sam and dave: the bonding

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I ate way too much holiday type indulgent food this weekend and I really can't see eating again until August 2009, at the very earliest. So that means more time for blogging. Let's start with an update from Sam:
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I got the wedding ring that I mentioned from Clay Pot. I look forward to wearing it for the rest of my life. The artist is Lisa Ceccorulli, Here’s what she says about her designs “"I like to look at three, five, and seven as symbols of the steps to contentment." The shapes of her jewelry take the forms of stepping stones used to make walkways through ancient Japanese gardens. The stones and plants were arranged in groups of threes, fives, and sevens.
On another little note, I spent last weekend with my family and Dave. Dave went back to work on Monday and then came up for Passover dinner with his family (which is now the tradition). I was on vacation this week so my dad suggested I stay on to work on picking the photographs for the slide show we’re planning for the wedding. But Dave, Pita (the doggie) and I wound up getting a ride back to the city with Dave’s family that night. I wrote a little email to my dad the next day because the weekend was so wonderful and full of bonding:
“Thank you so much for the beautiful weekend and holiday. I love being with you so much. I love you and mom so much.”

And my dad replied with the most touching little email that meant so much to me:
“I was having a HUGE love rush for you too. Talking to Mom this morning…that was why I really wanted you for another night… Somehow, although nothing is really changing, I am getting emotional about "losing my daughter. Love you to pieces!!”

I replied with this:
“you will never lose me. We are only growing closer and closer. You and mom are my favorite people and I'm never so happy as when I am with you and Dave. I love you so much Dad and look forward to many many more beautiful weekends together. Sweet dreams."

fragments at a fraction

Check out Fragments' website for some really fantastic designer jewelry on sale for 50% of it's original price. Nothing like beautiful things on sale to off to start the weekend off right.

photo confessional

I have been woefully neglectful when it comes to my wedding photos. I love them. I lurve them. I just never got around to making an album, let alone displaying them in any way. My mom has some images framed in her house, but in my house? You'd never know I was married were it not for the presence of the husband. I was never able to find a perfect album, I never had the energy to organize the prints... blah, blah. It was one of those things that I just found really daunting and I put it off. Guilty as charged. Anyway, it's 2.65 years later, but I think I finally found the solution.
The Phillips PhotoFrame. It's basically a small monitor with memory. You load your digital images onto it, and it displays them for you. Tell the screen to display just one photo or a whole set of photos. It can show a different photo every day, every hour, or every 5 seconds if you want. Mine is set to rotate pics every 24 hours. This way I can see a different shot each day, and I never get sick of that one image. Added plus: Dell loves it. He can't for the life of him imagine why no one came up with this idea before. Way more reaction than I ever would have gotten from an album. I guarantee.
Might also make a nice after-wedding present for the parents. Load it up for them and all they have to do is plug it in.

diy centerpieces

Check out Matthew Mead Style for some great DIY. How beautiful would these topiaries be in different sizes, in shades of green and pink hydrangea as centerpieces down the middle of a long table? Or as focal points on a buffet table? Or create flowering branches, even out of season. All of the above could be made by you. That's right. You da boss.

poetry in a ring

I don't know what it is about these last few weeks! I've been stumbling across awesome wedding bands left and right. These, by Lana Jewelry, are pretty and pretty affordable. Please excuse the sentimentalism, (but the wedding band? it's kind of a sentimental thing) I'm going to wax poetic for a just second and say that the ring on the left reminds me very much of this passage on marriage, by Kahlil Gibran.

"...Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."

This passage was read at my husband's parent's wedding, and my mother-in-law read it at our wedding. I think it's so beautiful, it still kind of chokes me up a little.

sam and dave: done. and not done.

This is a little delayed, but we can't go a whole Monday without hearing from Sam! Seems like lots of progress this week. Here's Samantha:
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Spring is here! The wedding is in two + months . So much has been taken care of! As per your suggestions I went to The Clay Pot in Park Slope, I must have tried on 10 wedding bands and I found one that I love. The artist is Lisa Ceccorulli. Her bands are not on the website unfortunately. I'm going back to have another look next week so stay tuned. This weekend Dave and I got his wedding tie and shirt from Calvin Klein. We went with a crisp white shirt and a shiny silver tie. I saw a picture of Jonathan Reese Miller in a Gucci ad with that combo and thought how nice the light colors looked in contrast to a dark suit. His suit is charcoal gray. My nana Sally (the one from the photo in a previous post) is visiting my family so Dave and I spent the weekend with everyone. Dave built and finished our wedding website with my dad's input. It contains all the info our guests will need. We're enjoying the start of spring and spending this beautiful time with family finishing up final details and getting ready for a pre-wedding party my aunts are hosting for us later this month. I just have to find shoes, earrings, a wedding ring for me, a dress for my mom and shoes for Dave...these are the tasks are all on the agenda...hmmm maybe there's more to do then initially speculated.

crown of flowers

These gorgeous handmade enamel tiaras remind me of my grandmother's jewelry box. My sisters and I used to love sorting through that big box. We loaded on the beaded necklaces "Mardi Gras" style and attached the clip-on earrings to everything, ears, shoes, hair, clothing... You name it, we made it "fancier" with clip-on earrings.
While these do remind me of my childhood dress-up extravaganzas, I find these particular pieces very grown up and graceful. A more delicate and feminine way to add some color to your bridal ensemble or to compliment a retro garden theme, I can't imagine.