Monday, January 11, 2010

Funky Flowers and Travel Lately


{day-old bridesmaid bouquet}

My darling friend Abby said "I do" this weekend, and plenty of friends were bridesmaids with me (including Stephanie, Jashley and Faith). It was a stunning winter wedding involving bare branches dripping with strands of crystals, succulents, vintage mink stoles (for Stephanie and me) and a palette of peacock colors. The bride incorporated peacock feathers into most of the decor, including the flowers. The pictures are of my bridesmaid bouquet the next day. Mini-mums, spider mums, cymbidium orchids, monkey grass and peacock feathers made for a striking, playful and irreverent arrangement. The bride's bouquet included all of those flowers and feathers, plus black lilies and flower-shaped succulents.

The wedding festivities kicked off Saturday, my first day back from spending three weeks with my gracious in-laws in Mexico. Brad's mom and step-dad have just completed the construction of their extraordinary home in San Miguel de Allende, and Brad and I were all too happy to take a working vacation to help break it in. Some friends joined us; Taylor is a photographer, among other things, and he was so kind to take incredible photos of the home as a thank-you for allowing him and his wife to spend a couple of weeks in the house. A sneak-peek is below, and later I'll share a Web site Brad is building for potential rentals of the home in the future.

{city view from the rooftop}

{corner view of the home's exterior}

{the center courtyard, plus three stories}

I think Brad and I have determined this is the year of "weekend trips." I want so much to visit Jordan and the Middle East, but along with starting a new job come fewer vacation days. Fortunately, I'm able to work while traveling, as we did in Mexico, so we're planning a few weekends when we can fly out on a Thursday evening, work remotely most of the day Friday, and site-see Saturday and Sunday. A few of our potential trips include visits to:
  • Las Vegas
  • New Orleans
  • Chicago
  • Boston
I'm itching to see San Francisco, but Brad assures me I'll want to spend more than a long weekend in the City by the Bay, so I'm tabling that idea for now.

Any other destinations you'd suggest adding to the list? I've never been to any of the locales I listed, and I'm open to your ideas!

5 comments:

Laura said...

pretty flowers, pretty house!

Stephanie said...

-Portland, just because you need another visit.
-Marfa, TX; I kinda want to visit.
-NY, oh wait, you just did that. ;)

Katie said...

Thanks, elledee! :)

OMW, Stephanie -- I have been wanting to go to Marfa too! My little bro went and took the most incredible pictures with a disposable camera. Future co-wanderlusters trip, mayhap?

Jon and Brittany said...

Well, first off, their house looks AMAZING!! How fun that you get to live there during the year :)

Second, Jon and I are leaning towards moving to Boston this next year for him to go to seminary...so if you go to Boston, you should wait 'til we're up there and we could hang out!! Or we could just figure out when we could get together here :) I miss you, friend!

Abigail Boatwright said...

Aww! love your photos and post a lot. :-) Honestly on Zach's and my list of places we want to go in the US--hopefully this year or next:
San Francisco
New Orleans(tres french no?)
Boston
New York

What fun! :-) I want to start planning now, but maybe I should rest first right? :-)