A Yes and a No

After mailing the invitations mere days ago, we have our first two RSVPs!! We have one yes, and one no.

The yes came from MOH Kat. She was so giddy about getting the official invitation that she filled out the card the minute she got it, and flapped it in my face when I went to her apartment for movie night. I believe her exact words were "LOOK WHAT I HAVE I'M SO EXCITED THIS INVITATION IS SO PRETTY I'M OFFICIALLY COMING THIS WEDDING IS GOING TO BE THE CHIZ."

(you see why I love her?)

The no came from a dear friend from my high school days. Not only did she send the card, but she sent me a Facebook message the very day she received the invitation apologizing for not coming and explaining that she'll be in France during the wedding.

I was a bit sad that she can't come, but hey, that's a pretty awesome reason to not come. Besides, she promised to bring me back something from France. Huzzah!

The Name Game

I've seen a lot of debate about changing your last name to your husband's after the wedding. Everybody has their reasons for changing, or not changing, or hyphenating, or combining, and I think it's awesome. There's no good reason for following tradition blindly.

Personally, I will be changing my name. For me, it is a symbol that I am officially creating a new family with my new husband, and the name change goes hand in hand with the change in my life. I will be adding my maiden name as a third middle name (and seeing as how my maiden name is a fairly standard boy's name, it won't be too odd).

I also think that changing my last name to my husband's will make life easier for our children. We want at least three, and I don't really want to have to make them explain why their hyphenated last name is so terribly long, or why Mommy's last name is different from theirs.

That being said, P's very lovely Cornish last name has three drawbacks.

#1: It's impossible to pronounce.

#2: It's impossible to spell.

#3: It rhymes.

P's last name is Trevathan. Apparently in Cornwall it's as common as "Smith" or "Jones," but over here it just gets funny looks and hesitant "Trev...Trev...um..."

(For the record, it's pronounced tre-VAY-than.)

And while I am happy to take his last name, there's one thing holding me back. You know Julia Goolia in the Wedding Singer? Well, I'm going to be Caitlin Trevathan.

Yeah. Drink that in for a bit.

It's silly, but it's a little annoying at the same time. It sounds made-up.

On the other hand, it would look GREAT as a stage name!

And they're off!

It's official!

I took the invitations to the post office today. They're typed, glued, stickered, addressed, and stamped. Now they're zipping across Tennessee and Pennsylvania and Texas and even California. It's for reals, y'all. This isn't just some event we're hypothetically planning. People will actually be coming.

The invitations weighed in for a normal 44-cent stamp, but I still wanted to hand-cancel. After all, I had heard that hand-canceling was an important part of sending fancy-pantsy invitations. There was just one problem.

What exactly is hand-canceling? And why is it so important to do it?

Well, kiddos, this is how it rolls. An envelope is canceled when they stamp the round date and location logo over the postage. Usually this is done by feeding it through a machine, but that can crumple or tear an envelope. So when you have delicate wedding invitations, it's better to do it by hand rather than letting the machine do it.

I went into the post office in the early afternoon with a big plastic bag full of invitations. I got some funny looks, until I explained that I had wedding invitations and I wanted to hand-cancel them. The very nice postman handed me a red self-inking stamp and pointed me to a table where I could stamp away. Five minutes later, I popped back up to the counter, handed him the bag of invitations (and the stamper), and off they went!

A Room of One's Own

I hope you're ready for the LAZIEST THURSDAY'S TEN EVER.

Like seriously.

The theme for today is things around your house, and I was too lazy to leave my bedroom. So...here's a handful of random things that I like that just so happen to lurk in my room.

#1: My bed and

#2: COLORS!

I love my bed. It's so squishy and comfy. And, um, cluttered at the moment.

Also, I love my room's color scheme. I designed it back when I was in high school and I was obsessed with Trading Spaces.

The conversation when I tried to explain the colors to my dad was PRICELESS. "You want...you want blue and green? And orange and purple? And red? Are you...are you sure?"

#3: My movie tie-in collection

and

#4: My book collection

I love movies, and these are all souvenirs from some of my favorites. (They're not in the picture, but I have a cluster of action figures to the left.)

I am an absolutely VORACIOUS reader. You can't really tell, but the shelves run pretty much all around my room. I have so many books that I had to move the nonfiction books and my scripts to a different spot.

#5: My ipod/stereo/alarm clock

and

#6: Hello Kitty

I would die without my iPod alarm clock. For serious.

That Hello Kitty is actually my sister's. She dragged that little toy around with her everywhere throughout her childhood, and she's sort of the family mascot now. We joke about who gets to have "custody" of Kitty.

#7: My Disney pins

(This is the part where I start grasping at straws as to what I have in my room that's actually interesting.)

I have a huge collection of Disney pins after working in the parks for so long. I refer to it as my retirement fund.

(Seriously, some of these babies go for about $50-$150 on ebay.)

#8: My manuscript

(Whoa, old picture! Back when I was still blondish!)

Yup. I wrote that shiz. All 360+ pages of it.

Now to find a publisher...

#9: Zac Efron!



Yeah. My sewing machine. Love that thing.

The Zac Efron sticker makes it over 9,000 times cooler.

aaaaaaand finally...

#10: MY DRESSFORM!

GUESS WHAT ARRIVED YESTERDAY?!

Yup. My dressform. Still debating about what to name her. Probably going to go with Giselle. Since Giselle sews and all.

But yeah. I think I win for LAZIEST THURSDAY'S TEN EVER.

...

EVER.

YOWZAS!

To quote one of my best friends...HOLY SPAM!

I've been sadly neglecting my blog lately (a wedding in 54 days can do that to ya), but imagine my delight and astonishment when I open up my inbox to 16 glorious comments!

Literally, folks, my eyes are boggling.

It's all thanks to the wonderful Lynnette Kraft. I signed up for her fabulous "Getting to Know YOU!" thingamabob...and then, like the daydreamy gal I am, promptly forgot all about it.

Gah. Gotta work on that.

But it has been so encouraging to get all those fun and funny comments. I've been rather stressed lately, and this has perked me right up!

So thank you so much, everybody!! I'm going to do my best to write back to each and every one of you lovely people!!

Playing Dress-Up

Today I took my pretty, pretty princess dress in for alterations. It was so nice to put it on again, in all of it satiny, sparkly, pick-uppy glory.

I wasn't quite prepared, though, for how much will have to be changed. It's going to be gorgeous, but still. So much tweaking!

So what's going to happen to my princess dress?

-Altering the straight-across neckline to a sweetheart neckline

-Tweaking the straps so they'll lie more off-the-shoulder.

-Letting the sides out a little. :(

(I'm definitely going to up the ante on the whole working-out-and-eating-better thing. And definitely more work on my back squish!)

-hemmmmmmms. Because I'm shoooooooort.

-A delicious 13-point French bustle. It looks like somebody tossed a handful of whipped cream on me. In a good, yummy sort of way.

And here's what my pretty dress looks like:

I'm starting to debate my hairstyle, though. I know I definitely want it down, with loose curls, but I don't know if I want it in a half-back. Maybe I can just pin the sides back or something. I don't know.

In the meantime, my dress will be in surgery until the middle of February. I can't wait to see what it looks like then!

I waaaaaant it!

I'm taking a break from the relentless terror that is my sewing collection- or, rather, the organization thereof. It's rather terrifying to see how many unfinished projects I have...

So now, without further ado, here are my top ten items on my wishlist!

#1: An adjustable dressform


My parents promised to get me one for my graduation present. So hopefully I'll be bringing one home soon!

#2: a sunshine yellow mixer

Lora has this on her list too...and I totally agree! My mom got a Kitchenaid last year, and it's super fantastic.

#3: A teacup Yorkshire terrier

I've never had a pet, but I've wanted a Yorkshire terrier since I was seven years old. I shall name him Theodore Laurence. And he shall be AWESOME.

#4: dresses from Modcloth

Gah. That whole website is full of gorgeous dresses. I'll take one of each, please...

#5: A purple Victorian house (with a tower)

I love Victorian houses. And I need a house. And the main character in my book lives in a purple Victorian house. Speaking of which...

#6: My book in published format

(An artist on Deviantart did this drawing of my main character for me.)

I wrote a whole 100,000+ word book all on my lonesome. I'm currently working on the sequel (with ten more books planned after that), and I really want to see them all published.

#7: A new Artemis Fowl book

Dear Mr. Colfer,

I have followed your series from the first book. I love them. So please publish The Atlantis Complex soon.

kthanxbai

#8: Tiana and Naveen dolls

Go on, laugh. But I collect movie dolls- I have Tinkerbell, Jessie, Anya, Ariel, Belle, Giselle, Ron Stoppable, etc. And I luuuuuuurrrrrvvvv The Princess and the Frog. So...yeah. Want them.

(I still regret not buying the Dimitri and Anya wedding set...)

#9: Peppermint ice cream

Mm...there might be some in the freezer..

and, last but not least...

#10: I want to be married to this guy.

I'll be Mrs. Trevathan in two months.

But that's going to be weird. Because I'll be all like "Whoa, that's his mom...oh, wait, they mean me."

I'll be...little Mrs. Trevathan? I don't know.

But yeah.

That's what I want.

I want the world! I want the whole world! Give it to me noooooowwww...

(And that has been your Veruca Salt moment for the evening.)

A Little Bit of Flower Power

If someone made a cartoon about me and P, it would be about Allergy Girl and Captain Dehydration the Colonless Wonder. Because he has, well, no colon, and I have forty-seven allergies.

And because flowers make my eyes swell up and my nose run like a faucet, there's no way that I can carry around a real bouquet and come out unscathed. Hence, I'm making my bouquet and the guys' bouts myself. The bouts are for another day, but I got a running start on my flowers.

I bought a slew of silk flowers from Michaels. If you're going the silk route, just wait a bit for sales. When I went, they had all flowers on sale for half off or more! Frickin' sweet.

I started off with this:

Kind of a hot mess, isn't it?

I started off by trimming the length on the longest stems and taking off excess leaves. And I discovered something very, very important.

OH MY LANDS, I NEED BETTER SCISSORS!

I pulled out the scissors I use to cut patterns when I sew- they're nice and sturdy, so they should work, right? WRONG. My poor hands are aching. There was no way on earth that those scissors could get through those stems. Under that innocent vinyl facade is a monstrous thick cord of steel.

Ouch.

I started a system of making a small cut, bending, and twisting until it snapped off. It still took me the better part of an hour to hack away at those things. Eventually it came down to three piles: the bigger flowers with the longer stems, the smaller flowers with the shorter stems, and a Jonas Brothers popcorn bucket filled with fake leaves.

I just sort of stared at it for a moment, like "Uh...what happens next?"

I resolved my blank stare by gathering the larger flowers into one large bundle, and then dividing the shorter flowers into four small bundles. So it came out to this:

Then I gathered the four little bunches on the fringe of the large bunch. Easy, eh?

This is only a rough mockup- I haven't taped them together or added the ribbon and string of vintage pearls. But it gave me a pretty good look at what it's going to end up like.

(Please excuse the highschooler Myspace picture. But isn't it nice that the colors of my bathroom coordinate with the flowers?)

I'm not a fan of the stripe of blue flowers in the middle, and overall it might be a little bit too big. I still like the overall look, though. It has that fresh, pretty just-picked-from-an-English-garden look that I like.

The best part: they don't look like cheap silk! Huzzah!

The worst part: I have to clip at least six more inches off the longer stems.

Gah. I need to track down a bear trap or something to cut these silly things.

Adventures of a Child Bride

All right, so I'm not really a child bride. (Although P gets plenty of robbing the cradle jokes. I mean, seriously. I'll be twenty-three next month and I still have people ask me "So, when are you starting college, honey?" It's a bit ridic. I mean, take a look at this:)

(Also, please disregard my terrible, terrible tan lines. That's what happens when you work in Disney World...)

I was only nineteen years old when P and I decided to get married. We met in 2004, we started dating in March of '06, and by September of that year he gave me his purity ring on a necklace to wear until he could formally propose. We wanted to keep it a secret- so naturally, everyone knew. And we got a lot of flack for it.

One very dear high school friend sent me an email begging me to reconsider. She had a good point- after all, P was my first boyfriend. And I was a freakin' teenager! She made an analogy about ice cream- sure, if I've only had vanilla, it'll be my favorite. But if I try chocolate and strawberry and chocolate chip cookie dough, maybe I'll realize that one of them is my favorite instead.

Basically, she thought I should date around. But I'm as stubborn as the day is long, and I stuck by my decision. It's been three years since we made that choice on a warm September night, and I've never regretted it.

Getting engaged as a teenager certainly doesn't work for everyone, but it worked for me. It worked for us. We've had the last four years to mature and form our future together. I'm not the same starry-eyed kid I was at nineteen, but growing up hasn't made me love him less or grow so accustomed to him that I forget to value and work on our relationship.

And surprisingly, I think one of the key reasons we've made it work is that we still had vibrant lives outside of each other. He went to school in Murfreesboro while I went to school in Green Hills (about an hour apart). He worked at the mall and lived with his guy friends in an apartment decked out with anime posters and every video game console known to man (and a couple known only to monkeys) while I spent hours and hours in rehearsals and went out with my girlfriends for midnight snack runs and afternoon pottery painting sessions. Granted, when we did see each other, we made the most of it. But we continued to build independent lives and independent friendships.

Sure, we were eligible for Engaged and Underaged on MTV, and sure, we agonized over the years and years of engagement (I called it Engagement Purgatory). And it didn't make it any easier that we decided to not have sex until our wedding night. (We've held to that, but it wasn't easy in the slightest!) I'm still glad that I said yes before I was old enough to drink. He is the right man for me, and age won't ever change that.

65 days till I'm a Mrs.!

Yikes...only SIXTY-FIVE days?! I remember when we would look at each other and say "Gosh...we're getting married in twenty months! It's so soon!"

We had our second premarital counseling session today. It went really well. We're really going through our stories and seeing how we got to be the people we are now. We have two more sessions, and I'm really looking forward to them.

Afterwards, we came back to my house and sorted through the to-do list. Top of the list for tomorrow? Invitations, baby. It's just about time to send them out.

But in the meantime, it is absolute freezation out here in Nashvegas. I almost didn't want to leave the house today, it was so cold! So I was excited that Lora's ten things was all about staying warm.

So here's my list of things that keep me warm!

#1: Patrick. :)

#2: Going down to Orlando. Mm, I miss that place. Well, mostly Disney, but you know what I mean.

#3: Hot tea. And I mean the good British stuff.

#4: A hearty round of Dance Dance Revolution. Burns calories and it burns you up!

#5: Huddling under the covers in flannel pajamas.

#6: Watching the movie Holes. Have you ever seen that thing? Just watching those boys run through the Texas heat warms me up.

#7: Sewing summer dresses and imagining how awesome it'll be to wear them in the sunshine.

#8: Hot bubble baths. Mmm...

#9: My yellow vintage Mom cardigan.

#10: Sitting by the fireplace.

I think I'm going to participate in #5 right now...cold and sleepy is not a good combination!

It's 2010!

Well, 2009 is over. And it was...eventful. Extremely eventful.

What did you do in 2009 that you've never done before?
-Directed an entire show
-Turned 22
-Celebrated three years together, two years of engagement, and one year till the wedding
-Dragged Patrick around Disney World!
-Had four big onstage roles

Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Well, let's see. Last year I vowed to...

-Write a page in my second novel every day. HA! That didn't happen. But I'm at least on chapter seven, so that's progress.

-Practice voice more often. Eh, hit or miss. I definitely practice more than I used to.

-Exercise more regularly. Definitely more, but still not consistent.

-Watch less television. LAWLZ. I think I watched more TV this year than I did the year before...but that's mostly because I have to have something on when I'm sewing or writing.

As for this year's resolutions...yeah, they're happening.

Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope. I have a feeling I'm going to be the first person in my circle of friends to have a baby...so...wait a few years...and there will probably be a little Trevathan around.

Did anyone close to you die?
My grandfather passed away in September from pancreatic cancer.

What countries did you spend time in this year?
Just this one!

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A husband, a decent apartment, and a job. At least one of those is taken care of...

What dates from 2009 will remain etched on your memory, and why?
September 28th. See three questions higher.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Probably playing Miriam Goldman in Beau Jest. I worked so hard for that show, and it paid off in a major way. And I found out that the show was cast around me, so that was nice for my poor little bruised ego (see the majority of theater-related blog entries from 2008 and early 2009.)

What was your biggest failure?
Not doing as well in my classes as I would have liked.

Did you suffer any serious illness or injury?
No, thank goodness. I did my time in 2007-2008. Shingles in the fall, mono in the spring. It was terrible.

What was the best thing you bought?
My new laptop, Spock. And my car, the Mach 5.

Where did most of your money go?
Well, I made very little money in the spring, made a lot of money in the summer, and then spent it slowly in the fall. So basically...living expenses. That sucks.

Compared to last year, are you...

...happier or sadder?
Happier. Mostly due to the fact that I finally regained the confidence that I lost throughout 2007-2008.

...thinner or fatter?
I'm fatter than I was in the summer, but thinner than I was this time last year. So...yay?

...richer or poorer?
About the same.

What did you get really excited about?
Working at Disney again!

What do you wish you'd done more of?
I wish I had more time to hang out with friends, but I was working in the Happiest Place on Earth and doing SEVEN shows. So...now that I have too much free time on my hands, I'm glad things worked out the way they did.

Did you fall in love in 2009?
I fell in love four years ago, but I will say that Patrick and I are more than "in" love. We love each other.

(and everyone just threw up a little bit. At least I'm not proclaiming "Welcome to 2010, the year of our wedding! EVERYONE MUST CELEBRATE WITH US BECAUSE YOU WILL NEVER BE AS ROMANTIC AS WE ARE, SO YOU BETTER BE ENJOYING THIS VICARIOUSLY.")

How many one-night stands?
Um...doesn't this question sort of negate the previous one? But in any case, the answer is no.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Not that I can think of. I don't really have a hit list or anything.

What was the best book you read?
Oh, wow. Um...I read my favorite book, Little Women, four times this year. Does that count? Honestly, though, I can't think of a new book I read that I really, really adored.

What did you get and not get?
Nothing, really. I'm quite satisfied.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 22 this year. I spent my birthday in the theater- we had a matinee and an evening performance of Enchanted Attic.

What one thing could have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Getting married in 2009 instead of 2010. But we're down to 70 days, and I can do that.

Who do you miss?
My Disney family!

Who was the best new person you met?
My Disney apartment mates- Shana, Sam, and Carissa. And Adriana totally counts too. Love them!

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009?
Sometimes it's exhausting to work your ass off, but it pays off in the end.

What sums up this year in a quote?
"Isn't that niiiiice?" (the Beau Jest catchphrase)

And to close...my 2010 resolutions!
-Get married.

-Lose weight.

-Actually try to get Beatrice published.

-Finish ALL my half-finished sewing projects.

Happy New Year, everybody!