Shoe Dilemma

I tend to be a little overly obsessed with shoes.  I personally think owning 75 pairs of shoes is normal, but I have been told that my shoe collection is excessive.  I don't see why needing a pair of shoes in every color/style is ridiculous. It makes sense to me. I have a hard time figuring out what shoes to wear to work, so when it came to picking out my wedding shoes, I knew it would be difficult.  I KNEW I would be buying a pair.  Wearing a pair of shoes I already owned was completely out of the question.  

I am absolutely obsessed with the whole "bridal shoe" photo.  You know what I am talking about, right? The bride, in her dress, showing her shoes? Nope, still clueless? Ok, THESE!

BEAUTIFUL! I absolutely LOVE these types of photos! I know for sure I want a shoe shot.  Here in lies the conundrum... what type of shoes do I buy? Do I go with white/ivory since that's more classic?  But how I do love the pop of color that dyed shoes give.  If I dye my petticoat, I could get white/ivory shoes that way it's not TOO much.  But what if I get a white petticoat, then should I go with colored shoes? UGH! So many decisions.  CRUCIAL decisions.  If I don't choose a pair of shoes, the wedding will surely not go as planned and i am sure zombies will come in and kill all my guests if I do not make the right decision.

Since I don't want my guests to get their brains eaten, I really need to make a decision regarding shoes.  A decision I thought I already made.  Here are some amazing shoes in white/ivory that I am in love with.  They are what I consider classic bridal shoes.  Mmmm...shoes.

They're the prettiest things I have seen in my entire life. I love them all. I will buy them all!  Oh, no I shan't.  They are WAY too expensive and I can't justify setting aside $2000 in our budget for shoes.  I would have to tell Eric he doesn't get a tux, or a gift, or food, or a cake.  I don't think he would be happy about that.  


Let's see if teal shoes are cheaper.  I really like the look of colored shoes, as I stated before (that must mean I REALLY like it.)  Thankfully for my peacock theme, I can even do peacock feather type shoes.  That's pretty frickin fantastic.  Gorgeous dress then BAM! Feather.  So here are some teal/peacock shoes that I thought were pretty and I could picture with my wedding gown.

I REALLY like the idea of colored shoes.  However, my mother did say that she thinks they're tacky and not traditional enough.  Well hmph.  I REALLY wanted to go with colored shoes.  But apparently if I do, my mom will throw them away and then I'll have to go barefoot to my wedding.


So after TONS of searching (like ten minutes) I came across a pair of shoes I became IMMEDIATELY obsessed with.  More obsessed than I usually get over shoes.  They were everything I wanted. Tall, blinged out, wintery, and whitish.  BAM! Found them cheap at an online store and got them.  BOO YAH! Bestest shoes ever.

LOVE! No seriously...LOOOOOOOOVE! They were amazing. Look at the crystals! They're little snowflakes! That goes perfectly with my winter wedding.  These shoes were meant to be.  When I got them in, I tried them on right away. Just as I expected, they hurt beyond belief! PERFECT! The prettier the heel, the more they hurt right? Check.  I know I would only need to wear them for a little because I intended on switching shoes for the reception. Beauty is pain, so these shoes are gorgeous.  I swooned over them for months while waiting for my dress to come in.  When I finally got the call that my dress was ready, I got so excited to wear the shoes with the gown.  At the salon I put the shoes on and got the dress on, and they were the PERFECT height. I didn't have to get the gown hemmed at all. They were PERFECT! Then...it happened.  My Alanis Morissette moment. My death row pardon two minutes too late.  The shoes did NOT match the dress.  Can you see the shoes when I am walking? Nope, sure can't.  But my bridal shoe shot...yeah that's RUINED if I wear these suckers.  So now...what's a girl to do? Without the perfect shoes remember what will happen? Here's a hint.

So...HELP ME! I have ALWAYS wanted that gorgeous shoe shot. And although my shoes are AMAZING, the color is NOT right with my dress and would ruin the whole picture. :( Do I go with my shoes? Do I get a different pair of ivory heels?  Do I go crazy and get teal shoes? What should I do??  

THANK YOU USPS!

I mailed my invitations!  After months of swooning over my design, then weeks of addressing them and stuffing them, I finally mailed out the masterpieces!  It was one of the most exciting days, yet at the same time made me sad.  I was actually kinda sad to mail them since I spent so much time conceptualizing the final product.  I went with one of my MOH to the post office and she supported me as I handed them to the clerk.  When I asked that they be hand canceled and set aside my envelopes to Mexico, the clerk in the line next to me told me that I am going to make an amazing wife and mother because I am so organized.  THANKS GUY! You made me feel special!  It's not everyday that a random postal worker complements you on being a crazy woman.  What some see as crazy, he saw as organized. YAY!  So here is a picture of my invitations leaving me but going to better homes.  And look! A hand cancel memo!

I am so happy they got sent out and I am already getting RSVP back in!  I was sad to see them go but I love getting my RSVP back and getting to check people off on the wedding guest list!

Cakespiration

So it's no surprise to anyone that my wedding is peacock themed.  There is just something about that animal that I love.  And considering that the first gown I ever bought for a formal high school dance was "peacock" colored, I guess having a peacock themed wedding was destined to happen.  

My lovely sister Molly in the dress I wore as a junior in high school

Apparently it was in the stars to have a teal/blue/green wedding.  And the fact that we decided to have a winter wedding just confirmed that these dark colors would be perfect.  While I love the peacock theme, I did not want to go TOO overboard with the theme and make it look like a peacock threw up all over my wedding.  So when it came to my cake, I knew I wanted a 4-5 on the peacock scale.  Here are some of my inspiration pictures that I brought to my vendors.

The only thing I knew for certain was that I wanted the cake to be white.  I liked the idea of having designs on the cake, but I wanted the icing itself to be white and then maybe the detail in other colors.  As of when I did my initial research, the top two photos were my favorites.  I did, however, like certain aspects of the others.


There was a whopping list of two things I did NOT want on my wedding cake.  Fondant and "mad hatter" style.  Other than that, I was open to the designer suggestions.  I just knew I wanted a yummy cake that matched my theme without being "matchy matchy".  Here were some "Hecks-to-the-no's" that I am sure are great for other people, but not me.

Some of those cakes are beautiful and I am sure took a lot of time and talent to make, they're just not me.  I don't want my guests to have green mouths from eating the cake.  That would not make for pretty pictures.

My theme is peacock feather, Christmas, and fun. So I needed to make sure my cake matched that. With all the options out there it sure is easy to get overwhelmed.  My recommendation is to stick true to yourself.  Yes, a different cake may be gorgeous! But as a bride it's your responsibility to stick true to the style of wedding you want.  If I was to do a HUGE elaborate cake, it really wouldn't have matched the rest of the decor in my wedding and would have stuck out like a sore thumb.  

I cannot wait to see the finished design of our cake. I am very confident in the vendor we selected and after looking at about 100 peacock cakes, I feel like the simpler, the better.  The feathers are accessories to the main item, THE CAKE! NOM NOM NOM!

I'm More Like Picasso Than Van Gogh

I will be the first to admit I am not very good at drawing, but I am a pretty good baker.  What's that you say? Those two things have nothing to do with each other? Um, pishaaaaa, they so do when it comes to making a cake. Lucky for me, I am a pro at decorating cupcakes.  So when I was asked to make a cake for my mom's birthday, I knew I could handle the challenge.


Right away I knew exactly what design I wanted to do on the cake.  My mom always plays Super Mario Bros with my sisters and me, and every time we play, she is the yellow mushroom head.

I just KNEW this is what I wanted to put on her cake.  I mean, how hard could it be if I just did the head? I did an analysis, and came up with "not hard" so I decided that would be it.  Since she doesn't like chocolate cake, I decided to use regular vanilla cake mix.  I stole two boxes from my parent's house (that's normal right? Make her cake with cake mix you stole?) and headed home to make the cake.  Since the two boxes were different, I had to bake them separately.  Can't go mixing different recipes together.  The first one came out fine, so I put it in the pan and baked it.  When my timer went off, I opened the oven to find a semi-burnt cake.  Oopsies, made a poopsies.  Guess I either put it in too long or had it too close to the top of the oven.  Note to self, put the next one in shorter.

On to layer two.  I looked at the back of the box, it took the same eggs and the same water as the first one. So naturally, they took the same oil.  So I mixed all the ingredients together then noticed the box said 1/3 instead of 1/2 a cup of oil.  UGH! How did I not see this before?  Didn't the box know it was supposed to use VERY large font when I am baking, considering I don't like to pay attention and just assume things?  So I looked around my kitchen for a syringe, but alas there was none.  I was thinking that I could somehow remove some of the oil from the mix, and that would fix the cake.  Well, after I realized that wasn't happening, I just decided to mix the cake.  I mean...there can't possibly be THAT much of a difference between a half cup and a third of a cup.  

See? No biggie.  So I finished mixing it then put it in the oven.  This time, for the MINIMUM amount of time.  Well 20-something minutes later I went to the kitchen and saw there was a little over a minute left on the timer.  I decided to look at the cake.  DRATS! This one was a little overdone as well.  UGH!  I immediately took it out and thought of what I could do.  Then it came to me.  Use a LOT of icing! The more icing, the more moist the cake will be. VIOLA!


So I iced the first layer, went to watch some TV, then went back to ice the second layer.  To my surprise, I ran out of icing.  So I had to scrape EVERY last bit of icing out of the can and put it in the lid of the jar to color it.  Luckily I had JUST enough to make my mushroom head.  Considering I didn't have piping bags, I think I did a pretty good job.  I stood back and looked at my creation and was pretty satisfied.

The only thing missing was a black outline, and it would be done.  So I did the black outline, patted myself on the back, then put the lid on.  AAAAAAH! STINKIN LID! It squished my cake. :(  So since I was out of icing my only option was to scrape the icing off the inside of the lid and put it back on my cake.  The end product was actually not TOO noticeably messed up, however I could not put the lid on.  Who cares, I'll just stick it in the fridge.

All in all, I am FAIRLY proud of my masterpiece.  It tasted decent, and my dad even said that he thought it was good. YAY ME!  I think for as much as went wrong with this cake, it turned out to be a success.  I will not, however, be making my own wedding cake.  I'm no cake boss yet.

I'm Leaving, On a Jet Plane

This past weekend I celebrated my one year anniversary with Eric.  I flew out to visit him for the weekend since he no longer lives in this area.  He greeted me at the airport, standing on the curb, holding a single red rose.  On his face was the BIGGEST smile, and if you've seen Eric smile, you know what I am talking about.  I am not usually into romantic type stuff like that, so naturally my first response was "Hey baby, you're a dork" but then I realized that wasn't very nice so I said "but I love you, dork."  There, I fixed it.  Yay me!


When I got into the car, I saw the other 11 roses that he had gotten me, so that's a little less dorky.  A full dozen somehow is a little less "dork-like" than one single rose.  Since I hadn't eaten all day, we decided to go to Chili's for lunch so I could get cheese fries.  As you have read in my previous I Showered post, I am a big fat fatty.  I LOOOOOVE junk food.  So since I was hungry, the thing I wanted most was bacon covered cheese fries. NOM NOM NOM!!

After lunch, we headed to the Halloween store.  Being the bad blogger/scrapbooker that I am, sadly we took NO pictures the entire weekend except one.  Oopsies...looks like for my scrapbook page I'll just be able to put my SouthWest confirmation number...and this.

Yeah, that's a goofy hat.  HA! Goofy hat! Get it! It's the animal Goofy but also just a goofy hat! No...not funny? Oh...ok, my bad.  Well, anywho, that's the only picture we took the entire weekend.  We went to the Halloween shop just to look around, we have actually had our costumes almost a month now so...we don't need another one.


After the Halloween store we went back to his apartment. Oh...muh...gawd.  It was like Joe's Apartment.  I can't believe only about a month and a half without a woman's touch made the apartment look like it turned into an episode on Hoarders.

Ok ok ok, it wasn't THAT bad.  It was more just like a college man's apartment/dorm.  Not vacuumed, not organized, no decorations.  It drove me NUTS! I know I'm a little obsessed with having a clean home and I know I get a little TOO into decorating and making a house feel "homey", but this...THIS was outta control.  Books everywhere, random pennies on the floor, clothes on the counter in his bedroom that were clean but just not put away, it was a hot mess.  We hung out for a little while and while he was studying, I played with Tank.  While I was playing with Tank I noticed some blood on the floor. Just a tiny spot. So I looked at my hands to see if I was bleeding and noticed I wasn't.  Then I noticed ANOTHER spot, so I made Tank lay on his back and I inspected his paws.  In doing so, I noticed there was a nail he must have gotten caught on something because it was completely broken and even had part of the nail just hanging there.  It was bleeding so I immediately told Eric we needed to go to the pet store.  Poor Tankies. 

Well, while we were out I took it as my opportunity to get a BUNCH of cleaning supplies and decor for his apartment.  I even bought him a vacuum.  FANCY DAY!  We went to Target, Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and Wal Mart.  It was AMAZING! My apartment has all the decor it could possibly need.  In fact, sometimes I even get sad that I can't get more wall or counter decor.  It makes me upset to not get to completely redo my apartment theme every week.  So I took this opportunity to let my creativity run...well jog.  I couldn't let it go running too far because we are kinda saving for a wedding here.

Since I did a horrible job of taking photos, I cannot show you our shopping excursion, but I can show you the vacuum I got him. We got the Bissell Cleanview Helix® Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner.  Why did we get it? Because Target had about three vacuums in our budget and we thought this one was the cutest. I liked the green.

Image via Target.com

After a couple hours of shopping for CRUCIAL items, we went back to the apartment and fixed Tank's paw and started cleaning! YAY!!! I actually really enjoyed it!  It was like a fresh start, it was a lot of fun.  We deep cleaned, reorganized, rearranged the kitchen, and vacuumed.  It was fantastic.  Probably not Eric's idea of a good way to spend a Friday night, but I thought it was amazing.  I was even SO proud of it that I texted pictures of my masterpiece to my best friends.  OH WAIT! That just reminded me we DID take a couple other pictures! I took pictures of the clean apartment! YAY!!!!  Here is my interpretation of a before picture.

And here are the AMAZING after photos that I took with my (not-so-amazing) iPhone camera.

The changes weren't too drastic, but with carpet powder, potpourri, candles, air fresheners, Halloween decorations, mirrored decorations above the mantle, candle holders, basket for mail, basket for coins, more candle holders, and cleaning supplies, you can REALLY change the way an apartment looks.  I actually REALLY enjoyed doing this and it felt SO good when it was all done. It felt like a home.  After our cleaning the place, we ordered pizza and watched "Bridesmaids"...BEST MOVIE EVER! It was like my fourth time seeing it, but it was his first so I tried not to ruin it.


Saturday we started the day at IHOP (got the country omelette with chocolate chip pancakes - NOM NOM NOM), finished decorating/cleaning and then we watched about seven episodes of the first season of "Rookie Blue" which is very good.  I am really into that show so I wanted to get Eric into it.

Those two pictures depict our Saturday morning/afternoon.  The plans for Saturday night were to go out to dinner to celebrate our official one year anniversary.  However, due to spending money on cleaning supplies/decorations, we decided to go cheap on dinner.  Luckily Eric's roommate was making dinner that night and offered to feed us.  So we said yes of course, or in true "Bridesmaids" fashion "help me, I'm poor".  From the plane scene...no...nobody? Well, it was funny. I recommend watching that movie.


That night after dinner we went out to a bar...or like a mega bar. It was five bars in one so no matter what style of music or atmosphere you like, they have it. We had a lot of fun.  We only went out for a few hours, then decided to call it a night since I had to leave the next morning.


Sunday morning we got up and took me to the airport where sadly I had to say goodbye.  It was an AMAZING weekend and although it's not what normal people would consider a great way to spend an anniversary, it was OUR anniversary and we did it the way we wanted to and it was perfect.  Our relationship is in no way normal, so why have a normal anniversary?  Luckily for us, he will be in town this coming weekend for TX/OU weekend! So we kind of get two anniversary weekends.  This weekend was the "one year after we met" anniversary and then next weekend is the "one year after the celebration that caused us to meet" anniversary.  So, GO US! I honestly wouldn't have changed a thing about our weekend. It was relaxing, fun, and totally our style.  I love you Eric and thank you for an amazing anniversary weekend! Cheers to many more to come!