One Year Later: A Little Imagination Goes a Long Way

Exactly one year ago today, Marc and I made our second trip in two weeks up to Lake Tahoe from Sacramento to check out wedding venues. Tahoe was on the top of our (aka my) list for possible wedding locations, so despite the reports of a large snow storm rolling in, we braved the drive. We drove up to Heavenly Ski Resort to meet with Adriann, the catering director up there.

I fell in love with the whole place immediately! Despite some obvious drawbacks on that cold, stormy January day I was able to imagine the whole thing.

I saw this:

And imagined this*:


I saw myself transform from ragamuffin:


To bride:


This, I just knew:


Would become this:


I replaced the bundled up skiers:


With my fancied up loved ones:


And replaced these tables and chairs:


With celebration...:


...and dancing:


Seriously, looking back at the pictures I took one year ago today, I canNOT believe how insistent I ended up being that we have our wedding at Heavenly. I just trusted that there would be a view, and a fantastic one at that. I trusted that the almost mid-October weather would cooperate. And that the skiers hang-out could be suitably altered to resemble a proper wedding location. Crazy.

But it all worked out perfectly! I seriously could not have been more happy. Or lucky!

Because this engaged couple:

Became this married couple!


* It needs to be said again, that all of the good pictures here were taken by David Shirk The rest are from me or Marc.

Marc, Bored

Seems like something I would do, but this piece of art was sculpted by my dear husband. I love random art!

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Gettin' Our Grub On

Texas West BBQ.

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Spotted at the Grocery Store: Keeping Things Running

I have a confession to make: I am a voyeur.

Every time I go to the grocery store, I surreptitiously take stock of what the person in front of me puts on the belt. And I judge. But, c'mon, it is hard to not look at what the people in front of you are laying out on the belt! It is like a small window into their real life. And I find it fascinating.

I'll see things like... Peas! Corn! Mashed potato mix! And then think to myself... Perhaps they are making Shepard's Pie. How odd.

Or... Two six packs of beer! Tortilla chips! Ice cream! And... Sounds like a party! I wish I could go!

Or even... Light bulb! Batteries! Cookies! Rice! And... Hmmm. That's a random assortment of objects. Someone is doing some impulse shopping.

I apologize to all of the people out there who I have violated with my Grocery Voyeurism. But I also fully expect others to be judging my own purchases. Which is why if I go to the store to just get ice cream (an unfortunately common experience in the summer), I will also pick up some fruit or veggies as well. Just to make my selection seem less indulgent...

All that leads me to today's picture. (finally) Last night, at the grocery store, I spotted this:


Can't tell what I'm amused about? I wanted to be subtle, so I didn't use my zoom. Which is really just me moving closer and extending my arms, you know, so a bit too obvious.


Close up!

Prune juice and motor oil. They just seem so perfectly matched!

Cat vs. Clutter

(I think cat wins)

Green

I have decided that my favorite color is green.

(For today anyway...)

Behold, green, in all its many shades:
(and try to tolerate the wet/rainy/snowy weather, because green will return!)

Sacramento!

Peru!

Sonoma County!

Oregon!

Twenty-Twenty-Twenty Four Hours Ago...

No, I don't wanna be sedated! It's just that any time I say "twenty four hours ago," that song pops into my head.

Today, I am at work, but exactly 24 hours ago, this is what I was doing with my fantastic husband:

Biking! Woo-hoo!

Thumbs up for biking in the cold weather!

My attempt at artistic photos with a cell phone. Not bad, I think. Crazy all the power those little phones have!

Wedding Details

Today has been a nice, relaxing day, but not much that has been picture worthy (yet, anyway)

I do have great pictures from my wedding, though, so today's pictures are 3 months (and 1 day) old, but it are certainly awesome! These pictures are all from my favorite wedding photographer, David Shirk of Unplugged Photography in Birmingham, Alabama.

Presenting... Detail Shots!

The trim around the bottom of my dress.

The beads on the back of the dress. My awesome seamstress (Lynne Rose Giovannetti) suggested adding the buttons, and I think they looked great! She also recommended that I wear a hoop instead of a crinoline, which was perfect.

Bucket o' bridesmaid's flowers - everyone put together their own bouquets. The flowers came mostly from Costco.com.

My veil - previously my mother's veil in 1977. Possibly to be my sister's veil in 2011...?

My shoes!!! Sofft brand from zappos.com. Ari found them for me, after seeing what I was looking for in a shoe. I managed to wear them all day and night!

The headband/fascinator I changed into for the reception. Headband from Ross, ribbon, feathers and hot glue from Michaels, brooch from Goodwill. Some last minute repair work from the always fabulous and crafty Kristin.

My bouquet, which I LOVED. Loved it! I put it together myself, and was so happy with how it turned out. Hydrangeas, roses, lotus pods, poppy pod, football mum, calla lilies, hypericum berries, coxscomb, seeded eucalyptus and a big ol' cactus. Flowers from costco.com, fiftyflowers.com and the San Francisco flower market.

Our programs! I gocco'ed the covers, made with wood veneer (purchased from e-bay). My parents, sisters, bridesmaids, future brother in law and mother of the flower girl all helped pull these together at the last minute!

Red Egg and Ginger

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Gloomy Run

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Cold and gloomy in Sacramento today. Great day for a run!

This picture makes me think of post-apocalyptic movies. Except that the power lines would all be down, and there'd be some sort of flesh eating creature roaming free forcing me to run, instead of me choosing to go out and run by my own volition. And I probably would have been listening to my own terrified screams instead of Ira Glass. Other than that, it is totally post-apocalyptic.

Why I Love Groupon

I love Groupon. As I'm sure anyone who has spent any time around me in the past year or so knows. I have gotten things ranging from food to car washes to cake to scenic train rides to photo books to teeth whitening from Groupon. All at huge discounts! I sound like an advertisement, but when a thing is great, it is great. So. Groupon. Much love.

Also a great thing was the experience Marc and I had with making our own wedding rings. (Not a Groupon purchase, unfortunately!) A few weeks later, Marc mentioned how much he liked "playing with fire" and that he'd like to do that again.

Aaaand. Voila! Groupon delivered!! In mid-November, Groupon had a deal for Elements Glass in Portland for glass blowing. The opportunity to blow your own glass float, to be more specific.

I don't know if anyone knows how obsessed I am with glass blowing. I have loved blown glass since high school, after I saw a special or article (I can't remember...) about Dale Chihuly, a renowned glass artist. Anyway. Groupon + Glass Blowing + Playing with Fire = The MOST PERFECT combination ever! All for $30.

So, later in November, Marc and I visited my family in Hillsboro, and took an afternoon to play with fire and molten glass.

Marc chose opaque blue and silver for his colors!

I chose translucent amber and opaque orange.

Our guide - getting the melted glass from the giant vat of melted glass (I can't remember what it was called, but it was HOT)

Turns out hot molten glass on the end of a hot pole is kinda scary.

But I managed to get it all the way across the room without the glass 'slumping' of the end of the pole! You had to keep the rod constantly rotating, or the liquid glass would have fallen to the floor.

Adding the orange spots to the HOT glass.

Into the "glory hole" - another really hot place. See how droopy the glass gets? I was constantly sure that it was just about to fall off. It never did, though.

I'm doing it all on my own!

And the actual blowing part!!! This was my favorite part, because I didn't have to be handling the hot glass.

Removing the float from the non-float part of the glass.

Still super-duper hot. From here, the float was put in an oven with other floats finished that day that were slowly cooled down so the glass wouldn't crack.

Marc's turn! He was a bit more confident with that whole hot, molten glass thing.

Into the glory hole! Marc looks even more Indiana Jones-ish here than normal.

He blew harder than I did, and ended up with a larger float. In the background is the next group that was waiting for us to finish. They sold over 1500 groupons, so they'll be making a LOT of floats!

So, the silver part of Marc's float needed to be super-heated to oxidize something or other. This little blowtorch didn't cut it...

Neither did sticking it back in the glory hole.

So they brought out the BIG blow torch! Marc was excited to really get the flame part of the experience!

Putting a flat bottom on the float.

Our finished floats! Pretty!!!

Why I Run Out of Ink

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Stop! Motion!

Mom got a plant cam for Christmas! It is very cool. The point of it is to watch your plants grow - it takes a picture at set intervals, that you can turn into a video. We had fun with it on Christmas day.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find anyone to do a full on stop animation movie with me. This was the best I could do all on my own! (starts at about 16 seconds in)

When Life Gives You Lemons...

...hope it is in the form of a Lemon Tree!!

A Christmas gift from one of the two best sisters in the world came in the mail today:


The box - who knew lemon trees c
Perish-Ah-Ble. Must be Italian.


Ta-da! Mini Meyer Lemon Tree. I don't know how long it will take until it actually makes lemons. Anyone else ever grow a lemon tree?

A Thousand Words

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, with today's picture, I would like to tell you exactly what (some of) those 1000 words are. Or were, as the case may be.

Grandpa: Yay! Picture time! I’ll just take a seat right here.

Mom: If I tilt my head and smile just so, it will totally look like I’m happy.

Dad: These red shoes were totally a mistake

Brenna: I don’t think I like this.

Grandma: Who is that over there? They look familiar.

Mom: And the blue shoes are light and breezy.

Dad: But at least I have my totally awesome calculator watch on*!

Brenna: I don’t. I don’t like this.

Grandma: Is that Mitch and Sylvia Smith over there?

Mom: And only happy people wear blue shoes.

Brenna: I. Am. Not. Happy.

Dad: Go ahead, anyone – ask me a math question. Because I can totally answer it.

Grandma: I thought they were vacationing in Florida.

Brenna: Noooot Haaaapppppy.

Dad: My calculator watch is proof that the future is going to be good.

Grandma: Man, I wish we were in Florida, instead of sitting by this dreary brown river.

Brenna: I want candy.

Mom: And the smile plus the blue shoes? That should convince everyone that I am happy.

Brenna: And a puppy.

Grandma: I’m going to demand we go to Florida next year. I’ve had enough of the Midwest, and these bugs.

Dad: Imagine all the other things we’ll be able to strap to our wrists someday!

Brenna: Put me down.

Mom: Very happy!

Brenna: Put me down.

Grandma: Oh, no! They’re walking this way!

Brenna: Put me down.

Dad: Like radios!

Brenna: If you don’t put me down RIGHT NOW, I am going to start screaming.

Mom: Never mind the frizz-inducing heat…

Brenna: I’ll give you ten seconds…

Dad: And televisions!

Brenna: Ten…

Grandma: I can’t let Sylvia see me with my hair like this. There are no reliable salons in Minnesota, so my hair is a fright. This bandanna was the best I could do.

Brenna: Nine…

Mom: ...the fact that my in-laws are in town...

Brenna: Eight…

Dad: And phones!

Brenna: Seven…

Grandma: No! Don’t look at me, don’t look at me!

Mom: …the fetus fighting for supremacy over my body…

Dad: And maybe even computers!

Brenna: Six…

Grandma: Oh, good, they’re starting to turn around.

Dad: No, not computers. They’ll never be small enough to carry.

Brenna: Five…

Mom: …this darn toddler, who I bet is going to go ballistic any second…

Brenna: Four…

Grandma: No, no, no! They’re stopping again! We need to get out of here before they see me!

Brenna: Three…

Dad: But how totally awesome would it be to be able to carry around a whole computer?

Brenna: I did warn you…

Dad: But for now, seriously? How cool is my watch calculator?

Mom: …or my husband, who has a crazy calculator strapped to his wrist.

Brenna: Three…

Mom: No, I am happy.

Grandma: Kris, you’d better make sure that girl stays quiet or surely they’ll walk over here and try to talk to us.

Brenna: Two…

Mom: See? I’m smiling!

Brenna: One...

Grandpa: Maybe if I keep sitting here, no one will realize I’m with them

*Disclaimer: I'm not certain that my dad actually has his calculator watch on here. But I know he had one later in my life, so I'm just going to assume this was it.

Coping Mechanism or Passive Aggressive Proclamation?

Oh, fiddle faddle!

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New Years: Traffic and Resolutions

It's 2011!

Time for new resolutions to be resolutely resolved, or for old resolutions to be picked up, dusted off and put back on the shelf and re-resolved.

In the past few years, I've abstained from resolving, safe in the knowledge that I can't keep a resolution beyond about the time it takes me to say the words, "This year I will..." This year, however, I've decided to bring back the resolutions! Something about it being a new decade and all. 2011! It's almost the teens! Everything is new and different!

Resolution #1: Make Resolutions this year. DONE! See? How hard was that??
Resolution #2: Blog today. DONE! I'm on a roll!
Resolution #3: Post a picture to my blog every day. So far, so good (see below)

For a while (about 10 minutes, to be exact), I thought it would be fun to resolve to make a new resolution every day this year, and then keep track of how long I actually kept them. Then I decided that was a stupid idea. Then I proceeded to berate myself for having such a stupid idea in the first place. Then I resolved to stop berating myself for stupid resolution ideas.

Resolution #4: Stop berating myself for stupid resolution ideas.

I've about resolved myself out now. I think I will try to post pictures every day, though. I thought about doing it on Facebook - you know, the whole 365 days of pictures thing. But I felt that may be too much picture-posting on Facebook, and may make me come off as a bit... over-zealous. But what is the point of a blog, if not to be a place of self-aggrandizing hubris-ness? Hubrosity?

So, without any further ado, or any further resolutions, my picture of the day:

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My drive to work this morning! Ta-da! NO traffic! Turns out working on New Year's day is pretty awesome. Well. Not the working part, per se, but the driving to work part. Everyone else is home asleep, missing all these lovely New Year's Wide Open Roads. And New Year's Rain. (Which, it turns out, is just as wet as last year's rain.)