Shopping Woes

So I have recently lost a bit of weight so almost none of my clothing fits anymore. It either looks huge or just looks sloppy, either way no good for me. So I recently started looking for new clothes for work and for play. The problem is that I can't seem to find anything that I really really like. I have online shopped at J Crew, Banana and at Ann Taylor Loft. I liked a few things but everything that is a great "deal" right now is either the wrong size or really ugly and let's face it I am not paying full price for clothing.

So I widened my search to Target, Old Navy, Martin and Osa, and Anthro. Well still nothing all that stellar. I found a cute dress at Target for work. I got some other basics too, but again nothing too fab. I really need new basic black heals and new work pants and a black pencil skirt. I would love some new blouses for work and for my confrences as well. I dont want to pay an arm and a leg for these items as well, is that too much to ask for? I thought the economy was in the crapper and everything was on sale! From what I have seen everything that is on sale is crap! I think part of the problem is I always go shopping alone. I also have no idea what size I am anymore so I am pretty sure everything I try on is just not fitting right because its the wrong size.

I dont know what is wrong with me but I am definatly in a shopping funk. Anyone have any ideas?

Style Me Pretty

So in my search for inspiration for our wedding I have come across a great website for inspiration. "Style Me Pretty" is a blog/wedding planning/style site that gives brides a glimpse into real weddings and DIY projects. I have recently fell in love their inspiration board creator and thought I would share it with you all. Follow this link to start your board. I am still working on mine but I think I should be able to post what I come up with later on tonight.

Here is just one example of a girls board:



They have a huge gallery of pictures to choose from but they are also working on a feature for you to be able to upload pictures of your own as well as from other sites. I think this is a nifty tool even just for decorating your home or planning a party. Having a vision will help you convey your message to other people.

Also on the website I found a great coupon for wedding bands from Blue Nile. I am not sure if we will use the coupon but it is still a great find and I wanted to make sure to share the news with all the ladies out there that might be planning their wedding and looking for deals. It was for 10% off for wedding bands for Style Me Pretty users. There is a promotion code that you type in during the purchase.

Weekend Recap

This weekend was wonderful. I did NOTHING! I had the best weekend I have had in a long time, as far as relaxation goes. WF and I had movie night Friday night. For those of you that don't know us that well we love movies. My WF is a HUGE movie buff rents like 5 or 6 a week to watch. Its sad really. Anyway, we have Pei Wei and drink too much wine and watch a movie every Friday night. It is our favorite thing in the world to do and it has to take an act of god for us to cancel movie night. Recently movie night has turned into WHALE WARS night! Have any of you watched this amazing piece of reality TV goodness? It is on Friday nights on animal planet. A-MAZE-ING, they fight the Japanese whaling fleet all pirates style and this week the rammed their boat for heavens sake! I highly suggest this show.

Saturday WF and I slept until 1:30 PM, yes it is shameful and again totally wonderful. We got up did some errands and then I went to go see "District 9" with some friends of mine. I liked it even though I did not want to go see it all that much. A good social commentary and not really about aliens at all. I suggest that if you ladies want to look really cool on date night you go see it. It's not too gory or anything.

Sunday we went to breakfast with Kelly and her husband. There is a really amazing pancake house right by our houses and it was a real treat to have a nice Sunday breakfast with them. We then had pool time on Sunday afternoon. This is a tradition I have only recently been informed of. People get together, grill and drink beer in the pool for hours. WONDERFUL idea. We made yummy turkey sausages and munched on cherries. Then our friends Amelia and Jason showed up and brought some sort of champagne drink that we proceeded to drink straight from the bottle. Ballers, I know. Then we watched out Sunday wonderfulness, Tru Blood and Entourage an ending to a perfect weekend of nothing!

Baking

So I have had the urge to start baking again. Any of you that knows me well knows I stress bake. When ever I used to get really emotional or whatever I would bake. I would make things almost nightly at one point and then bring them into my office and have them test everything out. I have perfected my Chocolate Chip Cookies, by making them over and over again, so I wanted to challenge myself. I looked around and found a blog by "The Waspy Redhead" - a friend of mine who always has amazing food! She made these Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies - http://thewaspyredhead.com/?p=1122, and they looked wonderful so I tried them out!










I think they came out pretty wonderful. Mine of course don't look anywhere near as beautiful as my friend's do but oh well it was a first attempt! The grating of the zucchini was a little taxing so I will have to find a better way to do this. I think the cookies came out a bit like zucchini bread but they are so moist and yummy that does not matter. I baked them alone in my house with some streaming jazz piano from Pandora on and had a wonderful night to myself. It was really fun to get my feet wet and I hope to continue this trend through the holidays. If you have any treats you want me to try out let me know! I love to bake and am always up for a fun new thing to try.

On a side note, I brought these cookies into my office and did not tell anyone that they were any different. A lot of people looked at them and were like why do they have green in them. One lady even refused to eat my cookies because she thought I was feeding them rancid food, COME ON! I am not weird and I would never do that, and I am just a little hurt that she did not like my cookies.

Cravings

So I have been craving something for about 3 weeks now. I want it so bad it hurts to think about it. I know it will be so delicious and wonderful. I know it will totally be worth like a weeks worth of points but I might just have to give in and have it. I want it bad! Wanna know what it is?


Yes the Whataburger Chop House Burger. There is a billboard on I-35 on my way home that I see 5 days a week. The picture calls to me every day on my way home, "Eat me, you know you want to... it will be so good!" and every day I get home and cook something else for dinner. Nothing ever satisfiys the craving. Nothing ever makes it go away. I think I am going to have to have it. I dont know what else to do. Last night I made baked chicken and still was not happy so I had desert, still nothing, so then I had popcorn, nope still wanted the darn burger. Three weeks of "eating around" my craving has not worked. Weight Watchers says to feed your cravings sometimes, maybe thats what I should do.

Seriously though, how amazing does a big burger with greasy bacon and cheese sound right now?

Weight Watchers Plateau

Last night I went to my weekly Weight Watchers meeting. I weighed in and weight exactly what I did last week. I have been working on getting to my final goal weight for the last month and have been withing 2 pounds of it for the last month. It is getting very frustrating.

Last night's meeting was actually all about plateaus and how to get over them. I really want to but I am getting very tired of this whole not loosing any weight thing and sometimes lack motivation. For the first three or four months I have been on WW I lost about a pound to two pounds a week. Now it is like I hit this huge wall and get get past it.

So last night I made a very weight watcher's friendly meal and had a glass of wine with dinner. It was perfect. I just took everything I had left in the fridge, tomatoes, onions, asparagus, garlic, zucchini and threw it all in a little fat free low sodium chicken broth. I grilled all of that while cooking some whole wheat penne pasta to taste. Then mixed it all together and baked it with some fat free shredded mozzarella cheese on top of it for about 5 minutes. It was super yummy and about 6 points give or take for a cup and a 1/4. With the glass of wine it came out to be a 9 point dinner. Not to shabby considering I had 11 left for dinner.

Well then the wine kicked in and I wanted something bad to eat. I live right by a Sonic, dangerous I know. I usually run over there and get a diet cherry lime aid, and that does the trick. Not this time. I got a Sonic Blast with Oreos!


So yummy, so wonderful, so 15 points. Oh gosh what have I done!? It was so yummy on the way down but I totally regretted it for the rest of the night. Maybe this is why I am stuck on my plateau?

Booked My Photographer

Ladies and Gentleman we have booked our photographer! We are going to be using InkedFingers and I am so excited. I think she is going to really be able to capture our day. I look at my friends pictures who have used her and I just know if she can make Wonderful Fiance and I look half that good I will be so happy.

She was my first big splurge of the wedding shopping process but I am sure she will not be the last. I am already thinking about doing a really awesome boudoir shoot with her! I got to see some of the pictures she took that she cant post on the site and they are amazing. Oh my! I don't think I will ever be this skinny and this well kept again, might as well immortalize it right!? We will see I am thinking about it though.

Yeah for me! I am happy!

(The picture is courtesy of the InkedFingers blog. Thanks Carli for all you do!)

Weekend Recap

So this weekend was a lot of fun but also exhausting. Wonderful Fiance and I made it to Houston at 11 at night on Friday. On the way to Houston he named ever single restaurant and fast food place he saw and named every single thing he would order from that place. He was just a bit hungry, despite the fact I brought him loads of snacks and soda to sip on. Apparently he was not satisfied and wanted to let me know. My parents and sister were up and waiting for us when we got there which was super nice of them considering I know they had been up all day playing with my 2 year old niece and had to have been tired.

Saturday the boys went to a car shop and looked at fancy cars that were being restored and my sister mom and I hung out and relaxed at home with my niece Annabelle. Wonderful Fiance and my brother in law headed out to go see "District 9", if you are into that type of movie they said it was really good. We then headed to the Taste of Texas for dinner! OMG it was amazing. We had a big steak dinner of which Weight watchers need not know about. It was so yummy and perfect. My dad, who does not drink, ordered us a fantastic bottle of wine and we just chatted.

I have a very high level of respect for my sister and brother in law because my niece is quite a handful and though the whole dinner they kept her entertained and happy. Its amazing to watch a team like that. I want to be like them one day!

On Sunday we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It was a ton of fun and so cute to see Annabelle FREAK out at all the stuff to look at. The butterfly exhibit is amazing and I highly recommend it if you are every in Houston. Just fun for everyone. Wonderful Fiance did have a little panic moment as he leaned down to look at a butterfly and got nose to nose with it to only then realize it was a wasp! Whoops! Wonderful Fiance let me stay way later than originally planned so i could lap up as much time as I could with everyone. It was totally worth it.

I have to say a good old fashioned weekend with the family was just what I needed. My mom and dad sadly head back to Alaska soon and I hope I get to see them sooner rather than later!

Exciting Weekend

Wonderful Fiance and I are going to H-town to see my mom and dad who are in town visiting from Alaska. I am super excited. Although I got to see my mom last week during my engagement party it never seems like enough time. I love my family. We are all nuts and totally drive each other insane sometimes but I love them.

We are going to play with my niece and hang out with my sister, brother in law, mom and dad. I have not seen my dad in almost 9 months! Before last weekend I had not seen my mom in almost 9 months! That makes me very sad. I will have to lap up all that I can because I will not see them again until Christmas. Again this makes me very sad.

I am so excited about this weekend though. It's so important to me that I can see my family. For those of you that don't know me that well I moved to Texas 4 years ago to be closer to my sister. I just could not stand the idea of not being able to see her when I wanted. Its been the best thing ever to have her close to me and be able to see her and her cute family whenever I want. Like I said I love my family so much!

Hope you all have a good weekend too!

Yankee Deep Thoughts

I have noticed over the years of living here in Austin that I have a much different perspective on things than some of your crazy southerners do. I am going to drop bits of Yankee wisdom on y'all from time to time in an effort to educate my readers. Remember These bits of advice may or may not be what I would do now. I have changed some of my Yankee ways.1. Driving home I have multiple run ins with crazy southern drivers that actually let people in when other a-holes have driven on the shoulder of the highway to then cut them off. DON'T do that! Come on beef up a bit and give em' the finger. They are the a-holes not you. Don't let them in, they are not nice people. Give them a nasty look and tell them to wait their freaking turn!!!! A real Yankee like me will even speed up and not let them over if they are trying to then cut me off if you a nice southerner did not let them in. That's right people I can be an a-hole too!

2. Waiving while driving. I love it its so sweet and keep it up. But if you do something nice and let someone over or let them go ahead of you or whatever and they don't shoot you a waive you should totally then drive up behind that person and shake your head in a shaming way. Teach those people who's boss. You gatta toughen up a bit! Or you could do what a real Yankee does and not ever do nice things like that in the first place. (Reminder I am an ex-yankee)

3. Smiling at random people while walking, jogging or whatever on the street or tail. What the heck are you thinking!? Us yankees dont ever smile. Who knows who your smiling at? What if that person takes it as an invitation to follow you home and kick your dog!? Come on not smart. Keep your head down and keep walking silly southerners.

More random thoughts to come as I continue to spread my yankee wisdom with all Y'ALL! :)

PS: By ex-yankee I do not mean ex-yankee fan. I hate the Yankees! FYI I am a long time Red Socks fan!

Connundrum

I am taking votes on who I should pick for my photographer. I have met both of them and really like them both. One is WAY cheaper than the other, but of course I love the one that is more. I think her work is more Wonderful Fiance and I. Fiance likes the one that costs more too BTW.

Give me your thoughts.

http://www.jessicamonnichphotography.com/index2.php?v=v1

http://www.inkedfingers.com/index2.php?v=v1

Can you tell which one costs more? THANKS YOU GUYS!

Panic

So as you know WF and I picked a place for the wedding. We are doing it at the Stephen F Austin hotel downtown. If I have to do my wedding at a hotel this is the place to do it. Still very Austin still very Texas. I think I can still do rustic classic but in a setting that makes everyone happy, and I feel really good about this. But I had a nightmare last night about it and I am sure it is not going to be the last.

I had a dream that everyone coming to my wedding thought it was "ghetto" and dirty and not creative. People kept laughing at me and my wedding. They hated it and left early. This is totally normal right? I mean all brides worry about this type of stuff.

I don't want to have a typical ballroom wedding. I want it still to feel homey and welcoming and I want people to know my wedding took place in Austin. Do you know what I am talking about? Oh god I don't know if I can deal with this for a year.

I am totally a judger...

So in the last few months since i have started planning my wedding I have discovered how judgy and bitchy I am. I watch every wedding show known to man getting ideas. I have come to the conclusion that it does not matter how much money you have to spend on your wedding, if you don't have class or taste your wedding is going to be ugly.

Let me start off with "Say Yes To The Dress". My wonderful fiance came into the living room the other night watch it and literally stared at me with a face of shock and awe as I tore this girls dress apart. It was horrible, it just flows out of me like I am possessed. Like this gem, REALLY!!!!!???? A see through corset on your wedding day?!? COME ON!


I feel so bad trashing these girls, and wonderful fiance always says well what matters is that she feels beautiful in that dress. Well thank god I am marrying him because I am a horrible person that thinks someone should step in tell these girls they are NUT JOBS! The thing that makes me even more mad is when you see the price tags, for example the dress above is listed at $26,000!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway moving on from there it does not stop at the dress. I saw a million dollar wedding on platinum weddings the other day that was so tacky that I can't even convey the true awesomeness that it was. It was all pink, everything. Again I must say REALLY!?

So now that I am done trashing other bride's weddings please feel free to do the same to mine when you see my plans. I am sure someone is bound to hate it, but at lease I did not spend a million dollars on this bitch.

Weekend Recap

So I know I have not posted in a bit but I have had a VERY busy weekend. Here is a short recap for you all:

Thursday my sister, mom and niece Annabelle came in from Houston to begin the weekend festivities. We hung out and relaxed that night. It was so much fun to have my house full of people and love.

Friday, I brought my niece in to the office to show her off for a bit and then went with my sister and mom to get their hair done. We go to the same lady that Kelly and your little dog too goes to. She is amazing and she is my Yoda. My sister needed some serious hair readjustments. All was well after that. I was feeling pretty good so we decided to go ahead and try on some wedding dresses. First stop was Serendipity bridal and the second was Unbridled. Both were so great and total polar opposites of each other. I found several great options at both and decided my little bridal brain had had too much for the day. It was super emotional and overwhelming.

Saturday we got up and had breakfast with the family and then headed out for another dress shopping trip. I headed back to Serendipity where I feel in love with Lazaro. They were having a trunk show and the dresses were perfect for my style and personality. I had asked my wonderful fiance what he wanted me to look like on the big day and he said beautiful, comfortable and sexy. Well let me tell you Lazaro had that in a few dresses. I had narrowed it down to two. We then headed to lunch with fiance and future mother in law. Yummy galaxy cafe sweet potato fries! Then headed back to the dress shopping. With one final walk through the store in the dresses I picked a dress. It is a Lazaro and is in the fall 2009 collection. I am not showing it because I want it to be a surprise and I am worried my fiance might look at it. But I love it. I can eat in it and dance and relax and all of that! I am so happy.

In the midst of all of this our wedding party threw us the BEST engagement party ever! My sister and Kelly did a wonderful job on decorations and food (with help from Kelly's husband). The guys brought all the beer wine and champagne you could drink and my out of town bridesmaids Sarah and Kate send a beautiful centerpiece. Here are some pictures:

Parker and I at the party:

The perfect outdoor table setting with my wedding colors:

My perfect niece Annabelle, the flower girl and show stopper:

My Mom and I during dinner:

We also picked a place for the wedding! I had been stressing over this for weeks. But with help from my mom and sister we chose, the Stephen F. Austin hotel! I am so happy about it!

We finished off the weekend on Sunday with breakfast at our favorite pancake house and then sleeping on the sofa and eating left over cupcakes my sister brought for our party. A perfect ending to an amazing weekend.

Tru Blood Obsession

So I don't know if many of you know this but I love the show Tru Blood. It is amazing. I love the hot steamy scenes between Sookie and Bill. I also love that they are together in real life. It makes the hotness even more real for me. Did you see the episode where he grabbed her in the grave site and they did it right then and there? COME ON! (the neat freak part of me did want him to use a wipe or something, think about it) Screw the rest of the story lines let's just have Sookie and Bill show but I digress.

I was just reading People.com and fuond out that they are engaged! I am so happy now. Even hotter. They are going to have hot half human half vampier babies and then be hot together for ever. (Yes I do know they are not vampiers in real life, but let a girl have her fantasy for a bit) Yummy hotness.

Anyway just thought I would let you know where I will be next Sunday night... in front of my TV staring at the hotness that is Bill and Sookie.

Blogger Happy Hour

Last night I was inducted in the blogger happy hour crew. I had such a great time meeting new friends who are from all different walks of life. I love that! I met some girls that I think might even be able to help me plan my wedding, despite the fact that I seem to be getting nowhere on it. In the mean time I will just continue to drink my ritas...

I did not take many pictures of the night but I think this one of Kelly sums up how we all felt after enjoying the 100 degree 100 cent margaritas at Freddies on South First. I believe the total tally for all the ladies was 17 margaritas and 3 delicious bowls of queso. Yummy I think so!

After the long drive home, I began my cleaning extravaganza for this weekends visitors. I have finished most of the guest room and the kitchen. I can't wait for tonight I have the whole house to myself and I am going to clean like there is no tomorrow. Detailing the grout, scrubbing the floors, doing laundry, dusting, all of it is so much fun! Believe it or not I love cleaning so much that a few weeks ago I volunteered my services to one Longhorn Kelly on a Friday night. So sad I know.

PS. This one goes out to you Kelly W! :)

Dinner Debacle

So I tried a new WW meal last night... FAIL It was supposed to be salmon with a tomato and lemon topping. Sounded promising...

It was so gross I literally threw it out and started over on a totally different dish. I have been trying to be a little more creative with my cooking and branch out. Whenever I do though I seem to screw it up. Whats up with that?

Anyway I am going to try and make something healthy again tonight, but maybe a little more edible. Any ideas? I am thinking something with chicken and whole wheat pasta.

Meanwhile, I am in full cleaning mode. T-minus 2 days till Mommy, MIL, Sister, Brother in law and niece are here! God I am so excited to see them!

In The Red

Weight Watchers FAIL:

For the first time since being on weight watchers I am in the red on points. I actually made myself go through and count everything I at this weekend. It is BRUTAL. I have gained 4 lbs in one weekend. That is insane!

I have vowed to be good all week so I can have fun at my party on Saturday. I also want to look good for dress shopping this weekend with my sister and mom. I don't want the first vision I have of me as a bride to be me stuffed into a dress like a sausage!

MUST do better.

Weekend Recap

Friday night Parker and I had our movie night. We watch the Beyonce movie "Obsessed". My advice, dont rent it. It was OK but totally predictable and pretty bad acting. For all of that bad acting I wanted a little more action or something. In the end Beyonce wins and everyone is happy, yada yada yada...

Saturday we helped host a wedding shower for Parker's best friend Jason and his fiance Amelia (also a great friend). We started off the day floating the Comal river. It was so much fun! I have never done that before and man I had no idea what I was getting into. We got there and they had no tubes with bottoms. But the bride to be Amelia worked her magic and we were able to move ahead with the day. We has a total of 22 people floating with us. It was hard to keep us all together, but all in all it was a ton of fun. The Bride and Groom had a blast and were both sufficiently wasted. I pissed of Parker and made him switch tubes with me, which he then could not get back in the tube, I felt horrible. He fell into the water a few times but then got it together and forgave me. I did not loose my beer once, but I did loose my sunglasses. I was told to be prepared for this by my good friend Janet, who was kind enough to send me a survival list of things to know while floating the river. Thank you Janet for that list because I would have been screwed without it. I love Texas because only Texans would think of his genius idea to lay in a tube and float down a river for hours on end and drink. Texans add drinking to all activities and inevitably they are better!

We then headed to Amelia's parents house in Wimberly. We hung out there with the rest of the family and friends who did not float the river. We played some fun games and even beer pong. I did not hit the table but the Bride and Groom were on that like white on rice. You know it is a good wedding shower when the Groom is beer bonging with his future in laws. NICE.

Sunday Parker and I actually slept in. Something I have forgotten how to do since having a puppy who wakes you up at 7 am. Harry tried that again this morning, but I was not having it. We slept until 11 am, it was wonderful. Parker and I then worked on the house for a bit and headed to Mandola's with some friends for Whitney's birthday dinner. We did a wine tasting, looked around the beautiful grounds and then had an amazing meal that I will be digesting for about a week.

This week I am getting ready for my mom, sister and niece to come to town. We are going wedding dress shopping and then our engagement party is Saturday! I am going to eat super healthy so I can then totally enjoy all the wonderful food that miss Kelly will be cooking up for Saturday's fiesta! I have a fabulous dress that I bought at the Nordstrom anniversary sale last week and will be premiering it at the party. Hope I can still fit into that thing after that meal tonight!