Summertime

The kids are out of school; yesterday was the boys’ last day. We kicked off summer by spending the afternoon hanging with my two best friends (Adoree & Alani) and their kids (between us there are a dozen children).  Our children have known each other from well before birth, and have grown up more like cousins than not. Bam-Bam has been head over heels in love with Adoree’s daughter, Princess (a year older than he is) since he was three. Her son, Daredevil, and Elroy are both Whovians, so there is much talk of sonic screwdrivers and TARDISs when we all get together.

. . .

We are less than a month away from the wedding (and so close to done with the preparations). All the jewelry is finished (made by me, of course. I’ll put up some pictures of the different pieces after the big day). We’ve managed to save a huge amount of money by DIY-ing many of the accessories (so far that list includes: two ring pillows, two flower girl baskets, bridesmaid jewelry for six, flower girl jewelry for three, bridal jewelry for me, an entirely different style of bridal jewelry for Hunny, invitations – I love Vista Print, the handfasting cord, the decorations for my shoes, the flowers for the ceremony – Hunny’s mom volunteered to put the arrangements together for us).  The details are coming together really nicely and the upgrades by the venue are turning this into a much higher end event than we had thought we’d be able to have.

For comparison, the entire cost of our very small wedding a decade ago was close to what we spent on just our dresses this time around. A friend made my dress for just the cost of materials. We had our first ceremony at the park we had taken prom pictures at; the rental on the park was a whopping $4. The potluck reception was at my grandmother’s house. It was perfect for where we were then but this time is going to be an event!

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My camera has returned from walk-about (it disappeared almost a year ago and has only recently resurfaced), so I can actually share pictures again. So, yay for new tutorials! Any suggestions on what you guys want to see made?

I’m hoping that without as much of the school year craziness I’ll be able to actually spend a little more time writing, so thank you all who haven’t forgotten me while the real world has demanded my attention.

-          Vixi

(PS- anyone have a good laundry system to share? I am swamped and I feel like I’m not making any progress. I swear I am just washing the same three loads over and over and not making a dent in the rest . . .)