Sunday, March 7, 2010

A New Start


Sorry for the leave of absence, but I was busy moving! Tony and I managed to drive across this crazy country to our new home in San Francisco. We had an amazing time visiting with our friends and family along the way, but we also spent about a week sleeping once we got here, recovering from our exhaustion. There was a LOT of desert to drive through, days on end really, and we drove from Baton Rouge to Phoenix without stopping (27 hours, I kid you not). So when I say we spent a week sleeping, I really do mean it. We did manage to stop along the way and get this awesome picture taken:



We got it at Knott's Berry Farm, which is an awesome theme park I highly recommend if you are ever in Southern California. It was definitely my favorite growing up and is still high on my list (though my love of rollercoasters has gotten in the way, and Knott's has some but not many). Anyways, these pictures are so much fun to take! We didn't want to take the costumes off, we were having too much fun.

We also stopped at Pismo Beach for about 20 minutes and took a walk on the beach. Tony had never actually touched the Pacific Ocean (he saw it for the first time when I brought him out here at Christmas) and it was sunset, so it would have been silly not to stop. It was gorgeous!


Now that we are here, things have been kind of funny. We don't actually have an apartment until May 1, so until then we are staying in my parents' house. They are out of town, which is nice because then we aren't all climbing over each other, but it feels the same as when we visited for the holidays. I have all this energy and different ideas about decorating the apartment and crafting, but we don't have the place or the money for me to do much of anything at the moment and it's making me stir crazy!

I did, however, manage to find a gift card from LAST Christmas for a pair of shoes! One of the perks of having to go through all of your stuff. So I got these cute rain boots. I heart them. Looking at them, I think I would rather be gardening in my imaginary backyard full of cheerful springtime flowers and fresh vegetables, but tromping through the rainy city definitely has its own charm too.

That's all for now! More soon!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Testimony to a Car

I sold my car today... I cried. Scratch that, I sobbed.


This was my first car, I have had it since I was 16, almost 17. My dad bought it for me, but I had to pay the insurance. $300 a month for a teenage girl to drive a red sports car in Miami. F*ck me. That was my entire paycheck in high school. There are a lot of memories I have with that car, as strange as that may seem. I mean, it is just a car after all. But the first time I had a cigarette was in that car, as was the first time I smoked a non-cigarette. The first time I skipped school, the time I got in trouble for skipping school because I got in an accident while pulling out of the parking lot, the countless times I drove to Miami Beach to go surfing (usually during school hours), all the driving back and forth from college, the time it broke down on the way to spring break... I was in that car.

I didn't want to sell it. Not even a little bit. She worked great, and the little problems here and there seemed more like quirks than issues. But we needed to money in order to pay for the move. So a nice little family drove down from Georgia to come take my baby home with them. They will definitely appreciate this car, their little girl will love it (she apparently laid across the hood and cried when they sold their last car... a girl after my own heart I guess), and so that makes me feel better. But I still feel like I just let someone adopt my child for cash, and it really really hurts.

Of course, I am really looking forward to the move... it will be a good change and will give us a chance to get on our feet and do the things we want to do. And selling the car was our only option for financing this. So ultimately I am fine with it, I just feel a little like my parents took my security blanket away because I "need to be a big girl now" (my parents never did this, don't worry... but maybe that's why I wasn't prepared for this feeling).

Anyways, I figured the best way to deal with it was to write it out. And then go treat the two of us to a long-overdue dinner of stuffed grouper at Ballyhoo's. It is delicious and seriously worth it.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Time Well Inspired

Since I haven't had work in a few days and my sleep schedule is (as usual) all over the place, I have been drowning myself in the wonderful world of blogs. Some of my favorites are The City Sage (lots of beautiful visuals regarding design!) and Ruffled (which is a great vintage wedding blog!).

Having looked through at least two dozen blogs (and at least 10 pages of each) in the past 48 hours, I feel inspired...

I want to craft!
I want to decorate!
I want to design!

I have always considered myself a fairly creative and artistic person, but since none of my hobbies have ever been of this nature, I have nothing to really show for it and so I don't exactly advertise it.

This will change though, since my fiance and I are moving to San Francisco! We will have a relatively large apartment to figure out... we have no furniture, other than a few bedroom things, and the place needs a lot of fixing up (a plus, then, that our landlords are my parents). This means that we get to decorate the place from scratch, and between big box stores, flea markets, vintage shops, and DIY projects... I have more than enough to look forward to!

And once we start getting through all that... we will have a wedding to plan and the creative process gets to start all over again!

I will definitely let you know once this all starts to happen. I am incredibly excited!

Oh, and if you have any DIY decorating ideas or tips, let me know!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Moving a bit sooner!

I have news! After sitting down and figuring out our financial situation (one of my favorite things to do of course), Tony and I have decided to move to San Francisco next month!



We were going to wait until our lease is up in June, but we are just getting into more and more debt by being here and the rate of pay is soooo much higher in San Francisco. Plus, with a little help from my parents, we will have a place to live soon after getting there and a job, at least for me, that will pay enough to take care of everything while Tony is looking for work.

So there is good and bad that comes with this. The good is that we will be moving to a fun and interesting city and will be able to make enough money to live comfortably and do the things we want to do. The bad: we will miss our friends terribly. The neutral? We have decided that we are probably going to push the wedding date back a year, just so we can actually have the wedding we want rather than cutting serious corners trying to afford it and also so we can actually get back on our feet and get settled with everything before having to start wedding planning.

That said, wish us luck!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Dresses for you and a dress for me!

I am pretty sure that most of you ladies know that I found my dress already. Pics are on facebook that mostly only you guys can see. I have a friend making my jewelry and I found someone on Etsy who makes bouquets out of vintage fabrics that look gorgeous and she is making one custom for me. I am going to keep most of that a surprise until the big day, but mostly because I don't have any photos to show at this point in time.

As for your dresses, ladies, I really like Dessy.com and their 2010 collection. This is all still a maybe, but it is a 90% chance that this is what I am going to do. So if you guys can check out the website and look around, that would be awesome. I plan on letting you choose one of their cocktail length dress in either kiwi or moss in almost any of the fabrics except for the shinier satin. Take a look around and see if there is a style or two that you would like and let me know, so I can make sure they all work together, and choose one of the colors (I just want to make sure 4 of you don't choose 1 and then only 1 is in the other). Their website does not have prices posted, but other store websites that sell Dessy dresses show them being between $120 and $200, and later in the year, the prices will go down since this is a newer collection. Don't feel the need to pick the most simple one just because you think it might go better, I want there to be variety, and try try TRY to see if there is a dress that you could see yourself wearing again. I know that is tricky, but that is my ultimate goal.

Please let me know what you think of them (either on here or facebook)!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

So here we are!

Who would have guessed that I would be getting married anytime soon? Furthermore, who would have guessed that I would have actually made it through college? Nonetheless, here I am, out of school and trying to figure out how to successfully enter the adult world, and also engaged to a man that I absolutely head-over-heels love and adore. So while this will definitely be a wedding planning blog, it will also be a life planning blog. Bear with me.


We are planning on moving to San Francisco this May/June, a long way from Florida but around where I grew up, something we are both very excited about. Not too many plans have been made as of yet, other than we will be driving a small moving truck the 3000+ miles and that we will be in desperate need of furniture once we get there. I heart freecycle.

The wedding date is tentatively set for April 30, 2011, although it is not set in stone (thus, tentatively). The determining factor will be our financial situation once we move and get settled. It might have to be put off a year, but probably not. As for wedding planning, I have been scouring wedding blogs and websites obsessively. What we know as of now: the ceremony and reception will be held at Seven Hills Golf Course, in Hemet, CA. My father is the manager and having the wedding there will have some familial/sentimental value. The only downside is the town. To everyone who will attend the wedding: I apologize ahead of time for the dated little town in the middle of the semi-desert that we will be dragging you to, I promise we will make it worth your while and you will have a great time regardless!

That is all for now, but I will update as I figure out more!