Hold on for Picturama! (This might take a minute to load)

Hurrah! Say it with me: FINALLY. Yes, I am finally taking the time (so far it's taken 2 hours) to put some photos on the blog. (2 hours - this is why I usually need wine to do this).

So to start off with, our wedding reception/par-tay held at my mom's in NC. It was a very nice event - lots of family & friends came. Of course, typically, I have no pictures of anyone else. Mom does. Of course, I guess it makes sense - everyone was trying to either get pictures (1) of us, or (2) with us. So it's hard to photog properly when one is the center of the universe (you'd think I'd be used to that by now - just kidding. I haven't had wine. Also I'm on a diet, so work with me here.)

Mom ordered these pretty napkins with our names embossed on them.

She also ordered us some little petit fours (because I had said I didn't want a cake). So I didn't get a cake. I got 60 little tiny cakes!

Oh wait - my cousin got me a cake anyway. Is this not the cutest, tiniest wedding cake ever? It's like a Barbie wedding cake! And it was REALLY tasty. YUM. (So were the petit fours!)

Here we are cutting our monster cake. Joe decided to go with a nice shirt his Mom gave him several years ago, for a more casual affair. I got to wear my wedding dress again - good! It was a lot of work! Might as well wear the hell out of it. Also I plan to wear it when we go to Germany next time (Keine Ueberraschung jetzt, Edeltraud und Sigrid!)

Is that not an adorable wedding cake? And also an adorable groom? :)

So in the spirit of love and peace and matrimonial serenity and all that following a weekend celebrating our nuptials, we move on to our next relationship activity:

Target shooting. Oh yeah.

Be afraid.

(Also, please note the hilariously ironic and yet somehow appropriate choice of hat - My brother-in-law managed to find the only camouflage Duke hat ever made. HA! (Also, in case you thought I was tough, I was concerned the whole time about breaking my ridiculously long fingernails - visible on the hand holding the ammo magazine - I am perhaps still a stupid girly-girl).

Now for those of you who think this an odd choice of activity with one's newly-minted spouse, let me remind you that in Chatham County, Georgia, you get your marriage license and your gun license at the same desk. NICE. One stop shopping for all those potentially violent marriages! Convenient!

A few weeks ago we got free dinner tickets to a riverboat cruise on the Savannah River. Neat boat, huh? (Also please note I'm wearing a sweater I made for the San Diego trip, from Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits - even though it was eleventy thousand degrees out that day. One must suffer for one's knitted fashion).

Joe took these lovely photos of Savannah and the Talmadge Bridge at sunset, from the deck of the riverboat:

And for fans of my particular type of photography: yes, a photo of Thing In Sky.

Last weekend, on Saturday, we lounged around the house. Joe did woodworking and I did sewing/quilting/knitting/crocheting and research on a proposal for the AAOHN conference next year (to be held in Orlando - not really exotic when you live 2 hours from Florida, but I'll take it).

On Sunday though, I felt restless. Joe humored me by finding something to see that neither of us had ever visited: Fort Sumter, South Carolina.

For those non-Southerners who might be reading this, Fort Sumter is...a fort. Right outside of Charleston, SC, and is the location of the first shots of the Civil War. See, the Northern Aggressors (aka Yankees, for those not in-the-know), were holed up at Fort Sumter. It was the last Union stronghold in the area. At the time, Charleston was the biggest port in the South and one of the major ports for the country. Through a series of legal moves designed to limit slave ownership in the new states (being formed out of the Louisiana Purchase), South Carolina got...well, pissed off. They didn't like it, they didn't want federal involvement in states' rights, and they decided they had had ENOUGH. So early one morning they decided to take decisive action, and fired on the Northerners at Fort Sumter. The Yankees were eventually driven out and peace prevailed. Ha. Just kidding. They left, but ended up blowing the crap out of the fort later on when the South was losing the war badly. The South fell, Sherman burned everything (except Savannah), Confederate money was useless, and rednecks everywhere started forming Sons of Confederate Veterans in order to keep the crusade on everyone's minds. And then the North introduced bagels, and that spelled the end of Southern culture.

Lesson over.

Here are some photos from Fort Sumter. I got a bit artsy-fartsy on some of these. Must've been the heat stroke.

This shows the tracks where they could swing the cannons around to aim them in different directions. I think they're a neat shape.

This is part of the inside of the fort, and I loved this crooked little pathway.

This is a gun port (Wait - that's on a ship. Is that what they call it on land?) Anyway, this is the little hole they stick the cannon out of. Isn't the brickwork lovely?

And here are some cannon. You can see the wheels on the bottom where they'd move on those rounded tracks.

And here's a neat little doorway. The architecture was quite charming, for a fortress of war. :)

And for those of you interested in such things, here is my quilt so far. It's pinned down to a light piece of fabric, so that white in between the pieces won't be there in the finished piece. It's darker on the outsides with a lighter section in the middle. I wanted it to look like calm water. I think it's working:

I'm really enjoying learning how to quilt so far. Now I have to sew the whole thing together. More pictures to come!

Now it's time to crochet a bit more and get offline. Hope you have a lovely evening!

Howdy and Monday Update and so on.

Bonjour everyone. Hopefully life is treating you well.

Things are good here. Joe and I went up to a wedding reception at my Mom's over the 4th of July weekend, where we ate cake (photos forthcoming), met up with friends (photos also forthcoming), and watched fireworks (no photos). It was a lovely reception - lots of people came, including family friends I hadn't seen in ages. Very cool.

Since then, Joe has been hard at work doing this:

It's a writing desk that Joe MADE for me. Isn't it beautiful? I love it. I needed a writing desk something bad, so now I have one. A lovely handmade one with the features I want. Now I'm ready to write. :) Isn't he talented? I was extremely impressed.

What else? I'm going to the chiropractor again (but a different one closer to the house). I apparently have some weird back issues and curvatures and also Hello. Scoliosis. Brought on by a lack of stomach muscle and also a lot of looseness in my joints and bad posture. My spine now looks a bit like this in the x-ray:

Y (except without the top right branch - it's a bit wavy)

Nice, huh? No wonder I get headaches and also the hems on my dresses are always crooked. The doc seems to think that it's at least somewhat fixable, because I didn't have it in childhood. How weird is that? So he's been stretching me and cracking me and in general trying really hard to straighten me up. Maybe I'll be taller when he's finished!

I've also just started on one of my New Year's Resolutions - to learn to quilt! I'm taking a class at Colonial Quilts in Savannah, and am making this quilt:

http://www.colonialquilts.us/brickwork.html

Mine will be blue, teal, and green. I want it to look like water. And yes, I plan to take photos to document the process so stay tuned.

That's about it from Savannah. Drink plenty of water, y'all. It's HOT out there.

Hello everyone and Happy July!

Happy July everyone! Can you believe it's already July? WOW. The year is already on the downward slope toward winter. (And knitting season!)

Married life is going very well. We've settled in and still giggle to call each other "husband" and "wife." Life isn't too different, but is good. :)



My job is going fine, and I got some great feedback from my speech in Salt Lake City. They asked me to submit proposals for next year, which I already did (two of them!). They contacted me today to say they're looking for a speaker for a presentation on medical literacy and plain language writing for patients. I don't know a whole lot about it (yet) but I did go ahead and offer my speaking services for it. It's so fun to do presentations like that. The conference next year is in Orlando though, not someplace exotic like Salt Lake City. But. It's good for my professional life to get this experience.

So I've been busy here (as you can imagine) doing some sewing, knitting, and even crocheting. I finished a dress tonight but was lazy and didn't take a picture. It's a blue cotton halter dress with a big full skirt. I've never been able to wear dresses like that (til my surgery) so it's exciting to have one now that I think is really cute. :) It looks a bit like the red one in this pattern:

http://www.butterick.com/item/B5029.htm?tab=list/dresses&page=all

I also am making a hat for the beach that looks like one of those Vietnamese rice paddy hats. You know the ones I mean:

I love these hats. But. They cost nothing to buy, except the shipping, which can be slightly pricey, since these things don't exactly fold down. And they're 16 inches across. So! I'm making my own, but out of fabric and felt so it's nice and squishy, but stands out like it's supposed to. Also, it's teal. Schweet. Joe already hates it. heh. And if my version doesn't work? I'm going to buy the green one above. Because they are so super cute!

This weekend for the 4th, we're driving up to my mom's in NC. She's hosting a wedding party for us for the extended family - it should be fun or at least interesting. Joe will probably be overwhelmed with all the new people. But the food will be great! We will take pictures, and yes, I will post them. Eventually.

Time for bed. Happy Fourth of July!

You asked for it....

Wedding photos!


(It's about time, I hear ya. But. I was in San Diego last week for a conference. I will post on that later, because I don't want to put 8 gazillion pictures in 1 post.)



During the ceremony:

It turned out to be a beautiful day, and our wedding was small and intimate and nice.

Here we are after our drinks and first toast. (Joe tried to drink out of my cup at first - he didn't know this tradition. But I protected my wine successfully).

Aaaawwww....Aren't we cute? The guy on the far left there is Jason, the mayor of Tybee Island, who officiated for us. The little blonde head in the foreground is my niece. Please note the high quality box wine on the table. Heh.





Here are the happy newlyweds with our moms. They really enjoyed meeting each other - very cool.

So that's our wedding! There were some other people there too, but I don't want to post their pics without them knowing it. :) In the picture above, we have a set of beautiful candles on the ground in front of us that Joe's mom brought from Germany. Aren't they lovely?

Next posts: our trips to Utah and San Diego, feedback from my Utah speech (all good!), knitting projects (yes, I have actually been knitting), and other sundries. Good stuff. Stay tuned!

We're official. I am now an honest woman.

Hey!

Sorry there are no nuptial photos yet - we just got a CD of them and I haven't downloaded them yet. But. The show that we did it:

We got married.

We got married!

It was a lovely weekend, with our families here and the fun of seeing everyone and feasting and laughing and enjoying ourselves. It was great. My dress looked good, my HUSBAND was (and still is!) very handsome. The weather was great (after a bit of a scare in the morning with all the cloudiness) - it was warm and sunny and just beautiful. There were even dolphins swimming by the beach after the wedding. How cool!

And now Joe and I are getting back to our everyday lives, resting up and recuperating from the planning and execution phase if it all. We're still tired, but hey. It's worth it. :)

On Saturday I leave to go to San Diego for a conference for a week. Poor Joe will be a straw widow before we've been married a full week! This will be the first time that I've flown alone in years. Wish me luck!

Time for bed now. Soooo sleepy!

Oh wow. Look at what's happening tomorrow. Can you believe it?

Joe and I are getting married tomorrow. TOMORROW. Wow. I know, I'm sorry, things have been crazy here and I haven't taken the time to blog lately. We went to Salt Lake City and have some lovely photos of that, and I promise to post some soon.

But now, back to breaking news....Wedding.

Here is my dress:

(Please note the stylin' silver beaded flip flops.)

Here is a closer photo to show the gorgeous necklace that Joe's sister and brother-in-law sent to me. Isn't it beautiful? It matches the dress perfectly and completes the whole look. I told Joe just 2 days ago that my dress looked a bit boring. This necklace makes the dress look just right.

Thank you so much, Sigrid & Peter!!

We're getting married in the morning (isn't that a song?). It's exciting. I'm nervous (of course). Joe isn't. :)

So, it's time to hit the hay so we can get up early and get going. Thanks to everyone for the moral support, and we'll let you know how it goes!

Um...oops. Shouldn't I be the sheriff?

Ahhh, the weekend.

Hello all. Things are moving quickly here! Much to update, so let's get started.

(1) First (as evidenced by the 1) is that my job continues to go quite well. I'm enjoying it and got to go out into the actual mill (got to wear my hard hat and everything!). Very exciting stuff. I'm getting used to the pace and the people, the atmosphere (and the smell - it is a pulp mill, after all).

(2) Joe and I are flying to Salt Lake City in 2 weeks. I'm speaking at a national conference there. Here's the link to see who is speaking (and I'm on it!):

http://www.aaohn.org/education/symposium-expo/Advance_Program/Tuesday.cfm

Now, for those of you who know me, you probably also know about my fear of flying. This will be the first flight I've taken in probably 2 years, and I'm a little apprehensive. But. I've been working hard on desensitizing myself to flying, learning as much as I can about planes, even going to the airport just to watch them take off and land. So! We'll let you know how it goes.

(3) Joe did a fantastic job on the spinning wheel we adopted, and here are the results:

Our first yarn! The lighter colored wood is the stuff Joe made. Impressive, isn't it?

Here is the master spinner at work:

Now all we need is a sheep! :)

Next on our cavalcade of updates:

(4) Wedding plans! We've set the date, we've made reservations, we are well on our way to getting stuff done. We even got our rings already! Here is mine (It's titanium! Very space-agey!):

Isn't it nice? It has a leaf & vine motif, which I think is nice - represents growth and such. Here it is on my hand.

Now, I have had several requests to put pictures of my dress on here. Well, I can't. Why? Because it's not made yet. I'm working on it, but don't want to show anything til it's in better shape (or ANY shape other than "folded piece of fabric"). So here's the next best thing. Photos from the dirndl pattern magazine that I'm using for the dress. The first one is a traditional dirndl. I like it a lot, but feared it was a little too traditional for me. Anyway, I'm going to make the sleeves like this one.

But the dress more like this one:

Mine is a robin's egg blue with black sleeves and black trim. Should be nice!

There's a lot of other stuff I guess I could update you on, but....I'm tired. Currently I have a sinus infection and also it's Sunday night and...well...this will have to do. Hope everyone is doing well!

Camping - Swamp Style!

Happy Happy Spring! Things are abloom here - the trees are budding, the flowers are opening up, and the weeds are magnificent.

Joe and I celebrated the coming of spring (and the long weekend from my still-going-very-well-job) to go on a wild camping trip. Literally. We went for an overnight camping trip into the Okefenokee Swamp! We kayaked in (7.5 miles to the campsite) and spent 1 night in the wilds, with all the critters and the full moon, and saw some really cool stuff.

Here are the top 9 cool things we saw:

(1) No garbage anywhere. It's so nice to see people who respect the world enough not to leave their McDonald's bags in the bushes.

(2) Lots of dragonflies - big ones, little ones, red, blue, purple. I rescued a big red one that had gotten its wings wet and couldn't get out of the water. Caught him on my paddle and deposited him for drying on a branch. Here's a pic of one that Joe saw:

(3) Also rescued a small fish (about 3.5 - 4 inches long) that had somehow flopped its way onto a lily pad and couldn't get back in the water. I pushed the lily pad down so the fish could swim away.

(4) The lily pads! They were HUGE! The size of big dinner plates! There were little frogs that would jump from one to another. Very cute.

(5) A little green lizard swimming across the channel. I didn't know those little guys could swim!

(6) Wild purple irises, grown in clumps. Beautiful.

(7) A cormorant (I think) or an Ahingi (Joe thinks) that we called the "Up & Over Bird." This bird was not to be distracted by things in his way, and instead of going around them (so much work!) he just jumped on top and plopped over. Want proof? Check this out:

Yep. It jumped on the back of Joe's kayak. While Joe was paddling.

It also jumped over this root.

It also jumped onto the walkway to our tent site.

(8) Owls. Ok, we didn't see the owls, but we heard them. Our campsite was called Monkey Lake, which they think is so named because of the owls that live there. They start hooting at each other and get excited and hoot higher and higher, til they sound like a bunch of screaming monkeys. We actually heard them. It was BIZARRE. If we didn't know better, we'd think we were in an African jungle, surrounded by chimps.

(our campsite during the day)

(our campsite in the evening)

(9) A raccoon, curled up and sleeping around the trunk of a tree, about 50 feet up. It was a bare tree near the interstate and this raccoon had climbed to the top, curled into a ball on top of some outstretched branches, and was taking a snooze.

(10) Gators! Lots of gators! We got really close a few times (not necessarily by choice - the channel was very narrow in some parts). But they weren't aggressive at all, surprising actually considering Joe discovered a little Gator Nursery - there were 17 tiny little alligators there, and we saw mama about 6 feet away. Very cool.

(11) A swamp rabbit! Joe heard something running through the underbrush and thought it was a squirrel. I peered to see what it was, and realized it was a medium size brown rabbit that waded through the water and went on his merry way. Bizarre. I didn't know there WERE such things as swamp rabbits.

All in all it was a really nice trip. We kayaked about 15 miles total, which honestly I didn't think I could do. The weather was great, the mosquitos weren't too horrible (until dusk) and it was just lovely.

On Sunday, we went to Bonaventure Cemetery to see if the azaleas were in bloom yet.

They were.

Job is going great!

Hey everyone. Happy March!

Things here are moving along nicely. Joe is in Germany for work this week, so I am yet again a single gal, knitting and watching Poirot on tv all evening. :) He'll be back on Saturday and I'm looking forward to his return. It's just not as exciting without him here.

Well, I am very pleased to report that my job so far is going great. I'm feeling like I fit in pretty well and everyone is working to make me feel comfortable. I'm jumping in and trying to get some things done, and feel like I'm making some good headway! It's always a little challenging to try to jump into someone else's scheduling system and filing systems and trying to make sense of it all, but I'm getting there.

Wanna see a picture of the mill? Here's part of it:

Industrial, no? I would tell you what those big things are if I knew. But....well...I don't. They're going to take me on a tour soon. The reason they had to wait to take me out into the mill? Because I had to get some steel toe shoes. But! Lest you think that they only make big clunky boots with steel toes, I hate to disappoint you. Check these out:

Aren't they cute? And steel toes! Neato! They're very comfy too! I like them. Now, in addition to steel toe shoes, I also get a safety vest, emergency respirator (which I know how to use now - good), goggles, ear plugs, and safety gloves. Are you ready to see the sexy? Prepare yourself. hee hee:

Joe and I went out shopping last weekend because I didn't have casual enough clothes for this job! I had gone to Target last week but all they had was "tissue knit". What the hell is that? It's so thin that it's basically see-through. Yeah, not so much in the industrial environment, surrounded by manly-men. So! Where else to go? Then Joe had a brilliant idea:

Bass Pro Shop.

No, really. If you guys haven't been to Bass Pro Shop for clothes, you are missing out! They have cute stuff, flattering, well-made (some even from the U.S.) and their clearance deals are great. I ended up with 2 pairs of pants, 4 shirts, and 3 sweaters! Now I'm ready to work! :)

Still don't believe me? Here's a link to Bass Pro Shops. YOU go look:

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Subdepartment_10151_-1_10001_600006000_600000000?CMID=APLN_OS_LADIESCLOTHING

Anyway. So that's what's going on in my life right now - just working and getting settled in there, sewing on a memory quilt for a customer, and as soon as I get it done I'm starting on my wedding dress (YES, I will post a photo of the design soon! I promise!).

Guess I'm not feeling overly humerous today - sorry. I'm just sleepy! Talk to you later!

Oh the News! Such Excitement!!!

So! Lots to report! Let's go ahead and start with Big Thing #1. I have photo documentation (please ignore the double-chins):

On Friday afternoon, Joe and I went and got this piece of paper. Bit hard to read, isn't it?

A Marriage License!!

Note: it's not yet signed, so it's not official. We're in the planning stages, but wanted to get this part done in advance (because of lack of free time with my new job, more on that later).

Also, please note that the above photo is a retake. The first self-portrait I tried to take turned out like this:

Cold feet already? :)

So! That's some exciting news, huh? Will keep everyone updated on our progress toward tying the knot. We aren't planning to have much (if any) ceremony with the whole thing, just a big party afterwards. I'm making my own dress, and already have the design sketches done. I'll post them soon too so you can see what I have in mind.

AND! As if that weren't enough, I have more news! I start my new job tomorrow! It's at the paper mill, and the salary is very nice. I'm looking forward to continuing the debt-repayment big time, although instead of credit cards, I'm focusing on student loans now. Anyway. I get my own hard hat and steel toe boots and safety goggles. Cool, huh? It should be pretty exciting. I'm a bit nervous, but it's not that different from what I did at the hospital, just in a different environment. I hope it works out ok! I will take some pictures this week and post those too.

Speaking of, it's almost bedtime. I have to get a few things ready before I go to bed (one of them working on my newest sweater that I just started yesterday!).

Ta ta for now!

Good News! The Website is Up!

Hey everyone! Today has been a day of excitement here at Chez Kelli, because yes, finally, the website is up. Please visit at http://www.savvyneedle.com/ and let me know what you think! There will be much more put on (especially in the galleries, where I have a TON of photos that aren't uploaded yet) but it's a good start, no?



So that's good. Yay!

On to other things. I have a job interview tomorrow. Should be interesting - I had to take a test for them earlier this week. It involved...gasp...MATH. As in, multiplying fractions. And also adding stuff with n attached and little numbers that I vaguely remembered as being the number of times you multiply a number by itself. So. There was that. This was apparently some type of test they give to management level types at this company (a very large paper mill). I asked Joe why they would give me a math test, seeing as I wouldn't be doing anything involving math there. His suggestion was that perhaps it's to see my management potential - the worse I do on the math, the faster track I'm on to becoming CEO. HA. There was some reading comprehension too and some logic stuff, which was fine. Like I said though, the interview is tomorrow and I'll let everyone know what happens.

(Also, for those of you who might be questioning why, after my previous rant about clearcutting, I would be remotely interested in working at a paper mill, let me just say that this company does a LOT of work to build renewable forests and sustainable resource kinds of stuff).

Ok, you might need to forgive me - it's almost 11 and I might be a bit punchy. I've been sitting here for about 5 minutes trying to figure out what to say next. :)

So moving on! I have photos. So here they are, because I'm rambling and not making sense. So here, for your viewing pleasure (and for me to rub it in just a little) is my birthday loot!

There is a lot of edible goodness there: German sweets (gummy bears, wafer cookies, and Dominos - these are little squares with marzipan, cookie, and chocolate, covered in chocolate). Also there's a small bottle of sake. I love this sake because the bottle fits perfectly in my hand. It's the little pleasures in life, no? What else...Incense from out west in multiple flavors, a great mixed CD, some sandalwood soap and shampoo, and some homemade goodies!

The big dark canister of floaty stuff is called Rumtopf - it's rum and mixed fruits soaked all in rummy sugary goodness. Oh my. Here are detailed shots of some of the other specially made stuff:

Here is an AWESOME invention of Joe's: a wooden knitting needle holder! Isn't it pretty? He designed and made it himself (AND made the knitting needles to go in it!). You can also see the Dominos box and the Rumtopf more clearly now (see the floaty rum fruit? hee hee).

This next photo shows some of the music on the CD Rachel made for me, and a lovely potholder made by my niece (isn't she talented?). On top of that is a ring that Joe bought for me in Wichita. It's inset with different colored stones and is very lovely. The potholder and ring set each other off quite well, don't they? Maybe they should come as a matching set. :)

Next up is a set of wooden jewelry that Joe made for me (again with the talent!). These haven't been stained yet, but are still very nice. 2 bracelets and 3 rings - the top ring is squared off on the top. Tres chic!

Ok, that's all of the birthday loot! Isn't that nice? I also got some nice cards and good well-wishes, and lunch and dinner. :)



But! Lest you think that everyone else has been crafty and I haven't been, oh you would be terribly mistaken. Because I have been sewing and knitting a LOT. (Despite the job hunt and all that- heh. It's hard to focus when there's sewing to be done!).



First, a set of bags commissioned to fit a motorcycle's side cars. These are made of vinyl and nylon strapping. I'm pleased with them - Joe said that he is too. But they aren't for him!

Here are the two of them together. They're slanted to fit the side cars. When you hold them down by your sides, you look like you're walking REALLY FAST.

Now here's something else I designed - this is a chain necklace, but it's knitted out of gold metallic yarn. Cool, huh? It really looks like a chain!

Guess that's it for now. There' s a lot more I could report on, but I'm tired! Bye!