Can

[maggie and giraffie, summer 06]

Been thinking alot about this video that I came across on Ali's blog the other day.

Thoughts about gratitude, perspective, attitude, joy, living life to the fullest and living life in the moment, what can I give myself and what can I give to others....

Very amazing 4 minutes.

Order of Events

Wednesday 7 pm - a right turning SuperCell makes its way toward St. Louis. I'm in my car on my way to meditation.....and I know something is not right when the car stars to shake in the wind.



Wednesday 9:30 pm - Traffic signals out, multiple trees in the street, trees on houses, trees everywhere.... No power at the house. Tomato cages at an angle. A balmy 80 degrees for sleeping....



Thursday 6:30 am - still no power, call friend Aileen, she has power!!! drop off Kula.... get ready for work; leave the cat lots of water.

Thursday 5:30 pm - a warm 120 outside, about 81 on the first floor, probably in the 90s upstairs. Cat is hiding in basement. Back to Aileen's for AC!!

Friday 11:00 am - head to airport....another storm! Parking garage no power.... Flight delayed, delayed, delayed. Finally on plane and circling over Newark....circling, circling....nothing landing in greater NYC area because of another f-ing storm!!! We are headed to Cleveland.

Friday 7:00 pm - back on plane with supposed "new crew" to fly us.

Friday 8:00 pm - wait a second....same flight crew... sorry we are "timed out" can't legally take off and fly you to Newark.

Friday 9:00 pm - one agent at service counter....lots and lots of angry, tired passengers.

Friday 10:00 pm - Holiday Inn Express....very smokey room

Saturday 9:00 am - check back in at airport

Saturday 2:00 pm - finally taking off!!!!

Saturday 4:00 pm - Finally landed in Newark!!!!

Sunday 4:00 pm - 24 hours after arriving... heading back home.



The time I was actually in Newark was very nice. CJ and Deb were wonderful hosts and Adam and Kelly have a very beautiful baby with really big eyes!! This is what I made for her.





I started it on Wednesday when I still had power and finished it at Aileen's when I didn't have power. My first stuffed toy ever. Inspired by this, this and this.

I'm glad to be home....

Storm of the Century

Been dealing with this since 7 pm last night. It was pretty scary but I'm fine and the house is fine. Andrew's garden didn't really look fine. The tomato cages were at a 90 degree angle.

I love how this stuff always seems to happen when Andrew is out of town and I'm here alone.

Sleeping in the house without AC last night was not fine.... I didn't sleep.

Luckily my dear friend Aileen still has power so Kula is there keeping cool. Della is on her own in the basement.

The neighborhood looks like a war zone. Trees down everywhere!!

More storms to come tonight...... stay tuned....

Reunion

[clockwise from left: CJ, Adam, Andrew, DK, Kelly, Jimmy]

This weekend we are headed to New Jersey....

We will be getting together with Andrew's best man, Adam, his wife Kelly, and new baby Gisele, and with groomsman, CJ and his wife Deb. [Please note: DK is a groomsman too (see picture above) but he is too busy being a master chef to join us...=( ]

The funny part about this weekend is that Andrew, Adam, CJ and I all went to junior high and high school together. In fact I went to pre-school with Adam...and I believe I attended his 5th birthday party...although I have no photographic evidence.

It has probably been 11 years since I've seen Adam and 13 years since I've seen CJ.

If you had asked me 3 years ago if I ever thought the four of us would be getting together to celebrate marriage and babies I would have said you were on crack.... but life is funny that way and here I am.

I will admit that I am moderately anxious and nervous about the reunion but I am also pretty excited. I can't wait to see Gisele (most gorgeous baby ever!), play with lots of dogs, see if Adam and CJ have changed or stayed the same... and have lots of girl talk with Kelly and Deb. Most importantly I hope the weather is nice so we can take full advantage of CJ's patio and pool.

Cupcakes and other assorted details

We will be having cupcakes..... something like this:

[via www.maganda.org]

So I am trying to decide what to do about the display of said cupcakes.... Here are three options.
I like the ones from Target the best but I wish they had 3 different sizes instead of just two....

Target has 2 sizes...


Crate and Barrel...


Amazon....



I also sent some bridesmaid dress ideas out to my girls this week. They are all from Anthropologie. I like the first one but yellow wasn't really in my color scheme....but I think it can work. This one is also on clearance so it has a great price! Too bad one bridesmaid is in Denver and one is in Europe at the moment.....









Ordered our save the date cards from www.ofoto.com yesterday.


Andrew is working on the website.

www.saraandandrewswedding.com

He plans on adding a bunch of info on Wednesday. He is calling hotels, airlines, car rental places trying to get deals. Unfortunately I think June is an expensive month. Lots of weddings, conferences, travelers, etc.


Waiting for a sample for the invitations to make sure I can print them at home.

Still debating on favors.....

That's it for now!

Photographer

[ via Stephen Seward Photography, http://www.stephenseward.net]

Andrew and I have talked a lot over the last couple months about how and if we wanted our friends to "work" for our wedding (i.e. go above and beyond simply helping us with ordinary preparations). Our friend Cate (proud momma of Leah) is a photographer, our friend Steph makes cakes, and our friend Jeff has a jazz band. While it is tempting to ask all of our friends for their services to save money, Andrew and I decided we didn't want to make our friends "work" on our wedding day. We want them to be there to celebrate and relax just like the rest of our family and friends.

So today we hired a photographer. His name is Stephen Seward. I found him through the Wedding Photojournalists Association. He won a third place award for one of his photos. Check out his portfolio and/or his blog.

Congrats Cate and Gary

[Daddy Gary and Leah]

Introducing....Leah Gita Skolnik (I hope I got it right!) This summer has been so busy I just got to meet her this weekend and she is already 4 weeks old! She is a cutie pa-tootie! Congratulations Cate and Gary!



[Aunt Melelani and Leah]


Our dear, dear friend Denise is recovering from having a heart attack last week. That was a scary phone call!!! She seems to be doing well and, as always, was in good spirits. I am SO, SO thankful that she is ok!! Andrew and I have asked Denise to help officiate our wedding. Please send her your good thoughts and blessings for a full recovery and many more years of good health. We love you Denise!



Here is Andrew testing Melelani's new bike.

SqWires

It appears that Andrew and I have decided on a location for the wedding/reception and a date.

SqWires Restaurant & Market, Historic Lafayette Square, St. Louis Missouri

June 23, 2007

Here is a shot of where the ceremony will be outside the front of Sqwires.

Visitors

Well I think I have had more visitors this summer than I have the entire 8 years I've lived in Missouri. It's amazing what having a house and a guest room will do! It's been wonderful to see so many people but also very busy!!

After my family left my friend Arnaud from Belgium (see above) was in town and hung out with us a couple evenings. He also brought us a FABULOUS bottle of REAL french champagne for our engagement. We love you Arnaud!

Then it was the Marconi brothers on their way from NYC to LA. Unfortunately I was so excited to hear authentic NY accents that I forgot to take any pictures...=(

Then this week my long lost cousin Corey stopped in. I had not seen Corey in 10 years....to the day!! It was awesome to see her!! She has my dream job as a theatre technician doing electrical work and carpentry. I can't wait to visit her in NYC.

Color Theory

Well if anyone has taken the time to look at all of my links over on the right ---->
you would know that I am a bit obsessive about reading design blogs. It's my own little world that I live in and love. I go through withdrawal without it...as I'm sorry to say, Andrew's family witnessed when I was in North Carolina this year.

One of my favorites is Decor8. The other day I sent Ms. Holly an email to ask her some questions about one of her posts on color theory. Low and behold she asked me if she could create a thread out of my question!

Here is my design blog debut!!

The information Holly provided was awesome and so totally helpful. I should ask questions more often. There is so much to learn!!! and so much confidence to be gained. I am thankful that people like Holly take the time and energy to share what they know. Thank you Holly!

Embrace Imperfection

Doing lots of reflecting these days...

There's nothing like a wedding to make you contemplate expectations, validation and perfectionism.

My new shirt... [via Ali Edwards Design]




And I highly recommend watching this movie, The Winter of the Dance. It's only 10 minutes but it has an important message. [via Keri Smith]

Joke is on me

Well.... today was not a good wedding planning day after all. =(

The time and place we want for the ceremony is not available. Now I don't mean to sound like a bridezilla......but I am super bummed about this. I had the whole "day" planned in my head....and now I have to change my plans. Not cool.

I went to try the dress on....by myself...(how sad). It actually fit....but I don't think it was "the one". Although at this rate I'm not sure "the one" exists.

Could I sound more pathetic? It's right about now that eloping sounds so romantic and enticing.

I think all I have the energy for today is some more pouting.

Vegas, here we come.

Joke

So you all know I was joking on that last post....right? I'm not a Hello Kitty or Precious Moments kind of girl.

I think one of these dresses is more my style, except the fact that they cost between $2,000 and $10,000.

I am actually going to try on another dress this evening at Neiman Marcus. I found it on their website and they don't actually carry it in the store but they happened to have one that was returned. It's a size 8...which might be too big but I'm hoping to just get an idea of whether I like it or hate it.

I think Andrew and I have decided on the locations for the ceremony and reception. We are acutally about to go over to our choice for the ceremony to see if we can talk to someone. Once we have a date for the ceremony we will contact the reception location. Hopefully everyone has the same date available.

I'm getting closer to deciding on the invitations. I think I've decided to order the paper from Paper Source but I'm still deciding on the exact design.

I ordered three more milkglass vases from ebay this weekend. That gives me a total of 7. I think I will need 3-4 more.

Well keep your fingers crossed. I'm going to go try and pick a date.

Hello Precious Moments!

Here is my perfect dress..... [via weddingbee.com]


And the perfect location.... (this is actually in Missouri! Ack!) Hey Mom, do Amy and Marybeth know about this place? [via preciousmoments.com]

Look who came to visit me!

My mom, brother, sister-in-law and two nieces! All the way from upstate NY.


We had a full weekend of the Botanical Garden, City Museum and Circus Flora and the Arch. Good times were had by all. Thank you family for driving all that way!

French Country

Here is the project I have been working on for the last month. It is for a couple building a new house and they wanted help with colors and fabric and creating a french country style. I didn't finish as many of the details as I wanted to but I think it turned out ok. Hopefully they will keep in touch and I will get to go shopping with them to pick out some of the furniture.

Here is the whole board


Formal dining room


Formal living room


Breakfast area


Family room


The perfectionist in me is having a hard time dealing with not feeling like I did a perfect job. But I am trying the best I can to remind myself that this is a learning experience. I have learned a lot so far but I have a ways to go.

Mostly I am just totally distracted by wedding thoughts 24/7. Here is the newest blog that I am addicted to: www.weddingbee.com

Andrew and I are going to visit our fourth venue tonight and another on Wednesday. Hopefully we can narrow it down to one by the end of the week.

House without it's lid

It has been a crazy week. Work, wedding planning, interior designing and school... I feel totally drained tonight.

Luckily Bob and Steph called and invited us over to the hot tub...just what I need to recharge for the week ahead!!

Hopefully I'll have enough brain power to post something more interesting tomorrow.

Perfectionism

"Perfectionism's function is to keep people busy and cut off from their authentic emotional experience. When the mind is occupied and moving at a frenetic pace, there leaves little room to feel. Perfectionism keeps us externally referenced, perennially attempting to achieve what our culture deems as ideal, perennially walled off from the mysterious churnings of our internal lives. We live in a culture where we are trying to out-run the mystery of life. Because Westerners feel tremendous anxiety when they simply sit still, we will go to great lengths to organize our lives so that all available time slots are occupied by meetings and activities. We believe that if we consume ourselves with acts of doing, we can avoid sitting with the contents of our being."

"Perfectionism is, primarily, a need to control. And control is a mask, or protection, against feeling difficult feelings. Any time we find ourselves trying to control a situation it is because we are unconsciously trying to defend against feeling our grief, fear, helplessness, loneliness. "

- excerpted from "The Conscious Bride"
[ via www.consciousweddings.com]

Summer clean-up

I've been doing some clean-up here at the blog. I posted a new picture over on the right in my profile. I also broke up my links into people I know online, daily inspiration, design blogs and interior design. The inspiration and design blogs are ones I visit everyday.

Wedding plans are on their way. Andrew and I are going to look at two places this week. I spent all day yesterday at work looking for photographers. Holy cow they are expensive!!! I'm also trying to work out a design for our invitations etc.

My summer school class starts tomorrow....yucko. It's pre civil war American history. I don't like history. Hopefully Andrew's love of history will help me get through the class in one piece.

First Impressions

Okay.... work with me here.... This is what the front porch used to look like. This picture was taken about a month after we moved in, June 2005. (can you believe we've been here a year!!) Notice the very, VERY ugly and filthy brass, colonial porch light. Also notice the very tacky, fake lead house numbers and flowers on the side window. (You can't see the numbers because they are behind me.... but trust me. They are ugly.)



Here is the porch now. New porch light and frosted glass with numbers. Much improved I say! Next step is a new door. (I am dying for a new door!!! I hate this door.)




Here is what Andrew has been doing with his time.

House before:




House After:
A finished stone wall on both sides of the stairs, hostas on each side of the landing, two new boxwood shrubs (via bob and steph's yard when they were making room for the new hot tub) and ivy in the rest. Can't wait until the ivy fills in.