junk drawer

It's in the details

A few more images from the wedding...

{our kicks}

{my gorgeous bouquet.  I literally cried when I first saw.  It was perfect! All flowers were by the amazing Christine from A Modern Touch} {our wheels. a london taxi.  one of very few here in the states.}
 

{our guest book branches.  kristin from the fairmount bride helped me string those tags.  that's the sign of true friendship.  Especially when the bride calls in an SOS panic two days before the wedding because there are TAGS TO BE STRUNG!!!}

{our fabu flowers that filled the long rows of tables.  Christine alternated between yellow and orange flowers lining the middle of the tables which were topped with a burlap runner.  She filled the tables with lemons, lemon leaves, and apricots to coordinate.  It was PERFECT...and exactly as I had imagined.}

{our ring bearer pillow and my purse.   You might recognized that fabric from the invitations...}

{our flower girls wore  cute yellow dresses...a running theme...and tossed rose petals from linen bags I made  utilizing all the fabric from the invitations. (see photos of them here)}

{The best sign of a successful reception...Empty tables!}

***all photos by the lovely and talent Lara and Kate from the Studio Nouveau!****

more soon. happy weekend! 

snap snap click

You know when good karma kinda just jumps out and bites you in the ass.?

That happened to me when it came to finding great photographers our wedding.















Randomly, the wondeful Lara, of Studio Nouveau fame, sent me an email.  Next thing you know, she and her biz partner are flying to Philly to cover our wedding.

We're so excited!

Plus, we'll be working together on some video stuff later this summer.  Good times!

So go check out their website and their blog. 

These ladies are TALENTED with a capitol T!

be there...be square

Hey gang-

Kinda took a little leave of absense there...

With two weeks (TWO WEEKS!!!) to go until our wedding, I've been kinda busy over here.

Therefore, I dub this, week o wedding.  Each day this week I'll fill you in on a bit about our day.
Kinda exciting stuff.

First up:

Our invitations. 

If you recall I mentioned a very special fabric project a good while back.

Well- here is the main reason why I spent all those hours at spool.

Take a look:

Our envelopes (from paper source. They have the most dreamy colors!).  Calligraphy was done by our very good friend JZ.

Each guest recieved an invitation wrapped in very special fabric that I bought when visiting my friend Aimee at work. so fun. (thanks for the fabric guidance girlie!)

I designed the invitations myself on illustrator.  It was quite the process and WAY tougher than the sewing bit.  It had been a while since I had used a graphic design program...kinda cool to access that side of my brain again.

Otis and I really wanted to include our nicknames in our invitation.  Afterall,those names are what we call each other (Otis and MB) but we included our formal names on the main invitation.  (erased for posting here)

Our response card.

Our response envelopes.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project.  Most people thought I was crazy to sew all these little pockets (over 200!!), but I thought it was really fun concept and a personal way to set the tone for the party.  Best of all, by doing all the labor myself I estimate that I saved $2,000!!

And to be fair, I got the idea for this project from "The Knot" Magazine and the concept is from local Philly gals Bird and Banner. Thanks for the uber creative mojo ladies!!!

and counting...

looking around.  taking it in. it's monday folks...a new week begins.

A small addition to the macro challenge. More to come tomorrow!

Magical fabric wonderland

When Otis and I started talking about what elements of our "celebration" were important to us, on the top of my list were some DIY goodness....(his was a rock and roll band. We both got our way)

I really wanted to incorporate fabric and pattern into something. This special addition was totally WAAAaaaaaay easier to accomplish with the opening of a very awesome fabric shop here in Philly.

Spool Sewing: Welcome to the world! (gah! this place is soooo awesome!)

Best of all (and perhaps most dangerously) it's located right smack dab next to loop, my most favorite yarn shop.

And the big time added bonus is that one of my best girl's, Aimee of betsy ross patterns fame, works there.  Familiar faces make fanatical fabric shopping sprees so much more special!

My super secret fabric projects will be revealed right here very soon.

For now, here is a sneak peak:

happy tuesday!

::insert blog post title here::

Hey there- been a while.

you know when you have so much to say you just don't even know where to begin?  yah.  I could write a post about the nearly twenty million kajillion things that have happened since I last post, like:

-how there are cute wild kittens that keep snuggling up in the trash pile between our stairs and our flower pots. Which in reality is like eeew.  gross.  but at the same time.  awh. cute! (note to self: um, could you clean up outside your house!? narsty!)

-or how I am paranoid that I'm going to get the flu and curl up on my sofa for days on end while trying to aimlessly hack up a lung or sweat to death, all the while trying to rationalize to myself, that really, a situation like that doesn't sound half bad.

-or how that planning a wedding is wonderfully horrific and terrifyingly such a good time all at the SAME MOMENT!

- or how much I love my wednesday night with the girls.

-or how Eric Ripert has been popping up everywhere lately.  wtf?! (btw- Who's his publicist?! they deserve a raise. Lately this man has spread like the flu!)

- or how excited I am about picnik.

-or how I can't seem to stop listening to this song! i keep getting weapy! (seriously, it's almost an epidemic and has been going on since NOVEMBER!)

Instead I'll just write a post about this:

I taught my first knitting class.  It was pretty awesome! In my opinion there's nothing like sitting in a circle with some gals, knitting away while dangerousely sipping on wine.  I was pretty impressed with the group of students.

pretty fast for 2 hours, right?

After after much delay.  Ladies...here are those links I told you about:

How to cast-on
How to knit
How to purl
How to bind off

Happy stitching!! and more fun stuff monday. I promise.  I have big plans for the weekend that involve rotary cutters and being surrounded by yards upon yards of fabric for hours on end.

gratitude, calm, and focus

Oh peeps-

Thanks for listening last week. Wow it felt good to get all that out. I must say, once I hit the post button I feel like a wave of relief washed over me.

Your words of understanding were SO appreciated and I must admit that some of them caused me to shed a tear or two. The wedding maze is just that: a big maze filled with dead ends but with a path to the finish line that's been traveled before. It felt so good to know that: DUH, ther are many who have done this and survived!

Otis and I have moved our wedding date up. I think at this point we want to just get on with it, so we're getting hitched here in Philly at the end of May.

This means I have to buckle in and get on with the planning.

We still have lots of loose ends to tie down...but I see "it." The light, it's there at the end of the tunnel and our day will be unique and very us. I'm so excited!

But what I'm most excited about is being Otis' wife, and with all the craziness that comes with planning a celebration, I keep meditating on what the end result is: A union of two people very much in love and very excited to keep enjoying our life together.

Spring...and all the goodness it will bring is very very close.

Bitch fest

I have to get something off my chest.

 

This whole wedding “thing.”  Yeah.  It’s not so much my game.

I was never the girl to secretly buy the bridal magazines, dream about walking down the aisle, wonder about what would happen on my big day.  It just wasn’t on my radar.

Since the moment I said “yes” this ride that Otis and I have been on has been a wild one. We thought we had it all figured out.  We didn’t. We were going to be bold, be different, march to our own drummer!

We were

I’ve been doing lots of thinking, analyzing, assessing of our plans, which have changed about a million trillion different times.  Lately, I feel like I have ADD.

Too formal, too casual, too barren, too expensive, too impersonal, too scary, too far away, too inconvenient…. how will people react?

Not: what do WE want?

Why are we fighting about paper plates? We’ve never fought before…

The thing that freaks me out about the whole wedding thing is how I loose MY identity. I’m now a bride.  Where did ME go?

How we lost our identity…MB, Otis. Us.

Instead of being a couple, we have turned into the “wedding planners”

Hey! How are you?! How is the wedding planning coming? Get everything all figured out? What colors, what invitations, what food, what music, what photographer

Don’t you have to wear white? Don’t you need a fancy dinner? Don’t you want stiff formal flowers? Don’t you need a big bowed cake? Don’t you need bridesmaids? Maid of honors? Best men?

Not really.

Are you loosing weight? Whitening your teeth? Going on a diet? Going on a honeymoon? Going to register? When when when how how how how. How much?

It’s okay to splurge just a little…. it’s YOUR day after all.

Is it really ok? Is it really necessary? what for?

But I feel like there is a huge machine working against me. Conform, it says. It’s easier this way. Don’t think too hard, don’t veer off track. Spend your money, do what you have “dreamed” of always doing. Fulfill the fantasy. Fulfill your duty.

The problem: I never had a fantasy about this whole event to begin with.  Never.

My duty is to marry Otis in a way that I feel comfortable with.  A $50,000 party won’t make me feel better about that decision. I already feel great about it.

But the planning continues…blue, yellow, beef, wine, cocktails, daisies, rock n roll, paper, cloth, boylans, terracotta. Garden, river, trolley, brick, tent, dress, flower, shoes…

I'm just trying to stay above water and stick to my guns.  This river has a fast current.

update: Find out more about where and why the photo was taken on my flickr page: here.

hey! look what I made!

My boss at work was headed to a bigtime, shmancy tv conference with her spankin' new iphone.  Sadly she was keeping it protected in a HUGE microfiber bag. UGH! it was embarassing.

So I whipped her up an iphone case to keep it safe and sound.  This fabric is made of cork. It's soooo cool and made from a sample that I picked up somewhere.

(Isn't it great when you have a boss who has a rock garden in her office?)

Ooooohhhh.  sparklies. distraction.

(PS- Here is my newly set ring! sometimes I just catch myself staring.)

The wedding planning is going along swimmingly. I have relied heavily on many of the GREAT wedding blogs out there.  To top it all off, a copy of DIY Bride landed on my desk the first week of my engagement which just ROCKS.

If you're gettin' hitched...check out some of these cool sites!

DIY Bride

Style me Pretty

Something Old, Something New

Offbeat Bride

Etsy Wedding

A $10,000 wedding

The Weddingbee

The Bride's Guide

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh (sigh of relief)

thanks for all of your lovely emails and comments.  So nice of all of you!!!

PS- Keri- Yes that is a quote from father of the bride. I LOVE that movie.  Mostly for the chipper chicken. I lost your email.  could you email me your address girlie?

Feli- yours too!

Things are starting to SLOWLY come together...but at least I feel like Otis and I have hatched a very fun, very "us" wedding plan.

On to unfinished bizzzzness: What I made for my Christmas vacation i.e. gifts I made and gave away.

Up first: knitted items.

Cap Karma  with brooklyntweed decreases for my Dad and soon to be Father in law-

Calorimetry for my lil sis -

Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal hat for Otis' niece -

And a mug cozy for my other sis.  This one didn't come out as well as I would have hoped....

And I made 2 more nest totes for my Mom and Otis' stepmom. I really love that pattern.

you can find photos of ones just like them here.

I also gifted otis yarn for a new pair of socks...so those are on the needles now.

next up:
sewed up gifts!