I’ve been on a fruitless search for the perfect pair of brown boots. I love the ones with the red zipper detailing. I’ve been getting around with thick winter boots in this cold Minnesota weather and let me tell you a pop of color, even in a zipper will be exhilarating. I love the layering and the way the boots are worn in these pictures. I can see myself in boots like this all year round.
All images from: http://www.thedaybookblog.com/
This year we’ll stay simple and focus on little things.
1. Work on a healthy lifestyle: eat well, exercise regularly, love plenty.
2. Bake and cook more; try new recipes.
3. Learn how to use the Nikon, take beautiful pictures.
4. Write regularly to entertain and for myself.
5. Organize the pack rat inside.
One day at work an elderly couple came in. They were well into their golden years. He was a World War II veteran and she was a teacher. He couldn’t see out of his left eye and he kept telling me over and over that he lost that eye in action. She kept on slapping him on the wrist saying, “God Lord, she doesn’t care!” I did care. I did care very much and I wanted to sit this pair down at dinner and ask what was the secret to a healthy, loving marriage…how are they still together well into their 80s and still happy (much less walking!)?
During my interaction with them, I was able to find out that they weren’t married until he came back from the war. She married him handicapped and took care of the both of them. They weren’t able to have children together and yet, they stayed together and took care of each other. Not only that but they were able to foster 147 children in their lifetime…one hundred forty seven children in which they kept one…the one who was now well into his 40s with cerebral palsy.
Life is going to be what we choose. We can take the easy way out, or we can fight for what we believe in, what we dream of. This couple chose to stay together. They said, “…for better for worse.” And that is life…sticking it through for better for worse. The sun will always rise on east and set on the west. There are going to be rainbows after storms. These things in life we can count on. Beautiful things. The rest we work and fight for, or we take the easy way out. We always have the choice.
One layer of skin I am thankful sheds with age, is the desperate need to fit in with your peers which almost always leads to doing/acting/buying the exact, same thing/way/thing or worse, trying to top it! Otherwise, I would have penciled in “get a tattoo” onto my weekend to-do list after my lab partners shared tonight the significance behind their tattoos. Me, who has vehemently expressed my lack of desire to ever permanently ink any layer of skin.
Tattoos, as frowned upon as they are in our society, truly are artforms in their own medium and rightfully so. The designs are beautiful and most often than not, the stories behind them are just as compelling. W. and E.’s stories rival each other but as it is ladies first, always I want to start with E. She has many tattoos, but two stand out in my memory. The first one is on her forearm. It is an Arabic translation of “Freedom is not free” above a kneeling solider. E. said she couldn’t describe what she meant when she said kneeling solider, but it was as if the tattoo artist read her mind and when the ink dried, it was the exact image she couldn’t put into words. She had the translation done overseas during her service by a native who worked closely with her platoon. He wrote it onto a slip of paper and she carried it, rolled into a small, glass bottle with her for six months before she could come back into the States to have it inked onto her arm. The other tattoo is located on her ankle, one she did herself when she was 15. Her father had just passed away and all she wanted was for her mom to take her to an artist to ink in one lone tear drop. E. reckons her mom would have taken her then had she’d known that could have prevented tattoos covering limb to limb.
Now W. on the other hand, got his first tattoo around that same age…from a parlor. With parental consent. That first tattoo continued on a generations old tradition of the men in his family inking a miniature star no greater than the pad of your thumb on the inside of the left bicep. The significance of the star is tied to his surname. The other and only other tattoo is located along his right ribcage. He brought an old business card of his dad’s to the shop with a vague but sure idea of what he wanted. With the first design, again, this artist developed the perfect tattoo of a horseshoe and a star. His dad was a farrier from his 20s on before the need for that speciality started to die down.
Very retro, very cool.
I listened in silent awe during the whole discussion and when there was that natural break (that anyone even a little observant could have anticipated) where both heads turned towards me to hear about a tattoo perhaps I can uncover from beneath a sleeve or behind the hair…I inserted lamely with “One time, I attended an Indian friend’s wedding and they painted my hands with henna? It lasted about a good week before it washed off completely…” Slyly omitting that I was only 10 at the time. Oh why couldn’t I have mentioned instead the cool tattoo I really do have in an inconspicuous part of my body where I couldn’t show even if they’d ask?! I have family traditions…only it’s with the women where we tattoo characters from a secret language women devised long ago to communicate during oppressed times when only men were literate. My great-great grandmother in ancient China used to brush on these “nu shu” characters in the secret folds of her fan! Or my other tattoo, shaped like a small lightening bolt…a small scar…on my forehead that I had outlined so I can remember always my parents who were murdered by the most feared wizard of our time!
Good thing I outgrew that need indeed.
B. and I have been window shopping for homes recently–usually online, sometimes open houses on random Sunday mornings, and definitely the parade home tours that have come through the area. If only, something like this can be found here:
photo courtesy of freshome.com
Clean stream lines. Check. Modern and contemporary. Check, check. Location, San Francisco. Check, check, check!!!
More pictures can be found at freshome.com.
With the unveiling of Apple’s iPad as well as the slew of electronic reading devices heavily marketed by Barnes, Borders and Amazon.com, it’s difficult not to be tempted to jump on this bandwagon if you haven’t already done so. An avid reader myself, I am torn between whether or not to make the investment.
I love the feel of turning pages of a book. Doesn’t matter to me if it’s a brand new book that no one before has leafed through or a dog-earred book checked out from the local library. In fact, I’ve grown into the habit of leaving my check-out slips in library books I’ve checked out so the person after me knows what other selections I made with that book. I enjoy finding others as well.
I do own a secret library of romance novels in electronic form that I would be too embarrassed to be caught reading due to the racy front cover. To add onto it could potentially be lessening my carbon footprint (if you look past the burning of fossil fuels to power these electronics). I recently heard a piece on NPR about Stanford University rebuilding their engineering library with more than 85% less books on the shelves, keeping only the ones students have regularly checked out and making everything else available in digital form. Perhaps it’s time to follow suit and leave my fears of a post-apocalyptic world behind, to risk still being able to partake in one of my favorite past times electronically…20 years from now. If it were the end of the world, wouldn’t it be more convenient to carry a slim electronic device with survival gear rather than a small library of books?
I am in love with the iPad (per my obsession of everything Apple) and Barnes and Noble’s Nook does come with some pretty swanky covers. What are your thoughts? Do you already own any of the electronic devices or do you swear by the print?
I’ll leave you with 100 year old Virginia Campbell’s limerick:
“To this technical-ninny it’s clear
In my compromised 100th year,
That to read and to write
Are again within sight
Of this Apple iPad pioneer.”
I love this dress that America Ferrera wore in her movie that came out this month:
It’s a long shot, and ends tonight but please try to help me win it!
With a guest list that’s overwhelmingly hitting well over the 500 mark, we’re going to be setting the hall to fit 560 guests. That’s 56 tables that seats 10 individuals each. And that means we’ll need at least 50 centerpieces (the tables on the dance floor location will be moved after dining–no need to get fancy there). Wowzers!
I’ve been testing myself by looking at albums at the Knot to see what appeals to me and sure enough I’ve found I like similar things. I’m thinking we’ll do a variety of arrangements out of these (click on thumbnails to enlarge):
Since we’re thinking our colors are going to be Venetian gold and ivory, we’ll use golden Asian pears. In the first picture, it’d be a white calla lilly wrapped around the vase. I especially like the idea of cutting open the fruit. It looks so pretty in the third picture! It wouldn’t be a bad idea to cut open lemons–it would look good with the color scheme and smell great as well. However, what if we used the Asian pears and cut them open horizontally so you’d see the star inside:
We’ll have to test it out and see how the fruit will sit in water for several hours–hopefully it won’t turn brown!
I absolutely love these tall arrangements. I’m imagining the head table set up similar to the third picture with the strands of pearls strung with it as well.
Simple and pretty. I saw a lot of these short, square vases at IKEA for super cheap. I like the first picture with the peonies a lot–but imagine it with white roses filled with water and pearls instead of the rocks. Yes? I also like the last picture: capturing nature and bringing it inside.
Another idea that combines the above is to fill tall vases with the Asian pears and water and top it with an arrangement of curly willow branches sprayed painted gold–similar to the second picture in the first bullet point.
I’m very lucky and blessed to have very talented members in my family that will help put all these together. So, the only thing that we have to worry about in our budget is purchasing the flowers, vases, etc. I’ve been looking at mass ordering from Costco and online sites–a little daring but will definitely help cut the costs of ordering from limited floral places in my little hometown. The great thing is, most of the flowers I want is in season: white roses, hydrangeas, stock, and calla lilies. There are also a lot of fruit vendors up here in the Twin Cities (I’m talking the Hmong flea market) where we can probably get boxes of the Asian pears to bring down. If we do an assortment of these arrangements it’ll also keep the price down.
With that color scheme we’re thinking of, I’m imagining the hall glimmering with gold hues, pearls, and shimmery ivory. What do you guys think of the arrangements? Any ideas, suggestions, changes? What about a ballpark for the price of flowers and flowers alone? Please do share your thoughts!!!
Wedding planing has been coming along smoothly. My main sources of ideas and inspirations have been on the web. I’ve been pouring over blogs, The Knot, and WeddingBee, among other major bride to be sites. I’ll have a list of all the links to my subscriptions and bookmarks soon.
Bruce and I have set the date for October 2, 2010! In Hmong culture, the traditional wedding and the American reception that many young couples today have adapted usually takes place where the bride’s family resides. So, our wedding will be in my hometown of Plover, Wisconsin. Plover has a population of about 10,000–it’s such a small town that the wedding hall we booked is less than a mile from my parents’ house! It was a rough few months of searching to find a place that would fit over 500+ comfortably and we’re happy to announce our wedding and reception will be held at Memories! We actually got a really great deal–it was only $400 instead of their usual $800 to book. That includes all tables and chairs to seat 560, buffet tables, electronic equipment such as microphones and projectors, bartenders until 2AM bartime (!!!), and the room itself which comes slightly pre-decorated.
The lights that are strung will stay
We are looking at similar table cloths and chair covers
There is the wonderful Rockman’s Catering next door that has cut us a price so low that I’m almost afraid to post it online! They’ve been open in the area for 25 years and the owner Scott as Andy Bernard would say is a “delightful fellow”! He sat Bruce and I, along with my parents down and walked through what a typical catering day would look like for him. Then, we went through and it again step by step to accomodate a schedule that would better suit our needs. Not only that, but all the dishes are going to be traditional Hmong food! Can you tell how exciting that is to me by the excessive use of exclamation points!!! And now on to what everyone’s probably been waiting for with abated breath…the grand total! Please keep in mind I was going to exclude this cost (because it’s so low that I might get in trouble!), but my first intentions of posting about wedding planning was to share all the details and costs of a low-budget wedding. So, without further ado:
$2000.00
This price includes all linen (tablecloths and napkins), dishes, and staff charges as well as a 5.5% tax charge and 15% service fee. Now, with the average wedding caterer cost coming to $12,790, according to The Bridal Association of America (and that’s only numbers for 150 guests)–I feel like that’s quite the steal!
Our grand total so far:
$4900.00
Not too shabby if I can say so myself!
We are going to be eating good for sure in the Lee household this week! It’s Restaurant Week and it’s a perfect time to get better acquainted with the tastes of the Twin Cities–at a fraction of the price! Bruce and I, along with a pair of friends, kicked off the week with dinner last night at Bagu Sushi. You can read my review here: Yelp.com.
We also have a reservation later this week for La Belle Vie which I’m very excited about. A $100 French dinner at $30? It can’t be beat. And I know what you’re thinking, only two reservations for the week?! Well FYI, we’re saving our stomachs for the following week when we’ll be in the Philadelphia area for Philly cheese steaks. So much for that diet…
