Blogger SUCKS

I have a ton of blog posts started, but have been lacking the motivation to actually finish and post them recently. Why, you ask? Because Blogger (the service this blog is on), is annoying the crap out of me, that's why. People haven't been able to post comments on my blog since, um, MAY. I've notified them, others have notified them... to no avail. The only people who can comment are those who have blogger accounts (and I think it's only those who actually have a blogger account that they use - so other bloggers). So, it's pretty disheartening to keep posting and have no one able to comment, really. UGH BLOGGER, NOW I SEE WHY PEOPLE LEAVE FOR WORDPRESS!! Get your sh*t together.

via Google Image Search

grrr. anger.

-C
xxx

I know I'm not supposed to talk about it, but...

via Google Image Search

I'm going to briefly talk about my wedding registry.

*GASP* THE HORROR!

I know, I know. My mom says you're not supposed to talk about your registry. Well, actually, she didn't even agree with having a registry really in the first place because "it's asking for gifts when you're not supposed to." I agree with the idea that people technically do not have to buy you a gift, but the whole don't-ever-mention-your-own-registry-or-you-will-be-deemed-an-awful-person-and-horrible-things-will-happen-to-you thing bothers me a bit. It's deemed rude, and, of course, I would never bring it up to someone in a "you need to buy me this" sort of way. I just don't get why you can't mention it at all! It was an olden days unspoken rule, but I think it needs to vanish. Seriously. One of the greatest pieces of advice I received regarding my registry is that if you don't put things on your registry, then people don't know what you want. And when people don't know what you want, they come up with their own ideas. And what does that get you? Probably a lot of things you neither need nor want.

Another issue I had with my registry is that I KEPT SEEING THE THINGS I PUT ON THERE ON SALE OR AT MARSHALL'S/TJ MAX! I live and breathe bargain shopping, and it killed me to see something from my registry at one of these places for half the price and:

A - not buy it and then remove it from my registry. Not gonna lie, I did end up doing this a couple times. I had to fight with myself to stop doing it, though, or else there wouldn't have been anything for people to buy off my registry - and what does that get you friends? Say it with me. Things you neither need nor want.

B - not tell people about it. I wanted to send out blast emails like, "Hey, guess what! I saw this at Marshall's today - you should go get it there instead of where I registered and save yourself some dough!" Or, "Hey guys, Target has that thing I registered for on sale this week - now's the time!" I knew it wasn't right to do it, since it would have been seen as "Hey guys - go buy me a present, NOW!" but it just killed me to know that these items could be purchased for less and I couldn't tell anyone about it! There should be an option for people to sign up for email alerts associated with your registry or something. That'd be cool, huh? Like "Yes please, sign me up so I can get that toaster oven for my friend when it goes on sale!" I also wish Marshall's had a registry. Seriously. It's such a damn shame that they don't really have a "stock" of certain things at every store, so they can't have a registry. I thought about having people tell one of my MOHs when they got me a gift from Marshall's or Ross or something so she could remove it from my registry, but that would've just been way too tricky and tedious and annoying, I'm sure (MOHs - you're welcome). I know there are universal registries out there, like this one, but that doesn't even really help my cause. Sure, you can pick things from all sorts of different online stores, but you can't buy the apple corer I registered for at Bed Bath and then found for almost 75% less at Marshall's (and subsequently bought). Lol, what I mean is that you can't register for *any* thing at *any* physical store. The universal registry purpose is to combine different websites you want things from. Obviously it would be impossible for it to gain access to a place like Marshall's inventory (since they don't really have one) and be able to check it off your list when it's purchased. I think we need like a satellite registry or something. Yeah... that way, you could just buy something and somehow it would bounce off a few satellites and boom, checked off your registry. No? Silly idea? Is it? Or is it genius...

I also was known to call my mom and ask for things off my registry for Christmas or birthday for fear that they would sell out in the store. Target is notorious for this, Bed Bath not so much. I had to update my Target registry SO many times. As much as I love Target, it's really freaking annoying that they A - run out of things so often and B - don't even tell you what they are when they're out of stock! I actually emailed their customer service to say that I had a ton of items on my registry that just disappeared. They were listed with some funky number, the pictures were gone, and I had no idea what they were, so couldn't replace them. Was it my knife set? If so, I could pick another one. But noooo, it just didn't tell you. And when I emailed customer service about it? They said "We need to know what item you're speaking of." Um, yeah. I'd also like to know that information. That was one customer service issue that was not resolved.

Ha, also thought this was funny.

via Google Image Search

-C
xxx

Where Art Thou Green Shoes??

Why is it so hard to find green shoes? Clearly they're only the most awesome colored shoes in the world, so why don't designers make more of them? Is it because they're so beautiful that they want to keep us wanting more, and if they mass produced them, versus only making like 8 pairs available at a time, we would quickly tire of them and it wouldn't be such a hot commodity?? Because I'll tell you right now, I would not tire of such a thing. I would fill my closet with them.

Whenever I finally find green shoes that I love, they're sold out in my size, or are uber expensive, or were from 3 seasons ago and impossible to find! Yes, I do know that my wedding is over (*tear*) and I don't need green shoes for any real occasion anymore... but I want them! That has to be a good enough reason, no? No? Ok, then I need beautiful green shoes to match my beautiful green Kate Spade work bag.

Yes, she's mine. And I got her at Marshall's. It was meant to be. Be jealous. (photo is mine)

Ok, that's not the only reason. I don't have a realistic reason for needing green shoes. I just want them. And I get excited every time I find beauties like these:

Seychelles Light on Your Feet, photo from DSW

I'll admit, spending $55 on sandals is a bit out of my comfort zone... I mean, they're sandals. I can't even wear them to work! But I was thisclose to making an exception for these beautiful babies until I saw that they were sold out of my size/color combo. Oh yeah, and I was even willing to go a half size down OR up, if need be, but nope. Sold out in those, too. Which, of course, makes me want them even more.

I'm also going to vent my frustrations with shoe websites in general for a minute here. Because in addition to designers clearly not making enough green shoes for my liking, I have another issue.

Dear DSW, 6pm, Endless, and every other online shoe store ever:

I love you. I really do. I love buying shoes online (or in person, let's be honest). I love your prices (most of the time). But there's one major lesson you all apparently missed in kindergarten.

BLUE ≠ GREEN. Blue is blue. Green is green. I'll give you turquoise, and understand why you might have that pop up in both green and blue shoe searches. (Although I'd really like you to add a turquoise section so as to prevent any issue whatsoever! People who want turquoise shoes are looking for them. If you have a turquoise option in your search, the people who want those shoes will look there! The only reason they look in blue AND green is because that's where you put them.) BUT when royal (or robin's egg) BLUE shoes pop up in my GREEN shoe search, I see RED.

Unacceptable:

Acceptable:
(at least until you make a turquoise/teal section)

Also, while we're on the topic, you need more green shoes. I know, I know, you don't design them, you just sell them. But when uggos like these pop up in a green shoe search, you know you don't have enough green shoes in your supply.

Photos from DSW and 6pm

Yours truly,
C

******************************************************
I came across these while grabbing all the photos for this post:

Nine Granite, photo from 6pm

They're not exactly every day wearable, though... ok, who wants to get married and have green as one of their wedding colors so I can wear these? Hm? Any takers? Please?? Totally would have bought them for my wedding (I do love my wedding shoes, but always wished they were a little more kelly or apple and less lime).

-C
xxx

Anybody Care For An Update on my Finger?

Remember this? I injured my finger playing volleyball in April. Yeah, APRIL. That was, like, forever ago. Anyway, I thought I'd just jammed it at first, then realized hmm it's been 2 months and the swelling has only gone down slightly and the pain hasn't subsided. Plus, I couldn't wear my ring because OF COURSE, just my luck, it was my left ring finger.

I went to a hand surgeon at the recommendation of my primary doc. He said, "Well, I hate to tell you this, but it's probably going to be like this forever." So I uncomfortably laughed because, you know, when doctors joke it's not really funny because they could be serious. Turns out he wasn't joking! He was like, "No, I'm serious." He told me the pain would go away but could take up to a year, but that I had torn a ligament in my finger and the scarred tissue from it trying to heal was what was making my finger swell up so much. He sent me to the Orthopedic area (it was all in one hospital) to get a consultation from a physical therapist just to see if there was anything I could do to relieve the pain or anything else that could need relieving, really. She gave me some buddy straps I have to wear when I play now, and some tapish stuff to wrap the finger in, which would hopefully bring a bit of the swelling down. It did, slightly, but as soon as I'd take the wrap off it would balloon back up. People started telling me I should get a second opinion. I should probably tell you I'm a rookie at this. I've never really injured myself before apart from sprains - and the only thing I've ever had to go to a doctor for was the only bone I've ever broken - the very tip of my left middle finger - and that was in a car accident when I was 6. I had to walk around with a ginormous splint on my finger. Yeah, so basically I had a ginormous middle finger for a couple weeks. Pretty funny actually. When I was younger I always secretly wanted to break my arm or something. Don't ask me why. I guess I thought it was cool in the way I thought everyone else getting to have braces but me was cool. (I know, people with braces are like WHAT?!)

But I digress. My point is that I don't know what to do with injuries. Second opinions? Huh? I can do that? Will the other doctor get mad at me for not believing him?! Lol. So I was told I should have a doctor that specializes in sports medicine look at it. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find one - who does hands!! Um, hands are injured in sports, too, ya know! I could not believe it when I heard "Oh, Dr. So and So doesn't do hands!" (I'd also like to point out that this was said with QUITE a snobby tone, like how dare I think that he would sink so low as to do HANDS!) I finally found one, about a 40 minute drive from here. Went out to see him on July 26th. He basically told me the same thing (that it might be like that forever) BUT then was like here let me give you a shot of Cortizone and Lidocain and see if it does anything. He was not hopeful, like not even a little bit. I think he just felt bad that I came all the way out there and he told me the same thing as the other doc. Let me tell you that shot directly into my knuckle was NOT fun! He numbed me but the pressure I felt made me almost pass out (plus it took a long time because the area it had to go in was so small). Yeah, I don't do so well with (non tattoo) needles.

Buuuuuttttt... guess what! It worked! It really truly worked! I couldn't believe it. Just a few days later the swelling went down, and now my ring fits just as well as it did before - and is even loose! Not so loose that it'll fall off, but I had this problem last fall, went and got it sized (the reason for my diamond getting loose!), and yet when it got cold in the office my ring would still spin and drive me nuts. I'm not ready to really start complaining just yet (although it is really annoying when the diamond end ends up on the inside if your finger when you're typing), seeing as how a month ago I couldn't even wear my ring on the right finger, but I've now gone from one extreme the other other. One sausage of a finger to a skinny little toothpick. But at least I don't have to resize either of my rings before the wedding! Well, maybe a tiny bit, since the band didn't fit right in the first place, but not up a whole size like I would've had to with my sausage finger! :)

(I'm pushing it up for emphasis, but still! It wouldn't even go over my knuckle a month ago!)

-C
xxx

Uncle Randy - Help! (or anyone else with ideas!)

Hoping the title caught your eye Wendy... :) You'll see why below.

By now you all know I'm planning a tent wedding. I hadn't mentioned this before (I don't think), but I've been planning all along to do my own lighting (mainly because places charge mucho dinero to do lighting for you). As in, bought a gajillion christmas lights at the after Christmas sales (the cute circular ones - "cafe lights" if you will), and have been acquiring the materials needed for LED throwies that will be put inside of Chinese lanterns to hang in the tent as well. This is a project that's been going around bridal blogs for a while now. It's super cheap, actually REALLY EASY to do, and they last for days, needing no plug-in electricity, which is awesome (see below for info).

Screeeeeech! That's the sound of my ideas coming to a screeching halt about a week ago when talking to my cheap tent dude and he said that basically there's nowhere to hang things from inside the tent. Whaaaaat? But. But. But I want to hang things inside the tent! Namely, lights and chinese lanterns! He was just like um, well, uh, I'm sorry but there's only three poles inside the tent and they go straight up to like 18 feet. The only other place to hang things from is on the outside of the tent, where they usually put perimeter lighting. (Don't get me wrong, he was nice about it, I was just in disbelief that my vision wasn't going to work.) So I'm a little stubborn and refuse to believe that I have to give this project up. I've been thinking about how I could make it work. The original thought was to cris-cross fishing wire all over the place and hang them from that, but, obviously, that was assuming it would be between short sections of poles throughout the tent. I think it's going to look something like this:

(note the three poles in the center)

Soooo I had a thought the other night, and I had to make a drawing because trying to explain it would just be useless (trust me). Don't judge me on my lack of drawing ability. (Please??) I was thinking if we tied one end of a string/rope of lanterns, and tied the other end to an outside pole, it should work.

My problem issss - if the strands of lights are tied to the poles, how do we keep them from sliding down the poles? Do you get what I mean? I need some sort of something stopping it from coming down. Oh Uncle Randy, king of all that is handy, Mr. fix-it of everything, do you have any ideas for me?? I'm not asking you to make something, just to brain storm a little bit since I'm at a loss.

Ideas are welcome from others as well!!

For anyone who wants to know how to make the LED throwies, here's the link. I'm probably getting my Chinese lanterns here: http://www.paperlanternstore.com/, purchased my LED bulbs from ebay for about 16 cents each (I got 200), and got the batteries from ebay as well for about 6 cents each for 200. I've tested out the tutorial and they are super easy to make. I kind of want to light everything with LED throwies now.

-C
xxx

Everybody Hurts... Sometimes

In my case, volleyball hurts. My finger hurts. And is SWOLLEN. Oh, did I mention it's my left ring finger? And that it's been swollen for over a month now? Yeah. I'm getting annoyed. I never hear any other brides talking about how their ring finger got injured in the months leading up to their wedding. Oh, right, probably because this would ONLY HAPPEN TO ME!! I should start with that I never ever ever wear rings when I play sports. Never have, never will. Well, maybe I did back in elementary school, but it was probably short-lived and probably the reason I don't wear them today. So when I got engaged it was a no brainer for me - I would take it off when I played. My reasons where the engagement ring are concerned are: I'm uber worried about losing my diamond. And I am prone to finger jamming. I think part of it is due to the fact that for years I would automatically reach for the volleyball with my hands open (not when I'm bumping of course), not closed. So my fingers bent backwards a lot. And for some reason, it always seemed to be my RIGHT ring finger that jammed. Before my left one jammed, I would always say thank god it's my right and not my left, but then follow it up with something like "That would so happen to me." Yup, it did.

A volleyball came to me really low in a game one night and basically got caught between my left ring finger and the floor. Yup, ow. And now I can't wear my engagement ring on my left hand. And let me tell you something - people notice these things! They're like *gasp* "where'd it go?!". Other hand, calm down, it's still here. I've heard "Oooh I didn't want to ask..." and gotten crazy wide-eyed stares when I show my right hand. People think for some reason that I'm unengaged when I move it to my right hand... isn't that strange? Like wouldn't I just not wear it or something?? I don't personally know anyone like this, but have read on blogs that some people wear it on the right hand anyway because the left is reserved for your actual wedding ring or some crap.

Anyway, I'm over it. I'm ready for my finger to stop being swollen so I can wear my GD ring on it. I don't like it on my right hand!! I've been taking ibuprofren to reduce the swelling, I've wrapped it with finger wrap stuff, tried ice, tried heat, tried icy hot.... My DR told me it could take up to 12 weeks for my finger to go back to normal and that there was really nothing I could do that I wasn't already doing. The funny (NOT SO FUNNY) thing is that everytime I've ever jammed my right ring finger in the past I never did ANY of these things, and it went back to normal, and definitely didn't take this long.

I am going to be insanely pissed off if I can't wear my engagement ring OR WEDDING BAND THAT I'VE ALREADY PURCHASED on my wedding day. Just sayin.

Any advice?! Is there a doctor in the room?

-C
xxx

Don't Bug Me

I scored big at dollar tree yet again last weekend. They have tiki torches for $1! I also got some tin-like platters (not plastic is what I'm trying to say). Hmm what else have I gotten at dollar tree so far for my wedding... well, shepherd's hooks were a big find. I think that's a pretty big score considering if you buy them from home and garden shops they're like $10. Sure, those are more sturdy, but do I need these to last forever? Do I need them to hold super heavy plants? Nope and nope. They're for holding ribbon and signs. Easy peasy cheapy. And they'll go in my garden (or MOB's) when they're done.

But back to the tiki torches, to touch on another backyard bride issue - BUGS. Yup, only glamorous parts of wedding planning mentioned on this blog, folks. Yet again I find myself thinking, "Wow, I never thought I'd have to think about this while wedding planning." But, alas, bugs are inevitable in a backyard in summertime. Hopefully because it's right on the edge of being fall it won't be too buggy, but gotta be prepared nonetheless. SO, do I spray people down with bug spray when they walk in? Do I give mosquito bracelets away as wedding favors? Bug repellent could give the food an extra zing, right? Gross. I hate bug spray. Who doesn't? I mean, there's really no avoiding it getting in your mouth. I know I've never put it on without tasting it.

So what's a bride to do? Well, apparently there's a spray you can put on the grass, which sounds awesome to me. I mean, as long as you don't roll around in or lick the grass, there should be no reason you'd taste it with your dinner. But I want to keep these suckers out as much as possible, so citronella candles and tiki torches will also be in attendance at my wedding. Some other options I've read about, that I may use, but may be useful to others planning backyard weddings or events, are:

• Plants: Catnip (I personally hate cats AND bugs, so no catnip at my wedding!), lemon balm, rosemary, eucalyptus, and citronella grass
• Insect Controlling Devices: This one and this one claim to cover up to an acre! The latter seems like it would make that zapping noise, though, but I'm no expert. And this just seems cool (reviews are mixed, though).
• Bug Repellent Lotion/Wipes: Yes, they still smell like the spray, but at least you can control where the lotion goes, and perhaps include it in your OOT (Out of Town) guest bags for guests to apply before they get to the venue.
• Timing: Some even recommend changing the time of your event. I don't know if you could ever really time it so that you won't get any bugs. Plus, who thinks about that when they're deciding on a time for their wedding?

Or you could just give everyone a bug racquet :)

-C
xxx

Wow, This is Awkward...

So... um... how do I say this delicately (to myself)...

I never would have made such a big fuss over the project on my blog for all the world* to see if I had realized that only A CERTAIN NUMBER OF PROJECTS were going to be voted on. I don't think I'm being biased in saying that that's not really fair, and maybe someone should have said the number up front. Like, maybe, 24 finalists will be picked and votes will decide who wins from that? If that had been written, I probably wouldn't even have entered the contest. "Entries will be posted in the order they were received." to me, that means all entries will be posted. Am I just an idiot to think that? "The best projects will be chosen and posted," could mean 100 projects are posted, how do you even define "best" and shouldn't you say how many will be determined as the "best"? I'm sorry I talked up my project to you guys as much as I did, because I'm pretty embarassed to be honest. (You may be saying, "So why are you blogging about it if you're embarassed?" Because I talked it up so much that I have to, really, otherwise I'm sure you'd wonder what happened with the contest.) But hey, apparently this was not an amateur contest and I'm not cool enough to be a finalist. Not gonna lie, pretty sure my project was better than at least some of those projects. I'm not going to name them because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but if you went over to the blog I'm sure you'd see what I mean. Anyway, yeah, I'm pretty bummed that I wasn't picked and pretty disappointed, to be honest, at how this contest was conducted as a whole, but I'll get over it. Just had to share that no voting will need to be done. Thanks anyway.

-C
xxx

*I realize the whole world doesn't read my blog, but because it's on the internet they COULD if they wanted to!