Not Merely Living

Friday: beyond sorrow's own joys

 

Oh friends. So many groundhog thoughts have been swirling around my head this week. The accident has stayed with me. changing me. sitting with me.

>After big moments in my life, when I feel a bit lost (or found somehow), I find myself turning back to my favorite poets. my favorite poems.

This week brought me back to this one, by E. E. Cummings (one of my faves):

silently if,out of not knowable
night’s utmost nothing,wanders a little guess
(only which is this world)more my life does
not leap than with the mystery your smile

sings or if(spiraling as luminous
they climb oblivion)voices who are dreams,
less into heaven certainly earth swims
than each my deeper death becomes your kiss

losing through you what seemed myself;i find
selves unimaginably mine;beyond
sorrow’s own joys and hoping’s very fears

yours is the light by which my spirit’s born:
yours is the darkness of my soul’s return
–you are my sun,my moon,and all my stars

>I'm ready to get married. When Viet arrived home Tuesday night, hugging him brought the ground back under my feet. brought the world back between my arms.

>my mom is joy:

Thank God for her. I am so lucky.

>I'm aching, and the medicine doesn't seem to change anything. It's as if I'm carrying the weight of what could have been, what might have been on my neck and back.

>but no matter what: the sun always comes peaking through:

>and the wedding crafting continues:

>Goodbye Annie. You were a great car. The greatest. I'll miss you.

>and lastly, just these guys:

Happy Friday Everyone.

Photo a Day Update

All I have to say is, Thank Goodness my mom is here. If she wasn't, I would be pretty blue. I don't like being stuck at home. I'm suffering from various whiplash symptoms and having her around helps to keep my spirits up.

I frickin love my mom ya'll.

right now we are watching the Killing, eating miniature ice cream cones, and addressing invitations. 

Heaven.

Are you getting into photo a day yet? April photoaday is right around the corner! Lets play catchup on my most recent photoadays:

March 27th: Your name.

 

from our invitations

 

March 26th: Key.

 

car got totaled. but I walked away unharmed. Key to my rental.

 

March 25th: Breakfast.

 

Brunch with Mom at Elite Cafe

 

March 24th: An Animal.

March 23rd: Moon.

 

SF Palm tree=next best thing to a moon on a moonless foggy night

 

March 22nd: Kitchen Sink.

 

yep

 

March 21st: Delicious.

 

Look at em

 

March 20th: Before/After.

 

Before dinner/ After dinner

 

March 19th: Funny

 

Staring Contest: Go.

 

March 18th:A Corner of your home.

 

my corner

 

March 17th: Green

 

don't pinch me! I carry my green on me. :)

 

March 16th: Sunglasses

 

Serious Friday Stylez.

 

back to resting and healing.

xoxo,

Mere

Wedding Crafts, Hair and Makeup

Thank you to everyone for all of your kind thoughts and messages after the accident. We are still recovering and dealing with some aches and pains, but mostly we are just continuing to feel grateful and lucky.

I want to share with you all some exciting pictures from my hair and makeup trial on Monday. 

Alexia and Ashley, the amazing duo from Flower & Gold, are going to be doing our hair and makeup for the wedding. 

I. am. so. excited. to be working with them. Ashley has been styling my hair for over three years now, and I trust her implicitly. As soon as we got married, I knew that she was the only one I would trust to do my hair. 

I met Alexia for the first time on Monday, and I liked her instantly. These ladies are just simply some of the most talented, professional artists in their fields. I feel absolutely comfortable in their expert hands.

Even though I had some ideas about the types of wedding hair I was hoping for, I was still pretty wishy washy. Ashley is so good at listening and interpreting, that of course she turned my hair into magic.

and my makeup.  I was especially nervous about my makeup. I mean I wanted to look natural (Viet hates makeup), but I also wanted to look pretty for pictures. 

Alexia immediately put me at ease. She is so warm and easy to work with, and she totally got me. That's really all there is to it. When she finished I thought, wow. I just look like an enhanced version of myself. Perfection.

The day of will look a little different, but you get the idea. Ignore my pained look. My eyes are pretty light sensitive:

What do you think? I think we're going to put some small flowers in my hair too. I think this is going to go perfect with my veil and lace dress! 

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Also, yesterday I had the opportunity to guest post over at Hello Cupcake. Check out my post on balancing a full time job with wedding planning!

Flashing before our eyes

Hi friends,

Yesterday, the world paused.

It slowed, and almost stopped.

--

Yesterday, I had an amazing wedding makeup and hair trial. Thank you Ashley & Alexia from Flower & Gold.

I mean. It was really incredible. I started getting all teared up as they were dolling me up.

It was the first moment where I was able to start to imagine what my wedding day would be like.

I teared up. I was overwhelmed. The world stilled.

--

After the trial, my mom and I were driving to meet with our florist, when a woman ran a red light.

She just ran it. And she hit us. Hard. 

So hard it spun her around 360 degrees. 

--

and everything happened so quickly and all of a sudden we were just ok.

we made it. and I felt like angels must have been watching over us. or maybe just Erin.

And oh how all the wedding stress seemed to melt away. and we were just alive.

_

and my car was destroyed. But somehow we were ok. a little sore and bruised. but OK.

--

So that's all I have. Just grateful to be here.

and a little teary. 

My mom told the policeman, You know, with the exception of the accident, this has been a lovely experience. Because she was so impressed by how kind and professional they were. 

Oh the bright side.

---

This has been a lovely experience. 

Happy Tuesday.

Week of Mom

Gooooood Morning Friends!

I am happy to report that my mom arrived safely, and we are ramped into high wedding planning gear.  She is here for a whole week! I can't wait to share with you all of the exciting things that we have been up to. In the mean time, Check my mom out:

ain't she purty? :)

Tomorrow we have a full day of meeting with the caterer, hair cuts, hair/makeup trials and meeting with the florist.  whew. wish us well. 

xo,

Mere

TGIF

Right now I am thinking about friendships. I'm thinking about how crucial they are to my happiness and how much my friends mean to me. 

It's funny how getting married makes you so aware of the how precious the other relationships are in your life. I am reallllly lucky. I have some of the smartest, funniest, wonderful friends anybody could ask for. And I frickin love them. 

Yesterday I was speaking with my Matron of Honor Tino:

Tino. such a great friend. such a great mom. We have been friends for so long, and even though we don't get to talk as regularly as either of us would like, we always fall back into an easy rythmn whnever we do. I am so grateful she will be standing beside me when I get married.

AND. Look at her cute child:

On Thursday night I spent some time with two of my favorite ladies at one of my favorite drinking holes in the city--The Gold Dust. It's what I always imagined growing up that California Saloons would look like. . .

 

We laughed SO hard. SO HARD> at one point during the night, I just wanted to kiss them both I loved them so much. I think I turned to them and said something like I frickin love you guys so much. I was so happy my face hurt. 

Viet is my friend too. I'm happy he'll be my husband soon, but he was always first my friend. And when I look at him, I feel so. much. love:

and lastly, I'm thankful for one my dearest, most important friends is coming to town tomorrow: my mom!

Stay tuned for all of our awesome adventures next week. We're going to be kicking wedding planning up a notch. 

Wishing you a friend filled weekend-

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Around the web this week, I'm loving these awesome posts:

+Elise's post on Expertise. This post rang so true with me.

+Glitter & Pearls: A new blog I discovered this week when Lexi commented on my blog. Her blog is Gorgeousssss.

+I am SO proud of Stacy and the exciting new steps she is taking! You are going to knock em dead lady! 

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Also: 

A month from now, I will be in VEGAS with my bridesmaids livin' it up. Can't Wait. 

--

and lastly, nephew cuteness:

Happy Friday :)

 

Recipe spotlight: Shells, Scallops, Bacon & Peas

I'm not really a recipe maker, but I love trying out new dishes. Viet is really a much better cook than me, so often he tries out new recipes that I think sound good.

Viet recently made a very yummy dinner for me. He adapted this recipe from Epicurious by Michael Chiarello with Penelope Wisner.

Since I'm allergic to shellfish, he made two separate versions--one with chicken and one with scallops.



This is the perfect dish for spring. It's got a great combination of flavors, and the bacon peans and shells go together nicely with the chicken.

Happy Almost Friday!

Wedding Hair Inspiration

My mom is arriving on Saturday for 10 days!! She's going to help us address invitations and do a bunch of fun wedding projects. I. can't. wait. I need her here. 

On Monday, I'm having my wedding hair trial. I've been trying to pull together some hairspiration from Pinterest.

But it's been sorta tricky for me. My hair has been through many transformations:

As you can see, my hair has changed quite a bit over the past few years.

When it comes to wedding hair, I think I want it to be an updo (since I have that pretty open keyhole back in my dress).  I'm also going to have a veil.

Here's my hairspiration:

                                              Source

 

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 I love all of these. I'm surprised that so many of the ones that I really liked were so messy looking.

What do you think? Which style is your favorite?

Friends, babies, and beautiful skies part 2

In case you missed it, read Part 1 first.

Now to the Babies. :) On Sunday, we went to a baby shower for Viet's cousin's wife Alice, who is also our wedding planner (yay!) and is due in a month.

Momma to be deciding the winner of a fun shower game

The shower was bee themed and had the cutest decor:

We can't wait to meet baby Gavin!!!!

I got to spend some QT with one of the cutest little girls ever-Ally. Remember Ally from last June?

Someone at the party said she looked just like her dad (Viet's cousin Binh). She reminded me of Binh here:

hehe.        j/k     (kinda)

But look at this picture. I think she looks a Lot like her momma here:

look how gorgeous Diem looks! She's 10 days away from her due date!

and finally,

beautiful skies. The drive from SF to Napa and back always takes my breath away. I try never to take its beauty for granted.

From SF to Napa:

 

and then headed back home to SF:

 

Seeing the SF skyline is one of the most elating experiences. I love living here.

Happy Tuesday :)

 

 

Friends, babies and beautiful skies Part 1

Friends, babies, and beautiful skies pretty much sums up my weekend. 

oh and a little bubbly too (bubbly always makes for a good weekend). We started our weekend out right by having our friends Tara and Travis over for dinner. We had been trying to get together for a while, so even though I had been feeling pretty sick all day on friday, I rallied for the occasion. They are SO fun. 

 

they brought fancy bubbles!

 

It seems like every time we get together Tara and I end up laughing til it hurts, and the boys ended up geeking out together (no offense boys :)):

 

Saturday, I had some more quality friend time and did some shopping:



                       the lovely Lisa trying on lipstick         

                    shap was all smiles after her makeover

                    We ran into our good friends Renske and Myla in Bloomingdales

     and we met up with some friends for happy hour who were visiting from Alabama: 

We headed to bed pretty early on Saturday night. No big St. Patty day partying for us. :)

Next up: Babies and Beautiful skies :)