend the stitch lab..i will be revisiting future classes, my inner Martha is pining to make stuff.

Saturday at noon, Molly, Tara, Megan, Alexi and Beth came over and the assembly line began. Megan seems to channel Martha Stewart and everything she touches becomes like perfectly beautiful…we had her fixing everyone’s goofs or starting people out in addition to making pretty flowers.

Tara, Molly, and I made more flowers. Alexi was in charge of hot glue and creating stems (which I learned from Beth, styrofoam thingies are so not necessary. All you need is cloth covered wire and lots of hot glue to make stems) Beth was in charge of arranging flowers as we went. I have been making flowers since Scott and I got engaged, but you know the saying you have to be bad before you can be good? (yeah, lots of bad flowers were concocted…almost frankenstein-like..some survived and were incorporated into the bouquets) I also knew I wanted a variety so I bought some wood birch chip flowers from etsy at a store called accents and petals.

Last but not least, Scott and the men folk grilled fajitas with all the fixins for the ladies. Scott would like his ancient fajita secret shared….Tecate marinade. yes just simply drown the raw chicken in Tecate overnight and you have the best chicken fajitas ever…super juicy. The men kindly did us a favor and left to hang out at a bar for a few more hours while we finished. T’was a productive day and I definitely am very grateful for such awesome friends. I will be extremely happy when Katherine can take pics that do these bouquets justice…. :)

Again…I’ll try to stay on subject here. When we first got engaged and my brain was thinking we had TONS of time to do all kinds of DIY projects (you can stop laughing at anytime now) I had the brilliant idea of having a really nice funky chic background for wedding pics and for anyone who wanted their pics taken at the wedding ..possibly for the photobooth inside. My MOH, Alexi, who is the downtown Bryan Horse Drawn Carriage lady reminded me of a stash of doors collected by a building owner in Downtown Bryan. Zane Anderson currently renovates old buildings and tries to leave the charm but saves as much of the original hardware as he can. Sadly, many of these doors are in somewhat poor shape and their only hope is that some insane bride comes along to rescue them with a coat of paint and put them in her wedding. “Score!” Zane sold me about 7 of these doors for relatively little money. We stored them in Phil’s (BM) Garage till we found time to deal with them. We hired a guy to sand them down for us and clean them up a little before painting.

After Thanksgiving, we set to work the rest of the weekend painting and re-aging the doors:

Tina painting and then distressing antique doors to be backdrops for wedding pictures.

Door Gallery:

I found a great tutorial on aging furniture at Design Sponge. The colors are bright and gorgeous…no light pastels at this wedding. I think with the photographer we hired there will be some beautiful bright pics with these doors as a background. I managed to find an old bench too off of craigslist that should be a nice contrast. My bridesmaid, Molly, and I spent and entire evening sewing paper garland…I learned oodles about my sewing machine and I’m excited about it. There will be lots of colored paper garland over the doors and photobooth. We’re going for a casual fun atmosphere. I encourage people to wear bright colors and not expect a huge amount of formality after the ceremony. ;) I will add pics of the garland as soon as I get home.

Coming soon….the uber-bouquet making party of ’11. It’s gonna be crazy.

2008: Our first year making ornaments we made ceramic ornaments at the local ceramic store. They made everything very easy. They had a wide selection of un-decorated “bisque” ceramics in all shapes and sizes ready to be painted. Once you paint them with a chalky glaze paint they’ll need to be fired in an oven. The local ceramic store had everything we needed: we picked out the ornament shapes out and painted them right there. A few days later we picked them up after they had been fired in an oven. They turned out great; see the gallery below.

2009: The following year we choose to go with simple wood ornaments. They sell various shapes at the local craft stores and along with a set of paint pens we were ready. These were the easiest to make so far, and I’d expect them to last the longest.

2010: This year we wanted to do stained glass, but we don’t know anything about glass making. Instead of real stained glass we used painted glass that when it dries it has a stain glass look. We picked up some plain clear glass ball ornaments at the store along with a paint kit. The kit had several colors along with a bottle of liquid leading which is a thick black paint that when dries resembles the lead joints seen in stain glass windows.

To make the painted glass ornaments we had to do a two-step process. The first day we used a China Marker to draw an outline on the glass. Next , we used the liquid leading to draw a beaded line along the outline. The liquid leading requires at least 8 hours to dry. So we left them to hang in the closet. The next day we came back and painted color in between the shapes created by the leading. To paint the color you just use a special tool that comes with the paint kit to scoop paint into the area. You fill up the entire area pushing the paint to cover all the areas. It requires more paint that you expect; it thins out as it dries translucent. The color paint requires another 8 hours to dry then they are ready to hang on the tree.

Next year: We haven’t decided what material we’ll use for next years ornaments but Tina’s interested in using Fimo Modeling Clay. We’ll certainly have lots things to celebrate with our ornaments next year after getting married!

Ornament Gallery

The Dress

When we last discussed “the dress”, I had received the mock dress, and a large piece of paper to draw the design for the dress. After several tries of taking measurements and realizing that some of my undergarments were ill-fitting (thanks to a video skype with Katherine), the dress was out of my decision making realm and into Katherine at Whirling Turban’s creative and capable hands. I was a little timid in my design as I know nothing about dressmaking, and I certainly didn’t want to frustrate Katherine and wanted her to be able to express her talents. I drew something simple following her instructions. My first design was very line oriented which actually worked against how the ribbon design worked for her dresses so I tried toning it down a bit. She took my simple design and ran with it…I love it when people get to enjoy a project and I hope Katherine enjoyed working on mine. She requested to take artistic license and I totally agreed. It also meant that I really didn’t know what the final was going to look like. To some this may have been a bit scary, but seeing how talented whirling turban staff are, I was simply more excited to see what they would come up with.

When I was told the dress had been shipped, it was like waiting for Christmas. Turns out my wonderful post office claimed to have given me a notice which I NEVER saw. After a bit of tracking, I noticed that the dress had been here for 9 days at the post office….immediately went to rescue the dress that morning. Scott made me wait yet another hour before I could open it since he had to film me opening it. It sat on my office chair…waiting…..and just sitting there unopened. Try not to laugh at my hair in the video.

The first picture right after opening the dress box.

One last thing I need to do is to get the dress hemmed. I’ve contacted one lady but haven’t heard back yet… so spoiler alert….below :).

The Crinoline

The other big thing to talk about is the crinoline. Whirling Turban recommended a place for crinoline, but because of the color of my dress, I wanted to find something that would go perfectly. White was out, since the dress ribbon is black. Black was not ideal because it is my wedding and that much I think would have been disturbing. I wanted to be different, but not shove it in people’s face.

I found a wonderful shop on Etsy (if you don’t know Etsy, get to know Etsy. Your life will only improve) called Swank Underpinnings run by a lady named Ann Swank. I contacted her and sent her a piece of my sample fabric. She custom dyed and made a crinoline just for me. She also took the time to find just the right color of ribbon for the dress (which the ribbon makes all the difference if you look at plain crinoline versus Ann’s creations). She made a 4 tier crinoline which is a bit fluffier than the 2 tier. She’s made some for rockabilly weddings where the dresses stick way out with stiff tulle, but we decided the softer crinoline would work best for me.

Crinoline made by Ann Swank of  Swank Underpinnings

The final conclusion

I absolutely loved this experience. I feel my dress expresses me rather than some tired tradition that I have no connection to. I would recommend this to anyone who is actively interested in making a dress that is unique. I do think being web and computer savvy helped a lot though. Definitely brush up on the interwebs communication like Skype and Google video/chat if you want do this. The video Skype with Katherine was a huge turning point for the dress IMHO and made me feel very good about the dress progress.

Scott and Tina posing for a picture at the A&M vs OU game, 2010. This is the first time Tina has ever been to Kyle Field and we had front row seats!

Tina was really excited and looking forward to going to the game. She definitely did not feel that Scott was dragging her out to a football game. If you believe any of that, then you don’t know Tina very well! She’s not into sports, well, actually neither am I. But I do like to watch the Aggies win every now and then. I had a great time, and afterward Tina told me that she thought it was fun. I don’t know if she’s just telling me that, but she did seem to enjoy her self during the game. At least now she can say she’s been to a game and had a taste of what a Yell Leader is, along with all the traditions surrounding A&M Football. Perhaps in a few years we’ll go to another game, but I don’t think season tickets are in our future.

Since the Sooner’s were ranked 8^th going into the game with 7 wins out of 8 games this season I was afraid the game was going to be a slow motion slaughter. In fact it was a great game! The Aggies got an early lead and kept it for the entire game. Great game Aggies!

This years Murder Mystery Event was a great success! We held it again this year downtown at Café Capri, they are very helpful in making the event easy to organize. For this year’s theme we choose “Hollywood Murder Mystery” filled with cheeky caricatures of famous celebrities such as Bill Rodgers still wearing his sweater from his famous children’s TV show, and country music super stars Willie Ray Cyrus and Shania Vain. A few fictional characters showed up such as Juan Valdez and V.R. Ewing! It was a great time to see our friends dressed up in costume trying to impersonate famous people.

This year’s event was much harder to solve than last years with only two detectives successfully solving the crime. These two were able to find the three important pieces of information: motive, opportunity, and the weapon. The put these together to prove that the character Nicole was playing was the murder. Nicole was able to throw off suspicion by claiming that the gun she had was just a tranquilizer gun used to quite animals before trips on airplanes. Kyle took home the ‘Best Sleuth’ award for his detective work.

Everyone from the Hollywood Murder Mystery posing in front of the cake at the end of the evening.

There were some really great costumes! Cody came dressed as Jack Cool a movie actor straight from the set of his new vampire movie. He won the ‘Best Costume’ award and was the butt of several Twilight themed jokes through out the night. In the honorable mention category Molly’s costume of the cleaning lady, Gladys Green, was spot on, along with Beth’s immersion into the rocker Cinnamon Stix’s attitude. In the ‘Best Actor’ category Chris Walters blew everyone away with his British accent for the character Lincoln Mercury.

I encourage everyone to check out the rest of the photos from the event on flickr.

Tina and I would like to thank Café Capri, Sandee Moss of Cinderella Stories for the awesome cake, Cody Green for both participating and taking awesome pictures, and everyone else who attended the event for making it a success. Thank you.

Searching for another option we came across Aggie Pet Zone; a new facility out on Rock Prairie Road on the other side of Wellborn. They offer a wide range of services from grooming, doggy day care, training classes, and pet boarding. One of the main selling points are their private doggie suites. These private suites consist of a small room (think closet with windows), small raised bed, tile floor, and their own flat panel television. They promise to take girls out 6 times a day, and if you wish they will let your puppies socialize with other dogs staying there.

When we dropped Mia and Maisy off Tina was noticeably apprehensive. The staff did a great job of calming her nerves about boarding the puppies. They showed us around and we saw the rooms – wow they are nice! They have several dog runs along the outside where the puppies would play when they were outside.

Mia and Maisy realizing for the first time that they were being left alone in a strange place while Tina and I went on a trip. They were sad, but, they had their own private flat screen television to watch animal planet on!

Our final review of the experience is that Aggie Pet Zone is a bit expensive (at least for the private boarding suite!) but you won’t have to worry about how you puppies are doing while you’re away. The one issue we may have encountered were fleas. More than a week after we got back from the trip we noticed fleas on the girls and they hadn’t been anywhere else other than Aggie Pet Zone and the house. They probably picked up the fleas there, but we can’t be sure. In either case the girls will get flea treatment right afterward if/when they are boarded again.

Whirling Turban is a sponsor on that site where I quickly became enamored of the retro style dresses that were fun and not at all the fluffy white overkill gowns that saturate the wedding industry. No offense to women who love these, they just aren’t me, and I was dreading the process of going to a boutique type place and trying gown after gown on and not being happy about it. I never wear white, why should one of the most important days of my life force me to dress up like someone else’s idea of how I should be? (I took it very personally, but shouldn’t I?)

It all started with an email. Which being a web designer, I loves me some email communication. It’s unobtrusive and you can document everything. These dressmakers feel the same way. I got a quick response the next day (due to time differences which takes a little getting used to but not long) explaining the whole process and what I needed to do to get started. The word “corset” was introduced and I began the process of buying the undergarments…including a corset. Scott helped me with measurements (a true test of a man’s love ;) ).

All payment with Whirling Turban goes through Google checkout (again internet love) and she does have people in the states who work for her regarding this as well for those who haven’t grasped the world of google checkout. I did get to speak to Katherine via Google voice before ever putting a down payment towards my dress. It was agreed that I would have her design a custom dress for me in a non traditional fabric for wedding. She has several styles of bodices and skirts that can be combined to your perfect style. They do create gorgeous dresses in white, but I preferred the bright colors they offer in a simliar style. They create their own fabric that be found no where else and it it simply beautiful to the touch. What’s even better is that Katherine loved the idea of me adding my own personal touch to the dress in a ribbon applique. She’s created other designs, but me being me….was open to me drawing something specific.

I’m not quite sure when I decided on peacock feathers, but the idea of using them in my centerpieces so they could be created way ahead of time appealed to me, so why not an abstract design of them on the dress too? Here’s where the video comes in. After a few weeks of waiting, a smallish but weighty package arrived….

I thought it would be fun to document my reaction for the WT ladies. Then it dawned on me to just document the whole process. The video was an impromptu decision with the iphone. I’ll go into more detail about the contents of the box.

The corset: I purchased the corset elsewhere, but me being new to corset buying the corset was actually too big and the WT ladies agreed to fix the corset for me while creating the test dress.

The test dress: No it’s not really that color. it’s only a test, but I think the color allows them to see better what needs to be fixed on the dress. I need to try on the dress and take pictures of me in it so they know where to make alterations.

The tissue paper: it’s actually a full size tracing od the dress pattern for me to draw my actual design for the dress (see below for my start for initial inspiration.) My first drawings it turns out wouldn’t work well as they gave me specific instructions on how my design should work while giving me creative license.

A sample of the applique on the actual fabric: I forgot to put in the step where I went to find embroidery floss to find a contrast for the ribbon on the dress. It turns out black was the best option. We won’t use too much but it was the best choice.

I started doing internet searches on peacocks and abstract solutions and created an idea board:

Growing up at my parent’s house in south Austin I spent many summer days hiking, biking, and swimming all over Barton Creek. I think it’s one of Austin’s best undiscovered features. I’m not talking about Barton Springs pool which everyone knows about but the park and wilderness area upstream from it. I remember the first time a friend showed me the super secret path down to the creek, at the time I felt like a new secret world was just opened up to me. We spent the next several summers down there for entire days at a time. There are a few bike trails down there that are perfect for maintain biking. You can choose to stay on the north side of the creek where the trails are relatively flat or try the south side for a little more adventure where with more rocks, turns, and jumps.

A few weeks ago Tina and I spent the weekend at my parents and I was lucky enough to be able to share Barton Creek with her. Since this was August, in Texas, it was hot! So we left early in the morning before it got too hot from my parents neighborhood, Travis Country, and hiked down to the creek. Unfortunately it hadn’t rained for a while so the creek was bone dry. But that didn’t stop us! I showed her one of the many springs along the creek, and we stopped at Twin Falls. I loved this place, it’s really great natural waterfall. The water has cut several channels in the rock so it has everything Jacuzzi pools, flat shallow water, deep water, and there is a secrete cave behind one of the water waterfalls!

Panoramic view of Twin Falls along Barton Creek when it’s dry as a bone. Photo taken August 2010.

One thing that amazed me was how many other people we saw down there. We were down along the creek for several hours and probably saw 50 people down there. Some were running, some were taking their dogs for a walk, and others were just hiking around like us. When I was a teenager and the creek was dry like that it would be completely empty, not a soul around. I guess it’s gotten a lot more popular in the intervening decade. I’d expect it to be ‘crowded’ when there’s water down there now.

The sign reads "No Trespassing, Travis Country Residents and Guests Only"

You can see more pictures we took while on our hike.

Ok so the last couple of months have been packed with finding vendors, writing checks, and cutting fabric. Lots and lots of fabric and making decisions about that fabric and then starting over with different fabric…unfortunately, that’s the creative process. I’m learning to trust it as long as I keep budget in mind. Making fabric flowers was a LOT harder than I thought. As this was my inspiration from Milkpod Studios on Etsy.

Their shop is closed until Aug 30…guessing because they’re so busy after being featured in Bride’s magazine. I found them a bit pricey but people have to make a living, but i need to save some money so I decided …YES I CAN! (famous last words, no?)

My first attempt was “fairly clunky” it’s the only way I can describe it. Scott was supportive, but I wasn’t totally feelin’ it and when that happens and i’m not real confident I tend to be slow at it. I have 5 bouquets and centerpieces people. This is not for the faint of heart. I started to scour youtube on tutorials and other bride blogs etc. I came across Princess Lasertrons pretty flowers but wow that’s a LOT of sewing…a talent I haven’t quite grasped. At least her earlier work anyway. I needed something inbetween. Some of her later stuff is actually what I decided on. I’m thinking all that emroidery may have gotten to her as well as it seems to fading from her recent bouquets.

So anyway, Here’s a look at my salvageable ones after i figured out how these crafty ladies were producing these. I’m quite partial to them:

Fabric Flowers

What’s really cool is that I’m using our old jeans in some of the flowers so it’s very personal :). I’ve found some unique buttons on Etsy that I’m waiting on right now so the flowers aren’t all wood beads and plastic. I’ve discovered that buttons are a unique art in itself and can be quite pricey if you don’t scour places like etsy for a nice deal.

Onto how these are made: A company called Sizzix is a creator of all things scrapbooking. They actually make the heavy duty versions of die cuts for schools…I always thought my teacher cut out that stuff, but no the secret’s out. They’re diecuts that go through a manual press type of machine. They’ve since created a cheaper version for the masses for soccer moms to make overly visual scrapbook pages with one photo in them. I never really got into scrapbooking as that stuff gets very expensive if you let it. There’s a digital online thing anyway now called scrapblog if you’re interested. They can print books too. No more cutting! sorry, I veered off…It turns out Sizzix had a couple of manual machines that with the right die could cut through fabric. About 7 dies later, I’ve managed to get the above. It’s sooooo much easier too. I just spend time cutting out shapes out of various fabric…make little stacks of each kind then assemble each flower as I go. Each one is different but from the same fabric colors. I’m quite excited about it, especially since I got all the pieces and dies about 40% off. My dress maker also said she would send me extra fabric to include in the flowers. *happy dance* I will post more pics once i get more done. I just hope I can make enough. I have about 40 so far.

The dress and the peacock feather post I think will have to come later. I just thought I’d tease everyone a little bit :). I have the fabric and color of the dress picked out but nothing really to discuss just yet. Did you catch that? I said “color”…I decided not to wear white as I never wear white anyway so it would make me feel self-concious and not me. I should feel comfortable and pretty so color will be quite prevalent throughout the wedding methinks. As Martha would say…”it’s a good thing”.

I discovered the Brown Butter Cookie Company when reading wedding blogs…this particular one (called the temple of groom)was actually written by a groom. I’ve been sending them to Scott so he can relate. ;)

Brown Butter Cookies from the Brown Butter Cookie Company

This recipe came from another blog I found but it’s not the real “Brown Butter Cookie Company” recipe. The lady who created this said there was something not quite right about it as it was still inferior to BBCC. After ordering some BBCC cookies, I’m thinking the secret ingredient is the salt. There are lots of sea salts out there and they all can affect the flavor of whatever it is your cooking dramatically. My co-workers and I examined the cookies (it’s always good to share) and we think it’s hawaiian pink salt they’re using in the recipe and faking people out with regular sea salt on the outside. I found 2 kinds of this sea salt on amazon and am waiting until I can try it. I will be taking the majority to work as I’m finding if I get rid of sweets quick enough I don’t tend to eat them.

UPDATE September 22, 2011: Due to the amount of hits this post has gotten, I felt the need to try this recipe again and lo and behold I discovered the issues…..Secret ingredient was NOT hawaiian sea salt. and it’s baking SODA not powder. Here’s the new recipe and it’s awesome and will be the new christmas cookie this year.

Ingredients:
1 cup salted butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
Flake Sea Salt
1. In a small saucepan, melt butter on low to medium heat, stirring occasionally, until browned. Stir in sugars and vanilla and remove from heat.
2. Let the sugar mixture cool to room temperature.
3. In a mixing bowl add flour and baking soda. Stir in sugar mixture until combined.
4. At this point I recommend letting the mixture rest for at least an hour to let the flour absorb all the butter. The mixture may be stiff afterwords and crumbly- microwave handfuls of dough for 10 seconds. The dough will be easier to roll.
5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
6. Roll 1 inch balls of dough. Place on cookie sheet and sprinkle flake sea salt on top.
7. Bake for 15 minutes.

ok, you may ask, what’s with the obsession with overpriced shortbread? At the moment, while doing my homework for this wedding, I’m really enjoying allowing myself to explore new stuff. Actually I should be writing all of this here. Several new things I’m actually going to try to do for the wedding are sort of underway…one involves some historic doors from a hotel in downtown Bryan, and the quest for a corset…(hence the giving away of any sweets …who am i kidding though, I haven’t been able to cook anything in weeks) The odds of me actually finding time is quite slim. (hey, at least I’m losing something somewhere. Time counts doesn’t it? :) )

In ancient Rome March was the first month of the year. In the Mediterranean climate March is the first month of spring, a logical beginning of the year. It was not until later Gregorian calendar was invited. Wikipedia also tells me that March is American Red Cross Month, Colorectal Cancer awareness month and the month of Texas Independence.

What else occurred on March 26th?
1484 — The first English translations of Aesop’s Fables are published
1830 — The Book of Mormon is first published in New York
1953 — The Polio Vaccine passed trials , two years later it was given to every child in the United States
1976 — Queen Elizabeth II sends the first royal email
2011 — Scott Phillips and Tina Messinger are married

Tina arranged to get some Sushi cupcakes for the event and they turned out amazing, see the picture below. The waitstaff at the restaurant hadn’t seen anyone do that before. It was funny to see the sushi chef’s checking out Sandee’s icing recreation.

Sushi topped birthday cupcakes by Sandee Moss of Cinderella Stories. Everyone was amazed by how awesome they looked and how good they tasted.

See our other photo’s from the event on Flickr.

Since we got to show off Scott’s ability to choose jewelry, (and oh, he did such a beautiful job….I couldn’t ask for a prettier ring) I did manage to get a little something to mark our engagement. What’s funny is while I knew at some point he would ask, I didn’t know when. I hadn’t seen the ring in it’s actual form (I’d only seen renderings and a wax version) and I really thought he’d ask on the actual day of our anniversary, but you never know :) So I had to leave the day off but at least knew the month and year…

So far, I’ve been collecting type specimens of my future name. I have several woodblock type pieces and now photography. I’m sure it won’t end there. I think it’s my way of trying it on so to speak by being creative with it.

So onto planning this wedding. So far, I’ve done internet searches and we’ve limited ourselves to around here plus a 200 mile radius of here (to include Austin if desired…Houston was also considered, but ew.) I’ve also found several blogs on DIY weddings and will post them below in the links area as discovered. I’m not sure how massively detailed I want to get on here as shouldn’t the whole thing be a little bit of surprise? But then I’m all about the process :) maybe I’ll just tease everyone a little as I go.

Tina and I met while working for the library at Texas A&M University. Tina is a designer helping make the library look good; I am a software developer working on digital library projects. We went on several Geocaching expeditions around the local area. Geocaching is a geeky treasure hunting activity where you explore your local neighborhood and other places by simply finding caches that other people have left. Not many people can say visiting Aunt Jemima’s (Yes, the syrup) gravestone brought them closer together. These expeditions culminated in our first date, with a Geocaching trip to Port Aransas for Sand Fest. Walking along the beach we first expressed how the felt about each other. Just a few days shy of two years later walking along the same beach is where I proposed.

After telling both of our parents the first question was do you have a date set? Nope, we don’t have a date or a venue set, but we are aiming for this fall or next spring. Check back here for details later.