A swoonworthy vintage wedding

I'm swooning over the vintage wedding of Zola and Derick. Her dress is one of the prettiest, well-fitting vintage gowns I've ever seen, and I've been loving this new trend of the photo frame wall (anyone want to build me one of these?).

The wedding is posted all across the blogosphere here, here and here.

David Hockney's New Work

A bit of eye candy for you on a rainy morning (at least on the East Coast): David Hockney's newest work, spotted at NY Mag.

Hockney is known for his pastel-colored portraits of life in L.A. in the 60s and 70s, but recently moved back to his native England. I think these new paintings look like the English countryside as if it were Oz; beautiful, fanciful, yet based in realism. I really love his new direction, and it's great when any artist keeps pushing himself to find new inspirations.

Wedding Hairpin

I originally planned to keep my wedding attire a bit of a secret so you'd be surprised when the real day comes along. But maybe because it's my birthday week, or because I've been such a neglectful blogger, I really really can't wait to show you.

This week, I received my custom wedding hairpin from K. Autumn. It was the one thing I knew I wanted when I got engaged; I had bookmarked her site years ago when I first read about her work.

My piece came Saturday morning, beautifully packaged in a brown box with a stamped raspberry ribbon.

Which I opened to find ... my hairpin! We worked together to pick the colors and stones; she sent me swatches, I shared my likes and dislikes and a little over 2 months later, I had this in hand.

It arrived on its own little pouf, which will protect it while it stays in its box for the next 11 months.

Many, many people are making feather hairpieces right now, but I have never seen craftsmanship like this. The layers are stitched together to a leather base, which includes a little circle of leather to absorb the impact of the clip. The clip itself is immobile; once it's on the head, it's on.

The pin features guinea feathers, hand-dyed cloth flower, semiprecious gemstones wired to the fabric so they won't move, along with white ostrich and peacock feathers.

SNEAK PEEK: This is what it will look like in my hair .... except better.

I knew I wanted something like this for three main reasons:

1. This is an heirloom piece. I hope some daughter or granddaughter or great-granddaughter of mine will want to inherit this. If not, I'll frame it. It's that beautiful.
2. I could see myself wearing this again, for an anniversary or a special event.
3. It seemed very French, very high-fashion, very Isabella Blow, one of my fashion icons when I was a little kid growing up in Southwest Virginia, watching Fashion TV on Saturday mornings.

Now savor this peek! It's the only one you'll get in terms of my actual attire and you only get that because Sean saw it; I gotta keep some secrets!

ALSO: All of the posts that deal directly with our wedding, rather than weddings in general, have been tagged "Our Wedding."

Smoked Gouda BBQ Bagels

So one day I wandered into The Fresh Market, looking to kill time before a meeting. I wasn't planning on buying anything beyond a Donna Hay magazine (an indulgence!), but I passed the cheese section and smoked gouda was calling my name.

I didn't really have a plan for the gouda beyond slicing it up with crackers for a snack, but the next night I came home and wanted a small dinner, something kind of noshy. No, that's not a word, but it describes what I wanted.

I evaluated what we had: plain bagels, bacon and smoked gouda. Hmmmm.

So I grated some of that gouda up and fried up some bacon:

I figured my little pizza bagel needed a sauce, so I considered the flavors of bacon and smoked gouda and went with my Gates BBQ sauce.

I topped the mixture with some thyme and popped it in the oven at 450 until the cheese bubbled.

And oh man, was this concoction tasty! I had the same thing two days later. It was really simple, but a different combination of flavors, which made it interesting.

I still have some gouda left. What should I do with it? Gimme your favorite gouda suggestions.

Rachel Comey Leopard Dress

Doesn't this look like the leopard print dress, as designed by Warhol? I love the graphic pop of the leopard spots against a pink background. This dress is actually designed by Rachel Comey, and is available at Creatures of Comfort for $437.

Sunday Best v.1

Love this picture! This is a shot by The Sartorialist, Scott Schuman, of his girlfriend, Garance Dore taking a picture of a stylish girl on the street. Life imitating art, non?

Many other bigger and better and more renown bloggers do this, but because I have been a lazy blogger of late, I thought it would be nice to share some of my favorite tidbits of the week. Most bloggers run these round-ups on Fridays, but lazy Sundays are about the only time I have to post these days, so I'm going to call this feature "Sunday Best" and hopefully it will keep my five devoted readers sated!

Sunday Best

1. A gorgeous wedding dress for $194!

2. Still loving the Bauhaus-style jewelry from I. Ronni Kappos.

3. Gorgeous Family Trees, via Design Sponge.

4. Loving that journalists still come to blows over weak writing.

5. Had an amazing sandwich at The Cheese Shop, my first trip there in years. If you've never been, it's a must-stop.

6. Stopped into Williamsburg at Home, a decor store with WILLIAMSBURG licensed products. Never thought of Colonial style as my thing, but I was drooling over the ticking stripe bedskirt.

7. In honor of Sesame Street's 40th anniversary, I give you an old favorite: Luis and Maria ballroom dancing. I almost cried when I found this; such a cherished memory!

8. If you're in the Tidewater area, go check out a very cool Warhol exhibit at the Muscarelle.

9. Sean's beard has a fan club.

10. Speaking of which, bemoan the horrific Redskins season with my beloved over at his blog, Eat Sleep Redskins.

I promise to be a better blogger! I'm officially getting my stuff together this week. Seriously.

Pottery Barn Paper Chandelier

I spy ... the perfect chandelier for a word-themed wedding between two journalists.

This desk-meets-decorative piece is the Wakefield Chandelier, $299 at Pottery Barn.

Shoshona Snow Ornaments

How fabulous are these $16 porcelain ornaments by Shoshona Snow? I love the graphic quality of white-on-black, the pops of color and the versatility. This could work on any tree, I think.

This will be the first year Sean and I decorate a tree and I have no idea what we're going to do. I have my single-gal ornaments + my childhood family ornaments. I'm pretty positive Sean doesn't have one.

I also keep flip-flopping on real tree vs. fake. I LOOOOOVE real trees, but I know us, and we are the types of people who would have pine needles everywhere and a brown tree in our living room long after Dec. 25. Things to ponder, for sure.

Coats for a Winter Bride

I just got the gorgeous winter Anthropologie catalog and as always, folded down half the pages to remember the things I liked. These cute little jackets struck me as the perfect cover ups for a winter bride — the first is for the Betty Draper in all of us, the second is for the Joan Holloway inside us all.

Stork Club Jacket, $168.

Wassailing Jacket, $168.

Wifey Dearest

I must apologize for my spottiness in posting, which I plan to remedy. I tend to get overwhelmed with the blues when daylight savings time hits and it's the only excuse I can offer for my general crankiness as of late.

I present a one-act play, based on events of the previous night:

Amber decides to be nice to her much-beleagured future husband, Sean, and hopes to make him spaghetti with meat sauce. Earlier in the day, Sean was sent to the grocery store with a list that specifically requested a can of crushed tomatoes with basil. She opens the cupboard to find prepared pasta sauce, labeled "Newman's Own: Tomato and Basil." There is no can of crushed tomatoes.

Amber: What is this? What the hell is this?
Sean: Crushed tomatoes.
Amber: What? No it's not. This isn't what I asked for!
Sean: Yes it is. It has crushed tomatoes in it and basil.
Amber: This is NOT what I wanted. This is prepared marinara.
Sean: No it's not.
Amber: YES IT IS. I KNEW YOU COULDN'T BE TRUSTED.
Sean: You said crushed tomatoes with basil! They didn't have any crushed tomatoes with basil!

Amber storms off to the computer to visit the Hunt's Web site. Guess what? They don't have crushed tomatoes with basil.

Needless to say, I was in the foulest mood and was flipping out for no discernible reason. Have we all been there, ladies? Please tell me we have! It was like a scene out of "Mommie Dearest," but replace "No more wire hangers!" with "Crushed tomatoes" and you've got me.

I apologized and I'm hoping to take a Chill Pill.