Monday, June 29, 2009

Nostalgic library.

Amanda reminded me of Rilla of Ingleside and Rainbow Valley, and thereupon of course I developed an intense craving to reread all of L.M. Montgomery. The Story Girl. The Blue Castle. Jane of Lantern Hill. Emily of New Moon. Pat of Silver Bush. How I loved those books and their painterly covers!

Did you read the adventures of Anne Shirley, Emily Starr, and all their compatriots when you were a tween/teen?

Friday, June 26, 2009

Eye candy.




I'm speaking without bias when I say that my mom is an amazing painter. Since she moved to the country, she keeps getting better. You can follow her blog here.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

I'm still looking for wedding shoes...


...if you see any fabulous ones. Via SBWC.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Pretty things.


Did I say I didn't like calla lilies? I take it 100% back.

Penellibelle on Etsy.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Morning conversation with my mom.

Mom: "You didn't check my Facebook page yesterday."
Laura: "Oh, I'm sorry. I never log in to Facebook anymore.* Why, what happened?"
Mom: "I ran into a bear."
L: "What??"
M: "I went out for my morning run and on the way back I stopped at the mailbox to get the paper. I was walking up the hill and I looked up, and there he was, ten yards in front of me! So I backed away and turned around and walked very slowly back to the road."
L: "Boy...I worry about a lot of things all the time but it never occurred to me to worry about you being attacked by a bear on your runs."

*My grandmother berates me for not logging into Facebook, too. "Well, if you'd logged in, you would have seen that your cousin had the ultrasound and it's a girl!" Etc. The older generation is much more enthusiastically techy than I, apparently.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Lovely, lovely.



Go to Once Wed and see this wedding...so beautiful!

Mine is three months away as of this Friday. I am so excited, I don't know what to do with myself.

Well, I should probably start by picking a cake design, for pete's sake.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Guess what I got...

Taking home a coveted ARC of Catching Fire...

Next morning update: All I'll say is this. I finished it at 9:30 last night and started reading it again...and even re-reading it this morning caused me to miss my subway stop.

Ella, ella, ella...

On Sunday I heard that song "Umbrella" for the first time. I know, I'm out of the loop.

I can't get it out of my head. I guess that's why it was a hit? I'm going crazy over here.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Why she's my maid of honor.

Printer called; because part of the invitation suite is being printed in CMYK (or something or other) they can't match the Pantone I'd provided and suggested either a yellow yellow or an orange orange.

I said, Let me think about it, hung up, mildly spazzed out, called my sister, who talked me down from the ledge and agreed with me that instead of sticking with our two-color design for the piece in question, it would be better to have it be one color, gray on white, rather than introducing yet another shade into the suite. So it might be boring, but better in our minds to be simple than to look fussy or unplanned. I called back and explained this to the printer and they said "Okey doke" and that everything would ship on Friday as planned.

Then I googled the Pantone shade they WERE matching for the OTHER pieces of the suite (are you bored yet?) and freaked out yet again because it looks SO CANARY in the Google image search! I described my heart palpitations to my sister some more, upon which she got up from her desk, found her office Pantone booklet, snapped a phone pic and emailed it to me for reassurance.

She's the best.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Something needs to be said.

A $10,000 budget for a wedding with forty guests is not a "budget wedding," thank you very much, Style Me Pretty. (I refuse to link.)

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Successful.


I did get a haircut and sandals on Friday, fyi :) And did laundry too. And took a nap! It was great.

Oh please oh please oh please.

I've been doing a great job of being all "c'est la vie" about the weather on our wedding day. It could rain, so what! It's good luck! We have a tent and a pavilion! It will still be fun!

But when I saw these photos (our photographer, our wedding site), I just couldn't help clasping my hands together.

If you don't mind sending good thoughts to the weather for September 19...I would be eternally grateful.


Year in review.

I was thinking last night about 26 and how even though I feel like "I didn't appreciate it to the fullest!" (really what I think this translates to is that each year seems to go by faster than the one before), 26 was a big, full year for me.

I got engaged.
I got promoted twice in two weeks, and my job changed radically.
I visited a friend and fell in love with her little boy, who I hadn't seen since he was a baby.
I ran a 5k, my first race.
We spent several months taking care of an ill family member, and ultimately saw her return in large part to health.
I saw my brother graduate from college.
We planned a wedding (! I mean, that's a big deal.)
I planned and threw a surprise 50th birthday party for my mom.
I had an extremely painful falling-out with two friends, a dispute that was left bloodily unresolved, and that I am still trying to forget about, though I feel in all ways that I am better off without them.
We watched our goddaughter grow from a tiny infant into a little person, and saw her brother's personality expand in delightful leaps and bounds.
We drove up and down the NJ Turnpike so many times we could have bought an entire Bolt bus with what we paid in tolls.
It was a long, cold, tough winter (and spring), and it affected my mood, which in turn affected my relationship. I began making serious efforts to correct this.
I tried to run a 10k (which became a 5k and then walking. Do I get points for mountains?)
I started taking yoga (last summer--26th birthday present, and then restarted again last month), which maybe sounds trite because I feel like yoga has been so appropriated by yuppie culture, but I find that it helps me immeasurably, both physically and mentally. I was thinking all these thoughts on the way home from yoga, in fact.

The instructor told us a little parable about how as humans we want to control everything outside of us; it's like we're walking barefoot on a gravel path studded with glass, and so we say, "I'll just put a roll of leather down on the path." But instead, wouldn't it be so much easier to just put some leather on your feet? Shoes, in other words. That's what I'm trying to do for 27. Put some leather on my feet, so outside things don't control my inside life.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Happy June.

This is my last month of being 26; I'm not really sure how I feel about that.