27 Dresses

Do you remember that Katherine Heigl movie? It's a cute chick flick and I've seen at least a dozen times.
And, no I don't have 27 bridesmaids dresses in my closet. I do, however, have 3 wedding dresses as of right now. Last January I ordered the perfect dress (or so I thought) from a bridal shop. It's actually a bridesmaid's dress but could work either way. The one I tried on was in black. It was very slimming and flattering (one in the same). I ordered it in ivory. Well, when the dress arrived about 6 weeks later you'll imagine my surprise when the dress I picked up was...yellow. Mom said it's called candlelight ivory. Looks yellow to me. And with the the ruching effect, which now just looks like layers of ruffle pillows, I look like the Michelin Man.
No joke. So, it's staying in it's bag until I can sell it on Craigslist or in a consignment shop. Then I was shopping with my friend Barbara in Snellville and we ran into a TJ Maxx. I saw the cutest little white linen summer dress and tried it on. It seemed simple and perfect so it became my new wedding dress. Then I was on Pinterest (imagine that!) and I found a dress that I simply must have. It's the Lauren Conrad white lace dress. I hate posting a picture of it because it won't look like that on me.I emailed Jeff's mom and asked her if she would be interested in making my wedding dress (fingers and toes crossed). She said yes! She is already working on it and even found a pattern for the same thing. Mine will come to my knees, no mid-thigh dress for me please. I'm really excited for the end result (especially after I lose weight, fingers and toes crossed again!).

Speaking of Katherine Heigl movies I'm super excited to see One for the Money this weekend. I've read all the books (except the latest, number 18 I think) and they are all so fun. I hope the movie lives up to the fun of the book.

Copycat Strikes Again

Jeff's birthday was a couple weeks ago. I won't tell you his age because he'd probably rather I didn't. I'm usually on top of things with presents but I fell behind at Christmas and for Jeff's birthday. I did take him to Bass Pro Shop to get some outdoor stuff. And, I stole another idea from Young House Love. Sherry made a super sweet and funny gift for her husband John with Boy Scout Merit Badges. I did something very similar (okay, exactly the same) for Jeff. Sorry for the glare on the close up of the explanation. It was a surprise to him so at least that's something. It did take some time but it was really fun putting it together and coming up with funny reasons why I feel he deserves that particular badge. Jeff actually was a Boy Scout so I was worried it would be old news to him but he seems to like it. He even let me hang it up by his side of the bed!

In other news of new stuff...2011 was a big year for new things for me. My folks got me a Dyson Digital Slim for Christmas. It's so awesome. I've already used to clean the house and my car. It's pretty powerful and very easy to use. Jeff's mom got me a Keurig for Christmas. It makes coffee in like 60 seconds. I love it, I feel like I have a little cafe in my kitchen. I love my new mug too! Everyone already knows about my iPad already but since you can add new things to it all the time it feels new every day. I was obsessed with this game Phantasmat for over a week. I solved it and have yet to recover from the loss. Jeff got me a Garmin for Christmas and I've already experienced the joy and ease of using it. I have such confidence while driving to unfamiliar destinations now. And after Christmas I got myself a new car. A new CR-V to be exact. I've wanted one for about 5 years now. It feels like I've been driving it forever and when I see another white CR-V while driving I want to wave at the other driver. Dorky, I know. I did not include a photo of my laptop but you get the idea. Despite all the goodies, 2011 will probably go down as one of my least favorite years ever. Here's hoping 2012 is filled with laughter and happy memories.

Two Out of Three

This week has been the most expensive week of my life. The honeymoon balance was paid and we booked our flight tickets this morning. So, two of the major three honeymoon tasks have been taken care of. The final task is getting our passports. I know, I know, that perhaps should have been done first. But, we already have passports, they just expired last summer. Applying for your first passport, if you lost your previous passport, or it expired over 15 years ago can all be big delays. The passport situation will be taken care of either this week or next so don't fret. Most of you already know, probably because I haven't shut up about it, but we're going to St. Lucia (Sandals resort) for the honeymoon.
We reserved a beachfront room many, many months ago.

It's an all inclusive package including dining and several activities. There are extra activities (that cost extra, of course) we'd like to try such as the deep sea sport fishing, climbing the Pitons, the rainforest canopy adventure, and the volcano tour. I'm getting more and more excited as the days pass.

Gallery Update

I made a few changes to the gallery wall. Here's the run-down: The dark cherry blossom picture got swapped for a drawing of a kayak.Jeff and I enjoy kayaking on occasion and I like the blueprint-esque design of the drawing. The green polka dots became a sketch of a moose.
I love Alaska and Jeff and I would love to travel there some day and what says Alaska more than a moose? The green faux alligator paper is now an image of a cover of an old issue of Yates Garden Guide. My family name is Yates and Jeff loves to garden so I thought it was a perfect addition to the wall, and it adds a little yellow. The shadowbox with the river rocks paper now has four of Jeff's points.
This one was really fun to create. I glued a small piece of cork board to the rock paper, covered that with white craft paper, and then hot glued the points to the paper. And here they are all together. The Google drawing of the Royal Wedding got a new background in yellow as well. Adding pops of yellow here and there were my attempt to tie in the daybed colors with the gallery wall colors. And here's a picture of the whole section of the room that I've altered with the aforementioned IKEA chair.
Everything looks really busy in this picture but it's nice in the room. Sandi and Remy really like the new chair and pillows.

Books?

It occurred to me that it's been a while since I've posted anything to do with books. I am a librarian for Pete's sake so I should have something to say about a book now and then. Over the break I read Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor. A co-worker suggested I read it and I'm glad I did. I know I'm not a mom but there is humor to be enjoyed by all in the is book. It's a series of short chapters about the joys and truth of pregnancy and early motherhood. I'm now reading her follow-up Naptime is the New Happy Hour. Other books along the "same short stories that are laugh out loud (that's right people, I spell it out) funny" include anything by Celia Rivenbark and Jen Lancaster. I've read all of Rivenbark's books and most of Lancaster's. It's actually been a long time since I've read anything that wasn't a memoir, biography, short story, or a graphic novel. I read several graphic novels over the break and we just got in another shipment of books last week. It's a wonderful thing to spend other people's money for books.