Courtney and Mary Fran's funny stuff

while i was out.

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 20:03:00 +0000

i turned thirty-one.

we made some progress with the print gocco.

and a (my?) makeup artist told me i have eyes like shalom harlow. i'll let you decide, readers.

me:she:or . . . is it the other way around? i'm messing with your mind!

just thinking about a do-over wedding, even before i have my for-real wedding, exhausts me to no end. if we were to marry *each other,* just hypothetically speaking, we might have a nice wedding drag hunt, and even then, someone would surely break an arm. i mean, i feel guilty that e.b. and i're asking our guests to climb a spiral staircase to see us get married. asking them to mix with thousand-pound animals would be taking it a step beyond that . . .

i'm going to try to battle my wedding exhaustion with the energy coming from the smug realization that we are not almost out of lamps for the print gocco, as we had previously thought ourselves to be. the printing can continue apace, without having to lay out $25.00 for ten glorified flash bulbs on the ebay. (yet, i guess.) why is there no pretty pretty paper source in philadelphia?

Foxy Wedding!

noreply@blogger.com (Catney) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:33:00 +0000

M.F.,
When thinking about my wedding, or when someone asks me about it, or compliments me, one of two thoughts come to mind. Either, "I wish or wore a short dress," or the more general, "I want a do-over!" And then I imagine all the neat-o, creative things I could do with at my do-over wedding. As if. I have the energy of a slug, and I hate dealing with merchants or contractors of any sort.

Well, I found a link to a wedding that makes me think "do-over". Eeeeeee! Having never actually *been hunting*, this is technically a poor idea for my do-over wedding. But, hey, an adolescence of *showing hunters* should count for something. Right? Maybe? Anyhow, the biggest obstacle (other than money, time, and appropriateness) is that I might have to get a do-over husband for this one, as I doubt DB would like to wear white breeches at his own (do-over) wedding. And I sorta like him, so...

Note that one does not wear an approved helmet for one's French hunting wedding. And I totally dig the chick who's rocking her nice blonde hairnet in many photos. I wear a nice hairnet for lessons and sometimes for hacking, so I feel where she's at.

love, Catney

oh. my. goodness.

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:40:00 +0000

you must read this, for fashion inspiration (via east side bride). this woman is my hero. and she makes me feel a little funny about a wedding-day accessory i just purchased.

more to come.

wow.

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:35:00 +0000

if we want to take this trip down memory lane, i have many caches of embarrassing paper goods. including my final exam from interplanetary high school, which contains some kind of explanation about how i'm "too tired" to answer one of the questions fully.

unsurprisingly, i think i got an A+++ on the exam.

e.b. and i have been hard at work on the endless project of de-cluttering our apartment. i'm learning, and re-learning, and re-re-learning, that not every object has value. i tossed a bunch of papers from college, law school, and liberry school (what did i think i would find in my notes? keys to the universe? it's so obv. just notes about boys . . . okay, except the library school notebooks). i shredded many pounds of sensitive papers. e.b. recycled a lot of our old electronics, courtesy of best buy. and i've been getting rid of shoes! praise me!

best buy also figured in this summer, in the form of a depressing trip to the geek squad after my laptop quit on me one evening. i like to think this explains the lack of blogging on my part, especially since i had no photos to post! a reminder to our (snicker) readers: back. it. up. people. i didn't give much thought to the flash drive and external hard drive, until i lost my hard drive, and i still had all my photos, music, and important documents intact. when i realized this, i gave myself a big ol' nerdy pat on the back. the moral of the story: be more like me.

the wedding planning (and purchasing) proceeds apace. button flowers are be-petaled (about eight of them, but still). wedding shoes are in the house. guest list is (we think) finalized.

best of all: i've left my job of 3.5+ years, described elsewhere on the web with lots of comparisons to hell. i'm not sure how much credence i'd give to those descriptions, as i was well compensated for my time there. but it does feel good to be movin' on.

happy (almost) back to school, little cat.

oh god.

noreply@blogger.com (Catney) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:57:00 +0000

M.F.,
So, I got a new desk today. It's giant, it's from Crate & Barrel, and it was the last of my (our) wedding gift certificates. The desk's arrival led to a massive reorganization of my (our) files. In a folder called "Kenyon" I found a copy of Omphalos. And in the the Omphalos was a clipping of "What We Talk About When We Talk About Doughnuts."

It appears as though I've cut out the title and the illustration. Most likely to glue onto some stationary and send to you.

I love us.

love,
me

oh, small cat.

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:55:00 +0000

i thought that when i was officially done liberry school, things would sloooooow down. but no.

this has been a month of family-centered hecticness, and tomorrow, we are off to boston to attend the wedding of e.b.'s adorable cousin. i'm secretly hoping that this event will help me find my lost enthusiasm for wedding planning. but then again, i'm not holding out a lot of hope.

in better (wedding-related) news: we've managed to cobble together a theme that is marginally better than "stuff we like," and it is

(wait for it)

roadside attractions/travel in general/national lampoon's vacation (and yes, i'm hoping to weave south of the border in there somewhere) [better link for anyone who needs more explanation].

also, i ordered some (potential) wedding shoes from endless. and e.b. viewed my wedding dress, and heartily approved of the choice. and i encouraged him to rock a suit, shirt without necktie, and frye boots for his nuptial attire. we're making progress on something, i'm just not sure what.

in less fun (non-wedding-related) news: eyebrow threading is extremely painful. at least for me.

Things I've Been Up To

noreply@blogger.com (Catney) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:24:00 +0000

M.F.,
Here are three things I've been up to:
1) We went to the lake! We took George, Luke, H-bomb and a friend to my parents' lake house for a lovely vacation. We did...nothing. Hamburgers were cooked, dogs were petted, couches were sat upon. We went out on the lake for a bit, though the super-sparkly fish'n'ski is a bit unreliable. It was nice. I like going out of town, though I'm not inclined to do it often.

2) I made a pie! My friend, Jennifer, has a Southern Mom. (Sing it to the tune of Southern Man.) Her mother a) offered me cherries from their tree b) had Jennifer deliver them and c) pitted them for me!!! It was my first attempt at a pastry crust, and I would say it turned out ok. Now that I know what I'm doing, I think I can do a better job next time. I used a kooky-sounding recipe from Cook's Illustrated that uses vodka. The science of it is something about how it adds moisture to the crust, but then the moisture evaporates while cooking. I came across the crust and filling recipe here.

3) We went to Chicago, wherein we ate at Hot Doug's and saw (OMG!) George Michael (OMG!) and had a nice baby shower for Anne. George Michael was good, of course, but what it boiled down to is that Kelly, Anne, Paige and I were just as excited to see giant pictures of Linda Evangelista. In fact, if there was some sort of event entitled "Come See Giant Pictures of Linda Evangelista" we would have paid a hefty fee, I'm sure. DB, in charge of photography, did not get a picture of a picture of Linda. Too bad.

GM sweat through his blazer, though he later donned a sexy cop outfit, and did a pretty good set. Highlights included Freedom '90 and Kissing A Fool. Excellent!

George Michael can't hear you!

His adoring crowd.

Paige planned the menu for Anne's shower, Kelly planned the games, and it was a huge success...even though DB almost ruined one of the games with his assertion that babies can be named Taxi, Yellow, or Quinthony.

And, well, I don't feel like messing with the photo layout for this post, so that's all!

I love you!

-Catney

jah, i'm here

noreply@blogger.com (Catney) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:00:00 +0000

M.F.,
I'm here...just feeling a bit like I have nothing interesting to blog about. Several home improvement projects are on hold until the house is sold. I had expected to be planning for a kitchen remodel, or repaired drywall, or something, and the impending possibility of two mortgages put all that on hold.

Re: getting the old house out of Flood Zone A, the engineer came last week to take base elevation measurements. It all went really well, and I'll be mailing the packet of paperwork to FEMA tomorrow.

Oh! And I think I've found a horse to lease! (Yes, this idea goes counter to the "we have no money" subject enumerated in the first paragraph of this entry. But whatever.) She's 5, and huge (50 inch girth!), and probably 17 hh, and bay, and sorta drafty. She'll be an awesome hunt horse someday. But for now, she needs to learn to go forward. We get along famously. To the point where onlookers comment on it. "I've never seen that mare go forward so easily." So that's very exciting. I'll try to post pictures soon.

love,
Cat

glider mania part two!

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:16:00 +0000

courtney,

from this:
to this:

gorgeous, huh? i'm still unreasonably excited about it--"squeee"ing and clapping my hands in delight. one more coat of paint on the squares, and then i can spend the rest of the summer sitting on it waiting for mister softee.

have i told you that i've considered hiring a mister softee truck for our wedding? considering it might still be pretty cool outside when we get married, this might not provide a lot of bang for the buck. if i had my druthers, our wedding extravaganza would be slightly indistinguishable from a small circus or parade--i'd like the phillie phanatic, some mummers, and a few shriners to all be there.

yesterday we introduced poe to my sister's children--it went remarkably well. he's still bushed from spending the day avoiding a two year old navigating a wagon of off-brand duplo blocks:

happy (rest of the) weekend, little cat. are you out there in blogland? listening to george michael, perhaps?

mf.

glider mania!

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:57:00 +0000

i know i'm going a little crazy on the posts here, but i've been freaking out about our glider since sunday. you may remember that our departing neighbors left it for us, and after much debate over color schemes, the restoration of the glider commenced this weekend. full disclosure: i am virtually unhinged with excitement over this project, *but* my participation was limited to iced-tea delivery and design consultation. i did, however, make a mean curried chicken in the crock pot on sunday.

here's the glider before:

detail shot of the yucky rust (and my beloved's hand):

the glider, post-intense-steel-wooling:

post-frame-removal and lovingly detailed application of newspaper and painter's tape (if anyone is thinking of tackling a similar project, i am lead to believe that this is the biggest p.i.t.a. part):

detail of review of show we just went to:

poe oversees the application of the rust-oleum:

almost done!

we've been having some bad painting weather, so the project is stalled at the fully-painted-back stage. i think we just need two more evenings to paint the front and then the squares. the total outlay is probably around thirty dollars for the paint: three spray cans "sunrise red" rust-oleum & two "almond" rust-oleum cans (these are for the squares and need to be applied with a brush) and other supplies: steel wool and spongey paint brushes. a bargain, if i do say so myself.

button flower tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:33:00 +0000

little cat,

how did it go with the house? real estate is so beyond my comprehension--i imagine we may wind up renting for life, european-style. i hope it worked out okay for you.

i spent much of friday covered in buttons and i whipped up a little tutorial for any of our readers (*snicker*) who are interested in making their own button flowers. it's very simple.

step one: make large, disorganized piles of your supplies (including buttons, floral wire, and something with which to cut the floral wire):

step two: measure (or just eyeball) a length of wire about 1.5 times the length you would like the finished stem of your flower to be. soooooo . . . if you want a four-inch stem, make it six inches.

step three: fold the floral wire at the eventual "top" (four inches in our example):

step four: thread the smallest button onto the wire first. (if your button has four holes, be sure to thread the wire through holes that are opposite, not next to, each other.) then thread the next largest button, and so on and so forth. push them all up toward the top of the wire together.

step five: cross the smaller end of the stem around the longer end, and . . .

step five and a half: twist the crap out of it! i found it easiest to hold the buttons in my left hand and twist the floral wire while pinching it together with my right (dominant) hand.

step six: keep twisting until you're done!

et voila. a beeeeeautiful button flower. now i just have to make about a hundred more before next april. easily done.

Stupid, Stupid, Real Estate

noreply@blogger.com (Catney) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:01:00 +0000

M.F.,
So, DB and I are all set to close on my house tomorrow. We're both taking a full day off work, and the plan was to eat delicious Indian food at a restaurant we've been wanting to try, close on the house at 1:00, then take off for the lake.

Unfortunately, the closing might be on hold. I got a call from my realtor saying that the buyer cannot (will not) purchase home owner's insurance, because her insurance company claims that the house is in Flood Zone A.

Um, it's not. It's just not and it's a bit confusing as to why her insurance company is making this claim. And most frustrating is the fact that I have to wait until tomorrow to try to contact the city and cajole them into making a statement as to the non-floodability of the house.

Wish me luck,
Catney

update

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:27:00 +0000

i hate dreamweaver & fireworks.

that is all.

i am turning into my mother, part one

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:35:00 +0000

these both happened yesterday:

we had a new front door installed, and now the lid to our mailbox doesn't close because there is a piece of wood in the way. so i was examining our (slightly rusty) stuck open mailbox, and i said to e.b.,

"somebody is going to cut themselves on this and have to get a tetanus shot."

sometime last night, we were switching all our books around so that now we have all our fiction, ready reference, travel, religion (i could go on) monographs & periodicals shelved together. our very large bookcase was a little top-heavy at one point, and as i walked out the door to go on a walk with e.b., i said ominously, "i hope it doesn't tip over, because that would suck. especially if it crushes the dog."

gawd!

lest you think i'm hiding the ball, i have things in common with my dad as well. the most annoying one recently has been my ability to spill coffee on myself, my workspace, my car or my floor daily, without fail.

i'm not sure how much i can resist this. help!

thank you for asking

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:15:00 +0000

the button bouquets are moving along swimmingly, now that i've finally gotten my paws on some floral wire. i'll post pictures later today (first i have to learn something about making an animated .gif, which is even less exciting than it sounds), along with a tutorial, if i have the strength.

but first--the much-anticipated yard sale is fiiiiiiinaly over! we made $93.50. e.b. rounded it up to a cool $95, and added it to our Boston fund envelope for our trip there next month. watching people walk away with our stuff was . . . fantastic. i'd say we sold about half of the crap we put out on the lawn for sale. i was baffled by some of the items that weren't snatched up. like the bicentennial-inspired brass towel rack with eagle, which i tagged with a piece of masking tape reading "our nation's towel rack. patriotic. $1.00." and the FREE t.v., which didn't get picked up until almost 8 o'clock last night, after we posted a curb alert on craigslist. and the microwave, which was labeled "cleaner than yours. only $15.00."

we also gained a few wonderful items from our neighbors, whom we joined in the sale. we (mostly i) took a (small) bag of nice yarn, a ship in a bottle, and some cool books. i know you're meant to get rid of stuff at a yard sale, so ooops! we're inspired to keep yard-sale-ing--although we're going to try using larger, more obnoxious signs to direct buyers to our delicious bargains.

i think the next one will be at my parents' house, and we'll try to unload some of the furniture i stored there when i made the leap into cohabitation. it's addictive, this yard-sale-having. i highly recommend.

mf.

Ovulation!

noreply@blogger.com (Catney) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 23:57:00 +0000

The exact moment of ovulation has been caught on film, and I think it's super neat-o. Here, via Metafilter.

love,
Catney

Eff the Flowers!

noreply@blogger.com (Catney) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:07:00 +0000

M.F.,
For what it's worth, I love fresh flowers. I buy them for myself often and willfully ignore growing evidence that they're not exactly the greenest option in the world. But if you don't want to pay outrageously inflated wedding-based prices for them, I support you fully.

Honestly, I do think that it is WIC brainwashing that is making you think that maybe you really need flowers on your wedding day. Um, you don't. If it's comforting at all, I had a parallel experience regarding my lack of veil, and last I checked DB and I are still married.

Have you gotten the floral wire for mock-ups of your button bouquets yet?

love,
Catney

p.s. Have you ever seamed a sweater that has set-in sleeves? I'm about to begin and it's really intimidating me.

my bridal bouquet!

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:08:00 +0000

see, since the moment we started planning our wedding (*ahem* before we were engaged *ahem*), i've been thinking i'm not that into having fresh flowers around. e.b. couldn't care less, either. so i thought, "okay, we'll figure out some crafty centerpieces and bouts."

as time passed, and i started occasionally browsing through online wedding resources--okay, i'll fess up, becoming obsessed with kvetch, offbeat bride, and weddingbee--i started to realize it was possible to make a crafty bouquet as well. and a few days ago, i stumbled across a link to these beauties.

that's it.
genius.
a button bouquet.

i realized in a flash (here's the truly genius part) that i am already sitting on an amazing cache of vintage buttons. here's proof:

all of these buttons are from my two crafty and amazing grammas' stashes. one even included some wee envelopes with notations in pencil, like "Macy's off-red shirtwaist" and "gold lame pants-dress 1/70" (no f-in joke). here is (truly) the piece de resistance:

i started coveting this rhinestone button from rae-louise's sewing drawer when i was still in short pants. and now it's mine, all mine! *rubs hands together gleefully*

and so the question is really, how could i afford not to use them? i'm going to start with the bouquet and build from there. if it's as simple as it looks, perhaps my future as an etsy seller just got brighter.

but there's a teeeeeeeeeeeeny tiny part of me that thinks i'll feel less "bridal" without fresh flowers in my paws the day of. i'm just brainwashed, right?

helter swelter

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 18:18:00 +0000

wooooo boy, is it hot in philly! at least i'm not out biking 150+ miles today.

instead, i'm inside, enjoying the sweet sweet a.c., hating on my keg-standing neighbors, and swearing at dreamweaver. if ever a piece of software was misleadingly named! this one does nothing to evoke those wayne-viewing-woman-through-fuzzy-soap-opera-lens-filter feelings. rather, it evokes nothing but rage. my experience with adobe products so far has convinced me that laying out our invitations in word and having e.b. hand draw the graphics may not be such a bad idea. i don't know if you remember the screenprinted ticket we got when we went to see the decemberists years back? something like that, except easier for the old folks to read.

back to bakin': today i did briefly sun myself while watching the bike race, and just now i made delicious spinach egg cups.
these little suckers make one heck of a healthy breakfast. highly recommended.

i realized recently how much my happiness is linked to being creative ( "creating" spinach egg cups, "creating" crappy web sites, it all counts), even if my projects don't always work out. this is behind a lot of my desire to d.i.y. some wedding stuff, i think (it's certainly not a dream of making everything perrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrfect because it's myyyyyyy special daaaaaay). with that in mind, i got crackin' on some non-wedding projects, including a rug made out of t-shirts that has (sadly) taken me ages to finish. but first--a beloved skirt with an oily stain in a very unfortunate place gets re-worked. from this:

to this:
i'm knitting all the tied-together strips into a scarf, and so far it looks pretty cool. remember that scarf i made with maggie jackson at bitches east a couple years ago? i want it to look like that--deconstructed but pretty. i'll post photos of the result.

finally: i went to my youngest cousin's graduation this year. she's 13, and moving on to a new school. there was a ton of music in the ceremony, including "deep peace" and "don't worry be happy," which combine to pretty much encapsulate my wishes for everybody this summer. and on the blackboard, there was this:

i got to thinking about the number of good-byes i have lined up this summer: to rutgers (heck, to new jersey in general), to my job of 3.5 years . . . and the exciting changes that are coming up. i don't know about "not fair," i hear "stressful," but i'd like to add super-awesome-tastic to the list.

hmmm.

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 01:10:00 +0000

i love the trips down memory lane, but i fear what will happen if eli enjoys googling himself.

for those of you following along at home, there will be no cat makeup or feather boas at our wedding extravaganza.

or . . .

wait . . .

will there be?

oh, good!

noreply@blogger.com (Catney) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:53:00 +0000

M.F.,
Yay! Not to demean myself, but it's a much better idea to get a professional. In fact I was quite baffled that you asked me to do your makeup because, as you indicate below, you were subject to 4 years of watching me prepare for super-fun evenings in North Hanna or New Apartments by being like, "What should I wear? Tell me, what should I wear?," for about 1o minutes before deciding to don some too-big Dickies, thrift store shirt, and shoes that (accidentally) did not match each other. And next I'd be like, "I'm gonna put on some make-up..." and I'd describe some super-ambitious "look". So I'd spend the next 10 minutes describing said look, something like, "I'm gonna look like Stevie Nicks meets Patsy on Ab-Fab meets Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby." With the standard set so high (and so ridiculously), I'd eventually just panic and hold a lighter to a Cover-girl black eye liner, inexpertly smash it around my eyes, assess this, um, "effect", panic some more, back-comb my hair (height at the crown, yo!), drink another Natural Light, and call it good.

And then there was the time that I let - nay, begged! - Eli Keifaber to do my makeup. Also an excellent look. I think he gave me whiskers. And thought I can't remember what the event was, I'm fairly certain that it was *not* a costume party.

love,
Catney

p.s. I almost published this with a subject line of "oh, goo!"
p.p.s. Remember when we felt that we should inform James Ray that Phling is not a costume party? But it was already too late?

another reason to breathe a sigh of relief

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:04:00 +0000

i booked a makeup artist for the wedding. you can rest easy knowing that you won't have to vigorously line my eyes with kohl and call it a look. instead, i will pay someone else to line my eyes with kohl and call it a look. she makes housecalls!

carry on, as you were

noreply@blogger.com (Catney) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 02:16:00 +0000

M.F.,
Nothing to be worried about here. We can return to our regularly scheduled fretting.
love,
Catney

p.s. It's a retrospective tour...how can he *not* sing Teacher!

punny

noreply@blogger.com (mary fran) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:03:00 +0000

i was just going to say that i am so jealous that i am unable to see straight, and then i thought perhaps too many depressing workdays spent listening to the savage lovecast are finally catching up with me.

just this: i am SO JEALOUS

ABOUT

GEORGE MICHAEL.

i adore him. i'm screaming. if he sings "teacher," i may seethe.

bring it on

noreply@blogger.com (Catney) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:24:00 +0000

M.F.,
Bring on the wedding blogging! I am 100% more interested in weddings other than my own. David and I watched the gocco video that you linked to, and for the first time I understand the process. But I think that Bridget made a good point about being careful about trying to do too much. You've got to understand that there are crazy people in the world...people who have the energy to go to work or class and then come home and futz around with paper and printing and ink. These same people can also probably summon up enough energy to throw in a load of laundry after work. Mutants! That said, what are you going to print? Like, what's your motif?

Your palette is magnificent. You should make a palette for me. You know, just 'cause.

I am really bothered and intrigued by the guillotine thingy you got from your moms and posted about. There really should be a website that helps one to identify obscure kitchen tools, but I couldn't find a good one. This had potential, but no discussion of a guillotine thingy.

And....guess what DB and I decided today? We're going to go visit Ed and Anne and Danny in Chicago next month!? The occasion?

Isn't George Michael the dreamiest? He's touring to promote a new retrospective album and we've got tickets at United Stadium through Danny's work. I think there also might be some free booze!

Love,
Catney