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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Amalgamate: A blog of December 30

I seem to have composed more short writings back in earlier days, maybe I should begin again, no? Another post from my prior blog, It's Miller Time.

Distant realizations


"All within us cries for life and permanence, and everything around us reminds us of mortality and change." - A.W. Tozer


Eternity in our hearts, the misery of men
Questions of glory
Now unfolding ten
times ten
A soul to change
A soul to live
A soul still searching
Thou art just, and Thou hast made them
Dwelling in time.
 
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Being different is cool

A couple days ago I received an ad magazine in the mail. Not just any ad magazine, an enormous ad magazine! Over the size of 11x17 sheet of paper large. In a time of retail struggle, Macy's found a way to stand out without anyone laying a foot in their door.

If this didn't grab your attention, I don't know what will. I'm impressed.









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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Amalgamate: A sport designed to be.

Amalgamate: to combine, unite, merge or integrate. For me, merging my two blogs into one -- or rather, transferring possible value over to manifesting inspiration while decluttering (and thus, discontinuing) my former blog, It's Miller Time.

Enter, the beginning post of It's Miller Time.

This is the land I love. Beating hearts and adrenaline-flooded bodies. Fueled with competition, a team united through their passion. The best dogs are at the dome, sounds of metal on sand racing faster and faster - nine innings of pure concentration. A sport designed to be. Skills proven through determination, perseverance and hard work. Only a team-player can suit. Outta the ball-park, among the stars and into our hearts.


It's Miller-time

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Decluttering the blogosphere

Fall, a time to consilidate and declutter. I've owned and operated two blogs the past many years, betcha didn't know that. That's because I haven't had a post on my other blog, It's Miller Time, since November 25, 2008. Amazing.

So, in an effort to preserve some elements of thought, insight and passion from my previous blog, I'm going to share some of my posts from these earlier days on manifesting inspiration.

I plan to shut down It's Miller Time by the end of the year. So enjoy, my prior inspirations.

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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Thanks for the cart of Target



Who’s been to Target before…? Wait, dumb question. Everyone. Who’s spent waaay too much money at Target before…? Another dumb question.


Who’s bought way too many items at Target and has not spent a penny…? Well, I have.  Thanks to all my friends and family who gave me Target gift cards as gifts for my wedding.

To all of you, THANK YOU!


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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Repost: Fab Freebie: I Dream of Greenie

Reposting this amazingly awesome giveaway through Young House Love. An all GREEN package!

"This week’s prize is doubly exciting for us: it’s 100% eco-friendly and comes from a local Virginia business (just up the road from Richmond in Culpeper, VA). Green Nest‘s got such a broad smorgasbord of kind-to-the-earth gifts that we’re psyched that this week’s winner will score such stylish loot..."

Hurry to YHL's blog to enter the contest, a winner will be selected on Thursday.

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Alaskan Cruising: Victoria

I fell in love with Victoria, maybe only for the fact that it's a miniture Britain. Parlament, old age buildings, european-influenced pubs, cobblestone streets and castles. Lovely. I've never even been to Canada before, but if more of Canada is like this, I can't wait to get back! Who knew my neighboring country was so unique? Not me. I know not all of Canada is like British Columbia - Victoria, but I'm sure the other areas have their own beautiful uniqueness as well. Enjoy a few pictures unraveling D and my experiences there.

British Columbia - Victoria





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Monday, September 20, 2010

Yah yah!

Go twins go!

Alaskan Cruising: Ketchikan

Oh Ketchikan, how much fun we had with you on our honeymoon. D and I went kayaking in the waters of Alaska while in Ketchikan. Unfortunately, we didn't see much of the city of Ketchikan, but we hear it's mostly touristy attractions anyways, right?

Ketchikan is such a neat little island. Next to the rain forest, our bus guide (on our way to kayaking) told us that the ciy gets about 11 inches of rain a month -- year round! Yikes. And while kayaking, although we had a lot of fun,  we got completely soaked! It started downpouring half-way through our voyage.

They have one road, and the only way off the island is by boat/ferry. To fly out, they need to take a ferry to another island to use the tarmac. They told us this is definitely not the city to get left behind on - only because of their expensive fares.


Ketchikan






I believe this is Eagle Island actually, where we saw some monster nests and a few birds :)


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Saturday, September 18, 2010

Fun Finds at IKEA

I'm heading to Ikea today! Haven't let myself go there for quite a while since I wanted to wait to see what the wedding registry would equip me with. But now that all my wedding gifts are finalized (I think...month after is pretty secure, right?) I'm excited to see what Ikea has to bring into my home. If only my budget were limitless!

These are some things I would love to have!
























Decorative Stickers - $9.99


Pillowcases - $8.99


Vase - 12.99


Pendant Lamp - $34.99


Bowl - $24.99


Bookcase - $79.99






Friday, September 17, 2010

Alaskan Cruising: Sitka

Sitka was such a beautiful, quaint city and had a spectacular landscape! There were a gazillion small islands with houses or cabins on them. Sitka was also the prior capital of Alaska, and had a lot of fun history built about for the nerd in me.

While there, we went on a partial submarine tour, where we saw lots of marine life, star fish, catfish...the list goes on and on.

Sitka  











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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Alaskan Cruising: Hubbard Glacier

One of the amazing things about Alaska is the ability to see glaciers! In our case, the biggest glacier (I believe). Here are some of our pictures out in Disenchantement Bay. Enjoy!


Hubbard Glacier









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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Alaskan Cruising: Juneau

Our honeymoon was amazing and beautiful. I’ve never heard anyone say anything bad about a cruise to Alaska, and you definitely won’t hear anything bad from me either. I’ve never been on a cruise before so I’m probably not the best person to reference when it comes to an unbiased opinion – but I have traveled a decent amount and can compare my trip to many other experiences.

It was probably the most relaxing far-away vacation I’ve ever been on. Eat as much as you want, whenever you want. Swim/hot tub when you want. Get a massage when you want. Sleep in and then wake up in a new city, every day. Fabulous.

Our ship took us through the inside passage, round trip out of Seattle. Each port and city was beautiful in its own unique way and it was so freeing to be out in the open waters. The landscape was impeccable. Who knew so many different terrain types were possible within this stretch? Not me. Glaciers, mountains, volcanoes, rain forest…it goes on and on.

So, to bringing you through nostalgia lane with me, here are a few pictures from the start of our honeymoon adventure (after the scrambling). More to come throughout the week.

Juneau

In Juneau we went on an excursion that consisted of whale watching and hiking through the Tongass National Rain Forest, where we saw lots of Salmon, wild plants and eventually Mendenhall Glacier.









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Monday, September 13, 2010

Saturday, September 11, 2010

A Good Day



morning
sunrise
open my eyes

and i can tell it's gonna be a good day
i can tell it's gonna be a good day

did you sleep well?
did you dream at all?
can you tell me the time?
on the alarm clock

i can tell it's gonna be a good day
i can tell it's gonna be a good day

but you can sleep in
you just keep dreamin
for us

i can tell it's gonna be a good day
i can tell it's gonna be a good day

(Morning Song)
Priscilla Ahn


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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Checkin' In and Baggage Claim: Lessons Learned

So I mentioned I would share a bit about our honeymoon adventure… first, let me explain our first few hours of the honeymoon. One might call our morning ‘hectic’ or ‘stressful.’ I call it a nightmare. Well, I guess you can judge whether I’m exaggerating a bit or not. But for some people I know, this is their worst nightmare.


So the morning after our wedding my MOH and her fiancĂ© pick us up at our house to take us to the airport. It’s a Saturday and we gave ourselves plenty of time to get their, get checked in and have a cup-of-Joe before our flight to Seattle. Or so we thought. Apparently Saturday mornings are horrendous when flying out of town and we should have given ourselves half a day to get checked in. Ick. Never the less, by the time we got to the front counter it was too late to check ourselves in, let alone our bags.

Fortunately, the manager was able to bypass the system and manually check us and our bags in. Seconds later we were running through the MSP airport to find our gate. We made it about five minutes before take off. Whew.

Jump forward three hours or so to SEATAC. We’re down at baggage claim…waiting, waiting…one of our checked luggage comes, the other doesn’t. How does that happen? Two and a half weeks later it’s still a mystery, but we have our guesses. We think they never scanned our luggage in. One got thrown on the plane and the other didn’t and our flight provider was unable to even locate our luggage. Ugh.

So, instead of then taking our pre-paid transportation to our ship, we hitched a cab to South Center Mall with hopes of making it back to the airport to then take our shuttle to our ship. Once at the mall we rushed into Macy’s to find some important needs for our cruise. Not only were all our shoes and toiletries in the luggage that was lost, but we realized that D forgot his dress clothes in our living room before we headed out the door also – meaning no suit coat, dress pants or collared shirts. Throwing money at the cashiers to purchase these essentials, we then ran out the mall, across the street to Target for the rest of our necessities: make-up and tennis shoes (our first excursion we were going hiking).

A cab picked us up at Target and unfortunately we headed down to Pier 91 with only 45 minutes prior to the ship’s embarkation time. On the way to the pier we received a call from the ship wondering where we were and wondering if we were still coming. We were the last ones on the ship. AND, everyone was on deck 3 for the safety training when we struggled with all our shopping bags through the zigzag entrance lines and up onto the ship. Without saying, we were dismissed from safety training and told to come at a different time (where we were the only ones there) as we swiftly made our way to our stateroom.

Rest at last.

Lessons Learned: Check in online or waaay ahead of time; and pack a few days' stay in your carry on.




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Monday, September 6, 2010

Staying cool through the wedding

Last post I mentioned how I managed to maintain my sanity throughout the wedding week: ie. getting rid of unnecessary elements (some DIY elements, some home improvements, etc.) and creating a great attitude.

This calming attitude helped me to create a relaxing atmosphere for my wedding day as well. I had a vision about how I wanted to spend my time before, during and after the wedding, and everything I did prior to the wedding and scheduled for the wedding day were my best efforts to allow Dustin and I to enjoy our wedding the way we wanted to.

Of course there were some chaotic times, I don't think I've heard of a wedding with no element of surprise. But overall, our wedding day was the best ever and I wouldn't have wanted it different in any way.

Creating this sense of calm started way prior to wedding week - I scheduled a massage, brunches and time with girlfriends, a pedicure and manicure, and a trip to the flower's market all to make sure I enjoyed the wedding week. You ask, ''How does this have to do with staying calm on your wedding day?"" Well, to me it has about as much to do with the wedding day as getting a good night's rest before the wedding day does (Tip: get a good night's sleep the entire week of the wedding).

I took these things that brought calm into my week and carried similar enjoyable things into the wedding day. By keeping myself calm, relaxed and happy throughout the week, I believed I was more likely to stay so for the wedding as well.

My best friends stayed over the night before the wedding, which made for extra fun my last night as a bachelorette. We made breakfast in the morning and then headed to the salon (the most beautiful salon ever, Jesse Tomme Salon in Montemedi) where our heads were each pampered for an hour. (Not to mention that D surprised us with a limo at our door to take us from place to place!) After the salon we headed back to our lovely, construction-filled home where we met our make-up artist from Origins. Now this is where some craziness happened...ie. having to break into my house because we didn't have a key on us (caught on video, mind you).

We had some snacky food, chatted and got our make-up done at my house for about 2-3 hours. I probably could have planned to have things stacked while we were at the salon and done something different with this time. But I wanted allow time to just be, to enjoy my friends and take in the day. I highly recommend making sure this is a top priority. I've heard from several brides that their wedding flew by and they couldn't even remember all the events of their day. How sad!

No rushing, no worrying. Stay calm and cool.

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Friday, September 3, 2010

Staying cool through wedding week

So some of you might remember my post two weeks prior to my most-loved day ( TWO WEEKS! ), where I couldn't imagine myself being stressed or busy before the wedding because I felt like there was nothing left to do. Wrongo. The warnings, the hypothetical situations, the storm before the calm -- all true.

Dustin and I found ourselves with a gazillion things to do the week of the wedding, and only 7 days (well, 7 for me, 3 for him). I took the week off of work and he took three days, but to no avail. We could only run to so many places in one day, get so many contractors into our house in a week, and run through plan B --- oh the night before the wedding.

While we were all smiles, there was definitely a bit of adventure throughout wedding week, the blessed day itself as well as throughout our honeymoon journey (to be shared in another post.)

Who knew there was such a thing as too much DIY for your wedding? When is too much DIY? Apparently I reached it. And, I found that the too-much-DIY moment must be different for each bride-to-be. For me, DIY had to stop in order to retain sanity during my wedding week. I still was a bit crazy and conquered too many things I probably didn't need to, and a few things just didn't happen the way we originally thought they would.
All of a sudden, things like placecard holders made out of cork, ceremony decorations and cute, wooden direction signs were no longer important and therefore were tossed out like last week's trash. I no longer had a desire to even do them, none-the-less put my time and energy (or lack there of) into them.

And, all these things that I had planned on doing that didn't happen weren't missed at all. The day was still beautiful and happy. No one noticed, except for maybe my favorite DIY supporter, my MOH, and my then husband-to-be.

So all the cool-as-a-cucumber compliments I received throughout the wedding week and on the day itself were in fact true. All the little things didn't matter. I kept my mind focused on the things that mattered most to me: at the end of the day I was going to be married to my best friend, and all those that I love were going to be there to share the experience and support us.


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