Hey, I'm not too stressed at the moment to write!

Well gang, I've been too busy to write here when I've wanted to, but being that today, Sunday, I woke up too early thinking it was Monday, I'm up with some time on my hands. So I guess I can try to remember everything I mentally noted to write about later, heh.

Invitations
Done! Everyone should get theirs within a week or 2. We worked on them for 3 hours Friday night, trimmin', stuffin', stampin' and organizing. I can tell I have more patience for these things than Jonathan does ;) but he was very helpful. I finished wax-sealing them yesterday, with only one flaming-wax-falling-onto-the-envelope mishap. No burns though; it's good.

Wedding Dress
So the wedding dress progress is probably 80% done right now, and such a relief! I tend to take on projects that have unknowns and variables that I'm not sure if I can achieve. Accomplishing what I have on this dress is very satisfying for any doubts I may have had. It sure is wonderful, however the road to wonderful wasn't easy! I've literally shed blood, sweat and tears for this dress. When things don't work out it can get SO frustrating! (that's the tears part, heh) I envisioned throwing my dress against the wall many times, but of course I did not. The blood part came every time I pricked myself with the pins, and the sweat part is from getting a serious workout laying the peices. The fabric bits are so large, and I had to lay them on the floor so I had to stretch in odd positions to reach across it, and to jump from one side to another, as well as just to pick up the whole thing because it's pretty heavy! Many times I've felt my muscles sore the next day, from sewing... who knew!?

I've shown the dress to a few select individuals (my immediate family, Erin, and my mother in law to-be) and they generally have the same reaction about it's amazingness. Feels good! I'm on the right track. I think I've gained a load of confidence about sewing from this huge project. Of course, buying the dress form the other day helps, a LOT.

The other night I pinned my dress bits all together on the form and just looked at it. It's exactly what I'd always envisioned it to be! I left it on the form that night and I was so excited about it I couldn't sleep! I kept waking up to peek at it, ha. I'm so pleased! I can't wait to wear it. As I was telling Jonathan, since I've spent so much time on this dress, I want to be able to wear it for more than just one day. So we're going to re-wear our wedding attire during our honeymoon, maybe find a hoity toity restaurant to go to.

Bridal Shower
Yesterday Terra hosted a bridal shower for me at her house, which I was so impressed with! She had little yellow-tulip centerpieces on the tables, tons of really amazing food that she made herself (I'm eating the blueberry bundt thing right now) and 3 fun games. The first game involved passing around covered cups of various herbs that we had to smell and guess. It was pretty hard! I realised I need to cook more in order to be so familiar.. but the highest score was only 4/12.. I got 2.5/12, ha. The second game had guests design my wedding dress as they drew it on a paper plate resting on top of their heads. My favorite was Marisa's:


Then there was a bouquet-creating contest where guests had to assemble a flower bouquet out of colored tissue paper in 2 minutes. It was so hilarious watching everyone go crazy like some Double Dare "physical challenge", haha. My favorite bouquet was Terran's:


Francheska took some photos of the events too, so I can post those when I get them back from her.

Then of course there were lots of gifts, which I have yet to go through becase right now there's a living room full of gift bags!

The bridal shower makes things seem so close and so real. It's nice to know I've got a group of ladies who are willing to do so much for me. I have to admit that it was weird being the center of attention. I'm not used to it! I was hoarse by the end of the shower just trying to talk to everyone, and over everyone (there were around 17 guests total). Guess I better get used, at least for May 16!