Save the Date's

Save the Date's are out. I sent them out in April. I looked online and found it difficult to find a design that I liked, so I set out to design my own. Well, a perfectionist like myself is never satisfied... you have no idea what I went through! Dave finally started telling me he liked them all because there were too many to choose from. The winning design was very different. The photo was taken in Balboa Park at the Organ Pavillion during a family photo shoot that my sister-in-law got my parents as a Christmas gift. Each of the four kids had their pictures taken with their respective others and we took some family shots, all eleven of us! I did all of the designs in Photoshop, I'm getting pretty good at that, but though I thought that I constrained the picture size so all the ratios would be the same, it seems that our heads got stretched a tad bit anyways. Oh well. We finally had the printing done at VistaPrint for about 0.22 cents a piece. The printing turned out great, especially for the price! They were small, the size of a business card, but I didn't want anything huge anyways.

Enjoy looking at the designs! I had fun with the process!

These were the 2nd and 3rd place designs:

May Happenings

Yes, it's true, I'm a bit late... but I hope that you will forgive me since it has been, by far, the busiest of months!

Dave graduated from Northeastern with his M.A. in Economics!
I am so proud of Dave! He did something that many don't have the courage to do. Immediately after high school... well almost immediately... he joined the Navy and through his diligence, strong will and pure amazingness became a SEAL. He served for about 5.5 years and decided it was time to move on and he went to college. For most, college is a given: graduate high school, go to college. Period. I bet you've never thought about what it might be like to start college when you're 25 and graduate when you're 30. It's tough when you have the awareness that most people your age have a "real job" and make money. It's tougher when you think about how you're going to make up for "lost time" (which, by the way, is absolutely NOT LOST!). And it's the toughest when you're surrounded by "kids" 18-22 years old who haven't really grown up yet or experienced much and who you wouldn't necessarily choose to be your new best buddies. But Dave did it all... sure, there were times he considered changing course, but in the end, decided that the degree was necessary. Last May, he graduated Summa Cum Laude with his B.S. in Economics and this year, graduated with an overall 3.6 GPA in some pretty tough economics coursework. That my friends, is victory! He is amazing. I love him. There are many reasons for that.

We also had a lovely time with his family who came out for the occasion. We went to see the Wayside Inn where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote "Paul Revere's Ride".

I went with Dave's dad to Sturbridge Village, New England's largest outdoor museum set to the time of Colonial Massachusetts. That was pretty cool!

Dave took his dad for a skydive... talk about pressure!

And we had a fun lobster feast!

Busy but great month!

Color Freak Out

I'm not going to lie, I had a small worry-fest this morning. When we went to go get tux's for the guys, the lady made a big deal about not mixing ivory and yellow. I had never heard that before and... well... my dress is ivory and I'm planning on having yellow flowers. Argh... Nobody told me this before! Apparently, white and yellow are go-withs but not ivory and yellow. Ok, then I start re-thinking everything... this very quickly becomes a slippery slope with me because I'm the type to over-think my color palette's. This is my original palette and after using this awesome website, I'm think if I change anything, it will be my "neutral".

or even a lighter aqua... the yellow is negotiable since flowers can't be any ONE color... but I was shooting for a deeper fall yellow.

I love aqua... love it. I think muted aqua works well as a neutral color and would only be on the table cloths.

This is option 2, changing the aqua to a grey/silver. The only thing about this is that I can't really visualize it and it really isn't me and if I were to change that, I'd just drop it altogether and stick with blue, yellow and ivory.

Although if I had my druthers I'd have gone with more of a peach, because I love peach. But it was veto'd by the groom... a little too pink for his taste. I get that. Plus, it really is more of a spring/summer color.

Anyways, I think the florist talked about using some circus roses in the bridesmaids bouquets.

I love the look of them... I'm having a hard time picturing it. I'm sure it will turn out great.

What it means is that my color palette is more like this one, which is actually my original idea since orange/persimmon and yellow flowers are so readily available in the fall.

What's a wedding without the occasional second-guessing of one's choices right?

The best $40 I've ever spent!

I'm not the kind of girl that thinks it's OK to stink, even in a cast, or become totally vegetative, even on crutches. In anticipation of my foot surgery, I bought a DryPro Half Leg Cast Cover for the primary reason of being able to bathe properly. Most of you know that I'm also an avid swimmer, so being able to stay active was also critical so that I wouldn't go stir crazy sitting at home working on my dissertation.

In the shower, my DryPro works like a champ. I've never had any leaks. In the pool, I've only had one minor leak and I'm 99% sure it was because I didn't suction out all of the air first... not to mention, I was a bit overzealous in that I refused to give up my flip turns simply because I had a cast on. Flip turns are critical to not losing momentum in the pool.

Anyways, for those of you unsure about the DryPro, here are my how-to pictures. It is a product that I would recommend to everyone with a cast... especially if you like to stay active or simply for summertime fun.

This is the Dry Pro Cast cover ready to be put on. I didn't have any issues getting it over my first cast, but my boot is significantly bulkier and it's a little harder to get this on and off. The good news is that I'm OK to shower without my boot, but swimming is still out of the question, so I don't have to put it on and off too much anymore.

Once the DryPro is on, attach the bulb to the valve on the front.

Get ready to pump. It takes about 20-25 pumps to suction out all of the air from the boot so you get a good vacuum suction on it. Not to shabby for being able to shower!

**Warning** Puppies may not like that there is a slight noise when pumping air out. They like it even less when they can feel that stream of air!

I'm not in a cast here, but it was my first day out of the cast, so at this point I was still wearing my DryPro in the shower. But it looks pretty tight on the foot. When the bulb won't re-fill with anymore air, you're done pumping. Just remove the bulb and cap the valve. (This isn't complicated. Air doesn't rush in when the bulb is removed so it really is foolproof!)

And we're ready for water!

Foot Surgery

On March 21st I had a dorsiflexion osteotomy of the first metatarsal on my right foot. They basically cut a wedge out of the bone in my foot that leads to the big toe. By cutting out the wedge and re-joining the bone it should decrease the severity of my arch and by doing so should get rid of all of the problems that I was having.

The problems started about two years ago when I had started training to do mini triathalons. I was running and biking a lot, and as a result, I had some severe foot pains. I found out that the cause of the pain was because fluid was accumulating in my toe joints along with sesamoiditis with periostitis (just like shin splints, but in the foot). Although these were the symptoms I had, the real underlying cause was because of my “pes cavus” foot type (a congenital foot deformity of extremely high arches in the feet). The doctor said that, simply because of the shape of my foot, it was a matter of time until I was going to be experiencing difficulties with my feet and that my feet were never meant to run and that I should switch to low impact activities permanently.

I went to see a podiatrist and then a foot & ankle orthopedic specialist, and after two years of trying orthodics and stretching and no running, there was little improvement with my foot pain. We decided surgery was not only the best option for me, but also the only “permanent” option. With non-surgical treatments I could be back in pain after any trigger.

Right now, I am completely non-weight bearing on my right foot for 6-8 weeks, which means I am on crutches. I am getting my splint off on April 13th and will be in a removable boot, which should help me sleep better at night. I should be off the crutches in time for my graduation! Pain was fairly severe the first two weeks following my surgery but has subsided and I am doing well.

3 days post-op

I went in 3 days after surgery because the resident doctor who assisted my surgeon put the splint on incorrectly. My foot was not in a neutral position so I had some numbness from my knee down. It was extremely painful, but after getting the new splint, everything was A-OK.

3 weeks post-op
This sore on my heel has been the root of most of my pain the last week and a half. It's hard to describe, but the pain was excruciating. The splint didn't move much and as a result, I got this sore. I am now in a removable splint and it is healing and I am not hurting so much anymore.

Stitches are out! Now with the removable cast, I can wash my leg and shave!! :)

Aisle Decorations

I have been racking my head trying to make decisions about what I'm going to do to decorate the wedding aisle for our ceremony. I want it to be nice, but the ceremony is short, so I don't want to spend an arm and a leg just to make it look pretty. I'm going for cheap but elegant. I want the look to be as elegant and chic as my gown and the BM dresses (think ruched satin). I think I've ditched the pomander idea mostly because of cost (with real flowers) and time with paper flowers. I'm trying to write my PhD dissertation. I don't need 600 paper flowers looming over my head. These are my ideas so far.

The first idea is tying pails filled with baby's breath to the sides of the chairs like they show here. I found pails similar to the ones shown for about $2.25 each. Not too bad, but then add the cost of baby's breath.

...or, we could put the pails on the ground. The cheapest I've seen these is $3.00 each. Not awful.

I also think that jars on chairs would be cute too! You can get a case of 12 mason jars for $9 (0.75 cents a piece) I like that number!!

We could also use paper cones instead of buying jars or buckets...

an even simpler idea is to just tie a small bunch of flowers to the chairs with ribbon. (When I say small, I mean much smaller than this picture here. Maybe one yellow daisy or rose with babys breath.)

Lastly, the cost and time-efficient alternative to pomanders, is to use eyelet paper lanterns and hang them on the chairs (with plenty of ribbon) to give it a whimsical look. Each white eyelet lantern is about $2 each plus ribbon. This is the only non-floral option that I have.

What do you think??

Tissue Paper Pomander: Experiment 1

I'm pretty sure that Martha Stewart started the whole paper pom craze. Honestly, I think they are great. Theoretically easy to do and easy on the wallet, they can really add a nice touch to any party. They have spilled into the wedding world, of which I seem to be deeply submerged into, and people are doing some really creative things with modifications of these.

For example:
Can you believe that the pomanders in the picture below are made from tissue paper? I think that they are amazing!! I originally got the idea from http://ruffledblog.com but the link seems to be broken. Though these images come from the website.

Thinking I could save some serious cash by making these beauties instead of using real flowers (I mean, seriously, who would know?!?) I set out to try to make them myself. Most of you know that I am a scientist, so you would know that I test things in a stepwise fashion. I don't just do it all at once. First step was to see if I could make a tissue paper pom. The disclaimer here is that I did not have all the right supplies. I used some really non-flexible ribbon instead of wire to fasten the paper. I also had sup-par instructions that failed to mention how many sheets of tissue to use.

They did not turn out! I went to the craft store, spent 50 cents, bought myself some wire, but I still need to try it again. I will keep you posted