wedding program party

On Tuesday some of my bridesmaids met me at my parents’ to help me assemble our wedding programs.  I am totally enamored with our programs.  Ellie at Hello Tenfold designed them for me and they are just gorgeous, everything I wanted.  It’s always hard for me to choose between beautiful things and Ellie made it easy by offering to make four different program covers.  They are all beautiful and she was so great to work with.  If you’re in the market for beautiful stationery, I’d highly recommend her.

It was really nice to get together with the girls.  Not all of my bridesmaids know each other really well since I know them from different parts of my life (family, high school, college) so it’s nice when we all spend time together.  Of course we ate as we worked and enjoyed some pizza and a plate of the oatmeal chocolate chunk toffee cookies I made on Sunday.

We got everything set up and went to work tying the programs together.  Look at all of these colors together, so pretty!

My friends, Pam, Jennie and Jennifer were such fast workers that it barely took us any time at all.

By the time my parents came home we were done.  I’m so grateful for their help, it would have taken me ages alone!

Thanks again for helping bridesmaids and thanks to Ellie for your gorgeous work!

What DIY tasks did you do for your wedding?

a wedding shower (life is good)

Last night my aunts and cousins on my dad’s side threw me a bridal shower.  We had a lovely time sipping on wine and eating cheese – I think there were 7 different varieties, amazing! – and chatting.  I’ve said it before but it’s always so nice to get together with the other women in the family.

We also played a fun game where my aunt Linda held up different items: measuring cups, a pizza cutter, an apple corer, et cetera and we had to guess the price.  The Price is Right, wedding shower style.  I personally love pricing games and think I’d definitely win a car on The Price is Right.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t that great at the shower game and I didn’t win.  Fortunately, I got to keep all of the items which was even better than winning the game!

After the game I got to open gifts.  Does anyone else feel really awkward when other people watch them open gifts?  I have always felt that way but wedding showers have made me feel less uncomfortable with it but being the center of attention is never my favorite thing.  I’ve jokingly considered just standing at the front of the church at our wedding so I don’t have to walk down the aisle.

Anyways, I got some really great gifts.  I’m excited about all of them that it seems unfair to highlight only one but I feel like I have to because it was the very first thing that I knew I had to put on our registry.  In fact, Todd and I walked into Target and we starting to discuss what we should register for and I immediately said, “A Kitchen Aid Artisan Stand Mixer“.  And now, I am the proud owner of my very own!

I can’t wait to start baking with the mixer after we get married.  Chocolate chip cookies, fresh pasta dough, brownies, cakes, imagine all of the possibilities!  Thank you aunts, I promise to always bring something sweet and delicious to our annual Christmas Eve party.

We are definitely a dessert family, we all love sweets, a lot.  The dessert at the shower did not disappoint.  My aunt Sheryl make cream puffs and they were delicious.  The puff was soft but not too soft, the custard was perfectly sweet and creamy and the frosting on top was to die for.  I need to get a copy of her recipe and try them myself, they were amazing.

We had such a nice night all together and. once again, I feel so lucky to have such a great family.  It’s nice to feel so loved and supported, especially in the few weeks left before getting married.  Happy events preceding happy events, life is good.

Do happy events seem to surround happy events in your life?

How does family factor into your celebrations?

english muffin pizza

It’s FRIDAY! 

I am so glad that the weekend is almost here.  I’m enjoying an English muffin pizza for lunch.  I just brought a lightly toasted English muffin, some pizza sauces and mozzarella cheese and assembled it, popped in the microwave and a minute later it was pizza time.

This is so simple to make, do you think it culd count towards the Homemade Meal Project?  It was delicious but I think I still need something else to snack on since I ate all of my lunch fruit for a snack this morning.

After work today, my office friends are taking me out for a mini despedida de soltera, a bachelorette party.  My officially bachelorette will be in Chicago the week before my wedding and not all of the girls can make it so we’re going out tonight to celebrate.  I can’t wait! 

Now, off to find a snack.  Hope you’re having a great afternoon!

What are you favorite, easy, lunch-time meals?

Are you going out tonight?  What are your plans?

lean lunchtime

Going back to work after such a nice weekend wasn’t my favorite idea but here I am, half way through the day, enjoying a surprisingly delicious frozen, steamed entree for lunch.  I end up eating frozen lunches relatively often and I actually really like them.  Of course it’s convenient which is a huge factor but I usually get the steamer varieties and they taste great!  Today I’m eating a Lean Cuisine Market Creations Chicken Margherita steamed meal and I’m a fan.  If I can just grab a bag out of my freezer, microwave it and have a delicious, nutritious,  low-calorie meal in five minutes, I’m in!  Plus, it’s a good way to get protein, I often have a hard time thinking up lunch meals that are easy to make and have a good amount of lean protein. 

 

I’m taking the week off from the Funky Buddha because I’m going to be pretty busy this week and in Chicago over the weekend.  Since I pay by the month and my month ran out last week, it makes sense to not start my next month until next week so I’m able to really use the whole month.  I’m going to try to run tonight and tomorrow and Todd and I are going to try rock climbing on Wednesday night.  It will be fun to change things up a little!  Plus, I can always do a little yoga at home before or after my runs. 

In other news, our wedding is only about 6 weeks away now and I really want to be mindful of what I’m eating and how I’m working out for the rest of the time leading up to the wedding.  So, let’s hope that  my love for sweets and carbs suddenly goes away.  I think sweets will definitely be the hardest thing to give up but I’m going to do my best to limit it.  Wish me luck!

My lunchtime minutes are up so, I’ll leave you with a few questions:

What’s the hardest thing for you to avoid when you’re trying to eat healthy? 

How about some easy ways to eat well?

What are some fun ways you sneak extra exercise into your routine?

whirlwind weekend in chattanooga and homemade pretzels

I had such a full weekend, long post ahead!

After a wonderful, whirlwind trip to Chattanooga to celebrate Jen and Evan’s wedding I am back home.  When I arrived in Chattanooga, Sarah picked me up from the airport and met up with the other bridesmaids leaving me the rest of the sunny, gorgeous, 75 degree day exploring Chattanooga.

 

First things first, I went to find a snack.  I stopped at Niedlov’s Breadworks, an adorable bakery right downtown.

 

I ate a delicious, buttery chocolate-filled croissant and made a plan for the day.  As I was sitting there I noticed a real live knitting club was meeting there, how cute and southern is that?  After my snack I headed towards the riverside area where there are a lot of restaurants, bars, an aquarium and an outdoor flea market.  The whole area was bustling and lively and was the perfect place to soak up the sun.  One of my favorite things is discovering a new place and I love to just take my time and poke around town, Chattanooga definitely did not disappoint.

 

After my tour of Chattanooga, I headed up to Lookout Mountain where our B&B was located.  There were such amazing views of the city from the mountain.  After checking in, I did a 20-minute yoga session in our room.  This was the frist time that I’d ever done yoga without an instructor and I felt pretty good about it.  I definitely prefer to have an instructor there, guiding me through my practice but it’s good to know that practicing at home on days that I can’t make class is an option.  It felt good to take that time out to do something good for my body in the midst of so much food and celebration.  Oh yoga, you make me smile.

 

Jen and Evan’s wedding was such a great event.  The venue was in Lookout Mountain, Georgia and had a gorgeous view of Chattanooga.  Her dad performed the ceremony which was very touching.  I couldn’t help but think about my own upcoming wedding during the ceremony and that made it even more special, I can’t wait to marry Todd in just 6 weeks.  Congratulations Jen and Evan, I’m so happy for you two!

 

The B&B that Sarah and I stayed at was called the Garden Walk Inn, and our friends Debbie and Andy stayed there as well.

We all had breakfast together this morning.  They served baked peach french toast which was amazing!  I’m going to have to find a recipe to try at home.

Look at all of that whipped cream, almond goodness!

After breakfast we said goodbye to Debbie and Andy and then Sarah and I made our way to Atlanta to catch our respective flights home.  Like I said, a whirlwind trip!

Todd picked me up at the airport and we headed home where he had dough waiting to make homemade soft pretzels.  Todd used a WikiHow recipe to make the dough.  We rolled out the dough by hand, it reminded me of my preschool days when I would make worms out of play-dough, it was exactly the same technique!  We then shaped the pretzels which was surprisingly challenging, the dough would fall apart if it wasn’t moist enough but the work was worth it.

After coating the pretzels with the baking soda mixture and an egg wash we sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar, sea salt or sesame seeds and then popped them in the oven.

Ten minutes later we had delicious, soft, hot pretzels!

I was amazed at how good they were!  We made some pretzel nuggets too and those were even better.  They were exactly the right consistency, just as good as any pretzel stand.  What a fun and tasty way to spend a Sunday evening!

 

I definitely had a great weekend.  It combined so many of my favorite things: weddings, friends, spending time with Todd, sun, food, new places.  Just lovely!

 

Where was your last weekend away?

What was the best new place you’ve recently discovered?