Bridal Bliss

Last weekend was a whirlwind of fun in Indianapolis for my high school friend, MT's bridal shower and bachelorette.  There are seven of us bridesmaids that collaborated to through the shower. We planned the majority of the shower via emails. Despite not having met four of them in advance, I felt like I already knew two of the girls because of social media.  The shower went off without a hitch and was a blast.

The theme for the shower was the bride's favorite foods.  Some items were made (I made puppy chose) and some were catered, but everything was delicious! 

 

The punch included lemonade concentrate, sherbet, and champagne. The original recipe also called for vodka, but given that we had bachelorette festivities ahead of us that night, we nixed that. 

You know that I love fruit in my salad. All summer I've paired bleu cheese with my spinach and strawberries but this salad used feta (and a poppyseed dressing) instead, which was light and yummy!

Holy motherload! I love homemade mac 'n cheese, but this, this was the creamiest, cheesiest mac I've ever tried and man was it good! (I've already requested the recipe to share with you!)

Chicken fingers were catered and good; I mean, it's hard to mess them up, right?

Mashed Potato Bar = genius. So easy, so filling and so good. It can do no wrong.

The cookies were purchased from Taylor's Bakery and were the perfectly soft and sweet.

The puppy chow I made was a huge hit. It's one of those foods that brings a sense of nostalgia to us high school friends. Every year we had a baked good fundraiser which consisted of making batches upon batches of chow to sell.

If I had a dollar for every time MT said "all of my favorite things!", I would probably be at least $50 richer.  She even went as far as too say that if she were ever on deathrow, this would be the exact meal she'd request. I'd say that means success?

And even though these were MT's favorite things, I found them quite delicious!

{Paper items from Birthday Direct}

We decided against games for the shower; but instead we had a list of questions one of the girls had asked the groom and before every gift opened, MT had to answer a question. We all made bets on how many of the 14 she'd get right. There were a few "half-points" given, but she did really well and got 12 right.

Is that not the most adorable engagement picture?

Goodies!

One of the best parts of the weekend is that the three of us hometown girls got to spend quality time together and rekindle our friendship.

After the shower we scooted home to relax until it was time for the bachelorette.  We started the night off with dinner, drinks and gifts at 10-01 in Broadripple.

One of the cutest things I've ever seen, rather than a store bought picture frame for all attendees to sign their name, we all layered on the lip stick and gave a smooch to a plain mat decorated with stickers. I loved this idea!

Leaving 10-01, we split up into two teams for a bachelorette scavenger hunt. This was a great alternative to just standing (or dancing) around a bar. Each time was given the same list of objectives and an hour to complete the mission. All tasks required photo evidence, thank goodness for iphones!

After we all got back together we had a blast doing some dancing and drinking in honor of MT. Throughout the night we'd all joked how old we were getting, but I'm proud to say we made it out past 3am.  Of course, the next morning wasn't as fun as the night before...but thank God for MT's fiance, at your service! He rolled in the next morning with McDonald's breakfast, Sprite and Starbucks for all!

No wonder she's marrying him! Here's to you MT!

 

Farmers Market Finds: my weekend

I have just a handful (now two) Fridays off remaining in the summer. Last weekend worked out perfectly for a trip back home to spend time with my family and to see my friend, visiting from Texas, and meet her six week old daughter.

 

After running just her third half marathon in Duluth (all three of which she did in nine months), my mom decided she wanted to train for and run a full marathon.  Through her running group, she learned about a small trail-course marathon in Wisconsin in September and signed up. This last weekend she was scheduled for a 20-mile run. 

 

Not being in nearly good enough shape to run 20 miles, I joined her on the second half of her run for a solid 8.5 miles along the Mississippi River.  She's using the Jeff Galloway training method, which involves running for 5 minutes and walking for 1.  We downloaded an app on her phone and surprisingly, I adjusted well.  Towards the end of our run I was yearning to hear that walk buzzer!  The only downfall was that we were out for 1hr 45min and did 8.5 miles.  Typically I would do about 10.5 in that time period.  Regardless, it was a nice start to the weekend!

 

Friday I bopped around town for some errands, including a much needed cut and lowlights before meeting up with my girlfriends for dinner at the new Barrel House bar/restaurant in Moline.  The fish tacos, sub avocado for wasabi, were delicious.

 

I called it an early night because I had plans the next morning to go with my mom and grandma to the farmer's market.  My grandma has been doing extrememly well since my grandpa's passing in the spring.  One of the regular "dates" my mom and Grams have is attending the Freight House Farmers Market every Saturday morning. 

 

They have their plan down to a T.  First they stop over to get bread from the vendor that sells out and then hit up The Crepe Guy for one of two rotating crepe options (savory or sweet) before finishing their shopping. 

 

I love love love crepes, mainly sweet (as witnessed here), so it was a no brainer to choose the cherry cheesecake with fresh Door County cherries. Uh-mazing!



Chicago has dozens of farmer's markets, including the big Green City Market in Lincoln Park.  We've been a handful of times, but it's a pain to drive to and after buying sunflowers and attempting to bike home with them once, I've learned my lesson.

 

My mom has her handling down.  She fills up her basket every week before heading home.

Here are my purchases, which make me really excited for meal planning this week.  I'll be utilizing the goodies below and have two recipe posts that will come as a result.  I'm currently salivating just thinking about the bruschetta chicken we'll be eating tonight with fresh asiago foccia bread (bottom right).

Saturday afternoon held some quality time with the girls and the baby. I sent a few gifts from the registry for her shower, but after making onsies for my cousin's baby, I couldn't resist making a few more; especially given the cute Texas themed cut-outs!

Add in a few ruffle butt leggings, baby girl ornament (I love giving ornaments that have a significance as gifts), home made headband and Old Navy bulldog pajamas (E and M have worn these since I bet them and now seven years later as "big kids"; still do), and I consider it a nice gift basket.

As cute as baby clothes are, nothing can compare to the baby.  My friend is working on building her photography portfolio so I asked if she'd mind for me to jump in and snag a few pics.  How precious is she?!

Saturday night was dinner with the fam at our go-to restaurant, Cafe Indigo, which we also at lunch at, before more friend and baby time.

I wrapped up the trip with homemade brunch with my family on my parents gorgeous patio before snagging a few peaches from their peach tree and hitting the road. After three weekends away, while fun, I'm looking forward to sticking around Chicago these last couple weekends of summer.



Linking up with Sami

Shower the People You Love with Love

A little JT anyone?, The original JT, James Taylor, that is.

 

This past weekend my mom and aunts hosted a baby shower for my cousin.  We decided to hold the baby shower after the baby was born because my cousin lives out of state. This allowed her to make one less trip and for us to all meet Miss Peyton. Win-win.

 

I volunteered to help with games.  We invited around fifteen family members ranging in age from 20s up to 80s.  In my experience with showers (baby and bridal), sometimes games can be tedious and monotonous for guests.  We decided to go more of the "activity" route rather than games.

 

Upon arrival, guests were greeted with a ribbon clothesline of onsies and baskets of diapers.

 

After some time spent mingling, we began our first activity: onsie decorating. When we had asked my cousin if she had a registry or what items she still needed, her request was 9 months+ clothing.  We bought a few packages of short sleeved and long-sleeved onsies and prewashed, then hung on our clothesline to add to the decor.

 

Growing up, my mom was quite the sewer. She used to make us outfits, blankets, curtains, etc. Over the years she accumulated a number of items which turned out to be perfect for the shower. We had baskets and bins of supplies and guests eagerly started deciding how they wanted to decorate their onsie.

Onsie Decorating Supplies

• Pre-washed onsies
• Puffy paint
• Fabric crayons
• Fabric cut-outs (super old school, made by Daisy Kingdom)
• Fabric scraps
• Ribbon
• Iron-on fabric adhesive
• Iron/iron board
• Fabric scissors

You could also use items like buttons, rhinestones, bows, etc.  We elected not to use this items for fear that at some point Peyton may rip them off and of the potential choking hazard. All of the items above, except onsies, can be found at your local fabric store.
 
For fabric crayons, be sure to "set" the design by following the directions and applying heat.
If you're not familiar with fabric adhesives; they're used to bind fabrics together.  Basically you cut the piece of fabric you want to adhere, place it on top of the adhesive sheet and iron.  There's two layers to the sheet. After the first (the rough) side is adhered to the fabric piece, you can cut along the edges of your design to perfect it.  Once done, remove the paper covering on the other side, place on your main fabric item, and iron in place!

Remember: Your iron must be completely dry (no steam) or the wunder-under will not stick!



This process might sound a bit tedious, but it's very easy. Here are the results:

In our experience, it works well to "line" the fabric applique with puffy paint to ensure that none of the fabric edges fray in the wash.  Here's my masterpiece (which I planned to match a pair of pink, orange, and light pink polka leggings as part of my gift).

Our guests got pretty creative and everyone enjoyed figuring out what to put on their onsie.

We ended up with a number of masterpieces.  The only downfall was that there was a little bit of smearing with puffy paint.  Those onsies we let dry and will ship to my cousin.





Of course, what fun is a baby shower with out the cute gifts?

 

For our second activity, my sister-in-law had suggested The Late Night Diaper Change. Having a three month old of her own, I'm sure she spoke from experience of dreaded over night diaper changes. 

What it is: The only supplies you need are: diapers (we used size 2 for Peyton to grow into), permanent markers and a creative mind.

 

We asked all of our guests to take a few diapers and write a note on the front of them; something to keep my cousin/her husband entertained when they're up in the middle of the night changing diapers.  Not only was this activity fun, but the diapers will prove useful for the new parents.

 

Here are a few examples of what we got, although my favorite was when my Aunt Jayne (from Aunt Jayne's mix) wrote down "Take a picture and send it to Aunt Mindy".

 
All in all, the shower was extremely fun and well received.  It was great to spend time with family we so rarely see, and, of course, it was wonderful to meet this sweet little 7-week old baby.