H&M = Love 4ever

This weekend's wedding was a gorgeous event.  What an honor it is to witness two people express their love in such a completely honest and genuine way.  Even better:  Heidi will now be joining Marshall in PHILLY, a mere two hours away from US!!!!

Here's the event in the pictures I managed to snap between bridesmaid duties.

Gettin' pretty.  Just look at that gorgeous bride!

On the way to the ceremony, riding in style in chauffeured golf carts!

First dance of Mr. & Mrs. W. 

 Party time!  Spectacles, cutting a rug, Theta song

My bestie Rachel, East Coast couple friends, and sending them off with glowsticks!

Congrats, Heidi and Marshall!  Hope you're having the greatest honeymoon of all time!

B-Maids

Last weekend, I saw this:

And this weekend, I'm going to be one of them!  Except hopefully not one like any of these girls were.  All of them were their own special brand of weird.

Now, this is, after all, an R-rated comedy, so you can expect to see and hear some things you really might rather not, BUT at the heart of this movie is a really well-told story about the struggles and triumphs that women go through in female friendships.  Seems like they're always a lot more complicated than dude friendships, doesn't it?  Also, I would have paid the entire $13 movie ticket price just to watch the scene where Annie is trying to get the cop's attention in her car.  Seriously.

Anyway, this has got to be one of my top comedies that I've seen in awhile, and I really would recommend it.  My obsession that I've had with Kristen Wiig ever since the first time I saw her be the odd sister on the Lawrence Welk show parody on SNL was only solidified further by this movie (she co-wrote it as well as starred).  Three cheers for funny women!

Also, three cheers for being a bridesmaid!  Love you, Heidi!

Blue-and-White Striped Summertime Dress

I had it in my mind that I wanted to make a really breezy little dress for summer.  I ordered some white-and-blue striped jersey that I thought would do the trick, contemplated it for awhile, and then came up with this:

Wacky hair!

The back and the front are actually identical, so the back is loose and hangs away from my body a little.  Definitely "breezy" in a more literal sense.

I'm got visions of walking around the city in this with different colored tanks underneath, or even wearing it as a swimsuit cover up (I've got a Key West vacation coming up...!).

I didn't use a pattern with this one, but it does have my favorite feature ever on a handmade garment: elastic waistband!  You're the greatest invention ever, elastic waistband!

Now just give me some sunshine and some heat, and I will be good to go!

Small Package, Good Things

I got a package in the mail.

Here is what was inside:

Yay for the last three letters!  The first 5 letters I don't really care so much about!

Which I opened to find this:

(Kiddies, this is a CD.  It plays music.  It's what we used to buy before iTunes existed)

Also inside:  a tour poster!  Allow me to point to which show I will be attending.

Also inside, this nice note to the fans:

Oh, but look closer.  What could all that writing be?

Why, it appears to be listing names!   Let's look closer.

And closer still...

YES.  

Nestled somewhere in between Tom from Iowa, Trickster, and Vikki Marie Marx (um, greatest name ever), I am listed.  I am A FAN THAT IS THANKED.

You are more welcome than you could ever know, BSB.

Books I Read in May

Most recent book club pick:  Bossypants by Tina Fey

The back of this book lists some advance praise for the memoir, one of which is:

"Totally worth it."  - Trees

If that makes you laugh, or at least smile to yourself, you'll like this book.  

I'm a sucker for a memoir in the first place (it's probably my favorite genre), and Tina doesn't disappoint.  She recounts stories spanning her life, from her childhood to college years to early days as a working adult to her work on SNL and her current show 30 Rock.  She's incredibly good at mixing humor with sentimentality (as seen in the chapter dedicated to how awesome her dad is, or the one that is a mother's prayer for her daughter), and just talks about a lot of stuff about being a woman.  She's a wife and a mom, yes, (uh, scary breastfeeding chapter for those who have never done it), but also a woman in a workplace, a woman who is getting older, and a woman who is now a little glamorous when she used to not really be so much.  

Here's an excerpt of an entire chapter, entitled "What Turning Forty Means To Me":

I need to take my pants off as soon as I get home.  I didn't used to have to do that.  But now I do.

Tina Fey is cool in a way only other people who used to be (or still are) equally as dorky as she was can relate to.

YA Picks:  The rest of the Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty

I talked about reading the first two books in this series here,  and now I've finished the last three!  Done and done.

Charmed Thirds follows our heroine, Jessica, through her entire college career at Columbia University.  I was slightly disappointed to find that it really didn't focus on her college experience so much as just the ups and downs of her relationship with her loner hottie boyfriend.  Also, it felt sort of weird to cover four years in one book.

Well, as if Ms. McCafferty somehow sensed my future uneasiness about covering four years in one book, Fourth Comings covers only one week in the life of Jessica!  She's grown up and graduated and in the "real world" but her real world life is kind of pathetic and to top it off, she's dealing with a marriage proposal she isn't really ready for.  This book I liked.

Then came Perfect Fifths.  You know how sometimes you read all the books in a series and you've enjoyed them for the most part so you're looking forward to the final installment but then you read it and it seems like it's completely different (and not in a good way) from all the other previous books and you just feel sort of let down when you're finished (Breaking Dawn, I am talking directly to you)?  That's sort of how I felt about this one.  Books 1-4 are all told as entries in Jessica's journal, but in the last book, it's completely third person, no journal writing at all, and the whooooole book takes place within about 18 hours.  I felt like it was a huge departure from the first four, and it just kind of threw me off.  That being said, I also read it in one sitting because I needed to find out what happened to these characters in the end!  I was mildly pleased with the outcome.

Tiny (No)Pocket Tank 2

Another Tiny Pocket Tank!

But this time, without a tiny pocket.  (Also, lengthened it by four inches and lowered the neckline in back to match the front neckline).

Two summers ago, I got this long grey tank top from Target that I wore until it was coming apart, literally, at the seams.  I mean, it was only $8, so I couldn't expect miracles, but it was one of my favorites, so I decided to make a replacement! 

I topstiched all the seams with this lighter grey thread, just to add a little bit of detail.  Too bad that meant I had to sew all the seams two extra times!

Fingers crossed this replacement tank lasts more than two summers!

#1 Fan

Forget Bulls vs. Heat or Thunder vs. Mavs.  Last night, the most important playoff game was that of the 2nd year dental students (Scott's team) vs. the 3rd years.  The battle of D2 vs. D3.  This was the semifinal game, with the winner advancing to the championship, so it was kind of a big deal.

Here's a tiny bit of the action as I caught it from my normal vantage point parked on the parquet!

And yes, that final score right there?  D2 was the home team and are advancing to the finals!  Cue the confetti and hit play on your favorite Jock Jams CD!

One of my favorite things about basketball is the noise from a game.  Squeaking shoes, the dull sound of a dribble, sporadic cheers or groans.  I didn't want to be too much of a soccer mom last night, so I just took this short movie of one play to capture all those sounds.  And happened to get one of the many plays in which Scott's team scored!

Three cheers for intramural sports!



Thursday Chatter

I met four of my very best friends in college.  Kendra, Rachel, Jo, and Julie.

Here's how we know each other:

Kendra and Rachel went to high school together.

I met Kendra on my dorm floor freshman year of college.

Jo and Rachel met as counselors at summer camp.

Rachel and Julie had the same major.

Rachel, Julie, and I all went to England together.

And we became friends with our friends' friends!

We have also lived together in the following combinations:

Kendra + Valerie

Rachel + Kendra (+ 2 others)

Jo + Kendra + Rachel

Rachel + Kendra

Julie + Rachel + Valerie (+ 6 others)

Kendra + Julie + Rachel + Valerie

Valerie + Julie

However, now, we all live in 5 different cities in 3 different states (although two of us are just a suburb away from each other), and sometimes it's hard to keep up.  I can't just fly over to Oklahoma to watch The Bachelorette together on Monday nights, you know?  (Someday, when I have my own jet, things will be different.)  Life in your own little world gets in the way, and sometimes you suddenly realize that somehow weeks have gone by without even a text to one of your favorite people.  But we have a solution:  

Thursday Chatter!

Every Thursday, we all write an e-mail updating each other on what went on in our lives in the past week.  It's the easiest possible way to stay up-to-date on everybody's day-to-day and still feel connected.  I may not have been to Julie's house for over a year now, but I know what color her kitchen is painted!  I know Rachel's birthday plans, even though I can't be there to celebrate!  I'm glad I don't have Jo's job, but I love her crazy stories about it!  I feel like I know all the couples in Kendra's small group, even though I've never met them!

And in between all those e-mails, we've tried to be with each other in real life for the important stuff:  master's degrees, marriages, moving, and of course, our annual Girls' Trip.

If you have a group of girlfriends that major life changes are about to separate you from, I highly suggest starting a Thursday Chatter of your own.  We're going on three years strong, and I think I can speak for all of us that Thursdays are one of my favorite days of the week :)

Tell the World Tuesday

I'm lucky enough to be featured on Mallori's blog today.  She's a friend of a friend, who I'm sure would be my friend in real life if we ever were to meet!  Click here to read my Tell the World Tuesday (and be jealous that I have tasted butterbeer in real life).

How We Will Remember Ourselves in November 2010

In looking back through pictures to find one of my mom, sister, and I for Mother's Day, I realized that I had never put up any pics from the (my side of the) family photo sesh we did over Thanksgiving.  My parents, my sister, my bro-in-law, and Scott and I were all gathered here in New York for the holiday, and took advantage of being together by posing for some good old fashioned family pictures (shot by Nick Coleman - who was so great and made us all feel really comfortable!).

We ended up with lots of great pictures, like this one worthy of the mantle:

And also some that were slightly funny, like this one worthy of an a capella group's album cover:

Or this one, worthy of the cast of a sitcom (and yes, we knew this was funny when we took it - Nick also had a great sense of humor):

But my favorites had to be the following two.  When instructed to walk down the path kicking up the beautifully colored autumn leaves, a side of Scott I had never before encountered emerged.  I present to you Angry Scott, Hater of Fallen Leaves:

Classic.

Tiny Pocket Tank

Hello there, quickest sewing project ever! 

Yesterday afternoon, I was able to go from fabric to finished on this one in just under 2 hours.  My crystal ball tells me there will be many more of these in my future.  As in, maybe another one to show you tomorrow.

I used the Tiny Pocket Tank pattern from Grainline's blog.  It costs $2.50 to buy, and considering how many times I just might make this top for summer, calling that a steal would be a complete understatement.  Also, any pattern with the words "Tiny Pocket" in the title has already won me over.

This black and white striped cotton shirting fabric is what I had leftover from my Beetlejuice skirt.  And yes, I even dared to try them on together.  Don't look for too long!  It will seriously damage your eyesight!

Before & After

I've hinted everso slightly on this blog about a huge project I've been working on for the last few months (which I can reveal in just a few weeks' time!).  Well, I finished said project this week (minus one zipper that is coming to me in the mail, which I will immediately attach, and THEN be finished!), and then looked up from my sewing machine and saw this disaster area:

Wow.  A mess this big has to be the sign of some creative genius, right?  I wish I had that kind of excuse.

What's a girl to do except pop in Season 4, Disc 1 of Dawson's Creek and get to work?  That's exactly what I did last night, and after episode 3 (the one where Pacey and Jen get stuck out in a boat during the storm) and episode 4 (Jen's un-birthday party), the room looked like this:

Ah.  Peace has been restored to the sewing space.  Now what can I mess it up with next?  :)

For the Bride-to-Be

Much to my disappointment, I couldn't make it back to Oklahoma for Heidi's bachelorette party a couple weekends ago.  But I sent her lingerie to her in the mail, and since she has officially received it, I can show you them!

I used the same pattern from Colette (the Madeleine Mini Bloomers) that I used for my Good Ol' Fashioned Bloomers, just cut out in a smaller size (Heidi is a tiny one!).

Here's hoping they inspire some sexy times for the newlyweds!  :)

I blogged elsewhere today.

My friend Sam (of the Dress Fit for a 21-Year-Old fame) asked me to guest blog for her today, because she is crazy busy with schoolwork (booooo).  Since she's currently studying abroad, I took a stroll down memory lane of my own study abroad experiences (an entire four years ago - hard to believe).  Go read about it here!

Our Moms.

We love them.

Looking ahead

I've noticed that every 3 months or so, I like to make lists of all the things I'm looking forward too.  I did in  October, and then  January, so I guess it's about time!

In negative 7 days:  Royal wedding (yeah, I still haven't moved past that...)

via KMFTW

In 19 days:  Return to Kansas, to hang out with the people who made me:

In 23 days:  The highly anticipated wedding of the two people in this picture who are not me and Scott:

In 34 days:  Bonnaroo

Scott's 5th, my 1st!

In 37 days:  NKOTBSB epicness

In two months and 9 days:  Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2 released

(Kelsey, I'm still considering whether or not I can survive a midnight showing.  I'm leaning towards yes)

In two months and 12 days:  Scott will be a whole year older than he was when this pictures was taken, and thus catch up with me in age!

The night of the Manhattan Tornado

In 3 months and 1 day:  Anniversary #2

In 7 months:  I will be on a boat, sailing to the Bahamas, with my best friend and 4 previously mentioned men (that is, "Boys") for whom I have a strange obsession...

In 2 years:  Scott graduates!  With the ability to take care of these for you:

In 40+ years:  Retirement