Category: Cobalt and Potassium

One year and a letter

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Dear Cobalt,
As you know, a year ago today (April 16, 2011), you proposed to me! I can’t believe it’s been a year. It seems like it was just yesterday we were standing on that mesa in New Mexico, me thinking about lunch (>_<) and you nervous about the proposal. Then you started to talk and I was so clueless about what was going on until halfway through and then so !!!! about what was going on after that that I don't remember what you said! You told me later that you don't really remember what you said either so I guess it's up to the winds of New Mexico to remember that part…
Anyway, you proposed and I said yes and then we sat there on the edge of that mesa feeling nervous but also excited as we planned our future together looking out as far as the eye can see at red New Mexico…
I just want you to know, despite how stressful planning this wedding has been and despite how crazy our jobs are making us, how much I love you and how excited I am for August 4th. I am so excited for us to be together forever and for all the fun adventures we will have in the coming years. :)
Love,
Potassium

Picture by Holly Carlyle Photography.

First dance

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So some of you may know that my favorite part of a wedding is watching the couple do their first dance. It always just makes me so happy to see them waltzing across the floor whispering and giggling to each other as they go. I just love the mystery of it all – they’re giggling about something important to each other and we get to share in that moment.

Anyway, so obviously since this is an important part of weddings for us, Cobalt and I have been discussing the perfect first dance song. Nothing too overdone but something that shows our love for each other and will give us our own private joke moment. I can’t tell you what it is because that would ruin the surprise for all our guests (some of whom read this blog! Hi guys!) but I can guarantee you that it is perfect. Now we just need dancing lessons so we don’t trip over each other while we’re doing all that cutesy giggling and whispering….

What about you guys? What is your favorite part of the wedding? What song did/will you dance to for your first dance? If you’re not married and not getting married yet what song do you think would make the most amazing first dance song? :D

Picture: Cobalt and me being crazy at a wedding we went to in 2010!

Shark Friday

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These past few weeks have been super busy for me mostly due to things going on in lab. However, while I was away in lab, my sharks got to have a lot of fun this week. First Banana Shark got to have Orange Julius and pie on Pi Day and then yesterday five of my sharks had the pleasure of chasing me around the apartment complex when I got home early from lab. These pictures were super fun for Cobalt and me to take… I have been planning this shoot for a while now. Unfortunately the sun got in our way a little bit (hence all the crazy flares) but no worries. We just might have to do it again… I had originally planned the shoot to use three people and not just two so we’ll just have to try it again… perhaps we’ll take the sharks to the park! :) I love Banana Shark in this bottom picture…


I hope you have good weekends!

Chicken Plus Cactus = Love?

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Today’s post is about nicknames. They’re fun and endearing generally. The nickname Potassium is actually one I gave myself back in high school (Really… at any given time since I was 17, I have had at least one website or blog, etc with “Potassium” in the name) but Cobalt has taken to calling me Chicken. I like it. For some reason I find it really endearing when he goes “What’s up Chicken?” or “You’re my favorite chicken…” because it’s so weird and also cute. It’s been really hard for me to come up with a cute but similarly endearing nickname for him. He mostly just makes weird faces and vetoes my suggestions… The other day, I told him his face was prickly like a prickly pear cactus and then said “Cactus….” and he didn’t seem too upset. So maybe? Cactus and Chicken?

What about you? Do people have fun, yet endearing, nicknames for you? Do you have fun, yet endearing, nicknames for others? Is there a nickname that you absolutely can’t stand when people use? :-/

About the pic: We actually do have cacti that grow here in Colorado but generally they are all wrinkled and depressing looking. This little guy is looking pretty good though. Maybe he’s protected by the pinecones in the grass surrounding him…

In sickness and in health

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Short post today because Cobalt and I both have tragic death colds of death (finally getting better but still…). Boooo… Anyway, in case you didn’t guess already, today’s Wedding Wednesday post is about vows. So really, the post looks like this: What do you think? Writing your own vows or using traditional ones?
I am kind of of the mind set that Cobalt and I are anything but traditional and since nothing else about our wedding (what we’ve planned so far) is going to be very traditional, maybe writing our own vows would be more of our style. I like the freedom that it gives you – being able to say things and make promises about things that actually matter in your relationship and being able to add in little inside jokes that gives your relationship a sense of mystery and wonder that I think is my favorite part of any wedding. On the other hand, I am kind of nervous about writing my own vows. I am such a perfectionist, how can I make sure what I say to Cobalt expresses exactly how I feel?!
What do you guys think? What have you done? Is it worth it to write your own?

Picture: another engagement picture by Holly Carlyle.

Colorado has beautiful sunsets

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Yesterday, Cobalt and I witnessed the most beautiful sunset! Unfortunately I was driving at the time but fortunately I had my DSLR in the car and Cobalt was ready to take pictures! It was kind of a fun experience with me driving and being like “Oooooo! Take a picture of this! Oooooo…” while Cobalt manipulated the camera and got the pictures. I like being a photography team with you, Cobalt! About a half an hour later, I got even more ideas for fun pictures but alas… still driving. Funny how driving brings out my creative side… In this top picture we see a monster hidden in the clouds… Do you see it?!

Below is another one of our pictures – this one is purely Cobalt-inspired and his favorite of our series…

Do you ever get super creative while you are driving? Are you excited that it’s Friday? Are you going to watch the Oscars on Sunday?

Wedding Shenanigans…

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This weekend was a crazy ball of wedding planning. Cobalt and I flew out to California, worked on wedding stuff for two days straight, and then headed back to Colorado on Sunday. Whew. At least California was significantly warmer than Colorado so we could escape the cold for a few days (yeahhhhh sandals!). And we got a lot of work done. For example, we got our cake designed/ordered (soooo excited about it), got the boys’ tuxes ordered, and I got to be fitted for my dress. Funny story about that: my mom is making my dress and we learned that I should probably not eat 3 extra servings of spaghetti for dinner before being fitted. >_< Bustiers and full tummies are NOT friends… :p
Regardless, it was a good trip – though the jury is still out on the wedding rings discussed last week. Today’s picture is of Cobalt and me being bored in the bridal shop while waiting for our consultant to draw up an estimate on the tuxes. Here’s another picture of me wearing Cobalt’s tie:

We’re super excited about how much work we got done this weekend and how our wedding plans are coming along in general. Is it August yet?! Now I have a question for all you ladies (or guys, I don’t care) out there…. what do you think: should tuxes have pocket squares or boutonnieres? (or BOTH?!) Are pocket squares really worth $8 per square of craziness?!

I said, didja hair me?!

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Typical Potassium hair (flower not guaranteed)…

So let’s try a slightly less photography related entry. Weddings. Oh man… Wedding planning is unlike anything I have ever experienced. Every day there seem to be more details I realize I should be thinking about. I mean, generally they are actually important (like shoes for the bridesmaids and such… probably pretty important…) but I just am not used to planning basically a huge party where I (or me and Cobalt… or just Cobalt) have to make all the decisions. So the other day, my friend asked me how I am going to wear my hair and I realized I should actually probably look into that seeing as my hair usually sees two different styles: up (ponytail or bun… sometimes two buns when I’m feeling especially awake in the mornings) and down (straight or curly, mostly curly because I have a lot of hair and it takes hours to straighten).

Anyway, after feeling panic/confusion (trying to imagine what my hair would look like “fancy”), I decided to check out some websites and look up wedding hair.

It’s a fairly new territory for me. Also, a territory that seems to omit people with my kind of hair (the crazy curly kind, which is why it usually remains contained and hidden in a ponytail), which worries me slightly. Most bridal pictures I see have girls with their hair straightened and then recurled. This style confuses me because my hair is already curly. Why would I straighten it just to curl it again? That sounds like a lot of work…. and hours in front of a mirror. And the other thing is that I am weird and I actually LIKE my curly hair. Now that I actually know how to contain it, I think it’s pretty easy to get it to do what I want. So again, not really feeling the straightening just to recurl thing. I am worried I would lose some part of me in that whole process…

And then besides the curly vs. straight question, there’s up vs. down! How do people choose these things? I feel really ungirly right now… :-/ Does anyone have any neat suggestions for naturally curly hair?

Cell Phone Picture: Back to cupcakes

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Here we are. Back to cupcakes a few days before mole day (Chemistry joke…. a mole of anything is 6.22×1023 of it (so 6.22×1023 chickens = a mole of chickens… that’s a LOT of chickens!). Sunday is 10/23, mole day. In honor of mole day, the chem department here always makes cupcakes of the elements. For last year’s cupcake picture, check out my very first post ever. I can’t believe a full year has gone by. And what a year it has been! I’d say it’s been a pretty good year even despite all the craziness going on that kept me from posting on here as often as I wanted. Cobalt and I got engaged (it’s weird to see him listed as my boyfriend in my old posts), I am a year farther into my grad school career (a few years left still…), I learned how to crochet (some fun pictures of that next week I hope), my photography skills have (hopefully) improved over the past year, etc. So much… I can’t wait to see what the next year is going to bring (I’ll give you a hint on one thing… a wedding!!!! Yay!). Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Fun with Fisheye

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Well until I get enough money to have fancy lenses for my DSLR, I will be content to play with the crazy modes on my little Canon Powershot. For example, the Fisheye mode can be insanely entertaining or insanely neat. This top picture is an insanely neat example taken by Cobalt. For an insanely entertaining picture, please see below (I took that one)… Hahahaha…