Want something different for your autumn wedding? The Autumn Splendor Bridal Garter features a natural acorn richly preserved in iridescent copper with a shimmering sheer green/brown ribbon in a bow.

There were
Ma, Pa
Uncles, aunts
GrandMa, Grandpa
Some cuckolds
And suckers
Headscarfs of golds
Brothers, sisters
In law or never
But The ball gown's too big
For me

There were
Tins behind the car
Ribbon's not so far
Layer cakes
On the Garter
Children games
And laughter
But The ball gown's too big
For me

There were
Worries on needles
Busy dress designers
Choirs and choruses
Zest on that occasion
But you never came
For the suit was too big
For thee

Mae Linat © 2008

Alles von Piaget

Dazu trägt Sie ein Garter Tank Top für 225 Dollar

Posted by Feodora Umarov

Photomodel: Feodora Umarov

I heard the latch click and watched as the door slowly opened with your head appearing once there was enough room.

"I don't recall calling for housekeeping." I could hear the wry smile in your voice.

I curtsied, daintily pulling the edge of my skirt outward as I lowered. Eyes always looking down. "Merely tidying up. It won't take but a moment or two. I'm sorry for the inconvenience." I rose up back to a waiting position.

"I see. Well, be quick with it then. I'm very tired and have to get some rest tonight." I saw the door open and the back of your legs as you walked back down the small hallway into the room proper. I smiled inward as you meant to play along with the game.

You couldn't see with your back turned but I curtsied again as a proper maid would do. It would be wonderful once you realized that I would be yours completely, ready to do anything you asked, when you asked, without hesitation.

I entered the room, and closed the door behind me, re-locking it. As I made my way into the room, I made sure to straighten any items of clothing, luggage or furniture that was ajar, or amiss in any way.

You were sitting impatiently on the bed, still playing the part of a disturbed guest. I passed slowly in front of you, turning every so often so that my petticoat and skirt would rustle slightly. I was cleaning up my own mess of clothes that I'd left in disarray on purpose, while sneaking glimpses of you watching me in the mirror.

"Will you be much longer? I need to get ready for bed." You almost sounded annoyed. Was I taking too long?

"No I am almost done." I turned and walked slowly over to where you were sitting on the bed and stopped in front of you. "I there any way I can help? I am to serve." Another deep curtsy.

"I suppose you can help me get undressed." A good start.

I immediately dropped to my knees and before you could say anything I reach out and began to take off your shoes. Once they were off I stood up, turned and bent over at the hips to pick them off the floor, giving you a perfect view of my underside, at least the parts not covered in silk, satin and lace.

I walked to the vanity and bent again to place them neatly on the floor. Turning I held out a gloved hand to help you stand up.

You take it with a smile and stand up. I step close to you and start unbuttoning your jacket starting at the top. When I've open the last one I reach up and with one hand on each shoulder I turn you around so that I have your back to me.

I lean in so you can feel my breath on your neck as I reach around you and pull open the jacket and slide it off your shoulders. You can hear me folding the jacket neatly and placing it on the spare bed.

Next I kneel behind you and work on opening up the button that keeps your skirt together. It is not easy with the satin gloves, but after a moment it releases to me and I pull the short zipper down. You feel my bosom push into your rear as I reach around you once more to pull the waist band down.

I hold the skirt gingerly as I kneel on the floor waiting you to step out of it. As you do you turn to watch me fold the skirt and place it next to the jacket.

"Are you really going to keep doing this?" You ask as I start unbuttoning your blouse. I'm trying very hard not to think about the musky scent I detected when I was so close to your vagina. I let go of your blouse letting it half fall open.

"ma'am" A curtsy, during which I sneak a look forward and see you are wearing stockings and a garter belt. Back to the blouse I make short work of the remaining buttons before removing the cloth form your shoulders.

After folding the blouse and setting it down, I turn to you and before I can do anything you speak.

"The panties are next." Almost hesitant, but a firm, decisive command nonetheless. You are starting to understand.

I drop to my knees in front of you, and with a smile raise my head to be level with your crotch. I have a moment to take a deep breath of your heavenly scent before I reach up to comply with your order.

continued...

I was as nervous as I could ever remember. I wanted everything to be perfect. It would be my first time as a maid for you and I wanted you to embrace the experience. I didn't want you to get distracted by any details. Just lose yourself in the moment.

I'd left you to enter the adjoining hotel room. You raised an eyebrow when I said I'd gotten two rooms. You promised you wouldn't peek. I promised I wouldn't lock the door. We kissed and I suggested you should relax, turn on the television. I'd only be a moment or two.

Closing the door behind me I stripped down and walked to the bed where my uniform and its trappings lay. It was quite a spread and it would take more than a few moments to get ready. I knew you wouldn't wait for long so I made sure the door locked as I'd closed it.

I picked up the black silk bra and slipped into it, followed by the garter belt. A light weight corset was next, merely tight to give the intended look without any restrictions to my mobility.

A pair of black silk panties with delicate silk ruffles in the back were next. I took my time and pulled the garters underneath the panties so they could be slipped off without any fuss. I was already starting to get a bit wet but I steeled my resolve and continued.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, I slowly rolled a pair of black seamed stockings up my legs and affixed the garter straps to them and donned a pair of black pumps.

As I was puling up a garter with a bow on it I thought I heard you at the door. Very quietly I walked over and listened with my ear next to the door. Nothing, but you could have been drowned out by the noises of the television.

Returning to the bed I picked up the dress that I'd ordered especially and tailored to a perfect fit. I stepped into it with my right leg and blushed as I felt the satiny fabric brush my leg. My left leg joined the right and I pulled the dress up until the skirt was at my waist. The feeling was amazing and I felt my legs go weak at the knees for a moment.

As I started putting one arm into the sleeve before the other I looked to my right and could see my profile in the vanity mirror. I paused watching myself in profile as I was getting ready to do your bidding in the most proper way possible. I gave myself a quick smile and pulled the dress over my arms and onto my shoulders. I nearly had to sit down I was so overcome.

I reached back and found the zipper and pulled it up until it stopped at the nape of my neck. I took a deep breath knowing that soon I would be finished with dressing. Then the hard part would begin.

I reached for the petticoat and stepped into it. I once again remarked at it's beauty, the multiple layers of silk and crinoline that conspired to raise my dress up as I settled it upon my waist. The top of my dress' skirt barely made it to the edge of the petticoat and  the bottom of which was nearly perfectly horizontal to the floor. The folds of silk were so lush my legs seems to explode out of them without warning. When I walked there was a slight swish swish sound if you listened hard enough.

I tied the satin apron around my waist taking special care to tie a nice looking bow in the back. A maid's cap in my red hair, a pair of satin, lace frilled gloves and my role was complete.

I took a turn in front of the vanity and was satisfied with the results. A touch to my makeup and I steeled myself for what was next.

I turned, and walked towards the door. I opened it and looked both ways in the hallway. No one was about. It was a big hotel, downtown, but it was late and most people should be asleep by now.

I stepped outside of the room. Stared at the floor and with my palms on the door I slowly let it creep shut. At the sound of the door latching shut I knew there was no going back.

I raised my chin until my head was looking forward and put on my best French demeanor. I turned and walked left to the next door.

Addressing the door, I raised a gloved hand and rapped on the wood once. Twice. "Housekeeping."

continued...

I have been DYING to do a veil shot like this for months! It seems a lot of brides are forgoing the tradition of a veil - :( But not Sarah! YAY!

Can you tell I'm a sucker for the details?

I thought this was a great moment for Mike and Sarah during their ceremony - these two were always laughing! It was a joy to see.

The fancy limo:

Gotta have a sun flare :)

Their reception was held at the Lapeer Country Club - talk about a beautiful location! Here's their first dance - wine-glass style:

Mike took the garter like a champ!

Sarah was also a champ at throwing the bouquet - take a look at this - so funny :) (I also caught Mary Lyn in the background!)

And finally, the rings:

I'm going to be so sad when the wedding season is officially over :( I'll miss the hustle and bustle of each and every wedding weekend!

Gartner has just released its latest Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, which includes all the social media tools that we love so much, most of which Gartner deem to be two to five years away from mainstream adoption.  Web 2.0, which has been defined by some as the sum of the various social media tool parts, is yet to enter the Trough of Slough but is less than two years away from mainstream.

Disappointingly it's more than ten years till we all get mobile robots, though it is nice that Gartner thinks augmented reality is at least ten years away, when anyone with access to class a's can prolly achieve it in ten seconds.

There's some interesting chat over at Tech Crunch on what technologies are missing from the curve, with OpenID being a major MIA

The original from 1995 features considerably less technology, not all of which have made it to the platform of productivity - namely handwriting and speech recognition.  Both have moved on leaps and bounds but would you consider them truly mainstream?  Also, who the hell has heard of the Information Super Highway?

The 2005 version actually seems a little more reasonable, though from being only five years out in '05, Grid computing has disappeared by the latest version.  Corporate blogging has slid down towards the trough a little but is still two years away, which is where it was three years ago and handwriting recognition really hasn't shifted since the original cycle.

There is one major and very welcome change over the past three years, we seem to have shaken our addiction to acronyms.

NB: Apologies for the quality of the second graphic, that's the only version of the 95 chart I can find

Purchase online at Zinke Design or visit our booth at the New York Gift Show, #31023 in the Piers August 16-20.

We were married on a Sunday, August 7th in 19 hundred and 83.  The prior century.  The 20th century.  It was hot and it hadn't rained in about 6 weeks prior to our wedding.  After the cemony, it came a shower of rain.  Janee's Daddy said of he knew it would rain on our wedding day, he would have helped us move it up a bit earlier.

Friends and family came, lot of them.  A church full.  Many of them bearing gifts.  About 250-300 folks.  We did things a bit differently.  We had a cake cutting on the night before, after the rehearsal.  It would have had to been a big cake to feed 250-300 or be cut into really small tidbits.

My Daddy was more nervous than I was.  I remember waiting in that little choir room and him asking if I was nervous.  I sad no.  He was.  Daddy and Momma left and drove to Gaffney, SC (about 1.5 hours from home) and got married down there.  Then, they came home and didn't tell anybody for almost 2 weeks.  Times were a bit different in 19 hundred and 59.  Daddy was almost 19 and Momma was 15.

My preacher, Ralph May, saw my keys in the pants pocket of my tux.  He asked what that was prior to the start of the wedding.  I showed them to him.  He said he would keep my keys so they wouldn't make any of the wedding pictures look funny.  So I gave them to him.  Thought no more of it.

The ceremony was underway and I saw my Paw-Paw Powell sniffling.  He was the bomb.  Both he and Paw-Paw Ramsey were very big contributors to my big streak of ignorance and having fun.  Anyway, when I saw him, I about lost it.  I can contain most of my emotions and keep a clear head in toublesome times.  As I have aged, I think I have lost some of that ability, especially when it come to the affairs of the heart.  There are times when the death of a loved one or a friend can affect me and my composure, but when it comes to somebody realizing the richness of life and the blessings of it, that's when I can start the sniffling like Paw Powell.  But that's a good thing, to quote Martha Stewart.

After we were wed (meaning the ceremony was finished) we shook the hands of all the guests as they exited the church.  Then we took pictures inside the air-conditioned building as they waited on us outside in the heat.  I just now realized that part.  No wonder we got pounded so hard with the rice.

All the sweetness of our love was captured in the photos by Andy Hern.  Then we moved out to the porch for the bouquet toss and the garter gathering.  There's one really devilish pic of me as I found the garter on my wife's thigh.  It weren't no put on.

Anyway, we got pelted with rice and ran down the sidewalk to my waiting truck.  The only vehicle owned by either of us.  It was all decorated and we ran around to get in.  No keys.  I looked for Ralph.  His requirements for pictures were taken care of pretty early in the proceedings and he had left the premises.  With my keys.

Now, mind you, this was in the days prior to cell phones.  So, Janee's Daddy loaded us into his big Cadillac, only the second time I had ever ridden in one.  The other time was in a funeral procession.  We have a pic of us beside the truck with no keys and one of us in the backseat of Burl's car.

After riding to Janee's Aunt Nina's place, we changed clothes and were preparing for our trip to Gatlinburg for the honeymoon.  Daddy tracked down the preacher at a local restaurant and retrieved my keys, brought the truck to Nina's, losing a hubcap in the process (it was later located).  Just about the time we were to leave, Nina came up with the bright idea of opening all the wedding gifts that were brough to her house after the cermony.  About a hundred of them.  It all had to be acknowledged, a list written down of the gift and the giver and so on.  That's Nina and she's still the same.

I was afraid that with all the delays our room would not be held.  But, eventually, we satisfied our requirements (what requirements, it was OUR wedding) and made our way to Tennessee.  A newly married couple, with my bride in the MIDDLE of the seat, in a pickup truck.  Luggage in the back.

I knew everything was as it should be when we got to the room, turned on the TV and saw The Osborne Brothers singing Rocky Top on Nashville Now.

Last Thursday night, we went out to eat a nice steak and celebrated, in our own diminshed way, the 25 years spent together since that first night.  Man it's been good.  If the next 25 go by as fast at this first 25, I better start preparing NOW!

I'm thinking that I could get it dry cleaned, add a little more beading in the front, and put some monograms in it. I could put my parents wedding date and then mine and Marks'. That way, it could truly be an heirloom!

Take four ounces of handpainted wool, divided in half. Spin random singles, two ounces of each. Ply. Set the twist. Cast on about seven inch's worth of stitches. Knit every row until you run out of yarn. Cast off.

Doesn't get much more simple.

In non-craft related news, it's Summer here in London and while the locals are going round gasping for air in the 'heat', I'm quite content. It is after all only about 22 degrees most days (when it's not raining that is!). I'm still trying desperately to avoid the dreaded 9 to 5 - working on the writing, but in a slightly different format than first anticipated. Something along the lines of starting my own business, but I don't want to say too much too soon. (Not much fun, I know!). Still, you'll be the first to know. Promise.

As a bride to be, you only have so much time to plan every little detail. Why not make it easier on yourself? At www.bellacroft.com, we offer a wide variety of themed sets that make you life easier. Take this Classic Double Heart Guest Book by Weddingstar for example. It comes in white or ivory and can also be paired with a matching pen and base set. Not colorful enough? Take a look at the Weddingstar Flower of Love Guest book in Romantic Red. This particular set also has a matching garter, cake serving set, pen, taper candles, unity candle, ring pillow and more! Talk about taking a load off of your shoulders!

Weddingstar Classic Double Heart Traditional Guest Book - White

by Erik Baard

Cross-dressers are more often straight than gay, but there’s something irresistibly amusing about the fact that our language paired the words “garter” and “snake” for a species later discovered to be promiscuously homosexual in drag.

Well, at least chemically in drag. Male garter snakes (which live in all five boroughs in a variety of niches, ranging from dusty lots and wet drainage ditches to Last Chance Pond) awaken from hibernation in spring before the far-less-populous females in an attempt to secure best mating placement. Some males will then emit feminine pheromones and linger by the burrow entrance of a hibernating female. When males show interest, the imposter will lead them away and trick them into thinking their deed is done. The imposter will then cease emitting feminine pheromones and hurry back to the burrow to have his chance with the actual female.

Of course, with many more males than females, the process remains a bit messy. A happy couple will soon find themselves at the center of a huge “mating ball” (see the photo above, from the University of Oregon) of writhing males and a minority of females. Some researchers have even postulated that by tricking other males into thinking that they are female, an imposter might better survive the cold early spring, insulated at the center of such mating balls.

But homosexuality in “nature” is certainly not reducible to trickery. It’s varied and nuanced, and in higher mammals apparently most often centered on emotional bonding and pleasure. Yes, much as in humans. I do not doubt that many of our pre-human ancestors were homosexual and bisexual. Two years ago the University of Oslo’s Natural History Museum restarted the periodic dialogue on this topic with an photographic exhibit of 51 such species called, “Against Nature.”

For me, the two most fascinating questions are why did homosexuality evolve and how did a sexual behavior coalesce in humans into a sustained and resilient Gay subculture? After all, while other species display homosexual behavior, only humans are Gay.

Many media stories about the 1,500 species in which homosexuality has been observed leap right to the phrase “gay animals.” As we look back on the weekend’s Gay Pride festivities, I think it’s important to bear (no pun intended but hey, I'll roll with any bad pun) in mind a distinction between shorthand sexual definitions and a richer cultural and personal identification.