My Vows...

For this weekend. To myself. :)

I, Cyndi, vow to...

~get seeds started inside so I can have pretty flowers to see this spring/summer
~tend to my garden so it's ready when the seedlings are
~work out!
~add a couple things to my registry that I can't do online
~return things to Michael's... and buy things at Michael's (I have coupons, and a gift card I keep forgetting to use!)
~get started on VIP corsages (ok, at least THINK about what I want them to look like)
~spray paint my mini chalkboards (awesome yard sale find)
~not spend too much time at $ tree this weekend ($ tree rocks my world)
~go to Ulta (yup, found one) after the recommendation from MOH Ryann on the beauty post the other day, assuming she lets me know what I'm looking for
~check DSW for green wedding shoes (and then when I don't find anything, buy the Louboutins I've recently fallen in love with)
~get black spray paint for painting some of the thrifty finds I've gotten and foresee getting in the future
~oh right, should probably do my taxes considering we only have until Thursday
~send out the mass wedding email!
~start thinking of things to look for at BARKS next weekend!

Oh I do love BARKS. So so so much! Well, actually, I'm sure the organization is fantastic, but what I really love is the BARKS Yard Sale they have twice a year! BARKS = Byram Animal Rescue Kindness Squad. Byram is a township near my mom's house (as in, so near they don't have their own zip code, they use ours), and twice a year they fill up Wild West City (the big "attraction" my hometown has - try not to be jealous) with donations that they receive. They then have volunteers who make up prices for things as they go, and you end up walking out of there with so.much.stuff for such.little.money. Since everything is donated, any money they make off of it helps the animals they rescue, so not only is everything super cheap, but you're helping the animals. I can't explain on how many levels I love the BARKS sales. And I can't WAIT to show you all the fun wedding stuff I got from there! Oh yes, I am predicting lots. They really have everything there: frames, furniture, glassware, linens, baskets, and lots of random stuff. The only downfall is... EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. it rains!! I'm not kidding. I've been there in torrential rains, I've been there the day after it rained and everything is muddy (it's all outside, and the sale sometimes runs Fri-Sun, sometimes just Sat-Sun), but I don't think I've ever been there when things haven't been wet. It's such a shame to see things get ruined, but they can't do anything about it because there's so much stuff they couldn't possibly cover it all. So usually I go into this just looking at everything without an agenda, but this year I've got a game plane. I've got a list. And I'm pretty confident I'll check off each thing on that list (and then some). Stay tuned!

Here's hoping I get a lot accomplished this weekend. Oh, and...

Happy Birthday Bridesmaid Amanda!!
And Happy Birthday to Aunt Wendy Tomorrow!

-C
xxx

Why Didn't I Think of This Before?!

I've been going over rental pricing of sooo many different rental companies for months now. Each time I usually do a lot of searching on it in a few days, and I've always just written down the costs I could find. Then when I revisit my search a couple weeks later, I forget who had what pricing and all that jazz. Tonight a lightbulb went off. I should just add all the vendors to a google spreadsheet! That way I can open it from whatever computer I'm at and add new contacts or see how everyone compares all in one spot! I started doing it tonight and I know it's a simple thing... that I probably should have thought about long ago, but it made me giddy to see all the prices and information in one place! And know that it'll be there and I'll be adding to it! So note to anyone who wants to do any comparison shopping, excel/google spreadsheets are the way to go. I started with just writing in a notebook, but hello, spreadsheets have columns and they can be sorted and columns can be created for each thing you want to know a price of. I love sorting spreadsheets! Wow, geek shining through right there...

Ok going now before the Ambien makes me not make any sense...

-C
zzzzzzzzzzz

Drum Roll Please!!

..... MOB AND AOB both have a dress for the wedding now! I got a talking to over Easter from MOB about why I hadn't posted that she'd gotten hers yet, so I have to post about it! I just wasn't sure it was "the one", considering there have been several dresses purchased since the infamous post. But I do believe this is the one! She loves it and I love it. Now she just needs to get off her crutches in time to wear heels with it :)


I don't have a picture of AOB's dress, but it's a brown maxi dress kind of like this:Except in my family we don't have boobs*! lol. And hers has a circular rhinestone-looking-something at the bottom of the neckline. Very pretty. We found it this past weekend at Ross (I love Ross!)! Success!

-C
xxx

*Seriously, we don't. Did I mention my own mother told me I needed more cleavage in my wedding dress?? LOL Yes, my mother is insisting I wear a push up bra.

Won't You Be... My Bridesmaid?

Just thought I'd share my bridal party invites with ya'll today. I sent them in, like, October or something, but didn't have a blog back then! I found a spool (or whatever you want to call it) of yellow trim (I also have pink, but that wouldn't go at all...) at my Meamaw's house when we were going through her things after she died. I kept a lot of things for no reason at all, but some I knew I'd find a use for! This would be one of them. I cut out pieces of the trim from the spool in a dress sort of shape and soaked each "dress" in a bowl of bleach and water so the dresses would be less yellow, not quite white, but a little off-white. (I'm not a very big fan of just white, usually I go for the off-white, maybe it's the retro lover in me??) I then hand washed each dress with detergent to get the bleach smell off (it took a few washes actually). I designed the cards myself with funky fonts and printed on off-white cardstock (the cards are double-sided, the pic is of two cards, one showing front and one showing back). I folded over the sides and top of the dress to make it more dress-y, then used glue dots to secure it onto the cards. Ouila! I love the 3Dness of it.

I also went to home depot, swiped a bunch of free paint strips, cut them up, and made each girl a color swatch to use for matching the wedding colors, then included that with the card.

$0 spent! Woot.

-C
xxx

Curious and Curiouser

I've been thinking about bridal beauty lately (FH, I don't think you'll enjoy this post). It sounds like a pretty trivial detail to think about when there are caterers and tents and all sorts of other things to deal with, but I personally think it's not trivial at all - at least not for me. I know makeup can do wonders, but I want my skin to look awesome on my big day (and I doubt I'm alone in that). You see, I may not look like I have "troubled" skin, per se, but I've never really felt like I've found the perfect skin regimin for me. I suck at the facial product and makeup game. Seriously. I've tried to pick up tips from friends, coworkers... strangers... for years, but I still don't feel like I know jack (do you know jack*?). How is it that everyone has their own products they love or regimin they can't live without, but I missed the memo? Was there a class I should've taken in high school? A secret society I wasn't a part of? How has everyone else figured it out while I'm left scratching my head and continuously trying new products? I've struggled with it forever, but have especially been thinking about it since being engaged. It also doesn't help that everytime I seem to find a product I love, it gets discontinued! (And that is not just beauty-related! Wendy's Pita Sandwiches, McD's Salad Shakers, my favorite chapstick, the only energy drink I'll drink... the list goes on!) I think I've finally found a foundation I love (CoverGirl and Olay Simply Ageless), so check that off the list! Eyes I can do, but I've been on the hunt for a good, non messy, not too heavy, goes on easy foundation FOR-EV-ER. Next on the list, facial cleansers and moisturizers. Magazines always tell you what super expensive products you can't live without, and it's so tempting because it's like, "Well if it really works that well maybe I should buy it!" But I personally think there must be plenty of cheaper products out there that work just as well. Maybe this is my problem? I'm not willing to shell out the dough? I'm sorry, but I've been through so many products that just don't satisfy me that I can't justify spending tons of money on something that, yet again, may not be the product for me. The most expensive I'll go is Lush products. I don't know, maybe it's the whole "we use natural products and almost everything we use for packaging can be recycled" thing. They suck me in because I feel like I'm doing something green. I also do like their products, but I still haven't found THE products for me. I went in yesterday and got a new cleanser and am crossing my fingers because, well, if this one doesn't work there's only two left that I haven't tried!

(Samantha and her chemical peel...)

Next up, "procedures". I've read many a bridal mag that says to get facials and peels and this and that leading up to your big day. Most of these things scare me (maybe it's the SATC episode where Samantha gets the chemical peel...), but I've been contemplating a facial recently, as that seems the least scary. I asked my waxer about it the other day and she pretty much talked me into it (it didn't take much). She said facials are good and told me I should get one like next month, July, and a couple weeks before the wedding if I wanted to do a skin overhaul. I trust her, she'd tell me if I didn't need one. She's told me before about services I don't need so I don't think she'd steer me wrong this time!

So what's the point of this post? Um... well, A - I need to get back into posting regularly so I don't lose my readers! B - I actually would like to hear how you found your perfect skin care regimin and products and C - If you have any suggestions for me, I'm all ears :)

Ah, the things we do for beauty... men will never understand!

-C
xxx

*Nod to MOH Cassie and my favorite game in high school!

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!

Done and Done

Ok so I was trying to hold off and make my next post the one with the link to voting for the cardbox but... well, I have no idea when the voting is going to start! Apparently Amanda at RuffledBlog received so many submissions (:() that she extended the entry deadline to the 27th and now is uploading each submission on her site one by one. When she's finished uploading them all (as of this afternoon she's only up to entry #16 and I have no idea how many entries she received!), voting will begin. So for now I'll keep visiting her blog every 10 minutes until mine comes up (JK... or am I?). But I did finish and submit my cardbox for the contest! Even though the deadline had been extended so I didn't really have to rush and finish it like I did. Oh well, it's done and I wouldn't change a thing about it! Thanks for all the input on the design and decorating of my project (emails as well as comments). I love finding out someone new is reading my blog! And that keeps happening since I've been posting on twitter and facebook about it. It makes me a little bit giddy when people say they read my blog and yet they're not a follower so I wonder how many people out there read it and don't follow! In my head, it's A LOT. In real life, I'm sure it's like 10, but I'll stick to my fantasy world thanks.

I refer to all my non-followers that read my blog (lovingly) as my stalkers. It's cool, I was a blog stalker (blalker?) before I had my own blog and realized how exciting it is to get a new follower! So I'd be a complete hypocrite (which I sometimes am, but not in this case, I swear) if I didn't also have love for those who "unofficially follow" me. I love everyone who reads my blog! It's been really great to have a sounding board for all my ridiculous ideas, and finding out that apparently I'm funny. Who knew? Well, I suppose this post isn't funny. I'll try to be twice as funny next time to make up for it. Or not because maybe it's when I don't try and people just find humor in how... cool I am.

Anyway, here are some pics of the finished cardbox. I know you've all been anxiously awaiting them (because they look soooo different than the pics from the almost finished cardbox - not). Voting instructions coming soon! I hope you'll vote for me and not someone else after I send you there... I am kind of worried because everyone so far seems to be a person with an etsy shop or something. Not fair!
-C
xxx