Color!

I love this colorful wedding shot by the amazing and talented Olivia Leigh, who, by the way, I've been a fan of since her days on flickr!
Dontcha just looooove these? 

If you'll allow me just a moment.

http://foresting.tumblr.com

The night that I met Mr. Diagnosis Deferred everything in my life changed dramatically and in a second.  I literally felt as though I'd had the wind knocked out of me, for weeks.  I couldn't quite catch my breath.  I stopped sleeping almost altogether, I felt like a different person.
You see, I had no intention of meeting the man of my dreams in a dark bar while accompanying a friend on a blind date.  In fact, I was engaged to someone else that fated June night.  Clearly, that situation wasn't going well and within moments of meeting Mr. DD, I was thinking to myself "Ohmygod.  This is what people have been talking about for all these years."  I had fooled myself into thinking that "just ok" was "good enough" and that there was no such thing as the romance and love that people wrote and spoke about.  And all of a sudden there it was, in front of my face and all mine. 
During those days, my besties joked that if Mr. DD slept with his mouth open wide enough I may try to crawl inside it and live in his body.  I became convinced that if we tried hard enough we could synchronize our heart beats.  On more than one occasion, he awoke to me staring intently at him as he slept.  He was just a little bit freaked out.  You can imagine my delight when I came across this picture.  It totally captures the way I felt, and still feel about my husband.  Love, love, love.


Ok, that's enough gushing for now.  I hope you don't mind me sharing.

Welcome to the Dirty Thirty!

 

So, I had an eventful weekend...  I bid farewell to my twenties; a hilarious, challenging, exciting, painful, shaping decade and I said hello to my thirties.  Mr. DD surprised me with a perfectly planned trip to the vineyards on Long Island with my besties.  It was a beautiful day and we had an amazing time. I ate cupcakes and chocolate covered strawberries all weekend and drank fabulous wine and wondered what in the world I possibly had to wish for when it came time for me to blow out my candles.  Lucky, lucky girl am I.

A dozen chocolate covered strawberries + A dozen Crumbs cupcakes + A husband who won't eat either = Big trouble for me.

Folks, we have a winner!

Sorry for the delayed post.  This weekend was busy... more about that later.  The winner of the large format poster is sjhouser!  Congrats!  Can't wait to hear how you will use your poster!

Can it be true?

Another UPrinting giveaway?  This one is worth $200 in value with shipping!

It's almost holiday season!  Who doesn't want free Greeting Card Printing?
Or maybe you are recently married and want to send  Custom Greeting Cards as your Thank you notes!
Become a follower, if you aren't one already and leave me a comment about how you would use these cards.   Post about this giveaway on your blog (and link back to me) and you get entered twice!
Good luck, winners announced on October 5th!

Whatever you do...

Don't forget to follow my blog and enter to win this awesome giveaway.  Winner selected and announced tomorrow!!  Good luck!

Shameless plug

I can't keep it to myself.  Alba Multi-purpose Un-petroleum Jelly has changed my life.  There's a short list of cosmetics that I can claim to have done this and Alba's jelly is my newest find.
Every night I apply it around my eyes and to my lips and cuticles.  Every morning I wake up a new girl.  Ok, not a completely new girl, but I swear this stuff done wonders.  Mr. DD teases me about the sheen on my face as I climb into bed, but I don't even mind. 
If you live in NYC, you can usually find it in Whole Foods or some health food shops.  You will die.

I die.

Sometimes Mr. Diagnosis Deferred and I play a little game called "Indulgence." The premise is simple; if money were no object, what would we spend it on... Nothing is too extravagant and no shaming of one's choices is allowed. Mr. DD's choices are usually golf related (an indoor putting green, weekly lessons with a pro). Mine often include things like a personal chef or private pilates instruction. And always, without fail, weekly extravagant floral arrangements delivered directly to my apartment. This week I discovered (and subsequently developed a huge girl-crush on) the only acceptable choice for said weekly floral arrangements. Amy Osaba, I am in love with you. Those hanging arrangements? I've never seen anything like them and I literally gasped when I first laid eyes on them. Wow.
The only problem is your location. Would your lovely work survive the long trip from Atlanta to New York? Luckily, the game is called "Indulgence," I'm sure we can work something out that's mutually agreeable.

All photos by Our Labor of Love. Told ya Amy's got good taste.

Honestly though... have you ever seen more lovely and gorgeous flowers? I die.
Check out her blog for more crazy flower goodness.

Etsy love of late.

Things I've (and other wonderful bloggers have) found and hearted on etsy.com.

Shoe clips. Brilliant and ingenious. I need these.

Buy them at B. Poetic's shop. Thanks east side bride.


Adorable Rose Rings

How fun? Available in all colors!Buy them at Morado's shop, for $15!!! Thanks Kandee!


Adorable earflap hat.

I would wear this all winter long.

Buy it at knittles shop.

Super cute, double love prints.

Hang them over my bed? Yes, please.
Both for $30!? Available at theloveshop.

Another fabulous giveaway!

LargeFormatPosters.com is giving away a 18x24" rolled poster print to one of my lovely and lucky readers! These posters are photo quality prints of any file you choose. That means you could simply send a photo or you crafty types could create something from scratch. I'm thinking of my own version of the "For Like Ever" posters popularized by Domino.



It's easy to win...
If you aren't already "following" my blog, click on "follow" on the right side of this page. If you're already a follower, then you're one step ahead.
Then, leave a comment explaining how you would use the Poster Print if you won. Check out these links for ideas:

Poster Printing - http://www.largeformatposters.com/
Large Format Printing- http://www.largeformatposters.com/large-format-printing.html

Bonus: Link my blog and mention this giveaway to have your name entered twice. Be sure to let me know in your comment that you have done this.

This giveaway is open to US residents only and includes free UPS ground shipping.
The winner will be selected one week from today, September 25th.

Good luck, my lovelies!

I have no idea if this is real or staged. Frankly, I don't care. I freaking love it.

Things I love for Spring 2010!

It's fashion week in NYC. Reservations at good restaurants become almost impossible to get, trendy bars and clubs are packed with even more skinnies than usual and even fake-me-out, wannabe fashionistas like myself get in on the fun!
One day I'll have tickets to shows. In the meantime you can find me drooling over the recaps online.
Here's what I love from Oscar de la Renta's Resort line. I know it's his "Spring" line, but Hello December in St. Tropez!
PS: Dear Oscar, Thank you for refusing to send the ruffle to an early grave. Love, Me.

Short shorts. High boots. Approved.

This was "the look" in Italy this summer. At least for the two weeks that I was there.
I fell in love, despite Mr. Diagnosis Deferred's harsh criticisms. This fall's "To Do" list includes, but is not limited to wearing shorts and boots as frequently as possible.

We will never forget.

It was the most photographed and videotaped day in history. Everyone has their own personal set of images and memories from that day. I have so many. I remember all of the paper. The sheets falling slowly down from the towers. Blowing and twirling on the ground. Close up and out of context, there was something about those faxes and memos and files and letters that was maybe even benign. The paper was almost ethereal, like love notes or to do lists or messages left for the living. But when the cameras panned out and the view was widened to include the destruction and the smoke and the fires, the images became evidence of all that had been destroyed.

I also remember watching the interviews with people who were very literally searching the streets for their loved ones. Some sobbed uncontrollably as they begged for help while others were calm and collected. They were eerily poised and composed as they described what their best friend, or cousin or child may have been doing in the towers at the time of the attack, but many were quick to outline the reasons why they may not have actually been at the scene, despite the fact that they had not heard from them in the minutes, hours, days since they had their coffee and their breakfast, kissed them goodbye and walked out the door. I remember wondering if they were trying to convince the viewers or trying to convince themselves that there was still hope. I remembering crying as I watched those interviews. I remember crying harder when I listened to the voicemails left for wives, husbands, children, friends of those who knew that they would never escape the towers or the planes.

But mostly, I remember the images of the falling bodies. Falling from the windows, crawling down the sides of the buildings until they inevitably lost their grip and began to plummet. I remember the horror I felt when I, when we all, first realized that people were jumping. The towers were no longer just buildings. In those moments the reality that they housed thousands and thousands of living, breathing people became terribly evident. People that were so desperate to escape the flames and the smoke that they made the decision to embrace a different death. A quicker, less painful death in which they would be allowed a few last breaths of fresh air. Some people look calm and willing, others appear to flail and fight, their clothes and shoes flying off as they fall at rates over 150 miles an hour. They didn't make a sound. The soundtrack was instead provided by the people on the streets, the screamed prayers of onlookers, the gasping and panting of those recording their falls, the ever present sirens. A stark and ironic contrast to the silent detachment of those actually falling. By the end of that morning, over 200 people had jumped or fallen to their deaths. For me, each image is as intense and moving and distressing as the next. I won't exploit those people by posting their photos here. I'm sure that we've all seen them and we will never forget.

Last minute engagement photos

The summer of 2009 in New York City can best be described with a single adjective; rainy. It rained so much. Buckets, cats and dogs, men. I don't care much for the rain. I've never been a "curl up with a good book and enjoy the storm" kind of a gal. Days and days of rain make me grumpy and depressed and it was one of those summers.

To make matters worse, I had engagement photos to take. I'd been obsessing over these photos since the occasion of the engagement itself, which, if you are a reader of this blog, you already know. See, I had the photographer. The wonderful, talented and amazing photographer. The photographer with whom many of my female guests and my very own mother, would fall a little bit in love with at my wedding... (My mother announced to me over the phone just the other day that, if she happens to ever get a dog, she will name it Agaton, because "he is just such a wonderful and special man, I'd want to memorialize him." She's an odd one, my mother). Anyway, it all came down to finding a day. That turned out to be the hardest part. After a number of rained out sessions, we finally got down to business, the weekend before the wedding. It wasn't conventional timing, but it was a blast. And, I must say, I'm thrilled with the results. I couldn't convince Mr. Diagnosis Deferred to join me for a costume change, but I did get him to traipse through the city with minimal complaining. He hated that people were "looking at us," which of course, was my favorite part, besides the costume change. Here are some of my favorite shots. All courtesy of the phenomenal Agaton Strom.