Tying the Knot: Our Save The Date

Our Save the Dates were mailed about a week ago so I'm pretty sure that everyone's received them by now. 

(and if you haven't gotten yours yet then I'm sorry for spoiling the surprise!)

I loved our engagment pictures so much that I knew instantly that I would include at least one of them for our STD. (yes, Save the Date, not the other kind) I also knew that I wanted to make them myself to cut down on cost.

Traditionally STDs go out about 6 months so I cut it a few weeks early but I figured we're only going to be getting busier and our wedding is close to the holidays I wanted to give people plenty of warning and get these suckers in the mail!

I used a program on my computer called Comic Life to design them which was super easy to use. You select your picture and then add text boxes for all the rest. It took me quite a while to decide on a picture and final wording but I am so happy with how they turned out. In case you were wondering, the two fonts are JB Cursive and Pharmacy and I downloaded them both for free. (Lots of sites have them)

Once the design was finalized I exported the file to iPhoto and cropped it to 4x6 dimmensions just to ensure that nothing would get cut out on accident. I wanted to make them into a fridge magnent of some sort but couldn't find any for the price I wanted to spend so instead I had them printed as simple 4x6 photos from Target. I had a coupon that I thought was for 50% off and I'm still irked at the employees I worked with that day but oh well.

I had 50 photos printed at $0.15 each so I spent a total of $7.50 on the STDs themselves. They were mailed in standard A6 white envelopes from Staples that come 50 in a box for $8.50. Add on $20 for stamps and I spent a grand total of $36 to DIY my STDs!

They designed exactly how I wanted them and they were also a great deal. I personalized them even further by stamping a cute "Happily Ever After" stamp across the seal of the envelope in navy. I'm still in the deciding process of what I want to do when it comes to our formal invites but after all the success I had with this project I can bet I'll be DIYing again for those as well. I'm also planning on doing a similar project for our table numbers (based off something I loved from Pinterest) and I can't wait to get started on those!

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly [V4]

[The Good]

1. Progress with our wedding is in full swing and I couldn't be more excited. Between buying shoes that will hopefully be perfect with my dress, sending out Save the Dates on Monday, bridesmaids going shopping for their dresses soon, and working on a gift registry for a shower in the fall, this wedding really is starting to become real. Thanks to The Knot for keeping track for me, we are officially in the hundreds (198) for days until the BIG DAY and I'm loving every minute of it.

2. J and I have been hitting the gym hard in the last few months and I am pretty proud. (definitely more of him than of myself but hey!) We joined a small gym by our house and it seems to be the perfect place for us. It's not huge in the sense that it's always crowded and no one's friendly but not too small either because there are still classes for me to take and plently of equipment to go around. We're motivated by the wedding and figured it was time to start now. My goal was to get into better shape in general and have more muscle but in the process I've lost around 5 lbs so far. J is the impressive one though and has lost close to 50lbs! I am so, so proud of him and so happy that he is living a healthy and active lifestyle. Now I really can't wait to see him in that tux!

3. My poppies are finally blooming and I absolutely love them! It took way longer than I thought for them to actually start making flowers but they're here now and they're the perfect shade of orange and every day I swear there's another 10 flowers blooming out there. And to think they just grew from seeds from Home Depot! Maybe I do have a bit of a green thumb. Let's hope my newly planted herbs do as well.

[The Bad]

1. Application cycle is in full swing again this summer which means lots of writing, talking about myself, editing, editing and more editing, stress and hoping that this time I will finally be on my way to med school. It's been a long process getting to this point and I'm hoping that I have what it takes this time around. Finding the motivation after a full day at work and an hour at the gym is definitely tough but I just have to keep telling myself it's all worth it in the end.

2. June Gloom is in full effect here in San Diego and I'm already over it. For some reason living closer to the ocean sets the onset of summer back a ways. While other people back home are enjoying 80 and 90 degree weather, we've had fog, sprinkling rain and 60's. I was cold enough in work today that I went to my car to get my sweatshirt this morning. I'm ready for summer, hitting the beach, starting on my tan and enjoying fruity drinks! (Not that I'll have time for all that but I can dream, right?) This bev is definitely one of the first ones I want to make soon...

Source: delightfully-tacky.com via Jayme on Pinterest

[The Ugly]

1. Yesterday I had one of the most horrible doctors appointments of my life. I had to go in for a regular physical and some standard tests and left the office crying. I will admit that I did go into the office a little crabby hesitant because of problems I've had connecting my medical records from Colorado to California but the Nurse Practitioner I had my appointment with was horrible. She told me I couldn't have certain things done "because I wasn't using the health system like I was supposed to" and it wasn't her fault I wasn't responsible. She refused to give me tests because "why would someone your age need them?" She wouldn't listen to what I had to say, didn't care when I told her about previous symptoms I've had and left the room after saying "well I guess we're done here". I was completely and utterly shocked.

2. The raccoons are in full force around our house lately. After something got attacked by them Sunday night, we've been taking note of any and all commotion in the back yard. Well we finally saw them all; momma and her four babies. And boy is she mean! J went out on the patio to look at them and she froze in her tracks and gave him a look like she meant business. They're kinda hard to see since I was trying to take pictures at 10pm in the dark, with scary raccoons hissing at me and a dog that just wanted to get out and play with them but if you look closely you can see all four babies to the right of momma! Normally I don't care about things like this but raccoons can be so nasty that I definitely don't like having them around.

Weekend Recap

After a week/end with my mom in town last week it was nice to have some time with my just my two boys this past weekend.  I worked a little late on Friday and then we spent a quiet night at home, watching movies on TV and grilling for dinner.

J got up nice and early to hit the gym while I slept in and ran a few errands in the morning, complete with a Starbucks and doughnut run! I've really been meaning to get back in the swing of things with going to the gym after taking about a week off but I'll start today. (hopefully!) While my mom was in town we got our Save The Dates printed from Target (more details about those to come) and I picked up some clearance markers from Staples to address the envelopes with. 

I camped out on the couch when I got home to start the process of addressing the envelopes. I had to handwrite our address on the back of each envelope and make sure I had everything correct for the fronts. We have so many friends getting married this summer it was hard not to address these to "Mr & Mrs ____" already! J helped me stuff the envelopes and even did most of the licking for me. I can't stand the taste of envelope glue so he was a huge help!

Once they were all finished we took a lunch date to Panera and enjoyed the nice weather sitting on the patio as we ate. We ran a few other errands and came home for a relaxing day spent watching TV and reading my book.

Sunday morning was spent snuggling with my sweetest pup and then taking him to the vet for his annual check-up. This big boy weighs 88lbs now and just like always, all the staff at the vet commented on how sweet and calm he is.

We brough our boy home and headed out to lunch (again) but this time for good mexican. I always say I'm going to order something different but like usual I went with my favorite, the California burrito. I spent a little while working on application stuff when we got home but eventually gave up because I was uncomfortable. I've been using one of our kitchen chairs as a desk chair and it's just not the best so we headed to IKEA to fix the problem. One desk chair, a set of forks (we somehow always run out of them) and some new glasses later we were home drinking margaritas and assembling my chair. I thought I would get more work done but decided to make our favorite Spicy Shrimp recipe for dinner and call it a night.

J and I usually got to bed pretty early, I love my sleep and he gets up before 5am but last night was a little rough. Ollie always lays on the bed with us before we go to sleep and around midnight he ended up getting sick. We thought he was acting funny, then he suddenly started dry-heaving to which I pushed him off then bed (I feel bad about that but it had to be done) and we spent a good 30-45 min cleaning up and comforting our sick boy. We made him sleep in the guest bathroom and he seems to be doing okay today but we're going to take him back to the vet just to be sure.

THEN, around 3am, J and I woke up to the sound of animal screaming/fighting out our window. My first thought was a dog fight but after a while it seemed like something was being attacked. We have had an issue with possums and raccoons before and we think a neighbors dog was getting attacked. It was actually pretty scary because it sounded so violent! Needless to say we're both pretty exhausted this morning so hopefully Monday doesn't decide to be too difficult.

Hiking in So Cal

J and I have found a new hobby. 

It's something that we've done a few times before (both together and apart) but now it's something that's adding to our efforts of being healthier and more active. 

This is how we spent most of our Memorial Day Weekend.

(J just about peed his pants when we came up on this guy) 

 ___________________________________________________________

In total we hiked for about 5 hours, totaling near 12 miles on the two trips. Who knew there'd be hiking like this in Southern CA. It might be a few weekends till we're able to get back out but I can't wait for more adventures with my love.