Outsourcing Invitations

After the headache of figuring out just our Save-the-Date mailings and engagement party invitations, I know there's no way I ever, ever, ever, want to do this again. So I have concocted a solution.

No, I'm not finding an international invitation designer, though that does have a fantastic ring to it. Makes me think of fashion instead of unemployment. Moving on though.

My fiance Easy has been a well of goodness in this whole wedding planning thing. Every time I'm stumped as to the best route to go, he ends up supplying, without trying, the perfect solution. The best example of this is our wedding musicians, but that's a different post.

This post is about wedding invitations. I went through so much for our first wedding doohickeys. Because of timing and some other stuff, we decided to send out moo cards, engagement party invites, and save-the-date mailings all at once.

This seemed like a good idea. And it still is a good idea. Based on the length of our engagement and the date of our e-party, it really was the best option. But getting those mailings out was no small task.

It forced us to finalize our guest list early (thank God!). But tracking down addresses was only the tip of the iceberg. I didn't like any of the designs on vistaprint nor did I want to pay $7.99/ten invites. Not when we had to send them to 152 households!

So I designed them myself in a word document that could be uploaded and placed on a postcard. The postcards ended up being around $25 for 250, which is waaaaaay better than $199.75 for 250. Designing these invites was no small matter.

I'm very proud of them. Want to see them again? Okay.

You just get a snippet here. You can read the whole post here.

Designing these took waay longer than I expected. First I had to change the font. Then the wording. Then the color. Then the monogram. There was just so much that went into it. I lovingly spent a ton of time making sure they were just right.

Having gone through all that taught me one thing: I will never design another invitation in my life if I can help it. I know I can do it. DIY mission accomplished! Winning!

So the question became how was I to ever get something that would match what I've already done, but look even better for our actual wedding invites? I didn't want to break the budget, so I looked to Easy.

A good friend of his will be attending our wedding. His girlfriend is very sweet. She's also... wait for it... a photographer/graphic designer!! You can check out her blog here. She's got a great eye, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what she'll come up with.

She agreed to take a look to see what we'd like done and we agreed to pay her for her trouble. If she designs something wonderful, I won't be surprised, but I'll be very glad I will have successfully outsourced something that is not my passion to someone who would love to do it and be good at it.

Creating Things - I'm Over It

It's too hard to try and make something every day. Perhaps if I had more resources (money, materials), stability (not going back and forth to St. Louis all the time), or willpower (doing it even when I don't feel like it). But I don't.


Noticing that March is well underway and I only have 19 days of creating, I have fallen a bit short of my goal. The posts I did do got a lot of traffic and that was nice. But I just don't feel like it anymore. I'd rather dedicate the time I'd spend making a craft or typing out the recipe for meal on studying for the GRE. And next month, there will be some other reason. I'm just over it.


Also, my camera broke. Not much I can do about that. But now a really nice new digital camera is on my wish list for some future gift. Maybe a birthday or Christmas. I can live without a camera for that long I think. Most pictures I take anyway are on my Blackberry, they're just not a quality I'd want to post on the web.


As long as no major events happen this year, I should be fine. Maybe I'll try again with creating things when I get a new camera, a source of income, and a more focused inspiration.

Back From Oblivion

I've been MIA. I have no better explanation than I just didn't feel like blogging.

It happens. Not to all people, but to some.

But now I'm back. I'll be back on Creating Things tomorrow. I'm just going to pick up where I left off. I am at day seventeen I believe.

What have I been up to in the time I was missing?

Romantic Life

Things with Easy and I are going great. Better than ever. Somehow, it still feels like we're in the middle of our honeymoon phase. I don't know how long it's supposed to last, but it's still lasting.

We are still learning things about each other, which is always interesting. Compromise is the name of the game when it comes to us.

We are talking about the future. Our future plans for ourselves don't exactly lead in the same direction, so we're seeing about making the paths line up a bit more.

Family Life

Things are pretty good with my family. My parents and I always get along great. I'm sure they will be happier when both their grown-ass children are gainfully employed and living not in their house. I'm working on it.

My brother and I still have a non-existent relationship. Eh, whatever.

My cousins and I still aren't that close, but I'm working on it. It's hard to come up with a group effort to act like a family when you weren't raised with that idea, but I'm thinking it will become easier once we are all adults.

Friends Life

My friends are still my awesome friends.

Having so many close friends in stable, serious relationships is a new thing for me. But I think as the months pass, we're getting better at maintaining our friendships in this new world where all our free time isn't our own.

I'm just thankful that I like all the significant others of my friends.

And my friends are all also making big strides in their career choices. Great for them. The biggest change (in terms of its effects on me) comes from  

We had plans to move in together once she graduated this spring. But now she's staying there for another year to get a graduate degree. It's really a great choice for her. She gets to skip GRE crap and application processes and long grad programs.

But it really changes the short-term plan I had for my life. This has to do with what I was talking about Easy earlier trying to make our paths line up better. But I'll talk more about that in a later post.

Career Life

I had intentions to apply to grad school to start this fall. I've been talking to Easy and Top and Lion about how I really don't want to start grad school just yet. But in the absence of a job, it seemed like the best choice.

I have to get ready to do things like sign up for the GRE etc in the next few weeks. But for what Easy and I have been discussing, it makes those decisions all the more important.

But I am still applying for jobs and hope something comes up soon so I'm not just floating out in a unemployment abyss.

Hobbies Life

There's not much new to report here. I'm still bowling in my league (and improving every week). I'm still wishing I would spend more time reading/writing, working on gardening, playing the piano, etc.

I have finally figured out my hobbies roadblock. I guess I feel like it's wrong somehow to be spending so much time doing things that are just for me when I'm not contributing anything to my future.

If I spend hours in a day applying for jobs and getting nowhere, I feel like I shouldn't spend my evenings relaxing. What would I need downtime for? I haven't done anything that needs relaxing from.

But I'm working on not having that mindset because it's a bit self-destructive. I need to have something I can count on, even if it's not having a job to get up and go to each morning.

So yeah, that's the basic recap. It's good to be back blogosphere.

Creating Things Day Sixteen - Baked Chicken And Mashed Potatoes

Pretty much, the only things I'm able to make here in St. Louis at the Bachelor Pad is food and drink.

Voices around the blogosphere are going "duh!", especially if you've read my last few posts.

But I learned that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so I cook, ha ha.

Tonight, I'm making baked chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner.

Easy like potatoes a lot. Thank goodness we started dating after I was done with my no-carb phase.

I forgot to take pictures when I first started cooking, so I'll just have to type what I did.

I'm making breasts with the bone in. More flavor + cheaper price = no brainer.

I seasoned them with olive oil, cumin, salt, pepper, and thyme.

I sauteed the meaty side in a pan with a bit of butter and olive oil so it will be crispy even without skin.

Then I put the breasts in an aluminum foil lined glass pan with a bit of salted water and chicken broth in the bottom.

I covered the pan and stuck it in a 375 degree oven.

Here is the chicken in the oven. I pulled back the aluminum foil so you can see the tasty looking chicken with all the seasoning on it.

To make the potatoes, I just started by putting five potatoes in a pot full of water.

Here's a picture of the potatoes in the pot. Exciting, right?

I turned the chicken over after about 30 min on one side. Can't serve undercooked chicken.

I also took this opportunity to take the potatoes off the stove.

I peeled them and started smashing them.

No way I could mash them, no tools to do so in the Bachelor Pad.

I added butter, milk, and some Colby cheese. And of course, it tastes great.

It looks great too. Here's the picture.

The chicken was finished on the second side, then I turned it one more time.

I wanted to make sure it got finished.

But this time I removed the aluminum foil so that the chicken could brown a bit more.

I like that flavor you get from nice browned chicken.

Here is a picture of the chicken. There's only one breast left in the pan, I had already made our plates by the time I remembered to take the picture.

Here's my plate with the chicken at potatoes. Looks tasty, right?

Creating Things Day Fifteen - A Better Tasting Fuzzy Navel

Easy and I went out late Saturday night to this wonderful place in St. Louis called "lola.".

I really liked the atmosphere of this place and I would recommend it to anyone in St. Louis looking for a place to hang out where there is good music, good food, good service, and good company.

When we got there, there was a band playing live music and we watched them for a bit.

Then we went to get a drink from one of the bars.

I know they make strong ass drinks in St. Louis, so I ordered one of the weakest drinks I could think of, a fuzzy navel.

Peach Schnapps and orange juice, how could you make that too strong?

Plus, it was very late at night and I didn't want to be getting drunk at 1 in the morning.

But I was wrong, the bartender made it too strong. She filled the cup 3/4 of the way with Peach Schnapps and then filled it up with orange juice.

The bottom 1/3 of the cup was still completely clear because there was so little orange juice in the cup.

I didn't even bother tasting it, I immediately asked for another cup of orange juice with no ice and an empty cup.

When Easy and I found a seat near the live music, I began making my concoction.

First I poured all of the fuzzy navel into the empty cup, leaving only the ice in the cup. I tasted the drink and it waaaaay too strong.

It didn't even taste like a fuzzy navel. It just tasted like a shot of Peach Schnapps.

So I alternated pouring the pure orange juice and the fuzzy navel into the now empty cup with the ice until it was a proportion I much preferred to drink.

It tasted much better, and I ended up with the volume of two drinks instead of one.

I learned a while ago that they makes drinks super strong in St. Louis. That's great for getting your money's worth, but bad if you want to enjoy the taste as well as the effect of your drinks.

Creating Things Day Fourteen - A Savory Pasta Dish

This post was supposed to go up on Saturday, but like I said, I've been busy and am behind.

Easy had two gigs in one night and I didn't accompany him. Consequently, I was at his place by myself, and starving.

After surveying the Bachelor Pad, it was clear I didn't have too many options for feeding myself.

I saw a can of diced tomatoes, some frozen chicken tenders, the last of the wine we bought the other day, some linguine noodles from a previous time I made dinner here, and some chicken broth.

I decided to make myself a pasta dish. I forgot to take pictures though. Sorry.

I started out by sauteing the chicken in olive oil and butter. I seasoned it with black pepper, crushed red pepper, salt, and Italian seasoning.

Then I took the chicken out and made a sauce using the oil from cooking the chicken, the broth, the wine, and some butter.

Then I added the tomatoes and let the sauce reduce down. Then I dropped the pasta.

When the pasta was done, I drained it and added it and the chicken back to the sauce.

I finished it with a little lemon juice and sat down and enjoyed a really delicious dish.

Creating Things Day Thirteen - Putting Together A Bed, Part Two

I wrote this post days ago, but I've been so busy that I never got a chance to post it. I'm days behind in fact.

I've been making stuff, just not blogging about it. So here goes the post, written as I saved it as a draft. Days ago. Sorry.

I woke up this morning and called Value City.

There was no answer, which was surprise. I figured even if they weren't open at 8:30 am, an automated voice would tell me when they would open.

But no, The phone just rang and rang. So I called back at 9:30 and 10:30.

I finally got an answer at 10:30. I explained the situation to the woman on the phone.

Then I got to do the requisite waiting. On hold. For a long time.

They finally sorted it out on their end at the store and they want me to measure the height we need the middle slats to be that go from one side rail to the other.

There was just one problem with this: This stupid Bachelor Pad has no rulers! At least none that I saw.

Things aren't very well organized here, so I can't find anything easily. So I had to call Easy at work to ask for his help in acquiring a ruler.

Eventually we found out his roommate has a tape measure.

So we measured the bed and got the height we needed the center posts to be.

We took them back to the store so they could be fixed. They finally fixed it.

We came back to Easy's house and fixed the bed.

Here it is, all made up. Finally! It only took a few days to get it together.

Creating Things Day Twelve - Putting Together A Bed, Part One

I think I've referred to the unfortunate Bachelor Pad-ness of Easy's apartment in St. Louis.

Well, one important thing he was missing was a bed. I should say is a bed.

This is just a preliminary post. Putting the bed together will be a two part post.

Right when we got to St. Louis last night, Easy and I drove to Value City Furniture. We found a bed, like it, and he purchased it.

They weren't able to deliver the bed (plus delivery was $100) until next week, so I said screw that plan.

I suggested we get a U-Haul and just bring the bed to his place ourselves.

He seemed confused about whether or not I'd be able to help move a bed.

I informed him I'd moved my queen size bed several times, even a couple all by myself, and he need not worry.

So we got the U-Haul after he was done with work for the day. We picked up the bed and brought it here.

There were quite a number of pieces to this bed, as you can see in the picture.

We got everything upstairs and I started putting the pieces together.

I was glad the bed put together the exact same way mine did so it wouldn't take long to get it together.

I wasn't glad the Easy had absolutely no bed-putting-together skills. I guess it happens.

A man who spends that much time working on his music is bound to lack other skills besides cooking.

After we got the basics of the frame together, we had to screw in the wooden planks that would add support to the frame and make it sturdier.

This is where things went awry. The planks don't fit.

They are long enough, but they are too tall. You can't tell by the picture, but I could tell when I tried to screw them in place.

That wood is not supposed to  be bent. It would warp over time or maybe even break.

This could lead to instability of the bed and shorten the life of the bed.

Side note about the screws, actually screwdrivers.

For this to be a dude house, they have one screwdriver!!!

It's actually a screwdriver set. You know, the one screw-y piece that had little bits you can fit in and out depending on the size of whatever needs to be screwed?

I just don't understand that though. I'm quite the girly chick, but I have somewhere between 5 and 8 screwdrivers.

Maybe it comes from years of living alone and having to fix things myself, but damn, I expected better from a bachelor pad.

If you don't have essentials like butter and flour (yes, I'm referring to last night's cookies), you should at least have screwdrivers.

I bet living here is like a lesson in MacGuyver-style survival, lol.

Moving back to the bed.

Easy's roommate came to help. Nothing he did served as a source of help, but he was there, trying to help.

After the guys (neither of whom have ever put a bed like that together before) came to the conclusion I had already drawn, I agreed to their decision.

We took the bed down, and I'm going to call the store tomorrow to see about them fixing those planks.

My guess is that they gave us the wrong planks. They are just a very wrong height.

Hopefully that won't be a fight, but tomorrow will soon be here and then I'll know.

And so tonight, we will be sleeping on a mattress. The mattress in this picture.

It is a pretty comfortable mattress though. You can see it's a pillow-top, which is soooo much better than an air mattress, couch, or floor.

Creating Things Day Ten - Belt Loops For A Uniform

I am an usher at my church. Google it if you don't know what that means.

We have to wear uniforms, hideous, hardly-ever-flattering uniforms.

I've already done some alterations.

I've shortened the length of the skirt, shortened the sleeves, and moved one of the buttons.

But I wanted to add belt loops because the belt won't always stay in place.

And the belt is crucial for holding the waist of the dress at my natural waist. Otherwise the dress pulls on my hips.

Here is the dress. It's really pretty awful, so I didn't take a full view shot.

I needed some fabric to make the belt loops.

I had a lot left over that I just happened to hold onto when I altered the dress before.

Once I cut it down to size, I headed to the ancient sewing machine to stitch up the fabric.

May I add in here that I was playing this whole thing by ear? I wasn't sure what to do, but I kept moving forward.

Once I had the fabric stitched, I cut off the excess. Next, I had to turn it inside out.

It was too tiny to use the skewer. Plus, I wasn't actually stringing anything.

So I grabbed a safety pin. I pinned one side and pushed it through to the other side.

Once it was turned right side out, I cut the fabric in half and voila, two belt loops.

Then I laid them against the belt to make sure they were the right size.

Luckily they were the right size since I hadn't been doing any measuring.

I pinned the belt loops to the area I wanted them in and tried to figure out exactly how I would stitch them down.

I got the first one stitched down. I did this by hand of course. I didn't want to fight with the sewing machine on such small stitches.

It looked okay, but it gave me a great idea for how I was going to do the other side.

I stitched the other side by tucking the ends under so it looked more like a real belt loop.

I much prefer the other side, but it looks pretty good all around.

I looped the belt through to make sure it was even and looked the way I wanted it to look.

I'm pretty pleased with the results. I took this last picture without the flash so you could actually see the belt loops.

You may notice they look a bit different from one side to the other. I may re-do the first side one of these days.

Creating Things Day Nine - Delicious Turkey Burgers

Today, I made a sandwich, just like I threatened to a couple of days ago.

I decided to make turkey burgers. Since my family has been eating healthier, I've found a way to actually like them.

I don't know that my preparation technique is all that healthy, but it certainly tastes good!

I started out with this ground turkey.

Then I put it into a bowl to add the spices.

What spices did I use? An awful lot of them. I had to do it to make the bland turkey taste good to me.

I added fresh ground sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, paprika, parsley flakes, Worcestershire sauce, light olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, and a dash of hot sauce.

Then I prepared my pan. I added a couple tablespoons of butter, a couple tablespoons of light olive oil, and a couple tablespoons of pure canola oil.

I told you this wasn't necessarily healthy. Just healthier than fast food.

I made the patties while I waited for the oil to heat up.

I learned from Rachael Ray that a pound of meat should be quartered into four patties.

Why they never look that big in fast food restaurants? Don't even get me started.

Once the oil was ready to go, I put my patties in. All those different seasonings made the oil a funny color, but it smelled amazing.

I cooked the first side, then flipped the burgers.

How do I make sure my burgers are juicy and delicious? I cover the pan of course.

The burgers were soon cooked and looking fabulous.

I know, that's only three patties. They are for my family to eat. But I want one right now.

I added a slice of provolone cheese to the burger patty and turned off the heat. I covered it to let the cheese melt.

Then I toasted some bread and got lettuce and mustard. Doesn't it look tasty?

It was delicious! Spicy, juicy, and much healthier and bigger than what you would get in McDonald's.

Seriously, the time it would take me to drive to McDonald's and go through the drive through was the time it took me to prepare and cook my burger. Healthy is better.

Creating Things Day Eight - The Perfect Wrapped Gift

People may wonder why I'm wrapping a gift well over two weeks after Christmas.

Well, it's because Easy and I aren't exchanging gifts until tomorrow.

He's been gone, but by this time tomorrow, I'll be on my way to the airport to pick him up.

And since we're exhanging gifts, I wanted his to be wrapped.

I wrap a mean Christmas gift. so I wanted something really nice to see.

He's been out of the country for the last five Christmases or so.

I imagine that doesn't lead to a lot of fancy wrapped presents.

So he will have one from me tomorrow.

And if we do end up exchanging gifts with his family, his people will see that I took extra measures to make his gift look awesome.

So here's the box I had to wrap.

Next, I had to pick out the perfect wrapping paper.

My family had a low-key Christmas this year, but we usually do it big, so down in the basement there were plenty of wrapping materials.

This is what I chose.

Once everything was picked out, I had to cut the paper down to size.

Then I wrapped the first part. This was tricky because the box is not uniform all around and the paper has stripes.

So I pulled out my trusty (now painty) lap table to have a hard surface to work on.

When striped paper is wapped perfectly, it just stands out as really nice, don't you think?

Then I wrapped the sides.

Then I added the bows and name tag. I could have left it like this, but I felt it needed just one more thing.

I'm not saying I'm destructive, but me and gifts don't transport well.

Seriously, unless that thing is going right under the nearest Christmas tree, something always goes wrong.

So I grabbed a bag to keep the gift safe and the bows un-smashed.

I think the colors and the wrapping just scream CHRISTMAS, which is essential for a late Christmas gift exchange. 

I think Easy will light up when he sees it. Everyone likes opening gifts.

Creating Things Day Seven - A Water Bottle Carrier

For today, I decided I wanted to use my orange fabric again.

I used part of it to jazz up a storage box. But I've got so much of it left.

By the time I'm done making things each day, half my stuff will be covered in orange fabric, lol.

I came up with this idea because last night I took a bottle of water with me to the bowling alley for league night.

The bottle had cold water in it. This was no problem while we were outside.

But once we got into the heated bowling alley, condensation popped up on the outside.

There's nothing too odd about that. But one of my Christmas gifts was this amazing bag that is now my everyday purse.

This purse has a different material inside of than my last bag.

I had this thought that if only I had an extra layer between the bottle and the inside of the bag, my whole life would improve.

Dramatic thoughts aside, I decided to do something about it today.

Here is a picture of the bag, the water bottle, and the fabric.

Trust me, I will not be dismembering this bag for its handles.

I had to find something that would work as a drawstring, sort of like what I did for the yoga mat carrier.

Ultimately, I just decided to cut a headband in half and make it an elastic opening at the top.

The first thing to do was to cut the fabric so it would be the right size to hold the bottle.

I decided to double the fabric so I would have extra protection from the moisture.

Next, I was on to the ancient sewing machine to stitch the holder up.

Then my trusty kabob skewer helped me get the elastic through.

I perhaps watch too much Good Eats, but I love kitchen items that can multi-task.

I figured it would be a smart idea to stitch the elastic closed so I'm not constantly re-stringing it.

Then came the test to see if it fits.

It does!! No more wet purse insides!

I think tomorrow I may make something else with food. I'm going to make a sandwich.

No, I'm not going to make a sandwich. I don't know what I'm going to make.