Weekend Recap

All I have to say is I got to hang out with my wonderful family this weekend. I played with my 2 year old niece, who seems to be in love with WF more than me sometimes, and I snuggled my little nephew Declan until my arms hurt. I just love going to spend time with my family in Houston. 

I did go to a baby shower on Saturday. While there a woman gave the guest of honor the most unusual poem ever. She then made her read it out loud. I am not going to give you the whole poem just yet but let me just give you a taste. It involved a crack mother and her baby, abortion, gay couples rights to adopt, teen pregnancy, test tube babies and judgment calls on mistake babies. REALLY! It was given to a mom to be as a serious poem for her to hang in her home. Did I mention the crack baby part? 

In addition to this party WF and I babysat for a few hours. two adults, two kids and two dogs was too much! WF is great with the kiddos but he damn near had a break down. Let's just say I don't think we will be making sweet sweet music together any time soon. After our experience of feeding, bathing and putting to bed two babies with out any help from their parents, WF was reconsidering parenthood in general. 

Always a good time. Hope you ladies had a great weekend, filled with all the laughing and love that mine was. 

Thoughts and Thanks

 

Source

Ladies, I can't thank you all enough for the support and thoughts you shared with me. I have been having just one of those weeks and knowing that I have support for you really helped. Lots of ups and downs this week and I am so ready for the weekend to be here. I really need to change things up at my office and make things happen for me. I have not been happy there for a while. It is mainly because I never feel like I am going to get any new responsibility, or that anything will change (and the whole everyone is kinda mean thing too). Its frustrating. I am hoping that things will get better soon. I don't really want to leave because in theory I like what I do.

With these feelings and my concerns of being unhappy outside of wedding world I have been thinking a lot about how to make things better That being said I am going to put a one month moratorium on wedding planning (I am going to try really hard at this I promise). I am working on planning things in my life other than my wedding. I have been pretty busy at work and with wedding planning on top of that I have been letting myself become the crazy girl that has nothing else to talk about but my wedding. I need to focus on my relationship with WF and I need to focus on my relationship with my friends. If I don't improve and maintain these relationships my perfect wedding will not be worth it. Let's face it I am WAY ahead of the game when it comes to wedding planning. I can relax a bit for the next month and still make my day perfect.

So, I can not guarantee that I will not obsess about details of my wedding and breakdown and plan something but I am going to make a effort to put it on the back burner. Did any of you who planned your weddings ever feel like you had to do this?

Take that "The Knot" checklist!

I have booked my cake baker. Done and done!

It was super easy to pick my baker. I am going with Michelle's Pattiserie. She does amazing work, her cakes were FANTABULOUS and she was well within my budget. BAM. Take that checklist that never ends just to piss me off.

I love my cake. It was featured in "The Knot" a few months ago and I have been in love with it since. I picked two flavors for the cake, tiramisu and fresh strawberries and cream. I am totally obsessed. Here is my cake:

Source

I will be putting different flowers on the cake but you get the general idea.WF and I just could not get over how yummy and afordable she was! I did not even have to think, we just got the cake. Perfection. Do you like?

Weekend Recap

This weekend was a lot of fun. The weather in Texas is just perfect right now so I had the windows open in the house all weekend. I just love the fresh air.

Source

WF had a procedure done to his foot so we were pretty limited in what we could do. Friday night we just did our normal movie night. We watched the SCARIEST movie EVER, Paranormal Activity. Personally I dont like scary movies, but WF loves them. He did not even suggest we try to watch this movie knowing how scary it was. I watched it terrified the whole time. It is not gory, just a huge mind fudge of a movie. The whole night while trying to fall asleep I kept thinking I was seeing things or hearing things. I have not had a good nights sleep since then. SERIOUSLY, dont watch it.

Saturday I got new tires, that was a nice raping, UGH. That night we went to Carli's cupcake party. I tricked WF with the promise of free cupcakes. He was there bum toe and all what a trooper. We then just went home and watched Weeds and passed out.

Sunday we had brunch with friends at a new place in the 360 building. Other than the service, I would highly recommend it. It was super yummy, had $2 mimosas and was very reasonably priced. Garrido's was a great place to relax and get my buzz on. We then napped most of the afternoon. Awesome weekend if you ask me.

I am going to a cake tasting today, and then hopefully picking that vendor this week. Things are moving along very well. Hope you all had a good weekend!

Florist: BOOKED!

This afternoon I met with Stephanie from Bouquet's of Austin. We went over her already beautiful proposal  and I gladly booked her. I am so excited about this vendor. She was totally willing to work with my budget and helped me come up with some really cool ideas. I think she is going to help me make my day so special.

I have been trying to go with vendors that I really vibe with and she is one of them. After I booked her we actually sat there and talked for a good 20 minutes. Just chatting. It was so nice to just hear about her other brides, things she was up to and how she runs her business.

If anyone is out there reading this in Austin that is looking for a florist for any reason I highly recommend her. I don't have pictures of the final product, since my wedding is not until September, but I just know it is going to be great. Here are some of the inspirations I am using though:

Source

Source

Hope you all have a great weekend. WF and I have a lot going on this weekend, plus I am attempting an arts and crafts project. I dare not tell you what it is due to the high probability that I will FAIL.

All dressed up and no honeymoon to go!

I have noticed lately that I everything I have been eying up at stores has totally been honeymoon wear. We have yet to book it but I still find all this stuff that I am drooling over. I like to fantasize about me drinking margaritas on the beach in Mexico every time my job stinks or I am sitting around folding laundry in my sweatpants. Every time I do this I just feel better. So we better make that happen. In the mean time here are some things I am coveting right now.

Target.com

 

Target.com

 

Gap.com

Jcrew.com

Lillypulitzer.com

Lillypulitzer.com

Lillypulitzer.com

One day I will have the money to buy all my Lilly stuff. The Target items may or may not already be in my shopping cart as we speak. HMMM Target.

Meanwhile, back to fashion trends I can't pull off. The boyfriend clothes look, love it but it does not love me:

Tuesday Porn

You dirty girl, you thought I had real porn on here didn't you!? I don't, but I do have some pictures of my fiance doing dishes. To me this is porn. Its amazing to me how many men out there don't help out around the house. My WF is not always perfect but he does help out DAILY with the dishes. I cook and he cleans. It is awesome. He has been really great these last few weeks as I get deeper into wedding planning land. I really can't thank him enough for trying when he can. So just for you here is a taste of my porn collection for you ladies: 

Work it....

I don't know about you but I need a cigarette... 

Update via pictures

I bought a new immersion blender on the fly a few weeks ago. I thought I would post these pictures of me cooking the WW friendly potato leak soup. It was "OK" and therefore I am not going to post too much about it. But the blender is awesome. Here I am working it in the kitchen:

It really was fun to try out this new tool. I will be making lots more soups and such just to have a reason to use it.

I also tackled taking down my Christmas decor. Let me tell you this took three, yes three, days. We have far too much stuff. I made several runs to Target and The Container Store for organizational supplies. WF did a great job helping me though and it is all packed up and in one storage closet. That's not too bad considering we used to have about 10 boxes of stuff before. Here are the before during and afters:

 

 

 So that is it for now. This past weekend we had a great time at Kelly's birthday. Myself and Amelia kicked some but at beer pong, and were the final all girl team (let alone the only all girl team, but whatevs) we also did our first cake tasting. YUMMY!

Happy Monday all!

Weight Watchers Wednesday (Thursday)

I forgot to post about WW yesterday so I thought I would give you the LD on my status. The good news is, as of now I have lost the 3 pounds of holiday weight I gained. I have worked out twice this week and am planning on two more work outs this week. This is a huge accomplishment for me and therefor I must brag.

I had my friend Whitney over for dinner last night. She just finished planning her wedding and offered to come over and listen to me vent and settle some ideas. I made her dinner in exchange for her services. I made a WW "Greek Penne Pasta" and altered it just a bit.

Source

I used whole wheat pasta, spinach, red onions, almonds, garlic and olive oil. It was super yummy. You can find the full recipe on WW if you just put in "Greek Penne Pasta". 5 points well spent.

After dinner and some wonderful red wine Whitney helped me figure out lots of stuff. With your help (thanks so much) and hers I have decided I want to go with the long tables and some variation of the original floral plan I chose. I am going to go with the florist I "vibe" with the most because that is going to be better in the long run. She also helped me figure out some other small details like place cards and lighting options. I am still not sold on having a DJ at the wedding over just using an iPod over the house sound system, but she was really helpful on that issue as well. On Saturday I get to go try on my actual wedding dress! It came in!!!!!!!!! YEA!!!!!!!!! I am super pumped about this and will let you all know how it goes.  Happ WWW on Thursday!

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed

I have been trying to stay on top of wedding planning. For the most part I feel I have done a good job at this. I have complete the following things:

Booked:
Photographer
Officiant
Venue
Florist (have not sent in my deposit yet, but I know who I am going with)
Day of coordinator

Done:
Save the Dates
Found my wedding dress
Picked wedding party
Picked colors
Have possible bridesmaid dress

But according to the "Knot" I am starting to fall behind on things. If any of you have planned your wedding you know what I am talking about. They have a checklist for you to refer to and it reminds you of things you should be doing this month. Well this month I have 6 things I am late on and like another 5 I still need to do. WTF? I thought I was totally ahead of the game and now I am way behind.

So as of now I am working on finalizing my florist, think I am going to go with the lady I like the most even if it is not the cheapest. I am making appointments with cake bakers (which if any of you have recommendations let me know) and looking into reception DJ's and ceremony music.

In the meantime what are your thoughts on a non-traditional layout of a ballroom? I had a vision of using long tables from the hotel and lining the dance floor on three sides with tables. My contact at the SFA sent me some pictures of a wedding that was a bit bigger than mine but had a layout like what I want. They used the whole ballroom, not just half like I had originally planned, I am not 100% sold, I like it though for sure. My other option is traditional rounds. What do you think:

 

 

My chairs would pretty much look like that, and then I have brown overlays for tablecloths. I am also not going to have as many flowers on the table, I dont have that kind of budget. So, does it look funny? Do you think the room looks cozey and warm and inviting? That's what I am hoping for.

Yankee Deep Thoughts: Walking in the "cold"

Source

Today I had to run over to the SFA for an appointment for the wedding (we are going over wedding layout options as I am not sold on the whole round table idea) and I actually considered driving there. It is less than 5 blocks from my office to the hotel and I was going to drive. Why? It was "cold" out! All my ladies in the north that read this should be laughing right now because it is 50 out today. In my Yankee days 50 would have been a nice spring jaunt though the city. Now, I actually considered driving 5 blocks so I would not get "cold"...really... I did this, and I am ashamed.

I deceded I would walk there and I am glad I did. I got some WW bonus points and got to wake up a bit in the cool air. It was really nice. I was one of maybe 2 people out walking downtown today. Guess I am still a little bit hard core?

Weekend Recap

This weekend was super productive if I don't say so myself! My future mother in law came to town to do Christmas with us. We had a lot of fun spending time with her. Friday night I attempted a potato leek soup. It has the potential to be great but I think I need to change it up a bit. Maybe add another potato or some sour cream. It was just not thick enough for my liking. I did however buy myself an immersion blender. LOVING that thing. It makes blending soups so much easier and I am planning on looking up other ways to use that thing because it was so much fun to use. I also whipped up a batch of my chocolate chip cookies for a night cap.

Then Saturday morning I made WW strawberry and cream cheese french toast. OMG all of you  need to try this. It was super easy. Basically make french toast (I made it with egg whites, nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon, and a touch of milk on nature's own whole wheat bread) but before you dip the bread in the mixture put cream cheese and a strawberry fruit spread (I used WW cream cheese and fat free low sugar strawberry spread)  on two slices and put it together like a sandwich. Then cut in half, and dip it into the egg mixture. Then make just like french toast. It was super yummy and the total points used was about 6 points for two halfs of sandwich. Can't beat that!

We then went on a mission to get WF some new ski gear for his upcoming bachelor party ski trip.We did really well at REI. They are having a winter sale and we were able to buy him new ski pants and new jacket as well as new long johns to keep his Texas butt warm on the slopes (he actually loves the cold and is a great skier, I still like to tease him). Anyway it totally made me want to go skiing, they have lots of cute ski clothes. Future mother in law said I should try, and I said or I could look cute on the slopes and drink hot coco! :) I think we found some great stuff and he will look like quite the stuff on the slopes!

Here is what we bought:

Both images from REI.com

We then came home and had Honey Baked Ham Co. for dinner, and opend our presents. I got lots of little kitchen gadgets that I would never buy myself, wich is really nice. And I got a bamboo steamer! I NEED one of those, I have so many great ideas on how to use that. AND I even got a cookbook for that is specially for bamboo cooking. I am so excited to break that thing in! I love doing Christmas with WF's family. They wrap everything and make it so much fun. We finished of a fun weekend together going to the pancake house for breakfast, you must try this place. It is on Parmer Lane and Metric. THE BEST!

I will give you all an update on the bridal show on another post. It was a lot of fun though, and I still have sugar shock from all the cake tasting. :)

My horns are still up! Hook 'em anyway!

I am a bit bummed about the game last night but it was still fun to watch it with friends and relax a bit. I used ALL of my weight watchers bonus points in one night. OOPS! I have to say I am most upset about the idea we will never really know what could have been about that game. If McCoy did not get hurt would we have won? (I am pretty sure that is a yes) The great news is we know we have a great quarterback for next year!

This weekend my future mother in law is coming to town so we are going to be hanging out with her. We are doing Christmas with her and then maybe going to see a movie. I am making some yummy meals for all of us of which I will be sure to let you know how they come out. I am also hoping to make it to the container store for some fabulous new storage containers for our Christmas stuff. We really have TOO much stuff but we are going to at least get it organized. And by we I mean me, I am going to get things organized.

I am also going to brave the bridal extravaganza this weekend with Janet. We are going to try and find some deals and meet with a couple of our vendors. I have some main things I still need to figure out and I am hoping to get inspired!

What are you all going to be doing this weekend? Any fun plans I might need to crash?

Weight Watchers Wednesday

Yeah I am going to hop on that bandwagon, deal.

Anyway, I weighed in officially for the first time this year. I actually was not as bad as I thought I would be. I only gained a total of 3 pounds, no to bad considering towards the end of the holiday season I was eating Chick Fil-A like it was my job. I also considered a half a block of Monchego cheese just a snack before eating a whole bag of cookies. So yea 3 pounds was not too bad.

I love the women that go to the meetings and last night was no exception. Last night's topic was about the importance of writing down everything you eat. One of the best comments was made while we were talking about the greatness that is Costco on Sundays. All of us agreed it was amazing you could go in there starving and walk out stuffed for absolutely no points, because well snacking does not count. One of the ladies then proceeded to say, "I figure I am walking, so it counter acts the fifth round of crab dip" LOVE IT.

This week I have already made Gina's WW Chicken Parm for WF and I. It came out so yummy. He even said he would pick that over the one at Olive Garden (I am pretty sure he was trying to score, but I am shallow that way). I made cheese ravioli with peas and shallots last night. Only 7 points! Not too bad. Tonight I am thinking I will be winging it but maybe some sort of fish dinner. I will let you know what I come up with. Is anyone else doing WW anymore?

Hate to break it to you, BUT

Source

... we are having a small wedding. WF and I chose a while back to have a fairly small wedding, only maybe 50 people will be in attendance. We wanted to keep it to really close family and friends. Well I sent out save the dates to only the people we know for sure we want to be at the wedding. It was a way for me to guarantee some people come. Well there are a few people that are on our so called "B" list. People who we love and care about but we are not sure if we should expand the wedding invite to that next ring of friends, you know? I have been torn about these few people but I recently got smacked in the face with the reality that these people, who may or may not be invited to the wedding assume they are! I HATE that. I did not even assume I was invited to some of out closest friends weddings last year out of courtesy to the bride and groom. You know a no pressure kind of thing.

Well these people write on my wedding website, "Can't wait to see you at the wedding!", and stuff like that. REALLY? I am stuck now because it was not like I was NOT going to invite them but now I feel like I MUST invite them.I hate that feeling. Am I being weird about this?

Just in case you were wondering, the annoying lady, has been doing her thing this whole morning, 16 times in the time it took me to write this post. AWESOME

NYE 2009: A Night I Forgot

NYE was fun this year. I was lucky enough to spend it with some great friends. We went to a Vickers and Tarts Party with a big group of our friends. It is usually a great crowd, and the night included a shot block and a confessional with video to record your sins, of which I am pretty sure I made out with WF on camera for all of our friends to see.

I did end up drinking to much champagne and put my self to bed in their guest bedroom. FAIL. All in all I would give the night a B. I wish I had not drank so much and I wish I could remember more of what happened. Fortunately they recorded a lot of the party so I am sure I will be embarrassed of myself at a later date.