We are living history

When I was in 9th grade I wrote a history paper on the Great Depression; I got a really good mark on it, too, 98%. I remember that I became fascinated by the subject; all those people having to buckle down and make do, using their will to survive and creativity to rise above this situation that was completely out of their control. I remember stories of ripping back blankets to knit underwear and growing vegetables in tin cans. Of course, I never thought I’d end up living through it myself.

We all know by now that this period in time will likely be described in future generations’ history books as The Great Depression II. American consumer debt is now at 100% of the GDP, which has only happened once before in history. Can anyone in the class tell me when that was? Beuller? Beuller? That’s right, in September 1929, Great Depression I.

Since I was so fascinated in GDI back in jr. high, history, in its infinite sense of humour, has decided to give me a taste. This is a very round-about way of telling you that I’ve been laid off. The company that purchased the independent school that I’ve been working at for the last 3 and a half years has decided the merge my position with another woman’s position and they have someone that they want to take on this new role, and it’s not either of us. Since my colleague is going on mat leave soon, they are legally required to provide her with job security for when she comes back, so she doesn’t have to worry. When she gets back they’ll have something new for her to do. In my case, however, they have no such legal requirement. They want me to stay on long enough to train the new person, and then I’m gone.

Don’t get my wrong, though; I’m not bitter or upset in any way. In fact, I’m excited, and not due to some juvenile romanticization of global recessions. I’m excited because I was looking for a new job anyway, and now I get to do my job search full time, and get paid doing it, for a short time, at least. The severance I’m receiving is actually more than they are legally required to give me, so I have a bit of a cushion before I go on EI. The real source of my excitement, though, is that I’m determined to make the most out of this opportunity. I took this job straight out of university, with my student loan repayment date nipping at my heals. It was the first job that I was offered; in fact, it has been my first and only full-time job. I learned a lot and got some great experience, but I always knew that this wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. In fact, I’m constantly surprised that I stayed as long as I did; I initially took this as a stop-gap job and figured I’d find something else and be gone in 8 months, tops. Now I have the opportunity to figure out what I really want to do and go for it.

The thing is, I don’t really know what it is I want to do. The idea of doing the same thing for the rest of my life feels suffocating, but at the same time I feel that at my age I should have some kind of career path. But every day I think up a new job I’d like to have: film crew, publishing, freelance writing, yarn manufacture, full-time etsy story owner, craft instructor (I’ve often thought of opening a craft college), dog trainer, professional organizer, environmental advisor. And of course, there’s always the persistent thought that I’m just not meant for the working world, that any career I try will ultimately leave me feeling trapped and frustrated, that I’m meant for more free spirited things, like doing an assortment of volunteer jobs and running my home business and (eventually) being a SAHM. But if this latter option is my destiny, we’re still a ways from being able to afford to be a one income household.

Which brings me back to my main point. Now that I’m unemployed, I have access to the various job search services that didn’t want to talk to me while I had a full-time job (fair enough). Even the ones that were interested in helping me in my pursuit of a career change had most of their services available during business hours. One in particular that I’m interested in is a 2-week government funded workshop that helps people assess their skills and interests and narrow their focus as to what they should be doing as their next career. A friend of mine did it a few years ago and said it was really helpful, and seemed designed for people who had been laid off and wanted to find work in a different field from the one they were leaving.

So as you can tell, this blog will have a brand new focus, and I hope I will be blogging much more often (sorry about that, by the way). I’ll be writing about my efforts to “find my path”, as well as our new frugal lifestyle. I’d love to hear about how this recession is effecting you, as well, so feel free to leave a comment and join the discussion.

Completely un-wedding related

Here is a great article I've found on uses for used coffee grounds. Mr. Broccoli loves coffee, so I hope to get quite a bit of use out of these.

One wedding down, 1 to go!

We had the Church wedding on the weekend. Everything went off perfectly and the weather couldn't have been nicer! I'm still mired in wedding stuff, but I wanted to make a quick update and link to some pictures that our wonderful photographer put up on his blog.

There's the icing on the cake and then...

...there's the cake topper! As I mentioned in my last post, I have commissioned an artist on etsy to custom-make our cake topper. We've been going back and forth for a while, bouncing ideas off each other and deciding among design sketches and we've finally come up with an excellent design. Each time she sent me various design sketches to choose from and each time it was unanimous among my parents, Mr. Broccoli, and me. I'll spare you a play by play of every design variation, but this is the one we chose, in full colour.

Isn't it great!? The idea we started out with was the two of us on a loveseat with books on our laps. Then, I thought it would be sweet to get Spirit in there somewhere, so she sent us a a few designs with her in various places around the topper and we just loved her spread across our laps. I had mentioned in a few emails that I knit, so she suggested that she put a knitting basket in there, too, which I love! She's managed to get the green and orange of our wedding colours in there and I love the colour contrast of the gold on brown of the base. I'm so happy with this cake topper, I'm very glad I chose her out of all the etsy artists that do custom cake toppers. Check out her store: Sophia's Workshop.

In other news, I've finished knitting all the corsages and boutonnieres and am working on the bouquet flowers. Pictures to come.

Wedding crazy

Wow it's been a long time since I've posted. My only excuse is that I've been busy with wedding stuff. I spent the August long weekend in Nova Scotia ostensibly to do wedding stuff but really just to relax. The main reason my parent's shelled out for the tickets is because I wanted to be at the tasting with the caterers (too long watching I Do, Lets Eat not to be excited about this). The food was excellent; so excellent, in fact, that I'm having a hard time choosing which dish I want. We're giving guests a choice between Chicken Parmesan and Salmon Pico de Gallo. I really liked them both, so I'm going to have to let Mr. Broccoli decide first. Then, I'll just take whichever one he doesn't and eat off his plate.

We've been busy making the invitations, which is looking more and more like the most certifiable idea we've had so far. The invitations are going to be mini hand-bound books, complete with pages and a "hardcover" binding made of card stock. Originally we were going to fold the card stock so as to give them little spines, but we've quickly abandoned that as impractical and unnecessarily time consuming. Since there are 3 events - the Nova Scotia wedding, the Toronto wedding, and the reception for our friends - there also has to be 3 distinct invitations, each with their own wording, guest list, and colour to help us keep track. They are also going to have reply cards that look like the old check-out cards in the backs of library books (pre-digital age; ask your parents). With any luck, we'll at least get the Nova Scotia invitations in the mail this weekend since that is the first event. Cross your fingers.

I'm also knitting my wedding bouquet, and the bouquets for my bridesmaids and the corsages and boutonnieres for the wedding party. That's somewhere around 40 knit flowers, with leaves and some with stems. I'm hoping to have time to make a lace binding for the 3 bouquets, but we'll see how that goes.

In the midst of all this DIYing, we've decided to outsource some things. I've found an artist on etsy to custom make our wedding topper; it will be the 2 of us sitting on a loveseat with books open on our laps and my cat on the armrest. We're having it done in her "Elegant" style that you see on the website. I've also ordered my tiara from etsy. I love this whole hand-made wedding thing.

Shoe woes

I hate shoe shopping. I really do. My feet are size 7 (usually, anyway), which seems to be the size that always sells out first, and the ball of my foot is just a bit wider than the average 7, but my feet are too short for size 8. Argh! In the stereotypical-girlie-shopping departemnt, I much prefer to drool over bags. They don't have to fit anything.

But, of course, I can't exactly walk bare foot down the aisle, so I needed to buy shoes for the wedding dress (actually, 2 pairs, but lets deal with one thing at a time, shall we?). My parents came to visit this past weekend and we used this opportunity to go shoe shopping. My mom has a much higher tolerance for shoe shopping than I do; in fact, she bought her shoes for the wedding first, and plans to look for a dress to match them!

We went to the Eaton Centre and looked at almost every shoe store in the mall before we found the perfect pair. Our main concern was the heel; I'm an absolute dufous at a lot of "girlie" things and one of the highest on that list is walking in high heels. The heels couldn't be too high and they couldn't be stilettoes. Walking down the aisle is the very last place I want to fall flat on my face (and end up on America's Funniest Home Videos or whatever knock-off version is playing now). The shoes we found are white, of course, with just a little peek-a-boo of an open toe. The heels are stiletto, but the only go up about an inch and a half. I think I should be able to handle that! They have 2 little circles of leather around the part that crosses over the top of the toes for some visual interest.

I'd love to be able to post pictures of the shoes, but that is not currently possible, due, in part, to those cute little circles of leather. First, the salesman had to go to another location in the mall to get the shoes in my size, which took about 10 minutes. We almost left, thinking he had forgotten us and gone on his break. When he brought them to me to try on, we discovered that one of the little circles of leather wasn't glued on like all the rest; it just kind of flopped there looking lop-sided. No problem, they said. We'll just glue it down for you, no charge. Standing at the cash register and watching the saleswoman pack them into the shoe box Mom noticed a line of glue along the top of the leather circle.

She pointed this out to the salesgirl show said, "no problem.  I'll just clean it up".  So she took out an arsenal of cleaning products: lotions, brushes, cloths, sprays.  But when she was finished, instead of a small line of glue there was a big grey smudge across the top of the toes!  Mom asked if they had another pair in that size and she said it was the only one.  So we asked if we could get a discount, since it looked like we would now have to buy white leather dye to fix it.  Because they were already on sale, she could only give us $10, which we hardly felt was compensation for watching her ruin my wedding shoes right before our eyes.  At this point the manger came over and took the shoe out of the salesgirl's hands to fix it himself.  Of course, all he did was the same things she had just done and he turned the grey smudge into a black one!  Finally he suggested she look to see if there were any in the warehouse and thankfully there were.  So the shoe store is going to ship them to me, free of charge.  Hurray!

What's in a name?

If you had asked me a week ago how I felt about taking my husband's name after marriage, I would have replied that I didn't much care one way or the other, but that he did so I would take his name. Then my dad asked me to take a hyphenated name so that I could keep my maiden name as part of my legal name. He was asking this because he was updating his will and he didn't want there to be any complications due to my name change when it comes time for the will to matter. All of a sudden, I realized that I do care. I've really grown attached to this Broccoli thing, and I certainly didn't want a hyphenated name at all. Plus, I have to think of the kids growing up with either a hyphenated name or a different name from their mother, both of which can cause confusion. Mr. Broccoli, of course, said it was entirely my decision to make (although he did really like the Broccoli thing, as well). What to do?

I spoke with a co-worker who got married 5 years ago, and she gave me the perfect answer that makes everybody happy. She said that legally changing your name is a long and pricey process and that nowadays, most women don't do it at all. Instead, the "assume" their husband's last name. This means that once I have a marriage license I can legally have all my IDs, credit cards, bank accounts, passport etc changed over to my new name without actually having it legally changed. I will still legally have my maiden name and I will still legally take on my husband's. Hurray for answers that keep me from having to make a decision!

In other news, I went home to Nova Scotia a few weeks ago for my bridal shower. It was a nice, relaxed, intimate affair in the living room of a waterfront house my parents own and rent out in the tourist season. My mom and grandmother catered it themselves and we used it as a chance to try out some wines for the reception dinner (I loved the red, an Italian called Masi. Still looking for a good white, though).

It was mostly my mother's friends, but they are all women that I've grown up with so I didn't feel out of place. Both my grandmother's were there, of course, as well as my cousin's wife and their oldest daughter who I hadn't seen since she was 7. She's 13 now. I'm sorry, but I don't remember ever giving her permission to grow up. She's supposed to stay little and cute like when I used to babysit her! There was also the daughter of one of my mother's best friends, another former babysitting charge. I hadn't seen her since she was about 13 and I was 18. The first thing she said when she saw me was, "Oh my God! You're so old! I can't believe you're getting married!". I'm so old?! Is that any way to talk to her venerable elder? :)

Here are the few pictures my mom took with my new camera:



Me, surrounded by my booty! Oh, and the guests, too.

A crowd shot.

I really think that paper plate hats covered in gift ribbons and bows will be really in this summer. Watch for it. My little cousin made this for me and did a wonderful job.




The spread. Yum

The all-important cake. This was baked by an old friend of mine from high school. My mom ran into her a few days before the shower and found that she's starting a home baking business. I had just picked my wedding colours the day before, that beautiful Autumn orange and my favourite colour, dark green, and it's great how she was able to incorporate that into the cake decoration.

Preparing the cake from group consumption (aka cutting the cake).