Tough Love

Here's my embarrassing confession of the day: If VH1 plays it, I will watch it. I watched all three seasons of Rock of Love with Bret Michaels. I can't. stop. watching. the. train. wreck.

For a couple years, VH1 aired a show that I actually really liked the premise of, Tough Love, in which a matchmaker (Steve Ward) works with single women and shows them how they're holding themselves back in relationships and what they can do to improve their interaction with men in a healthy way. (Kudos to VH1 for not turning this into a trashy show, as they are wont to do with ... oh, any show they can get their hands on.)

So I was really intrigued when, at the beginning of the summer, they upped the ante with Tough Love: Couples. In Couples, Steve worked with long-term couples who, for one reason or another, haven't really committed to each other. They work through issues like trusting your partner, intimacy, being complimentary and other such topics that can help "stuck" relationships, and at the end of the show, the couples have to choose to break up for good - or get engaged.

(source)

THEN, because that wasn't a big enough kicker, in the finale, the couples who DID get engaged had the opportunity to get married on the show.

I promise this long story has a relevant point.

While waiting at the altar, one of the guys was really nervous, but when he saw his bride walking toward him, all of the nervousness went away, and he was really happy. Matt and I had watched almost the entire season together, and he was surprised when I related to the nervous guy.

I'm leaps and bounds ahead of where I used to be in dealing with anxiety. I am hoping and praying that I will be nothing but excited and confident and happy on my wedding day. But, I know that if I do feel anxious, seeing Matt at the end of the altar smiling at me will make me feel much better. That's a really good feeling.

Way kul

When I was trying to figure out what our wedding colors were going to be, a coworker e-mailed me this totally ridiculously awesome Web site that I lurve and you will too, called kuler. Like "cooler," but cooler. :)

kuler is a site where you can create color palettes to work with, and not only that, but it gives you the RGB, CMYK and HEX numbers for if you're doing your own design work or Web site colors (woohoo consistency!).

You can look through other people's color boards and play around with the color combos they've created as a starting point for creating your own.

If you look at the left side of the screen, there's a link that says "Create." You should click that.

The first option you have is to create from an image. This is pretty sweet if you already have an inspiration picture you want to work off, because you can upload your image and set the little color identifiers for different color points in the image.

Or, if you want to create from a specific color you have in mind ...

You have the option to select your base color and then drag the color identifiers around on the circle to see what shades complement your base color! You can also choose to darken or lighten your colors depending on what shades you're using.

Another thing you can do with it is select only certain colors. Up at the top of the screen to the left of the circle are your "Rules" - you can choose monochromatic if you want to use several shades of the same color, triad for only three colors, various shades of the same colors ... the sky's the limit! Kul, huh? :)

(all images are screenshots from kuler)

Long awaited dress fitting!

via Carbolic Smoke Ball (text added by moi)

I love shoes.

Shoes shoes shoes.

Hey everyone! Come see how good my shoes look!

I don't have super-expensive taste in shoes, but I do love looking at them and lusting after them and talking about them. Mr. Hyena and I have a deal where I don't tell him how much I spend on shoes, because it's better for our relationship. :)

I decided right away I didn't want white shoes. Because of this picture:

via Style Me Pretty / Photo by Ashley Garmon

Pink shoes it is! Wow, that took convincing.

My first loves were "Body Talk" by Poetic License:

I also love Zappos.

These were never once in stock in my size. They were a little more expensive than I wanted to spend, at $153, even though I knew I would wear these again and again. I did find them for $97 on Shabby Apple and ordered them, but received an e-mail from them saying they actually only had black ones in stock. Bummer.

I never SERIOUSLY considered these beauties from Dolce & Gabbana, but I did spend about 30 seconds trying to justify purchasing shoes that cost more than my dress, my rent, the value of all my possessions. :-D Zappos, you're such a tease!

 Original listing no longer on Zappos. :(  (source)

With both of these options out of budget or permanently out of stock, I started looking around closer to home. Mom Hyena came into town and we went to Payless Shoes. They recently started selling a collection of dyeable formal shoes, called Unforgettable Moments by Lela Rose, which is where we found these:

(source)

Now, I am totally obsessed with shoes with bows on the toes. I seriously have, right now, in my closet, no fewer than three pairs of flats with bows on the toes. Maybe more. I had to have these. I had them dyed "fuchsia," and at a whopping $48, these were a fantastic deal and I luuuuuuuurve them! Take a look:

(personal photos)

I got some heel inserts for them so my feet won't slip out, and I've been slowly breaking them in for a while now. I can't wait to wear these as I walk down the aisle!

Have you discovered any sweet deals? And how often do you try on your wedding clothes or accessories? (C'mon, 'fess up! ^_^)