Great Wedding Blog: So You're Engayged

The absolutely gorgeous New England wedding of my friends Emily and Erica is on So You're Engayged today and I'm so excited for them! Our weddings were a week apart and it was a blast to talk plans. Aren't their dresses so elegant? Not to mention, if you haven't yet checked out Kelly & Natalie's beautiful new site you certainly should--it's the next big thing, I just know it! (Oh, and, no, that's not a rice toss in the shot above but tiny marshmallows--mmhmm, that's right!)

In the Spotlight: Naomi Shihab Nye

One of my very favorite poets, Naomi Shihab Nye, is teaching here as a visiting writer in just a couple weeks and--it would be an understatement to say--I'm excited. I'm scurrying around trying to find poems to share with the workshop (it's been months since I wrote, eek! what do you show to someone you adore?) and can't help but think of her remarkable spirit.

The author of poetry, young adult fiction and children's anthologies, Nye lends her voice to the warm, peaceful and genuinely heartfelt: she is a true humanitarian. In an interview a couple years back, she spoke of poetry's meaning: "I think for many of us 'the fuel that feeds us' is language in the sense that language can carry us to understanding and connect us to things that matter in our lives. For those of us who trust poetry and the power of linkage that poetry gives us, it's a way of sitting quietly with words and letting them lead us somewhere." The poem Nye's referring to is called, "Hidden,"

If you place a fern
under a stone
the next day it will be
nearly invisible
as if the stone has
swallowed it.

If you tuck the name of a loved one
under your tongue too long
without speaking it
it becomes blood
sigh
the little sucked-in breath of air
hiding everywhere
beneath your words.

No one sees
the fuel that feeds you.

If you were to take one book of poetry of the library this year, I would highly recommend her collection Words Under the Words. Her poems about love and family make me believe in times like these.

Great Blog: Artisan Sweets

I just stumbled upon Ashley's Artisan Sweets blog and her pastries are just so sugary, sexy and sophisticated--it's no wonder her work has been so sought after! Plus, her posts on her two little boys are a delight.

Great Blog: Wide Open Spaces

So delightful--I'm completely enamored by Emily's blog, Wide Open Spaces. Poetry, design, gardening, lovely lists--everything is fresh and sweet. Definitely pop by and check her posts out for yourself--I'm so glad I did.

Goodbye to BFF Bridal

Along with Domino magazine, I was sad to hear this week that BFF Bridal is closing its doors. If you weren't a subscriber, you can still catch up on their weekly e-columns online...well, at least for a couple more weeks! (It was from BFF that I learned one of my favorite wedding beauty secrets: these vitamins do wonders for the skin, true story! Gwyneth Paltrow agrees.)

Great Read: New Southern Weddings Magazine!

What a wonderful weddings development: the new Southern Weddings Magazine! Some of my very favorite designers and bloggers are featured--congrats, ladies! I can't wait until my copy arrives. Order yours here.

Blogger Book Love on The City Sage

Speaking of my bibliophilic tendencies...! You've heard me say it before...I love love love The City Sage! In a word, Anne's taste is impeccable. The rooms, the fashion, the recipes (the brioche--I tried it and yum!)--it's my first read for loveliness. You can imagine my delight as a guest in the favorite books series...! Thanks again, Anne--a complete pleasure!

Great Blog: embloggery

Nicole's embroidered posts, so wonderful! Reading 12/3/08, I feel like we must be living parallel lives--that was my day in sum as well! She writes, "Basically I think blogs are hilarious and tedious projects are fun." Maybe we're kindred spirits too? Happy Friday, folks!

A Pause for Poetry

There are some times when nothing satisfies more than a love poem. Here are two sides of the coin, the being together and apart, both by Matthew Rohrer, a wonderful young poet living in Brooklyn:


Credo

I believe there is something else

entirely going on but no single
person can ever know it,
so we fall in love.

It could also be true that what we use
everyday to open cans was something
much nobler, that we'll never recognize.

I believe the woman sleeping beside me
doesn't care about what's going on
outside, and her body is warm
with trust
which is a great beginning.



Poem

You called, you're on the train, on Sunday,
I have just taken a shower and await
you. Clouds are slipping in off the ocean,
but the room is gently lit by the green
shirt you gave me. I have been practicing
a new way to say hello and it is fantastic.
You were so sad: goodbye. I was so sad.
All the shops were closed but the sky
was high and blue. I tried to walk it off
but I must have walked in the wrong direction.


I can't help but think the short poem form here is a little bit like a lucid, lyrical polaroid (maybe with a little stitching...!). For more, read on on poets.org.

Great Wedding Blog: Juliette's Italian Inspiration Boards

Juliette of un matrimonio formato jpg sent me a note this morning (all the way from Italy!) and I wanted to share with you some of her wonderful boards--aren't these lovely? I'm smitten by all the lush color combinations and the food--look at those beautiful plates...!





I hope you'll stop by and see for yourself--I promise you won't be disappointed. So good to meet you, Jul!

Great Blog: Tartelette

Helen's creations on Tartelette are so delectable. Go for the recipes and stay for the photographs. These saffron pumpkin macarons look like poetry to me--such lightness! And the lavender oatmeal squares, yummy and much more on my baking expertise level. I can't wait to get in the kitchen and try them out.

Great Blog: 1001 Rules for My Unborn Son

A brilliant list concept, 1001 Rules for My Unborn Son. Some of my favorites:

232. There is exactly one place where it is acceptable to wear gym clothes.
229. Write letters. On paper.
228. Be careful what you put in writing. You can't take it back.
223. Be a good diver.*
167. Always stop at a lemonade stand. Tip well.
154. Ask your mother to dance.
143. Be able to identify all of the trees on your block.
76. Memorize the Bill of Rights and your favorite poem.
66. Attend lots of weddings. Your friends will be there and the food is always good.

What rules do you have for your sons and daughters, too?

(*This summer, I started swimming again and it changed my whole world view. I even got up the guts to jump off the high(er) dive and it was--in a word--liberating.)

(Via oohdeedoh.)

Gratitudes: Happy Friday!

What a fine day today is turning out to be.... Yesterday was a long one on this end but, wow, today--today has been full of so many exciting things. I've lined up a new job. S has a book contract for his memoir (!). And Ez at Creature Comforts (I just adore her taste and creativity) gave us a mention--many, many thanks!

More to come in my 101 list this weekend, more finds, more projects and hopefully a new recipe soon.... I hope you'll keep me posted on what you're imagining, enjoying and working on these days too!

Sweet Find: Pithy and Cleaver

I highly recommend stopping by the new Pithy and Cleaver. Writers, designers and friends Shiv and Maggie tell their beautifully detailed cooking stories. A perfect chocolate chip cookies trial. Miso cod with asparagus anecdote. Quick baked ziti with greens and hot salami--and a surprise ending. These ladies have brilliant taste. Literally. I'm already hooked and I think you will be too.

Busy Bee

I'm going to try to stop and smell the flowers today and get in a post or two but...I'm busy, busy, busy. Doing what? Commenting on a tall stack of childrens' writing for the class I teach. It's a huge pleasure--every metaphor and description is so vivid. Cars become walnuts. Time melts like butter. The rain holds hands. Grandma's irises have the perfume of belonging. If your spirit ever needs uplifting, I recommend reading or writing with a child. Honestly, it is one of the best (and sometimes funniest) things there is.

(Image from Cookie's Summer Memory Photo Contest--fun! My vote is in!)

Gratitudes: The Gift of Poetry

Over the past couple years, I've spent some time working for Ted Kooser and seeking out poems for his weekly newspaper column, American Life in Poetry. Here in Nebraska, Ted is a celebrity: the first Midwestern poet ever to be honored with the title of U.S. Poet Laureate. He's also just a sweet, funny, caring, down-to-earth guy. S and I were so honored when he accepted our wedding invitation and showed up for our party--dressed to a tee with a finely patterned bowtie, no less! His gift to us? An anthology of love poems, of course.

A couple of weeks ago the ALP column had this most wonderful poem by Veronica Patterson (for more on what a senryu is click here) and I can't help but share:


Marry Me
a senryu sequence

when I come late to bed
I move your leg flung over my side
that warm gate

nights you're not here
I inch toward the middle
of this boat, balancing

when I turn over in sleep
you turn, I turn, you turn,
I turn, you

some nights you tug the edge
of my pillow under your cheek,
look in my dream

pulling the white sheet
over your bare shoulder
I marry you again


How perfect would this be for a ceremony--whether your wedding day or a vow renewal? We've only been married for a couple months now and already I got misty!

For weddings I also recommend checking out Ted's book of Valentines. For over a decade, he's been writing these sweet love poems and sending them out on a postcard to all his favorite people. Let me tell you, it's quite the feeling to find one of those in your mailbox!

(Photo by Allison Garrett.)

In the Spotlight: Kay Ryan

I don't often write about poetry on this blog. It is what occupies me in so much of my life and I like to reserve this space for other thoughts and inspirations. Today, though, I can't resist.

The Library of Congress has just announced the new United States Poet Laureate and it's wonderful news: Kay Ryan. Ryan is only the fourth woman officially named to this prestigious national literary position. Her poems have been described as "tiny, ingenious devices that inevitably conceal some hidden wonder." Salon's critic warns: don't think these pieces are merely decorative. (This, coincidentally, is how I think about good design--at its best it, too, is not simply decorative but deeply poetic. Good design also has a deeply eloquent language. A topic for another day...I digress!)

One of my favorites is called "Patience"--something I could use more of, always:

Patience is
wider than one
once envisioned,
with ribbons
of rivers
and distant
ranges and
tasks undertaken
and finished
with modest
relish by
natives in their
native dress.
Who would
have guessed
it possible
that waiting
is sustainable—
a place with
its own harvests.
Or that in
time's fullness
the diamonds
of patience
couldn't be
distinguished
from the genuine
in brilliance
or hardness.

This last sentence is so profound, so enigmatic. It makes me think that, just months ago, I received one of the greatest gifts of my life--a beautifully small and perfect diamond ring. This tiny thing is my most precious possession. I wonder about the "diamonds of patience" that cannot be distinguished from it. What a powerful meditation. The perfect thing to contemplate a month into marriage.

Great Wedding Blog: Emily Style

Emily Style had the greatest post this week. She asked her readers, What small detail have you appreciated at a wedding? The responses are brilliant. For instance, a ring warming ceremony--so lovely! These are just the kind of ideas I think make for a warm and unique wedding day.

Daydreaming in Color

I was just musing this morning about how reading the blogs is such a joyful daily ritual for me. It's so quiet and rainy here today and yet my head is full of bright splashes of color thanks to the far-flung writers who make up my blog roll.

My favorite posts of the week so far:

Thoughtful Day's sweet and funny idea for using Colorstrology to choose your wedding colors:

Design Mom guest blogger Burgin Streetman on making and appreciating art with kids.

d. Sharp on Kate Wilson's hilariously whimsical birdie illustrations--they're floating around on garden vegetables, for crying out loud!

Much gratitude!

Great Wedding Blog: And Stanley Makes Three

I've been a fan of Bridget's blog, And Stanley Makes Three, for some time now and last week we got into a lovely conversation via her post on photo lanterns (don't you just love the serendipity of the web!). She is planning her wedding for 2010 and her blog is rich with ideas--such a good read! Not to mention...could her dog be any cuter? Seriously!
Thanks, Bridget, for the feature! I look forward to talking more soon!