Ziba for my eyebrows - my 1st beauty post!

sorry the above pic is in 2 pieces

yes, every once and awhile a girl needs to treat herself to a little pampering... and i have been in need of such a thing.  this is sorta emabrassing to share, but here are my pampering stats:

mani & pedi - not since the engagement party (last november) 

my hair - the day before Valentines....

eyebrows and facial waxing - um... not too sure?

needless to say, my track record speaks for its self!  since getting engaged i've tried to be better about "frivolus" me type purchases, pampering included.  but with my first shower this weekend, my mom polietly reminded me it was time... 

i needed to get some of these things done.

today i went to a unique salon called Ziba Beauty

i can't find my camera cord, but as soon as i do, i'll post the before and after eyebrow shot!  but this salon is awesome! they had me in and out in like 20 mins (only because i wanted a "really" good threader for my 1st time).  basically ziba is a salon that specializes in threading and primarily eyebrows for $11! such a steal... they also thread the entire face, have waxing services, and henna.  as i waited for Simi, my threader, i sat in awe noticing that people were in and out in 10 mins.  you come in sign in and either go to a chair, or wait if you want someone specific, then they send you back up front when you're finished, you pay and that's all! i joked with them that they had quite a rush while i was sitting there, and they said "oh that's the after work rush" ha, i couldn't believe it.  i think they got 50 people in and out in the 20 mins i was there!  

you do the math...

i'm ranting about this salon, because i love my new eyebrows, they now have an arch (something i've never been able to achieve on my own with tweezers).  visit their site for a list of all of their services and locations, i went to the South Coast salon, which is the only one in central OC.

photo sources

i can't register here?... seriously????

but what if i want your drinking glasses to be my drinking glasses?

and this headboard to frame the pillows where i lay my head...

headboard

or this lamp, which looks so much like one from pottery barn for 2/3 of the price!

i love lamp... 

or this storage bench?

bench

well that's what i felt like saying during my last visit to Cost Plus World Market....

i found some super cute drinking glasses which would go so well with our emma dishes 

(pictured below)

and katherine flatware from pottery barn.  the glasses aren't online, otherwise i'd provide you with a picture, but i'll paint the picture for you... they are traditional drinking glasses with the raised dots like my dishes and utensils!  they are really sweet.... 

so, while i was at CP, i asked about the registry, and was told they didn't have one. 

 but why though i wondered? 

they have so much neat and unique stuff that would make great registry items. 

 it's just sad that these items are a perfect fit, and they will stay on the CP shelves until FI and i can afford to add them to our "real registry items."

fun bonus:

wouldn't these glasses make a cute addition to the many of the soon-to-bees over at weddingbee

bee glassware

has anyone else found "registry-worthy" items, only to find that there's no way to register for them?  any advice as to how i should go about fulfilling my non-existent registry items? =)

my wedding shoes

k... so my wedding shoes have not been at the top of my wedding attire to do list, 

to be quite honest my attire hasn't been at the top of my wedding to do list!

is that a little strange?? i'm a bride to be, not worrying about all the accoutrements....

well on my trip to JCrew today to return the extra BMs dresses i had taking up closet space, i snooped a little and checked out these espadrilles i've loved since i saw them in the early spring catalog.

you can find them here

they've bounced b/t full price $98 and the sale $79 

well i tried these puppies on and oh now they are down to $59... oh yeah AND JCrew is running an additional 25% off sale merchandise..... 

that means my wedding shoes were a HUGE steal!

i believe $44 was the price before tax

i know you're probably thinking these don't look like typical wedding shoes...

well these were my requirements for shoes:

gold or blue sandal (our colors are blue)

wedge heel - preferably cork or espadrille (since the ceremony is on grass)

comfy

and an ankle strap to help their dance-ability 

(i think i just made up that word) =)

have any details of your wedding just fallen in your lap without you spending many long hours debating and fretting... like my shoes did today?

man i'm on a roll picked up my dress thursday (finally, the salon isn't babysitting it any longer), found the twigs & honey orchids for my hair, and my shoes in a matter of days

my list is getting shorter!

who am i kidding... it's still really long....

accessories

for those of you who know me, you know that i design jewelry and accessories.

and for my wedding i plan do do the ultimate DIY of creating my jewelry to accompany my wedding dress.... well tonight i found my one and only outside accessory, 

not made by my own hands!

they are however, made by some very talented hands though! =)

these are some custom orchids Myra of twigs & honey just posted on her blog

you can find her on etsy too

photo credit:  twigs & honey

twigsandhoney.blogspot.com

anyhow, i planned on wearing two live orchids in my hair, but i was honestly a little

nervous that they would look alive still by the end of the day... but ever since i found myra's goodies i've been hooked, however i hadn't seen any of her pieces that would "fit" with our wedding and my attire... and then i checked her blog last night and she sealed the deal for me.

mrya, the designer, recently took her business full time and is busier than ever!  she even posted that she can't fulfill any custom orders before the end of july... 

well with our august wedding date 

i might be in luck!

hopefully i will hear from her soon

i have to say, it's so inspiring to see a fellow wedding accessory designer with so much success in such little time, she followed her passion and has been reaping the reward of listening to her heart... i only hope that some day i can enjoy my passion as my full time business 

as Mrya does today.

blog love

recently i was shown a little "blog love" by fellow blogger 

you can find me on a long list of other fellow bride to be bloggers!

this site is full of absolutely beautiful wedding things, 

which many of the ideas could even be used for entertaining too.

thanks for the love!

and on a side note, i've had this sneezy sinus thingy for over a week now

  i can't shake it ... any suggestions??

all i wanna do is get back to my kickboxing classes so i don't fall outta the habit completely!

past weekend's gocco fun!

our rehearsal dinner invites 

(sorry for the blurs, gotta protect our privacy)

i say fun, because this gocco print job was pretty smooth sailing!

oh that's a lie actually, i did gocco all of the project just to show them to my FI and him tell me the RSVP phone# was wrong!... arg....

so back to Paper Source i went, picked up 2 packs of new B6 cards and spend my saturday

trying again! =) i was helping out FMIL by gocco'ing our rehearsal dinner invites, which

by the way turned out awesome (this is the smooth sailing part)

here's a picture filled step by step of the process:

putting my screen to good use by running other colors for upcoming bridal expo merchandise. 

gocco screens don't really preserve well, so if you aren't doing a large quantity run, you aren't getting a good return on your $3 screen!

gocco'ing also happens to take up A LOT of space, ie the dining room table, a coffee table, and our antique desk (pictured here).  if you'd like to avoid this.... buy lots of card drying racks, and i thought 3 would be plenty  ha ha!

this is as i was about to begin my second run on the invites for the text - you have to let it dry if you have to do multiple passes ( more than one screen)

the coordinating envelopes... just tying it all together

i love these even without the invite text - you'll be able to find these in my etsy store soon!

i laid out my laser printed master, and burned my screen - here you can see the ink blocking foam, and how i separated colors, this is the brown ink only.  i block really close to the text to trap the ink, and also so i don't waste ink by letting it run all around the screen.

here we have the brown and gold inks, almost ready to print!

peeling back the master copy 

hint: if you leave the mast stuck to the screen until after you apply the ink, you don't have to worry about the ink getting on things or smearing prior to starting.

close up to give you idea of the detail of the gocco print quality - if you look closely at the R in dinner, you'll see that i wasn't keeping a close eye on the ink, some areas of the screen do tend to burn through ink very quick, so pay attention to each print, you do have to re-ink some areas even on short print runs!

i believe this is misty's first appearance on the blog... but she was lending blogging moral support while i sat here and typed.

anyone else gocco'ing everything in sight???

next gocco projects on my list:

invites

cocktail napkins

programs

menus TBD

gifts for some special someones =)

invite sneak peek

all i can say is that our invite will not be black!

this is an illustrator proof of the way our invites will look... the black represents 

navy blue paper, and the white text will be where the natural white text will be.

also the dead space to the right of the top text area and the dead space to the left of the text space at the bottom, will showcase our wedding icon which will be a common theme throughout the wedding and decor.  

what is the icon?

it's nautical

it's a shell

but you'll just have to wait and see when i show the actual finished product!

did anyone else out there expect that the invites would be such a time consuming and extremely detailed project? because i sure didn't!