The Oscars!

My favorite day of the year has come and gone, but at least I get to recap last night's Academy Awards with my favorite blog pals.

First of all, I would like to say that after 6 years of hosting an Oscar pool, I FINALLY WON! Whoop! Thanks to Tom Hooper taking home Best Director I was able to barely squeeze by the competition!

Second, for the first time (maybe ever) I am pumped about the winners. I thought everyone was so deserving of their awards and it made for a very pleasant evening.

As for the overall show itself, I thought it was awkward. I was so excited about James Franco and Anne Hathaway hosting and I thought they did a mediocre job. I don't know if he was nervous or high but James seemed really out of it. Anne made a desperate attempt for his lack of enthusiasm and spent most of the night awkwardly laughing. I thought Anne's musical number was SUPER awkward and not funny and the whole thing just seemed desperate. The Academy needs to go back to it's roots and have a comedian host, someone who is used to doing live comedy, because this "more youthful" show was underwhelming.

Finally, the FUN part.....the fashion! Again, I was kind of underwhelmed. Overall, I thought the red carpet was pretty boring. There wasn't anything that was jaw-droppingly gorgeous or jaw-droppingly hideous, well except Helena Bonham-Carter but that's what we expect from her.

For me, the worst dressed were Jennifer Hudson, Scarlett Johansson, Reese Witherspoon (I know, I know) and Mila Kunis.

This enormous bright orange dress is just eating Jennifer! She is so skinny now, I would have loved to see her in something with a mermaid shape. Plus, her boobs looked disgusting.

I hate her and I hate this dress. Scarlett looked like a bad tablecloth. I thought her hair was way too casual and not nearly glam enough for the Academy Awards, especially as a presenter!

Reese Witherspoon is one of my all-time favorite Hollywood ladies and I love her style, but I thought last night she was boring! I feel like this dress is overdone, maybe it's because I have a friend who used this exact style (color and everything) as bridesmaid dresses a few years ago. I liked her hair and earrings but not with this dress, I thought the hair was too modern with such a plain dress. Sorry Reese! I still love you!

I love Mila Kunis. I think she is drop dead gorgeous but she has an edge to her, which I love! I appreciate that she was trying to soften up her look for the Oscars, but I didn't like it. I love the color of the dress but the style is awful, those boob doilys look like weird tattoos and it just doesn't work. I also HATED her make-up. She is so stunning with the smokey look, because that's her style. She just didn't look like Mila.

For my best dressed I am choosing Amy Adams, Natalie Portman and Halle Berry.

I loved Amy's dress. The color is PERFECT for her skin and hair color, it's flattering and modest but still glam and it fit her perfectly! I wasn't the biggest fan of the green jewelery but I love her hair and make-up! She was the definition of a glamorous movie star!

It can't be easy being super preggers for the biggest night of your life, but Natalie Portman looked AMAZING! Her dress was classic and beautiful, appropriate for her belly, and I loved the color. I love that she mixed it up with the unique earrings and I loved the side hair. She looked incredible and I am so, so, so, so, so glad she won! I just adore her and Black Swan was ridiculous.

Halle Berry is my Best Dressed winner. I loved her dress and I felt like she was the only one who really pushed the limits. The gold is beautiful with her coloring and her body is incredible. I love, love, love the bottom of the dress! It's so whimsical and glamorous at the same time. The only I wish she would have done differently is the earrings. I think some big diamond drop earrings would have taken this to the next level. Her hair is so short, so I think it needed just a little more WOW!

So what did you think of last night's show? Who are your best and worst dressed of the night?

I NEED Your HELP!!!

J and I entered our precious little puggle baby in the Minnesota Star Tribune's Cutest Canine contest for a chance to win $1,000!!!! But, to win we really, really need your help!

Pretty Pretty PLEASE click on this link:

http://startribune.upickem.net/engine/Welcome.aspx?contestid=27073

and then follow these step:

Click "REGISTER TO VOTE" on the top of the page.


Then fill out the form....the only thing they require are your name (make it up if you want), your e-mail (they don't send you ANYTHING except a confirmation)


Next, wait for an e-mail to come from "dontreply" and check your spam! Simply open the e-mail and confirm your registration!


Once you confirm, it will take you back to the contest page where you want to hit VOTE

Once on the voting page type Bailey in the search box
Then, under the picture of the cutest little baby you've ever seen click VOTE!
Finally, make sure to click "SAVE VOTE" on the bottom of the page!

(she's on the right, duh!)

You are able to vote once every hour, so if you're bored at work today and want to help your friend Kristin out, I would really appreciate it!

Thanks everyone! Have a fabulous weekend!!!

Thoughts on Thursday

You know it's been a terribly long winter when you can even come up with random thoughts for your dear friend's Thoughts on Thursday blog topic. But, I refuse to not participate.....so here's what I'm thinking today.

*If I'm being honest, it's been a rough week. I've been feeling really stressed. I really want to get this wedding planned so I can enjoy my summer and all of the other weddings we have this year. I realize we're waaay ahead of schedule in terms of planning but I'm a spaz, I want things done and I want instant gratification. A lot of the plans require money and the money is just not coming in fast enough. So, I have to wait to get some things done until we can afford them....and this stresses me out. Also, I think I need to take a little break from Wedding Inspiration Blogs like Style Me Pretty, because I start to feel like my wedding isn't going to add up and then that stresses me out. It's annoying.

*Along the same lines I need to give a shout out to two of my all-time favorite people....my fiance, J and my BB, Carolyn. While I have been stressing myself out you two have stepped up and helped me through it. J--you have been really sweet and extra loving and really supportive. BB--you just broke it down for me, "what can we do?" "how can we fix it?" Not to mention you're super sweet words about our wedding. I love you both!

*Last night was my brother's last basketball game of his career. His team lost in the first round of the playoffs, but Nate went out with a bang. He really stepped up, played aggressive and carried his team AND he went 7 for 8 at the free throw line! I am beyond proud of my brother and am having a hard time dealing with the fact that after 12 years of being at nearly ALL of his basketball games that his career is over. Now we just need to convince him to join J's bball team so I can cheer my two favorite boys on together!

*Do any of you use Picasa? I was playing with it this morning and can't decide how I feel about it. It would be nice to have my pictures linked through google since everything I do is through google....but I don't know if I like it. So what are your thoughts? Picasa? Shutterfly? What do you use?

*I have an amazing best friend. Tuesday is my day off from Coffee Buzz, so I get the morning to relax before I nanny then work at Mary Kay's Bridal. This past Tuesday I got a surprise visit from my BFF with a Jamba Juice in hand! We got to hang out for a couple hours and catch up. Man do I love this girl!

*I watched a new show last night that in theory was made for me. It's called Shredding for the Wedding and is on The CW. It essentially combines all of my favorite things: competition based reality show, weight loss and wedding planning....jackpot! 9 overweight engaged couples compete in a weight loss challenge to win their dream wedding. Each week there is a challenge and the winning couple wins an element of their dream wedding. I was a little disappointed in the show (I think it was because it's only an hour, so I felt like everything was crammed in) but I will still be watching each week because I have a sneaking suspicion it will get good (and dramatic) as the weeks go on.

credit

*10 more days until Bridesmaid dress shopping! 23 more days until our Wedding Party Party! 45 more days until our Engagement Photo Shoot! 254 days until our wedding! 256 days until our honeymoon! I can do it. No more stressing (yeah right)!

OK, I think that's all I'm thinking today. Now head on over to Life, Love & Puppy Prints and play along! :)

Wedding Wednesday: Tuxedos

So apparently picking out tuxes is the easiest thing ever! I figured it would take J and I a while to look through everything and agree on a style for our guys. I was wrong. We went to Mary Kay's Bridal (obviously) and met with John who is the the tuxedo pro there. Mary Kay's does all of their tuxedo rental through a company called Tip Top Tux, so we started by looking through their book. I had looked through the book before and had a pretty good idea of what I wanted, but I wanted to make sure J had a say and was happy and excited about what we were going to pick out. Lucky for me J loves the tuxedo that I am obsessed with, so after about two minutes we had that figured out. Add on another two minutes picking the vests and shoes and we were done. Honestly, the thing that took the longest was writing the names of all the guys in the wedding party. It was so easy and so painless. Once the crazy prom season is over Mary Kay's will get in a couple of groom's samples so we can make sure we like the tuxedo and vest combinations and then we're done!

We decided to do this amazing pinstriped tuxedo for the groom and groomsmen

It's kind of hard to see the pinstripes bu how hot will that be?!?! LOVE IT!

Then for the ushers and the dad's we went with the same tuxedo only in all black


We're going to white tuxedo shirts and J will have a white vest and a white bow tie. The groomsmen, dads and ushers will all have black vests and black bow ties!


And finally, we're putting all the boys in these standard black shoes


But, my groom will be wearing these!


Ahhhh! He is going to look SO good! I seriously cannot wait! The black and white pinstripes with the black and white vests, it's going to tie everything together so well! I love how this colorless theme is coming together! I just hope it all ends up looking as good on the big day as it is looking in my head.

Smart & Chic Beauty Lounge

Hair & Makeup is one of the most nerve-racking wedding-related items for me. First of all, I am super picky and high maintenance about my hair and even more so about my makeup. I considered getting everything done at the salon I go to but it's so far from all the wedding day activities it just wouldn't be convenient and to be truthful I'm not in love with my hair stylist. I am madly in love with my esthetician and she will most definitely doing my pre-wedding facial and waxing but that's her specialty, not makeup. Then I thought it would be great to go to one of my favorite salons (where I used to work) Juut. They have a training salon in Uptown (which is super close to where we'll need to be all day) so my girls could get their hair for really inexpensive and I could have one of the master trainers do my hair. BUT, then we have to coordinate getting to and from the salon and factor in a ton of extra time to get all the appointments in. Plus, these people are just trainees, what if they suck? AND, even worse, the masters change over quite a bit, so what if the master I do my trial with is no longer there come wedding day?

So, after pondering a million what-ifs, weighing pros and cons, over-thinking, over-analyzing and stressing about this I decided the best option was to find someone to come to the hotel to do our hair and makeup. I booked a hospitality suite at our hotel to use as a space for us girls to get ready, so it would be dumb of us to leave and use it only to get dressed. SO, the search began. I found a lot of local stylists and companies that offer on-site styling. I contacted a few places and was most impressed and most excited about a company called Smart & Chic Bride.

Smart & Chic specializes in bridal hair and makeup and use professional products specifically chosen for brides. Plus, their team of stylists travel to you and bring all their equipment and products! PERFECT! But, I don't trust just anyone with my hair or my face, so I needed to scope them out. Luckily, just this January Smart & Chic opened a Beauty Lounge in Northeast Minneapolis. So, I made an appointment for a haircut with their lead stylist Amber. UM.....I FELL IN LOVE INSTANTLY! Not only was Amber awesome to talk to, she gave me an amazing haircut, she was super cute, super fun and super nice. And, to top it off the Beauty Lounge is about the cutest place I've ever been.

I left there so excited and so relieved that I found someone I liked and now trusted with my wedding day hair AND her and her team could come to me. I was obviously sharing all this with my BB and going on and on and on about the extreme cuteness of the lounge and she had the beyond brilliant idea that we should get ready there. So I sent Amber an e-mail and asked if there was any possible way she would let us have the lounge to ourselves to get dressed and done up for my wedding day. SHE SAID YES! The Lounge doesn't open until 12pm on Saturdays and we need to be at the church by 11:30am so it seriously works out perfectly! I couldn't download and save pictures of the lounge from their website, but I did screen save them so I could show you all! If you want to see better pictures go to their website: http://lounge.smartandchicbeauty.com and click on "The Space." Otherwise, here's the ghetto version I jacked off their site!

For real! HOW CUTE IS THIS PLACE?!?! I showed my lovely photographer, Sara Jayne, these pictures and her exact quote was, "your wedding just went from amazing to EPIC!" I cannot wait to get ready here, I cannot wait to see the amazing pictures Sara Jayne will take in this space and I am sooo unbelievably relieved to have this major "To-Do" crossed off my list! PLUS, I am saving myself $350 by not using that hospitality suite! SCORE!

Someone's Got A Case of the Mondays

Remember on Thursday when I wrote about how wonderful the weather was in Minneapolis? We went from -20 degree weather to the high 40s in a weeks time, well now we're back to full-fledged crappy winter. It snowed 15 inches yesterday. So all the snow that melted is now back with a vengeance.

My day started getting stuck in our neighborhood because the stupid city of Bloomington was picking their butts all night and didn't plow the side streets. Let me just say that at 5:35am on a frickin' Monday the last thing you want is for your car to be stuck in over a foot of snow. After about 2 minutes of being stuck and a curse-word filled phone call to my fiance God decided to take pity on me and sent a tow truck to me. This angel in a bright yellow vest pulled me out of the snow, checked under my car for damage and then sent me safely on my way.

After a 35 minute commute of going 35 miles per hour I arrived at Coffee Buzz already 5 minutes past opening. We are located next door to a dialysis center and lucky for me an incredibly old man and his wife (who both had walkers) were stuck outside and one of the nurses was shoveling a path for them. Now, I am sympathetic to the old people with walkers BUT I own a business, a business that opens at 6:00am, when it is 6:05am and I am not at work you better just get out of my way. Neither the old people nor the nurse even noticed (or they noticed and didn't care) that I was standing behind them not so patiently waiting for them to get a move on. I kid you not I stood there for 3 minutes (I looked at my phone), it felt like 45 minutes. And, no, there was no way to get around them...unless I wanted to be knee deep in snow. Finally, I start laughing and ask...."is there any way I can just get by you?" It was seriously a joke. At 6:10am I was finally in Coffee Buzz and extremely cranky.

My crankiness has only multiplied as we have had a total of 4 customers (terrible) and 3 of them have been rude and one of them tried to sell me something. Awesome.

So here I sit, staring out the window, angrily writing this blog post and realizing how pathetic and whiny I am being. But, I don't care. It's Monday, it's snowing, I'm cranky and that's just how it's going to be.

Have a wonderful day :)

Registering IS Fun!

Last Saturday we took the day off and spent our time registering for wedding gifts. We had SO MUCH FUN! I fully expected J to mope and complain the whole time, but he didn't complain ONCE! We had a blast spending some interrupted time together and shopping for great things for our home. I'm really proud of how well we compromised and listened to each other's opinions when it came to stuff we really needed and then stuff we wanted.

J thought this was hilarious....I did not.

I really appreciate all of your comments and words of wisdom when it came to registering! I definitely took them all to heart! We set up a game plan beforehand of things we wanted to make sure we registered for, we even pre-shopped online to get ideas of stuff and we made sure to bring snacks and pace ourselves to avoid exhaustion! :)

We registered at Macys first, which definitely took the longest. It was our first experience so it took a while to figure it all out. Then we made a pit stop at my favorite restaurant Big Bowl for some potstickers and a much needed glass of wine. From there we went to Crate and Barrel and finally Target. By the time we hit up Target we were pros but we were also tired and hungry, so we kind of cruised through there. We're going to go back to Target and Macy's closer to the wedding to register for some new bedding for our guest room and sheets for our bedroom, but we wanted to wait so the stores will be in the same season as our wedding so nothing is discontinued. We ended our night with a Valentine's Day dinner! We went to the new Barrio in Edina but the wait was over 2 hours! So, we booked it to the bar and took a celebatory shot of tequila then were on our way.




I am really excited about all the things we found! We compromised on the China argument and registered for some sturdy Bone China that can be used every day but is nice enough to use when we have guests. Plus, it's a classic all white set so if down the line I want to add some fun and colorful (and by colorful I mean black and white) patterns to our collection it will be really easy to do.


I have to say out of everything we registered for I am most excited about our knives! Is that weird? Does this mean I'm getting old? I am seriously so excited about these knives!


Some of my other favorite items from our registry are...

...this darling treat bowl for Bailey from Crate and Barrel! We couldn't resist!


....The Move Bundle for our Playstation 3 (like Wii fit).


...and this 32 bottle wine cellar (also from Crate and Barrel). This is definitely a big ticket item we're not really expecting to get, but we saw it, loved it and figured why not?


In addition to our traditional registry we are also giving our guests the option to do something a little different. We have set up a honeymoon registry so that our guests can choose to help make our honeymoon the trip of a lifetime. If you haven't seen a wedding registry before you should check out the registry we are using through our travel agent at :

http://ameratravel.honeymoonwishes.com
Our guests can give monetary gifts that will go towards our airfare or our suite, or adventures like swimming with the dolphins. Or they can purchase specific gifts like a Couples Massage on the Beach or Breakfast in Bed or a bottle of champagne delivered to our room. It's pretty cool and a fun way to do something different!

Now I just need to go back through our registries and make sure we don't have any duplicates, that everything we registered for is showing up and that we registered for enough to give guests options and also have plenty of things from all different price points. Finally, I need to add a registry page to our website!

This wedding is getting there you guys....little by little!

Thoughts on Thursday

Hi all! Sorry I have been MIA lately. I have been so busy with work and so focused on wedding planning that my precious blog has taken a back seat. But, I'm here and ready to share everything that's been going on these past couple of weeks.

Before I can share all that's been going on, I have to participate in my BB's Thoughts on Thursdays! (and you should too)

*It has been in the 30's, 40's and even hit 50 degrees this week in MN, which means I have been able to take my little pooch for our first walks of the year! We've gone the past few days and it makes us both SO happy! After this brutal winter it is so refreshing to get outside, get some fresh air and get some exercise.

Two happy girls on our first walk of 2011!

*I want to send love and prayers to my dear friend (and bridesmaid) Courtney and her family.


*I finished reading Water for Elephants last week!

LOVED it! It was a great story, even though parts were heartbreaking. Thank you all for the great recommendation! I can't wait for the movie to come out! I think Reese Witherspoon will be a perfect Marlena!

*Last night was my little brother's senior night for his basketball team. I was so honored because he asked me to join our parents and walk out with him. Unfortunately, my poor dad broke his ankle last week and had to have surgery last Friday, he is on bed rest through this weekend and wasn't able to attend Senior Night. It broke my heart that my dad couldn't be there but I was so happy and proud to be there for my brother!

My bro's girlfriend Tate, my brother, my mom and me
while Coach was giving a speech about how awesome
Nate is! :)

*On Sunday we went shopping for bridesmaid dresses for Carolyn's wedding! It was the first time all 5 bridesmaids were together and the first time some of us met. Everyone was awesome and the dress picking experience was super fun and super easy!

The short dress on the right is the dress we settled on and I love it! It's super flattering and has pockets! We'll be wearing a platinum color though, which I think will make it even cuter. Now I just have to find some super fun pink shoes to go with it, which I doubt I will have a problem with! :)

*Happy Birthday to my friend Abby (aka Nemo!!!)

*This weekend our group of friends is starting a new tradition, or at least attempting to. We are going to start a sort of dinner club. Each month we'll all get together for dinner and we'll rotate which couple hosts. I am super excited because it gives us an excuse to all get together (which can get tricky since 3 of the 4 couples are all getting married this fall.....yup), it will be a great way for us to hang out without spending a fortune eating out or going to the bar and we'll be able to try a bunch of different recipes!

*J and I are HUGE Arizona basketball fans (I really should explain this in a post soon) and they have abig game against Washington State tonight! I have dinner plans with my mom and sister tonight but my sweetie is kind enough to put his excitement on hold and DVR the game so we can watch it together once I get home! I am so excited and nervous! LET'S GO CATS!


*And finally, TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT! Britney's new video premiers!! SO EXCITED! Hopefully J will let me pause the game for 4 minutes to watch it! :)

I mean SERIOUSLY?!?!?! So pumped!!!

Now all of you should head over to my BB's blog Life, Love & Puppy Prints and play along with Thoughts on Thursday!!!