Cut Yourself a Piece of Cake

My fabulous mother found my roommate and I this funky junk decoration for our kitchen at an antique shop in Central PA a few weekends ago:

I haven't played the piano much since I've been in college, but when I did, finding vintage sheet music was one of my favorite things. It's quirky, cheap, and readily available--just look in bins at antique shops or in your grandparent's attic. Seriously--you don't find good, wholesome odes to baked goods like this anymore.

Because I was curious, I opened up the frame to look inside at the lyrics of this 1923 hit. Here's a little tidbit:

My friend Jonesie he got married just the other night
Jonesie was a man who had an awful appetite
His wife went to cooking school, but only learned to bake
When he kicks about the meals, She says "John for goodness sake",

Just cut yourself a piece of cake and make yourself at home,
I'm sorry that I can't cook steak, but cake is so high-toned
You'll get corns and bunions
From eating Spanish onions
So cut yourself a piece of cake and make yourself at home.

Perhaps the song is a foresight into my domesticity and upcoming nuptials.

-Bren

And for your listening pleasure:

The Red 80s-Tastic Jacket

About a year ago on winter break, I went on a Goodwill jaunt and decided I was going to venture into a new territory: sewing.

I bought an array of colors, patterns, and fabrics that I thought, by some stroke of genius, I would be able to transform into something fabulous. That five-year-old's polka dot frock would soon be an adorable mini skirt, the Marilyn Monroe tee would magically become a handbag, and those huge buttons on that 80s-tastic red coat would be great earrings.

After taking the scissors to the bottom of the polka dot skirt off and noticing all I had was a mess of cheap black and white satin imitation, I decided to give up my sewing efforts. And I hadn't even touched the sewing machine yet. Now all I had was a pile of ugly clothes.

Ah! But that red 80s-tastic jacket! I love red, and I love the 80s, I thought. I tried it on, just for kicks, and it fit like a glove. But I wasn't sure--it was a little out there; I had never worn anything like it. While the other sewing misfits were thrown in a bin, the red jacket hung in my closet to be judged. Every time I could potentially wear it, it was always the loser to whatever other jacket wasn't as much of a statement. I wondered, why did I even spend the two bucks on this? Something in me couldn't give it up, though. I needed some sort of a sign.

The sign came in the form of a celebrity. Sarah Jessica Parker. Not even two months later, I opened the latest issue of Glamour to find SJP sprawled on two pages in this:

No more confirmation needed. Wearing that red 80s-tastic jacket would make me look like I belonged on Sex and the City. It would turn heads as I froliked down the streets of New York with my shopping bags and zebra leggings.

So I now wear the jacket with pride. SJP may not know it, but her and I are a little like kindred spirits.

-Bren

Here's What You've Missed...

Two weekends ago, my mom and I traveled to Allentown to visit some friends and family, and to hit up the thrift store circuit. First thing you think of when you think of Allentown, right? Well, we had some major scores and some major steals. Among my favorite purchases, which mostly included an array of fall jackets and offbeat jewelry, were some fabulous dangling earrings that look like something you might have hung on your Christmas tree in the 1950s:

A sweatshirt-fabric fall blazer and an 'out there' necklace:




However, it's been a little difficult lately to pull off my cozy fall fashions due to the weather going from this:

To this:

  

But it's OK, because my fiance (!!!!!!!!!) is the best, most wonderful, handsomest man of all time. OF ALL TIME. Despite our crazy busy schedules, Monday nights are our night for each other. This week I made stuffed green peppers (fresh from the Saylor garden!) and there was slow dancing to Queen in the living room, back rubbing, and trying to form our own two-person acapella band to various songs...while a thunderstorm raged outside. It was all very romantic.
Also. One of my best friends (and bridesmaids!!) was on the PSU Homecoming Court. No big.

With all this excitement, the only things getting me through the drudges of school are excessive wedding blog stalking and lots and lots of pumpkin things. Pumpkin lattes, pumpkin butter, pumpkin margaritas (beats the apple cider margarita by a landslide), pumpkin beer, and pumpkin donuts. I may just turn into a pumpkin.

And that's what you missed.

See Thru Dresses and Apple Cider

I love fall. I love it I love it I love it I love it! I love the crisp air, the smell of fires, hot apple cider....and of course, fall clothes.

I am big into layering. Even though the change of a season usually means 'time to go shopping', I also find it thrilling to take my favorite summer tops and dresses and throw them on top of each other to create a unique fall look. (It's almost as good as new clothes, right?)

For example, take an adorable spring dress that was so thriftily scored for 5 bucks at Goodwill--
--that I though was so fab until I wore it to church for Easter, and was told by my mother that it was completely see-thru. How sad. So it hung in my closet all summer (because really, who wants to wear a slip?) until I resurrected it today, when it's 25 degrees cooler and no sun to be seen.

I made it cozy with some black leggings, black boots, a bright red sweater, and a fun belt (also a Goodwill find!). No more peek-a-boo!

Because I've been so good with my money lately, I popped into Rag and Bone, our one and only vintage boutique around here, just to take a look, and I left with this:

I found the bag in the sale bin for only $5, and since they have a $10 minimum for credit cards, I was forced into buying some earrings too. Shame.

Have a fabulous fall weekend everyone! Drink some apple cider. Or an apple cider margarita. (I've been craving one all week.)

-Bren

Goin' to the Cheap-al....

First of all, THANK YOU to everyone for your congratulations and support over the past week. Ian and I are incredibly blessed to be surrounded by so many loving friends and family who share in our excitement to start this new chapter in our lives. The plans have been moving along fabulously--our big day will be July 9th, 2011, appropriately the day of our 3-year-and-5-month anniversary! The ceremony site, reception venue, and dress have been checked off the list already. (Wanna see the dress? HAHAAAAAA nice try!)

Ever since talk of marriage entered the picture with me and Ian, we always knew that our celebration wouldn't be expensive and lavish. Both of us being the thrifty individuals that we are, we both know that you don't have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to make your day special. Since the beginning of college, I've been accumulating crafty wedding ideas in my journal, on everything from centerpieces to invitations to decorations. And now, since wedding dreams are slowly becoming a reality, my artsy instincts are exploding with ideas to have an economical, cheap, and UNIQUE wedding!

My favorite mode of procrastination these days has been perusing DIY wedding websites and blogs to gather ideas.

Some of my favorites:

http://mydiyweddingday.com/

http://www.diybride.com/

http://justsomethingimade.blogspot.com/

Here are some ideas I love....obviously once the decor decisions are made I gotta be hush-hush (we want the day to be a surprise now, don't we?), but I just want to show you how fun and funky cheap weddings can be.

Unfortunately, no one notified Penn State that I am a bride-to-be and have wedding things on my mind and that schoolwork just isn't as fun as that.

Love you all!

-Bren

"I may have told you to be my girlfriend, but this time I'm asking you to be my wife."

For those of you who haven't heard the story yet....or who just want to hear it again and again and again and again....(because you know you do….)

I never assume things.  I have never gotten flustered or excited or freaked out about things and I have never let my mind get carried away with itself.

If you know me at all, you know that what I just said is one gigantic lie. I sure wish I could keep my head on straight when it comes to the unknown, but lucky for me, God has blessed me with the gift of creativity, so that for every event in my life I am able to come up with a million and one scenarios of how the event will play out, no matter how fantastic or how ridiculously tragic.

So when I stepped out of the shower on Friday afternoon, wrapped in a towel and saw on my phone a message from Ian telling me to look outside my apartment door, then stepped outside to find a rose with a note tied on it telling me to go to the place on campus where we met, obviously this could only mean one thing:

He was going to propose.

And I was naked.

I flung open my closet door, looking for the outfit that I was going to be proposed to in. Because this is a big deal, right? I had always imagined looking effortlessly beautiful in a summery sundress when the man of my dreams got down on one knee, catching me totally off guard (because really, I just happen to look that stunning ALL the time). As I threw some mouse into my hair and some makeup on my face, I stuck my head into the room I share with my roommate, Hannah, who was on the phone with her mom, subtly trying to indicate that I had to go, because I think, but I’m not entirely sure, I could be wrong, but maybe Ian’s gonna propose?

After some squealing, deep breathing, and a promise to text Hannah as soon as anything happened, I set on my way to the Spiritual Center, not even caring that it was not at all summer dress weather—the sky was gray and it was starting to rain. (So much for good hair.) As I was power-walking and trying not to psyche myself out, naturally I called my mom.  After promising to call HER if anything happened, I immediately called my other friend Courtney, who I can always count on to calm me down. Before I began broadcasting to the entire world events that hadn’t even happened yet, I arrived at the room where Ian and I met, to be greeted not by him, but by a bunch of international students milling around. I was a little perplexed. Was it a multicultural event that he thought I should go to? Were they all going to collectively start singing and dancing, Bollywood-style, to mark the occasion? I must have looked a tad out of place (aka a flustered white girl), because next thing I know, like it was straight out of a movie, some smirking Indian dudes said, “Ooooh! You are looking for the rose!” I looked on the table, and there was another rose with a note telling me to go to the bench by the HUB where we spent our 2 ½ year anniversary.

As I approached the bench and saw him sitting there, I did everything I could do not skip over to him. After a giggly hug and kiss, he pulled out MORE flowers! It was only a matter of minutes before Ian would be my fiancé. But after I read the note on the flowers, I was yet again perplexed:

Wait. What?

“I wouldn’t want to get engaged on a cloudy day!”, he said.

What?

“I brought you a football jersey!”

What?

Then we went to Football Eve at Beaver Stadium. And I wore a football jersey over my dress. How was I even supposed to react to that little scheme? Surely he had known that that’s what I was expecting. But a scavenger hunt with roses? I guess it was a sweet thing to do! I flip-flopped back and forth between being disappointed and then sad and then feeling bad for feeling sad. My emotions were all over the place, and I finally broke down and gave him a piece of my mind! Leading a girl on and making her think you were going to propose, and then not? A little bit rude! Apparently it’s a common rule among the male kind to fake ‘em out the first couple times….

Fast forward about an hour. After informing the friends and mother of the big ole fake out, I came back to the apartment to cook us some dinner while Ian went home and got changed for the evening. When he returned, he suggested that we go on a picnic since it was a warm night. We packed up our corn on the cob and squash, and trekked across the street to the Alumni Gardens, one of the most beautiful places on campus. We found a spot on a bench on the bridge, and gnawed on our corn while we talked about our usual goofy things.  After we were done, he put his arm around me and we sat, basking in the stillness and quiet of the gardens. We were the only ones there, the sky had cleared, and a full blanket of stars coated the sky. After he asked me what my favorite memory of being boyfriend and girlfriend had been, we begun reminiscing and talking about how incredibly special our relationship is. I could feel him fiddling around with his pocket, but each time his hand came up empty, until the next thing I knew, he was down on his knee. I wasn’t about to believe it, until I saw a mighty snazzy ring glistening in his hand.

Like a broken record, all I could say was “Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod”. Until I began bawling, of course. And then said YES, of course.

So I would say that was a good end to the evening. :-)

Here's to a year of funky junk and WEDDING planning!

-Bren

Putting A Ring On It

Hey guys!

I got engaged this weekend. :-)