bridesmaid dresses round.....4?

i spent some time on nordstrom.com last night in the search of the ultimate cocktail dress to function as a bridesmaid dress that isn't a tube topped, shiny solid blob of color. i love this yellow one. it's sweet and somewhat retro, it's yellow....but it's $498. now is the time i'm about ready to believe in the talents of and but perhaps moreso the thriftiness in getting a seamstress. here's a $178 alternative. the one on the right i can't find on the nordstrom's website this morning, but comes in this amethyst color for a screaming $62 and in champagne for $44.90.

nordstroms has a lot of great cocktail dresses in their junior's section around the $68 price mark. very few of the rest of these are "junior" dresses, but i thought i'd throw this chart out there for reference...:

#3 also comes in black at a decent $118.

#4 is promising and runs $138


i used to be so against the sickly shiny sheen of bridesmaid dresses, and i'm horrified to think that they've grown on me, but i'm kind of drawn to #9 for its bold color, its Silk Dupioni fabric, the full skirt action, empire waist, and i think it would complement my dress well. i also like #8.

#14 would be more appropriate to complement a grecian inspired wedding dress, but i'm really drawn to these simple, summery dresses.


i can appreciate #18-32 but i would not force these upon my maids, mostly because of the boob-revealing halters and unflattering sheath silhouettes.



and a plain little number from banana, and a sweet little ebay number for around $40 that touts itself to be Anthropologie but i almost doubt it.


i scouted this alfred angelo purple dress (i'm sure it's available in all colors of the rainbow since it's an actualbridesmaid dress...it's one of the very very rare dresses that is given a solitary $ on the knot....so i'm betting it's even under $100.... i do like the neckline on the pink one..

my love for damask

costco home had this super cute 2 person bistro set for around $119! damask + mosaic tiles = irresistibly chic. it even has an available matching bench! i'd been previously drawn to the simple wrought iron sets, but was worried that it would only comfortably seat two, and four with very small dinner settings. costco had a 50" round wrought iron table, and the concept of circumference would make for more usable space for guests...but andrew says it's too big for the deck...

my aunt, uncle, and cousins came to seattle for an anime convention and stopped by for a quick hello today. and the cat came to visit!

it snowed here in seattle yesterday! and apparently in vancouver, bc it's like christmastime today.

jewelry

despite the fact that we own i've bought him a ps3, xbox 360, and a wii, i was surprisingly excited to see that he unpacked my super nintendo and is currently playing super metroid, hailed by some as the best game of all time. so that leaves me with some time tonight to blog, and i've got registry on my mind. when i think registry, all i really think about is the kitchen and perhaps 1000 count sheets and duvet covers that i would never justify buying for myself. i've read in more than one place that you can register at tiffany's, and this blows my mind because this is after you've got that 2 carat+ rock on your finger (because perhaps only someone that is high society enough to have a 2 carat+ ring would have guests that wouldn't balk at buying the bride a diamond necklace). though the Elsa Peretti Open Heart pendant is, i admit, clean and simple, i am so far removed from that kind of jewelry and that type of shop (save for my classic solitaire, to my humble suprise, à la tiffany's). so if i could register for something as frivolous as jewelry, this would be what i would want. it's all handmade.

painstakingly handcut and handsoldered sterling pendants from smallthingsdesigns.com


faryn davis is local to seattle, and runs fernworks fine art, incorporating organic materials into resin jewelry and paintings. the online photographs of her work don't do it justice. i own two of her pieces so far.


resin and sterling silver encase perfectly preserved insects (it would surprise you to know that i am terrified of everything from spiders to butterflies) at bijoux du monde. Mikel Lefler is a local artist from vancouver, bc.

crepes and banana bread

last night i made crepes and banana bread. the best man's brother came back from university back east a learned little to nothing save for a great crepe recipe with a 3 to 2 to 1 ratio, but i can never remember if it's 2 cups of milk, 1 cup of flour, or the other way around.

more lensbaby

lensbaby

carrots

i'm blogging about everything i transcribed from the magazines onto scrap paper to decrease the paper bits floating around the house and to attempt to organize things, something i'm terrible at, but i've already lost one of the little paper bits about planting carrots. so this photo will have to suffice. and my memory which tells them that the wise gardener says carrots don't really need fertilizer, and that the book said to plant the seeds, and once they start to sprout, to cut off what's sprouted every inch or two.

arugula, peas, and herbs

here's what i read up on:
arugula
plant every three weeks. pots are a-okay. soil ph 6-7 with a 3" compost on top. space rows 1" apart or in beds 6" apart. harvest when leaves are 2-3" long- about 2-3 weeks after plants germinate. pick baby arugula leaves when they're still small. wash, wash, wash, and wash them again!

peas
sow seeds 1" apart in a staggered pattern. fertilize when 2-4" tall. pick sugar snap when pods are plump and snap easy. leave them too long and it'll stop growing any more peas!

perrenial herbs - buy as plants not seeds
rosemary, chives, sage, spearmint, thyme

hooray!

i was able to work with a wise gardener this weekend so i picked her brain and went through gardening magazines. i said i was sad that our garden was so beautiful, but that it wasn't a garden i would have necessarily planted (think tonnes of herbs, veggies, and 100 dahlia plants). but then she said that she grows her veggies right in among her flowers, and that i could plant veggies where the previous owners had planted annuals. so we brainstormed some vegetables that wouldn't necessarily attract slugs and bugs and we came up with some climbing things and some things that probably taste pretty terrible to most pests. so this spring i'll be planting arugula, radishes, carrots, snow peas, swiss chard, green onions, and possibly spinach, leeks, and rhubarb. the summer brings promise of tomatoes (dig deep and buy small plants!), beans (seeds), squash (don't buy seeds), cucumber (don't buy seeds), zucchini, and hopefully i'll successfully pot strawberries on the deck for fear of slugs. she has had good luck with the following tomato varieties: oregon spring, early girl tomatoes, yellow sungold cherry tomatoes.

the registry

i need serious international registry advice. the gist of it is, i live in the US, but am having the wedding in vancouver, BC. while it is totally against wedding etiquette to bring gifts to the wedding, that's what everyone does anyway because they don't know any better! to avoid driving across the border with $1000 worth of kitchen appliances, i'm hoping to register only online, and despite the fact that 98% of my guests are canadian, only at american stores. is that too much to ask, that everyone be internet saavy? i am considering registering for a small handful of things from The Bay to not be too pretentious, but what are your throughts on this? the downside, i think, of the online registry at let's say, macy's, for the sole purpose of targetting people without macys in their land, is that it precludes the fun of running around the store with a registry gun.....no?

my other brief thought was that i'd remembered seeing on the knot that if you set up a registry through them, you can add items from the smallest boutiques with no online presence to the largest shops of all. is this true? does this work well?

bellevue

ballroom dancing, level one

yes our living room really is that bare. i'm itching to buy another couch to fill it up, but then i think a large space of hardwood floors might come in handy..... ballroom dancing lessons suddenly became more palatable to the groom after he put the kabosh on busting out with breakdancing for our first dance. some lessons were in the $2K range (that's $2000) and i was like, no way jose. but perhaps we'll do something at the local community center....

one of the groomsmen came to seattle this weekend with his cute squeeze, to whom we demonstrated that andrew is completely unable to squat with his feet flat on the floor. he can bend his knees to about a 70 degree angle and then he tips onto his back like a wood bug that dies upsidedown in the garage. we discovered he shares this strange phenomenon with his best man last summer, and they both basically tip over backwards when they try to squat any further.

gorgeous glass, eco-friendly

i own a couple gorgeous jewelry pieces from twigs and heather. i've collected beach glass all my life, thanks to all the late night drinking that goes on at vancouver's beaches. i remember being in hawaii and asking which beaches have the best beach glass, and no one knew what i was talking about. i guess they have tighter regulations on drinking in public there, although i did find one beach that had what i can only imagine to be surf board fragments.

good friday and easter monday don't really exist in the US, so there was no four day weekend for me. this also meant a very slow saturday and sunday at work - so slow that i got through about 10 magazines - bridal, garden, and home decor. so here are a few things i came across that piqued my love for sea glass.
Oceana Seaglass Dinnerware from vivaterra. "These translucent, triangle-shaped plates bring visual panache to your table. Oceana's beautiful colors evoke the exposed treasures of a beach at low tide. The unique matte finish of these recycled glass dishes leaves no fingerprints." at a pretty decent $98 for four triangular plates, i think i need to figure out how to put together one of those online registries that pull from a mish-mash of places...




i love the look and the concept of this countertop, right, by ice stone. it reminds me of 1950's formica "crushed ice" dinettes, like mine, above, which absolutely does not go with the look of our house. "IceStone® durable surface material is made from recycled glass and concrete. Our goal is to be the top choice for green countertops by producing beautiful materials that rival the strength of quarried stone, yet actively reduce the waste stream by redirecting glass from landfills to be used in our product."

i also came across star dust glass tile, a husband and wife team based out of where else but portland, oregon. their handmade tiles incorporate 87-100% recycled glass.

the dressing room at the GAP

i always wanted to have a silver dollar plant. there was one near the edge of our property when we moved in. i don't know if it will regrow.

rentals

each 8 foot table can seat 8 people when aligned in a long row, so i'd need 15 tables... 15 x 8 = 120 feet - is the terrace 120 feet long? i believe the catering people told me the terrace could seat 200 people at a long table, weather-permitting..
andrew and jenn will be happy to hear that i've sat down and have started planning more than just the venue and photographers. and while it's not quite invitations or save the dates yet, it's a start, right? so i want to pull off a dinner on the terrace with one (or two) long tables. i've been trying to dissect the $140-$200 per person estimation my caterer gave for food/linens/tables/cutlery/chairs etc (not including flowers), because a follow up call in the summer they'd told me perhaps $30-$60 per person for food....so where did the other $100+/person go? rentals?! yes i realize i indicated i wanted no buffet with waiters in tuxedos, but....i'm really hoping it doesn't have to be that expensive.

so i made a phone call to the rental company in the city, and for $1700 (ahem, $14 per person) worth of rentals, i basically get ratty old wooden tables (above)? i guess it transforms into something elegant with a simple tablecloth....(side note, hopefully giving the wooden lawn chairs double duty for the ceremony and the dinner will work out...ie they'll be proper table height...)
....but this company in abbotsford offers chic aluminum tables, but i guess they'd be covered up too and would only big a big deciding factor if i was recruiting family and friends to set up, which i'd rather not since i'd want everyone to enjoy the day alike. the burnaby-based rental company that the caterer goes through gave me a rough outline of the rentals, and while it'd be nice to save some small amount of money going through a rental company in surrey run by manjit, i don't think it would shave off more than a couple hundred, if that, and i'd rather leave my day in the hands of someone more reputable...

i'm going to go through their website in detail and see just what the "geneva" flatware looks like and try to compare to other places if i can.



i've also learned the importance of the word "delegate." sadly, i don't think we know anyone with enough charisma to take charge of a microphone and an ipod for us, so i think we're going to have to get a dj so the night doesn't flop out at dessert. i've given my mom, the dancing queen, the job of finding a dj because she is always organizing dinner/dances with her alumni association and i was surprised she couldn't name her favorite dj off the top of her head. the downside, though, is that andrew (and i) are at the complete opposite of anything that would be played in the club scene, and for that matter, at a wedding. r&b...hip hop, no way. we would love to have indie music that we like, and even some oldies, but as pop-y as it is, does deathcab for cutie really lend itself to dancing?

the most beautiful girl in the room...

andrew got so excited that the bride was eating a kabob and whipped out the video camera...."the most beautiful girl in the room.....eating a kabAb" - making reference to the new zealand folk-singing-songwriting-comedy duo, flight of the conchords song:

here is one of my favorites, - the humans are dead clip, from when they still did standup comedy and before they got their HBO gig.

chaia's wedding