saying no to the dress

well it is official.  i am completely finished wedding dress shopping!

last weekend my mom, my sister and i all went wedding dress shopping together (thanks for driving dad!) and i tried on more shades of white than i've ever seen in my life.  at macy's bridal salon in downtown chicago i got the full "say yes to the dress" treatment complete with amphitheater arranged "reveal" seating and more than one instance of hearing the phrase "wow factor."

ultimately, though, i found my dress at a funky little hole-in-the-wall store in a polish neighborhood far outside downton (seems fitting, i mean, i am going to be the future mrs. karpinski after all).  i'm still giddily looking at the pictures on my phone of the absolutely gorgeous gown i found to wear next fall.  it definitely makes the whole thing seem more real when you actually have an outfit to picture yourself in on your wedding day.  macy's had an absolutely stunning veil we decided to purchase, so i'm pretty much set apart from the shoes!  now i guess it's time to find steve the right shade of black for his suspenders!

obviously i can't reveal the dress i actually bought, but i there were a couple i tried on that i really thought might be "the ones." you'll have to wait until next year to know what my dress looks like, but these were the two runners up!  it was awfully hard to say no to these dresses, but i know the one i chose will be perfect!

happy thursday!

word count: 30,726

chicago saturday

on saturday steve and i got up early and drove to chicago for an adventure at the field museum and a walk through millennium park.  we ended up doing a lot more trucking around than we planned on, but the weather was beautiful and we had an absolutely amazing time.  expect more photos (i was a crazy camera lady), but for now here's a little iphonery:

omg narwhals!!

steve in egypt.

rawr!!!

there was a whole ton of taxidermy at the field museum.

seriously though, lots of taxidermy.

the happiest dead bear.

taking pictures in the bean!

thanks for being fun chicago!

hope everybody had as great a weekend as we did!

word count: 2,645

instagram dump and a little extra

yesterday was officially steve's last day of college, which means we are now going head first into a whole new chapter... and we couldn't be more excited!!

the weather has FINALLY been warming up around here too (though the day i wore that shirtdress it ended up snowing and i had to change into something warmer on my lunch break... you can't really trust the weather around here until mid to late june).

right now we are playing chicken with this move to chicago because steve is currently competing in a staring contest with another company and we're daring them to make him an offer he can't refuse.  if they do we'll be stuck in michigan for at least another year (boo) but there would be some pretty excellent factors that would definitely make it worth our while (some logistical details i'll tell you about later and y'know top notch health insurance and dollah dollah bills).

suffice it to say we're totally looking forward to whatever we're doing... even though we STILL aren't positive what exactly that is.

 for now i'm just going to soak up the longest stretch of sunlight we've had since october, the very temporary free time steve actually has for the first time in years, and keep rocking out to this song because, frankly, it makes me feel like a total badass.

p.s. if anyone knew how many selfies i take at work i would get made fun of so much.

chi-city slickin'!

look where we're headed!!

now we've got about eight billion things to do in order to actually get ourselves there, but windy city here we come!  steve and i haven't been to chicago together in years (i submit these photos with my old forgotten pixie cut from 2010 as evidence).  we are both completely stoked to put our footprints all over the concrete jungle!

time for dreamers

well yesterday i broke the news that we'll be headed out of michigan in a little while, but we don't know where we're going!  while that is totally true, we're not just spinning the globe and pointing somewhere.  right now we have 5 potential options ahead of us, which should be narrowed down to 1 or 2 soon.

but there is something very exciting about fantasizing about our many potential new homes!  so i thought i'd share with you a few of the possibilities!  here they are (in descending order of my preference)!

5.  north dakota

ok... so north dakota may have been second to new york city in terms of locations i did not want to move to.  but i'm ready for an adventure so if it means i have to be an arctic bison herder, i'm game!  we're not looking to buy property or put down roots anyway.  some fun facts about ND:

their official state beverage is milk

they grow the most sunflowers of anywhere in the US.

lewis and clark encountered their first grizzly bear in north dakota.

so clearly this place is so hardcore and rugged that steve's beard is going to grow a beard if we live here.

4.  louisiana

while the hippie in me is afraid of religious intolerance and the swamp creatures (ok and the swamp people too), i can't say i'd mind the warmth, the music, or the cajun food.  lousiana is also one of the very few states i have never visited (along with several that border it, in that corner i've always called the armpit of the united states).  i'm also obsessed with pirates and spanish moss, so i think me and louisiana could do just fine.  fun facts:

louisiana is the only state without counties.  they have parishes.

they have the only north/south facing cemetery in the country.

louisiana has the tallest state capitol building in the country.

3.  chicago, illinois

we grew up just a couple hours east of the windy city so us and chi-town are pretty tight.  lake michigan, countless world class museums, and kiki's bistro all in one place?  yeah, sign me up.  my brother lives here as well as a number of steve and i's good friends so you can bet we won't be complaining if we stay in this corner of the midwest.  that being said, i'll tell you a secret.  i loathe cities... with a burning passion.  it's the only reason chicago doesn't get spot number one on my list.  and now for fun facts:

chicago was home to the first skyscraper.

the twinkie (rest in peace) was invented in chicago.

chicago was home to the first planetarium in the western hemisphere.

2.  colorado

we would be quite literally on top of the world.  i mean look at the picture.  do i really need to say anything else?  fun facts about colorado:

they have 222 state wildlife areas.

75% of the land in america of an altitude over 10,000 feet is located in colorado.

every year denver hosts the world's largest rodeo.

1.  arizona

the desert would definitely have its drawbacks.  steve already sweats like he has a glandular disorder (i promise he doesn't).  i like water... a lot.  steve is afraid of snakes.  dry weather gives me eczema.  you know what?  i don't care.  i want an adventure and i really can't think of a better place to have one.  we are young and reckless and it would be nice to go a year without having to think about seasonal affective disorder.  day tripping to the grand canyon can't suck too much.  fun facts about arizona:

the best preserved meteor crater in the world is in arizona.

phoenix was originally a hay camp to supply military post camp mcdowell.

arizona is home to the southernmost ski resort in the country.

so there you have it... one of these places will eventually be our home!  i wonder where we will go?  which would you choose?