100 Days

Today, I am 100 days away from getting married. I am just slightly freaked out about the time line and what I still have to do. Very excited, but freaked.

I would be better if I wasn't two weeks behind in the accounting class I am taking. Or, if my ever-expanding job duties would stop expanding. And if we weren't planning renovations on the house. Or, if the cake designer I was supposed to meet on Monday had shown up for our appointment. Or if my sister had picked out and ordered a dress :)

Speaking of class, since it is currently 10:30 at night, I must get back to the nuances of job cost accounting.

Wedding DIY Number 2

This is my second wedding DIY project. Four down, sixteen to go. Fortunately, it only took me about half an hour to make these four.

They are little packets of tissues for the out-of-town guest gift bags. I made these out of medium blue pearl scrapbook paper, folded like an envelope around three tissues from one of those purse packets. Then I wrapped the 'envelopes' with a blue satin ribbon that I glued with a little glue stick and then covered the ends with a silver embossed sticker. I had to use the glue stick because the paper is a little heavier than it probably should be for optimal folding - not quite card stock, but pretty close. I was able to get four packets out of one 12x12 sheet of scrapbook paper, so they were inexpensive to make, too, at about 67 cents each.

My First Wedding DIY

Here is my first of many do-it-yourself projects that I have planned to keep the cost of this wedding under control. These are the invitations and reply cards. I think they came out very nice.

The blue matches the color of the embroidery on my dress and we are using hydrangeas for the flowers. The invitation is printed on vellum, punched in a lace pattern at the top and bottom (thank you Martha Stewart), layered over a blue card stock and tied with blue ribbon. The whole thing goes in a cream pocket and blue envelope. The reply card has a picture of hydrangeas on the front. The pockets are leftovers from my graduation invitations, the blue paper and envelopes cost $32 at Borders and the cream cards are blank note cards from Hallmark, $6.

Let me know what you think!

National Walk for Epilepsy

This morning Jim and I participated in the 2009 National Walk for Epilepsy on the Mall. It was misty and a little cold and the ground was in the process of reverting to the swamp that D.C used to be, but we had a great time! The walk started at the Capitol end of the Mall, walked all the way down past the Washington Monument, looped past the World War II Memorial and back up the other side of the Mall. On our way back, we made a slight pit stop to ride the Smithsonian Carousel, which neither of us had done before.

As a team, we raised $310 - thanks to everyone who contributed. If you would still like to make a contribution, you can follow the link above and search for either one of us as a participant.

Most of you know that Jim has seizures (that is why he gets a purple shirt and I get a white one) that are well controlled with medication. He has had them since he was 12.

For those of you who are looking for a celebrity sighting, here is a picture of Greg Grunberg, who stars in Heroes. He has chaired the event for the last three years in honor of his son who has epilepsy.

Arabesque

On Sunday, we went to the Kennedy Center for the final day of the Arabesque festival.

We were given tickets to see the Debbie Allen production, Oman...O Man!, which is a story of an Omani and an American boy who are roommates at an international military school. They both learn a great deal about each others country and each other.

We also took some time to see some of the exhibits. This picture of me was taken on a very large, flat, platform bed covered with pillows. There was also a display of Arab wedding costumes in the Hall of States and Hall of Nations, jewelry and calligraphy that superimposed the script for various words to form elaborate pictures.

Some Enchanted Evening

Tonight, we were lucky enough to attend the coolest thing ever at the Kennedy Center. The staff members were offered free tickets to the program, Some Enchanted Evening: A Musical Birthday Salute to Senator Edward M. Kennedy. This was a 'by invitation only' event.

The evening was hosted by Bill Cosby and featured Lauren Bacall, Denyce Graves, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Phyllis Newman, Kelli O'Hara, Bernadette Peters, Hal Prince, James Taylor, Frederica von Stade, Colm Wilkinson, Lizz Wright and Karen Ziemba. John Williams conducted the orchestra. There was a retrospective film shown on Kennedy's life and Carolyn Kennedy and Al Hurt presented him with the Profiles in Courage award.

The concert was attended by Mrs. Obama, the Bidens, Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid and about 1000 members of the extended Kennedy family. Senators Lieberman, Feinstein and McCain were in the house and I am sure there were many more D.C. celebrities there. As a special guest, President Obama came on stage at the very end of the evening to lead the house in singing Happy Birthday to the Senator.

Back in School

My next accounting class is scheduled to start tomorrow, but I have already started the first unit. I was so not engaged when I signed up to take this class. It is scheuled to end in June, but I would really like to get ahead of the game if at all possible.

I am excited about it - this is the second of the prerequisite classes that I would need if I decided to continue on in the career program. This is a series of accounting classes that I would need IF I wanted to sit for the CPA exam. We'll see how this one goes, but it's always nice to have options.

Right now, it's pouring down snow. I am hoping that it snows enough that I can't get out of the parking lot in the morning :)