Baltimore Photo Series

I love photography. I haven't taken nearly as many photographs lately as I would have liked to... so, I'll live vicariously through some old ones - this series is from Baltimore, Fall 2009. Enjoy! More to come!

Oh Baltimore, so much personality... love it.

Daisies... the friendliest flower!

Kathleen Kelly: I love daisies.

Joe Fox: You told me.

Kathleen Kelly: They're so friendly. Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?

This quote from You've Got Mail is one of my favs... and Kathleen Kelly (aka Meg Ryan) has it right - Daisies definitely are the friendliest flowers, and some of my favorite flowers. I think I'm going to do daisies and roses for the bouquets for the wedding. They're just happy and festive and I think they'll work with the BRIGHT colors we're planning... I don't think we're going to use many flowers other than the bouquets though... [$$$ cha-ching, we're on a budget]

We do have other plans [I'll share them soon once I flesh them out a bit... think New Years Eve and maybe an extra splash... you'll see]

*I think this one is my fav...

Puppy Love.

Dear Oliver,

Thank you for being such a good puppy. I freaked out when I walked downstairs this morning realizing I had left my favorite Kate Spade purse on the floor less than 10 feet away from where I fed you breakfast. Thank you so much for not on chewing it - you just made my day 100 times better! Thanks also for getting so excited when you see me in the morning (I like to think it's because you love me not because you have to pee...its probably a combo of both). You were worth the wait because you really are the best puppy in the world. Love, mommy

100 books in 2010

I love to read. In my former life it was a perk that only arrived during breaks, vacation and time away - now I actually leave work at 5pm and have free time after work and on the weekends... such an amazing concept.

So I've decided to take part in the 100 books in 2010... in fact, I've decided to surpass this goal... but hey we'll start with 100.

Here are the books I've read so far this year.

James Patterson Women's Murder Club Series, so good - they're amazing pageturners.... I can't put them down once I start...

1. First to Die
2. Second Chance
3. Third Degree
4. Fourth of July
5. The Fifth Horseman
6. The Sixth Target
7. Seventh Heaven
8. The Eight Confession
9. The Ninth Judgment

I had previously read the first eight but I love to reread a series before reading a new book just so everything is fresh in your head!
[You can find info on the Women's Murder Club series here]

Also, with getting Oliver I've read a few puppy/bulldog books... these have all been really helpful. The two bulldog books gave us a lot of insight into the breed and the Puppy Perfect book was so helpful with training tricks and just what is normal for his age.

10. Bulldog (Comprehensive Owner's Guide)
11. A New Owner's Guide to Bulldogs
12. Puppy Perfect: The user-friendly guide to puppy parenting

I've also read some books not part of a series and just for fun...

13. Winner of the National Book Award - this book is super dark and twisty.... wasn't really what I was in the mood for so I didn't love it, but I finished it because well, I made myself.
14.Tao of Pooh - I wrote a post this book is a must read. Especially if you like philosophy.

More to come and I'm pretty sure I've read more books this year but that's all I can remember! 

Seriously... World's. Cutest. Dog. Ever.

All of these are taken via my boyfriend [my iPhone] - so the quality isn't fabulous... I just played with some pics I took with the D300 this weekend... but alas don't have them on my work laptop. I'll get those up soon. But seriously, lacking in quality or not - Oliver is adorable. Seriously. I almost don't want to go to Charleston because I don't want to leave him (or DJ) for four days... ALMOST.

Invite Wording...

So I'm already married...and having a wedding. Tricky? Yes... on so many levels. I'm trying to finalize our invitation wording... and its a little different because we're hosting the wedding (with help from our parents), we now have the same last name [do I use my maiden name on the invite? but we're already married, that seems fake?] AND it defintely is NOT formal... I came across this picture in one of our photographer's photobooks of an invite from a hippy Berkshire wedding she shot a few years back... I really liked the simplicity of it [and lovey-dovey-magical-ness]. I don't know if we'll go this direction but it's a possibility...

It states --

With grateful hearts for finding such magical love

Brenda & Tom

together with our parents

joyfully invite our family and friends

to share in the blessings as we celebrate

our union and love

the more I read it, the more it just fits us, hmm... we'll see! In other news 10 days til Charleston with my girlfriends! :)

Tao of Pooh

So a decade ago I read Tao of Pooh [written by Benjiman Hoff] in Theory of Knowledge, DJ and I were in the class together and it was one of the many classes we had together in high school and my favorite class [that and European History... both taught by one and only Dr. Milton - aka DJ's man crush].

Tao of Pooh is one of those amazing books that I love rereading - I bought DJ a copy for Christmas and funny enough he said he almost bought it for me too [we're soulmates].

Anyways, I thought I'd share some of my favorite quotes from Tao of Pooh - check it out if you haven't already!

"Do you really want to be happy? You can begin by being appreciative of who you are and what you've got."

"Lots of people talk to animals...Not very many listen though...that's the problem."

"There are things about ourselves that we need to get rid of; there are things we need to change. But at the same time, we do not need to be too desperate, too ruthless, too combative. Along the way to usefulness and happiness, many of those things will change themselves, and the others can be worked on as we go. The first thing we need to do is recognize and trust our own Inner Nature, and not lose sight of it."

"The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard - one that thinks too much."

"Things just happen in the right way, at the right time. At least when you let them, when you work with circumstances instead of saying, 'This isn't supposed to be happening this way,' and trying harder to make it happen some other way."

That last quote is one that speaks so loudly to me and my life, especially the past year. Somethings are just meant to be and some just aren't... you need to let things just happen. It's unreal what occurs when you do.

Post Grad

Oh, Post Grad... This movie is hilarious. Go. Buy. It. NOW. Clearly, not Oscar material but total girly-movie-sloth-day worthy. First, I love Alexis Bledel - who doesn't? [Gilmore Girls = Amazing] Second, I laughed really REALLY hard, a LOT of times. Third, hello cute boys. Add a random family dynamic and things you can relate to oh too well and you have a girly classic.

We got this off netflix and I was nice enough to not make DJ watch it with me and just watched it when he was designing and/or working late. He should thank me - I don't think it would be his fav...

All in all -I'm just disappointed it took me so long to see it. Grab your favorite pair of VS Pink PJ pants, a comfy blanket and cuddle up with this one!

Bridesmaid's Shoes

Bridesmaids shoes.... should be a simple task right? I've toyed with lots of ideas... I mean clearly I haven't bought my dress or finalized a bridesmaids dress (two weeks!) but I've been thinking seriously about shoes... such a small detail but they can speak so loudly. I've also been thinking lots about what shoes I'm going to wear (blue ballet flats.... between a few pairs) but that only impacts me - bridesmaid's shoes... that impacts 5 people.

The BM dresses are 99.9% going to be black so first thought was black, then silver for the BMs and gold for the MOH...

AND THEN... I did lots of pondering, searching, consulting with the bridal party and lots of googling [google image search I love you]... here are so of my favs [at first in no particular order]!

Then this picture.... it has solidified the plans....

so flipping cute... bright colors - all different to coordinate with the groomsmen [they'll be wearing skinny ties in different bright colors]

So when I get to see my beautiful and amazing bridal party [TWO WEEKS!!!] in Charleston we'll decide who gets what color, etc. It's perfect because other than the color they can go in any direction they want - style, height, etc - and they can't blame me if their shoes are uncomfortable - they picked them out themselves! SO EXCITING. I'm thinking the colors will be these -- pink, red, green, yellow for sure and then maybe orange or purple [mine will be blue and DJ's tie will be blue].

Clearly DJ and I are already married so the whole wedding planning thing isn't too stressful... just fun [and OK stressful occasionally]. We had our special day for just the two of us -- now we get to celebrate with our amazing family and friends on our one year anniversary and we're throwing one heck of a New Years Eve Party! Good stuff.

Oliver the WONDER Dog

Saturday my darling puppy Oliver will be four months! It's unreal how fast he's growing. All my life I've loved dogs and puppies and ever since I left my beautiful black lab Hannah at home when I went away to college I missed having a dog and wanted one again... this was even harder after Hannah passed while I was working in Wilmington, I really didn't have a dog anymore. Anyone who knows me knows I'm obsessed with puppies (dailypuppy.com anyone? and of course puppycam!) So - when I ventured out into the real world where dogs are allowed in my home again it was only a matter of time....

DJ (aka hubs) said from the get-go before we were married, no dogs before kids. What?! Poor guy, didn't know what was coming... We "tried out" a puppy a few months ago and it was a bad idea - the hound had so much energy, did NOT have good manners and was just snappy in general... I was nervous to touch it much less have kids around it (not anytime soon, just thinking ahead). So needless to say, it was a draining weekend and we said bye bye hound-dog.

DJ then came home one day raving about bulldogs and how thats what kind of dog we needed to get? What's this? Mr. I don't want a dog til we have kids turned into Mr. I love bulldogs... so it was a compromise - he didnt want a puppy, but if we were going to get a puppy we were going to get a bulldog... I slowly came around to the idea of a lazy drooler with lots of wrinkles (not the golden retreiever I pictured going on runs with but he'll come one day). So we emailed a bunch of people and found this awesome family in CT that had ONE "beautiful male bulldog puppy" left so we made the hour journey one morning before work.... and it was love. Oliver was the sweetest dog of the bunch and we feel in love. HARD. We weren't sure we wanted a dog when we went, and when we came home it was either Oliver or nothing. So two weeks later we went and picked up our beautiful little bullie. He truly has become part of our little family - our little boy.

Oliver at 13 weeks... he was so sad when we left him (he came home with us one week later)

I love this dog so much it's ridiculous and don't get me started on DJ - he melts for this dog. How can you not? He seriously is the cutest dog in the world, well in my world at least. AND he is so SWEET... he's a snuggler, he loves to put his head on your lap and fall asleep, he wiggles his whole body when he sees you and gets so excited... aahh. He's amazing. Also, he has such good manners. He's amazing. Enough gushing... here are some pics of my favorite little guy [little who is now getting big... 31 pounds, woof!].

Looks like someone forgot his dentures!

Napping while mommy reads....

Clean puppy after bathtime!

Baby Ollie learning how to go up the steps at his new home...

Sweepy pups...

Our beautiful bullie!

How could you not love that face?