9.22.2009

One Sweet Day: Every Little Girls Dream Come True

It was finally time for me to step in my dress and at this point, I snapped out of the nervous funk I was in. Once I held up my dress, I truly felt like a bride!

With a clear mind and a big cheesy smile on my face, my girls helped me into my wedding gown. Oh, and side note - Spanx are a life-saver. I'm just sayin'!


I was so giddy! In a few moments I was going to see my man!! Also, the dress actually zipped up, yay!


I had a couple of different earrings picked out for the day and at the last minute decided on a pair of dangly pearls I purchased for $3 during a big sale and some coupons - score!!

My bridesmaids helped me make sure the veil was attached just right.
There were a lot of guests hanging around outside and my sister took a quick peek to see who had already arrived!
Fluffing all of the skirts of the train.

And with that, this bride was ready to see her groom!

9.21.2009

One Sweet Day:Gifts for the Girls

I did one final check of the gift bags SIL so generously helped me put together at the last minute and called the girls over.

It was so much fun seeing their expressions as they pulled out the little goodies Husband and I picked out for them!

They all had a small bottle of champagne, with the exception of my under-age little sister who received tasty lemonade :)



There were Bridal Survival Kits from here that included lipgloss, Shout wipes, TicTacs, Band Aids, and Tylenol. They also had a big box of Sour Patch kids, cute blank note cards, and these earrings from here.



I think they liked their gifts :)


Their other gifts included matching socks, a teeny bottle of Corona, and Sour Patch kids as well! The boys also had a Bridal Survival kit that included everything but the lipgloss, which was swapped for Axe products - you know, because boys have a tendancy to be smelly and we sure didn't want smelly boys on our special day :)



Just now joining the party?

One Sweet Day: My Fabulous Ladies Get Dolled Up!


All photos by Jenny Jimenez

9.20.2009

More Sisterly Love

Remember I mentioned my sissy was growing up way too fast and was having her senior pics taken last month? They were featured on Jenny's blog this weekend and boy-oh-boy are they hot!! I wish my senior pictures would've been this cool. Mine were the lame, "go lean on the fence and cross your arms" kind of pictures.

photo by Jenny Jimenez

9.19.2009

Sisterly Love

Sissy came to town recently and we got dressed up and went to see Wynston Marsalis. It was just lovely to spend time with my baby sister (psst...I'm the one on the left :)

Did I forget to mention, I chopped it all off ;) Yep, I donated 2 ponytails, 10" each to Locks of Love. Ah, and was it ever so liberating!!

9.16.2009

One Sweet Day: My Fabulous Ladies Get Dolled Up!

After completing the cupcake trees I was still a bundle of nerves, so the girls decided to put on a live Jason Mraz CD. We were totally rocking out as we did our hair and makeup...

They all looked so beautiful! One of my bridesmaids made all of our flowers and the bouts, she did such a great job on them!!

Each one of these girls holds a special place in my heart; I was so blessed to have them there with me!
My sister helped put my face on. It was such a great moment for us to share. Applying the final touches...
Just now joining the party?

all photos by Jenny Jimenez

Charleston Love

Gosh, I've been so dang busy this week with work I haven't hardly had any time to surf the internet, much less do any posting (imagine that!). I had a few quick minutes and thought I'd sneak in a post with a picture from SIL and her fiance's fun engagement session! Check out more here.

9.13.2009

Peachy-delish Cobbler!

Husband's buddy came over to watch football today which means I was in the kitchen most of the afternoon. I think this is going to become a tradition for them and myself, which I think is great since I'll be able to try new recipes and make them the guinea pigs, muhahahaha. We still had peaches leftover from the preserves (more on that to come) that desperately needed to be fixed up so I made this number for the boys tonight. I may have left it in the oven a minute or two too long, but really, I don't think they'll mind.

photo by yours truly

Peach Cobbler
recipe from Annie's Eats

For the filling:
2 1/2 lbs. ripe but firm peaches
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. lemon juice
Pinch of salt

For the biscuit topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. sugar, divided
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
5 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup plain whole milk yogurt

*Note – this recipe can be doubled easily by baking in a 9×13- inch baking dish and increasing the baking time for both the peaches and the assembled cobbler about 5 minutes each.

Directions:
Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position. Preheat the oven to 425° F. For the filling, peel the peaches and then cut each into 8 wedges, removing the pits as you go. Gently toss the peaches and sugar together in a large bowl and let stand for 30 minutes, tossing several times. Drain the peaches in a colander set over a bowl. Whisk together 1/4 cup of the drained juice with the cornstarch, lemon juice, and salt in a small bowl. Toss the peaches with the juice mixture and transfer to a 8-inch square glass baking dish. Bake until peaches begin to bubble around the edges, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the biscuit topping. In the food processor, combine the flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pulse to combine. Scatter the butter over the flour mixture and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about ten 1-second pulses. Transfer to a medium bowl; add the yogurt and toss with a spatula until a cohesive dough is formed. (Be careful not to overmix.) Break the dough into 6 evenly sized but roughly shaped mounds and set aside.

After the peaches have baked 10 minutes, remove the peaches from the oven and place the dough mounds on top, spacing them at least 1/2-inch apart (they should not touch). Sprinkle each mound with the remaining sugar. Bake until the topping is golden brown and fruit is bubbling, 16-18 minutes. Cool on a wire rack until warm, about 20 minutes; serve.

9.12.2009

One Sweet Day: Setting Up

Wow - I promised recaps, didn't I? It's been almost three months since our wedding, and the memories of that perfect day I've tried to hold very intimately close. As the days pass I'm finding that, grasp as I may, they are very slowly slipping away since my days are not consumed with decisions on wedding invitations, rentals, reception music and wedding day accessories but focused now on building a strong foundation for our marriage, finding a church to call home, house projects, puppy love, new hobbies, you get the drift. On top of that, putting in to words one of the happiest days of your life is not an easy thing but I promise I will do my best to give it every bit of justice. So with a glass of red wine in hand, I'll begin to tell the story of our beautiful day...

The morning of our wedding, my girls and I arrived to the ranch where in a few hours, husband and I would be exchanging vows.

One of my bridesmaids showed up with tasty treats in hand!
It looked like there had already been lots of work done, since the pig was already cooking, the pastures were clean, and Gloria had surprised me by putting together at least a dozen centerpieces of home-grown peonies!
My girls and I very quickly got to work on putting together our bouquets with the beautiful peonies from Bridgewater Gardens.

While us girls were busy playing with flowers (and my mind was going a bajillion miles an hour), the groomsmen and some of my college besties helped set up tables, chairs, centerpieces and the sound system.


It was pretty windy that morning, so we had to put all the centerpieces on the ends of the table to hold down the linens until the wind had passed.It was during this time, I started getting a lot of questions about how we wanted everything laid out and I decided it was a perfect time to go hide inside and work on our cupcake trees :)

all photos by guests

9.02.2009

9.01.2009

Seriously. Seriously?!?

This was husband's tomato pickings JUST from today. Sigh. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful our plants were fruitful this year, but by golly I'm running out of ideas here!!
And to top it off, husband randomly brought this inside - apparently it was also hiding in the tomato garden!
WTF is it? Is Shrek living in my garden?!? Is this why we have had an abundance of tomatoes??

I didn't want to deal with it today, so instead I baked.
(White) Chocolate Chip Cookies
recipe from here

2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup butter (or you can use margarine)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 bag chocolate chips (I used white chocolate)

Cream butter, shortening, and sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add soda, salt, and flour and mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake at 375 on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 to 10 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

thank you goodness!

How cute are these thank you boxes? They would make a perfect wedding favor, bridal shower favor, birthday party goodie bag,...the possibilities are endless!


buy them here!