For the love of hardwoods...

But, first, a progress report on the wedding planning. I'm extremely happy to report that we hired our photographer! Her name is Abbey Hepner. I love her work and I think she's great! Click here to see her website and amazing work. I think she will be the perfect person to capture our day in photos. I'm very excited!

We are still working on a band, and I hope I can report more here soon!

But, this weekend will be not at all about wedding planning. In light of the fact that I like pretty things, we are going to spend the next weekend (week!?) refinishing my hardwood floors to transform them from ugly to pretty. The floors have been covered by nasty, completely usgusting carpet for the last thirty-plus years, so they are begging to be redone. I can actually hear them at night - it's a bit creepy. :) This is going to be quite the project, and the part I am looking forward to most is it being over. Chris, however, is very excited to use large power tools. The living room floors are in decent shape, except that a couple of missing boards had to be replaced, and there are a few areas where someone cut a square in the floor - luckily in areas that the floors will likely be covered by furniture. This seems to be common all over the house - I don't know what someone (step-grandpa?) was thinking. More attention will have to be paid to the areas that used to be covered by charming bookshelves dividing the living and dining rooms. The floors there are covered in plaster, and I won't lie, I almost hope those areas don't come out too well and need to be covered so we can rebuild the shelves. I love the idea!

The cat knows something is up (hmm...all the living/dining room furniture being stashed in the various bedrooms around the house is her first, best clue) and is going to be sooooo irritated when she realizes in a few hours that I'm locking her in the kitchen for at least a week. Luckily, she can get to the basement from there and cat around in the spooky, cobwebby grossness down there - she likes that; what cat wouldn't?

Here's the "before" photo - hopefully I'll have a lovely "after" photo to share soon! Oh, but we also have to buy, cut and stain baseboards, because apparently my grandparents thought that replacing baseboards wasn't really necessary, so instead they threw them out. Sigh.



Here's the thing - I already love my house in all it's ghetto/needs so so so much work glory, but once it starts to really look nice, I'm going to have that much harder of a time leaving...

Photographers, Musicians, Officiants, Oh my!!

Well, it seems like a whirlwind, but I found a photographer I love for almost half the price of all the others that I love. (I apparently have expensive taste when it comes to photos!) We haven't met with her yet, so it's not confirmed, but I'm certain I'll talk her up here soon enough. We're also in the middle of putting in a bid for an incredible band - one that we shouldn't even be able to afford, but the lead singer is a good friend and she's ahmahzing. (However, they are a big-time vegas band, so I'm not sure if I can make this happen...fingers crossed!) This is really going to be a wonderful day (and a fabulous party!) if I can pull all this good stuff together. But I have to say that with 355 days left until the wedding, I think we're pretty on the ball thus far. This is because of Chris - he's a "get it done" kinda guy. This may irritate me on Saturday mornings around 7:30 am, but it's really working well for the wedding planning. Now we just need to discuss ideas for an officiant and we'll have all the "big" things worked out! It's all very exciting! More to come, I'm sure.

And, on a random note: I decided last week that the blog I should be writing is one where I post the crazy stupid things that parties, and especially their lawyers, write or say on public record. Oh. My. God. It's entertaining, funny, sometimes tragic, but always true. I'm just worried that mocking the profession may look, um, unprofessional at best, and perhaps violate the rules of professional conduct at worst. (Yes, believe it or not, folks, there are rules of professional conduct that lawyers are obligated to follow. I know, that in and of itself seems blog post-worthy.)

366 Days (But Who's Counting!?)

Oooh Oooh I am! We officially signed our venue contract and put down the deposit yesterday. Yay! Chris wasn't even concerned when I texted him telling him that we had signed our lives away. I'm taking that as a good sign. I now have one year to accomplish the ridiculous number of crafting projects that I love and want to include at my wedding. But, I do have a good start on them. I have about 85 dupioni silk yo-yos (photos to come), and six silky flowers, thanks to an impromptu pie eating/wine drinking craft night at Chelan's last night. Here they are:



Love.

Also, last week I made this vegan cake and sold it to a friend. I really wish I had tried it! Vegan coconut cake with lime cream (soy) filling and lime buttercream frosting with toasted coconut on top. Mmmm...



I also feel the need to start the hunt for a great inexpensive wedding photographer. I'm afraid that such a thing doesn't exist. I understand that photographers put a great deal of time into editing photos, and sooo much money into their equipment, but it seems that all the photographers I like charge a minimum of $3,000 (without any prints), and that is a LOT of moolah to pay. Ah, another challenge. I'm optimistic that we'll work it out - everything else has gone well thus far!