Wanna order a copy for yourself? Click here!

Scratch that, if you follow my blog, you likely don’t read the blogs I’m talking about

Anyway, the idea is to post a photo, extract a few colors from it, and use it as an inspirational color board. “Inspirational”, in that a bride may see this board and decide to base her wedding florals, decor, and theme around it.

Well! As you may be aware, I have many, many years of design experience behind me… and I figure it’s about time I take a crack at designing color palettes. I present my first attempt, “Cool as Ice” after the jump…

I think that this would make a sunny and unique spring color palette…

Yes, I am vehemently, rabidly anti-cake toppers. 99% of the time, I find toppers to look cheesy, cheap, and TOTALLY out of place on a cake. Most of the readily-available toppers in stores all look the same as they did 20 years ago, and they all sort of look the same. Yawn. They go completely against my belief that a wedding should be personalized, and truly reflect the couple.

Aside from the stand-alone cheese factor, the other thing that gets me is that they’re very rarely used in a way that complements the design of the cake. I’ve got almost 20 years of old school design experience, so things like jarring breaks in form, line, color.. it just gets to me.

I prefer toppers to be an extension of the cake design itself, usually made from the same materials. Sugar flowers that are also used throughout the cake design, not just plunked on top, for instance. An unbroken, balanced continuation of the design, seamlessly executed. If such a continuation isn’t possible – for whatever reason – I much prefer to have NO topper, whatsoever.

It IS, however, possible to incorporate a topper into the cake without it being cheesy OR jarring! It takes a little creativity, planning, and a talented cake designer.. but it can definitely work. Here are the two key points to remember:

1. It must be a nice topper, ideally custom – and preferably unique. There is absolutely no way to make an off-the-shelf Wilton topper uncheesy. Ironic, maybe.. but not uncheesy. Sorry. I’m blunt, but I speak the truth! Do you really want your great aunt Bertha beaming at the memory of seeing that same topper atop her own cake?

2. Contrary to the normal order of things.. you really need to choose such a topper first, and DESIGN THE CAKE AROUND IT. Do NOT try and plop a custom topper on top of any wedding cake design, it won’t work. Incorporate the colors, themes, and general feel of your topper into the cake, and it will be much more coherent, pleasing to the eye, and YOU.

Where to find such a topper? WELL! I went on a “cute topper finding mission” this morning, and I have a load of inspiration and contacts for you, dear readers. Some are quite epic!

Let me say this… when it comes to finding talented artists to create truly unique toppers, Etsy.com is a GOLDMINE! The vast majority of the toppers below are from Etsy. Let’s get started, shall we?

First up, we have “Fliepsiebieps”, from The Hague, Netherlands. I love how adorable these custom polymer clay toppers are, and – as a cake artist – would love the opportunity to design an adorable cake around these. I love the use of color, and the lines that this artist uses. I think these toppers would be an adorable keepsake on a bookshelf, mantle, or whatever for years to come – but then, that sentiment really applies to any well done, custom topper! Fliepsiebieps has several means of contact listed: Etsy: “Fliepsiebieps” Twitter: http://twitter.com/fliepsiebieps Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fliepsiebieps Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/esthertaal

This next artist. “buildersstudio”, just completely blows me away.. and I’m not even in to Steampunk! I can’t get over the insane amount of detail that goes into these “robot” steampunk wedding cake toppers. Sick. Amazing! Love it! I don’t even know what else to say. Etsy: Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/buildersstudio

The interesting thing about this next artist, “splendorlocity”, is that they mess with those awful premade toppers… and manages to make them about as acceptable as they’re gonna get! Check them out on Etsy:http://www.etsy.com/shop/splendorlocity

The artist who makes these ADORABLE toppers, “kikuike”, is based in Japan. So cute! I think a cake based around any of these would be adorable, and completely memorable! Check them out on Etsy:http://www.etsy.com/shop/kikuike Check them out on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/etsy_kikuike

Lets go from adorable, to COMPLETELY BIZARRE. I honestly have no idea what to say about these. Definitely memorable, at the very least! As with many of the custom toppers I’m featuring.. it would be great for the right couple, and the right cake design! These toppers are made by pouring liquid casting clay into multiple molds, chopping them up, and then rearranging body parts before glazing & firing them. It’s like… “The Cake Toppers of Dr Moreau”. Awesome!

Megan Bogonovich’s work has been featured on Martha Stewart Weddings, Design Sponge, as well as Style Me Pretty

Check them out on Etsy:http://www.etsy.com/shop/melabo

Check out artist’s website: http://www.meganbogonovich.com

I think that’s enough for one blog entry. Stay tuned for a part 2!

Now, there have been a good handful of couples – at LEAST – who have attempted their own versions of Judson’s act as part of their receptions. This morning, I watched what may just be the BEST version done yet!

Check out the video from Jackie and Nick’s July 30th wedding, via Fine Line Weddings in Pennsylvania:

Doing the running man, to “Ice Ice Baby” – IN A WEDDING GOWN – FTW!

My only criticism? No Cotton Eyed Joe. Seriously. The world needs more Cotton Eyed Joe!

Congrats, Jackie & Nick! You guys were awesome, and you look like you’ll have a fun life together!

Enough about me, my crazy schedule, and excuses for shirking my blog responsibilities. I have something to post about! It’s geeky, wedding related, AND pretty – that’s pretty much the trifecta of awesomeness around these parts, right? Oh, also reasonably priced and FUN – a quintrifecta? I dunno.

Either way, it’s Twitter that’s responsible for the subject matter of this blog. FSM, how I love Twitter! Always hear about the coolest stuff there, probably because I follow – and am followed by – some of the coolest people ever. Love it!

This is Surly Amy… who is a geektacular artist located in Hollywood, California. You see what she’s about to pack in that gift box? Custom jewelry! Not any of that boring, fairly nondescript beaded jewelry that you see pretty much everywhere these days (which, I admit, can be fun to make… I do it myself from time to time!)… NO! It’s custom sculpted/cut/carved/painted ceramic jewelry! Awesome! Unique is ALWAYS cool in my books.. but when it’s technically well done, artistic, AND with a nerdy bent? Just awesome. Amy’s business, Surly-ramics, is a purveyor of all of that.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing friends post pics of Amy’s work – she’s obviously a gifted artist – but I REALLY fell in love when someone linked to her Trilobite pendant. Seriously. Is this not the coolest thing a girl could ever wear around her neck, or what? Well, I certainly think so, anyway!

“Wedding related?”, you may ask… well, yes. I totally would have worn this at my own wedding (We got married at the Science Museum!), and it would have been the perfect accessory. Knowing my bridesmaids, I know that they would have flipped out if I’d given Surlies as bridesmaid gifts.

Because the jewelry is all highly customized, Surly Amy can do any design, in any color/colors (wedding colors!), even add a wedding date etched into the back of each piece! Seriously.Amy, consider yourself added to my “If my husband ever agrees to do the WHOLE THING over again” file!

Here are some more photos of a wedding set that Amy designed – the wedding theme was “Black Eyed Susans”. I love that not only did this design fit SO well with the wedding look (and photography style!), but they could be worn with formal (wedding!) or casual outfits.. and SO freaking cute!

Aside from wedding party gifts / accessories, or even bridal jewelry (again, I would have been ALL over that, had I known about her at the time!).. I think these would make great shower gifts, be a neat favor for bachelorette parties… and apparently Amy’s even done a wedding where ALL of the guests got Surlies as favors! Take THAT, Jordan Almonds! Wanna get some Surlies of your own? Here’s how to get ahold of Amy: Main website: http://surlyramics.com Etsy website: http://www.etsy.com/shop/surly Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1653711616 Surly Amy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SurlyAmy

From time to time, I blog about stuff that I find cool. It may be what someone did for their Save the Date, it may be a cool product, or an awesomely talented artist. I don’t get asked for those blog entries, I don’t get paid for them. I just blog it because I find it cool, and – assuming you find *me* interesting enough to read my blog – I figure you’ll find it cool too! “Birds of a Feather” and all…

Alex, the ridiculously gifted artist behind The Pumpkin Geek is one of those insanely talented people I tend to “meet” on Twitter. I can’t remember how I came to follow him, but once I saw his work, I was an immediate fan! If you haven’t seen what he does, be sure to peruse his site – he carves the most intricate, geeky Jack o’Lanterns ever! They’re all from fake pumpkins, so you can treasure the art indefinitely!

Where I’m usually lucky to receive a “hey, thanks!” email (which I totally appreciate!), Alex shocked the SHIT out of me by mailing me a custom carved mini pumpkin – featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine – to thank me for the blog!

If you know me at all, you know that I shrieked like a little girl when I found out. I have a big crazy thing for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Not so much a crush as.. hrm. I don’t know. I find the character oddly relatable in some ways, and inspiring in other ways. That, and seriously.. I’d kill for Hugh Jackman’s delts. I have a BIG poster of him downstairs in my gym for exactly that reason!

Alex asked for my mailing address, to send me postcards and business cards. Given how much I fangirlled out about his work, I didn’t think anything of it. He wasn’t able to keep up the ruse for long, though, and ended up spilling the beans – he’d carved me a mini, 5″ pumpkin, and needed my mailing address for THAT reason.

Well, I don’t think I’ve been so excited to go to the post office in my life.

I make my morning mail runs about an hour before the “we will have all of the mail sorted to the boxes” time. When there was nothing in my box the day I THOUGHT it would be in, I went ahead and took my parcels to the counter to ship, feeling a bit disappointed. Asked if I could bug them to check if there were any parcels back there for me. Here’s how that went down:

USPS Guy: “Oh, are you expecting for something in the mail?”
Me: “YES!!”
USPS guy smiles, goes to the back, comes out with a box
Me: Shrieked, clasped my hands over my mouth, literally did a happy dance, and generally looked like a goof.
USPS guy, looking at the box as he hands it to me
“WHO is “The Pumpkin Geek”?”
Me: “OMG LET ME SHOW YOU!!”

So he got out a box cutter and was nice enough to open the box for me, while I was giddy as a kid on Christmas morning. He passed the box to me, and I gingerly dug out the packing peanuts, etc, fishing out my cute little mini pumpkin.

USPS Guy: “What is THAT?”
Me: “OMG it’s Hugh Jackman!!! As WOLVERINE!!!! AWESOME!!!”

To be fair, looking at the unlit pumpkin, you really can’t tell WHAT it is. I knew exactly what the picture had looked like, and even I was having a hard time seeing it. Alex carves the pumpkins at multiple levels of depth, so while I was seeing “uncut” solid color (textured), and space.. it didn’t look like much.

So, we had to plug it in. I love my USPS guys, they’re always so nice and accommodating. This one offered to find an outlet to check this out.

There was one on the wall behind the counter, so he plugged it in, and OMG. It was awesome. We all – the USPS guys, me, and a few other customers – had to stand back and ooh and ahh over it a bit. The lighting (supplied with the pumpkin), REALLY brought the whole thing to life. Here is my carve, lit up:

Isn’t that the coolest thing ever?

The thing that gets me… and this is coming from someone completely incapable of carving a decent looking Halloween pumpkin (triangle eyes and crooked zig zag smiles all the way!)… is HOW does he do it? I mean, when you’re carving a normal pumpkin, carving all the way through, you see what’s happening as you go. Just look at a close up of the detail in this:

I mean, seeing the lit up pumpkin is awe inspiring enough as it is… but then you realize he’s got to be pretty much flying blind as he carves it! I know my ability to visualize things is more developed than most, but this just blows me away. Completely. Absolutely sick amount of talent, this guy has!

The other day, he put out a request for pics of fans with their carves. As you may know, I *hate* getting my pic taken. I’ve turned down interview requests over it, I pretty much only trust my husband and Katrina from Studio Laguna Photography with it, and even then, I pretty much only allow a camera in my face.. maybe 3-4x per year. Yeah.

Well, I’m so thrilled with the unexpected gift, I did the honorable thing, sucked up my pride, and let my husband photograph my ugly mug with the pumpkin. Least I could do, this was awesome. Completely awesome. Never seen anything like this in my life, and I have it prominently displayed in my office now.

But I couldn’t resist photoshopping in some claws.

If you’re looking for a custom carved Pumpkin, Alex can do *anything*, and offers them at a much lower price than I would have imagined possible – they start at $100! I know he has a special going for the next couple weeks, be sure to get ahold of him if you’re interested!

You know, I try to keep these blogs at least tangentially related to weddings, so…

These would make AWESOME wedding gifts for your favorite geeky couple. If they’re not as camera phobic as I am, maybe have their engagement portrait carved for them? Otherwise, an “Enterprise” pumpkin, their favorite sci fi characters – he’s even done a carve of House! – would definitely be a stand out gift. I’d almost guarantee that a custom pumpkin carve would pretty much be re-gift proof!

Anyway, photos and video will be coming in the next few days, along with a more proper blog about it all (you know, one I’m not banging out at 12:30 am as my feet feel like they’re gonna fall off!)… but I do want to share something. Well, two things actually. Two little events tonight that MADE MY DAY, and totally eclipsed the whole “losing” thing.

1. At the very beginning of the awards ceremony, the President of MN ISES came out on stage, decided against saying what she’d planned to say, and instead gave a hearty shout out to the Klingon Federation. We all just about fell out of our seats! Found out later that she is a card carrying geek of the DragonCon variety! Awesome!

2. As I’m not actually able to CHECK Twitter from my phone, I was excited to see what everyone had been saying as we were all tweeting from the event. One comment in particular stood out. In reply to my tweet: “bah, we lost to ’sultry supper club’”, I got the following as a reply:

@burnunit @celebr8ngenr8ni’m not sayin, but it sure would be a shame if a certain supper club burned down in a hail of disruptor fire…

Is that not SERIOUSLY the best “Sorry you didn’t win!” brand of condolence message ever? It gets better though. “Burnunit” is one of the guys behind/in “Thaco, a hilariously awesome indie gamer flick. We caught a screening at Convergence back in July, and had to *immediately* buy it for my reformed D & D gamer of a hubby. So yeah. Best comment ever, from local geek royalty. Made my night!

Think we’re inspired enough to watch Thaco before passing out tonight (I’m still a little wired!), but had to share! All in all, seriously, it was an awesome night. The theme of the event may have been “Ritmo Caliente”, but the theme of OUR night was “Rockstars”.

My Klingons were TOTAL Rockstars.. you should have seen them. Everyone was asking for photos, talking to them about it all, just.. wow. A much warmer reception than I ever coulda hoped for! Also awesome? There are apparently a ton of closet case nerds and geeks in ISES, and they were outing themselves to my entourage all evening!

The cake we brought.. rockstar. Holy crap, especially the Mango Mojito – people went NUTS. As a result of THAT.. *I* got treated like a rockstar.

My tweeps, everyone who sponsored, everyone who cared enough to wish us well.. total rock stars. We’re all humbled by everything that’s happened leading up to tonight. Thank you!

And then, yeah, a rock star geek leaving a rock star of a message. Capped my evening off perfectly! Yup! All I need now is for Wil Wheaton to tweet about how he’s gonna leave a flaming bag of poop on someone’s doorstep on behalf of our loss, and I’ll be all set!

Anyway. Lately, the subject of nerd vs geek has come up often. Often, it’s because I get called a geek, and have to gently correct people – I’m not, in fact, a geek. I’m an out-and-proud nerd! That of course raises the question: “What’s the difference?”. Well, there’s a huge difference. Actually, there’s also a huge difference in what is considered the difference, but I’d like to lay out my views on the whole issue.

Nerds are “Literal”. Geeks are more “Fantastical”. I think that sums it up nicely. To elaborate, however..

A nerd is someone who is into information, learning. Curious about the world around them, in a literal sense. We don’t really care too much about Sci Fi (although it can be a fun diversion to watch a movie or whatever), and when we read, it’s usually non fiction. More on this later.

A geek is someone who is into.. well, geekdom. Media. Gadgets. They’re the ones who REALLY get into certain movies / comic books / etc. Someone that can quote entire series, recall a certain issue of a comic, whatever.

Is one “better” than the other? No. Did one “spawn” the other? While nerds were definitely here a long time before geeks… no. I think they’re completely different species! Actually, that’s not completely accurate, as I do believe that there are nerd-geek crossovers. Maybe we’ll refer to these people as “Mules”. Well.. except that nerd-geek crossovers aren’t necessarily infertile. Hrm. Maybe a bad label. Whatever, I digress.

Where was I? Oh yes. Further elaboration!

Nerds have been around *forever*. We get to claim people like Pasteur, Van Leeuwenhoek (my two personal favs), Edison, Galileo, etc. Every old school, bad ass scientist? They’re ours.

Geeks are a fairly new group. I’m guessing they really got their start with the original Star Trek series, but I could be wrong. You see, my status as a nerd kinda inhibits my knowledge of the matter!

When it comes to media, nerds and geeks really verge off in different directions.

Geeks are the ones that are into sci fi and fantasy. As I mentioned earlier, “The Fantastical”. They’re the ones into Harry Potter, Star Trek, Star Wars, and/or anything Joss Whedon’s done, etc. They’re into video and computer games, RPG, and the more fantastical board games.

Nerds… we’ll watch movies, of course. We’ll even be entertained by some of the above mentioned ones. We’re just not THAT into it. We may be more into things like CSI (though we do tend to cringe and mock the horrible “science” involved!), or more realistic shows. We’re far more likely to be reading, and when we read, it’s usually non fiction. When we play board games, we definitely prefer general trivia, or straight-out strategy or thinking games. (Risk). Spare us the trolls and wizards, please!

Growing up, I preferred volunteering in my grade school’s library at lunches and recess, to doing anything social. Even though the books were kinda stupid and way below my reading level at the time (sorry!), I loved it. I loved sorting, I loved the Dewey decimal system.. loved it. Spent my summers at the big public library, reading microbiology textbooks. I knew more about microbiology at age 12 than most university students. Loved it!

As an adult, I’m a learning/linguistics/logistics/culture/science/experimentation nerd. You know why I have so many cake flavors? Because NOT developing new ones is stagnant and boring! I’m always having ideas that need to be tested. This is a huge reason for my upcoming cookbooks – gives me a good outlet for learning, experimenting. It’s cathartic. I need it.

I don’t read fiction at all anymore – mostly because I don’t have time. When I DO read fiction, it’s either a mystery or biology/microbiology related thriller (Love Robin Cook!). I don’t do fairies, spells, trolls, aliens, etc. If I play a computer game, it’s Mah Jongg (although I need to stay away from it, I can easily lose entire days to it. Is there a 12 step program for Mah Jongg?)

Anyway.

The thing is, it’s become “cool” to be a geek – while geek used to be a derogatory term, the geeks have really managed to reclaim it. Kudos to them! There are geeks *everywhere* – Almost everyone I know / consider to be a friend is a geek! My husband is a geek with nerd tendencies, even. I love hanging with geeks, because not only are they fun – I’m always learning something new from them! Where nerds can be more generic, a lot of geeks are almost like .. specialists. If I need a movie recommendation, I know which geek friend to contact (Melissa!). When I needed any info on anything Star Trek related (for our Klingon Cake adventures) – wow, did I EVER have a stable of knowledge to turn to! Music, a new game, whatever. Very specialized pockets of knowledge! Awesome.

“Nerd” is still seen as a derogatory thing, and I think a lot of people tend to be closeted nerds. You just don’t see the proud declarations of nerditude that you do from the geek crowd. (How many people on Twitter declare themselves a nerd on their profile? Not nearly as many as geeks!). Are we more rare? Is it a shame issue? Is it a not-caring thing? Is it because the terms are popularly used as interchangeable for some bizarre reason? I have no idea.

I just know that there is a big difference.. and I’m squarely on the “nerd” side of the fence! Nerd Pride!

While his suggestion got vetoed, it did sort of pave the way for how we’d be spending March 14th *every year* thereafter. We host a Pi Day Party… honestly putting way more effort into that, than we do our own wedding anniversary! In hindsight, maybe I shoulda just caved on the date

While I appreciate nerdiness/geeking out in almost any form, I’ve always been confused by his obsession uh.. extremely enthusiastic appreciation.. for pi. But then, irrationality in any form tends to get on my nerves (That was a lame pi joke, for the record.. not *totally* a dig at my husband!)

(A bit of explanation for the less nerdy of my readers. Pi Day is the day that celebrates Pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to it’s diameter. You know, 3.14159265358979323.. etc etc. 3.14… 3/14.. March 14.. get it? It’s also Einstein’s birthday. )

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Pi day in the Porterhouse starts about a week and a half before the actual date, with the construction of our own custom “pi-nata”. Yes, a pinata shaped like the pi symbol! Last year, we posted a tutorial – Click here to check it out.

While you may not have the time or inclination to take on such a project for yourself at this time, there are many small, fun things you can do to celebrate Pi Day. I find Pi day is an excellent excuse to clean the house and have some friends over, at the very least. You know… and bake pie.

- Have a pie potluck party! I’ll be making a lingonberry-orange zest pie this year, looking forward to see what everyone else brings – even though I’m going low carb at the moment, and actually behaving myself with regards to being allergic to wheat (sob!). Ah well. I’m sure it’ll all smell good anyway

- At 1:59pm, (again.. 3.14159…), we’ll be toasting pi (and Einstein)… with PInapple punch. Even better yet… this year, we invested in the Pi symbol ice cube tray from ThinkGeek. We’ll have icy little pi symbols floating in the punch, and more used to garnish the glasses. Very Cute. ThinkGeek actually has a bunch of cute pi themed goodies, check them out here

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- Pi Day Trivia! I’d post the link from where I got our questions, but… I know a few of our guests read this blog

- Read off Pi-ku (Haiku with a pi theme!), and then have a pi-ku writing contest. Click here for some examples!).

– Pi Day joke telling. This gets interesting. By “interesting”, I mean the kinds of terrible “punny” jokes that my father in law thrives on. (I’m talking on the order of “What do you get when you cut a jack o’lantern by its diameter? A: Pumpkin Pi!” Groan!).

- Pi Day Sudoku! Click here for the Pi sudoku that managed to fry everyone’s brain at last year’s party!

- Serve pizza. Not only is it ripe for another play on words (PI-zza), it’s round. Perfect. This year, I’ll be repeating my “St Patrick’s Day” pizza recipe that I made last year. This year, I’ll probably get around to actually posting the recipe. Trust me, it’s worth the wait – insanely yummy, and *completely* unlike any pizza you’ve ever tried. Guaranteed.

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– Cookies! I bought this cookie cutter last year. Expensive, but GREAT quality. Love it. May end up using it to cut pie/pizza dough to decorate the other food items, in addition to making pi cookies.

- Get stuff. I had no idea that other people were as obsessed ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H enthused about pi as my husband is, but there must be quite the pi-cult out there – just found this site, and many others. This one in particular has a ton of cute stuff. Maybe next year!

- Of course, recite pi to whatever insane number of digits you happen to have memorized. I consider myself pretty sane at just 10-12ish digits off the top of my own head.. my husband is quite proud of the fact that he used to know 205 digits. Holy crap. If there was any doubt as to the fact that I married the biggest nerd out there, they’re pretty much quashed at this point. One of the things I love most about him though (the nerd factor, not pi recitation in specific!).*

- I got a bit silly with preparations, and used one of the ice cube trays to make a bunch of melt-and-pour glycerin soaps. Not only will there be a set of 4 pi shaped soaps in each of our bathrooms, each guest will be taking home a little 2 piece set, wrapped in a little pouf of cellophane, and tied of with a green (St Patty’s Day!) ribbon. Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!

So… that’s our pi day suggestion list in a nutshell. Do you have any fun ways to celebrate Pi Day yourself? Be sure to tweet, facebook comment, or email them to us.. or just comment here! We’d love to hear about it!

* Plus, I can’t say much. I used to have the entire periodic table of elements memorized. Not just name/symbol, but location, and most of the atomic weights. Ya. I’d pretty much be a hypocrite if I held his 205 digits of pi thing against him