Custom Candy Wrappers

I've been going back and forth a lot on what I want to do for bridal shower favors. I'm not a knick knacky kind of person, and didn't want to present my guests with knick knacks they likely would never use. After much debate, I decided on chocolate. First of all, it's all women, and let's face it, ladies love chocolate. Second, they can eat it and be done with it. No clutter when they get home.

I saw these online, and it got the wheels turning. Unfortunately, to get the number of wrappers I was going to need, it was going to cost at least $70, and that isn't even factoring in the cost of the chocolate. I quickly decided that I needed to find a better alternative, and turned to my trusty Microsoft publisher program to do the trick.

I originally wanted to design a big Hershey bar wrapper, as I thought it would be nice to give everyone a big candy bar as they left. Unfortunately, what I learned is that they no longer make the standard sized Hershey bars with the foil and paper wrappers, and now wrap them all in plastic. As a matter of fact, ALL affordable standard sized chocolate bars available in stores are wrapped in plastic. (Where is the fund raising kid selling chocolate bars when you need him?!?) The only way to get the foil wrapped candy is to buy the GIANT sized Hershey bars, or the minis. The giant ones were too expensive, so I decided that minis were going to have to suffice.

After a bit of fiddling, I came up with a good template for the mini chocolates that I was able to customize into a few different designs. Unfortunately, I only have a black and white laser printer, so I had to stick to monochromatic designs. These are a few photos of my home made attempt to make my own candy wrappers.



I'm really happy with how they came out. I ordered some cute aqua organza pouches off eBay that I'm going to use to package the favors...one of each design per favor. All in all, enough favors for 30-40 guests only ended up costing me about $25. Not too shabby.

I've even considered designing some templates to sell in PDF "print yourself" format through an avenue like Etsy. Since people would be printing themselves, I wouldn't have to stick to the black and white designs. I don't know...just a thought :-)

More Wedding Projects

Plain votive candle & holder:


+ printable vellum candle wrap:



= tres cute! Now to complete about a zillion more ;-)

52 Days!

I can't believe how quickly the wedding is approaching. I've been very productive with regards to wedding details and planning, but it seems like there is still so much to do. I definitely have a new appreciation for brides planning their own weddings, and all the small details that go into even a seemingly small wedding. I also have a new appreciation for small things that really irk brides and grooms; Small things I will now vent about. Ahem....

For starters...people who use computers all the time, who have been given the wedding website on both the save the date magnets and the invitation, yet still bother my parents for details on accommodations. Even though there is a CLEARLY laid out section on the website for all of this. Now, if this was say, my grandpa, who doesn't use the net very often, I'd understand. But c'mon folks, use the resources we worked to provide you instead of creating more work for us!

Second is people who don't fill out the RSVP card correctly, and then you have to hunt them down to find out what they meant as far as guest count. Blech.

Third is when Bed Bath and Beyond decides to discontinue items on my registry right as I'm sending out invites, and I have to go through and find new stuff.

But, if these are the worst of my problems, I suppose I'm doing just fine. I took my dress in last week for alterations, and couldn't be happier with the place. The first shop was going to charge me $280-320 just for a hem and bustle, which seems pretty unreasonable. The new place is charing only $180 for the same job. Super score. AND, they will hold my dress until right before the wedding, and steam my veil for free. Keeps me from having to store the big dress bag in my teeny apartment. I also still can't be happier with my dress, trying it on again for alterations only confirmed how much I love it :)

Brian and I bought his wedding ring today, and I think he picked a really great one.



We decided to go with the Tungsten Carbide, as it is one of the strongest metals available, super scratch resistant, never needs polishing, and is comfortable and light. Not only that but it is super affordable. It should be arriving in the next couple of weeks :)

We went and got our marriage license today, which started making things feel so real! The clerk told us that our marriage license number 309999 was very lucky in Chinese culture, and that we would have a good marriage. I'm not of the Chinese culture, but I'll take it. ;-)

A good friend of mine from my cohort in the masters program offered to do our wedding ceremony for us. People had suggested that we find a friend to do the ceremony, but I was worried about this option because I wanted someone with experience. Turns out, Jeff is a wedding officiant in his free time, and has done about 15 weddings. Major score. Saves us the cost, and I am getting married by a good friend. :)

Anyway, that's mostly it for now. I feel like even with all this, I haven't updated on even half the wedding related things that have been going on lately. Being a bride, a maid of honor, and a bridesmaid means lots of wedding festivities!

Airbrush Tan Experiment

So, I have a skin condition on my arms and legs called Keratosis Pilaris. It basically means that excess keratin is produced around my hair follicles and it doesn't slough off as easy as the skin does for normal people. It leaves my arms looking red, and feeling a little rough.

Mine isn't as severe in the picture, and is fortunately more evenly spread on my upper arms and lower legs. It really isn't all that big of a deal, and to deal with it I typically just exfoliate my arms once or twice a week with a body scrub. It's super common, and I notice that tons of people have it. However, it doesn't change the fact that there are certain times I am a bit more self conscious of it, like, for my upcoming wedding day.

When I was younger, I used to go to tanning salons and use the tanning beds to get a nice summer glow. Now that I'm older, and feel less invincible, I actually care about what I'm doing to my body. The thought of increasing my likelihood of developing skin cancer by 75% scares the living daylights out of me. Especially after having lived through the cancer experience with someone that was very near and dear to me. I don't want to put myself at risk. Especially for something as trivial as a wedding glow.

At the same time, I'd like to do something to even out my skin tone for the big day. I don't even care about being tan so much as I do about having nice even skin. I went to the local tanning salon and asked about their non UV options. I told the girl I did not want to be orange, and was simply looking for the lightest shade they offered to even out my skin tone. She assured me that airbrush was the way to go, and I decided to buy 3 sessions on that day.

I showed up for my first session not really knowing what to expect. They basically have you strip down as much as you're comfortable, put a strange little cap on to protect your hair, and put sticky soles on the bottom of your feet to avoid tanning the bottoms. The spraying itself only took about 5 minutes, and I was ready to go.

What the did not prepare me for was the fact that my skin was going to be DARK for the first 5-12 hours. This is what I looked like when I got home.



It doesn't show as well in the photo, but I basically looked like an over tanned bimbo who should be walking around some Southern Cali beach. I was so dark that when it came time to select where we were going to have dinner, I asked him if we could do drive through, as I was to embarrassed to be seen looking like that. However, wanting to do what the professionals advised, I waited to shower until the next morning, letting the initial spray stay on for a full 12 hours.

My first shower the next morning was quite messy. The water washed away the dark color, and revealed this tone:



Much better. And I felt pretty good about the way skin looked nice and even. However, there were spots on my hands and arms that were pretty orange, and I wasn't happy with it overall. Unfortunately, the orange never really went away, rather just faded over time.

In the end, this is NOT something I would recommend to folks for something as important as your wedding. I'm planning to do airbrush makeup for my wedding, and the makeup artist says she airbrushes face neck and shoulders, but I think I may talk to her about spraying some of the to cover my arms a little too. I've done it in the past with this, and it worked so well, so I've got higher hopes for the airbrush look than this fake tan crap, haha.

Wedding Rings

So, as you remember, my lovely fiancee got me a very lovely engagement ring last December. We went back to Tiffany recently to pick out a wedding ring that would compliment the ring, without breaking the bank. I decided to go with a plain band that matched the band of the engagement ring.


Never mind the chipped polish ;-)


Very simple and clean. I can't wait to start wearing them together :)

We Did It!

That's right, after two years of giving my blood, sweat, and many tears to the master program, I graduated with my M.S. in clinical psychology. Here are a few photos from the day.

The whole group before the big event


Me, Lindsay, & Cory


They wanted to charge 49.95 for one unedited digital copy of this image. No thanks. Here is the proof of me getting hooded instead.


After the ceremony.


All in all, I'm so glad it is over. It has been a difficult 2 year journey, and I am ready to move on to the next phase.

How Swag Bucks Works

OK, so I realize this is totally spamming, and I'm going to sound like a commercial as I write this. HOWEVER, those who know me know I wouldn't bother posting about something like this unless I felt it was worth your time.

What is Swag Bucks?

So, my dear friend Marni introduced me to this awesome thing called Swag Bucks. Basically, it is a search engine not unlike Google or yahoo. You use the Swag Bucks search engine doing your day to day searching just like you would with any other engine, and every once and a while you run the chance of winning these things called Swag Bucks. Over time, you collect them up and redeem them for prizes. One of the best trades for your Swag Bucks as it turns out, is for Amazon.com e-gift cards. For every 450 Swag Bucks you earn, you get a $5 dollar credit to your Amazon account to use towards anything you wish.

Is it Legit?

Go ahead and do a few searches on it. You will find that it absolutely is legit. Marni has been doing it since March and has already made over $75 dollars credited to her Amazon account. I have been on since mid May, and have made $15. They send out the e-gift card codes on the 1st and 15th of every month. I just got my first codes today, and it literally took seconds to transfer the code to my amazon account. Super simple.

Why do they do this?

I asked this same question in the beginning. If they are paying us to search, how are they making money? What I have learned is that many companies pay search engine providers for every hit they get to their site as a result of the search engine. This means that Swag Bucks is getting paid each and every time someone arrives at one of their paid sponsors. They then take the money they make and give some of it back as incentive for people to use their search engine. I mean, c'mon, let's face it... with such well established search engines that have literally become household names ("let's Google it") it makes sense that they would offer to pay people as incentive to grow their search engine. No one would use it otherwise, and they wouldn't be able to stay in business. By giving just a little back, they are benefiting as a company.

Is the search engine as good as Google?

The honest answer to this question is no. Google will likely get you way more results, especially when it comes to image searches. However, since I started using it 2 weeks ago, I have only had to go to Google ONCE because Swag Bucks did not deliver what I wanted. For the most part, the search results are more than adequate. And if not, you could always use the Swag Bucks search engine to search Google ;)

Ways to Earn

There are several ways to earn Swag Bucks day to day.

Searching
The first way is to use the search engine. You won't win every time, but you will win on occasion. My wins are typically anywhere from 7-14 Swag Bucks, although I did win 36 once. I generally win from searching roughly 3 times a day.

Finding Codes
Here is how they make things interesting. From time to time (generally 1-3x per day) they release secret codes that are good for a limited number of time. They release the codes at completely random times, and they are generally good for 5-8 Swag Bucks. They usually make it fun by making it something you have to search for or use your brain muscles to figure out. There are several ways to find out about codes.

1. Visit the Blog Regularly
Swag Bucks has a blog that they generally update a few times a day. This is where they release hints about

2.Visit the Fan Blog Regularly.
We Love Swagbucks is good at keeping up on when new codes are released. This is a good thing to check a few times a day. They can't tell you what the code is, as Swag Bucks has strict rules about not giving out codes, and will disable them if they catch wind that anyone has, but they can let you know when one has been released and how to go about finding out how to get it. It saves you from having to lurk the twitter, facebook, and blog pages for codes.

3. Facebook Page
They also have a facebook page that they release code hints on from time to time. If you're an avid facebook user like me, it's a good way to keep up on what is going on but shouldn't be your only way, as they don't always post code hints here.

4. Twitter Page
I don't personally use twitter, but they do post codes periodically via this method. I don't have an account and thus, don't have a link, so you can search for their twitter page on your own, lol.

Shop & Trade In
You can also win swag bucks by making online purchases through their partner sites and trading in old cell phones and such. I don't personally like this method of earning but if you are planning to do some online shopping anyway and the site happens to be one of their partner sites, I say go for it. You make 2 Swag Bucks for every 1 dollar you spend.

Referrals
This is one of THE BEST ways to earn. Every person who signs up under you helps you to earn Swagbucks. Keep reading for more on that.

Benefits of Installing the Toolbar

The toolbar comes with lots of little links that help you manage your Swag Bucks account. It also comes with a little search engine so you don't have to go to Swag Bucks.com every time you want to search. I was even able to configure mine to connect to my yahoo mail and alert me whenever I have a new email. Score.

What if I don't want to download the toolbar?

So, I ran into this situation where I was at work, and didn't want to get in trouble for downloading content onto my computer. I was able to work around this by configuring the search bar built in to the top right of my browser to search Swag Bucks automatically. I'll do my best to walk you through the process.

From Internet Explorer

1. Click on the drop down menu and select "manage search providers"
2. Click "find more search providers"
3. This will open a web page. Scroll to the bottom and select "create your own search provider"
4. In another window, go to the Swag Bucks Search Engine and search the word "TEST" in all capital letters.
5. Paste the URL that comes up into the URL portion of the create your own search provider page.
6. Name the search engine what you want it to be called. "Swag Bucks" is probably best.
7. Click "install search provider" and then click "add" in the window that pops up and Voila!
8. Now, go back to the drop down menu up at the search bar and select Swag Bucks to make it your default search provider.

From Firefox
I haven't figured out how to do it in Firefox without at the very least, installing the Swag Bucks Plugin. From this page, you can also install plugins for Safari, Opera, and Google Chrome. If anyone figures out a way to do it without installing plugins, please let me know, but I don't know that it is possible.

Why do you keep linking the word Swag Bucks?

Well, dear blogger friends, because if you decide to sign up, and do so under my link, I get referral credit. Basically, every time you search and win, I win too. To date, I've already made over 600 Swag Bucks through referrals alone. This is seriously one of THE BEST ways to earn. I didn't think I'd be able to get any referrals when I started, but by posting just a few (3) Facebook posts about it, I've been able to gather 9 referrals. I wouldn't recommend spamming your friends with posts, but I think it's OK to do one every now and again.

What it comes down to is I really recommend it. I've tried to explain it in as much deal as I can, but if you have any questions you can always, always, always, message me. I'd be happy to help answer any questions. I've earned $15 dollars in roughly 3 weeks, and am looking forward to earning enough money to have a mostly, if not totally, free Christmas. Go Swag Bucks!