carrie actually » everything else

We Set the Date!

Carrie — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:17:22 +0000

I spent the last week in Kauai with my fiance and my family and along with relaxing and having the best vacation ever, our big to do there was figure out the big picture for the wedding.

We’ve officially set the date for August 18, 2012 and the ceremony will be held on this beautiful covered patio within a botanic garden.

I’m in love with this ceremony site because it’s open to the garden on three sides and feels like its outdoors but it’s covered and has a back wall so we won’t get sun burnt and no one will have to squint into the sun.

After the ceremony we’ll mozy down about 30 feet for cake and champagne and then mozy another 30 feet into a nearby restaurant for dinner on an ocean front balcony.

We arrived home from our planning trip late Saturday night and ordered our Save the Dates on Sunday so our family and friends will have plenty of time to plan to travel and then we spent the afternoon at Macy’s registering!

It’s getting real!

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Two Year Blogiverary!

Carrie — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:00:41 +0000

It’s now been two years since I officially launched CarrieActually.com!

This has been a big year with my transition from geek chic to living the subjective life and I thank you each of you for your continued support.

What can you do to make year two even better?

Follow along!

Keep up with CarrieActually.com via RSS or email subscription, follow me on Twitter, or like my Facebook page.

Participate!

I love to know what you have to say on the topics I’m blogging about. Comments on the blog, comments or wall posts on Facebook, tweets, and reader emails make my day so don’t be shy. Do you have a particular question or topic that you want to see me blog about? Let me know what it is (unfortunately I cannot read your mind).

Tell your friends!

The more the merrier so make sure to tell your friends all about CarrieActually.com. You could share a favorite post on your Facebook wall, tweet a favorite post, add a post to Google+, or use a social bookmarking tool like StumbleUpon — all of these are easy to do with the buttons below each post.

Thank you for making this another successful year!

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The Puppies at #BlogHer11

Carrie — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 03:27:14 +0000

The best part of BlogHer ’11? Hands down the puppies outside The People’s Party. I mean really, a party with margaritas and puppies… what more could you possibly want?

I snuggled with a Yorkie and a mini dachshund which was nice since I really missed Lucky.

My fiance says we can’t get a Yorkie because he thinks they look like mini Chewbaccas.

This is what the Yorkie actually looked like (forgive the super zoomed in with bad flash photo).

This is what he thinks the Yorkie looks like (not my photo, thanks for pointing me to it @sassymonkey).

And here’s me with the mini dachshund that my fiance is more into us having someday since that’s what his grandmother always had.

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My #BlogHer11 Session Picks and Number One Tip

Carrie — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:00:48 +0000

Will I see you at BlogHer ’11?

As a BlogHer employee, I’ll be heading up the registration desk so I won’t be able to make it to sessions but I will be hitting up the parties after registration closes for the evenings.

If I were going as an attendee, these are the sessions that resonate most with me personally:

I find it pretty fascinating how much changes in a year. Last year as an attendee I was all about business and skills and this year I’m much more interested in change.

In terms of parties, I’m absolutely most looking forward to Sparklecorn!

And my number one tip (mainly to myself)?

If you have an awesome Twitter necklace, don’t forget it at home.

Will you be there? What parts are you most looking forward to?

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Coupons versus Costco

Carrie — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 14:00:06 +0000

For the past few years my Sunday morning routine has been to start a big pot of coffee, go out and get the newspaper (unfortunately I did not select a large enough dog to do this for me), sit down with my coffee and clip and sort coupons, then make a meal plan and grocery list, and do my grocery shopping.

But things in my life are changing. My fiance has moved in and eats about twice as much as I do so we need a lot more groceries. I’m busier than ever with work. I’m traveling for work and pleasure and not always home on Sunday. My fiance works late shifts Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays so weekend mornings are now some of our best options to spend quality time together.

Add that Northern California has never had the greatest coupon policies, coupon selection, and the fact that we still have to pay 9.25% sales tax on the pre coupon price and I’ve decided that couponing just isn’t really worth the time and effort I’ve been putting in to it. I break even on the cost of my newspaper but that’s about it.

When my newspaper subscription runs out, I won’t renew it. I’ll continue to use the coupons I have. I’ll continue to search for printable coupons for items that are on my grocery list anyway. I’ll continue to load my Safeway e-coupons to my club card. And I’ll continue to request free product coupons when I see them available as they have been the greatest source of my coupon savings.

This week, my fiance and I signed up for a Costco membership. We’re both fairly picky eaters and I think we can save a lot more on the items we use a lot via Costco than via coupons.

Are you a couponer? Are you a Costco member? What works best for your situation?

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I Love my Grocery List

Pushing to the Back Burner

Carrie — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 04:02:22 +0000

The main big front burner of my stove is completely dead. My stove/oven/microwave unit is ancient, I mean vintage. Original to the house which was built in the late 70s or early 80s. On Sunday there was a mini fireworks show on my stove along with some sizzling noises and it hasn’t worked at all since then.

I figure there’s got to be a metaphor in the fact that I have to literally move everything to the back burner now. I’m just not quite sure what that metaphor is yet.

Good news is there’s a new stove in my garage. Bad news is it’s already been there for three years and I’m still using the old one.

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Shutterfly Photo Book Giveaway [Closed]

Carrie — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:00:54 +0000

This giveaway has now ended. The winners are #4 Kim, #9 Marisol, #14 Kim, #17 Beth, #23 Eugenie, #26 Stephanie Gimlin, #27 Lala R, #32 Jl Johnson, #35 Colleen, and #45 Brynn.

Wedding planning thoughts are swirling in my head now that we’re finally getting closer and it’s getting time to actually plan.

In just one month, we’ll be in Hawaii meeting with the wedding planner, selecting a ceremony location, finalizing a date, testing out the resort’s salon, attending a luau to see if it’s the right choice for our rehearsal dinner, and having dinner at the restaurant we’d like to have everyone join us at after the ceremony.

Photography is another very important element that we need to consider. My mom, my brother, and many other family members are very talented photographers. I don’t want them to miss important moments because they’re busy photographing so it’s nice that the wedding package we’re looking at also includes photography but I think my family can do a much better job of capturing the experience beyond just the wedding ceremony and in a candid and meaningful style.

Normally I just look at and use my photos on the computer but I want to have a wedding photo album. I’m not big on printed photos, in fact I don’t think I’ve printed a photo since at least 2008. I also don’t want to spend a ton on having the photographer create and provide the photo album.

And then Shutterfly emailed me to find out if I’d like to create a free photo book for myself and blog about it. And the timing was perfect.

When we go to Kauai next month, I’m going to take a zillion vacation photos with my iPhone and then create a photo book to see how it comes out and see if I like it enough to do my wedding album with Shutterfly.

I also have 10 free Shutterfly Custom Path photo books to giveaway to Carrie Actually readers. To enter simply leave a comment.

Of course I’d also love it if you subscribed via rss or email, followed me on Twitter, or liked me on Facebook but none of those will make you any more likely to win.

Entries will close July 25, 2011 at 11:59pm Pacific time. Winner will be selected via random.org, notified via email, and must respond within 48 hours. This giveaway is open to the US only and you’ll have to pay shipping to Shutterfly to have your photo book delivered.

Disclosure: I’ve not yet tried Shutterfly but will be doing so using the free photo book they’ve provided me after I get back from my Kauai trip in August. Shutterfly is also providing the 10 photo books I’m giving away to you.

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Window Shopping for Wedding Dresses

Carrie — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:59:02 +0000

Last night, the fiance and I went out to do a little pre-Hawaiian vacation shopping. Apparently he didn’t currently own any swimwear. With my years and years of being in the pool almost constantly the concept of not having a single swimsuit boggles my mind. I’ve got a billion, I probably have more swimsuits that pairs of pants.

So we went shopping for gear for Hawaii for him. The trip was rather uneventful for him, we got him one pair of swim trunks (he was aiming for two) and one shirt.

But it was pretty exciting for me. In the window next door I spotted some gorgeous short white dresses. I even tried one on. And I loved it’s off white color, it’s floral beading, it’s shortly flowiness, the way it was fancy but still casual enough for a low key, afternoon, potential beach wedding, and it’s $200 price point.

But sadly as I’m six feet tall the dress was much too short for me. I sent a picture to my mom and she thought maybe it was even meant to be only a shirt but I looked on the web and saw that it is indeed intended as a dress.

So I’ll continue to browse. I’m excited about dress shopping but not in a rush as we haven’t finalized our wedding date yet. We’re currently eying August 18, 2012 so it’s still even a bit early to be dress shopping. I just worry about the availability of short dresses after this summer passes but before next summer arrives when I’d like to have my dress selected in early 2012.

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Letting Go of Magazines

Carrie — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:38:34 +0000

Fifteen years ago or so I became obsessed with magazines. I’d immediately drop everything to plunge into and enjoy a new issue. I’d carefully read through every page and look at every picture. I’d mark pages to come back to later. And I’d clip out pictures and inspirational text for art projects when the magazine had been so well read it was about to fall apart.

In college I majored in graphic design and focused specifically on print. Then I worked as an intern at Readymade magazine as the first step on my career path. They couldn’t afford to hire me in 2005 and a week and a half ago they finally shut down for good. Their publisher is shifting those resources to digital and that’s what’s happened with my interest in magazines as well.

After a few months of being engaged I went to the bookstore and bought a stack of wedding magazines (ten years ago a trip to the bookstore to buy magazines was one of my absolute favorite activities) and I’ve only flipped through a couple of them so far.

I still subscribe to a ton of magazines (mostly free subscriptions that I’ve gotten via airline miles) but I don’t have that eagerness to enjoy them that I once had. They site in stacks around my house waiting for me to flip through them once before I recycle them. I don’t think I’ll renew those subscriptions and it’s hard to say it’s even worth redeeming those points that would otherwise expire for magazines anymore. I don’t think I even enjoy the magazines enough to be worth the paper they’re printed on.

And if that’s how I feel about magazines these days, it’s no wonder Readymade is gone.

Do you still subscribe to magazines? Has the experience of reading a magazine changed for you over the years?

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Evernote: A Place for Everything

Ten To Dos for June 2011

Carrie — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:00:20 +0000

Sew the buttons back on to a few items on clothing
Read 2 books
Visit the farmer’s market
Take Lucky to the dog park
Send someone a real piece of mail
Spend some girl time with my sister and/or my best friend
Try a new activity or restaurant with my fiance
Get my anti-anxiety medicine refilled even if it means a dreaded visit to the psychiatrist
Sleep in on a weekend
Try a new recipe

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