blargh

sorry, i've been watching a fair amount of 30 rock on the roku lately.  :)

though i've been up since 8:15ish, i've yet to get out of bed.  michael left sometime this morning for a financial aid conference in beautiful newark, ohio and won't be back 'til later friday, and it's pouring.  i just don't understand why we're getting march rain in may in cincinnati right now, but i can safely say that i'm over it.  it makes me hurt, so just stop it, rain, ok?  my bed feels warm and cozy [though empty], and here my foot doesn't realize how much it hurts, so here i stay.  i don't have a ton on my to-do list today anyway.  i keep going back and forth between going back to sleep and getting up for an iced coffee.

yesterday, i got to spend the afternoon of my day off with bestie and future officiant girl, roberta.  she, her husband tom, baby julian and i went to Amma's Kitchen for a delicious vegan indian lunch, then after tom and julian went down for naps [tom works overnights], birda met me at anthropologie for some girling out.  i got this cute headband that i may turn into a wedding hair thingy.  i swooned over these shoes.  after that, we hit up whole foods and i got an iced coffee and a cannoli while she got a few necessities.  it was nice.  oh, i forgot, i also found this crazy paper flower installation in the window of a banana republic.  i ran in to ask if i could have it, but one of the managers had already called dibs on it, so now i'm on a mission.  it's a stunning arrangement of paper ivory flowers, perfect for what mike and i are doing for the wedding, so i *must* score a few of these.  or at least one.  i'll try to photograph it so i can post it, but you would notice it right away because it is sooo lovely.  if you happen to live by a banana republic and somehow score one of these for me, i promise to do something extra-super-special for you in return.  :)

well, it's after 11.  guess i should put myself together, put on my wellies, get an iced coffee and try to salvage whatever is left of today.  tomorrow afternoon is round 2 of foot specialist appointment, so i'll be sure to post the results of this as soon as possible.  my schedule sucks the rest of the week, it looks like this:

• today:  pack, run some errands, work 3-11:30, miss michael
• thursday:  foot/ankle specialist @ 2, work 3-11:30, karaoke, miss michael
• friday:  work 11-5, hug michael and welcome him back, leave for nelsonville!  yay! get home sunday.  business as usual.

stay dry, y'all, ok?

dress drama

so after much ado with the ebay seller re: my sister's dress, it should be on the way.  the debaucle was this...

she paypal'd the seller, then noticed in super tiny print at the bottom of the auction that the dress did not come complete with the sash.  my sister contacted the seller, asking where the sash was and why then did the photo of the dress [taken on a form, in her house] was shown with a sash if there was none.  the seller took several days to reply.  seller told her that she'd refund my sister if that was a dealbreaker and that the dress never had a sash, but not explaining how the photo of the dress with the sash happened.  oh well.  after some emails and phone calls between my sister and i, we decided to go ahead with the dress and if it worked without, then ok, or we can always just fashion another sash or something, and if not, we'll just resell the dress or what have you.  she should get it by thursday, so we'll find out then.  first major snag.  i'm ok with that being the only one so far, however. 

kara will look so pretty...  in a dress that she will actually be able to and want to wear again.
awesomes.

h

here comes the 'maid...  all dressed in green [not red]  :)

bad, bad blogga

sorry, y'all.  between having out of town company last weekend and the end of a term, i've been a terrible blogger.  please forgive me? 

one of the reasons i've been such a raging slacker is pretty cool, however.  i have secretly been apprenticing with miss angela gallo at her tasty northern kentucky cake shop known as three tiers!  sorry for keeping it on the DL from you guys, but we just needed to see how it worked out first.  i'm helping her and she's teaching me.  it's sort of the awesome.  and her cakes are bangin', so if you're ever around the bellevue area with a sweet tooth, or you need some sugary magic for your next shindig, you should check it out.  there's even some vegan options for you dairy-free folk.  saturday, i had a banana cupcake with chocolate italian buttercream frosting and a lemon cupcake with lemon italian buttercream frosting...

um, yum.  and i don't even like cake, y'all.  but yum.

three tiers magicalness

in other news, we may have found 'the dress' for my 'maid.  on ebay.  for [get this] $60.  aaaand, it's the short, colorful version of my dress.  how perfect is this??  the color isn't exactly perfect for an early fall wedding, but who cares, really?  i defy you, seasonal expectations!  we do what we want to!  because it's our wedding! 

yeah.  take that, tradition.  in your face.

cuteness

ties for him and little him.  awesomes. 
this is more than likely our tie person, methinks.

via etsy

TUESDAY QUESTION OF THE WEEK TIME!

since the belle and the beau can make any sort of tie, which should the boys wear?

a box on my porch, a text from michael...

... the accidental dress.

yep, it arrived today, the fluke of a bargain i stumbled upon. i really thought a dress that i found online for a song would never actually work - it would need too much alteration, it wouldn't look good on me, it wouldn't look like the photo, etc. i stand corrected. my $100 gamble paid off, i discovered, as i ran upstairs opening the box, took it off the hanger and slipped it on. the length is perfect. the skirt is full [but not poofy] and beautifully lined to hide all the bad stuff. the bodice of the dress needs to be taken in an inch or less. the sash is wide and long. the ivory is the perfect creamy shade. i am in love. i now have the unfortunate pleasure of giving lucia the bad news, but as a girl who loves a bargain as much as i do, i hope she'll understand. i now have my dress!

lesson learned: don't be afraid to try something unconventional. frustrated by the lack of options and the high price tags, i found a stunning, affordable dress online for TONS less than retail. there are other sites too, for not-so-conventional dresses that are totally bride-appropriate. it's not about being cheap. it's about finding what works for you, while not buying into the idea that you have to go wedding when you're having a wedding. consider destination dresses, vintage, regular retailers that have white dresses, etc. you don't have to go to david's bridal or a boutique to find something lovely. sometimes lovely shows up in some really atypical locations.

still high from feeling the silk tricotine against my skin, i am going to now get ready for dinner and a rock show with the mike. there is this running joke with cincinnati kids and northern kentucky kids that none of us cross the river to go hang out 'over there'. tonight, mike and i are actually crossing the river, having a nice dinner somewhere on main strasse, then to molly malone's to catch our friends, mallory. they are awesome. go see them play if you don't know.

hope you enjoyed the sunshine today! happy first of spring! <3

highs + lows

the lows:
so i spend a chilly cincinnati day off feeling sort of crappy and running errands. one of those errands was to try on some dresses. as you may remember in a previous entry, you may be asking why i did this. well, simply put, i had no idea what size i was or what was out there. i found a 'destination' dress online that was supposed to be at bridal and formal, so i decided to go and see it, but when i got there i was informed that it was, in fact, not there. nor was there amazing customer service, fyi. the young DAAP grad who helped me pick out some dresses to try on was lovely. her desk-hovering boss lady was not, however. one of the dresses i tried on was inspired by this dress i had seen while trolling, but it was made by maggie sottero and had a pink tag, which meant that it was the sample being sold off because that dress is being discontinued. while it was still a small fortune, it was also one of the only things i've seen that is both 'bridal' and 'lovely' simultaneously, and it looked cute as hell on me, so i actually started to consider it. i failed to get the model # while i was there. i ran a few more errands, including dropping off the rock for resizing, which is now going to take 5 days, rather than the 2-3 i was told, based on the design of the ring. frustrated by the insanity of dress after dress, delays in getting my stunning ring back, as well as mending from what might be the onset of flu, i then retreated home and got directly into bed. i stayed there for a while, talking to my sister, trolling the internet for the model # of that maggie sottero dress to get the 'what do you think of this one' email going with the sister, but to no avail, so i decided to call bridal and formal and get the number. i was told by not-so-nice boss lady that she would not be able to look for the dress because i had failed to place a deposit down on the dress today. say what? i didn't put $50 down to 'hold' it because: [a.] i went alone. i didn't have anyone there to back me up or tell me i looked pretty, except for the associate, and she doesn't know me from a hole in the wall. all my friends have jobs where they are required to work on mondays, jeez. [b.] even though my $50 could be transferred to a bridesmaid dress [not happening, since my *only* maid lives in atlanta] or a MOB dress [also not happening, as my mom isn't going to be buying anything from there for my casual-fun-party-marriage thing, especially now, lady], i didn't want to gamble it like that. and since when do commissioned sales associates deny working for a customer? after pulling my jaw out of my lap, i coldly replied, "so... because i didn't put down the deposit, you can't find the one maggie sottero you have on clearance so i can email the model # to my sister so she can give me her opinion on it from atlanta?? ok, well thanks for your help." at that point, she verified my info and said that she'd have sweet DAAP girl call me 'if she remembered'. i'm still waiting on this call... and am no longer interested in anything to do with bridal and formal. good thing i didn't put down that deposit today, eh? ;)

highs:
i was really annoyed and feeling ill. mike came home and made me soup and poured me a glass of apple juice, because he's awesome like that and that makes me really, very lucky. resting did me good, as i started feeling slightly less flu-like [yay!], and then i got back to internet trolling. then this miraculous thing happened. i was frustrated [as i mentioned, oh, about 10 times so far], and right in the thick of this frustration, i found a wedding dress classified site with a dress that i actually like, slightly bigger than my size, for sale by a girl who tried it on once then decided to wear a tea length dress instead, selling for a meager $100. yep. one measly banjamin. i emailed her promptly. now i wait. maybe i can pull this off after all? here's to hoping!

'maids... er, 'maid

due to the simplicity of this shindig, and the smallness of the guest list, mike and i have decided to only have one witness each. that one person for me is, and always will be, my one and only sister. she is taller than i and most folks think she's older than i, but she is still my baby sister. born 3 days short of a year after me, we are 'irish twins', and are the same age for 3 days every year. pretty cool.

this is me, my dad and my sis, at christmas 2009

lucky me, my baby sis, who lives in atlanta, has a j crew bridal location about 15 minutes from her abode [lucky because there are only a handful of them in the US to begin with], so this morning, she has an appointment at j crew to try on her future maid's dress. we settled on j crew due to the simplicity of the dresses, the wearability/not-so-wedding aspect, and relative affordability. she is trying on about 6 different styles. since there's only one maid, and i wanted her to actually be able to wear this dress again, i actually let her pick it out. she was thrilled. she's been a maid quite a few times, and has ended up with a collection of dresses she'll never get to wear again, so this time, i want her to have a keeper. she's sending me photos of her in the dresses, so as soon as i get those, i will post them. i can't wait to see her in them! :)

st. lucia

as i've browsed wedding dresses, i've found that i'm not really inspired by many of them. they just look like... wedding dresses. hm. i guess what i'm trying to accomplish is less of a wedding, and more of an event or party or good time, so it just seems a little silly to be parading around in a big ol' ball gown thing with a forever long train. i found a whopping 2 dresses that i did quite fancy, however, thanks to the internets. sadness came over me as i soon realized that one of them is no longer made, and hasn't been for some time, and the other one was going to cost me my second born child.

thank god for my amazing friend, lucia: derby girl. woman of character. drinking buddy. mom extraordinaire. seamstress for the band... and for jilly. yep, this hellpot of amazing has graciously offered to make me a dress, based on the two dresses i sent her photos of. she's trying to jumpstart a career in self-employment making pretty things for people, and she's going to create my dress. awesomes. and she's been sewing since 'nam. back when she was a married lass, she would openly tell remind me that mike was a 'tall drink of water' [since she's not married, she never says it anymore, as 'it's not appropriate now since she's single again'. see? character.], that she was convinced that we were meant to be, and in spite of my opposition to marriage once upon a time, she was going to make my dress when i finally said yes.

and here we are.

i can't really post pics of the dresses, as i don't want to give too much away and all that, but sewing will commence within the next few weeks. she is making me a mock dress, so we can fiddle with that to get it right before she starts crafting with the fancy fabric. i am thrilled beyond words that such an excellent lady is making something so important for me. and i can't wait to wear it. in the meantime, if you need a rad lady to make something for you, you should email her at luciajackson30[at]gmail[dot]com and hire her for your next party dress. :) or at least go get a drink with her, because you are guaranteed to have a blast.