this week's clicks: Sláinte!

get your week off to a colorful start...
LISTEN.

• Happy St. Patrick's Day week! Last week was absolutely awful, so I'm hoping the luck of the Irish will turn things around - my Irish last name counts, right? This weekend (if I survive administering a 2-day standardized test on Wednesday and Thursday), I'm going to see Elton John with my mom and cousin, so music is my lifeline this week. I recently included Lianna La Havas in my roundup of favorite Oscars outfits, and I absolutely love her track "What You Don't Do."

SWOON.

Victoria C Photography via Wedding Chicks

• Colorful, artistic wedding ideas from Wedding Chicks.
• Elli's new succulent wedding suite is so perfect for spring.
• At SMP, a romantic, rustic Tuckahoe Plantation wedding.
• This soiree may be the most Charlottesville wedding ever.

SMILE.

• Desktops: Flipsnack, Garlic My Soul, and Mel Armstrong.
• Fun cake toppers for parties from the Tomkat Studio.
• Anne rounds up stylish sweatshirts (not an oxymoron).
• Plenty of colorful ideas for Easter on my Pinterest board.

FLASHBACK.

• 2015: Last year I shared my March favorites (and OUAT obsession).
• 2014: Inspiration for a sweet mint and baby's breath wedding.
• 2013: I shared memories of Ireland and citron wardrobe inspiration.
• 2012: Inspiration for a moody pastel country wedding.
• 2011: Creative ideas for wedding card storage and thank you signs.

sunday simplicity

Beyond the Darkroom Photography via Swooned

“Love is its own eternity. Love is in every 

moment of its being: all time. It is the only 

glimpse we are permitted of what eternity is.”

― Thornton Wilder, The Ides of March

#5FandomFriday: Favorite Fictional Foods

5 Fandom Friday is a weekly prompt challenge hosted by The Nerdy Girlie and Super Space Chick. This week, I'm rounding up fictional foods I would love to try!

1. Butterbeer from Harry Potter

J.K. Rowling is so, so good at writing about food that reading the dining hall scenes at Hogwarts always made me need to take a kitchen break. Of all the magical things the characters enjoy, the one that seems to inspire the purest elation is butterbeer. I know that Universal Studios serves their own version of the treat, and some people think Starbucks' new butterscotch creations are the closest we Muggles may get to the real thing.

2. November cakes from The Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater

One of the many reasons Maggie is my favorite YA author: when she decided to invent a special roll that the denizens of her fictional Celtic island, Thisby, bake to celebrate the annual super-deadly water horse race, she felt like she actually had to bake them , and took it upon herself to create a recipe. That is some next-level universe building right there.

3. Rey's bread from Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Science fiction foods get me every time, especially for their usually instant nature - I was also kind of obsessed with all of the different dehydrated meals Tally had in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series. In The Force Awakens, Rey's bread was a practical effect accomplished with a balloon, but the folks at Star Wars have come up with a recipe that apparently comes close to instant bread and has an appropriately unappetizing shade of green.

4. Abby's Caf-Pows from NCIS

Sure, a Caf-Pow is just the NCIS universe's version of a Big Gulp from 7-11, but it is also the magical fuel that helps Abby Sciuto solve crimes! Imagine how much I would get done in a day with Caf-Pow running through my veins!

5. Coffee of Doom's specials from Questionable Content

I've been reading this webcomic since college - it's cute and I like the characters - and one of the best running gags Jeph Jacques includes are really strange specials on the chalkboard at the coffee shop. A recent strip featured Earl Grey tea that made Bubbles (who is an AI and can only smell tea) see a unicorn. Totally normal in QC-land.

Pinspiration: Luck of the Irish...

What I'm loving right now...

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this week's clicks.

get your week off to a colorful start...
LISTEN.

• I've been on a Sara Bareilles kick lately. Have a great week!

SWOON.

Marina Koslow Photography via Style Me Pretty

• Obsessed with this Portland bride's Milly dress.
• Emmaline Bride is giving away a hair wreath.
• A pretty pink watercolor wedding from Ruffled.
• An elegant Bulgarian wedding in California.

SMILE.

• Desktops: Design Love Fest, Lime Ricki, Uppercase.
• Love Kate Spade's new initial planners and tumblers.
• 7 scientific reasons to spend on experiences, not things.
• Lots of ideas for St. Patrick's Day on my Pinterest.

FLASHBACK.

• Last year I rounded up spring style picks.
•  Sunday Social was all about Pinterest. I rounded up my fave green pieces for spring, did some snow day dog-sitting, and shared a St. Patrick's Day manicure
• Two years ago I turned my decoupage Easter eggs into a spring wreath and rounded up inspiration for a 1920's-inspired wedding and an Art Deco home office. 

sunday simplicity.

Alea Lovely Fine Art Photographer via One Wed

"I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.”

― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

#5FandomFriday: Make-Up Friday - 5 Gateway Fandoms

5 Fandom Friday is a weekly prompt challenge hosted by The Nerdy Girlie and Super Space Chick. I got really excited when I saw this week's #5FandomFriday topic - Make-Up Friday! I decided to do the first-ever #5FF prompt, "Gateway Fandoms that Made Me Who I Am Today." Let's do this!

Fairies - The first oddbeat thing I can remember being obsessed with is fairies; when I was a kid I had a set of books that were hand-me-downs from my cousin and the one for beginning readers had a whole section of poems about fairies and pixies and such. Two of my favorite movies were Thumbelina and Fern Gully and my favorite book was Lynne Reid Banks' The Fairy Rebel. My best friend and I made up an elaborate game for our classmates around the premise that there were fairies living in the woods beside our school playground and a series of tasks had to be completed to save them - basically, at the age of eight I was already a fantasy writer in training. Unfortunately, our ongoing story came to an end when we came back to school one Monday and the tree where the fairies lived had been struck by lightning overnight.

Titanic - It sounds strange to call a tragic historical disaster a fandom, but hear me out! In December 1997, my friend's parents dropped us off at a G-rated move so they could see Titanic. After about 15 minutes of Flubber or something, my friend and I were in the back row of Titanic feeling like the baddest 12-year-old chicks in town. We were found out when her parents found us sobbing as the credits rolled. I became obsessed not only with Leonardo Di Caprio (you'll always be my first love, Leo), but with the ship, its wreckage, and explorer Robert Ballard. I was so psyched to find out my sister-in-law shares my love of all things Titanic - we went to see the movie together when it was released in 3D, and she and I forced our family to endure the Titanic Museum Exhibition on our vacation to Tennessee.

Arthurian Legend/Medieval Everything - My mom can attest that medieval lore was one of my first fandoms; when I was three and four all I wanted to draw was castles. When I was in eighth grade, two things led to my medieval obsession: the TV movie Merlin and Brian Jacques' Redwall books (I can thank my local librarian for that literary gateway drug). In the early days of AOL, I stumbled upon a chat-based RPG about a castle, and started writing stories a character named Duchess Isabella (my name from Spanish class, super creative obviously) who was basically a Mary Sue version of Morgan Le Fay who used dark magic to save unicorns and such. I'm sure our stories were horrible, but I had found a community of people who loved the thing I loved, and 5 years later I'd be studying Edmund Spenser and Geoffery Chaucer in college. My trip to Ireland to study literature was a dream come true because I got to see actual medieval things, real ruins of castles and The Book of Kells, and I'm still obsessed with all things medieval.

Star Wars - I resisted Star Wars - when I was a kiddo, my dad kept trying to convince me to watch the trilogy via his battered set of VHS tapes and I refused every time because it was a "boy movie" (there were no horses, so he couldn't trick me into watching it the way he did his favorite Westerns). When I saw some of the cool guys in my class playing with Star Wars action figures, one of which was shaped like AN ADORABLE BEAR, I was like, okay, Dad, let's do this thing. The next three weekends held probably three of the most significant Friday nights of my life! With the release of The Phantom Menace in 1999, my gang of online medieval writing geeks realized we all loved Star Wars and AOL created a spin-off universe for us to play in. I created a science fiction character that I still love and write about. This year, watching The Force Awakens, I couldn't help but feel like my dad was there with me.

Harry Potter - The fandom that is closest to my heart. My first year of college, I made one of my best friends in the whole world through our mutual love of Harry Potter. Not only is it practically my religion, HP has made being a geek cool. This week, when one of my coworkers recommended a book to me and another teacher said, "Is there a wand in it?" I am definitely the resident genre fiction expert on the eighth grade English hallway and I love nurturing my baby geeks by putting Harry Potter, Redwall, Ender's Game, and comic books into their hands.

What were your first fandoms and obsessions?

Oscars 2016: Favorite Trends

This year's Oscar red carpet was a true reflection of current fashion trends, with several of Pantone's colors of the year for 2016 seen on leading ladies - and gentlemen. After SO MUCH TAUPE last year, it was refreshing to see lovely jewel tones dominating the fashion coverage. Here are some of the major color trends that went from the runway to the red carpet. For image sources, check out my Pinterest board (and pin from there rather than from this post, please!)

Best Dressed

Soft colors will always win me over (like Anna Kendrick's simple coral halter dress from last year), and this year I was infatuated with Cate Blanchett's gown in a color Pantone calls Limpet Shell. The appliques make it similar to the dress she wore to the 2014 awards, which makes sense - both are Armani Prive and make her look like a princess. The shape is so flattering on her and the color is gorgeous on her.

Blue Violet

My favorite colors made a big impact on the red carpet this year - Best Actress winner Brie Larsen wore a ruffled dress with a camisole neckline, and Mindy Kaling's black sheath dress featured a blue violet train that was really unique and lovely.

Naomi Watts and Tina Fey both rocked purple on the red carpet. I think this is the most elegant I've ever seen Tina looked and I liked how both leading ladies paired their strapless dresses with statement necklaces.

Trendy Taupe

This shade of cerulean has been dubbed Snorkel Blue and was spotted on both ladies and gentlemen at this year's Oscars. Both Sofia Vergara and Patricia Arquette chose flattering shapes in this color that looks beautiful on every complexion.

I have gone on record in totally loving dudes in blue tuxes (see Jason Sudeikis in 2014 and Eddie Redmayne last year). Among the handsome gentlemen wearing Snorkel Blue with black were Aaron Rodgers (escorting girlfriend Olivia Munn) and Best Actor nominee Mark Ruffalo. Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Michael Strahan also wore this color on the red carpet.

Classic Black

A black gown is always appropriate for Oscar night, and Jennifer Garner's was one of my absolute favorite looks of the night - so elegant. I also liked Julianne Moore's gown with geometric accents.

White Florals

Isla Fischer and Priyanka Chopra would both look great wearing paper bags, but look so lovely in white dresses with floral motifs. Isla's dress features romantic chiffon, while Priyanka's was figure-hugging, sheer, and J. Lo-worthy.

Marsala Shades

Variations of 2015's Pantone Color of the Year are still very popular at Hollywood events. I loved television host Zuri Hall's form-fitting gown and unique necklace, and Chrissy Teigen continues to be the most fabulous pregnant person probably ever.

Copper and champagne were the trendy metallic shades at last year's Oscars, but this year the pendulum swung back to classic silver and gold. Margot Robie clearly loves 70's-inspired dresses with plunging necklines and tassel details - her look this year hit many of the same notes as the black dress she wore last year. Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Daisy Ridley wore a silver tea-length sheath that was elegant and youthful.

What were your favorite looks at this year's Oscars?