Searching for "The" Dress

I always thought when the time came, I would enjoy shopping for a wedding dress: I'm a Libra--I love vanity, but I guess my problem is that I don't love wedding dresses. I don't like bleach white ballgowns and trains that feel like I'm dragging the weight of a dead person behind me. That eliminates 90% of the dresses out there. I'm also thrifty (okay, cheap) and can't justify spending over $500 on a one-day dress. That eliminates the remaining 10%. As for trying them on, I'm a self-sufficient gal; I don't like saleswomen pushing their way into the dressing room to help me every two seconds. I'm not having luck finding the right thing at department stores either.

So, with the clock ticking, I've come up with a plan that makes me nervous. There is a pretty, affordable dress I tried on in California. It has one shoulder with flowers and it wraps nicely. My hesitancy with this dress is that it's all white or all ivory. I was trying really hard to spice things up with some variation of typical bridal colors.
Then I came across this two-toned dress at a bridal store.
A loud woman there with her niece told me she never would have thought to have two different colors on a dress but that it really stuck out to her and she was shocked she liked it. Even though I didn't care for her loud backwards compliments, I liked that she felt it was "different." I liked that it was different, and I could see making some small adjustments to make it even more unique. The only problem was the price of $900 not including alterations.

After researching alternatives, I decided to order, should I say, a dress based on this dress online...factory direct from Taiwan. The whole thing makes me uneasy and it's not very ethical of me, but for less than a third of the price, my cheap instincts won over. It's a gamble if it comes out okay (or even comes at all!) but it's a relatively cheap gamble so I had to try. As one bride commented, "People will knock you getting a dress from overseas, but where do they think their designer dress is really coming from?"

It should take about six weeks to make and ship and at that time I can determine if it was a giant mistake and hope I have enough time to order the other dress, or just plan to walk down the isle in a potato sack.

If Only We Had More Space

In a few weeks I will be doing a review of a product from CSNStores.com. They have so much to choose from, it's almost too much to handle. Along with clothes, pet products, and pretty much anything else you can think of, they have a ton of household items from this modern Eames lounge chair, to this kitchen island (which I have in my kitchen), or this wall art. Since we're running out of room in our apartment, I'm leaning towards reviewing some kitchen cookware since that is stuff we use all the time and we have some items that could use to be replaced. Plus, if I expect Tommie to keep cooking for me, I need to make sure our kitchen inventory is on par, even if we don’t have the cabinet space for it all. I envision one day having a big, bright kitchen with cabinets like the one in the picture below. Maybe I'd even feel inspired to cook more than scrambled eggs in this kitchen.

Back In Town

We are [reluctantly] back from our San Diego vacation. We had a wonderful time visiting, eating, and socializing at our old haunts. Though it did rain a few days while we were there, we managed to get the most of the sun when it was out. We walked around La Jolla, Coronado, and Balboa Park.We met up with my sister, friends, and old colleagues. While taking pictures, Tommie backed into a cactus which I had to pry out of his leg. He's not allowed to be around cactus without supervision now. We stalked our old neighborhood and watched all the happy dogs playing at the dog parks and I felt bad for Maya back in the snow.

It was fun and easy to visit a place that we knew so well. We didn't have to waste any time looking at maps or flipping through tourist books. We knew what what we wanted to do, how to get there and, of course, what to eat. We probably gained 10 pounds each, but it was worth it to get our fill of sushi, Mexican, Thai, New Orleans, gelato...the works. It was a true culinary tour and very relaxing which is exactly what we needed.
Like all vacations, it is hard to come back, especially from a place we once lived...a warm place, I might add. I'm going to catch up on some sleep now and keep the blinds down so I can pretend there are still palm trees outside.

70 Degree Jump

We have made two good decisions this winter: Getting a Subaru for the snow and planning a trip to San Diego in February. Tomorrow I'll be trading 5 degrees for 75. Though I am physically and mentally defeated by this season and a lingering pain in my jaw from tooth complications, I can't imagine anything more healing than sitting right on the swim/surf line at La Jolla Shores, enjoying the view...of the surfers...and soaking in that warm Vitamin D. Maybe I'll even be able to take a dip in the Pacific. The ocean is great for healing and those surfers don't hurt either...I'll try not to get yelled at for crossing over into the surf zone which can easily happen when you're distracted.

Let There Be Cake

Another big wedding decision has been made, and it's one that some of my friends think is the most important...desert. As much as I love desert, I hadn't given it much thought because I don't like wedding cake. Often times they are traditional, expensive and though when I'm at a wedding I might eat my slice (and Tommie's) out of sugar addiction, I never find that they taste good with all that fondant. But my grandparents insisted on taking care of the cake for us and how could I then deny something like cake?

With that said, we still wanted to do "the cake" in a cost-effective way that also represented us, so we met with a local baker in Hampton to go over ideas and flavors. We opted for a small custom designed "couple's cake" on top of tiers of cupcakes. We chose two flavors: delicious lemon cake and frosting, and vanilla with sweet cream cheese frosting. It should be a light, refreshing way to end a savory meal of Mexican food which we'll serve at the reception.The photos here will serve as the inspiration for our cake and the accompanying cupcakes.
The cake will be a base of pale yellow with shades of gray for the contemporary branches and leaves, and there will be pops of white and orange in the sugar plumeria flowers she'll make on top (these flowers are popular in Hawaii and San Diego). She'll carry the gray petals onto the cupcakes which will be wrapped in silver wrappers tying into our Mexican "tin" idea. We can't wait to see how it all comes out, and getting a custom-designed desert for $300 was easy for all of us to swallow!

Hearty or Stupid?

This week I had my third root canal and we got our sixth major winter storm. (The snow pile in our driveway is over my head). I'd be frowning if it didn't hurt my face so much. I know I like to complain, but come on, even an eternal optimist would at some point say, "Enough!"

This is exactly why I don't think the first snowfall is ever "pretty"...while others see lovely sparkling flakes floating down from the heavens, I see the world a few weeks later covered in muddy, icy mounds of despair. Optimism isn't something I've ever been good at, but I'm not quite in a pit of despair yet (it's more like a giant pothole), and our vacation to San Diego next week is the only thing sparing me from burying myself under the eight-foot mound of snow outside.

We New Englanders try to make ourselves feel better about being trapped in horrible weather by calling warm-weather people thin-blooded wimps, but you know what they really are? Smart!

I was raised in a hearty, cold place; I was raised to think I didn't deserve to be warm and comfortable all the time, or know what the sun felt like except for a few glorious fleeting months of the year. Winter is here to toughen you up...make you remember you can't have it too easy. Well, I get it! I'm miserable. It's not easy; it's not fun; life sucks. So how long do we have to do this for? How many more back-breaking storms before spring?

Let's face it, there is hearty, and there's just plain stupid.