Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

DH and I are heading over to Alton again today. We're going to go to 6 pm Mass with the family. We're going to stay the night in Alton this year. Tomorrow morning, my mom will make one of my favorite breakfasts - her delicious caramel rolls. It just wouldn't be Christmas without them!

I hope everyone has safe travels wherever you are going. Enjoy spending time with your family. I'm kind of sad we won't have a white Christmas, but that's pretty normal around here.

Merry Christmas!!

Donating food to cats and dogs

While reading a magazine recently (I think it was People), I read an article about a young girl. She saw how so many shelters need help getting enough food for all the animals. So, she started a website with trivia questions.



For each question you answer (only 1 per day), 10 pieces of food get donated to an animal shelter. The food is donated whether you get the answer right or not. There is a site with trivia questions for dogs and one for cats.

I thought I would pass along the link, as I know there are a lot of animal lovers out there. Today I noticed that you can even click to get a daily email reminder to answer the trivia question.

It will take less than a couple of minutes of your time each day, but will add up to help animals who don't have a loving home. Over 63.5 million pieces of dog food have been donated since April of this year, and over 39 million pieces of cat food have been donated since June of this year.

Cat site

Dog site

My new addiction (warning - long post!)

I have recently become addicted to finding great deals via sales and coupons. I think I first saw posts about this on Brea's blog. I've seen a few other posts since then and have found numerous blogs about the subject. Some relate to particular stores (such as Walgreens and Target) while others focus on combining sales and coupons. Walgreens is often more expensive for a lot of items. However, when certain items go on sale, they're cheaper than other places (such as Wal-mart or Target). If you have a manufacturer coupon, it's an even better deal.

A few weeks ago I saved an amazing amount at Walgreens. (I planned to post this earlier, but forgot I had just saved the draft to come back to later!)

I got the ad for Walgreens Saturday evening and decided to look through to see what was on sale. I noticed there were many things we were in need of on sale - laundry detergent, hand soap, soup (for my lunch), toothpaste, razor rills, trash bags, foil... In the ad, there were several coupons for good deals/sales at Walgreens. I was also able to go through my coupons and go online to find several additional coupons.

My total OOP cost was $48.94, including tax ($45.00 before tax).

My savings was $51.89!!!

I used $22.34 in Walgreens coupons, $17.05 in Walgreens advertised sales, and $12.50 in manufacturer coupons. Here's the breakdown:

• 2 Arm and Hammer detergents -on sale for 2 for $7, plus 2 coupons for $1 off A&H detergent. Original price - $15.58. After sale/coupons - $5.00
• 1 Tide detergent (26 loads) - on sale for $5.49, plus used a $1.00 coupon = $4.49
• 2 cascade action packs - on sale 2 for $7 (unfortunately, I had no coupon for this)
• Dove minis (caramel and milk choc. - yum!) - on sale 2 for $6, plus a coupon for $2 off 2. Original price - not quite sure. I think the Dove are originally at least $4 each. After coupons - $4 for 2 packages.
• Schick Intuition razor - $9.99. I lucked out and found one with an additional cartridge. Normally, 3 razor refills is over $11. I used a $3 off coupon, getting a new razor plus 2 cartridges for $6.99.
• 4 Campbell's Soup at Hand - on sale 4 for $5, plus a coupon for $1 off 4 containers. Original price - $8.76. After coupons/sale - $4.00
• Softsoap hand soap - no sale, used the Walgreens coupons for $0.99 softsoap. Original price ($2.99 each) - $8.97. After coupons - $2.97
• Walgreens whitening mouthwash - on sale for $3.50
• 2 All 12-Load detergent - used Walgreens coupon (to make it $1.79 each) and 2 mfr. coupon for $1.00 off. Original price - $7.58 After coupons - $1.58 (for 24 loads of laundry!)
• 2 snicker nutcrackers - yum! :-) - $1.00
• Aluminum foil - originally $2.59. With a Wags. coupon - $1.99
  
• Colgate Total Whitening Toothpaste - used a mfr. coupon $1.50 off and received register rewards $2.00. Original price - $2.99. After coupons - $0.51 overage (yea!)
• Glad trash bags (45 count) - on sale for $5.99, plus a coupon. After coupons - $4.99
• Used a $5 off a $25 purchase coupon from Walgreens

The $51.89 saved includes the coupons mentioned above as well as advertised sales through Wags. I don't remember some of the original price of the items. I think I did quite well today! Here is a picture of all the items I bought and the receipt showing the savings:

Braggin' Rights

Tonight is the annual Braggin' Rights game in St. Louis between Mizzou (BOO!) and my team, the Illini. I haven't been to the game for a few years and am really looking forward to it. From what the sports guys are saying, it should be a good game.

Illinois has won the past 8 years. Hopefully we can make it 9 in a row!

Christmas decor (mostly the tree) - lots of pics

I meant to post about this a while back, but was having trouble loading my photos from my camera onto my new computer. I finally got it figured out. Silly me took pictures of the tree without the lights on, though, so it doesn't look quite as nice as it does in the evening.

This first picture is an ornament my mom got me of Madeleine and her dog. This is just the first of several French-releated Christmas ornaments/decor.


One of my Illini ornaments. Go Illini! (Hopefully they will win tomorrow night at the rivalry basketball game. DH, my parents, my sister, and I are going.)


An ornament of one of my favorite monuments in the world - la Tour Eiffel. We will be going to Paris on our honeymoon in June and definitely will be visiting the Eiffel Tower.


Another Eiffel Tower decoration. :-) My mom got this for me from Sur la Table a few years ago. It's an Eiffel Tower gingerbread "house." So cute! (You can see the edge of my Eiffel Tower lamp next to it and the other lamp in the background.)



An ornament I painted last year at Glazed and Confused.


An ornament my mom got us this year to commemorate our 1st Christmas as a married couple.


Various ornaments that are important to us. The take-out box I bought last year for DH. There is a fortune cookie that says something like "lucky in love" when you pull the fortune out. We had fortune cookies in take-out boxes as our wedding favors.

The moose ornament is from Niagara Falls, where DH proposed.

DH is from the San Francisco area. We went there on our mini-moon, and I bought the ornament of the Golden Gate, along with a few others.



DH went to Cal-Berkeley for his undergrad (the bear on the left.) The Illini ornament in the middle is for my undergrad. The Florida State ornament on the right is where DH went to law school.


If you look to the right of the house ornament, there is a sea lion ornament from San Francisco. Underneath that is a cable car ornament.


I LOVE Christmas time. We have some other Christmas decorations up, but I didn't take pictures of them. Oh well...I think this is enough pictures! :-)

Please consider donating...

We all know the economy isn't the greatest right now. Most of us don't have a ton of extra money just lying around. There are lots of children around the St. Louis area who are in need of some Christmas cheer. I watch Channel 5 (KSDK) every morning to view the news and/or the Today show. I kept seeing the advertisements for granting a Little Wish, but kept forgetting to check out the website.

I did this morning, and I'm glad I did! When the webpage for the Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition finally came up (several links to click on before that), this message was on the front page:

There are nearly 3,500 Wishes left to grant in only 1 day. To ensure that every child receives at least one gift (instead of two), FACC is managing the campaign by prioritizing gifts on the website. After all first gifts are granted, a second batch of Little Wishes will be posted. Thank you for your generosity and helping us give our foster children a bright Holiday.

It made me very sad to see this message, that some children will not even have 1 gift to open right now. I cannot imagine this, as I have always had plenty of gifts on Christmas. It breaks my heart to think that some children will wake up with nothing under their tree (if they even have a tree) or maybe only 1 gift.

My husband and I have decided to not give each other gifts this year. We received so much for the wedding, that we kind of had Christmas a few months ago! We are getting each other a card, but that's it. So, we decided to grant 2 Little Wishes this morning. I hope that our gifts will put a smile on the children's faces on Christmas morning.

As I mentioned earlier, I know it's a hard time for our country right now. The gifts start at $30 gift card for children. When you think about it, $30 isn't that much. That's about 7 or so drinks from Starbucks. Or a few lunches out. Or a sweater that you wouldn't have thought twice about buying.

Please consider donating to this great cause and making a wish come true for a child (or children) this Christmas!

Website: http://www.foster-adopt.org/

4x4 tag

My friend Amber tagged me.

You are supposed to post the 4th picture in the 4th file of your picture folder.

My picture is of a gorgeous flower arrangement at the Waldorf=Astoria. The picture is from our engagement trip, when DH took me to NYC (where we stayed at the Waldorf) and then to Niagara Falls.

I will tag:

Trisha (A Day in the Life of a Seelen)
Angie (Klenke Konfessions)
Rhonda (Jordan & Rhonda)
Yara (A Brand New Life...Again)

Darn furnace

Last night, when DH and I came home from my harp job, we noticed the house was quite cold. Usually, when you come in out of the cold, the house feels so nice and toasty! It was not at all. I checked the thermostat (which had been set at 69), and it was 65!

We found out the vents were just blowing cool air. The pilot had somehow gone out.

I know nothing about our furnace, so I had to go downstairs and read some information on the side of it. (DH knows nothing about it, either. He needs to work on his handy-man skills.) Apparently, you cannot light the pilot yourself. It tries to relight it 3 times. If that doesn't work, then it goes on lockout for 3 hours. Then, it should reset. Great! Over 3 hours of letting the temperature drop!

By the time we went to bed, it was down to 63 degrees. We could bundle up, but I was worried about the harps. They need to be in a constant temperature, as changes in temperature and humidity affect the tuning and can cause strings to break. So, we put a space heater in the room with the harps. We kept it on low and kept the door cracked because we didn't want it to get too hot, either.

I woke up at 4:00 am (I think thanks to my cat who wanted to snuggle) and checked the thermostat. It was at 65 again. Yeah! However, the vents were still blowing cool air, which I thought was odd. At least it was getting warmer.

When I woke up later (I think around 7:30), I checked again, and it was up to 67. The vents were finally blowing warm air again. Thank goodness! I was worried we were going to have to call someone today and stay around all morning waiting for a service call. Plus, I was worried about the cost!

I think over break, I'm going to call and have someone just come check on the furnace. My dad said they're supposed to be checked every so often, because stuff can build up, causing them to not work. Luckily, I'm off for quite a while, so it won't be a big deal to wait around for someone one day.

Crazy weekend

We had planned on having a nice relaxing weekend to get things done and enjoy being lazy. As of last weekend, we had no plans, other than making sure to go to the grocery store and making a dessert for school.

That all changed this week. I got 3 last minute harp jobs! While I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend, the money was too hard to turn down.

Friday night, I played from 6-8 pm at Macy's at Chesterfield Mall. There was a Waterford Signing Event. It was nice playing in public, because I don't get the opportunity to do that much. I tend to play for weddings and private events. People were really nice and really seemed to enjoy the music.

Tonight, I am playing at a Christmas party at a location on Lindell Blvd. I'm sure it will be nice!

Sunday afternoon, I am playing at Macy's in Fairview Heights from 1-3 pm. If you're in the area, feel free to stop by and say hi! I'll be playing mostly Christmas music, but also some classical music.

New haircut

A while before the wedding, I decided I was going to do the post-wedding chop. Then, as it got closer, I wasn't so sure. I was kind of liking having long hair and figured I will have shorter hair when I have kids. (Not too short, though!)

I decided my hair really needed a good cut, though. With using a flat iron, the ends really needed to be cut off. When I told DH I was going to get my hair cut shorter, he shook his head no. I guess maybe he thought I was going to go REALLY short and cut it all off. Not happening. I don't look good with really short hair. I knew it was going to be no shorter than chin length.

Thursday, I went to see Suzie at Metro Salon, upon recommendation from a few ladies. She was SO nice! Sometimes with stylists there's awkward conversation and lots of dead time. Not with Suzie. She took a lot of time when we first met to talk about what color I was looking for and what style I wanted. Through talking, we discovered that her niece and nephew go to the school where I teach. Her mom is also a musician (organist). I might do some music previews at their church. Great for business!

I don't have a picture yet. I got a new computer recently, and I'm still trying to figure out how to install the software so that I can get my pictures off my camera. :-)

Hopefully I will figure it out soon. If not, I might have to ask DH. I will post a picture as soon as I can. (I also have another post ready, but it's waiting for a few pictures.)

My Chinese name

My name in Chinese isn't that different from my regular name.

Technically, my name should be pronounced "eh-may." Aimee comes from the French verb "aimer" (to love) and means beloved.

In Chinese, the word "ai" means love. "Mei" means beautiful.

Our Mandarin teacher said my name would be "Ai-mei" (Eye-may). I think it's a nice name! :-)

In Chinese, though, the last name comes first. Our last name means "forest." Interesting...

Learning a new language

Last week was the last week of our 6-week Mandarin Chinese course. The class was through Webster University and was downtown in the Old Post Office.

I am going to take the next class so I can continue to learn a bit more Mandarin. They are going to let DH audit the course since he already knows the language. :-) He's there mostly for moral support and to answer some questions I have.

So far, I've learned how to say some basic things, like asking someone how they are doing, and having a brief conversation about that. We have also learned numbers, immediate family members (mom, dad, sister, etc.), and some basic sentence structures.

I have studied several languages in high school and college. One of my degrees is in French. I also took a year of Spanish in high school, 1 Italian class in college, and 2 semesters of German in college. I really enjoy learning foreign languages, and luckily, it was something that came easily to me.

Chinese, though, is quite different than any of the languages I have previously studied! There are a few things I find quite interesting about the Chinese language.

1) Verbs are not conjugated. In all the other languages I have studied, verbs are always conjugated. In French, it is "je suis" (I am), "tu es" (you are), "nous sommes" (we are). In Chinese, it is "wo shi" (I am), "ta shi" (you are), "women shi" (we are).

2) Adding on to number one, there are no tenses in Chinese. No past, present, future, imperfect, etc. Just the one. They use words like yesterday, next year, etc. to explain time. So, no matter when something happened, the verb is the same. (shi = to be, whether it was 10 years ago, now, or 20 years from now)

3) When you talk about yourself as being hungry, tired, busy, etc. the verb "shi" is left out. You wouldn't say "Wo shi lei."(I am tired.) The correct way to say it is "Wo lei." (I tired.) No wonder it is hard for those who speak Mandarin to learn English!

4) "Shi" means a LOT of different things! So far, we have learned 5 different meanings for this one word. It's a bit complicated! It can mean: to be, ten, room, and city. The characters for each "shi" are different.

5) The tones are a bit tricky to master! In Chinese, there are "accents" on many letters, telling you how to pronounce the word. One means to go up with your voice at the end of the word. Another is a flat tone. Another goes down and then up within the same word, and the last just goes down at the end of the word. It has been hard for us native English speakers to get this part down in class!

Hairstylist recommendations around St. Charles?

I was wondering if any of you ladies around the St. Charles area had a recommendation for a hairstylist/colorist?

I was going to the gal who did my hair for the wedding, but she's pretty far away. I would like to find someone closer who is reasonably priced. They need to be somewhat experienced (I don't think a student would be good) because my hair pulls red really easily.

How to decide on album pictures?!

We haven't gotten around to choosing our photos that will be in our wedding album yet. Our photography package included a credit towards an album. We just need to pick the photos and send them to the album designer.

I'm having a hard time choosing about 140 photos. There are so many wonderful photos that I love! I think it's going to take a while. I plan to pull my favorites first, no matter how many there are. Then slowly, we will have to eliminate some until we get down to a decent number!

I wanted to upload some of my favorite pictures, but Blogger wasn't cooperating. I don't know if the file size is too big or what. Bummer!

I ended up creating another album on Facebook with a few of my favorites. If you are reading this and aren't one of my friends on Facebook, leave me a comment with your name or a way that I can connect to you on Facebook.

ETA: You can try this link to see if it works: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10776&l=216d1&id=1131258243

Oh, how I love a good deal!

DH and I went to the Banana Republic outlet at The Mills Mall last weekend. I had received an email earlier that week that there was a big sale going on.

I picked up a few sweaters (still debating if I'm going to keep all of them) at good prices. Each was 40% off.

The best deal, I think, was on 2 pairs of shoes. I'm definitely keeping the pink pair (rose verbena, a fuchsia color). I'm debating about the blue. The Emilia Suede Flat was originally $69.99 at BR. With the sale going on at the Outlet, I got the shoes for $17 each! What a steal! I love the color of the cura blue, but am not quite sure what to wear it with. It doesn't seem to look right with jeans. If I wore black pants, I'm not quite sure what color shirt would look good.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and gets to spend time with family and friends.

We are looking forward to going over to my parents' house in Alton later today. My sister, nana, and aunt will also be there. This year, we invited our friends N & N and their son Noah. I'm looking forward to seeing the little guy! He's growing so fast! He will be 1 in January, and his new sister Mia will join the family in March.

Sorry for the lack of posts!

Things have not slowed down since the wedding! It's been a hectic first week back at school, to say the least. I had Bunco with some teachers from my school on Tuesday evening, and DH and I started a Chinese language course on Wednesday nights. I'm playing in a wedding today, have a wedding show tomorrow at the Ameristar (if you're going - stop by and say hi!), and then a music preview concert at St. Peters Church in St. Charles. Busy weekend!

I really hope to post about the wedding and the trip to San Francisco soon!

On a side note...I showed my students some wedding photos yesterday. One of the kids (I can't remember if it was a boy or a girl) asked why there were so many pictures of me. A little girl said it was because it was my day and I was important! So cute! :-) They also LOVED the pictures with the red socks and shoes. Oh, and of course, they thought it was gross when we kissed!

Some wedding pictures!!

We just got back to the hotel from some sight seeing around the San Francisco area. I just wanted to share some wedding photos. How exciting to see some of them already!

Here is our slideshow.

On our photog (SJ Macky's) website, you can also view some other photos.

My last post as an unmarried woman!

This will be my last blog post until after the wedding! It really seems like just a few months ago we got engaged, and I had 1.5 years to plan the wedding.

Today, it really started to sink in. I went to Genovese to borrow some gorgeous jewelry for the wedding. My parents and sister met me there to help select the jewelry. After, we all went out to dinner, since it would be the last time as just the 4 of us, without me being married.

Tomorrow morning, the fun begins! We (my mom, sis, and I) are going to get manicures and pedicures. (My other bridesmaid, a cousin, is not arriving until Friday afternoon.) I am going to get fake nails. Mine are so short since I have to keep them short to play the harp. They won't look very nice in photos. Some relatives should arrive by lunch, so we'll all have lunch together. Not sure what all we'll do in the afternoon, but hopefully relax some! The rehearsal is tomorrow evening, followed by the rehearsal dinner. At the dinner, we're going to be doing a Chinese tea ceremony, in honor of FI's family. Neither of us have experienced this before. Basically, we serve tea to the elders in our family. In return, they give us red envelopes with money. :-)

Saturday morning our hair and make-up stylists are coming to my parents house where we will be getting ready. The guys and FI's family will take some pictures before the wedding, but we're not going to see each other until the ceremony. After the ceremony and church pictures, we're going to head to Forest Park to take some more photos. I can't wait for the reception at WOW!

Monday morning, FI (he'll be DH, then!), my parents, my sister, and I are flying out to San Francisco for our Chinese reception. It will be a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant with some of FI's family and some of his parents' friends. We will be staying in CA for a few days and will return late Thursday evening. I'll post some photos and things we did when we return.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me in the wedding planning process! I have gotten so many wonderful ideas from the ladies on StlWed and a lot of support. I cannot imagine planning the wedding without all your help! I hope to have pictures very soon to share with you, and I'm sure I will have several blog posts about the day!

Flowers & candy - the classic combo

Yesterday, FI brought over a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me, along with one of my favorite candies - Turtles! He is very thoughtful, which I appreciate so much! Here are a few pictures:

Something old, something new...

I thought I would post about my Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue. I cannot believe the wedding is so soon! It's really sinking in!


Something Old

• my veil - I am wearing my mom's veil, which she bought in Belgium on a trip to Europe. It was also worn by my aunt Nancy, who is my godmother. The veil is cathedral length and is absolutely amazing!
• hopefully my great-nana's brooch - My great-nana had a lot of extremely nice costume jewelry. One of them was a "diamond" brooch in kind of a star shape. I'm hoping that I will be able to pit in on my bouquet.
• lace handkerchief - I might carry a lace handkerchief that I believe belonged to either my great-nana or my nana. My mom also carried it on her wedding day.
  

Something New

• my dress - yep, that's an obvious on :-)
• my shoes - both my church shoes (silver) and reception shoes (red) were purchased for the wedding.
• hair comb - to wear at the reception
  

Something Borrowed

• jewelry - I am SO excited about my beautiful jewelry! I picked it up today at Genovese, which is where we got my engagement ring and wedding band (a set) and FI's ring. I borrowed a beautiful pair of diamond earrings and a gorgeous diamond bracelet.
• my veil - techincally, I'm borrowing it from my mom
  

Something Blue

• dress label - I got a really cute dress label from the gartermaker.
• blue ring - I'm not sure if I will be wearing a blue sapphire ring or a blue topaz ring, both of which I received from FI.

My silly cat

My cat, Melodie (Mel), has an obsession with all types of bags and boxes. She gets very excited when I bring home groceries and there is a new paper grocery bag she can sit in.

There was an empty Michael's bag in my office. Well, Mel decided to poke her way in and sleep in it. I have no clue why the bag is comfier than just sleeping on the carpet, but that's a cat for ya!

Signature platters

I didn't want to do the traditional guest book, but wanted something for our guests to sign. I used to go to a place called Glazed & Confused with some ladies from StlWed. They have some wonderful wedding signature platters.

Unfortunately, G&C is quite a ways from me. I didn't have time to drive out there and back (about an hour each way) to pick the design and then back another time to pick up the platters. There is a paint your own pottery studio, The Painted Zebra, in St. Peters on Mid Rivers Mall Drive.

We picked 2 different designs. Yes, I know they don't go together at all. :-) We wanted one that had the Chinese double happiness character and one that had our monogram or initial. Here is what we decided on:

Double happiness




"L" - green, black, and white - our main wedding colors.

DIY Unity Candle

A lot of the unity candles in stores nowadays are way too elaborate for my taste. Either that, or they're too expensive for a candle for 1 day!

I wanted something simple, but not expensive. A plain white candle was too simple, though.

I decided I would go the DIY route. It took me a while to find a plain, unscented white pillar candle that was tall enough. I found one at Hobby Lobby for around $5. What a steal! I also found vellum at Hobby Lobby. I don't remember the price, but it was very reasonable. While there, I decided to get some thin (1/4 inch) black ribbon. Our colors are black and white, with touches of green and touches of red (at the reception).

I designed the design for the candle using PowerPoint. The scroll design is the same design that is used on our programs. It is fairly similar to the design from our invitations. We did not design our invitations, so we weren't able to use that design for our programs/unity candle.

The vellum was really easy to print on. The ink dried fairly quickly. I used double sided tape to adhere the vellum to the candle. Then, I used the tape to stick the ribbon onto the candle.

It was quite simple, and I love the results! Simple and elegant.




Close up of the design.

Various wedding items

I finally got around to taking photos of the OOT bags that we put together. We had about 25 bags to make. FI and I went to Costco to get a variety of snacks. We also included a St. Louis magazine and map. I also made a timeline to put in the bag and included a list of fun facts about St. Louis that I got from another bride. (Sorry, I don't remember who, though!)



I created the "sticker" for the bags in PowerPoint, print it out, and then made it sticky with a Xyron machine. They're very handy!



I decided to get a hair comb to put in for the reception. It's the Double Sweet Maria comb from Naugi. Sorry for the blurry pic. I couldn't get my camera to take a clear picture - even without a flash!



This week, I also picked up FI's wedding band. He just wanted a plain, simple white gold band.

Make-up colors?

Warning - this is kind of long. Sorry!

I'm still debating what color shadow to do on my eyelids for the wedding.

Yes, I had a trial. However, the gal seemed rushed (even though I was on time for my appointment). She did not seem to want to redo my eyes when I didn't like them the first time. They were WAY too much, with the shadow (gray) all the way up to my brows! So, she wiped some off. It was a little better, but I still wasn't sure if it was "me." Instead of taking it all off and starting over, she just quickly took it off one eye and tried again in brown. It was ok, but wasn't great because she didn't spend a lot of time on it. It would have been nice to see both eyes with the brown.

I'm debating either going with browns or with gray with a hint of purple (but only on the lids!). I put a faint purple shade over my other eyeshadow (usually a brownish shade) quite often.

I like these 2 photos that I found over on Weddingbee.



Here are some photos from my make-up trial. (Sorry for the blurriness...I'm not good at taking photos of myself!) As you look at the picture, the eye on the left is the gray shadow, and the right is the browns. Also, it seemed heavy on the blush to me. What do you think? I definitely am asking for none on my nose. I'm not sure why she put some on my nose, because my nose is already redder than the rest of my face and gets red easily.





My hair is darker than in the trial photos. It is more like the shade of the second photo in this post.

So, what do you think?

Gray, with a hint of purple? Or browns?

Too much blush?

What do you think of these?

Special tables numbers were on my list of things to do if I had time. I made up 2 examples.

Please be honest - what do you think?

Is the font ok? Is there too much on the "page" or is is just enough? I think I would glue them onto black cardstock so there's a little black border.

Less than one week!

I signed on to StlWed this morning just to check out the boards. I'm a wedding of the week!! Wow - less than 1 week away. Crazy! There are quite a few other ladies from the board getting married that day. The only one I know of that has a blog is Maria.

I want to do a Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue drink menu. I made one up last night.

What do you think of the drink choices?

I know a Crantini isn't super new. A Blushing Margarita was new to me since I'd never heard of it, so that's why I put it on there. We're limited in our choices for alcohol. Otherwise, I would use a flavored vodka, but they don't have it at WOW.

For Something borrowed - I found the Sprite-tini on someone's blog. The FL sunrise...well, we could say it's borrowed from FL! :-) FI went to law school in FL, so I thought that was a cute one to choose.

Sorry the picture is so small. I made it large, but this is the way it showed up. Oh well...you get the idea!