And many moooooooooore

Two Married People At The Fish Bar

The cherry on top of all of the great stuff that's been happening lately is that I had a birthday! Of course, much like its been throughout my entire academic life, my birthday fell right at the end of the semester. This was pretty unfortunate for my 21st birthday, because we all had finals & nobody wanted to celebrate, but in Grad school life, it turned out jussssst fine.  I had my last multicultural counseling class, which ended an hour early.  Greg had his last student development class, which didn't end early...So I went across the street to a little downtown bar, got a draft beer & cracked open my 1st fun read: The Hunger Games.  Once Greg was done, we headed back up to our neck of the woods & picked up our neighbors, Rich & Charlene to celebrate over dinner.  I could seriously eat seafood every day, & there was a place in our old neighborhood that I'd been really wanting to try, the Fish Bar.  It was DELISH! We had lobster bisque, crab cakes, fish tacos & some REAALLL yummy libations...Sweet Tea Vodka & a "Bourbon on Belmont" served in mason jars. And of course you know we had some key lime pie. It was all delicious. We've already decided that we'll be going back there to celebrate my parent's anniversary next month. They'll love it too.

Even though Greg's last day of his first year of Grad School (Go Babe!) was my birthday, I still had 1 last little class to go to before the end of my grad school life, and of naturally I had 2 meetings, a conference call & a "pre-graduation school friends party" last week too, so we were plenty busy even though things were winding down.  In spite of all the activity we were able to get a group together to go to my FAVORITE Sushi place ever for a little belated birthday celebration. This place is called Fresh & is literally across the street from the Fish Bar. They have the best Miso soup that was ever made by human hands & I could honestly eat there a few times a week & be totally content. Aaaaaand it's BYOB, which is always a hit here in Chicagoland. After everybody parted ways Greg & I stopped in a neighborhood bar for a night cap & I have to say, even though 27 is one of those years that's kind of inconsequential, this year's birthday celebration was perfect just getting together with some friends & keeping it low key.  I used to wonder about "grown ups" who didn't make a big deal about their birthday & think surely they were just saying how little they cared about their birthday because others would think they were silly for caring too much, but now I see why keylime pie & a table for 10 can be just as fun as a big birthday bash. It was truly the perfect 27th birthday celebration!

The Gang at Fresh

In my last post I speculated about what I'd do with all of this free time I have on my hands now that I don't have a wedding to plan or homework to do, and in light of my recent celebration I've been thinking maybe another project I can take on is actually getting a list of everyone's birthdays, anniversaries & the like together so that I can be better about sending celebratory wishes to the people we love. I always want to just sit down, once & for all, & "get organized" but then something inevitably gets in the way, so I'm going to add this to the list of things "to do" this summer (soon). I've seen a couple of helpful ideas to accomplish this goal, some more labor intensive than others. I saw this super cute family birthday board that could come in handy...although that feels more like a thing I'd buy if I owned my home...not sure my "all-in-one-room" Chicago home is cut out for this kind of display.  I do, however, appreciate that Treat (online greeting cards. YES!) has a feature where you can import your facebook friend's birthdays...which really does take care of most of the bunch.  And the best part about Treat is, once you important the birthdays, they send you a reminder & you can order a birthday card RIGHT. THERE. Don't even have to leave the office...I love it.  A little pricey, but SUPER convenient. They also send reminders for other card-worthy holidays like Mother's day, Valentine's day & the like.  I've also been using Google calendar LOTS lately, & I think that might also be a great way to keep track of everyone's big days, since I can just type it all in online & it automatically syncs with my iCal on my phone. Sometimes...I really do love technology. SOMEtimes.

Ok, I'm done talking about cards & birthdays. But I would like to make one final triumphant comment...because even I appreciate when I have my own act together...I have completed my special occasion greeting card & gift shopping for mother's day & a couple of other "special occasions" that are upcoming...& I'm 2 weeks ahead of the game. Don't mind if I do...

Last thing, I promise...I'm just thinking there are lots of things coming up that I don't want to forget to blog about (mostly for posterity's sake, but also for the 3 people that actually read this blog to keep up with our happenings), so I'm going to make a list (I LOVE LISTS!):
- Saying goodbye to Sigma Chi
- Cinco de Chicago
- My parents visit
- GRADUATION
I'm going to stop the list here because right after Graduation comes "Coop's going away party" & "The road back home" & I'm not ready to spend a lot of time thinking about what that experience will be like...but I am pretty pumped about thinking about our road trip to Florida. So...I'll stick with that for now.

All good things,
Meggo

Now what?

It's April 25th, 2012.  Yesterday I celebrated my 27th birthday. In Chicago. With my husband. 21 year old me would NEVER have believed that.  But what 27 year old me cannot believe is that I don't have any homework to do. In fact, today I turned in my very last homework assignment.  Now I won't go so far as to say "ever", because I'm not ruling out the possibility that I'll get the desire to go back to school again sometime...but it's going to be a REAL long time from now.  Either way, I turned in my last homework assignment today. I'm finished.  Of course, I have class tonight at 7, and we'll have "stuff" to do there, but after that, I don't have anything else I HAVE to do.  When I turned in my assignment earlier today I e-mailed it to my professor & said "Attached please find my final reflective essay. Is it weird that I'm kind of sad it's over?"...I am a little sad. I don't know that I can say WHY, because in reality I'm thrilled beyond measure that I can do some of the things I've been missing so much since devoting much of my extra time to grad school.  But it does feel a little sad. So...now what?

First of all, last night while I was waiting for that husband of mine to get out of class so we could go celebrate my birthday, I got into the hunger games. I'll be reading that from now on I'm sure.  Although I bet it won't take me long to finish it. I've got another reading list in the works, which I need to consolidate with the other reading list I blogged over winter break. The moral of that silly rant is that I'll be reading. Lots. Ironically, since now I don't have to read...I'll be reading all the time.

bye bye old bed

Hellloooooooooo new bed!

And of course you know I've got one hundred projects that I want to take on. I'm thinking the first one should really be building our new headboard. We treated ourselves to a new mattress after the wedding, so we bid a fond farewell to my headboard & foot board from my single lady life. I loved that set, and honestly if it hadn't been assembled & disassembled so many times that it became structurally unsound, I would have kept it for future Morgan nugget rooms...but it was past its prime, so we freecycled it. Well now, the new mattress is awesome but we both agree the room would look nicer with a headboard (at least). SO, we've agreed that rather than spend several hundred dollars on a headboard, we're going to try to make an upholstered headboard ourselves! Besides the obvious budget benefits of building our own headboard, this also means that when our design tastes change (& mine do pretty frequently) we can re-cover our headboard & go with a new look. That's why I chose super neutral bedding for our new mattress...so we could update as we please without having to do a complete overhaul. 

We've still got a few things to do on the To Do 2.0 list that I created this past fall, & I've got a LOOOONG list on my DIY Pinterest Board, including a few little crafties for my favorite old lady, Ash Matty & my favorite little lady, Ella Mae. Naturally, I can already think of a list of about 30 more things that I wanna DO now that I have all this spare time, so I'm looking forward to those projects.  

last day in my Chicago garden

Since leaving our little lakeview loveshack last summer, I've really missed the garden that Greg & I started there.  So I've been talking about doing some potted plants & hanging planters for our deck out back. Now that I have ALLLLL of this time on my hands, I can really do some research on flowers & plants that'll last a good long time, look nice, & be low-ish maintenance. I think we'll skip the produce for now, but any future Morgan homes will need to have veggie garden potential...a girl needs her garden.

taken by our sweet neighbor

Of course I'll still be advising the Zeta chapter at Northwestern, and I'm planning on getting more active in the Zeta alumnae group.  As for the rest of my "free time" I'm going to get back into my cookbooks, bake up a storm, keep up with the laundry,  actually be home for dinner, explore Chicagoland & all of its sights & flavors, & best of all...walk my sweet puppies!

Graduately (I know...it's a stretch),
Meggo

Wedding Magic

This is likely my last wedding post (I'm sure at least Ash Mat is happy about that...and so am I), but I've had a lot of e-mails these past few weeks asking who we worked with for this thing or that, so I figured I'd just publicly share the brilliant people behind the Latchford Morgan Wedding.

The Basics:
Heather Stewart of Stylish Traditions was our super helpful wedding planner. She was SUPER patient with me, which is hard to do.Love her.
Darla Stafford & Julie Robbins were our FANTASTIC hair & makeup duo & all of us were so so happy with everything they did. They were so much fun to be around for the whole day. & they put up with us...which is a plus.

Theresa NeSmith of Theresa NeSmith Photographer was our amazing photographer. She came all the way to Chicago to do an engagement shoot for us & is seriously one of the most talented people I've ever met in my life. And one of the kindest.

Celebrations of Tampa Bay was who we booked our videographer with. I have to admit I was against videography at first, but my sweet Mama insisted & she reports that the video is super fun. We can't wait to see it!

Jana from Events in Bloom did our beautiful flowers & very kindly used my Grandma's lace, flower vases, & tokens in so many special ways.

Melissa from Elite Events catered the wedding. I know Shrimp & Grits aren't for everybody, but we asked for a Southern Seafood Fusion menu & that is EXACTLY what we got. She also managed to work up our twisted Arnold Palmers in some great glass jars, which of course Greg loved. Publix Greenwise did all 5 of our wedding cakes.

Jeff Staples was our DJ. Lots of people told me "you'll never notice the music"...but I noticed & I heard lots of songs that I had specifically asked for, which was much appreciated.

One of my favorites parts, the invitations, programs, menu cards, table assignments & favor cards were all created by Greetings Oscar & it was a totally personal & custom experience that I LOVED! We had them printed locally (of course) at Bates Printing in St. Pete.

Accouterments:
The bridesmaid's dresses were J.Crew Cotton Cady (except for Lauren's...we had to improvise to make room for Ella).  The bridesmaid's bracelets were created by Made By Sam & she even allowed me to change the stone color & the charm to be each of the bridesmaid's initials. I also got them some Knockarounds, a monogrammed koozie (necessity) & tote bags. Shopping for them was so fun. Well...shopping for everybody was so fun.

The Jr. Bridesmaids Dresses & Flower Girl Dresses were David's Bridal with some help from another Etsy retailer, Prose Boutique who made the hair pieces & belts for the girls.
I got the Mother's hankies from another Etsy retailer, Designs by Gloria. She made some really beautiful & sentimental hankies for us that she embroidered with a message from me to my mom & mother-in-law. & I she sent me a bonus one with my  name & our wedding date on it, which was a nice touch.

Of course no day in my life is complete unless I do something totally unnecessary to include my dogs in my life as if they were human, so they got new wedding collars, made by Pecan Pie Puppies. They wear them every day now. We L.O.V.E. them & can't wait to see pictures from the morning of the wedding with them wearing their wedding "necklaces".

Greg & the boys were wearing suits we bought from Macy's, custom monogrammed dress shirts from Paul Frederick, a necktie from The Tie Bar & a pair of Knockarounds! We picked out the cufflinks that we gave his Dad & mine from an amazing shop on Etsy Asgard Designs. We tried to match the little man to the big guys for his suit (which was trickier than we thought) & ended up getting him an adult size necktie, which was adorably big on him. He looked dashing. His ring barer's pillow came from Me and Matilda & they get one of the customer service awards. When we got to Florida we realized that the ring barer pillow wasn't there & then promptly moved on to worrying about something else expecting it to turn up. It never did. I e-mailed Me & Matilda on Friday & she overnighted us a replacement that we received early the morning of the wedding.

The big pillow covers were made by two different Etsy sellers, The Burds Nest who did the ones with the felt flowers & the navy ones were made by Thread Pairs. The Burds Nest created custom covers for us & I had a great experience with them. I can't give Thread Pairs as glowing of a review, but the product worked for what we wanted.

The Cornhole Boards was made by the father of the bride & we bought the monogram from Love Monograms & the bags were custom made with fabrics & colors we specifically requested by Two Florida Girls (which are obviously the best kind of girls).

Our little Mr. & Mrs signs were made by Little Retreats & our marriage certificate was designed by myself & one of my favorite bloggers, the Design Editor. It's going to make for an amazing piece of art for our home. I can't wait to get it framed!

One last thing...for you brides out there looking for the perfect wedding gift for your groom...I'm giving away some free personal shopping advice here: your husbands can thank me later. Ha!

I'm sure I'm forgetting at least a few things, but Greg & I are really proud about what a personal experience we crafted for our family & friends, & we're happy that everyone liked it so much that they'd ask who helped us create such a great experience. These are the people, artists, retailers & friends that we have to thank for making our day so special & unique. We'll never be able to thank them enough, but I bet getting some more business from our friends & family is a start.

Happy Shopping/Planning/Browsing/Decorating,
Meggo

Unsubscribe

In my migration from my various single lady e-mail addresses I am having to go through each e-mail account & decide which retailers, blogs, & news outlets I want to continue to receive e-mail from.  Anybody who's ever picked up my cell phone or opened my laptop knows that this is no small task because I am subscribed to EVERYTHING. This can be good, or bad. Good because I always know what's on sale. Bad because I always know what's on sale. And REALLY bad because I have the exact opposite of a methodical process by which I process each of my e-mails.  The reality is that I don't process, read, or weed out any e-mails. I basically read the ones that require action (Zeta e-mail, personal e-mail from family or friends) & I read the ones that interest me (Rue La La, LTD Commodities, Etsy, etc.). So all of the subscribing I've done over the years as I've shopped for gifts or taken advantage of a really great deal...I never read those e-mails. I have subscribed to blogs that I literally NEVER read. I read all of my friends' blogs, but Alicia Silverstone's "The Kind Life" Blog...totally sweet, and I'm at least 80% on board with the message, but I just don't have an interest in reading her thoughts every day. Maybe you're thinking the same thing about me...that's cool.

Anyway, in migrating over to my new e-mail address I'm trying to simplify my life. Only be registered to receive e-mails from companies, bloggers, news outlets that I'm actually interested in.  To that point (& this one's a biggy) I have kindly let Pinterest & Facebook know that they don't need to alert me every time somebody likes my status or re-pins one of my pins. As we all know, the nature of Pinterest is that others will repin. I don't need to be alerted.

little me...demonstrating
my feelings about simplicity
& summer!

Some other liberating unsubscribing I have been doing is the e-mail blasts of a couple of bars here in Chicago that I haphazardly signed up for with the promise of "a free party" or "awesome deals". This turned out to be Uncle Fatty's Rum Resort e-mailing me a few times a week to let me know that they're having $1 beers on a night that I could NEVER go out or a Playstation contest I would NEVER participate in or spectate. So those e-mails are history. Perhaps my favorite e-mail subscription to discontinue has been to The Knot, The Wedding Wire, Martha Stewart Weddings, The Aisle New York, Kleinfeld, David's Bridal & anything else BRIDAL. I am SO HAPPY to never read any of those articles or blogs or websites EVER. AGAIN....until one of my best girls gets married, then I bet I'll have ever more fun reading them on their behalf than I did on my own. Soon enough.

I am so looking forward to eliminating my old e-mail addresses from my phone & my laptop. I can't wait to open my inbox & actually be able to sort through the communication in there.

Here are some other things I can't wait for:
Graduation
To read for fun
Evanston Farmer's Market
To sleep on our new mattress
My birthday (hence the latest blog "theme")
My parents to get here
Ash Mat's Visit
Festival Season
Oh...did I mention Graduation?

Happy Thursday Y'all!
Simply,
Meggo

The Name Change

Sadie Morgan & I 

The time has come to change my name, and the name of my blog.  These name changes are happening for two different respective reasons. Obviously I'm changing my legal name (eventually) to add Morgan. So my legal name will be Megan Latchford Morgan, but in normal interactions I'll just be Megan Morgan. I imagine this will mainly be my name to the people I meet from here on out, and the future parents of my future children's future friends. WEIRD.

The name change for the blog is happening because I got my spot blown up by one of my sorority sisters in a fit of hypocrisy...so rather than have a blog that's title is an excerpt from a pop song, I've changed it to my very own name. The real one. The one that the people who know me best have probably already changed me to in their iPhone contacts.

So, consider my name(s) changed. More to come on the process of legally changing my name...before graduation...which is in 4 weeks and 1 day...YIKES! 

Transitionally,

Meggo