Stocking the Kitchen

For the Superbowl the boy is planning on making gnocchi. He's made it before and it turned out great, except for the fact we don't have a potato ricer.
Which basically means he mashed 2 1/1 pounds of potatoes with a fork. It's not an experience he'd like to experience again so this time we were actually going to pick up a ricer. Since we were going to Sur La Table anyways for the ricer I figured it would be a great time to start a registry.

After a movie (Man on a Ledge) and lunch, where I had the most amazing caramel corn creme brulee at Kona Grill, we were off to register.
Once in the store an employee handed us a scanner, told us to scan whatever we wanted and let her know when we were finished. I was SOOO excited to register, for years months I've been saying we don't need to buy it now, we can just register for it later (and may have even used that as a reason why the boy should propose immediately), except once actually there I didn't know where to start.
That's not quite true, I knew I wanted to take pictures to document the process, which obviously I did. But I hadn't really done my research, and didn't quite know what we needed. Although the boy and I did have a discussion on the difference between need and want, but I still maintain I need an ice cream maker kitchen aid mixer attachment.
After maybe 30 minutes, and 18 items scanned, we figured it was time to head out, and any further adjustments could be made online. Plus we this isn't the only place we're register, so hopefully next time we'll be a little less prepared.

How did your first registering experience go? And would you classifying an ice cream maker kitchen aid mixer attachment as a need or a want?

Monday Movie Review

Man on a Ledge
Have you seen the preview for this? Then you've pretty much seen the entire money. And yet, even though I knew exactly what to expect it was still a fun money. Part of me does kind of wish they had edited the preview differently so there was more of a surprise. But I do think it says a lot about the movie, that even without being surprised it was still enjoyable.

Although if you've been lucky enough to avoid the long trailer, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. No it isn't a movie that I'd rush out to see, but again, you could probably do a lot worse than this.

Having it All

I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson
Kate Reddy has it all. She's a high powered hedge fund manager always flying overseas, except she still has time to spend with her children, and plan their birthday parties, and bake for school bake sales. Except the image Kate presents the world, isn't quite the reality.

Seeing the previews for the movie, I didn't have a strong desire to see it. I just thought the whole movie looked cheesy. But I thought instead as a book, it could work. And while I did work, I wasn't really a fan of the message the book seemed to portray.

I wanted the book to be a woman who has a hard time juggling everything, but by the end figures it out. Instead it almost seemed to say you can have the high powered career, or you can spend time with your children, but you can't have both. Throughout the book Kate tries hard to manage being the mom she wants to be, as well as the career she always wanted, but instead winds up almost failing at both. The message that you need to pick one path or the other wasn't something I enjoyed, because in the future I'm hoping to find a way to manage both.

With these negatives, I still did enjoy the book. I thought there were a lot of cute scenes with Kate and her children. I enjoy the somewhat of a twist that occurs with her job close to the end. And I loved the fact that it's in England.

But while I enjoyed the story and the characters, again the message the book presents didn't work for me. It had potential to be something great, but it just didn't work for me.

3/5

The Path to the Dress: The Decision

Last week I went shopping with the boy's mom and sister to finally decide on a dress. We were around 3 hours or so and I'm guessing I tried on around 30 or 40 dresses. In case you were worried I won't be showing you every single one of those. But by the end of our time we had narrowed it down to at least 4 top contenders.
If you remember, this one is similar in shape to one of the favorite the first day I had gone shopping. What was interesting about this dress is that's it's more silver than white. Against all the other dresses it looked very noticeable, but on it's a little more subtle. And while it isn't the clearest picture, here's another shot where you can see some of the bead work closer up.
The next dress fit almost everything I was looking for in a dress. It had a big ballgown type feel. And it was really simple which I liked. Looking back at the pictures now though, the dress doesn't scream out to me.
This dress was really similar to the next dress, which I still think is pretty amazing looking at the pictures.
It's hard to tell in the picture, but there's quite a bit of bead work in the front. Although it is a little easier to see on the train, which had to be my favorite part of the dress.
But while I really did like this option, I kept going back to my favorite dress from our first day of shopping. (There's also the fact that the one above was discontinued so I'd need to buy the display dress. Whereas this next one is still in production.)
This one had a nice train as well, and while it is quite as long it would be a little more manageable. (Plus I came into shopping not wanting a huge train.) And with buttons trailing down the back it had a few pretty details of its own.
So yes, after 6 months of waiting, I went back to the same dress, and officially sent my order it. You would hope that if I still love the dress after 6 months, I'll still love it by the time my wedding gets here. And while it isn't the reason I picked it, part of me likes the fact that my mom at least saw a picture of me wearing the dress I chose. So here's one more picture of me wearing the dress, but back from August, which would have been the dress my mom had seen.
How long and how many shopping trips did it take before you decided on a dress?

Non-gagement Photos

The boy and I aren't taking engagement photos. But are you really that surprised by that considering this is what he tries to do to all our photos.
But even so it was a surprise to me. "We have to take engagement photos," I told him, "We need them for our save the dates." So what did the boy do, he googled save-the-dates. "I found hundreds of different save-the-dates that don't include photos. It doesn't look like they're required."

So basically I lost that fight. After having the same discussion for several weeks we did at least come to a compromise. The boy agreed to take a single photo that we could use. Basically he wanted me to find a single pose, and make that one photo work. Which meant we could have a photo on our STDs, but no photoshoot.

Since we're not taking an engagement shoot the rest of this post is pretty ridiculous, but even so I thought it would be fun to share inspiration for the photoshot that could have been.

First I'd want to take photos at LSU which is where the boy and I met, something similar to Mrs. Cheeseburger's own engagement shoot at Penn State, where she met her husband.

sourceAs for the places we'd use, the first picture I shared of the boy and I was taken at a football game at Tiger Stadium, the same place as this.

sourceSeriously, how amazing would it be to take photos on the field like this couple, or even instead at Alex Box Stadium. (Sadly it doesn't look like anyways taken photos on the field there, or at least none that I can find. So you'll have to settle of this photo I took of the field itself.)
I'd also love to go back and take photos inside the classroom where we first met. Mrs. Sunbeam had a similar idea, except she took photos the morning of her wedding and this is at their high school instead.

sourceFor one final photo, we're back at LSU on the quad outside the library.

sourceThe boy and I used to spend our time between classes sitting on those benches talking, and it doesn't hurt that it's an awfully pretty location either.

Are you taking engagement photos, or are you like us instead? And if you could take an engagement photo session anywhere, where would you choose?

Hey Mr. DJ

Last week I went to drop off our deposit with our DJ. While I've never been to their location before, I knew basically where it was. Plus I had google maps on my phone, so I couldn't get too lost. I got to the right location and easily found 121, except I was trying to find 122. I spent around 15 minutes looking, and even asked someone standing outside for help, although they didn't know either. Of course I soon realized that 122 would not be next to 121, it would be across the street. Yes, I basically forgot that even and odd addresses are on opposite sides of the street.

Now that that's out of the way, you might be curious as to why we booked a DJ over a band. It's mainly because I wanted to make sure that we're able to play Backstreet Boys as well as Tupac's California Love. I'm not saying that there aren't bands out there who could pull both off, but I'm not sure we could afford them.

As for selecting a DJ, I knew I wanted someone who had worked at my venue before. I would imagine a new DJ could figure it out, but I just felt more comfortable with someone who knew what to expect, so I used the list of DJs provided by our venue.

I contacted about 5 and heard back from 3, the first almost immediately, which is saying something for Sunday night. But what I basically received was a bunch of attachments to fill out requesting songs, and a note that music selections are due a week before the event. But no actual communication, or pricing quote, or anything personal.

The second e-mail I received did ask me questions and was then able to answer my questions. Although when I asked how they normally did cocktail hour (since it's outside of the reception hall), I was told it had been a while since they had done wedding there, but they should be able to figure something else. They gave me a limited time only price, except coincidentally the day it expired I received an e-mail saying it had been extended.

The third DJ, called me and when I didn't answer left a voicemail and followed up with an e-mail. They were easy to get in touch with and answered all my questions. (As for cocktail hour, he knew they moved and reused the speakers from the ceremony.) Basically they were the friendliest, and seemed to know my venue which is why I chose them.

All 3 DJs on the surface were really similar. Each one has an online music request, as well as a customized timeline to created. The DJ I booked from each would probably be quite similar. But it was really the customer service I received that was the deciding factor. (Although maybe it should have been how easy it was to find their location, since obviously that was an issue for me!)

What did you decide on the band/DJ debate? And how did you make a decision between the various options?

Monday Movie Review

Haywire
Again this one was better than I expected it to. Although like last week, the man candy helped that a bit. Channing Tatum and Ewan Mcgregor weren't in it that much, but they were there enough to make an impact.

One thing that made this movie stand out, was that the fighting felt real. There was no fighting on wire, or slow motion, it just felt like an actual fight. Parts of it did feel a bit like an MMA fight, which isn't that surprising considering the star is an MMA fighter.

Overall it isn't a movie I'm dying to watch again, but I'd still be willing to watch it if I say it playing on tv. If you're going to see an action movie anyways, you could definitely do a lot worse than this one.

American as Apple Pie

A Good American by Alex George
In 1904 Frederick Meisenheimer flees Germany with his wife from her disapproving parents, their destination: America. But when they find a boat set to sail to New Orleans instead of New York, they figure both are new, right? The two of them settle in Missouri, and what fallows is the story of their family over the next hundred years. We live through WWI with the Meisenheimers, WWII, the Korean War, all the way through to the 21 century.

I wound up really enjoying this. I want to say I was a bit surprised, except from its summary I was expecting to enjoy it, so it doesn't quite fit. I loved all the history throughout, and that it took place in the South. I do read a lot of historical fiction, and while quite a bit takes place in the South, I've haven't really read any that takes place in the early 1900s.

Speaking of the early 1900s, I loved those parts of the books. Part of me does wish the book was longer so that way there could be more of a focus of that time period specifically. Also since there was so much time, and so many different characters, it was hard to really get to know all of them. Yes, there were a few a really loved, and some I understand, but part of me wanted more from the book. At 400 hundred pages the book is by no means short, but I wish it was longer because I would have loved to have read more and kept reading this family's story. I do think this is a book you'll be hearing more about soon, and I do feel privileged to have discovered this book so early.

5/5

Disclosure: I was provided this book through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. All opinions expressed are my own.

Quilted Thoughts

When I flew back to California last November, I knew it was likely that I would need to attend my mom's funeral, but I still didn't really believe. I packed in a hurry, but surprisingly everything I needed made its way to my suitcase. (Except for a pair of heels, which the boy was able to bring with him when he flew back a few days afterwards.) But in my hurry to pack, I didn't think about the fact that I might want to leave room so I could bring things back to Louisiana with me.
Even without much room, there was one thing I wanted to be sure I brought back with me, even if it meant I'd have to leave other items in California for now. I few years ago my mom made me a t-shirt quilt out of all my old soccer shirt. I had a mild freak-out when I couldn't find it the immediately, but tracked it down gave it about half of my suitcase. (Thankfully the boy filled up most of his suitcase with my belongings as well.)

The quilt has shirts from as far back as 6th grade and up through college. Part of it is even in honor of my teenage crush on England's Michael Owen.
But bringing back the quilt reminded me of another project my mom and I had discussed. Last year I showed my mom Mrs. French Fries' post about sewing napkins and turning them into a quilt, which she loved. "I would do this for you, if you wanted," she told me. Except I remembered Mrs. Cardigan's post ranting about how awful it was sewing napkins. And I don't sew, so I would basically be making a lot of work for other people.

Mrs. French Fries' Napkin QuiltDid I want the quilt and the napkins then? Not necessarily. Do I want them now? Again not really. Except I want to have the opportunity to want them. I want to be able to say to my mom, "Thank you for offering, but I'm not sure cloth napkins fit into 'my vision.'" So again, like everything else in this situation, it just sucks that things worked out the way they did.

Did you loose wedding related project due to circumstances out of your control? And what are your thoughts on a napkin quilt?

Living Room Love

It's been a while since I've really posted about our house, the reason being it hasn't really changed much. Which unfortunately means, yes our bathroom is still half-painted. But on a good note, we've slowly been working towards updating our living room. It isn't complete yet, but at this point it basically looks like a completely different room, so I thought now would be a good time to share. In case you don't remember, this is what our living room looked like previously.
Every piece of furniture you can see here (minus the tv and tv stand, which you can barely see, so I stand by that statement) was a hand-me-down, which means free. No it wasn't something we would have made a point to buy, but it worked, and again it was free. But it had been long enough, where we were more than able upgrade, and our living room currently has almost 100% completely different. This is the same room with the same basic view point now, again from the front door.
It looks like a completely new room, doesn't it? To start with we moved the tv to the completely opposite corner, which really opens the room. The rug is new, and purchased from Home Depot. The couch is also brand new. The couch is actually somewhat of an optical illusion, because it isn't leather, instead it's actually microfiber. Here's a closer picture of the couch, but to be honest you really can't tell it's not leather unless you feel it.
Here you can see the curtains, which haven't yet been upgraded and were left by the previous owner. At this point I'm not really sure what I want to do window treatment wise. Also in the picture above you might be able to tell how much room is behind the couch. The room is kind of awkwardly shaped which made it difficult to find a good configuration. But with the carpet and couch, which kind of sectioned off the main space and made somewhat of a welcoming hallway or entryway.
I could see this area being somewhat a problem if we used the front door (which is basically where the photo was shot) except we also enter through the carport door, so it really isn't an issue. From here you can see our new bookshelf that was a gift from the boy's parents for Christmas, which is currently home to the "F" from my MOH. The painting you can see here (as well as the one over the fireplace) were both Christmas presents from the boy's parents last year.
It still isn't complete. We want to add some time of floor lamp behind the couch to use as a reading light, and the boy also wants to add some type of desk. But for now, we're both completely in love with our new living room.!

On Display, On Display

Maybe it's a little early to be posting about what to do with the dress after the wedding, especially since I've yet to actually buy a dress. But even so, here we are. There are options that are fairly mainstream. You could preserve the dress and keep it in a box. You could sell the dress. Or you could take inspiration from real housewife Adrienne Maloof and display your dress.

sourceSeriously how awesome is this? I remember seeing it in the background during an episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and thinking it was amazing. This isn't the scene I remember, and it's obviously a styled photo shoot, but it just looks so natural. I would absolutely love to be able to display my own dress this way. It's a perfect way to save and preserve your dress, but without leaving it up in the attic where it's never actually seen.

Except I'm not sure I could actually pull it off. First I don't think there's a wall big enough in our house where it would fit. Second even if we had the room, I don't think our house is grand enough for this to work. Maybe you have to be a Maloof to pull it off, but I'd still love to find a way to make it work.

Although if you really want to keep your wedding on display there are other ways beside the traditional picture, to do it. I also love Mrs. Cola's shadow boxes.

sourceNo it isn't grand as grand as Adrienne's dress, but it is a little more practical, and I great way to preserve all the hard work you went to to pull off all of your various projects.

If you've already had your wedding, what mementos, if any, are you currently using to decorate your house? And do you think you could pull off displaying a wedding dress?

Monday Movie Review

Contraband
To be honest, I actually wanted to see this. But that might have been more due to Mark Wahlberg than the actual plot. Except I wound up really enjoy the movie. It had me on the edge of my seat quite often, and to be honest made me want to close my eyes at parts because I didn't want to believe what was actually happening.

So basically this was a surprising good movie. I wouldn't necessary want to watch it again, but I'd feel more than comfortable encouraging others to go see this one.

In My Mailbox (33)

It's Sunday so once again I'm linking up with The Story Siren's In My Mailbox!
From The Story Siren
Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber
Sphinx's Princess by Esther Friesner
Stork by Wendy Delsol
Last week Kristi, of The Story Siren, posted some books for donation. There were several other books I had requested and was hoping to pick up, but by the time the e-mail was sent they had already been reserved. But I'm more than excited I was able to request any, and I'm awfully excited to read each one.

Won
Bunheads by Sophie Flack
I won this one from a giveaway at Elle Lit. (One of the only other Louisiana book bloggers I've found, but if there's more out there please say hello!) I can't help but think of Center Stage when I think of this book, and if it lives up to that comparison I think I'll love it.

Borrowed From a Friend
I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson
I haven't seen the movie yet for this, but to be honest I think the movie looks awfully cheesy. But I think that even if the movie looks cheesy the book has to be good otherwise they never would have thought to adapt it. I have heard it's a British book which makes me excited because I seem to always love books based out of England.

Definitely an awesome book week for me, and I'm hoping it was just as awesome for you! So what's in your mailbox this week? And any suggestions for which ones of these I should pick up to read first?

Tx2+Sx2

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
I'm not completely sure how to review this movie. Yes I did enjoy it overall, but to be honest didn't really understand it. I think the boy was ready to kill me while watching it because I wouldn't stop asking him questions. Of course asking didn't help me out, because he really only told me to keep watching. Even once the movie was over he did explain a little, but I still think there were parts I didn't completely get.

But even though I was confused I still enjoyed the experience. I liked the 70's feel of it all. And the acting was great as well. It is different than a lot of other movies playing right now, and it is something you'll where you'll need to think throughout. I do think we'll be hearing quite a bit more from this movie through the awards season, and for that reason I think it's one you may want to see now.

It's Cookie Time

The Christmas Cookie Club
Each year Marnie hosts 11 other friend for a Christmas cookie club. There are rules about how many cookies they need to make (13 dozen- 1 for each member and 1 for charity), what types of cookies they can make (no chocolate chip cookies), and how they must be packaged (creatively, of course). Some women have participated every year of its existence. Others are only able to attend for a few years before moving on. The woman ages span several decades, difference finances, married, single, widowed, and divorced. Some are suffering due to affairs, others are involved in affairs. Some are dealing with death, whereas others have newborn babies, but they're all still friends.

The book takes place over a single night, obviously the night of the cookie party. Each chapter focuses on a different member and tells their story and the basic defining issue they're going through. In a way its format reminded me a lot of Joy for Beginners. For that reason I have some of the same likes and dislikes as I did then. I enjoyed reading each woman's story. But because of the way it was written, I had a hard time keeping track of all the woman. Each time a specific woman was mentioned I had to thumb through the chapters to see if I had read hers yet, and if I had, what her story was.

One thing I loved about this book was each chapter started with a cookie recipe. Of course if it was for example, Rosie's chapter, the cookie was the one she brought to the party. Each time I read a new cookie I thought about making it myself, and there's definitely some I'd love to try.

Another aspect I loved was that in between chapters there was a small history of a given ingredient. For example, they're be a page or two about vanilla, where it would describe how humans first started using it and how that changed over the years. It wasn't expecting this in the book, but I love this type of thing and I was glad to read the small glimpses of history.

I was a little skeptical starting this book in January. I had originally wanted to read this for Christmas, but didn't quite make it. Although to be honest it didn't really matter. Yes, the book does have somewhat of a warm-fuzzy feel to it. But I think if the book was renamed to only The Cookie Club, it would fit just as well. Overall it was a fun book, and I'm glad I found time to read it.

4.5/5

Something Old

Back in October when my parents came out to visit my mom brought me something she was hoping I could you for the wedding. After reading this post, where I lamented that I probably would be able to use forget-me-not as a bouquet flower, my mom went out and found a vintage hankie on etsy with forget-me-nots so that I could still have them on my wedding day.
The shop she purchased it from is Cush, and while it isn't the exact same hankie (which makes sense since it is vintage), this listing is the most similar to what my mom purchased.
Except the flowers were purple, and forget-me-nots are blue. (Although it isn't really an issue since I'm planning on doing blue and purple anyways so it works completely.) I had assumed that my mom had somehow mixed up the description, because they couldn't actually be forget-me-nots on the handkerchief. It's only now, that I've gone to the etsy shop itself to see that the handkerchief is described as followed.

"This very pretty hankie features purple and lavender Forget-Me-Nots at each corner. A flower associated with love and friendship, it's perfect for a bride, maid of honor, or best friend. This hankie is made of gossimer white cotton with a pale pink woven border edged in delicate pink needle lace. Approx. 13 x 13."

So it is actually a forget-me-not, just one that's been colored purple.
It was only as I started writing this that I made the connection that one of the last things my mom gave me was a forget-me-not. It's a little poignant, isn't it?
While I know I want to use the handkerchief and have it with me on the day I get married, I'm not completely sure the best way to do so. I think the obvious answer would be to use to to wrap my bouquet. But at this point I'm still undecided. If anyone has a brilliant idea as the best way to use this handkerchief I'd love to hear it.

Makin' White Squares

As you've probably noticed throughout the football season I've made desserts quite often for LSU games. So with the BCS National Title game this past Monday I knew I wanted to make something then as well. Although making desserts didn't quite help the game go out way... but I guess that's all that needs to be said about that.

Back to desserts. I wanted to do something fairly easy. And I knew I'd have to make it on Sunday since the game was Monday night. So I decided to make white squares. You've probably heard it called puppy chow or muddie buddies or trash or monkey munch. Obviously it goes by several different names, but I decided to bring half to work where a co-worker officially named it "white squares." It's not something my mom ever made growing up. But I do remember other moms making it, and loving it, although I had no idea how to really make it.

I decided to follow this recipe, mainly because I liked that it added vanilla, which is something I hadn't seen anywhere else. Although I did make at least one change. It's surprisingly a simple recipe, but just in case you need a step by step guide...

Ingredients
9 cups (1 box) Chex (I actually wound up using an organic version, so anything similar works
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar (The original recipe called for 1 1/2. Obviously, I upped it.)

Directions
Place cereal in a large bowl and set aside.
In a medium microwavable bowl, add chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter.
Microwave on High for 1 minute and stir. Microwave 30 seconds longer and stir mixture until smooth. Stir in vanilla. (I think I could have heated mine a little bit longer. Once I started added it to the cereal I didn't think it would be enough. But it wound up working perfectly, so maybe I'm just over thinking)
Pour sauce over cereal and stir until evenly coated. (I wound up having a hard time stirring it with a spoon, so basically mixed it with my hands getting them all nice and chocolate-y)
Add half of the mixture into a large plastic bag. Add half of the powdered sugar. Shake to coat. Repeat with second half. I completely forgot to pick up large ziplock, but wound up adding it back into the cereal bag which worked fine. I didn't quite split the cereal in half, which just meant some was more coated than other.)
Spread on waxed/parchment paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.
It really is SO easy to make. And more than that it's additively delicious.

Did you enjoy white square growing up? If so, what did you call them?

Digital Digital Get Down

First it pain me using an NSYNC song as a title her, since I'm a Backstreet girl all the way. But it fit with what I was thinking and now that I've thought of it I can't get it out of my head. But now that you realize where my allegiance lies...

With out STD's officially order it was time for me to start tracking down addresses. (What? You don't remember me posting our final STD? That's because it hasn't happened yet. :D) Anyways you could always do the easy way and call people up, or facebook them, or e-mail them. That would get you exactly what you needed. Except you would them have to retype them up again to get them all into a spreadsheet so they'd be easy to use.

Or you could use the other way, and force your guests to do the work. :D Enter google docs... Basically I referenced this post by Ms. Fondue and this post by Mrs. Pashmina. Although honestly it's so easy you could basically do it without instruction. All you're really doing is going to "Forms" to create something resembling this.
I realize that image is ridiculously small, but if you click on it, it will get large enough so you can actually read it. I then went and applied a theme so that way it looked pretty when I e-mailed it outAlthough I later realized that even though I made it look pretty people only see if they veiw it out of gmail. It comes to you as a standard looking form within your e-mail, but if you click on the link provided it opens it in a new window where you can see the background.

From there when people enter their information and hit submit, google collects it all in a spreadsheet. I was originally planning on screenshot of the empty spreadsheet as well, but only 2 hours after hitting send I've already had 7 different people respond. Hopefully this pace holds up!

The one catch with this process is that you at least need an e-mail address. I was able to get quite a bit from facebook stalking, but it looks like for the rest might require a phone call or two.

How did you go about collecting mailing address for your invitations? And which side of the Backstreet/NSYNC battle are you on?