Creole Wisdom

first shower

I threw my very first bridal shower for Mrs. Jana (!) Saturday.  I gathered ideas from all around and consulted other people who had btdt.  Here's how it turned out.  Ya, I'm sort of proud.  I love doing this stuff!

•Decorations: MSL luminaries and floral heart

•The menu, oh the menu.  It was divine: fruit & veggie platters + dip, sour cream coffee cake, 3 kinds of quiche, and petit fours.  All homemade.  Lots of work.  Thanks to marvelous mom!

•We played two games: "Guess that Love Song" and "Have you Ever."  For the first one I simply made a CD of love songs, had the guests guess, and the winner won some chocolate.  "Have you Ever" is just a fun party game for any type of shindig- you put 5 fingers up and go around saying "have you ever _____ " if you have done _____ you put a finger down.  The last person with a finger up wins.

•Gift time.  I put an antique shutter I have been carrying around for 2 years up for those who brought cards and not packages.  I just stuck them in between each shutter.  Jana got some great goodies, no lingere though ; P  But I'm pretty sure she doesn't even need it!

•Portrait of each guest + mom.  I wanted to do sort of a photo-booth inspired shoot.  Love how it turned out:

•All in all it was quite the spectacular event.  It would not be complete however without my beverage of choice: perrier served a la lemon slice in a vintage champagne glass.  Ya for parties!

see a happy girl

exhibit one:
Happy girl with a new camera bag*

Photo taken by mom with the new 50 mm 1.8 lens that is great, light, and delivers sweet results-

*Also happy because Alex called last night and texted twice!  Communication, Communication! 

good times never seemed so good

Formal was fantastic.  It always is.  So much fun.  So much craziness. 

•I went with our DKE sweetheart, Donovan.  He was crazy.  I spent a good part of the time just making sure he was okay, but he managed alright.  No babysitting! 

•The photo of the evening: Getting a piggy back from our other sweetheart, PhiPsi  Matt.  Ahh!  Pretty much sums up the crazy night.  Later that evening he changed into a grass skirt, with several flower necklaces around his neck, and athletic socks on.  Haha!

•I was going to wear my Lily Pulitzer dress but just decided to go the casual, easy route and donned the GAP kids dress.  It was perfect.  I was dancing all night, and did not want to worry about having my dress stay perfect. 
•Here's a fun video of another DKE, Mike aka my Republican Caucus/Mitt Romney buddy dancing/singing to the Sweet Caroline remix:

ebay empress/photo ready

I just feel like a brilliant queen.  An ebay empress.  It just thrills me to bid on items, watch them, eliminated the competition, and win.  I don't get to do it often, but when I do it puts me in such a great mood. 

•I have been admiring crumpler camera bags for quite some time.  Ever since I got interested in photography, actually.  Believe it or not I never had a proper camera case where I could fit my lenses and SLR.  Now I do: The Bazillion Dollar Home, cost me hardly anything!
•So, it was time for a new lens.  And since the one I really wanted, the 27-70mm 2.8 is way (I mean way) out of my budget I found the next best thing: the 50mm 1.8. I feel like my next lens purchase will be a wide-angle and then finally, the 27-70mm 2.8. 

So, you are probably wondering why I am so up on photo goodies right now.  Well, because Lindsay just happened to call me a week ago to ask me to shoot her wedding in St. George.  I cannot wait. 

sometimes good things happen

Like spring.  Like perfect, gorgeous, glorious, warm weather.  Like Today as the start.  I am so happy.  Time for another window-gazing spring self-portrait:

I am contemplating life and keeping a low profile to escape today's Greek activity of Jail n' Bail (more on that later).  I should be doing my homework, but I believe a nap is in order-

things to do when there is bad weather: post 1

fill a brand new, mod picture frame:

So I found this really fantastic Umbra frame at a boutique in Edina.  I usually have a rule about frames: since I never fill them, I cannot buy them.  And I literally have about two boxes at my parent's full of un-filled, albeit gorgeous frames.  As part of one of my spring goals I wanted to get some pictures on the wall, and ya I so justified this purchase in the name of goals!  Goals are good, right?

The frame sat in its box on top of my dresser for about two weeks until last night, after homework I finally cracked it open and printed out the desired pictures. I'm happy about two things: I like the b&w and color combination and how the size is not too big. In fact, all the photos fit on just one sheet of 8.5x11 paper!  Right now it's hanging over my window as you can see in the second shot, because I can't drive a nail through these stucco walls, but I did want to hang it on a tack to show you all the pretty details.  I'm saving the box so I can bring it in my suitcase for Utah. 

professor dinner

So, as you can see it was time again for me to plan another dinner for the sorority.  The academics chair only does two a semester, but I get such a high out of planning for them.  Girls in the house just notified me if they wanted ask certain professors and I gave them some nice sorority-letter head invitations.  The theme was navy, which yes just happens to be a spring color by the way. 


Centerpieces: baby strawberry plant and potted herb complete with min shovel.  I almost screamed out of the cuteness.  I love how they look against navy.

It turned out pretty good. I invited two different comm professors and they were able to talk to each other as well so that was nice.  The menu I planned turned out pretty nice too, I decided on: fruit salad, rosemary chicken with broccoli and rice, and cheesecake with red raspberry sauce. 

dream

Last night I had an enlightening dream:
It was May 20th.  The air was warm, and I was at the airport.  Curbside check in.  In my hands were holding two tickets for Utah, two for the layover. They were in my hands and I was just staring them...

They were standard, everyday plane tickets and I couldn't stop looking at them.  The air was so warm, and the light was bright, perfect, so Minnesota-summer already. They were just pieces of paper in my hand, yet I could not take my eyes off them.

41 days.  I have so much accomplished, yet so much to do still.  I hope it's nice when I fly like in my dream.

general conference

I absolutely love conference.  What is better than snuggling yourself up in a blanket with your notebook and getting spiritual enlightenment?

All the great talks are still reeling in my mind, but one thing that I truly learned for sure is that I need to serve more.  I love that, at least for me, each conference has sort of a theme. 

Here are some of the many things I learned:
Kenneth Johnson
•Never be satisfied with anything less than your best
•Service equals satisfaction
Dallin H. Oaks
•Speak the truth in love
Susan W. Tanner
•Remember sources of delight during hard times
•Nurturing is part of our pre-mortal, mortal, and eternal life

I cannot wait until some of these talks are up on the church website so I can download and read them over and over. It was fun to think of being there for conference in October, especially to see Gordon B. Hinckley speak before he passed away.  What a blessing!  I am really looking forward to going out to conference there one day again, it was such an experience.  Still, I cannot help but think of what I was doing last conference: watching at the institute building and eating lunch between sessions on Saturday with, you guessed it Curtis (at the time Elder D).  Fun memories.

I am really thankful for The Church, and especially for General Conference.  I am very lucky to have been able to watch all the sessions and reap the spiritual rewards of such.  What a faith strengthener! 

With Conference over I think it's safe to say that spring has begun!  Now I just need some sand to dip my feet into:

Yes, that's me.  Back in what looks like 1989. 

the nazis would be proud

I was reading a book tonight after fabulous conference, and I started to hate it.  Like loath it.  What the author was saying, her tone, and ugh...

I grew so mad I threw it on the ground.

And this is not the first time I have thrown a book.

In fact, when reading what the Vatican had to say about Mitt Romney in my parent's Catholic Newspaper at breakfast I promptly ripped the page out and with vengeance marched into the office to the shredder.

Burning stuff?  Oh that is fun, too.  I have been known to burn: old diary entries, files of personal information that I never want anyone to know, and yeah the occasional picture-

And it's not because I can't deal with the text usually, it's because I don't think it's suitable for others to read.  Because I feel the desire to censor everything.

Ya.  The Nazis burned and censored books, and I guess I feel the need to as well. 

What do you expect, though. I am half German after all...