merry and bright

A few weeks ago DJ was talking about sending cards this Christmas. Funny to me, because I think this is one of the things that changed with being engaged. I've sent cards myself in past years, but now we will send them together, and he has a list of names to add to mine.

DJ liked the top set, while I chose the ones with trees. I like the cards a lot, but not so much the envelopes. The blue cards came with plain white envelopes while the trees came with silver striped envelopes.
The cards are the same size, so I did a switch. I'll use the silver for the blue cards, and I made red ones for the trees, to match the script. This would have been easier with a template, but oh well. I just traced around the silver, added margins by eye, and started cutting.
I may or may not line both sets with silver paper. Both of those are from my $1/roll Martha Stewart stash. I particularly like the woodgrain, I'm leaning that way.
I do like some tacky faux-woodgrain. This is one corner of our dining room table (which is nearly always housing some wedding project these days.) It's laminate from 1963, and boy did they love their faux-woodgrain then. This table was the first thing DJ and I bought together, and I had a hard time with the commitment of owning something jointly. I got over it. Now we have a dog and some other furniture and we're sending holiday cards with silver woodgrain lining.

moth love

One of my bridesmaids would love anything from this shop. She has said she would love to have something to wear in her curly hair, and one of these headbands would fit the bill.

Me, I'm too plain for feather headbands. The wildest I get is giraffe-patterned slingbacks with my beige trousers and turtleneck. So I live vicariously.

winter trees

Whoops, that wasn't supposed to be a mini-break. Work kind of exploded (kind of, not literally - although in my field that is occasionally a possibility) and I haven't had much energy at the end of the day.

Anyway. Do you need a gift for someone just like me? Are you decorating on the cheap and totally enamored of Mad Men and all things 1960's? Do you think it would be totally exhausting to live with me? (Okay, that's unrelated. Check yes.)





Last year I bought a series of three Giclee prints from modernarteveryday. I framed them and DJ hung them level on a blank white wall. Of all the miscellaneous stuff and artwork in our house, those three prints get the most compliments. (Photos from MAE's Etsy shop.)


They are also less expensive than they look - all three prints for either $25 or $40, depending on size (if I remember correctly). A gift certificate to a framing store (Michael's, JoAnn Fabrics, Ikea, Hobby Lobby, Target...) would be a very nice addition to the box.

extra, extra!

The replacement shoes came - and they fit! I think maybe the 9's would have been too large after all. Whew. I may still have my shoe guy stretch the toe box for comfort, but it's not strictly necessary.



Please ignore my hideous veiny feet and obvious need for a pedicure. Also the crappy photography. Why is it so hard to take a picture of your own feet?

silver baron

Still life: silver with dog.

I like cake, I like cake

To say that I like cake would be an understatement. I love cake. I don't think life without cake would be worth living. I'm really excited about tasting wedding cake samples. For the record, I have only very briefly considered baking my own wedding cake.

I bake frequently, usually 2-3 times a week. Coffee cake on weekends, lemon-yogurt cake with lemon curd and whipped cream, ginger pear molasses cake, flourless chocolate cake, cranberry lemon olive oil "bread," apricot ribbon yellow cake...
Of all those cakes, the only evidence I can find on my hard drive is this. It's a meat cake. A cake made of meat. Meat loaf, actually. Made for my brother's birthday, when he turned 19. Filled with barbeque sauce, frosted with mashed potatoes and ketchup. After his birthday dinner we did the whole singing and cake bit, and he cut into his cake. Hey, he said. Wait - is this...? JULIA!!!! Hee.

Then I brought out the real cake, which was caramel banana with vanilla filling and caramel buttercream frosting. Much tastier - although my meatloaf recipe made a surprisingly decent layer cake, if you're into that sort of thing. My brother ate it, anyway.

With all those cakes, you'd think I'd have a cake knife, but I don't. Depending on the cake, I use a bread knife or a steak knife. I know, classy. A few days ago I bought this set, primarily to cut and serve wedding cake but also to save my steak knives for steak in the future. (Or meat cake.) They're vintage sterling silver in Oneida's Damask Rose pattern. DJ has started calling me the Silver Baron.

waiting for the other shoe to drop

Sooo. We have a problem. I ordered these shoes:

These were delivered:

Not an acceptable substitute.

Normally this would be a small setback requiring only a quick exchange, but I bought the very last pair in my size (9) and the only remaining sizes are 6.5 and 8.5. AND, they are now twice as expensive as they were on Friday night.

After 45 minutes on the phone with India, they still did not have my size in stock. In fact, my size has been and is still missing from the entire internet. They were happy to refund my money and let me buy the 8.5's - at the new higher price. Gentle readers, I was not very pleasant to some poor customer service manager several time zones away.

Eventually it was agreed that as this was Amazon's screwup, they would let me buy the 8.5's at the lower price and I would return the substitute 9's. Which leaves just one small problem: I wear a 9M, not 8.5M. I have a few pairs of 8.5's, but mostly 9's. What odds do I have of making these work? I'm picking up some boots from my shoe guy on Saturday. Do you think he can stretch them a half size for me, or am I out of luck? Any recommendations?

My short buddy here was very interested in the shoes and camera. He thinks all the bright lights and shiny objects are just for him, which is generally correct.

ghost town

old things repurposed

One of my future projects, which may be very much in the future, is to bring a little Paul Lowe into my living room.
For a short time I thought I'd buy several dozen vintage doilies and assemble them into table runners for the eventual wedding. I thought that would play well with the blowsy vintage barny-ness. But once I realized I probably needed 500 doilies that didn't seem like such a hot idea anymore. 500 of anything is a lot, especially if you can't just order a box online somewhere.

But curtains, maybe. Our living room curtains are very much like those above - lineny, sheer, and very plain. Well, here. This is one end of our living room. Yes, that is a half-mannequin wearing a sarong. What can I say, I like simple furniture and weird accessories.

I asked DJ a while ago if he minded doilies on the curtains, and he looked slightly confused. No, he said, Why would I?

I know, I have it good. He lets me do anything I want to our house, usually does the heavy lifting, then later gives me all the credit.

here and there and everywhere

If you need more Julia Remix (doubtful!) you can also find me at Elizabeth Anne Designs this week. I'm sorry to say that I worked much harder on those posts than I ever do on the ones here. I need accountability, it's a fact.