KnitsMcGee

ruling the air waves

2011-03-31T13:59:00.001-04:00

I have so very cool news to share. I'm pretty excited and you should be too! Tomorrow I'm going to be live on the radio with two of my fellow skaters (Dropkick Muffy and Kobra Kai) pimping A FULL WEEKEND OF DERBY right here in Lincoln, Nebraska. That's right, me, on the radio! I'm exceedingly jazzed. It'll be on at 8am on the Blaze 104.1 FM (if you're not Lincoln local you can stream it right here to your computer or smart phone) and 106.3 FM KFRX at 8:30 (again available streaming to phones and comps alike right here).

Our very own Kobra Kai sneaking by an Omaha blocker at our last bout.

You'll get to hear about the upcoming bouts (2 on Friday! 2 on Saturday!), what it's like to be a derby girl and even win some tickets so be sure to tune in! If you are in the Lincoln area you should definitely come check us out. I'll be playing in the first bout Friday night for the Roadies (white). First whistle is at 7:03 but if you want good seats be there by 6:30. You can buy your tickets right here from Ticketmaster or at the Pershing Center Box Office. If you're there, swing by and say hi! My derby name is Kilda Messenger and I'd love to meet you! When I'm not playing I'll be down on the floor shooting photos of the Maxines bout.

Edited to add: Bouts are very family friendly with kids activities at half time and kids under 12 are FREE.

Photo by me, Shayna Kalish. Please don't take it without permission and crediting me! (If you ask, it's almost guaranteed I'll say yes!)

workout wednesday

2011-03-30T19:54:00.000-04:00

Don't hate me, I was kind of a slacker this week. Last week was all about kicking ass every day, but this week was giving it all during practice, but taking a hard earned rest on off days. ~~I've been pretty tired this week~~ Eh, no excuses. Not as much time as last week. I'll live and the rest will do me good before my bout on Friday and the grandparents-in-law rolling in to town on Saturday.

Workout Wednesday for the Week of 3/23-3/30:

Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Practice
Friday: Off
Saturday: Off
Sunday: 2 hour All League Scrimmage. Played Maxines vs. RW again and it was hard again. We had a bit of a better plan and got to switch it up and exchange the jammers.
Monday: 2 hour Practice/RW scrimmage.
Tuesday: 2 hour Practice/RW scrimmage. I won't lie, this practice was frustrating, but I knew I worked really hard and if not to the very best of my ability strategy-wise, certainly to my physical limit.

Total time: 8 hours on skates

cleaning house

2011-03-24T17:29:00.000-04:00

Since getting married and quitting (well, maybe not quitting, but at least paring down) my wedding... er... preoccupation, I've been entirely obsessed with interior design. Apartment Therapy, Design Sponge, Young House Love, all of it. Gone are the days of hoarding photos pretty white dresses, here to stay are the days of designing dream bathrooms when my insomnia hits. I'm going to level with you here, all the pretty pictures of dreamy bedrooms and perfectly organized spaces can make me feel bad about the crappy, cookie-cutter rental the Hubs and I currently live in. Rental white, popcorn ceiling, and a suite of furniture that was either purchased at Target, without me, or both doesn't help. Combine that with a dual predisposition in our little family towards being (what's a nice word for slobs?) tidiness-avoidant and our apartment can seem more like our mess than our home.

In a fit of cleaning and pent-up dust bunny rage, Hubs and I have spent the last two evenings giving the mess a run for it's money. Tuesday night we started with the pool room. There is neither a pool, nor a pool table in this room. We call it that out of a deep seeded love of an Australian movie called the Castle. It's hilarious. Put in in you Netflix queue. Don't worry, you can thank me later. Anyhow, in it the family has a room in the house (presumably with a pool table, I've forgotten) where all the "special" things go. Mug that says "World's Best Dad?" That's going straight to the pool room! For us, it means that our second bedroom is a giant closet with a desk and my yarn stash in it. There was stuff everywhere. There was nowhere to move, sit or work. The closet itself was overflowing. After several hours of cleaning, organizing, sorting, trashing and donating to Goodwill the closet is once again organized and the floor is cleared out.

Look! Evidence of closet organization!

That's not to say we're done. I'm going to show you what it looks like now in a double effort both for no one to think I'm in any way perfect and to motivate me to keep going until the job is done. To be fair though, my 50mm lens takes lovely pictures but makes it really hard to see the nice empty space taking up most of the room.

Yeah, my yarn gets "organized" periodically. I still have yet to do it in a way that is either a) helpful or b) sticks. We're currently in the market for something that'll help organize the stash. That stack of boxes is the wonderful china we got for our wedding. Believe it or not, that's consolidated by about 65% in terms of box size. Ordering china covers (these are surprisingly hard to find. Macy's doesn't carry them at all. We've found one specialty store online that carries them.) is next on the docket. I've been wanting a hutch to store/display them, but what with our hating our apartment, we've been holding off buying a huge piece of furniture that we'll have to carry up and back down our 32 stairs in the near future. That funky pseudo-Victorian telephone bench that you can kind of see in the corner of one of the photos looks like this. I'm signed up to take an intro upholstery class this coming quarter through the local community college and this is my project. More on that as it comes.

Fresh off our victory in the pool room we decided to tackle the kitchen last night. If you can look past the totally covered fridge (you can't make me get rid of my magnets!), the place is freaking spotless! Perhaps not magazine quality, but everything got a really good scrubbing and all the surfaces got cleared (I have a nasty habit of not putting away small appliances after I use them).

See that burner? All that white? That sucker got at least 45 minutes of combined effort. Did you know the top (white metal part) comes up like a car hood so you can clean underneath? I didn't, but it does!

Still left to cover:
-dining room table
-living room and hallway
-our bathroom
-spare bathroom
-yarn "situation"
-Hubs' desk
-our bedroom
-our closet needs a once over, tidy though it may seem

Tempting as it may be to have a house of my own, it's times like this that I'm glad all we're responsible for is a 2 bedroom apartment.

getting a handle on this thing

2011-03-23T23:19:00.000-04:00

It's no secret I've been pretty lax on the posting of late. I've been going through some growing pains with this blog trying to figure out what it should be since it's not a wedding planning blog any longer. For now I'm going to try to be more regular with my posting and in terms of topics, I'll try to keep it relevant to what I'm doing now.

Last time I introduced you to Cappie. When I'm not chasing my scraggly little furball around, I probably skating. That's right, I'm a roller girl! I joined the No Coast Derby Girls in November. Before I joined I had been on roller skates a grand total of twice in my life. (Ari took me skating for the first time for my 22nd birthday. It was me and 4 birthday parties of 9-11 year olds.) I'm not going to lie and say it's been easy, it's been a lot of hard work and a huge time commitment, but it's so worth it! In the coming weeks I'll start talking more about derby, the rules, the community, the history. (If you have any questions, let me know and I'll go more in depth.)

Derby is not for the feint of heart. I work out on skates several time a week both on and off skates. Sometimes it sucks but I know that it both makes me a stronger skater and skinnier person (I've lost 10 pounds since I started!). So, I've decided to start cataloging my efforts on Workout Wednesday, starting with the previous Wednesday. I'm owning up to my off days and hopefully I'll keep myself honest and even get my junk food addiction in check.

Workout Wednesday for the Week of 3/16-3/22:

Wednesday: 1 hour Interval Group Class (lots of running uphill since spring is finally starting to show up in Lincoln!)
Thursday: 1 hour Body Sculpt Class
Friday: 35 minutes (3.67 miles, 397 calories) on the elliptical. I did what I've deemed a "half." I set the elliptical to do one giant hill up and down (Kilamanjaro on the Life Fitness machine at the gym) for 30 minutes, the length of half a roller derby bout. I then mimic the jam timing. 30 seconds active rest (the 30 second set-up time between jams) followed by two minutes of flat out sprint (the maximum length of a jam). This worked out nicely with the 30 minutes because each increase or decrease in resistance coincided with 5 little 30 second sections, just the same as my jam plus set-up. I'm going to try to work up to sticking this in on all but one off day a week (everyone needs to rest some time!)
Saturday: 2 hour All League Practice (these are harder because the A team girls practice with us too.) Admittedly I only got about a third through this before I rolled my ankle. It was stupid and my fault. I wasn't paying attention when I was falling. I spent the end of practice icing my ankle and watching.
Sunday: 2 hour All League Scrimmage. We played A Team (Mad Maxines) vs. B Team (Road Warriors, my team!). We worked HARD.
Monday: 2 hour Practice.
Tuesday: Off. At this point I'd gone 6 days in a row and I was TIRED.

6 of 7 days in the week, just like I aim for! I've got a bout coming in a week and a half so I'd better keep it up!

meet Cappie

2011-02-18T23:47:00.000-05:00

This past year on my parent's anniversary, I gave myself a present. Ari and I met at lunch and headed down to the Capital Humane Society. I was prepared for excitement, heartbreak and to come back until we found the perfect dog for us. Well, I was mostly right. There were lots of dogs, many of which we had to cross off the list right off the bat because our apartment has a 15 pound cap on dogs. Big boys were out, which left us a handful of little guys. The poodle got adopted while we were there. The Min Pin barked louder than the German Shepherd. We ended up taking out two little guys, a Sheltie mix and a Boston Terrier mix. We saw the Sheltie first and I really liked him, despite being a total whiner. But then they brought us Cappie. Ari picked him out of the kennel because he didn't bark, he just wagged his tail, looked up at us and said, "Oh yeah, I'm the best, nicest, cutest dog here. You sooooo want to take me home." In the meeting room the first thing he did was lick us. We were pretty sold. I asked Ari if he was sure (I really wasn't expecting to bring home a dog!), he said go for it. So got for it I did! $90 and two pieces of paper later I had a goodie bag of treats, a ghetto donated leash and my new best buddy.

Cappie Halloween 2010, 4 months old

I had been pushing hard for a dog for a few months. I was going a bit stir crazy with the wedding gone, no job happening and the fun of unemployment long worn off. Cappie is my buddy, we hang out all day. Ari gets up first thing in the morning and when he and Cap come back from their walk, Cappie jumps back in bed with me for a mid-morning snooze. He gets me out of the house and keeps me on my toes. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I love the little furball.

other people's weddings are an excuse for pretty clothes

2011-02-17T11:11:00.001-05:00

Dear Stefie,

You are awesome. You are one of my blog's biggest cheerleaders and for you, I blog again! You're a maid of honor in a wedding, so of course I have spent time ~~procrastinating~~ searching for a kick ass bridesmaid dress for you to (not so subtly) suggest to your bride-to-bride. (Well, not your bride-to-be, but your friend who's getting married. You know what I mean!) Since you haven't yet given me specifics (not that you asked for help, but let's gloss over that.) I took a quick shot over to ModCloth. Here you go:

First up is my favorite, the Romantic Incarnation dress ($90).

Next is the Standout and Deliver dress ($60).

Then comes the Dianthus Fields dress ($90).

Apparently I'm in a pinky purple kinda mood. Anyhow, wedding aside, I'm pretty sure you just need this one for nights on the town.

Love you,

Shayna

you're welcome

2010-12-06T13:08:00.000-05:00

OK, so it's been 18 thousand years since my last post (again). This one is just a drive-by. But it's worth it, I swear. This is quite possibly the handiest thing I have seen in a long time: how to fold a fitted sheet.

count in the heezie

2010-11-04T13:25:00.000-04:00

Why yes, this is the best thing I've seen all day.

One, two, three, four, fizzle.

via

i remember

2010-11-02T05:07:00.000-04:00

And you should too. See you at the polls.

tastes like autumn

2010-11-01T17:15:00.001-04:00

Ok, I admit it. I am not Julia Child. Or Mario Batali. Cooking, it's not really my deal. But now that I'm the currently at home (aka momma needs a job!) half of the team, I decided that we couldn't have frozen dinners in a bag or ravliolis every single night for dinner. So last night Ari and I spent some serious time cooking. I wrangled a fresh butternut squash from a local farm (which is harder than it sounds) and we got to cooking. It was so good, we had it again for lunch! And the dog liked it! But you don't know about him yet, but he liked it like whoa! We even made our own recipe, and damn, it came out AWESOME. So, friends, for your gastronomical pleasure, bacon butternut squash soup!

Butternut Squash Soup

Plus, it was fun to try out our new food processor (thanks, Browns!). Try it and let me know how it turns out!

bring on the rain

2010-10-30T12:41:00.000-04:00

So if you know me in real life, you know how much I love Australia. If you don't, the reason is that I spent six months there doing a semester abroad at the University of Melbourne and touring the east coast.

Seriously, Oz is the most amazing place. It's full of all these totally cool things and sayings and plants and places that are nothing like anything that exists on any other continent. One of the places I didn't get to go to but is on the top of my list for when I go back (and I will be going back, thank you very much!) is Uluru (formerly known as Ayer's Rock). Uluru is in the middle of the Outback in extreme desert conditions. So when I saw this post (via web-goddess), I knew I had to share. This week, Uluru got a rainstorm for the first time in over 20 years. This photos are pretty awesome and speak for themselves.

Photo credit: Peter Carroll

the return

2010-10-29T23:28:00.000-04:00

Dear Gentle Readers*,

I have been a delinquent blogger. I got way-layed writing about the bachelorette and just lost my steam. Well kids, I am back by popular demand. I will be back soon with tales of broken bones, a new puppy and of course, the long awaited wedding recap. Once that's all sussed (and I'm not too worried, that's gonna take a while), we can get on to the business of figuring out what to write about now that it's not wedding central up in these parts anymore.

Much Love,

Shayna

*If you get this reference, I will love you forever. I will potentially also mail you chocolate products of some sort because you will have earned it.

lazy blogger placates eager readers

2010-09-20T16:34:00.000-04:00

This weekend went all too quickly and I don't have the brain power? energy? werewithall? something else? to write my bachelorette post just yet. Instead I will placate you with more pretty wedding pictures.

I couldn't resist this one. My husband looks too hot. Also, I can't stop saying "my husband." Husband! Husband! Husband! Photo via Noah Devereaux.

l'shana tova

2010-09-18T15:50:00.000-04:00

Ari and I are home this Yom Kippur. To distract from our fasts, we are having a Battlestar Galactica marathon. I'm starving. It's pretty awesome though, not gonna lie. Best wishes for a happy new year and to be inscribed in the book.

pre-wedding vacation?

2010-09-17T13:16:00.001-04:00

So I suppose I should start at the beginning. Well, maybe a little sooner than that. In a fit of "oh my gosh the wedding is so soon and she's moving out" and "holy crap we all reeaaaallly need a vacation" my parents decide that it is a fabulous idea to take me to Block Island, Rhode Island. Well, I love Block and am pretty much defenseless against its siren call. We had planned to go Tuesday, I think. Well, you get there by ferry and Mother Nature had other plans in the form of a hurricane so the ferry didn't run. Instead, we went down on Friday. Yes, 9 days before my wedding. I told you it was insane.

Anyhow, we drove down to Point Judith, RI (where the ferry leaves from) and had lunch at a place looking at this:

After that we got on the ferry and as we were leaving saw lots of cute, tiny beachgoers.

The very first day there we dragged our butts (and beach chairs) a mile up the road (which is far in flip-flops carrying a lot of crap). I immediately proceeded to totally sunburn my whole face. I may or may not have had a freak out, yelled at my parents for putting me in this situation a week before my wedding and complained about it all weekend, even as it began to fade.

Complaining, time crunches and panic aside, it was really so lovely to be there. Block in late August and early September is a thing of beauty. Sunshine, cool weather (mid 70s!) and the perfect breeze. It doesn't hurt that it's so damn cute, either.

Also, the best ice cream cone on the face of the planet. Seriously, Aldo's makes a banana cream pie ice cream. Banana ice cream with pieces of pie in it! It is beyond the best thing ever. Now, there are a lot of choices, and I am a chocolate girl and not at all loyal to one ice cream flavor, but it was so good, I had it two nights in a row. I'd eat it right now if I could. It's worth the schlep to Block for this ice cream.

And I found a knitter! Well, a knitter's car at least...

In the end, it was sad to leave, but I was anxious and eager to get back to New York to finish Wedding Prep (yes, that does require word initial capitals, thank you). I think the moral here is yes, absolutely go on a quick little vacation with your parents before your wedding. It was really great to have that nice bonding time with them before the insanity of the wedding week and the insane emotional upheaval that a wedding is for everyone involved. However, for your own sanity, do it three weeks before, not one!

PS. Thanks Mom and Dad, I had a blast!

Next Up: Arrivals begin and bachelorette party ensues!

re-entry

2010-09-15T19:55:00.000-04:00

And we're back! Adjusting back to real life is no simple task, and we're tackling it head on with some good old fashioned quality couch time. Teaser photos are in, so recap and honeymoon talk coming soon!

Ok, I couldn't resist.

Courtesy of our amazing photographer Noah Devereaux.

it's here!

2010-09-05T09:55:00.002-04:00

WEDDING DAY!!!

the night before

2010-09-05T01:20:00.000-04:00

Forgive me if this post turns to Ramble City, USA. I'm not sure exactly what I want to say, but I feel like I want to say something. Or I should. Or something.

I am getting married tomorrow. Well, it's 1:12am, so technically I am getting married today. It's the most surreal feeling. I told my dad tonight that I'm as ready as I'll ever be, that I think you can only be 95% ready until you've already done the thing.

Ari called me his wife today. I turned into a little gooey mess of girly loveitude. Really, honestly, I love the "stuff" that goes with my wedding, but I am ready for my marriage already. It's not about my beautiful dress or lovely flowers (that my mom, friend Ros and I have slaved over for the last 2 days) or the dancing or the cake. It's about this wonderful, incredible, perfectly imperfect person who has chosen to love me and let me love him back. Ari, Baby, I can't wait to stand in front of all the people I love and tell them why I'm yours.

I have this song stuck in my head.

It's going to be a good day. I can't wait. Married.

my brain is too tired to come up with a witty title

2010-09-03T18:00:00.000-04:00

These posts keep getting shorter and shorter, I know. But it's really crunch time (2 days)! The family has descended and with them the chaos (and love, but still chaos). Family BBQ tonight followed by bachelor and bachelorette parties. The boys are going to a steak house, but the girls and I, we're going to see some hot boys take their shirts off and drink sugary drinks with umbrellas. I for one can't wait. Maybe I'll have some pictures for you. Hopefully there won't be any tame enough to share.

it's on

2010-09-02T23:44:00.002-04:00

Ari and I got our marriage license today. This thing is officially on.

blue skies

2010-09-01T13:26:00.000-04:00

This makes me very happy. According to weather.com, Sunday will be sunny, 74 degrees, 0% chance of precipitation and 50% humidity. I could not have ordered better weather if I had a direct line to Mother Nature! I've decided this bodes well for the whole event!

sneak!

2010-09-01T01:00:00.000-04:00

My little sister showed up tonight! A day early and a total surprise to Mom and I! What a little sneak! (So glad you're here!)

my photographer is the best!

2010-08-30T14:26:00.001-04:00

Yes. My photographer. He's so awesome, I have laid claim. Though I did pass kindergarten, so I am willing to share (just not this Sunday! eep!). Take a look at these awesome engagement shots he took of Ari and I in Central Park last weekend.

This is just a teaser, Noah was so nice and sent along a few photos sooner rather than later so I'd have something to buzz over to the NY Times (which I may have been too late to have published anyhow, but it's worth a try, I suppose). I'll post the rest when they come around, but it'll probably be after the wedding and our honeymoon.

Seriously though, Noah has been really great, totally relaxed and unobtrusive. I can't wait to sing his praises even more after the wedding! Check him out on his site: Noah Devereaux Wedding Photojournalism.

All images taken by and courtesy of Noah Devereaux.

The Final Countdown: One Week

2010-08-29T11:21:00.001-04:00

Sorry for that little bit of down time earlier this week. My parents took me on a last hurrah mini-vacation to Block Island. Suffice (for now) to say that it was divine (minus my sunburn). I'll have a real post for you once I get a chance to look at the photos I took.

---

It's pretty astounding (to me at least). One week. Seven days from today I'll be getting my hair and make up done, chatting with my family and best friend and generally getting prettified and trying to stay relaxed. Something will go wrong and I'll try not to fuss. I'll get in the car and walk around with my face all done up and veil in my hair... and a tshirt and shorts. I'll hide away in a restaurant manager's office and my mom will zip up my wedding dress. Right now it seems so surreal...

Fact is, my to do list is still two full pages long. Heck, my to do list for today has 9 things on it, at least four of which are starting or completing some big projects. When I have so much tangible work in front of me, it's hard to think about the really huge emotional thing that's happening so soon. I mean, in a week I'll be a wife! Now if that's not trippy, I don't know what is.

I'm trying to think what to write next and realizing that this post has no structure at all. Guess I'm a little rusty... the beach melted my brain in the most pleasant way. I think maybe I'll throw in a random list of things about... here:

I'm excited.

I'm worried about the wedding (and all the stuff I have to do for it!) but not the marriage.

I am so excited about the honeymoon, I'd have a pretty hard time explaining it. Whenever I get stressed, I add a day to the wedding countdown and say to myself "in 8 days I'll be on my honeymoon! honeymoon! honeymoon!"

There's a song that goes with the honeymoon chant.

I got a letter from the White House yesterday in response to our wedding invitation. I'm being a good girl and waiting for Mr. McGee to show on Wednesday. He said I could open it without him, but it's not every day you get mail from the White House...

I still have to get my ceremony readers and chuppah holders together.

I'm pretty excited to not know every nook and cranny of my ceremony text. I know Carie is going to say lovely things, and I loves me some surprises!

I am seriously marrying the best person ever. (And we're getting married!)

Plus, bonus points because he's so hot (we're going to make pretty babies some day)!

Bachelor/ette party plans are in full swing and I absolutely cannot wait for mine! I know any time my sister and best friend put their heads together to plan a party it's going to be beyond insane.

On a related note, any tips for dressing up like "a sexy pin up girl?"

Holy crap, I'm getting married in a week.

words

2010-08-24T15:03:00.000-04:00

After our meeting with the rabbi on Sunday, Ari and I have sussed out what our ceremony is going to look like. Well, so far as we want to know. We know all the parts, but some things that the rabbi will say, and our vows to each other are still saved for surprises.

Initially I had been reading all of these ceremonies (I moderate an online forum of knitter and crocheter brides and we have a dedicated thread for that) and thinking we'd use one or another as readings in our own. I saved only my very favorites, and read them to Ari on the porch one night, but he just wasn't sold. I was a little bummed at first (the words, they are so beautiful!), but I understood his reluctance and we decided not to have readings.

And this one wouldn't have worked anyway, not for our wedding at least. But for a spring wedding, all sunshine and peonies and joy, this would be perfect.

Today by Billy Collins

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.
-------------------------------------------------------
source

And, in case you were wondering, my favorites were Our Union Could Be Like This by Hafiz, a children's book called I Like You by Sandol Stoddard Warburg and I'll Be There For You by Louise Cuddon.

I found Billy Collins through the ever-awesome East Side Bride, who posted my now favorite video of a three year old kid reciting from memory Collins' beautiful poem Litany.

putting the knits back into mcgee

2010-08-21T09:00:00.003-04:00

Considering my name, there's not much knitting content on this blog. However, thought I'd throw some in here, just for fun. I can across this font two days ago, that has all the fabric care symbols. So, if you knit, crochet, sew or anything else fiber related, this is for you.

I said tumble dry low!

Go here to download the font "Notice 3" (heads up, the site is in Russian, use google translator for the page if that freaks you out!). It is the fifth paragraph down, the top link of the two in that group. Now, I must admit, I have no idea how to install a font on a PC, so if you're not a Mac, you're on your own. However, if you are using a Mac, once the download is complete, open the zip file (font_notice3.zip) in your downloads file by double clicking. Then open the file Notice3Std.otf the same way. This will open a program called "Font Book." Just click the "Install Font" button at the bottom right. Et voila! Next time you're putting together a cute little tag for those socks you're gifting to Uncle John, you can put the real care symbols on, easy peasy!

yum!

2010-08-20T13:24:00.000-04:00

Hey all, just popping in to tell you that my good friend Stefie just started a new food blog, Four Tines and a Napkin. It's full of info, opinions and photos of places that make me hungry just to think about! She has really good taste, putting the bakery of my wedding cake on her "bucket list" without even knowing! You should definitely check it out, my girl is a funny one, I predict big things for her!

Stefie and I at our fraternity formal in college!

awesomesauce

2010-08-20T00:01:00.000-04:00

Between this insane dress and hat combo

via once wed

and this insane floral display

via truly smitten

it's been a good day in blogland.

flowers!

2010-08-18T15:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a big steaming heap of amazingly productive exhausting fun. My mom and I met our friend Ros and her son Alex in the city yesterday. After a quick powwow on what we were looking for, Alex left to go sort out a upside-down book and we hit the flower district. Turns out we didn't have to go far. Pretty quickly we found Kathy at George Rallis, Inc., a flower wholesaler. We liked what we saw, the flowers were in good shape, pretty and well organized. After about an hour of questions and pointing and saying "5 bunches!" "50 stems!" and "will that be enough?" we had ordered a whole bunch of flowers and were set to pick them up the Friday before the wedding. Here's a sample I threw together to give you a taste of what we got.

After lunch on the go, we headed into Jersey to Ros' wholesale floral supplier (she's the queen of the Maplewood Garden Club and has the hook up!), Suburban Wholesale Florist. We got all the little goodies we need, plus the tall vases for the bar, aisle and card table. At first we'd bought a whole bunch of 5" glass cubes for the centerpieces, with the plan to possibly spray paint them gold or silver. Lo and behold, as I'm walking out, I spot none other than a whole whack of 5" cube vases in silver and gold! Successed! So we took a bit more of their time and switched out clear for metallic and were on our way.

Our last stop was Ros' house for powwow part 2. We went though our list, figured out how we actually wanted things and cut out all the stuff we ordered because we had big eyes and well, flowers are pretty. After chopping off about a third of what we ordered, we felt pretty damn accomplished and celebrated with some awesome Chinese food.

I was so exhausted, I went to be at 10:30 (not my usual 3am) and slept 11 hours. It was a good day. Now, off to work on the chuppah and ketubah!

boom!

2010-08-16T18:03:00.002-04:00

The thunder happening right now is in-sane! So loud and awesome. And you can even see the lightning, even though it's still daylight. I love thunderstorms, and ones during the day seem a rare treat. Plus, it's not even raining so hard, so it's like a show with free tickets. Happy Monday, indeed.

the almost elopement

2010-08-12T09:22:00.001-04:00

When the wedding insanity starts to set in (starts is perhaps not the right word...), or works itself to a pitch, I often ask myself, or Ari if he's handy, why we didn't elope. Weddings are exciting and fun and a labor of love, don't get me wrong, but they're not without their share of tears, fights and anxiety. My fantasy for a good long while was a flight for this weekend (whichever weekend it happened to be), and a trip to San Francisco City Hall (which is beyond amazingly gorgeous).

In the end, we both knew that what we really wanted was a wedding with our friends and family. But hey, if you can narrow down your nearest and dearest to 30, and would rather trade the big city for sandy beaches, you might be in luck. Pacific Weddings Magazine is giving away a wedding in Maui.

You give them a photo of you and your fiancé and tell them how you met, fell in love and got engaged in 300 words or less, and they might give you

Wedding and reception at Timba in Lahaina, Maui
Honeymoon stay at the Hyatt Regency Maui
Wedding and ceremony for 30 people
Reception including floral décor, dinner and drinks for thirty guests
Photography coverage of wedding and reception
Oceanview room for bride and groom for three days
Sunset sail for two aboard Trilogy Excursions

Sounds pretty damn good to me. And since the whole thing is paid for, the head count comes with a concrete cutoff and you're already at your honeymoon, I'd say the only thing you have to worry about is what to wear. Have a pina colada for me.

photo city

2010-08-11T11:26:00.000-04:00

This is the reason that you really need to research a photographer before you hire them.

It's one of many reasons I'm glad we picked our photographer (who is definitely not the perpetrator of the above photograph!), Noah Devereaux. I'm excited for totally awesome photographs like this instead.

Ari's coming in next weekend and we're doing our engagement session (better late than never, right?). I'm really looking forward to working with Noah and getting comfortable on the receiving end of the camera lens. We're thinking maybe the Met and Central Park for a location. Anyone have any cool places in the the city they like to take photos?

home again, home again

2010-08-10T08:07:00.002-04:00

jig a dee jig!

This afternoon I'm off home to New York for my sister's birthday, delivery at college and the rest of my mad wedding prep. Still not done packing so I'll keep it brief. I may be sad to leave my honey, but I'll sure be glad to see this:

Think on time, non-turbulent thoughts for me!

heart and sole

2010-08-06T09:46:00.001-04:00

Ok, lame pun. Sorry. Anyhow.

In case you were crushing on these Alexander McQueen heart-shaped peep toes but aren't quite in the market for $800 shoes Frederick's has knock-offs for $20. Admittedly I couldn't handle their 4.5 inch heel, but the price tag, yeah that works for me.

Alexander McQueen at Saks Frederick's of Hollywood

wowza

2010-08-05T13:42:00.000-04:00

Please. Somebody wear this dress. This is a dress meant to be rocked. Duuudes... please.

Tadashi Shoji from Nordy's. $548. He-llo.

ehhh...

2010-07-31T16:22:00.000-04:00

Sorry, I'm not feeling so great today so a real post will have to wait. Be appeased instead by this picture of a puppy.

letters of note

2010-07-30T14:09:00.000-04:00

Came across the blog Letters of Note today via another blog I'm fond of, called neither snow. Letters of Note has handwritten or typed (most often on a typewriter) notes and letters from all sorts of famous people and influential times. Some are responses to fanmail, and most are quite gratifying to read.

I liked this one in particular, a response to a fan letter requesting a signed photo from Pixar creative honcho, Peter Docter.

yet another reason why i go to kareoke

2010-07-29T16:16:00.000-04:00

This made me happy. And just like webgoddess said, gotta love a practical joke that's really funny but not actually at anyone's expense. Clicky and enjoy the next five minutes of your life.

Undercover Karaoke with Jewel from Jewel

Honeymoon! Honeymoon! Honeymoon!

2010-07-27T08:50:00.000-04:00

This has been my mantra of late. Anytime I get stressed or nervous or anxious or frustrated with the wedding, I repeat that over and over again (in a fun little singsong voice) until I feel better. Because no matter how crazy things get, on September 6, Ari and I will be getting on a plane and going here.

That's Club Med Turkoise. Everything is already paid for (except tips). Air is booked and they take us to and from the airport. I expect my hardest decision all week to be whether I should drink my pina colada by the beach or the pool. And bonus points for being an adult-only resort. I love kids, I really do, but I don't want to have to deal with them on my honeymoon. Oh yeah, and did I mention I will be doing lots of this?

Only I won't be sticking my ass out like I'm terrified of leaving the board. Shoulders back, hips forward!

Cos they have a flying trapeze there kids. I haven't flown in almost two years and I miss it so badly. I am beyond excited. I really hope the safety belts really are that gold color, because then I will totally pretend I am Wonder Woman.

I am predicting a very good week.

wedding photography giveaway

2010-07-24T12:00:00.002-04:00

Photographer Kara Layne is giving away free wedding photography! The deadline is 11:59 PM on Sunday, August 15th, 2010 and your wedding has to take place in 2011. Check out all the details here on her blog. Good luck!

covet

2010-07-23T09:46:00.000-04:00

With as many wedding blogs as I read, it's sometimes hard not to think "what if I'd done it this way instead?" Especially with dresses. There's just so much goddamn-badass-prettiness out there that it's hard not to covet more than just the dress I've got. But the fact is, some of it is just pure fashion lust, and really, we can combat that pretty easily by sharing the love. So here you are, my current wedding dress obsessions.

First up is Sydney-based Australian designer Rachel Gilbert. If I had about 70 billion more rock 'n roll points, I'd've gotten married in one of these:

Next up is an etsy vendor, Peppermint Pretty. Her style is a little more rockabilly than my taste, but her Pictures of Lily dress just slays me.

Lastly is Romanian (if my google-fu serves me right) designer Maria Lucia Hohan. Her style reminds me of an Amsale and Romona Keveza having a baby that likes to go to Heart concerts.

There. I feel better already.

on the docket

2010-07-22T14:32:00.000-04:00

So with 45 days to go, things are coming fast and furious. Some of the bigger things have gotten left later than they should have (thank you blog overload and massive indecision!) but it means they all start happening pretty rapid fire. On the agenda for today is ordering our ketubah, booking our honeymoon and ordering my veil! That means I'll actually have a complete outfit, the ability to have a ceremony and a week of total bliss full of booze, beach, flying trapeze (we're going to club med - so excited!) and my new husband (husband!). This thing is really happening!

confession

2010-07-22T12:45:00.005-04:00

I have a confession to make. This will not surprise anyone who knows me personally, but it's a little wacky, and it's made wedding planning more stressful if not harder.

I am afraid of the telephone.

There. I said it. It's true. And it's not like I'm afraid of the actual object, or won't use it, or won't pick up the phone, or won't call people at all, I just really hate it. I get really anxious when calling anyone, to the point that I have to spend serious time psyching myself up to call people (have you guessed that I am writing this to avoid calling someone yet?) that aren't my parents, sister or Mr. McGee, and I'm pretty sure they're all that way because I speak to them so often. I don't know what it is, or why I do it, but it makes life pretty complicated sometimes.

Once, in college, I at dinner 3 and 1/2 hours later than I'd planned to because I wanted take out but Ari wouldn't call for me because he thought I was just being silly. Well, he still thinks I'm just being silly (or crazy) but I can't help it and he eventually did order me food.

---

OK, so I made the call. (Yay! Go me!) But like I was fervently hoping as it rang, the call went to voicemail. The downside being that I have to have another phone call. This is not so good.

balloons make everything better

2010-07-22T09:37:00.002-04:00

Image by Ashley Rose Photography via Green Wedding Shoes.

See, I told you so.

useless

2010-07-21T14:12:00.000-04:00

I have no idea where I'd use this but it doesn't stop me from really wanting one.

the city so nice they named it twice

2010-07-21T09:25:00.000-04:00

When I was home visiting my folks, I happened to remember that I had been planning to visit M & J Trimming (6th Ave btn. 37th and 38th). I remembered when I was standing at 5th Ave and 10th street... and decided to walk. Not such a bad thing, but perhaps Birkenstocks weren't the best choice in footwear. Anyhow, I punctuated my walk with a few stops, on of which was Anthropologie. Now, while some of their stuff is overpriced to my mind, walking into their store is always a spectacle of loveliness, so well designed. Needless to say I walked out with a couple of goodies.

A little sparkle never goes amiss.

Not sure where I plan to use them, but I got an A and an S to use for the wedding. Plus, really, I can never have enough mugs.

And my piece de resistance: my guest book. When I told the cashier that's what I was buying it for, I got a brief, but clearly incredulous stare. I don't really care (she did recover well) though, I think it'll be really cool. It's a kids book all about New York from 1960. It just tied into my gently New York themed wedding, and it has lots of empty space on the pages for signing. Here's hoping it'll be a hit!

THUNK!

2010-07-20T15:03:00.002-04:00

That noise has been the only thing keeping my going for the last week. Kinda odd, right? Well, thunk is the noise that a buttload of nice, thick envelopes make when you drop them in the mailbox. That's right kiddies, invitations went out yesterday (except for a handful of people that have yet to get back to me with their addresses)!

I had been waiting quite impatiently for them to arrive since I ordered them about three weeks ago. They finally showed up on Friday and Ari and I worked pretty much non-stop on them for four days. Well, I worked on them a lot Wednesday and Thursday, but 95% of what I did those days got scrapped.* In the end, our invitations ended up being 7 pieces, with a grand total of 2 pieces that we didn't doctor at all or make from scratch (though I wonder if adding a stamp counts as doctoring, the amount of time I spent researching and selecting stamps and then schlepping all over town on multiple occasions to buy them and then affixing them, I'm saying yes). We needed $0.61/invitation, but I decided that the cake was ugly and the dolphin wasn't quite the look we were going for. I decided to suck it up for the extra 3 cents to get the $.064 monarch butterfly which went a bit better with the colors and aesthetic I was going for. The international envelopes got the butterfly plus an ecclectic mix of other $0.44 stamps I had in the apartment.**

There were the outer envelopes and the coordinating inner envelopes. The outer envelopes had the return address embossed, which I don't have a good photo of but looks hella fly:

The actual invitation card and coordinating response card. We didn't change any of this beyond tweaking the sample in the book (first names all caps rather than all lowercase, using our own wording, some cute responses rather than the tired accepts/regrets, putting "name" before the line on the reply card rather than the "M" which seems to perpetually confuse young single men):

We used the Liberty Bell Forever stamps pretty much because that's what they had (that and flags... eugh) at the only post office open on a Sunday... the grocery store. I liked that they worked with our metallic color scheme. Ari, apparently the sentimentalist, liked that they said "forever." This comment may or may not have made me melt a little. I definitely picked a good one. Anyhow! The reply card and envelopes:

Originally, we weren't going to do info cards. Then my mother said that the restaurant was going to give us directions cards we could just throw in. Then what they had was on a full sheet of regular paper. Then we were just going to print our own version of the directions they had on their website. Turns out it was just an embedded map from MapQuest. At this point we were committed. So we drove to three (four?) office supply stores around town before finding an acceptable paper to print on (the invitations and the color scheme are metallic, so we of course needed metallic paper. Unfortunately we couldn't find anything precut to the right size, or with much heft, but we got a nice champagne pearl 32 lb. paper and we used the paper cutter the quarter. Ari typed up directions from three starting points and I edited and added subway directions, the venue address and phone, and our wedding website. The photos don't really do the info card justice,*** they turned out really nicely.

And lastly, my favorite touch: the belly bands. The belly bands are the product of six assorted visits to Jo-Ann's and Hobby Lobby. I made them using four different scrapbooking papers, two different paper cutters, glue dots and a whole lot of time. I could only find papers I liked in 12" squares, which initially created a problem because usually belly bands wrap horizontally around invitations. It was Ari's idea to turn them vertically, and it both worked perfectly and looked beautiful. They did put us over weight for the $0.44 stamp, but I think they really made the set special:

So here for your perusal, is the entire suite:

In the end, I decided I'd rather put them in the inside box rather than the regular one outside. This particular Post Office has a hopper-thing where you put your letters. Consequently, the invitations made more of a loud "ssshhh, plop" noise, rather than a "thunk," but it was still satisfying. I was so excited to be done, I might have made this face:

And oh yeah, Ari helped too, even though I don't have a picture of him with his eyes open to prove it.

*For future reference, buying lots of crafting supplies and punching 300 cardstock tags and bruising your palms in the process before you have the actual invitations they are going to adorn is probably a bad idea. Save your receipts.

**Yes, some people got a wedding invitation with a cat making a weird face on it. It's ok, I thought it was funny, and really, no one else cares.

***There was a giant smooshy (yes, that's the technical term) and a fiber in the frame on my good camera. I couldn't tell if it was on my lens or the sensor. I hope the former! And I somehow lost my lens cleaning cloth. Then my memory card magically wasn't in my little digital camera. So I used Ari's camera which is really nice, but full auto, and as I write this, I still haven't gotten a chance to look at the images because I can't find the upload cable.

Finally, right?

2010-07-12T18:35:00.000-04:00

I'm back. Finally. Really. It's been for-effing-ever (sorry Stefie!). Most of the last month has been spent back East with the family catching up, watching my sister graduate, alternatively throwing and attending parties and whipping this wedding into shape. I'll try to flesh these out into their own posts (goodness knows they deserve them - sidenote: I always say "goodness" instead of "god" because I just don't like to talk about religion or god that way when my feelings change about it all the time, but I just realized that goodness makes me sound like I'm 87. I guess I'm ok with it.), but my mom threw me the loveliest bridal shower where lots of family and friends came from pretty far away and just around the corner to celebrate my happiness! I was just blown away. And instead of obnoxious shower games, we made my chuppah! Well, started. I'll post more about that when it's closer to being done and I have pictures for you. And we ordered our invitations (which should arrive tomorrow or the next day!). Let me just tell you, they rule.

But, before I went away to lalaland, I promised to post about working out. At this point it's either hypocritical or entirely appropriate to talk about since I worked out a grand total of once the whole time I was home. In any case, it's what you're getting.

I never played sports. My high school didn't even have teams (except for chess, we were national champs all four years I was there I think- Go Murrow Chess!). The only real hobby I've ever had that was physical (not including my knitting, of course ;o) was circus arts. If that sounds unusual, it's because it is. But I loved it, I still do. However, no matter how much I would love to spend at least half of every day flying on the trapeze, it's expensive and not easily accessible (read: no rig anywhere near where I am). When I spent a summer teaching trapeze, I loved it and I worked out six hours a day. Not step aerobics or spin class, but climbing a 30 foot ladder and holding on with one leg, catching kids that decided they didn't need to hold onto an apparatus 15 feet in the air, pulling safety lines or acrobatics training during a period off. My clothes were falling off of me by the end of the summer.

Best office ever.

I guess the point of all that is to say I don't like working out just for the fun of lifting dumbbells in the air over and over again. I get bored. So really, the secret, for me, to working out is motivation. I have a few things that keep me motivated to keep going back, and I think I'll tackle talking about each of them, some in greater detail over the next few days. Here's what you have to look forward to:

Podcasts. Hands down my biggest helper. Two in particular have made the elliptical my friend rather than my enemy.
A workout I like, that I've put together with future goals in mind.
A nice place to work out in. If your gym sucks, or it's far, or it's whatever, it's that much harder to go.
Boredom. The job hasn't materialized yet, so I'm still home alone all day.
My wedding dress. I didn't plan to lose weight for the wedding, and I don't have a crazy goal, but the better I look in my everyday clothes, the better I look in the photos that will hang on the wall forever.
And lastly, good clothes. Never underestimate the value of pockets and a decent bra.

Catch you on the flip side, children.

Hiatus.

2010-06-10T17:08:00.000-04:00

Sorry it's been slow going. I have some things I want to talk about here, namely my new fitness regime. However, I'm in the midst of a major wave of job applications to finish and that just has to take priority. The novelty of not having a job to go to on a regular basis has officially worn off. Fingers crossed please!

Put a ring on it!

2010-06-07T20:44:00.001-04:00

So, after the nice intense little post that was Saturday, it's back to the fun stuff. We have big news here tonight at Chez McGee... our rings arrived!!

They're quite lovely. Ari's is a rounded comfort fit band with a brushed finish in the center framed by two polished bands. I got a special inscription in it that I'm quite pleased about.

My band is made up of a chain of little white gold dots with diamonds set in the center of 7 of the dots. It's a bit funky, and I totally love it. (I may or may not have been unable to sit here looking at the box, writing a post extolling its virtues and not put it on again. But you never know, maybe I have willpower. Shush you, I see that smirk!) I decided before I bought it that I'm wearing my band on my right hand (both my pretties need to have their own space to show off). Mainly I did this because I don't like the feel of two rings on one hand. Plus, fun fact, did you know that wearing wedding rings on the left hand (and the story about how it's closer to your heart or whatever - as if the physical muscle that pumps your blood has anything to do with your marriage*, but I digress) is pretty much a modern American custom? In most countries around the world including Europe and Africa, wedding bands are worn on the right hand. So really I'm just being continental. Or something.

And because I couldn't resist one more of them looking all cosy together in their little box, here's one for the road.

We bought them from a lovely couple, Gayle and Herman at 1,873 Unusual Wedding Rings in the diamond district. They were great to work with, fair, understanding and friendly. I highly recommend working with them.

*Once, when shopping for my wedding gown, I popped into look at Cartier, and the saleswoman literally told me that I have to wear my wedders on my left hand because that is the finger that blesses your marriage and it's closer to your heart and you ruin your vows if you don't wear it there! She said if I really didn't want to wear two rings on one finger, I could move my engagement ring to my other hand. Let's just say it was hard to conceal my "you are fucking crazy" face.

Three months and counting...

2010-06-05T08:05:00.000-04:00

Originally I had planned for today the big checklist of things to do, but when I woke up this morning, that somehow seemed inadequate (the fact that I haven't actually finished the to-do list notwithstanding).

Today is Saturday June 5th, 2010. 92 days from today I will be getting married. Exactly three months.

In the midst of planning a wedding, it is so incredibly easy to lost the plot. What I mean is, if you get married for anything other than love, you're a fool. That's not to say that you have to get married only for love, there are lots of other great things a marriage can bring like kids or stability or just someone to eat dinner with every night. But marriages are hard work. It takes a lot of effort to make them work. Now, obviously I can't say this from experience, but I can't imagine anything other than love being a strong enough incentive to sustain a successful marriage.

Unfortunately, the business of marriage and the business of weddings are quite different animals.

Weddings are about menu choices and invitation options. Dress fittings, china patterns, the perfect shoes and the bottom line. Things you just have to have. They are about pleasing everyone you've ever met while still trying to stay true to who you are as a couple (aka mission impossible). They are the worlds' biggest confused jumble of pretty and stressful.

Last night I stayed up an hour+ after Ari had gone to bed looking for a new china pattern because the one we had chosen is discontinued (two weeks before my shower). I tossed and turned another two. Then a little less than three hours later I should wake up to stress about the invitations. I'm ready to be done with this. Don't get me wrong, I love my wedding and it hasn't even happened yet. But in my lifetime I have traveled to Morocco, gone away to both college and graduate school, taken SATs, auditioned for plays, moved to Australia for six months, flown on the trapeze with no safety lines, written a masters paper in two days and agreed to the ultra-mega-huge life change of marrying someone. But the fear, anxiety and stress associated with any of those things pales in comparison to the gnawing, ongoing unrest stirred up by planning a wedding.

What I realized, at 5am, when I was staring at the ceiling pondering wedding invitations and Ari snuggled up in his sleep, was that I had lost the plot.

I am not getting married for the wedding. I am beyond thrilled about my dress and the great band and the delicious (like omgz amazing delicious!) cake. But I'm not doing this to be the princess for a day (gag me with a spoon, please). I am getting married because I want Ari to still be snuggling up in his sleep when we're 70. After five and a half years, what I feel for him is so all-encompassing, it becomes harder to describe, and frankly, is so personal, that if I could, I'd tell him and not the internet (sorry, internet).

So three months from today when I'll probably be so nervous and excited that I'll be up at this hour again and the frenzy of wedding day activity begins, I hope that I can step back and pick up the plot. Three months from today I marry the person who still gives me the good kind of tummy rumblins. Three months from today I irrevocably join with the person I want to hug me when I'm sad. And I'll be half of a whole but it won't make me anything less, I'll just be that much better for it. Three months from today I become a wife.

Cool Pools

2010-06-04T13:32:00.000-04:00

When I am a real grown up and rich enough to build my dream house, it will have a pool that either looks like this

or this.

Top image of The Joule Hotel in Dallas, TX, bottom image source unknown.

2010-06-04T07:16:00.000-04:00

I would like to live in this tent

and eat this fruit

for the rest of my life.

Images by A Bryan Photo via Snippet and Ink.

Free pet vaccinations in DC this Saturday.

2010-06-03T19:28:00.000-04:00

As a service to city residents, the DC Department of Health is hosting a free animal vaccination clinic this Saturday June 5th to help pet owners comply with the DC law which requires that all cats & dogs over four months old be vaccinated against rabies and distemper. The clinic will feature free vaccinations for both cats and dogs from 1-4pm at Fire Station #33 (101 Atlantic Street SE). Cats and dogs must be at least three (3) months old to receive a rabies vaccination, and all pets must be brought to the clinic by a responsible adult. Dogs must be secured on a leash and cats must be secured in a carrier box. Rabies & distemper shots are free with the purchase of a DC dog license, and the license fee is $15 for a spayed or neutered dog and $50 for an unspayed or unneutered dog. Dog license fees must be paid by check or money order payable to "DC Treasurer"; no cash will be accepted at the clinic.

(At the top there, that's Cromer, and he's available for adoption in DC. Check out his deets at Petfinder.)

This may or may not have made me cry a little.

2010-06-03T19:14:00.000-04:00

I'm a big sap. Don't judge me. It's an adorable proposal.

BCBG, and why it's awesome.

2010-05-31T20:44:00.002-04:00

I've said it before, but I'll say it again, BCBG rules. Seriously. Their stuff is so rock 'n roll, it's ridiculous. If I were planning a different kind of wedding, you can be sure my dress would have come from here. Plus, right now they're running a 30% off sale through the end of June 1 (PDT).

This one is perfect for a sweet little city hall wedding. $418, on sale for $292.60.

A sweet number for those of us who can't decide between satin and lace. :o) $498, marked down to $348.60, on sale for $244.02!

The next two are are so rock 'n roll it's obscene. I can vouch, in particular, for the first. I made my sister try it on when we were prom shopping for her just because I loved it so much and they didn't have it in my size. Trust me, it's beyond awesome. (Full disclosure, I might be biased by the hi-lo hem that I am moderately obsessed with.)

$498 on sale for $348.60.

$358 on sale for $250.60.

This lovely gown looks like a whole lot of trumpet bridal gowns out there, and for $598, it's a steal, but on sale it's only $418.60!

This one I'd buy for myself in a hot second if they had it in my size. Never mind what I'd wear it to, rehearsal dinner maybe. Who knows? In any event, it rocks.

$384 marked down to $174 (not on sale because it's final cut outlet).

And not to bring the conversation back to shoes or anything, but, in the case I am so picky about what shoes to wear, I end up picking something boring that needs some pizzaz. At 18 bucks ($12.60 with the sale), these shoe clips seem like a worthwhile investment to me!

That said, the only thing I'm really sure I will be buying today is this baby. Razzle, dazzle, indeed.

Happy Memorial Day sales to you and yours!

Everyone's feeling the squeeze

2010-05-27T18:23:00.000-04:00

Times are apparently so tough that even world famous fashion designers are going budget. Vera Wang announced recently that she'll be offering a line through dress chain David's Bridal starting next spring and that dresses will range from $600-$1500. Personally, I'm curious as to whether the quality will be the same (obviously the fabrics won't be identical, but will they still be good quality). To my mind, to maintain the design aesthetic, the dresses would still have to be produced by the same skilled designers and seamstresses and... uh... whatever the masculine form of seamstress is. Time will only tell, I suppose.

Now, if only Oscar de la Renta would get on the bandwagon and offer cheaper versions of his wedding dresses. I'm totally smitten with this perfect little bell-shaped taffeta puff of awesome.

OMG Shoes.

2010-05-26T18:42:00.000-04:00

These shoes are so ridiculous I think I need them.

Mish Mosh of Awesomeness.

2010-05-26T15:14:00.000-04:00

I think I need these guys to follow me around and play my theme song (TBD). Especially you, totally awesome, overenthusiastic giant guitar player. You can be my sidekick.

Image by Altura Studio via SMP.

This is the most adorable thing I have ever seen. I need a dog and a cat that are best friends, stat! I saw this the other day and have hesitated posting it. I think it's because it feels so much like me and Ari. "Tickle me!" ::tickle tickle tickle stop:: "Who said you could stop?!"

Check out this crazy computer music video. It's totally impossible to describe, but just trust me that it's fun and very cool.

Take a look at this really interesting article. It's an excerpt from a book by Shenkar Vedantam about unconscious sex bias. The article addresses an informal case study comparing the experiences of well known researchers and their experiences before and after their sex changes, with both male-to-female and female-to-male represented. I may have to go out and read the whole book. It was that good. Thanks to web-goddess for the link on the last two items.

Eh, I've got more, but I'll save it, I guess. Don't want to overload you now. I'm off to read my newly purchased The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest after I hit up the gym. Thanks, Nana and Pops, for the birthday gift!

An engagement session I can get behind.

2010-05-25T16:01:00.000-04:00

When I first started reading wedding blogs, I thought the idea of engagement sessions was really cute. You got a chance to work with your photographer before your wedding, some lovely photos of you and your chosen and a chance to practice in front of the camera. Now though, I am sick of cutesy, overly adorable couples sitting on an old quilt in a woodsy area with a repainted antique bedside table, pretty, tiny flower arrangements, fruit and something (Scrabble tiles, a banner, a book, whatever) that says "love." We get it. You're pretty. You love each other. Your photographer likes sun flare.

But this, this is an engagement session I can really get behind.

Image by Carl Zoch.

Check out the details and the rest of this awesome, Delorean-filled engagement session here on Rock 'n Roll Bride.

Insta-cheer

2010-05-24T13:14:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty sure that when I get my own little mod house with a bright yellow door, life will in fact be perfect and I won't be able to stop smiling.

Rollin' with the Jew Crew

2010-05-23T10:30:00.008-04:00

Keeping with yesterday's paper theme, I thought I'd share with you the best greeting card I've seen in a really long time. Not fancy, just funny. Need to find a reason for it soon, cos baby, it's gotta come home with me.

You can get your paws on it too over here. The lovely makers of the card have some other great ones and their printing is all totally wind powered. Cool, huh? So be sure to poke around and check out Old Tomfoolery.

P.S. Happy wedding day to my friend Adriana! Hope everything is even more than you hoped, complete with well-behaved inlaws, delicious and spill free dinner, and a rockin' dance party. Mazel tov!

Yummy paper

2010-05-22T18:33:00.000-04:00

If you tried to tell me this wasn't one of the most badass things you'd ever seen, I'm pretty sure you'd be lying. It's a technique called quilling, and really, I've never seen it come close to this. So freaking cool. You can check out the project details (from the festival poster) here and more of Yulia Brodskaya's work (including the second and third images) here.

Shame on you, J. Crew.

2010-05-21T16:25:00.000-04:00

Since getting engaged I have had the good fortune to make some incredible internet friends. (Shout out to Adriana who's getting married in two days!) One of my new, lovely friends, has had a really bad experience that I wanted to share with you. Like many other brides looking for something simple, elegant and not outrageously priced, she found her wedding dress at J. Crew. She paid in full when she ordered it (plus, a dress for her shower, two pairs of wedding shoes and her five bridesmaids bought there as well). When it came in, she went to pick it up, a sales person told her they store it for free and suggested she leave it. My friend lives in a small apartment and agreed. When a bridesmaid cleaned out a closet and had room for her dress she went to pick it up and was given the same advice.

About a month before her wedding she went to pick up her dress, and get this, they had lost it! Her wedding dress! That they told her to leave there! In her words:

"They sent it back to the factory. They called it unclaimed property. They said they didn’t know they had to get in touch with me. They didn’t have my phone number. It wasn’t their fault. They offered me a $25 gift card for my troubles.

I threw an epic tantrum in the middle of the store. A bridesmaid came down and held my hand. The staff promised me the dress would be in the next day by noon.

I take the next day off work. [My fiance] takes the day off work. We sit in the J. Crew and wait. And wait. Noon passes: NO DRESS.

The dress finally arrives about 2:30 in the afternoon. I got a discount on the dress (not yet applied to my debit card yet); my bridesmaids got a discount on their dresses and I got a $50 gift card. The kicker? When the new dress arrived I would have to PURCHASE THIS NEW DRESS and they WOULD REFUND THE EARLIER DRESS. The first dress got sent back and they never even bothered to see if someone might be out SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS."

That was last week. This week, rather than refunding her (because they charged her again when the replacement came in), they charged her card AGAIN. She ended up paying THREE TIMES for her dress and is currently in the process of reporting them to her bank, Consumerist and the BBB.

I've got to say, I had kinda been a J. Crew fan. If their stuff if your style, it really works. But this kind of customer service? They're opening up their first dedicated bridal salon in Manhattan next week and I'm just worried for all the people who could fall victim to their lack of coordination and apparently terrible accounting and customer service. It all makes me very glass I picked out and took home my dress all in one go.

Please exercise caution if you're considering or planning to order your wedding gown (or anything else, for that matter) from J. Crew.

This is a party I wanna get in on.

2010-05-19T13:01:00.000-04:00

Not only because these three guys are awesome, but because I'm sure I would learn so much from whatever photographer took that photo that my mind might explode.

To-do list checking and celebrity sightings: Part III

2010-05-18T18:10:00.000-04:00

Where did we leave off last time? OK, travel hell, met a PC, bought jewelry from a guy who clearly needed more cowbell and spied a guy who's been in some weird movies and an awesome band.

A bit later we moseyed (yes, we moseyed) back to the movie theater and saw a movie I have been dying to see since I knew about and was SO EXCITED for. Let me start by saying that I am a HUGE fan of the late, great, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I have the whole series on DVD, Angel too. Hell, I even have the crappy original movie. I have Buffy friends online. You'd be well within your rights to say that I'm obsessed. I love everything Joss Whedon or any of the other Buffy alumni get their hands on so when I heard that Emma Caulfield (Anya) had a new movie out and it was doing limited, week-long runs in LA and NYC and that I'd be in town for the NY dates I was over the moon!

TiMER, the film, is a movie set in a parallel present-day LA where the major difference is a scientific breakthrough, called a timer. Your timer is implanted into your wrist and counts down to the day that you meet your "one." It's a really delightful romantic comedy with a bit of a sci-fi twist. Thankfully though, unlike the usual fluff you see in rom-coms, TiMER is thought provoking, compelling you consider the ramifications of such a device. I had a whole bit here where I talked about the plot, but it's so good, I really don't want to give it away. Just trust me when I say it was beyond awesome, one of the best movies I've seen in a long while. Emma is a joy to watch, and the rest of the cast is quite good as well.

Then, as a special treat, there was a Q&A session with the writer/director Jac Schaeffer and producer Ricki Jarrett. They were some lovely women who had some really insightful things to say about life, love and the making of their movie. I would love nothing more than to be friends with these girls, they're that awesome. Ricki said that although Kali Rocha was is Buffy "we didn't hire her because of the Buffy connection, though that was nice, we hired her because she's freaking awesome!" I think it's apparent why I like them. Plus they gave me a sweet little TiMER keychain of my own (169 days, Ari wasn't thrilled)!

You can pre-order the DVD from amazon here or you can stream it using video on demand here.

So, if you could count down until you met your one, would you do it?

To-do list checking and celebrity sightings: Part II

2010-05-18T10:00:00.002-04:00

When last we saw our heroine, she had schlepped all over Brooklyn and seen a PC.

The next day Ari was wonderful and didn't complain a bit about schlepping through the diamond district in a seemingly unending quest to find our (well, mostly mine, he was pretty easy) wedding bands. They're pretty awesome. Mine looks similar to this band.

The couple who sold it to us was lovely and the guy sounded like Christopher Walken (like, exactly).

Once that ordeal was over we took a cab downtown and bought movie tickets. While walking around 2nd Avenue looking for somewhere to eat I had celebrity sighting 2.5 of 2 days (Herman wasn't Christopher Walken but he sounded just like him). I was making a beeline for Urban Outfitters and lo and behold, who's walking by wearing a weird longish jacket that looks like a tweed lab coat six sizes too big? Jason Schwartzman, that's who. I was on a freaking roll. After my latest brush with fame we met up with my dad and literally inhaled a chicken and broccoli pizza. (For the record, it was delicious and that's why I was scarfing.)

To-do list checking and celebrity sightings: Part I

2010-05-18T08:00:00.001-04:00

Sorry for being MIA this last week, guess I wasn't feeling the blog. Ari surprised me by coming home at lunch and spending the afternoon with me on my birthday. It was really fun. He bought me flowers and didn't complain when I wanted to go purse shopping at TJ Maxx (I love my new purse, been using it nonstop).

Wednesday we skipped out on dance class (we're taking a salsa/cha cha class through the community college so we aren't hopeless come the wedding) and hopped a plane. There was all sorts of weather out of in Chicago, so after our fourth rebooking on as many airlines we ended up in St. Paul for the night and on to Newark the next morning (at the ass-crack of dawn). Dad was a champ and picked us up in Jersey. Once we made it to Brooklyn, we had three rapid-fire meetings; first the rabbi (delightful), then the photographer (signed the contract), and then the baker (delicious!). All in all, incredibly productive. Oh, and sitting outside we saw John Hodgman of the Daily Show and the "I'm a Mac" commercials (he's the PC). It was pretty exciting.

Twenty-four.

2010-05-10T14:12:00.000-04:00

Today is my birthday. Today I am 24. Recently, I've been worried that 24 will feel old. I think I was just freaking out. In my crazy don't-say-it-out-loud math, the combination between 23 being the last age I'll be in school, and 24 being the year I get married, being 24 makes me a real, full-fledged adult. Now that it's here, I'm not so sure. And true or not, it's a little less scary. What can I say, I may have woken up today to thunder and pouring rain, but at least I'm being zen about it. No reading outside in the sunshine? Blogging inside and maybe a new purse in my future. Who knows, maybe I'm go all crazy and head down to the yarn store. If there's any excuse to go get my hands on enough cashmere for a small project or as little Misti as I can convince myself to buy, it's a birthday, right? And I do love birthdays.

Next year, the Legal Wedding Fair, I hope.

2010-05-07T18:26:00.000-04:00

Popping in with a bit more gay-friendly wedding love. It's the Illegal Wedding Fair!

White For Less Green

2010-05-06T13:21:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure what compels me keep looking at dresses online, I love mine, I guess the hunt is too much fun. An online excursion recently turned up this beauty:

I think for a real modern wedding, this dress would be a total knockout. Plus, it's pretty impossible to beat $178.

As for stuff I might actually be able to wear, I've been after a white cotton eyelet dress for about two years with no luck. They pretty much universally make me look country and chubby. So the search continues. One of these might work, though.

I was thinking something like this first one as a "getaway" dress or the second as a rehearsal dinner outfit, though that's likely going to just be people in the wedding party, not out of towners (at least 2/3 of our guest list is from out of town), so it might be a little dressy, but who knows. I think it's pretty clear that I need to hit Nordy's in real life!

Yeah, that just happened.

2010-05-03T18:00:00.000-04:00

Plus, last chance to win a seat to Love Affair Workshop. Read details and sign up to join in on the fun!

Yes yes yes.

2010-05-03T13:03:00.002-04:00

Today, I get up and start looking through my never-ending blog roll. A day like any other it seems. When I first started reading wedding blogs (maybe 8 months ago?) Style Me Pretty was pretty much the best thing going, the one really chock-a-block full of gorgeous wedding inspiration. In recent months, however, other blogs have begun to assert their place on the forefront. Let me tell you, today SMP has won me back. Last month (?) they began a new feature called "From Inspiration to Reality" where they take inspirational images collaged by readers and transform them into admittedly awesome photo shoots from their sponsoring vendors. Usually, I'm underwhelmed, simply because these orchestrated images are editorial and essentially digital magazine features.

Today was different. Today's fantasy wedding shoot featured two brides... marrying each other. I have seem same-sex couples getting married on other sites and it warmed my heart, but this was a situation where a main stream media with a lot of conservative subscribes intentionally chose to use a same sex couple because they could, and because, I hope, they wanted to represent a highly underserved but very real segment of the population. (And hot damn! Are these ladies sexy!)

SMP, I'm proud of you.

This new turn in wedding media is not totally unique. Martha Stewart recently featured her first same-sex couple in her magazine, Martha Stewart Weddings. There was no fanfare, just the same treatment as any other couple.

And of course, the New York Times have been doing it for ages. This week there was R. Douglas Arnold and Alexander Michael Quinn, and that's just online. I'd be mighty surprised if that was all there was in the physical paper as well.

In the insanity that is wedding planning, it becomes really easy to lose sight of why you're doing it in the first place. A lasting, public and official declaration of love to the one person who means more than everything else. That's why. And everyone (lucky enough) feels that. They deserve to get married regardless of their gender and the gender of the person they love. Love is love. It means something different to everyone, but it's always worth fighting for.

I haven't quite figured out how or when, but at my wedding I'd like to acknowledge all those who are still legally forbidden to marry the person they love the most. When I think of being in their shoes, it makes my heart twist. I am proud that the value of my marriage will only increase as same-sex couples are allowed in increasing numbers to wed across this country that loves its universal freedom and acceptance.

Photo credits: from Style Me Pretty, Carla Ten Eyck; from Martha Stewart Weddings, Jaclyn Greenberg and Chris Brown of JAG Studios; from the New York Times, uncredited online but if I can check from a paper copy and let you know, I will!

A lovely weekend

2010-05-02T00:17:00.000-04:00

Ari and I have had a really lovely weekend so far. Thursday (what? It still counts. It was almost the weekend!) we had dinner downtown at our favorite Indian restaurant. Ari met me after work, but I went down to play with my new camera a bit. There's a train yard right downtown, with some really great brightly colored cars that stay there all the time. Here's some of my favorites.

Then, this morning, Ari and I got out early (for a Saturday, and for us, at least) and headed over to the first farmer's market of the year. Turnout from both vendors and attendees was better than in past years, but the offerings weren't astoundingly special. Our best purchase was an awesome but too small for the six bucks we paid for it barbacoa quesadilla that we shared for breakfast. On the upside, lots of people to shoot! My favorites (unsuprisingly) are of people eating their lunch from the same place we did!

After the Farmer's Market, we went to pick up Ari's car from the shop (little baby had to have it's 15,000 mile check-up. I periodically remind him he loves me more than the car. He knows, sometimes he just needs to remember. ;o). From there we decided to check out Sam's Club. Verdict? Decidedly less awesome than Costco. Almost as sad inside as Wal-Mart. Only thing it had over pretty much everywhere else - free Cuervo Margarita samples. Now, I'm not a margarita kinda gal (I pretty much hate them), but nor am I the type of gal to turn down free booze. Especially from the top shelf. Anyhow, I ended up getting myself the sequel to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (which was INCREDIBLE. Let's just say I won't miss Ari when he goes to work Monday, because I'll be up to my elbows in an awesome novel.), The Girl Who Played With Fire. I got tired of waiting to get of the list at the library. The only bummer is that Larsson died shortly after delivering the three manuscripts (Dragon Tattoo, Fire, and the third book in the series, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest), no more from him once it's over.

Well, that was a tangent I hadn't planned on. Oh well. Go with it. The other thing I got was a nice bunch of these cute pink flowers (no idea what they're called, the sticker just said "filler flowers") that I arranged in the 5 vintage vases from Goodwill last month. I think they came out pretty well. This whole flower arranging thing isn't too hard. ::runs off to knock various wooden things:: If you're beginning to sense a theme, you're a sharp cookie, you. I photographed the flowers too. But that's it. No more... for tonight at least.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend too!

I dare you not to die of cuteness.

2010-04-30T17:20:00.000-04:00

Snap it up!

2010-04-29T17:18:00.000-04:00

Or how I spend too much on photo gear and it's never enough.

So, as I posted about the other day, my new (to me) Canon 20D arrived the other day. The nice UPS man brought me my memory card yesterday, so I think I may take it down to the Haymarket during the golden hour later to take it for a spin in the old train yard.

Now, I have a lovely camera bag that is currently the home for my '70's Nikon FG 35mm film SLR. It's not a beautiful handbag, but it will likely become the new home for my 20D (once it airs out and stops smelling like smoke). The thing is, there's a bag I really, really want for it. The currently only in pre-order Kelly Moore Hobo Bag. It's a camera bag in disguise. It looks like a purse. It wears like a purse. It comes in a really pretty fake leather (that I'll forgive because it's outstanding awesomeness outweighs this shortcoming) and beautiful, saturated colors (grey, teal, mustard and cranberry). Inside it's padded and has velcro-attached dividers so you can go from bottomless pit purse to snug compartments for delicate camera... stuff. Needless to say I want one. It's not cheap, but the price is reasonable enough that I may just suck it up. Regardless, she's giving one away on her blog. Check out the love affair blog to enter to win a Kelly Moore Bag. And I do have a birthday coming up... just saying.

Mrs. McGee?

2010-04-29T16:22:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago, I wrote a long, involved post about names and whether I should take Ari's last name or not. Yesterday, the ever-wise Meg posted about names, and the comments went nuts. Seriously, hundreds of equally lengthy and convoluted posts from people really agonizing over this decision the way that I do. I've gotten through the first hundred or so, and I'm still going. I even chimed in myself. I'm not (much) closer to making my own decision, but knowing that I'm not alone in this awkward, personal, sticky place, is a whole boatload of awesomesauce.

Mish mash of epic proportions.

2010-04-26T17:34:00.000-04:00

I'm kind of all over the place today, so I guess this post will be too. Brace yourselves!

My camera arrived! It's another Canon 20D (my last one had a bad error message). It has a grip (very cool, a grip serves 4 purposes: extends battery life with extra battery storage, allows for the usage of AA batteries, gives you a place to rest your pinky finger and has a vertical shutter button for ease of shooting vertically) and came with the kit lens. I haven't got a new CF card yet so I haven't had much time to play with it. From what I can tell, I'm very happy with it, only problem is that the whole kit smells like smoke (guess I should have asked if the seller was a smoker, but that's on me for forgetting), but I think that should air out eventually.

We picked our photographer and have a verbal agreement. More on them once t's are crossed and i's are dotted.

Save the dates are sent. More on that once I upload my photos.

These cakes are beyond amazing. This one especially. To heck with Gabriella Marie, god bless whoever made that awesome cake! That christening gown is crocheted with... something edible. Anyone who crafts knows how totally labor intensive and talented that is.

Love Affair Workshop is giving away a cool Davina Fear Insight Kit. Check it out.

Went to visit some of Ari's family in Minnesota this weekend. It was fun, but exhausting. I got my ring resized while we were there. I no longer worry that overly emphatic hand gestures will cause it to go flying and be lost forever, which is quite nice.

I'm on a boat!

Whoops.

Images by James Moes via Green Wedding Shoes.

Went rollerskating with Ari on Thursday. It was awesome (seriously). Still haven't bought my skates yet. In all truth, I was a bit intimidated by all the other people there (who were really good skaters), but I'm determined. Though I will wait until I have some wrist guards, the one time I did fall, I went down hard. I got pretty good at crossovers and got some real speed. Still haven't ordered my skates. I've been spenderella lately.

Ari wasn't such a fan of skating, but he was, in fact, the best sport ever.

The coolest hats I've ever seen. Seriously.

"She said she loved me like fireworks"

2010-04-26T12:47:00.000-04:00

"And that's the way I like it"

It's foolproof. Nothing puts me in a good mood like listening to this song. Love love love. I mean, stomping, clapping, kiddie pianos, double dutch and line dancing? Awesome.

Catch My Disease by Ben Lee

Like "preservation," but better.

2010-04-23T18:27:00.000-04:00

Mason Jar Bride had a cool little post today. She had succulents as a bridal bouquet, and after the wedding she planted them. Six months later, she still has them. Sure beats the hell out of hanging them upside down in the closet for a month!

Pretty sweet, no?

So, um, yeah.

2010-04-23T12:49:00.000-04:00

Apparently Lincoln is home to Arbor Day, not Earth day. (Thanks for that, Honey.) Clearly you can see how interested I am.

Anyhow, the boy and I are off the visit Nana and Pops in Minnesota this weekend. Should be fun. And I get to get my engagement ring resized, finally. Though I do fully admit to being a baby and not wanting to give it up.

I have all sorts of photos of fun things that you'll get to see either when I find my camera cord (uh huh) or my new (yay yay yay!), hopefully correctly functioning this time, Canon 20D arrives for me to redo the pictures. Though I suppose that's also dependent on the giant rain cloud currently occupying the sky over the entire Midwest gets the hell out of here.

Happy Earth Day

2010-04-22T17:56:00.000-04:00

From it's birthplace, the big bad bustling metropolis known as Lincoln, Nebraska. Now, I'm all for smart environmentalism and people that say that Global Warming is made up make me want to punch them in the face. That said, Earth Day always sorta feels like a Hallmark holiday to me, and yes, it serves its function for raising awareness and for the people using environmentally conscious practices today of the entire year, it still helps.

Besides turning off the water while I brush my teeth (this should be a no brainer, people!), my favorite eco-conscious thing to do is bring my own bags to the supermarket. Now, despite the fact that they will happily sell you these bags, doesn't mean they like it when you bring them. They get annoyed. Ignore that, bring them anyway. Save a plastic tree. Better still, do it in one of these. I think I need one... you know, or six.

They also have Brooklyn ones! And while we're on the subject of bags, why not throw in something potentially incredibly controversial/offensive? Calling something "Vegan friendly" does not give you license to charge the same as you would for an identical product made from leather! It is not the same, not the same fabrication, not the same quality. Yes, it is vegan, but that doesn't make it any less vinyl (or whatever it happens to be made of). Sorry for the rant, I've just been coming across this so much lately, and it's really pissing me off.

But it's so sparkly!

2010-04-21T13:31:00.000-04:00

The bracelet I've been crushing on for the wedding has gone on sale... for half price. I'm having a hard time not just buying it. I keep telling myself that this week is for a camera body and roller skates. Saving sucks. But look, it's pretty!

@BCBG

This made my day.

2010-04-20T13:59:00.000-04:00

Thinking 'Bout Somethin'

HANSON | MySpace Music Videos

It's quite unlikely I'll ever stop absolutely loving Hanson. Especially if their music stays so good and so damn fun. I am now faced with the insatiable need to learn that dance...

So, I want my wedding to be like this:

2010-04-18T21:01:00.000-04:00

Image by Craig Paulson, via Style Me Pretty.

1 part sunshine, 2 parts city by the water, 3 parts good looking, 4 parts sass and all parts awesome.

A new take

2010-03-20T09:41:00.001-04:00

Bumbling around net-a-porter the other day and came across this. What a cute alternative to a diamond engagement ring! I admit, the price is still up there ($1500), but it's super cute! It spells out "marry me" in a pretty little cursive.

Not too shabby...

2010-03-19T14:55:00.000-04:00

So we lost. Not terribly surprising (see 25.5 point spread), but Lehigh still made a damn good showing considering the odds. After the first 5 minutes I was expecting to see them go down 35-105, but they pulled out a respectable 90-74 loss against Kansas (aka basketball powerhouse). I'm proud of you, Mountain Hawks.

Go Lehigh!

2010-03-18T22:03:00.000-04:00

So Lehigh made it to March Madness. They play Kansas in 2 minutes. The point spread is 25.5, so the likelihood of a win is slim to none. But Ari and I are here at the bar cheering them on like the good alumni we are. The people around us seem confused. Go Lehigh, nonetheless.

The Name Game

2010-03-18T18:52:00.001-04:00

It has been ::ahem:: brought to my attention that perhaps I've gone off on a bit of a tangent in here in blogland. I promise it's not all shoes and shiny things that occupy my mind (though they do have a place, mind you).

Anyhow, as I wade through this whole wedding planning process, I have approached the question of tradition (as in, "But everyone throws a bouquet/cuts a cake/wears a white dress, so you just have to." "Why?" "Because it's a wedding, you just do.") with thoughtfulness, attempting to weigh the value of the tradition against the personal importance of the custom. Sometimes something is important because the tradition adds a certain feeling to the act. For instance, I am wearing a white dress because it feels bridal. I took the time to learn about the history of the custom and found that contrary to popular belief, white is not symbolic of purity and virginity (side note: brides in past centuries often wore blue wedding gowns as that was supposed to represent purity). The custom of white gowns was popularized by Queen Victoria who wore white because she had some lace she wanted to use! I decided my clothing choice had nothing to do with my moral virtue and mostly with the emotional construct created by my society that I chose to participate in.

All that said, being married is more than getting married. There's all the day-to-day stuff that actually makes up a marriage. Those days are influenced by all sorts of things. You, your spouse, your society, your opinions. Many decisions you make as you enter into a marriage are reflected throughout its duration. In that light, my biggest decision is what to do about my name.

Here's the sitch:

Ari doesn't care one way or the other if I take his name, but doesn't want to take mine.
I already have two last names, Momslastname and Dadslastname. And I have a middle name.
In my generation of cousins (my sister and I and my aunts' kids) there are no boys to carry on the Dadslastname. I have no idea if Dad cares about this fact at all.
My mom kept her name, so there's no pressure from my parents from that standpoint, one way or the other.
I don't really love my last name, or Ari's, I'm kinda ambivalent at all.
That said, I'm picky about names when I can pick.
I don't want to hyphenate. Or have five names (It's hard enough to fit on official forms as it is. My driver's license can't fit even three.)
I really really want to have the same last name as the rest of my nuclear family. To me, it's like a team, a unity thing. I'm not worried about having a different name from my kids (though the fact that the kids get the dad's name when the mother gives birth is a whole other can of worms I plan to leave open for another time), I just like the idea of having a common identity with the person I chose and the people we will (eventually, hopefully, someday in the faraway future) make.

The easiest way out would be to take Ari's name. People are assuming I will, and to do it would certainly simplify many things. But the feminist in me absolutely hates that idea and turns into kicking, screaming, protesting child when I consider it. It doesn't make me feel more wifely to give up my name (I realize that might be crucial, that I view it as giving up my name rather than taking his. Though I do think that given the choice to select the name I assumed would assuage this discomfort.) What's important to me is having the same name, not that the name be his. And frankly, I resent the gender hierarchy in Western society that dictates that the male's name take import over the female. We don't live in a time where women are their husband's property (thank goodness!), so why continue this archaic tradition?

What I would be most happy with (and to merely say happy is an understatement) is for both Ari and I to create or select a new name together and assume that name when we get married (I wouldn't care if he kept his last name as a middle name, but I likely wouldn't, see the second-to-last bullet point). He has begrudgingly agreed that if I come up with something "totally awesome" he'd "consider it." He really doesn't want to change his name. I can't say I really blame him for feeling that way. His name is part of his identity and he was raised with the societal patriarchy of names. I know I should respect his feelings, but I don't know how to navigate this when he and I feel so differently. I suppose this truly is our first foray into marriage.

So here are the options:

Keep my name
Take his
Ari and I both take some new assumed name

Any way it works out, I really want to decide the matter. It's really stressing me out (though it likely shouldn't). But I also really want to know how to address the return labels for all this wedding crap (save the dates, invitations, etc.) we have to mail.

So please, what do you think I should do? Alternatively, got any awesome suggestions for my new last name?

I think I need to take an upholstery class.

2010-03-11T18:26:00.000-05:00

Because, um, hell yes.

You go, girl!

2010-03-10T18:40:00.000-05:00

Had to pop in to have a quick brag. My little sister just got her acceptance to American University! She's five for five and just waiting on three more schools. She's so damn smart, I'm so proud of you Samara!

Silver on the brain

2010-03-10T10:01:00.002-05:00

{Prepare yourself, Erik. More shoes lie ahead. Don't say I didn't warn you.}

So Mouse posted these shoes yesterday, and I am loving them. And of course, I spent the next hour trolling Nordy's for more shoes. What did we learn from this? I am feeling silver shoes. Here's the results of my search, in decreasing order of comfort:

Mouse's pick, the Seychelles 'Get Outta Town' Sandal for $79.95.

At first I thought these looked really awesome, now I'm not as certain. What do you think? The heel is a really perfect 2" but they are mules, which complicates things a little (though my favorite shoes are too, so I guess it's not as big a deal as I thought). They're the J. Reneé 'Parisa' Peep Toe Mule for $89.95.

Last are the ones I love the most, but probably couldn't wear successfully for more than 10 minutes. I mean, they do have a 1.5" platform, but they have a 5" heel. I know myself, and 3.5" is just too much to ask for me to wear all night of my wedding (where priority #1 is dance my face off) and I can't justify the $355 price tag for shoes just to wear for the ceremony, even these lovely Stuart Weitzman 'Avalon' Platform Pumps. Plus, that would complicate things for dress hemming, so really they're just eye candy. Please buy them so I can live vicariously through you. Please?

Which is your favorite?

Happy Birthday Mommy!

2010-03-09T16:00:00.001-05:00

Today is a very important day, it's my mom's birthday. My mom, is an amazing person. Kind, generous, talented, created, selfless and just all around awesome. She is a teacher and a student. She's my family and my friend. I trust her to tell me what's what, push me when I need it, and hug me when it's over. She has spent the last 23 years making me into the smart, independent woman I like to think I'm becoming. Plus, she's a damn fine artist!

There are no true words for how special you are to me Mom, I love you!

You can find her and her art at Artistkaren.com and KarenFriedland.com.

I knew this was coming.

2010-03-07T11:00:00.001-05:00

Did someone say anthro wedding? Well, whether they did or not, weddings imspired by the store have been cropping up all over and now it's happening for real. That's right kiddies, the clothing/housewares/random stuff emporiums Urban Outfitters, Inc. is starting a new chain of wedding stores with the same design aesthetic as their sister stores Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie.

Wedding gowns are set to base at $750. Sales will begin online spring 2011 and brick and mortar stores are set to crop up soon after. Check out the full story on fashionista.

Half-Year

2010-03-05T11:00:00.001-05:00

Today is March 5th, 2010. Exactly six months from today, I will put on a white dress, walk out in front of my friends and family and promise myself to the love of my life. I'm not sure what to say here. I was planning a lovely technical recap of my to-do list, both checked off and still pending. But I started with that sentence, and now all I want to do is wax poetic about the man who will be my husband.

He is the one that lets me be myself just a little bit better. We leave each other notes in suitcases and purses when we part. Tonight we made dinner together and folded laundry and honestly, it was great. He rubs my back when I'm sore and tells me he loves me. He smells so good, smells like home. In the quiet moments, it pops into my head that we're getting married and I giggle like a child. He smiles at me. And six months from today, we'll smile at each other as I walk towards him. We'll laugh, and in all likelihood, we'll cry. We'll be honest and heartfelt. I will try, like I always do, to find the right combination of words, to truly convey to him just how much I love this man. It won't matter that I'll have an audience. I won't get it quite right, but that's ok. Isn't the point of marriage committing yourself to a lifetime of trying to explain to your person just how much you love them?

I guess the checklist waits until tomorrow.

She rocked a ponytail

2010-03-05T08:49:00.000-05:00

and I totally loved it. This Italian bride is so stunning and pulls of an everyday hairstyle with aplomb. Makes me think twice about doing something really elaborate in favor of something simple and classic. How are you doing your hair?

Image by Leigh Miller via Snippet and Ink.

Tropic Jewel Tones

2010-03-04T14:15:00.000-05:00

That's what this inspiration board reminds me of. I try not to repost things like this, but damn, this board was just really awesome. The color scheme, the photos and the arrangement were just perfectly executed. So check it out. And when your done, have a gander at the original post over on lovely Flights of Fancy, the inspiration blog for the Betsy White Stationary line.

Photo Credits:

row 1: Cheyenne Schultz via Green Wedding Shoes | Jose Villa | J. Mendel
row 2: Carter Smith via {a glamorous little side project} | Josef Isayo via Flower Wild

Inspiration board via Flights of Fancy.

Coast

2010-03-03T18:36:00.000-05:00

I came across this site a few days ago and was instantly hooked. I'm not sure if the store has been in the UK for a while and is now just coming to the US, or if the whole thing is new, but damn, Coast dresses are awesome.

Cynthia Printed Maxi ($385), Tigre Maxi ($330)

Angeline ($200), Merenge ($320), Harriet ($250), Rumba ($295)

Really, as soon as I saw that Harriet dress with that killer drape, I was sold. Rumba is the ultimate little black dress, the seaming, the boatneck, the pencil skirt... meow!

Bridgette ($425), Savannah ($425)

They have so much great stuff, even a sizeable selection of white and silver/off-white/ivory, etc. dresses, both long and short that would be great for wedding dresses and they're all pretty reasonably priced. Each has a nice little detail that really compliments the simplicity of the dresses.

Charlie Chain Earrings ($32), Sharnna Earrings ($40)

While I was thinking weddings I went to have a poke around the rest of the site. They have some great jewelry. I'm thinking about these two pairs for my own wedding.

Bonnie Fascinator ($100), Maria Fascinator ($85)

And if you're not really a veil kinda girl, or looking for something funky to wear after the ceremony, Coast has some cute fascinators too. Bloomingdale's in New York stocks themnow, and you can bet that next time I'm home in NYC, it'll will be one of my first stops.

Now, I was going to wait until tomorrow morning to post this, but I just couldn't justify the delay after seeing this. From now until tomorrow (3/4/10) take 20% all online and standalone store purchases with the code mytreat. It works on everything but sales, gift cards and shipping. I'm finding it a lot harder to say no to those earrings...

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

2010-03-03T13:22:00.002-05:00

Theodore Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904. Had he not died in 1991, Dr. Seuss would have been 106 today. I couldn't resist sharing a few favorites of his choicest quotes.

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

When I was a kid, we had this video that I watched all the time. Kathy Najimy was in it, it was awesome. She played a nosy reporter who gets sucked into the world of Dr. Seuss' stories. They set some of them to music, there's puppets and cartoons. You learn all about his life as a child, early adulthood working in advertising and his political involvements. They close with this quote, and though it always makes me a little sad, I feel like it is a great summation for a whole host of things.

"How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?"

A love letter

2010-03-02T16:42:00.000-05:00

...to my new shoes. Seriously, I'm obsessed. They're so pretty. I'm sitting here at the dining room table in my pajamas and hoodie with my sweet thick socks with moose (mooses?) on them and having to convince myself that I cannot put them on until I am actually appropriately dressed.

They're red suede Steve Maddens. The heel is wide enough that I don't fall over, but not clunky enough to look like the bride of Frankenstein or a pre-teen pseudo-punk princess. They have an adorable ruffle right down the front. And get this, they were on massive sale. I paid a whole lot less than they're selling for on the internet ($69 at Dillards here). They're only selling in black now. Check 'em out.

Next stop? Date night. I knew I believed in true love.