Micaela Tuesday: In love with a dress.

Filed Under fashion, micaela | 9 Comments

I found this dress at Forever 21, my first purchase from the store since it hasn’t been in Toronto for very long. At 5′8″ and no longer nineteen, I found most of their dresses indecently short which is sad because they are just so gosh darn cute and cheap. However I found this one hiding alone in a corner and I loved how it is plain but subtly cute. The kind of dress you can throw on anytime, for any reason and it never lets you down. At $22.90, I really couldn’t go wrong. I knew before I tried it on that it would be my next great love.

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Jun

16

60 day countdown update.

Filed Under Wedding, micaela | 4 Comments

This morning, Kent called for me and I walked into the living room to find him trimming the edges on the maps that will go in our wedding invites. He asked me how I wanted it done and I showed him. A few minutes later I looked at how he was doing and the edges around the border were all different sizes, just not right. “It doesn’t have to be perfect,” he said. I replied, “If you’re not going to do it perfectly, can you not do it at all, because I would rather just do it myself.” He laughed at me and fixed them. I’m trying not to be an anal bride, but it’s hard sometimes…

My friend Amanda came over today and, like any friend of mine who has walked through these doors in the past couple weeks (thanks Jen and Larissa!) she got roped into helping with invites. We had one setback when the postie told us that mayyyybe our rsvps would go through the mail as postcards with just regular stamps, but really we should put them in envelopes or double the stamp value on them. We went for envelopes. I really don’t want to risk all my rsvps being lost in the mail or sent back to the senders. Disaster! But overall I am very very happy with them and excited to get them sent out, hopefully tomorrow! I love being so involved in making them and am starting to decide what my next project will be. Favors, I think.

Our stag and doe is June 27th (our three year anniversary!) near London, Ontario. So if you live in the area we would love to see you there! Let us know if you need more details. My bridesmaids, family and Kent recognized my high stress level about it from my post two weeks ago and are being super helpful. Sometimes I try to do things all on my own and I forget that I have so many people willing to help. I remember last year my boss saying to me on one of my reviews, ”You never ask for help!” I guess it’s my tragic flaw.

I leave you with a beautiful photo that I found on Lauren’s tumblr, which I reposted on my tumblr. We my need to replicate this at our wedding reception.

Jun

7

That perfect book.

Filed Under books, micaela | 7 Comments

I don’t often find books or authors that I fall in love with completely and wholeheartedly. It is even more rare that I find a book that keeps my eyes filled with tears and a smile on my face the whole way through, or a book that makes me breathe more deeply and think more clearly and read more slowly so I don’t miss a single word.

But recently I read Love Walked In by Marisa De Los Santos and it fit into every one of these categories and then some. It was the kind of book that took over my life for a couple days, and all I ever wanted to be doing was reading it. I remember at one point leaving my room to get something to eat and thinking for a moment, “I can’t leave, I don’t want to miss anything,” before I remembered that it was a book, not a movie or real life. I had to take it with me everywhere and have a pen with me to mark my favourite lines. After finishing it I lent it to my roommate Jen, and she loved it so much that she asked me to read it out loud to her while she drove us for two hours back to our hometown. I did, stopping only when something struck us and we just had to discuss the pure amazingness that is every word of Marisa De Los Santos’ writing. It made me so happy when Jen said she couldn’t return the book right away, because she needed to read it a second time.

Right now I’m reading the sequel to Love Walked In, Belong to Me and I’m happy to report that it meets the incredibly high expectations that I had for it. Here’s a quote from it:

Chicken Soup for the Soul. You’ve heard of these books, am I right? We’ve all heard of them. But I wonder if you’re aware just how many Chicken Soup books exist on the planet. No offense, but I doubt it. I doubt it because in the time that it would take you to come up with a number, the number would have become obselete. Even as you read this, in some quiet, fecund place, another Chicken Soup book is being born.

I’ve never actually opened up one of these books, but I have a soft spot in my heart for the supposition underlying the series: that souls are highly specific, that they come in a multiplicity of shapes and permutations, that one cannot assume that what heals the NASCAR soul would do diddly for the horse lover’s soul.

The stories themselves are captivating, but what gets me is the way the author takes something completely ordinary and twists it into something completely wonderful. And she keeps doing that, over and over and over again. If you are always on the hunt for that perfect book, these just may be it. Read them (read Love Walked In first) and get back to me. And if you have a recommendation for my next book, please let me know.

Jun

2

Because this is the only thing I can coherently write or think about.

Filed Under Wedding, life, micaela | 10 Comments

Tuesday again! And I’m very happy that it’s this Tuesday instead of last Tuesday. Last week I had a bad experience on the streets of Toronto and Kent’s wallet was mysteriously lost/stolen. Not a great week!

However, one Tuesday later also means one Tuesday closer to the wedding and stag and doe. I think I’m officially getting stressed out. I feel like I spend half of my days organizing stuff for them but never get anything accomplished. I think the stag and doe is more stressful for me right now just because I feel like it’s all on my shoulders… I feel like there are lots of people thinking about with the wedding and helping me out and doing things for it. Although it does scare me a bit that because it’s a tent wedding, there won’t be one person in charge on that day making sure things run smoothly. Does anyone have experience with day-of-coordinators?

But the stag and doe… I feel like if I did absolutely nothing up until that day (which obviously wouldn’t happen, but just for instance) then on that night (JUNE 27TH), there would be an empty hall with no alcohol, no helpers, and a crowd of angry people. So right now I just feel like I’m treading water trying to stop that crowd of angry people from happening. Re-reading that, it sounds kind of mean because I know there are a lot of people wanting to help out, but right now it’s just all of the logistics and the paperwork that only I (and Kent) can do, and most of the things don’t need to be done yet. It’s just feeling like there are so many things in the future that is the problem. They stress me out now even if they are not critical! I’m not doing a very good job of selling my stag and doe right now… I mean… come! It will be a great time! Even if I’m curled up in a ball in the corner!

AHH. End rant. Okay. So my wonderful sister and brand new brother in law helped us print off our invitations on the weekend. Kent’s sister is going to help me on Thursday with cutting them and addressing them all. Katelyn is making a map, my mom is making RSVPs, Denis is printing them, and Kent’s brother in law is making us a website with wedding information for guests. So invitations should be ready within a couple of weeks. That means that… maybe… someday I will be able to breathe!