Scenes from the best day ever.

J. Crew, marriage vows, sparklers and cigarettes.

weddings and things.

In less than 48 hours my oldest sister is getting married. The past couple months have been an insane whirlwind of making seating charts, decorating place cards and testing wedding cake frosting. It's weird that after Saturday it's going to be done. As excited as I am about this wedding and as happy as I am about getting such an amazing brother in law who has really become part of our family, it's strange to think that Hannah is going to be married, she'll have a husband and a new family and she'll like be an adult and shit. It's hard to explain but it just feels very weird.

I am pretty sure I shall not be having a wedding. Not to say that I won't get married, but the whole wedding thing is a little too intense for me. I think I'll have like a picnic with 9 people or something like that. I don't need colour schemes and appetizer menus.

I am excited though, it's going to be a beautiful wedding, I was kind of kind of dubious of the idea of having the reception in the barn but it really turned out lovely. I shall post photos at some point. My dad's family arrived today and my mother's crazy scottish family get here tomorrow. I don't think we've ever had both sides of the family together before (except for maybe at my parents wedding) so this is going to be great.


I need to wake up early to help arrange bouquets so I'm going to sleep now.

The Velveteen Rabbit

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

Today I got some sad news.

Rest in peace Bethan. I wish I would have had the opportunity to know you better but I always enjoyed the conversations we did have. You were such a sweet girl and will be missed by everyone you knew. No one at school will ever forget you.

When I wake up with 24 dollars and a full tank of gas . . .

More quotes to think on

I love Children's books. I think they are full of wisdom. (I want a tattoo connected to "where the wild things are" but I am not entirely sure I will still want it when I'm 50 so I'm holding off for now.)  I believe that things said to children are usually way more insightful than anything that's ever said to adults. 

 

Observe:

 

 

Charles Schulz 

 “I love mankind; it's people I can't stand.”

“If I were given the opportunity to present a gift to the next generation, it would be the ability for each individual to learn to laugh at himself.”           

 “I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time.”

 “I think I've discovered the secret of life - you just hang around until you get used to it.”

 "In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back."

 “To live is to dance, to dance is to live.”

 “That's the secret to life . . . replace one worry with another.”

 “Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves and then we have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos.”

 

Dr Suess

 “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”

 “Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.”

 “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”           

 “I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities.”           

 “You are you. Now, isn't that pleasant?”

 "Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you."

 Walt Disney:

 “I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.”

 “It's kind of fun to do the impossible..”

 “The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique. “

 Murice Sendak: (Author of “Where the Wild Things are”)

 “There must be more to life than having everything”

 “It is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things.”

 “As it turns out sometimes the so-called "right way" is utterly the wrong way. What a monstrous confusion.”

 

 

A. A. Milne (Author of Winnie the Pooh)

 

“You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

 

“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together.. there is something you must always remember. you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. but the most important thing is, even if we're apart.. i'll always be with you.”

 

“I used to believe in forever, but forever is too good to be true.”

 

“Before beginning a Hunt, it is wise to ask someone what you are looking for before you begin looking for it.”

I have never read a book by Charles de Lint . . .

 . . . But I still think the man is a genius.

(Read the following quotes and you'll agree with me)

A long time ago a bunch of people reached a general consensus as to what's real and what's not and most of us have been going along with it ever since.  

As far as I'm concerned, the only difference between fact and what most people call fiction is about fifteen pages in the dictionary.  

I think you're all mad. But that's part and parcel of being an artistic genius, isn't it? 

If you're not ready to die, then how can you live? 

It's good to have mysteries. It reminds us that there's more to the world than just making do and having a bit of fun. 

Life is like art. You have to work hard to keep it simple and still have meaning. 

Not everything has to mean something. Some things just are. 

One expected growth, change; without it, the world was less, the well of inspiration dried up, the muses fled. 

Remember the quiet wonders. The world has more need of them than it has for warriors. 

The best artists know what to leave out. 

The few wonders of the world only exist while there are those with the sight to see them. 

The road leading to a goal does not separate you from the destination; it is essentially a part of it. 

The thing with pretending you're in a good mood is that sometimes you can. 

There are few joys to compare with the telling of a well-told tale. 

When all's said and done, all roads lead to the same end. So it's not so much which road you take, as how you take it. 

Witchery is merely a word for what we are all capable of. 

Without mysteries, life would be very dull indeed. What would be left to strive for if everything were known?