I'm a Homebody

It's true. I'm a homebody. More specifically I'm not just a homebody, I've never left the Mother Country, and by Mother Country, I mean the United States. The Man is also a homebody, as he has never left the U.S. either.

I have always wanted to explore the world, but financially was not able to. So when it came time to pick our honeymoon spot, leaving the country and exploring some place new was not only something I wanted to do, but something I needed to do.

I have learned that more often than not, you can't predict the future. Life throws you curve balls and sometimes, even with the best intentions of accomplishing something, you don't always get the chance or opportunity to. I wanted to make sure I got to leave the country and go to another one at least once in my lifetime.

Several posts ago, I posted that we booked our Honeymoon destination- Jamaica. I can't even put into words how excited I am to go there. However, there is a little somethin' somethin' on my mind.....

I don't have one. The man doesn't have one. We are getting closer and closer to August.

We took so long deciding where to go and I wasn't quite sure if we'd be needing these babies, so we haven't applied for them yet. With 4 months left, I am a little worried about getting it in time. I am pretty sure that the wait time is a lot quicker than it used to be, but I'm not really sure what I'll do if it takes longer than 4 months to get!

The Man had gone to see a Travel Agent when we first started looking at places and the Agent told him about something new that New York State was offering called the Enhanced Driver License.

The travel agent told the Man the requirements of getting an enhanced license and told him that it was good for travel between the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Carribean. The Man was all about getting these instead of passports because they are quicker to get, and also cheaper than a passport. The applications have been sitting here for about a month and a half. I hadn't really done anything with it, mostly because I hadn't had time to go to the DMV.

Secondly, I was a little ify about getting one of these for travel out of the country. I have a fear of being trapped and not allowed back into the U.S. if I used this for travel.

Because of my gut instinct telling me I need a passport to travel, I did a little more research on the enhanced Liscence and here is the deal: It is good for travel by LAND or SEA between the U.S, Canada, Mexico and the Carribean. There is nothing saying that it is good for AIR travel to or from the Carribean. Therefore, it looks like we will be in need of passports afterall. I'm glad I realized this now so that hopefully we'll have enough time to get our passports!

Has anyone gotten and used the Enhanced License for travel? How did it go?

Thanks, for Nothing.

This past weekend I had my meeting with my make-up artist. If you remember several posts ago, I was quite undecided if I should spend money getting a make-up artist or if I was going to do my own make-up day of.I found an add on Craigslist and promptly replied to it. The stylist sounded like everything I was looking for, and she traveled to your hotel room so you did not have to go anywhere. Plus, she did hair and was willing to do updo's for all the girls. She actually sounded like a dream.

We spent several weeks e-mailing and setting up our meeting date. She was going to do my make-up trial and I was quite excited about it. I had never had my make up done by anyone before. I spent some time collecting pictures of make-up looks I wanted to go for and I sent them to the Stylist.

Friday I hadn't heard from her to confirm, so I took the initiative and contacted her to make sure we were still on for our appointment as I had made it several months ago. She seemed excited and said we were on and she was actually going to contact me to confirm later that evening. She also told me I would need 50% of the total for services we'd be requiring for a deposit. I had taken a poll of my girls and the deposit would have been at least $200, which I was fine putting up, but I hadn't asked the Stylist about one thing.... a contract.

After thinking about how I'd be putting so much money down to hold the date, I asked her if there was a contract, because I wouldn't feel right putting down that much money without one. She said she didn't have one. I promptly voiced my concerns about putting so much money down (virtually to someone I didn't know) and not having any kind of proof of services to be provided or proof of payment. She told me she'd invoice me and it would serve as our contract and proof of payment. I was still a little leary, but figured I was a pretty good judge of characture so I'd be able to tell when I met her if she was legit or not.

Saturday morning came and I got up early and got ready, sans make-up. I saw the Man off as he was going home for the weekend and I waited for the Stylist to arrive.

I waited, and waited and waited.

She never showed up. At first I thought she must be running late and our road is easy to miss. I had given her my phone number and told her to bring it with her in case she couldn't find me. She never called.

After an hour, I knew she wasn't coming and I got pissed off.

After another hour, I knew she wasn't comming and felt relief.

Relief for what could have been a bad mistake. Relief that I didn't put down that much money just to have her not show up on the day of my wedding. Relief that my girls wouldn't be sitting around on the day of the wedding waiting for her to come and make them pretty and have her not show up.

I also felt annoyed. Annoyed that I had spoken to her the night before and she said she would be there in the morning. Annoyed that she couldn't even call and tell me she wasn't comming. Annoyed that I sat around waiting for her all morning on such a georgeous day. I also had a slight thought of perhaps something bad happened. I called her home(the number she gave me) and was going to leave a message to make sure she was okay, but someone answered. They were not very nice and informed me that if there was an emergency, they would have been called and would know.

So there you have it. My make-up trial that didn't happen.

I look at it as a blessing in disguise.

Rest & Relaxation- Part II

Since the Man and I decided on the Carribean, but didn't have a set destination, I decided to start doing some of my own research.

The first Island I liked was called Dominica. However, it's not your typical Honeymoon Island.

It is more of an "Adventure Island," with lots to do including: hiking, snorkeling, canyoning, scuba diving. I thought it would be the perfect spot for the man. Plus it was oozing with waterfalls, lush green rainforests and one of the only boiling lakes in the world(you hike up a mountain to see this). It sounded like it would be a lot of fun and I could see it being romantic as well. I saw great reviews on the beauty and friendliness of the Island. The only downfall was that it is a little underdeveloped in terms of what you'd expect for a hotel or nightlife. You aren't going to find a pampering 5 star luxury hotel here. It also didn't have a lot of beaches, but I was okay with that.

The Man vetoed Dominica once he saw that it didn't have a lot of beaches and told me the complete opposite of what he told me before, he wanted beaches. He also thought they might not have a very active nightlife, which is something we wanted as an option. So Dominica is out for our honeymoon, although I wouldn't mind going there someday. After all the positive reviews I read, it is supposed to be the "undiscovered beauty of the carribean," and I would like to check it out someday.

Next stop, Aruba. Aruba has some beautiful beaches and some amazing sunsets. Aruba has scuba diving, snorkeling, boating, historic caves, casinos, looked like it had a great nightlife, and it is not in the hurricaine belt(which is super important during hurricane season).

But, the Man found some reason to hate on Aruba too.

We were seriously considering Antigua for quite awhile. BUT, the Man decided the water wasn't "blue" enough for him and I found a horrible article on a couple that was killed while honeymooning there. I'm not gonna lie, that article killed antigua for me.

The we saw beautiful Punta Canna in the Dominican Republic.

And they had everything we were looking for in a place, but the Man, once again, found something to not like.

Are you getting tired of our indecisiveness yet? At this point, I was really getting annoyed. I wanted to find a place that we both would be happy going to, and it seemed as if the Man had become the most pickiest man alive. I would have been happy going anywhere in the Carribean with the Man, and I told him that. I left it up to him to find a spot since he was so unhappy with the choices we were making. He did a lot of research, and after finding spots and looking up reviews and prices, we finally found the "One."

We are going to Sandals Negril, located on the island of Jamaica. Yes, I know, it's in the hurricane belt during hurricane season (what are we thinking?). Don't worry, we got Travel Insurance through the resort and if anything should happen we will get a refund or get the chance to rebook our honeymoon at a later time. Secretly, I think the Man has high hopes of ridding out a hurricane together-- he's just crazy like that.

Photos of Negril-

Look at this sunset!

We chose Sandals because it is all inclusive and couples only. I'm so happy we finally settled on a place!

We tried to book through Orbitz (they have the cheapest package), but encountered a problem. We ended up calling Sandals and they matched the price that Orbitz had on thier website.

Oh August, you can't come fast enough.

Rest & Relaxation: Part I

The man and I had a seriously HARD time choosing a honeymoon location. We both wanted different things. Very, very different things.

While the man was daydreaming of Alaska, cruises, deep sea fishing, and bear hunting,

I was thinking something more like Hawaii, the tropics, romantic sunsets, beaches,and snorkeling.

Usually we agree on things, but Alaska was not the spot I wanted to go to after the long, COLD, snowy, hard winter we just had here in upstate NY. Not only that, but I didn't want to go on a cruise for our honeymoon. We have a boat that we go out on often in the summertime, and I sometimes feel trapped on it and I didn't want to have that trapped feeling out in the middle of the ocean. And while I think Alaska would be a beautiful spot to visit, I wasn't willing to go on our honeymoon. I do hope to go to Alaska someday and take in it's stunning beauty, just not this August.

The Man told me he didn't want to sit around on a beach all day, which I understand and had no intention of doing. I wanted to go somewhere different to explore it, not to park my butt on the beach the whole time we are there. Don't get me wrong, there will be some sort of relaxation on the beach, just not every second of every day. Once I told the Man I wasn't going to lob on the beach all day, he was totally down for a warmer vaca. Hawaii is somewhere I have ALWAYS wanted to go. Unfortunatly, since we are paying for our own wedding, Hawaii was slightly out of our budget -so it was out too. So there you have it, our top 2 choices, gone.

I made some other suggestions of different places but the Man didn't want to fly over the whole ocean to get to Italy, Greece, Ireland, or Australia(he has a fear of flying over the ocean and crashing). There are wars going on in Mexico which makes it uber unsafe for tourists right now.... so we were left with the dilema of where to go for rest and the ultimate relaxation.

We FINALLY narrowed it down to the Carribean, and in case you can't tell... that wasn't really "narrowing" since there are so many islands to choose from.

How easy was it for you to choose your honeymoon spot? Was your number one choice the same as your Significant Other's?

I like the Sparkle

I have always been attracted to things that have a little sparkle to them. I've never been a big pearl person. I like them, but I like sparkle/bling better. So when it came time to pick the jewlery for my wedding day, naturally I was drawn to the bling and this came as no surprise to those who know me.

Bridesmaid Hot Mama knew exactly what jewlery set I wanted and from where and surprised me with it as a Christmas gift. It is actually a lot more sparkly and beautiful in person than it is in this picture. This picture does not do it justice!

Because I was impressed with the quality, sparkle, and customer service Hot Mama said she received, I decided to order my tiara from the same place. After debating over a few different tiara's I settled on this one. It's cute, it's blingy and it would look good in either an updo or a half-up/half-down look. I wasn't dissapointed when it arrived in the mail. The man snuck a peek at it and liked it too.

I got both of these sparkly beauties at USA Bride and I wasn't dissapointed. In fact, I highly recomend this sight if you're still looking for that special sparkly necklace, tiara, or hair pin. They have a lot of other items too.

AND because I love you guys I'll share my cuopon for Free Shipping & 10% off Your Accessory Order (I think you need to spend a minimum of $100)
Enter Code: SAVE10

Expires: April 30, 2009

Happy Shopping.

We Rock!

I had BIG plans to finish a project I've been working on this weekend. I wanted to share with everyone, but alas, we had company on Saturday and then Sunday something else happened.

Sunday, after our company left, The man and I decided to go into town and take a stroll through Bed, Bath and Beyond (where I was hoping we'd register finally). We got there and began strolling around and I could tell the Man was just not in the mood to register. In fact, I truely believe him when he says he "just doesn't care" about kitchen stuff. He isn't the one cooking on a normal basis, so why would he like kitchen things? He told me he really isn't into registering and I honestly believed him when I saw how A.D.D. he got in the store.

We quickly exited the store without registering for anything, and went nextdoor to Best Buy. This is where we should register! The Man was in his glory here and we ended up leaving with a purchase.... we have joined the ranks of

Guitar Hero. We were going to get RockBand, but they were all sold out of the Rockband for the wii, but they had plenty of Guitar Hero's in store.

And as soon as we got home, we busted it out, and began the madness. I was one with the drums and singing and The Man was one with the guitar. All. Day. Long. we played.

We accomplished nothing except spending some quality time perfecting our band!

I woke up this morning without having finished my craft projects, with a soar throat (from belting out tunes for hours), and with a sore toe (felt like a "stiff toe" which may or may not be from the foot pedal on the drum set).

Have you found a creative way to spend quality time with your man?

Save our Date!

I've seen some amazing Gocco'ed invites, save the dates, cards, ect. from some very crafty people. Although I don't hate the way my Save the dates turned out, I wasn't totally in love with them either. I know I could have done better if I had spent more time on them. It was a decision that was made and after talking to all the hotels in the area, they needed to go out as quickly as possible.

I busted out my Gocco and got ready to start being creative. At this point we didn't have a theme or anything really picked out besides the colors.

The first step in Gocco mass production is burning the screen.

You simply line up your printed out/copied image on the grey sticky pad. The top of the gocco is made of a see through plastic. You can see what the actual image will look like and if it's lined up correctly or not. Move your image around as much as you want, until you get it where you want it and it looks perfect.




Once you have your image lined up, you open the top of the Gocco (it flips up) and insert the blue filter and then the screen on top of the filter.



place 2 bulbs in the housing(the yellow thingy), line up the arrows on the housing with the arrows on the Gocco (orange part) or your housing will get stuck--don't ask how I know this.

Close your eyes, turn your head and push down. The gocco will flash and your image will be burned onto the screen. If you have done it properly, the paper with your printed image will be stuck to the back of the screen. Don't remove this just yet.


Next,pull the top layer up, bust out your ink block (the squishy silver stuff) and block your image off. This helps the ink stay in the area you need it to stay in and the image stamps clearer when you use it.



ink up
peel off the paper, put the screen back into the gocco, place your blank cardstock down and stamp you little heart out.

Sounds a lot more complicated than it is.

I burned two screens to make our save the dates (well, three really, but my image moved and was crooked so it was a wasted screen).

This is the first pass I made for our save the dates


I used a clear embossing powder which I sprinkled on, and the tipped the card to get off the excess, then I used my embossing gun that I bought at AC Moore with a 1/2 off cupon to heat it up. Easy, but time consuming. It raised my image and made it look more professional. I highly recomend embossing if you want a little texture.


My second pass is what I wish I had spent more time on. The words should have been larger, and I wish I had used a cooler font. I was limited at the time with the font thing because we didn't have a working printer, so I printed it off at work, and I didn't want to download a font on my work computer, so I was chained to the ones that came in word 2003.


in retrospect I wish I had done the writing on the bottom in black so it showed up better. I am a little disapointed with my results, but felt like I was on such a time contraint that I really didn't care at that point. I made these before I really realized the potential of what they could have been, but in reality not tooooooo shabby for my first mass production.

The next project will be better, I swear.
I have big plans for the invites.

Did you send out Save the dates? How creative did you get?