Jewelry DIY- not as easy as I'd hoped

I know what you're thinking.  It should be easy enough to DIY some strings of beads and make them look like what I'm hoping them to look like-- right?

Well, yes and no.

The idea itself is really simple.  Just put things together and go at it.  But it seems like the advice I received on the internet just wasn't up to par-- shocker.  That's of no fault to Fire Mountain Gems (which, by the way, has EXCELLENT shipping times and customer service)-- they didn't give me that recommendation.  They recommended wire.  But the internet tutorials from other sites looked SO EASY with this stuff, and I know how I am when I'm drinking, so... yeah.

First, multiple sites recommended using Powercord.  I don't know if the assumption was that glass beads weren't as heavy, and the stretchiness of the cord would be beneficial, but not for my purposes.  These glass beads are heavy as hell.  And yes, the Powercord droops.  Especially with a ton of weight on it.  Which these beads have.

And overall, I'm not sure if I just didn't expect the necklaces to look like this, or what... but they kind of remind me of Indian corn.  They've had positive reviews from those I've shown them to, but they're still not what I'm hoping to do.

Today's plan?  Giving it the old college try with some string and not worrying about using more beads than are necessary to get the look I want.  I can always go and buy more beads.  It's not ideal, but it can be done.

Oh, weekending.

There's nothing more hilarious than watching southerners ice skate. Sure, you've got a few that can do it, but by far and large we are talking HOT. MESS.

It was a good time, however. Especially since I was able to hang out with the girls.

The rest of the weekend has been uneventful. I got sick off some sour milk and was pretty much down for the count. Moose got to play house husband for the weekend, but it was all good. :) I was so impressed by his ability to make some sandwiches using leftover cole slaw I made. It was awesome.

I've got an interview tomorrow, so it's best I pass out now and update more later.

Another money saving tip for wedding planning: Invites

Invitations are another place the cost can quickly escalate far beyond what you expected.

To keep the cost down we've taken a few steps that I thought were easy enough to do yourself, and good to share.

Save the Date Cards:
I found an online design that I fell in love with. A good friend of mine does graphic design, so I asked her if she could help me put together a similar design and print it. I could have just printed them myself on photo paper or card stock after the design was finished, but since she had access to printers at work and work was slow, she helped a sista out.

Invitations:
Again, I found a design I liked online and rather than order them off Etsy for $38 per set of 5 invites (for a total of around $500 to do 65 invites), asked the same friend to help me put a design together that was similar. I feel the need to say that 1) my invite design is much different than the one that inspired me, so theres no IP infringement and 2) had budget not been an issue, I would have gone for the Etsy invites.

After that, we headed to Paper Source in Porter Square (Cambridge, MA) to look at the different types of paper and the different colors available. I used to live walking distance from Paper Source, and I've always LOVED them. But after this experience, I love them even more.

We decided on a dark blue trifold outer and antique gold backing to fit behind an off-white printed invite. The response cards are going to be the same off white (no backing) as the invite, and the envelopes are the same antique gold as the backing. I will punch out stars to "seal" the trifold closed, and purchased white gel pens to address the envelopes.

I needed to order some stuff from home and have it shipped here in NC since it wasn't in store, and one of the ladies at Paper Source told me that if I called one of their stores directly and placed the order through them, that shipping was free. I initially wasn't going to bother and just order on the web until I realized I saved myself in the neighborhood of $30 by calling them.

I also skipped on the inner envelope. While it is creating some interesting invite addressing woes, it was a savings of at least $30, not including the extra postage that an odd-shaped envelope would require.

The total cost for all my paper goods to make 65 invites was $150, and manpower to put it all together.

Now that I have the design, I could pay $65 for printing, or I could print it myself on my super photo printer. As long as it doesn't smudge and the card stock can go through your printer without looking funny, it should be ok. Then once it is printed, all that's left is gluing the invites together and mailing them out.

Even with paying $65 for the printing, I'm still saving over $300 on my invites based on that initial price of the similar Etsy invite.

Paper (Star) Lanterns!

I'm pretty psyched because they arrived today. Apparently AsianIdeas.com is not only legit but super fast to boot.

The best thing about these guys are that the color is super light and they're a pretty solid cardboard, so I'm sure that if I wanted I could easily spray paint them a metallic gold and it would be fine. Hmm.. Maybe I'll order a few more to try that with.

I'm pretty impressed, and for $2 each-- I can't complain.

Hotel Decisions

I'm currently trying to reserve a room block for our wedding guests.   Right now it's between the Marriott Courtyard and the Westin.

The Courtyard is offering a room rate of $118/room, and right now the rack rate is $118/room.  With that we'll get free parking, use of pool, and wifi.  Woo.  No free breakfast or anything like that.

Our quote for the Westin (so far) is at $129/room.  There's a gov't/military discount of $111/room.  Rack rate is between $214-$253.  I am still waiting for the details on the proposal, so I'm not sure what type of room this is for and what amenities come with it, but it is a nice hotel.

Time to start the polling.

The Paper Lantern Saga... Part 2

Apparently my stars are in transit!

USPS doesn't say when they'll arrive, just that they're coming Priority and are in Pittsburgh right now.

It seems like AsianIdeas.com may not be a hacker site, after all.

Wedding Tent- Booked (and for half the initial quote)

When Moose and I set out on our wedding journey, we initially set a budget for $10,000 that WE would personally spend.  We figured that number would be good enough to cover the basics and still have a damn good time to show for it in the event that we did not receive any family help.  Before you get all "oh, being in your thirties you shouldn't expect family help"-- we didn't.  We told our families that while we would love it if they could pitch in if they wanted to help us out, the expectation wasn't that they had to. Our families have been beyond happy with that approach and helping in ways that I didn't expect-- but more on that in another post.

Back in December, my initial tent quote for a 30' x 45' x 8' tent, lighting, dance floor, and canopy to the Carriage House (land of dancing and, more importantly, the bar) was $2374.00.  Yep.  A good (almost) quarter of our budget.  So I did what any good bride on a budget does: freak out.

I started thinking of things that we could cut back in order to hit that number.  Maybe I consign a dress, rent a dress, or even better: don't get a traditional wedding dress.  Maybe I could cut back on things like having a cake-- sweets bars are all the rage, right?  Hmm... WAIT, I KNOW... I'll see what we can cut out of our catering budget.

So I sheepishly called our caterer (Tastings Caterers-- so far, working with them has been absolutely freaking WONDERFUL) and asked what could be done to cut the menu a few thousand dollars.  I may or may not have bust into tears at that point, but was given the best gem I have been given so far in the grand world of wedding planning: "Can you see if you can share a tent rental with the person the day before you?"

MIND. BLOWN.

I immediately shot off an email to my contact at the Codman Estate to see if there was anyone there who might want to split a tent for the weekend.  At that point, the Codman was still not rented for the day before our wedding, but they would keep me posted if things changed.

When a little over a month went by and I didn't hear from anyone, I reached back out to our tent vendor and requested some things be changed to our proposal since we needed to have it booked, stat-- we could keep the tent and canopy, but getting rid of the lighting and dance floor would cut down around $900, making it slightly more affordable.  I kid you not, an hour after hitting send, I was emailed by my contact at the Codman to see if it was OK to make an introduction between myself and the people who are holding a wedding there the day before.

At that point I had written off a dance floor and lighting, but when the mother of the bride mentioned they were things she wanted, I reconsidered.  I mean, spending $200 on a dance floor instead of $400 was in my best interest now that the tent itself was only $800.  We still wouldn't need the lights, but I am able to remove them from my quote.

Final quote cost?  $1140.  So I get the tent, the canopy, and the dance floor for HALF the price.   Plus now we will be able to go in and decorate on Friday night once the tent goes up, rather than running around on Sunday morning.

I never knew that you could do this, but it's apparently a little more common than people realize.

Lesson learned: always look for creative ways to cut the budget without compromising what you get.  ALWAYS.

Something smells.

I'm sitting in the office (aka the pup's bedroom) and it smells like diarrhea.  I've searched high and low and can't seem to find it or any poop anywhere.

I wonder if we're having a septic backwash or something.

Anyone?  Help?

Review: Light My Fire - Swedish Fire Starter

One of my many New Years Resolutions is to do a little more camping this year.  Not hooking up an RV to the car and going somewhere, but actual backcountry hiking and camping. Carry in, carry out.

I grew up in a house with an avid outdoorsman for a father, and spent more than my fair share of summer weekends either camping in the backcountry or on camping trips to tent-only sites.  One of my favorite excursions as a kid was to go out to Tully Lake in MA, where we'd load up everything in our canoe and boat across the lake and over to the campsite.   But as with most things, once post-college adult life sank in, spending a weekend camping just wasn't made a priority.  Moose was a Boy Scout when he was younger, so I know somewhere in that head of his, he must have some outdoors skills aside from hunting.  When you compare the two of us, I think I might edge him out a bit more in the camping experience department, but this is where our skills can meet in the middle.  Most important: he's on board with my crazy idea for us to be a little more outdoorsy.  I worry that if I overload him with too much at one time, it will spell the end of this little experiment.

When I was on Amazon the other day shopping with my "spend it on crap I need" allocation from the tax return, I decided to take advantage of our Prime membership and have a ton of stuff sent to us.  Sure, it was stuff like running shoes, gardening supplies, wedding decorations, and other random things, but I also threw in one of these: a Light My Fire ferro stick.

I have never used a ferro stick before.  Nor have I ever rubbed two sticks together or used a magnesium stick.  But after watching a few too many episodes of random survival TV shows, it seemed like a good idea.

I don't have any photos of this experience since I kept my phone far away from the fireplace, but it was pretty amusing.  I'm sure any neighbor who was looking in our window might have thought we were welding something in our sitting room given the sparks this thing made.

So we huddled around the fireplace, with some dried sticks and small logs set up inside the fireplace, and tried to light our 'tinder' of crumpled newspaper.

Fresh out of the package, the first thing you need to do is remove the paint.  Check.

Then strike it and make sparks fly onto your tinder.  Check.

Fire.  No check.

Strike again. Check.

FIRE!  CHECK!  QUICK GET THAT SHIT IN THE FIREPLACE!

I was able to set fire to our tinder three times, and Moose was able to do it once.  Some of the things we did to make it "easier" was to use a non-essential knife (one of the 'cheap' $30 knives we have for random uses around the house) instead of the scraper that came with the stick, and bunched up our tinder a little better so that it was directly under the ferro stick and there was more surface area for the sparks to hit.   The serrations on the knife's blade made TONS of sparks, but carved into the stick in ways that weren't necessary.  But if you're in a bind and can't start a fire to save your life-- it's a sure-fire (get it?) way to go.

My method of putting more 'wrist' into the stroke seemed to be a little more productive than Moose's full arm stroke.  That just sounds bad.  But the wrist flick definitely produced more sparks.

Also good to note: we thought it would be a fun idea to test some paper soaked with Carmex since some outdoorsy-survival type blogs often reference Carmex as a good fire-starter.  It is.  I'm assuming other types of anti-chap agents might be as well.

How we could have tested things better:

Reading reviews before setting out to do it on our own. Multiple users recommended not using paper as your tinder.  Oops.  In 'real life' we likely wouldn't be hauling some paper into the wild with us.... unless it happened to be toilet paper, which apparently does start a decent fire.  So now, the fact that we were able to start a fire with newspaper on multiple occasions is a little more impressive-- even if it did seem to take longer than it should have.

We have not yet purchased a camp stove, but apparently this method will also work to light your stove. Once we own one and I can give that a shot, I'll let you know.

Overall, I think this is a neat little gadget that will come in handy.  I don't anticipate needing to use it all that often, but it's nice to know that we have it in the event of wet matches or no lighter fluid.

The Paper Lantern Saga....

Our wedding is in June at the Codman Estate in Lincoln, MA. I'm pretty excited about the lovely gardens and grounds, as it will require very minimal added decorations and such. Being outdoors, the only down side is a required tent rental just in case the weather is less than ideal. No big deal, but man can tents be boring.

So, thanks to Pinterest, the ideas of Christmas lights and paper lanterns to spruce up the bland tent is coming to be a reality. I'd say hooray, but the effort that (so far) this is requiring is a bit on the ridiculous side.

First problem: our colors. Navy blue and gold were my fiancé's idea. I didn't feel strongly enough about any specific colors and a decision needed to be made. I'm happy with the colors, but they make decorating a bit of a challenge. Navy blue is easy enough to find (usually), but to find an actual gold color and not yellow has proven to be tough. But I have actually found paper lanterns in blue and gold. But do I want navy or some lighter color blue that will throw the light better? And do I need gold for the same reason?

Second problem: shipping. On Amazon I found a 10 pack of 10" gold lanterns at a decent price. But to add on $7 worth of shipping, I'm less than thrilled. And of course, the ones available through Prime are sold out. Also on Amazon were 10 10" blue lanterns at $0.98 apiece-- not a bad price at all. But oh, wait... $75 for shipping? Are you kidding me? Scratch that idea. So now I'm looking on alternate websites.

Third problem: when on earth will these things be hung?? The morning of? Eek.

Fourth problem: how to light them up. We are considering glow sticks and LED battery tea lights. When some finally arrive I'll give it the old college try. But it doesn't solve the problem of their being lit when we need them lit rather than all day long.

I also found some tacky orange 24" stars that will be hung as well. I'm ok with them adding a new color to the mix, but not knowing how the tent will be set up adds another question to the mix.

The key for me will be doing this all as inexpensively as possible. The five stars were $20 including shipping, and I don't want to turn this into a $100 deal. Ideally, if I could do it for another $20-$25, I'd be happy. I'll keep you posted.

Hi!

I'm hoping that this doesn't go by the wayside like many of my blogs, but at some point I just forget to keep writing or lose interest after work blocks blogger. Luckily for me, now I have the blogger app on my iPad and my iPhone. So it's one less excuse.

I'm also hoping that this time, my motivation to keep this up and running will mostly be because I don't want to limit the use to one topic. Everything is going to be here, from reviews on things I purchase/use to tips on how to cut corners and still get quality stuff for your wedding. I've also taken to gardening and trying to live a little more sustainably, and now that I'm no longer in the bane of all human existence (Florida), getting back into the outdoors. Of course, the pups will also make an appearance.

So, fingers crossed!