Weight Loss Check In: 12 days

So today is day 12 and ironically I've lost 12 pounds. That puts me at 1 pound per day as long as I don't eat any bread/pasta/sugar and exercise six days a week. I'd like to make it seven but something always happens at least once a week that prevents me from getting that seventh day.

It's really exciting to see the numbers go down closer to my pre-holiday weight but I wish I could see the change physically. I'm not obese, I don't have oodles of weight to lose and yet 12 pounds isn't really visible. I know it's often hard to see changes in yourself,  but even my family would guess the loss to be around 5 pounds, 8 if you ask E. I don't think I have blinders on, I think it legitimately doesn't show!

Clearly I need to work harder at this weight loss thing if it's going to make a difference!

Dress for Success!

With the wedding only two months away (!!!!!!) E and I have started working on what we're going to do for our engagement shoot. I think we've finally narrowed down our shooting locations to:

1. A drive in movie theater, nice modern clothing
2. A vintage picnic in a field, vintage clothing

I'm super excited about the themes but I have a lot of clothing/prop hunting to do. I've placed a massive order with Modcloth and J. Peterman for my vintage stuff and have been popping into thrift stores all day. Thus far most of E's vintage outfit is done, his modern outfit shouldn't be much different, but I need to do a lot of work on mine.

Still on Track

Okay, so it's day three of my "OMFG I Need To Lose Weight" mission and I have successfully exercised and dieted every day. That would be more impressive it if was more than 2.5 days but I'll take my victories where I can. Thus far the daily schedule goes something like this:

1. Wake up
2. 62 minutes on the treadmill at 10 incline. This is 3.35 miles and 520 calories.
3. Die
4. Lift some weights
5. Die
6. Stuff myself with vegetables and protein

In my experience working out should get easier each time you do it but thus far it's gotten harder each time. It's probably because I'm not taking a day off in between but I don't have time to not exercise! 15 minutes in I'm sweaty, 30 minutes in I'm ready to stop, 45 minutes in and I'm pushing through okay and 50 minutes in my legs are going to fall off. At the end I want to collapse into a puddle but force myself to lift some weights though I'm not sure it's helping. At least I've lost 2 pounds so far which is good progress!

The First REAL Dress Fitting....Or Not...

So today was my first real dress fitting, where I was supposed to try on something more than a satin pattern. I brought my sister, brought my spanx, and brought my shoes. Everything was shaping up to make for a great appointment except one thing.

The F word.
Fat.

My dress maker took one look at me and asked me if I was at the absolute skinniest I planned on being. That was a big fat (pun intended) no. Before March 26th I plan on losing a hell of a lot more weight than the measly six pounds I've lost. I haven't been on my diet. I'd like to lose another 30 pounds. Either way, she refused to cut my dress. The fabric was shipped in from Spain and if she starts cutting now at this measurement and I lose weight, none of the lines on my dress will be right.

So, my fat has officially prevented me from taking a step towards the wedding. She's given me one month to work my ass off and get down as low as I possibly can. This means I essentially have to go back on my diet, NO CARBS, and work out on the treadmill for an hour every day. I should also be using the shake weight I bought in addition to the dumbbells we have everyday.

Damn I hate being fat.

Do It Yourself Project #4: Wedding Place Cards

Inspired by my friend Elizabeth's wedding in July 2010, I decided to use elegant little silver frames as place card holders. Luckily, Elizabeth (who is also my MOH) ended up with 59 (plus three I already had) extra beaded silver frames and with a stroke of good luck, I was able to find another 48 frames used from another bride for 75 cents a piece shipped. These little extras can get insanely expensive if you aren't careful so this wouldn't be a possible extra without Elizabeth and my lucky find. All together we have 110 silver frames which should hopefully cover everyone who attends.

Here's the stock photo

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Elizabeth's photographers got some awesome shots of her place cards all lined up. We're planning on doing something similar since we don't want an official seating chart. Each place card will have the guest's name and table name and they'll be able to sit where they want to at the table. We haven't decided on table names but we'll go with something fun like Clue or Candy or Movies etc.

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To fill our frames, we'll be using these vintage labels I found through weddingbee. They're super awesome and I'll be printing them onto some nice paper with everyones name and table. Please ignore the seriously off perspective in my photoshop mock up, my skillz are so rusty.

Now I know this is a little busy but I'm thinking I can get away with it since it'll be so small. As long as the text is nice and big and legible I think we'll be okay. What do you guys think?  Veto the design? Go with it? Go with something that matches the invites? I need input!

Autism and Vaccines - Wakefield Should Be Prosecuted

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The falsified Vaccine-Autism link is a topic I feel exceptionally strongly about. Despite years and millions of dollars in research proving that Wakefield's study was a complete fraud, people continue to believe that their child's vaccines can and will give them Autism. The sheer number of people Wakefield has fooled is staggering and the number of children his lies have put in danger is completely unacceptable.

"Wakefield purposefully manipulated patient histories in order to fabricate an erroneous link between vaccines and autism. The direct result of this was the creation and perpetuation of an insidious myth that may be unparalleled in modern day medicine" (Berezow, CNN)

We as a people have an unfortunately short memory. The public consciousness does not remember more than a few decades back and thus forgets the devastation wrecked by preventable diseases, the lives lost to measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis,  polio, diphtheria, hep B. I never thought that in 2011 I'd see deadly outbreaks of pertussis, not when the vaccine was first introduced in the 1920's. That was 90 years ago and people are still dying from a preventible disease today because people won't vaccinate! 

Wakefield has committed crimes not only against the scientific community, but against every family, every child he's put in danger with his lies. Countless children have become needlessly ill, others have died when they didn't have to. It's time for scientists to speak up, Wakefield must be punished for the irreparable damage he's done.  


"Perhaps the silence within our community occurred because the repudiation of the Wakefield claims seemed so obvious to us. We knew that when it comes to the link between vaccines and autism, the science has never wavered—there simply is no proven connection.  But we need to appreciate how easily fraudulent or suspect science can influence public perceptions and political support. When “junk science” has the power to drown out the evidence, we have to use our voices to keep the focus on the real science.  After 13 years, it seems that vaccines are finally vindicated. This important moment certainly calls for celebration, but also for reflection. One man’s fraudulent assertions in a respected medical journal led to a flurry of needless infections and deaths, not to mention a black eye on one of the world’s most successful public health interventions. While we hope that such a tragedy never happens again, we need to be ready for it if it does. Silence is no longer an option." (Elias, CEO of PATH)

Do It Yourself Project #3: Wedding Invitations - Part 2

After what has felt like forever, the invitations are FINALLY ready to fly free! Printing them myself, while it has saved me a great deal of money, has also presented a vast array of DIY challenges that I had not expected. 


As I've mentioned before, I purchased pre-made invitation kits with the intention of augmenting the existing design with an addition of my own. This process took fucking shitloads a lot of time and trial and error to complete, so I would ideally suggest you find a pre-made invitation kit with a design you like. If you can't do that, try to add a design of  your own using photoshop that isn't borderless. This will be fairly easy. 


If you have to have a borderless design, like I did, make sure that your photoshop skills are up to the task and begin the tedious process of printing a borderless design onto teeny pieces of pre-cut paper. You'll find that while you at first appreciated that you didn't have to cut out your RSVP, Hotel Accommodation and Direction cards, printing is a LOT easier on a nice normal sized sheet of paper.  


Most little cards come in the "cabinet" paper size, which you then split in half, and to print borderlessly on them you'll need your printer to be capable of printing the "borderless cabinet" page size. If this size is not an option, most printers will not be open to printing a custom size borderlessly. After calling all of my friends and family, only one person had a printer capable of printing the borderless cabinet so I spent an evening camped out in her office until 4am printing all the insert cards. 


In the end, I'm very happy with the result. I had to let go of a little anal retentiveness and not obsessively measure the margin of each card, but the invitations look fantastic, certainly more expensive than the $170 I spent on them. Knowing what I do now I would still do it again, though I might invest in my own borderless cabinet friendly printer so I could take my time with the process :)


Part one of the invitation tutorial can be found here

RIP Bill Zeller, A Suicide Note Preserved

I came across this letter, written by grad student and programmer Bill Zeller prior to his committing suicide. His story is so heart wrenchingly sad that I felt compelled to fulfill one of his last requests and disseminate the letter in it's entirely to as many people as possible. 

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I have the urge to declare my sanity and justify my actions, but I assume I’ll never be able to convince anyone that this was the right decision. Maybe it’s true that anyone who does this is insane by definition, but I can at least explain my reasoning. I considered not writing any of this because of how personal it is, but I like tying up loose ends and don’t want people to wonder why I did this. Since I’ve never spoken to anyone about what happened to me, people would likely draw the wrong conclusions.

My first memories as a child are of being raped, repeatedly. This has affected every aspect of my life. This darkness, which is the only way I can describe it, has followed me like a fog, but at times intensified and overwhelmed me, usually triggered by a distinct situation. In kindergarten I couldn’t use the bathroom and would stand petrified whenever I needed to, which started a trend of awkward and unexplained social behavior. The damage that was done to my body still prevents me from using the bathroom normally, but now it’s less of a physical impediment than a daily reminder of what was done to me.

Flash Mob Wedding??

For all the people in the midst of complicated and stressful wedding planning, I just had to share this:

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No matter how you do it, where you do it, who you invite or what you wear, ultimately all that matters is that you do it your way with the person you love. Even the strangers in the audience can feel the love!

Centerpieces!

After clicking through every image on google's "wedding centerpiece" search, E and I have finally made up our minds!  I OMGIlovethem We have fallen completely in love with the antique blue ball mason jars. They're absolutely fabulous but since they were only made between the late 1800's and the early 1930's, they can be a bit tricky to find and REALLY expensive. We've decided to use the big 1/2 gallon jars for our flower centerpieces and the smaller quart and pint sized jars for candles, though I wouldn't mind putting some flowers in the quart sized jars as well. I originally wanted to put tea lights and pillar candles in the small ones but since I don't feel like damaging my expensive antique jars when I spend hours scraping wax out of them after the wedding, I think I'm going to put LED candles in them.

My jar inspiration:

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3 Month Check In!

This three month check in is a liiiiittle late, but it's okay because it means I get to cross more things off my list. We've been having trouble making decisions about a DJ, flowers, centerpieces, etc and have finally begun to make some progress! The following to do list is for months two and three so I'm not too upset that it's still pretty long. 

To Do:

• Have engagement photos taken (soon!!!)
• Book your DJ and ceremony musicians: Sign the ceremony music contract and pay your deposit.
• Finalize the reception menu and service details with the caterer.
• Choose and reserve all tables, chairs, and any other wedding rentals you'll need for the reception (unless the caterer or site is taking care of it).
• Book the rehearsal dinner site and finalize menu plans.
• Book a hotel room for your wedding night. 
• Book your honeymoon flights (if not using frequent flyer miles) and make all your other honeymoon travel reservations.
• Start addressing wedding invitations or drop them off with the calligrapher (you'll need to send them out at the three-month mark). (ish)