Stuff I Wanted to Get, But Didn't.

I kind of love these.

Online goodies

I've been a very good girl lately about not shopping. But there are two things that are really catching my eye.

I can't seem to get the photos to hang out here, so links will have to do. :(

Hell or High Water ring

Elephant ring

Just sayin'.

theoretical to practical: three months to go

hello internetty friends. sorry i have been MIA this week. there has been something going on practically every night. but now it's sunday, and all i REALLY have to do today is go meet with our invitation lady to have our invites done.
i'm staying at my sister and brother-in-law's house this week since they are in costa rica. my sleep schedule is all screwy. i took them to the airport at 4 am yesterday, and their three dogs are ready to eat at 6:30 am and be let out....going back to sleep is kinda hard. yawwwnn....ok, i'm kinda tired again.
valentine's day was such a comedy of errors. william intended to bring me flowers and lunch, but he forgot his wallet and then got a flat tire, so that was a no-go. we did however get some thai takeout and open presents. i got him ugg boots; he got me this dress and another dress i can't find online. also from j. crew, and it's strapless, and you can wear it at two lengths or as a skirt. he also got me a darling orange-and-white zebra print umbrella. unfortunately, the wrap dress looked all wrong on me. so i ended up trading it in for this skirt and a blue-and-white striped t-shirt. i still have some money left to spend too. :) sorry about lack of pictures, i'm too lazy today.
thanks, babe! great ideas!
otherwise, it's been a flurry of appointments and run-here run-there. talked to a college class about getting a job in journalism. present buying. catching up. it's a good thing i have monday off. and tuesday i'm working from home. sweet.
right now i'm reading stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers, and it's fascinating stuff, although a little dark. she infuses it with enough humor to make it through. i should have probably skipped the section about crashing airplanes, but oh well. that's what xanax is for.
today is EXACTLY 100 days to go until the wedding ceremony. 100 DAYS. 100 days! wowww. it's getting so close. i'm starting to get a little nervous about getting everything done and on time and the actual idea of it is starting to become very, very real. it's weird because i have had nearly a year and a half to prepare for it, but it hasn't really hit me until now. it's gone from theoretical to practical. i'm going to be a bride in three months. three months.
three months.

saturday runaround

it's like i have a inner clock i can't turn off, and it's permanently dialed to "hurry! hurry! go! go!" it's a sickness, people. even if i have nothing to do, i can find a way to fill a day to the point where i'm overbooked. since we've been out of town the past couple weekends, i had a lot of making up to do.
today i: slept til 11:30 (heaven!).
made it to my hair appointment at 12:30
got a new 'do. . . cut and color. i'm now about five shades darker than i was at my summer lightest blonde. . . now i'm more golden and brown. it's the darkest i've ever been, but i am really liking it. it makes my pale gray eyes look much more blue. i love my stylist. she reads my mind, and then makes it ten times better.
got a random call from my sister and we had a late lunch and shopped at j crew together.
i bought this:

gorgeous, right? i'm in love. i have a hard time finding jackets. if they are big enough in the chest, they hang like a box, or the sleeves are too short, or the shoulders too narrow. i heard it's sold out everywhere (that color) and it was a return just today. rockin'. it was meant to be.
then onward to get an outfit for tonight's halloween party. my sister graciously offered up her scrubs. she's a nurse and her husband is a doctor, so we're fully outfitted with scrubs, lab coats, gloves, and a stethoscope, plus a pin that says "trust me, i'm a doctor." yes! can't get much easier than that.
then onto target to get a shower gift for a wedding shower i'm attending tomorrow. i've got about a half hour to get ready for the party so i must run. hopefully photos later.

artsy

my headache is gone. sorry for my absence. i took a break from computer screens. i had a couple days off from work, and decided that possibly the cause was too much fluorescent light and computer screens. it may not have been, since the headache carried on until saturday, but it's gone now. thanks for the advice!
this week promises to be mellower than the last few which is really nice. over the weekend, i had a couple spa treatments done--facial, reiki, vichy. they helped too. the funny part: molly doesn't lick faces for the most part, even if you ask her to. when you are sad, she will lick your tears, or once in a great while you get a random surprise from her. the facial i got was organic and food-based; it smelled just like apples, in a mouth-watering way. when i got home, she kept licking my face! it was so funny. i guess that's proof positive the products were super food based.
we need to get moving on some wedding stuff; we've been a little stalled lately. we need to book our plane tickets and lodging and send save-the-dates. i think we've both just been feeling so busy lately we have no energy left over for wedding stuff (it seems we trade days of late hours/busy-ness). on friday i spent part of the afternoon making one of my childhood comfort foods for dinner: my mom has this recipe for homemade mac and cheese (and also chicken and celery and pimiento) that i had been craving. since william has been taking the lion's share of cooking, i thought i'd kick in and share a family favorite. it turned out like mom's! i was pretty proud. then william had to work late, and i fell asleep on the couch around 7 pm! but when he got home we had dinner anyway.
this weekend though, we did one of our favorite things: just bumming around town together on a sunny afternoon. we hit up the st. paul art crawl, and i bought a photo i really love from someone showing in the same space william did. we stopped by one of our favorite vintage shops and i bought some small glass jars too. they're bright blue and have these cool bubbley tops. i'll post pictures--we finally found our camera charger--hooray!--so there will be photos to come, just not tonight since it's getting late.
overall a good weekend, although the crappy weather that persists does nothing for a girl's mood. it's been dark and rainy and cold and crappy, and i know it's just the way it is, but i'd like a little more sunlight.
clearly i'm in a little bit of a blogging rut tonight, so i'm gonna cut bait.

i've been bad

about blogging, at least. i have been so busy at work that i haven't had the desire to come home and type away about something. . . especially since that something would have to have been about work, since that was all that i was doing. this week should be better. still, i spent the weekend recovering, so there's not much to report.
i did see blades of glory on friday night, with william at home. funny!
britney's situation is getting sadder and sadder.
i am coveting a pair of brown leather tall boots at aldo this weekend that i really want. finally, boots with a kitten heel and that don't look like they came from the ranch. but i have to be good. does anyone out there want to buy me brown leather boots from aldo? come on. . .
i went to barnes & nobel with a gift certificate and bought a few books. hooray!
which, you ask?
bitter is the new black
lipstick jihad
the little black book of style
specialty topics in calamity physics
yay!
groceries today.
i live a very hott lifestyle.
oh! wait! i did get a free small sample of la mer today. that's right. la mer. now hopefully i'll have celebrity-clear skin. at least for as long as the sample lasts.

every woman loves a deal

i am constantly on the lookout for good shoes. i'm really picky, and i can't really wear heels (too much pain, people!), and, well, i hate a lot of things. i love ballet flats--thank god they are in style right now--but a lot of them are clunky or matronly, so i'm picky about those, too. i have lots of shoes i lust after, but i just can't have. i can't deal with heels. kitten heels, cool, up to about 2 1/2 inches, but after that, i'm done. i have one pair of super high stilettos. they're dark purple mock croc mary-jane style, and they are hot. me lying in bed the next day, moaning about my sore back? not so hot. they don't get a lot of wear.
so today, i found two pairs of flats--on sale! exciting. i'm looking for some colored shoes, because most of what i own now is black, gray, or brown in various styles. now that my wardrobe is mostly black and gray (am i a new yorker at heart? i never get sick of either color), i feel like i need some color somewhere, and shoes seem like agood place to start.

here was what i really wanted:


and



but as you can see, imposing heels. 4 1/4 inches? out of control. do you know, for one thing, how tall that makes me? about five-eleven. no, not necessary. cameron diaz i am not. for my balance and my back health.

ok, so then i found these:



and these, which i got in that same dark purple as the toe on the other one (there were none left on the website):



so i think i did pretty well.
it was an unplanned shopping trip with my mom. one second i was helping her with her computer, and the next my car was driving itself to the mall with her in the passenger seat. this happens, sometimes, when we get together, and i have to say, it is some of the best free time i spend. i love that my mom and i are such good friends.

my mom is an awesome lady. she is funny, smart, helpful, generous, beautiful, and very kind. she has always put everyone else first, her whole life. she loves being a mom and it shows. i often think to myself that my mom is a far better mother than i will ever be. she always let my siblings and i do our own thing, encouraging us every step of the way. she always loved us, without reserve or condition. she's imaginative and resourceful. she is a great listener and loyal. she has taught me so many things about being a good person and living a good life. she cries with you and laughs with you. and sometimes tells you to laugh when you want to cry. if i grow into half the woman she is, i'd consider my life to be pretty successful.

i'm lucky because i'm entering into a family where i get a mother-in-law who is great, too. she has accepted me into the family, including me and making me feel comfortable. she shares cooking tips with me and shows me her latest crafty projects (you name the craft, this woman has done it). she is always telling me about the bargains she gets--talk about resourceful! one of the best parts about her is her giggle. she has a really funny sense of humor, almost bordering on an impish way--like she's been naughty, but she's one of the least naughty people i know. she is a good person, inside and out, very devout, but also loves to have a good time. she has really supported william and i in our endeavors, which means a lot to us. i look forward to getting to know her even better as time wears on; i know that eventually i will have even more nice things to say of her. i feel extremely lucky to be gaining another strong woman in my life. you can never have too many of those.

i got a good deal.

i want this.

the tough go shopping

so i've been on a budget diet since i moved in with william, and even more so now that we're saving for a wedding. i can't say it's all been bad. i'm not great with numbers, everyone knows that, but my favorite form of therapy is shopping. which compounds the problem. i can say that since meeting william my credit score has gone from dismal to very respectable (even surprising to me) though. and that's been no easy feat.
but.... you can't take the shop out of the girl. it's been what feels like AGES since i've been shopping and it's starting to hurt. :) i have the shakes, people! i need to shop!
well the other thing is that i haven't had TIME to shop. so the other day when i had a break, i took a lovely stroll through the virtual anthropologie and found the following items:
these are the oh-my-god-i-want-them-so-bads:


these are more like damn-these-could-work-with-a-lots:


these are the hmmmm-yes-i'll-take-a-pair-they're-so-retros:


and last, the i-know-they're-too-tall-but-i'll-try-them-on-anyways:


well, that helped a little bit. the tough need to make more money. . .