100th post.

I had blog again, because I am just so excited!!

in 15 days I get to marry the man of my dreams, spend 10 glorious days in northern Italy with him and then move to Southern California to start our life together.

Ponte Vecchio

Florence, Italy

source

my future hometown, CA

source

Last night I got a phone call that I got the job I interviewed for last week!

My work just threw me a surprise shower/going away party--Italy themed.  It was so much fun!

So life is falling into place and the wedding is happening, if not perfectly.  I am one happy girl.

bridal shower, part II

Time is moving fast over here.

I had a wonderful, but busy weekend with family, friends, packing, and a few wedding things scattered here and there.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't facing the consequences of my birthday festivities right now...

I can't believe I forgot to share with you my second shower put on my my aunt and grandmother on my mom's side of the family for church friends and family friends a couple of weeks ago!

It was daisy themed with cute little blue and yellow accents.  It was held at the community center in the townhouse complex where my grandparents live.

All these photos courtesy of my lovely friend NurseK, pictured here!  (with the decoration shots taken by Sissy)

Baby sis helping to set up before I arrived.

yummy orange punch. (not made yet?)

the pretty wild flower/daisy arrangements

I was glad people chatted while I opened gifts.  It made me feel less intimidated than if they were all watching me the whole time.

lots of tissue paper to fold!  I had plenty of help.

Grandma and me (ps. isn't that brooch awesome?)

I look odd in this pictures (sick of smiling?).  But this is my mommy.

I had a really wonderful time with all the lovely ladies from my church and long-time family friends.  My aunt had each of the married women write me a note of advice.  That was so precious to have advice from women who've been married any where from 2-50 years share with me what they've learning about marriage.

We played a funny twist on bridal trivia game with bingo.  There were some tough questions.

And, as always, my gifts were so generous!  It's always interesting  to see who gets me what type of gift from my registry, according to what their tastes or interests are.

Anyway, that was my second shower!  

I am leaving for CA this time tomorrow for my last 'visit', and my last time traveling without Eric!

We plan to buy a bed, sign a contract for our rental house, start moving into the new house finalize music, and I have a job interview!

I can' wait to see my hubby, even though there are only 3.5 weeks left until the wedding.  I"ll need to keep myself busy for some of the time because he still has two final exams to take , so I hope to get at least one more post in this week.

Hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend! 

my first bridal shower

Well, I'm finally getting through all the pictures, so here's a little recap from my shower on Saturday.

This shower was a smaller one hostessed by my aunts and grandmother on my dad's side of the family. They did a garden theme and had these adorable ceramic pots by each place at the table filled with violets

The tables were decorated in our wedding colors: chocolate brown and celadon green.



I didn't get any good pictures of the food, but my aunts made a brunch with egg casserole, stuffed french toast and hash brown casserole and it was SOOOO yummy. They also had fresh fruit and streudel, and baskets of mini muffins on each table.




After eating, we played a trivia game: "How well does Katie know Eric". For every question I couldn't answer, they made me chew a piece of Big Red gum. I hate the flavor of cinnamon candies, and well, the gum was just as bad.

my sister and I making our guesses

After five pieces my eyes were watering--the stuff was so pungent. I hated it! But i thought five wrong out of twenty-five wasn't tooo bad. :-)

A couple of the answers were ridiculous, so I'll share

Question: For a special occasion, would Eric buy you chocolates or flowers?

My answer: Flowers (because he's gotten me flowers before, and I'm trying to stay away from chocolate because it gives me headaches)

Eric's answer: Chocolates, because then I could eat them all for myself

see what I mean? I didn't think I deserved a Big Red for that answer.


Prizes were given to the highest scorer, after me. Turns out one of them was my 8 year old cousin Mackenzie!

Then it was time for presents. Everyone was so sweet. I loved getting things off my registry, as well as some creative gifts ( a beautiful sewing kit, and a glass pitcher with fun drink recipes)




Little sister/MOH helped me by writing down the gifts and who gave them, for thank you notes later.



while BM Riss starting making my bow-quet for the wedding rehearsal.



We didn't get a ton of pictures of the gifts, but I am very excited about this bowl my grandfather made in his woodshop. Isn't it beautiful? I'm always amazed at his talent (he is also the jeweler who picked out my center stone diamond and set it in my e-ring!)

He's given one of these to each of the families, and this bowl signified the starting a new family for me.


E stopped by at the end of the present opening and helped me finish

Then we ate the beautiful and delicious lemon fluff cake (a Dutch tradition in my family for years--for every family event from new babies to funerals)

happy weekend!

What are you doing this weekend?

I'm hoping to finish the last phase of my invitations: the envelopes. Which means I have about 25 more addresses to hunt down and a printer to fight with.

Also, celebrating my best friend, Rae's 21st birthday this weekend, having a sister sleepover (and getting some help with those invitations!), and surprise party fun. I've been out every night since E left me and I'm really exhausted from all the social activities. (including a really fun weddingbee meetup in Chicago last night!)

Don't forget to enter my giveaway. One week left!

Me, (My friend Riss), and the brithday girl, Rae at my shower last weekend.
Don't I have beautiful friends?

Shower-wear: I found it!!

One of my great friends and I met last night for dinner, tanning (for just a few minutes and just for the wedding--I'm not going for wrinkles and skin cancer at age 40!), and shopping for a dress for my bridal shower...

After 3 department stores, and drooling over lots of Calvin Klein dresses (oh how you tempt!) I found her. And after the dress' discount I didn't know about, and opening a Macy's card because I just couldn't justify spending $80....

Here is my $58 shower dress that I'm totally thrilled with!!

And here is a photo of me in it in Macy's dressing room, on the crackberry.

Yay! Glad to check that off my list, and add this cutie to my collection.

Have a great weekend, and don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Shower Wear: emergency!

We interupt our regularly scheduled program of Italy Wear, for a tiny emergency. I just realized my first bridal shower is in less than two weeks and I have nothing to wear!!

I think this shower will be a little less formal, but I'd still like to wear a dress. My favorite style is a wide strap dress with a scoop neckline and a pretty floral print. Also, I've never worn yellow, and I think it'd be a fun time to start wearing it!

My budget is about $50 and my time is limited.
Here are a few ideas....but most of them are out of my price range.
Does anyone else have suggestions?

Also, in honor of the recent opening of Nordstrom Rack near my work, these are all Nordies dresses!

$138

$128



$118


$118

$98


$48