What's making me happy this week X

Well, there's this Japanese legend that if you make 1000 origami cranes, you'll get to make a wish. And if you make them or receive them as a gift for your wedding, you will have a long and happy marriage. I really love the way paper cranes look, so I started making them on Friday.



It is the perfect thing for me right now, because part of wedding planning stress for me is knowing there are things to be done but having to wait to do them - picking a florist or planning the ceremony for example. So having something that I can busy myself with was really satisfying this weekend. Plus, they aren't too labor-intensive, so I can make them while I watch tv. It's only been a few days, but it seems like keeping my hands busy tricks my brain into believing that things are getting done. Hooray!

I also bought myself some cheap flowers, because...well, just because. They were five bucks and I'm ready for spring.

My easy, 10-step guide to wedding planning

1. Peruse wedding blogs constantly. Decide that an idea you came across is perfect for your wedding.

2. Google search this idea to see every possible way it has ever been integrated into any wedding ever. Bookmark at least five instances of this idea.

3. Tell your fiance about idea and convince him you're totally going to follow through on it, because this idea is DIFFERENT. It's the best idea you've had, seriously, you can't even believe you didn't think of it sooner. When he isn't convinced, show him the bookmarks as proof that you are SERIOUS because LOOK AT ALL THIS RESEARCH.

4. Take initial steps to make idea happen.

5. Wonder if anyone at your wedding will find idea stupid, boring, offensive, silly, or downright wrong, and start to have second thoughts about it.

6. Realize you don't actually have the skills and/or resources to pull off idea. Wonder why you even thought this was a good idea anyway, since it's going to look TERRIBLE and all your wedding guests are going to hate it.

7. Tell fiance you don't want to go ahead with this idea and convince him you're not being wishy-washy, like he said last time, just practical.

8. Vow to simplify! Your wedding doesn't need ideas like that one anyway!

9. Continue to peruse wedding blogs.

10. Repeat ad nauseum.

What's making me happy this week IX

Denver Restaurant Week started last weekend, so last night Adam and I went to Zydeco's for some live music and Southern cuisine. We don't eat downtown very often (though I could get you to the hockey arena or baseball field with my eyes closed, I'm sure) so it was a lot of fun to go out. Plus, the food was amazing. We had fried green tomatoes as an appetizer, and I'm still thinking about them. I may try to recreate them this summer.

Speaking of which, I am ready for the warm weather, and as I am wont to do at this time of year, I bought a bunch of summer clothes from Old Navy online. The part making me most happy about that is that everything I bought was on sale, including a top I've been eyeing for a while. Now, when they get here and it's too cold to wear them, I probably won't be so happy, but I'll take what I can get for now.

As an aside, I realized the other day that at my current rate of posting, over the next 10 months this blog is going to turn into a bunch of, "YAY!!! STUFF!!!" posts, and I started to wonder if I should cut back from what's making me happy every week to maybe every month or something. But then I thought, no. It's probably a good thing for me to try to focus on the positive as often as possible. I don't know if I'm on my way to loving everything, but I think this weekly exercise might help.

Photo shoot

I had a whole thing written about the experience of having my picture taken, because I thought I'd hate it and it actually wasn't so bad, blah blah blah, but in the end I think I'd rather just share my favorite picture with you:



I like this one because it captures a little part of our relationship, the one where I steal Adam's softest clothes to wear around the house and he gets annoyed at me. He says he's grimacing because the sun was in his eyes, but I like to imagine I just told him I was going to wear one of his t-shirts to bed.

What's making me happy this week VIII

Well, first, I bought Adam Avalanche tickets for Valentine's Day the very day before his boss gave him the tickets to the last game we went to. So I probably would've gone a different route had I known we'd end up going twice in the same month, but the good news is they finally won a game I attended. I finally felt like I may not be a bad luck charm - they won 4-1!



We don't have fireflies in Colorado, so that's one of those silly little thing I miss from the Midwest. So of course I really liked these long-exposure photos of fireflies from Japanese photographer Tsuneaki Hiramatsu:



Also, as I was sitting in rush hour traffic one morning this week, I realized that of all the places to sit in rush hour traffic, southbound I-225 is far from the worst. This view totally makes up for the lack of fireflies.

What's making me happy this week VII

First, the nerdiest things: I learned where the saying "racking my brain" comes from. I also read about whether the language in Downton Abbey is accurate for the time period (spoiler: not really), but I'm less interested in pointing out wrongness and more interested in the research they did to find out about said wrongness, because now I know that people started using the phrase "couldn't care less" around 1944.

Second, my Birchbox for this month came this week, so I have some pretty new beauty products to play with.



I also managed to pull together a nice Valentine's Day meal for Adam and me, which I am quite proud of because at one point during the preparation, I filled the entire main floor of our house with smoke. As it turns out, if you put bacon under the broiler, the grease may catch fire. Who knew.

Also! One last thing: I watched the first two episodes of Smash this morning and while I don't know that I'm really into it, I will say I like it much, much better Glee. It feels so good to say that.

What's making me happy this week VI

First, it is wonderful to have Downton Abbey on tv right now. Only two new episodes are left, so I'm right in the middle of the best part of the season and I am enjoying it so, so much. (Also: you can always count on the Internet for things like these Downton Abbey valentines. I'd probably never give one, but I got a little chuckle out of it.)

Speaking of Downton Abbey, I first heard of it on the podcast How Much Do We Love, where they talk about how much they love things (obviously). They loved the first season of Downton so I gave it a try. This week I am happy because they revisited it, plus they talked about "soft pants," which is one of my very favorite things. It's basically just the term they use for comfy pants, like sweats or pajamas. I adopted it and now Adam and I use it all the time. Other things in my life I attribute to this podcast: downloading the iPhone games Tiny Wings and Ticket to Ride, signing up for Birchbox, and pining away for a Soda Stream.

Also, Adam and I had our engagement photos taken on Sunday, and on Monday morning our photographer (Sarah Morgan) posted a sneak peek photo on her blog:



So I spent the whole week being pretty excited about that, because I have about three photos of Adam and myself that I don't dislike. (Three is actually quite generous.) On Friday she posted a handful on her blog and now we're waiting to get the DVD in the mail! I actually have more to say about the whole thing, so I'll (hopefully) get around to writing that up soon.