Sparkly

(I need a better camera....)

My wedding day jewelry! Since I kind of wanted to go with a "vintage-y" vibe, and my dress is kind of plain - no beading, etc - my Mom and I thought it would be nice to accent under the empire line of the dress with a brooch, so the search began! It seemed like every one I saw in the stores was round, but I really wanted something more elongated and oblong. Enter Ebay, where I found my bad-ass brooch, along with an equally awesome bracelet. Both are vintage costume jewelry with the brooch being about 50 years old, and the bracelet being 50 to 70 years old! It was so cute, the description with the bracelet said that the seller had bought it from a 77 year old woman, who had told them that it was her mother's (I'm a sucker for a good story). I am loving Ebay right now. I paid about $25 each for the brooch and the bracelet.

The earrings I found at Dillard's, but I like their look. I bought them before the brooch and the bracelet, but I still think they go together well.

For good measure I've thrown in a pic of my ring, and the ring I got when I was 16. When Chris was picking out my engagement ring, he wanted something that would compliment my other ring since I wear it daily. What a thoughtful guy!! The ring I got when I was 16 was my great-grandmother's, and originally it had all diamonds. But when my Mom inheirited it, 2 of the diamonds were taken out for another family member (why??), so they inset two amethysts, which are my birthstones. I have loved this ring since I got it, and have worn it every day. I've probably worn it when I shouldn't have, like to work out, play intramurals, to sleep, etc. But I'm taking much better care of it now!

And now the jewelry:





A picture of my rings:

I wish I had a lot of money right now.

Why did Snippet & Ink have to use this image in one of their inspiration boards???

This silk organza ruffled jacket is beautiful and would be perfect with my dress. Ahhhh...... love..... The thing is, though, that it costs $250. That's a lot of money for an organza jacket that I can't really justify by saying that it will keep me warm (it won't, plus November in Texas is usually not that cold) or that I'll wear it again (with what?). But it's certainly very pretty, and would really compliment the ruffles in my dress.
Have I told you that my dress is silk gazaar?? Which is almost exactly like organza?

Nope. Just can't do it. That $250 could buy us chair covers, or more alcohol, or be put towards our coffee table. Must. Get. Mind. Off. This. Now.

Boo. I'm no fun. When did I become so practical and grown-up?? I feel like my Mom all of a sudden...

I've been out of touch!

I've really been kind of out-of-the-loop this week!! I thought I made the rounds, but from catching up tonight it's apparent that I didn't. Blame it on a co-worker being out at work and me having to pick up the slack!

Thursday already!

This week has been going along quickly for me! I am so thankful that it's Thursday, because tomorrow we only work until 1:00 in observance of Labor Day (we also get off Monday!). It will be a nice long weekend for me, which I'm sure will go by too quickly.
Truthfully, I've still been in a bit of a funk this week. It kind of comes and goes. So I haven't really had a bunch to post about.

Monday I did get something nice, though! For part of my jewelry that I'm going to wear with my wedding dress, I've been searching for an elongated or oval-shaped brooch to wear on my dress, just below the empire waistline. It seems that all the new brooches you see are round, so I went looking on Ebay last Friday night and found a beautiful one! The seller was so great and got it out in the mail to me Saturday, and I received it Monday! It's perfect - just what I was looking for, and only about $25 including shipping. I am waiting to post a picture until I get the BRACELET that I also found! Hopefully, that will be coming today! I'll make sure to post pics of the brooch, earrings, and bracelet as soon as I get it! I'll be sparkly! ;-)

Hope you all have a great Thursday!!

More paint swatches

Even though I liked the "Silver Sage" from Restoration Hardware, it didn't really look right in the room. After looking and looking and staring and glancing at it in all different lights - it was too blue. In other rooms and in other lights it can appear gray, green, blue... it's a great color. BUT, not right here.

So! On to some new paint swatches: tans, taupes, khakis.

Sorry about the bad lighting and photography... I don't have the best camera, and the room (even with the lights on, as they were in this picture) is a little dark.

As you can tell, there are about 3 different shades of tan/taupe/khaki on the walls here. I thought this would be a great direction to go in, it could lighten the room and go with lots of different colors. But after adding more graffiti to my walls... eh.... I'm not so sure. It's okay. It's not great. The cool neutrals go too gray, and the warm neutrals are a little too warm. And it's kind of boring.

I'm slowly coming to the realization that our room will stay green. That I do like it, even though it's dark (at this point, short of painting it bright white, I think any color will be "dark"!). And that I may be slightly rebelling against it because I didn't originally choose it - it was painted this way when we moved in. I also think I was/am trying to hold onto a more "modern" aesthetic (one that is not really shared by Chris). But taking a realistic look around at my house, most of it is more traditional. A relaxed "younger" traditional, but traditional nonetheless. Laying in bed the other night, I realized that I've got to let some of that "mod" go. Unfortunately I don't have the budget (budget?? what budget?? ha!) to buy new furniture, to dramatically alter the bland architecture, or to buy fabulous statement fabrics for curtains and pillows. And by trying to "fight" the feeling of the surroundings with more sleek and modern looking things, I was causing myself headaches because it wasn't working together. When I lived in my loft, before buying the house and moving in with Chris, my more traditional furnishings took on more of a modern look because the surroundings were so stark in contrast. But that's not the case here.

Here is a picture of what my loft looked like:

(Please excuse the portable heater - that brick wall was NOT insulated!)

There are many times when I really miss it. I loved that brick wall! But, I'm happy to be where I am now, and wouldn't give it up! And while if I had an unlimited, or even just a generous, budget to work with I would probably change many things, I'm okay with not having it be "perfect" right now. With working with what I have and making the best of it.

Hmmm.... isn't there a saying about being happy with what you have??? Yeah, I think I'm learning that the hard way.

My Very First Wedding Gift

Even though it's from Dillard's as a "Thank You" for registering with them....

I still think it's pretty cool.

Gift registries

I wish it were still the weekend, but at least we were productive!

Saturday we went up to Dillard's and created our gift registry there. Since I pretty much did our registry at Crate and Barrel online and by myself, I wanted Chris to come up with me for this one so he could add his input too. It was kind of fun, but at the same time I felt aware that this was stuff that we were basically asking others to buy for us, which made me feel a little weird! I felt bad if I thought something was expensive, or if it wasn't something that we really needed. But, like the Crate and Barrel registy, we will get 20% off whatever is left on our registry after the wedding - so some of the more expensive things we can go back and buy later (like our coffee table!).

The other prevailing thought going through my head was "Should I ask for this? Will I ever really use a bundt pan?? What the hell should I put on the registry??" I felt kind of clueless. Should I ask for fancy expensive wine goblets?? Our IKEA ones work fine. But I did, just because they may be nice to have when we entertain. Which brings up another point - exactly how many plates do you need?? I have a Mikasa pattern now (that Dillard's still carries) of which I have 8 big plates (but not the salad plates, so I added those to the registry). But if we have my family over, or his, that's not quite enough. It's very rare, but it's happened. So we registered for more. Now I might have 16 big plates after the wedding. With 16 plates at our disposal, we won't have to do dishes very often.

Silverware?? My parents just gave me a pretty nice set before I met Chris, and I like the pattern. Not sure if Dillard's carries it or not - so do I toss them and get all new, or try to match it as close as possible?? We'll need those extra forks and knives if we use all the sixteen plates.....

Pots and pans?? Well, those we really do need. The non-stick on ours is starting to come unstuck. That's bad. But pots and pans can be expensive! I'd really like the large pot with the lift out steamer/pasta pot. But at $80, will somebody realistically buy it for me?? Same with the Dutch oven. I've loved the enamel coated cast iron cookers for years - you can put them in the oven, you can put them on the stove, and they make an attractive serving dish. But they're not cheap either. The one at Crate and Barrel is $109, and the one at Dillard's is $129!

We added smaller things as well. There are several cool serving dishes we added - some were $10.99, up to $29.99. We added towels. The previously mentioned bundt pan, along with some muffin pans, and cookie sheets are pretty inexpensive too. There's a pretty nice spice rack and a salt mill/pepper grinder duo. And don't forget the placemats and tablecloths.

So now we are all registered up! Chris wants to either register at Best Buy or Lowe's as well, which I'm letting him pick whichever one he wants. There again, he asked me last night "I think I'm going to choose Best Buy. What am I supposed to register for at Lowe's?" I told him a new ceiling fan would be nice (ours is a relic of the '80's), maybe some lumber and nails..... It made him smile a little. ;-) Really, at either place he's hoping for gift cards because what he'd like to buy will cost more money than what he is comfortable asking for.

There were a couple of other exciting things going on this weekend, but I'm saving them for another post! I'll have to be sure to post a picture of our VERY FIRST WEDDING GIFT, a beautiful Waterford caraffe/decanter from Dillard's (for using them for our registry), which we found out later (online) was on clearance. Oh well, it's pretty, and is a sweet gesture. And it's useful.

Hope you all have a great Monday!

Diet Sabotage!!

*image from Google images

Why is it that when you're on a diet, or at least trying to watch what you eat, when you meet somebody out for dinner they always pick some place that fries all their food?? And then, when you're sitting down and the waitress comes over and asks if you'd like to start out with something, they say "Yes, I'd like the fried pickles please."

Argh!!

Such was the case with my Mom last night who kind enough to meet me out for dinner to help cheer me up. I was (am) having a case of the doubts.... I'm having doubts about just about everything to do with my wedding (except the part about actually getting married, which is good) from the colors to the linens to the flower girl dresses. On and on, I'm not trusting my judgement. And this is spilling over into the living room. What color DO I want to paint it? Right now, I have no clue. I'm overwhelmed.

So I met up with my Mom last night for dinner and a pep talk, she's also going to help me find hotels for the out of town guests, and afterwards we went shopping for scary underpants/ stretchy hold-em-in shapers. Didn't really find exactly what I was looking for there (but I can order it online), but I did find some earrings and a brooch, which are really pretty.

But back to the choice of restaurants. It was basically all deep fried stuff. Really delicious. But really really bad for you, especially if you are watching your diet! Of course they have exactly TWO salads on the menu - a house salad and a Caesar - but did I choose the house salad with vinaigrette (because Caesar dressing is high in fat)??? No. But I managed to stay away from the fried stuff and went with shrimp etoufee. Which is better, but still not as good as the salad. And I had some fried pickles. With the dipping sauce, which is like ranch dressing (and probably not the "lite" kind, either).

Even on the weekends, when Chris is home, we'll meet people out for lunch or dinner, and we always end up someplace that has like bar food - burgers, fries, quesodillas, fried stuff..... Usually I'll order chicken soft tacos or something of the like. And Chris knows I'm watching my diet, but he'll still say stuff like "What do you want for lunch? Taco Bueno?" Argh!! NO! I don't want Taco Bueno. "What about Panera Bread?" I respond. "I want something fast, that you can drive through." he'll say. (Note: to all the healthy fast food places out there - put in drive throughs!!).

Normally during the week, I do really good. So a few little slip-ups isn't soooooo bad. But it's still frustrating. My first date for alterations on my dress is just 2 weeks away! So, I'll be watching my diet like a madwoman until then. Not so much because I want to lose a ton of weight (which would be nice), but I don't want to GAIN weight and not be able to fit into my dress!!


By the way, fried pickles are DELICIOUS! Crispy, but still juicy on the inside with that dill flavor. Yum.

This made me smile

*Picture from This is Glamorous

Next time I'm thinking of eating bacon, I'll think of this picture instead... (and my butt will thank me for it!)

Hope you all are having a great Monday!

Paint swatches

Well, I did it. I went home and painted a couple swatches on the wall with the test paint, and although it doesn't really look that great in the pictures, I do like it. It's much much lighter, and the big green chair goes with it.

It looks kind of pastel-y in the picture, but it's prettier in "real life". Additionally, the paint color that is there now - which is a pretty sage green - is much darker as well. Of course, the chair isn't quite as dark as the picture. Isn't it funny how lighting and pictures alter color??

Anyways, this whole thing has come about partly because my pillows that I have now on my couch, which go really well with the dark green chair and wall color, are in pretty sad shape. They've definitely seen better days, and trying to replace them with some that 1) I like 2) co-ordinate with the wall color and big green chair 3) aren't super expensive has been challenging. I've been thinking that by lightening the wall color, it may be easier to find some pillows or fabric that will go, and as an added bonus it will lighten my living room so it won't be so dark-like-a-cave anymore.

Here are the pillows:

Notice the fabric swatches!!

Anyways, here is the culprit behind why my pillows look so sad... well, he's at least responsible for the holes in the corners!

That's JJ, the chihuahua. Who likes to chew on pillow corners.

So now, once Chris is home tomorrow night, hopefully he will like the color too, and we can get to painting the room... again. Or, I should say, I will get to painting the room again. I like the color, and I think if we go with some darker green pillows, it will tie in nicely with the big green chair. Ah, if only I had enough money to just start from scratch again! Or at least to be able to recover the big green chair with something else, like maybe brown leather.... Oh well. That wouldn't inspire as much creativity now, would it??

In need of a holiday...

I don't know about you all, but the heat and end-of-summer doldrums have me in such a lackadaisical mood. You know my honeymoon I was super pumped about Tuesday?? Well, I'm still excited about it, but I'd be even more excited if I were leaving tomorrow!

My wedding is 3 months and 1 day away! I'm not sure if it's the fact that I've been planning for so long that I have much of it taken care of, the heat, or what, but my lazy mood has left me totally uninspired to think of wedding stuff much. I know this will pass, and with the weekend coming up I'm sure to be in a better mood, but for now.... boo.

On a positive note, after reading Joni's post on this FAB house in Galveston (seriously, if I could afford it, this would be my house!), it kind of affirmed my idea in my head for a paint color for my living room. It's a color called "Silver Sage", and I've been a big fan for about 11 years now. I have used in many past apartments, condos, lofts.... but haven't used it in this present house. I think it will work, and I'm going to buy a test pot over lunch today to splash on the walls tonight. Chris is going to want to smack his head - he thinks I'm crazy half the time, but it's the only way to REALLY get an idea of what it'll look like. Plus, if I don't like it, I still have leftover paint of the color that's on the walls now, so I can paint over the swatch.

Go check out the house she profiled here.

And here is a picture of the dining room that shows the color I speak of:

Hope you all have a great Thursday!!

Oh, and if you're in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, feel free to come and kick my butt out of this funk!

Ola!

I think this is one of the most exciting things we've bought for our wedding....

Okay, it's not so much for the wedding itself, per se.... it's our HONEYMOON!! Chris sent over the information, and we officially have tickets to Cabo San Lucas for the week after our wedding in November! The above pictures are from the RIU Santa Fe, which is where we're going to stay. From all the pictures and reviews online, it looks like it will be a really nice place. And since it's all-inclusive, it's a great deal too!

I am SO SO SO excited about this! I haven't had a "proper" vacation in years. Seriously. And Chris and I have never gone away anywhere, just the two of us, that didn't involve visiting family or going to a friend's wedding. Don't get me wrong, those are nice things to do. But this will be our first true vacation. And I'm looking forward to it! I think I just got some more motivation for keeping up on my cardio!

My meeting with the florist went really well Saturday. Now I'm just waiting for her quote. But she was really nice and very professional. She really seemed to understand my style, and lots of pictures to look through. The added bonus was that they were loading up flowers for another wedding that afternoon into their van, and the flowers were beautiful! The arrangements and bouquets were really very pretty. Since this florist is friendly with and works with my DOC quite a bit, I'm not too worried about using her. In fact, my DOC said she'd go pick up the flowers for us and bring them out, so we wouldn't have to pay a delivery fee (hey, every $45 counts!).

Finally, the 100-degree heat has broken for a few days.... Hooray! It's so nice to be able to walk outside!! Okay, a little stretch, but seriously - 106 (our high on Sunday) is hot. And it doesn't matter if it's dry-heat or humid or whatever. It's hot. This is why spring and fall are the busiest wedding seasons down here! Can you imagine getting into your dress and walking to the car when it's 106 outside??

TGIF!

Chris is getting home a few hours earlier!! He'll be home by the time I get there!

Tomorrow we meet with the new florist to talk bouquets and things. Head over to Elizabeth Anne Designs to read all about it. I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not, but my other florist went out of business. And the owner found out the father of her 2 children - the man she had been with over 6 years - was a con man. Yep. He totally wasn't who he said he was! He wasn't from Ireland, no... he was from Indiana. And apparantly had 2 other ladies and families. Not sure if that was in the past or what. Anyhoo, the florist - while losing her business and house - meets up and reconnects with an old flame, and then moves to Michigan with him!

Seriously.

Not making this up.

Crazy.

So, new florist tomorrow - Yay!!

Hope you all have a great weekend, and I wanted to leave you all with a picture of one wild pair of shoes:

These shoes made me actually say "wow" out loud. In my cubicle at work! They are definitely attention-getters! If I wasn't only and inch or two shorter than Chris (and already 5'8"), I would seriously consider these. Not sure who they're from.... but they're cool!

Is it okay to steal?

In this crazy world of wedding blogs, there are some seriously cool ideas that have been put out there. Lots of great ideas, pictures, instructions.... so my question is, do you think it's okay to "steal" these ideas??
For example, Miss Cupcake over at Wedding Bee had the idea to use vintage/cut glass with candles in them as centerpieces. The original picture came from Country Living, and I believe Perfect Bound posted about it first (if not, please let me know...). My late Grandmother and my Mother have both collected this type of glass for years and years, and so when I saw this idea it really resonated with me. I love it, and after seeing a mock-up with tealights and floating candles (which I did not take a picture of...) I know it will be gorgeous!!

Well, Miss Cupcake's brother must be just as awesome because he married Kim of Inspired Goodness, who has many many wonderful ideas herself!! For instance, I knew that I wanted a beautiful ribbon, something special, for my bouquet and my cake. Over at Elizabeth Anne Designs yesterday, they featured Kim's wedding and what would you know??

I totally love this ribbon. And since Kim was kind enough to provide the source for it on her website, I may be wrapping my bouquet and cake in some gorgeous and sparkly ribbon!!

But I do feel a little guilty about this. Should I feel bad for using ideas from other people's weddings? Or is it a compliment to them (I know if somebody stole one of my ideas, I would feel super flattered!)? Not all of my ideas are "stolen" from other people, and I am adapting some of these ideas to fit us and our wedding style, but I still feel like a hack sometimes. I wish I was as creative and talented as many of the brides out there, but sadly, and contrary to what my Mom says, I'm not. ;-)

Is there anything you've stolen or are adapting for your wedding??

****PUSH-UPPERS UPDATE****

Everything is going well. I completed my Week 2 Day 2 workout last night, but only maxxed out on 13 push-ups. I am still sore from working out with my trainer Monday night!! Also, I've started doing the push-ups on my knees as they are easier and I can achieve better form.

Sick puppy

So, with the best intentions, I went to bed early last night! But, one of my puppies must have eaten something that he shouldn't have, and so kept me up most of the night by being sick. Poor little guy! Of course, this is now - at 2:30 last night that is NOT what I was thinking... but I knew he couldn't help it. I called in this morning and came in later so I could get some sleep! Murphy is all better now, or at least he was this morning when I left.

By the way, why is it when animals are sick, they don't aim or run for the wood floors?? No, they aim for or run to the rugs. The sisal rugs, that don't really clean as well as nylon or wool. Boo. If anyone's interested in how to clean sisal (or clean up, I should say), let me know because I'm pretty close to expert at it.



On a different and happier note, I got some fabric swatches in the mail yesterday from Ballard Designs. You may recall that my pillows in the living room (made from wool jacquard) are pilling, and just generally look like crap.
I am working around a big dark green wingback recliner. It is the most comfortable hand-me-down piece of furniture, and actually isn't that bad looking, stylistically. The problem is that it's dark green leather. So I have to blend/incorporate that color somehow. Also, our walls are a gray-ed sage green that blends with the chair a bit, but I can always re-paint them.
I had found the most perfect and wonderful fabric to make the pillows out of. It incorporated the green, wasn't too traditional or modern (I'm kind of in between), had a touch of red (to tie in with my awesome bamboo mirror in the entry)..... it was perfect. Chris even liked it. The problem is that it was by Travers. Zimmer + Rohde, who now own Travers, are sticklers when it comes to only selling to the trade. Even though I work at a neighboring showroom, I would have to find a designer to get this for me because they do not have a house account. And of course, the designers I know that I asked do not have an account with Zimmer + Rohde. Add on to that, the cost of the fabric (net = my cost) is like $86.00 yard. Dang it!! It's just a cotton/linen print. But with all of these factors, I decided to try and find something else.
So I've been looking and looking and looking ..... and looking. I haven't found anything so far that I've liked as much. Taking into account some of Chris' likes and dislikes (he's not fond of red), and then trying to mesh the style of the room with the style of fabric, I just haven't found anything that was great. I've even thought of just doing solid velvet, but that's so boring! I had pretty much stopped actively looking for pillows or pillow fabric, feeling pretty silly to be stressing this much over PILLOW FABRIC, when I saw this in the newest Ballard Designs catalog:

It's called "Khloe" in Seafoam, and it's only $24 yard. I wasn't sure if it was too seafoam/blue, or if it was more seafoam/green. I can happily report that it's more green! It's actually looks like a lighter value of the green leather chair. It is a little blue for the walls, but I can paint them. It's dark like a cave in there, so I had considered lightening them anyways.
Seriously, this makes me happy. Finding stupid pillow fabric makes me happy! It's such the little things in life, I'm telling you!

*** ATTENTION: FELLOW PUSH-UPPERS***

Last night I did my routine with my trainer (9, 8, 6, 4, then max (at least 7)), and was able to max out at 20 push-ups. They were on my knees, but still. I am most definitely feeling it today. I don't recommend having your trainer assist you in this challenge. Trainers are evil.... okay, just kidding. But I would have seriuously stopped at 12. But no, it was 20. Thanks Brandon.

So sleepy......

I am really really sleepy tired today. Chris is still travelling, so he's home on the weekends and gone during the week. Anyone from Font-du-Lac Wisconsin?? Be sure to say hello!
So Chris didn't start packing until around 11:00 - 11:30.... grrr..... and we had to be up at 5:30 to go to the airport. I got about 5 hours of sleep.
I am beat! And I've got my stupid personal trainer tonight - I'm going to be wiped. Especially seeing as though I told him that starting August 1st, I was going to do cardio every day.... Ha ha ha ha!! Why did I say that?? I will barely make it through tonight's workout, and now I have to do some cardio too, or else I'll look like I totally don't keep my word. Ugh.

I'm getting to bed early tonight!
Fingers crossed, tomorrow I'll be back to normal. Well, as normal as I can be.

P.S. - How do new mothers do this?? Seriously, lack of sleep isn't fun. I'm totally not looking forward to that.

Stacy Reeves Photography

I love my photographer! She sends me wedding eye-candy!

My photographer - Melanie Johnson - sent over the link to this wedding when she heard about my bridesmaid dress situation. It was shot by an amazing photographer named Stacy Reeves, who is in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I thought the picture was really cool, so I thought I would share:

Maybe I should take a fierce picture like this with my bridesmaids?? I do really like this picture, and it makes me feel so much better about having the 2 different dress styles. This dresses in this picture look really great. The fact that there are 2 styles adds a little interest.

The wedding that the above picture is taken from was in Granbury, which is where my parents live, and is outside of Dallas/Fort Worth. It's really pretty out there with some rolling hills, big skies, flowing grasses.... Here is another picture that I LOVE from this wedding:

I love how the photographer edited the image! It's beautiful. I know Melanie likes to edit some of her pictures in this way, which is one of the reasons I was drawn to her. I think this makes the picture look so ethereal and artistic, and I hope to have some pictures of us like this.

While scrolling through her site and looking at other pictures, I came across these which I thought were just so cute! I'm sure I will be feeling like this at some point during my wedding day!

Stacy is really talented, and her site has lots of great pictures on it! I always enjoy looking at photography websites, and I love it when I find a new one whose style I really like. I feel like I'm "discovering" something. I'm kind of a nerd that way.

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Keep up with the push-ups!!!