moving!!!

i've officially moved. sorry blogger, you have not been a nice friend to me

you can now follow me here:

http://mrswindecember.xanga.com/

The Count

I am a pessimist. I almost always imagine in every scenario the worst thing that could possibly happen - for instance, I've lately been obsessed with the fear of tripping over my dress and FALLING DOWN the stairs during the recessional. I visualize it happening probably once a day.... (I think I once learned that you start to go crazy when you are sleep deprived...)

I too often tend to focus on the negative aspects of life and can probably convince almost anyone that something is terrible. I AM SO NOT PROUD OF THIS! One of the things that I know I need to work on is my pessimistic attitude and outlook in life. Mr. Ramen is constantly gracious in gently pointing out to me all the good things that God has blessed me with in life... which I agree with.

So I'm starting this new thing - where I'm going to start counting my blessings every morning and night. Care to join me? I know, it sounds uber cheesy. Maybe it is. Meh.

I know as brides we tend to want to rant and rave about all the wedding plans that are falling apart, stress over the what-ifs, and obsess over every little detail that could possibly go wrong... And I'm not saying to not care about those things at all, but to remember that there are much more important things in life than if your envelope liner colors aren't a perfect match with the cocktail napkins, or if your caterer didn't email you back ASAP to confirm that they would use julienne the carrots instead of slice them, or if your FMIL wants to wear a deep ivory colored gown (although these can definitely be stressful situations!). And the world isn't going to end if your size in your dream wedding shoes are out of stock -although I know that exact devastation when it feels like the sun might not rise in the morning.

So here's my quick little off-the-top-of-my-head list (and not in any particular order):

1. FOOD (of course that's the first thing I think about.....eesh.)

I often find myself complaining about a lack of funds (like most of us, right?) - but the truth of the matter is, I have an overabundance of food. I can go out and get something to eat if I want. I have money to buy groceries every week. And we're not talking gruel - I can afford Special K (sometimes) and eggs and meat and my beloved cheeeese. Heck, I can even afford to go to Sbux at least once a week to get my legal stimulant-addiction fix. One tall soy hazelnut latte please! (I've recently been forced into soy conversion....by my own traitorous body. At least it's tasty! Sorry, is this TMI?)

2. Family/Jia/Ohana/Familia/Kajok

I seriously have the most loving and supportive family ever - Sister Ramen is the best MOH ever (planning 2 awesome showers for me!), Mommy Ramen is taking care of family housing details and the Rehearsal Dinner and other little details, Daddy Ramen is helping my mom AND doing most of the Ramen pre-marital counseling, Brother Ramen is one of Mr. Ramen's groomsmen and is helping plan his bachelor party, and FBIL Ramen is going to be an usher and announcer/emcee for us. Yup, everyone gets in on the Ramen wedding action!

They all lovingly support the Ramen relationship, and continue to pray for us and encourage us as we get closer and closer and ever closer (eeeeeek!) to the big day. Everyone has helped pitch in with various wedding crafting as well, even in my absence! After having a bit of a major meltdown, the Ramen parents decided to take a pretty big load of wedding errands on to help me out. I would be soooo lost without the fam! I miss them terribly (they're all in AZ while I'm stuck out in OC).

3. AMAAAAAAZING Friends

Obviously, these aren't the friends I'm talking about, although I do spend some quality time with these ones too. But my friends (old, new, from AZ to CA to WA) have been nothing but supportive, encouraging, and super helpful throughout this insane journey aka wedding planning. Even the boys ask me how things are going! It's good to know you're loved. And that they love you so much, they wouldn't miss your wedding for the world :)

4. Best Fiance Ever (IMHO)

I mean, really. What man would subject himself to learning how to fold and fluff a million tissue paper flowers? Mine! What man can comfortably and casually wield a sander or glue gun or Gocco when needed? Mine! That's right, my man knows how to Gocco! although it did take a long time for him to understand how it works (duhhhh, it's awesome Japanese fancy-magic!)...

I seriously thank God for Mr. Ramen evvvvvvvvvvvery day because I dunno where I'd be without him. He's soooo patient with all of my crazy moodswings and last minute changes, and is always game (maybe not always so willingly) to help me with all of my wedding projects. And we all know how integral he is to the aesthetics of this wedding, since he is the main designer (design slave?). The longer we've been together, the more I can see how he truly is the perfect fit for me, how he completes me, how he is my lobstah. I'm so crazy about this guy, it is pretty stinkin ridiculous.

And that's just the beginning! So forgive me when I forget to count my blessings and whine/complain/throw a tantrum/pout about the things that don't go according to my "perfect" plans... and PLEASE remind me of all the crazy-grood* things that I have to be thankful about. Because there is SO SO SO SO SOOOOOO very much.

What are you most thankful for right now?

*grood = good + great (thankyouverymuch Homestar!)

Teamwork!

It all started with some lovely inspiration.... see that wooden platform? I had to have it. Had to. It had that sexy, modern, but a little rustic vibe to it - and I had to find a way to DIM (do it myself). So...... I enlisted the help of Mr. Ramen to tackle this project. Mr. Ramen and I have experience with the whole sanding/staining/finishing woodwork process when we refinished (from blonde wood to ebony)/reupholstered my family's old dining room table so I could take it with me to school....

Not bad, huh? Yeah, we OD'd on HGTV a little last summer... Have I mentioned that we dream of flipping a house or fixing up our own place? Yes, we are a little obsessed with the DIY/M.

So to set about this project, we made a stop by Home Depot, where we purchased some fancy plywood type boards - we got a huge fatty discount because they were scratched, AND the really awesome guy, I think his name was Steve, cut each and every piece for us! Every cut is supposed to be 50 cents, but I think he had pity on us because it was for our wedding. So nice!
He saved us a TON of time.

We also picked up some Minwax stain (1 can) and luckily had enough leftover stain and varnish/sealant from last summer's project to cover the last few pieces. To prep the unfinished boards, make sure you sand down the sides, and any rough corners to make sure you don't get any splinters!


Mr. Ramen was in charge of sanding while I was in charge of taking pictures. JK! I totally pitched in - I sanded a stack on my own and put the varnish on all of them; it was soooo HOT! You can't tell, but Mr. R was definitely sweating in the 113* shade. Phoenix summers rock.


Ta-da!!! Sorry I didn't take any pictures of the staining process - my hands were covered in ebony stain... We had to stain one side at a time and let them dry for about 2 hours in between (in which we caught up on last season's episodes of Chuck to free up my parents' DVR). We worked as fast as we could since it was really hot (and this was in the late late afternoon!) and went through probably 5 waterbottles and 10 glasses of ice water. Definitely a labor of love here...

I got up early the next day to put the varnish/sealer on the boards (both sides)... an important step because that ebony stain has a way of getting on EVERYTHING! Here's what all 35+ look like in my backyard. And no, we're not ghetto with broken-down cars in our yard; Daddy Ramen wanted to make sure Sister R's car didn't get flooded during the monsoons.

This was all in all a pretty easy, quick and painless project to work on - hopefully it will have a nice effect for our centerpieces!

What was your easiest wedding project?

Some Sweet Lovin'

I looooove getting snail mail (a reason why I was kind of insistent on mailed RSVPs vs online). I recently received this lovely hand addressed invite....

...complete with cute litte red eyelets....

...featuring 2 of my favorite colors, in a color combo that I love (dark red and light blue), but didn't choose for our wedding.....

inviting me to my SoCal Bridal Shower!!!!! Thrown by my awesome bridesmaids!

(L to R: Crazy-cousin K, Awesome friend J, me!, Sister Ramen, Opto school friend H, and UCI friend J)

The theme is "How Sweet it Is", one of my favorite Motown songs.... and since most of my ladies are ALSO huge foodies (and good cooks), I know there will be some amazing grub. I can't wait to hang out with a huge group of my girlfriends, wear a pretty dress, and get away from school!

This shower isn't a surprise - mostly because my sister and cousin are both from out of the area, and would need to crash with me, and also because our school schedule is a little crazy sometimes. I can't believe how much hard work my sister and cousin put into designing and making my Paper-Sourced invites! Aren't they so cute?

On a slightly-related note... I was changing something on our registry and discovered that PEOPLE ARE BUYING US STUFF!!!!!!!!!!! Obviously, that's the point of the registry, but it just made me reallllly excited :) So now I have to keep myself from stalking the registry... sigh.

What kind of shower theme are you having? Is it a surprise, or did you have a hand in deciding the date?

Flowers for everyone!

Ok, so maybe not everyone, but it's pretty traditional in most Asian weddings (at least for my family) to have corsages and boutonnieres for all important extended family members - aunts, uncles, cousins even. And it's always a nice guesture to have flowers for your wedding helpers: musicians, guestbook and gift attendents, ushers, DOC, etc.

So... Mr. Ramen's mom is one of 5 kids, his dad is one of 4. My mom is one of 6 and my dad has (thank God!) only 1 brother. Since the majority of them are married, this means for aunts and uncles alone, we'd need to provide about 25 or so corsages and boutonnieres. And then another 15 at least for our helpers. At $8 a pop for a measly single rose, our budget definitely couldn't handle that! How to fix this dilemma?

Miss Ramen: "Oh, I can TOTALLY make all of the boutonnieres and corsages. How hard could it be?"
And before you start to laugh in my face at my DIY naivete it's actually... not that hard!

So I started by attempting to make them out of fake florals since they could be made well in advance, and ended up with these (thankyouverymuch Michael's and Joann's floral clearance sales!):

These were some basic mock-ups before I started the wrapping. I just used fake lamb's ear, ranunculus, and astilbe, with some random berry-like things and some feather trim with guinea feathers that I found at Tuesday Morning for 99c! You will also need some wire cutters, floral wire (maybe about 24g), and floral tape - and ribbon if you want to cover up the tape with that.

So basically (and sorry I don't have step-by-step photo instructions for this), I wrapped the floral tape a couple of times around the lamb's ear leaf stem. You might want to strip the floral stems down to the wire, if you can, because this will keep the wrapped stem part nice and thin.

Slowly add in your other fun bits - feathers, flowers, etc, wrapping about 1 time around each new thing to your base leaf. You might need to wire smaller items, if the stem is too short or non-existant. It's important to make sure all parts are anchored together!

Wrap the entire assembled bout stems several more times, until the fake stems/wires are covered. you could even extend the tape wrapping further, so you can make one of those cute little curly tails at the end. And voila! You have yourself a beautiful, reusable, forever bout/corsage. I was content with this, and set about making some for the ushers and started on the family flowers.

And then my cousin C's wedding happened. She had asked some ladies from her church to help her with flowers, and they had easily whipped up a large number of REAL rose bouts/corsages for the family members. I asked one of the lovely ladies about it, and she explained to me how they made them in about 7 min/bout or less, and then told me that I could totally do it for my wedding!

So of COURSE I had to try. I stopped by Costco, found some light pink spray roses and went to Safeway where I discovered a greenery bunch of seeded eucalyptus (they smell great, but if they're too old, the little seeds fall off EVERYWHERE, which is NOT cool), eucalyptus leaves, and bear grass and went to town....

I might have looked up some tips from here - although these directions are for an orchid, you can pretty much modify them for any flower (at least in my mind that makes sense). Similar to the fake bouts that I had made, I slowly bound each piece together with the floral tape - and made a nice little curly tail on the end on one. (BTW - that floral tape gets your hands REALLY sticky, which is gross and really weird, because it seems like it won't even stick where you want it to...)

One thing that kinda helped too, because sometimes I was too over-eager and snipped the stem too short: you can salvage the bud by sticking a piece of wire through the base/top stem part, and twisting it around the stem remnant - just make sure you cover it well with floral tape! (Note to self: leave stems too long...)

Voila!!!!! If I can do it, YOU can do it too!!!!! (Pardon the one on the right - I cut the tape too short and then was too lazy to fix it.)

The one on the left with 3 buds will be for the aunties/special ladies at our wedding. The bout on the right will be for our uncles/special guy helpers. Yes, I am very proud of myself. I then stuck the samples into the fridge uncoverd to see how long they would last before looking nasty. I think I could start making some on Thursday, and they'd still look pretty good on Saturday. But to be on the safe side, I think Mommy Ramen and Sister Ramen and I will whip them up pretty fast on Friday morning before the wedding, possibly enlisting any bridesmaids/family members who are hanging around.

So - what do you think hive? Should I add anything to them/take anything out? Should we mix it up with white + pink buds?

if only...

If only I had like 300 less guests (heck, I'd attempt this if I had 150 guests!), and if only I wasn't in school, I would be ALLLLLLL OVER this project.... maybe i can somehow incorporate this into something???? somehow?? anyone? anyone? Bueller?

Unfortunately, I think Mr. Ramen might want to leave me if I add one more craft to our DIY list.... although these menu wheels are really too sexy...

Seriously. How are people so creative???? And where can I get that? If I had just 0.0000000095132 of that talent... anyways. Go here for the directions. From Anna of Rifle Design, via DesignSponge. Genius. Pure genius.

What's the one project you wish you could do but can't (because of time/money/guestlist)?

seriously?!?!?!

so, i had a minor meltdown when my google countdown hit the 100 mark.... and now i'm realizing that we're at about the 80 day mark.... and i have uhm, let's see - EVERYTHING left to do.... and uhhhhhhh 80 days is like 2 1/2 months left to go! dahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. it's been too easy for the past couple of weeks or so to just relax (aka read weddingbee, check email, refresh weddingbee, check facebook, repeat), focus on school (ehhhh, kinda?), and try to tell myself that i have puh-lenty of time left to get my crafting on. but i actually don't....

we still have yet to assemble and address and send the invites, work on the programs, finish up our reception decor, make menu cards, escort cards, order flowers and glassine bags, buy moss and river rocks, make corsages and boutonierres, thank you cards, kiddie bags, and coordinate everything with our vendors, bridal party, DOC, and families. whew! that's probably not even half of it...

on one hand, i'm super excited to be married to my best friend and can't wait to get to the wedding day, but on the other much much much larger Shaq-sized hand, i'm completely TERRIFIED that my worst nightmares are coming true and i'm not going to get all of my wedding crafting done in time - not to mention my wedding workouts. urgh (kinda want to be able to eat on my wedding day...). and the fact that school is starting to pile up is not helping. at all.

so i've decided that i shall make mineself a schedule - and actually stick to it this time. no more wasting (too much) time on the internet! (but i still love technology, always and forever.)

i guess this is good news for the hive (i know, i know, so loving and sacrificial of me); i've got my gratuitous-wedding gocco in one hand, my burn-inducing glue gun in the other, and my camera USB cable plugged in - get ready for a torrent of craftiness! there's no time to lose!

at what point in YOUR countdown did you finally kick your butt into high gear? what do you have left on your list to do?