Katie Donnelly and Vanessa Tierney for PhotoOp
For many things in Life,
you never know when they will happen. Like when you will meet your soul mate.
Or when you will realize you suck at cooking. Or when you will discover you
can’t wear red. —
Or when you will find
yourself on a day when nothing seems to fit, nothing is going as planned, when
you are trying to tackle 13 blog posts, organize your daughter’s 5th birthday
party (note to self: must send that deposit to Justin the Magician!), finish
your website, wonder if you should cut your hair or go back to therapy or both,
and you rush from a lecture at the preschool (oh-so appropriately) on anxiety
to a Mamarazzi event with Tori Spelling.
Or when you will find
yourself at this event, chatting with Tori Spelling, at which point she will
give you a Life Nugget. Wrapped in a cute bow, tucked in the swag bag.
Exactly. You just never
know when that will, if ever, happen.
And then it just does.
On a sunny day, yet this
day where nothing was fitting, I found myself at Make Meaning, a favorite
crafty place of the Chaet clan. (Digression time: I found out we can now
decorate cakes as a fun option when we head to Make Meaning. Really. Cakes.
Cakes that taste like Twinkies. I know.
Genius.)
So, I was at Make Meaning
as it was the venue for the latest Mamarazzi event organized by The MOMs.
Denise Albert and Melissa Gerstein, those two gals who make being a mom seem
quite glamorous because they are moms and, well, they are
glamorous. This particular Mamarazzi event was all about, you guessed it, Tori
Spelling and her new book CelebraTORI,
which she wrote as a “work of passion” to help all of us tap into our inner
party planners and throw some amazing celebrations.
Formerly of 90210 (the original one) fame, currently
mother of three (with another on the way), reality TV goddess, crafty guru, jewelry
designer, business maven and New York Times bestselling author Tori
Spelling was due to pop by at any minute. Before the guest of honor’s appearance,
I flipped through Tori’s book. Beautiful photos, helpful info, yummy
recipes…and I love these lines from the forward:
You don’t
need me to show you how to write a list of obvious tasks on a piece of paper.
This book is meant to be inspirational, not simply instructional.
Tori arrived, looking
rather awesome, and dove right into the questions from the other moms in the
room. With self-deprecating humor and honesty echoing the tone of her book, she
answered them all, from the usual “When are you due?” (September) to the
point-blank “Was this pregnancy planned?” (to which she laughingly answered,
“Hattie was one month old…do you THINK this was planned?!” Right, doing the
math, she and hubby Dean didn’t quite wait the doctor’s orders of no
hanky-panky for six weeks…but she admits that, too.)
As I waited in line for
her to sign my copy of CelebraTORI, I
looked at more of the chapters. All of the parties were gorgeous…but they were
parties held in homes. With patios. And pools. And outdoor space. Not a
450-square-feet apartment. Again, a case where my life didn’t seem to fit.
I sat down next to her.
She complimented me on my necklace (gotta love those $18 steals from Kohl’s),
and I asked her to write her next book about having soirees in small spaces.
She thought a moment and said, “You know, I think all of these parties can fit
in any space. Don’t be afraid to move
the furniture!”
I nodded and smiled and
thanked her. I nodded and smiled and thanked the rest of the event team and
walked out onto Columbus…where my day, the day where nothing was fitting,
thumped me. And thumped me once more. Just because it could.
And Tori’s words jingled
in my brain: Don’t be afraid to move the furniture.
Hmm. Methinks that doesn’t
just apply to party planning.
When not blogging for CafeMom,
working (ohsoslowly) on her book, or writing for New York Family,
Heather Chaet documents moments of motherhood, the little successes and
the epic fails here — and on Twitter (@heatherchaet).
