And I'm back!!

Holy crap, it's been a while. But, in my defense, we've been busy (watch out - tons of pictures coming at you):

First, we got married. That was kind of a big deal.

It was an absolutely perfect day. Perfect weather, perfect people, and perfect tacos. Just for fun, here are some of my favorite pics from the day!

Seeeesters!

I had the best and prettiest bridesmaids. No contest.

Strobel lay-deeeez.

The crew.

Mr. and Mrs. Vaughey

Love. This. Picture.

We approved of the tacos. Also, Scrabble tiles and burlap.

Bunting!

Again - Love. This. Picture.

Turns out Toto's "Africa" the longest song ever written.

We're pretty good at finding the light.

Then we had an after party and I had a costume change.

Johnny Knight did our photos. He's awesome. Check him out. I highly recommend him for any upcoming event in your life - birthdays, weddings, Tuesday afternoons.

And then there was a mini-moon to Mackinac Island in Michigan. I may have gone a little crazy on the Instagram...

Mr. Mac was all about the smoked fish on this trip.

Bridge! Dead bugs!

Zip lining!

On the ferry to Mackinac Island.

Checklist for our European honeymoon.

Our hotel had a rooftop hot tub! With a waterfall!

Pensive.

Fancy luncheon at the Grand Hotel.

Sightseeing on the fort. My fave picture of this trip.

And theeeen... there was omg so much work. But now that things are calming down a little, I have time in my life for this blog. And quilts! Stay tuned!

Crap I've Made from Pinterest: Wedding Edition

The wedding of the season* is just under two weeks away. You know what that means - CRAFTING.

*The "Wedding of the Century" title was already taken by Kate and Wills. Barely.

Saturday night was my bachelorette party! There was wine, Scrabble tile necklaces, bourbon, books, and Motown. And seven of the loveliest ladies you could ever ask for. Basically, it was the perfect evening.

Being me... I had to make a dessert for everyone. I found a recipe for Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownie Bombs and, well, duh. Holy crap are these delicious. And holy crap are they a mess to make. But worth it.

Also, Waterford. NBD.

And then Sunday... ALL THE CRAFTING.

The manfriend keeps saying that if you're going to DIY your wedding, you have to play to your strengths. My strength is... craftiness. Yep.

So! I'm altering my wedding dress, which was once my mom's dress that my grandmother made (see the bottom of this post); making the bridesmaid dresses (no pics until after the wedding!); and making a lot of the decor. With the help of three hung over ladies, we made centerpieces, a card box, an aisle runner, favors, and a quiche (for the eating, not the wedding).

Scrabble tiles! Center pieces!
Please note: my Ginghers are leopard print. That's just how I roll.

Because sometimes the Mod Podge isn't drying fast enough.

Ampersand aisle runner (aka - my college degree is paying off).

That's about $80 worth of M&Ms for the favors. And fried food for the hang overs.

Quiche au fromage!

Ok, so none of this links back to specific Pinterest pins... but we all know. There's burlap and lace all over the place on those wedding boards.

Oh. And we made signs so people can find the bathrooms. Very important.

Here's everything all piled in one corner:

Sigh. Doesn't look like much, does it?

And just for fun - a beard in a dress:

WEDDING!!!

Also, the guacamole.

In order to mark the two month mark (ohmaigawd), another installment of "reasons why I'm marrying him:"

Lately, the manfriend has been working on perfecting his guacamole recipe. It's been tough, but I'm making it through.

Last night, we decided to have TACO NIGHT, which is always a big deal in our house. Obviously, he had to make the guac. And since his friend came over and they ate most of the first batch, they went to the store to get supplies to make a second batch to make sure there was enough for me.

That's love. And really good guacamole.

Just in case anyone wondered why I'm marrying him...

Actual conversation that just happened next to the refrigerator:

Manfriend: Man. What am I going to do if my kids come home some day and say they want to become vegetarians?

Me (laughing): I love you. Because you don't worry about our kids being gay - you worry about them being vegetarians.

Manfriend: Well, being gay isn't a choice.


And I worry about them being Republicans.

D-I-Whhhhyyy!?!

We're trying to do this wedding on the cheap. So far, we've been pretty successful. Until...

INVITATIONS.
(bumbumbum!!!)

Also know as: the bane of my existence.

I thought I'd be all clever and design something in Pages, get the half sheets of card stock (with envelopes!!) from Target, print at home and be done for $30 (plus postage, but whatever).

And it kind of worked. I do love our invitation design. The manfriend is a designer after all - I think we came up with something pretty and classy and just a touch whimsical.

But I might throw our printer out the window.

It had such issue with the card stock. It would not format correctly. We could not figure out how the card stock should lie in the tray for it to print properly. Finally, we were gently placing one sheet at a time in the printer and still had - maybe - a 30% success rate. Our next attempt was Kinko's: they won't print on anything smaller than a full sheet of paper AND they'll charge $1.49 PER CUT. Are you serious?? Yes, we could cut them ourselves - but c'mon. I'm not paying an extra $1.49 per sheet of paper for someone to cut it in half.

We asked a couple friends, no luck there... Finally we just reformatted the invites to fit two on a normal sheet of paper. The manfriend works part time at a university - where they have papercutters. Great. Problem solved.

Except.

I went to Joann's. I went to Target. I went to Staples. I went to Office Max. NO ONE has cream card stock. Let me save you many hours of running around town: go to a stationary store. Yes, it costs more, but you'll save money on gas. And frustration. And maybe even some tears.

At Office Max, I nearly printed the invitations. I tried to not care that the "cream" they had was "orange." I'm trying to not be That Bride. But I just couldn't do it. We're still using the envelopes from the invitation kits I bought at Target - the colors weren't even close.

And so... I went to the fancy paper store. I doubled the cost of our invitations. But we wound up with this beautiful, textured cream card stock. As paper goes, it really is quite beautiful. And the color matches perfectly.

The fancy paper printed beautifully in our cheap printer. Did the manfriend take them to work to cut? Did I take them back to Office Max so they could cut all of them for $2.00 (take that Kinko's!)? Well, no. The invitations weren't quite centered. So, I cut them. With a quilters ruler. And a rotary blade.

Because if we're going to do something ourselves, damn it - we will do it ourselves.

Carnage.

Crap I've Made from Pinterest: Vol. 4

I bought a bundt pan the other day.

Correction: I was killing time at Home Goods, browsing the baking section, because one can never have too many kitchen gadgets. I started investigating bundt pans, trying to decide if I wanted to spend the $9 on a new baking pan -- and promptly dropped it, making an ungodly racket. Obviously, I had to buy it now.

I've always loved the way a bundt cake looks. It's fancy and delicious looking and all you have to do is get it out of the pan. Sure you can frost it or drizzle a glaze on it or even put a potted plant in the hole, but just as they are, bundt cakes are pretty.

Also, I came across this on Pinterest the other day:

Fresh Strawberry Yogurt Cake

Image from www.aspicyperspective.com

I became obsessed with this cake.

Problem #1: I didn't have a bundt pan.
Solution: Buy a bundt pan after making a fool of myself at Home Goods. Check.

Problem #2: The manfriend doesn't like yogurt, even baked into things.
Solution: Tell him I left the yogurt out and allow him to marvel at the delicious moistness of flour. Check.

With those problems neatly cleared away, I was able to move forward. And I had an excellent reason to make this cake: WEDDING. We finally set a date. It's coming up fast. I needed semi-professional help. I went to my good friend Lauren, who is acting as our wedding-planner/person I report to so someone other than me knows things are getting done. And as a thank you, I brought her this cake.

BUNDT!

Holy crap. You guys. This cake is delicious. It's bursting with flavor. It tastes like spring. It is unbelievably moist, even a week later. And it's suuuuper easy to make.

Side note: Not to brag on my mad baking skillz, but it came out in one piece. Since this was my first bundt cake, I'm pretty proud of that fact. It was clearly all due to my skill and had nothing to do with the fact that it was a non-stick pan that I coated with non-stick spray...

I could barely focus on the important and helpful things Lauren was saying while I ate this cake.

If you have a bundt pan, make this cake. If you don't have a bundt pan, go get one. Just don't drop it.

"You could try Sears."

Life is weird, y'all.

Woke up yesterday to no less than nine missed calls from my lovely and talented boss. Apparently Ford Models called and needed a tailor for a photo shoot. Could I go? Um, yes. I believe I can make that happen.

Hopped in the shower, packed up my sewing machine, tried to look somewhat respectable, and headed out the door. An hour and two tolls later, I arrived at my destination.

I'm shown to my corner so I can set up and then go meet with the stylist. You guys - the pins were already in the clothes. All I had to do was put a seam in where the pins were. I didn't even have to iron it. My entire job was to run the clothes through my sewing machine. After I'd been there an hour, they were back on schedule. Because I'm awesome.

What was the photo shoot for, you ask?

Oh. Just the Kardashian Kollection. Because why not??

And just like that - I'm working in the fashion industry. Kinda.