Engagement Party Banner

Wedding planning has been going quite well. I still manage to stress out about it, but am trying to stay level-headed. We are 8 months away and so far we have: Our Venue, so we also have our Caterer, Bar and Cake included. I have a good friend already doing my make up, and another good friend on as my Day of Coordinator. I also found my dress, which was unexpected and very exciting!  It was the first day shopping, with a Bridesmaid and my mom, at the Brides Against Breast Cancer event.  They tour around the country taking donations from Brides and Bridal Boutiques. I had thought it would be fun, low pressure, and a good cause, so we went, and I found it!  It was a brand new, custom Christina Wu! Completely perfect, we got a great deal and $.78/$1 goes to all forms of cancer, research and support for patents.  It was so much fun and I am so proud I found my Dress there! I also already ordered my Save the Dates! Those should arrive any day.

Didn't mean for this whole blog to be self congratulatory, I am honestly surprised I am so far ahead of the game. I am filming all of September, so it's a huge relief to have most of those tasks checked off. We are behind on a few things, DJ/Band research, we have a registry but it's pretty wimpy and we have more places we want to register. Haven't selected our Honeymoon location, which we need to do soon, and we know who we want to officiate, but haven't asked, for no real reason.  This week the big task is room blocking, lots of people are wanting to make their reservations, and we are talking with the hotel, I just have to estimate the room number.
Then we can get on to fun things, like centerpieces, flowers and dresses. I am looking forward to detail picking!

We had an Engagement party, which was so much fun! If you are or get engaged and don't know if you should have one, I say do it! We were on the fence and some family friends offered to host, so we took them up on it. It really gave us incentive to pick a venue and a date, ask our wedding party, and register for at least a few things. I credit that with us being in such good shape scheduling wise, it's certainly not my expertise at procrastination. It was also great for starting a guest list (we had about 70ppl, invited 100)as well as great practice for planning a party, menu, decorations, desserts and learning what you can and can't do yourself. It also gave my an idea of how fast the Wedding is going to fly by. I talked to lots of people, but not everyone, and I don't really feel like I talked to anyone! I did make a fun banner and some cool cigar boxes for our gift table for Cards etc. Which took up more time that was probably necessary, but was lots of fun!

Merci!

More Chalkboards

Done a few more boards.  I am pretty comfortable with these fonts, looking at perfecting more fonts, and amping up my ability to create graphic designs with words. My main focus is to make the most important information, the easiest to read, and create a flow for the viewer.

Updated the Chaya Events board, I left the main top stuff the same and redid the rest for their new events. Pardon the location I was working in the storage room during business hours.

I also had lots of fun making the welcome sign for Vanessa and John's 4th of July Wedding!

I have been getting more serious about event boards and chalk boards.  I did them here and there for the store and for Gus's BBQ when I hosted there, and always really liked it and got great responses.  An opportunity came up for me to do some regularly, and I am really enjoying it.  I decided I should start to compile some samples here for people to check out.  So here we are. The first one is a mirror board with chalk pens, and the second is actual chalk, which I think I rather prefer

 And here are both of them.

Social Media Etiquette/Demand MORE of Your Status Update

It struck me while engaging in debates on Facebook about why people insist on spoiling a huge TV event (like a Game of Thrones season finale, or any episode for that matter) Personally I think there is something subconscious at work, and if you are someone who does that regularly, I think you should do some sincere soul searching as to why you want to ruin that for others who might be at work, or out of town and had to DVR it and can't watch it. Or if your intent isn't to ruin it, then why do you knowingly do so? To preface, I live on the West Coast but I get the East Coast feed from Direct TV.  So while I don't have that problem, a lot of West Coasters get inadvertently screwed by East Coasters who get the feed first.  Most of us have learned to avoid the internet, but sometimes it's hard, you forget, or as I said, you are on a business trip, or at a wedding and can't watch it but are still on social media for work/posting wedding updates.  Not a crime.

So, we got into a cause and effect debate.  Is the spoiler poster responsible for the negative reaction of the friend to their innocuous post, intended to engage in a discussion about the spoiled event with others who already watched, if the friend happens on social media before watching the event?  ie: Jill watches Walking Dead and makes a blatant spoiler post to get a conversation going with friends.  Eugene is posting some photos of the wedding he is at, and sees Jill's spoilers.  He's recording Walking Dead at Home because his buddy asked him to be best man.  Who's fault is it?  Both in my opinion.  Woops Eugene, you should've known better, and dang it Jill, did you have to say something as obvious as "No, not Dale!! He was my favorite character!! Damn you Walking Dead!"  I say they are both responsible.  It's not all Eugene or Jill's fault.

One might say Jill is entirely blameless, and many have, but here is where I think those people are wrong.  Jill has done this several times on her page and people get really mad every time, and have asked her to not do that.  So, Jill by now is knowingly engaging in behavior she knows pisses people off, not just on her page but everyone she knows who has posted a spoiler has made a hand-full of people mad. 1x fine but more than once and Jill has to have some responsibility here.

I think we have reached a time for establishing some Social Media Etiquette.

~Those who can't watch a show or event when it is on, must accept the consequences of not avoiding social media from 2 hours before the event begins (at least) until they are caught up.  Surf at your own risk.
~Likewise those wishing to engage in conversations about big events should seek out less disruptive ways to do so, or if they insist on doing it on Social Media then find a way to make it more vague.  "I am heartbroken!" perhaps a better option to literally calling out Dale as the one who died, or even that anyone dies at all. " I did not see that coming!  Not sure I will even want to watch this show anymore now" I think also acceptable.
I have tons of friends who can have entire discussions, carefully worded to not ruin it for everyone else.  I actually think that is more fun, like a neat secret code talk. It's certainly more creative than, "Why did they kill JR!!!?"  let's be honest, that is just a boring post, put some effort in.
(Please note, I used old spoilers from shows nobody cares about anymore because it's amusing, and doesn't exclude people who don't know what happened on the season finale of Game of Thrones last night!  I mean seriously, if my above spoilers ruined something for you then this article is a waste of your time)

I get wanting to discuss shows with people, and there are tons of forums that might have better discussions, but private FB groups are an option, or post "PM me if you watched Game of Thrones!"  Personally I usually watch shows like that with other people for just that reason, so we can process our grief, make speculations. A lot of the time I, cautiously, go on forums of people caught up on the books, read theories and speculations.

I just think we need to all accept responsibility for our own negligence in getting things spoiled and for spoiling them.  Perfect example, anyone who has read the books could have spoiled everything for everyone long ago.  They didn't, hats off to them, that is classy in my opinion.  Because they understand a story must be experienced in sequence, they respect that.

(obviously, I think one side has more responsibility than another, but I also see that the other side has total validity and should be respected, feel free to comment and engage in this discussion, but please do so in the spirit of debate and conversation not with the intent to get anyone to abandon their opinion and declare you "right" AND feel free to come up with more Unspoken/maybe need to be spoken Etiquette for Social Media.  I think we really need some)

Ridiculously Overdue Update

Got Engaged last month!  So now I decided I will use this to share what I learn on my journey to planning this thing, which I really have no idea how to do.  
Right now I am in the midst of finding a location.  Everyone wants to know a date, and am I looking for a dress but I have discovered your hands are really tied until you have a venue.  Also, many of the checklists I find, and planning guides tell you to: first - set a date, second - find a venue, then third - make a guest list!  Anyone else find that backwards?  I really can only guess at the size of the guest list, and what kind of venue(s) I need once I know how many people I plan to invite, and I can't set a date until I find said venue and book what they have available.  So, that is where I am at.  I just thought I would put that advice out in the world.  Obviously you want to have a ballpark idea of a time of year/preferred dates if you have specific ones you want, but really you can't set one without knowing your venue will be available.
Anyway, all of that aside, I am very excited and we have some great ideas, many of which will probably be DIY, so I will be brag posting as that stuff gets done, yay!
Thanks for reading.

"Love give me strength, and strength shall help afford."

"They are but beggars that can count their worth

For my true love has grown to such excess

I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth."

                               ~Juliet

This last weekend I had the honor of playing Juliet.  I stepped in for 2 nights with Shakespeare by the Sea for their Juliet, who is wonderful, and had a wedding to go to those nights. (they have 1 more week, check them out if you can, it's a great group!)  I found out about the role from a friend from theater school, who referred me, only to discover I knew 2 people involved in this production, from various other theater jobs I've done.  Very serendipitous!

I have avoided working on Juliet, for years, possibly all of the time I have worked on Shakespeare which would be about 16 years, maybe more.  When I did work on it in class, I would choose lighter stuff, staying away from the "Potion Meltdown" monologue and the overdone "Gallop apace..." speech.  She intimidated the crap out of me!  Yet I knew that the role is dead center of my wheel house as an actress.  When this opportunity arose, I grabbed it, going headlong into fears, but also knowing that I feel I have the tools now to address this role in a way that would keep me from having any end result ideas of the character, and possibly knowing I have the safety net of stepping in for someone else who is already playing it.  If I do what she does I won't be off track.  It also helped that the director, and actress playing Juliet had the same idea of the character, as I do.  She's not a worried, sighing, waifish victim.  She's clever, and pragmatic with a delightful sense of humor and irony.  He doesn't fall in love with just a pretty face or an icon, they are whole, people, adorable and fun people.

I also had the good fortune to work on one of the monologues with Alfred Molina, who occasionally does a Shakespeare intensive with the New American Theatre, where I am a member.  This certainly gave me incredible insight to the character, and how to approach the text in general.  Beside that, I have a helpful and insightful boyfriend who helped me run lines, in fact I think he just liked reading Lord Capulet, Friar Lawrence and Romeo... and the Nurse.  But he also liked keeping me from having "I don't know my lines and never will" meltdowns like I had on our trip to Chicago when I would work on it, any time we were traveling by plane or train.  Thanks to all of this, the support and help of the director and the cast, I felt I had it, and would be fine.

Now I have never really been horribly nervous, or had a bout of stage fright, knock on wood- but Friday I woke up with total nausea and racing heart, which only served to make me more nervous.  I was much better by show time, and other than juxtaposing some things and leaving out a couple chunks of lines, I did great.  By Saturday I was calm, what could go wrong had, and I fixed all my mistakes from the night before, I did bite it pretty good going up some steps in the Friar/Paris scene, which made it hard not to laugh, and hard to concentrate for the whole scene, but anyone would've fallen, and some others did I guess...
All of this is not to fish for more compliments, you all have been generous with those, but to express the surprising journey I went on. I went from dreading every playing her, yet wanting to, and I had a great time, and now I want to play her again and again, the way men want to play Hamlet and Macbeth.  And I think that is exciting.  If I had a bucket list, "Play Juliet at least once while I can" would've been on  it.  I am so grateful for the opportunity, to work with such delightful actors, and for all the amazing support from family and friends who came out those 2 nights to see me!  It was all a very moving experience.

"My Bounty is as boundless as the sea
My Love as deep.  The more I give to thee
The more I have, for both are infinite."
                     ~Juliet

Playing in the Dirt: Part 7 Winter Farming

So no, I haven't given up on the gardens!  They took a beating in the wind, but nature finds a way.  These are from the Boy's garden, the veggies at Mom's are doing well, we have some starter plants too so I will do that update all at once.  So here's the progress on the boy's garden.  The Tomatoes (not pictured) are still going crazy, I seemed to have solved the grasshopper issue, I think, with some insect soap.  I'm still having trouble getting any Artichoke seeds to last, they sprout but don't make it beyond 3 inches tall.  I may have to get a plant in the spring.

Of the 6 sugar snap peas, 3 are really doing well, and one in particular (pictured left) more than the rest.  To the right of it is a pole bean that planted itself from my previous pole bean plant!

 It's been a long road for this eggplant, but it's survivied and now seems really happy, and looks like we might get a few eggplants!

 Of the 12 or so swiss chard seeds I planted this one is the only one that made it, I want to plant more because it's so pretty and delicious.  More of the seeds I planted at home took, but they are 1/4 the size of this one.

 I planted at couple rows of mixed lettuce at both houses and all of them are doing great!

 I planted more Garlic at the boy's, he loves his garlic, as do I and it's coming along well, an exercise in patience garlic is.

Not the most exciting post ever, but I was overdue for an update and I have to say, I had read that the beauty of gardening in California is that we don't have to stop in winter, and it's true!  Looking forward to some weekend rain for my little green friends!

Merci!

~Chelsea