mmm shiney, sparkley… equals FUN!

8 mm Films

I really had no thoughts about getting a videographer for our wedding but this really changed my mind… I love how the videographer’s music and especially the shot of the groom as he is looking down the aisle waiting to see his bride and the shot of his happiness when he does finally gets a glimpse of her. Precious.  The coolest part was the "transition music" when you finally see the bride walking in with her father. Amazing.

The best wedding toast ever!

The next few minutest you spend watching this video clip is well worth it.  Talk about originality and creativity and most importantly love and friendship.  I still have tears in my eyes from watching this and the biggest grin ever!

click on this link to see it!

the benniferiezer

tee hee… Daniel + Quynh = Quniel.  too cute!

see link.

The whole wedding DIY is in full swing.  I have been so busy with stamping, embossing, folding and beading - I can’t wait to be done and say - yay I’m done. No more crafting for a long time!

On the other hand, I am going to get my dress hemmed and maybe put some cap sleeves on it.  I can’t wait. The dress is beautiful and it is very very sweet.  The only problem - I need to lose like 15 lbs - like pronto. hahah

Here’s a sneak preview of one of engagement photos and theme of our wedding - lots and lots of paper crane actions going on.  I love it.

Free Latte Friday at McDs

I was reading this article from the Seattlest and they mention how Starbucks was debuting their new blend and how McDs is starting a four week promotion, "Free Latte Friday."

You know the funny thing - finding a McD is much much harder to find then a Starbucks.  It’s really strange.  I know all the Starbucks in my area and then some, but if you ask me right now for a McDonald - I couldn’t tell off the top of my head except for the two on the west side, one in lower Queen Anne and one in Ballard.  But that doesn’t do me any good since now I am a east sider!  Seattle is not conducive to fast food or big chain restaurants you have to travel a bit to get to one.

So it looks like my next venture is going in the Beauty Industry.  There have been talks and going back and forth…and I think things will firm up in the next few months.  I’ll keep you posted.  haha I never thought I would go into this industry.  More thoughts later.

haha I love this chair

I’ve started looking for patio furniture and stumble across this great piece at Pottery Barn.  Kind of expensive at $1299 - but a really fun and different piece to have on the balcony.

This morning I met up with my group and I have to say what a slob I am compared to them.  We were discussing our one year goals and I concluded that I really need to step it up and get myself back on track.  I feel like I fell on the wayside and need to refocus my life and get some detailed goals set in concrete.  One guy did a fantastic job. I was really impress with him and decided to copy his methodology.  He had a detailed 25 goals listed out plus he had a motivation column and then repercussion to them if he failed that goal.  It was ingenious.  

We also set another book to read that I haven’t read in a long time - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey.  We plan to break it down into smaller sections and spread it out over five months. I’m looking forward to discussing and hearing their opinions on this book.

I just booked the Mallette String Quartet for our wedding reception.  I think they will add a nice feel to the beginning of the wedding.  I also plan to utilize my future brother in law and get him to play his ipod for the latter part of the fun evening so we can all get down and boogie!

Yesterday we just had our engagement photo done and we decided to do it at Pike’s Place Market.  I was very happy with the different locations and backdrops that our photographers ended up using.  I can’t wait to see them next week.  After the shoot, we meet up with Myra and Peter and we ate at Steelhead Diner in Pike’s Place.  It was delicious.  I had the Gabe’s Vegetable Chili and Fried Hominy Cakes.  It was so tasty.  We decided we were all going back soon for dinner.

If you do go here - definitely order the Flash Fried Beecher’s Cheese Curds with the hot sweet mustard vinaigrette and their house tarter sauce.  It was good. 

We also had the Jumbo Lump Dungeness Crab Cake.  It was chalk full of big meaty crab meat.  It was spiced and cooked well.  One other thing that they did well there is fried items.  We had fried oysters and fries and they was perfectly fried - golden and crispy.  We all concluded they had an amazing person frying all their food.  I just love fried food. Yum. Darn that I am on a diet right now for the wedding.

House Preview

So here’s our new home…we love it! and can’t wait to move in.

Here’s the back of the townhouse, view of the balcony and garage

The garage is my favorite part of the house, well beside the kitchen of course!  It’s huge! Fits two cars comfortably and plus have lots of room for extra storage, since Dan is a such a pat rack!  He’s already thinking of putting together a workshop down there to do some of his projects.

Here’s the awesome kitchen: gas stove of course! I can’t wait to start cooking on it and making these amazing meals for everyone.

Living room with a peek of the dining area

Check out these bad boys… tee hee - aren’t they awesome!

So this is where we will be living after May 18th.   We have relative no furnitures yet but we been looking at dining room tables and found a really great one.  It seats four comfortable and expands out to fit eight maybe 10 people if we sit tight.  Yay for big dinner parties!  Another great feature of this place - lots of great street parking in a very comfortable neighborly area for our all visitors.

The world’s 50 most powerful blogs

From the Guardian.  Not surprising, Boing Boing and engadget is on the list.

Guess what!? I’m buying a house, well Dan and I are buying a house.  We put down our earnest money yesterday and just had the house inspection this morning, and the inspector said this is probably one of the cleanest house he have ever inspected.  We got a clean bill and hopefully in two months we will close and move into our new little home.

I’m so excited and happy!  2008 has been an incredible year for me - so many wonderful and happy experiences.  I love it!

Paper Cranes

UuBu

I have to introduce the new member to the family: UuBu.  He is so cute, don’t you think?  I just love his colors of yellowey, orangey, reddishey spots.  He makes me ubber happy and I hope he will be happy here and continue to bloom his bubble flowers.  If you touch him - his petals feel exactly like a big bubble gum’s bubble, and his babies are so cute and tiny - they have bubbles too!  He is called a Calceolaria, or a Ladies’ purse.

Here’s some quick tips to keep your Calceolaria happy:

- They like cooler temperatures (50 to 60 degrees F night temperature

- Bright light is great for them but not direct sunlight

- Keep soil moist at all times - to water employ the immersion method

- Stand plant on a pebble tray with water - right now I have him in a pot with pebbles inside and a little bit of water on the bottom. Make sure your little guy is not standing in water - they don’t like that.

- After they stop blooming - reduce the watering and you can start with a 20-20-20 fertilizer.