these old bones

i've noticed something lately. well not lately, per se, since i've always been something of an old soul, but definitely noticing it as a more consistent part of my life. what have i noticed? i have noticed that i'm getting old.

and please stop it before you lament upon your own age (hjd) because i only mean i'm starting to feel old(er) and less of the 20 year old i was just a few years ago. this isn't a complaint, either, just a general thing i have noticed.

this has become clear to me with the actual verbage in which i speak. this morning my girlfriend lola (of the invites) and i were talking, and her g-chat status message was "i want to make banana pancakes and pretend that its the weekend..." a la jack johnson. oh lola, how wonderful that sounds! i told her my plans for the weekend included taking tylenol pm, ignoring my playful puppy all morning, and maybe playing mario brothers wii all afternoon.

she said "who have we become?" i lamented "oy, i do not know" to which she replied "i'm going to power hour." i was shocked. she can't be old if she's going to power hour. my response of "oh i'm so jealous" (though not really, i still enjoy my plan) was met with "oh, that's not reality. that's what i would have said four years ago."

power hour? not so fun.

power nap? sign me up!!

can you blame me?

better in pairs

can i just say.

i wrote a gorgeous post.

it somehow got deleted.

and only because i really told myself that i'd blog

am i going to re-do it.

fml.

that being said...

sometimes i dabble in things. recently i have been dabbling in custom stationary. when my girlfriend lola asked me if i felt up to doing some baby shower invitations (babies! yay! twins! double yay!) i basically had to beg her to let me do it. we planned the theme (two peas in a pod) i got to work on an idea for the invitation design. lola wanted something sort of traditional but not too girly since the shower is for the mama who is having two boys. i sent her a mock-up, and started my shopping list. i hit up my neighborhood paper-source (twice-rookie mistake) and got to work.

 "ingredients"

i printed the body of the invitation on 8 1/2 x 11 pages of vellum (3 to a page) and set to work using my brand new paper cutter to slice them down to the appropriate size.

this is probably the most time consuming part of this project because vellum does not really absorb ink, so it takes drying time. i also had to be very careful not to smudge the ink even after an hour of drying. i only messed up one.

after that i got started with my hammer and eyelet setter to attach the vellum to the flat card. as mentioned above, we wanted a traditional idea but modern and a bit more masculine. so we nixed the (seen everywhere) tied ribbon and opted for the eyelet (and also my new favorite embellishment). mental note: when setting an eyelet you actually hole punch then insert the eyelet and hammer from the back. i may or may not have spent 20 minutes hammer from the front and wondering how the scrawny woman at paper-source could make it work but my swimming muscles couldn't make it happen. um, use your brain maybe? once i started doing that it went much quicker.

it was an afternoon of hole punch then eyelet insert then hammer than admire. oh, and a break every now and thing to PING lola and tell her how gorgeous it all was. (the modesty? i do not has.) (omg i just lol-cat spoke. how humiliating) (and i did it twice because that was in the original post).

a few hours of this et voila. completa.

for those of you who are wondering, the wording at the top is as follows:

two peas in a pod

two bundles of joy

two gifts from heaven

two sweet little boys

lola provided that little rhyme and i love it. don't you?

p.s. hear that? its my biological clock.

santa loves me

if by santa we mean my darling fiance, then yes, santa loves me.

this year for christmas the future-mister totally fooled me. i love to get clues from him to try to figure out what is going to be under the tree, and i'm always right. this year, however, he became keen to my tricks, and his clue of "Belgian Waffles" really threw me. could he have bought me this gorgeous waffle iron that we registered for {and that i have been lusting over long than i have even known him} but then i thought "he knows better than an obvious clue like that." so then i thought maybe he got me the leg massage machine thing from brookstone-and tried to throw me off his scent by telling me an obvious clue to a big ticket item. so that's all i came up with. my mom suggested he was surprising me with a trip to europe, but even i know that's a little far fetched at this point (with the wedding and everything, there's certainly no time/money for a trip to europe, let alone vacation days...) so i was stumped.

christmas morning he brought me a very nondescript manila mailing envelope. inside was a 5x7 note-card, and the picture was a replication of an oil painting by an artist we had scoped out at the farmers market two years ago. i still didn't quite get it, until he told me that the real thing was waiting at the studio for us to pick up. he also told me he was a little fearful to pick out the frame himself (yet he was confident in his choice of paintings...) so that would be a little task i would need to help with.

so, when we returned to chicago from our trip back to my parents on the east coast, we set out to art de triumph and commenced picture frame designing. with all the options out there in the custom framing world, i'm not surprised that he was afraid to do it without me-not that i'm particular or anything (hehe).

yesterday i went to pick it up and today i set out to hang it. that involved going to the hardware store (twice) for a stud finder and the accompanying 9 volt battery to make it work. a quick tap of the nail and we go from

before

boring

to

after

 well that flash isn't very attractive

there we go.

he did pretty well, i think. this will be a gorgeous piece that we can enjoy for years to come, and i'm so excited to hang this behind a {hopefully new} sofa when we get a new place in a few months!!

well hello there...again...

i am the first to admit that i'm not the best with follow-through, and i believe that is what makes me a good event planner. i love to envision things, create ideas, make them, and then pass them off to someone else. this does, however, make me very afraid that i'm going to be an awful mom! that being said, my new years resolution is to follow through with something i started in 2009, and that, my friends, is going to be this here little bloggity-blog. that means blogging once a week. (say a prayer now!)

so, although i said "check back next week" for an update on my craft project, what i should have said was "check back next year" because i knew i'd get it done at some point, but i had no idea it would take me three months!

in addition to following through, i am not good at estimating times for projects! this one took me a good five hours, and that's not including the hour spent roaming around joann's deciding on a color scheme, then changing my mind entirely. i started with pink and black but realized that my furniture is all black and my bedding is green, so why not compliment that? (this also leads me to maybe possibly re-finishing my desk which is currently a natural wood color. we shall see about that).

before

 

um. holy hot mess, batman. 

the two focus areas for this project were the message board on the right, and the top shelf.

the only project that got completed was the message board. like i said, time management? i'm no good at that.

 

sidebar: how did santa know how much i love penguins?!?

supplies:

hot glue gun and about six glue sticks (depending on how much glue you use. i use a lot!)

individual cork pieces (for this built-in type cork board, if you're doing a regular board, get the pre-framed one)

2 yards of fabric (WAY too much, so i might make a pillow...)

batting (again, bought way too much, but i knew i wanted it super cushion-y and doubled it up, still have enough to make a dog bed...)

grossgrain ribbon (my favorite!)

super cute flair for the criss-cross part (the ones i used were actually in the jewelery making section)

(i love parenthesis apparently tonight)

 

other supplies:

sustenance (in the form of pad thai)

 

well thanks sura, you took me quite literally when i said "lime on the side"

i used a cardboard box (leftover from christmas gifting) to make the back of the board a bit stronger, and have a base to build upon. after that i hot glued the now cut pieces to the backing

 

for all you multi-tasking people, i labeled the pieces so as to not get confused while still keeping up with the kardashians.

i then flipped it over,and proceeded to cover with batting

 

no lily this is not the bed i'm making you. patience! 

(see prior post about difficulty crafting with 3 pounds of lovable puppy)

then covered in fabric

  

the space waiting for its new cover

about this time my blackberry started ringing, and an old friend needed dating advice, so unfortunately i forgot to snap pictures while i tried to figure out how to stretch the one spool of ribbon i had (the thought of going back to joann's was exhausting, so like tim gunn, i decided to make it work).

after the ribbons were on it was time to install. mental note: hot glue is not like duct tape, and does not fix everything. onto plan b. i knew i wanted a tufted look, but was having a hard time making that work before...i thought well, i'll just hammer every criss-cross into the back! perfect, and solves two problems at once (the inability to tuft because i don't have a thick needle and the whole connection problem) so i got out my trusty toolbox (thanks dad!) and got to hammering.

 

(in case you've never seen a hammer or nails)

 things to note:

all those little silver dots are nails that i handily hammered in myself, only hitting myself once

yes they are a little crooked. as i said, i was on the phone, and i knew that perfect lines were not a requirement of this project, so i did not sweat it. 

then for the fun! adding the gems, and putting on my stuff!

  

pretty gems!

 

everything put back together.

so you might be thinking-what's the big deal? the big deal is that this board is fluffy. this board will not fall down from my desk. this board is sturdy and will hold my massive amount of cards, receipts, photo booth pictures, and other assorted fun things. so yes, it was five hours very, very well spent.

check back and maybe i will have taken five more hours to organize every other cubby and space in my desk, and hopefully i'll remember to take pictures to prove it! 

bad dreams

first-congratulations to ry, the one and only person to guess yesterday's movie quote, and he was right!!

second-i swear this is not going to turn into a wedding blog. like up and down cross my heart hope to die swear that it won't. however, over the next year there will be some wedding related content since we are in the midst of planning our own. this is likely to continue after since it is part of my current job, and hopefully eventually my job in its entirety so i hope i don't bore anyone!

that being said, last night was a wedding planning night and it could not have gone better. we have had a great streak of luck with our wedding vendors (it helps knowing a lot of them i suppose) and our meeting with our amazing dj last night was no different. her name is leslie. leslie, brian and i have a great deal in common with our musical tastes, which is nice because brian and i listen to pretty obscure musical acts. he prefers british rock, and i enjoy what he refers to as "sorority girl music" and i refer to as "john mayer before he sold out" or "a guy and his guitar." it was important for us to make sure that while our musical tastes are reflected in some portions of the evening-during dinner, our first dance, our introduction, the cake cutting-but that our musical tastes are not necesarily the same as our friends and family. leslie was able to see our vision for a personal musical selection for the special moments, but really keeping the party going after the cake has been cut. hooray for another successful meeting!

 do they not have the cutest logo?

then, we went to a delicious wicker park restaurant, hot chocolate.

it may sound like a chocolate bar, but it was so much more than that. comfort food? check. amazing server? check (hey saul!) 50% off bottles of wine on tuesday? check. the.best.hot.chocolate.ever? double check. if you're ever in wicker park, or looking for a fun new place, definitely check out hot chocolate. that being said, they were just on check, please! and it was p-a-c-k-e-d.

to round out a beautiful evening i had an awful wedding related dream that included an ugly dress that was too big, no beautiful lincoln town car to drive us to our hotel, a no-show photographer, a dead bouquet, and some very very unwelcome guests...the only good part of the dream was that i was still marrying my handsome fiance who, even in my worst dream last night, helped deal with the drama and we still had a happy day. here's hoping for a much smoother reality!!

the skills of a misspent youth

first of all, blog shout out to anyone who can name the movie that they say "the skills of a misspent youth" in...

anyways.

one of the skills i picked up living in this beautiful windy city is the ability to parallel park. i know, i know...for those of you who can do this easily and naturally do not find the amusement in this, however for those of you who turn parallel parking into a game of bumper cars, you get me. however, i haven't had much practice since i sold my car, preston, last year, so i do get worried when the time comes to use this skill.

the scene:

i live on one of the busiest streets in the city, and one of the most dangerous intersections in the country. saturday evening when we got home from our little road trip (more on that in the next few days-stay tuned!) we circled the block 8 times before I said "OK one more time and then we're paying for a garage." Wouldn't you know a perfect spot opened right up. After some illegal 3-point turns in the midst of cars swooshing by and my fiance getting more and more nervous with each gear change, I aligned myself just perfectly.

and then i executed the most perfect parallel parking job known to man. ever. in the history of the auto world. even in the history of horse driving if they parallel parked those carriages... anyways i took this picture the following morning with my blackberry so please excuse the low picture quality, and enjoy my skills. no bumping. no grinding. simply gorgeous.

shop by color

in the last few days i have spent literally hundreds of hours on etsy scouring the amazing talents of the vendors around the globe to find fun and cute details for our upcoming wedding.

i stumbled upon this amazing section of etsy called "shop by color"

most amazing link.ever. seriously. you HAVE to try it.

http://www.etsy.com/color.php

rain, rain...get lost!

usually my morning commute is relatively pain free. go outside, walk one block, catch the bus right away (courtesy of the bus tracker, amen finally the cta did something right!) get off the bus 8 minutes later, walk 2 blocks to work and eventually settle in at my desk with a bottle of water and maybe even a delicious bagel.

today, however, that was not the case.

today i walked outside and it was raining hard. very hard. and the wind was blowing so fast that the rain looked as if it was literally raining horizontally.

luckily, i was prepared and sported my bright pink and navy blue wellies (courtesy of my older sister) they kept my feet warm and dry, and added a little touch of fun to the dreary chicago morning. thank you to my older sister for these lovely shoes.

i do sort of want to get a pair of pink hunters though, and the adorable wellie socks. however, the pinks are nowhere to be found, or else i'd put a link right here, and give you my shipping address!

now, you might be thinking-does this girl need another pair of pink rain boots? probably not, but what in the world makes you think i only buy things because i *need* them?

the nice thing about the hunter boot/sock combination is that the socks keep the inside of the boot as warm as my uggs, and the outside will stay nice and dry (unlike my uggs). the problem with uggs is that they are warm, yes, but they certainly were not created to deal with the slush accumulation in the windy city, and definitely not for a public transportation utilizer.

my next problem presented itself in the form of protecting my body from the elements.

i am not joking when i tell you that the wind was literally knocking people over. granted that girl needed a sandwich more than anything, but that is pretty fast wind. my umbrella was flapping around, and flipped itself inside out more than once. i thought i might literally be able to float to to work like mary poppins. alas, that did not work.

a friend of a friend presented the umbrella conversation on his blog today, and i completely and wholeheartedly agree with his conclusion. bubble umbrellas. bubble umbrellas are the best. i temporarily had one of these beauts in college, but of course lost it in a cab after a frat party, never to return again. it just might be time to purchase a new one. plus, because i so frequently use my umbrella to block the wind, at least with one of these bad boys i'll be able to see if anything is coming towards me. like people. or cars. or double decker busses!!

plus i absolutely love the curved handle, how very holly golightly. and the top, i don't know what else to call it but a stick at the top. perfect for keeping the plastic protected from the treacherous pavement. with a long umbrella like that, its sure to drag on the ground every now and again.

of course, it only seems fitting that just as i figure out my fall time weather gear that it is actually going to be winter soon and all that i will care about is warm warm warm. oy break out the north face coats and face masks chicagoans...the blizzards are just around the corner!!

one crafty weekend

living in a 250 square foot studio apartment does not lend itself well to crafting. living in a 250 square foot studio with a 3 pound puppy with endless energy and a curious disposition makes it pretty much impossible.

                                        

three pounds of pure puppy adorableness

that being said, i've decided that this weekend is going to be the weekend for two big projects i've been putting together in my head, and next weekend when mom and my older sister (and amazing maid of honor, not to dismiss my younger sister, who is also an amazing maid of honor) are here we have a third. watch out michael...i'm coming to your store with a mission.

project 1:

dresser drawer re-finishing

i have a black dresser. it is actually quite sleek. but, i'm tired of the same old same old black drawers and silver knobs.

my plan is to get two styles of paper. one solid green color, and one green pattern as an accent. i haven't been able to scout out any papers i particularly love online, but i'm hoping for a grass green motif to compliment my bedding that, even a year and a half later, i'm still obsessed with.

i will use mod podge to cover the drawers, and hopefully anthropolgie will yield some beautiful drawer pulls to just sort of spice everything up!

project 2: custom cork board creation and installation

i have a desk. i love my desk. i also have lots and lots of postcards, love notes, receipts, and {probably expired} coupons. and what i do not have is somewhere to keep them. i made a makeshift cork board but did not adequately purchase the materials, so this is sort of a re-do project.

this is my desk that i love. up top i have my printer, design magazines with many-a-dog-eared pages, wedding contracts and a plethora of receipts. the two shelves host an iHome, stacks and stacks of stationary-some designed by your's truly, and some courtesy of paper-source, and such a wide variety of dog treats you'd think that i had my own petco. then my trusty laptop takes up the largest portion. over to the right, in the little 'nook' i keep my 8 million different types of post-it notes, a pen jar, and tape. the drawer is where "stuff" goes to die and that is another project for another day. down below in the part where i imagine non-laptop people keep the big boxy part of the computer is where you will find lots and lots {and lots} of the above mentioned cards, receipts, etc.

the white portion is where i intend to install the corkboard. i will need my trusty gluegun, corkboard pieces, fabric, batting, ribbon, and decorative gems for where the ribbon will criss-cross.

all in all i think i have a pretty busy sunday coming up. too bad i can't work on this saturday-i have a wedding for work...and i'm ready for it to be o-v-e-r!!! maybe lily's and her dad will have a nice long walk on sunday so i can craft and catch up on my dvr. anyone else agree that the dvr is potentially man's greatest modern invention?

check back next week for the results!! i'll post before and after pictures of the real thing. make sure you're sitting down...its sure to be a doozy! ;-) oh, i'll also post about the third project soon. its going to involve lots of pictures, mom, and my MOH/sister...so its sure to be a good time in and of itself!

jer-z boys

oh what a night! (errr...afternoon!)

yesterday i met up with my old roommate, his mom, grandmother, and aunt, and we hit up the lasalle bank theater (i refuse to give into corporate overtakes and refer to it as bank of america theater quite yet) and saw the boys from jersey and oh man were they great!!

photo courtesy

in case you don't know the story-which i didn't-here's a quick re-cap. the show focuses on the creation, success, and downfalls of franki valli and the four seasons. they have a pretty great story that includes some super low times and some really great times.

one of my favorite lines from the show is when franki is telling the audience about how great the times were.  just like when you are having bad times and your mom consoles you by saying "this too shall pass" he reflects that the good times pass as well. as melancholy as it is, for me it just really made me thankful for the abundance of good times i have in my life, and reminded me that the bad parts will pass.

i also got to hear my favorite song of all time, "December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)" and boy oh boy i had never realized how sexual this song is! so much for thinking what a fun song it would be to choreograph a first dance for a december wedding...! enjoy the following clip and get your monday morning groove on!

the other thing i learned from this show is just how influential those jersey boys have been on today's music scene. i knew almost every song in the show but besides oh what a night, I had no idea that the four seasons sang the song. i will never forget the way my heart melted in high school when my best friend and i would watch "10 things i hate about you" and heath ledger belted out "you're just too good to be true" for julia stiles. it was such a sense of deja vu when franki valli sang it on stage. very good times had by all!

long story short-if you haven't had a chance to see this show yet you absolutely must go before they leave in january!