photography by 'i heart photography'well friends, i am finally married! and i have to say, it feels great to be melissa a. griffith :).
the picture above is, so far, the only one i have to show you (the others are being edited as we speak), but you can clearly see that it was a gorgeous day; there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. don't worry: i'll post more pictures as i get them! :D
the day itself was... exhausting. brandon and i barely got to eat anything because everyone and everything required our attention, and i had a terrible migraine through much of the day and night, but it really was lovely and i wouldn't change a thing about it :).
we stayed at the hyatt in downtown austin (right on town lake, which we had a beautiful view of from our 14th floor window), and were greeted with chocolate-covered strawberries and champagne. how romantic! the next day, we went to north austin and met two of brandon's friends for bowling, which was a lot of fun, and later, we met another of his friends for dinner. after that, we swung by my parents' house to get our wedding gifts and such, and then we headed home. we pretty much spent the whole weekend recovering from thursday and friday, haha, and this week, for me, has been all about catching up on things like cleaning, emails, and school, as well as preparing for my meeting tomorrow and working on my name-changing. i'm a bit worn out, but glad that everything has worked out really well.
so now that the stress of planning a wedding is behind me, i can refocus on the other important things in my life: my shop, my health, and my schooling.
i have an appointment tomorrow with a nice lady near austin who owns an upscale home decor and personal accessories shop called 'sanctuary home.bath.garden', which i am really excited about. this will be my first experience with consignment; i am generally leary of it, and much prefer wholesale, but she runs a very reputable shop, so i am going outside my normal boundaries of selling comfort for this opportunity. she says that if the consigmnent works out well, we'll switch to wholesale for simplicity's sake :). her shop is stunning, and i am extremely honoured that she contacted me. also, brandon and i are often in that area (my absolute all-time favourite thai restaurant is there, 'thai kitchen'! mmm!), so making deliveries/checking my stock and picking up checks will be very convenient. i am feeling really fortunate lately, and this is part of the reason why :).
on the health front, my good friend lea recently told me about this "self-hypnosis diet" book/cd that she found, and was saying how astonishingly much it has helped her so far, and recommended it to me. i have undergone some hypnotherapy in the past, which worked out very well, so i decided to buy the material and give it a try. i've got to say, it's incredible how much power your mind has over your body! i started reading the book on monday, and i've already lost about 3 pounds, simply by altering the way i think. for instance, instead of telling myself, "no matter what i do, i can't lose weight", i now think, "i am becoming thin and healthy". it may sound silly, but it obviously has helped me so far, and i haven't even tried the cds yet! i have not changed my eating habits (which were mostly healthy already), and have merely continued with my semi-regular exercising (other than cleaning, i've really only exercised by playing 'dance dance revolution' on the playstation, haha). i am hoping i can get into a routine where i start doing the abs-ball exercise every other day, and pick up pilates again. i love pilates, but i tend to put it off because it takes over an hour to do. however, i feel so much better at the end, and really there's no excuse for me not to take an hour out of my day to do that. so anyway, i'm going to keep thinking positively (whereas i'm used to simply thinking realistically), not say that i'm going to "try" to do things to get healthier and instead actually do them (do or do not, there is no try! :p), and add more exercising into my daily life.
i am working really hard on not getting blue about college. it seems a little overwhelming sometimes... all the courses i have to complete before i can graduate. but really i have less than a year left, and i am grateful for that. i think the main thing that really bothers me is that i will have to take out another student loan, but with the banks as they are currently, i'm worried i won't be able to get any money. at that point, i would be stuck, because i won't be able to continue my current lifestyle: i'd have to get a full-time job in addition to my shop, which in turn would make my schooling suffer, as that's less time i would have working on my classes. and let's face it: bills have to get paid :p. so i'm in a bit of turmoil here. hopefully, all my worrying will have been for nothing (that's usually the case, haha), and i will get my loan and everything will be fine. it would also be great if i could make a living wage off my shop! ;)
so those are the things that are currently on my mind.
oh, and as for shop updates: i have decided that after the holidays, i will be slowly switching to the glossy, waterproof finish for my items. in general, people seem to prefer the glossy look, and i will still be able to make items matte-finished on request. also after the holidays (or perhaps before, depending on if i run out of ribbon or not, haha), i will be switching all my pendants to the 18" sterling silver-plated chain. as many of you have mentioned to me, it looks nicer and is more durable than the ribbon (although the ribbon is so cute!). the ribbon necklaces will be available on request, like the matte-finish. i think these are the best ways to push my merchandise up to the next level of awesome, and i hope you agree :).
well wish me luck tomorrow (i am shy!), and i'll update you later! :)
♥,
melissa
