food & furniture (part 1)

First, a quick recap on the past couple weeks: Strider and I are totally loving married life and basically spend all our time working, watching movies, and being silly at home. Weekly meal planning is going well and I'm happy to report that we've only resorted to frozen pizza once since the wedding (due to unexpectedly working late). I mean, look at this guy – does he seems well-fed and happy or what? The tasty dish (other than my hubby, that is): pesto pasta with shrimp and sautéed mushrooms. Super easy and super YUM!

We also hosted our first dinner party as a married couple with some friends from Starbucks. I got super fancy with the menu: cesar salad, garlic french bread, sautéed mushrooms, and Julia Child's lobster quiche. For dessert...vanilla bean panna cotta with lemon curd and fresh blackberries – all homemade. Holla!

Per my inner Martha, I set our card table up with a linen tablecloth, real napkins, and yes, even my new wedding-gift napkin rings. So snazzy! A vintage blue mason jar of fresh daisies added the perfect touch to distract our guests from the fact that we were eating at a card table in the living room (thank you, tiny sometimes-frustrating apartment), or at least I hope so. And yes, I was just dumb enough to forget to take a picture of the beautiful spread. Ugg. 

To make up for my lack of responsible blogger-photo-taking, here's another quick, healthy dinner idea.
Check out this slightly adapted WW Greek Beef & Mushroom Pizza:

Ingredients:

1 (10 oz) pre-baked wheat pizza crust

2 tsp olive oil

1 small onion, minced

1 tomato, chopped

1/2 lb lean ground beef

1 tsp cinnamon

parsley/thyme/oregano/salt/pepper to taste

4 oz mushrooms, chopped

shredded mozzarella & parmesan

- Preheat oven to 400F

- In a frying pan, cook the onion in the olive oil till tender (about 3 min)

- Add beef and cook till browned through

- Stir in tomato and assorted seasonings

- Spread the mixture over the crust, add mushrooms and cheese

- Bake about 15 minutes or until crust is slightly crisp

Also...very exciting news on the furniture front with some refinishing projects on the horizon. Pictures to come and opinions will be needed. Hint - Strider gave me absolutely the world's best wedding present!!!

For now, I'm heading home to wash dishes and snuggle up with another cookbook and a pad of sticky notes.

Note: There's a reason an entire job category exists for food stylists...but I am not one. Food photos on ASftB are straight from my tiny, badly lit kitchen. Apologies if they aren't great, but I promise the recipes are tasty!

massive catastrophe

Just as my Sunday was going so well...a truly massive blog-tastrophe has hit. 

Due to my own apparently misunderstanding of how site servers work, I have permanently lost all the photos ever uploaded to this site. That's right, for-ev-er. Thank you so very much Google.

That being said, I will continue to post but if you're looking back at old posts, it may take me a few weeks to try to replace as much as I can, so please bear with me.

In case you were wondering...yes, I did cry.

marriage secret #1

First...after my embarrassing Walmart meltdown, I'm proud to announce that I have successfully fed our family of two for the 2nd week in a row! (insert obligatory Ron-Burgundy-I'm-kind-of-a-big-deal reference) Recipes to come.

Second...during our engagement, Strider and I got A LOT of advice and opinions from people. Family, friends, church people, Starbucks customers (where I work, btw), children, store attendants, and one random guy at Office Depot. As I'm sure other newlyweds can attest, it seems like everyone has something to say about your personal decision to marry another human being. Lots of people were very happy for us and encouraging, but lots of other people felt a strange need to question our decision-making skills. And a whole other heap of people found it humorous to tease us about our impending loss of freedom and to project their own misery onto us...but always just as a joke, right? Sure.

We talked about this strange phenomenon and decided that really all we can do is vow to do is take a different approach when we encounter young soon-to-be newlyweds. And for the most part, we ignored all the rubbish bits and just appreciated genuine encouragement. However, in the last two weeks, I've come to realize one truth that I sure wish just one person would have pointed out over the last eight or nine months. Ready for it?

...................................................................marriage is totally and surprisingly...........FUN!!

That's right...fun! I mean, we got a lot of advice about how wonderful it is to have a partner, that marriage is hard but worth it, that love can overcome annoyances, etc. etc. But not once did anyone say that it can be just flat out fun!

Let me clarify...Tuesday, I worked the opening shift at 4 am then dropped off a caramel latte to Strider at work before heading home to grab a Fig Newton for lunch, change clothes, and head back out to my other job for the afternoon. By the time I got home at after 5 and started dinner, I was wiped. So there I am, standing in our tiny kitchen pulling some lemon-thyme tilapia out of the oven when Strider comes home. We ate and caught up, then excitedly merged and re-alphabetized our DVD collections into our new case (a major thrill for us!), then had milkshakes and popcorn in bed while watching A Bug's Life...because according to Strider, "We married...who's going to stop us?" Before bed, I looked at him and commented that I can't believe it was just a boring old Tuesday night. I mean, when did marriage start making Tuesdays cool?!

I fully recognize that marriage will not always be fun, life sure isn't, and I do know that when things get busy, milkshakes and Disney will be a rare treat. The point isn't that things will always look like this, it's that I wish some person out there should have clued us in on the secret that even the boring Tuesday nights have the potential to be awesome when you're married to your best friend. Well, as awesome as a Tuesday can be, anyways.

Spill the beans...what are your favorite ways to make married weeknights a blast?

new name, new hair

After 4+ years of growing my hair out...I'm free! 

I always knew I wanted my hair to be long for my wedding and Strider loved when I wore it down, so I've been fighting the urge to slice & dice it for what seems like forever.

Like most women, I go through the never-ending cycle of grow it out...bored...chop it off...oh wait, that was a mistake...grow it out...repeat. However, for this special, long-awaited and much-anticipated haircut, I knew I wanted it to be worthwhile. That's when a hairstylist friend told me about Pantene Beautiful Lengths!

Pantene has partnered with the American Cancer Society to create beautiful, real-hair wigs for women with cancer. The minimum requirement is an untreated ponytail of 8" or more and donating could not be easier. If you're interested, check out the donation page here.

Normally, I freak out after a big haircut, but looking in the mirror today, I told Strider that it feels different to know that my hair will go towards making someone else feel beautiful, instead of just a stylist's trashcan. Holding 11.5" inches of your own hair in your hands is really bizarre, but I'm super happy with it. Thankfully, the Mr. likes it too!

my minor marital meltdown

Hey folks! So, our "Big Day" came and went, and after spending a week in perpetual and glorious relaxation, the Mr. and I are now back home getting settled in to...well...the rest of our lives and such. More pictures to come but for now, I'll just say that it was amazing and perfect and just as much of a whirlwind as they tell you it's going to be -- and it definitely would not have been possible without a lot of help from incredible family and friends.

However, now that it's over, I'm sensing the large task of just what it means to be a wife. As such...I have a rather ridiculous story to share (and please feel free to comment if you've ever had a similar experience so I feel less weird).

The day after Strider and I got back, we talked through our schedules for the week and discussed some food ideas and preferences. It's been a big topic for us since I enjoy cooking but rarely have time for it and during my single life often took a forage-what-you-can mentality. I want to actually prepare meals for us, so with a list in hand Monday after work, I headed to Walmart. Oddly enough, I was excited by the prospect of shopping for two, even at Walmart. Methodically, I went through each aisle. Slowly and sneakily, the excitement faded and began to transform into doubt. Somewhere around the time I'd spent 10 minutes staring at boxes of oatmeal, trying to determine which kind he actually likes, I started to lose it. I briefly considered and abandoned the idea of calling his mom (that's right, I actually almost called my husband's mom to ask about oatmeal!). 

Finally, I chose and moved on to the register. Trapped in a cattle queue and surrounded by beef jerky and overpriced magazines, my first marital meltdown overcame me. Suddenly, the contents of my cart became the yardstick by which my worth as a wife was measured. What if I spent too much, what if he didn't like it, what if I didn't get everything I needed, and worst of all...what if he hated the oatmeal?!?! I was literally on the verge of tears with seconds counting down till I had to rapidly reorganize everything on the conveyor belt moving towards the grumpy cashier (who already looked miffed seeing my reusable bags). All I could think was, "I really need my mom!"

Desperate for a way out, I awkwardly stuck up a conversation about Whoppers with the woman behind me. My hands started shaking as my turn was up. Going against my pride, I took a deep breath and looked at the two sassy ladies in line and said, "Can I just confess something a bit ridiculous right now? I am totally freaking out about buying groceries!" After I explained the newlywed thing, they both smiled and said kind things to reassure me. One even pointed out that how strongly I cared was probably a testament to just how good of a wife I am probably going to be. Hallelujah, thank you Jesus for providing wisdom even in the unlikeliest of places...Walmart.

I took a deep breath, paid, and walked confidently to the car thinking about just how great people can sometimes be if you are desperate brave enough to let them in. Naturally, I told Strider the whole story when I got home and he laughed a lot and told me I was being ridiculous. I'm sure this is just the first of many marital meltdowns to come, but it will forever be a landmark as the first. 

Any other wives out there have a similar early-marriage experience?

PS - I totally did pick the right oatmeal! Huzzah!

today's the day!!

Although I can hardly believe it, our wedding day is here and we're official! I am a Mrs. HA!

We're off on our incredible honeymoon but I'll be back in a week or so to share pictures, tutorials, etc. In the meantime, enjoy this super cute wreath I made for our front door (I still can't believe I get to live with a boy!). It was super easy - straw form wrapped in burlap ribbon then a bit of fancy lace hot glued. The middle portion is hand-lettered on kraft cardstock and pinned with straight pins into the back of the wreath form.

See you soon!

framed silhouette DIY

The world's shortest art history lesson: A simple art form dating back to the mid 18th century, silhouettes are an abstract way of representing a subject by illustrating only the shapes and figures essential for recognition. They originally gained popularity because they were easier and less expensive to commission than miniature portraits, which Victorians felt fancy-schmantzy carrying around.

Anyways - in addition to being lovely and a bit romantic somehow, they're also dead easy and make excellent gifts.

To start out: Take a relatively high quality photo of your subject in profile AKA to-the-side. (An infinitely complicated process when your subject is a squirmy almost-one-year old.) It should look relatively like this:

OMG is she so cute or what?!

Gather yo materials: All you need is a frame (I used an 8x10 for this project which seems to work nicely), a large piece of white card stock, a regular sized piece of black card stock, an x-acto knife with a very sharp blade, some bits of tape, and a glue stick. Resize the photo in Word (or Photoshop if you're a fancy bugger) to fit the dimensions as your frame and print it out.

Next, create the silhouette: Use some bits of tape to affix the printed photo to the black card stock. If you have problems with the picture, for example - not being able to see Reece's neck because of her jumper...use a pencil to create new guidelines that will make the silhouette more clear after cutting (sorry, no pic). Using your x-acto knife, very carefully and slowly cut around the outline edges of the picture and along any new pencil lines. Below is a photo of mine after cutting halfway around.

Keep going slowly and carefully till you've traced the entire printed photo. Personally, I like to add tiny little tufts of hair that stick up just slightly to give the back of the head more texture than just looking like a balloon with a face, but that's up to you (really really hard to show in a picture at this distance). Eventually - this what you get:

Lastly: Cut down the white paper to the size of your frame, then use a glue stick to adhere the silhouette to the white paper. Just make sure the silhouette is straight and where you want it to sit in the frame before you stick it on the background.

Optional snazziness: use a white or silver pen to date the silhouette in a bottom corner. Frame it up and ta-da!

Total cost is really no more than your frame and it makes a lasting keepsake that parents love. Plus, (as I intend to) it's really fun to go back a few years later and do another to see how the silhouette changes. 

**Photo model provided by my niece and flower girl, Reece. Happy first birthday tomorrow, sweet pea!**

P.S. Curious about the wedding countdown? Just 11 days!!!