Its a Waiting Game...

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to do a quick check in with everyone.

I can't even describe how this semester of school is kicking my Tush!  For all of you that have taken physics and have not had a mental breakdown I applaud you.  I am also taking the second anatomy and physiology and there is so much information some nights I think that definitions and models may leak out of my brain and end up on my pillow.

To add to my stress we are short staffed at work so my work load and what is expected of me has been added too.

Meridyth is also finishing her last class of her graduate program so she is in school too!

We are eating a lot of cereal and I thank my coworkers everyday who bought us our Keurig for our wedding!

On exciting news my oldest Niece and Nephew are flying in to Maryland to go to Florida with my parents but Mer and I are taking the day off to see them in-between trips.  I can't wait!

So that sums it up.  All I do is work, study, eat, and sleep.  I do not have time to make art, blog, watch movies, cook, or look at things on the internet!

When life change you will be the first to know.

Lots of Love,

Jess

This is an example of convex lenses for a physics project.  At least I got to hang with my kitties!

Lovely Sunday Photograph

Happy Sunday Everyone!  Remember Me your friendly Blogger?  School has started and it is kicking my tush, so until I figure out how to balance work, school, and sleep my dreams of blogging about all of the weird and pretty things in my head will have to wait!

For now I leave you with a Lovely Sunday Photograph...

Max Wanger Photography

 Lots of Love,

Jess

Body Image and my Wedding in a Month

Happy Weekend!

I have a nasty cold today so I am just going to stay home and try and finish some wedding projects.  This entails a lot of cutting, gluing, ink, and paper.  Every art majors dream weekend!

I will have some new projects to show you next week so keep a look out for it!

Also, I will be doing artist showcase tomorrow.  I haven't forgotten but I have this other topic rolling around in head and if I don't get it out I might just scream!

I wanted to talk about body image and weight today and how it applies to weddings and particularly my own.

In high school I had an eating disorder.  I didn't get my period, exercised three hours a day, was very, very thin, and very, very unhappy.

I gradually grew out of that mind set when I started college.  I still worked out everyday, but was eating and healthy and happier.

Going into my late twenties I began to struggle with my weight and I have fluctuated between being heavier and slightly thinner in the last few years.

I trained for a triathlon two years ago and was probably at my healthiest.  In November of 2011 I was running three miles everyday and feeling great, looking forward to being super healthy on my wedding day.

Then my disc in my neck blew and a range of allergic reactions to multiple medications have made steroids my friend. 

I had to stop exercising, and as all of you know I have been fighting with pain for the last six months or so.

What this comes down too is that I am probably at my heaviest that I have been in awhile....oh, and I am getting married in a month!

I my head I always thought I would be a thin bride.  That I would waltz down the isle in a size eight body.

I am not a size eight or a size ten for that matter and this past week I have been worrying about how I am going to look in our wedding photographs.  Am I going to look ugly?  Am I going to look fat?!  Is that what everyone is going to talk about on May 5, 2012?

As I was worrying about this last night I came across a great post on the blog Gala Darling.

Here is the line from the post that stuck out to me:

"YOU ARE WHO YOU ARE. Never be ashamed of that. Own it! Love it! You only have one life."

Then I realized I don't want to worry about this!  I'm not thin right now but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to own/rock my wedding day!  I am marrying a woman who not only loves me but also tells me I am gorgeous Every Single Day.

This is who I am right now...today.  This is what I look like, what my body is.  Do I want to be healthier?  Absolutely!  Do I NOT want to worry about it on my wedding day?  Damn Straight!

Lots of Love,

Jess

 

Sporadic Posts, Wedding Stuff, and Life...

Hello, Hello Lovelies!

How is everyone's week going?

So sorry that the posting has be sporadic if you have been checking.

Things have been very busy with lots of wedding decisions.  I went for a tasting with my parents at Guapos which is a family owned Mexican restaurant in the D.C. area.

We have been hammering down drink details, I have been writing the ceremony, talking to friends that are flying in, and being all around wedding obsessed!

I figure it is not that bad since we are only about a month away from the big day!

However, though the wedding is a BIG DEAL, to me and Meridyth at least, other life things still happen.  How dare they, right?!

Meridyth's car broke down today for the third time in the last six months and she had a appointment to go to so I had to rush home, I did a nice U-turn (don't tell!) and she had to drive me to work and take my car.

I am still taking massive amounts of steroids and am finally not waking up with raised red rashes everywhere...benadryl is still being taken!

I hope to start blogging regularly again after the wedding!  I have come to enjoy sharing my adventures, crafts, internet finds, and life on these pages.

Until then I will be posting as much as I can!

Lots of Love,

Jess

Holiday cheer and a little crying

Happy Friday!!!! So, tomorrow officially kicks off the holiday and though my family is in Florida and Seattle we have tons of Mer's family here in Maryland and we have get togethers all weekend! I am super excited to see people and eat good food! Today was not a great day though. I am six weeks post surgery and for the past two days the pain has been pretty bad. There are also other stressful situations that I feel unable to handle. I usually deal with stress by going to the gym and pushing my body to it's limit, but since I can't do that...I cry. I cried at physical therapy today. I cried from pain, from feeling a lack of control, and for situations out of my control. However, as I am lying in bed surrounded by Mer and my kitties I pray that 2012 is a better year and I give thanks for the many, many, many learning experiences that happened in 2011. Though I am hoping for less learning experiences in 2012! I have photos to share with you but the will be coming soon. Maybe even tomorrow! Until then Merry Christmas Eve Eve and happy holidays! Love Jess

Macaroons (Macarons) and other Things

It's Wednesday!  It's Wednesday!

Happy second night of Chanukah to those of you who celebrate, Merry almost Christmas, and Happy Holiday's to everyone else!

I have been busy making presents today and will have pictures soon!  We are poor but it doesn't mean I can't make some heart felt things for the people I love!

I have also been rethinking me etsy shop.  Some questions I have been asking myself is:  What do I really like making?  What kind of images do I want to put out there in the world?  What can I see myself doing and making in a year, in five years, in ten?  What do I want to share with people and what do I want them to buy that they will want more of?

I like the name of my shop, love it actually, but I just feel like I need to figure out some core things about what kind of artist I want to be and what I enjoy making (when you enjoy it I feel like it shows through in the work, when it is painful to make or difficult I think you can feel that too).

Onto, the last part of the post.  As those of you who have been reading the blog know, I love images.  I like eye candy and pretty things, and beautiful images make me happy.

One of the images I love on all of the wedding blogs is this:

Image by Simply Photo

Macaroons!  They are so pretty and I love the colors and the shapes, and lately I have been seeing this eye candy all over the web.

La Mie Bakery, Des Moines, Iowa

Now, I have pinned some of these beauties on pinterest and can I admit a secret?  I have never eaten one before!  I don't even know what they are made of!

So if anyone else has this dirty little secret, this is what I found out in my searches on the web today.

First, I have been calling it a macaroon, most people seem too, but if you look on Wikipedia it is actually spelled Macaron.  What I found out is this treasure is a meringue based sweet made with egg white and almond flour.  The base of the word is from the Italian word maccherone meaning to crush or beat which is referring to the almond powder.

This sweet is considered primarily a french confection, but the Italians would beg to differ saying the french started making it when Catherine de Medici who married Henry II of France brought over her Italian cooks with her.

Traditional macarons were raspberry and chocolate, but now they come in a variety of flavors and combinations and the fillings can be jam, buttercream, or ganache.

The possibilities of flavors are endless!

I hope if you were uneducated like me about Macarons which Wikepedia said most North Americans consider it synonymous with Macaroons, but most Europeans differentiate, that you learned a little something!

Until tomorrow...I'm off to dream of beautiful pastries,

love,

Jess

Found on the blog Mumu, source unknown (if you took it, e-mail me!)

I am a Tortoise

I spend a lot of time looking at things online.  Being a wedding photographer and lover of pretty things I love, love, love, sites like dwellinggawker or pinterest which lets me look at those pretty things in an easy space.  I also love looking at other wedding photographers blogs and this morning I found a Nashville wedding photographer that not only has amazing images, but also wrote something personal on her blog that really rang true.

The photographers name is Alex Bee, please check out her site if you haven't it's awesome, and she wrote something about being a tortoise instead of a firecracker.

When I read this I immediately thought to myself, this is me!

To me, being a tortoise means that accomplishing things is never easy.  Not only do I second guess myself, but there also seems to be so many roadblocks in the way.  I know a lot of people go through ups and downs, but have you ever looked at someone and just thought that even though they had to work to get what they wanted you bet you would have to work twice as hard for the same thing?

I honestly am not trying to be negative, but I have always been one of those people that things just never seem to fall into my lap.

To make a point to this post:  There are a lot of things in my life that feel hard right now.  I'm in pain from my surgery, I can only work a few hours a week, I'm questioning if my art is good enough to sell or if people will even like it, Meridyth is still looking for a job (she was let go from her company in August).  Things are hard and kind of suck.

Then I remember...I'm A Tortoise!  I go slow but will eventually find my way.  Remembering that not only gives me hope, but makes me smile.

So here's to all the tortoises out there!  May each of you find your way as slowly as you must!

love,

Jess

(Source: Demetri Martin)

progress, progress, progress

I had an allergy appointment today for my unusual allergic reactions.  Mer and I have been to the ER 5 times in the last month and the doctor's honestly have no idea what is going on.  It seems that IV benadryl and steroids are my best friends lately.  However, I love, love, love my allergist and she wears...wait for it...glitter, hot pink, chucks!  Amazing!  Oh, and she had a red hair extension in her hair today.  Quite possibly the coolest doctor ever.

After the appointment I was hurting a lot from my neck so I decided to go to Michael's, craft store therapy of course, to get some paper to mount my newest quilling creations I am working on because I would really like to start listing them in my etsy shop.  No one told me that the craft store was going to look like they were giving things away!  I think half of Maryland was playing hookey from work trying to get ready for the holidays!

Well, now I am home, and I just sprayed the quilling photos with matte spray to seal them.  I am also working on a sort of inspiration board of things I have loved this week.  Props to all of those bloggers out there that do inspiration boards all the time!  Not only are they time consuming, but making sure that each image is sited correctly is crazy!  I personally love the inspiration boards from the website http://snippetandink.com.  Check them out if you haven't yet, some are definitely drool worthy.

Here are some pictures of my progress!  Now on to ice the neck and take a pain pill!

Love,

Jessica