DIY Bride™

Public Service Announcement

I’ve been receiving a lot of emails over the last few weeks that encourage sending Xmas/holiday cards to “Any Soldier” at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Please don’t do this! Walter Reed will NOT deliver mail addressed to anonymous or “any soldier”. [cite Snopes and Walter Reed]

The good news is that you can still get cards to wounded soldiers. Walter Reed has a list of organizations you may contact. I recommend Operation: Quiet Comfort which is operated by some wonderful people in the crafting community. They deliver cards and care packages to over 40 combat hospitals.

That is all. Carry on.

5.6 earthquake

Did the earth move for you, baby? It sure did for me last night. A quiet evening of watching DVDs was rudely interrupted by an earthquake of a magnitude I haven’t felt in all my years in the SF Bay Area. 5.6 on the Richter scale is pretty scary.

My husband and I are located about 15 miles or so away from the epicenter. No damage to report at Casa de DIY Bride and all near and dear to us are ok.

Exactly one year ago I was in NYC shooting the completed projects for the 1st half of my book. We shot part of them in Central Park and the rest in the photographer’s studio. A few months later, I was back in NYC to finish up the photography for the remaining projects. Right after that, the manuscript was done. (Then, a little while later, the edits were complete.)

There were times when I was so.utterly.sick of this thing that I could (and did) scream. There were times when I doubted I could really do it. There were times when I completely bugged out over deadlines, stress, and overwhelm.

It was totally worth it.

Here’s why:

Today I received the book. The finished book. The beautiful, glorious, darling, fun, wonderful book. My book.

Happy October!

Beginning today, I’ve opened up a new section on the site called DIY Halloween where (big surprise) I’ll be publishing all sorts of creepy crafty goodness all month.

The direct URL is: http://halloween.diybride.com. Those of you who subscribe via an RSS feed will need to subscribe to the new URL to get the Halloween posts (it’s running on a separate blog from this one.)

It’s officially Fall! Yay!

I’m on a short blog break this week. I’ll be back on October 01.

Hey everyone,

As I’m certain you’re aware, Martha Stewart has teamed up with the Today Show to throw an ultra-fab wedding for one lucky couple. Viewers (that’s you) get to vote on nifty things like the bridal attire and vendor selections. Neat, right?

Well, one of the nominated vendors for the cake selection is Baked NYC who just so happened to have made the cakes and cupcakes for the upcoming DIY Bride book. They were OUTSTANDING – and I’m a cake snob, not at all easily impressed. I’d love it if you, my fabulous readers, would place a vote for them. They rock the cake arts with their gorgeous and tasty frosted wonders.

For the Jessica and Cody, Baked NYC made a beautiful, modern cupcake arrangement with a sleek customized cake tower.

If you have a chance, please click on the Today Show link below to place your vote for Baked NYC.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/19915231/

What’s been happening in the forums that you may have missed?

* Khris’ review of 4 paper cutters

* Mood boards debut

* Where to find large cardstock for DIY pocketfolds

* Inspiration and info on wedding tents

(You must be a registered member to view the forums and downloads section.)

Have a safe and wonderful weekend!

I’ll be taking a blog break for most of next week. Have a lovely week and I’ll see you around the 20th.

I wanted to extend my sincerest thanks to all of the wonderful blogs and sites that link in to or mention DIY Bride. I’m finding lots of incredibly fun, smart, and stylish sites that I might not have known about. My most recent favorites:

• A $10,000 Wedding
• Everything Destination Wedding
• Soiree Special Events
• Chapel Bound
• Parisian Events
• The Bride of Rochester
• Weddings In A Box
• The Event Planner of the Carolinas
• Serene*Bride
• Another Wedding Blog
• The Wedding Planner’s Blog
• Blog of the Bride He Calls Bunny
• Blue Orchid Designs
• Wedlog

Tag! I’m it!

The ever-fabulous Laura from Soiree Special Events tagged me yesterday. Here are the rules:
Players list 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, players then tags 8 people by posting their names and makes sure they know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at the tagee’s blog.

Here goes:

1. My last few pre-wedding careers have been in naval architecture, sailmaking, content management for an internet filtering software company, and crafts instructor.

2. I would love to go to culinary school.

3. I’m dying to write cookbooks. I just don’t have a really good niche yet.

4. I’m mildly dyslexic.

5. I’m allergic to walnuts, pecans, and penicillin.
6. The #1 place I’d like to visit is Machu Pichu.

7. I’m compulsively clean and live with a husband who is decidedly not.

8. I love hosting parties and would do it for every weekend if time and budget allowed.

Now, I’m going to tag….