I'm Just Really, Really Romantic: a Phone Call with Dad

Dad: Hello?

Me: Hey Dad, think fast, what's your social?

Dad: 555-12-1212.

Me: Do you know Mom's offhand?

Dad: 555-21-2121.

Me: Nice!  I can't even remember Rich's birthday consistently, I'm impressed.

Dad: Let me just verify that. *rustling*  Yep, that's it.  So what did I just buy?

Me:  Ha ha, nothing, I'm just going down to the Social Security office to change my name.  They need your parents' socials to do it, I guess.

Dad: That's exciting!

Me: Well, yeah.  We've been married two years, I figure "no time like the present."

Dad:  Ha ha, but it's still a big step!  Exciting!

Me: My license is expired, too, so I really need to replace it so I don't get arrested.  I figure I should just change my name at the same time.

**********************************************
Poor Dad.  I feel like every time he thinks he has girls figured out, one of his damn children ruins everything.

Note to future brides: Even if you don't plan on changing your name, make sure you request a copy of your wedding license when you send it in.  I didn't, because I assumed that they would send me a receipt of some kind.  [NB: in Massachusetts at least, you apply for the license, the officiant signs it after the ceremony is done, and you mail it back to the state.]  This lead to two interesting things.  First, I wasn't sure if we were actually married, because in Quaker weddings, you're declaring your intentions "in the presence of God and these our Friends," so there's no real officiant and the Clerk of Meeting kind of just stands in as a wedding referee to explain what the hell is going on to the non-Quakers.  The state, however, requires that the officiant be all registered with them and what have you, so I wasn't sure how that was going to work out.  GOOD NEWS, WE'RE MARRIED!  This is particularly good because I think if I had told Rich that we were only pretend married and had to go to City Hall, he would have killed me and hidden my body in the woods.

The second interesting thing I learned is that the state of Massachusetts will jack you for $40 to order a copy of your license and it will take two weeks.  What. the shit, Massachusetts.  This is of course ostensibly my fault since I should have paid attention to the "free now, $40 later" angle, but STILL, $40?  That shit should have come embossed with gold leaf all over it.  Anyway, order your license when you're sending it in so you don't get all resentful and fussy.

How to Tell if You Are True Friends

Pretty much every time I get a wedding invitation, I make some stupid joke about being there with bells on when I send in my response card because I am a gigantic dork and can't help myself.  Apparently, the idea of appearing in public with bells on is very appealing to me.  Now that you know this, you can imagine the childlike glee with which I opened the following RSVP card.

This is undeniable proof that the wonderful couple that sent this is indeed a pair of true friends, and will be true friends until we're shriveled, old and ultimately dead. 

"Will not be there because heard there would be people with bells?"  BISH PLEASE.  If you cannot appreciate the joy of being there with bells on, you go ahead and keep your lame self at home.

How To Have A Wedding And Not Become A Mobile Episode of Bridezillas

I got a lot of comments about my sustained sanity during the wedding planning process, particularly as we got close to the date. I am not really sure why - in an era where one has access to both Excel and the internet - crippling stress should be mandatory. That being said, the perception remains that Weddings Are Stressful And Somewhat Horrible To Plan. I watched a LOT of Bridezillas while I was getting ready for the wedding (mostly to gloat about how unlike those women's lives my own was) and though most of those brides clearly have some kind of personality disorder that predates the wedding, it seems particularly sad that they have bought into this marketed mindset that surrounds weddings. You all know what this mindset is - it's your day, and you are a princess, so you should get what the Bridal Industry says you want no matter what it costs. I'd like to throw a few things I learned out into the Internetosphere in the hopes that they'll be useful for someone.

First of all, here are some one-off items:

1. A wedding is about formally joining your lives because you love each other. If it stops being about that, you need to at the very least stop and reappraise the situation.
   


2. If you have become the primary planner of the wedding, your other half likely does not care about the details. It's not a bad thing - it's just that they don't care about the zillion decisions that go into fine tuning a large event. Not everyone does.
   


3. Figure out what you actually care about, and let the experts help with the other stuff.


4. Keep things as simple as possible, and keep good records of those things.


5. Men do not have the same frame of reference for weddings that women do. Prepare to explain stuff that might seem obvious to you - it might not be to your significant other.


6. Constantly question the Wedding Industrial Complex's rules about when things MUST BE DONE. If scary rednecks in the woods can hustle up a wedding dress before that baby arrives, so can you.

Now, here's an overview of my wedding, with commentary.

• We held it at the Harding Allen Estate in Barre, MA. Not only is the Estate beautiful, but their services are comprehensive and accessible. We wrote them about four checks and in return they handled: set up and take down of both ceremony and reception areas, food, drinks, wedding cake, space to get dressed (AND spy on our guests! Huge bonus), all staff including Leslie and Chris the awesome wedding coordinator folks, reception table set up, our family pictures displayed around the Estate, tables, chairs, linens, silverware, flatware, glassware, set up of all our favors and whickety-whack, cake knife, card cage, and the run of the Estate all damn day. We paid an extra fee to have the day to ourselves (they often do two weddings a day on Saturday), and found it well worth it. My recommendation, re: preservation of sanity is simply to research venues and to book a venue that provides as many resources through a minimum of people as possible. Having Chris to communicate with and Leslie on the ground to manage all the details was absolutely essential to the success of the day. I also encourage you not to discount the importance of LIKING the people you're working with. I felt at every turn that Leslie understood what I was going for and where she didn't understand the specifics, she was open and willing to learn.



• I used Martha Stewart's Wedding Planning Tools to track all the wedding stuff. I know many may be Martha-averse, but her planning tools are excellent, and let's have it said...the woman is a creative mastermind. I got some great ideas from her site. The planning tools themselves let you track guests for any event, including bridal shower, etc. and get reports on them in any number of formats (print seating charts, by gift, etc.). There's also a great budgeting tool and easy to use seating chart design. They really have you covered from top to bottom and I highly recommend them.



• We did a lot of do-it-yourselfing. If you can do this - or you have crafty friends and relatives - it's a great way to add your own personal touch to the wedding. It CAN be a cost-saver, though I think it's presented as a guarantee too often. Remember that your time has a value as well. If you are losing sleep and getting stressed because you have to finish a half dozen projects, it probably isn't worth it. My Mom put together all of our flowers. Now, my mother is an artistic mutant and can do these kinds of things in her sleep (she was planning to whip up 16 table arrangements on the morning of the wedding), but even if you're not a big flower arranger, Martha has lots of tutorials on how to do so. I also assembled the invitations using materials from Envelopments, ordered from CC Lowell. That was time consuming but not hard. I used one of Martha's ideas to bring some of our colors onto the table with napkin bands, and I wrapped handmade, all-natural soaps from Stella Marie Soap Company as placecards (which ensured that people TOOK their favors). I also printed my own programs on cardstock. I'd recommend providing programs for half your guest list - we had a TON left over.


• I had a dress custom made. I went on a great trip to Kleinfeld's in New York to look at dresses and found a stunning one that looked great on me...for $2700. No matter how beautiful it was - and it was - I didn't feel comfortable spending that much on a dress, and I knew Rich would probably have a heart attack. It was also a relatively simple design. If it had been more complex, the price tag might not have been so startling but as it was, I thought I could do better. I had a copy made by Bargain Bride for $525 and because it was made to my measurements, my alterations only cost $75; it just had to be pressed, and the shoulders fitted to my own because it was a tip-of-the-shoulder dress.


• The girls' dresses came from J. Crew, on sale, and they picked their own shoes. This didn't really save ME personally tons of money, but it made it easier for my bridesmaids. We found some beautiful cotton dresses with pockets on J. Crew, and everyone was able to get them on sale for $100 or less. I think they will all wear them again and they all looked FANTASTIC. I wanted to be my own bridesmaid. I originally planned to have strong pink and orange as my colors, but with a little flexibility we added in the plum color, and it all worked out beautifully. The bridesmaid dresses were the second thing I picked out after the venue and that gave Mom and I a game plan for flowers. In order to pick the dresses, I first thought about the body types I had in my wedding party - I had one tall, skinny girl, one slightly-shorter-but-average-height and skinny girl, one woman with swimmer shoulders and narrow hips, one woman with hips all over the joint, and one woman with ninja butt - and identified the hip/rear region as our collective Dressing Challenge. The dresses were fitted in the top and then had a graceful pouf-out at the natural waist. Everyone looked completely tailored and chic. I just told the girls to find orange shoes they liked, and I was thrilled with the result, since you could see each woman's personality in the shoes she picked.


• I used Etsy a lot. Etsy and The She Space have restored my faith in customer service. I was able to get exactly what I wanted for a variety of things, including hair accessories, bridesmaid gifts, and my hairpiece. It's a great artists' community, and I have found everyone - EVERYONE - on it to be completely helpful and willing to work with me to achieve whatever I wanted.


• I spent a lot of time harassing my bridesmaids and vendors via email. I checked in with everyone to make sure they knew what was going on, what was required and had more information than they might have needed. That way, everyone knew what everyone else would be up to, and I had to do much less last minute planning. It worked out well and we had an absolute minimum of chaos, which made room for more fun and laughter!


• I let the experts be experts. I have never been married before, so there's lots of stuff that I either didn't know or didn't care about. The various people who I hired to help were hired because I trusted their abilities. Our cellist, Virginia Berry, probably still thinks I'm crazy, because I contacted her and told her I wanted the Prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 playing when we signed our Marriage Certificate and that beyond that, I was pretty ambivalent. She put together a beautiful arrangement of music for people to enjoy before and after the ceremony (there is no music in a Quaker wedding), and more importantly, she was playing music she was comfortable with, which will always be the best. Leslie and Chris do nothing but run weddings all the damn time at the Estate, so where I had gaps in knowledge or concern, they were able to suggest ideas based on common choices. Vet your vendors well and then rely on their expertise.

I recommend choosing a location as naturally beautiful as possible. This means you have less decorating to do and thus pay for. Really, how do you beat this?More scenery that was included in the package price of the Estate. See what I mean about not needing to do a damn thing to it?
Here's our whole invitation. The center part is comprised of the pink outer envelope with the Kalideoscope paper, orange paper and white paper with text layered over it. In the pocket, we included an orange RSVP card and a Kalideoscope vellum direction sheet. I recommend providing a separate, easy to carry direction sheet so people can bring it with them.
Here is the center of the invitation so you can see how it's put together - click for closeup.
My dress was a copy made for me by Bargain Bride and I think it came out beautifully. This is The Lucy and I goofing around while we got ready.
The men were dressed by Mr. Tux Men's Wearhouse Tuxedo Extravaganza or whatever the hell they're calling themselves now. The women are wearing dresses from J. Crew and shoes from various places. We did our own hair and makeup, and hairpieces came from an Alchemy listing with Pick Me Flowers on Etsy.
Rich and I are saying our vows to each other here. You can see my Mom's beautiful flowers, as well as my veil from Something Bold and a hairpiece from Liason on Etsy (more on her in a moment).

It's tough to beat my Mom, sorry. She put these bouquets together apparently through magic and they could not be more perfect. She used roses, alstroemeria, hypericum berries in both green and red, some green delicate stuff from her garden, and tied it all together with twine and wrapped it in ribbon. If you can find someone to wholesale you the flowers (try a gardener), you can get the stems for cheap and put them together yourself. I will need to get a report from Mom on what she used in my bouquet, because there was a LOT of stuff in there and I can't identify all of it.
The centerpieces were based around hosta leaves from Mom's garden and hydrangeas from our friend Mary Ann's garden and also incorporated the hypericum berries. Again, I'll need to get more info on what's what in here, but one of the highlights was Mom's use of curly leaves in the vase itself to add interest.
Finally, here is my hairpiece (also my cute husband), which was a magnolia clip from Katherine at Liason. Many of you may know that I love magnolias. I wanted to have them at the wedding, but they're out of season by now even in the South, I didn't want to ship in hothouse flowers and they straight up do not grow up north. I'd kind of given up on the whole idea until a minor veil snafu got me looking for hairpieces and I found this one. I had to have the "it's not real?!" conversation about a zillion times, and the effect was just perfect. Katherine's work is impeccable and sturdy, but I think the picture speaks for itself. Now, I can't make you do anything, but I can tell you that if you don't go and look at her shop, you are missing out. She makes these phenomenal headpieces inspired by the work of Alphonse Mucha and never, ever, ever in my life have I wished harder that I had $1800 earmarked for pure frivolity. Head on by and check them out.

Hopefully this provides some good advice that will help someone, somewhere preserve their sanity. As long as you simplify, clarify and plan well, there's no reason to have your wedding make your life a living hell. I'm not suggesting that I was 100% calm throughout, but I also wasn't in a perpetual state of panic from start to finish. As I told Rich, at the end of a day, you're planning to feed and entertain a bunch of people (165 in our case) for five or more hours, which means you're going to have a lot of moving parts and a lot of things to plan. If you first establish the important things and lock those down early on, the rest will be a breeze.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

For those of you not on Facebook and thus subjected to the innundation of my page in photos, Rich and I got married this Independence Day. It was a complete blast and a wonderful day!Huge thanks to everyone who made it out and made it such a stunning day. More to come later, but for now, please feel free to swing by the ole Facebook or check out our wedding blog for some information on the day.

Family Always Wins, Even When Things Are Great Already

Went in to work today, and it was hectic. We're moving around one section of the building and since I'm in facilities I get to be involved with all the organizing and shuffling. I love where I work, and even though it was chaotic, it was nice to be able to help the people I work with and be in the middle of everything. No one will be surprised to hear me say that a certain part of me loves a little bit of mayhem and thrives on it. Fun day, changed outfits in the bathroom like the classy babe I am and left a little early.

I went from work to a Jim McGovern fundraiser where Bill Clinton was speaking. I would actually stab someone to write for him. He has such wonderful wit and a fantastic ability to get intimate with his audience in a very short amount of time. I had a total blast.

Left the fundraiser to go to Michael's to watch game 7. Last year's Penguin loss in the final was heartbreaking; it's always tough to see grown men cry, but these guys didn't even seem like grown men. They'd wanted it so, so badly. Watching them win this year's Stanley Cup was supremely cathartic, and it was great to watch playoff hockey without the hair falling out of my hair in clumps from stressing. Well freaking done, boys, and congrats to Hershey as well. On our way out, we stopped to watch the Red Sox beat my Grandad's Phillies in extra innings with a couple of great plays.

I came home and there were a couple packages - it is wedding season indeed - one of which contained the garters that my Grandma wore at her wedding in 1944. Her mom, Pansy Blossom Logan Schmeck, made them for her for the occasion. Grandma included a note, which was 100% sweet and had some phenomenal passages, to wit:

Your Grand-dad and I were married July 29, 1944, in Sage Chapel, at Cornell University, up there in Ithaca, New York. He was a civilian teaching navy officers about engineering, and I was teaching in the College of Home Economics (now Human Ecology) in the Costume Shop, a wonderful place. I met him in January, and we were married in July. When he died, we had been married 62 years!!! It lasted.

With very much love, I now give you my wedding garters, made by your great grand-mother, Pansy Logan, from Kentucky.

"It lasted." I mean, really. Best day ever.

Over Hill and Veil

On my Mom's side of the family, there is a family veil. You would think that this would be something people would want to keep fairly close track of, but apparently, you would be wrong. The various matriarchs of the family have been looking for it amongst the most recently married Gustafson women, but so far no luck, so I called my grandmother on my DAD'S side to see if she could help with the "something old" factor. Grandma Brown has an epic historical fashion collection, which she lends out to museums and exhibits and colleges and travels all over the place talking about, so I thought she might have something that fit the bill.

Grandma has mastered exactly one piece of technology from the modern age and that piece of technology is the fax machine, so I got a fax with several pictures of a beautiful veil with some gorgeous floral embroidery on the edges. When it's not on grainy fax paper, this is what it looks like.
Totally love it. I was planning in the absence of the family veil to wear a birdcage veil, but I love the look of this one and think it's just perfect for an outdoor wedding. For those who don't know, this is the style of dress I'm wearing (don't worry, I already showed Rich this picture, he's safe):
Had my first fitting on Wednesday and it was sooooooo easy, which seriously thank god because we all know I don't deal with the aggravation of these things well. Just needed it bustled and the straps adjusted so they didn't stick out like mutant wings.

I Am So Organized

I know this will be amazing for everyone, but I have in fact accomplished more wedding planning, so I will once again share it with you. First order of business: my bridesmaids are awesome and have great taste. I told them that I didn't care what kind of shoes they got as long as they were comfy and some form of orange, and the three (AHEM, Ash and Cecilie) who have bought shoes have all rocked it out. Observe.

Celia (who will doubtless come at me all "eww you put pictures of my unpainted toenails on your blog whyyyyy"...cram it, lady, your feet will never attain my level of grossness and callousy creepiness) went with a pair of sandals from J.Crew that are totally cute and which she got on some kind of super sale for like $5. I am not usually pro-bows-on-shoes but the size and angle of these make them really cool.

The Lucy picked out these foxy sandals from Enzo Angiolini on Amazon. I love the brightness of the color, and the Enzos I have owned personally have always been comfy and great, so these should work out really well. I find it really interesting to see each woman's personality come out in the shoe choice...it's one of my favorite things (aesthetically anyway) about this whole planning process. Also on the favorite list: the fact that my wedding allows me to guilt my awesomest girlfriends into accumulating more or less at my whim. I'm gonna get married ALL the time! (Somewhere, Rich just had a spasmodic twitch for reasons unbeknownst to him.)

I probably don't even need to say that my sister picked these out, but yep, these are hers. I give her props for not only meeting the orange requirement (I don't know about the comfort requirement, but I do have faith in Sarah's heel-wearing abilities) but also for matching the color of the dresses almost exactly. I like the detail of the red platform and heel, too. These came from Amazon, too.
As a segue into bride stuff (via picture) from bridesmaid stuff (via intent), I love the idea of these little pendants used as bouquet danglies. They are of course from OliviaMoon, from whence my beautiful Alphonse Mucha pendant came. What a neat idea! I like them for all of our bouquets, so provided money and memory endure, I'll likely order up a bunch of initially goodness for everyone.
I ordered this jewelry set from BellaMink designs, and it arrived yesterday...it's seriously stunning and I totally love it. I ordered it up with a vague idea that it might work for the wedding, but now that I have the set in hand, there's no way I'm not wearing it. I am not usually one for pearls BUT as we know, I am a sucker for great color. I love the colors in this, and it will let me kind of nod to the more traditional in a way that works for me.

Our involvement with hockey in Worcester has brought a lot of great friends and acquaintances, but one of the somewhat depressing side effects of being involved with a minor league team is that the players and their significant others are much more likely to leave town eventually. The woman behind BellaMink is named Cristina, and she is the wife of one of the guys who came through Worcester. She was an absolute joy to be around while they were in town, and she recently started up this jewelry line, every single piece of which I totally covet. While she and her husband have moved on to a different team and city, it's absolutely fantastic to see her doing something with her clear talent and being so generous as to share her pieces with the wider world. Do yourself a favor and take a moment to toodle around her store, particularly since the Statement Necklace is Back and all that.

Finally, this decision was made earlier on, but these are our Save the Date cards (well, sans text...nothing personal, but I don't really want The Internet showing up at my wedding unannounced). There's this whole thing where I don't really give a crap about Save the Dates, but Rich has been all "well people DO STUFF on the Fourth of July so no one's gonna come," so needless to say I get all "I don't know what kind of crappy friends YOU have but my friends love me and they will come, and also a wedding is like a barbeque only way better and with more booze," and long story short we're doing the damn cards. Fine. However, I will say that I had a totally brilliant idea which resulted in these cards. The design is one that my Mom did. Yes, she is ridiculously talented, this is nothing on her watercolors or pottery, and it's extremely goddamn galling to be around someone who you can give, like, engine grease, some chewed gum, and a duck and who will then return to you some kind of frameable art. She drew this for my birth announcement, and I thought it not only was really cute but also that using the same design for my wedding lent a certain nice continuity to my Major Life Events.

Boy, I Sure Do Love THINGS!

Okay SO the power is back on, yay! It came on Thursday night or Friday morning (I was not at home so it's a little foggy in my memory), and all is...mostly well. The house no longer smells like fireplace, and the cats have been restored to their normal habitat which naturally made them freak out extravagantly, because if there is anything that makes me panic, it's being in a place I recognize. High five, cats.

I have been trying to get more serious about finding good body products that do what I want them to, and to that end I have a couple items I would like to share the love and tell you about. There will also be a section on why my boss and immediate coworker are awesome.

Okay, first group of things that are excellent comes from the Body Shop. I had a Body Shop party at my house a little while ago, and wound up with a bunch of cool stuff...you may also remember that I have waxed poetic about Body Shop items before. Every semester, I play this hilarious game with myself, during which I decide I Am Not Going To Drink So Much Coffee This Time. Then, about four days after the start of the semester, I'm asking Awesome Patti at Charlie's to inject a cafe Americano directly into my veins. I've kind of embraced this cycle of denial and eventual willpower collapse, so I continue to look for supposedly energy-producing stuff in the feigned effort to get off the coffee. Item number one up there is a collection of "Total Energy" well being products, which are full of good stuff like guarana and bergamot, which do in fact perk me right up. Are they equivalent to a stiff cup of coffee? No. But they do make the morning shower and prep time more revitalizing, and they smell good. The body wash is a great exfoliator, which I always need, and the body gel is fantastic. It's not like a lotion or a body butter, which I tend towards normally, but it's a more fluid gel that feels...not unlike aloe going on a very light sunburn (i.e., cooling and soothing, not that "ohmigodohmigod please make it stop" shock of putting aloe on a burn you got from falling asleep for four hours at high noon. Not that I have done this). The smallest container there is a pulse point balm, which is a nice pick-me-up in the middle of the day. There is a certain citrusy aspect to it, and again, it's not a Red Bull, but it does perk me up. Would that I could have had this during my 2.5 hour Ideology and Revolution class.

Item number two is a Deep Sleep pillow spray, which I totally love. Rich loves shopping at places like CVS when he's sick, and is much more willing to medicate himself than I am, for all manner of things. When I do give in and turn to drugs, I prefer to go for a more organic approach, and for this reason I decided to try this sleep spray out. It really does knock you out faster, and I find it helps me to better sleep through the night - I am the locus for a lot of cat activity (they like to be with me, sometimes under the covers...I kneed poor Flyboy in the head this morning because I didn't realize he'd wormed his way under there), and this means that I often am woken up and thus look like death the next morning. The active ingredients in the spray are jujube date, geranium, juniper and patchouli oils, and I'm not sure why it works so well, but it does.

Number three is Hemp Hand Protector. I have skin that's prone to occasionally ejecting every drop of moisture for no apparent reason; my feet get calloused very quickly, my elbows sometimes could be used for Brillo pads, and my hands do this thing that LOOKS like leprosy but as far as I can tell is not. Now, I'm also extremely judgy about people's handshakes, so as a result, I assume everyone is like this, and this turns into extreme neurosis about the whole pseudoleprosy thing, which means I'm always looking for really intense moisturizers. The Hemp Hand Protector fits the bill, not only by moisturizing extremely well, but it also seals in its work, so the moisture STAYS there. The smell...is not my favorite. It's very earthy and planty, but it's not aggressively so, which for me makes it well worth the benefits.

Number four is Monoi Miracle Oil, which I use for...everything. I put it on my feet, I put it on my hands, and I use it to finish my hair, which tells you everything you need to know about the lightness of it. It has this wonderful, super-light floral fragrance, and it makes your hair really shiny and soft, as well as moisturizing everything you put it on. I am particularly loving its addition to my Morning Hair Extravaganza, because I am fairly rough on my hair, and it rights all the wrongs I perpetrate on it. I usually throw some Humectress conditioner in, then some mousse (whatever I have, currently something from Garnier), and blow dry it upside down a little. I then set it in thermal rollers, and blow dry some more. Previously, that was it...I'd take the rollers out and gave it a little run through with a brush, etc., but now I put some of the oil on my hands, rub it around, then run my hands through my hair, and it makes it all shiny and stuff, and I usually finish by going in and harassing Rich to touch my hair. I am kind of an annoying fiancee.

Finally, we have a Moringa body scrub. One of the many things I like about Body Shop stuff is that they tend to last a really long time. I tend to find that a lot of scrubs and exfoliants require giant dollops of the stuff to really work, but with this one, it takes the teeniest scoop. The scent is really pretty and floral, and has some staying power, which I like. I tend to choose products on scent fairly often, but with shower stuff, I frequently find that the scent is going to wear off as soon as my foot hits the bathmat, and that's always disappointing. Not the case here, plus the exfoliating particles are hardcore without being excessive.

My Aunt also gave me body stuff for Christmas (YAY CHRISTMAS!), and it is fabulous. Origins does such a great job with their scents and quality of products, but there isn't one immediately convenient to me like there used to be in DC, so I tend to forget the extent of their awesomeness. I had never smelled this particular scent before, but I am stoked about it. It's a very light floral, and according to Origins, it's comprised of Tahitian tiare, jasmine, petitgrain mandarin, bergamot and basil. It's really lovely and unusual, and the specific items are fantastic as well. The body cream is moisturizing without being oily or pasty, the bubbly bath syrup (NB: Is "bubble bath" too low-tech?), and the perfume comes in a ROLLERBALL, YAY, which makes it nice and portable without risk of damage. Fabulouso!

So let's talk about my awesome coworkers. We've had a lot of shifting around over the past year or so, and now that things have settled, I am sharing a desk with the woman I work opposite days from. I have a fairly strong nesting instinct, so I put up a bunch of pictures and such on my side of the desk, one of which was a print of Alphonse Mucha's Princezna Hyacinta lithograph. Upon seeing that print, my coworker a.) recognized it as a Mucha work, and thus that b.) there were more of them, and proceeded to c.) find a stunning Mucha pendant for me for Christmas! How freaking cool is that? I love my coworkers. She picked the print above, which is one of Mucha's "Summer" works, and the photo above does no justice to the vibrant color of the print. Plus, the backing is a MIRROR, so you can check your lipstick, blind your enemies with reflected light, whatever. Awesome. It appears to be from Etsy Person Oliviamoon, who has a ton of different patterns and shapes.

In other awesome coworker news, my boss also gave me jewelry, in the form of a beautiful glass pendant on a steel cord, both from Happy Owl Glassworks. The above is just a sample of what they do. Mine is a rectangular bead that's white, with a sparkly, swirly green over the bottom two thirds or so, with a little spray of black on the edge of the green...it's an abstracted horizon line with the outline of a tree! It's so fly. Plus, as we all know, my desire to have things other people do not is extremely strong, and this is a one-of-a-kind item, per the Happy Owl folks.

More posting soon...Christmas, ice storm and follow-up snow storms threw me off big time, but I promise, more to come. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Ahh Decision Making By Committee

Thanks to the joys of Facebook/the internet/magic, I was able to put my head together with my bridesmaids in Washington state, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Norway to finally make a decision on bridesmaid dresses. I am aware that I am kind of crappy at being a bride because I don't really give a rip about the fouffy details and thus forget that others are interested in them, so I am sharing this little nugget of successful collaboration with you now. Enjoy!