We had quite a weekend. I dropped from exhaustion Friday night after the 11ish arrival of the last houseguest, my stepsister Tina--or, more accurately, my sister Tina. I was so tired because I hit the ground running before 6 a.m. and upon arriving home went into baking mode and made Social Butterfly's special muffins, a birthday cake for SB's birthday dinner and banana bread because you must have banana bread when you have sleepover guests, especially if one of those is SB's bestie Mag Mag. (When a recovering anorexic looooooves something you make, you make it--with a big ol' smile on your face!)
Saturday morning I squeezed I worked my 3-mile hill walk in early because we were in full-on bridal battle mode. Dresses would be chosen! Saturday night was SB's bday dinner and in an inspired move she chose breakfast for dinner; you can never go wrong with pancakes and mimosas.
After dinner and presents, all the young people had places to go and people to see, which was fine with Mr. Fix-it, Tina and I. Tina had studying to do (she's working and getting her degree post-divorce) and I was just about turning cartwheels at the thought of an 8 p.m. bedtime.
I had to shorten the walk a bit Sunday morning, but I did do it. Go, me! After that it was back into bridal boutique mode and Grownup Girl said YES! to a dress. Bridesmaid dresses have been chosen. Also? Apparently leaving these decisions until a mere 6 + 1/2 months before the wedding is some kind of heresy. Who knew?
I can't show you the wedding dress (top secret) and the bridesmaid dresses were tried on in black, but will be carribean blue, so there are no photos of THE dresses. Instead I will share with my wedding ensemble--and can I just say Pinterest makes shopping a much nicer experience for a mall-averse person like me--look Ma, no stores!
A note about my dress--I ordered it a size larger and will have it tailored because I do NOT plan on sporting that level of cleavage. I already own the shoes (though Nine West, not Jimmy Choo) and I am hopeful that someone with access to my Pinterest board will gift me with the earrings. I heard a rumor there's a gift-giving holiday coming up.

Let's see . . . what else happened this weekend?
Oh yeah, somebody turned 18. How better to celebrate than to take half the family to a tattoo parlor?

Social Butterfly designed the tattoo she wanted several months ago and it is meaningful to her as a way to honor both her recovery from anorexia and her second father whose initials were T.W.O.

It's Sunday night now--my husband's packing for a week away, I drop SB off at the airport at noon tomorrow and Grownup Girl and Grownup Guy just left for a three-day Disneyland adventure. From overflowing house to empty house--which will give me enough time to catch my breath before Thanksgiving arrives!