back to the fun stuff!!

After that rather heavy post on friday, I'm ready for something light and airy...

Isn't this gorgeous? So cosy and elegant all at once. Via Once Wed.

There's a lot going on these days! Obviously, the wedding: preparations roll on. We're trying to get all the invitations printed (check!), mounted (check!), wrapped, addressed, and mailed today. I bought the most awesome stamps yesterday:

I could eat them they are so freaking sweet!

I'll post pictures of the invites as soon as everyone's received theirs.

Also, we found out TODAY that we got the apartment! We're moving! I mean, we're just moving downstairs, so that's pretty rad, but moving nonetheless. And since our neighbor just moved out yesterday, the place is open NOW. So hopefully we can get the keys ASAP and do a gradual move over the course of the week. Which means I can clean the hell out of both places fairly easily. And the neat freak in me does a little jig. I'm stilling trying to wrap my brain around the fact that we're going to have a BACKYARD!! I can plant things!! I can have a vegetable garden!! I'm not even going to TRY and comprehend the fact that we're going to have a washer and dryer. One major life adjustment at a time, please! Hahaha, I just realized how ridiculous that sounds coming from me right now.

And trust, there WILL be pictures posted up here of our lovely new apartment very soon.

ALSO. i stumbled on this selection of dishware from Anthropologie. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that they make me DROOL. I have never lusted after dishes before. NEVER. But these.... holy moses. Needless to say, I figured out a way to register for them :)

Check it:

Be still my heart. I want a little of everything - the mixy matchyness would be so pretty. LOVE!

Oh, and if you need some help with keeping your perspective, or if you just want to giggle, check out this great article via 2000 wedding, via mental floss.

ttfn!!

feeling grateful

Every time I write the word "grateful" I have to pause - and not for any deep meaningful reason, but because I can never remember which one is the Greatful Dead spelling (it's that one, hehe) and which is the correct spelling. So I always end up thinking about the Greatful Dead. Which makes me think about high school. And, in particular, a kid I used to know who was a huge deadhead. And then I always remember this one day, riding kind of aimlessly with a bunch of friends in his car, listening to these bootleg Dead tapes (yes, cassette tapes).

According to weather.com, this is the 19th day of rain this month. What means we've had 7 dry days in June. And 3 of those days were overcast. That means there have been a total of 4 sunny, rain-free days. No wonder I've been feeling groggy and sleepy and generally undewhelmed. But today, as I sit here, the sun is peeking out, and I'm feeling deeply deeply grateful for my life.

This may sound ridiculous, but to be honest, I'm not really bothered if it does. All the celebrity death in the past 2 days (Farrah and MJ in one day?!? As a friend of mine said, it looks like God was greedy for celebrities yesterday) has got me thinking. Last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I started to feel panicky. It was weird enough to think that Michael Jackson was dead. But the fact that at any moment, someone I actually LOVE could be gone, just became so large and terrifying. I felt paralyzed by it. It is so easy to feel distant from the reality of death, especially when you're young and healthy and lucky enough to have had limited exposure to it. It's hard to know how to function with a hightened awareness of death. But for some reason, this afternoon, I'm feeling a sort of equilibrium settling in. A comfort with the unpredictable nature of our time on the planet. There's almost a sense of freedom that comes with this perspective: things that would normally bug me, or make me feel self-conscious and anxious, I'm able to let roll off me. I'm released from giving a crap about things that don't really matter. And I have SO much to be thankful for. Trite but true. I have an amazing life, and I can honestly say that I have no regrets at this point. If something were to happen to me (a pretty way of saying "if I die tomorrow"), I would have no last minute pang of "crap!! why the hell did i spend my days working at Job X?!?!" or whatever. And that's a pretty amazing feeling.

What a rambly post this is. Unrelated to all things art and wedding. Ha ha. Hey, I'm alive, and healthy, and happy, and I'm free to write whatever I like, and really, that is just so damn cool I could spit.

Happy Friday everyone. And don't forget to tell them you love them.

getting married in the forest!!!!

look at this magical forest wonderfulness!!

so our venue came through in the end - although it meant we had to switch caterers.... but in the end i think we're actually getting a better deal. so this week we're sending a lot of checks out - eek!!

oh saturday i went to look at the ceremony site and reception hall - they're on the same property, which was very important to us. all weekend it was rainy and grey, and the grounds were muddy, but it was still beautiful!! maybe it's just because living in new york makes me crave greenery, but i LOVE our ceremony site. it's a registered arboretum, and i can't think of anything better for our october wedding than a tree garden. if it ends up raining, we have an indoor option, but the only thing that'll make us give up on the outdoor ceremony is a torrential downpour! we're keeping it pretty short, so even if there's a light drizzle, we might make people come out with umbrellas (which we'll provide, of course!). of course, i've totally tempted fate now, with this elaborate post, and of course now it's going to rain buckets, and probably hail on our wedding day. but i'll be brave and laugh in the face of superstition; on with the pictures!!

theres a freshly paved pathway that you follow down from the reception hall:

and then it branches off to a dirt path:

a few feet down the path, you see this on your right:

it's a circular clearing called the bell garden. it's a little overgrown right now, but it will be mowed for the ceremony. there are a couple of wooden benches around the perimeter:

this is the back of the reception hall:

this is the side of the building - there's another door into the hall down there, under the awning:

and this is the front of the building - it's an historic farmhouse that was restored and added onto:

this is the room where my girls and i will get ready (it's the living room of the original farmhouse pictured above):

i am so relieved and happy to have this settled! i would have loved having our wedding in my parent's backyard, but i would have been way more stressed if we had gone that route. there would have been so many logistical things to figure out, and it would have been a lot less comfortable fitting 150 people in that space than in this one.

now i get to start thinking about the fun stuff!

wedding venue!!

my tea is weirdly bitter this morning. and it's still grey and gloomy in nyc.

BUT

we have a wedding venue!! so things are feeling much sunnier :)

i took a million pictures of the ceremony site and the surrounding grounds on saturday. more pictures (and general info) will be up a little later today, but here's a teaser....

yippee!!!!

randomly

i have to say that i hate engagement pictures. i think they're stupid as all get-out. i just don't get the whole concept. what is the point? other than to spend more money? what could be a better example of a silly convention created by the wic, designed to do nothing but add to your budget?? maybe i'm just a freak, maybe it's because the whole idea seems over-the-top sugary sweet to me. and maybe i'm missing some vital piece of important information. i'm certainly not maligning those who have chosen (or will choose) to have engagment photos taken - to each his own and all that good stuff. i simply felt the need to express my deeply felt WTF moment. REALLY!!!!! i feel like a crazy person here!! ick. engagement pictures. blargh. barf.

oh my goodness, things are looking up

yes, it's true. i may be completely jinxing myself by writing about this, but i can't contain myself.

i think we might have a venue.

and a caterer.

that won't put us into debt.

and are still awesome.

keep your fingers and toes and eyes crossed please.

in other news, how great are these programs????

via mint design.

loving the colors. and the patterns. makes me almost reconsider my decision about programs (not doing them). Our ceremony (in the early stages of it's planning) is going to be very short and simple... programs might be a little too formal for us.

but they are so pretty.....

not in the mood

i'm finding myself in a non-blogging kind of mood today... but then, sometimes the talky, random-thought blogs are the ones i most enjoy reading. so i thought i'd do one of those. hopefully you won't be bored to tears (all three of you!). if you don't enjoy talky rambly blog posts, then you may want to go look at something else. like this. or this. or this. all yummy.

ok, fair warning.

so, random thoughts.

1) Wren handmade. I found her wedding on Once Wed (sooooo pretty), and it made me want to look at her blog, and her blog made me want to be a crafter. to buy a sewing machine and have a craft room with cubbies full of fabric. if we end up moving, maybe i will. which leads me to....

2) moving. potentially? i haven't wanted to write about this, because i fear i will jinx it, but there is a good chance we will be moving into another apartment in our building very soon. as in like 2 weeks. the apartment in question is HUGE (relatively - i mean this is nyc, and we aren't millionaires), it has a basement, with a (gasp!!) washer and dryer (the equivalent to solid bars of gold in this town), a beautiful backyard (another nyc holy grail), and enough room for matt and i to have separate offices. the catch is that our rent would go up three or four hundred dollars. which we can handle, it's just a little scary when he's a freelancer and i'm a multiple-part-timer-cum-freelancer. things have been slow on the freelancing end lately, and we have a wedding to pay for in the next few months, so it's a little anxious-making. we'll likely know for sure this weekend.

3) speaking of things i am aiming to have done/decided by this weekend, we MUST have our venue figured out. so i can send invitations. gah.

4) i had (amazing) indian food for lunch today. and my hands still smell.

5) should i start another blog? just for wedding stuff? and really get into the nitty gritty? not just my random thoughts, but a more detailed blow-by-blow? because this is what i'm thinking: i'm thinking that i need some help staying sane in the face of the ridiculous pressure i feel sometimes to conform to the wic or diy "norms." i'm thinking that it might be helpful to have a dedicated blog for that purpose, with a mission statement and everything. i'm thinking it would be cathartic to vent wedding trials and tribulations to my hearts content without worrying that i was abandoning the other parts of myself (you know, the NON-WEDDING parts. sometimes it's hard to believe they exist, but they really really do) - like my art, my illustration.... you know, the reason i started this blog :) i'm thinking....

6) also, i would like a wallet that looks like this:

that's all for now, dear readers. i hope this wasn't too dull. please accept my apologies for the lack of anything resembling a point.

if you have gotten this far, you are either a saint or my mother (although i suppose that's a bit redundant:)).

friday blog love awards

as i mentioned a few days ago, anna of anna and the ring recently bestowed on me the honor of a "One Lovely Blog" award :) and so, as requested, i now submit my own awards. lets call them "the bird's best blogs." heh heh.

The instructions are as follows:
1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
2) Pass the award to 10 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.

i confess these are not all "newly discovered," but they are my favorites!!

in no particular order.....

*my first wedding blog discovery/ wedding-related-thing-that-caused-me-to-heave-a-huge-sigh-of-relief: a $2,000 wedding

*a model of sanity in an insane wedding world: a practical wedding

*my go-to for wedding inspiration: snippet and ink

*non-wedding related, but SO much fun (who doesn't want to sneak a peak into other people's home? especially when those other people are artfully inclined!): the selby

*lovely lovely inspiring artwork by the yellow owl workshop

*i just stumbled on this the other day - and ten spent the entire afternoon reading her archives. such fun!! and so happy making!! color me katie

*this sweet blog offers really yummy tidbits of inspiration: abigail goes design scouting

*a fantastic, funny, intelligent wedding blog: $10,000 wedding

*a good place to vent wedding frustrations, as well as get good advice and the occasional reality check: indie bride

*and finally, another blog full of tasty eye treats: nest


hooray for blog love!!

illustration friday

for the first time in ages i'm actually posting something illustration-related :)

this weeks illustration friday topic is craving.... of course i thought of cupcakes, and then of course it can't be simple, right? if it were so easy to get, i feel like it wouldn't elicit such longing. then again, maybe i just wanted to draw some funny little cars.

beep beep!!



blog awards coming soon....

it must be tuesday

because i am writing a million posts.

i can't believe i've never seen this before, but holy-moley-freaking-what-the-dang-sweet-baby-jesus, this is easily one of the best things ever. top five. not to be superlative, but i am awed by the technical prowess it displays, and the sheer prettiness of it, and the quote! the perfect wonderful quote! just went right into my heart :)



run, don't walk, over to MadeByJulene to see more...... i am just floored by julene's work!

case in point:



REALLY??????? unbelievable.

i found these via the wonderful nest. now go look.

blog awards!!

awwww.....

the very sweet and lovely anna, from anna and the ring, has given me her "one lovely blog" award!! who knew anyone was actually reading my ramblings?

i'll be posting some awards of my very own soon.....

thank you anna!!

more invitations.....

oh wow, i found these yummy things this morning, from RIFLE:



basically, yeah. ours will have to be a little simpler (3 gallons of turquoise printer ink? not so much in the budget), but dang are these beautiful! and they capture the feeling i'm looking for perfectly. check out rifle's other stuff for sure..... so stinking awesome!!

also, i mentioned that we want to have people rsvp via phone and email/website - but i'm a little concerned about that being unwieldy..... anyone have any advice or words of wisdom about that?

candle glow

maybe it's especially appealing to me right now, in this cold grey city, but i might have to swipe this idea for our centerpieces.......




via apartment therapy

rainy day in brooklyn town

*sigh* it's rainy and gloomy in nyc today (source).......


i stumbled on these today, and they cheered me up a bit:


aren't these invitations yummy?? i am so going to "borrow" the trifold and ribbon idea.... they're by Libby Smith, and i found them at once wed (who have an awesome new site design - check it out!).


also from once wed:



i don't know... it just made me happy.



tomorrow i'm going to the renegade craft fair in mccarren park with my dear friends patti and liz..... the poster alone is reason enough to get excited!!



it's sponsered in part by etsy, and there's gonna be a treats truck there, so you know it's going to be awesome :) they have them in LA, chicago, and san fran too, so check it out! i'll report back next week.....


stay dry and warm, new york!! happy weekend!!

shoes

i wonder... is it worth shopping for shoes when i'm probably just going to end up barefoot?




these are making me reconsider my hippy instinct......



and these.... although heels would probably be a bad idea (they don't really mix with outdoor weddings, right?)





and even though our "colors" are yellow, orange and teal, there's something about the color of these j.crew flats that makes me drool....





and then there are these..... so pretty!!! but again with the heels..... also, bare feet are much much cheaper :)

why i'm marrying him

via adventures in daily living.... i'll have to take my own picture tonight!!

he came home yesterday with a big bunch of pink peonies.... for no reason in particular :)

130 days to go

isn't the knot just so delightfully helpful? i log on ( i am using it for it's guest list feature! thats ALL, i swear!!), and it blares 130 DAYS TO GO!!!! all i have to say about that is zoinks.

granted, we are having a pretty short engagement (about 6 months - which seems kind of ridiculous to me, that 6 months is short, but anyway, thats another post altogether), but it is definitely freaking me out a little bit that we can't seem to nail down our venue.

here's the saga: first, we looked all over jersey, but realized pretty quickly that we were never going to be able to afford a typical wedding venue for the number of people we wanted to invite. we weren't willing to cut our guest list (as it is, we've trimmed it a few times, and in order to afford a traditional wedding, we would have to at least cut the guest list in half, and since our families alone make up almost 50% of the list, that was not really possible), so we decided to explore less traditional venues. like my parent's suburban backyard! long story short, i got insecure about that plan, and started looking at some other options, and two possibilities magically popped up. things started to align themselves for one of these places; they were affordable, available, and had indoor AND outdoor space. but we didn't want to put the deposit down until my sister had a chance to look at it (it's a few hours away from us), but it seemed like a go. our officiant saved the date, our caterer saved the date, all seemed well. i felt like the stars were aligning! but then, glitch. our caterer is a family friend, and she is able to give us a great price, partly b/c she was assuming we were holding it at my parents place, and so she wouldn't have to charge us for insurance. silly me, i assumed that she had insurance. so when i asked her to show the venue her license, well, obviously i found out that wouldn't be possible. SO. basically i had a minor breakdown.

i called my parents, and my dad said "give me this guy's (the contact at our desired venue) name and number, and maybe i'll go talk to him in person, and see if something can't be worked out." matt thought this was great ("what is he, don corleone?"), and i agree. we've been getting so much support throughout this process, it's really pretty amazing. i never would have thought to ask my pops to do such a thing, and i was pretty touched that he offered. we're a very lucky couple :)

so who knows at this point what's going to happen. i'm revisiting the pot-luck or bbq at my parents place idea. in a way this might be a good thing, because it may force us to remember our original intentions for the day - simple simple simple!! the trimmings are not important to us... but it is so easy to get caught up in wedding shenanigans. so now i'm concentrating on being zen. whatever happens will happen. the important thing is that matt and i are getting married. as long as that happens, the rest is just details.


this is helping.....



via a practical wedding via Hannah of Stonehouse Photo.