Aug 29, 2010 Posted on Aug 29, 2010 in awesomeness | 2 comments

110 Degrees & Showering in Los Angeles

Last weekend was our bridal shower, and it rained big buckets of lurrrve here in Los Angeles!  It was torrential actually.

And totally amazing.

Remember when I wrote about my dress and how I’ve been overcome with gratitude while planning this wedding shindig of ours and blah blah blah? Well folks, during our shower the gratitude reached critical mass, and now my heart has swelled so big it just might burst right out of my chest! I’m not sure how I’m gonna make it through the next three (three!) weeks, and I certainly hope it doesn’t affect the fit of my dress. I’m just saying…

You need a few examples? No worries. I got examples.

My mom sat in the airport for almost 12 hours just to get a flight to Los Angeles. My mom was here you guys! I don’t even have words for this, but it made me SO happy.  And I think she had fun too:

Bridesmaid J (and her bun) drove all the way down from San Francisco and turned our house into a delicious french wonderland.

Lil’ Stripe left her new puppy at home (I finally met the pup, and trust me, this must have been super hard) to organize and wrangle our friends into a fantastic party.

And our RAD friends and family showed up to celebrate our awesome (and imminent) wedding.  The love, support, excitement and champagne pouring from our friends and family was truly amazing and something I wasn’t all together prepared for. And the smiles. There were lots of smiles:

And presents! We got to open presents! (Which to be honest is a little awkward when everyone is watching, but whatever, we got presents!)

And the pups got to have a little fun too:

And the flowers were gorgeous:

And the favors were yummy:

And we received my most favorite non-registry gift ever:

It’s a vintage statue/vase of two little girls. Gal pals, if you will. On one side is carved “I heart D” and on the other side “S heart’s D.”  Pretty awesome right? A little lesbeean history in our living room, perhaps? I sure like to think so!  And this little gem will definitely be making an appearance at the wedding- so big thanks D!!!

And then it was over.  So. Damn. Quick.

We spent the two days afterwards talking about how much fun it was and what this person said, or how happy we were that person came, and then it hit us: The wedding is going to be just as amazing, just as fantastic and overflowing with love, and over just as quick. Gulp.

And so as we enter these last few weeks leading up to our wedding it’s sure to be crazy, but we’re gonna do our best to actually be present and squeeze every last bit of joy out of every single moment.

What about you guys? Were you crazy surprised at how fast it all was over? Any tips for staying present and enjoying the moments as they fly by?

Aug 1, 2010 Posted on Aug 1, 2010 in DIY | 3 comments

Cupcake Tower (of Terror) DIY

Ask and you shall receive, my lovelies.

Now I’m not gonna lie and claim complete originality on this one- a quick google search will turn up all sorts of similar DIY cupcake stands, varying only by theme and degree of difficulty.

I will say that this DIY is extremely easy, crazy cheap, super fast, and made from items you may actually have lying around the house.  So that’s what I’ve got goin’ on.

Let the cupcake madness commence.

1. Gather your Supplies:

You will need:

Cardboard Cake Rounds- 8”, 10”, 12”, 14”, 3 each

Decorative Paper- 12×12 works for the smaller rounds/wrapping

paper is great for

the larger rounds

Ribbon- 4 yards 5/8” or 1/2”

3 Full Canned Goods- varying sizes

Hot Glue Gun

Zots/Glue Stick (optional)

2. Measure/Cut Paper to Cover the Cans

Use a soft measuring tape to measure the height and

circumference of your cans and cut appropriate sizes of paper. I

stamped mine with this cute strawberry stamp because the

birthday girl is gaga for strawberries.

3. Cover Cans With Decorative Paper

Secure the  paper to the cans using zots or hot glue

4. Hot Glue Three Cake Rounds of Each Size Together

This one is pretty self explanatory right?

5. Cut Decorative Paper to Cover Cake Rounds

Simply use the cake rounds as a guide and trace the various sized

circles onto your decorative paper. Cut out. This should yield 4

different paper circles: 8”, 10”, 12”, 14”

6. Affix Decorative Paper to Cake Rounds

Simply use zots/dots of hot glue/glue stick to adhere your

decorative paper rounds to the top of the cake rounds.

7. Wrap the Edges of each Round with Ribbon

Attach ribbon with a bead of hot glue every 6 inches or so.

8. Glue each Round to a Can

Glue the smallest can to the bottom of the smallest round using

hot glue around the edge/lip of the can. You can totally skip this

step- but it does add a little extra stability!

9. Stack ‘Em Up

Need I say more?

10. Admire Your Work in Action

I was definitely pretty pleased with this last minute DIY adventure and hope that you are too!  And I would love to see the rad themes you come up with to make this project your own!  It’s so easy peasy, I might even make a little stripetastic one (6/8/10”) to display our vegan/gluten free desserts on…

How are you displaying your sweets? And are you offering special options for your guests with dietary restrictions or is that just cuckoo-bananas?

Jul 28, 2010 Posted on Jul 28, 2010 in real life | 5 comments

A Weekend, A Lesson, A Recipe

This weekend was one of the last 7 or so weekends until the wedding.  That’s not a lot of time folks. And we still have A LOT to do. Like invitations.  And we got very little (wedding related) stuff done this weekend. And that’s okay. Because life happens while we’re busy planning weddings. And it’s important to actually be here for it.

We did have dinner with dear friends who are moving back to SF in only a few short weeks. And I did tackle my backyard clean up/gardening extravaganza. And I did bake/frost 50 strawberry cupcakes for my friend’s daughter’s birthday party. And I did build a pretty awesome cupcake tower to display said cupcakes on. And I did go to the park and spend time watching the birthday girl, now two, eat three cupcakes at once and run back and forth on a mad sugar high. And I did receive many fallen leaves (from said birthday girl) as thanks for all my efforts. Best. Payment. Ever.

And then I came home to our (newly spruced up) backyard, nursed a beer or two and did a little work on our invitations. And I could finally relax a little because it’s all coming together and more importantly I think, because I finally took time to pick up the pieces of all the other life “projects” that have been mowed over or shoved aside to make this wedding happen.

So while it’s easy to get caught up in planning themostimportantdayofourlives (that’s what they say right?! ) I think it’s nice necessary to take a little time to enjoy all the other days too.

And with those deep thoughts I give you my delicious cupcake recipe- which was a hit with toddlers and their parents alike! I hope you enjoy it too!

Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 canola oil

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tbsp. white vinegar

1 tbsp. all-fruit strawberry jam

1 lb. tub (clear plastic) of strawberries

or about 20 berries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line your cupcake pans with cupcake liners
2. Combine Dry ingredients in a bowl (flour/sugar/bakingsoda)
3. Combine Wet ingredients in another bowl (oil/vanilla/white vinegar)
4. Puree Strawberries in food processor/blender
5. Add pureed strawberries and jam to the wet ingredients and mix well
6. Pour wet mixture into dry bowl and mix until incorporated, but don’t over mix
7. Fill cupcake liners almost full with strawberry batter
8. Bake for 21 minutes
9. Cool on wire rack & frost away!

Strawberry Ice-Cream Frosting:

8oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

3 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp. all-fruit strawberry jam

1. Let cream cheese/butter soften to room temperature.
2. Combine cream cheese/butter in food processor/mixer until smooth
3. Add strawberry jam and mix
4. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and mix
5. Transfer frosting to refrigerator for 20 minutes to firm up before frosting

A few notes:

*Why yes! The cupcakes are in fact VEGAN. But don’t let that dissuade you- they’re delicious, light, moist, and soft!

*Why no! The frosting is decidedly NOT vegan, but would be super easy and work just fine if you want to substitute vegan cream cheese/butter.

*The cupcakes will turn out a light pink color and while I kept it natural for the kiddos, you could add some beet powder/red food coloring for a really pretty red cake/pink frosting combo

*Try not to eat all of the frosting before you get some on the cupcakes. It really is yummers! (In my obviously humble opinion)

And finally a picture of a corner of our newly spruced up yard, and the awesome/fully customizable cupcake tower I built in under an hour for under $15. You know you want a tutorial.

I LOVE this cupcake tower (of terror) so much that it almost makes me wish we were having cupcakes at the wedding! Nom. Nom. And our yard. I LOVE our yard.

What do you LOVE about your life right now? Today? Wedding planning/insanity/details aside…

May 29, 2010 Posted on May 29, 2010 in truck food, yummers | 14 comments

Ice Cream + Cookies

Some wedding decisions should be easy.

This is one of those decisions.

But that doesn’t mean I didn’t debate it for months, get lured in by all the pretty dessert tables around the blogosphere, and turn C’s desire to cut the cake into the need for a full blown cake table extravaganza.

Then last week she mentioned that cutting the cake wasn’t really very important to her. And just like that our paramount wedding dessert decision was made.

Cool Haus Ice Cream Sandwiches. Custom-made for our guests and nestled in an edible wrapper with a logo/graphic (cue chorus of angels) of our choice. Rad right?

Here’s how it all works. Cool Haus rolls up with 5 cookie choices and 7 ice cream choices, and our tipsy guests get to gorge themselves on all-they-can-eat custom-made ice cream sammies. YUMTASTIC.

The Cookies: chocolate, chocolate chip, ginger, oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodle, brioche

The Ice Cream: blood orange, brown butter with candied bacon, chocolate chipotle, cinnamon, coffee toffee, dirty mint chip, meyer lemon, vanilla bean, lambrusco, baked apple, sea salt caramel, mascarpone, balsamic fig, red velvet, pistachio w/black truffles, foie gras

And the Ice Cream Sammie Porn:

Oh! And the best part- when I said they roll up, I wasn’t kidding! Cool Haus shows up and serves your guests in this adorable converted mail cart:

Now we just have to decide which flavors to offer our guests from their oh so drool inducing choices! Which flavors sound the best to you? Which combo would you choose?

Apr 5, 2010 Posted on Apr 5, 2010 in Inspiration, awesomeness | 1 comment

All Different Types of Pretty.

What do ten awesome friends, one baby, two dogs, many bottles of wine and an afternoon in the sunshine add up to?

Seven measly wedding cranes.  Four crane fails.  A bit of a hangover. And a wonderful reminder of just how easy it is to throw a great party when surrounded by people you love.  Awesome food, beautiful flowers and free-flowing wine don’t hurt either! I’m just sayin…

So while Easter wasn’t exactly the the crane-making extravaganza I was (secretly) hoping for, it sure was a hell of a lot of fun!  We had the opportunity to host our first dinner party in our new home and and I’m talking about a super fantastic with a dollop of awesome sauce fun-fest. We don’t mess around.

AND just wait ‘til you see all the top secret wedding details we managed to squeeze in and test drive on our unsuspecting guests!  What can I say, I’m a theater kid at heart and I love me a good dress rehearsal!

** WARNING: This post is chock a block full of awesome photos kinda like a freshfromthefarmer’smarket heirloom tomato that just bursts in your mouth.  Or pop rocks. Maybe pop rocks are a better example.  Anyway get ready for the explosion.

AND the pretty people:

AND the pretty food:

AND yes, even the failed cranes are pretty:

So if the fun, friends, and flowers at our wedding turn out anything like Easter, well, it’s going to be amazing. EPIC even. Squeal. I really can’t wait.

Do moments spent with friends/family fuel your excitement for your wedding too?  Or are we just freaks? It’s okay. We know!

ps. all photos by moi, except for a few I snagged from my awesome friend Katie. Thanks lady!