he said, she said

guess what the big brown truck finally brought! you got it — handbags! but these are no ordinary handbags, these are the 1154 LILL STUDIO bags that we custom designed at my house a few weeks ago! (and when i saw “we”, i mean me and the girls, not me and mike =P)

lemme back up a few weeks… i had been agonizing for a long time about what to get for my girls as bridesmaid gifts (and mom gifts too). i wanted to give them something personal, functional, and unique. so i found 1154 LILL STUDIO, a company that allows you to customize handbags with your choice of design and fabrics. they even have a few reversible styles to choose from. (here’s a photo of one of the reversible bags — can you see what i mean?) i’d get my bridesmaids cute handbags in our wedding colors, and for the reverse design, i would choose fabrics and patterns that matched their individual personalities and styles. perfect! i designed the bags online, but i couldn’t get myself to click that final “submit order” button without touching the fabrics and seeing the patterns/colors in person. unfortunately, LILL doesn’t have a west coast storefront, but they do have reps who will go to your house for a design-your-own purse party! so that’s what i did.

on july 29, i took the girls to a bridesmaid lunch at hukilau in san jose japantown. the food was delicious, and the company was excellent, of course. (i am kicking myself for not taking any photos. boo on me!) then when we got back to my house, i surprised my bridesmaids with the purse party! they loved it =)

i decided to bag (pun not intended) the idea about making the bridesmaid bags in our wedding colors, and instead, let them choose any design and fabric they wanted. it was important to me that that they each got something that they loved and would use. mom and grandma came over to design their handbag gifts as well. and a handful of additional family and friends also joined us for the purse-making festivities — everyone had a great time. cousin cindy enjoyed it so much that the next day, she scheduled her own purse party =) cindy’s daughter caitlyn was less interest in purse-making and instead focused her attention on her groom, zachary. say it with me. awwwwww.

it was such a unique and fun activity to do with the girls. i can’t tell you how happy i am that they all love their handbags =) and it worked out well, because i would have had no idea how to select a personal, functional, unique gift for mike’s mom =P barbara has been so anxious to get the funky hobo bag that she designed, that every day, she asks me “did you get it yet?” hee hee =) i shipped it to her as soon as i got it, but she is so eager to see it that she asked me to take a photo of it for her. so, here it is! in fact, here are all the bags that were sent to me, including bags designed by moms, grandma, and a couple other friends. which one do you like best?

more photos are on our secret photos page!

my mom told me that if i don’t take some dance lessons, she is not going to dance with me on the dance floor during the mother/son dance.  of course, i call it the mother/son dance, but really, it’s the mother/groom joining in the father/daughter dance.  there isn’t gonig to be a separate mother/son dance.

my mom made it very clear that she doesn’t want to be up there in front of all of those people and sway.  i keep telling her, like i tell christi, that it’ll be fine, don’t worry about it!  but alas, both of them want to dance a real dance.  like, you know, a ballroom kind of a dance.

the thing is that i have 1 left foot.  my sense of rhythm is so bad that i’m worse than two left feet.  really.  it’s that bad.  people say to me that because i’m coordinated, it should be easy to pick up.  i ask them what they mean when they say i’m coordinated, and they reply that i play volleyball and that takes coordination.  to that, i say, yes, it does require some amount of coordination to be able to hit a volleyball, but if i had to hit a volleyball in time with music, i’d be SCREWED!

christi and i were having a discussion about what constitutes a 3 count or a 4 count.  i keep insisting that everything i listen to can be either.  instead of counting to 3, just count to 4…or vice versa.  it works!  she tells me that i’m musically-retarded and i tell her that that’s what i’ve been trying to tell her the WHOLE TIME.

but still, there is pressure all around me to learn to dance.  we’re now about three weeks away before the big day and as each day passes, there’s a little, tiny, voice inside me asking me, “shall we dance?”