I'm Golden - Literally

For the first time in my life, when asked how I was, I could reply, "I'm GOLDEN!" Why is this you ask? Well, yesterday was my GOLDEN birthday. I turned 23 years old on the 23rd - pretty simple, right?

I had just a great birthday yesterday! I lounged in my fuzzy pants all day, got birthday phone calls from a bunch of people (but happened to miss every call from my in-laws, not on purpose though), and worked on my quilt (which is a topic for another day).

OOH! And thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes!!!

Ed took me out for mexican at the place up the road from us. It's called La Fuente, or something like that. I have no idea how to spell it. Lucky me - we sat at table right in front of their fireplace. Actually, I asked if we could sit there because I'm terminally cold.

I just had to have a margarita - they're my favorite and a recent birthday tradition! It really makes me miss birthdays in Eau Claire with my music therapy ladies...

This was the first time Ed and I were able to go out together on my birthday. My birthday has fallen during the work week these past two years, so it would have been near impossible for Ed to drive up to Eau Claire during work, have dinner with me, and head back to Milwaukee all in on night - plus, it's very impractical.

When we got home after dinner, I was just stuffed on chips and salsa, enchiladas, rice, and beans. I just couldn't resist getting into my comfies! Either could Ed! In the words of George Costanze of Seinfeld, I was "ensconced in [fleece]." I just love wearing my fleece - fleece plants and a fleece top, and sometimes my bathrobe on top of all that! According to George, it would be pretty awesome to drape myself in fleece. If you're completely confused and have no idea what I'm talking about, please take a moment to watch this Seinfeld chip: 

To me, fleece is like velvet - I just love it! 

For dessert I made birthday brownies - Cappuccino Brownies to be exact. They are from my favorite baking book, Anyone Can Bake. I believe I've raved about this before on my blog, but I simply love this book! Now, I already know how to bake (it's in my blood - my grandparents were bakers), but it's nice to have a handy book that shows you all sorts of techniques with easy to follow and foolproof recipes. These were great!

Ed has fallen for the brownies in that baking book. They are very fudgy and yummy! Now, normally I think that brownies out of the box are the best, especially the ones from Ghirardelli - the turtle ones in particular. But these brownies take the cake!  In this recipe, the fudgy brownie is on the bottom, with a tan Cappuccino layer on top, with a fudgy chocolate glaze/frosting on the very top. I thought the neon candles added a nice touch as well. Too bad the wax started dripping after one minute of being lit! That's what I get for buying the $1 candles...

Ed made us drinks too! It's his own version of a White Russian, which is one of my favorites ; -) We used these fun drink glasses that my friend J. got us for a wedding gift. 

I had such a great birthday with Ed this year! I hope that my 23rd year brings with it lots of memories and fun times. 

~Rachel 

Won't You Be Mine?

Normally I don't get that into Valentine's day, but this year was a completely different story. I woke up yesterday morning softly singing, "Won't You Be Mine? Won't You Be Mine?" Ed, who is getting ready for work, turns to me and days, "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood?" "Yep!" It's funny how songs just pop into your head!

This little tidbit has nothing to do with anything, but I just thought that Ed has excellent song recall - perhaps he should be the music therapist.....

As many of you already know, I just passed my music therapy board exam last week - whoot! I'm officially an unemployed music therapist (although I am looking!) But while I'm looking for a real job, I'm enjoying my job at home - taking care of my Ed. I often call Ed "My Ed" to differentiate between him and his dad, mostly when the family is together. We have "Bev's Ed" and we have "My Ed" or "Rachel's Ed" depending on who is doing the talking. Ok, back to what I was talking about. I've been at home now for two months since I finished my internship and have been doing a combination of the following: studying, cooking, crafting, sleeping, reading, and watching every single episode of Law and Order SVU. It's great! I feel like Suzy Homemaker. I'm embracing my inner woman - I cook, I clean, I do laundry, and so on. I enjoy it!

Now, back to Valentine's Day. I spend a lot of time at home thinking about things, especially things that I have to plan for. I love planning! So, I thought, why not plan a fun Valentine's Day dinner. I do have to give some credit to Ed for this idea as well. Not only did I/we want to cook a good meal, but I also wanted everything to look nice. I figured this is probably the only year I will do something special for Valentine's day. After all, shouldn't you express your love for each other year round?

When Ed got home from work last night he had the LAST bouquet that Pick 'n Save had in store - yellow alstroemerias. Now, he had no idea what kind of flowers these were. He just knew that he couldn't come home without some flower in hand. I just loved those flowers! I had a lot of them in my wedding bouquet. To me, they have so much more meaning than roses.

Anyway, here's our evening in pictures:

Ed and I in our little kitchen with our aprons on ready to cook. 

Ed wearing his apron and chef's hat that I made him for a gift. 

This is a great pattern to use if you want to make a chef's hat. The pattern is in PDF format, so all you have to do is print it out and start sewing! Click here for the link.

A table set for two.  

I made tissue paper roses for napkin rings curtsey of Martha Stewart. 

Ed's sock monkey wine cosy is a home next to a small tea light and my orchid. 

I added paper roses to my potted orchid. This plant isn't in bloom right now - actually, you can't see any of it. I leave the support posts in the pot so I don't loose them. I was glad to spice them up with the roses. I think I'll even keep them there!

We started with a salad. 

I'm trying to take more "dramatic" shots....

Followed by the main course. 

Thanks to the Milwaukee Journal sentinel for our main course. We enjoyed tenderloin steaks, which we cooked using a cast iron skillet, but on the cooktop and in the oven, rosemary red potatoes, and sauteed vegetables. It was sure good. Here is the recipe if you'd like it.

Cheers! 

Time for desert! 

To end the meal, we just had to have something chocolate! Now, I'm not usually one for cake, but when I saw a recipe for Molten Lava Chocolate Cakes, I knew I just had to have them! Plus, we got a boatload of ramekins for our wedding and I wanted to put them to good use.

Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes with Strawberries and Cream

 I was trying to imitate the desert you use to be able to get from Olive Garden. They served this exact same thing, although I think that the cream sauce turned our a little different than the restaurant, but OH was it GOOD! Death by chocolate... I want to make these again so bad! And, the recipe makes four cakes, so we enjoyed this dessert again tonight!

Now this is the one Ed ate. As you can see, the chocolate is spilling out! Yummy!

Overall, Ed and I had a great night. After dinner, we ate our cakes while watching Up, an animated movie. It's such a cute movie about an elderly man who looses his wife and goes on an adventure. If you haven't seen it, you should really watch it with someone special. It's a sweet movie ; -)

That's all I've got for tonight. It feel good to be back at my blog. Who knows, maybe I'll do a little bit of backtracking, considering I haven't put anything up here since we were married!

Mr. & Mrs.

Thank you to everyone who made our wedding day absolutely marvelous! We had such a fun time and we hope you did as well. Not to toot my own horn, but I thought everything went better than I ever could have expected! All my hard work and planning sure paid off! Ed and I like to joke that we'd love to have another reception because the food was just to die for. Plus, I think that Ed loved watching me bounce around the dance floor in my dress ; - )

If anyone would like to take a look, our photographer has a little sample of our pictures up on her blog: http://slmphotography.blogspot.com/2011/06/rachel-and-edwin.html


Ed and I are finally starting to feel settled into our little flat. It's so nice seeing each other every day - now I have an extra hour free each night because I don't have to talk to him on the phone. We're enjoying using all of the nice gifts we've received from our wedding. (Thank you again for being so generous!). On Monday we went for a picnic with our old-fashioned picnic basket. On Tuesday I made a loaf of bread in the bread maker and made our favorite soup in our dutch oven. Last night we tried out our pizza stone and made a great pizza! We're having such fun in the kitchen that I don't think we'll ever go out to eat again...

Well, that's all for now! I hope to officially have my new name changed this afternoon! This is my last free day before my internship starts.... wish me luck!

~R.

Flower Girl Basket

Ok, I know that I said I would do a post everyday! It's hard to remember to, especially if I don't write it down on my long list of things to do.

Anyways, today I'll show you my almost finished flower girl basket. Our beautiful flower girl really wants to toss petals as she walks down the aisle, so I have the perfect little basket for her. She is going to look so adorable!!!

First, here's the supplies I used: Leftover wide satin ribbon and lace from my aisle decorations, a big pink daisy, and a little light pink Easter basket.

Basket supplies

 And here's my almost finished product. All I need to do is add a little ribbon around the basket.

Almost finished product ; -) 

I hope everyone has a great Monday! I know I will! I'm getting very excited because two weeks from now my cousin arrives from England!!!!!!

~R.

My Lovely Bridesmaids

sSo, I'm keeping up with my promise of blogging every day until the wedding. Today I have a picture of my bridesmaids. We're missing one (the lovely Morgan) in the picture, but she was still there in spirit!

Morgan, Katie, Me, and Sarah

Until tomorrow!
~Rachel

The Last Hurrah! One Month to Go!

I'm not the type of person who counts down to events, but sometimes you just need to have a change of heart, especially when you're getting married!

Instead of 'counting down' the days until the wedding, I though I'd be hip (that was for you, Nicole!) and do a post every day with something wedding related. Let's see if I can keep up with this! Hopefully it makes the time just fly by...

Today's picture is one of our church decorations that I made out of canning jars.

~R.

It's been a while, but 2 months to go!

Ok, so how do you fill people in on the past month and a half? To sum things up, I have been beyond busy with school, conference, presenting, re-writing, bylaws, oh yeah, and I'm trying to get married soon too!

First off, all of the dresses are in in, including my own! It's just perfect and fit's me like a glove. If anyone is getting married anytime soon, I HIGHLY suggest getting the hollow-to-hem measurement when they measure you for your wedding dress. What they do is measure from your collar bone down to the floor to make the dress your specific length. I cannot tell you how nice it is to try on your wedding dress and not have to worry about alterations there!

Let's see, as you all know, invites are out! When I get time, I'll be posting a separate tab about wedding info, just incase you need it!

Ed and I also had our first shower in March! It was a Pampered Chef shower, and let's just say we will be very pampered chefs once we receive all our gifts. Here are the highlights:

Ed helped open presents

And got slightly carried away with our new vase... 

Our hostess-with-the-mostest 

That's all for now!

~Rachel