Two Special Videos

Today is Friday, and I'm feeling sappy. I will refrain from being my normal, sarcastic, morbid self. I will not talk about my weight, a color swatch, paper, or why I don't understand people. Instead, I would like to celebrate two things: marriage and pregnancy.

I got really, really lucky when Trent walked into my life. He is my husband, yes. He is also my best friend. The best friend I've ever had. Not in the way that people throw that around either. He understands everything about me, and why I am the way I am. He never gets mad at me. He tolerates my complaining about things that stress me out all the time, and never complains back.

I always want to be with my husband. Not in the creepy weird way that couples who can never do anything apart are. I just always want him around. I always want to call him right after anything happens. I miss his face on his pillow when I sleep alone at night when he's away. I cherish the moments when we get a dinner out, or when I force him to stay up late even though he's falling asleep to talk to me, or to answer trivia questions about our ten years 11 years together. He is the best dad, and the apple of Lyla's eye. I wish everyone could know what an incredibly special relationship we have. How we don't argue (we do bicker though; mostly me) because we usually see eye to eye on most things. When we don't, we don't get mad, we just tell each other. We don't lie to each other (and I'm quite a liar). Best of all, he makes me feel good about myself when I feel the lowest. He never ceases to compliment me when I dress up, or have a good hair day. He also loves me just the same when I am a jerk. Although I do think he could take my jokes directed at him less seriously! Anyway, I profess this love because I saw a video today about an older couple's relationship (characterized through a cartoon) over 27 years.
It made me cry. It also made me realize that I feel the same way about Trent.
I'd like to dedicate today's post (does this happen in the blog space?) to Ali, my sister-in-law, who is getting married next Saturday. I wish you as much happiness as I have been lucky enough to have found.

Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

A second video I would like to share is of one girl's journey through pregnancy. This is also moving. And with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in the background, not much could be better. Enjoy.

New Direction?

After I mulled over the idea of a retro style for the baby's new room, I started second guessing my long-term love of it. I get sick of things pretty easily, but I never get sick of the way Lyla's room works. That's because I didn't commit to anything crazy that I could't easily swap out or re-work. It's very versatile. I have striped wallpaper, wood cubbies, an antique bench, and a cow-hide lamp all working together in there, and somehow it meshes and I love it. It's the only room in the house I really love. Maybe it's because Lylie is in it. :)

I don't know how long I can love pale blue walls. In fact, we just had our downstairs painted, and they were supposed to be pale gray but are slanting blue. I already want to repaint the walls. I can barely live with the blue. Maybe it's because all of our old furniture suddenly doesn't match at all. I've been talking here about a revamp for weeks, but nothing has really happened. I feel lost. I can't commit. I'm confused about what moves to make. I definitely need a designer to decorate my next home. It's too stressful to do it myself. I am completely incapable of making decisions in my house. Or, I impulse buy, then it doesn't match or I hate it in a month. This is something I am definitely not good at. I know what I like, I just don't know how to execute.

I'm also nesting already. I have been cleaning out things like the junk drawer, my linen closet, my shoe "situation," and just cleaning house. I don't have a lot of time to clean or nest, so when I start I can't stop. I guess it's a good thing, but it's also annoying to only be able to do it once a month or so. What I'm trying to spit out here is that I am craving structure and style here, and it is seriously lacking. The place is also a constant mess which is making me slightly crazy lately.

So, this made me think more and more that I should go with a classic, simple, and neutral palette for baby bean's room. I want it to be serene, not freaky. Plus, quirky only makes me hate myself later. The other room was too quirky. I was about to buy the bedding for the old post, and I stopped myself thinking, I don't love this.

I pondered. Then, I got the new Restoration Hardware catalog. Thank goodness for chef boy-r-dee. Their new line was amazing for home, and the kids stuff moved away from the pink and brown/blue and brown scheme of the past that has been done a million times before. It was warmer, and felt so much more like real furniture than the candy pop stuff you see so often. I put a new board together with some stand-outs. I think I will end up doing some combination of these selections with some stuff I find elsewhere, but I feel more confident going this route. It seems more us. Like home.

Until my next post.

Classic Wedding Attire

I have always had a soft spot for this style, yet it seems so hard to find. J. Crew has finally made me happy by bringing it back. I would prefer the sleeves to be a tad shorter, maybe just over the elbow, but isn't this dress just lovely?

I could see it with a bunch of chunky, dangly bracelets to funk it up.

I would also pair it with a pair of brightly-colored shoes, or a funky pale pink pair.

I may need to find a reason to buy and wear this dress. Maybe I can be like P. Diddy, throw a white party, and wear this? It has a winter wedding feel, so I'd definitely have to have the party next December (since I will have an eight-month preg belly this December).

Or maybe I'll show up at the Good Shepherd Sip and Shop in this.

I could wear it to Lyla's ballet recital at Christmas. They would appreciate it right?

Girly Girl

So, as many of you may know, we found out yesterday that our baby boy is actually a baby girl! If that damned sonographer hadn't told us it was a boy weeks ago, I swear we wouldn't have been so brain washed. We are equally happy (just shocked) that we will be welcoming another little joy into the world. As you may have noticed, I obsess about rooms for months, and then want to change everything at the same time dramatically.
Well, this can't happen overnight since my office will be turned into the baby's room, and will require some major boxing and hauling. The previous think tank for Fold Invites will likely never be seen again in this house. Storage unit?

We have floor to ceiling shelves in the room now, which I was praying we could keep but they just take up too much room in the tiny space. We will also need to remove the sawgrass wallpaper we labored over and spent hours finding and putting up. The shelves are bolted into the wallpaper, so no matter what it would be ruined. The walls are also a lime green. The whole lime green, pink, brown thing really suited me and the caos that is my office. However, we are going to pack up, de-wallpaper (Frank and Di colunteered--hee), and re-paint. In a frenzy before the infamous Good Shepherd Sip and Shop (where I slaved for days to put a table up to sell cool stuff for the holidays and ended with me drunk watching all the wretched burned out blond housewives buy fake leather purses and Ed Hardy imitations tees instead), I sprayed spray mount in my portfolio in a pinch to adhere invitations into the book, and accidentally got it all over the hardwood floor. In my laziness, I never attempted to clean it up, so it's still weird and sticky, and may require expert opinions as to how to remove the residue prior to our bundle laying and sticking and breathing its fumes for years to come.

In an effort to shift gears to a possible girl room, I remembered that I had a cut-out of Cheree Berry's (one of my personal heros) wedding invitation suite which used light blue and red. We had tossed around hot pink or even just cream/brown/pink so I could keep Lyla's old crib bedding. However, trying to just match the bedding was really inhibiting us, so it will have to be sold on Ebay. Plus, I have seen way too much of the pink and brown deal to last a lifetime, so it's time to shake it up.

So, the suite was really the inspiration for what I'm currently thinking might be the new color palette. I typically hate light blue on walls, but I've been seeing a lot of cool takes on it lately, and I think the punch of red and a deep brown to anchor the space will make it fresh and modern.

Here is my inspiration board for the whole thing. Many of the pieces, like the ab-fab Jonathan Adler mini sofa (it's the kid-sized version of his famous Lambert sofa) probably won't fit, and the mod red dresser will likely be the dresser we currently have in our bedroom (that Trent refers to as a child dresser anyway) will likely be painted red and used for storing stuff.

The one thing missing is a changing table option. We used an antique dresser for Lyla that was perfect, but I love it in her room now (Lyla's room is my favorite room in the house), and I don't want to get a replacement for her. So, I'm still on the hunt for something fitting both in size and feel. There are some very good options now, because god knows I won't be getting one of those dork ones that looks like it came from someone's colonial set. See right.

My Mom suggested yellow this morning and I poo pooed it, but if I did it a darker light gray, with a lighter gray on the ceiling, threw up some crown molding and accented the whole thing with a nice warm yellow like this scheme, I could work it out. This nice yellow is harder to find though, but I may ponder it. It's much less likely to go too Willie Wonka than the other scheme which walks the line, but again, harder to execute (for someone like me who can't wait to find all the right pieces).

I may have to poll this one for the three of you who actually take my polls.

40 Before 40

I have decided to create a 40 before 40 list where I try to accomplish some goals, do some things, and buy some stuff in four years before I turn 40. I accomplished high school and college educations in four years, I can certainly tackle this list in four! I will try to update the list as I or if I have the opportunity to slash anything off the list. There are a few in the making like having a baby and cleaning our basement, so I'm already close on a few. Feel free to send your lists for public posting on this blog. It would be interesting to see what others want to do before their next milestone birthday.

And the list goes a little somethin' like this (you may need to click for a larger view):

Save the Date Loveliness

Ever see something online you wished you'd done yourself? Considering I'm in the biz, you'd think I would have thought of this save the date idea back in the day! So simple, and yet, so cute. I am also in love with the soundtrack to the STD, which of course, has become my new theme song. Pump up the volume, and be gleeful.












I have also included photos from their super creative DIY wedding.

Wedding Songs and Reflection

As I celebrated my seventh wedding anniversary last week, I thought back on the happy day, and how much fun we had, how great everything turned out, and that my dress was a size two. Smile.

A friend of mine was contemplating her first dance with her husband, and it made me think of how much I loved and still love our wedding song, Talk Tonight by Oasis. I remember having a few options like Green Eyes by Coldplay, which I insisted we couldn't use since neither of us had green eyes, or Love Will Come Through by Travis (which was the runner up), which didn't make it because it was too hard to dance to it with anything but a waltz. Trent is more of a rotate in a circle type of slow dancer, so we needed something with a slower tempo so he could time his rotations.

Lately, I've been listening to a lot of old music I have around, and thought of how great this or that would be as a wedding song, so I've compiled my new top ten options. Feel free to take advantage of this for your upcoming nuptials or renewals ladies and gents.
These are in no particular order.

1. Love is the End, Keane (the no one but you will know this song choice)

2. You Are the Best Thing, Ray Lamontagne (fast-paced dance song option)

3. Love Will Come Through, Travis (for nostalgia's sake)

4. Step on My Old Size Nines, Stereophonics (the warm and fuzzy option)

5. Let it Be, Beatles (the unexpected choice)

6. Time After Time, Cyndi Lauper (because I vowed this would be my wedding song every year of the 80s)

7. Somebody, Depeche Mode (if you want everyone to weep and become completely depressed after your dance)
This is the best version I could find, so it's not great quality. If you only speak Spanish, this is a great video for you, but you should probably not read this blog (usted no debería leer probablemente este blog).

8. Unchained Melody, The Richteous Brothers (how could I leave this out?)

9. This Thing Called Love, Queen (for the gay wedding)

10. Wonderful Tonight, Eric Clapton (because this was also my prom theme--I think)