Well, a few things!

There's been a few things that have happened in the interim of my seclusion.

1) I've realized that I am terrible about updating this. This is a mixture of me feeling like...it's too much to soon (I have over a year left!) and not wanting to drown everyone in my wedded plans of bliss.

2) We've got five bridesmaids now, and Matt is still dragging his ass on asking his groomsmen. Apparently I set the bar too high with how I asked my girls!

3) I have a dress! For secrecy, I cannot reveal it here, because while I doubt Matt is truly watching this blog,  but he's very firm in not seeing pictures of me even in the many dresses I did not pick. I do love my dress, make no mistake about it, but I kinda wish that I'd been able to make a dress baby from MY dress and the first dress I ever tried on. I loved the soft fabric of the first dress, and it was Maggie Sottera and I lav her dresses!

I'm a mixed bag on happy and sad about some things - I feel like I am excluding a person who is very important and huge in my life but I don't feel like I should have 6 maids. Like, if it was possible for me to have ten I could probably do it, because as I sit here I can think of so many people that I want to involve.

We are officially registered on Amazon.com, search for Katy Hambrick and Matthew Kubik.

First DIY, check!

haha, we'll see how long this lasts though!

I've been engaged for under a month and so far, I finished my first DIY.

All my boxes are made, I've kinda settled on the fact that I'll only have 4 girls - that's fine, I don't want to force a relationship that's not there or to change what's going on in our dynamic now. If in the next 17 months something changes, then great! We'll have an even party! If not, we won't 'escort' we'll have guy girl guy girl guy girl guy girl guy walking in and walking out. Not a big deal at all!

I'm excited to hand out the last boxes and see if they accept. One's the kid sister, so it's not like she gets a choice even :D

Asking my girls!

So, I didn't want to just blankly ask folks through a text or an IM, I wanted it to be something kinda special, so that they would know how much they all meant to me and why! 

I decided after spotting different methods on WeddingBee and Pinterest that I'd do a Bridesmaids box, and added a smaller box inside with a ring pop insider, so they got their ring too XD I wrote a letter, added some tissues just in case  and did some paper flowers. I discovered, after buying paper that made me think of each lady, I won't use scrapbook paper for these flowers because I hate the fact the other side is blank! 

But, either way, they're adorable, I'm happy with them, and, so far, I'm 2 for 2! 2 girls asked, 2 girls accepted!

An official date :D

So now we're gonna use this little blog to keep the family / friends in the loop, share ideas, get some stuff together, all that jazz :D


We've set an official date for March 14, 2014, which translates to 3.14 -> pi day. Yes, we're nerds, hi! Have you met us before?

Hope you guys are prepared for all of this XD

Now to start getting our wedding party together >:3 I've got plans for my girls!!

I am officially engaged guys!!

Matt swears up and down that he had no sort of scheme going on with my family, but, I do think they had to have worked SOMETHING out .

We went over to my parents house and we were just chilling with my family apparently Dad had a talk in town this weekend, and the hotel provided a room for him for the convention. We live 20 minutes from that hotel, so he asked if Matt wanted the room tonight so we could enjoy not being around Evan. It's getting to the point where I am so very frustrated and I hate being at home because of Evan. I feel suffocated and just....strangled here. He is inconsiderate and brings people over at random times, doesn't ask  or even tell us about it, they just show up, and then if we have folks over he whines and bitches about 'how much longer will they be here' when we let him know they were coming over and made sure that he wasn't working the next morning or anything .

But! This was meant to be a happy entry, so fuck him! Let's get back to the good part :D

So, my folks give Matt the key to a nice room downtown. Apparently he gets my uncle to drive him back to our house 30 miles away to pick up the ring he's got there for me.

They get home, Mom & I have been running around doing random things and we're relaxing on the couch after a bit.

Matt asks me if I'd maybe like to go to this hotel downtown, maybe celebrating being fiancés!

So, I'm now sporting a lovely little ring, and we're planning a wedding OFFICIALLY :D

Oops!!

Ok, so I kinda....fell of the face of the earth!! Many apologizes to the few folks that are reading this.

We've moved, everything is settling, the leech is still living with us and apparently won't be going any time soon. It's frustrating and makes me want to pull my hair out.

I'm working at a Steakhouse presently and it's alright, things are.....interesting there, and the money is decent.

There isn't too much to say right now, I'm about to dive back into box-unpacking!

Lets think of happy thoughts!

So here we go! Something happier than the stress of the oncoming move, my plot to raise some extra cash for this summer, lets think of better things!

 Like my wedding. Err. Our wedding. Matt's a good guy, he even gives input on the musings of all my wants and desires - and he really does put up with me. He lets me go on and on, and encourages me. My whole philosophy is that if I am smart and plan it all out now, in a frugal sense, then that means when the time does come, I'll have a spectacular, kick ass wedding without going broke over it!

And I plan on doing it with style - we're geeky, and I spend way too much time on Pinterest and Weddingbee and Offbeat Bride - so, so much time. Just admiring the crafty beautiful brides and their gorgeous weddings, imagining how much fun we're going to have.

When I first started planning, I had a few things that I wanted to give nods to. I'm not, and never really have been, a traditional sort of girl. My first foray into marriage and weddings was actually a few years ago. I was dating a different guy, and we'd been together for....I wanna say almost three years when I popped the question. Yeah, I bought a ring, talked to all our parents, the whole thing. That engagement fell apart three years later when I sort of came to terms with how many times he had cheated on me, how emotionally abusive he was, it was just not a good situation. I basically chose to love myself over him, and it wasn't for a few more years before I met Matt.

It was basically meant to be - we couldn't be more right for one another. :3

Oh gosh, I started this talking about wedding stuff, and here I am rambling on!

Lets look at bridesmaid dresses :D

I'm in love with this dress because of the dual layers - the way it's gonna work with all of my maid's body shapes, just how adorable it is. It's fun and casual, while still being elegant, and just 100% awesome.

I also like this one, for a lot of the same reasons - but I am more in love with the blue. What I'm looking at for colors are gold, red, a little hint of brown and turquoise. Not too much of the last colors, and probably not even a whole lot of red - that's saved for me.

Why?

I have loved this dress from Alfred Angelo for....well probably six years. LOVED it. It's always been my favorite - the bold details, the brilliant colors. It's always been my dress.

Those will be for the groom & his men ;3

Apartment update~

I've been freaking out msot of the day because contrary to popular belief, I hate confrontation. I feel like I can handle myself well enough, but I like to go into situations with at least a game plan. So what do I do? I type up a blurb about what I've had issues with so I feel more collected.

Since August, when we moved in, we have had multiple repair issues that simply have not been addressed.

When the apartment complex was purchased and management transferred to a new company, we were hopeful that our issues would finally be corrected - especially when we had a man come in and walk us through all of the previous repair issues one by one. Unfortunately, we were dismayed when he basically told us that we would have to deal with the issues, that the complex would be replacing appliances but would not fix ours until they replaced them all. That our floor issues wouldn't be fixed because they planned on carpeting the bedrooms. That our needs were not 'dire' or 'life threatening' so they would not be a priority. He did say they would be out to fix our broken window, actually taped together since we moved in August 11th, and to add screens to all our windows since there were none. Three weeks later, and still no repairs.

What did happen however was that during a week when we expected an inspection, my apartment door was unlocked and actually opened by a man saying he was just unlocking doors in all units for the inspector. I was nearly naked, getting in to the shower when I heard my door unlock and my dog started barking. I quickly threw my shirt back on and caught the man at my door. At this point it became clear to us that our issues would not be addressed at all and started looking for a better, safer place to live.

But, after meeting with the manager, I finally I have something nice to say regarding the apartment situation!

We did go talk to the property manager and she essentially stopped us after a little while of going over all our issues to say something along the basic lines of 'Look guys, I'm going to be upfront, if I were you - I'd head for the hills. I'd leave, not look back, and I don't feel bad about letting you guys out of this lease. I totally get it. I'm going to get them to grab the paper work and we'll talk about what we're gonna do for the next few months while you are here' - she explained why we'd been ignored, usually once a property is purchased and they start exchanging titles and land for money, they stop putting any more money into their property. Which meant that we were SOL on having our grievances addressed.

She also said she'd work with our new apartments however she could to essentially make sure that we are going to a great place to live since we've spent the last half a year in hell, and I am quoting her word for word on that. She called this place hell.

If it wasn't that I am beyond in love with my apartment complex we found, I'd say that we'd give her a chance. But.....we'd be passing up a LOFT APARTMENT WITH TWO GARDEN TUBS. omg, garden tubs are my favorite. Plus, it's a loft! Insta cool points!!

Apartment issues and our hope for summer trips.

So.......we're probably going to be dumping a total of nearly 3K into getting out of this shitty, unsafe apartment and into the good apartment we found. Between security deposits, pet deposits, general fees, and moving expenses it's essentially going to drain everything that we had saved and planned to use for our AC trip. It's almost 800$ for the flights, and then probably another 400$ for the room (I Have no idea honestly how expensive it is, last year it was 450$ for the entire trip for me but now Matt's there and all) and then there's a good 400$ of a budget for food and play money. It's Matts first trip and all, so I expect it'll be an experience for him.

I think if I could someone raise the 1200$ then maybe we could do it. I know right now, we're going to basically just eat up our savings settling the apartment stuff.

I'm just down-heartened, because I don't really know of how I'd get that much that quickly. I Know some folks resort to donations and tips, but how can I ask folks to give from the goodness of their heart for a pleasure trip for me? While I am going to see family, it's going to AC. It's a great trip, I loved it last year, but I have to be realistic in what my options are. I to date have ever had two commissions, and I am aware my art needs to grow before I'm really going to see a turnaround from that.

I'm just a little down-heartened right now, that's all. I'm going to keep brainstorming, because I /do not/ want to give this trip up. It's my favorite part of the year, and if not for my sisters being there I wouldn't give a shit about skipping out on it.

Okay, what's keeping me up late at night lately?

I don't think I mentioned in my last post that I read. Probably too much. Well no, I honestly don't think you can ever read /too much./ I've always loved writing, and I've been reading since I was three. Clearly my selection of books has evolved from nursery rhymes to the authors that helped shape my own writing style like Anne Rice and Stephen King, but there are a few series that I never got around to reading until recently. And promptly I signed my soul over to them.

I got about seven chapters in before my younger sister, who blazed through all of them and convinced me to read them myself, drug my family out to see the movie. May I say that I have NEVER been so tense from start to finish in a movie before?  From the opening scene until the very end, I sat with my muscles tense as if somehow I would find myself in a similar situation. It wasn't till I did some quick thinking and realized 'Hey, I'm past age, I win!' and calmed down. I finished the books a mere eighteen hours later, unable to put them down because I simply had to know what happened.

This is the current obsession, and I'm forcing the boy to listen to them via Audbile.com while he's at work so that I can gush and obsess with him. I don't want to spoil it for you readers, but if you have read them please send me an email and let me discuss plots with you!

The other one that I am stuck in is A Song of Fire and Ice. I don't have 'A Dance With Dragons' yet, which is killing me, because it takes all the lore and legend of Tolkien and sums up the battles in less than five chapters. I shame myself admitting that, but, when it came to Tolkien I would skip most of the battles because I had a theory there are only so many ways you can describe perfect Legolas shooting a bow and being a BAMF. Clearly he thought otherwise. I even tip my hat slightly to Martin on the count of just how intricate the families are and how clearly you feel their struggles. I am now rooting for characters I started out hating. I pity the ones that I had once despised - he does an amazing job of pulling you in, letting you see the fall and growth of the characters even while you're gritting your teeth and resisting. It's something to be applauded.

So given that these are the most recent books to make me swoon and crash over it's brilliance, what might you guys suggest I check out next? Friday I think I'm going to cave and just go pick up a Dance With Dragons - all my friends are behind me in reading and it's terrible waiting on them to catch up!