Tangent Tuesday: Rainy Days

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It's looked like this for the last three or four weekdays here, and that is perfectly fine with me. Unfortunately, I've also had to work through all of these rainy days, but if I didn't I could think of a few things to do...

1. Fuzzy blanket; 2. cup of tea; 3. A Practical Wedding; 4. The Mission, The Men, and Me; 5. Goldfish Grahams; 6. George Winston; 7. iPad; 8. Flashpoint; 9. dark chocolate.

1. In reality, even though it's raining, it's actually too warm to wrap up in a blanket. So what if I may have to turn on the air conditioner to truly enjoy the experience?

2. Remember we talked about my worship of Tazo Tea last week? Also, I'm thinking about registering for some glass mugs just because those look so cool—but I really don't need any more mugs unfortunately.

3. I just finished reading A Practical Wedding by Meg Keene. My big draw from this book is that if you don't get anything else out of the book you should get this: if your wedding ends up with you married, it's a success—nothing else matters!

4. I'm currently reading The Mission, The Men, and Me by Pete Blaber. You know, sometimes you just have to suck it up and read a book that isn't necessarily about one of your interests. Special Forces? Not my thing. But it means something to Nathan, so it's worth it.

5. Would it be inappropriate to register for Goldfish Grahams and hope everyone buys me those instead stuff I really need?

6. Yes, I love piano music. Especially George Winston. Either on Pandora or one of his albums—he's outstanding.

7. My iPad was a gift from my parents for my graduation and I love it! I don't use it as much as I did before I got my iPhone but it's perfect for reading blogs, skimming the Internet, and doing Crosswords. (Does this collage make me seem like I'm 60?)

8. Remember when we talked about enjoying your significant other's interests? Exhibit B: Flashpoint. After finishing Leverage, I needed a new show to watch.

9. No, I would never eat an entire bar of dark chocolate in bed.

Too Many Toasters

I mean, say you want to register for a toaster. You go to the Bed, Bath, & Beyond site and look up toasters—and get this.

Four pages of toasters—and with fifteen on each page that's over forty-five toasters. For people who have really specific tastes, this is probably awesome. Lots of choices! Customize your toaster! Heck, if you want you can get this toaster at $339.99.

Not only does this toaster have four extra-wide slots and an insulated stainless steel body, it has an auto shutoff and apparently a bell that rings when the toast is done.

To be honest I was just looking for a toaster that, you know, toasts bread. Like you put the bread in and a few minutes later it pops out warm and browned?

Obviously, this was just an example. I could have proven my point with cookie sheets or blenders—and don't even get me started on flatware. I know how to cook and actually enjoy cooking, but up until now I've either cooked out of my mom's kitchen or out of my fully equipped kitchen on campus. I don't have a brand preference and really have no idea what I even need. Basically, I was overwhelmed.

When putting together the basic items of the registry, I started with bridal registry checklists from sites like The Knot, Real Simple, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond. Although I definitely don't agree with all the items on these checklists—ahem, I've never heard of anyone registering for a snow blower before?—it gave me a good starting point. I was able to look through the items and come up with basics of things I needed. It was easy to see "Oh, I need to register for a vegetable peeler, ice cream scoop, etc." while disregarding the things I wasn't interested in—such as a bar cart or patio furniture. And somehow I managed to go from freaking out about too many toasters to having a basic kitchen registry.

Making Decisions is Awesome

After weeks of indecision and frustration (summarized here), I decided to narrow down the search. Remember, my dress is the J. CREW Sophia in ivory silk chiffon. I wanted something to match the simple style and flowy fabric. Simplest way to do that is to buy the bridesmaids dresses from
J. CREW as well.

Now, before I sound either overly preppy or made of money—remember I paid only a fraction of the cost for my dress, and as you'll see in this post my sisters got great deals as well. Buying the dresses here was a decision of convenience and availability!

In about ten minutes I scanned the J. CREW website and came up with four of their bridesmaids dress options that fit what I was looking for.

The J. CREW Mirabelle, Sinclair, Louisa, and Heidi.

Unfortunately, these dresses were still $250 or more. I found some great deals on eBay and other dress resale sites that made me think this could actually work—and then I found the sale section of the J. CREW site. First of all, I'm never buying anything full price again.

Second, I found the J. CREW Macie.

Note: I linked to the petite listing because the regular size listing doesn't show it on a model! However, it's also on sale in the regular sizes, although with limited colors. Which we can deal with for a $250 dress down to $70. That's even cheaper than I found it on resale sites online.

Now, while I absolutely loved that coral color... it just wasn't what my sisters wanted to wear. And you know what? That's ok! My sister Abigail happened to love the color gallery green which was available in her size.

Emily wasn't the biggest fan of the Macie, but she did love one of the options I had mentioned from the beginning—the Louisa, which also happened to be on sale in the color gallery green. Choosing an "off" color like gallery green turned out to be a great decision!

So here's what our final choices turned out to be. On the left is the Macie, on sale for $70–Abigail's dress. On the right is the Louisa, on sale for $130—Emily's dress.

This is going to force a slight adjustment in color—I'm basically going to replace the seafoam green in my original inspiration with this more of a kelly green. It's really not going to affect much. The bouquets (I promise I'm eventually going to blog about these!) are coral, light blue, and light yellow, all colors that will work great with kelly green. I hadn't really purchased anything else in green except the guys ties. When the dresses come, I'll see if the ties work with them. If not, I only paid $12, so I'll go out on the lookout for something else!

Flashback Friday: The Proposal

I already sorta kinda maybe posted about the proposal here. In that post I talk about how hard it is for me to talk about my proposal story—almost as if it's too personal to share. But I do want to elaborate on some of the elements I talk about in that post, some of those "so incredibly good, they'll always be there" memories.

Nathan and I literally sat down with our schedules and a calender to figure out a day that would work in the month of October. It went like this...

Me: I have class Monday and Thursday nights and Friday October 5th and Saturday the 6th. 
Nathan: I work Friday the 12th, Saturday the 13, Saturday the 20th, and Saturday the 27th.
Me: I have huge paper due the 15th, there's a concert on the 23rd...

Ok, you get it. It wasn't easy to find a day that would work. I ended up taking the afternoon of October 9th off work and Nathan skipped class—after choosing a day with no quizzes or tests. The ten-day forecast showed a beautiful 70 degree day and we had plans for a picnic in the same park we spent our one-year dating anniversary.

Guys, it was SO COLD. I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, heavy fleece jacket, scarf, and gloves... and was wrapped in a blanket sitting on a blanket. Eating soup. Drinking hot chocolate. For South Carolina in October, this is an abnormality—we're talking about the same state where it was 70 degrees yesterday.

On the bright side, soup from Panera is really yummy. All we did was bum around the park all afternoon. It was awesome. We sat in the gazebo and ate and talked about how much pizza we ate the last time we were there. Walked around the lake. Watched the newest episode of Bones on my iPad. Sat around until I got too cold to sit around and then we headed back to Greenville to our favorite little park.

Little stream runs straight down the middle and pours off this rock into a pool.

This park is really only as wide as this picture, but it's so cute and secluded. During warm sunny days the park is packed with picnickers and photo shoots. On a day like today—you guessed it—we had the place to ourselves.

Yes—I knew it was coming. He didn't have the ring box in his pocket in Spartanburg. He put in his pocket before we left that park and unzipped his pocket when we got down to the base of the waterfall. Does that make it any less special? Absolutely not.

I didn't feel any "different" after the proposal. Like "OMG I'm engaged life is perfect!!!" We were content, together, and... cold. So basically exactly how we were before the proposal. And probably explains why we didn't spend much more time in the park before hopping in the car to go get some pizza. I was hungry—I like food and I'm not ashamed to admit it. So on to food, then, and telling family and friends.

The Heart Hole Punch

Last night I was at Walmart with exactly five things on my list—Kleenex, Advil, new screen protectors for my iPhone, and thin ribbon and a hole punch for my invitations. Side note: Apparently EVERYONE got an iPhone for Christmas, because Walmart was completely out of screen protectors. And I just placed an order on Amazon and forgot to order more. Dang it.

So I found thin coral ribbon at 10 yards for $0.49 and grabbed two because that's all they had. I'll probably need more actually—for the invitations I need to talk about still. Then I searched all over the store for a hole punch. Turns out the hole punches are in the school supply section, not the craft section or the party section. I did find cute cookie cutters in the party section though.

I grabbed the basic, $0.97 hole punch and started walking towards the door. Then it hit me. My invitations would be so much cuter with a heart hole punch.

In about 0.02 seconds my mind was telling me "Well, I can't get the circle hole punch because the invitations would just look awful with circle holes but amazing with heart holes!" And all I could think about was how I have to have a heart hole punch. Of course, Walmart doesn't have a heart hole punch—at least not that I could find. But that's ok, back to my trusty friend the internet to find me a heart hole punch that could fulfill my obsession.

Amazon told me heart hole punches were at least $7.50 plus shipping. Cue budget guilt.

"Should I really pay TEN TIMES as much or more for a heart hole punch?" 

"I don't NEED it... it's nice but not necessary!"

"I should just buy the $0.97 hole punch and let my invitations look ugly."

Ok, so reality check.

1. My invitations would not look ugly with circle holes instead of heart holes. In fact, no one will even notice. Except me of course.

2. I have budgeted my expenses and have more than enough money in the "invitations" section to cover a heart hole punch.

So you know what? I bought a heart hole punch. Actually, I bought three hole punches—a heart punch, a star punch, and a circle punch. They look like this:

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I didn't buy them because I have to have them. I bought them because I think they would be a cool addition to our invitations, and I can afford them.

And that's ok. Not everything has to be the cheapest thing out there, and not everything has to be absolutely necessary to my project. You can always use hole punches in the future—and hey, these have cool purple handles!

You Have Bewitched Me

Name this movie: "You have bewitched me body and soul and I love you. And I never wish to be parted from you from this day on."

Did you guess Pride & Prejudice?

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Cheesy, maybe. But I have absolutely loved Pride & Prejudice since I first read the book—in middle school maybe? I've read it multiple times and seen both movies (of course!). I think it's such an amazing love story, and Keira Knightley is pretty amazing herself in the newer movie version.

But this post is actually about my first bridal shower! Initially when asked about having a shower with my church on New Years Day I was very hesitant. At that point I hadn't registered at all or even thought about having a shower. Fortunately I recuperated quickly and gathered some items into a registry. I'll have to post more about this, because this was and is way more difficult than I originally anticipated.

My mother and another woman from my church hosted the shower jointly. It was a brunch, and my mother cooked an incredible spread of food! Virginia did all of the amazing decorations—Pride & Prejudice themed, hence my opening.

She painted this print on canvas—too cute! The table centerpieces were stacked books with adorable tea pots and jars sitting on top of them and coral flowers to match my wedding colors. It was kind of like a dry run through for my wedding decorations.

Sorry this picture is so dark—photographer I am not, and all I have right now are my iPhone pictures. This is the place settings. The favors on each plate were Hershey kisses wrapped in pages of an old Pride & Prejudice book! She ripped the pages out, folded them in half with the kisses tucked inside, and sewed the edges to make a cute pocket.

My mom and lovely sisters cooked the food. I only took a picture of half of the table and the cupcakes, but we had mini muffins, sausage, breakfast pizza (so amazingly good!), carrot cupcakes, quiche, rolls, pumpkin French toast bake (to die for—so glad I got the recipe), and fresh fruit. Since it was a small church shower, that was more than enough food to feed the 20 or so ladies with their daughters who came. And it all tasted delicious.

I'm really mature, so I referred to the gift table as our "shrine table," complete with our engagement pictures and a candle lit in our honor. But in all seriousness—we were overwhelmed and very thankful for the many lovely gifts we received! I need to do another post soon about our registry, and when I do I'll share more.

I will say that to me the most uncomfortable part of the shower was opening the gifts. I am not naturally good in groups, and sitting in front of everyone opening gifts while they watch my reactions was out of my comfort zone. It's interesting—I can stand in front of a class and give a speech with little anxiety but when it comes to communicating personally with a group of my peers, my heartbeat skyrockets. I was nervous for the shower overall, but I really enjoyed getting to talk with many of these women, including my aunt and cousin. Some of them have known me and babysat me since I was three years old. And when the pressure was too much—well, I just escaped to the corner and colored pictures with the little girls at the shower.

Speaking of kids, check out these adorable girls (and baby boy!) who attended my shower—along with my lovely sisters and cousin. And a huge thank you to all who came and supported me, especially my mom and Virginia for hosting!

Tangent Tuesday: My Favorite Things

I've found that I don't like posting recaps of activities or events as much as I like writing about topics. Granted I don't have anything deep or meaningful to write about but hey, life isn't always complicated. Sometimes, it's just like The Sound of Music and about a few of our favorite things...

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And because I'm mildly obsessive compulsive and love lists, here's a list.

1. My iPhone and Mophie

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Well duh, I love my iPhone, Apple is amazing, blah blah blah. The major flaw with the iPhone though is that I can easily drain my battery completely by early evening—and plugging it in is either not possible or a total pain. For my birthday my parents bought me a Mophie Juice Pack Air which extends my battery pack by... a lot. I don't know, like half a day? All I know is at the end of the day I don't have search for my cord to keep my phone from shutting down. It's bulky, but that doesn't bother me. The one thing that would be neat is if Mophie came in other colors besides plain white—pink please?

2. Amazon

Amazon's not a thing? Who said Amazon can't be a thing? In wedding planning I've been using Amazon for EVERYTHING, and because Nathan has Amazon Prime we get free two-day shipping. So basically, I never leave my apartment to go to the store.

3. Tazo Tea

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Ok yes, I love Starbucks as much as the next girl. And I love carrying a Starbucks cup around with me all day. Do I love paying $4 a day for tea? No. (I don't drink coffee.) Good thing this tea is amazing. My favorites are Refresh and Zen—Passion is good but very very strong if you let it sit more than 0.00001 seconds. So is Organic Chai. p.s. I like my tea weak.

4. My Brooks Nightlife Running Jacket and Pro Compression Socks

Personal photo. Does this look like an outtake for a photo shoot? Thought so.

My three siblings and I all got the Brooks neon yellow Nightlife jacket for Christmas. I also got bright pink Pro Compression socks—and gave Emily and Nathan black Pro Compression socks. Hey, if it's a good product, buy more of it. Abigail, Emily, and I all sported our matching jackets on a (cold cold cold) run to Minneahaha Falls in Minneapolis and Nathan (taking the picture), Emily, and I also wore our compression socks. Love them. The jackets are reflective for running at night and the socks aid in blood flow and recovery.

5. Leverage

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This is a bittersweet one because just after I finally started watching and loving this show, TNT canceled it after five seasons. On the bright side, there's five seasons to watch! Eliot (to the left of the guy in the center—team leader Nate) is my favorite character, closely followed by Parker and Hardison (to the right). Nate and Sophie are kind of whatever, but every fight Eliot gets into makes up for it. If you haven't seen it, you don't understand—but it's awesome. Just trust me.

What are some of your favorite things? Bonus points if you put them into song form.