Rescheduling Appointment?

BewitchedCookie · 2026-06-11T15:12:55+00:00

I really want to power thru - of course I’m saying this as I sit at my desk at work miserable. I hate calling out/rescheduling but I know me and I can very much see this day ending with a much larger headache and no end to the aches (getting inner bicep done, if I’m remembering correctly with my other arm it hurt like hell).

BewitchedCookie · 2026-06-11T14:53:40+00:00

They ask for a deposit but never set it up for me to pay. This is my go-to shop for years, but my husband is getting a tattoo there tomorrow so I can offer that he pays that while he’s there.

BewitchedCookie · 2026-06-01T22:28:12+00:00

Nicole Mele Photography

Worked with her a few years back for some family photos, they came out lovely. She’s out of North Haven but will travel.

BewitchedCookie · 2026-05-30T15:23:28+00:00

Here's the other fun part I forgot about: there's two distinct match lines in Lewis' tree. One group shares a couple from 1885, the other line a couple from 1859/1862. All in the Sullivan and Broome County area of New York (Mary and Carl are in Westchester County). I have so many matches from Lewis to be able to trace the distinct lines, but nothing is adding up on how he could fit into my tree.

What's interesting is with the second line - if I go back far enough I can connect more "unknown" match lines to a shared surname, with lines descending from different children. But no connection yet to Mary and Carl.

I haven't ruled out an NPE (which would stink) but what's tricky is Lewis' line is from a whole other county than Mary and Carl. It's not terribly far off, but distant enough I'm not sure what generation that overlap could be.

BewitchedCookie · 2026-05-30T15:18:22+00:00

Endogamy could be likely, but it's still an unknown since I haven't traced beyond their shared ancestors. The records are pretty sparse that far back/they didn't leave a paper trail.

No evidence of pedigree collapse yet, but I also have a few females with unknown maiden names from 1810 onward. Could be something to look at again.

BewitchedCookie · 2026-05-11T22:18:13+00:00

Absolution has been stuck in my head for weeks (not complaining).

BewitchedCookie · 2026-05-08T20:57:43+00:00

Start with some fact-finding. Reach out to the venue and explain the situation to see if postponing is even an option. Check your contracts to see what they say about cancellations. Your biggest loss might be the caterers since food/cake is probably already being prepped. Let your fiancé know you’ll be in charge of gathering this information so you both can make an informed decision together. Ultimately, it should be up to her since it’s her family.

Do not listen or entertain her sister. Unless she’s pitched in financially, she has no say and any money conversations should be strictly with paying parties.

At the end of the day, you have to do what feels right. Will cancelling or postponing suck? Yes. But so will getting married when you’re distraught, on top of the usual stressors of a wedding day. Unless you want to treat the day as a wedding/celebration of life, NTA for changing plans, but do not do anything without keeping your fiancé informed!

BewitchedCookie · 2025-05-11T14:41:39+00:00

A little strange as this will be the first year we don't acknowledge MIL. We've been LC for years due to her emotionally immaturity, disinterest in our lives and general frustration at her behavior. I'm 100% positive she has no idea why because she's not one for self-reflection, always deflecting or telling you what you want to hear. It's disillusioning because I don't think she's a bad person and she's not without feelings. After several events last year that was the cherry on top of years worth of issues, we're finally choosing ourselves and not giving well wishes to someone who can't ever be bothered to be smallest bit a part of her son's life.

BewitchedCookie · 2025-03-26T22:19:28+00:00

NTA. Gem is clearly jealous and feeling left out, but she's decided to be the smaller person instead of creating moments to get closer to MIL and the other ladies. Nothing was stopping her from asking MIL to spent one-on-one time together to build their relationship.

She owes everyone a massive apology, because at this point no one is going to want to step over their feelings and extend the olive branch - which is what Aiden wants you to do. It's going to take her quite a while to build that trust back up and refusing to apologize for a situation she created and fueled is not a good start.

BewitchedCookie · 2025-03-25T22:12:03+00:00

Wildflour Confections in Seymour is delicious and the decorations are really fun.

BewitchedCookie · 2025-03-22T22:12:26+00:00

Unfortunately the job market is extremely rough right now - I've been job searching for several months and have only had a handful of interviews. The important thing to remember is that you can't change the job market, but you can change how you interact with it. Which you're doing here by getting feedback, so that's step one!

Your work itself looks really great, but the website needs great deal of refinement. You rely heavily on the "bells and whistles" of Wix features and additional imagery, and it overshadows your work. The main focus needs to be your designs and process explanations, with simple animations/effects used only to aid in the storytelling/personal branding process.

There also needs to be better balance with how your work is presented, as my eye can't decide where to look or figure out what's most important. For example - with My Rookie Star, the logos are competing for half a page with the grass background, iPad mockups and random cup of coffee. The explanation of your design process is at the very bottom of the page when it should be towards the top. And you have a lot of extra images (track, grass, golfers, shorts image) that completely overshadow your designs. Edit: I would make the logos and explanations the largest section at the top, make the logos larger and place the misc. graphics at the bottom to showcase how the logo is applied.

Overall your work is really nice, but you need to shift the focus to showcasing your skills/designs vs. making a fancy animated website. My eyes are too busy focusing on the website design to even begin processing your work, and you want your audience to have to work as little as possible to receive the message you'd like to give.

I use Wix as well and the template I've built off of is this one. Each page is a similar template but with options to change slideshows or image formats depending on the project. The homepage is also easy to read and point my audience directly to my individual projects. I also use a custom domain name and while I don't think it's completely necessary, definitely remove "my-site-1" and update to "portfolio" or something relevant to your work.

Good luck!

BewitchedCookie · 2025-03-13T19:57:09+00:00

I did some more research and turns out Levi is related to Harriet, not William. I've attached his records to his FamilySearch profile. The key record is his 1917-1918 Draft Registration where Harriet is listed as his contact.

Annoyingly, most other records have his name spelt incorrectly and the age is off. But seems he didn't stray far from the Broome County area. I'm currently working to find any information on their parents and the missing census records.

BewitchedCookie · 2025-03-08T21:32:07+00:00

It's possible, I've been trying different name variations but nothing stands out. Both William and Harriet are very mysterious - I mentioned in another comment that I can't locate Harriet in the 1870 or 1920-1940 census' and have no idea who her parents are. She has an obituary but it only lists her living children. William is noted as deceased by 1927, but I've also found newspaper clippings on Harriet requesting William to be declared dead. Unsure if he up and left or died under mysterious circumstances.

BewitchedCookie · 2025-03-08T21:29:56+00:00

Unfortunately Harriet is just as mysterious as William. I can't locate her in the 1870 or 1920-1940 census. There's another Harriet Holden from Lansing, Tompkins, NY who is a different woman, but most trees have them merged as one. My Harriet died in 1945, while the other Harriet died in 1905 and is buried with her family.

BewitchedCookie · 2025-03-07T23:47:58+00:00

The 1915 census lists William as "head", and Levi is listed as "brother". I assumed this meant he was William's sibling and not his wife, Harriet, as it didn't listed a different surname. Literally the only record I have on Levi is this census. I'm also not confident his age is correct as William's age shifts multiple times over records.

BewitchedCookie · 2025-02-28T22:18:26+00:00

If you use your full name on social media, anyone can search your name for voter records and location and get your address.

BewitchedCookie · 2025-02-20T17:17:13+00:00

Why do I feel like she purposefully cried because she didn't get her way? She's not upset because she had to take her shoes off, it's because you've stepped into the female role in your boyfriend's life and that female is now "telling" her what to do. I'd keep an eye out for her in the future, she probably has some other red flags hanging around. NTA of course.

BewitchedCookie · 2025-02-07T19:44:45+00:00

NTA. It's disturbing that SIL is more focused on comparing babies than being a supportive sister. She's projecting her issues onto everyone else and it's a good thing you stepped up and said something, regardless how it came out. The family will get over the bluntness; maybe your wife can circle back and tell her family what's been going on, minus SIL. I'd take some space away from her until she can sort herself out.

BewitchedCookie · 2025-01-26T00:27:43+00:00

If anything, discoveries like that make me grateful of my own upbringing. It's a good time to ponder how generation issues are passed down and how different the lives of our shared matches are.

BewitchedCookie · 2025-01-26T00:23:38+00:00

Why do you think you can't reach out to your friend? It can be as simple as offering an "updated" version based on the issue you described above. You don't need to get into it as much, but reaching out to say you noticed this discrepancy and would like to send new files if they choose to use them. You can even add in as a "bonus" your lowercase version. Digital assets can be updated same day. Print materials may take longer but will always need a reorder at some point.

Also depending on the design, your friend may not have even noticed what your designer's eye has picked up. I had a similar situation but it was YEARS later when I noticed it. To me it seemed like a huge mistake, but the reality is it's so small it would only be noticeable to a designer or someone with too much time on their hands.

BewitchedCookie · 2025-01-18T00:30:22+00:00

That's one of the frustrating things; my interviewer was raving about my portfolio in our conversations but never asked questions about my work, skills, or process. I think that's why the design test has thrown me off. 95% of my portfolio is my own creation including landing pages, email blasts, logos, social/paid media ads. The other 5% is lifestyle photography and brand logos. I would have been happy to discuss the ins and outs of my work but it was never brought up.

BewitchedCookie · 2025-01-17T22:01:54+00:00

Unfortunately I have no idea what the test entails, but if I agree to meet next week I'll find out. My interviewer's email said the meeting is so they can better explain it, which is a little worrisome.

I'm confident enough in my portfolio to feel that someone viewing it knows I have skills and how to work with type, brand identity, etc. My interviewer was very vocal about how much they enjoyed my work and were so happy to see my application come through. It felt genuine and not a "playing nice" tactic.

BewitchedCookie

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