Jess's scrapbook, continued.

On Saturday, Jessica will start her residency at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.  What better way, we figured, to spend her last day of "freedom" than to go outlet shopping.  So tomorrow morning, I will pick her up at her new apartment downtown, and we'll head off the the Aurora outlets for some much-needed shopping time.  

I can also give her her wedding gift, which I finally finished today (almost 2 moths after the wedding).  As I've written before, I was putting together a scrapbook for her to remember all of the wedding planning and festivities.  I had a little mishap along the way and the nice canvas cover of the scrapbook got some water damage on the binding.  I remedied this by ironing on some fabric to cover up the spots.  The fabric I used is some that I had left over from the bag I made her for her bridal shower.  

Here are a few peeks at more pages from the book, including pictures from the rehearsal dinner

and the reception.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with this, my first attempt at scrap-booking.  I will definitely do it again someday, especially since I bought a LOT of paper and things for the project, and I had a lot of fun with my new sticker maker.  In the meantime, I think it's time to do a different project for the summer.  Any suggestions?  It may be time to think about the Amy Butler contest that Jenny told me about.  

Nateless weekend

While Nate is off celebrating his brother Matthew's graduation from St. Lawrence University, I stayed home alone in Chicago to enjoy some beautiful spring weather on my own.  

Yesterday, my Dragbies softball team braved the mud (from some rain storms earlier this week) and trounced our not-so-worthy competitors, the B Team.  I actually played, now that I have my softball glove from 7th grade, and made contact at an at-bat, although I was thrown out at first base.  Better luck next time!  

Last night, I had tickets to the CSO, and in Nate's stead, I brought our friend Laura, who played cello with Nate in the Colgate Orchestra.  We enjoyed 2 pieces by Sibelius and the Beethoven Violin Concerto, which after a good 2 measures Laura recognized and whispered "I played this!"  We also spotted her boss in the first row of the balcony.  

Back at home, both Friday night and this morning, I've started work on a scrapbook which I'm making for Jessica of the whole wedding experience - including Bachelorette Party, Bridal Shower, some wedding planning, engagement, our road trip, rehearsal dinner, etc.  While I'm waiting for her mom to send me some artifacts, and for Jessica herself to upload some pictures, I've put together 2 spreads which I know cannot be added to 

From our road trip:

and from our trip to Disney World.

I've never scrap-booked before, so I'm kind of making it up as I go along.  I have to say, though, that the stuff I'm doing here reminds me a lot of the psych cards (little posters to get me psyched up) that Jess and our other friends used to make for me in high school when I was on the swim team.  Here's a good one, from when I made the team for the New England Championships.  Abercrombie and Fitch was the publication of choice for these, as they supplied the most bronzed bodies for us to paste our "friends" heads onto.  Memories!

Jess's wedding!

Jess's wedding day started with a hangover (from the delicious and well-beveraged rehearsal dinner the night before), a big breakfast at Village Inn, which is the sister restaurant to Chicago area's Baker's Square, and mini-golfing at Smuggler's Cove. The mini-golfing was especially exciting, as the small Smuggler's Cove chain has live baby alligators that you get to feed, for a small price! Of course, we did. We golfed with Anita, my friend from high school, and her boyfriend Trevor, who tied for first place with me.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the hotel's spa/salon, where Jess and her bridesmaids were hair-do'ed and made up. It was quite the process. Finally, at 6:30, Jess's dad walked her down the aisle at the Don Cesar resort in St. Pete's Beach, FL. It was a lovely and short ceremony, which I appreciated because I had to stay on my feet in heels the whole time.

After the ceremony, all of the guests went up to the hotel terrace to enjoy hors d'oeuvres at sunset, while the wedding party walked on the beach, getting photos taken,
trying to look normal in such an abnormal and sandy setting. My favorite part was when the photographer had us all walk toward her, and then we frolicked and skipped toward her. Those should be some winning photos; I can't wait to see them.
Dinner was lovely, the bartenders didn't believe I was over 21 and kept asking to see my ID which I of course didn't have, even though my bridesmaid dress had pockets(!) The wedding band, Chameleon, played some real crowd pleasers and I got Nate to dance with me.
The cake was delicious. I would have eaten multiple pieces, but alas, the waitstaff took my half-eaten piece away when I got up to dance. Such is the way at weddings. Let this be a lesson!

Overall, I would say it was a huge success and a stunning event. I was so happy to be a part of it and I wish Jess

and Tom all the happiness in the world, of course, and even more since they're now living in Chicago and I can see them on a regular basis! So glad they changed their honeymoon plans and decided not to go to Cancun and catch Swine Flu!

What a beautiful couple!

Jess's birthday

Once we were happily down in Florida, 

we had a project: putting together gift baskets for all of the wedding guests.  I, of course, was happy to help with this on every step along the way, and it was a long way!
We started by purchasing the baskets and all of the contents back in Chicago - a long Thursday of price comparisons and bargain hunting, but we were well satisfied with our shopping efforts (Jess and I are rarely unsatisfied after a day of shopping).
The baskets contained: bottles of water, packs of pringles and gum, granola bars, blow pops, bottles of bubbles, spray sunscreen, and tissues.    Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the full finished product, wrapped in cellophane, but it looked pretty nice, if I do say so myself.  


 

The next day we were off to none other than the happiest place on earth.  Jess's birthday was on April 22, and we drove to Disney the night before so that we could stay at a nice hotel, get a nice dinner, then get into the Magic Kingdom (Jess got in for free) the next day.  We stayed at the Swan Resort, where we enjoyed a frozen fuzzy navel by the pool, then went mini-golfing at the Fantasia golf course, just a walk away.  I myself found the course especially nice, since each hole had a little sheet of music and description of the course at the beginning.  I also liked dancing with Hyacinth Hippo. . .

 From the hotel, we were able to take a bus into Downtown Disney.  While we were waiting at the bus stop, we made friends with a nice couple of ducks who must have thought that we had food, considering how much they followed us around.  We had a great dinner at Downtown Disney, at the Wolfgang Puck cafe, where we split a bottle of wine, a few appetizers as dinner, and I got to have a great piece of key lime pie for dessert.  

The next morning, we were off to the Magic Kingdom where we utilized the FastPass to the best of our abilities and fit in about 10 rides before we had to leave at 3pm to go pick Jess's family up at the airport.  We rode on Splash Mountain twice and got soaked both times - more so than anyone else in either of our boats.  

We were also lucky to have beautiful weather - not just that day but all week.  We worked on our tans at Disney World a bit, sporting tube tops so as not to get any funny tan lines for our strapless dresses we would be wearing on Saturday . . . 

Roomie Moon

It's like a honeymoon, but before the wedding . . . 

So I've been MIA for a while.  I was on an amazing and exhausting vacation all of last week, ending with Jess's wedding - but I'll save that for a later post.  I'd like to talk about the first part of the vacation today.

The first of a few congratulations to Jess, who will start her residency at nearby Northwestern Hospital in June.  She and her (now) husband Tom moved to Chicago in March and are living just a few blocks from NWestern Hosp., so Jessica enlisted my help to drive her no-longer-needed car down to her parents house in Florida for the duration.  It was a fun and sentimental roadtrip, especially in Jess's car, which she was given for our high school graduation and we took it on its first road trip to Long Island the very next day.

This road trip, significantly longer than that first one, started out on a rainy Sunday morning in Chicago and took us over 1200 miles down to her parents home in Belleaire Beach, FL.  We stopped for the night in Atlanta, which was well over halfway there, and enjoyed some free cookies at the Doubletree Hotel.  mmmmmm.  To pass the time in the car, we played the alphabet game a lot and counted different state license plates (38 states, plus Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and US Govt.) and abandoned cars along the road (39).  We found the number of abandoned cars to be the most startling statistic, since it meant we passed an abandoned car, on average, every 30 miles.  

The first night in Florida was a little chilly, but we requested to sit outside at the restaurant anyway - much deserved after a long winter in Chicago (and St. Louis).  

To be continued . . . 

Jess's Bridal Shower

I had a nice little trip to the East Coast this weekend.  Thursday afternoon, Jess and I flew to Hartford, where her mom picked us up at the airport and we met her dad at a nice Italian restaurant in Winsted for some quality family time :-)

On Friday, after waking up in our old beds at Jess's house in Sharon, CT, we drove in to Salisbury, hoping to have lunch at our favorite teahouse, Chai's, but alas, it was closed!  Instead, we had lunch at the Woodland a restaurant just down the road, then we roamed the halls of Hotchkiss, our prep school, in search of some new memorabilia from the school store and some old favorite teachers.  
I love the installation art that can be found all over the place at Hotchkiss.  This one pictured here fills the 3 story atrium over the school seal, just barely visible through the gaps of these awnings/kites/flags.  We also took at quick, self guided tour through the new music wing, which puts the piano practice rooms I used while we were there to shame.  
On Saturday, we were down in New Jersey; the reason for our trip was Jess's bridal shower, which her mom threw at a hotel in her hometown of Edison, NJ.  We had a lovely buffet lunch (I had some of everything and loved it all) before helping Jess open all of her presents.  She got quite a lot of kitchen stuff, which is great right now because she's settling in to her new apartment in Chicago (yay!) and needs to cook me dinner sometime.  

After the official party ended, we brought the party upstairs, where we bridesmaids had the rest of the cake to ourselves (after having 2 pieces each at the party).  We had big plans with a couple of bottles of wine, but ended up getting drunk on cake and watching the Sex and the City movie which just happened to be on HBO (truly, a sign).  It was a lovely weekend, and a great warm-up for the wedding, which is now less than 3 weeks away!

p.s. The skirt I'm wearing in these pictures IS the one I made (from a few posts ago) and Jess loved the bag I made for her.  We filled it with a lot of fun beauty products, facial masks, a bottle of wine, homemade cookies, and a few books for helping the bride-to-be.  

Progress!

Another check off of my to-do list and this is a big one!  Yesterday I started (and today I finished) a tote bag for Jess.  I'm giving it to her at her bridal shower next weekend, along with her two other bridesmaids - we're putting together a whole goody bag of wedding day necessities and not so necessary fun things.  

The flowery fabric is one I ordered at the same time as my skirt fabric - it's another Amy Butler Daisy Chain pattern, and the faux bois which I made the bottom and handles out of is this luscious Joel Dewberry fabric.  I was a little worried that the two would look too intense together, but I think they compliment each other perfectly.  
I'm pretty sure that Jess is going to love this bag - they are definitely her colors.  I was looking at her registry the other day, and unsurprisingly she is registered for a few kitchen gadgets in this aqua/teal color, including a kitchen-aid mixer.  I haven't decided what I'm giving her for the actual wedding gift yet, but I hope someone does spring for the kitchen-aid!  Maybe I can make her an apron in some more complimentary fabrics.  

p.s. I'm seeing the first signs of life from some of the seeds I planted on sunday!

Bachelorette weekend in St. Louis

My friend, Jessica, is getting married in April.  The other bridesmaids and I decided to surprise her with a bachelorette party, which ended up being this past weekend.  I have to give us all a pat on the back for pulling it all off - Jess really had no idea what all was happening, including having 4 old friends flying in from the east coast.  The party was loosely Little Mermaid-themed, and we all gave Jess beachy-themed gifts for her to use on her tropical honeymoon.  The beach bag and bikini bag I made in the past few weeks were both for Jess and I was pleased at what a good reception they got.  

I had also put together a DVD slide show on my computer of old and new pictures of Jess.  Lots of the other girls had sent me old pictures and I really enjoyed going through all of Jess's memories (in a mildy stalker-ish manner).  She is such a great character and I'm so happy that she's one of my closest friends, ever since we met on the first day of high school 12 1/2 years ago!  Congratulations again, Jess, and I can't wait for your wedding in April!

reVertigo

I just got back from a week in Florida with my high school BFF.  Much like the summer weeks we used to spend at her family's house on Long Island, this vacation was spent mostly in the sun, by the pool, hanging out with Jessica and her family.

One of my favorite TV shows, How I Met Your Mother, recently had an episode about "revertigo," what happens when you hang out with friends from a different stage of your life.  Basically, you become the person you were in high school, grade school (god forbid), or college, like when my boyfriend goes back to his fraternity for reunion weekends and drinks like he's still 20 years old.  I thank HIMYM for giving this phenomenon a name; I've felt something like that for years, like my one guy friend from high school who makes fun of me all the time, and the thing is, when I'm with him, I do and say things that are worthy of being made fun of (terrible sentence structure is an excellent example of that).  

This week that I spent with Jessica, her mom, her dad, and her no-longer-little brother, made me feel like I was in high school again.  Not so much because I feel like I acted differently than my almost 26-year-old self (even though I probably did), but because I had parents around, a mom who cooked dinner for us, and I didn't check my email for the whole week.  I had shut myself off from my current life almost completely and it was wonderful.  We would wait until the parents had gone to bed to start the real drinking each night - so very high school.  And also I felt totally spoiled by getting to see my old best friend every day for a whole week, which is the most that I've gotten to see her in years, and it was like everything was the same as 8 years ago.  

A good vacation is gets you out of your current locality, but a great vacation gets you out of your current state of mind.