Wall of Wishes

For our wedding ceremony, we asked friends and family to mail us a quote, a wish or a blessing.  A few of them whether it was a quote or a personal note, we read outloud in the ceremony (picked out a few in the final hour that night before).  When we got home after the wedding, I finally opened a lot of the little scrolls of paper that guests themselves had brought for us and I was surprised and touched by so many of them.  Here's some favorites.

"Young lovers seek perfection. Old lovers learn the art of sewing shreds together and seeking beauty in a multiplicity of patches."
-from How to Make an American Quilt

"Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and difficult as that."
-Michael Leunig

"Love is that which holds us together... love is that which liberates us."
-Maya Angelou

"In the sweetness of friendship, let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things, the heart finds its morning and is refreshed."
-Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

"Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice.  Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet." 
-Tom Robbins

"When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start at soon as possible."
-Nora Ephron

"Marriage is a not a love affair.  A love affair is a totally different thing.  Marriage is a commitment to that which you are."
-Joseph Campbell

May you enjoy, together, the smell of fresh-cut grass, the warmth of each other's hands, the snores of your dogs gently slumbering, music that makes you want to dance, and the bounty of your table, both sweet and savory.

Ray Charles said "I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood.  It was a force within me." Thank you for sharing the music inside you, I hope you have found another of your parts in each other!

"The moon has become a dancer at this festival of love.  This dance of light, this sacred blessing, this divine love beckons us to a world beyond where only lovers can see with their eyes of fiery passion. They are the chosen ones who have surrendered."
-Jalaluddin Rumi

My wish for you to know:
the first stone's throw continues by stages
to grow into a rock of ages.

You're wished more than happy ever after. You're wished the kind of friendship that gets more fun the longer it lasts.

Let the happiness that you feel today stay in your hearts forever!

I argue thee that love is life, and life hath immortality.
-Emily Dickinson

We love without knowing how or when or from where. We love straightforwardly without complexities or pride; so we love because we know no other way than this.
-Pablo Neruda

and my favorite which just describes our day so well:

love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail

it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea

love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the last begin
less littler than forgive

it is most sane and sunly 
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky
e.e. cummings

Vancouver-ation

Our honeymoon vacation to Vancouver Island in British Columbia was easily the best vacation I've had in life to date.  Sure, we were running high on the good mood of just married, but it was also extremely beautiful scenery and extremely quiet there.  The first day, we took a ferry to Saturna Island which has a population of about 300 and there were just 12 people on our ferry.  A fellow passenger suggested we follow a "goat trail" sort of hike and we found a lonely tree swing there, a vineyard that was closed for the season, and dreamy redwood trees and ocean vistas.  After that, we hired a local floatplane pilot to give us a tour from the air, and within a minute of take-off we spotted orcas in the water.

The rest of the trip we spent at a really quiet B&B in the rainforest of Tofino, a surfer town just on the outskirts of the West Coast's Pacific Rim National Park.  And on our last day before flying home, we rented bikes in Vancouver city and spent Monday riding along the sea wall and redwood forest of Stanley Park.  It was pretty unbelievable.

I've been playing with the Incredibooth app on my phone a lot this year, which turns any location into an instant photobooth - it does a pretty amazing job with blurs and backgrounds.  I also have been finally getting familiar with instagram and you can find a sample of my photos from this trip on there.

reveal

Update on the Saavedra Wedding:

Our invitations went out June 4th and I wanted to share the cover here which is stunningly beautiful. 

Not the one above, but our invite is below.

My dear friend Acacia, a graphic designer I worked with for three years in Colorado offered to make these invitations for us, a combination of instructional and celebratory - they are perfect.

We had a visit to California on Memorial Day Weekend and checked it all out, confirming we are going to have a tiny ceremony on August 31st (yup, that's this year!) and a dinner afterwards at Argentinian- flavored Estrella in Paso Robles.
I really like to think this a low-maintenance wedding -- friends who have been through it assure me it never is.  We are aiming for as small / intimate / casual as it can be for such a big deal kind of event, knowing that there are still a lot of logistics to organize when we're not able to physically be at the sites ahead of time.

At right is a photo with my mom in her unconventional "mother of the bride" dress that we both love, from Boden.  More colors and wedding ideas are on my pinterest page.

Most things are done at this stage, surprisingly... and no one will be surprised if I hint that our souvenirs may involve music and may involve stickers, and may be a bit much on the way of effort involved...

Below are some photos of the site, Leffingwell Landing on Moonstone Drive in Cambria, which we really loved for the backdrop of ocean blue.

Beach Feet (beach-feet.com)

This blog has been silent ever since we adopted Buster in January!

Well, the house is very, very full of paw steps and wagging tails now.  I think they might be spoiled.

Every morning when one of us sniffles or moves a leg in bed, around 6 a.m., the dogs know the signs and you start to hear beating tails out in the hallway.  The moment our bedroom door opens, they come barreling down the hall and tackle us on the bed with hugs and kisses.  Buster has a tendency to use his paws and 'punch' us in the face but I think he's just trying to hold on to us the way we squeeze him.  It's the most joyous benefit of dog ownership, the overabundance of frolicking love and excitement in the morning and when you come home at the end of a day.

Boston had a too-long and very cold Winter, but we started to realize in February that taking the dogs to a dog park weekday mornings would keep them both exercised and less moody.  They seem to bond when they have off-leash time together.  In fact it was only after the first time I took them to the beach on Cape Cod in March, they finally decided they were willing to share the chair in our office (which is just the size for two dogs but AS you can tell, pictured, they usually they take turns on it).

Big news that has been spreading through my family and friends is Jose and I got engaged on March 15th, just before Saint Patrick's Day.  We were out at the Cape with the dogs on my favorite beach in Brewster with no one else in sight, and the dogs were way off exploring in the marshland.  We had no camera, no combed hair, no music playing, but just hugged each other in the joy of the moment.

We are rapidly building a wedding web site (updated: beach-feet.com) with details, meanwhile here is a photo Jose took of my emerald engagement ring, a gift from his business trip to Cartagena, Colombia in early March this year.

Above, me on the same beach in Brewster, age 2 1/2 or so.

Zzzzzzzzz

Happy New Year from a very sleepy household.

Introducing our new second dog... Price!
No... Bryce?
Brewster!
Elvis!
No...
Buster!
I think Buster is going to stay.

We found this little guy on Adopt-a-Pet Thanksgiving Day, he was listed as a "dead dog walking" from a shelter in Virginia... heartbreaking.  And his face just said it all.  This is why people gotta spay and neuter!  Anyway we talked it over, we hemmed and hawwed, we worried a lot, but I posted a request for transport on the wonderful, heroic Pilots n' Paws web site, and we found several pilots willing to deliver Price to us by New Year's.

He arrived this past Saturday night and he just sat as I hugged him in my lap for the 30 minute drive home.  We were careful to let Lucy and him approach each other from the side and sniff sniff sniff, not jump all over each other.  They seem to get along but are different personalities for sure.  Lucy is athletic and agile, often jumpy and reactive.  Buster is a rolly polly softie, he just likes to play with toys for a few minutes and then curl up and sleep.  It will take some time to see how they adjust but Lucy so far has gotten mellower in the first two days.  Just to be safe, they have a balance of time together and time apart.  But we all snuggle together first thing in the morning.

A whole year more incrediblerer

My friend Amy gave me this card for my birthday last year. And yep, it was serendipidous. I don't think I will soon forget the year 2013.

Since buying my house last year, all the pieces in my life fit so much better. José moving to Boston a year ago was one of my life's best twists -- a happy ending.  We are often still surprised by how natural the transition felt.
Facing History has similarly felt like a puzzle piece solved, it's a high expectations job with relaxed non-profit culture and excellent benefits.  There are always new projects and always new little nuances.  Effective January in the new year, I was promoted to Assistant Director and I feel very blessed to have a job with a full week paid vacation at Christmas, many holidays and occassional days to work from home (especially in snowy weather).

And speaking of settling into new homes, José and I both wanted to adopt a dog ASAP all year, and we are so happy to have waited for the right weekend to find Lucy, who is the most adoring, cuddly little monster when she's on our laps, but is an absolute rebel, acting fiesty and fierce when she's out in the world. 

Because of her fiesty-ness, we were lucky to find a fantastic dogwalker Stephanie who takes Lucy for twice a week playdates with another wildly-happy puppy.  She also made Lucy this Gwen Stefani-would-approve dog sweater (and yes, Stephanie has an etsy store).

 

Here's a few updates since I last wrote:

We ate out at the Legal Sea Foods Harborside for Thanksgiving Day to celebrate a year since José visited Boston.  This 'Merry' oyster was about half the size of my face.  It may be untraditional Thanksgiving, but the lobster pizza and the fish n' chips there are unmatched!

Christmas was wonderful and relaxed - we cooked a delcious home-cooked meal of arepas, pork shoulder, butternut squash and blueberry pie for dessert on Christmas Day.

...the weekend beforehand we drove out to Cape Cod where we Lucy ran free on the beach with almost no one around.  The weather was in the mid 50's, shockingly high for Winter.

I sent my mom a photo of her christmas cookie seeing its last moments (before Nom Nom Nom) at the beach. Her buttery snicker-doodles are always happily munched on.

Lucy went a little crazy at having the Chatham, Eastham and Brewster beaches to herself.

In late October, I took a week off of work to spend with my sister visiting from California and my cousin Dorota (who we had encountered last year in Losie, Poland!) who visited from the UK.  The fall colors were high 'in bloom' and it was a really nice time for all of us together.

Even though it's not a dog-friendly walk, José and I find ourselves walking in the gorgeous Mt. Auburn Cemetery every season of the year to see how it's changed.  The tail-end of autumn was definitely the prettiest and we happened to walk there at the best time -- just at dusk when leaves were still wet from rain but it had stopped raining.


(sigh)
Lucy is a handful of puppy, but the plus side is we are learning a lot of discipline ourselves in learning to teach her consistency and comfort (on walks, she is often acting as if she just heard a firecracker go off - antsy and on high-alert).  Whenever she is super sleepy in our presence, I find myself taking pictures to remember the moment!

How bout a Whoodle Doodle?

I was applying for pet insurance today and when I selected "mixed breed", it prompted a drop down with these choices:

Bagel

Beabull

Bichpoo

Cavachon

Cavapoo

Cockapoo

Chorkie

Dorgie

Dorkie

Frenchie

Goldendoodle

Havashu

Jug

Labradoodle

Mal-shi

Maltipoo

Morkie

Pom-a-nauze

Pomapoo

Puggle

Shnoodle

Sharpoo

Shih-poo

Whoodle

Woodle

Yoodle

Yorkipoo

You can't make this stuff up.  Why are there no dalmatian or weimaraner mixes in there?  Surely a Pugaweim or Daschmatian sound cool. Jose was joking that he wants to tell people who ask that she's a Djablome Haywood mix (wait for it) but... all we know is she's just a wired pointer-pup.

Fall La La La La

We have been spoiled with warm weather this September and October, and are trying to soak it in with lots of time outdoors on the weekends.  Lucy has been fun to take along on road trips, but she loves to "hot box" the car which is hysterical, especially to listen to Jose complain about the smell and open the windows constantlyy.  She's also a bit of a frenzy on a leash when it comes to seeing other dogs, so we're working with her on improving behavior a lot.

Here's some photos of adventures this past year.

Jose kayaking under the Zikam Bridge during a guided tour of the harbor and river. We cracked up about learning that we don't need to share a double kayak ever again:

We've been really into pancakes and coffee on the porch on the weekends:

Boston's little ducklings were supporting the home team in June

Sol Lewitt murals at the Mass MOCA museum:

I loved this little non-art exhibit at the MOCA, below:

Lucy at Fresh Pond just a day or two after we first adopted her, eye on the squirrel:

One of my favorite hikes is World's End in Hull where a New England forest directly meets the ocean... it took us three attempts to get Lucy there in weekend rush hour (first time she peed in the car, second time she barfed in the car...oh, the joys) but we made it last Sunday:

 Way up in New Hampshire, not far from where we adopted Lucy:

 and at the entrance to Franconia Notch State Park, NH:

Let Lucy Come Over

Wulp.

We have a wiggly waggidy puppy and boy does she ever love to be the center of attention.

We found this little sweetie through a friend's recommendation of a humane society in Conway, New Hampshire next to the White Mountains.  So she came with a bonus little roadtrip!  She is a pointer mutt, and seems a little pit bull or boxer in the ears, but we don't know her exact muttiness. She is incredibly bright and observant, joyful in playfulness, and just the right size (bigger than a beagle but smaller than a lab). We thought we were getting an "adult" with her being 19 months but it was clear from the first few days that she's a puppy all the way (probably for another six months). She needs a long walk every night and a lot of chewing, but Jose and I look forward to that walk at the end of the work day.

I trade off every other day being cool and happy with this, with feeling overwhelmed from puppy drama, behavior training, and errands/shopping lists.  But we had both been sighing and staring with longing eyes at dogs whenever we went outside the house for the past six months... it was time we gave one a home.

feeling amelie

I have been going through the annoying administrative task this week of upgrading my phone to an iphone and updating/syncing/fixing the address book contacts for 3 days now, plus all the apps and music and photos and everything, but finally when I got to the fun part -- ring tones -- today and was looking for tunes to wake me up in the morning, I realized that La Valse d'Amélie is exactly where I am right now. Very happy times.

I've been accussed of sometimes not taking enough people pictures on vacation.  Here's a few photos from a really beautiful visit home in early June to see family and friends including Dad and sister below.

Love in the air

A few photos of the "To Boston With Love" quilts which debuted at the MFA last weekend.  These little valentines from around the world brought joy and cheer to Memorial Day weekend and remind me a lot of the patterned Rex Ray raindrops that wallpaper my twitter page.

from mfa.org:To Boston With Love is an installation of more than 1600 hand-sewn flags created by quilters from nearly every state in the US and from countries around the world. They convey inspirational messages of love, peace, and hope and highlight iconic Boston images.  The project was a grass-roots effort conceived by Berene Campbell of Vancouver, Canada, and organized locally by Amy Friend of West Newbury.