New obsession: Young House Love

Ok, so I had to move on at some point from wedding blogstalking. Apparently, I am transferring my mini-breaks to homes. Young House Love is such a cool undertaking by a neat, young couple who bought a junker house and re-did it with cool, classy style. Now they take other people's junkers and make them cool and classy (or at least tell people how to make them cool and classy. Fun! Why didn't I go into THAT business?

If you have a moment, go see. Maybe you'll have the fire lit under you like I did!

P.S. The bedroom is now Pensive Sky. Much more blue than I thought it might look. Sorry, no photos until it's "done."

Moment Monday: "Wow."

When we were planning with our DJ, we asked that the "group dances" like the electric slide and the conga be left of the list. "Our guests will probably do the conga without prompting," we said. Not only did they erupt into a spontaneous conga line, the room was absolutely filled with dancing from the first song to this song, a special request of ours.

We may have expected the conga line and the silly dancing. But when an arm-in-arm circle formed at the reception, Patrick and I were both floored. He was moved to tears. This moment is one that always makes me smile. Literally encircled by love, by our best friends and dearest family, by singing -- we looked at each other, still smiling. And said, "Wow."

What a way to end a party.

Gray, gray, or gray?

One of the greatest things about having the wedding planning out of the way is moving forward with the "other" stuff that was for "as soon as I'm not planning a wedding anymore." One of those things is finishing the touches on making our house OURS (...or at least more mine, wink, wink). For our wedding, we received the gorgeous Pickstitch bedding above from Crate & Barrel. I love it. It's lightweight, 100% cotton, and really crisp looking. Plus, it actually fits our queen-size bed from head to toe. We have a lovely, flat, pintucked dust ruffle in chocolate brown. But I've had the Behr paint swatches taped to our walls for about a month and have no idea what to choose. The trim is white (swiss coffee, to be exact); our furniture is a warm oak wood. I want a blue-gray color that will work with the bedding to make the room seem larger.

What do you think, loyal readers? Full Moon? Pensive Sky?

POPCORN rocks!

Ok, Just took a mini-break and saw the coolest anniversary party for Phoenix Bride & Groom magazine, featured by Style Me Pretty's Little Black Book Blog. If you know me, you know I am a popcorn hound. The stuff is like a drug. I crunch down all shapes, seasonings, and flavors pretty much at least once a week. So, imagine my delight at seeing this AWESOME POPCORN BAR!? SO FUN!

Wouldn't this be such a treat, and a cheap way to host folks for a cocktail party, couples shower, or bachelorette party, or even a birthday party? For the right couple, a savory or sweet popcorn bar could work for a wedding reception.

Happy Tuesday!

Monday Moment: Hydration

Except for a few sips of coffee at home, the whole morning I drank water. Slow gulp, breath, another drink, breath. And in my mind I kept repeating "It's here. It's all ok. You can't control this day any more because it's here."

I did this when I woke up tossing, stomach turning at 5 a.m. Another sip of cold water came at breakfast after the first look at a gray sky. "You can't control this day any more because it's here." And while the tatoo-ed stylist tucked curls with bobby pins, I drank water. I took a breath. I smiled. It felt like sleep walking.

"You are the most low-key bridal party we've ever had," the stylist said. Another breath.

Then she was finished. The hair was just as we'd practiced, and it was beautiful. I smiled again. The sun made sparkles on the blacktop parking lot outside. A breeze blew a wind chime. I took another sip of water.

And then my mom looked at me and burst into happy tears. We hugged. "I love today!" I thought. It was all over after that. Laughter swelled. Eyes welled up.

And from there, the day's schedule sped into a blur. The time on the clock mattered, but not all that much. I was hydrated and happy. And we packed into the car: me, my sisters, my mom, and the photographer. We packed into the car and the "Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A." played as we pulled into the parking lot of Laurel Hall.

The sun was still shining, and I still had no control. What a blessing.

Real life Saturday

One of my favorite wedding blogs, Snippet & Ink, features "Real Wedding Saturday" every week, showing photos of incredibly creative and detailed wedding weekends from all kinds of couples. In a strange and voyeuristic way, I look forward to seeing what she's posted every week. Even after my own wedding planning has ended, it's king of nice to escape into someone else's bliss.

This morning, though, as I fixed a pot of coffee and sat down to make my "to do" list for the weekend, I remembered getting to a point in wedding planning that felt like imagery overload. At that point, I wanted to read anything that could help me be excited about all of the OTHER things to come in my life, like a normal Saturday morning with my husband and dog. What is married life like.

And so, I bring you "Real life Saturday." Every week, I'll post an anecdote about our real life as newlyweds.

In our real life this week: When you're imagining life on your own, even as you graduate from college, chores like re-stocking toiletries and cleaning supplies and vinegar and olive oil don't really fit into a view of what "grown up" life might look like. This week, I'm taking stock of what we have in the cabinets, doing a little cleaning work, and organizing our files of important papers. Meanwhile, Patrick is off doing a side job for a friend to make some extra dough. In between, we're living: tending the garden, putting a pork roast in the slow cooker. And you know what? It's nothing spectacular. There is no fantastic photography to support it, but it's real.

Inspired.

I was waiting for this moment to arrive. Our series of summer drama has (I think!) passed. I now have all of the fantastic wedding photos (see above!) uploaded, we're harvesting our garden's sweet corn and green beans (more on this later...), Ozzie's broken leg is healing up (oh, yes, more on this too!), and I'm just a few weeks away from a weekend retreat to the beach.

Maybe it's the laughter from last weekend's trip to South Bend, maybe it's the return to semi-normalcy, but life is starting to kind of feel like my own again. I am finally inspired to really take on this blog again.