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Thursday, March 6, 2014

Wedding Gown Shopping!

Probably the most exciting day yet (besides the day I got engaged!) and I couldn't be happier with how it ended! I have been dreaming about shopping for a wedding dress for years. It is so surreal walking into a bridal store and actually trying dresses on as a bride. That feeling alone swept me off my feet. I went into the experience with a very open mind, knowing that I would like a lot of things, so I felt overwhelmed by the whole process. Here's what I tried on! Prepare for picture overload!

 This dress was a "ball gown" that I tried, although in my head, "ballgown" means pouf and tulle and twirl. I really liked this dress on, but the bottom had nothing special.

 The top of this dress is very similar to almost all the dresses I tried on, but the bottom was not happening. The diagonals, the lace, it was all wrong.

 This was a satin gown. Now, the only things I didn't want to try on were satin and lace. I actually really loved this satin dress, it was a "light satin" whatever that means, but it was surprisingly lightweight and the fit was just so pretty. I worried what it would look like in pictures (satin always looks shiny to me). I did love this dress, but there wasn't anything special.

 This dress was so not on my list, sleeves are not my thing, but they arent really sleeves, they are like glitsy, beaded awesomeness. It was WAY to big and was hard to see what the fit really looked like, but the back was a showstopper. See below!

 Pictures don't do justice, but trust me, it was unbelievable how pretty it was! As gorgeous as the back was, the rest of the dress lacked a lot and straps just are not my style at all! I'm happy I tried it on though!

 Loved this dress too! But the rosette bottom was not my thing and I didnt like the flow from the mid thigh area to the skirt bottom. The cut off is just too much for me. The rest of the dress though, perfect!

 The other ballgown I tried on, my mom LOVED this one, but it did nothing for me.

 This dress was all tulle (im a ballerina so I was all over this) and was stunning on, but I found myself being a little itchy from the tulle. I also didn't think B would like this one.


So the top one was a definite potential, but my dad was not a fan of all the beading up top and I wasn't a fan of how itchy my arms were from it. I loved how it looked on and I loved the detail on the hip. I also really liked the skirt and how it flowed. But I just wasn't 100% sold on the beading up top. I had tried on a few dresses with a beaded belt and liked the focus to be there a lot more.

The second dress was runner up to the one I ended up choosing. It's a Pronovias dress (the Letunde) and one I had been eyeing for a while now. The dress was a runway dress. It was so modern and unique. I wont lie-I loved that I was wearing a known designer dress too. The big flaw-the feathered top. I had seen it online and hated it. I hate how it looked in pictures. In real life, its not that bad, but pictures are what last a life time and if I don't like how my dress looks in pictures, why buy it? I also had my heart set on a corset back, I just love how they look and this dress lacked it. It was also over my budget. It came in under my parents budget, but I had my own budget that I was comfortable having them spend. Once you add in a veil and a belt, we were over, by a lot. The salon I was buying it at is also a good 2 hours away in Boston and would've been a pain to deal with.

I'm sure you get the idea of what my style is and can probably come up with a good picture of what it looks like, but a very select few will see it until the wedding! My parents came with me (they are paying) so they have seen it (and love it!). My matron of honor has also seen it because she will be getting me into it and bustling it so she will have to see it beforehand anyways.  The only other person who has seen it is Bridesmaid N. She actually found the dress online and sent it to me and being the crazy bride I am pretty much stole it from under her. It sound worse than it is though, I would never have considered it if she wasn't 1000 percent sure she didn't want it. I also offered for her to come with me to try it on herself and if she loved it, it was hers. She agreed that the style was more me and was pushing all week for me to find it. Good thing I did because it ended up being the one!

The best feeling I have had yet was putting on a veil for the first time. Even though it wasn't with my dress, I could just picture myself walking down the aisle to meet B on the other end and getting to marry him! That definitely made me tear up a little and got me all giddy! Cant wait to share the rest of our wedding planning week!

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Home!

I have been planning a trip to go home (MA) for a little while now. I always like to take at least a few days between Christmas and April (when we go home) to visit my mom and dad. Once we return in April, things get crazy with the business and I only get one or two days off (maybe) until October and then we leave again! The few days home with my parents in March are always nice and a good time to catch up. Now that I'm engaged, I have lots of wedding things to do while im home, plus no one has seen my ring!

I had originally planned to fly standby on Sunday (my brother works for AA), but with the crazy snow storm taking over the country this weekend, I decided to buy a ticket and fly out Saturday. I've been a little crazy today trying to get some work done and pack. Luckily, B's parents are in town and have been able to help around the house.

I also am moving up in the world of cell phones and have upgraded to an iphone! This is a bittersweet day for me. I have always hated the iphone, mainly because I think the texting sucks. But with wedding dress shopping and Party Patrol starting soon, I felt like a legit phone with internet and a good camera would be worth it. I've used B iphone since day 1, so I'm used to it and don't even feel like this one is mine yet!

Bentley also went to the groomers today, which is always a circus. He is not a fan, but looks oh so cute! With my new handy dandy phone, I promise to take more pictures, but that will start tomorrow. Maybe.

Lastly, I was inspired earlier to make cookies, so I went with a recipe my roommate introduced me too. Its basically a chocolate chip cookie with a pile of nutella inside. To die for. Recipe can be found here.

My thin FL blood (that is a real thing, I promise!) will soon be entering the polar vortex and snow wonderland! Wish me luck!

Monday, February 24, 2014

Bridesmaids!

Now that all my girls have received their gifts, I can finally share the project here!

So I knew I wanted to ask my girls to be bridesmaids in a special way. I had found an idea on Pinterest awhile back and looked into buying shirts on etsy, but they seemed super expensive. I decided to try making shirts myself and they could not have come out better! I am so so happy with them, I even made myself a "Bride" one!

I'll do a how-to post later, but here's the finished product!




So there are eight girls standing on my side, my MOH (who happens to be married to B's Best Man!!), 4 Bridesmaids and 3 Junior Bridesmaids (my future nieces!). I wrapped each shirt in black tissue paper and tied it with gold ribbon. Each girl had the best reaction to the gifts and no one had any idea they were coming! It was so exciting and I think they all really liked it! It just stinks that we have to wait 18 months to wear them to any event!

Monday, February 17, 2014

Venue Trouble

I'm sure in a few months from now, I'll read this post and think how silly I was for worrying so much because by then, I'll have a venue (hopefully!).

So B is all about the wedding budget. And by budget, I mean spending pennies on the wedding. My mom had mentioned when we first got engaged that we should set our tents up at our MA house. Convenient, its pretty, oh and its free. I immediately shot that idea down, but not even an hour later, B had the same idea. I do not love the idea at all and feel like our wedding in our backyard would be seriously stressful. Am I being irrational? I'm having a hard time explaining to B how I feel about this idea.

Pros:
  • It's free. I get that, but we have one venue that we like where we know the owner and he's willing to barter party rentals to use his barn (aka a free venue). We feel like we have some bargaining tactics because we are in the wedding industry (not sure if I've mentioned yet that we also own a DJ company), so we can try a referral system or links on websites, etc. So our house bring free doesn't hold a ton of bearing with me. 
  • Convenience. Everything would literally be ten steps away. This to me is more of a con than a pro, but for after party purposes and the fact that all of our friends are big drinkers and wont want to drive after the wedding, it does hold some ground to not have to worry about transportation. Renting a limo/bus for 30 of our friends would be pricey, so I see his point. 
  • Significance of our home. My mom loves this idea, from getting ready in our house to having all of our relatives at our home (yikes!), she thinks it would be so sweet. I don't disagree, but I do see myself getting worked up over this more than it would be worth. 
  • Bathrooms. A weird one, but having an outdoor wedding means some sort of porta potty. Not ideal in long gowns. Our house has a seperate bathroom for our employees that's connected to our house, but can be locked so you can only get in from the outside but can't get into the house.
Cons:
  • It's not special. This is the part I can't explain to B. I live there. I see this place every day. It's not somewhere new and different. Oh, not to mention that we work here 24/7 and the house brings a lot of stressful feelings because it's related to our business.
  • There is no where to have a ceremony. Only enough room for the reception tent.
  • There is no room for parking. This could be fixed by parking down the street at the town hall or park, but there would still have to be some sort of valet from there to our house. Not a problem we cant solve, but not ideal. 
  • It's my backyard. Meaning I would drive myself absolutely crazy cleaning/organizing,vacuuming every speck of dirt from my yard. I guess some would see this as a good thing because I have control over the space, but I see it as added stress seeing my wedding get put together for a week. 
  •  The business is run out of the same property. Trucks, trailers, bounce houses, all of it would have to be moved. Leaving the business for weeks is going to be hard enough, but planning everything out for the business to move temporarily for a few days would be hard. More planning on my part. Again, fixable, but more work for me. 
  • I have zero desire to get ready in my bedroom, where I sleep every night. Weird. I've always dreamed about getting ready somewhere special with my bridal party. And I dont want to sleep with B the night before, but it seems silly to get a hotel and then drive back to our house later for our wedding. 
We are both keeping our options open and he is being super easy going about all of this. But if he had it his way, it would be at our house. I understand there has to be compromise, but I'm holding my ground on this one. Especially because there is potential for us to get a venue for next to nothing. And he knows that, so at this point we wait to see the venues and what they will offer. 


Sunday, February 16, 2014

Valentine's Day

I finally remembered to take some pictures of my food! Friday morning, I made pink pancakes with nutella and strawberries. So pretty and fricken delicious!


 I also made pink, heart shaped rice krispie treats. Also super cute and easy!


For B, Bentley and I attempted a pretty crafty idea involving a plate, red paint and a sharpie. I do not have pictures of this, although I intended to, but within an hour of B opening that gift, Bentley jumped on the counter and smashed the plate. One very upset mama over here. Plate making attempt #2 will happen later this week. 

These last 3 days have been never ending with work, so today, B and I polished off an entire box of Girl Scout Somoa cookies before dinner. Ballin'. 

I have some fun things to share this week, including a special bridesmaid project I finally finished. Just waiting for the girls to receive their packages so I can share the goodness! SO SO excited about it! I also forgot about a venue, but it needed its own post anyways. Happy Sunday!

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Venues

Oh venues...probably every brides biggest decision (besides the dress) and most expensive part of the wedding. When I started looking at venues, I realized a decision needed to be made soon, considering one of my top choices was already booked for our date (which is 20 months away!) Here's the criteria for the venue

  • Outside reception and ceremony space-We plan to use a hexagon tent that we own for the reception, so we must be able to bring our own tents onto the property. MANY venues do not allow this.
  • Separate space for an outdoor ceremony.
  • Allows us to bring in our own caterer. 
  • Within an hour of our house (we plan to have an after party, so we didn't want to have to travel)
  • Pretty views (fall wedding, views are a must)
 We also didn't want to pay a whole lot for a venue, considering we are really only using the property. We don't get a wedding planner/doc, there is no bridal suite for me and the girls to get ready in, and we have to decorate from the ground up (which is what we want). It just doesn't make sense to us to pay thousands of dollars for us to simply use grounds. So here are our choices:

Montague Retreat Center-pretty, but expensive for what we want and the tent location is a hike and a half. It would be cool to have a hayride to the location, but not an expense we anticipated. 

 Chesterwood-The property was specifically designed to only hold tented weddings. Unsure about price, as no one has gotten back to me, and its a teensy bit far for our liking.

 Bramble Hill Farm- I know, I know, this is indoors, but how GORGEOUS! I loved the idea of having the option of something indoors if it rained, but they haven't contacted me yet either so I have no idea the cost of this either. Super plus-its like 2 minutes from my parents house

 Worthington Pond Farm-cute, but nothing special, it has potential though so I figured it stays on the list

 Still Worthington Pond Farm-you can hold the reception under the covered bridge-how cool!
 Rosedale Farms-Our top choice right now! It's a gorgeous vineyard with a giant red barn, but the best part? It would most likely be FREE because we know the owner and would be bartering party rentals, oh baby!

I've been really disappointed in lack of response from everyone except the Montague Retreat Center. Makes it hard to plan tours and get pricing! Really holding our breath for Rosedale Farms though, but want to keep our options open just in case it falls through.

Next order of business-finding the dress.



Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Weekly Menu

Two posts in one day...who am I?! Its storming like crazy here (love it!) and im waiting to feast on Iguana Mia's (my fav mexican food), so I decided I should make a grocery list. Here's the menu for this week:

  • Oven Baked Chicken with mashed potatoes and a veggie (Bake chicken breasts in a pan with water and some bouillon cubes)
  • Steak Salad (inspiration from Bice Grand Cafe, it has kalamata olives, potatoes, feta, peppers, and romaine with balsamic dressing and grilled steak, AH-mazing!)
  •  BBQ Kielbasa with rice (great crock pot recipe, so easy)
  • Lasagna and Salad (I use a meatloaf pan to make it a serving for 2 instead of 80 and use ground turkey instead of ground meat)
  • Potstickers and pork fried rice (for the night im feeling lazy and want to use something from the freezer-testing out whatever looks good from the freezer section so hopefully its good)
  • Something with ground turkey- I only use 1/2 lb of the turkey for the lasagna so ill use the other 1/2 lb for whatever inspires me between now and then. 
  • One night we will eat out! 
6 super easy meals that aren't too expensive either!  Grocery list is made (my next routine to get into is reorganizing my lists so i'm not back tracking through the store 15 times because I forgot something)

I also plan to try two new croissant recipes this week. I am a sucker for croissant rolls (put some butter/brown sugar/cinnamon in those babies, wow!).  I'm going to try putting some strawberry jam in some and some nutella and PB in others. Cant go wrong with either one, right?!

As mentioned before, I'm going to make some red pancakes for Valentines Day and probably some red, heart shaped rice krispies too for B.

Tuna Salad-My Way

I. HATE. Mayonaisse. Like despise it more than anything. Therefore, potato salad, pasta salad, tuna salad, are all things I will never eat. I've created my own recipes for all these things without mayo and they are always a huge hit! Plus, they never have to be refridgerated at BBQ's and picnics, win win for everyone!

One of the trickiest things I encounter when going on the boat is what to pack for lunch. Sandwiches with lunch meat gets old real fast. So I turn to tuna. Here's what you'll need:

A can of tuna per person
Tbsp or so of Olive Oil
A shake of Season All
Black Olives (however many you like)
Dill Relish
Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Crackers/Rolls

Basically, you mix everything but the cheese together in a bowl. When ready to serve, put slices of cheese on either crackers or rolls and pile on the tuna! Super easy!

I got really adventurous this summer and decided to make tuna melts. Same concept, but make it like a grilled cheese! I use plain old slices of American cheese since it melts way better, butter two slices of bread and pile on the tuna salad. Flipping is slightly tricky and the tuna tends to fall out, but if you only flip once, its not too bad. And its so worth it! Such an easy lunch or weeknight meal! And the tuna part is pretty healthy too, but full of flavor and very filling.

I apologize that I don't have any pictures, I'm lazy and get super focused when I cook. Next time.

In other news, I am not a fan of valentines, but B and I never turn down an excuse to plan for a fun day! I plan to make him red pancakes with nutella and strawberries on top (I promise I'll take pictures) for breakfast. We have dinner reservations at a fancy restaurant on the water. Im getting him an 80 min. massage (which he will sleep through probably 70 min. of that) and Bentley/mama are making him a very cute craft! Pictures to come soon!

The one picture I do have for today's post, B's engagement present! A friend had pinned this idea on a group board once we got engaged and I had to have it! Plus, he deserves something after buying me a pretty expensive ring. It's not fair he doesn't get anything in return (oh right, he gets to spend forever with me!)

It's a lure that says "Hooked 1-17-14" HOW PERFECT?!

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Long Lost Blogger

I've been a terrible blogger lately (serious props to all you moms out there who find time to blog). We've had 8+ guests staying with us for the last 2 and a half weeks or so and we finally had the last of the guests leave yesterday. It was a whirlwind of time with friends and family and we had a blast, but boy are we happy to have some time to ourselves (and to celebrate being engaged!)

 AH-MAZING! We just about peed our pants when we heard/saw dolphins practically jumping in our boat!

Hung out at Ft. Myers Beach and played corn hole all day.

 B and his friend caught Conk Shells (which we googled and learned its illegal so we quickly threw them back). Notice how far away from land we are!

I drove the boat A LOT, so B could enjoy some cocktails!


My friend, me and Bentley fishing.

B and his friend trying to pull up the anchor which got stuck in a GIANT cement block and weighed a ton!

Us girls caught dinner, and the boys cooked it.

My favorite picture ever, if B and I were showing a little more love, it could be a potential for a Save the Date! (My minds been reeling for Save the Date ideas and I have some ideas up my sleeve)

I was super sick for the first 3 days everyone was here, which was a total downer. We also celebrated B and his friends birthday with dinner and karaoke. But now that everyone has left, I am in full on wedding planning mode! I am gearing up for some serious venue searching within the next few weeks (finding a venue while halfway across the country is proving to be very difficult). I'll also vent about my dress woes soon! Bring on the planning!


Wednesday, January 22, 2014

The Groom Matters Too

I have been planning our wedding in my head for approximately 2 years now. I have never shared any of my ideas with B, so once he proposed, I got down to business to figure out what HE wanted. The things that I really have my heart set on (date, colors) he was easily agreeable too, if not easily convinced. There are some things we are definitely not on the same page about though, the biggest being budget.

I know how expensive weddings can be (and how easily they can get out of hand), so my very first wedding planning step was to create a very loose budget. Talk about sticker shock. I was estimating bare minimum for a lot of things, and it's still more than I wanted. B was way more shocked than I was and he is not really seeing the purpose of spending $25,000 on one day. Good point. But its my dream, I've been thinking about this day for practically forever. It's a celebration of us and everything we've been through (which is a lot), so it's more than just one day. He understands my point, but doesn't necessarily agree. This is hard. B makes some really good points, like $25,000 can go to my school loans, or one of our two mortgages, or a car payment. I have a feeling making decisions is going to be tricky.


Planning a wedding that is over 18 months away, and not having much of a budget to work with is making it slightly difficult to start planning. We want to book a venue soon, just to get it out of the way, but so many other things come into play (cost of caterer, liquor, etc), that its not just booking a venue, its researching everything else too.

The other major thing we don't agree on is the ceremony. I LOVE our church, I've been going there forever, and the church is absolutely stunning. I have always thought we would get married there, but B is not religious, at all, and neither is his family or friends. That makes about half of our guest list who would be uncomfortable in a church. My mom cried (happy tears) when I told her I wanted to have the ceremony at the church. Now that B has expressed that he doesn't want to have the ceremony there, I'm stuck. I don't want him to be uncomfortable or dreading any part of our wedding. Our priest is also very strict and has been known not to marry someone if he disagrees with their way of life (having a baby before marriage, living together, non-involvement in church), so it could be a very lengthy process to even get into the church.

Church interior
Major hurdles to get over, but I'm still in a blissful state that we are getting MARRIED! Oh, I sent my ring back home to MA today to get resized and literally shed a tear at Fed Ex. Pathetic.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

My First Wedding Post


I've been anxiously awaiting this post for about...forever, so here it goes!

When we first got engaged, I instantly thought I would want to start planning, but we were just living on cloud 9 for days. I've finally sat down and started a budget (YIKES!) and got some initial ideas through Pinterest. Who are we kidding? It's not initial thoughts, its thoughts I've had for years. Here's what we know so far:


  • We want a Fall 2015 wedding, hopefully October 17th.
  • Colors will be black and white with an accent color of either purple or gold. I'm leaning more towards gold and have a pretty solid idea of what I want for centerpieces. I was always so torn about centerpieces, but after doing some research on how expensive florists are, I decided I didn't want flowers, so pumpkins and candles it is! That set my theme too. White pumpkins, gold accents and black. 
 
 I want our centerpieces to be something like this, but with white pumpkins, gold branches, and lots of candles around it.
  • I have my bridal party figured out, not sure if B does yet. 
  • We are really shooting for a wedding under our tents. I love that I have a totally clean (and white) pallet to work with. I initially thought it would also save us money, but after looking for places to set up a tent and pricing out catering and alcohol, I'm wondering if it'll save any money at all. 
  • Food is at the top of our priority list for what's important. Hence why I'm not keen on having our wedding at a venue like a banquet hall or hotel. 
  • There will be donuts.
  • The bridesmaids dresses will be long and black.

I am itching to start dress shopping, but am using my better judgement to start so early. My taste in dresses changes by the day lately.  My mind wanders and one second I'm looking at venues and I get distracted and find myself looking at bridesmaids dresses. I need to organize and learn to focus. I plan to write out pros and cons of venue vs. tent soon (more to convince myself into a decision than anything else).

Monday, January 20, 2014

Big News!!

B and I have been dating for over 5 and half years, and on Friday night he finally PROPOSED!

The ring is the most stunning piece of jewelry I have ever seen. B and I have never talked about rings (or our wedding), so he picked it out all on his own. He actually designed it on his own. Pictures do not do justice, but on one side (sort of underneath the ring itself-confusing I know!) is my birthstone and the other side is his. It is just so creative and personal. I was so shocked that he thought of something so creative!


The Proposal: We decided to go to P.F. Chang's for dinner on Friday night. We put our name in for a table, which had an hour long wait. So I went to wait outside and he went to the bathroom. While he was in the "bathroom" he grabbed a few fortune cookies, cracked one open, and switched out the fortune with one he had typed that said "Will you marry me??" He also brought superglue with him so he could glue the package back together (the thought process that went into it is impressive). We go through all of dinner (where I didn't suspect a THING!) and then the cookies come and there is one that has a chip in it. I told B I would take it home for Bentley. (You idiot! Way to make him nervous!) He instantly says that Bentley would like a whole one, so I should just eat the broken one. So I crack it open, pull out the fortune and start sobbing, like hard core, no one should see this kind of cry except your mom, sobbing! He is already on his knee pulling a ring out of his pocket and I just keep on sobbing. I said yes! and he gets up and everyone is clapping and saying to pose for a picture.

The manger brought us champagne and strawberries and our waitress came over and told us our meal was on her! I felt so loved and special. I hope I never, ever forget that feeling. I have played the scenario of getting engaged in my head about 44,501 times and never once did I imagine how great the feeling would be! After dating for over 5 years, I truly thought I would know when the ring was coming, but he took me by such surprise! We could not be happier and are excited to start this wedding planning journey!

I plan to use my blog to post my ideas and thoughts about the wedding plans, especially because after only 48 hours of being engaged I am so overwhelmed!


Thursday, January 16, 2014

Weekly Menu

B's parents are coming to stay with us for the next two weeks or so, so instead of cooking for two, I'll be cooking for four. This week isn't too tricky, they like pretty much anything I make and cooking for four isn't much different than two (I think it's easier, since most recipes are geared towards families of four anyways). Here's what I have planned:

  • Saturday: French Bread Pizza
  • Sunday: Country Herb Chicken and Dumplings
  • Monday: Burgers and Fries
  • Tuesday: Out
  • Wednesday: Steak, Pasta, veggie
On Thursday, we have 4 more people coming to stay with us (friends/family of B) and then the following Saturday, 2 more people (brothers of B). That's why my menu stops on Wednesday. More people, totally different approach to the meal planning! I'll post that meal plan next week!

Once I have meals planned, I look up the recipes and make a list of everything I need. This way, when I walk into the grocery store, I'm not just throwing Oreo's and cheese into my cart. 

Most of my inspiration comes from Pinterest. Usually I just look though for ideas and inspiration. I also keep a pad of paper in the kitchen so as I cook, I can write down things I notice we need as I go, instead of trying to remember everything when it comes time to go to the store. I also almost never stick to this exact schedule, where we eat pizza saturday, chicken sunday, etc. If I dont feel like pizza come Saturday afternoon, I'll make something else from the list.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

French Onion Soup

Stickin' to my word and actually taking pictures while I cook! It was a little chilly here in FL today (a very brisk 65), so I decided it was a perfect night to try out a french onion soup recipe. It was very easy, a little time consuming, but worth it! I used Bobby Flay's Recipe and was inspired by my favorite restaurant back in MA, Judies, to serve the soup with Caeser salad. Please excuse the terrible photos, I still live in a Blackberry world :)

Onion and garlic sauteing away in butter...mmm

Getting all carmelized and tasty

Simmering in red wine and beef broth

Topped with french bread and Gruyere and ready to be broiled

Finished product!

I might have mentioned before, but I HATE onions. It's all about the texture, I like the taste of onions, but the texture is not my thing. Therefore, I put my soup through a mesh strainer before it went into the bowl. Don't judge.

Also, for those who are afraid of the broiler (hot, fire redness coming from the oven, what's not to be afraid of??) it really isn't too terrible. My broiler has a "low" setting so it doesn't cook nearly as fast.

Hoping to stay on this roll of picture taking while cooking! Tomorrow, I will (hopefully) post my weekly meal planner. We have a slew (and by slew, I mean crowds and crowds) of people coming to visit over the next 3 weeks and my anxiety gets a little out of control. I always plan my meals way ahead of time, especially when i'm feeding up to 12 people every night for a week, including some VERY picky eaters, someone on the Paleo diet, and a vegetarian. Meal planning gets tricky to say the least. I'll share my plan as I go!



Tuesday, January 14, 2014

January Slump

I am in serious post-christmas slump (I know, I know, still??). I just cant get the motivation to blog, or do anything for that matter. Here's what we've been up to lately:

  • Friday was gorgeous, so we took the boat out, but the fishing, not so good. We went back to Ford's garage so I could stuff my face with even more deep fried pretzels.
  • Saturday we ran a few errands and took Bentley to the pet store for some treats. 
  • Sunday was also non-eventful, but I did make my Aunt Pat's homemade pierogies for dinner. Ah-mazing! 
  • All day today I thought it was Monday, until about 30 minutes ago. We worked all day and I did a ridiculous amount of laundry. I did sneak out to Pier One and Michael's for a little retail therapy. I needed to get small bowls with handles so I can make French Onion Soup tomorrow! Recipe coming soon! 
I am in the worst habit of not taking pictures, especially when I cook. I get in the zone and before I know it, i'm loading the dishwasher. This could also be because I don't have an iphone so taking pictures in not as user friendly.  I promise to be better! I'll post the homemade pierogi recipe soon!

Monday, January 6, 2014

Flying with Fido: Part 2

I had originally written a post about flying with Bentley here. I was very anxious and there was a lot of prep work to be done. I had called the airline multiple times to make sure I had every detail covered and thought we were good to go.

Within 1 minute of stepping up to the counter to check him in, they were telling us he couldn't fly. His crate didn't have screws, so it wasn't safe. Luckily, a manager came over and said it was totally fine and we could just use zip ties. The next hurdle was the temperature at our destination. It was 19 degrees there and the cutoff to fly an animal is 20 degrees. I really had to convince him to let Bentley fly.  The gate guy huffed and puffed the entire time and I swear he was purposely taking his sweet time so we would miss our flight. Luckily we made it just as they were boarding, but not without a few more hurdles at the gate. Thankfully, we made it home safely (it was snowing like crazy when we landed and didn't even know we were near the ground until we touched down!)

The trip home was so much worse. We got to the airport at 4:30am (when it opens) and again, almost didn't make our flight. Once again, with 2 minutes of getting to the gate check, the woman at the desk was saying he couldn't fly. We didn't have a Certificate of Acclimation. This was not even mentioned when we flew home, so I had no idea what they were talking about. Once they realized there was a statement written by the vet saying he "should be fine" they thought that might be sufficient, BUT it didn't say "will be fine." Well duh, no vet is going to state that an animal WILL be fine, its just not reasonable. She had to go check with her supervisor which took a good 30 minutes. Then he didn't have a rabies certificate, but he did have a health certificate that stated he had a rabies shot. Not good enough. Back to the supervisor. The gate agent was also one of the worst customer service reps I have ever encountered. We finally made it through with about 2 minutes to spare and I'm happy that we made it home in one piece.

I have a feeling that the airline we flew with was an isolated experience, but because of it, I will probably never fly with Bentley again. Everyone we encountered was so rude and looked at us like we had 3 heads, like we were the ones who were out of control for wanting to fly with a dog! It is also worth mentioning that my brother works for this airline and he had checked everything to make sure we were all set. He does this every day for a living and couldn't believe all the trouble we had.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Our Weekend

B and I had a pretty uneventful weekend. We worked yesterday, but decided to treat ourselves to dinner at Ford's Garage. Um, delicious. They deep fry their pretzels. I would have eaten my weight and then some in deep fried pretzels. Genius!
Today ended up being a nice day, so B decided to take the boat out, while I had a shopping day. I was having Target withdrawals, so I grabbed some Starbucks and spent a good hour in Target. I found so many gems today, and everything was on sale. I've been eyeing some Nate Berkus stuff lately, so I finally made the plunge, which wasnt even bad because it was all on sale!

 Bentley will look great in this frame. Even better-using it as a birthday gift for B!

 I also found these two pillows. Indecisive on which to get (if any). We have a black, leather couch (can you say mantown?). Suggestions? Opinions?


I also went to Pier 1 and bought this for the guest bathroom:
The picture does absolutely no justice, but I also bought blue and turquoise sea glass to put inside, it looks awesome.

The low temperature here is sunny SW Florida this week is going to 38. Say what?! That's like snow temperature. I'm not complaining, but I'm pretty sure all of FL is going into hibernation this week.