Centerpieces

I just bought these amaryllis bulb kits (WITH beautiful red pots!) at Target in the 75% off aisle. That's right--I saved $180 and only spent $2.50 per centerpiece. Does that mean I can turn around and use that money to buy those $200 shoes I'm still lusting after? In my eyes, they're only $20 now--the price of their Payless counterparts!

Want to know where I get my flawless logic? Life with Father, of course!

Sonnet

Last night, I boasted that I could write Pete a poem any time I wanted to. He demanded one instantaneously, and "not a limerick or haiku either. A real poem, like a sonnet." So I obliged. I stole from Shakespeare a lot, but who doesn't? He's pretty much fair game at this point. William, think of it as a remix, okay?

Oh dear. I've just remembered what Elizabeth Bennet says about sonnets in Pride and Prejudice:

"I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!"

"I have been used to consider poetry as the FOOD of love," said Darcy.

"Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away."

Oh, what have I done????

PS Yep, I've been rewatching it. You should too!

Emma

I think it's time to reread some Austen. Part of the reason I survived last week was the new Emma miniseries, which I watched whenever I had a spare moment. As soon as I finished it, I had the urge to begin it all over again. (That happened with North and South as well.) Instead I grabbed the book to see if Frank Churchill was really as big an idiot in the original text and to remind myself if Jane was as (deservedly) impertinent to Mrs. Elton as they made her out to be.

But when Pete visited this weekend, he suggested (I KNOW! I can't believe my incredible good luck either...) we watch it, as we started it months ago and never got far. So we did, and it was lovely.

I never thought I'd like watching my precious miniseries with a guy, because, well, they don't shriek with joy at the gushy bits, but it's actually more fun this way. I still do get a little silly, I must admit. But unlike Frank Churchill, who decrees that, "One cannot love a reserved person," I find I do. And so did he, for that matter, that dirtbag!

our house!

Not one, but TWO bedrooms!

While Pete was there, the tsar stopped by for a spot of tea with his doppelganger.(Apparently the seminary museum is using our future home as a storage unit. I kind of want to keep them!)

A WASHER AND DRYER! Seriously, I am thrilled about this photo. Who cares if it's bedazzled with duct tape? We won't have to wash our clothes in the lake and dry them in a tree! I can't wait to see it all in person.

Just in case you wondered...

I found this photo in a slideshow of a real wedding on Martha Stewart's wedding site. In the caption, the designer is listed as Stuart Weitzman.I searched through the whole website and couldn't find them. Zappos has a listing for him, but the elusive shoe was not among them.

But!

He makes them in white (~$200-250). The bride in question must have dyed hers.

But if it's red you're after,

Kate Spade makes a similar red pair for (sit down, quick!) $325.

...or you can just buy the Payless version for $19.99!

As it turns out...

We were wrong about the little green hovel. Our future home is right next door. Pete's checking it out tomorrow and has promised me better pictures than Google maps has provided.

New project

I bought some tulle and feathers on etsy and with the help of this amazing tutorial, I've begun experimenting with birdcage veils.I'm a little afraid of how easy it is to make these things look silly. At one point I looked decidedly like a beekeeper, at another, a fencer. File it under "maybe..."

In other news, MY DRESS ARRIVED.

Invitations!

Juliana Bibas over at the A Stamp a Day blog , who goes to my church, offered to make our wedding invitations BY HAND. Of course I said yes. They are far more gorgeous than I have seen in any of the chain stores.

The blue matches my aquamarine engagement ring exactly, and the red pops just like my "Saint Petersburgundy" nail polish. (I know--best. name. ever.)

Juliana has an etsy shop with more samples of her work--everything from wedding invitations to birth announcements to cute hand-stamped onesies! My invitations are the Jacqui Envelope Style, which is ideal for bilingual invitations like the ones we ordered. Though everyone we invited does speak English, we thought including Russian was a nice nod to our (very subtle) theme: our respective cultures.

We're getting married on Presidents Day weekend in a Russian Orthodox church, so I embraced a red, white, and blue color palette, which the American and the Russian flags have in common. Of course I was careful to steer clear of too-obvious patriotic symbols, but I wanted to make our wedding a celebration of our two cultures uniting by focusing on what we have in common. The service itself will be bilingual, so I'm excited that the invitations could reflect that.

wedding shoes!

My parents gave me my wedding shoes for my Nameday! I'm lucky I have a mother who has no problem with the idea of me wearing red shoes on my wedding day. I've owned various pairs of red flats and always pictured adding a pop of color to my otherwise all-white ensemble. At first I was considering fabulous shoes like these:

but the ones I chose are just more practical.

The Great Martyr Katharine

Katharine was the daughter of King Constus. After the death of her father, she lived with her mother in Alexandria. Her mother was secretly a Christian who, through her spiritual father, brought Katharine to the Christian Faith. In a vision, St. Katharine received a ring from the Lord Jesus Himself as a sign of her betrothal to Him. This ring remains on her finger even today.

Katharine was greatly gifted by God and was well educated in Greek philosophy, medicine, rhetoric and logic. In addition to that, she was of unusual physical beauty. When the iniquitous Emperor Maxentius offered sacrifices to the idols and ordered others to do the same, Katharine boldly confronted the emperor and denounced his idolatrous errors. The emperor, seeing that she was greater than he in wisdom and knowledge, summoned fifty of his wisest men to debate with her on matters of faith and to put her to shame. Katharine outwitted and shamed them. In a rage, the emperor ordered all fifty of those men burned. By St. Katharine's prayers, all fifty confessed the name of Christ and declared themselves Christians before their execution.

After Katharine had been put in prison, she converted the emperor's commander, Porphyrius, and two hundred soldiers to the true Faith, as well as Empress Augusta-Vasilissa herself. They all suffered for Christ. During the torture of St. Katharine, an angel of God came to her and destroyed the wheel on which the holy virgin was being tortured. Afterward, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself appeared to her and comforted her. After many tortures, Katharine was beheaded at the age of eighteen, on November 24, 310 (December 7 new style). Milk, instead of blood, flowed from her body. Her miracle-working relics repose on Mount Sinai.

From the Prologue of Ochrid

nearly there...

"To Those who Appreciate Wisteria and Sunshine."

Rent a castle in Italy with three strangers for the month of April.

Or just read about it in The Enchanted April, by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
Or listen to the audio book for free on librivox.org.

Or watch the film which is available to watch instantly on netflix.
Or knit Wisteria, by Kate Gilbert, from twist collective
...in Patons classic wool in the colorway wisteria, no less.

Or seek help for your unhealthy obsession with wisteria and sunshine, as I obviously must do.