Once Upon a Time...

Although nothing is official yet in terms of bridesmaids dresses, the style is still up for grabs. But, I've been spending quite a bit of time looking at swatches compared to the styles I tried on with MaidoH A and FSIL C, and I have a pretty decent direction we're moving in. I still want to try dresses with my other three lovely ladies, but that will have to wait until I get back to Iowa (and possibly down to Oklahoma, or get BM E up to Iowa at the same time).

Anyway, after seeing it pop on Facebook a number of times, I logged on to Weddington Way. If you are thinking you've got a color family you like, but want to see the options (with the understanding that digital is different, of course) then Weddington Way is a great resource. They allow you to browse dresses not just by blue, but by different categories of blue, then all the way down to specific colors by designers. Or, you can choose features of a style you like (i.e. short, one shoulder, and satin) and see what colors are available.

The other thing that was AMAZING, was getting one free swatch of ANY of the colors. And, because I was able to narrow down between colors I'd liked and the styles the girls had tried on, I was able to pinpoint Alfred Angelo's Once Upon a Time.

Here's the number one contender right now:

via Weddington Way

Adorable, right? I got the swatch in the mail, and it is (to me at least) a barely tiny bit greener blue/grey than the one you see above, which at least on my computer has purplish undertones. I was admiring the swatch, noting how pretty it was and how much I liked it, when it hit me.

I'd seen this color before.

Mr. Moose was not impressed

The swatch is a slightly more blue of pretty much our entire living room's decor. The paint on our walls, which was based off of the blue in the painting Mr. C's mom got for me after grad school graduation, the blanket and pillows I've had since college, you name it, I probably have it in that color. At least I'm consistent?

DIY: Necklace Holder

Ah, Pinterest. The source of so many projects that never leave the comfort of my excessively organized boards. Seriously guys, I have 126 boards to date, and I know that number will grow. Now, before you panic, let's look at cooking. I don't just have one "recipe" board. First, I've separated cooking and baking, because really they are two different things. Then, I've broken cooking down into categories.

Only some of my too many Pinterest boards

Here's a quick screen capture to give you an idea. Crazy, right? To be honest, I've been on leave from work for a month, so I've had some time on my hands. If I'm more honest, it was like this before I took the time off.

Anyway, back to the point. As much as I might pin WAY to many things, Pinterest is a great source of inspiration. I'm a visual thinker, so it really helps me to be able to see projects, instead of just making "to-do" lists that mostly get ignored. What I've done instead is create "to-do" boards focused around specific projects I want to complete. During my time off we've managed to crank out a couple, and I'll get to those, but today I wanted to show you my new necklace holder.

Inspiration struck with the following photo:

Via IHeart Organizing

 If you aren't familiar with the blog IHeart Organizing, I highly recommend you check it out. I've found some really interesting tips and tricks there! Although I actually have purchased the radiator grate, I decided my first priority was not my earrings by my necklaces. You see, all of my necklaces are currently hanging on an over-the-door rack that hangs on our closet door. Which would be fine if C didn't have to wake up an hour earlier than me. He tries to be sweet and shut the door so the closet light doesn't wake me up, but 3/4 of the time the noise of the necklaces bouncing on the door does.

So, back to the Pinterest board. Were there any good inspiration shots for necklace storage that was similar to the design above that I liked so much? Turns out, there were.

Via Crafty Clariangel

Via  Victoria Cassinova

Via Life Ann Style

Not only was the last one very close to what I was looking for, but it also came with instructions! The only real adaptation I made was to modify the colors and to add some knobs along the bottom. My bathroom has sort of a transferware theme to it, and so I've been trying to find some great blue and white accessories to add in.

Turns out I'm a bad blogger and didn't take photos throughout the process, but it was pretty easy.
1. Purchased supplies: frame (goodwill), white paint and sponge brushes (Michael's), blue and white knobs (Hobby Lobby), and white hooks (Kmart)
2. Painted frame white. It ended up with sort of a vintage-y look, which wasn't intentional but I think it worked pretty well.
3. Used C's drill to make holes for the knobs and hooks
4. Attached knobs and hooks
5. Realized the drill bit I used for the hooks was too big, so dug out some gorilla glue to make sure they stuck
6. Hung the whole thing on the bathroom wall, and added my necklaces.

Sorry for the poor quality, but here is the end result!

The whole corner, plus the shelves for my knickknacks. Note the goodwill candlestick bracelet/watch holders!

Voila! Not perfect, but for one of my first real "DIY" crafts, not too shabby! I have an oval frame that I'm planning to hang with ribbons across for clips and sunglasses, and I am also planning on converting my oatmeal container into a holder for my headbands, rather than using the towel rack.

What Is a Wife?

So far in the wedding planning process, I've been finding myself reading a lot. Those of you who know me aren't shocked by this. I was the girl who got detention in 6th grade for reading in my reading class. Yup. So naturally, I'd turn to a variety of books and blogs to help me navigate this process. What I've found is that, although it is nice knowing the seventeen ways to fold napkins to make your reception tables look nice, I am searching for what happens that next day.

One of my favorite blogs so far is called A Practical Wedding. I'd got a few of the posts that had popped onto my Pinterest feed, and was intrigued enough that I'm slowly working my way through her archives, from old to new. My favorite part, beyond the just utterly brilliant snark, the unwavering support for equality in marriage, and the sheer levelheadedness of it is the emphasis not so much on the one day as the living your life with another person from that day forward.

In the recent stretch that I've read, there have been a number of posts about defining "wife". What exactly does that mean? How defines it, and how? Sure, we've got the religious and legal definitions. But even those are sticky, as currently only 13 out of our 50 states have bothered to get their heads out of their bums and woken up to equal rights. And, I'm not really down with that whole subservience thing that I often feel gets pushed in the religious quadrent, at least the Catholic part I grew up in.

The other component of this, as Meg over at APW points out, is the often quick transfer of titles from wife to mother. And this is where it sometimes get sticky. Over at her blog, it became an unintended Mom duke fest between Stay at Homes who are happy with their choice and Go To Works who are also happy with their choice. You also had those groups on the sidelines watching it go down; the I Don't Want Kids Evers, the I Don't Want Kids Right Nows, the Maybe Maybe Nots, and the Been Trying But Cannots.

Right now, today at least, I don't necessarily have the answers. I'm going to keep reading the APW posts, because she seems to be in a similar mindset to myself. I'm also reading through the Iowa marriage law, and what legally at least it means. I also have a good friend, soon to be known as Pastor A, and I'll maybe see if I can chat with her about it some.

Mr. C and I during our first Valentine's Day together

To me, right now, being Mr. C's wife means that I will be on his team, no matter what. Everything I do from this point on isn't just about me, it is about our team. And that I can trust him to be on my team too. I know there's more to it than that, but for today at least that seems to be enough.

Finding the Dress: Part 2

Miss part one? Find it here!

I walked out of the bridal store, drove home, tried calling my mom to no avail, frantically googled the a-line dress, and sent MaidoH A a message on gchat:

Me: hey, do you have a night free this week? (See how calm and collected I am?)
A: we could do something after crossfit. i am normally done around 8
Me: mmm k (less calm and collected)
A: or we could hang out before (what an awesome friend)
Me: because I either messed up big time or did something awesome
A: ohhh?
Me: I went to the dress shop on Union
A: ok
Me: two reasons, one because I wanted to see the swatches they had for bridesmaids dresses
Me: but also because last week was absolute (bad word) and I wanted to look at pretty things.

Then I sent her a link to the a-line silk dress.

A: whoa. that's cool.
Me: yeah. it is this almost goldish blush ivory color. gorgeous
A: ohhh fancy
Me: Normally $3,000+, and on sale for the next week for $500
A: ok
Me: so I was hoping we could find a time when you could come with me so I could try it on for you
A: yeah def
Me: It is the first dress I felt comfortable in.
A: I can leave work
A: and go now

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why MaidoH A is AWESOME. She left work, and met me over at the bridal shop. We walked in, walked down to the fitting room, and tried on the dress. And guys, seeing her reaction, I knew beyond a doubt it was the dress. We tried it on with two different veils, but she loved the one that matched perfectly. It is the sort of creamy silk with little seed pearls on it. Gorgeous.

Back of the dress and the veil. Don't say I never gave you anything!

I am not sure yet about the hair flower, but if we do we'll make one ourselves because that one was RIDICULOUSLY expensive. But, now you can see the veil, and somewhat the color. After taking some photos and videos to send to my mom (who is currently in Alaska on vacation) we left.

I, probably obnoxiously, called my mom several times that evening in between the event I had to be at for work, and finally she had the chance to look at the photos. I was really worried she would be disappointed to not have found the dress with me, but when I told her the price, she said "don't be stupid, buy the dress." So, the next day, right after work, I went back and bought the dress and the veil.

The good and the bad is that, because it is off the rack, they let me take it home. This will be great as I find shoes and jewelry, and can actually put the dress on to compare them. It is really terrible, because I now have to go the next 13 months without blurting the whole thing out to my best friend (aka Mr. C). MaidoH A bit the bullet for me and it is now hanging in her apartment instead of ours, so at least the temptation is less, but I still want to go over and try it on every single day. I guess that's a good sign!

Finding the Dress:Part 1

A week ago today, I was in rough shape. Things at my job have been difficult, I was feeling a lot of wedding and non-wedding related stress, and it just wasn't pretty. I was trying to narrow down the bridesmaids options, as the sooner we can get those figured out the earlier we can watch for sales so the girls don't have to sell any organs. I drove over to one of the bridal shops in our town to look at swatches for the bridesmaids dresses, to see if the designers they carried actually had anything in the colors I liked.

As often happens at bridal shops, I walked in the door and was blinded by a sea of white and sparkles. Except this time, I sighed in a, oh aren't those pretty sort of way. And since our last trip had left me with a pretty solid idea of what I was looking for, I decided to ask if they had time for me to try on some gowns. My goal was to find maybe not the exact dress but definitely one or two stores that had what I was looking for, so when my mom comes out to visit in the fall we could actually buy something.

The owner of the store helped me, and after describing my last dress experience and what I was looking for, let me walk through the racks on my own. They were starting a large sale to clear stock for the fall, and so I went through those dresses first. I took one pass down the line, and actually pulled the same dress twice, once in ivory and once in blush. It was exactly what I'd had in mind. Fit and flare, soft skirt, sweetheart neckline, and an un-obnoxious train. I put the blush back, added the ivory to the rack and kept walking.

There wasn't anything else  that really jumped out and said "pick me" so I walked back along the line one more time to make sure I didn't miss anything. I grabbed a few more gowns in a similar style, plus one that was a silk a-line, but had a fun feature that MaidoH A and I had been laughing about in our first store.

I headed down to the dressing room where the owner helped me into the gowns. I think she was impressed by how quickly I could decide, but I figured there was no reason to doddle once I'd figured out it wasn't "my" dress. Slowly we made it through the stack, discarding left and right, even the twice pulled dress from the sale rack. The next dress was a gorgeous soft netting, almost a mermaid with a sweetheart neckline and beading along the bottom of the bodice, rather than in the middle or the top.

Imagine this, but with bling along the top of the skirt. via Dress for the Wedding

I put it on, goose-stepped out to the mirror, and paused. It was gorgeous. It actually gave me a shape. There was little obnoxious train to speak of. When she added a sparkly belt and a veil, I thought, alright I need my mom to come see this. I stayed and admired the fact that I actually had shape for awhile, before shuffling back to the dressing room. I say shuffling because the bodice/skirt junction was mid-thigh, and made it a little tricky to take a full step. Not ideal, but it looked good.

I decided, for the sake of the argument, to try on the last two dresses that I'd pulled; the a-line silk with the fun detail, and a gorgeous beaded gown in silver. Neither of them was a serious contender after the last dress, but I figured if I was still thinking about it after trying on others, that was a good sign.

I put on the a-line, walked out, and froze. All of the sudden I had a picture in my head, one of the photos I've seen of our venue, from the back of the aisle looking up towards the groom. I stepped up onto the little box, and just stared for awhile. It was completely different than what I'd expected. The color is different, the silhouette, the skirt, all of it. Not what I thought I was looking for at all. I thought I'd wanted the princess on bottom slightly sexy on top fit and flare, and yet, in this dress, I felt like me. Then she added a veil that matched, and I felt something click. And oh yeah. Didn't hurt that it is a normally $3,000+ dress on sale this week only for $500. No pressure, right?

I stared for a long time before walking back to the dressing room. I tried on the silver gown. Gorgeous, but more Hollywood than wedding. I put back on the fit and flare. I still liked it. I looked awesome in it. I knew I had a few phone calls to make. We wrote down all of the numbers for the gowns and veils, and I walked out the door.

It's Not Just For Loaf Pans: Meatloaf Cupcakes

One of Mr. C's most requested meals is meatloaf cupcakes. It is a twist on the old standby that I stole from one of my favorite food blogs, Iowa Girl Eats. The big secret here? Meatloaf doesn't have to be cooked in a loaf pan. In fact, it doesn't technically have to be in any sort of shaping container at all.

Case in point, for Halloween last year, I made Mr. C a themed dinner; steamed swamp trees, mashed rat brains, and a baked werewolf paw. He didn't think my idea was nearly as adorable as I thought it was, but he did think it tasted delicious. The werewolf by was the meatloaf, with some onion pieces stuck in for decoration and a slice of cheese on top for effect.

Halloween '12: I made two of the paws, and they took us about three days to eat!

So, I guess you could say it has been awhile since I've felt confined by the traditional bounds of a loaf pan when it comes to my meatloaf. I've also significantly tweaked the meatloaf recipe, at least compared to how my mom used to make it!

For Meatloaf Cupcakes: 
1 pound Ground turkey (I used 97/3 this time)
1 shredded medium zucchini, drained
1 handful shredded baby carrots, drained
2 tablespoons minced onion
1/2 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs
1 tablespoons worchestershire sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
Whatever seasonings you like. I normally dash in garlic, some italian herbs, or whatever else I have handy.
Dollop of ketchup and worchestershire sauce for topping

For Creamy Mashed Potatoes: 
1 pound potatoes (I normally use red or yellow, although my rat brains were purple!)
3 tablespoons greek yogurt
3 tablespoons broth
2 tablespoons skim milk
1 tablespoon butter
A dash garlic salt
A sprinkle of pepper

See all of those yummy carrot and zucchini chunks in there? Sneaky veggies!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Combine all meatloaf ingredients and mix well. Scoop mixture into muffin tin*
3. Spread a dollop of ketchup/worchestershire sauce on top of the meatloaf
4. Bake for 22-24 minutes
5. Meanwhile, cut potatoes into equal pieces and place in pot of cold water
6. Bring pot to boil and cook until potatoes are tender
7. Drain potatoes and return to pot.
8. Add remaining mashed potato ingredients and mash to desired consistency.
9. Remove meatloaf cupcakes from pan and place on plate
10. Scoop generous spoonfull of mashed potatoes on top of the cupcake like "frosting"
11. Enjoy!

Unfortunately we ate all of the cupcakes before I got any completed pictures!

A Lovely Sunday Dress Shopping Excursion: David's

Our final stop for the day was the nearby David's Bridal. After two small, local owned places, it was a bit of a shock to the system to walk into the near warehouse sized space filled to the brim with white fluffiness. It was exceptionally overwhelming, even after having narrowed down what we were looking for on both the bridal and bridesmaids sides of things.

I'd made an appointment, but when we checked in she told us that their preference was to wait until I'd selected my bridal gown before looking at bridesmaids dresses, so they could match. Huh? I told her that although we hadn't purchased my gown, we had a good idea what we were looking for, and still wanted to try both as I'd indicated when making the appointment.

We wandered around for awhile, and realized that although they have a new blue color called Bluebird that looks like it should be a dusty blue, it is actually periwinkle, and very very purple looking. Not what we were going for. But, never fear, having so many different styles would give us the chance to see how things looked, even if we weren't going to find the perfect color.

First up, we walked through every single bridal row with our very helpful and nice consultant. We pulled a number of dresses that looked hopeful, almost all of which were of the same vein as earlier. The only real exception was one very pretty Melissa Sweet ballgown that caught our eyes. I haven't been a big fan of lots of embellishment, but having it under the tulle was really pretty.

Alas, after trying on a good dozen dresses, there was really nothing that worked. I was noticing a definite difference in the quality of the dresses, especially in the thickness of the fabric. There were several dresses where the boning showed through the bodices of the gowns, which isn't for me.

After disregarding the bridal gowns, we turned to bridesmaids. Here, we were much more successful. The great thing about David's is that my two differently built maids could try on the same style gown at the same time, which gave us a great comparison.

Here's what we liked:

Quite simply, this one didn't wow us. Plus, the ruching in the center looked a bit odd. 

Standard, pretty bridesmaid dresses. The pleating on the skirt was distracting, and didn't really flatter.

We were getting closer, but weren't in love with the pencil skirts

Ding ding ding! Both girls looked gorgeous in these!!

Although we may not end up going with David's Bridal because of the color component, we definitely figured out the type of dress we were going for. And, after sending the photos to my other maids, they all agreed and liked this one! The black Alfred Angelo one shoulder from the first shop was very similar to this, so we might see if we can track that down anywhere in their dusty blue color!!