A Perfect Date

On Saturday night, my sweet fiance accompanied me to Central Park to see Mariah Carey perform alongside the New York Philharmonic even though, unlike me, he's not a huge fan of either.  The night turned out to be so much more amazing than I had anticipated. First she performed My All (always a classic) and then she did the unthinkable. She sang "Looking In." When I was 14 I fell in love with that song but I never thought I would see her perform it live.

Despite it being the worst vocal performance I have ever seen from her, it was the most special performance I have ever witnessed and I was beyond honored to experience it.  She has meant so much to me over the past 23 years.  Listening to this song as an adult I just praise God to have had such a wonderful role model. I've never had to experience so much of the pain and insecurity she has because anytime anyone tried to tell make me feel ugly, or like I shouldn't even exist in the first place, I was like whatever, the most beautiful and talented singer songwriter in the universe is just like me.  After a break she came back and sang Beautiful and finished off with Hero.  Hearing my fiance actually sing along to Hero was just the icing on the cake.   The music was incredible and there were even fireworks at the end.

Best City Ever

Independence Weekend

I had a lot more time off this past weekend than usual and I definitely tried to maximize it.  I got in a little gym time, that was immediately undone by an Arnold Palmer and tasty sides like white corn pudding at Hill Country Barbeque.

Hill Country Barbeque

As if, mac & cheese, white corn pudding, and green bean casserole weren't unhealthy enough, we decided to make a caramel cake. It turned out great though.  I know I am a greedy monster because despite my cake I was green with envy that my sister took these cake pops in for who coworkers instead of sending them overnight mail to me.

We watched Jack Reacher which was surprisingly good to me. Typically, I am not a big Tom Cruise person.    I finished a book and got way more sleep than usual so overall the weekend was a huge success.

Something Blue

I have been seeing lots of ladies walking around in beautiful cobalt blue lately and I would love to have a dress in this color.  I think it looks great on everyone, but absolutely exceptional with a nice tan.  Different brands have different names for the color, but it is definitely all the rage right now.  Here are some of my favorites.

DVF Zarita Lace dress in vivid blue

Lilly Pulitzer Elsa top in schooner blue

Beguiling Beauty dress in blue

Kate Spade Karolina in cobalt blue 

I've already purchased the pumps for my bridal luncheon.

Summer Reading

I've found two new mystery series to fill my time while waiting for flower shop mysteries to come out.  The first, the Scumble River Mysteries by Denise Swanson, is about a 30 something mid-western high school psychologist who solves murders.  I've read two books in the series so far and they can get pretty scary at the climax.

The next series is not the norm for me because the 20 something protagonist is vacuous and beyond shallow.  Nonetheless, Dorothy Howell keeps drawing me in for these Haley Randolph mysteries and I always find myself rooting for Haley, wrong or right.  I would appreciate it if the author was more thorough in her fashion research, but her writing is definitely entertaining.  

Now, I'm about half way through The 5 Love languages and I am learning a lot.  I would definitely recommend this to other engaged couples.  Another couple recommended it to us and I'm so glad they did.  I learned that my love language is Quality Time. 

Interlude

This is my favorite song right now.

The US According to NYC

I saw this on Facebook today and I thought it was funny and scarily accurate.  Does actually thinking this way about 80% of these places mean I've been in the city too long?

LWD

So I thought I had it covered.  Last August, before engagement was anywhere near imminent I got the perfect white Lilly Pulitzer dress to wear to the rehearsal dinner I hoped to have one day in the far off future.    Back in 2009, I even got the white satin Kate Spade Karolinas I hoped I would have a reason to wear one day.  When I got engaged I figured I could just go out and pick my gown and be done with it.  I picked my dress in basically one day easy.  How naive I was.  First my mom mentions that I need a going away outfit, preferably white.  Then I was reading Vanessa Lachey's blog and realized that I would also want a white dress for the bridal shower.  That got me thinking I might just want a white dress for the bachelorette party as well.  Upon further thought, I figured it might be nice to wear white to the bridal luncheon as well.  That's 6 white dresses already!  I decided I better draw the line somewhere so I'm wearing hot pink to my engagement celebration.  Lucky for me I was able to score the Lilly Pulitzer Emma brand new from ebay for $17 (including shipping) for my bachelorette.  The lace work on this dress is so nice.

Lilly Pulitzer Emma

This dress looks way better on my 5'4" frame than the model which seldom ever happens but I'll take it.  You'd be surprised at how challenging it can be to find a white dress for 6 different occasions when price is in fact an object.  As for shoes, I just ordered another pair of karolinas so I'm all set on that front.  Three more Little White Dresses to go.