goings and comings

i will admit i was a little sad to leave this.

but it was pretty great to come home to this.

pretty great indeed.

couldn't agree more.

am i the only one who feels like this friday has taken ages to get here?

man alive.

but, here we are! the weekend is in sight.

i am off for a little girls' getaway to the florida keys with dana this weekend, and i hope you have something equally scrumptious planned.

whatever your plans are, here is a little something to get you started right. it's basically my favorite thing that i saw all week.

or maybe ever.

made with love

i know there are people out there in the world who can pull off an entire DIY wedding.

i am not one of those people.

but, i did want a few handmade touches to our wedding, and i had two big triumphs that i am still really proud of.

one was the name card/favor coup, a combination of ideas from my handmade weddings book. i stamped paper bags (from the grocery store) with a bicycle rubber stamp, and name cards (from paper source) with the names of each of our guests.

i put a chocolate covered graham cracker (from the sugar cube in alexandria) in each bag, attached the name cards with a piece of ribbon and, voila! name cards and favors.

i was pretty proud of that one.

but the piece de resistance were these felt boutonnieres (and corsages for the ladies, with a few more flowers and no stems), also from handmade weddings.

there was quite a lot of hand-stitching involved, which has never been my strong suit, and they were definitely time-and-work-intensive to put together, but the result was totally worth it. they were unique and personal, and i loved that everyone in our family had an extra something to take home with them if they wanted to.

and that was quite enough DIY for me.

ga-ga for gadgets

AWD got an iPhone a couple weeks ago, which i am surprised i haven't mentioned yet since it has become such a big part of our lives.

in fact, i've stolen (borrowed?) a page from cjane's book and started referring to the new phone as the "sister wife." i also like to call AWD and say things like, "hi, AWD! hi, siri!"

i was feeling sort of smug and hilarious about the whole thing until it suddenly dawned on me that the way AWD feels about his new iPhone is the way i feel about my new kitchenaid stand mixer. and that thing can't even send a text message.

the night we got the new kitchenaid, AWD helped me take it out of the box, gleaming and gorgeous and red, and i set it up lovingly on the counter. then i started pulling out all the paddles and whisks and dough hooks and attaching them and un-attaching them and reattaching them, all the while giving AWD an adoring play-by-play of all the wonderful things this new gadget could do for us.

i had probably been talking for about 20 minutes before i realized he wasn't standing behind me at all.

he was watching TV in the living room, and i had no idea how long he had been there.

turned out it was about 20 minutes. he had walked out of the kitchen just about as soon as the mixer was out of the box.

"i was telling you about the new kitchenaid!" i said.

"oh, i thought you were just talking to yourself," he said.

so, fine. we all have our gadget obsessions around here, i guess.

here are six words i am never sorry to hear.

"how about a burger for dinner?"

yes, please.

the sweetest thing

we took advantage of a monday off last week and headed to hershey, pa. also known as the sweetest place on earth.

we rode a little ride that took us through a simulation of the operations of real hershey factory just up the street...

... and at the end they gave us free chocolate.

then we went on a trolley tour of hershey...



... past the house where milton hershey grew up...

... the factory that made him rich...

... the house where he and his wife kitty lived once they were gazillionaires...

... and the school for orphan boys they founded with all their money (now a residence school for disadvantaged boys and girls)...

... and while we were riding around they gave us a bunch of free chocolate.

we also learned that milton hershey had five failed caramel business before he got into chocolate.

and we learned that when his friend mr. reese came told him about a new peanut butter recipe, milton hershey said he wasn't interested because he didn't think peanut butter and chocolate would ever be popular together, but he gave mr. reese as much hershey's chocolate as he wanted. and then he bought reese's several years later for a couple million dollars. so, oops there.

and we learned that while on a trip around the world in 1912, mr. hershey got word that business wasn't so good back home, so he decided to end his trip early. so off he went to book a new passage home, and to cancel his tickets on the maiden voyage of the titanic.

i mentioned the free chocolate right?

then it was off to make our own candy bars in a simulated factory environment where you had to wear hair nets and take off your jewelry even though all we ever touched was a computer screen.

but, our chocolate bars (with custom designed labels) were (not free but) delicious.

then it was a chocolate tasting class at hershey university (you guessed it. more chocolate!) and we even got diplomas at the end. though you had to fill in your own name.

we finished the night with dinner at the grill on chocolate avenue under the glow of the hershey kiss street lights.

a sweet day indeed.

the vow

a few months ago, AWD and i were talking about how getting married is a perfect opportunity to wipe the slate clean, get rid of bad old habits and start good new ones, even if you haven't made any other major changes like started a new job or moved to a new city or something like that. getting married let's you start over right where you are, which is kind of exciting.

plus, you have a buddy to work on getting better with. which is maybe the most exciting part of all.

so we've been trying to introduce some good patterns into our married life: eating healthy meals at home, reading our scriptures together, reaching out to new friends and to old ones, that sort of thing. and, though i usually forgo new year's resolutions in favor of birthday goals, i decided to up my game this year and do both. there are some things i've been wanting to work on and be more conscientious about and i decided i better get to it while i still have newlywed motivation on my side.

here they are.

1. commune regularly with heavenly father and jesus christ. includes scripture study, family and personal prayer, magnifying my calling, serving and not gossiping at work.

2. consume less. i buy a lot of things, and i'd like to stop doing that so much.

3. create more. i feel a passion for projects these days, and i want to make more time for that. i feel really productive when i am producing a tangible thing (go figure) and that's a good feeling.

4. be consistent. i have a tendency to go through flurries of lots of good effort and progress, followed by lulls of laziness and a lack of motivation. i'd like to even that out a little bit and make some sustained strides.

i feel really good about my 4 Cs, and i am excited to see what they bring me in the new year. and because i am sure you're dying to know as well, i'll be sure to keep you posted, too.

chance of showers

despite a last-minute flurry of chopping, dough rising, baking, sewing, two failed pie crusts, decorating and the emergency purchase of extra cookie sheets, we managed a lovely shower for miss angela over the weekend.

one of my favorite things about getting married was the excuse to have parties where i got to be around people i loved who loved me and AWD, too, and that is what saturday felt like as well. it is such a great joy to celebrate other people's joy, wouldn't you say?

it was also a great excuse to make these scones, these donuts, these home fries, this quiche and to try out my first ever as-seen-on-pinterest sewing project: bunting. it came out well enough i think i'll leave it up as part of my valentine's day decorations.

hurrah for love!

project(ed)

we've had a pretty busy week, mostly getting ready for what is going to be an even busier weekend complete with a bridal shower for miss angela, sunday dinner with new couple friends, a saturday night double date night and a monday holiday getaway.

the good news is, all this impending hosting motivated us to get some little house projects done, including getting some of our wedding pictures into frames and hanging up this poster i got AWD for christmas (designed by my ever-talented cousin, trevor).

(pardon my reflection. this was the best photo i could get of it.)

the bad news is, as we were driving home from a frantic and rain-soaked trip to crate and barrel the other night, AWD looked at me and said, "sometimes i just get tired."

as i was frosting cupcakes last night at 11, i had to agree that i might have bitten off one project too many. but, we are nearing the home stretch and i am confident it will all have been worth it.

plus, those cupcakes were delicious.

everything but the kitchen cabinets

there i was, taking a plate out of the kitchen cabinet the other day, when i realized that something looked a little funny.

had there always been that gap at the top?

and was it just me or was the cabinet sort of leaning forward a little bit?

sure enough, upon further investigation i discovered that the whole cabinet had come disconnected from the wall, and it was hanging precariously, with all my dishes inside, just waiting to come crashing down entirely.

so out the dishes came, to live on my countertop for a few days. there's nothing like all your plates stacked on the countertop to make you realize you probably have too many.

when the repair guy showed up yesterday he said, "well, god's green earth, you don't see that very often."

seemed like a bad sign, but it looks like he did the trick with wood glue and a drill and something called a brad. i am a little wary of putting all my breakables back in there but, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

the whole thing reminded me of this house where some college friends of mine lived, a classic college rental dump. we had a party there one time and when our friend frank went to open a cabinet, the door just came off right in his hand. his response:

"everything in here is a little... antique."

couldn't have said it better myself.

old, new, borrowed, blue

we opted for a pretty non-traditional road when it came to our wedding festivities (no cake, no toasts, no line. thank goodness) but i really liked the idea of the "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" tradition. so i decided to give it a try. and it worked?

old was the antique wedding kimono fabric, purchased while my mom and i were in japan, that made up part of my skirt and the belt around the dress.

new was this headpiece, made by hand and divine.

blue was the perfect pair of kitten heels.

and borrowed was this necklace, which now belongs to my mother and had belonged to my great-grandmother frances before her.

it felt so special to wear such a precious thing on such an important day. i loved having a part of gram with me at my wedding, and again at our reception in salt lake, which just happened to be on our birthday, mine and gram's.

it was just right.

and now, on an only slightly related and completely non-sentimental note, do you think if you brought beyonce and jay-z's baby to your wedding it would count as borrowed and blue?