I wanted quirky engagement pictures and I think we got them:
We haven't gotten the full set yet but the photographer put a handful up as a preview on her Facebook page.
Krista brought a Brownie camera along with her for Ben to use as a prop in some of the pictures. This is right outside of the bookshop:
This next one was obviously taken inside the bookshop. And even though it's more of a traditional picture I think it may be one of my favorites.
I requested a picture that looked like the meadow scene in Twilight where Bella & Edward are looking at each other but not touching (because it cracks me up every time.) And I got it! Except we're touching. Oh noes – muh virtue is ruined with this snuggle!!
Cicely gave me this bracelet a few weeks ago. It's so delicate and pretty. Also my fingers are covering Ben's fingertips so you can't see that his fingernails are all "et up."
We're like you only prettier:
1. Someone has neglected to tell my subconscious that Black Widow Spiders are NOT the size of smart cars. I just had a dream wherein one was that size. Now I do not know whether to be unreasonably afraid of Black Widow Spiders, Smart Cars, or both.
2. Did you know that Smart Cars are made so that the body panels are made of plastic and, thus, can easily be popped on and off? This means that you can essentially give the car new paint job in about an hour. And while I love this Barbie-esque way of making a car to be more of an accessory than a vehicle, it still reinforces my belief that Smart Cars are really just very pretty coffins.
3. I went to Hell Chere! I had been wanting to go to a roller derby match for a long time and we finally went to one this past weekend.
We went with a L-Sizzle, Angie Baby, and Eric. Eric is going to be our wedding photographer. I figured if he can catch the rough and tumble girls of the roller derby he might be up to snuff for what I have planned for the ceremony. I think he did a pretty good job with the pictures:
He captioned this one, "Best Seats In The House"
I'm fairly sure this is how my mom plans to pose at the wedding. I think she even has a studded red leather choker exactly like that!!
4. We had our engagement pictures on Sunday, and they were so much fun to do. Of course, that morning I woke up with an allergic reaction that caused me to have two black and puffy eyes. So I'll look like a puffer fish in all the pictures but at least I will be a fun loving puffer fish on the arm of a hot fella. These engagement pictures were a wedding gift (and exactly what I wanted. My friends are mind readers!) I'm thankful for my generous friends and their fun gifts. It really was an enjoyable afternoon. I didn't think I'd like having my picture taken so many times but the photographer had it be on the quirky side rather than on the traditional "sweater vests in a field" type of session. Let's just hope she's just as talented with photoshop as she is with her creative ideas. We're not getting the pictures back for 10 more days so we'll see.
5. The bookstore turns 24 this year. As a birthday present, I had one of the walls painted red. I think it turned out beautifully, and I'm in love with the new color.
6. Along with the painting of the bookstore, we also did inventory there in July. This along with my two other demanding jobs and half of a full course load at school has made me incredibly busy. I take my final exam this week and I will be done with school until next summer. I've really enjoyed my accounting classes but I'll be glad to have less on my plate. It's getting a little ridiculous to try and juggle everything. And if you know me – you know that coordination is not my strong point.
Picture by Christine Larsen
Evidently, in 1838 Charles Darwin made the following pros & cons list when deciding whether to get married or not.
Marry:
Children (if it Please God)
Constant companion (and friend in old age) who will feel interested in one
Object to be beloved and played with. Better than a dog anyhow
Home, & someone to take care of house
Charms of music and female chit-chat
These things good for one’s health—but terrible loss of time
My God, it is intolerable to think of spending one’s whole life, like a neuter bee, working, working, and nothing after all—No, no, won’t do
Imagine living all one’s day solitary in smoky dirty London House only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire and books and music perhaps.
Compare this vision with the dingy reality of Great Marlboro Street, London
Not Marry
Freedom to go where one liked
Choice of Society and little of it
Conversation of clever men at clubs
Not forced to visit relatives and bend in every trifle
Expense and anxiety of children
Perhaps quarreling
Loss of Time
Cannot read in the evenings
Fatness and idleness
Anxiety and responsibility
Less money for books etc.
If many children forced to gain one’s bread (But then it is very bad for one’s health to work too much)
Perhaps my wife won’t like London; then the sentence is banishment and degradation into indolent, idle fool
*******
Less money for books? I'm pretty sure that needs to be the only con listed. In bold. In large letters.
1. Ben had a suggestion that our wedding be sponsored by World Wrestling Entertainment. "We could wear costumes, and have the ceremony in a ring. That way if anyone faints, they'll just fall against the ropes. The officiant can dress like a referee and we can hit him with a fake chair, instead of stomping a glass to show the frailty of life."
His suggestion was DENIED.
2. I'm so deliriously happy with where we're having our reception. The place has a lot of sentimental value, and it's so pretty. The restaurant has been open since 1921 and has been in this building since 1930. I love the original hardwood floors and the lovely tile ceilings. Plus, I don't have to decorate (score!) and they serve gluten free options that we can trust (yay!)
3. My something blue:
I'm planning to pin this to my bouquet (which will be made out of BUTTONS.) I love it.
1. Parents let Ben hold their babies! Crazy!
Ben's brother & his wife are expecting. In fact, she's probably going to have the baby this week. It will be the first child of any of his siblings and it's pretty exciting. However, I just discovered yesterday that Ben sent his brother this article about how fathers helping mothers lowers the woman's self esteem. Evidently, Ben's brother has been (jokingly) using this as an excuse not to help her while she's pregnant saying that he's helping her self esteem.
And for future reference, here's a picture of Ben holding a babe. (This is the look you have to watch out for.)
2. "I aced my first exam! Well, I did miss one question. Look at me- first accounting class & I'm already fudging the numbers. Go me!"
That's right. I'm in school again – taking accounting classes. I've been tinkering with the idea of getting my masters in accounting. Thus, I'm taking the basic & intermediate courses so I can discover if I really want to do this and so I can get into a program if I go through with it. Plus, even if I decide it's not what I want to do it will help me with my current job. And since my current job is very generously paying for the classes, the text books, and my time while I take the classes it's a pretty sweet deal.
I take my final for Accounting 101 on Monday, and then on Wednesday I start Accounting 102. So far, I'm really liking it. We'll see if that's the case once I start the more difficult classes.
3. The wedding planning is still going well. I love our cake topper. Here is a picture of it before the glossy protective coating has been applied. I mean it wouldn't really look like me without a shiny forehead.
So, we're making a bit more progress when it comes to the nefarious nuptials. After waking up at 3am worrying about what would happen if it rained on my wedding day (besides my commenting how it was NOT ironic, Alanis Morissette), I decided that I needed to come up with a rain backup plan. We had initially thought we could just get away with umbrellas but I just love my dress to much to have it standing out in the rain. I mean I love my *FAMILY* too much for that.
After about two days of waffling (tent? tarp over the colonnade? rain ponchos with a bridal gown painted on the front of mine and a tux on the front of Ben's?), we decided to book another option. It's at the same quaint historic Inn where I'm spending the night before the wedding so I won't even have to leave and risk my dress getting wet. It's a small chapel/prayer room and here are some pictures I snagged from the venue's website:
 
And here's a picture of the outside of the Inn and the view *from* the Inn:
 
Hopefully, I'll be able to be married outside right on the lake as we're planning but at least now I won't stress if the weather is bad.
We also now have our wedding bands, and our reservations for our honeymoon. (We're spending 7 days in the Caribbean.) Oh and Ben has chosen his best man, heh. I dare anyone to object to our wedding now!
On Friday, we went to the gun range. I've been super excited to go because one of Ben's friends has a new gun that is the type I like to shoot. Thus, I had so much fun shooting more than I normally do. Plus, ZOMBIE TARGETS:
 
We has to put other targets over the zombie one or we couldn't see where we had hit. So our zombie looks as if he's had breast augmentation and a face lift. What? Can't a zombie feel pretty too?
On Saturday, I finally finished a craft project that I started two weeks ago for a baby shower that was… oh, a week ago. Whoops. I got the idea from a friend Maria and used the tutorial from this website. They're really easy to make and I'm pairing them with my usual present of baby books.
 
The dogs were groomed FINALLY. That's right, Miss Fluffy britches is no longer fluffy. Here's a before shot (when she spied treats at the grooming salon) and an after as she has taken my papa san chair hostage… again.
 
And not to leave Tobi out, here's a picture of him & Ben napping together:
A couple of years ago, I was finally able to attend the Asheville Blogger's party (which usually is at the same time as the Southeastern Booksellers trade show which has top priority since it is mandatory for work.) While there, I avoided talking to others even as my L-Sizzle* pushed me to be social. I had to inform her that if I was a social butterfly then I wouldn't blog so much and, thus, wouldn't be there in the first place. Then, I politely told her to back off because I had to sheepishly stare at my feet some more.
While there, I also tasted one of the best cakes I've ever had (chocolate with cream cheese frosting) baked by Jodie Rhoden owner of Short Street Cakes and writer of the fantastic blog, My Life In Cake. I loved the cake and I love the fact that Jodie graduated from college the same year as I did with the same degree (in Social Work). Yet, she now has a bakery and I run a bookshop. I feel a wayward, but still work-fulfilled, social work graduate connection with her. Plus, there is fact that her cakes are delicious and baked with all fresh, natural, organic, and local (when possible) products.
Having a wedding cake was not actually a given in our case. Ben can't have gluten or dairy AND he hates cake. (I have 99 problems but hating deliciously iced baked goods isn't one. So I'll let him deal with his hatred on his own.) However, he said that if I wanted one I could have one, even if we won't be feeding each other a slice. Thus, L-Sizzle graciously arranged it so we could get our taste on.
Short Street Cakes is located in West Asheville and is an incredibly charming shop, from their aqua colored refrigerator to the button bouquets made by a local artist. I was in love with it from my first step in the door.
  
When I think about wedding cake tasting I think about this book:
The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
It's like flipping through 900 channels and not being able to find anything good to watch. I can't handle a lot of choices. It overwhelms and paralyzes me. At Short Street Cakes I only tasted three different flavors and I STILL had trouble deciding between the Carrot Cake (my favorite kind of cake) and Hummingbird Cake. In fact, in the end I decided upon having one layer of Carrot Cake and one layer of Hummingbird Cake. I also tried their bacon-apple cupcakes:
It was like tasting an entire breakfast in one bite. It was AWESOME. Not exactly what I would want for a wedding cake so I could at least eliminate one flavor. It was still amazing though.
So far, this has been the most fun part of wedding planning. I had a lot of fun with L-Sizzle and Ben (even though Ben didn't eat anything.) The best part was when my sister was telling Jodie how we had met her before at the Asheville Bloggers party.
Leslie said, "Yeah, she's the one everyone wanted to see nekkid." That's the first time I've ever been introduced that way, and hopefully the last. (Note: no one wants to see me naked – my blog just has a sexy sexy name.)
*L-Sizzle is my sister, Leslie. She wanted a nickname so I gave her a Jersey Shore nickname. FIST PUMP!
I survived tax season! And I survived the beginning stages of planning a wedding during tax season – which is an amazing feat in and of itself. We have the basics down:
1. When & Where: We're getting married mid-day in mid-October of this year on a lake in the mountains of North Carolina:
2. The guest list: we've decided to have an incredibly small wedding. Mostly it's just some members of our immediate family. The positive of a small wedding is that I can do things like make cute Save The Dates because I only need to make a handful instead of a hundred.
3. The Dress: Ben and I don't want any wedding presents, except for when an incredibly talented friend offered to make my wedding dress (though I'm paying for the materials and such). Best Wedding Present Ever. The dress is based off of Grace Kelly's wedding dress:
4. The shoes: I just bought these pretties today:
5. The Cake: ever since I tasted a slice of Short Street Cakes cake at the Asheville Bloggers party two years ago I've been smitten with their baked goods. We have a tasting tomorrow that I'm super excited about, especially since there's bacon apple cake involved.
6. DIY. Mine isn't really a DIY wedding per se. In fact, we're having our reception at a restaurant just so that I don't have to go and decorate each table. (I just like the idea of the reception being us all going out to eat. Plus, this restaurant has a lot of sentimental value because it's where my dad would always take us for special occasions and for treats when I was little.)
However, I'm still able to get crafty which makes me happy. Today, I finished the carnation letters I've been working on. This is my inspiration picture:
And this is my version. (Apologies for the picture quality as these were taken with my camera phone):
  
Chronology
I loved you in October
when you hid behind your hair
and rode your shadow
in the corners of the house
and in November you invaded
filling the air
above my bed with dreams
cries for some kind of help
on my inner ear
in December I held your hands
one afternoon; the light failed
it came back on
in a dawn on the Scottish coast
you singing us ashore
now it is January, you are fading
into your double
jewels on his cape, your shadow on the snow,
you slide away on wind, the crystal air
carries your new songs in snatches thru the windows
of our sad, high, pretty rooms
[I didn't write down the author of this poem when I wrote it down so I'm sorry I can't credit it. I do love it though.]
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