Mmmm...chutney....

I think I've only had chutney once or twice...but this homemade version (courtesy of Elise Bauer and Craft Mag) looks really good! The recipe looks pretty simple, and you can dress up the jars in any way your heart desires. The ingredients include any combination of fruits (apples, pears, mangos), raisins, currants, or cranberries, sugar, spices, and vinegar. Mmmm...how about some mango chutney on crackers with goat cheese?


This definitely gives me an idea on how to use the extra jars I have left over from the wedding...

Christmas ideas...

It being December 1st and all, my favorite craft blogs have started to roll out their DIY Christmas ideas. I stumbled on a great wrapping paper resource today on Creature Comforts (one of my favorite blogs!) How fun would it be to get a present wrapped like this?


photo courtesy of Creature Comforts
I wouldn't want to open it!
Check out the full tutorial here.

It's always sunny in Philadelphia...

...at least that's what the show is called. The past few days have been gray and dreary, but I'm actually enjoying it!

I got to Philly a week ago for NWP's Annual Meeting. The meeting went by so fast, it's hard to believe that it's over! (it's one of those things that you plan for a year and is over in 2 days - a little like Christmas!) From my perspective it went very well, and most importantly, everyone was very impressed with our new booth exhibit at the convention hall (which I worked on - yay!). Sunday night, Paul's aunt and uncle picked me up, and now I'm in Pottstown just hangin' with the fam. Yesterday I did absolutely nothing but watch about 10 episodes of Law & Order SVU (thank goodness for Netflix On Demand). I'm feeling very well rested and ready for the the week, which includes seeing all of the Boling/Hengst crew.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Engage-a-versary...

It's been 1 year since we got engaged! Kinda hard to believe that we're already married!!


(you can read more here)

Inspiration board of a different kind...

I have baby on the brain. It's not my fault. It's my uterus' fault (uter-i?)

Anyway, one of my co-workers is having a baby girl in February. She's in the midst of moving, and hasn't had time to think of anything baby related. Good thing I love babies and inspiration boards!

The Wine Road

Last weekend was a very special treat - I ventured up to Sonoma County to visit some friends, a new baby, and drink lots of wine! My friend Season won tickets to this event called the "Wine Road." Basically 40 or so wineries were pouring their wine and pairing it with food. YUM. Isaac so graciously was our designated driver (though I'm not gonna lie, he did get some tastes in). I think my favorite place was Mill Creek. Their dessert wine was AMAZING! We even made it out to Korbel to do some champagne tasting. I guess I've never really had good champagne before, because man this stuff was great! In my semi-buzzed state I bought a nice bottle in celebration of meeting Mr. Jack Jeffery Busick. But...I'm jumping ahead.

So, after the Wine Road we made it back to Sebastopol, and Season started cooking up a feast. I made a yummy cheese plate, and some other ARTA folks came over for a mini-reunion. The real pleasure was meeting John and Angi's new little one Jack. What a doll! It was so hard to put him down, he is such a beautiful baby. Definitely got my uterus thumping. The next morning I was pretty incapacitated from all of the wine, so needless to say I did nothing all day. I can honestly say it was the first weekend in MANY months that I got to relax, and didn't feel like I had to do anything. It was great!

Now onto this weekend - nothing planned so far, but the weekends ahead are quite booked. I leave for Philadelphia next Wednesday for 10 days (NWP Annual meeting + Thanksgiving with the in-laws = fun stuff!)






Jack!

Vets Day

Tomorrow is Veterans Day - just a shout out to all of the vets I know (i.e. step-brother, friends, etc) to say THANKS for serving our country. You ROCK!

And in other news...I'm celebrating Veterans Day by doing a little work on the house. I've got a shelving project lined up, plus some painting to do...oh yeah, and those pillowcases for the bedroom. Lots and lots of little projects to get the house ready for the fall.

Have you seen the work I've done on our craft/office room? It's lookin' pretty good if I say so myself...

Pillow talk

I'm a HUGE fan of pillows, and I'm not sure why. I seem to accumulate them every time I'm at Ikea, or TJMaxx, or somewhere else that sells them cheaply. Our bed has become a mound of pillows (which I love, and Paul hates). Guess he hates getting lost in them.

Anyway, since pillow covers are super easy to make, I'm always on the lookout for fun fabric. Yesterday I was at the Crate and Barrel Outlet store in Berkeley (with a giftcard that was burning a hole in my pocket) and found some pretty cool and CHEAP fabric. It was only $4.95/yard (normally $18/yard)! Score!

The first pick was a red and green stripe-ish, holiday inspired one. I made 2 pillow covers with it last night while watching the Phillies lose the World Series. I think they turned out okay!

Before....with Jazzy gettin' up on it

After....the finished product!
The second choice was this pretty aqua green and white floral-ish print. These will look great on our bed. Pics to follow!

November time...

I know that some people don't like the fall - it starts to get colder, and it gets dark at like, 5pm....but I LOVE the fall. The fall means wearing warm scarves, buying new "winter" jackets, and a cozy home with candles burning and food baking (funny, I posted something similar about this time last year). Paul has been working nights for the past 2 weeks, so I've been able to enjoy some non-interupted "fall" time for myself - admiring the leaves and the smell of cold when I get home from work, snuggle time with the kitties while I'm reading, and baking of all sorts (pumpkin bread, granola, and roasted chicken). I'm determined to make our house really "ours" by the time Christmas/Paul's birthday comes around this year. I'm going to start posting before/after pics of rooms that I'm redecorating - on a budget, of course. Here are a few of my inspirations:

For the bedroom....

(Young House Love)

For the kitchen....(Ikea Groland Kitchen Island)

For the living room....

(Cost Plus)

Happy Halloween!

...a few days late, I know. I've been suffering from an ear infection for the past week (hence the no posting, among other things!) However, I did feel good enough to dress up for Halloween. When we were in Maine on our honeymoon, we heard "Addicted to Love" on the radio and thought, "why don't we dress up like that for Halloween?" Well, it happened. We recruited Marie to be a backup singer along with me (and she definitely looked the part!) I think it turned out pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself....

I couldn't help myself

It's been a long day at the office....

The day started out early, with me getting up with Paul at 5:15am to make his sandwich and get my day started. Yes, I made him a sandwich at 5:15am. I know, I'm such a good wifey! But really I want to start getting up earlier to get more things done in my day, so after the sandwich was made, I began tackling our 2nd bedroom (which has housed all things wedding-related since Sept. 5th). I made some serious progress, getting rid of lots of papers and generally organizing the small space.

Then, I get to work. Nothing out of the ordinary, except I checked our bank account online and notice that someone has spent $79 at Thomas Cook India/Mumbai. WHAT? Yeah, I think we got hacked. Well, it was my debit card from our joint account. Someone booked a train ticket from India to Mumbai. Is that even possible? And yes, I had to convince them to issue me a new one because it was "just a charge under $100." Please, Mr. Banker, I don't have an extra $100 to spare these days on fraudulent charges, thank-you-very-much....

Then, the whole boy in the balloon fiasco happened! Like, seriously, WTF? The boy isn't in the balloon after all? And his parents are storm chasers? Something weird is going on in our galaxy right now. Something is just off....

This is all just to say that I LOVE this photo posted on Twig and Thistle, courtesy of fffffound.com:

Lovin' the Owls

I really love these Owl Plushies from Night Owl Paper Goods! They are very similar to the ones that I made for Cadence and Malcolm (found here and here). I'm thinking of using the pattern I already have, but use wool and other fun accessories like they do. I think this one is super cute - he has acorn eyeballs!

Fun and Free Art

Feed Your Soul - the free art project is an awesome website that has fun, downloadable prints for free! I found this website a while ago, but I keep returning to it every few weeks because they are always adding new artists. I have already printed a few for inspiration, but I'm loving this one right now:

by Molly Menge

I'm back!

Whew! It's been almost 2 whole months since I've posted anything here! Needless to say I've been really busy (it was all for a good cause, of course!) I plan on highlighting different parts about the wedding, but I'm hoping to make this blog more of a crafty/foodie one. With bits of personal stories here and there. Hope you enjoy it!

Sunflowers

Again, Project Wedding has posted an inspiration board that's directly from my wedding. How is that possible??

Photo credits:

Top row: Erin Hearts Court, Meg Smith, via Hostess with the Mostess, Thayer Allyson Gowdy
Middle row: Jose Villa, Orchard Cove Photography, via Melissa’s Smitten, Allison C.
Bottom row: In Full Bloom Florals, Bear Flag Farm, via {frolic!}

the countdown is REALLY on now

In just 2 short weeks, we'll be up in Groveland preparing for everyone's visit (and our wedding of course!) We just have the small details left - flowers, weedwacking, etc. Nothing we can't bust out in a weekend :) I'm getting so excited, and anxious all at the same time. The wedding hasn't even happened yet but I feel like we should be on our honeymoon already. Only 1 more week left of work and then it's off to Groveland!

daily inspiration....

featured on Style me Pretty
photo by Allyson Magda

New favorite...

...place for free fonts. TONS. At Font Freak dot com!

Grantham

Flowerchild

Tattoo Ink

Gearing up

Not gonna lie, I'm pretty stoked about getting all these engagement/wedding presents! While I jump and clap my hands with joy, Paul groans because it's yet another cardboard box in our living room. Whatever! Once we got this one (an AWESOME Kelty double sleeping bag from REI) we had to test it out in the living room. It definitely passed inspection....

Where I've been all week...

Just a few shots of Tubac resort (where I've spent 2 weeks of July). To say that's it's beautiful and amazing is an understatement. The past few nights we've been sitting on the back porches of our rooms, watching the huge cloud formations, the setting sun, and lightening illuminate the sky in the distance. Yes, if this wasn't a "work" event, I'd say I'm pretty much in heaven...

The dress

I had my final dress fitting last week, and it will be ready for pick up on the 6th of August. YAY! Obviously I can't post any of my dress pictures, but let's just say that I am completely and utterly in love with it! I'm not sure if ya'll know, but I got my dress at this amazing vintage bridal shop called Recapture in Oakland (who was recently highlighted in A Practical Wedding). Robin (the owner) helped me find one that looked great on me (despite it being a size 4ish)...which was where Eva, the seamstress came in. Eva worked some SERIOUS wonders on the dress (because hey, I'm no size 4!) It looks AMAZING on me, and it fits my personality (and our wedding) perfectly.

I can't wait to wear it in less than 5 weeks! :)

5 weeks to go!

I just realized I haven't posted in a few weeks, which means I've been really, really busy! Since my last post, I've been up to my ears with random stuff, including a week long work trip to Tubac, AZ (see chicken photo), wedding prep (i.e groomsmen outfits, flower girl baskets, and dress fittings), quality family time (i.e. bro's engagement party, art/wine fest with Jean & Eddie, and dinner with Marie and Cadence), and my favorite ladies birthday parties (Jenny = 28 and Erin's dirty 30 party in Bodega). Whew!

...and now it's back to Tubac for another week for work. When I get back, it'll be exactly 1 month 'til our nuptials. Still have the license and rings to get, but otherwise we're looking pretty good!

Table signs....done!

Vintage Yosemite postcards, popsicle sticks, rocks, moss, and a little bit of hot glue. The pics don't do justice, so you'll have to wait and see at the wedding!

Bachelor/ette party

the group
swimmers
jenny and monk
Cadence got to go on a mini-rafting trip. She loved it!
Isaac and I - white trash party
Busick having a grand ole time!

Wow! The past 2 weeks have flown by and I haven't been able to catch up. Between us moving into a new place (yay!) and our bachelor/ette party, I've barely been able to sleep, let alone blog. Anyhow, here are a few pics from our very debaucherous combined bachelor/ette weekend. We headed up to Camp Lotus last Friday night and (along with our closest 30 friends) had an amazing weekend of rafting/drinking/dancing in the hot summer sun. It was EPIC, that's the only words I can use to describe it!

and ...the countdown begins! Less than 2 months til our wedding!!

Cake stands

Homemade cake stands! I found this awesome idea on one of the many wedding blogs I subscribe to - it's a cake stand made out of a thrifted vintage plate and cup (or bowl). This was the first one I made just using a little bit of glass glue. I think it turned out pretty well, and I only spent $3 on the whole thing! Since we're having many pies at the wedding, I want them to be displayed in a fun way, kinda like this:

(photo by Amanda Kraft Photography)

shower pics

I was WONDERFULLY surprised by my bridal shower that was thrown by my friends Jenny and Marcelle, and my mom and Aunt Janine. The theme was "crafts", and the ladies went all out (including a scrapbook made by everyone there, and craft gifts!). I got so many awesome crafty/food inspired gifts (including my very own sewing machine, yay!) It by far exceeded my expectations, and I'm so honored to have a great set of friends and family. Enough about that, here's a slideshow of the party!

The crafting continues...

The s'mores bags I made for our favors. Makes me wanna go camping!

Happy weekend!

Even though I had a short week at work this week, I'm SO ready for the weekend to be here! I have been looking forward to this weekend for a while - it's my surprise bridal shower. Yay! I have NO idea what is happening - I just know I have to be ready at 1pm for a mystery person to pick me up and take me to the mystery party spot, where I will be joined by mystery friends. Jenny, Monk, and my mom have done a pretty great job at keeping it all a secret. In addition to that, Paul is home this weekend and we're going to the Alameda Antique fair to search for miscellaneous wedding stuff. It will be a treasure hunt, for sure, but I've heard it's a great place to find fun stuff. Monday will be here before I know it, but until then, happy weekend!
(photo from Our Labor of Love)