Day 24: Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

Today is going to be all about the wedding. With the five month mark only a couple days away, I'm starting to get a little stressed out. I feel like there is so much to do with almost no time to do it all!

First on my list of annoyances, I can't seem to get my last bridesmaid to order her dress. She, too, seems to have disappeared. Since the latest we can order them is December 14th, I'm starting to freak out a little. I don't want to turn into "that bride" but I'm thinking I might just have to call her and tell her to order it now...

Now to the flowers... For as long as I can remember, I've wanted simple centerpieces with simple bouquets. Now, I'm starting to think that this might not be the right way to go. I had originally told my florist that I wanted small centerpieces of rose.the more I think about our reception, the more I think that this is a bad idea. The room is extremely tall and there is a gorgeous fountain in the background that would make short centerpieces look... Well, odd. So I'm think maybe birds of paradise would work better....It would also mean that I would have to change all of my bouquets and boutonnieres, but I think that t would end up looking better. I've yet to talk to my florist about the change, I'm going to email her today, so I don't even know if its a feasible project. But I'm thinking maybe something like this:

My bouquet would look something like this, just not as much... stuff in it

Bridesmaid bouquet

Groom and groomsmen boutonniere

Another idea for the bouquets that I really like

And the centerpieces

I'm hoping she'll tell me that it would be totally fine and we can do it for less (which wont happen, I know that already), but I'm not holding my breath on it. I just think that it would add a lot more to the space... The only thing stopping us now is that little thing called money...

Day 23: A Youtube Video

Unlike most people these days,  I really don't spend a lot of time looking for Youtube videos. I don't care about the funny cat videos, the people that think they can sing but they can't or any other dumb thing that people post on there. Since I do occasionally watch Tosh.0, I feel like that is enough time wasted on dumb videos.

But, I did find this. And I think its actually pretty great. Its a parody of "Like a G6" and I personally prefer this version over the original.

Day 22: A Website

A website that I've come to love other than a wedding website, even though I am a little addicted to TheKnot is "A Softer World". If you haven't checked it out already, do it. Its great.

Day 21: A recipe

One of my favorite things about the colder weather is that it is a chance to make a lot of wonderful stews and soups. Sadly, being a vegetarian, there aren't as many recipes out there that I can enjoy. This is one of my favorite crockpot recipes:

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Irish Stew
1 – pkg favorite brand of “crumbles,” or your favorite meat substitute, up to two pounds
2 cups onion, chopped
2 cups potatos, chopped
2 cups celery, chopped
2 cups carrots, chopped
1 cup sliced mushrooms
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar
3 cups tomato juice/sauce
2 cups canned or frozen peas

Cut up all the veggies (except for the peas) into 2-inch chunks and add to crock pot. Open “crumbles” package and pour on top of veggies in slow cooker. Add the salt, pepper, sugar and tomato sauce. Cook on low for 6-9 hours (I let it go for the full 9 hours because I usually cook this while I’m at work). About 15-30 minutes before you’re ready to eat, add the peas into the slow cooker and let cook for those last 15-30 minutes. Although I always make this in my crock pot, it also can be cooked it in a 250 degree oven for 6 hours.

Day 20: A hobby of yours

With work being what it has been the last couple of months and the wedding creeping closer every day, I haven't had a lot of time to indulge in any hobbies that aren't wedding or work related. Its sad, but my life is pretty much revolving around those two right now. And with the weather getting cold, I haven't been able to participate in one of my favorite hobbies: SCUBA diving.

Austin and I took lessons over the summer in order to become SCUBA certified and it is one of the greatest experiences you could ever do. I'm hoping that after the wedding (possibly on the honeymoon) we'll be able to go diving more. We haven't had a chance to go anywhere exciting. Yet. But I'm sure that will change once we can start buying our equipment and going out more on our own. And for anyone out there that might be interested in learning, just remember that it is a lot of work to get certified. And it is a very expensive hobby to have. The equipment will last you for years and years, but that doesn't change the fact that the up front costs for the essential equipment is a bit steep. And to get a good dive instructor will cost, but I think its worth every penny.

Day 19: A talent of yours

I like to think I'm a bit talented when it comes to photography. I love art and this is just one more way to express yourself. I like the way you can manipulate light and colors from something mundane and ordinary and turn it into something spectacular.

Day 18: Whatever tickles your fancy

Austin and I are huge hockey fans. Its one of the few sports we can actually watch together since I only follow soccer (real football...) and hockey and he's into football, baseball, basketball, hockey, golf... Really anything. Unless the World Cup is on, he doesn't care to watch the games. We rarely get the Real Madrid or Manchester United or Brasil national team games, and when we do it is usually on one of our numerous Spanish channels. Austin apparently is of the mind that unless he can understand what the announcers are saying, why watch. So for us to be able to sit down and watch a sporting event is a pretty big deal.

.

This is one of the reasons I'm a Real Madrid fan, he's also a pretty spectacular player on the Brasil team

Luckily, we have hockey.

We both enjoy watching the games at home, but we prefer watching them live. There is nothing that can compare to watching the game for 20,000 other fans (even if they are rooting for the wrong team). And before this year, we had not been able to go to one together. Neither of us are fans of sitting in the top row at the American Airlines Center and watching the game on the screen. If we were going to watch the game on a screen, we would watch it at home. In HD. And be warmer.

This year, I got a hook-up at work. Since we have a concierge that offers discounted tickets to tenants in the building, he has offered me tickets to any games I'd like for free (or close to it). We've already been able to go to four games this season with at least three more on our calendar. I'm thinking we might need to get a couple more since it looks like the Stars might be able to make a run for the Stanley Cup this year. A feat I wasn't thinkign they would be able to do considering how awful they were last year.

I would like to say all of the improvments are due to my favorite player, Steve Ott. But after last night's game were he really wasn't much of a force on the ice, I don't think I could say that. Well, I could, but it would be a lie.

So, if any one out there has any conenctions to Steve out there, tell him to step up his game. He should have beaten Ovechikin after the way that twat was acting during the game and nothing. Come on Steve! Where's the guy we all used to love to hate?! Where's the fire? Where's your spirit? Do something out there! When we're at the game next Friday, I expect to see more from you.

And if not, I'll still be a loyal fan.

As it is, the Stars are second in the Western Conference. They're currently at 15(wins)-8(losses) -1(OT Loss). They have 31 points, following the Red Wings who lead the conference with 34.

Lets go Stars!!

Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)

This is going to be a fairly short post due to the fact that I'm starting to get a little sick. So I apologize if this is a bit of a rambling post that doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm guessing its mostly due to the fact that Dallas weather is more fickle than any woman on the face of the Earth. In the mornings it has been in the low 30's and in the afternoon it gets up to 70. I know, people up in the DC and New York area are dealing with snow, but at least they know its going to be cold, none of this up and down. I kinda miss the constant cold, you can be ready for that but not this mess we have...

This is a painting by Claude Monet. He's famous for his work as founder of the French impressionist painting. He is one of my absolute favorite artists and I would love to one day own one of his original pieces. I love all of his paintings from his gardens at Giverny and his later work. His earlier work is fantastic, don't get me wrong, I just prefer his later work more. I feel like he really developed and become the artist we all love as he aged and delved more into impressionist painting.

Day 16: A Song that Makes You Cry (or Almost)

Lucero's "My Best Girl" is a song that makes me tear up, and sometimes even cry. It was a favorite of one of my best friends in high school, Justin. Justin was a fantastic guy and we spent all of our free time together, usually getting into some sort of trouble. That is, until he passed away. Even now, whenever I hear a lot of Lucero songs, they make me think of him and remember all of the amazing times we had together and how he was taken from this world much to soon.

Day 15: A Fanfic

Well, I'm sorry to disappoint everyone today, but I'm not going to really be able to post on this one. I don't read fanfic. I don't have one that I read. I don't have an author that I follow.

So....


Here's a picture of a cute cat!!

Day 14: A Nonfiction Book

I'm a fan of Chuck Klosterman. He's a fantastic writer and I'm pretty sure I own every single one of his books. This is a history of heavy metal music, with a particular emphasis on the glam metal that flourished during Klosterman's formative years in the mid-to-late 1980s, through its demise in the early 1990s, and potential rebirth in the late 1990s.

Day 13: A Fictional Book

I know everyone is expecting me to write about Harry Potter for this one, but I'm going to go a bit older. I'm going with Lord of The Rings.

Yep, Lord of the Rings.

I don't know of anyone out there that doesn't love this classic series. And since I just received my set of the 4-Disk set of all three movies, I decided to go ahead and reread them all. I must say, they are just as wonderful as when I read them for the first time when I was 6. These books are timeless (as I think the Harry Potter series will turn out to be).

Deathly Hallows: Part I (Also, Day 12: Whatever Tickles Your Fancy)

So, I know its been a couple days since I posted, but I wanted to post a quick snippet about "Deathly Hallows". I tried to wait to write a post because I didn't want to give too much away, and I'm going to try not to give anything away here, but I can't promise anything. And to anyone that might complain about spoilers, the books have been finished for several years. There are no spoilers anymore.

Anyways.... The movie starts out with a very ominous feeling and you can just feel the pain and loneliness that all of the characters are feeling. As things start to build, and the action builds very quickly, you get pulled into the story. I was a bit disappointed with the way Mad-Eye's death was handled, but I liked the improvements on Hedwig's. I'm a sucker for the twins, so I must say the Phelps brothers did a fantastic job and brought a bit of humour into the movie that would have left it otherwise quite depressing (which I could have lived with). The wedding was not a big part of the movie, but I'm glad it was included. They didn't have Harry in disguise, but I don't think it detracted from the scene at all. When the wedding received the notice of the Minister of Magic's death, things went crazy.Just as they should have.

Once the trio is on the run and they begin their search for Horcruxes, the movie starts to get slow. When Ron leaves, that's when things get to be a bit too slow (even for me). I understand that that part of the book is a bit slow, but I feel like there should have been more action. There were several scenes they could have added, but they didn't. And that's okay. It happens. When Harry and Hermione head to Godric's Hollow, things pick up again. The scene with Bathilda Bagshot... Creepy. As the story progresses, from here, its all uphill. Things are action packed. And emotional. And absolutely fantastic. When they're at Malfoy Manor, I got chills. And teared up during the torture scene. And the final scenes of the movie, I cried. Like a little kid.

Austin, who has never read any of the books (I know, I'm trying to get him to), loved the movie. There were a few things in the movie that he didn't quite catch the significance of, like the two way mirror and Dobby's death, but he still thought it was a very well done movie and kept up a decent pace. He's been a fan of the movies since Prisoner of Azkaban, so he wasn't too upset about us going to the midnight premiere. He wasn't too happy that he had to work the next day, but even he said it was worth being exhausted.

All in all, I think this was the best movie adaptation so far. And it is just that, an adaptation. Some people complain that the movies don't stick to the movies exactly, but I think that's okay. I think it is fine to change small things, leave certain things out, add something if you think it adds to it (just not to the extent that they did when they butchered Half Blood Prince). I'm now trying to patiently wait for Part II

Day 11: A Photo of You Taken Recently

The most recent pictures that I've had taken of me are our engagement pictures, so I'm going to share another engagement picture with you all!

Day 10: A Photo of You Taken Over Ten Years Ago

So, I've done a little looking around, and I don't have any pictures of me from over ten years ago. Since my parents kicked me out and want no part of my life now, I don't have any pictures from me growing up. Its sad, but what can a person do? Its life. So, I've looked through everything I have, and I've decided to post the oldest picture I have of myself.

 

This is from my freshman year of high school, with my best friend Joshy. Its nothing too exciting, but its the oldest one I could find. If I do find something in the next couple of days, I'll be sure to upload it and edit this post.

Day 9: A Photo You Took

Being the fact that its mid-November and its finally starting to feel like fall here in Dallas, I figured I would use this picture. I took it several years ago and I still love it. The colors are all so vibrant and warm, it just looks like fall should look. And since Dallas doesn't really get much of the pretty fall colors, I really miss it. All of the trees here just kinda go from green to brown and then fall off the trees. Not nearly as nice as the couple weeks that most places get with the wonderful reds, oranges, and yellows during for fall.

Day 7: A Photo that Makes you Happy

Today is a photo that makes me happy. And since Austin and I recently had our engagement pictures taken, I want to use one that makes me smile every time I see it. 

I love this picture that Amber took. We had been taking pictures at the Dallas Arboretum for a couple hours already and we were getting pretty comfortable with each other and having a photographer taking pictures of us. So when we were getting ready to have this picture taken:

 

Austin started to fool around and since neither of us knew exactly how we were suppsoed to pose, this is what we came out with the first shot: 

 

I love it. Aren't we just adorable?? 

We are. You know we are.

Day 6: Whatever Tickles Your Fancy

Since today I'm supposed to write about whatever tickles my fancy, I figured I would use this as a great time to catch up on everything that has been happening lately.

Well, work has been absolutely crazy lately. Since the year is starting to come to a close, everyone in the office has been trying to work on budgets and calendars and holiday parties and all of that fun end of the year work. I've also come to the realization that I have quite a lot of vacation time left and not much time to take it, so I've been trying to figure out a time when I will actually be able to use my vacation days without completely inconveniencing everyone else. And having to deal with too much make up work. I hate taking a couple days of and then having a mountain of work once I get back...Anyways... Work has been pretty crazy lately.

And then there's all of the wedding stuff...

I've been able to finally pay off our photographer in full, which means I have one less bill to worry about! All $2500 has been completely paid off, with help to Austin's dad. We've got our florist paid in full, my dress is done, 2/3 of my bridesmaids and most of the caterer. I've been pretty stressed out about all of the wedding madness that I thought had to be done and we had to pay for, but I've come to realize that most of what we can do right now is already done.

I've also ordered and received all of our Save the Dates in. We had our engagement pictures taken a little over a month ago and we loved the way all of our pictures turned out. After showing them off to our family and friends, we realized that we wanted to do Save the Dates just for the fact that we could show off all of our pictures. After all, we had all of these great pictures, why not use them for something? So, we looked around on Vistaprint and found a great deal on Save the Date postcards . We were able to get 200 for about $50. Since that was such a fantastic deal, we decided to go ahead and order them and get them sent out by Thanksgiving. (And yes, the "we" I"m referring to here is more "me". Austin really didn't care too much as long as it didn't cost too much.)

I've been working on getting all of our addresses put together so I can make labels for all of our Save the Dates. Then I have to get stamps, which shouldn't be too much for postcards. Another great thing about getting our Save the Dates out is that we will have all of our addresses put together so that will be one less thing for us to worry about before we send out our actual invitations. So consider that two checks, one for our save the dates and one for having all of our addresses together!

On top of the wedding and work, I've also been trying to get things ready for Austin and I to go see Deathly Hallows Part I. Being the wonderful fiance that he is, Austin has agreed to actually get into it and dress up. If we weren't going to the midnight premiere I wouldn't have begged him to dress up, but we are. And he is. So in what little free time I have I've been trying to make a Gryffindor scarf for him to wear. I've also been looking around for a sweater that would pass as being a Hogwarts school uniform. And I finally found something! With less than two weeks to go, I found us sweaters! Now all that's left is for me to find a cute pleated, gray skirt....

Day 5: Your Favorite Quote

I apologize for the delay in posting, this week has been an absolute cluster-fuck. More on everything happening in my oh-so-exciting life in a post later, but for now I"ll continue with this 30 Day Challenge.

I don't really know if I have a number one favorite quote. There are a lot of quotes that I've accumulated over the years that mean a lot to me and have helped me throughout life. There is one that I found quite some time ago and it has really helped me throughout my life and point me in the right direction. I never found out who said it or wrote it, but I love it.

"Life is a blank piece of canvas, one... chance at a beautiful piece of art, one chance to create that perfect picture for everyone to look upon, to see and remember forevermore, to ponder upon, to express upon, to look at and see their own potential, to build upon, to hang upon a blank wall after you're gone, to be exposed, to show the world, that there is more than just a picture, already created, never again to be created in the same form, and there it will hang, on that blank and bare wall, never to be removed. Nobody will ever see the burdens and troubles the artist went through to make it. For it is finished"

Day 4: Your Favorite Book

Continuing with the 30 Day Challenge, today is my favorite book. Who would have thought something that seems to easy would actually be a pretty challenging question?

I'm an avid reader. I love to read fiction, nonfiction, philosophy, religious texts (yes, an atheist that actually enjoys reading religious texts, crazy I know), historical books, science, journals, you name it... I like to read about music, art, people, times, places... I could go on. So picking just one book out of this huge list is a pretty difficult thing to do. So I've decided to list my top five books.

1. Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

2. The Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (I know its a bit of a cheat, since it is seven books)

 

3. The Republic - Plato

4. Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk

5. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte