Casper

I am pale. Very pale.

The fact that my blonde hair, fair skin sister gloated that she was darker than me now is a problem.

This all became apparent when I was doing a quick shoot of myself for our May report for Third Wave Fashion. (Which, by the way, you can download April's issue for free here and see all my hard work.) Combining a big thug sweatshirt and pale skin makes for TERRIBLE fat kid photos. Glad Jeff was patient enough to make sure we positioned a few that made me look less pale and unusually large.

(Update as of Monday 29th, at 4:30: My thyroid doctor just called me and told me my Vitamin D levels were low. Good news is I don't have a thyroid problem, bad news is it has been clinically diagnosed that I am totally lacking sunlight. I get it already, enough!)

Snaps and a mock layout below.




So, now I have to reverse this pale problem. I don't know if maybe it's a NYC thing, or maybe a post grad you never see the sunlight any more with work thing, but I have to get back outside. Jeff and I decided to splurge on these $100 fixe bikes from target when we get our next paychecks, and my theory being that it will get us to go outside more. That, combined with some Jergens and outdoor running should do the trick.

I'm not going to be Casper for my wedding.

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Speaking of the wedding I had my first minor/major melt down.

We are currently looking at a beautiful venue back in NC, but the weekend we wanted (October 26th) was already taken. Ugh. The one that was open was October 6. Yikes. Not only that, it is a Sunday and now I fear that people don't want to go. Saying things like "I can't miss ______ on Monday." My argument back is you can miss a Friday to travel but not a Monday? So, I'm hoping that my guest will understand when I send out Save the Dates and RSVP's very soon.

Other issue is the venue needs a $5,000 initial deposit to book it. Jeff wanted us to go and see it before we send that much money their way. Fair. The only thing was we were going home at the end of May, and I didn't think we could wait that long to see it because all the weekends would be booked by that point. I literally almost tore my hair out pricing out flights, looking at weekends, and considering all the options, but I finally broke down and let my boss know that I just had to go home and get this taken care of.

I am so lucky that I work in a place that I love and that they are totally understandable to the situation. Seriously. I go home this week to finalize a venue with Jeff and if this place doesn't work out I'm breaking down and just having it at my parents house. I think back to my proms and how I wanted my dress and everything to be so perfect, when I really should have said F- it and wore a short sequin dress and just focused on having fun. I don't want to look back on my wedding the same way.

So I'm taking a few deep breathes, and just going to go with it. I also just bought my wedding shoes, so that helps :)

Image and purchase via Shoedazzle.

More updates next weekend when we check out our venue and solidify things!

Hope everyone had a sunny weekend and didn't get stuck on a train for 2 hours trying to get out to Brooklyn!

xo,
Paige

Cowboys & Indians

Jeff and I had plans this weekend to go out to Queens, but because of the impending weather we decided to put it off for another weekend.

Turned out the weather was fine. Weekend trains were another story. This 4,5, & 6 construction needs to get its 'ish together soon.

We ended up downtown at Union Square to go to Whole Foods. I've been slowly pushing Jeff (and myself) in to a Gluten Free/Clean Eating + high protein lifestyle as we work towards toning and getting healthy before the wedding in October. I don't know if I will make it a habit of posting a "cool" G-Free recipe that we try, but if something good works out I'll share.

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It was nice to walk around the Union Square Market again, like when I use to live by the Flat Iron Building and had easy access to it. I, obviously, enjoyed all the flowers and branches that were available. Putting this in the consideration bank when we start looking for new places to live come September.

Small snaps of outfits in the market below. Somebody stopped us for their scavenger hunt to take our picture. We had to hold up a Jack Henry sign.. I guess this is what they were looking for. 

NEW: All of our images are now pin-able! Even from previous posts! So if you like anything, feel free to save it on your Pinterest with ease.

Lastly, here's a small wedding update. 

We've picked our Honeymoon destination. It starts with K and ends with yoto.

Cheers, I hope everyone had a good weekend!

xo,
Paige

WEDDING UPDATE: MEET MY MAIDS

I'm excited to finally announce my Maid(s) of Honor and my Bridesmaids! 

I packed and shipped out the invitations consisting of a note, hand made floral crown, a little notebook, and a tote bag. 

I asked if they would all shoot a selfie in their crown to confirm if they would be in my wedding and I'm thrilled to say that they all agreed!

Caitlin and Maigan are my sister's and my Maids of Honor. (Hailey, the youngest sister will be asked to be flower girl.. but we will get to that down the road.)

Danielle is Jeff's younger sister and my sister in SAI.

Joyce is my little sister in SAI.

Catch a theme here?

There were many candidates (in fact a whole sisterhood of lovely ladies!) and I would have loved to be able to ask them all.. but I decided to keep it very small and I hope everyone understands.

I can't wait to continue planning and keep updating.

The next chapter will be the Instagram Engagement Shot series.. Stay tuned!

Happy Wednesday!

xo,
Paige

Over 50

It's finally over 50 degrees which means Jeff and I can go out with out feeling like it's a chore. When you live in East Harlem (now), you only really have to worry about the long trek to the 6 train. At 10 degrees and snowing, this is your nightmare.

Now that it's feeling like spring, we can finally go out and do something that isn't just a 5 mile run.

Jeff's boss gave him two passes for the MoMA because he's never been. Since I've been once before, I decided to take the trip to make art out of art after.. Mostly I was a little bored of the thought of walking through another museum and not because I'm just uncultured considering I've spent the last 4 years studying all the works featured. I really started thinking about which pieces were working, and which weren't for me and why it had that effect.

"Art is just your impressions mixed with your oppressions.. I nailed that in one sentence." - Me
"You said opposites. You can nail anything when you say opposites." - Jeff

Really, I narrowed it to connecting with consciousness. Obviously, all the work in that museum has thought behind it but how do we see the artist consciousness (if it's even there at all?) I know what looks good together, I do it every day. Composition just takes a good eye finding the balance or the chaos. With years of training, it could literally be effortless and have no second thought, because you know it's just esthetically pleasing (ie golden ratio.) It's tapping in to the why that I think separates it. Why am I doing this, how do I do subconsciousness.

Philosophy aside, museums are all the same.
1. You walk in
2. You look around
   2a. You goof off to be cool because you are too cool for this.
   2b. You snap a picture of the Scream or some showcase because it's famous.
   2c. You listen to/are some annoying over analyzer thinking they know everything art.
   2d. You are stuck trying to get around a large tour group of all the things mentioned above.
3. You leave and visit the book store for a souvenir.

While this visit started out as every expectation, we hit a groove towards the end when we stepped in to a blank room where you could walk on a black slab on the floor. Since it was an interaction piece, I could take a picture of this piece how ever I saw fit. Which, with my thoughts now open to this concept, could be said for all of the work in the museum; which is what we did as you can see from the gif above. So, next time you are bored in a museum, grab your friend and do some selfies for IG that add to the piece. I would say use some tag like #myart but I'm sure that's already used for high school artists sharing their neat-o works. So, if you come up with a cool tag, let me know. I would love to see some interpretations!

Later that night I saw man who's music has inspired me for 10 years.

BT

What a treat. I thought I would never get to see him live let alone meet him.


Have I said that I'm happy spring is here so I can start going out again?
Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!


xo,
Paige



Side note: Trying to get better at selfies/having Jeff take better pictures of me and feeling less awkward. Since I'll be launching a product in the next few months, I have to get use to modeling.