Repost–New Wedding Trend: Strange, yet romantic

I’m reposting this blog because I’m so impressed by how Trash the Dress has grown. The images are just stunning. Check it out.

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Instead of preserving their dresses, some brides find a better use for them. Check out this  showing just what brides are doing with their dresses– “trashing them” (http://trashthedress.wordpress.com/ ).

Mark Eric, a professional photographer, started a blog on wordpress calling for brides and other professional photographers to send  photos of “trashing wedding dresses.” Sounds awful, but it is actually quite breathtaking.

Brides take professional photos of their “acts of destruction. These images show romantic, fairytalesc scenarios with photos taken by oceans or lakes, on dirty benches, on bikes, or even painting in converse sneakers (so cute).

(Photo by MLE Photographs from Trash the Dress)

These photos are absolutely beautiful making it almost obvious why this is an up and coming trend for brides.

Many traditionalists may be upset with the “trashing” idea, but in reality the dress is only worn once…. at least they are getting amazing and extremely romantic photos that could be right out of a chic-flick, fairy tale, or romance novel.

Kara Pennington from Trash the Dress

Inspiration: Betsey Johnson Apartment

I fell in love after spotting this apartment by Betsey Johnson on freshomes.com. In this diva-esc set up all girls could feel like Mariah Carey or a rock star. The delicate, yet sexy furnishings make winter a bit warmer too. This palate is fabulous, but may be a bit much for me.  If your looking to bring some diva into your apartment this could serve as great inspiration to accent already existing decor. At the bottom of the post I added some ikea furnishings to create this divaesc atmosphere for a work area.

Betsey Johnson Apartment, spotted on Freshome.com

Spotted on Freshome.com

Click to see more info on the ikea gear below:

For your valentine: Yummy I love yous

Hearts Galore, by Caro Willis on Flickr.com

Valentine's Cookies, by WendyWTN on Flickr.com

Valentine's cupcakes by clarescupcakes.co.uk on Flickr.com

V-day breakfast recipe, by Creativity and Timothy K Hamilton on Flickr.com

Flickr Love

By Wasaby on Flickr.com

Last year I wrote a small post about two Flickr members who  met and fell in love on Flickr.com. Falling in love in cyberspace may not be considered saneor love at all for some, but more and more people are finding love on the internet. Dating sites (like the oh so famous match, jdate, and eharmony) are apparently doing well and people arent afraid to try a new (or not-so new) way to find love. One of my good friends recently just got engaged to her boyfriend of 3 years who she met on the internet, so I’m sold.  

By ieatstars on Flickr.com

 

But Flickr? How does one find love on Flickr?  Wired.com ran a short feature: Win your Flirck Crush In 10 Simple Steps. Many of them are’nt so ridiculous, such as “Step 1: Be realistic,” or “Step 7: No Stalking.” Check it out. And if you met your significant other using Flickr please do tell!

Fresh Berry Mojito

10 fresh mint leaves
4 to6  fresh strawberries
4 to6 fresh blueberries
4 to6 fresh red raspberries
1/8 cup lime juice
1 to 2 packets Splenda  sweetener
1/4 cup light rum, optional
1/4 cup club soda

Press mint leaves into the bottom of a 12-ounce highball glass with the back of a wooden spoon or muddler. Do not tear leaves.

Next, crush berries.

Mix mint, crushed berries, lime juice and Splenda in glass.

Fill glass with crushed ice (cubed ice does not work). Stir until the glass begins to frost.

Pour in rum and soda water and stir again.

Garnish with a wedge of lime.

Valentine’s Day: A Flickr love story

This story I read (on WIRED How-to WIKI) about f inding love on Flickr was so cute. People find love in t he weirdest way over the Internet.

I love this!

“While traveling in Japan in 2004, a Scottish Flickr user with the handle “matt” snapped a photo of a girl with a camera. He uploaded it to Flickr with the

title, “Mystery Girl in Harajuku.”

A few weeks later, a friend of the mystery girl clicked on a link to photos tagged with “Harajuku” and stumbled upon the photo and also a picture of Matt. Though Mystery Girl’s back is turned in the picture, the friend

recognized her shoulder tattoo.  He sent her the link to that photo and to Matt’s pic.

The mystery girl was in fact CherryVega, another Flickr user living in England. Cherry posted a comment underneath Matt’s fateful photo with a link to the picture she was taking at the time. Three months later, Matt was on his way to London to meet Cherry in person. They fell in love, and the rest is Flickr history. — Keith Axline“

Thank our troops this holiday season

This holiday you can say thanks to the troops courtesy of Xerox. Xerox created “Let’s say Thanks” to honor men and women in service overseas and show them that they are appreciated.

Since many of them will not be coming home for the holidays, send them a greeting card. Here’s how it works: Children from around the country designed greeting cards for you to choose from on the let’s say thanks website. You then personalize it and xerox sends your personal greeting overseas. It costs you nothing. There is no limit to how many you can create and send. This is a great idea for teachers, parents, you, and me. I love this.

Here’s one byAlyssa from Athens, TX:

Mini Gifts with Big Purpose

MINI-GIFTS WITH BIG PURPOSE 

I know that somewhere deep down I have got to love the holidays. The pretty lights and decorations, cheerful people, fun parties, and of course great food are all very appealing, but the warm feeling often gets overpowered by sadness. What troubles me most about the holidays is gift giving. The gigantic expectations that are put on holiday gifts often leads to great disappointment, selfishness, and sometimes anger- everything the holidays AREN’T about.

Here’s an idea that may help me and maybe you to enjoy the holidays is to get someone a gift that has a PURPOSE or supports a good cause. How could that be disappointing? And wouldn’t you be embarrassed to feel disappointed upon receiving such a gift?

Here’s my list of awesome mini-gifts that make a difference:

FAIR TRADE BRACELETS

Bracelets from WorldofGood.com range from 13.95-17.95. World of Good, Inc. makes it easy to purchase inexpensive and beautiful fair trade items. They provide hundreds of artisan cooperatives with the opportunity to share there products, fair wages, and a sustainable source of economic income.

CHARITY GIFT CARD

Make a Charity Choice allows you to purchase a gift card of the amount of your choice to be donated in the name of the recipient ($10 minimum). The recipient can choose from a list of over 100 charities in which to give. This is a real feel-good gift.

ECO-FRIENDLY JOURNALS

Peaceful Valley offers eco-friendly clothing and gifts. There are 15 different journals to choose from and they are all under $20.

ULTRA COMPACT ECO-BAG

The Mini-Maxi Shopper from reusablebags.com is all the rage in Europe. Cut down on using plastic bags. The small compact zippered container neatly unfolds into a nice sized bag with long handles. This bag is great for shopping, the beach, and other everyday errands or outings. It is available in 10 colors for $9.95.

Low Fat Pumpkin Dip

It’s time that I try to pull up my sleeves and actually give this cooking thing a try. This will be one of the first times I have relied on the “foodie” recipe-swap type websites to make anything other than cocktails. To our family gathering for Thanksgiving I will bring pumpkin dip. Sound yummy? Well, to me it does. I used a combination of cooks.com, allrecipes.com and a few others to craft this recipe. I adjusted some of the ingredients for a “healthier” version with help from several comments and recommendations from several web-foodies.

PUMPKIN DIP

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Splenda

1 (8 oz) pkg non fat cream cheese

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin pie mix

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

Gingersnaps cookies (you can also use pretzels, animal crackers, etc.)

Red Delicious Apples (sliced)

Directions:

1.In a large bowl, combine and blend Splenda and cream cheese.

2.Next, blend in the pumpkin pie mix and the other remaining ingredients.

3.Store in airtight container in the refrigerator. Allow the dip to chill for at least 30 minutes.

4.Serve with gingersnaps and apple slices.

UPDATE**** The dip was a complete success! The family loved it and it added something a little different to the usual mix of appetizers. The best part is that it took less than 10 minutes to make.

Eco-friendly wine party decorating on the cheap

For the wine party we used wine bottles and fresh flowers to place in different areas of the party. We bought snow flake ornaments to hang from each bottle. These will later be used to decorate our Christmas tree. We limited the amount of paper products at our event as well. Our guests did not use many paper plates and mainly ate in one area where we also socialized. Later, we moved the food to a few party tables in our living room where we continued our conversation over party-games and activities.