Please?

Can I use my wedding registry to beg for camera equipment?

No?

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So, after a long day of game show network, working out, and playing one round of deal or no deal online in which I won $500,000 in fake money, of course I feel the need to blog.

I know a candy buffet would be completely unnecessary, but my new favorite color is yellow and I have in my head this vision of candy filled jars (mason jars, maybe, even?) that I'm not sure I can shake. Although, my budget is waning, so I'm not sure I should be taking on any extra expenses. We haven't lined up a cake yet (though, we want really really simple, white, plain, 3 tiered, so we should easily get one for $500 or less, right?)

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So, should I stick with all yellow, which limits my flavor options (lemon, banana, butterscotch, and a few jelly belly flavors, like buttered popcorn which I love!) or do I just pick candies I like, and decorate the jars? (sour patch kids, chocolate covered almonds, reeses pieces, truffles, meltaway mints, etc). Or alternate the yellows with the mixes? Your call.

In love with...

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At the moment, as I am quite hyped up on caffeine, I'm finding looking at vintage/pin-up and boudoir pictures irresistible. I want to be in a vintage shoot and almost as much I want to buy a bunch of furniture and photograph people with fake eyelashes (you are confused, and that's okay. I'm in possession of a lot of false eyelashes for the purpose of reviewing them).

miss boudoir

Is anyone reading my blog planning to do a boudoir shoot? Or have you? I'm interested in seeing some inspirational vintage shots. I'm more interested in cute/sweet/coy/sexy than lots-o-skin in your face. Pretty versus vamped up. Not to mention I don't have a pin-up sized chest. I have a cute yellow bathing suit I'd like pictures in & I love dresses.

miss boudoir

I love vintage hair but I don't think I want to look that different from real life on my wedding day. So I feel like a separate vintage shoot would be fun. With nothing that would shock people I know. Thoughts? I will throw in loads of pictures incase you are lacking inspiration or haven't seen boudoir before. I've been an assistant for a few sessions and it's fun. Plus, the photos turn out just gorgeous.

miss boudoir

Any suggestions for places from which I can purchase vintage style lingerie?


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Running away again

I'm starting to realize the time crunch between now and October. What does this mean? Running a ridiculous amount everyday and no more justifying my cravings for sweets and all things fried.

But this morning I looked up a route on USATF's website (quite useful, especially if you can read a map better than I can) and ended up getting pretty lost. There was a point where the sidewalk ran out so I decided to go into a residential street with the hope it would bring me back to the main road at a point with a sidewalk. Instead I found my way almost to Garrett's parents' house. It was a fun adventure though, and I did find my way back. But I ended up running maybe 5 miles? when I was intending to run 3ish. So I'll be really sore tomorrow.

If I had a million dollars

It gets boring to only talk about one thing, right? (If men were reading this, they'd probably nod). My favorite thrill for a dollar is lottery tickets. And thanks to Garrett I could be winning $68 million dollars tonight. Here's a helpful link for if you win the lottery.

And here's a fun quote from it:
"A winning ticket is a grand thing, but it doesn't really count until you've got the cash. For now, consider just taking a little sick time or vacation, without explaining why, if possible. You're going to be very busy becoming a millionaire. You probably will quit eventually. Sockman says most winners do, even though at their original interview about a quarter claim they'll keep working. He explains, "They can't imagine how much money they've won. It's a life-changing event."

I can't wait to become a very busy millionare.

Apparently you can make more in the end if you take the lump sum and invest. I like the idea of a yearly salary but I suppose with that much cash I'd have someone I was paying to keep my spending in line. My mom and I really like going through all the things we'd do with the money, and it really is fun. And I'm not the kind of person to get super disappointed when I don't win, either.

This part blows, though:
Once you turn in that ticket, the lottery is required by public information law to release your name and hometown. In other words, you can't avoid the world finding out about you. You might think about holding a press conference to get the media attention over with all at once. And besides, you might be the type that wants to crow to the world, "Look at me, I'm a millionaire!"

I was hoping I could stay anonymous. Oh well, small price(ish?). I think I'd move. Immediately. Probably to Paris or the like. Into my tiny little Parisian home that I could now afford. And I'd have a French tutor.

I know you want the breakdown (or maybe it's just me that does), so here we go:

68 million in a lump sum with taxes taken out... let's just say 20 million.
here's a list but since I have no idea what things cost... I'm just pretty sure I could handle all of this with all that:

-college debt

-house in paris

-siberian tiger at our wedding (for garrett)

-peacock at our wedding (for me)

-an organ grinder monkey with a hat at our wedding (for me)

-a shopping spree in paris (limited to 50,000 I think)

-a custom made dress from oscar de la renta, as in, I shall meet him and he shall make me a dress

- get a daguerrotype made for Garrett

- hire a personal trainer

- and a chef

- and buy nice things for all my friends

-and a car that didn't have to be in the shop all the time. but not a super nice car, I'd be too afraid I'd wreck it.

that's all I've got. where's your money going?

Pretty Things

Garrett's sick today so I'm home with him. I went and got backyard burger for him (I really wanted it though), and a cool LED message fan that doesn't stay programmed, but is still pretty neat. I have a rant, the past 3 times I've gotten store brand fat free milk they've started smelling funny before the expiration... Could it be my fridge? The conspiracy theorist in me thinks the milk companies are trying to sell more milk by having it expire quicker. But no way, right?

In other news, my sister just won a house! A bid on a house, that is, so when I get the chance to go home hopefully I'll be able to see it and then shower her with all the decorating ideas I can't use until I start living in a big girl house (maybe when our lease is up? hint, hint, house fairy!). 

I want to start taking more daily life pictures but since I haven't, here are some of my favorite things around the web as of late:

really pretty shoes from style me pretty

cameras from flickr user riot jane  (came up when I did a google image search for pretty things)

I really like the hairstyle on the right...(from vintage glam blog)

There will be no miracles here... from go font ur self

fort for grownups from you are my fave

A Pony Tale

I really love blogging, even when I don't have anything specific on my mind. Or when I have everything on my mind and can't narrow it down. Isn't life more fun that way? So, today, we shall talk about hair, yes?

I have gone my whole life back and forth between relatively short hair (never a boy cut, but a lot of bobs, one stacked 'do that Garrett loathed, just below my ears) and long, upper back length hair. I feel like I am a short hair person but I realize that with the amount of time it takes me to grow my hair out the time probably comes out equal.


really bad pic of my with long hair but there's a monkey! I only have maybe 1 picture of me with long hair down that I like anyway. It's much more tricky to me.

I have no real fear when it comes to my hair. My mom always said whatever I did would grow out so she didn't care. She did care when I came home for thanksgiving as a brunette one year. "My baby is a blonde! Who are you?" Yeah, it was slightly traumatic.

Me with the brown hair at my friend (and bridesmaid!) Megan's bday.

So, since Garrett and I met I went from short, slightly lighter than natural blonde hair (about an inch below my chin), to very short bob, to just barely pony tail length. Per his suggestion I got bangs (straight down bangs, and they were good), started wearing them as side bangs, then grew them out. Then I decided to dye my hair brown again. The first time I went to hair cuttery and got some crazy pixie many moore channeling cut with a random piece of hair on one side so I attempted to kind of do the same thing. The hair color mutated into a reddish color and got lighter, I started dyeing blonde on top of it, ended up with a weird mix between red and blonde...


my 21st birthday. Garrett and I had known each other maybe 2 weeks? he bought me the drink, it was a bellini or something, and delicious.


the bob that he hated. hahaha. I thought it was really fun. He said "I like your hair more every day, because it gets longer."


Somewhere in all the inbetween I moved to Birmingham and got engaged! Yay! Only, my hair was just to the bottom of my ears...and we decided to get married in August (then switched to October, where we are now). The results? A constant battle for length and natural hair color. I don't mind the color thing so much, it's gotten close to natural from the random $3/box dyes I do here and there. And I might go get professional color, I just prefer eating fancy meals and buying dresses to anything else that costs money. Is that so wrong?


a very blonde point in my life. and my sister's, apparently. plus, we are in insanely pink dresses for our cousins wedding.

So why do I even care? Because Garrett likes my hair up and I want it up for my wedding! It's easier, I won't have to worry about curls falling out or anything, and I LOVE bobbypins. So it's a win all around. I do think if you are a short hair person (as in, you never have your hair long, or only look right/good with short hair), you should have short hair for your wedding. It's fun and different! I'm having an identity crisis though (see post about last names), so that does not apply for me.


an inbetween color, in which my hair was an orange tint from the switch to blonde. Linden says I look like a bobblehead here.

Did you wish you had more time before your big day so that your hair would grow? I have 4 monthsish so I'm counting on two more inches by then. I don't think I could do extensions, except for makeup I want to be pretty much natural for my wedding. My best friend and I used to douse our hair in lemon juice in the summer so that we could be blonder but say "No, I've never dyed my hair!" I'm over that, but the sentiment is the same. I want to be me. Only slightly thinner, taller (thank you shoes), bustier (kind of no choice since the dress has boning), and with whiter teeth. *fingers crossed*

Changing the last name...

I try not to duplicate posts here and on EAD too much because I imagine this world where I'm so famous that people stalk me in both places. It's actually because I know at least 3 friends of mine that do go to both (thanks Megan, Megan, and Ashley). With that said, this is straight up from EAD. Sorry.


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I know a lot of women go through the name debate of changing their name, especially now that more women are getting married later, once they’ve already established themselves in a career. I’m not that old (22) and not that established (what, you hadn’t heard of me?), but I still feel a bit of attachment to the name I’ve had my whole life. If you don’t know already, facebook announced a week or so ago that they’d be allowing usernames for easier access to profiles (you can send them a link to facebook.com/theirusername , a lot like twitter.

Since I’ve been getting into the photography business now, while I’m still unmarried, and have my maiden name, I struggled over naming the business, knowing I’d be married and changing my name. The web address for my first name and maiden name is mysteriously on backorder and my first name and his last name was some guy who likes to fish. I felt like my full name + photography was a lot to type in, and since I was so unsure of my identity I decided to go with something different.

So my business is Spindle Photography, mostly because I really like the aesthetic sound of spindle. And as a bonus it is whimsical and fairy-tale esque. Problem solved, right? Not really. I’ve gone my whole life as my name and I used it for my twitter username, my facebook username (will I regret making that decision this morning? Maybe. I could’ve gone the route of the big famous unmarried photographers like Jessica Claire and used my first and middle name. But my middle name is Scott so it would probably seem like I was stuck between three last names. Plus, I’m not famous. I’m sure it’s not that big a deal, people change their names and business names all the time and come out fine.

I like the ring of my current name, and my new name will be alliterative, and it hasn’t sunk in yet since I’ve only been mistakenly called it maybe twice (and oh, I sure got goosebumps, it’s exciting!) I like the new name, but even Garrett has thought about us creating our own new last name, (he also says his name is Gideon at restaurants, so if you work at one and get a Gideon, party of 2, come by and say hello!), and so far there’s Maus. Kelly Maus sounds really cutesy though, right?

I’d be interested to hear if any other business owners have struggled with the name change. I could just tack on his name to mine for the sake of business cards and facebook I guess. But how do you become a new name when you know everyone looking for you thinks of the old one? Is it not that big of a deal? Do I just suck it up?

The whole concept of the name change is interesting to me. I’ve always thought I’d change my name when I got married, so that’s never been the issue. My feminism is mild and does not stretch that far. If you don’t want to change, I think that’s fine and really acceptable now. My grandmother was so sure that my mom would get married that she didn’t even get a middle name. And about the middle name, I don’t like that it just drops out. I want my name to legally stay the way it is with the new last name added on, and Amelia informed me that when she went to the SS office hers did, which makes me feel better. I also have a weird pet peeve about calling a couple Mr. & Mrs. John Doe. I’m sorry, but I won’t be a female version of my husband. I am taking his last name, not his identity. I prefer Mr. & Mrs. Doe, or Mr. John and Mrs. Jane Doe. Does that make me insanely weird, or does it irk anyone else?

I know this post must sound bizarre, like I’ve clearly lost my mind. You’ll remember from my previous posts that I have. That wedding planning has driven me nuts, I have lots to do, and I’m kind of an avoider. But, I have the veiling for my birdcage veil, and that is progress!

Play time

I had my first real weekend in a while (wedding photography doesn't lend itself to free weekends) and minus the torrential downpour (alabama's weather is ridiculous) and it lent itself quite nicely to playing with the french netting I got in! Garrett said I looked creepy, corrected himself and said that I wouldn't if it were my wedding day, then said he was joking... I was wearing my super bright neon on black spring break 2008 shirt... which I'll spare you from. I looked straight up like the 80s baby I am.



So clearly it won't be just randomly bobby pinned to my head but the style is kind of similar, a really small veil, not all the way across my head, and I'm thinking of adding some fabric flower embellishment. I'm really excited about it so I think I'll jump on it, unlike the rest of the to-do list.

Like?

Anxious

As I spend my days editing photos and putting together albums of other peoples' weddings, all I can think is how I can't wait to have these pictures of me and Garrett! Of me in my dress with a bouquet and Garrett in some unspecified outfit but looking perfect. No pressure on Amelia or anything, but I spend all day thinking about adding in details that I then produce a mental picture of. Like us having our hands bound, whenever that would occur. I know that most blog stalkers really just like pictures so I'll add in something from my google reader posts (I've been catching up, I went from over 1000 to a little under 700).


from weddingbee

Oh, and I'm loving the photo galleries on weddingbee. I uploaded a few of our e-pics and a few of Linden's TTD session. If you are looking for inspiration for some aspect of your wedding, I'd say check it out. It's fun.

Wedding website and more

I feel like I've been productive. Have I? Not really. But, some of the STDs have gone out (people are slack about addresses so I'll have to pull teeth) and our very very simple wedding website is up (momentville.com, and I did a plain white background because nothing quite fit my artistic vision and we [esp. garrett] are minimalists. I think I should do some more gift registering and feel productive though, right? Isn't that how it works?


(stolen from an allrecipes user, not the salad I made, but similar)

So, last night I made the most delicious salad. I made the dressing, which Garrett was skeptical about (buying ingredients for a dressing instead of buying store dressing and thus cancelling out our attempt at spending less). Here's the link to the recipe. My modifications: no onion because it makes my breath smell (according to garrett), less olive oil ( I just eyeballed it, but it seemed like a lot of olive oil and I knew we wouldn't eat it all). I bought a bundle of romaine (cabbage=head, romaine=?) which was a lot cheaper than a small bag of baby greens and I have a lot left over, I added mozzarella instead of feta (Garrett doesn't like feta), I chopped up half a braeburn apple for it, and I added pecans. It was sooo delicious and I'm probably going to make this salad any time people come over.

I apologize for not having an actual picture, I was starving when I made it and realized I didn't even have a salad bowl so we ate it out of a large skillet. I realized that if I were to post the picture, people who didn't even know me would probably buy us mixing and serving bowls. I don't know why I'm so resistant to buying cooking ware, I guess because I want people to have things to get us that we'll actually need? But seriously, my kitchen lacks a crock pot, mixing bowls, food processor, spatulas, wooden spoons, serving dishes (oh, and our eating dishes have bright fruit slices on them), cheese grater, whisk. I did break down and buy measuring cups and spoons, a casserole dish for lasagne, aluminum foil, wax paper. But we're pretty pitiful.

That being said, I send out a twitter plea for cheap, quick, easy recipes and that still holds. It's easier to ask people for recipes because they know they are good. Although, most of these recipe sites are posted bu people and assumedly they think their recipes are good. Whatever. Send me recipes! Ha!

STDs

I'm cheating, because I posted this on EAD first, but please forgive me. My STDs are going to start going out today. I didn't make a lot of them, because I got really antsy and mixing the ink for the gocco was more frustrating than I thought. But I do really love how they turned out. So blam.

This was the trial run, we ended up using wedding white since these are STDs and it makes them pop. The statue is our commissioned hedgehog/cottontail from Nelson Grice (local Bham artist, check out his stuff)


Garrett's the cottontail and I'm the hedgehog. The height should probably let you know that. You can also call Garrett Gideon, he tells restaurants that's his name and when they are hyper caffeinated starbuck's employees they put on a fake accent and say "Gee-dee-ohn!" and "Kel-lay!" and we laugh and laugh. I've had a good week.

It's on.

Prepare to be slammed with posts. It's less than 4 months till the big day and I'm about to blow up this page and get my wedding act together.