Anjolee Jewelry Review

Last Thursday I received a surprise in the mail. It was a box containing the Anjolee heart pendant I had won earlier this month. I was thinking to myself if I could wear it to the Fox with my newly acquired native birds dress, my day would be made!

Anyway, the necklace was shipped via UPS in a bag that contained a white box that contained a very pretty wooden jewelry box containing my very pretty pendant on a gorgeous silver chain.


I believe it took the necklace approximately 2 weeks to find itself on my doorstep.

I really enjoyed wearing this necklace the last two or three times I've worn it. I was worried about the pendant being too big, but it wasn't! My only complaint is that the pendant would get stuck on the chain... always right next to the clasp... and it would take me forever to move the clasp back to the back of my neck.

Overall, the necklace was really pretty and fun to wear. Obviously I do not have the diamond version like what you might order on Anjolee, but, based on what I have, if you are looking for a simple piece of jewelry to go with a dress or even a pair of jeans, this necklace is definitely a fun addition. I'm not sure I would pay upwards of $500 for it, but I don't have the real necklace. It makes it hard to determine the value. Just know that Anjolee does an awesome job at making sure whatever you order from them gets to you and the presentation in it's beautiful wooden box is just the icing on the cake!

Etsy Dress Finds

Knowing how expensive and time consuming dress shopping is for one's wedding, I decided to share my wedding 'find of the week'. I am absolutely IN LOVE with these beautiful 1950's vintage dresses I found on Etsy.



If you are as much in love with the 1950's style dresses as I am, I would suggest going to check out the Mill Street Vintage shop on Etsy for even more options! Also, try searching Etsy for more vintage/unique/handmade options for your wedding. You never know what you will find!

Music Compilation

I know that when I was getting married I had a hard time finding music that would fit the moment just right. Check out this list of music choices from Project Wedding if you need some help. While I don't agree with all of their choices, it is something to get you started. (See my post here on my music pet peeve.)

A Busy Week...

Last week Justin and I had a very busy week including a meet-up on Wednesday night with the creators of the NPR radio show How to Do Everything. I don't know what exactly we were hoping to learn how to do. However, we did learn how to eat fried donuts as dessert with caramel on top. Yum!

That particular night at the meet-up Mike Danforth offered Justin and I (as well as a few others) some free tickets to the Thursday night recording of Wait, Wait, Don't tell Me at the fabulous Fox Theatre. I had already agreed to babysit on Thursday night, so while we were able to attend the show (Who wouldn't want to go to the Fox?!), we were almost an hour late. :(

Afterwards, we went to Brickstore for some salad and bread. (Not your typical after-show dinnerfare location or even the typical food to be gotten at Brickstore.) We enjoyed our time of calm.

Finally, on Friday, we found ourselves watching my favorite children ever. Justin had them baking French bread and watching Alton Brown use sock puppets to explain how bread was made in Good Eats.  (Can you imagine kids watching a cooking show?!) He tried to get them to watch Julia Child, but she didn't use sock puppets (i.e. she was boring).

Other things we did over the weekend included cleaning, organizing, bug-spraying, and Justin cooking chicken and dumpling soup (among other things). Can you believe we are still organizing nearly 6 months after moving into this house? Yet we are. I blame our newlywed status and inability to really afford anything.

Anthro Haul

I can never resist sharing my awesome finds from Anthro., but really can you blame me? Anthropologie is not the cheapest of stores, but what they sale tends to be more 'artsy', 'creative', and EVERYBODY (well, mostly females) loves it. Justin loves that the clothes are well made. My mother wishes she had clothes that fit like the dresses I buy from Anthro. My grandmothers think the home decor is awesome.

Recently Justin and I have started looking at the cookbooks from Anthro.

We won Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream during a giveaway, but it is currently on sale at Anthro. so you may want to check it out. It has awesome reviews on Amazon!


Justin and I made the cherry chocolate ice cream from the book for Justin's dad's birthday this weekend. While it was absolutely delicious, we couldn't get it to 'set'. We're going to try another recipe from the book again soon. We may have been in too much of a hurry. Recipes I'd love to try from the book include: strawberry balsamic ice cream, blood orange sorbet, and maple walnut ice cream among others.


We also recently purchase The Good Life by Adrian Richardson. Adrian Richardson, it seems has a tv show in Australia. He is also really big into cooking meat (which you may not surmise from the cover). Apparently he and Justin both believe that a happy animal is the best tasting kind of animal (i.e. one without growth hormones, one that eats grass and grows naturally). Of course, they also both agree that alligator, rabbit, quail, and pigeons taste good (or would taste good). *shrugs*

I guess what got me excited about this cookbook (beyond the delicious looking comfort foods that I could get behind making) was the graphic design. There is a really awesome bookmark that comes with the book that looks like the tablecloth on the front of the book. It is really crazy and makes you feel like you could have cooked that delicious pie on the cover. The book is hardcover, and the pictures of the food frame the text and recipes. I love that the images aren't overly saturated in color. And the best part: the book is FULL (to the brim!) of images! I hate cookbooks without pictures; they make me sad! :(

We got some gifts for my grandmother which I don't really feel like I can post online without sharing with more people than I want to. We also got some bathroom 'cutes' that they no longer have for sale at the Anthro. website. A soap dish and a toothbrush holder in a lovely turquoise with some intricate floral scrolling. Very pretty. (Justin picked it out. He didn't like the cheap, also turquoise, toothbrush holder I had gotten from Kohl's. *shrug*)

Overall, my favorite thing we got from Anthro. this weekend (or actually, last night) was the Native Birds dress.


I'm planning on wearing this dress to my cousin's outdoor wedding in October. I think. Maybe. I've been watching and waiting for this dress to go on sale since July!! When I went to the first Anthro. store yesterday, I was informed they were out of my size. The store sales associate told me I could order it, but I really wanted to try it on before purchasing. She told me she had the dress and loved it! She also told me that the dress was true-to-size, which I found to be true when we located the dress at another location. I couldn't believe that the guy helping me in the dressing room remembered who I was from a previous trip to Anthro. and gave me advice as to what type of belt to purchase to 'jazz' up this dress. (Talk about amazing sales associates!)

I also tried on the Jacquard Circle Skirt dress, which I knew we couldn't afford.


Let me just mention how absolutely awesome this dress truly is! I really didn't think I would like it on me. I tend to have issues with circle necks; they just don't look right on me. I also thought I would hate the sleeves, but they look really elegant. This dress truly looks like something right out of the 1950's era with the huge circle skirt. I love the model in the picture above; I think she looks a bit like Audrey Hepburn in the dress. :)

So yeah... Go check out your local Anthropologie store if you are interested in any of the things I mentioned above. In the case with the cookbooks, you can get them cheaper at Anthro. than you can get them online right now! (Huge plus!) And who doesn't like clothes on sale? ;)

Favors or Cake Toppers?

Check out Rue la la!



I think some of these swarovski crystals would be such a fun cake topper or to use as reception decor. Besides, I can hardly resist anything sparkly!!!


They also have some really fun macarons that are bright and colorful. Can you imagine putting these on a table as favor for guests to take home? What about as an addition to your dessert table? Such bright colors to offset your wedding cake and make it beautiful!

Act soon if you are interested though. Rue la la sales don't last very long!

Fads or Awesome Ideas?

Just out of curiosity, would you have all of your wedding photography taken with an iPhone and edited with Instagram? What about playing your favorite musician singing songs from the jazz era? It's crazy what you discover when looking at wedding sites. Who does this?!

My biggest concern is that the couple who chose to have their photos taken with the iphone may someday regret that they don't have high resolution images. ... I would love to have been the photographer, however! Yay for light equipment that fits in your pocket!!! I think a better alternative for the couple would have been for the photographer to shoot using a fancy camera (like the Canon 5d mk2) and then put the images through instagram. Just my thoughts.

As for the music? Umm... I do love Arctic Monkeys version of "Baby I'm Yours", so I can see where it would be fun to play musicians singing older songs. I'm just not certain I would play it so that everyone is happy. Lucky for Justin and I, I knew going into the wedding that the majority of our friends and my grandparents (and probably his) enjoyed jazz music. The only people I wouldn't be making happy preferred rock, and I just decided I couldn't please everyone. Too few people were picky enough to make a difference to me (even though one was my dad!).

So if you are up for going along with the fads of the time... Congratulations! Enjoy your instagram pictures and "fake" rock/jazz music. It is your wedding! Just try to think about how you will feel after the day is over... and whether or not making everyone happy or paying a lot of money for instagram photos will make you happy in 20 some odd years. If not, you may need to rethink a thing or two.