Cards for Satori

I made this card for Satori after hearing her story from her mom on Twitter.  Here's what she has to say.

Her story below as written by her mom:

"For those of you who don't know me, my name is Melissa Lewis, Haut Totes on Etsy, as well as Hauttotes on twitter.My 10 year old daughter Satori has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (type II) She uses a power wheelchair, can't walk, crawl, etc. Despite that she's a rock star!! She has a super sense of humor, gets straight A's even though she misses an average of 40 days of school a year! She's a great sister & daughter & a fantastic person all around. Because she is so physically weak her body doesn't hold its self up well and she has developed severe scoliosis. The curve of her spine it is now starting to crush her lung, so on March 31 she will have full spinal fusion. They will open her back from the neck all the way down, insert 2 titanium rods, one on either side of her spine, wire the whole thing up and place donor bone in between all the vertebrae. Eventually it will all grow together "fusing" her spine into one long bone. We are traveling to California to have this done, with an estimated stay in the hospital of 7-10 days. I am hoping to get people to send her postcards from all over. I think that the messages (and pictures) will be fun for her. I also plan to take an atlas and have her mark off states and countries (sneaking in a little geography). We have great insurance, a FANTASTIC surgeon and a world renowned hospital!!**Satori is not in need of anything more than some fun messages and exiting postmarks!**"

Original blog post: http://postcardsforsatori.blogspot.com/

This is how the post card should be addressed:

Satori Lewis

Surgery date 3-31-10

Davis 7 Pediatrics

UC Davis Children's Hospital

2315 Stockton Blvd.

Sacramento, CA 95817 USA

**Be sure to include the surgery date**

 

If you've got some time to make a card, or you have a card or postcard laying around, send one out to her.  She'll be in the hospital for awhile after her surgery so this will give her something to do.  Remember how fun getting mail was when you were a kid?!  Help make her stay more enjoyable.

I Ordered My Veil!

MR. T.....THIS POST IS NOT FOR YOUR EYES....IT CONTAINS PICTURES OF ME IN MY DRESS, AND I KNOW YOU REALLY DON'T WANT TO SEE IT, NOR DO I WANT YOU TO!

This last trip home to IL, I was there for three weeks, and I took another trip down to Champaign to try on my dress again, pay it off, and bring it home.  My mom and Mr. T's mom were able to go with me and we made a night of it by going to Olive Garden afterwards.  Mr. T's mom had never been there before and she absolutely loved it!

A few weeks before my dress came in, I decided that I was going to attempt to make my own veil, because the one I had my heart set on cost about $200.  I figured if I got the right tulle it wouldn't be hard to do, it would just take a lot of time to bead the edges.  So I stopped and got some tulle from JoAnn's and went about cutting out the two layers.  Basically I just laid it out on the floor, folded in half lengthwise and cut a large "U" shape into it.  Then I sewed a running stitch at the top and pulled it tight so it gathered.  I made two layers, and sewed them together onto a comb and brought it down to try on with my dress.
At home I didn't think it was too bad, but when I tried it on with the dress I knew it wasn't going to work.  Compared to the veil I wanted, the tulle was much thicker/coarser/heavier/whatever and it was much fuller as well.  I knew I could have looked for a more delicate tulle and started over since I hadn't put much time into it, but I didn't want to take off the veil in the store, and my mom told me to go ahead and just order it.
It seems like now, some things are just a drop in the hat when you think about the overall budget.  My parents are being absolutely amazing about this wedding and I feel spoiled, but in a good way.  So now my veil is on order and I'm just waiting for it to come in!

Wanna see??  Of course you do, after listening to that long and boring story.

The third picture is the same veil, but in a single layer.  I decided to go with the double layer because I really think I'd like to wear it in front of my face while walking down the aisle.  Might as well go all out right?!

This is one project I'm glad I switched from the DIY list to the buy list.  One less project I have to do, and I know it will turn out perfectly.

Gifts for the Groomsmen

Mr. T has five guys standing up beside him on the day of our wedding.  His two brothers, a friend from grade school, and two guys he played football with at U of I.  They all mean a lot to him, and for the longest time we couldn't think of a good way to thank them for everything.
I wanted to leave the gifts up to him, since they were his brothers and friends, and he should know best what they would like/enjoy.  But he wasn't really coming up with anything, and I couldn't think of much either.  We popped into Things Remembered once and took a look at flasks and beer mugs, but just couldn't get on board with that idea. 
Then I thought it might be nice for them all to have a pair of Crocs that they could wear at the reception.  I said black, but Mr. T said since he and his brothers already have camo ones, that we should get the other three camo Crocs to match.  I was on board.  I even pulled them at work in the sizes we would need, and found a little pair for our ringbearer too.

But then I came up with a different idea and ran it past him.  Bean bag boards.  He was totally on board.  Yup, I signed up my dad to build 5 sets and my mom to paint the base color on all of the sets.  She's going to drive them all up to MN next week when she comes for my first shower so I can handpaint the designs on all of them.  I might be just a little crazy to take on a project like this with just over two months to go, but I think it's going to be awesome!

Here are a few of the boards I've painted over the last year.  Can you tell my family is from Wisconsin?!  Each board takes about 5 hours to hand paint each design.  So I'm looking at about 50 hours of work that I need to find a way to squeeze into my already busy schedule.
Oh and there's the matter of cutting and sewing all of the bags.  No big deal though.  Ha.

So even though I'm probably way crazy to take this on, I'm very excited about it.  We're going to do the Illini Chief head for two of the sets for the boys he played football with.  Then we'll probably do Chicago Bears for one set for his grade school friend.  And for his brothers, we haven't quite decided yet, but it will probably be some sort of buck/fish sort of thing.  So far my dad has all of the sets built, and my mom is going to start getting the boards painted so they'll be ready for me to put the finishing touches on them.
We're looking at about $50/set which isn't bad as a gift considering these could definitely be considered a $150 present.  I think they guys will love them!

My First Hair Trial

MR. T:
THIS POST IS NOT FOR YOUR EYES SINCE YOU WANT TO BE SURPRISED ABOUT EVERYTHING ON THE DAY OF OUR WEDDING =]  AND YOU WILL CATCH GLIMPSES OF MY DRESS IF YOU READ FURTHER...YOU'RE WARNED!


Those of you following me on Twitter may have already seen this, but I had my first hair trial the other week.  I settled on who is doing my hair for the day of the wedding, and we got together to practice since I really had no clue what I wanted to do.
A close family friend will be coming over to my parents' house on the morning of the wedding to do my hair, along with my mom and Mr. T's mom.  The girls have all decided to do their own hair/help each other with their hair.

I've known Theresa for ages, she actually used to babysit me when I was younger.  I ran into her one night downtown and we talked and it was decided!  She's actually going to do my hair for free as part of my wedding gift, and wouldn't take anything for my hair trial either when I went over to her house.
I brought along some of the hair inspiration pictures I've been gathering.  I had narrowed it down to two styles.  One was a low updo, and the other was a half-up updo.

I told her I either wanted something similar to the first one, or I wanted it EXACTLY like the second picture.  I decided for the first time around to do the low updo, because I just really wasn't sure what I wanted.  And obviously I was being wishy-washy because somewhere in the conversation we lost each other and she went ahead with the half updo.  And I'm really glad she did, because I absolutely loved it!  When it was done and we were looking at it, she even said if we wanted to run back to my house on the way to the reception, she would pin up all the hair into a low updo for me and it would only take about 10 minutes.

I get to be a two-hairstyle bride! How exciting?!  This way I can leave my hair down for the ceremony and wear my veil, and then it will be up off my shoulders for the rest of the night and I won't be too hot and worrying about the curls falling out.

Now for the pictures...

 Unfortunately, you don't get to see the front of it, because I don't have a picture of it.  It was after a long night in Chicago, I didn't have any makeup on, and my face and I were fighting.

I don't remember if I told you all or not, but I got a perm about a month ago because I was sick of my half curly hair and wanted a change.  It looks absolutely adorable now and I don't have to put any time into it, but Theresa said they must have left the solution in for too long because my hair is beyond unhealthy now!  So she sent me home with some good shampoo and conditioner and orders to get my hair trimmed and a good deep conditioner at a salon.  This way my hair will hold a curl better and look healthier and shinier on the day of the wedding.  So now I've got some work to do between now and then.

But I'm glad I went ahead and did this trial, because now I know for sure what I want.  All I have to figure out now is what I'm planning on doing with my makeup.  I'm really leaning towards having it done at a salon, because I really want eyelashes applied for the day and I'm horrible at doing them myself.  So we'll see what I decide on that. 
I would definitely recommend a hair trial though if you're stuck between a couple different ideas and you can afford to do it.  It will also give you a feel for how it will hold up throughout the day.

Have any of you done a hair trial before your wedding day??  What are your thoughts on it?