Just Dance . . . ?

Despite the fact that I've actually never once felt like P. Diddy when I've just woken up in the morning, I haven't discovered yet if I'm flossy or not, and, to this day, I cannot tell you what a Hollaback Girl is, I'd like to think I'm pretty up to date with the music scene these days. I used to be an indie music girl, but the hour car ride two and from work for the last 6 months has had me listening to the radio and keeping up with the music that's popular now.

And truthfully? Sure, I love indie and folk music with all my heart, but I'm a closet Lady Gaga addict. It's true, I love her in all her Kermit the Frog wearing, meat suit goodness.
On the upside, most people know pop music because I assume most people, like me, hear it on the radio. We all know those songs you hear and you can't help but bob your head to them (re: Lady Gaga). This sounds like good news for this reception/party/awesome explosion we're holding 8 months minus one day from now.

The downside? Well, Mister Giraffe, being a classically trained musician and all, doesn't have the same affinity for current/pop music as I do. He doesn't quite feel the same way about Ms. Gaga as I do, and its been hard to agree on the type of music to play at said reception.

After a while, though, we did realize tat what we want is a big party, and there's a chance that guests won't feel like rocking out as much if they don't recognize the music. (And, chances are, if TB and I stuck to our normal indie/folk selection, people wouldn't recognize it).

So the plan? Well, how nice of you to ask, we're going to make sure to put our favorite songs on our "Do Play" list and then let the DJ take control and play whatever gets the people partying. This way, the songs that are important to us, and that we love, will be around for everyone to enjoy in between maybe a little Gaga, Ke$ha, or anyone else out right now. (Oh, and we also have plans for our "Don't Play" list also. . . take that Chicken Dance!)

The best thing about the plan? How eaaaassssssy it is to execute. Naturally, being the crazy planner I am, I had started to make our playlists like a year out, but that was all before we booked our DJ.

We're going with Spinnin' Discs (logo taken from their website) who were totally cool about meeting them, and who totally swayed me with their online planning tools. All we do is search through a database of a bajillion (approximately) songs, and with one click we can add them to the "do play", "do not play", or "suggested play".
See? Look at the screen shot of awesomeness! It's the most convenient thing in the world. Even being a couple that doesn't live together, and don't see each other every day, we can do this together by logging on the website. I can't get over how easy it is to do, and how nicely it works for us.

We didn't meet with our DJ specifically, but we met with Laura, the owner who was super helpful and sweet. I am completely confident Spinnin' Discs will do an amazing job, and no doubt that confidence comes from knowing any song change I make at any time, goes right to the source. No worries update updating and resending play lists (re: being annoying) to our vendor! Whoo hoo!

Going into the meeting, we weren't planning on hiring them just because they were $300 more than the other DJ we met with, but turns out they we're offering $200 off which put them right into our budget! That was a nice surprising seeing as I was all ready getting mighty tempted at the idea of online planning tools.

Oh man, I cannot wait to dance!

Okay... not that kind of dancing ;-) (from ign.com)

Anyone else planning online? Which vendors are you doing it for?

Our Money?

I didn't blog much last week, but that was because I had jury duty, which is another story in and of itself, but more importantly . . .

Guess why I was too busy to blog this weekend? I'll give you a clue, it looks something like this:

Yup, Mr. G and I set out on our very first camping adventure. Mr. G loves to camp and rock climb and does it with his friends all the time. Earlier this summer they drove 17 hours out to Colorado to camp and climb for a week. I had to work so I couldn't go on that trip, and I've never camped with him before so I was excited to have this little weekend away with him.

Here was the adventurous part: having to stop our car because of possums running into the road, but I'll get to that in a minute.

He met me at my parent's house (where I live) after work on Friday. Rush hour traffic was exceptionally bad on Friday so I didn't get home until like 6:45, making us get on the road at like 7:30. We then had a loooong drive to Southern Illinois.

(Towards the middle of the drive was where Mr. G was tired and I was all "don't worry, I'll keep you company!" and I fell asleep for an hour and a half. Yeaah, some travel companion I am!)

We got off the express way around 12:00 am, but it took us until 1 am to find the camp site. It was so foggy, we could barley see anything in front of TB's car, and there were no street lights, so it was totally creepy. We also had a deer run out in front of the car, and two different possums . . . which by the way, aren't as cute as I thought they would be. They're mean looking things!

Anyway, long story short: 5 hour drive, can't find anyone we're supposed to meet to camp with, no cell reception, pitch tent at 1am, decided said friends did not make trip because of rain, sleep in tent, not so comfortable, light rain, wake up, light rain makes rock too wet to climb, hike, pack up tent, drive to grandpa's house about 45 minuets away as to avoid sleeping in the tent the next night.

Hope you enjoyed the abridged version. None of this was all really important, I just wanted to mention the possums.

The whole point of this was we ended up at my grandpa's (my pawpaw) house. Mr. G and I planned to meet Pawpaw on Sunday to take him out for lunch on the way back up to Chicago, but we surprised him at home on Saturday instead.

I promised to pay for lunch (which hasn't happened before because I've never had a full time job when visiting), which Pawpaw tried to fight but I did it anyway. After lunch, in the car, my pawpaw then thanks Mr. G for lunch.

Wait! . . . what?

I'm pretty sure I was the one whose debit card payed for our pulled pork. I pointed as much out to Pawpaw and he said:

"Well, yeah, but it's not just your money anymore. It's both of yours money."

. . .
. . .
(That was me being speechless).

Mr. G and I had a good laugh about it later, and we know that 8 months (plus one day) from now, it will become our money, but I didn't know other people were thinking the same thing!

Anybody else have funny grandpa moments?

The Big 2-4!

So what did this weekend entail? I'll give you a clue: a new place, a full storage unit, my pick up truck, and TB's mom's van. Yup, TB and I worked all weekend to move him into his new place. It wasn't just work though, due to Labor Day, we were able to celebrate TB's birthday yesterday. The big day is actually today which double exciting, especially because now he's the age he'll be when we get married which seems totally unbelievable.

So, in honor of my main squeeze, my other half, my lovey, my bear, here are 24 things I love about my 24 year old guy.

To Mr. TB:
1) I love how silly you can be with me. I know you try to hide it when everyone else if around, but the fact that you make goofy faces at me secretly makes me smile.

silly kids here, circa 2006

2) I love you sense of humor. To this day, TB, I swear you are the funniest person I have ever met. No one can keep me laughing like you do.

3) I love that you always seem to be strong, especially when I am not.

4) I love that I can argue about comic books with you. I may not feel that Batman is as hardcore as you think he is, but at least we agree on Wolverine.

5) I love that you're so supportive, even when I don't ask for support. You're always there for me.

6) Even though I tell you I hate it, I love when you pretend to be me in conversations. I think its hilarious when you imitate my voice in that funny way.

7) I love that you know I'm secretly a crazy person, but you just humor me when I do crazy things anyway.

8) I love that we always get ice cream, even in the winter. And I love that you always know what I'm going to order.

9) I love that you buy me Uglydolls for every holiday... because you know how much I love Uglydolls ;).

10) I love that you're so smart. I'm going to be honest, when I asked you over the weekend about how planes worked and you told me and I said I didn't believe you? Yeahhh, I lied. I'm pretty sure you were right.

11) I love how talented you are. You are truly amazing, and it warms my heart to see you so happy with you're guitar.

12) I love that you always point out Helvetica to make me happy. . . even if it isn't always Helvetica.

13) I love how when I tell you things, in all seriousness, you still know the times that I'm not serious.

14) I love that I've told you things I've never told anyone else.

15) I love that you put up with all the crazy requests I make, even if they are seriously ridiculous sometimes.

16) I'll admit it, I love that you watch Say Yes to the Dress with me. No really, I love it.

17) I love that you love my family, especially because they're so important to me.

18) I love that we snuggle.

19) I love that we're going to get to spend the rest of our lives together. I can't wait.

20) I love that you were willing to wait because I wished to wait; not just anybody would do that and it makes you extra special.

21) I love that, despite the fact you weren't around for 18 years of my life, I cannot picture a moment without you.

22) Simply, I love spending time with you.

23) I love wishing you a good night and when you wish me a goodnight at the end of the day. It's nice that you're what I'm thinking of when I go to sleep.

24) I love your smile, the way you laugh, your determination, the sound of your voice, and how loyal you are to your friends.

Here's to you, TB, and I hope your 24th year, planned with so many events and milestones, is your best one yet!

Illustrator Info: Gettin' Glyphy with It

All right, Future Illustrator Gurus, here we go! Today we're going to learn how to use the glyphs pallet.

Just like the last AI post, all screen shots are here from CS4 on a Mac. Things are super comparable to a PC. Also, I'll be using the Feel Script font for this post, but you can use the glyphs pallet to view any typeface.

Step 1) Create a new document. (Key Command: Command N)

Step 2) Open Glyphs Pallet. This can be done by going up to the top and clicking window > type> glyphs. The icon for the pallet looks like this:

Firstly, what is the glyphs pallet you ask? Well, in Illustrator (and InDesign as well) the glyphs pallet can be used to show you the extended typeface you're using. For example, a type face might have more than one option for the letter 'A'. Script typefaces commonly used on wedding invitations, often have letters with additional swashes, specifically on capital letters.

Here's an example of the expanded Glyphs Pallet.
Step 3) Create a new text box and type (Key command: T) like normal. For this example, I'm just going to use the word 'Wedding'. This is what it looks like.
Step 3) Add a glyph! Use the type tool to highlight the letter you want to replace with a new glyph. On the open glyphs palette, the letter you've highlighted will show up highlighted in a little square. Double click on the character in the palette that you wish to replace the highlighted letter in your text box with. It will replace the letter itself, and all you have to do is repeat the same process to have all the glyphs you could want and more!

'Wedding' with glyphs will look like this:
Feel Script has a very large glyphs pallet. If you're curious, here are all the options I have for the lowercase 'g.'
Anybody else gettin' glyphy with it? Or, better yet, any other suggestions for Illustrator tips?

DIYing: Card Box Style

Okay, so stop for a second and think "card box." Did you do it? Okay, what comes to your mind? Maybe something hip and cool and pop and fresh? Well, not mine, not until recently anyway.. . was it even box shaped?

Before I began wedding researching online and becoming a Google McGoogleton, my idea of a cardbox was this (from Amazon).
Is it awful? No. Is it super traditional? Maybe, I'm not sure about card box tradition, but I'll tell you what it isn't: me. Or me and Mr. Giraffe, rather.

I don't hate it, I just can't picture it at my wedding. Sure we're rocking the traditional but modern in disguise theme, but that car box (or card chest, I suppose) doesn't really look like our personal style, or our wedding style really (what ever that style is).

So what our my options? Well, originally, I thought the only alternative was the slightly different, but def chic bird house/cage. (From here)
See, I love that cage! I think its totally cute, and there's a ton of different card cages available online. If you're curious, they seem to range from about $17-$40.

I thought for the longest time that Mr. G and I would do the bird card cage (despite our lack of bird theme or decor, but I was pretty sure it didn't matter).

What changed you ask? Well bridesmaid Marie and I do wedding stuff together all the time. As we were walking around JoAnn's, she found a set of 3 stackable boxes (in 3 different sizes) for only $9.99. Mar bought the round ones and I snagged the rectangle boxes. Going a few store fronts down, with our fiances in tow, we headed to Archiver's (a scrapbook store). Mr. G and I picked up fancy shiny scrapbook paper in our wedding colors to use to decorate the boxes.

Side bar: Funny story; I didn't buy enough paper and went back a couple of weeks later to get some more. They didn't have it anymore, so I bought the same 12"x12" paper in a 8.5"x11" cardstock for more money. Lame sauce. They didn't have any of the blue paper so I bought some other blue paper to supplement the blue pile. The new one actually has little silver snowflakes on it, but I'm just hoping people think they're little stars. They're hard to notice anyway. Okay, so this story wasn't so funny, but it does have a morale: buy extra of whatever it is you're using. You can always take it back later!

Here's my inspiration I dug up after buying the boxes (From here on OnceWed). I think its super cute. I'm hoping to go for a more stack of presents look than a cake look though. I love the idea of having it look like a stack of presents on our gift table. (image source)
A few weeks later, I headed over to Bridesmaid Marie's (and Groosman Mike's) place for a wedding craft day. We started with the craft boxes. Here's the start, and you can see the sizes of the boxes. (Also, you can see my Taco Bell cup. Yum!)
You can see some of the paper, I got a few different kinds that had brown and blue on them.

Step 1) Use a pencil or pen (and ruler in my case) to trace out a slightly smaller rectangle on the top and bottom of the box. Make sure the bottom hole of one box is the same size as the top hole of the one under it.


Step 2) Cut out squares for the boxes. We did 1"x1" square for the smallest box, 1.25"x1.25" for the medium box and 1.5"x1.5" for the largest.
Mar and I (both avid scrapbookers) had some trouble with step two. Our conversation went as follows:

Marie getting frustrated with the paper cutter.
Miss Giraffe: "Just think of it as good practice for when we have to make your card box!"
Marie: "When I do mine, I think I'm just going to use the Cricut."
We proceeded to look right at each other and die laughing.

We both have Cricuts and use them allll the time, so why wouldn't we think of them now? Or why wouldn't Marie had spoken up sooner?
This is where I took a picture of Marie right after she mentioned the Cricut. Classic.

Step 4) Get out Cricut and cut out square much more efficiently. For those Cricut users, we set the size of the square we wanted and just pressed the "Fill Page" button.
Step 5) Break out the Mod Podge! I find the easier brush to do this with is the $.25 foam craft brushes. 'Paint' a coat onto the box, stick on a square, and put another coat of Mod Podge over it. I've used Mod Podge is like a billion projects in the past so I know that its amazing (I usually buy it at Michale's with a coupon), but I bought a brand new container for this project.
Then just repeat and repeat and repeat! Once you finish a box and it dries, paint another coat of Mod Podge over the whole thing to keep it protected.

The small box I was working on and the middle sized box Marie was working on.

So wondering what the finished product looks like? Me too! No, but really, it's almost done, but not quite. The large box is only half done, but it will be soon. I'll post some pictures as soon as its done!

Anybody else breaking out of the [card] box?

Better Together

Mr. G and I have been spending a lot of time together recently, and its been nothing short of amazing. We've spent the last year & a half apart, after seeing each other nearly every day for 4 years when we were in college together.

Here's what happened: I graduated, and Mr. G had another year of school to go. I moved back in with my parents because I was broke and unemployed. Mr. G stayed down on campus over that summer because he had two jobs down there. I got a job at Jewel, and my hours got cut down (as did the whole store) after just a few weeks of work. I was working a 12 hour week, which was like nothing, so I would go stay with Mr. G for a week here or there. It was a giant adjustment from living in the same apartment (with other room mates) to just visiting him, but we still got a good amount of time together.

Then, after last summer, school started again and Mr. G hit the books. I was still at Jewel, so I'd come down and stay Wednesday - Sunday or something like that on weekends he didn't work (he only worked 2 of the 4 weekends a month). This kind of morphed our schedule into use seeing each other every other weekend. When I type it out like that, it doesn't sound so bad, but at the time, it was such a struggle. My mom jokes about how when we hit the two week apart mark (because we weren't always able to see each other) that I'd be noticeably grumpier. I guess two weeks doesn't seem like that much, but it was definitely an adjustment. It was also hard because Mr. G was at our campus, but I was back in my hometown. . . with no one really. I have some good friends, some from around here even, but no body lives around here anymore. It was kind of lonely, I guess, which made driving down to see Mr. G for a few days (even if I was just sitting around while he was in class) no big deal.

Fast forward to March, when I got a job. Finally getting a job was a huge relief, and it was so nice to finally be making the money to finance this big shindig that will be here in nearly 7 (7!!!) months. Well, I have to wake up early to drive into the city, so I go to bed relatively early to do so. At this time Mr. Giraffe worked late at night, and slept in because of it.

So what did this do for us? Well, I'd gone to bed at night and a half hour to an hour later, Mr. G would call me, let me know he was home, and I'd mumble something in response, and then roll over, drop my cell phone some where, and go back to sleep. I wouldn't call him in the morning because I didn't want to wake him up after a late night. We were on totally opposite schedules. Like my mom says, "It was like ships passing in the night." I'd taking to emailing him during my lunch break just to catch up with him.

Did we continue to see each other? Yeaaahhh, but the drive from my office to his place was just about double the normal route. It was a long haul to get there late Friday night, and then have to leave on Sunday night. Sometimes he'd come up to see me too, and this kept us on our every other weekend schedule.

So what changed? Well, Mr. G started his student teaching and had to move back here because of it :). Now, for the first time in a year a half, we're not too far from each other! It's about an hour drive to see him, but its only about 30-40 minutes from my office. What is our schedule like now? Well, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I get off work at 5:30ish, get to Mr. G's at 6, leave at 9, get home at 10 and go to bed.

It sounds like a pain, but I'm so happy! Sometimes I think I forgot how much I love spending time with him. Getting off work has been so exciting lately because I cannot wait to see him at the end of my day.

It makes me smile, because I remember how exciting it was to see him between classes our freshman year of college . . . this is like that, but only a hundred times better?

Anyway else, back together? How did you deal with being apart?

Happy because we're together. . . like we are now!

Love this Bout! Part 2

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