72 Days

Handsome.

Oh hey. So I guess it's 2014, huh? And March. Yep, that happened.

I don't know where January and February went, but they sure flew by. I think all of my energy went to two things: feverishly watching the Olympics and trying to get over my second cold of 2014. I think it is a sign that I need to be in a warm weather climate. Because having one cold a month is simply unacceptable.

Oh, and wedding planning. That's happening.

Because, you see, we have less than 75 days to go. 72, in fact. Most common conversation right now is...

Someone: "I mean, you pretty much have all the big stuff done, right?"
Me: "Yeah, that doesn't really count any more."

Because while there are a number of things that we can't do yet, the planning has definitely picked up. And there are a number of little projects that we need to be doing now so that we don't get too far behind.

Some of our recent accomplishments include:

• Picking out menswear. Not what I might call exciting, but I survived. And there will be some dapper dudes on May 25th. 
• Ordering Chris' wedding band. I love what he picked out. Mine's next.
• My first dress fitting! I'm thankful my dress doesn't need a ton of alterations. Just a little bit of hemming and a tighter strap. 
• Completing our wedding registries. We decided that we don't need a lot of things, and focused on doing a honeymoon registry through Honeyfund. We do have smaller registries with Crate and Barrel and Kohl's too. But we are SO excited for our trip to London, Ireland and Wales, and appreciate our families and friends who want to share in the experience with us. 
• Making a million appointments. It has been easier to schedule everything out. Each haircut between now and the wedding. A couple of massages to keep my stress down. Flowers. Food. All the things get their own appointment.
• Spending monies. Let's be honest. That's a big piece of this whole part of the process. Swiping cards and writing checks. 
• Planning our rehearsal dinner.
• Assembling our invitations. This turned out to be one of my favorite projects because it was fun craft time with my friend Claudia. 
• Buying stamps. Multiple times. Because I lost them. 
• Setting up premarital counseling. For me, the marriage planning is just as much, if not more important than the wedding planning. More. Definitely more. 
• Writing our ceremony and picking out readings.

As much as we have done, the To Do List just seems to get longer. And we keep chugging along. And we'll be married at the end, which is the important part. Right?! : )

Just 72 days...

Cookies.

Do you have annual traditions with your family? We have one. And it's called Cookie Weekend. 

Well, that's what I call it at least. Other folks may use a different name. But each year, the women on my mom's side of the family have gotten together to carry on a family tradition, making the time intensive Klejner, a Danish Christmas cookie, that's sort of like a crunchier donut with a unique diamond shape. 

We have a number of traditions that are tied into our weekend, including exchanging small gifts and a delicious dinner together on Friday night. 

But the real work begins early Saturday morning, when the team aprons up and each person takes their position.

One person mixes the dough...

Another rolls it out and cuts the diamonds...

Another adds a twist to the diamonds...

And then those tasty treats get deep fried to golden perfection....

And someone else sorts, counts, and stacks them. And the process continues for four batches of roughly 5 and half dozen cookies. Our own mass production assembly line.  

Some folks are generalists, and can pinch hit at any of the positions when someone gets tired. Others are specialists, and do the one thing they do best. And some folks enjoy not touching the cookies at all, preferring to keep the Christmas tunes going or to document the weekend festivities. Me, I'm a folder. I love adding the twist to the cookies.

While the cookie making is fun, most of the fun comes from eating until we are stuffed and then eating again, singing off key to Christmas songs, and spending time with each other. 

And most importantly, snuggle with cute cats.

See ya next year, Cookie Weekend!

Christmas Crafting: Christmas Cards

As the holidays approach, I am working on a plan to keep them manageable. Last year's Christmas was pretty reserved. We decorated the house right after Thanksgiving (as I like to take things one holiday at a time), I made a few new projects and sent out cards, and that was it. No major projects. I made this wreath and that was kind of it. I had vowed to not spend a ton of money on crafts, and have the same plan for this year. I figure that if I add just a few things each year, that will keep it manageable.

One thing that I am not making this year is our cards. Thanks to some pretty awesome engagement photos from Lisa Mathewson, our amazing wedding photographer, we decided to go with the printed cards versus the homemade ones. Who knew we were somewhat photogenic? I like this one...although it's not the one we used for the photos.

Honestly, I'm excited because, not only do I love our pictures, I am also glad to have one less project. That leaves more room for cookies and other things.

Vistaprint sends lots of coupons and seems to always have an offer on Living Social or Groupon, so we went with this design:

I love it so much! Even the back is cute. Can you guess which one of the engagement photos that we used?

I realized though, I never shared last year's cards, which looked like this:



I found a picture for these string art cards online last year, and thought it was worth giving it a shot. Although they look like a more simple design, they proved to be harder than I thought to actually make. In terms of supplies, I just used blank cards thread (lots of it), a hole punch, two stamps and some red ink. 

I set up an assembly line on the kitchen table. I started by stamping the inside of the cards and the envelopes. They never dry as quickly as I expect, so I spread them out and tried to keep track of the order that I stamped them. 

Then I began the punching with my tiny whole puncher. I did a double punch on the top to make sure that there would be enough room for the overlapping string. Then I punched six holes across the bottom, as evenly spaced as I could without measuring it all out. 

Then I stuck a glue dot directly under the top hole on the inside and began stringing. I started by sticking the string into the glue dot, working from the far sides in, with the string crossing over the front and down, then back up on the inside. The string then ended in the middle, stuck on top of the glue dot.

Each thread portion got me through a few cards. Unfortunately, there were times when I would be almost at the end of the card and realize that the amount of string left wouldn't finish at the top. This is where it wasn't quite as easy as expected. I also would imagine that some folks may have gotten a card with a string that had come undone. Creative but temperamental.

If you don't have a Christmas card plan, consider giving it a shot.

In the meantime, it's back to my planning and prioritizing. I'm thinking just two-three crafts for this year. Stay tuned.