charalali's Xanga

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:23:57 GMT

new blog

i've moved! if you'd like, please follow me to: http://www.valeofenna.blogspot.com.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:01:35 GMT

insomniac's entry

well technically, i fell asleep with the kids at 8 and woke up just now, so i guess it's not really an insomniac's entry...but it had such a nice ring to it. anyway, ella's birthday came and went. we're celebrating officially this sunday with a small group of friends since dave is in mexico this week on a "school trip." yes, he's abandoned me (with two kids) to "swim with the whale sharks." it felt strange to pass through a special day like yesterday without him. i roundly let him know that in a text message - though he won't be able to read it til he gets back.

do you love this photo of ella as much as i do? she's in the tutu stage of toddlerhood and we've gone a whole 2 weeks straight with the tutu on over every outfit. it dresses up anything (like the dirty fleece pants and pullover above). i wish i had a tutu! it's also very cyndi lauper. and what isn't cool about cyndi lauper.

i spent the last few days organizing my house (the smell of spring always does that, doesn't it?) and it felt great. but why do i feel like i've just opened pandora's box of things to clean? now that the kitchen's all organized, i kinda feel like tackling the garage. the kids' playroom. or maybe even...my closet? er, maybe not the closet. in any case, it doesn't seem so insurmountable since the kitchen's been conquered, but then i've added a dozen more projects to my life! add to that, rye is booked with playdates and birthday parties til may! may?! the kid is only 4 and has more of a social life than i do.

which brings me to my final whine: i'm overwhelmed with work. as thrilled as i am that the business is flying, it was only supposed to be a side thing. i wish i could devote myself either full-time to the business or full-time to motherhood. it's hard 'cause i adore both so much for different reasons. i have the best of both worlds in my current set-up, but there are so many conflicts, so many compromises, and each have suffered due to my obligations to the other. i think one solution will be to have a partner. anyone know someone who'd be interested in building this thing up with me?

and a real quick movie recommendation: ghost town with tea leoni and ricky gervais. dave and i loved it. we haven't laughed that much in awhile.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:54:10 GMT

the split infinitive

this article is dedicated to the girls that gathered on my couch one late december night when the conversation somehow somewhere turned to the topic of split infinitives. i guess english majors aren't the only ones who enforce it. add: law students.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/opinion/22pinker.html?_r=1&em

i think it's hilarious that obama smiled at chief justice roberts' "hypercorrection."

Monday, October 27, 2008

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:25:36 GMT

atelier bliss follow-up

i'm sure i say this all the time, but it's been unbelievably crazy around here. fall weddings are kicking my butt, but i have a breather this week until the november craziness begins. before i go and get some much needed zzz's, i thought i'd put up some overdue photos of the lil bridal soiree that occured at the end of september. i was so impressed with what all of the vendors contributed that night and the turnout was great. i only have flower photos, but hopefully we'll see some actual event shots soon.

in the meantime, these are photos of the sample bouquets i made and some of the arrangements that were scattered throughout the event. the event space was modern and indian, so the general design/style attempted to follow that. and a quick thanks to lois kwon for helping out that day!

first four photos courtesy of courtney matevey of green apple photo

bar arrangement

the moment i heard we were having the event at an indian restaurant, i immediately wanted to incorporate sari fabric into the designs. there were some other vases covered in really beautiful sari fabric, but sadly, there aren't any photos of it. i also wanted lots of gold - containers, sari details, wire...i even wanted to use indian bangles and bracelets, but my budget was already shot (i spent nearly $200 on sari fabric), so i calmed myself down and talked myself into not buying them. sigh.

bouquets

this bouquet is made up of eggplant carnations, light pink nerine lilies, purple allium and eggplant mini-calla lilies. the handle was wrapped in an amazing sari fabric - the details of it which you sadly can't see. it was so lovely.

teddy mini-gerbers and a collar of berzelia berries. i loved the retro-funkiness of it and thought everyone else would hate it, but i had a few lovers! they were usually the hippie, funky girls.

hot pink/fuchisa cattleya orchids with a beautful red, orange and gold sari handle.

focal centerpiece

a high arrangement of eggplant carnations, orange roses, fuchsia dendrobium orchids, fuchsia mokara orchids, black Ti leaves and red hanging amaranthus atop a gold-chip riser vase.

accent bar piece

the wonderful contributors of atelier bliss.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:03:23 GMT

4AM email

dave sent me a great article this morning (accompanied with a very loving note) that made me chuckle in some parts and get all misty-eyed in others. along with confirming all the reasons why i love my husband and justify why i can sit, stare and try to memorize my children for hours, i found a new writer to obsess over: anna quindlen.

the part that made me laugh the most:

outbursts, tantrums, bad language - check.
baby falling off the bed - check.
late for preschool pick-up - check.

and i couldn't agree more heartily on the rest.

parenting anna quindlen

all my babies are gone now. i say this not in sorrow but in disbelief.

i take great satisfaction in what i have today: three almost-adults, two taller than i am, one closing in fast. three people who read the same books i do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until i choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than i like. who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves. like the trick soap i bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past.

everything in all the books i once poured over is finished for me now. penelope leach., t. berry brazelton., dr. spock. the ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, all grown obsolete. along with Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. but i suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories. what those books taught me, finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations --what they taught me, was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all.

raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. no one knows anything.

one child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout.

one child is toilet trained at 3, his sibling at 2.

when my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. by the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome.

to a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing. eventually you must learn to trust yourself. eventually the research will follow. i remember 15 years ago poring over one of dr. brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. i was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month old who did not walk. was there something wrong with his fat little legs? was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? was i insane? last year he went to china . next year he goes to college. he can talk just fine. he can walk, too.

every part of raising children is humbling, too. believe me, mistakes were made. they have all been enshrined in the 'remember-when-mom-did ' hall of fame. the outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language, mine, not theirs. the times the baby fell off the bed. the times i arrived late for preschool pickup. the nightmare sleepover. the horrible summer camp. the day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and i responded, 'what did you get wrong?'. (she insisted i include that.) the time i ordered food at the mcdonald's drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window. (they all insisted i include that.) i did not allow them to watch the simpsons for the first two seasons. what was i thinking?

but the biggest mistake i made is the one that most of us make while doing this. i did not live in the moment enough. this is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. there is one picture of the three of them, sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. and i wish i could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night.

i wish i had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. i wish i had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.

even today Iim not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me and what was simply life. when they were very small, i suppose i thought someday they would become who they were because of what i'd done. now i suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that i back off and let them be. the books said to be relaxed and i was often tense, matter-of-fact and i was sometimes over the top.

and look how it all turned out. i wound up with the three people i like best in the world who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity.

that's what the books never told me. i was bound and determined to learn from the experts. it just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.

Friday, September 05, 2008

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:37:06 GMT

on a highway

i was driving down the edens expressway this morning, taking rye to his second day of junior kindergarten when a song perfectly intersected an interior moment. don't you love it when someone articulates it for you so beautifully?

highway ingrid michaelson

on a highway along the atlantic i'm rifling through these last 17 years.
the radio waxes romantic. it's lullabies fill our eyes with tears.

we don't say a word.
there's nothing to say that hasn't been heard.
and how you've grown my little bird.
i'm regretting letting you fly.

6 pounds and 7 ounces. a ball of bones and flesh and tears were you.
now your hands, your tiny pink hands, grew larger than my hands ever grew.

we don't say a word.
there's nothing to say that hasn't been heard.
and how you've grown my little bird.
i'm regretting letting you fly.
i'm regretting letting you fly.
i'm regretting letting you fly.

on a highway. on a highway.

Monday, September 01, 2008

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:28:48 GMT

ella's first plum

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:30:33 GMT

vintage glam

the fabulous dave won was the photographer for this wedding, so i'm expecting the usual amazing pics from him in a few weeks. in the meantime, i thought i'd put up the ones sitting in my camera before the august weddings start up.

the colors were ivory and white with blush pink accents as well as brushed silver and acrylic crystals to finish off the look. the ceremony was outdoor on a nice clearing up on a low hill and the reception in a tent that had a beautiful fabric ceiling and perfect vintage-looking chandeliers.

i was able to get blush peonies (at the end of july!) after a major mishap with the garden roses i originally ordered, which worked out great (but at a bit of a loss to me) and found a gorgeous blush rose, which not only has an exquisite color, but opens so flawlessly, i wanted to kiss them all week.

so all in all a great couple, a beautiful wedding and some wonderful finds.

and a huge shout out to kathy rubio! you have become so good and i so enjoy working with you! i hope you showed those pics to your mom to show off your mad skillz! and macdonald's never tasted so good, huh?

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:41:01 GMT

teasers

the mckenzie wedding

the koshy wedding

new life luncheon

the lee wedding

the song wedding

in case i don't put the full-ledged weddings up of these anytime soon, many thanks to sam and conneth for their assistance at the lee wedding. i know you're my brother, but i love your muscles: all your disciplined work outs are coming in handy, hehe. and connie, you're wonderful. you're so calm and easy-going, it makes everything not so crazy.

and thanks to sandy and kat rubio for the song wedding! everything looked so amazing because of you guys. thanks for all your hard work, your sure floral touch, the silliness and putting up with my spurts of anal-ness and craziness. you guys are so incredibly good at this stuff!

and last but not least, thanks to kenny nakai and dave won for always doing great work. i am always impressed. and so lucky they're so talented, hehe.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:44:17 GMT

university club of chicago

this is a wedding i did back in may. great chinese couple with a fun array of colors. the venue was really beautiful in that old collegiate/castle/mansion sort of way with an impressive view of millenium park across the street. all in all, i loved this wedding with all its colors and variety of flowers. the excellent photography is credited to the work of dave won. enjoy!

i'm still waiting on pictures of the bridal bouquet and centerpieces from the bride's photographer, so i'll be posting those later. i also need to give a huge shout out to cindy kang who is becoming a fixture at the vale of enna. she not only labors with me, but organizes my company in so many ways! thanks for wiring orchids until your fingers fell off from the cold (remember how freezing it was in my basement?) and for starving until our thai trip downstairs.

and another shout out to treece who was in town that weekend and loved us enough to help carry things and buy us cookies and drinks in between her friend's ceremony and reception (which was just across the street at the art institute). you, like always, are the best. i love you!