Progress, FINALLY!

Good news, everyone! Tony and I found the place we are going to get married. Wow, I teared up writing that, hehe. I am so happy and excited (oh, and looking for a job to help him pay for it so Tony can also be happy and excited)! Now that we found our venue, we're really close to setting a date.

THIS is the place! The photos on the website really don't do it justice in my opinion.

Urban Decay: super vegan-friendly!

I'm a little late on this boat as a result of my whole, umm, not posting ever thing, but Urban Decay is too cool to not post about. Around a month ago-ish Urban Decay came out with the most incredibly awesome vegan eye palette. I was stoked because I had recently been checking through every shadow in their other palettes, trying to determine if any were vegan. I was a sad panda because they sure weren't!

The new vegan palette comes with six eyeshadow colors, a small black pencil eyeliner, and one of their eyeshadow primer potions in a pretty champagne color. I think they did a good job of choosing colors that are fun and flattering to pretty much any eye color and skin tone. As with all their palettes, the vegan one comes in a cute little flip open box with a mirror inside and tattoo-type animal art on the cover.

How cute is this?


Urban Decay does not do any animal testing, and they even have a section of their website set aside for vegans. It lists every vegan product they carry. In the stores you can tell the vegan products apart because they put a little paw print by the name.

A bit of a ring debacle

Well, hello again! My last post was SO long ago. Since then, I've been through a bit of a personal struggle involving my engagement ring choice (see previous post). It's not really vegan related, but it's wedding related, and that's priority one in my mind these days!

First off, let me say, Simply Wood Rings is an A+++ company with wonderful customer service. Whether buying, requesting a custom item, or even complaining, they are quick to respond and very friendly. Ok, now on to my problem.

I received my ring a few months back. I was ecstatic... my engagement ring, teehee! Unfortunately, one thing bugged me about it: I didn't like the way the topaz was set on the wooden band (I must say the wooden band itself was spectacularly done!). I kept my discontent completely to myself for the first few months. This was my ENGAGEMENT ring, a symbol of our love! No bride-to-be wants to be unhappy with her ring! Ultimately, though, my internal struggle to be in love with a ring I wasn't entirely happy with bubbled to the surface.

I contacted the seller with my concerns, and boy was it a relief. Lauren was incredibly understanding and accommodating. She offered an exchange or return and was quick to send pictures of other possible ways they could make me a ring with no setting. Well, Tony and I decided to get a different engagement ring, but I still couldn't bare to part with the one I had (I'm sentimental, ok!). After discussing it with Lauren, I decided to have the topaz taken off my ring, and crushed turquoise inlaid all the way around the band instead. It will be like a promise ring I decided. I can wear it on my right hand or on a chain. Oh, and did I mention the changes are being done free of charge? They are too kind.

This is me, so I can't promise I won't have a change of heart, but I'm pretty set on another engagement ring now. I found it in an etsy shop called singleB: Beautiful. These rings are handmade with conflict-free stones and recycled metals, so I still get my eco-friendly ring, it's still not exactly the typical engagement ring, and now I get a socially-friendly version of my birthstone: diamond!

Here's a link to the ring I've chosen: 3 stone ring. And here's a picture!