How About a Dance to Get Your Week Started?

My peeps, I know I've said it before, but this summer has been insane. And because of that, blogging has not been my biggest priority. Which is unfortunate, because I love it so. This past week I was training for my new job, getting my email account hacked (especially fun when your old bosses and ex-boyfriends and people you haven't talked to in years get emailed) and hanging out with my nephew one last time before he goes back to college. I heart that kid so much. One of the greatest pleasures of my life so far has been watching him grow up. Anyway, I spent time with him on Friday and so, the Friday dance did not happen. Then, yesterday, I woke up early and A.P. and I went and got our hair cut. (My treat to him and myself. We look fancy now.) Then I went to Joann Fabrics to get craft stuff, and then to Target, and then I met A.P. and we went to see District 9, which was most definitely one of the best movies I've seen in a long, long while. Phew! Anyway, it has been a weekend packed with activity, but because of that, the dance got postponed. Tragedy, I know. But though I may be a procrastinator, I don't blow things off. So without further ado, I give you the Friday dance...on Saturday, er, Sunday.

First of all, Liz has done it again. Seriously...go look. Also, thanks to Liz's fiance, Felix, I now know about this awesome site, which (and as Felix pointed out) ranks up there with Found, Postsecret, and that other site I always mention, Awkward Family Photo.

Second of all, based on this article, A.P. might very well be a dog...but that's a good thing.

Third of all, this is vulgar, but hilarious. Found it via Bloggity Blog. Probably NSFW, not because of nudity or anything, but because of content.

Fourth of all, don't you wish you had a craft closet like this???? Color me green with envy! Damn you Field Journal!! Is everything you do magic???

Okay...now on to the wedding stuff.

Want to see a close approximation of what our centerpieces will look like? Go check these out. We'll have less greenery though, but the terrariums and apothecary jars holding objects and plants is right on.

How cute is this idea? Get ready...it features birdies. Why am I so drawn to birds???

Style Me Pretty featured a really beautiful "Shabby, Super-Chic Wedding" this past week. Go check it out here (the link is just for part one). But really, focus on these pretties:

Photo via Style Me Pretty

Aren't they just the most dreamy, romantic shoes ever? Normally I hate the shoes brides wear, but these are so beautiful. They're so light. They're what wings for your feet should look like. I heart shoes so much. My brother's latest girlfriend came over to our place the other week and she was blown away by my huge walk-in closet full of clothes and the insane amount of shoes I have. Good thing we didn't even get to the boatload of jewelry and coats! (I'm not exaggerating. When my grandmother passed away she left me all of her jewelry, which was 99% costume, but vintage and awesome. It also amounted to about four suitcases full.) : O ) God bless A.P. for putting up with my closet overload! Seriously.

Okay, tangent over, now on to the photo blitz!

First up is this lovely, 1940's inspired engagement session. Here's a peak. For the rest go to Vintage Glam Blog!

Photo via Vintage Glam Blog

And for more engagement bliss, go check out this engagement shoot at Wedding Cabaret! I'm soooo digging the dramatic sky photos (even though I suspect some of it was photoshopped)!

But for real dramatic lighting, look no further than Feather love. I have mad love for Feather Love Photography, and I have to say I was so bummed that A.P. and I didn't win this contest. And I suspect we came close to getting picked, because we did get mentioned in the cool weddings that she didn't pick when she announced this couple, Emily and Royal, as having won. I told A.P. later that I almost wish that hadn't happened, though, because it makes me think we were so close! Anyway, after seeing the results, I have to tell you, they so deserved to win! Their wedding was beautiful, and though East Side Bride already did a nice recap, I had to feature this

one photo. It made me wish (for the millionth time) that Feather Love was here and not in California. Sniff. Sniff.

Photo via Feather Love Photography

I fell in love with this country wedding over at the Wedding Chicks. Though I'm a born and raised city kid (I grew up in a condo and started riding the bus by myself when I was 7 years old!), country weddings speak to me so much. If my grandmother was still alive, I would ask to have the wedding at her house in the country. But since I can't do that, I have to live vicariously through all these lovely wedding posts, like Katie and Morgan's below. Here's a few of the photos shot by Allyson Magda Photography, but make sure to click that link above and go check out the rest.

Photos via The Wedding Chicks

Finally, since you all know I love stop motion, how could I not love this video, A Year of Lex, that I saw over at Thoughtful Day? This is such a great idea, too! If I thought I could do it, I would. But since I tried a photo of myself everyday for a month and failed at that, I figure, best leave these types of projects to the pros. Check it out!

DIY Project: Re-purposed Rain boots

So, as promised, here's the DIY project I was touting. I made these back in June and they've been blooming nicely on our little back porch.

photo by me!

One of the reasons I waited so long to post is because I wanted our "lawn" to grow in nicely before taking the final pictures. Plus...it's taken me forever to upload my pictures to my computer. Anyway, the story with this DIY project is that I had these lovely, candy-colored, striped rain boots that I love, love, loved. They were colorful and the perfect antidote to a rainy day. Alas, a few months into having them a hole appeared by the toe (a pattern that seems to come with all the wellies I buy since it happened to another pair this past winter). Anyway, I couldn't bear to throw these cuties out, so I came up with a new idea! I turned them into potters for some pretty perennials! The directions are below if you are so inclined to turn your old pair of pretty wellies into potters. I think this would be soooo cute in an outdoor wedding! You could even replicate the "lawn idea" and post a welcome sign in it! The possibilities are endless. Enjoy!

Re-purposed Rain boots

Materials:

Rain boots
Potting Soil
Plants - I used perennials so I won't have to repeat this nonsense twice.
Rocks, Pebbles or Clay Pot Chips (see note below)
Drill

Directions:

1. Get a pair of kickass rain boots. Remove any insoles or inserts.

2. Get your drill. Feel badass because you own a drill (and it's not your boyfriend's!).

3 & 4. You will need to drill drainage holes. How many you drill will depend on the size of your feet. Also, my boots had these nice X's on the bottom so I didn't have to mark where I was going to drill drainage holes. If your boots don't have X's, you might want to mark some spots before you drill so you know how to space your drainage holes. I put 8 total, but I have big feet (size 10 ladies), so if you have smaller feet, you might only want to drill about 5-6.

5 & 6. Line the inside bottom of your boots with the rocks or pebbles. Last summer I had a few of my plants blow off my porch and break, so I had all these broken clay pots. Using a hammer, I broke up the broken pot pieces into small chips that I used to line the bottom to further help with drainage. Clay chips are nice because they're also absorbent and help to keep the soil at the bottom from drying out. I've used them a lot in my plants this summer. However, because they are so absorbent, you don't want to use as many as you would if you used rocks or pebbles. You'll see in the picture they are sparsely lined at the bottom of each boot.

7. Buy some pretty plants. As I mentioned above, perennials are nice because you won't have to repeat this process again next summer. You can just prune them, maintain them and let them do their thing. This is my first year with a lot of perennials. It will be interesting to see how they do next year.

8. Fill the boots about 3/4 of the way with soil. Make sure you shake or push a lot towards the toe part, too. Then you'll need to loosen a lot of the soil from the plant. Be careful when doing this part! You don't want to break or damage the roots. You might have to gently shake the soil for a while. The purpose of shaking off much of the bottom soil is so that you can kind of squash the roots to fit the plant into the boot. If you buy smaller plants and expect them to bloom in the boots, you obviously don't need to do this. You'll also need to kind of push the plant down a little bit or massage it into place. You should be able to feel if there's a gap between the transplanted plant and the soil you filled in the boot.

9. Ta-da! Re-purposed rain boots! They cheer up your garden! They can cheer up your outdoor wedding! They're also a great project for kids (minus the drilling part, that is).

10. Finally, this year I combined my compost from last year with my regular potting soil in this large tub. I had the rain boots resting on top for a long time so that when I watered the plants, I didn't leak it onto my crazy foreign neighbors' porch (this is to avoid long sermons in Polish, which I neither speak nor understand, but which always sound like they're shushing me). I got the idea to leave the boots in the tub and plant some grass around them. So now, we have a little "lawn." If only we could train the doggie to use it! That would be awesome. We could totally get out of morning walks! Haha!

I hope you enjoyed yet another one of my DIY projects. If you do your own take on this project, please don't hesitate to share pictures! I would love to see how other people's boots turn out!

Ch-ch-changes

I've been working hard yesterday and today to FINALLY update my links! A couple of months ago I realized that I read far more blogs than I have listed here. Well, it has taken me that long to get it together and go through my bookmarks and update the links!

Though a lot of these might sound familiar because I post about them often, please still go check out these blogs. They're awesome!!

Wedding Related:

A Tale of Two Brides
Bella Blog
Bride. Artist. Adventurer.
Gangsta Bride
Globetrotting Bride
Iowa Bride
Just a Girl Planning a Shabby Chic Wedding
Parisian Party
Pink Avenue Bride
Style Me Pretty
The Broke Ass Bride
Wedding Bee
The Wedding Cabaret
M & M Wedding

Photography:

Jason Keefer
Martin Pettinger Photography
Olivier Lalin, Wedding Photographer
Photorexit Photography
Tec Petaja Photography

Food, Home, Life:

Cakies
Just the Little Things
A Lovely Morning
Oh Happy Day!
Oh Joy!
Party Perfect
Vanilla Sugar

Paper, Craft, Art:

Jafabrit's Art
Dan Meth
Something's Hiding in Here
Ryantown
Craft Chi
Modge Podge Rocks
A Field Journal
The Finer Things
Oh So Beautiful Paper

Reader's Blogs/Reading Blogs:

Americo & Me
DC Dating Adventures
Don't Be a Slut
Love 'Em or Leave 'Em Relationship Blog
She Versus He
Stop This Ride I Want Off
The First 100 Days
The Honeymoon Phase

I Could Have Danced All Night

Photo by me!

First of all, thanks to everyone who commented congrats! I really appreciate the outpouring of love! I'm not as good as I used to be about responding to comments, so please forgive me, but I did read them all and appreciate them, as always.

I must try to hurry and get this posted because A.P. is taking me out to dinner tonight to celebrate my employment. And because I don't want to be that girl, you know, the one who always is running late (which I am 95% of the time when it comes to these things) I need to go shower, and get prettified. But first...there's the dance!

So, as I told you all before, I have designed a mock-up of our invitation. It's really, really, really in the beginning stages, and I have yet to scan it in, but after checking out Brooklyn Bride last week, I was stunned to see almost my exact same invitation! So if you're curious what ours will look like, go look at this, because I swear to God it's almost the exact same thing. Insane!

Also, remember how I said shopping carts would be the new balloons?? Um, yeah...CALLED IT! Don't believe me? Go look. Caroline Tran is a photographer I've featured before and she's worked her magic again with this delightful engagement session as featured on Green Wedding Shoes, featuring a SHOPPING CART. See? Trendsetter, or at least trend caller!

Still haven't found your wedding dress? Gangsta Bride had mad love for these under 1K dresses! I do, too!!

Now for the little details, which as you know, are my favorite! A.P. still doesn't understand why the little things always bother me, and I always say, it's because the little things are IMPORTANT. And they are. Especially when the little things are jars filled with wooden spools, vintage buttons, and woolen balls. Those are the stuff of dreams. I've been ebay browsing vintage keys, wooden spools and vintage wooden tops for MONTHS trying to make a nice collection not only for some interesting objets d'art around our house, but also for our wedding. The only issue I've had is trying to figure out how to display them. Enter Jordyn and Bradley's wedding as featured on Once Wed! Check out some of their centerpieces:

Photos via Once Wed

So simple and cute! Plus if little jars aren't your thing, check out these fabulous table settings as featured on Style Me Pretty. I love the little bird cage and bird (duh, right?)!

Or what about these fantastic papercuts as featured on Thoughtful Day? They would make beautiful centerpieces! Or if it's too costly, at least buy one and put it by your guestbook! Might I suggest the bird one? (Again...duh...like you didn't know I would suggest that one!)

Or if papercuts aren't your thing, and sparklers are (have I explained why I heart sparklers so much? One day I need to tell you about my first date with A.P.), check out this beautiful setup:

Photo via C. is for Charmed

Don't be surprised if you see something similar in my wedding photos! Or for that matter a take on these cute cake toppers from Party Perfect. Soooo adorable. I almost like the birthday girl better than the wedding one!

I keep starting paragraphs with "Or"...what am I? A manic wedding planning blogger? I can't help it. Simple pretty things get me excited. Like A Field Journal's Paper Lace banners. So simple and soooo easy! I don't know anyone who could mess this one up! I think even A.P. could make this (and maybe come wedding time, he will!).

Finally, I know I always go on and on about all these little details, and I'm sure many of you are thinking I'm crazy. But really, they do pay off. I try very hard to pick ideas for Friday dances, or just the blog in general that are simple, doable, and beautiful. So when I saw this wedding over on A Cup of Jo, I figured it would be a good example of how easy, cost-effective details can really pay off. So as my final farewell before dinner and Julie & Julia (which I've been waiting for since I devoured the book two years ago!), I give you, A Lemon Wedding!

All Photos via A Cup of Jo

Have a great weekend, party people! I'll be back blogging next week with a DIY project I've been dying to share with you!

Death Comes in Threes

First, there was the death of Crabs and Coconuts, then Mimi stopped posting (though maybe she'll get a reincarnation post-summer?), and now Hank and Nelia have officially stopped blogging! Where have all the bloggers gone? I'm sad to lose another blog! Even though you don't know these people, it is a loss within a certain community. All three will be/are missed.

Speaking of death, what happens after the wedding? Will it be the death of wedding planning/blogging for me? A.P. asks me all the time what will happen to this blog when we get married, to which I always reply that it will evolve. But sometimes I wonder if I'll keep reading the wedding planning blogs after I'm done, you know, planning a wedding. Well, I may not have the answer to that dilemma right now, but I hope that no matter what happens after the end, I will have a moment of deep reflection about what I have learned about both myself and A.P. like Kristina at Lovely Morning/100 Layer Cake. I don't know if any of you saw her wedding featured on 100 Layer Cake, but if not go check it out here. It's...lovely.

Anyway, Kristina posted a wedding graduate post that I read (all of it! and it's long!) and loved. It's just infused with so much love, and not just love for her husband, but for everything. Even the silly, ridiculous moments (lugging a bunch of pumpkins?) come off as being flooded with a quality of love. Plus, she gives good advice! Because of her, I want now more than ever to ask a friend to officiate, something I wasn't sure I would want to do. But A.P. and I are now discussing it. Or at least I'm bringing it up and he's going, "Yeah, I guess." Help me convince him some more! Anybody out there have/having a friend officiate? If so, how did it go? What did they have to do?

As Eminem would say, CRACK A BOTTLE!!

photo via here

So, blogosphere, I feel I owe you a big apology. I have been MIA for quite some time now, and with no real explanation. Usually if I were going to take a blogcation, I would, you know, give some notice, but this time, I just got so damn swamped with things. But there's a story behind all this insanity, and a happy ending. Read on...

So to begin with, two weeks ago, I got a random voicemail from my summer job boss who, well aware of my fruitless job search despite hardcore pounding the pavement in May/June, had heard of a job and decided to send my resume to the guy who was interviewing. He called me within an hour of me getting her message and asked me if I'd like to come interview. By the way, this would have been an awesome job, so of course my response was YES! Anyway, he followed up last week to schedule an interview for last Friday (hence no Friday dance!). Mind you, this coincided with the last week of my summer gig. So needless to say for the past week and a half I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off! I was trying to finish up one job, and prep for my interview last Friday.

I normally don't really prep for interviews. Having been an interviewer, I know it's not so much about what people say but more if A. they're normal, and B. if they're personable. This time, though, I prepped like hell! At first I had A.P. do a mock interview with me, but that didn't work out too well. Basically he kept forgetting his role, and asking me follow up questions that were more out of his personal curiosity than actual interviewer curiosity (in other words, some of his follow up questions were way more personal than an interviewer's would be). Plus, twice in the middle of my response, he got up, crossed the room and just started petting the freaking cat. Way, way distracting!! Anyway, eventually I flipped out, partially because I was stressed, and partially because I was frustrated he wasn't taking it seriously. To the amusement of A.P., I continued my mock interview by sitting in our bedroom and talking to myself for an hour or so, answering every prep question I could find online. Not to mention that all Thursday afternoon/evening, I updated my resume, reviewed and improved my portfolio, etc. Not only am I in dire need of a job and money, but I also wanted this job very, very badly. This would be a fantastic place to start off my career, and I knew the area well. Plus, well, no one else had called me for an interview, and I was starting to see the same faces from my grad program at job fairs. I was getting really, really discouraged. So to say a lot was on the line is an understatement.

So last Friday came and the interview went swimmingly. I met my friend who lives nearby for lunch afterward and I was confident things were going well. I was excited to hear back the next week and relax and enjoy my weekend. Um, yeah...they called me back that same day and said they wanted me to come back for another round of interviews today. So, yeah, relaxing weekend out the window. I didn't do anything for the interview over the weekend, but it's all I could think about. I did end up prepping like hell again all day yesterday, though. Then today, I interviewed with another panel, and then I was supposed to interview with the head honcho...only she had gone to another off site meeting. I happened to be meeting another friend for lunch nearby, so I agreed to come back later, specifically around 3pm. Well, I waited and waited, and finally around 3:40, the head honcho calls me into her office. Then she starts talking and talking, which is fine, but she wasn't asking me any questions. Finally she goes, "I just want to make sure that if I offer you the position, our interests are going to align. Well, let me rephrase that, I'm offering you the position, but I want to make sure your interests align with ours." I LITERALLY squealed!! I was so, so happy. I reassured her that our interests very much aligned, talked to her some more (with a shit-eating grin on my face, no less) and then she officially offered me the position, and I accepted!!!!

I know I said this before, but really, truly, I am so, so happy!! You have no idea. I was really starting to freak out that I wasn't going to have a job and wasn't going to be able to deal with all my school loans that are coming due. Plus I have a little bit of credit card debt, and really wanted to pay that off. Plus, now we can really save for our wedding, and (the best part) we can buy a car!! (Because even though we live in a big city, I'm getting older...carrying sacks of groceries on buses and trains sucks.) Needless to say that I'm tickled pink!!

A.P. offered to take me out to dinner to celebrate, but I was so tired (I couldn't sleep I was so nervous last night, plus I was on edge all day today), so instead we ordered in some Middle Eastern food and he ran out and bought a bottle of cheap champagne! I popped the cork...it flew across the room! Then we took silly pictures of me with the champagne! Anyway, the whole point of this post is to say, I'M EMPLOYED!!! YAY!!! And I'm back to blogging...and be prepared. Now it won't stop...there was so much good stuff last week that I found...seriously...wait...for...it.

Big Things Are (Possibly) Brewing...

...which is why I haven't been posting lately. As soon as I know more, I'll post...