1 Down, 999 Left to Go

I actually saw the idea for 1000 cranes on one of the TLC channel wedding shows, though I can't remember which one. The couple had strings of cranes as a back drop to the alter where they said their vows. (They had color coordinated cranes, of course. Mine will be rainbow and random, but that's how I am.)  The idea stuck with me, and I did a bit of research to see what the idea was about.

The ancient Japanese tradition of senbazuru promises that a person who folds 1000 cranes will be granted a wish, such as long life or recovery from illness. Many times a family or group of people come together to accomplish this labor of love.

 I thought that it was a wonderful tradition, and really touched some of Kev's love of Japanese culture. This big issue was the fact that I absolutely suck at spatial activities, and knew nothing about origami other than it seemed intimidating. Luckily, I'm like a bulldog when I have an idea and decided that I could do this project. Kev gave me a fairly unenthusiastic "OK" which I took as total buy in and a dedication to work on this nightly with me. :p

Step one was to find the right kind of paper. We had randomly run to Walmart for some reason, and I looked all over the store for it there. No luck. We picked up his Mom from the bus station (she had come down from Helena to hang out with us for the weekend.) On our way home, I made them stop at the mall, so that I could get the paper from Joanne's. I stuck out again, all I could find was 12x12 card stock which didn't seem right to me. Finally, I had the bright idea of walking down to Barnes and Noble and getting one of those origami gift set. It turns out that I could get an entire set and a book of how to fold stuff for $9.


*I had to put down the computer and go rescue the cheesecake from Maki, the devil dog. I have no idea why he thinks it is ok to get on the counter and try to get stuff. Grrrr!!*


Back to my story... I got my gift set, and headed back to the car where Kev was giving me weird looks wondering why I had a huge box in my arms when I went in for paper.
We got home and I got distracted with a million cleaning projects before finally sitting down to give the folding a try. The book had drawings and instructions that supposedly a child could follow, aka confusing as hell. It took me 45 minutes, but finally I produced this battered work of art.

The 2nd one that I made actually looks worse than the first.

Sad crane is sad, or has a broken neck.

Kev's mom gave it a try and produced our third one. She thinks it looks like the Loch Ness Monster, and I think it looks waaaay better than mine.

See? Her yellow one looks awesome!

Our Wish - I'm still thinking about this, do we want a lifetime of love or a lifetime of happiness??

What would you wish for?

Catching up....

Hey Guys!
It's been super busy over here lately.... The Get-Fit challenge is over halfway done! Here is a synopsis of the past few weeks...

I know, so exciting right??? I haven't seem much of a difference, but I am stronger. It seems that most people I know can't do pushups on dumbells with lat pulls, which I can do quite a few of now :)

Other updates - we found a wedding photographer! You can check them out here. They're pretty awesome and fun to hang out with....

Oh! and I made home made beef pot pies on Saturday. (I would give you a recipe but I just kinda went for it without one.)

Yum!

And.... it's Mingle Monday time again.... 

This week's question is: 

What is the best movie you've rented or seen in theaters recently? 

I'm going to have to go with Chronicle. I saw Ghost Rider and Woman in Black, but Chronicle was far better than either of those.... I'll try to get some reviews up this week, energy permitting!

Cheers!
Mei

Eyebrow Update

After several scrubbings this morning, and then again after my workout, I feel like they are looking better. That and the fact that people at work are not pointing and laughing.....

Just because someone wants to dye your eyebrows doesn't mean you should let them

Hi Guys! I had a great wedding planning and wedding stuff night! I'm getting the chance to write this while I wait to see if I have been able to fix a bad decision.... The night started off so well, we met with Genevieve, a potential wedding planner and she was AWESOME. She felt the wedding mojo we are trying to create and ran with it. She rocks! Following that, I went to an event with my Personal Attendant (is that what we are currently calling you Liz?).

The event was super fun! There were drawings for free stuff and I won a bottle of champagne and a $25 gift certificate to the pole dancing fitness place in town!

There was also a spa group there, Synergy Medical Spa. They had places set up for massages, parafin dips, and..... makeup. I thought to myself, hey, Kev would love it if I came home looking like a girl. I walked over to Lyndsay and she suggested we try tinting my eyebrows. I said OK, figuring it couldn't look too bad...

Taken in between eyebrow applications so we knew the starting  point...

We let the dye set in while I did a paraffin hand dip....

Eventually they took it off and decided that we should go darker (the color simply made my white eyebrows look dirty.). This was not the best decision. I came out looking like a cartoon. The only response that I had to the reveal was, "wow, that's different." It was startling, it was disturbing.

The eyebrows made me pick the leopard hat...

I did schedule my first fitting with the seamstress at my favorite place before heading home... Something productive, YAY :)

Since I usually avoid looking in mirrors, I forgot how horrible the eyebrows looked. I helped Kev with his coffee table project, and since it took him a while to notice the eyebrows, I figured they weren't as bad as I thought. WRONG! I went and looked in the mirror. They were crazy. I immediately started to attempt to get the dye off....

Solution 1: Hydrogen Peroxide applied directly to eyebrow. 

It seemed to rub a little bit off, but no real obvious effect. 

At this point I did a little bit of research on google and combined a few of the common remedies for this issue.

Solution 2: All Free and Clear laundry detergent mixed with anti-dandruff shampoo and applied to the brows and left to sit for 30 minutes. 

Shortly after the application of solution 1. Note that my eyebrows usually match my eyelashes...

I wanted to make sure that something was really happening, so I added more possible solutions. 

Solution 2.5: Mix clarifying shampoo and baking soda and applied weird textured goo to eyebrows on top of previous solution. 

Minute 11: My skin is fairly itchy.

I rinsed and it looked like this:

They seemed like they might be getting a little bit lighter??? or it could be that the skin around them is getting far redder.... Obviously, it's time for solution 3. Solution 3: Clarifying shampoo and baking soda. This mixture immediate starts burning. I will attempt to deal with it for 30 minutes. I rinsed and it looked like this:

Maybe looking a bit better?????

I decided to try something that I knew takes pet stains and smells out of carpet, a product called Sol-u-Mel. It is supposed to be safe enough that you can drink it, so I figure that it can't hurt me too much.

Solution 4: Applying full strength, undiluted Sol-u-Mel to my eyebrows. It immediately burned, not unlike the hydrogen peroxide, but has now settled down into a semi pleasant burn. I figure I'll leave this on for ~30 minutes and see how it goes. It soaked in and doesn't feel like it needs to be rinsed out, but I'll rinse at that point anyway.... I'll update after my next rinse....

Do you think it looks like it's getting any better????

My next step is to put a bunch of lotion on my eyebrows 'cause my skin hurts........ Night!

The Fun and Not So Fun

I'm starting to get into the swing of things with wedding planning now.... kinda. Some of it is fun, and some of it is not so fun....
Fun - Taking an overnight trip to order the last of the bridesmaid dresses
Not so fun - Finding out that my wedding dress has still not shipped
Not so fun - Seeing a version of my dress for the first time in 7 months and trying it on two sizes too small, then panicking
Fun - Drinking champagne in the hot tub at our hotel
Fun - Looking for first dance songs that aren't super lame. Here are some of the ones that I might consider. 


Oldies but Goodies — along the same lines of "At Last"

• The Beach Boys "God Only Knows" (hear it)
• Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On" (hear it) (because it's funny...)

Sexy Romantic

• Ben Folds' "The Luckiest" (hear it)
• Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" (hear it)
• Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You" (hear it)

Wonky 'n Fun

• Adam Sandler's "I Wanna Grow Old With You" (hear it)
• The Velvet Underground's "I'm Sticking with You" (hear it)
• Sam Hart's "Mario Kart Love Song" (hear it)

Indie

• Jon Brion's "Here We Go" (hear it)
• The Cure's "Friday I'm in Love" (hear it)
• Bright Eyes' "First Day of my Life" (hear it)
• Nick Drake's "Northern Sky" (hear it)

Jazzin' — 

• Sara Gazarek's "Makes Me Feel This Way" (hear it) or her version of "You Are My Sunshine" (hear it)
• Kurt Elling's "I Feel So Smoochie" (hear it)
• Jamie Cullum's "I Think, I Love" (hear it)
• Renee Olstead's " A Love That Will Last" (hear it)

Other Stuff

• Barry Louis Polisar's "All I Want Is You" (hear it)
• "The Way I Am." (hear it)
• "Hallelujah" cover by Jeff Buckley (hear it)
• Accidentally in Love by the Counting Crows. Its fun and up beat. (hear it)
• Adele's cover of Dylan's Make You Feel My Love (hear it).
• Queen's "You're My Best Friend" (hear it)
• "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" by Death Cab For Cutie(hear it)
• "I'm Yours" from Jason Mraz (hear it)
• Lucky–Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat (hear it) - cheesy
• Sean Hayes 'When We Fall In'  (hear it)
• "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica  (hear it)

What first dance suggestions do you have for me??
Special thanks to my new favorite site for the list of songs that don't suck too much! Off Beat Bride