Brandi Carlile - The Story

Ed and I both have fallen in love with this song! Please take a listen!

"Celebrations" Announcement!

It's here! We got our engagement in the "Celebrations" section of the Wisconsin State Journal! Here's the link so you can check it out:

http://host.madison.com/announcements/celebrations/engagements/article_7d4755ba-2574-11e0-b1e7-001cc4c03286.html

If anyone gets that paper and has an extra copy, could you please save it for us? We'd really appreciate it!

Love,

R.

Grandma Arleen's Cookies

A week or so I mentioned that I bought a set of cookie cutters so I can make flower cookies for our wedding favors. I was pumped about them because I used my 40% off J0-Ann's coupon and got them for cheap! Every once in a while they will send me a 10% off your entire purchase, but that hasn't happened in a while.... man!!! Anyways, here are the cookie cutters I bought:

I'm testing out recipes for our cookies. First of all, I wanted to see how the flower cookie cutters would work. Second, I wanted to compare cookie recipes. Finally, I wanted to see how bright I could get the frosting to look. The cookies need to be BRIGHT yellow, orange, and pink. Ed just loves cookies, so he is more than willing to eat anything I bake. The first recipe I used was for my Grandma Arleen's Sour Cream Cookies. My grandma passed away when I was two, so my mom has made these cookies every year to help us keep her memory alive. Anyways, I love them! Here's the recipe if anyone is interested and the final product! I used the three biggest cutters for these. The pink one is the biggest and quite the cookie! I think we're going to go with the yellow size.

Grandma Arleen's Sour Cream Cookies

1 C. Sugar 1 C. Sour Cream

3 C. Four 1 Egg, beaten

1 tsp. Salt 1/4 tsp. Vanilla

1 tsp. Baking Soda 1 Tbl. Real Lemon Juice

1 C. Butter, firm (Mix these liquids together)

Sift together dry ingredients and cut in butter. Stir liquid ingredients into flour/butter mixture. Use hands to form into a ball of dough. Chill overnight.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Roll out dough on floured surface to a scant 1/4" thickness. Don't roll too thin though! Bake for 6 min. on a greased or paper lined cookie sheet. Don't overbake-watch carefully.

Frosting

2 1/2 C. Sifted Powdered Sugar

2 Tbl. Butter, melted

3 Tbl. Milk

1 Tbl. Lemon Juice

2 drops of Lemon Extract

Stir together till smooth. Frost cookies and enjoy!

I'm going to try and make more cookies as soon as these are devoured! Cross your fingers that we can have these as our wedding favors. I read that our reception site won't allow your guests to consume food on the premise that has been made somewhere else. I hope I can still bake these!

Oh, and for those of you who are aspiring bakers, I bought the coolest cookbook yesterday. Again, I was at Jo-Ann's getting things for the wedding. I found myself with a 50% off coupon, but everything in the store was on sale! I had to search hard to find something. Low and behold I found this baking cookbook that I have had my eyes on. It's called Anyone Can Bake from Better Home's and Garden's. It's amazing! I already know how to bake, but it has really cool directions with pictures on how to do virtually EVERYTHING related to baking. The recipes are great because they range in skill level. I think I fall somewhere in the middle, so this is perfect for me!

There's also a cooking version, Anyone Can Cook, that I ordered on Amazon last night because I liked this baking one so much! Ed and I love cooking together, so I'm looking forward to getting this in the mail tomorrow!

The newly-to-be wed,

Rachel

Ring Pillows

We officially have a ring bearer! Ed's cousin's son is going to do us the honor! He just happens to be the same age as our flower girl, so everything will work out just perfectly. Now I just have to pick out a pillow design. Therein the problem lies!

I really would like to incorporate our daisy theme into the pillow, but I almost think that it makes the pillow look too fun. I am also in love with the idea of doing a lace pillow. I'd just have to find the right lace pattern and then lay that over a colored piece of fabric so you'd be able to see the lace.

When I went to the fabric store today I was very discouraged because I couldn't find any fabrics in the colors I wanted. I had gone there with my list of things: yellow fabric to go under the centerpieces; ivory for the flower girl basket; lace for the ring bearer pillow.... I didn't buy any fabric! Now, I didn't want to become bride-zilla in Jo-Ann's, so I took a deep breath and continued on with my shopping mission. I left the store with a daisy cookie cutter that we're going to use as a part of our favors.

Both Ed and I think that Pablo would do a good job as a ring-dog, but I don't think that will happen. One can always dream!

Cubs wedding?

I was just looking for ring bearer pillow options because I want to go out and buy the fabric for it tomorrow. In my search for the perfect pillow, I stumbled across this one. Ed is a HUGE Cubs fan and would probably die if we did this at our wedding. How about we don't do this but say we did!

Seasonal June Flowers

In case anyone wanted to know what flowers are seasonal in June: