Wedding Wednesday :-DIs that your final answer?

I finally made my FINAL decision about the flowers for our wedding. Yay. Although I originally wanted to DIY them, the thought of having to worry about it and set everything up was just a major pain in the butt. So I went with a florist that was actually a Thomas family friend. I'm so excited. Below are the photos that I took to them to get my ideas across.

First, this bouquet makes me cry. It's so simple, but so chic and gorgeous. It's just white hydrangeas and white roses. So beautiful, no?  Except I don't want that white ribbon, I want the stems wrapped with twine or raffia or something that looks rustic. The bridesmaids will carry smaller versions of my bouquet. And the corsages, boutonnieres, and any other flowers like that will be white roses (and maybe other small white flowers) with twine/raffia.

The next three are sample centerpieces that I love. Again, they will be white hydrangeas and white roses. I am having one square vase wrapped in twine or raffia, and tealights around it. Remember my post about the lace tealights? Yayyy.

I just love these flowers (duh). I love that the designs are simple, elegant, and chic. I love the contrast of the rustic raffia or twine, the delicate flowers, and the delicate lace tealights. I hope it looks very Martha-esque!

Can you tell that I'm really, really, happy and excited about these choices? And I'm also happy that this is another item I can check off the list!

Coochie Coochie Coo

A couple weeks ago, my sister had her baby shower and I was in charge of the games! Aren't these so cute (if I do say so myself!)? I found the ideas just by poking around on the interwebs and then I designed them in Microsoft Publisher. Boo ya.

They were fun!

MEOW

Friday Funny :-DCatvertising!

Furniture Fix - Didn't Fix Crap in My House

My couch is about 6 years old, and it’s getting a little…smooshy. I noticed that the cushions need a little more support. I like the smoosh, but it’s a little too smoosh. Otherwise, the couch is in perfect condition and looks brand new (despite cat barf experiences – microfiber is the bomb!).

I saw an advertisement for these Furniture Fix thingies that are supposed to add support to your furniture. I decided to hop, skip, and jump over to Bed, Bath and Beyond to pick some up.

Sadly, they don’t work all that well. I do notice a slight difference, but not that much. I need a big difference. I like my couch to be smooshy, but FIRM. Otherwise my back doesn’t like it...not one bit. I had hope for these things because on the advertisement, they show them being used on many things – even under beds! Since my couch is oversized…I thought that might be why they weren’t working that well. But you’d think if they will work for a bed, they’d work for an oversized couch. Right? Right.

I was so disappointed. They were $15 each, so definitely returned them. Boo. I’m always disappointed when gadgets don’t work. The lady at Bed, Bath, and Beyond told me that they sell a ton of them and haven't gotten many returns, though!

Wedding Wednesday :-DReception Table Idea - DIY Lace Tealights

Isn't this so gorgeous? I found the idea on (where else?) the Martha Stewart Weddings website!

So, for the tables, I'm going to have a centerpiece of white hydrangeas and roses, and I'm having my florist provide tealights to place around them. I'm going to make these little lace sleeves to put around the tealights! Isn't is so Martha-esque and shabby chic?

Love!

Moonlit Madness

Orly Moonlit Madness. Fab. Love. Drama.

Slumber Party

Friday Funny :-DNot Gonna Happen!

Bienvenido a Miami :-)

Robbie and I went to Miami in October – here are some pics from one of our nights out!

Despite the fact that it DOWNPOURED the entire time we were in Florida, we still had a great time. We got to meet up with some friends we hadn’t seen in a while – Christophe and Rachel (we know them from Vegas) and Liz (a friend from LA). We also got to spend lots of time with Robbie’s Aunt Susie (and her kitties! Jasper and Bella).

After Miami, we spent a few days in Orlando, where it continued to downpour. Then it magically stopped raining and became sunny – when we were on our way to the airport to go home. I don’t have any other pics than these because my camera died and I didn’t have my charger. Boo.

It was fun even though we got soaked! Actually, experiencing the thunderstorms was sorta nice. I miss thunderstorms, we don’t ever get any in LA.

Here are some pics!

Wedding Wednesday :-DSave the Date Redo

Check out this super adorable Save the Date design!

Lindsay found an awesome website, MagnetStreet.com, that actually has semi-affordable options for magnet Save the Dates. I love, love, love the idea of magnets! And I also love the photo booth design. It’s what I’ve always wanted, but prior to Lindsay telling me about this site, I couldn’t find any that were not ridiculously expensive. Thank youuuuuu, Lindsay!

Like anything, it all comes back to how much you really feel like spending on stuff like this. These are $1.29 each (…for 75. The more you order, the price decreases per magnet). The Save the Date cards that I posted about a few weeks ago are only 69 cents each. So it’s a total cost of $97 for the magnets, or $52 for the photo cards. I’ve decided to go with the magnets because they are so cute, I love them, they are what I’ve always wanted, and I really think people are more likely to keep a magnet on their fridge (even after the wedding) than keep a photo card.

I wasn’t even sure I was going to send out Save the Dates!.LOL. But then we got our awesome engagement photos and I found these magnets…and here we are. :-D Ha!

October Birchbox Review

Here is the link to my original post about my October Birchbox.

Befine Lip Exfoliator

I liked this stuff, but didn’t love it. I guess the idea of a lip exfoliator is the same as using an exfoliator anywhere else, but I never really feel the need for it. Maybe my mind would have been blown if I had gotten the matching serum as well, because then I would have experienced the full effect?

Oribe Beautiful Color Shampoo
This shampoo and conditioner smells wonderful. The shampoo was a little difficult to work up a lather, though. The conditioner was light but very moisturizing. My hair was so soft and shiny afterwards! I really loved this, but I love it equally to the L’Oreal Shampoo and Conditioner that I currently use (Vive Pro, Color ViveHi-Gloss, Dry or Damaged Color-Treated Hair). And the L’Oreal Shampoo/Conditioner is more affordable.

Laura Geller Spackle in Bronze
Not gonna lie, it was a little strange to use something on my face called “spackle.” When you squeeze it onto your fingers to apply it, it looks really dark. But once you put it on, it's not dark at all. I use a tinted moisturizer, and I mixed it with that. I noticed a glow and my skin looked beautiful. Also, it helped my makeup look great for the ENTIRE DAY. Like, when I got home from work, I felt like I had just applied it! Amazing! As much as I hate to admit it - I don't always wash my face before working out...my makeup even still looked pretty good after the gym! I know it doesn't matter, it was just something I noticed. LOL. I would definitely buy this product!

Caudalie Vinoperfect Cell Renewal Night Cream
This product feels sort of thick on your hand when you squeeze it out of the tube, but once you apply it, it feels very smooth and not heavy at all. I added a small amount of it to my moisturizer and woke up feeling very glam. I like it a lot! But I'm not sure I'd pay big bucks for it.

Orofluido Beauty Elixir
This stuff smells amazing. It's not overpowering though, I got little whiffs of it here and there but it wasn't too strong. It was very smoothing, I didn't feel like it made my hair look super glossy, though. And it was sort of heavy (well....it is oil). I'll stick to my Redken Shine Flash, but I will enjoy this sample while it lasts. :-D

Send me an email to diaryofasmartblonde{at}yahoo.com and I will refer you to Birchbox! :-D

Mother + Son

Friday Funny :-DMy Hand is a DOLPHINNNN!!!!!!

Bang Bang You Shot Me Down

Isn't this nail polish fab? I'm obsessed.

Sally Hansen - Gunmetal. Loveeeeeee. I gotta say I really noticed that this polish applied like a dream...and looked absolutely perfect for 5 days.

It sort of reminded me of one of my favorite movies....

Wedding Wednesday :-DFavor Labels

Check out these labels that I created for our wedding favors. I designed them on Vista Print.  They are actually business cards, but I tweaked them to fit my needs. Go me.

Fun, huh? Back when I first started planning our wedding, I stumbled across this photo on The Knot and I loved it. I decided to use that little sentiment on our labels too.

Even better, the labels were only 10 bucks {for 250}! Boo ya. I’m going to use a hole-puncher to put a little hole in them, and then tie them to the favor bags with twine. Ahhh. Very Martha Stewart-esque.

Halloween 2011 :-DSookie + Eric from True Blood

October Birchbox Goodies

The Future for Zach & Buster

Isn't this soooooooo adorbale!?

Book DiscussionThe Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

Four words for this book: I think I can!

As in...the Little Engine That Could! I think I can, I think I can! My overall impression of this story was that it was sort of slow. It seemed like it took a long time for things to happen. I kept waiting and waiting for some witchcraft and some action. LOL. Also, some of the story was fairly predictable – I knew who the bad guy was, I knew that Connie was a witch, and I knew that her relatives were witches long before she figured it out. I was thinking, c’mon Connie, the crazy garden didn’t clue you in?

When it came to Connie, I wanted to like her a lot. At first, she sort of reminded of some of the heroines in Charlaine Harris’s books (whom I usually like). But then little things started to annoy me. First, that it took so long for her to figure stuff out (as mentioned before). But I guess the author was trying to convey that she was just “closed off” to those ideas because she was such a logical thinker? Secondly, her “daydreams” annoyed the crap out of me. On one hand she was a scholarly, intelligent young woman. On the other hand, she was always getting caught up in daydreams and seemed totally flaky. I guess these daydreams were supposed to be her initially tapping into her “witch-ly” talents, and were like premonitions but most of the time she was visualizing things that happened in the past. So did that make them “post-monitions?”

On the other hand, there were several things that I really loved about this book. It was a fairly easy read. I love the subject of witchcraft and it was fun to read so close to Halloween. I loved the portions of the book that were about the witches in the 1600s! Those historical fiction portions were so interesting – and seemed pretty accurate. I’m no expert…however, I did check out the author’s website, which includes sources and background about her process for writing the book! Also, she talks about how she is related to two women that were in the Salem Witch Trials! How cool is that? This book definitely made me interested in learning more about it! There were a lot of real historical tidbits throughout the story, too. You learned about how people lived, related to each other, and their way of thinking wayyyy back in the 1600s.  She also talked about how a lot of ideas about witches have become convoluted over time and mixed in with other ideas. For example, she said that originally it was thought that witches flew on brooms with the bristles pointing up. And currently, people often associate cats with witches as their “familiars,” but familiars weren’t always limited to cats in the past

Finally, the parts where actual magic was being performed were awesome! I wanted more magic! If there were a sequel to this book, I’d totally read it. Now that Connie knows about her “witch-ly” abilities, the story would really start being exciting!

Wedding WednesdayBomb Article about Wedding Blogs

And by bomb...I mean awesome. Here is the link.

My favorite part:

"Sometimes our clients get married in churches, country clubs, or even a VFWs (oh yes… it’s true!).
Sometimes they wear a simple silk wedding dresses, or employ florists instead of roaming the hillsides of Sweden picking wildflowers the morning of their weddings.

Sometimes they are doctors, lawyers, or police officers who are too busy to make custom bird cake-toppers and who don’t have access to a baby-blue vintage bicycles.

Sometimes their weddings are simple/normal/average."

THANK YOU. While I love the ideas that people sometimes show, a lot of them are just not realistic for normal people with jobs and other stuff that takes up their time...as well as budgets that they don't want to blow! Also, I don't want to roam the hillsides picking flowers the morning of my wedding. I want to sleep in and then have breakfast and mimosas with the ladies. Ahem.

I also thought this portion was interesting:

"I’ve even had brides apologize to me! They say,

“I’m sorry, our wedding is very plain. We didn’t have the time to make a lot of decorations.”

“This is probably a really boring wedding for you to photograph, I’m sorry.”

Where are they getting this negative self-image of their wedding? Glad you asked, because I’ll tell you. They get it from the same place that gave women a negative self-image of their bodies: the Media."

What do you think? I really don't think that people understand how much pressure a bride feels (if she allows it) regarding the wedding. It's a huge event and guess who does most of the planning and work? The bride! As if you don't have enough on your plate, you have to worry about Aunt Martha complaining that your favors are all ugly.

Articles like this just further enforce my hope for every bride (including myself) - while it is super easy to let yourself get bogged down in every single minor itsy bitsy detail - try your hardest to keep the 10,000 foot view and not worry about anything other than having FUN, and of course the fact that you are starting your marriage with the love of your life. When you think of it that way, who cares about anything else?

Also this would help with avoiding situations like Panicking About Engagement Photos. LMAO.

Thanks to Jessie for sharing this article with me!

Read more: http://hindsightbride.com/2011/10/10/open-letter-wedding-bloggers/#ixzz1azRcCl00
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Share Alike

Wurstküche

Last month, my peeps and I visited a new restaurant in Venice called Wurstküche. It was so fun and unique! There is a location in Downtown LA, and the Venice location just opened up. I’ve heard they look exactly alike, but I’ve never been to the downtown location. They specialize in different (and fancy) types of sausage. They also have an extensive offering of beer. Who can argue with that?

When you walk in through the huge, wooden, rustic looking door, you’re presented with a view of all of their sausage offerings in a case to your left. They all look delicious and very tempting. You order your beverages and food at the cashier (and pay) and they give you a number.

I ordered the Hot Italian sausage. You have a choice of toppings for your sausage – I ordered the onions and sweet peppers! The Hot Italian sausage was SO GOOD. It was actually really, really spicy – so if you order it, be prepared! For sides, we ordered fries with several different dipping sauces (there were TEN options!). They were all really delicious and really unique. I loved the Bleu Cheese Walnut with Bacon the best. There were also a few different types of mustard and ketchups on the tables (large bottles, people shared between tables).

The layout of the restaurant looked like a huge, rustic, medieval dining room. It was so distinctive. The dining area had huge, long communal tables throughout. Around the edges there were some booths, and there was some seating at the bars as well (bars were along the side and at the back of the dining room). They also have a patio area at the back, which is where we sat. The seating is first come, first serve, and that was the first place we found (it was PACKED). If I were to go back, I’d really rather sit in a booth or at a communal table. The tables on the patio were TINY. I wouldn’t recommend sitting out there with any more than two people. Three would be pushing it. We had four, and it was not comfortable!

There were a couple things that I didn’t really like about the place. First, there weren’t any normal beverage options – only beer, wine, teas, and sodas. I hadn't heard of any of them. I wanted a diet coke (RE: something not loaded with sugar). I had water instead, which is located in jugs in a few locations throughout the restaurant (self-serve, ugh). And I needed ICE. I can’t stand drinking warm water. The second thing I didn’t really care for was that there were absolutely zero healthy options on the menu, even for sides. Do not plan to have vegetables when you eat at this restaurant (unless you count potatoes as vegetables LOL). That’s no big deal of course, but I’d just recommend that you be prepared to have a “splurge” meal. Although…if you’re already going here because you want to eat sausage, splurging is probably already the main plan. LOL.

You know what I would love for this restaurant? I would love it if they added a “sausage sampler” option to their menu. That way, you could try bites of several different types of sausages. And maybe there could be a beer or wine pairing option with the sampler. The logistics might be a little difficult to figure it out (since there aren’t servers, there are just people that run your food to you based on your number that is sitting on your table). But wouldn’t that be fun?

It was really dark in there – I did my best with the pictures below! Check out the delicious food!