In A Rainy Mood, Anyone?

Oh god. It's Monday again. Already.

Let's revolt by hiding under our headphones all day.

Rainymood.com

mrskutcher on DailyBooth

Every day Demi Moore posts a photo of herself on DailyBooth.com. And I kind of love her for it.

She's a silly, gorgeous, curious, caring girl who likes playing dress-up and mugging for the camera. Just like every other woman on the planet.

Ah, normalcy. It's a beautiful thing. Especially when applied to celebrities.

I'm An Independent Diva / But I Still Kinda Need Ya

Have you been watching The Office webisodes online? Here's one of my favorites.

It's one episode divided into three parts, but you must at least watch the third one, as it's the music video and the other two just explain how the characters got to that point.

I've had this silly song stuck in my head for four days now, and I just have to share it with someone.

Sway's Weekend Music Pick: "Rambling Man" by Laura Marling

I just discovered Laura Marling, and I can't say I love all her stuff, but the songs I do like, I love. Here's a good one.

The Rockin' Wedding

Last weekend was amazing/insane and the bride and the other bridesmaids and I had so much fun. Tell me, is there a better excuse than a wedding for women to pamper themselves? I can't think of one.

On Friday, we went to 20 Lounge Nail Bar and Boutique, because the bride had wanted us all to get manicures and pedicures together. The ladies at the nail bar brought us champagne and white wine, and the place was so clean and modern-looking ... it was a very chill, relaxing experience.

The bride picked my nail color for me, to match our dresses, which were a blush color (aka, pale pink), and our flowers. It was "We'll Always Have Paris" by O.P.I., a reddish purplish brownish shade way darker than anything I would have ever picked out for myself, but now that I've lived with it for a few days, I think I have to admit I'm coming over to the dark side.

And then after that, we grabbed a snack, went to the bride's house to change and beautify, then dashed off to the rehearsal, and then to the rehearsal dinner. And I would just like to point out that the bride and all the bridesmaids made it to the rehearsal exactly on time, but it was a pair of groomsmen who were 51 minutes late. My point is, men should not give women as hard of a time as they do about how long it takes us to get ready.

The rehearsal dinner was yummy Mexican food with a margarita fountain. Delicious.

The next day, my Saturday, began at 6 a.m., when my boyfriend and I woke up to get him out the door for rowing practice, and I started pulling all my materials together for the day. At 8:30, I was out the door, and at 9 a.m., I was pulling up to the W Scottsdale, where the bride had booked a suite for all us gals to get ready in before the big event.

In between snacking on apple slices, chocolate-covered strawberries, pretzels and a cheese and grapes plate, the bride's "people" did our hair and makeup, giving us each a different look. I ended up with a dramatic dark purple smoky eye and a hair style something like this:

The bride's instructions to our hair and makeup ladies were: "I want my bridesmaids to look like hot rockstars." So this was not your typical girl-next-door kind of makeup treatment. I think, looking at myself in the mirror, I wavered back and forth at first between being a little traumatized and also secretly loving it. I think I ended up secretly loving it, though.

By the way, this suite at the W was outrageous. OUTRAGEOUS. I'd post photos, but mine wouldn't do it justice. You can see better photos of the W and what their suite looked like here. Out of this world. We looked out over the pool and also across Scottsdale to Camelback Mountain. It was so much fun.

So from 9 to 2 p.m. (Yes.), we were getting our hair and makeup done. Then we headed to the venue, Villa Siena in Gilbert, which looked stunning that time of day. The temperature was in the low 70s, and the afternoon sun was perfect. We couldn't have asked for better weather conditions.

First, the bridal party took a lot of photos, men and women all separate from each other so that the bride and groom wouldn't accidentally get a glimpse of each other!

My dress:

And then we ladies had to scoot off to sequester ourselves in the bride's changing room while guests arrived. Also, our bouquets arrived. Red roses, black dahlias and another flower I didn't recognize. (Trivia: The bride has a huge tattoo of a black dahlia flower on her torso, so obviously, she loves those flowers.)

And then suddenly it was 4:30, it was time, and the rest of the afternoon and evening happened in a blur. I don't even remember what music the groomsmen walked down the aisle to, but the bridesmaids walked down to "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" by Iron & Wine, and then the bride walked down the aisle to "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon. (Yeah, I thought that was an interesting choice, too.)

Then there were vows, tears, rings, a kiss and then a husband and a wife. And then a party!

Long, long day for the bridesmaids. Wonderful, wonderful day for the bride and groom. And now they are in the middle of their two-week stay in Paris, where I hope they are buying lots of pretty souvenirs and just enjoying time together.

Me, I'm still trying to recover from all the fun. :)

Sway's Weekend Music Pick: "Welcome Home" by Radical Face

A Few Words About Last Saturday

Last Saturday was a long day for me. It began at 5 a.m., when my boyfriend and I had to wake up in order to drive out to Surprise (that's the name of the town) to work from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. with Habitat for Humanity, organized through my boyfriend's company.

When you volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, if you're only committing to one day of work, it means you will be assigned to a house that could be at any stage in the building process -- framing, drywalling, painting, etc. We were there on a drywall day, so for about seven hours that Saturday, I was measuring, cutting and nailing the stuff.

Have you ever worked with drywall before? Each time you cut it, or break it, or sometimes even when you nail it, it gives off a white powder. I had it in my hair, in my nose, in my mouth. In fact, I didn't feel so well for the rest of the day, because I kept coughing and felt like it was in my lungs or something.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that when we showed up to the work site, the lady told me I didn't even look like I was older than 16. I politely laughed a little, smiled at her and shrugged it off, and she did the same. But then suddenly stopped smiling and looked me square in the eyes and was like, "No. Really. How old are you?" Whoa, lady, calm down. "I'm just about 26," I said. Then it was my turn to look at her all crazy. She apologized and acted awkward ... it was gratifying.

Side Note: This marks the second time since I moved to Arizona that a person has thought I was under 16. The first time, it was a cop -- or maybe just a really, really attentive security guard -- at Desert Ridge Mall, and that was three years ago. I know it can't be that I don't age, but I'm 5 feet, 3 inches, so my guess is that this is just the result of the rampant height profiling that takes place here in the state. What a shame. Someone should take a stand.

Anyway, I digress ...

After we finished up at the work site, around 3 p.m., my boyfriend and I dashed back across town to get home so that I could put myself back together in time to make it to the bridal shower/bachelorette festivities of my friend who is getting married tomorrow, and for whom I will be a bridesmaid in the ceremony.

I got there at 5:30. The bridal shower, which had been scheduled from 3 to 6 p.m., was just winding down, and apparently the girls had already made quite a bit of headway on the champagne bottles. At 6:30, we drove over to a restaurant called FEZ for dinner.

After we finished eating and paid the bill, the maid of honor had scheduled a limo to pick us up and drive us around town. So from FEZ, we went to SideBar, where I had a martini called a White Rabbit that was absolutely delicious ... And then to Blue Martini, where the bride's band (she's the female lead singer) plays every week (it is such a fun place!) ... And then to a sports bar called Catch 22, where my friend's band actually was playing that night, and so she couldn't help but jump up there and sing a few songs for her male counterpart so that he could take a break.

And then, suddenly, it was 1:30 a.m. (weird how that happens), and a very tired, very grumpy boyfriend was picking me up. Anyway, I slept like a log that night, to say the least.

Today I'm fulfilling more bridesmaidly duties. Salon with the girls, venue prep, rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, etc. It should be fun. But it's also going to take all day, so I took off from work. And yet ... I am currently sitting on my bed, laptop in hand, working anyway. (Exporting files takes forever when accessing our server remotely. So naturally, I'm using the waiting time to blog and slowly sip copious amounts of coffee.) Darn me and my responsible self. Oh well. If you want something done right, you have to just do it yourself, right?

Regardless of the fact that I have to finish some work before my day gets started, it's so far a beautiful day here in Arizona. I've been watching the sun come up over the Valley, and it makes me feel happy and energized. It's going to be a good day. And a beautiful weekend for a wedding.

About St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone. In honor of the occasion, I have a few things to get you in the Irish mood.

Exhibit A: The story behind St. Patrick's Day.



Exhibit B: How Americans celebrate St. Patrick's Day.



Exhibit C: Why Irish music makes us all want to drink.



My plan is to talk like the little girl from that first video for the rest of the day.

Lauren Pierce Atelier

Last week I interviewed Lauren Bush (niece of former President George W. Bush and granddaughter of former President George Bush) about the new spring 2010 collection of her clothing line, Lauren Pierce Atelier, for the publication I work for.

This month she's been traveling all over the country introducing the collection at specific Barneys New York stores. This Friday, March 19, she comes to Scottsdale, but this weekend I'll be fulfilling my bridesmaidly duties, so we had to do the interview over the phone instead. I wish I could have met her in person, though, because she was so nice and genuine during our conversation, and I've only heard good things about her.
 
Her collection is pretty darn cool because it's all custom-made clothing and supports a good cause. She designed five dress silhouettes that ladies can choose from when they see the collection at Barneys. Then, the woman picks the fabric she wants the dress made with. All of the fabrics are cotton and dyed by women survivors of war in the Congo as a way of supporting themselves. The traditional method they use involves really bright colors and the fabric ends up looking sort of tie-dyed.

Anyway, so when a woman orders her dress in her silhouette and fabric print and colors and size and it finally arrives something like six weeks later, the tag will have the name of the woman who ordered it, plus the name of the woman who dyed the fabric. How cool is that? And Lauren Pierce contributes 10 percent of each season's profits toward helping the women living in the country where the fabrics were made (this season, the women of the Congo).

Lauren said she found these women through an organization called Women for Women, and I've since spent some time reading the information on the organization's website. It sounds like an amazing, amazing program, and I really want to get involved somehow, either by sponsoring a woman or going to an event here. It's definitely something I'm going to keep on my mind.

Read more about Women for Women here, and more about Lauren Pierce here.

Sway's Weekend Music Pick: "Don't Cry" by Olivia Broadfield

A Regatta. Then Beer.

A few months ago, my boyfriend took up rowing. He joined a club that practices very early in the mornings on Saturdays and Sundays and instantly loved it. After his first weekend, they moved him from the beginners to the intermediate class. The second weekend, they moved him from the intermediate class to the advanced class. And now here we are: This past weekend, on Saturday, he was in his first regatta.

He rowed alone (sculling) first, then in a four-man boat, then in a two-man boat. In his first race, he tipped the boat near the finish line and fell into the lake (his first fall ever) in freezing water. In his second race, his team didn't make it down to the start line in time and the regatta staff began the race without them. And in his third race, the wind picked up and was so strong that he and his rowing partner (both novices) soon lagged far behind the other racers.

Considering these results, a lot of people might chalk this first regatta up as a disaster. But I'm so proud of him for keeping his head held high and laughing it all off as no big deal. He's doing something he really likes and having a lot of fun at the same time. "I just really wanted to leave a lot of room for improvement," he says.

After the regatta, we meandered over to the Great Arizona Beer Festival, on the other side of the lake, where some drunk dude approached me and seemed to oddly be hitting on me by way of trying to claim I cut in front of him in line. My boyfriend calmed him down. We went on to have excellent barbecue and try a few brews, too. The weather was perfect -- sunny and 72. Overall, it was a very fun day spent outdoors.

Sunday, however, it started to rain here again. The weather experts say that Phoenix has already received more rain this year in these three and a half months than we usually do in an entire calendar year. Something to do with the El Nino effect. Regardless, I'm ready for the rain to stop. Each time the temperature climbs to 70, a rain comes along and drives the temperature back down to 50. And I don't like it. (I know, I know. The rest of the country is playing a small violin in my honor for this. Thanks.)

But what good does moving to the sunniest, hottest part of the country do for people who hate being cold if it's just going to rain and be cold all the time? BOO. Me no likey.

Anyway, that was my Saturday.

I leave you with this -- an awesome video you will want to watch from beginning to end, whether it's raining or shining where you are. Rock out, be enthralled, and enjoy.

Sway's Weekend Music Pick: "La Ritournelle" by Sebastien Tellier

The Knitting That Never Was

A few weekends ago, I resolved to tidy up my knitting corner in our office. I planned to divide and conquer in three hours or less, bagging like yarns together, organizing labels from used skeins, reclaiming good yarn from bad half-finished projects, and disposing of some bad finished projects altogether. Of course, I had planned to photographically document the whole process for posting here -- and I did start to take photos as I went -- but after a short while, it became clear that the whole ordeal was just too pathetic.

As a result of my investigation into what was lurking in my knitting basket (tub? the thing is huge), I discovered three or four heinously ugly (but well-knit!) scarves that I will be begging some charity to take off my hands, as well as two winter hats and a striped sleeveless top sort of thing that will absolutely have to be incinerated because it's so ugly.

Other findings included what was supposed to be a knitted headband that turned out to be more the size of a bonnet (ye shall always knit a gauge swatch), about a billion bajillion random buttons, all sorts of little stringy scraps of cotton, wool, acrylic (shudder), silk and cashmere, AND ALSO some mohair yarn with like, glitter or neon sparkles woven into it. Yikes.

Not only were the items too sad to photograph, they're things I never want to have a visual reminder of ever again, so I did the logical thing -- I deleted the photos I'd started to take and then put the camera down. Because after all, friends don't let friends post bad knitting pictures. And at the risk of sounding like I have multiple personalities, I'll say I'd like to think that I am my own best friends. Er, friend. I meant friend. Singular.

On the plus side, the experience did jog my memory of what good-quality yarn I still have left that I need to use. And as I was sifting through the piles, potential projects started to come to mind. The knitting bug seems to hit me about once every two months, so I guess I'm due for another bout with my needles.

Stick around. You never know what tragic thing I'll knit next.