don't worry.

tyler and i got some good work done on the pathway yesterday. and he feels better about it because brodie and brady thought it looked cool (that was a big 'told you so' moment for me, haha). he was too stuck in the mindset of what he was SUPPOSED to do with the bricks. oh well. i think it is looking really good. plus him and my mom took a chisel and broke one kind of slabs that we weren't going to use, and made hearts! its pretty cool. they look really nice in the pathway. a nice little surprise when you look down i guess. i think we might actually make it the whole way to the porch... and cover the big bald spot where no grass will EVER grow.

brodie mowed the lawn yesterday. its amazing how much of a difference that makes. it looks a hundred times better. it actually looks like a decent lawn. we just need a weed wacker to get around the edges of the flower beds and make it look really polished and lovely.

of all the lilies and irises that i planted last year... very few of them are actually going to bloom. it has been a big disappointment for me. the greenery looks nice... but i wanted COLOUR! we have had to buy big expensive developed plants to actually have any blooms. but i think we will have a few nice flowers for the actual wedding (please don't bloom too soon or too late!). its such a hit or miss thing with planning an outdoor wedding. you just can't rely on the weather. it has been so cold this spring that the lilacs are in bloom right now... usually they have already come and gone by now.

so... i guess the only update is that the yard is looking so good. i will take some photos when we are there today. i am hoping we can get another substantial chunk of the pathway done today. i want to get it done through the week and be finished with it. then the only building we have left is the shed... which i don't think is actually going to happen. i also have some bad news... the cake lady bailed. she gave me the name of someone else i could contact... but... i don't think i am going to. i might be able to get a good deal from a woman in kelowna that the station there deals with for promos and stuff. i am waiting to hear back on that... but if that doesn't work out, i have decided not to stress about it and just not have a cake. i talked to my friend natalie who is going to be making us the desserts for the dessert buffet, and if it comes down to it... she will make us a chiffon cake and decorate it pretty, and we will put our cake topper on that... but... it won't be the whole traditional cake deal. just a regular sized cake and a dessert buffet (which is going to be delicious, by the way).

i'm not stuck on all the things you're "supposed" to do for weddings. sometimes i forget that we don't have to do all those things. so... if it doesn't work out, thats okay. and i doubt anyone will miss it. wedding cakes are usually sub par anyway.

rolling in the deep.

so work on the yard and everything else is still in high gear. many many many flowers have been planted over the last week. and work on the pathway to the porch has started... i don't know if we have enough brick to make it the whole way... but... we'll go as far as we can. so far so good. i had to start it WITH tyler so he knew what i meant. he was stuck in the brick laying mindset that austin got him stuck in. that is not what we wanted in the first place. oh well. the big part looks great... and the pathway will be like a mosaic leading up to it. so far i think it looks great. i think i got about 2 feet of it done. haha. tyler is supposed to continue working on that today.

he thought my idea of how to do it was going to look awful... and then he filled in all the cracks of our first little bit with sand and even he had to admit it looked pretty cool. i am excited for it to be done.

my mom and i have been spending small fortunes on flowers lately. but we have several hanging baskets filled with lovely purples and pinks and whites. and i filled the 4 big flower pots that were painted last week. they look awesome.

the dresses have been less of a success. my mom helped me come to the conclusion that they can't be finished till the last minute. the patterns SUCK and i need them here so i can make the dresses fit. so... i am going to get them all started, and pieced together to the point where i can alter them and do the final assembly of the dresses when the girls are finally here. in the meantime, i can do rhiannon and megan's dresses. i am HOPING that dessy will help with my sewing endeaver. i feel pretty confident that she will.

also... my house has FILLED up. haha. the week before the wedding there will be 4 or 5 people staying with tyler and i. for those of you who haven't seen our place (well... probably everyone reading this minus my mother) it is SMALL. well laid out (aside from the much too small kitchen) and it has two levels, which i really enjoy... but it is small nonetheless. we will have dessy in the spare room with the sewing stuff. and then the living room will be 2 people sleeping on the couch, and two people on an air mattress... it will be one giant slumber party. tyler and 6 girls. HAHA.

i made a pretty delicious quinoa salad. really easy too. i cooked red quinoa, let it cool completely, cut up some cucumber and red pepper and avocado, and mixed it all in with some little creek dressing. SO GOOD. it would be just a little bit better if i could have found some fresh basil to cut up and add. but... i couldn't. and it was a last minute shopping thing when i got the veggies. i am trying to really watch what i eat for the next couple of weeks and snack on good things. basically i am going to eat soooo much quinoa. haha. but its cool because you can eat it with so many things, and its so good for you. there are endless delicious quinoa options. have i mentioned i love quinoa?

i went back to bootcamp this week on wednesday and friday. it was really hard. after being sick all the week before... my body just hasn't fully recovered. i am SO sore. and everything was so hard. i am hoping that this week will be easier... and i maybe i can even make enough time to throw a couple of runs in this week too. that would be AWESOME. i am finding that all my yardwork has contributed to sore body too though... brick lifting, and weed pulling.

bike to work week this week! i'm excited! if only it was a possibility to bike to work in kelowna... haha... but that would take me like all day... and i would NEVER want to bike home.

something to talk about.

look at me and 3 days in a row! haha. thanks to work... i have time to sit and write for a moment.

so... flower pots still aren't totally finished, but i am going to plant them tonight anyway. jordi said she would still come and work on them once they were planted if need be. i took mine home last night because jordi and ben were falling asleep on the couch while i was still painting (oops). i stayed up till about 1:30 watching friends and painting. i love friends. i just started season 6 last night. tyler and i decided that if we had to say we were most like a character on friends, i would be monica and he would be chandler. megan would be phoebe. tyler's friend kevin would be joey. other tyler would be ross. and i don't think we have a rachel... maybe erin. actually, i think erin is a good fit for rachel.

anyway... the flower pot i have been painting doesn't look that bad, i think. bethany, i think you might even give me a pat on the back for it. i am pretty proud of it, if you must know. although... it looks much more 60's/70's psychedelic than 50's vintage. but oh well. the colours are right, and i think the set of 4 of them look pretty cool. jordi started painting this really really cool looking peacock on one of them last night. i am really excited to see what it looks like when she is finished. it blows my mind how good she is... every time. i should just stop being surprised and expect it from her. she's so talented.

we met the cake lady yesterday! it went great. the price she gave us is under what i was thinking would be a decent price... so... that's awesome! and talking to her about what i wanted... we were on the same page. she brought me and tyler some goodies, and they were delish. suzanne was there too to help with some suggestions and whatever (and she had a really good one). we were talking buttercream icing, fresh strawberries, pureed strawberries to make a strawberry cake layer... and all kinds of delicious things. i am really really glad that is all out of the way. she is going to make us some samples this week, and then i just have to put a deposit down. woo!

tonight is a bbq at my mom's. i don't know for sure, but i think it is kind of a birthday bbq for layne. should be fun. brady and suzanne are going to come too (because tyler and i had plans with them before we found out about the bbq... and brady and suzanne are great) and andrew's girlfriend chelle is there too apparently. i don't really know her.

this week will consist of lots and lots of sewing, and maybe a few breaks from that to weed flower beds. haha. the yard is actually looking really nice. tyler is having a hard time feeling motivated to finish up the patio (and it's so close!) because there are gaps, and he feels like it doesn't look very good. but really... it looks awesome and he shouldn't feel bummed out about it. he has worked really really hard on it.

things to acquire over the next 2 weeks are white tarps, draping fabric, white twinkle lights... and i think that is enough. i'll probably add more things to that list. oooh... i need to make the hair bands for the flower girls and find better netting for my birdcage veil and make that. jordi and i tried with what i have... and it didn't work very well. so i am going to use that for making a skirt for one of the girls in my dance class instead. i think it will work better for that.

anyway... i should get back to, you know, working... seeing as i am being paid to do that and all.

don't let the sun go down on me.

so last night wasn't quite as productive as i hoped it would be... well... it was productive... it just took a hell of a lot longer than i thought it would.

jordi got a background painted on one flower pot... although i don't know that anything else will actually be painted over it. it looks pretty good as it is. she painted this light greeny browny flowery pattern all over it... and when i saw what she was doing i was like "i can do that..." and so i started painting one with light purple. it didn't look THAT bad. everyone told me it looked good... although i don't totally buy it. but it didn't look awful. it was abstract... so was jordi's... and sometimes i can do abstract. but i got like... a quarter of my flower pot done. ben did a metallic green triangle pattern on another one. and tyler insisted he was the entertainment and didn't paint a pot. haha. he wasn't all that entertaining either though - unless you think listening to harry potter dubstep remix on his phone is entertaining?

so today the cake lady is coming over after i'm done work. i am nervous and excited. haha. bummed that she isn't bringing samples for us to try today. haha. i am nervous that it is going to be way more than we can afford... if that happens... i think i will say screw it and not have a traditional-like fancy cake and just get someone to make a whole lot of regular cake that tastes delicious and call it wedding cake... whatever. it doesn't REALLY matter that much to me. i think i threw tradition out the window a long long time ago.

no sewing happened last night, because flower pots took us till about 11:30 and then i had to go to bed - because i arrived at work this morning at 5:30 as per usual. tyler and i did manage to flash clean our house because originally we thought jordi and ben would be coming over to our place (and 1 year old ollie too...) but then it was ollie's bed time by the time we started and so we went over to their place instead. but... i got a big load of dishes done (it was once again, ridiculous) and tyler vacuumed the house and put things away from the living room... it lookes a hundred times better than it did before. and now the cake lady is coming over today, and i don't need to freak out about a messy house when i get home from work. that's nice.

... of course there is always the laundry... agh.

born this way.

i'm at work... and while i really DON'T enjoy lady gaga... this song is the first pop song in a long time to have such a positive message. and i can get behind that.

this week has been a write off for me and getting anything done. i got really sick on tuesday and after that i mostly just hung around the house and felt awful. first it was a sore throat and achey feeling... followed by some serious congestion. and i was so careful to avoid ALL DAIRY as soon as i felt like i was getting sick. i hate being congested to the point where you can't hear things people are saying to you. its sooo annoying.

but today i am feeling a lot better... good thing i am stuck at work all day, right? haha. next week is the last week of dance classes - luckily i managed to finish the choreography with both of my classes this week so next week will just be practice practice practice. and then the following week we will have a dress rehearsal and performance! woo! and then... NO MORE DANCE CLASSES UNTIL THE FALL!.. what a relief. don't get me wrong, i have enjoyed doing them very much (both my classes are awesome girls), but it will just be one less thing on my plate and that is always good.

so i have set tentative dates for our honeymoon. sept 5 to oct 10. just over a month. i don't know WHY i picked those dates... they just sounded like good ones. haha.

tonight's goal is getting the flower pots that i bought painted so i can fill them with flowers. my neighbour jordi was supposed to help me... but i don't know if she will be able to. i might just have to paint them myself... i am SO not artistically talented... so... they might just be plain white or something boring like that. oh well. it will look better than the colour they are now. and they will match the house and stuff if they are white... so... no big.

i'll probably work on rhiannon's dress after that. maybe i can get it finished minus hem and zipper (which i don't actually have yet...). i was debating between a zipper and buttons... but... i made the bodice up (i tried the pattern and it looked AWFUL), and i can't quite wrap my head around an easy way to do a bracket and buttons and all that jazz because it has to overlap... plus, as my mom pointed out, there is less of a chance of a zipper coming undone at an inopportune moment - we don't need any wardrobe malfunctions at the wedding.

tomorrow is work all morning, and then meeting with the cake lady in the afternoon. i hope she isn't going to charge a small fortune for a cake... i realize they are expensive... but... it IS just a cake.

someone gave me a tip (slightly too late...) for making a dress for someone and having it fit (or i suppose even for myself...). duct tape dress form. GENIUS! i can't believe i have never heard of this before. basically you wrap yourself with a couple rolls of duct tape, and it can go from your shoulders and collar bone all the way down over your butt and your thighs. and you just cut it off up the back (probably smart to put a layer of paper under the tape so it doesn't actually stick to you) and then you stick it back together, and stuff it with news paper. take measurements and measure the dressform to make sure it stayed the right dimensions... and VOILA.... let me tell you... a couple of rolls of duct tape and some news paper are MUCH cheaper than a dress form.

i should have done that. kinda late now... but that would have made me much less nervous about not having them here to make alterations and make sure the dresses fit. agh.

anyway... i should actually do some work. that's where the progress is at...

i follow rivers.

okay sooooo... life has become one very busy blur. and also incredibly expensive with things we HAVE to pay for.

i met a woman at the farmer's market who is a german pastry chef... i am in the process of getting in touch with her for our cake and hopefully some tastings. i am sort of anti fondant icing, but it looks so nice and clean and all that... but... it just doesn't taste all that great. in fact, the fondant icing i have had has tasted AWFUL. but the farmer's market woman said that i have probably only had fondant icing from a bucket... and she makes it from scratch and it tastes good. so i am willing to give it another shot and see how it goes.

i have one month left, as of today. tyler and i are meeting after he is done work to go and pick up our marriage license. we have to get white tarps and a kind of fabric to drape inside the tarps to make it look fancy for the back yard. our rental stuff is all set up. tyler and i both have shoes. the rings are paid for. i have a hair style picked, and someone to do it. dessy's plane ticket has been purchased. annnddd... time off has been booked.

there are so many things that need to be arranged and organized and sorted out. i don't even know what they are. or how to organize them. or arrange them. or sort them. i THINK we almost have the dinner stuff organized. we are going to talk about the mc stuff next week with the one mc that lives in vernon. i am soooo glad i don't actually have to worry about the food. i DO need to get some stuff for gabriel (he is our ring bearer) and i need to figure out what is going on with the flowers... we haven't heard back from tyler's grandma... and so we might be doing them ourselves. but... i don't think it would be that hard to go to the farmer's market and just get a bunch of flowers in the colours i want and just put them together for the bouquets.

annnnyway... that's about all that is going on in my brain. and right now i should be SEWING... so... i am going to go do that.