Post-Nuptial Pity Party

Along with flowers and pollen Spring has brought us another of it's joys, wedding season! A lot of people hate having to go to weddings and loathe this time of year but I find I'm almost totally the opposite. I love going to weddings. I love seeing my friends all dolled up, making wedding presents, eating free food, gushing over the bride, ~~judging~~ seeing how everything is decorated and of course, the dance party.

So why is it that this year while I'm seeing all of these adorable wedding ideas and blogs posts about weddings am I sad rather than eager to read all about them? Why did I get bummed when I saw the cutest wedding aisle dance party on Offbeat Bride yesterday? Why did I want to punch a bunny when I saw the backdrop of my dreams on GreenWeddingShoes?

I'll tell you why, it's because I'm suffering from a delayed case of PNDS: Post-Nuptial Depression Syndrome. Basically, planning a wedding was the funnest thing I've ever done and I want to do it over and over again until I get it exactly right but I can't. My time has passed. All of the awesome-ness and excitement over this one day is over and now I'm left with nothing but hilarious memories and a wonderful husband. Life is so unfair.

So I'm throwing myself a photographic pity party and you're invited. The dress is casual, the menu cake. Photos provided by Meredith Mascola. I'll be not looking at wedding blogs if you need me.

Sigh...

Thankfully my friend Annie- resident of Cake Town- is getting married this Summer. Maybe she has an opening for a wedding day busy body so that I can get back in the game.

...Annie?

Our Super 8 Wedding

My husband and I just passed the 8-month mark on gettin' hitched. Ya us! Now the only thing we talk about is saving for a house and buying a house and what kind of house to buy and what houses go for in this neighborhood and maybe we should build a house...notice a theme?

So it was a much needed breath of fresh air to receive this video of our wedding as a gift from our friend Chad last week. Chad lives in NYC and currently works as an assistant editor for the TV show "Parking Wars". (He also works on Dog: Bounty Hunter- a fact a find hilariously awesome.) He's a husband, a cat lover, an avid D.I.Y.er & an incredibly genuine human being who made this f*#@ing amazing video for us in his "spare" time. (Oh, and he skates, you can see him shred (and fall down a little) in some of his other videos.)

It was so special to receive this little 2 minute reminder of why we got married in the first place. It immediately took us back to our wedding day. So now, when I want to strangle my sweet sweet husband for making me talk about mortgages, I'll just take a break, watch this video and hold off for tomorrow.

Thanks Chad! <3 <3

*Here's the direct link to the video in case that doesn't play: http://vimeo.com/35004644*

Wedding Wednesday: Tchotchke Centerpiece/Favors

...and with a little less than 5 hours left of this beautiful, rainy Wednesday I bring you:

WEDDING WEDNESDAY:

TCHOTCHKE EDITION!

For a full year before my wedding I collected tchotchkes from junk shops, second hand stores, garage sales and of course, Etsy to create my combination centerpiece/favors.

There were a couple of rules for collecting these hollow treasures, they needed to be:

a. planters

b. under $7 (american currency) and

c. a little "off"....not exactly ugly, just "off".

To make them into centerpieces was truly a family affair. We (my 4 year old flowergirl, Sister and I) planted succulents in all of the tchotchkes, put them on wooden disks (cut especially for me by my loving Father), accompanied them with precious little terra cotta pots filled with small white flowers (put together by Lady, my Mom) added hand stamped signs (Made by Liz) that said, "take me home tonight!" and then they were all artfully arranged on each table by my BFF, Gina Marie.

Pictures by Meredith Mascola

The results were 100% unique, semi home-made, adorable little bits of precious that I could hardly stand to give away!! These were SUCH a huge hit I was blown away! People were hiding them from each other and stealing them off tables all night. I personally saw the squirrel change hands at least 3 times, I'm still hearing stories about who the rightful owner should be. And now the fun part is finding out where all of them went. I love going to friend's houses and seeing which planter everyone ended up with (aka who swiped what while no-one else was looking!)

Make Me: Teeny Tiny Blueberry Cobbler Jars

This weekend I went to my very first potluck wedding. The idea was to have each guest bring a dish- either appetizer, entree, main dish or dessert- to feed 6-8 people. A risky move and I'm happy to report that it was wildly successful!

My own contribution was a recipe I had found on NotMartha.org a while back and couldn't wait to make- Mini blueberry cobblers in mason jars. Adorable! Megan from NotMartha has a wonderful tutorial on this project with great pictures, easy to follow directions and some very helpful tips.

Megan's recipe calls for 8oz. half pint jars. I decided to use even smaller 4oz. mason jars for my own-

Teeny Tiny
Blueberry Cobblers
in Jars

_______________________________________

The first thing you should always do when cooking with/in mason jars is to thoroughly wash and sanitize the jars with hot hot water and put them out to dry. I used chopsticks under one side to make sure they dried completely. I used 36, 4oz. jars vs. 24, 8oz. jars in the original recipe.

Next, gather ingredients, rinse blueberries and preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Ingredients for Blueberry Filling (I made 2 batches to fill all 36 jars)

1/3 cup (3.5 ounces) sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
pinch ground cinnamon
pink salt
6 cups (30 ounces) fresh blueberries, or 36 ounces frozen blueberries
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Ingredients for Cobbler Topping (I made 3 batches, as suggested by Megan)

1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons stone-ground cornmeal
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon (for sprinkling)
2 teaspoons sugar (for sprinkling)

**FOLLOW MIXING INGREDIENTS ON NOTMARTHA.ORG**
Changes and tips for changing recipe from 8oz. jars to 4 oz. jars below-

I filled my itty bitty jars to the bottom line on the jar with the blueberry filling.

About to here:

I cooked by tiny jars for the same amount of time suggested by the recipe, 25-30 minutes for the blueberries and 15-20 minutes for the topping. The smaller jar didn't appear to effect the cook time much at all.

For the topping, I chose to crumble my topping to give it a little more texture.

These were a HUGE hit at the wedding and I swelled with pride every time I overheard someone say, "oh my god, look how cute, tiny little cobblers!"

A++, thanks for the idea Megan!!

I Love Fabric Bliss!

Long overdue thank you "card" painting made for Aurora,
head crafty lady and Owner of Fabric Bliss in Denver, CO.

Not only is Aurora a super duper double crafty lady, business owner, cat lover and hockey playing bad ass, she is also the most thoughtful and talented girl in the Northern 48 States.

When I approached Aurora with the idea of making bow ties for my wedding in May she not only shared my enthusiasm for the project but took it to a whole 'nother level with multiple emails on color selection and fabric choices and she even sent me an entire Excel spread sheet dedicated to the topic. Amazing!

And the results were spectacular:

The boys all loved their bow ties, even if they needed youtube to teach them how to tie them, and it added such a special, personal touch to our wedding day.

Thank you SO much Aurora! Love you!!