I <3 NY

Every time I forget how much I love Stephen Colbert, he reminds me.

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Alicia Keys isn't so bad either.  Props to her for not busting out laughing.  I mean, the man wore a hoodie... under his suit.

Merry Newsinator

So I got my drama sorted out, and though I won't be done until tomorrow, I will actually be graduating.  In the meantime, I have the best, funniest, most awesome thing to share with you.

It's my holiday newsletter!  The folks over at Plaid have made this really cool newsletter-maker thingy.  (I know, very eloquent.)   You just head over the the Merry Newsinator, plug in some names and adjective and pick from a few options, and BAM!  Newslettered!  Once you get it in newsletter form you can go back an edit, move things around and change the things you picked.  You can also hit the "play" button that circles through options on the funny things your newsletter says, the images and the color scheme.  It's pretty much graphic design mad-libs magic.  I'm totally on board.  Go.  Make one.  Send them to everyone you know and feel totally smug that you have this pretty, witty thing to send them and all they sent you was yet another picture of their kid.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Abridged)

Ok, I know I totally shouldn't be here right now.  My masters paper is almost done!  And I was in a Buffy sorta mood (that happens a lot, I'm a little obsessed), so I wanted to share this.  Won't give you all the references, and won't make too terribly much sense unless you watch(ed) the show, but man, is it great.


Buffy, the Vampire Slayer  (Abridged)

NOT ME | MySpace Video

I like the quiet.

Things will likely be pretty quiet here through the rest of the week.  It's finals week, and drama-rama.   Life got pretty crazy pretty fast.  So, sorry in advance.  See you next week.

PS If anyone got the Buffy reference in the title, you are my new favorite person in the whole world.

Uhmm, yes please.

 

Really, that chandelier?  Want want want.

Whoa.

So, really, this dress is just pure and total eye candy.  And I'm eating it up.

Via Leanne M.

Badass Bridesmaids

Do not mess with this bridal posse, they will f*ck you up.  Get 'em here.

Happy Hanukkah!

Um, so that was easy.

Apparently I have bridesmaids dresses.  Or as my sister insists on calling them: Co-Maids of Honor.  (There are two of them.  My little sister, 6 years younger and my best friend.  We were born in the same hospital room 16 hours apart.  Our moms were Lamaze buddies.  We were pretty much friends in the womb.  There is clearly no way I'm picking one over the other to "honor."  I only picked the two of them because I love them the most and that is the honor.  But clearly, that doesn't fly when you're 17.)

Anyhow, I had been eying the Butter by Nadia dresses as bridesmaids dresses (and, you know, one for me too) for a while now.  I had shown my sister at some point.  This afternoon she calls me and tells me they're having a sample sale.  She took my mom.  They went, they tried on, they bought.  A lot.  I'll have more pictures for you when I see them after graduation, but they got the signature wrap in satin in antique gold.

And they got me one too!  They picked out one for me too.  Mine is also the shorter length, signature wrap, but in the matte jersey, which will do me better for rewearing anyhow.  The color is called "drugstore stripe" and it's black and white.  I'm pretty excited.  I kinda want to wear this all the time.  Graduation, engagement photos, the rehearsal dinner, the corner store...

Can you believe those are the same dresses?  They wrap about a million ways.

 

 

 

It would have been nice to have been there, but I sorta picked them even though I wasn't there, and it's nice to have something else to cross off the (mental, as of yet) list.   I just hope they're that nice when I get to see them in person...

OMG Shoes!

I've been on a shoe kick lately.  This means that rather than doing anything productive with my life or even going to actual shoes stores I have been trolling the internet for pretty wedding shoes without, you know, having a dress, or anything but a date and a venue, but I digress.

It all started with an unhealthy obsession with these shoes.  I mean, look down to Thursday's post, they're on my inspiration board.  I seriously love them.  There are two major detractors from these beauties.  1)  They're $375.  Even on Zappos.  2) They're 3 1/2 inch heels.  Kate Spade, you will be the death of my feet and my wallet.  Still, look at the pretties!

Then I said, "Ok, other companies have to make sparkly/glittery/sequiny/metallic shoes I can wear."  And they do.  Problem is, despite being less than the Kate Spade, they are both really too high for me to reasonably manage.  And in case you were wondering, trolling through the rest of the Kate Spade site doesn't help much.  These aren't sparkly in the least, but I love them dearly nevertheless and would just die to see them as bridal shoes.

I mean come one!  And these were adorable too (and not $400... $95, but still).

So I ended up going back to the expensive-but-not-quite-manolos-expensive brand I've been coveting for ages because of their Nike Air technology in most of their shoes, Cole Haan.  That's right.  Sneakers parading as high heels.  Well, I've tried them on, and it doesn't feel quite like my trusty Adidas, it's not the usual "oh my god I can't wait for my feet to go numb because these hurt so bad."  For a while these were the front runners, but they still cost a pretty penny ($298) and despite the metallic and the shiny, something about them just doesn't do it for me. 

They're not exciting enough to spend $300 on.  So I decided to check out the actual site, rather than just Zappos, and I think I found my shoes.  They're flats.  They're Airs.  They're metallic (gold, silver and bronze!).  They're on sale for less than $100.  Free ground shipping for the holidays.  And if you sign up as a registered store member and then order before December 23, you get free shipping on returns.  So really, all I would be out is tax if I don't want to keep them. 

 Only problem is, if I love them, I've spent $100 on shoes.  But really, who am I kidding, I'm going to spend that regardless.  I'll let the idea stew for a few days and see if I'm still in love in the morning.

And because it's impossible for me to mention shoes without it, I give, OMG Shoes!

More photographic goodness!

Hello Children,

First off, Happy Saturday!  Congratulations, you made it to the weekend.  For some of us (ie. me), we have work anyway, but still.  And to brighten your chilly winter morning, I've got some good news on photo front for you all.

First up is Oh, Darling! Photography.  They're running a winter photo special right now.  If you book them for your wedding on a date between February and April 2010 in the NYC area, you get 15% off their regular prices!  Check it out here.

Next up is another contest for FREE PHOTOGRAPHY.  That's right, Photos by Millie is giving away the whole shebang (8 hours coverage, second photographer, online gallery of images and a 10x10 album including 50 images).  Get all the deets here.  Plus, winners are drawn at random, so if you're worried about what to say, don't be!  It won't effect your chances of winning.  Winner is responsible for photographer transportation from Arizona.

So go forth and save!  win!

I am obsessed.

Painfully so.  Since this aired on Glee on Wednesday, I've probably listened to this maybe 30 times without exaggeration,  most of that in rounds of 4 or 5 times in a row.  I have a feeling I'm never going to be able to listen to it again once this phase is over, but until then, enjoy.

Best proposal ever!

(Well, maybe except mine ;o)

The guy (named Guy) is an illustrator and created a bunch of everyday images that come together in a special way.  Check out the awesome images and heartwarming proposal story here.

Image and illustration by Guy Shield.

This post was supposed to go up tomorrow afternoon, but Blogger is being finnicky.  So here you go, I guess.

Friday nite movie date

So, I've been sitting on this first video for a while, wanting to pair it with something different, but equally awesome.  It's by a cinematography group, The Sibs, and simply put, it's amazing.  It features a surprise wedding shown to family and friends at a huge, joint 30 and 40th birthday party.  No one knew they had eloped to the Vegas desert except their parents.  So sexy and romantic, I don't usually go for wedding videos, but this made me swoon.  Enjoy!


30- 40 birthday party...and a surprise wedding from Lorien Gabel on Vimeo.

I came across this one yesterday and I knew that I had to share.  It's funny, but so generous and heartfelt, that I actually cried.  If one of my friends arranged a musical song and dance toast for me, there would be more than my fair share of waterworks guaranteed.  Check it out.

My Wedding Board

Despite the dozens of boards I have already made, I found it difficult to approach creating one for my own wedding.  It was hard to parse down all the imagery I wanted to include, and may still have gone a bit overboard.  I was going for classic New York meets all the excitement and sparkle of New Year's Eve with a general, black, white and metallic color scheme.  What do you think? 

It makes me smile.  I hope the real thing is this much fun!

The Marital Cash Cow

Getting married is expensive.  Arguably more so than throwing an identical party, with all the same amenities, just without the word "wedding."  This is a huge part of why it took us so long to find a venue that would work for us.  The places that worked pricewise didn't work aesthetically, and the places that could host a wedding we'd love, charged out the yin yang, over a word.  (A venue we loved initially, whose most expensive menu item is $17, quoted us a minimum of $275 a head for food and open bar, without guaranteeing us the entire space.  Admittedly, it is New York, but my head nearly spun around Linda Blair style when I heard that number.  Needless to say, we went elsewhere.)

I wasn't planning to write this entry.  I had plan to write a totally gushy entry about how much I really like Jenny Yoo's new Bridal Alternative collection, and while not all of them are my style, one in particular really caught my eye.  But here's the caveat:  Jenny Yoo primarily makes bridesmaid dresses and all of the dresses in their bridal alternative line are simply white versions of bridesmaid dresses.  Fine.  Peachy.  So I took a look at the dress I was eying (Felicity) in the bridesmaid line and it was Linda Blair all over again.

 This one is $375.                   This one is $800.

Really?  Come on.  You're not even trying to hide it.  At least with venues or photographers, they have to deal with "bridezillas" (a term I abhor, and will rant about another day, I'm sure), but no.  You have to let people try dresses on, but you have to do that with bridesmaids anyhow, and there is certainly no way that white chiffon just happens to cost $425 more than maroon.  So congrats, Jenny, I was really looking forward to trying on your gowns, but now I'm just pissed.

Inspiration Board: Brought to You By the Letter K

OK, it's been a while since I've posted a new board.  Life gets in the way, you know the drill.  But rejoice, children, K is here!

I just love the hat ladies, what can I say.  As usual, letter inspiration from Daily Drop Cap.

White For Less Green: BCBG

OK, so I've done this feature a couple of times, and mostly come up with short dresses (hey, it's just what you're more likely to find in white), but I've been looking for some killer long dresses to feature.  And today I have two, totally different, both awesome and affordable. 

The first is vintage, one off, from the etsy seller camelliacollection.  And let me tell you, I'd already own it if it weren't for the small size (waist 27",  bust 35")!  It's sparkly and brocade, both of which I love.  But once I saw that bow on the back, I was sold.  It's like this year's Priscilla of Boston line, but better!  Plus, it's only $150.  I could see a very hip bride pull off a retro/modern look in this baby.

Images via camelliacollection.

Next up is something much more modern.  Laser cut, this dress is ruffles, but subtle, and maybe even a bit edgy.  I love the sweetheart bodice and the silhouette, very grown up, but still on the trendy side.  And at $298, it's a steal.

Images via Saks Fifth Avenue.

Plus, through Thursday (12/10), shipping is free on all online orders with the code HOLIDAY9.  They even give you the order-by date to have gifts arrive by Hanukkah!  How cool...

It's true.

via friends of type.

Don't be fooled, this is a shoe rant.

Shoes are a dilemma.  I love them, but sometimes I hate them.  Heels are so (so!) sexy, but let's face it, they're super painful and often really inconvenient.  Now, after years of practice, I can walk in heels (not fast, not well, but walk indeed).  But the thing is, at my wedding I want to dance!  (To clarify, the exclamation point was more tied to the "dance" part than the needing punctuation to end this sentence part.)  And yes, I can dance as well in heels.  But like walking, that has a very limited time span.  Then, your feet hurt, and you take off your shoes, and your feet get stomped on (if you're lucky by a kid, if you're not so lucky, by your friend wearing spike heels) and sticky from spilled drinks and then you're not even getting the benefit of your super sexy shoes.  Plus, there's the whole thing where heels are something that our male-dominated culture uses to (for lack of a less inflammatory word) oppress women.  Not that that's a throw-away by any means, it just frustrates me and if I get going it will turn into a rant.

Now, I'm 5'5".  Not so bad.  It helps that Mr. McGee is 6'.  Some people, have a bigger height difference to contend with (not to mention all the Mutt and Jeff jokes your Uncle Milton loves to make).  A lot of shorter women will choose to wear heels whereas taller women feel the need to wear flats so they don't tower over the new hubs.  But today I came across this post on Our Labor of Love. 

She is way shorter than him.

But she wore flats anyhow, presumably because they were cute and comfortable and they were what she wanted to wear.

Images above via Our Labor of Love.

At some point I'll get around to talking about the shoes I'm looking at for the wedding, but frankly, I doubt they'll be 5" Louboutin's (notice how I didn't even touch on the pros and cons of spending a thousand dollars on a pair of shoes) or flats (ironically, these make my feet hurt too).  I just hope I don't get frustrated and wear my running sneakers.

Lesson the first:

Do not drop your iPod in the toilet.

Go ahead, ask me how I know.  Verdict to follow assaulting it with a hairdryer and a nervous help-me conversation with Mr. McGee (giver of the sad, drowned iPod).  I'm hoping it lives, because otherwise, it's going to be very hard to convince myself I don't need an iPhone, which will cost me more money than I want to spend, please and thank you.

I shall return with actual content shortly.

Pleats please me.

This could be cool as a bridesmaid dress, right?  I'm on a big pleat kick right now.

Via Ruche.

They Say it's Your Birthday!

Today the world's best guy turns 24.  I love you so much sweetie, I hope your day is a great one!

Inspiration

For the next three weeks, I'm still a graduate student.  My program is Ed Psych, and one of the cool classes I'm taking this semester is called "Intelligence and Creativity."  It's really interesting and complicated how intertwined the two are, and how big the holes in the research are in some places.  But before I go off on an intellectual diatribe, I'll get to the point.  I'm running an activity in class in a few hours where I will try to defend the claim that intelligence is/can be used to form and guide creativity by having my classmates make inspiration boards.  As models, I'll be showing a few boards from Snippet and Ink and one or two of my own. 

I made this one just for that purpose.  Just because I'm curious, what would you pick out as themes?  How do you interpret it?

It's harder to procrastinate at night.

Not that that stops me.  (I've had years of practice.)  I just wish that my google reader had more action at 1am.  So here I am, contributing to yours. 

I give you eye candy:

I am so in love with this room, it's ridiculous.  At first, it was just that amazing wallpaper that got me.  I'm a sucker for a good pattern.  Not sure if it's the knitter or the daughter of an artist in me.  Probably both.  But the more I looked at it, I realized that it's the perfect, soft, adult, calm bedroom I desperately want to have in an effort to be all of those things.  Put this at the top of the inspiration list when I finally get my own place with the man.

Speaking of that wonderful woman that is my mother, Karen Friedland, was on tv talking about the Flatbush Artists Studio Tour which she founded and just helped organize again this year.  Check her tv debut out here and select the video from November 23, 2009.  (The video won't embed, sorry.)

I will also tell you that Sarah Maclachlan is not conducive to staying awake to do homework late at night but that live Van Morrison is most certainly conducive to blogging.

I love decisions when they're already made...

And today I made a big one.  I am super thrilled!

We (my parents, kid sister and I) went to the  restaurant/potential venue for lunch today. The manager was very nice, helpful and accommodating even though he was dealing with a tour group of 50 Spainiards at the same time. His price is better than we’d hoped at first, and his kids price is great so  I’m actually going to be able to invite kids, get funny dancing pictures and avoid family WW3. Champagne is included in the open bar price. The food was good. He threw in an extra 1/2 hour (I think we might be able to work it up to a full hour if we really try) and the ceremony space is free. Literally the only thing he isn’t providing is parking and that’s hardly his fault (it is Manhattan, after all). So…

We are officially penciled in for the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, Sept. 5, 2010!

Pending a visit from Mr. McGee so we can have a full tasting, we’ll sign a contract. I have a venue! That I love! And I can afford! I am so so so so so so so happy! Seriously, so much stress is gone, that I am having a harder time worrying about the 8 metric shit-tons of schoolwork I have to do before I graduate in December. The only thing that could have made things better today was the city actually posting parking signs that told us we couldn’t park where we did, rather than just leaving us an illegible parking ticket (sorry Dad!).

Oh, and you can see the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, and Manhattan from your table.  It is the quintessential New York City location I dreamed about.  I am a happy girl.

Bohemian Rhapsody, a la The Muppets!

Thanks Kris.

Postsecret

They have to know they do that, right?

Live like a vampire

Wanna live in the Cullens' house?  It's for sale for a cool $3.298 mil.  (Don't worry, it's Canadian!)

Total Mushiness Alert!

Tricked On Halloween - Watch more Funny Videos

I'll be damned if that doesn't melt my heart every time.  Thanks, hon, for sending it on.

OMG Shoes!

It's totally unfair how much I want these.

Well, maybe not the wanting, but the price tag, for sure.  ($388, ouch!)  Anthropologie, why do you you doing this to me?!

Ok, so I have a thing for lighting.

There are no words for how much I love this.

OK, so probably not $4800 much like Anthro wants, but still.  How cute, in a little breakfast nook robin's egg blue walls, white ceilings, crown moulding and a chair rail, with a nice light wood table for this to hang over.  Between this and all the awesome that's happening over at Pottery Barn, I'm going to have to take metalworking up again.  (Another thing you never knew about me, I can weld!)

I want to go to a masked ball

...at the Plaza in 1966 thrown by Truman Capote.

I really do.

That's Candice Bergen.  Love the bunny mask.  How incredibly glamorous...

Measured Accessories

So, as my blog name might imply, I'm a knitter.  What you might not know about me is that I've sewn for years.  I was really serious into costuming from about 10th grade through sophomore year of college.  By serious, I mean self-imposed late nights (11 or so) in basements or other rooms with no windows, pinning, cutting and sewing my little heart out.  A tape measure is a vital thing to both a costume chick and a knitter.  So, you can understand my excitement when I saw this:

My first thought was, "I could totally make that myself.  Then I saw the price tag.  I don't really think I could buy that many tape measures for that price!  Needless to say, it went right on the wedding registry (we'll have another post soon about how obsessed I am with Wishpot).  You can find it sold online from Viva Terra for $49 here.  It reminded me of the Irregular Choice shoes that I have been in love with since forever.

Maybe I'll use the wedding as an excuse to finally buy them for myself.  Or I could go for the bag...

Decisions, decisions.

Simply Unbelievable Florals

I have a list of things I want to blog about.  I have lots of tabs open that have yet to make it to the list.  I have lots of things to say that you haven't heard yet.  But I saw Ken Marten's work today, and all of that took a major backseat.  Ken is a florist extroadinaire out of London.  His work is big, bold and modern, but what I really love about it is that it manages to be all those things while still being creative and shaking off some of the hard edges that modernist decor (even florals) tend to have.

These two are going to the top of my inspiration file for my wedding centerpieces.  All the hydrenga is affordable and he really makes use of the big ticket flowers he includes.  Plus, I love all the varying textures and heights and the use of greenery and branches.

 

Ken also does really great things with presentation.  I would never have thought to use eggs as mini vases!  (Plus, my soft spot for ranunculus...)  And I've always loved the idea of fruit as decoration, I tend to find it done so that it doesn't look so great, and really, the big value of doing something for cheap is only when it doesn't look cheap.  Let's just say, this does not look cheap.

As usual, I am a sucker for surprising uses of baby's breath.  No exception here.  And I love the ornaments in the vases.  I love glass vases, but not always the look of the stems, so ornaments in a wide vase is such a cool way to conceal them!  This could be really easily adapted to be less Christmassy, I would think.

All this and so much more in Ken Marten's flickr stream.

White For Less Green: Nanette Lepore

There is no way around the fact that this dress is a total steal.  It is so awesome.  100% cotton, fully lined (again, with cotton) with crocheted detailing and a lovely beaded bib.

And really, once I saw that cute little kick pleat in the back, I was sold.

 Nanette Lepore Treasure Bead Yoke Dress

Come on, just how perfect would it be for a spring tea party, or a low key hippie summer affair?  Yum.

It's on sale, from now through whenever it sells out (which, judging by the rest of their goodies, will be soon!) from the Gilt Groupe.  Sizes 2-8 have sold out, so good on ya if you're a 0, 10 or 12.  (They also have it in navy in 10 and cranberry in 0, 6, 8, 10, 12.)  Gilt is invitation only so if you follow my link here, it will give you an invitation from me to sign up.  It's on sale for $148.00 from the original $425.00!

And while I was there, I couldn't help but check out today's Carolina Herrera sale.  If they weren't $598 a piece, this would totally be my bridesmaid dress.

That quilted metallic?  I mean, come on!