A special bond.

Some of you may remember the post I made yesterday (Tuesday) about being sick. At the time I wrote it I was having a ridiculous amount of trouble sleeping due to a bad cough. Well, I never got to sleep. I ended up going to the doctor first thing in the morning. There I was informed that I have currently have the joy of fighting off the flu, a sinus infection and bronchitis. The coughing is so bad (even with the prescription cough medicine) that I have been unable to stay asleep for the last 28 hours longer than like four minutes at a time. As it is now the co steroid shot and the antibiotics seem to be working but of course that won't help the cough. 

The cough suppressant medicine they gave me is not helping AT ALL. Which is absurd since it's supposed to be one of the best and cost like $40! The only thing it's doing is adding to my already exhausted state. (It makes you drowsy.) I think once it wears off I'm going to try taking what I was taking before which is an over the counter cough suppressant/expectorant. At least when I was taking that my coughs were mostly productive. Now I have more dry coughs which is not the way to go if you want to get better. Loose, productive coughs break up the phlegm causing the issue. I'll also try taking a sleeping pill. Those usually knock me right out no matter what. My issue of course isn't falling asleep since I'm so tired, it's staying there. Usually those are pretty good about that. So here's hoping.

Anyway my reason for this post is about my kitty named Bella. A little while ago I was so frustrated that I couldn't get to sleep after such a long time.

Well, she curled up next to my chest purring and put her paw on my hand to soothe and reassure me. Every time I'd cough she would either curl her paw gently on my hand or lick it as if to say it's gonna be okay mom. The purring was soothing on it's own, and the act of her curling up with me was very sweet but the hand holding, squeezing and kissing made it extra special.

Bella has asthma. She's actually on a daily pill for it but occasionally she still coughs when she purrs. I always try to calm her when it happens. I guess this is her way of trying to do the same. Cats are smarter than many give them credit for. They know when something is wrong. Especially if it's with a person (or another animal) they have a special bond with. ♡♥

In sickness and in health.

My husband and I got married last month. So I thought the title was appropriate.

He actually got sick with the flu first, and is still dealing with the lingering cough. At least he is now able to sleep a few hours at a time without waking up. I can't wait to get to that point.

I've been sick for about a week now and I've reached the coughing portion. It's not as bad tonight as it was last night, but still bad enough to keep me awake. Last night I didn't sleep at all. I think I finally passed out around 7am. The cough is a little better tonight but not much. Even under my tongue hurts from coughing so much. It's really awful that these things are worse at night isn't it? The doctors all tell you to get rest but it's kind of hard to do when the sickness is keeping you awake. Over the counter medicine that makes you sleep is only so good also. I actually ran out of that medicine last night. I've been taking something different today. Seems to work about as well as any other really. I could take a sleep aid but let's face it... I'm tired of taking pills and that can't be good to do either. So instead I sleep during the day when it's not so bad. Being sick makes me a vampire. Ha!

There I am in my bed tonight desperately trying to fall asleep after finding a semi comfortable position that I am able to breathe in (stuffed up nose). Every single time I start to drift off I cough and wake up. The last time, the time that got me out of bed I had actually fallen asleep and I jolted awake gasping for air as I coughed. That's not only a miserable feeling, it's pretty scary. So instead I lie there thinking about random things. Then I figure I may as well get up and type out some of them.

Now I'm sitting in my office, pretty much in the dark because too much light bothers me at the moment. It is almost 4am here after all. There is just the glow of my laptop and a night light in the corner where the cats bowl is. The only sound is my cough, my husband's occasional cough and oh... Now there is a cat eating at the bowl.

Okay I've rambled enough for this post. On to the next insane 4am post.

Hello Kitty not a cat... Say what?

To quote a real cat's meme... No. (Grumpy Cat)

"That's one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show. Hello Kitty is not a cat. She's a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She's never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it's called Charmmy Kitty." (Source:http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-hello-kitty-in-los-angeles-not-a-cat-20140826-column.html#page=1)

So by this logic Mickey Mouse isn't a mouse, Donald Duck isn't a duck, etc. So what if she has a pet cat? There is goofy AND pluto. A mouse with a pet dog... Since when do cartoons need to make that much sense? lol She even has KITTY in her title AND her name. Makes you want to look at them and ask, "are you serious?" Okay so she can't just be a girl cat? I mean, it's pretty apparent that's what she is.

You can't let people think all these years that Hello Kitty is a cat and then pull this. It's obviously a publicity stunt.

I for one refuse to believe it. Call it denial or whatever but that's how I feel. She's a cat. End of story! :p

Wedding Adventures (Picture Heavy Post)

Good morning and happy Saturday to all of you!

Today I wanted to share a bit about my recent wedding and honeymoon. I'm sure a few of you followed along with the adventures...and in some cases misadventures of the prep. lol So here we go!

Before the wedding.

The weeks leading up to a wedding is always stressful. Ours was even more so but it had NOTHING to do with the actual wedding. As some may have heard our landlord basically decided that he didn't need to pay his mortgage and the house was sold at a sheriff auction. Keep in mind that we had NO idea this was happening. Our neighbor across the road informed us that they had seen it in the auction listing online so we contacted our landlord and asked him about it. He pretty much lied then and said that everything was fine and he had it handled. Imagine our surprise when about two weeks before our wedding date we get a letter in the mail saying that the place was sold and we had ten days to get out. (It was nine days by the time we got the letter.) The letter came from the lawyer of the bank who had purchased the house.

We tried contacting the landlord but he did not return any of our calls. So we contacted the lawyer responsible for the letter as well as our own lawyer. Unfortunately due to the fact that we were month to month renters and given the situation with the actual sale they were not required to give us more time. This came as a bit of a shock to me. Sure, we could have drug it out and forced them to evict us. That may have bought us some more time. (I know how long it takes because I had to evict someone before.) However you need to understand that our wedding was two weeks away and we were going to be gone on honeymoon for about  2 1/2" weeks after that. So by the time we would return there really wouldn't be any time left to get out. Not too mention we'd be stressed and worried about it on our honeymoon. So instead we spent the next few days exhausted and stressed trying to find a new place to live.

At the last minute we did.  We literally found a place two days before the deadline and of course it takes a day or so to process the application. The Realtor knew our situation and expedited it though...bless her and the landlords for that. We actually moved out the day after the deadline. We had no choice, that was when we could do it and when we would have help.  The new place was/is not without it's problems. I won't go into that but at least they are being worked on by the current landlord//landlady. They have both been great. Especially after the last landlord. The place is MUCH bigger though. It's 1200 sq ft (town house) as opposed to the 700 sq ft (shotgun home) we had before. I actually have my own office now! It did come with a higher rent but it is what it is. At least we didn't end up homeless right before the wedding. There is a special place in hell for people like that guy and karma is a you know what.


The night before the wedding one of my good friends and her guy came over. She actually was coming a good distance to attend the festivities so we helped them out by letting them stay with us. She was awesome with helping me out as well and it was a lot fun having them there.


Day of the wedding & accessories!


The day of the wedding started off with me going to get my hair styled. My then fiance dropped us off so he could go get his own hair cut and a couple of other things that needed to be handled done. You may remember me talking about how difficult of a time I had finding someone to braid hair. I am very happy with where I ended up at Essential Salon & Nail Spa. The lady who did my hair is named Ashley and she was awesomesauce! Here is a pic of the results.

The flowers are cherry blossoms I found on etsy. Here is a bit of a better pic of them in my hair. The earrings I made. A better picture of those along with the matching bracelet and necklace is below.

Closeup for detail.

The dress I wore was  handmade by a good friend of mine. Check out her stuff on Facebook at Daphne's Crafts. She made purse to match also!

Here are a couple of photos of it.

The matching purse. Also handmade.

My shoes.

My mani with the dress. This is what I searched high and low for the perfect stamping plate and gel polish for!

It wouldn't be a wedding day without something going crazy. The car battery died. lol Fortunately he was able to get a jump and go get a new one. After we finally got back my husband (then fiance) said he wanted to go get a new battery for his watch. It's something he's been wanting to do for a while so I didn't think anything more of it. I figured he wanted to wear it during the trip and stuff also. Well he comes back with this as a wedding present!

He also got me this later on after we got back. The artist is a friend of ours. She does some amazing stuff. (No it's not all cats. This is actually a rarity.)  Go check her out if you like art!  

http://marrusart.storenvy.com

We didn't actually have a ceremony. Both of us have been married before so we opted to just have a judge friend of ours marry us. He did it for free so who are we to argue? :p That night though we had a lovely dinner for family and a few close friends at the Irish House in New Orleans. If you're ever in town I highly recommend eating there. My husband knows the owner and chef so we got a very good deal. The dinner was held in the event room upstairs which was beautiful. The staff was wonderful as always. Very friendly and attentive. The food of course was delicious! We had eaten there several times before so we knew we were safe with that. lol To make it easier on everyone I designed and printed out these place cards. The symbols represent soup or salad (the dots), and then the cow, fish or tomato was for the entree.

The cake was from Gambino's and it was SO beautiful, and delicious! As I figured it would be. They are the best bakery in town and have been around for ages. :) I had sent them a photo and they matched it. There were some slight differences but it was perfect anyway! I was so happy!

The next day we left for our honeymoon. To keep this post from getting ridiculously long I'm breaking it up into at least one more. So keep an eye out for that soon!

Wedding Mumbo Jumbo Volume 3

Greetings and welcome to the third installment of my adventures in planning this wedding! For those who don't already know we are not doing a traditional wedding. We've both been married before and opted to do this a little differently. We are basically just signing the papers and then having dinner with family and friends after. Then the next day we leave on our honeymoon. I actually never had a honeymoon previously. If you think about it weddings are really more for everyone else than the couple anyway. :p We are both happy with this arrangement. You can read more about what's been going on in the first two volumes of this. I'm actually adding a "wedding/honeymoon" tab here so you all can follow along more easily. :)

Anyway on to the updates!

The other day my fiance had off of work so we did some wedding errands. It was actually nice to spend time with him. He's been working so hard lately trying to get enough money together for everything. I haven't gotten to see him much.

First we headed out for breakfast and from there we stopped at a local fabric shop. The other day he was in the area on a job site and he saw they were having a sale. He knew I needed material for my dress so we stopped. I did end up getting the underlay for the dress there. I almost got the lace for the overlay also but they didn't have enough. It's kind of a good thing I didn't get it because as it turns out the lady making my dress already has that exact lace. lol I actually ended up changing my mind about the color scheme a bit which is why I was going to get that particular lace. Now I don't have to. :)

The satin underlay fabric for my dress.

The underlay fabric with the lace overlay.

After we grabbed the fabric we headed to the bakery which was right across the street and got the cake ordered. I'm so excited. I'm sure they will do a great job with it because they are one of the best bakeries in the city. Probably one of the more infamous of them for sure. We didn't do a tasting there because we would have had to schedule it. We didn't really feel like having to go back and we know their stuff is amazing. So we just picked what we knew we would most likely enjoy. We opted for silver cake with pineapple filling. I know pineapple is tricky because the cake may slide but I'm sure they will be careful. We were going to pick it up because there is a $50 delivery fee. However after thinking about it I voiced my concerns to my fiance. I think it would be better to just pay them to do it. The streets where the restaurant is and on the way there aren't great. I would have nightmares of the cake meeting disaster before it even got there. At least if they ruin it we aren't responsible for it and can get some sort of compensation. If we ruin it...well we're just out the $$ and the cake. Plus they are just better equipped to move something like that than we are.

This is what the cake will look like.
(Not my photo. I can't find the original owner to credit. If you know who it's for please let me know.)

After the cake was handled we went to the Irish restaurant where we are having our dinner that night to reserve the room. We actually will probably end up with the larger room they have than the first one we saw. That one seats about 25 people but we have 35 invited. I'm sure not everyone is going to come but we'll see. Either room is nice. I just think it would be a little more roomy in the larger one. We got everything squared away with that though. They even gave us a really great deal on everything. I have to make little place cards so that they know who ordered what since we are doing plated meals. My fiance came up with the clever idea to put a fish, a cow or a tomato on the cards to signify what they ordered. This is because our menu options are beef stew, fish & chips, or we also have a vegan option which involves a stuffed tomato. I thought it was cute. I'm sure we will still have to figure out the details though because there are other things such as salad, and soup on there.

Once the restaurant was taken care of we decided to take some time for ourselves and we stopped at the New Orleans Museum of Art. It's actually something we'd been talking about doing for ages and just never seemed to get there. Since it wasn't far we figured why not? I had not been since I was very young, and he had never been. After that we went to have some lunch, stopped to grab a few things at the store and came home. It was a very nice day and we got a lot accomplished.

We're not far from having everything done now. Just have to order and pay for a few more things. Wednesday I'm meeting with the dressmaker for a fitting and to go over the fabric and details. In a couple of weeks I'm going to get my hair dyed. I'm finally getting it the color I've wanted for AGES! I have dyed my hair red before but it never turns out like this because it's so dark. My hair would have to be lightened which I can't really do myself. It takes me three hours just to dye it normally. lol Plus I'd be too afraid to miss a spot or whatever that I can't see. It's really something I need someone else to do. I never went to a salon because it's so expensive. I have a lot of hair and it would probably be over $60 if I had it done there. Fortunately I have a friend who is willing to do it at a reasonable rate. It's going to be so fun! Getting my hair done, and hanging out with her! She's giving me some toner to take home also so that it won't fade as bad before the wedding.

Getting my  hair this color.
 (Not my photo. I'm trying to find the original source again but not having much luck. I will update once I find it.)

Well, I think I've rambled enough for tonight. Until next time!

Wedding Mumbo Jumbo Volume 2

Hello, hello!

Well some updates on the wedding situation. Things are finally moving along instead of being at a stand still.

Tomorrow we're going to order the cake and turn in the confirmation form to reserve the room in the restaurant. The problem with the restaurant was resolved. They are actually giving is a really good deal.

Next week I'm meeting with the dressmaker so she can measure me and I can pick out the fabric for it. I got my hair pins today. I actually picked out a second hairstyle as a back up plan. I know the lady at the salon said she can probably do the first one but I like to be prepared. Especially for something that important. I've attached photos of the new hairstyle and the hair pins for you to look at. :)

I also found out the information I needed on my business as well. Since I am changing my last name I had to figure out what if anything I needed to change my last name on. It looks like I just have to do it with the secretary of state and the parish for my occupational license. (A parish in Louisiana is the same as a county elsewhere.) I can do the secretary of state one easily enough because by the time the wedding happens and I get to change my name it will be about time for me to do my annual report for them. So I can just make any changes then. As far as the parish it won't be long after we return when I have to renew my occupational license with them so again I can just kill two birds with one stone. I probably have to change it with my registered agent also. My tax consultant said I'm not required to do it with the IRS or LDR.

It's nice that things are finally going a little bit more smoothly. Hopefully it stays that way. I was about to pull my hair out last week. lol


**Disclaimer**
The hair photo is not mine but it was found on Pinterest with no link to the source. The hair pin photo is mine. 

Wedding Mumbo Jumbo - Volume 1

Clip art found in a google search for free wedding bell clip art. http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/freedownloads/ig/PSPTubez-com-Free-Sampler/Wedding-Bells.htm

I've decided to keep a small journal of the events leading up to the date. Then when we get back from our honeymoon I'll do more.


My fiance and I have both been married before. I however never had a honeymoon. So for this we decided just to go see a friend who is a judge and sign the papers instead of having an actual wedding to save some money and headache. We are having a dinner for close friends and family after however. Then we leave on our honeymoon the next day.  Despite the simplicity of the concept I've run into numerous issues already.

First it was the cake. I had the hardest time finding a bakery that wouldn't rip our eyes out and was actually open the day of the wedding. (It's on a Monday which I realize is unusual but it's the only day we could do it.) Still I think it's odd that so many places are closed on Monday. Fortunately we did finally find one. We're going to order it this week. Hopefully there are no more problems there.

I'm not sure of where this photo came from originally. I found it on Pinterest and there was no link back.

Then there was the manicure issue. For some reason there is not a single nail tech/nail salon in the area that could do what I wanted done. I wanted to get a gel manicure because it lasts a long time. It should last at least 2 weeks if not more. Which is ideal since I didn't want to have to worry about taking off or changing polish on the honeymoon. I just wanted to do the manicure the day before the wedding and then not worry about it for a while. Well, the problem is that even though most of the salons offer gel manicures almost all of them do not do nail art. There was ONE that said they could do it but they don't have the best reviews in the world and I was concerned about the job they may do. I considered going in and having a "test run". However by the time I would have paid for the test run and then the actual mani for the wedding/honeymoon I could have just bought my own gel kit and done them myself. Sooo... I did. Problem one solved. (I'm actually doing a series of blogs on the kit itself as well. Sort of a review on how it works as well as the journey to find the right mani for the wedding. lol)



Then came the hair situation. For some reason nearly every salon I went to gave me crazy looks and didn't think they could do the hairstyle I selected. (I showed them a photo.) I really don't think it's THAT complicated. It's just a fancy braid. I've actually done something similar to a friend. However, I cannot  braid my own hair like this unfortunately. It's just too hard to have to reach around to do it. Especially when I can't really see that way, even with mirrors. The lady at ULTA was probably the worse. Not only did she give me the crazy look but she acted as if I asked her to hike to a foreign country or something. She made a huge deal out of it and kept saying how intricate it was and that she didn't know if she could do it. She even suggested I come in for a test run, which of course I would have to pay for that also. Umm considering it was going to cost over $50 to do the hairstyle that's a big no. I'm sorry but I'm not going to pay to do a test run just because she isn't sure if she can do it or not. Last I checked they teach braiding in beauty school. All this hairstyle really would be is a sort of a cross between a french braid and a waterfall braid. Hell, I figured it out just by watching you tube videos. She went to school and got licensed. She should know how to do it. I really didn't like the way she spoke to me either. Anyway, I think I found a place that can do it. The girls there seemed a little more confident in their ability to do this. So *fingers crossed.*

I'm not sure of where this photo came from originally. I found it on Pinterest and there was no link back. I tried to find the source because I wanted to learn how to do the hairstyle but there were several pages with this photo and I have no way of knowing which one was the original.

I got these pretty cherry blossoms to go in my  hair instead of the roses.

Now the restaurant is being a pain. We basically just wanted to make a reservation for our group. That way no one has to wait an hour to be seated and it makes it easier for the restaurant also. Everyone was going to pay for their own meals.

They did show us this room and we were going to try and reserve it. However I think they totally misunderstood us as they were trying to sell us on some package where we have a minimum to meet. Umm, no... We can't and don't want to be responsible for paying the difference if some people don't eat or show up. That's why everyone was going to be in charge of their own bill. I thought I explained that the day we met with her but I think they got confused. So I explained it AGAIN. Now we're waiting to see what they say.

Sheesh... This was supposed to be a simple  thing but everyone else is making difficult. It's insane how even the most simple wedding turns into chaos.  We thought the hardest part would be to save up for the honeymoon but we're already mostly there. Crazy...