Life In Color

details

I'm making a list and checking it twice!

-Bj's gift, check!
-shoes off to be dyed, check!
-haircut, check!
-final florist meeting

check!

That's just a quickie throw somethings together bouquet that my florist does to show you textures and colors. I love the open blooms. The centerpieces will also be with these colors, on chartreuse table clothes, with gold chairs (I know, WHAT, GOLD? but it's the only thing that works in the room, and so I'm workin the gold).

-Final hair style decision? Um, no. I must say hair style "up do" magazines: prom mags (Emilie's), wedding mags and others are very prejudice about short hair. They all had long, sort of wavy/curly hair. Also looking at those prom mags made me realize teenagers these days have ample opportunity to "slut it up" Cut out sides and slits up to your high thigh anyone? {shutter}

Got any other place to look? I now have chin length hair and I want it up funky and twisted. Oh and my trail is Wednesday morning.

wedding, printing, and knitting

This weekend started out with a very long, very necessary, but very long (yes I said that twice) overall strategy meeting about the wedding with our coordinator. "Ohhh drive me Sciarrino," I said, "I think the meeting will only be an hour and we can meet up with everyone after." I was supremely focused (about as focused as I get I guess) during the meeting and knew Bj and Sciarrino were getting multiple calls about our status, but I was shocked when I got into Sciarrino's cute little car and realized we had been in there three hours. It was all time-lines, details, costs, etc. stuff. And since I'm all about the details I was enthralled. But I was also getting hungry so I was really glad when we showed up to Doug Fir that Brian and Melissa had a table and we I was able to scarf down their extra three onion rings before ordering my own dinner. We crammed into the funky, but almost too cool, round booth along with Beachwood, who met us there, and Matt stood nearby since he happened to be getting an after work drink with a crazy colleague (well he was, oh and sorry we didn't stop by Saturday, I have no excuse, except it was late and I had just jumped in a puddle and got wet, and wrapping up in a blanket and watching House seemed like a better idea). The concert was so-so, and their jeans were very tight, and the bass guitarist even had his tee shirt cut so you could see his Levi's label. Hmmm. Oh and they butched the only song of their's I really know.

The next morning Sciarrino left before we even thought about getting up and I went through a few wardrobe changes before settling on something for the engagement photo shoot (I know, I know, we're pushing it since the weddings in mere weeks). We were headed over the bridge to find a mythical wall I had seen once that had fantastic texture but haven't seen for months when I remembered the pearl. I had been walking around there earlier in the week when I fell in love with a printmakers cabinet (and no I'm not telling you were it is, or how much it is or anything else about it, because it's fabulous and I want it). Anyway I was like, "no turn here!" and we found lots of great walls and called the photographer to meet us over there. He said the shoots are about 30-45 minutes, we took two hours. We like to think that's because we're ultra cool, but who knows we might have been cheesy subjects that took too long to get a decent shot. I'm going to go with the former and say that I can't wait to get my disc in the mail next week. And he should have something up on his blog soon(ish).  After the last few shots (jumping in a very suspicious puddle, since apparently Portland knows how to drain rain water and we couldn't find anything cleaner/bigger) we headed home (to Bj's). Where we ate Burger King and watched the first disc of House.

We stopped at Fry's to get a cable to hook up this beast:

That's right Ribbon Jar got a color laser!! Because it just felt wrong to keep printing out the gift certificates in black and white. And because I like color (SHOCKER). I see many buttons in my future. Anyway we didn't actually get to that until today because we watched a lot of House. Then we slept in and it was so sunny my Oregonian brain thought I must be getting sick to think it's so nice out so I stayed in my jammies until four when my brother came over and I opened the door and I was like, "it's hot out!" So then I had to get moving and open all my windows and let the early spring in, and shower and stuff. But after all that work I just put on joggins and sat back down with a frozen pizza, watched some more House and got Violet's newest outfit almost done (hey, it's wedding related). I finished the whole first season (including the extras) and while you might think this pathetic, I find it glorious. Knowing tomorrow I'll have to go back to maxing out my cell phone minuets, packing orders, fretting about details, and begging people to turn in RSVP cards, I think I was due a nice do-nothing-day.

Lessons

You know the whole RSVP thing is a bit of a pain. I mean I thought that by having the coolest invitations known to man (in my humble opinion) I would illicit quick and clever responses. But despite the "kick ass-ness" of the invites only three of my friends have RSVP-ed, THREE!!! I've gotten plenty of cards back mind you, from proper older relatives, work colleagues, friends of the family, etc, but in the friend department we are falling short. And some of the cards I've gotten back had nothing in the bubble, nadda! I'm to assume that is a yes, right? So I sent out a mass email today, I was really going to try and hold to tradition and be all polite, but I want my cards back man! I have to get the seating chart going, drinks and food ordered, and all the other "cool" things I have planned. I'm sure at one point I was late sending back an RSVP and this is karma coming back to bite me, so I'm trying not to sweat it. But if you are reading this, and haven't RSVP-ed, won't you please? I have a cute little book going and Bj and I will cherish the cards forever, we promise!

Now some people have gone above and beyond, and well, they should be praised:

I love me some colored pencil!

Putting RJ's valentine's kit to good use Sciarrino!

Very impressed that my dad found an image online, printed it, AND drew a cake.

Ink is what really makes this fabulous printmaking paper shine, yummy!

Taylor, my little bro, do you still read this blog? Check out the ears my mom drew on you, how funny is that? Hehehehe.

But to be clear, at this point, a yes or no would work just as well!

File it away

This is the only way I can think to describe my life right now:

My mind and all its thoughts tend to want to float out of my head and scramble themselves up. Then when I least want them to (like when I'm trying to fall asleep) they float back down like feathers in the proper order.

It's very frustrating as I quite literally have fifty things to do RIGHT NOW, and I can't focus on any one of them with much success. Final decision FINAL. They must be made RIGHT NOW, or in the case of the food February 21st. But have I turned that in yet, no. I walked out into the living room with the appetizer list to show Bj and it magically disappeared from my hands and has yet to be found. Even after I took hours to regain some sanity and sorted through years of paper work to tackle the file cabinet.

Remember this beast? I was going to paint it, but that's not happening anytime soon. So I scrubbed it down really well and took advantage of the cool dividers left in it.

Now that it's not leaving rust stains on me when I touch it I actually think it has a great patina. Plus it gets some crap off my desk, which is nice. So all of that, sorting every scrap of paper and still no appetizer list. argh!!!!! I have my first dress fitting tomorrow (well I guess today since it's one AM) and I haven't lost the ten pounds I wanted or flattened my stomach, or beefed up my arms, crap. I have to dye my shoes, finalize the flower situation, find a better chandelier, figure out what trees I want, how to get them there, what fabric to put around the base, and what ribbon I want to use on everything. I have to pick the alcohol (and I don't drink), get my hair cut, figure out the music situation (first dance, you'll see), I have to pay a surprisingly large car repair bill, make the table cards with buttons, make the seating card, make the table markers, make my veil, reserve pedicure and manicure sessions (which all my oh-so-helpful magazines tell me should have been done months ago), get Bj's gift, get my tax stuff together, deposit checks, go to Comcast, return stuff, write thank yous,  and YADDA, YADDA, YADDA.

So ya, that's why I haven't been blogging. And in the last week I've lost (and thankfully found) my camera, glasses, and mind.

Shower #2 and What I've been Up To.

On Saturday a couple of my mom's girlfriends through me a shower at a local country club. It was extra fun because two of my bridesmaids got to hang out for the first time!

Me with my girls! It was fun to see all my mom's friends, and one of my very first friends from kindergarten:

That's Sarah, we were two of only four girls in my first kindergarten class (let's hear it for the repeaters yo!). And so the four of us sat at a special little table. Cute, cute. The other host, Chris, is the mom of one of the other girls. And I can't remember who the fourth girl was. We had great conversation, an embarrassing game (trying to answer questions as Bj would, had no clue about most of them. His favorite actress is Kate Beckinsail, who is that?), and yummy food:

It's nice to have a photographer at these events, thanks Sciarrino! Later in the evening Sciarrino and I made a mess at my place and worked on buttons for the seating cards. We were having too much fun coming up with sayings, pictures, general nonsense for our friends. I'll make sure lots of pictures are taken at the reception! Sunday was the Bravo Bridal show, which only served to stress me out. It was held in the same place as my reception and the ballroom we are to celebrate in was not decorated to my taste which made me worry if I can make it look as posh as I wanted. Then we got our bid from a lighting contractor (I can't bring myself to turn on the strip lighting) and it was through the roof. I did a little retail therapy and felt better after picked out a rehearsal/rehearsal dinner outfit. I also found a top to that cute blue skirt I got at the rack a month ago. It also works for that longer white skirt. Bj met us at the mall, I hadn't seen him for a week! He got me a little pair of shoes with bows for the skirt, so now I have an outfit for the last shower. But of course I couldn't wait to wear it so Monday night I decided to debut the look for the Snow Patrol concert.

You heard that right! Snow Patrol! And it rocked. Sciarrino picked up my brother, her friend from work Laura, and me and we headed up to Portland to meet Matt, Bj, and Courtney. Before meeting up with the latter two though, the Salemites met up with Matt to see his workplace (an architecture firm, so yes, as cool as you'd think it'd be). Then we went out to dinner at the Doug Fir. Fun, funky place (and where Crafty Wonderland is held). Bj and I might try to get out there to see Youth Group at their lounge on the ninth. Anyway back to the concert. I wasn't that turned on by the two opening acts (Silver Sun Pick Ups and OK Go), so I busted out the knitting which peeved Bj a little, but hey, idle hands... While we were waiting for the main act Courtney asked me which song was my favorite. I told her the one with Martha Wainwright, so I wasn't holding my breath to hear it. Well after a bunch of great opening songs, the lead singer said he was going to try something different and asked if anyone in the audience could sing Martha's vocal. He chose a very excited girl from the back. She came up to the stage and they put the things in her ear and everything and got her a mic. She put her arm around him (good call woman, because he is hot). She did a pretty decent job. I was just happy they sang the song. Couldn't find a video of that, but here's another favorite "Open Your Eyes". Great night.

Yesterday was my night with Emilie and we had fun using some of my new kitchen gadgets. We had Panini (Matt assures me this is plural in Italian) with the grill I received on Saturday. Then we were making sorbet in the new ice cream maker (it's pink!) and it called for the ingredients to be mixed and chopped in a food processor, so you know, I had to open that too. Sue lent us the last disc of season 2 Veronica Mars since aliens must have come and abducted my copy, so we are finally starting on season 3. Then today I tidy up my place since a ribbon rep was coming over. Of course I and to clean up the drool from some of the new things I ordered. Yummy!  Now off to update the wedding blog!

Shower #1

My aunt and cousin threw me a wonderful shower this weekend. It's so strange to be the guest of honor, but I must admit I loved it. And they played to all my weeknesses: little green touches everywhere, candy on the table, yummy sweets, loud fun family, and presents! Sciarrino snapped some of me opening them.

I got lots of wonderful and unique things for my home that I can't wait to use. But one thing was my absolute favorite gift, and that was from my great Aunt Mary.

It was a rug made by my great grandma Stewart on my mom's side, her grandma. It  was one of the last ones she made. She was a woman after my own heart, and even when it got to hard for her to go thrifting she'd instruct her daughters (my grandma and her twin) to bring her cotton fabric when ever they found it. She'd then make the strips and do the braiding. My auntie Mary also gave me a framed picture of me and my great grandma from her 80th birthday party. I was only eight. It's the first picture I have of her. The gift made me tear up, but in a great happy kind of way. I was lucky enough to receive other family heirlooms which mean so much to me. Also lots of fun? Getting to see the little baby Meg.

Everyone took turns keeping her entertained and she was quite a good baby, even when we did silly things like put ribbons on her very bald head. She's my cousin Jen's baby, remember her? I love her concerned "I can't believe I was born into this family look." So funny. Of course we had to get out my aunt's wedding pictures from 29 years ago:

That's her and my mom on the right. They look so young, and they were, my aunt was only 19. But so pretty in her $27 dollar dress her friend made her (that's dress and veil!). But the boys just look silly in those frilly tuxes. Really fun to look at, it makes me glad we spent the extra money to have a book made of our favorite photos. I had to get out my binder and show the ladies all my details:

Do you love my silly little outfit my cousin made me wear? I even had a wand! Mmmmm those jelly belly's look good, but I have my first dress fitting in less than two weeks! And finally the family pictures:

Baby Megan

Me and auntie Eileen, my grandma's twin.

Mom, me and the baby. We always compete for maximum baby hold time.

My great aunt Mary and grandma had already left, but can you believe I got everyone outside. It was pleas of natural light that did it. Thank you all, I loved it!

Book it.

I actually scrapbooked! A little something I started at Sue's crop. This little spiral is going to keep track of my bridal showers. It has places for guests, gifts, quotes, and pictures. I can't wait for my first shower tomorrow!

Ready, set...

Today I woke up and finished with the whole postage stamp thing. I really hope the people we did special combinations for "get it." To answer a question: To find a place where you can get awesome stamps go to the American Philatelic Society and look for your local branch.  I found a local club through this site and contacted the president. He contacted me right away with lots of helpful information. Anyway that part is all done (though I think I will continue to use these awesome stamps on all my letters from now on). So I worked on that, did Ribbon Jar business, and set out to Portland to do a mock table at the reception venue. I picked the most awesome color table cloth ever (seriously it rocks). I can't wait to see the whole room done up. Then it was off to pick out a tux. If your in the Portland area I really recommend this place. They have the exact white tie I wanted from the Martha Stewart Winter 2001 Wedding issue... for $95!!! And that includes shoes, suspenders, vest, shirt, pants, jacket with tales, everything. Sweet. Plus since no one ever orders this type of material she getting all new shirts for the guys (Cotton pique, I'm a natural fiber girl, what can I say?). Then I rushed home to the invitation madness!

Oh man do I love my invitations. It's so hard because I love paper, and type and design, and I knew I was only going to have one shot at this and Sciarrino nailed it. They are divine. The RSVP card is letterpress and the rest is done with a printing press here in Salem. The difference between this and say a laser, is that a plate is actually made, and then one specific ink is used (for us a very understated metallic green) instead of a combination of colors to get one shade. There is no better way to get the blackest black. It is oh so heavenly. We were about to be talked out of our font because it's got such thin lines, that it was hard to read on the laser proofs, but on press? SWOON.

This basket is the result of: ripping, slicing, inserting, sewing, stuffing, licking, and twisting. Times 141.

Post Haste

Remember all those stamps I've been collecting? Well I started putting them to use today. After getting all the orders out, cleaning the house, and starting a fire:

Oh here's a little show and tell of a souvenir from Vermont, new fireplace thingies. The metal things holding up the wood with the balls on top (do they have a name?). I had an old sorry excuse for a grate when I moved in, that I was using out of necessity, so I jumped at getting these. I found them in every antique store we went to, but I got these at an antique salvage yard. I didn't get much else in terms of vintage treasures, only because of the whole packing issue, but we did find some cool things, so I'll be showing you those in the coming days. Back to the stamping. I had a little elf come over and help me:

Sciarrino I don't know why I just called you an elf, hehehe. She was busy working on the back side of the RSVP cards. I perforated them so that the bottom tore off to be a post card, but we're putting first class postage on them because we heard they will get nicer treatment. I so hope I get them all back because there are some kick ass stamps on them. I think they look so cool all lined up, here another look:

This is not for the faint of heart, we started to go a bit crazy making the combinations:

Sciarrino was only joking here, but I did take to licking them, instead of using the sponge. Hope I don't die of the Spanish Flu or some other killer lying dormant in the stamps for decades.  Tomorrow the actual invitations come back from the printer, then it's stamping, tearing, sewing and stuffing to get them done in time to be stamped on Saturday. When I found out the invitations were going to be a day late, I freaked because we don't have a post office open on Saturday here (well drop off only) and they have to be hand canceled. So my lovely and wonderfully nice Post Mistress Debbie is going to have some one do it for me special. Ah I love her. She just might have to get cookies tomorrow. Also tomorrow: tux fittings, and linen tests! Fun, fun!

Comence Total Breakdown

So today was my hair and make up trial. How hard could that be, right? Freaking hard!!! First of all the hair. I have spent two years growing out all the highlights and stuff that were in there from old dye jobs. I like my natural color. Okay so it's not that blond, but it's mine and it matches my eyebrows. So everyone was telling me that for my kind of messy up do I should get some highlights to brighten me up around my face. And maybe a gloss for it too. I am opposed to this because I don't want to maintain it, or won't be able to. It's no huge shock I want children sooner rather than later, and I don't want to have weird grow out that I can't fix, or to put those chemicals on my being. So I sort of picked a hair style, but now looking at the pictures, I don't really like it. I want something different, but I swear every bridal magazine just has small variations on the classic up do. I don't want to look like everybody else, and I don't get why so many people want to look the same. Maybe it's because I never went to prom, and had my hair done and all that, but event this was a bit traumatic for me.  So then we moved onto the face.
Okay so I can't believe I'm putting this picture up here, since it's me with absolutely no make up on (I usually don't go out like this by the way). So I have a simple routine: foundation on certain spots, but not all over the face, dandelion powder (blush) on the apple of my cheeks, curl my eyelashes and comb my brows. Well after sitting in the chair for a while I finally got to see the make up she was working on. First she put concealer on me, then foundation everywhere, then fake lashes, then she shaved the ends of my eyebrows (I am soooo pissed about this because it is starting to grow out really weird, and it better grow all the way back out before the wedding). And of course eye make up, and lipstick, and plumper, and then airbrushing. I present the "done up" me:

Uh.... And this is about halfway through the process. I saw myself and I was like, ew. Uh, can we take off this lip stuff (it was seriously glossy), and I didn't have much blush on which is like the one thing I need (I think). So I asked her to put more of it on. So now, I think you're going to see this picture and say, "hey that looks good," or, "you need lots of make up for pictures" But this is not me. And after having the make up on for four hours I came home and was starting to take it off because it felt horrible, like a clay mask. It took me all the eye make up remover I own, three face washes, and three washcloths that turned brown with make up. I started to loose it and Bj happened to call at the same time and he got an earful of crying, impossible to understand Amber. The more I think about it, the more I don't like it. I mean everyone I know will know that I don't look perfect. I don't need plumper lips, I'm perfectly happy with the ones I have. And I have pictures of myself with lots of makeup on (from a Sadie Hawkins dance in high school) and I hate those pictures because they are so not me. I don't want to feel like that all night, uncomfortable in my own skin.

I started writing this a few days ago and since then have talked to my wonderful wedding planner about it and I am going to work with the make up artist to get more of the look I want. I was feeling like I wasn't being a committed bride or something because I wasn't willing to dye my hair and wear all this make up, but now I think I am being committed, to my own style and personality. I don't want cookie cutter memories of my wedding. And I don't want Bj to be afraid to kiss me or hold me close because he's afraid I'll leave a big makeup streak on his clothes or face. I'm also in Vermont now and being here with Ceara, Grant, and Bj is so so relaxing that it doesn't seem like I have a trouble in the world. It helps too that we found a florist and cake maker before we left, so I'm feeling really good about the schedule of things. More later, just decided I should post this entry. Emee (my planner) said it's perfectly normal to feel this way after a run through, that's why we do them.