Today I’m keeping it short and sweet. I’ll be in professional development at work all day. Ugh. And quite frankly, I’m exhausted. I’ve had very little time to do any internet souring this week. But I did stumble on the best flowchart I’ve seen in a long time via Teach.com.
I think I even discovered a few new books!
Have a beautiful and restful weekend, ya’ll.
love,
melanie
Wedding vows are pretty important. Vows are intended to be public declarations of love and promise to one person. Vows are meant to be kept FOREVER. Vows are a pretty big deal. And lately I’ve been thinking about how best to do them.
I might be able to say the standard “’til death do us part” vows in front of my immediate family, but I don’t want to say our “real” vows in front of anyone else. It feels too private to me.
George and I are going to say our “real” vows before we do the legal ones. And before I put on makeup because I’m a huge sap and I’ll probably cry my eyeballs out. But that’s ok.
Since I’m a librarian and a great lover of books, I’ve been looking for a passage or a book that best expresses my feelings. This NYPL post from Kristy Raffensberger, a children’s librarian, has some great suggestions.
But in some ways I want to find my own. It’s the thrill of the hunt.
Here’s the few books I’ve found so far…
This book was obviously intended for the love between a parent and a child, but I think it describes romantic love, as well.
Small, a little fox, questions Large, a big fox, if he would love her (or if she would love him– it’s quite androgynous) in increasingly silly scenarios.
“If I were a grumpy grizzly bear, would you still love me? Would you still care?” “I’d always love you, no matter what,” responds Large.
I can definitely be a grumpy grizzly sometimes and I’m sure George could relate to this one.
Guess How Much I Love You
Sam McBratney (Author), Anita Jeram (Illustrator)
Again, probably meant for parental love, but relevant regardless.
This lovely bedtime tale follows Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare through a series of charming declarations.
It begins with “I love you as high as I can hop!” said Little Nutbrown. And ends with Big Nutbrown’s declaration “I love you right up to the moon.”
A Lovely Love Story
Edward Monkton
I cried at work reading this one. So embarrassing.
Such a cute premise. Two dinosaurs meet and fall in love. One is an emotionally distant dino and the other dino has a penchant for shopping. Regardless of flaws, they learn to accept one another as they are.
“Together they stand on the hill, telling each other stories and feeling the warmth of the sun on their backs. And that, my friends, is how it is with love.”
Have you stumbled across any good wedding readings? I’d love to hear them in the comments!
love,
melanie
I was terribly sad to hear of Ray Bradbury’s passing on Tuesday. Although the man was 91 and lived a rich and full life (presumably), I’m still sad to hear of a great author’s passing. As with most the passing of other famous folk, I always seem to learn something new about the person post-modem.
I was delighted to learn that Mr. Bradbury was such an outspoken advocate for libraries. He even wrote Fahrenheit 451 in a library!
After watching this video, I felt such a kinship to Mr. Bradbury. We both love libraries and books and cats and life. And isn’t that what it’s all about?
Rest in peace, Mr. Bradbury. You will live forever in the pages of your novels.
love,
melanie
My empty wallet.
I talk a big game when it comes to budgets. I make lists and spreadsheets. I even use math! But I’m not great at actually carrying out a budget. On Fridays I really want to go out for a dinner and a couple of drinks. A $4.00 coffee sounds totally reasonable when I’ve been up since 6 am and I have to work late. And somehow a trip to the drug store for a $5.00 bottle of lotion always turns into a $40 affair.
I’m a impulsive spender. It’s bad, I know. But since George and I are primarily paying for the wedding, I’ve been trying so, so hard to save money. The following tips are inspired by Adrienne who has some awesome ideas for saving dough! Totally jealous that she can ride her bike to work!
Here is what George and I have been doing:
All of these little things help, but I feel like it’s nearly impossible to save a significant amount of money before the wedding in December. Things keep coming up! (An $80 doctor appointment! Yikes!)
We’ve talked about delaying the honeymoon until the summer, which will save some money, but after all this, I need a break!
Do you have any budgeting tips? I’d love to hear ’em and make a big ol’ list for everyone!
love,
melanie
Infused vodka is one of those things that seems really difficult and maybe a little snobby, but it’s actually stupid-easy. Making grilled cheese is harder than making infused vodka, I swear. For this recipe, the hardest part is waiting a week for the fruit to mingle with the vodka.
Infused Vodka Ingredients
To make infused vodka all you have to do is wash and cut your favorite fruit, put it in a mason jar, and then fill the jar with vodka. Screw the top on the jar and leave in a cool, dark place for a week. Shake everyday, if possible. One week later, drain out the fruit and voila, you’ve got infused vodka!
I tried several different fruit-infusions: blueberry, lemon and strawberry. By far, the strawberry was the best. Below is the recipe I made with the infused strawberry vodka. I actually don’t usually enjoy vodka, one too many bad college nights, but this recipe made me a believer in the magic of the clear spirit.
Infused Strawberry Vodka Lemonade
Squeeze the juice from six lemons. Add the sugar and vodka to the lemon juice. Pour or shake over ice.
Tip: I like to put my drinks in mason jars with lids, so I can easily shake the drink. James Bond style.
This recipe will make 2 small-ish drinks or one large-ish.  😉
Did you have any special spirits over the holiday weekend?
love,
melanie
This past weekend, George and I headed up to Philadelphia. George had drawn the poster for the Ride to Skate event and he wanted to sell a few prints. We were technically there on business, but we had plenty of time for pleasure too. Here’s a couple of snapshots from our weekend.
I had to take a picture at Love Park.
We ran… ok, walked… up the stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Rocky was seriously fit.
I broke the Liberty Bell!
George skating at Ride to Skate.
And he sold a couple of prints…
It’s been hard to come down from the travel high. I didn’t have to cook, or clean, or do boring chores for 3 days. I had some amazing food and hung out at (gasp!) an actual bar. The trip definitely made me miss living in a bigger city. But que sera, sera. I had fun, had some new experiences and saw some new things. I’ll move back to a big city soon.
Have you ever been to Philadelphia?
love,
melanie
Welcome to the May 11th edition of Love Friday! A round-up of wondrous things I discovered from around the web this past week.
10. 
4 Whiskey Sour Recipes. One of my all-time favorite drinks!
9. The Weekly Review: How One Hour Can Save You A Week’s Worth of Hassle and Headache. I’m thinking about doing this at end of each week. Does anyone do this? Does it help?
8.
Being Happy is Productive. I love this so much! I’m not sure if I have the original source linked or not. Damn, tumblr. If someone knows who the illustrated this, let me know.
7.Â
6. How to start your blog with a bang by Elsie and Kinsey. I don’t really follow any of these guidelines, but que sera, sera.
5. 
Should you quit your day job to blog? Probably not. But the infographic is cute!
4. Freeze coffee in ice cube trays to make coffee ice cubes. I’ve been using coffee ice cubes all week in my iced coffee and it makes such a difference! I don’t know why I’ve never thought of this before…
3. 
I’m dying over this Zac Posen dress. Of course, it is sold out. Anyone know where I can find it?
2. 10 Famous Fiction Writers and Their Cocktails. I swear I’m not a lush.
1. 
Our president spoke out in favor of same-sex marriage!
I hope ya’ll have a lovely weekend. We are planning a motorcycle ride and a picnic. Are you planning anything fun?
love,
melanie
Drinking cheap champagne and wedding planning from our tub.
I don’t want to jinx it, but I think I may be getting a little bit excited about our wedding. The outcome of Amendment One was a total downer, but I don’t think it should stop us from our plans. And I’m still hopeful that one day everyone will have equal marriage rights in our country.
George and I have been talking about our wedding and Googling almost nightly from our office/bathtub. Yup, we sit in the bathtub, drink and hang out for about an hour every night. It’s one of my favorite things to do.
We even chatted on the phone with an amazing photographer last night. He is almost unbelievably amazing. I don’t even want to share his name yet. He is that good. George and our possible photog hit it off too. They both like motorcycles and fried chicken livers, weird combo, right?
I think that letting go of what was expected of us (i.e. inviting the whole family, having a summer wedding, decorations galore, wedding blogging constantly) has been a huge relief. I might even share a few details of the planning process with you all, if it is not too stressful, of course.
Did you “let go” of expectations for your wedding? I want to hear from you!
love,
melanie
One of my goals for this next year of my life is to take Sundays completely off. So that means no computers, no cooking, no cleaning– just relaxing. But I’ll be the first to admit, it is going to be hard. We modern ladies are busy, right?!
And as a modern, busy lady, I am always on the lookout for new ways to help me to get things done. In March, I tried The Seinfeld Method aka Don’t Break the Chain. This tool has you making calendars for each of your tasks. Then, you have to do a task from each calendar each day in order to “not break the chain.” But understandably, I was exhausted from this method.
I had a blogging calendar taped to my fridge too, but I quickly saw doing something blogging related everyday was just too much for me.
This month I’m trying something new. I’ve read that it helps some people to schedule all their time, so I’m trying that this month. I really don’t want to schedule my Saturday too. But I might start if it looks like I’m not doing chores, like going grocery shopping, which I usually do on Sunday.
Here’s a glimpse at the schedule I made via Google Docs:
Now, this may look crazy to some of you. Hell, it looks a little crazy to me. But I’m already seeing cracks where I’m probably taking a bit to long at one task. And I really want a full day to lay around, hang out with George and relax.
Have you all ever gone to extreme measures to protect your free time? Do you use productivity tools? Which tools have worked for you and which didn’t work?! Let me know in the comments.
love,
melanie
I love a good list, ya’ll. And for the past couple of years, I have created a list of things I want to accomplish before my next birthday. (I was inspired by Elsie from A Beautiful Mess.) I can’t find my list from last year. I think I misplaced it when we moved, but I remember there being lots of specific, ambitious items on it. I distinctly remember “Get a big girl job” was high on the list.
But this year, I wanted to do something a little more fun. So, I gave myself quite a few rather fun goals and a few scary goals (see: #7) to accomplish before my next birthday, April 22, 2013. Some of my goals are quite personal (see: #15). But I am sharing because I think it is important to recognize that we all struggle with issues and we need to tell people about our struggles in order to overcome them.
I thought the stationary was appropriate.
Do you make goals on your birthday?
love,
melanie
