saja: 2010 trunk show NYC this weekend

{ photo by meg fish photography }

let me take a moment for an off-etsy post -- yoo lee of saja wrote me last fall about her bridal line, which you've likely seen on stylemepretty, 100 layer cake, darcy miller's brides guide, etc. amen.

a personal note, was at a (non-bridal) saja trunk show moons ago at dc's now-closed circle boutique, and her dresses are truly lovely -- airy without frouf, intricate without fussiness. woman-owned company, independent designer, at roughly the same price as jcrew*.

for you lovely new yorkers, her nolita trunk show is 11-9 tomorrow and 11-8 saturday at 250 elizabeth street. rsvp by email required, see the invitation below!


for the rest of us, see yoo lee's beautiful work at sajainc.com.

* nothing wrong with le crew, just saying.

from the inbox:

{ letterpress by maidavale }

more quick links, and my apologies to everyone who has been languishing in gmailimbo since forever. i'm catching up!

• discount! heather from maidavale is celebrating with 10% off invitation letterpress in her etsy shop on orders placed by 2/28/10. am a longtime maidavale fan (my feature on her is here) -- her blog has more info and the discount code. congrats on your 150th sale!

• not handmade, but handy: OXO is turning 20 and giving away free gadgets -- more info at acloserlookatoxo.com

• the etsy wedding team's "help haiti" event is coming to a close feb. 12 -- lovely items by team members, donated to a good cause. see etsywedteam.etsy.com (my favorites below)

• and file under cool: offbeatbride has a post on a place in NYC where you can make your own wedding rings.
  

more to come, now onto today's giveaway.

**update: due to some nasty midatlantic weather, smittenxoxo has closed shop until later in the week, so i'll start her giveaway friday if she's back up -- her stuff is too gorgeous not to feature fully.

friendships (and shoes)

I've had a bit of fun the past week. An old friend who now lives in Melbourne came to stay for a couple of nights (we met each other in Standard 4 (27 years ago!)). We shopped for my wedding shoes (found some (below)), listened to Beachouse and Charlotte Gainsbourg, made sumptuous pinenut, blue cheese and caramelised onion pizzas, watched Valentino (second time for me, it's so good), and taste-tested numerous bottles of pinot noir for the wedding, which actually got very confusing.

Prior to him arriving a girlfriend asked what I was up to for the weekend, so I told her I had a good friend coming to stay. "Male or female?" she quizzed. "Male' I replied". "And is Brendan okay with that?", she asked surprisingly.

Little innocent me is thinking 'what the?! Why wouldn't he be?'. Besides the fact that despite 'going round with each other' (remember that term?!) when we were 10, he is quite gay now (lives with his boy in Melbourne). We just like a lot of the same stuff, like sewing and design and art and music and we can just gas on like two girls might about fashion and craft and food (sometimes he so much better than me).

So as my girlfriend and I spoke, she told me that some years ago she and her husband made a pact that each would never put themselves in a position where one was alone with a member of the opposite sex. Trying to get a grasp of what she meant, I ran a scenario past her "so, for example, if I needed a ride home from your house after a group dinner, [her husband] wouldn't be able to take me?". "Nope' she replied". Not to judge, but that sounds like it would make life pretty damn hard to me.

I guess if Brendan had an old friend, who just happened to be a girl, come to stay I might feel a bit funny about it at first but he and I trust each other and I would make the best of the situation. And Brendan excelled in being the perfect host while this old friend stayed. Cool.