Category Archives: Her Inspiration

Thanksgiving Blessings

Posted on November 25, 2010 | Leave a comment

This morning I made baklava and mini pecan pies. My sister made honey glazed corn bread with a recipe borrowed from a friend.  My mom made three pumpkin pies, pecan pie, cranberry scones, and a turkey (just for leftovers). 

In the other room my husband and father are discussing business and books and music, and life.

Pretty soon we’ll all make an apple pie that we could probably all make in our sleep.

In a few hours we will go to my great Aunt J’s house and I’ll see my cousins, aunts, grandparents and celebrate all of the things we are thankful for.  But, truly we are really most thankful for each other.

This year has been a year of triumph and successes, trying and tears, new discoveries, beginnings and the continuation of the journey we call life.  That life is made more tolerable, more sweet, more enjoyable and that much more valuable when surrounded by people you love, and the people who love you.

I wish you the most peaceful of Thanksgivings, and hope you’ll have a moment to consider and celebrate all of the ways you are thankful. 

Thank you for reading and allowing me to share my journey with you.

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Posted in Family, Her Inspiration, Her Kitchen, Holiday Food, Life Lessons, Personal, Thanksgiving

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Happy Birthday to Me, Almost

Posted on November 19, 2010 | 1 comment

Twenty-three is old. It’s almost 25, which is like almost mid-20s.
Jessica Simpson, American Singer (1980 – )
Thanks Jess…

In a week I will be 26.  I have always put pressure on 26, because it’s my birthday that will match my birth date (26 on the 26th).  It is completely arbitrary and I am not quite sure where I came up with it, but never the less, I feel pretty good about turning 26.  This has been quite the busy year.

In polling the Internet I came across many lists of “What to Do Before You’re 25/30”, and while there were some items on that list that will probably never happen there are a lot that have.

At 25 I, celebrated love and marriage with all of the women in my life, spent a weekend of slumber parties with my best girlfriends, ate late night pancakes at the IHOP – which sounds like as much of a bad idea as it was, planned the best party of my life, paid for said party, danced with my dad, danced a choreographed dance with my husband, gotten a massage and facial, been pampered with my mom and sister, gone to Mexico, scuba dived, ate real tacos in Mexico, tried tequila straight, bought a TV – finding the right TV is surprisingly hard, gone to the movies, got snowed in, played in the blizzard,  planned a trip, had a Passover Seder, went to Yellowstone National Park, climbed serious mountains, ate buffalo meat, saw a bison – this close, bought a house, packed up our entire condo, moved, cried, made a home back in DC, celebrated the 4th of July from the top of the town, went to India, got sick in India, rode an elephant, tested my strength, mentally and emotionally, started a blog...

25 has been a great year, and I know that 26 will only be that much better, with even more to celebrate and that much more to be thankful for.

Counting down…

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Posted in Her Inspiration, Life Lessons, Personal, Sparkle

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Happy Birthday, DC Ladies!

Posted on November 19, 2010 | Leave a comment

Once a month I share a recipe and a blogpost with the DC Ladies.  Shortly after I created this blog, I found the DC Ladies via Twitter (@DCLadies) and am so happy to be apart of this terrific community of women who share their expertise on every topic under the sun!

This year will bring:
1. The DC Ladies Book Club, this will be headed up by Lindsay one of the Young DC Ladies. Each month we will pick a book and then at the end of the month have a “review” amongst our DC Ladies.

2. The DC Ladies Tweet Ups! Four times a year we will be getting together to meet face to face and network.

3. The DC Ladies Teams; we have had many ladies who have shared their wonderful stories with us about walks and runs they have done so we are going to be forming a “team” to support wonderful causes near and dear to The DC Ladies hearts.

4. Our Virtual Magazine-this is our big one! We are so excited about becoming a full fledged online magazine.

Happy Birthday Ladies!  Cheers to your continued success and growth!

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A Moment of Summer

Posted on November 9, 2010 | 1 comment

As it gets colder here in DC, and as I count down the days until we go to Florida, I realize how long it has been since I’ve been home – almost ten months.  I have seen my parents and family in that time, but it’s not the same as being home.  

Home, now that I don’t live there, is about my mom and dad.  Today is my mom’s birthday – (Happy Birthday, Mom) and since you haven’t met my mom too many times here on TDB, I figured I would play catch up.

My mom is hard working; a friend to her friends, to her kids, to her kids’ friends; she believes in the fourth quarter, in good company and in her daughters; she is a back scratcher, a hugger, a phone call away; she is a crier (she is where I get my “on like a faucet” emotions from); she is a do-er, and she just does; she goes above and beyond (can you imagine your mom getting on an airplane at 6am with frozen matzo ball soup and a cooked turkey and flying to your dorm to make a Passover dinner for you and your friends, none of whom celebrate Passover?); she is unintentionally funny; she is fiercely protective; she will climb mountains for the causes she believes in; she a baker, not because she knows people love cookies, but because she knows people love when other people think of them; she is a cheerleader; she is still a beach babe (seriously, not a Sunday goes by when you won’t find my mom at her temple, the shady spot between the palms); she is generous of her time, energy, and spirit; she is a mom to everyone who meets her; she is my best friend; she is a moment of summer all throughout the year.

Happy Birthday, Mom – and many more!

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Posted in Family, Her Inspiration, life, Mom, Personal

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Something to Think About

Posted on November 3, 2010 | 1 comment

A few months ago BrideTide tweeted on a Saturday morning, “Someone, somewhere is getting married today.”  It has stuck with me ever since.  

Obviously someone, somewhere is getting married all hours of the day and everyday of the week (Hello, Vegas!) but generally speaking in the United States wedding day is a Saturday.  Not too long ago I drove past a beautiful old church just as the bride and her bridesmaids got out of the car and began to climb up the steps.  
I was overjoyed. I didn’t know that bride, I had never been inside of that church, but I truly felt so excited for her and them.  I mentioned that tweet from many months ago in an effort to get everyone to share my joy.  Mark nodded along, and then my sister pointed out other major life things happen all the time too: people die and babies are born.

That is true.  Check for the little sister.

Here’s is how I explained it is different.  Marriage is a birth of a new chapter for two people.  In some ways it is the death of their single lifestyles.  But, more than that, marriage (not the wedding) is an active choice.  It is the moment of “I choose you and I choose to go through life by your side.  Literally, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer – when you look around, that’s me, right by your side.” 
That moment that I caught that bride in, the excitement with girlfriends before the ceremony, the dress shopping, the registry, the ring, the proposal, that is nothing compared to that moment when you make the choice.  Getting married is not being married.  Being married is all that much better.

Check mate for the big sister.

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Posted in Advice, Her Inspiration, Her Weddings + Events, Life Lessons, Mark, Marriage, Personal

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Halloween is Full of Surprises

Posted on October 28, 2010 | Leave a comment

Four Years Ago Today I met Mark.  Let me tell you how we got there.

In high school my fall midterms always conveniently fell right on Halloween, so my teenage Halloweens were spent at the dining table in my parent’s house with text books and loose leaf paper.  
Then I went to college.

I was very lucky to be matched (fate has a weird way of finding you the right roommates) with girls who would plan, and seek out the most perfect Halloween/Holiday/Tuesday night.  Freshman year we were all still getting our footing and typically went out in a pack of 8+ girls, so the costumes were a bit “home sewn” as Tim Gunn might say.  That year I was a flapper, with a top from Loehmann’s, a skirt borrowed from a girl on dorm floor, and a boa that I was magnetically pulled towards.

Sophomore year I was home for a wedding, no costume, but a great dress none the less.

Junior year.  This is is where it really begins.  There were just the four of us (Jaci, Cara, Liz) and we decided we’d make more impact together than we would apart.  We all had our own motives for a Halloween costume; and I won’t out anyone else, but I personally set out to look cute in a costume, the scary and funny is not for me.

We bought this:
Ghostbuster Costume via Dressy Costumes
We made this: 
You can’t tell but those jumpsuits were taken apart, taken in, and hemmed into very chic Halloween Couture dresses.

It’s Senior Year.  Time to go out strong.  We all four live together for the first time.  We have become more than just roommates and friends, we became a troupe.
A troupe with a friend who is a Disco Alien
We went out for a bar crawl starting at Ozio, a bar I had never been to before and have only since been back during my bachelorette party).
And that’s where I met Mark.  I was with my best friends, in costume, in a bar that I would never normally go to.  He was with his best friend, in costume, in a bar that he had never been to before. I think looking back we were both a bit anti-Halloween that year.  I definitely put up a fight on the costume, and the plans.  But, again, fate has a funny way of making the right matches.

I asked him what he was supposed to be.  (He looked like Tony Montana (Scarface) but was actually dressed as Pablo Eskobar, if you do a little research you’ll see the costume is fairly universal.)  He asked me if I was dressed as Winnie Cooper (Wonder Years).  
 
I told him I was a “rock star” – and that was the “hook”.   He left his friends and joined our party and that night we changed numbers, shared dances and shared a kiss.

Since then we have dressed up as the Dukes of Hazzard and Olympians, (last year we were in South Beach for wedding planning).

 
I am lucky for friends who pushed me to embrace the night, and I am very lucky for a partner, best friend and husband who pushes me to embrace everything in life.

I hope your Halloween provides as many treats as mine did, and continues to do.

Happy Halloween and Happy Anniversary to my Husband, I love you.
 
 

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Posted in Family, Her Inspiration, Life Lessons, Mark, Personal

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On Finding Inspiration

Posted on October 19, 2010 | Leave a comment

Thirty years ago today my parents got married.  

My dad had the remnants of an Afro, my mom had stick straight hair and wore a simple polyester gown.  They were engaged for nine weeks – not a lot of time to plan a wedding by today’s standards but long enough to plan a marriage.

My bouquet wrapped with lace from my mom and mom’s veils, 1313blog.com
My parents follow in the footsteps of their parents; my maternal grandparents have been married for 56 years and my paternal grandparents for 62 years.  As I grew up I would observe my grandparents, and the “funny” things they would do, and now that I am older I see the same things in my own parents.  
They look after each other.  They have stories and memories that could fill books.  They do the little things; pick up the dry cleaning, make the perfect cup of coffee, prepare a sandwich just the right way.  They are for each other the right fit: a partner, a friend, and a love.  They still flirt with each other.  They sing, and share the same music; the music of their own lives.  They are fierce parents (and grandparents) and have created homes that welcome their children, and (grandchildren, and great-grandchildren).  They are still very much in love; my dad proves it to me every time he makes comments on my mom’s new hair cut, toned arms, great smile.  
I am so lucky to have an example of a long and fruitful marriage to look at, learn from and aspire to.
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad, wishing you many, many more years of love, happiness, and health.

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Posted in Family, Her Inspiration, Life Lessons, Marriage, Personal

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On Standing Up and Being an Ally

Posted on October 15, 2010 | 1 comment

Ellen talks about it, Anderson Cooper talks about it, Fort Worth City Council Member Joel Burns talks about it, and it’s only fair that we start listening: no one chooses to be different, no one wants to be an outsider, and no one under any circumstances should be made to feel like an other or unloved in any stage of their life, ever.  

In light of the teen bullying crisis across our country my dear friend Jaci, and a true GLBT Ally, has created an online community found here: http://weareallies.tumblr.com/ All members of the GLBT community and their supporters are invited to share their story and their support.  
Here is my story and my pledge of support. 

I grew up in the suburbs of South Florida; at the cross section of Cowboy Country and Rodeos and the designer boutiques and synagogues.  I fell into the latter camp.  Growing up I did not know GLBT teens, and the adults that I did know were all by association; the former rabbi at our synagogue, the Cantor, a hebrew school educator, a music teacher — come to think of it our Temple was a pretty balanced experience.  
Not until college was I fully immersed in an environment of young adults who were actively engaged in finding and being themselves; gay, straight, still deciding, it didn’t really matter at American University. 

At AU, I truly believe that students were able to answer the question “Who are you?” and not “What are you?”  We are all human beings and that will always be the answer to the second question, nothing more, nothing less.  

In my four years as an Eagle, I was very lucky to make friends with some of the most unique, spirited, passionate, creative, dedicated to whatever their cause, kinds people I could ever hope to exist.  That family of friends is all kinds of different; artists, actors, politicos, writers, friends, lovers, marrieds, singles, and we are all better for having each other in our lives. 

I don’t see this as a political issue, this is a human issue.  We are better people when we love each other, and don’t waste our time with the folly of hatred, bigotry, racism, sexism, and narrow mindedness.  I am better because of the people in my life who have broadened my horizons and shown me the very beautiful and colorful ways of living, and loving.

I will never forget the day that Mark and I got married; we were surrounded by all of our friends.  I was so lucky to be able to get married, and publicly make that commitment to the man I love.  Towards the end of that night, after a swing on the dance floor with my very talented friend I whispered in his ear, “I can’t wait to dance at your wedding.”  

And I’ll hold onto that promise until we can all dance and celebrate each other.

If you are so inclined, please share your support at http://weareallies.tumblr.com/ and share with your friends and family.

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Posted in Family, Her Inspiration, Life Lessons, Personal

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Iconic Fashion

Posted on October 1, 2010 | 1 comment

In fashion there are always archetypes and icons.  The women who stand out for having that certain look – whatever it may be.  Their personal style becomes the trend and something to model.  Certain women stand out as setting trends and just following them, and over the next few weeks I’ll highlight their style – and how to be inspired by it, without looking like you’re wearing a costume, Halloween hasn’t started – yet!

We’ll start with the beginning, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.  I don’t think it is an overstatement to say she is the most iconic woman of the 20th Century.  In my mind there are two versions of Jackie style: White House and New York.  These different phases of her life clearly informed what was necessary and appropriate to wear but what is most striking is that no matter what she is wearing she always looks like herself, she looks effortlessly refined, authentic and American.
Image via At its best

After the White House she maintained the style and elegance she always had but in a more casual, accessible way and defined what today is called American sportswear.

Image via Harper’s Bazaar
“No one else looked like her, spoke like her, wrote like her, or was so original in the way she did things. No one we knew ever had a better sense of self.” 
– Teddy Kennedy on Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

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Posted in Fashion Inspiration, Her Closet, Her Inspiration

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Sign on the Dotted Line

Posted on September 29, 2010 | 1 comment

When planning our wedding there were a few things I really wanted for the ceremony: a chuppah, a broken glass and a ketubah (the Jewish wedding contract).  I am Jewish and Mark is atheist and raised Catholic, and so planning a ceremony that reflected our individual backgrounds, and shared future was important.

The ketubah became a pet project for both of us.  If you google search “ketubah” you’ll see endless varieties; Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Interfaith, Second Marriages, GLBT marriages.  And yet, none of these really clicked. Our wedding officiant, Cantor Debbi Ballard was very supportive of us creating our own ceremony that was unique and personal to us, and she encouraged us to apply that same consideration to our ketubah.  So, just like our invitations, the ketubah was written by us and designed by me.

We treated the text of our ketubah like our own vows, and agreed that the it’s text would be the guide for our future.  I am really proud of what we wrote, promised and agreed to.
On Saturday, the twenty third day of January,
Two Thousand and Ten,
Mark
and
Carly
joined each other before family and friends
to enter into a mutual covenant of marriage,
and with love and compassion
each vowed the following commitments:
To Ourselves-
To continuously improve our minds, bodies and souls
To push ourselves to achieve goals
To do good in the world
To love life, arts, sciences
And above all to have a sense of humor.
To each other-
To be friends, Partners and Lovers
To be honest and build a relationship on trust
To be kind, to communicate
To be a source of strength and balance for one another
To grow together.
To Our Family–
To create a nourishing home for happy and Healthy children
And an open home to all.
Our commitment to the above seals this document

Our ketubah was written with a focus on each of us and us.  It was important to us for the document to guide our marriage and focus on the growth we would want to experience and embrace so that we could continue to grow together over the journey of our lives and our marriage.

We signed our ketubah, and had our best man and maid of honor (Mark’s brother and my sister) serve as our witnesses.  In the Jewish faith the signing of the ketubah meant we were as good as married, so we sealed it with a kiss.

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Posted in Advice, Her Inspiration, Her Weddings + Events, Marriage, Personal, Sparkle

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