Trashin'

On Sunday, the hubs and I will finally be doing our Trash the Dress photoshoot with our favorite local photographer, Studio by Carmen. She did my boudoir photos as well as my bridal shower photos and I couldn't love her more. She's just an amazing person with great ideas that makes you feel so comfortable in front of a camera. I am extremely excited.

For those of you that don't know what a Trash the Dress shoot is, it is a photoshoot where the bride gets her dress dirty, wet or destroyed - based on the level of trashing you may wish to partake in. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), I will not be using my actual dress as it was a Monique Lhuillier and I just can't bear myself to do that to a gorgeous ML gown. Plus, I'm still trying my best to sell it, which is proving to be very difficult. So I bought an affordable dress a few months ago from my favorite store in the world, Target. You can never go wrong with Tar-jay, my friends.

We are shooting at Crandon Beach, which is located in Key Biscayne. I didn't pick it that much for the beach as for the surrounding areas. There are gardens that used to be the site for the old Miami Zoo, which is covered in vintage animal cages. Can you say cool? Also, there is a fun kids' playing area and a roller rink. Finally, the best part of it is a carousel!

With our 4:30pm meet time, I hope we have enough time to get all the shots I have imagined! I'll definitely share them with you on the blog once we get some teasers back. Pray for good weather and clean water!!!

Have a great weekend, everyone :)

Wii Therapy

I think Mario Kart owns my soul.
If you want to kart with me, here's my number:
3823 9889 8951

"Let's play a VS race!!!"

Music Spotlight: Mute Math

It's time for another music spotlight.
Maybe I should make this a weekly ritual?
What do you guys think?

Mute Math.

They are ridiculously amazing. At first I thought they were just a regular rock band, one in a million. Then our good friend, Chris, told us to come see them live. It completely blew me away. Not only do they have the most energy I have EVER seen on a stage (well, besides the Foo Fighters), but they were amazingly talented. Since then, we have seen them 2 more times and I hope the number keeps growing. I really encourage all of you to listen to their stuff, but highly recommend seeing them live - it is about a gazillion times more fulfilling than listening to their album.

Now, their album has been out for a good 2 years so I was itching for some new material - even commented this to the hubs a couple of weeks ago, and then today he emails me a link to the band's youtube account. Seems they are in the process of recording a new album and have compiled some viral videos to help promote it. They are pretty outstanding.



They really seem to be pushing their style to new levels this time around, so I can't wait to see what the final product is like!

I wanna rock!

*god, I hate my floors.

So my birthday is on July 29th, but will be celebrated on the 26th. I have always wanted to have a costume party, but didn't think anyone would actually dress up. Well, this year I took a poll via Myspace asking people if they would dress up if I were to have a costume party and I got a pretty unanimous yes. Ever since that day, I have been planning my rockstar birthday party. Never mind that I am turning 27 and not 16 - you are never too old to rock, right?

First I figured I'd just be a generic rockstar and I found these glorious American Apparel zebra leggings that I could not resist. Hello, how awesome are they???? Plus they went perfectly with my new Steve Madden pumps. I just had to find a top. A top that matched with freaking zebra leggings - not very easy to find. I settled on a black tunic/dress from American Apparel as well. By the way, if any of you are fans of American Apparel, but not of their ridiculous price tags (like me!), check out the following ebay seller. Whenever I'm feeling the AA bug, I just check out what she has in her store and my wallet remains happy. OK, OK, I'll stop promoting now. Back to the story.

So my next step was a wig. You know I had to have some crazy ass hair to match my crazy ass leggings. I was thinking something black and drastic. When I brought this up to my friends, they all looked at me like I was insane. All of them told me I had to dress up as Gwen Stefani. You see, I have a little obsession with my little lamb, Gwen. It stems back from when I was an angsty 14 year old watching her I'm Just A Girl video, which upon viewing again is hysterically awful. Then I had a falling out with the Gwenster when I discovered she was dating my boyfriend at the time, Gavin Rossdale. That bitch. Then I came to terms with their cuteness and embraced her again. It has really been a rollercoaster ride of a relationship, but we continue to go strong.

So Gwen. Really? Would Gwen wear zebra leggings? My friends replied "why not" and I went with it. I purchased my blonde wig off Ebay, which unfortunately won't be here for awhile as it shipped from my dear Australia (another obsession to cover at another time). I hope I don't look like a moron.

Now I'm busy planning decor. My friends were generous enough to offer their brand spankin' new penthouse loft in Downtown Miami, which fits perfectly with the decadent rockstar theme. I've been busy marking things as "watched" on Ebay and scouring party supply websites. I blame all of this on wedding withdrawal. Now I feel like I should have something big to plan (party wise) at least once a year. Geez, I went into the wrong field.

Bedroom Revisited.

So I finally switched our West Elm duvet cover for one of our wedding registry gifts: a Crate & Barrel bed quilt.
I thought it was so adorable and had that fun pop of color in the swirls that feeds my need for brightness. But now that I made the switch, I noticed that our bedroom looks so dark and gloomy. There is way too much dark brown going on! Not even the swirls are helping!

I was thinking of finding some cute & brightly colored decorative pillows to throw in the mix. What do you guys think? Will that bring a little more life back into our room? Any other tips or pointers? Please keep in mind that when we lay down our floors in a few months, they are going to be very dark as well.

ps; Yes, my dog thinks he owns our bed. Yes, we know that's a problem. No, we are not addressing it. ;)

Patio Furniture

So my next home projects are the bedroom and our patio, which needs a lot of work.

The hubs vehemently disagrees. He states that "no one goes out there," which I think is the reason it needs to be updated! If we had a patio with such bright and fun pieces as these from Lebello, everyone would want to be back there.

But that's just me ;)

Coldplay

So I just downloaded Coldplay's newest album, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, and I am completely impressed.

I have to admit, I was never really convinced with Coldplay. I didn't really understand why so many people raved about them, they were always just "alright" to me. They seemed to be copying U2's signature style and weren't all that great during live performances (at least on TV). I enjoyed X&Y for probably a week and then got really bored. I fell in love with "Til Kingdom Come" not knowing it was Coldplay and then discovered it was originally written for Johnny Cash and probably the reason it didn't sound like anything else in their library.

Then I saw the the infamous itunes commercial with their new single, Viva La Vida, and I turned to the hubs and admitted it was a pretty rad song. As usual, they sounded sub par at the MTV Movie Awards so I was kind of turned off again. This afternoon I decided to download the new album and give it a go and here I am, hitting repeat on the album for the 3rd time. I can't help myself, it's great. They seemed to have found their own sound on this record, no longer sounding overly U2-ish (even though now they seem to sound a little more Beatles-esque).

It can be a little overly dramatic with lengthy epic sounding songs like "Yes!", but I can't really complain. Afterall, I can't say much - I'm a psychotic Smashing Pumpkins fan and we all know how much Billy Corgan loves his 10+ minute epics.

I recommend "Strawberry Swing" and "Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love" - so far they are my favorites. "Life in Technicolor" is also a gorgeous instrumental.



So what do you guys think about Coldplay?

Pop.gay.

Your new music is POP GAY!
Oh man, I'm probably the only one that finds this hilarious, but I do.

I'm also about to open up a Myspace account to see if Gavin really does respond to every single one of his messages. He's such a liar. I am going to have to catch his attention with a shocking subject title. TWAT. Yes, that's a good one. And British to boot.

I'll keep you all abreast.

Update: He wasn't lying. OMG. I am trying very hard not to bust out into a full fledged fangirl episode. Very.hard.

Pearl Jam | Kings of Leon Concert

On Wednesday, Augi and I along with my in-laws went to see Pearl Jam live at the Cruzan Amphitheater in West Palm Beach. It was a very generous gift from my father-in-law who shares the same love for live music as his two kids. We were also celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday.

Kings of Leon opened and I was blown away. I've always loved KOL, but wasn't so sure how they would perform live mainly due to the singer's unique voice. Wow, they were amazing. Completely went above my expectations. I hope they come on their own tour nearby soon because I would love to see them headlining. They definitely left me wanting more.


*sorry for the shaky video, trying to dance and film at the same time apparently doesn't work.

Pearl Jam started off a little slow mostly due to the fact that they played all their new stuff. Augi and I both didn't recognize any of it. But all of a sudden they kicked it into high gear with I believe Even Flow and that was the end of it. We were all singing at the top of our lungs and dancing around. It was freaking fabulous and a total 90's flashback, which all of you know I love. They played two encores and eventually had the house lights turned on them - I really thing they would have kept playing otherwise. It was just a great show. It would have been a freaking amazing show had it not been at that amphitheater. I really really detest that place, but everyone goes there so I have no other choice but to go time and time again. The lawn is gross, people are up in your business, everything is $500 (exaggeration) and the acoustics SUCK.

Sorry to get off on my I-hate-Cruzan Amphitheater-tirade, but I just had to put it out there.
But back to the show. It was glorious. Check out some of the video I was able to get:





Unfortunately, this marked the end of my summer concert series for now. I am hoping some more amazing bands stop by soon. I'm currently playing the watch & wait game with Stone Temple Pilots. They just announced a show in August at the Hard Rock, but I'm waiting for ticket info. I saw them about 6 years back for free on South Beach and they were ridiculously good. I hope I'll be able to see them again!

I Wist.

So I stumbled upon the most genius idea on the web a couple of weeks ago and it's called Wists.

What is a wist, you say?
Well, it is toted as being "social shopping." It is basically an online wishlist that you can post to your blog that works similar to adding a bookmark.

And I have discovered this genius tool at the most perfect time:
A little over a month before my birthday!!!

So I've been busy collecting items and filling out my wist page. Soon it'll be robust enough to be posted on my sidebar, but for now I leave you with a link.

The only downside I see to this service is that you cannot add any items off of Crate & Barrel and/or CB2. Ew. Not a fan of that. Especially since I have so many wishful items on both of those sites. But gift cards are always welcome! ;)

Weekend Roundup!

So this weekend was very home-oriented.
Or rather, bathroom-oriented.

When we moved in, we ripped out the hideously 70's Master Bath and well....just never redid it! So we've had a huge gaping hole for almost 3 years now. Horrible, we know. We thought it was about time.

Thanks to IKEA, we now have a pretty kick ass bathroom if I may say so myself. It was a lot of hard work, but it definitely paid off. Next we were thinking of painting the walls a very light mint green. What do you guys think?

AOL Sessions

This is a ridiculously amazing acoustic version of Bush's Letting the Cables Sleep that was performed by Gavin during AOL sessions. Now this needs to be released!!!!

Wedding Movie

My fabulous videographer, Artistry Wedding Films, sent me a link to my wedding movie this afternoon. I was warned not to watch it until my DVD arrives tomorrow, but I have no self control. I saw the email on my iphone while driving home and sped the rest of the way to park myself in front of my computer and watch.

I was definitely not disappointed. The video is freaking a-ma-zing. It managed to capture the exact emotions I felt that day, but had forgotten. It was great to see all the special people in our lives and their reactions to our day. Little things like guests laughing at what we had written in our programs about the bridal party, parents crying during the ceremony and people really getting down and dirty on the dance floor.

It was just such a special day and I realized that it really was the happiest day of my life so far. Everything I felt that day was so amplified - my little heart was filled with so much love. For all those brides-to-be reading this blog, I can honestly say without any doubt in my heart that it is worth all the stress. Trust me.

And without further ado, I present my wedding movie. I warn you, it is about 40 minutes long, so get comfortable.

http://wms3.streamhoster.com/artistry/Meli&AugiMovie2.wmv

We will pump. You up.

For the first time in my 26 years, I have joined a gym.
24 Hour Fitness to be exact. Here's to hoping I can get my ass in gear and in shape. We are planning to take a cruise in November for our one year anniversary so I definitely have to be in perfect bikini shape by then! Now I just need to buy workout clothes and sneakers.

For those of you that are interested in how our Dharma labels came out last week for the Lost season finale, you can see them here. How fabulous was that Season Finale? Three words: Des & Penny!!!!!! Squee!