No time for a movie montage

So, a funny thing happened last Saturday.  It was about 11 am, and Mark and I were due at a wedding at 1 pm.  We were in Osceola, WI, just minding our own beeswax in our hotel room, when I decided to put my dress on.  There I am, wearing my pretty favorite dress, starting to put my makeup on, and lo and behold - the zipper splits right up the side.  I proceed to freak out.
Mark starts with, "you can just safety pin it."  I respond with, "I'm not wearing a dress with safety pins up the side to a wedding!"  Then we try to get me out, and can't.  We can't get the zipper back down over the split.  I start to think I really am going to have to safety pin the damn thing together because I can't get out of it anyway.  However, I am persistent, and I eventually slammed the zipper down.  Now it's really time to go find me a new dress.
I don't know if anyone reading this has been to Osceola, WI, but there are no clothing stores there.  I call down to the front desk and she says there's a Walmart about ten minutes up the highway.  She thinks there might be a ladies' clothing shop in Taylors Falls, MN (across the highway from the Walmart) but she's not sure.
Mark Googles "clothing" and sure enough, there is something called the "She Shop" in Taylors Falls.  Since I am loathe to shop at Walmart and will avoid it at any cost, I say we should go there first.  We are on the highway by 11:30, heading in the opposite direction of the wedding.


The minute we walked into the She Shop, I realized what was happening.  We were in the movie "The Sweetest Thing."

image from http://www.amazon.com/Sweetest-Thing-Cameron-Diaz/dp/B000069HYD

I'm really wishing we had taken pictures inside the She Shop.  I'm gonna see if I can find some online.  The best I can do to describe it is to actually use a picture from The Sweetest Thing and see if maybe you can see why I'm comparing it to the shop in that movie:

image from http://eyerollingmom.wordpress.com/

We *almost* could've gotten hats like these there, but it was a little more on the beachy/middle-aged women up from Florida side.  I found the one decent dress in there (actually, there was another one I really liked, it really was cute, I swear, but it was an XL) and after a quick run to Walmart to make sure there wasn't anything decent for cheaper (*shudder*) we ran back and Mark bought it for me.  Because the damn thing was $50!  Shoot.  And I had to get a scarf to put over it to make it look a little more interesting.

Anyway, so here's the final product:

Hmmm.  Can you see it better here?

Hmmm.  Well, anyway.  You can get a general idea.  Hey, I even matched the wedding colors of green and purple!  And I had just happened to bring darker green shoes.  I was pretty cool, really.

So that's my story.  If you're ever in Taylors Falls, MN, check out the She Shop:

image from http://www.glggemstonejewelry.com/store/

It's that one on the left.  It won't disappoint :)

Inspiring quotes

A week and a half ago I posted a request on my Facebook page for inspirational, chin-up sort of quotes because I needed a pick-me-up.  Some of my friends responded with some interesting ones.  Unfortunately, since I'm at work right now and I can't get to my Facebook page at work, I only have a couple that my friend Heidi sent me through email to share right now.  I'm gonna come back and edit this, though, and add the rest.  I wanted to save them somewhere and I thought this was as good a place as any.

"Big shots are only little shots who keep shooting." 
~Christopher Morley

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it’s about learning how to dance in the rain." -Vivian Green

All right, I'll be back with more later.  Thanks for those, Heidi.










Okay, I'm back!  Here are the rest:


“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.
You, me, or nobody, is gonna hit as hard as life.
But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward.
How much you can take and keep moving forward.
That’s how winning is done ! Now if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth.
But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers,
saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody ! Cowards do that, and that ain’t you!”.
~‘Rocky’ Balboa


"Keep your chin up, kid." 
~Heidi Roufs, I believe.  :)


"Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song, a medley of extemporanea; and love is a thing that can never go wrong; and I am Marie of Romania."
~Dorothy Parker


If war is a gamble, love is a lottery. Both have ups and downs. In both apparent heroes can collapse. So think again if you think of love as a soft option - it calls for enterprise and courage. ~Ovid, from "Amores"


‎"Carve coherency out of the chaos" 
-Sonja Langton-Yanowitz's mom


"by the yard, life is hard. inch by inch, life's a cinch!" 
~Meghan Anderson


Meghan also suggested this poem, which I really did end up liking:


"Invictus" by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gait,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

(text borrowed from Wikipedia)

She also suggested I watch some videos on www.itgetsbetter.org.  Apparently they work for straight people too.  :)


Thank you to everyone who came to my aid.  I thought it was interesting that nobody knew what my problem was, but two of the first four responses that came in had to do with love.  How telling... ;)

Marshmallows and shoes

So I'm drinking a sugar-free vanilla soy latte from Peet's.

picture borrowed from here

 That's a picture of the actual store where I got it.  Yes.

Anyway, it tastes like marshmallows.  It's amazing.  I don't usually get things like this at coffee shops but last summer when I was off sugar, I met up with a classmate at a Peet's and wanted to get a drink, so I did the sugar-free vanilla thing.  Then I just decided what the hey, I'll try it with soy milk for once.  Oh my goodness.  I'm in love.  Go try it.

Anyway, I also would someday like to own some shoes from this website:

http://www.toms.com/

It keeps popping up in my life randomly.  Okay, so that means I've run across references to it on two websites in the last couple months.  But really, I was even thinking like an hour ago, "what was that shoe website I saw once that I really liked..." and there it was again, on Real Simple's Mother's Day gift list (which is here if you want to see it).

I want these

and these

Have I done this already for this website?  Maybe I just love it that much, I'm accidentally doing this twice.

How about these ones...

all pictures courtesy of http://www.toms.com/

 All right, all done for now.  Maybe I should do some work or something...

Okay, you guys...

I.  LOVE.  this brooch.

http://lexilovesvintage.blogspot.com/2011/04/blog-giveaway-mothers-day-edition.html?showComment=1302882261131#c898420743519225078

So I'm blogging about this giveaway in an attempt to win it.
Want it!!

What was it I said about not writing about giveaways?

Okay, in my defense, I was actually planning on writing an entry about this Etsy shop anyway (which I just happened to discover through this giveaway) because it's so super cute and I want to buy gifts from there, not just win things for myself.

But since they just happen to be doing a giveaway, which is located here...
you know, no sense not mentioning it, right?  Right...

So, on to gushing about this shop!  Here are some items I love for me:

 

(I think this one's just adorable)

When I have a dog I can get this one:

Here's one item I love for my friend Kate:



There are several things I would want to get for Nix if she wore jewelry, such as:

If I had known about these right after we went on our New Orleans trip (and if she wore jewelry), I so could've gotten us matching ones (but, like, gold for me and silver for her kinda thing):

These ones made me think of my mom:

Totally want to get this for Christina:



Oh, and I know she also likes dragons:

I immediately thought of Lori when I saw this:

This would be a totally cute souvenir they should have here:

I have an old friend from high school that I mostly just keep up with on Facebook now, but I always remember she loves horses (that's you, Mari, if you ever read this!):

I thought of Jackie when I saw this because of her cute cupcake lip glosses and Christmas ornaments:

Okay, I'm done for now.  She has so many other cute ones too, though.  And so random!  There's one with a curling rock!  You know, like the sport?  I pretty much know her whole shop by heart now that I've gone through it twice (once for the giveaway to find my favorite item and once to write this entry) so I think I need to take a break and maybe get some work done.  Whew.

Salad

Thank god for cell phone cameras, right??  I'm sure there are many blog posts that never would have existed if not for them.  However, I know this is bad quality, but I just wanted to share with you guys!  I was pretty excited about the lunch I had today:

Hmmm, it looks better when it's small like that than it did when I opened it from my email.

Anyway, it's a:

tuna

chickpea

spinach

feta cheese

lemon juice

fat free Italian dressing

salad, in that order.  I felt so inspired!!  This is all just from stuff that was sitting in my fridge.  Well, I can't take total credit.  I saw a classmate eating tuna with chickpeas on Saturday and said, "whoa that looks so interesting!  I never would've thought of that!"  It was the first time she had made it as well, and she  seemed to like it.  I just happened to have some leftover chickpeas in my fridge and could not for the life of me figure out what I wanted to eat for lunch today, and I remembered her snack.  Yay!  I couldn't finish it though.  It actually was quite filling. 

The occasional special giveaway

So first when I discovered all the fabulous giveaways that are available on other people's blogs, I was posting about them on here because that would give me extra entries.  I stopped doing that, though, because I didn't want to clutter up my blog with nonsense posts about giveaways. 

HOWEVER.

I am in love with these rings. 
So I'm posting about this giveaway because it gives me 4 EXTRA ENTRIES.











Here it is: http://trudiedaviesdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-2011-giveaway.html

Only, as I say, please don't enter it because I don't need any more competition.  Oh man I really want these ones!  Cross your fingers for me!