It's day three of wedding week, and we're on to our 1st look. Jake and I opted to do a first look for a couple reasons. The first reason is that we only had the church for so long after the ceremony, and we wanted to make sure we had enough time to take pictures together with our families and bridal party. We also knew that we wanted to have some time to ourselves that day to take it all in. As much as it would have been nice to have Jake see me for the first time walking down the aisle towards him during the ceremony, a first look really ended up being what worked out the best for us.
We originally planned to have it in the outdoor quad set in the middle of the church, but it started raining on our way there, so we ended up doing it in the chapel. Jake stood at the altar with his back to me while I walked down the aisle toward him. It was one of the most incredible moments of my life. As I started to walk towards him, time seemed to slow down. The whole world turned into a population of 2 and it was just me and him.
The moment he turned around and we looked in each others eyes, I of course lost it. Those 45 minutes together, just the two of us (well, and our photographers) were so incredibly special, and I will forever cherish those moments.
In my previous
"Blogger Behind the Screen" posts, I've brought you into the various
aspects of my life-my family, where I grew up, my profession, and now in this
last installment, I want to share with you my love story.
In March,
2004, I was in the spring semester of my freshman year at Augsburg College.
It was a typical weekend night-going to a party with some friends.
Little did I know, this night would forever leave a mark in my heart.
On this same night, a handsome man, was on a trip with his frat to their
annual convention in Minneapolis. Through a twist of fate, this handsome
man and I ended up at the same party and crossing paths. We caught each
other eyes, and he walked up to me and we started chatting. To my dismay,
I discovered that this man, named Jake, was from Iowa and not from Minnesota.
Despite this, we exchanged information at the end of the night and parted
ways. I never expected to hear from him, but I was very pleasantly
surprised when I did!
Our 1st New Years together, 2005
We quickly formed a special connection-talking for hours every day about anything and
everything. This was not an ordinary relationship! Although we knew
that maintaining a relationship so far apart from each other would be hard, we
also knew that our connection was too strong to ignore and they had to give it
shot. For the next 4 years, we maintained a long-distance relationship,
taking turns driving to see one another every other weekend. Over this
time, I got to spend a lot of time not only with Jake, but with his friends as
well and they soon became not just his friends, but OUR friends.
After I
graduated from college, I wanted to move to Iowa to be with Jake and started to
apply for teaching jobs. I had interviews with several Twin Cities
districts and with the Ames school district in Iowa. The only job offer
that I got however, was from the St. Paul school district in MN. I felt
that I couldn't turn down a teaching job and signed a contract. After
another year of long distance, and us wanting to become more serious in our
relationship, I knew that if we were ever going to be able to move forward, we
needed to live in the same state. At the end of the school year, I
decided not to renew my contract and made the big move down to West Des Moines,
IA where Jake and I got our first (and current) apartment together.
Spending time together in Ames, IA
After almost 2
years of living together, and 6 years of dating, marriage had definitely been
discussed several times. We had done some ring browsing together, but never
settled on anything. In the fall of 2010, we decided to participate in a
local promotion held by one of the local jewelers, called a Diamond Dash.
In this contest, we raced around downtown Des Moines with many other
couples in a huge scavenger hunt. The grand prize was a $10,000
engagement ring. While we didn't win the prize, we did find a jeweler
that we love. With the help of our amazing jeweler, Shelly, I we
found the perfect setting. Jake purchased the ring, and I was left to
sit on pins and needles, wondering when I'd be presented with it.
March 13, 2010
was just an average Saturday and I left for my shift at the Y. Little did
she know Jake had started orchestrating an amazing proposal the minute I walked
out the door. After getting off work, I walked in the door to find Jake
down on one knee with the ring and our apartment glowing with candles.
Jake, who had kept keepsakes of our memories the past 6 years (cards,
ticket stubs, pictures, gifts, etc), had them spread out all over the
apartment! He also had picked up dinner from Macaroni Grill-the first
meal I had made for him. He even had the first movie we'd watched
together, "Hardball", playing on the t.v. I of course started crying
at the beautiful sight and Jake said the most beautiful words. I of course
said,"YES!!!" We ate dinner together, and then headed out to
meet with our friends to celebrate.
15 months
later, we were married in a beautiful ceremony, on June 25, 2011. We will
be celebrating our 1 year anniversary exactly one week from today. In
honor of that, I will be taking after a fellow June 2011 bride and blogger of Forever and a Day, to do a
weeks worth of blog posts about the various aspects of our wedding day from
getting ready-to our honeymoon.
Happy (almost) summer to all of you!! I am now officially on day 8 of summer vacation, and so far I'm loving it! At lot has happened since my last blog post, so I'll do my best to catch you all up to speed.
**New Toys!
When I got my Cuttlebug a few months ago, I bought a "Daisy Quilling Kit" to go with it. I however, quickly learned that I needed another type of plate-to make the die cut work. I finally got the C plate a couple of weeks ago and wasted no time trying it out. My daisy didn't turn out quite as nice as the example, but with some more practice, I'm sure I'll get there. :)
I also got a score-board, used for scoring my folds a lot more precisely than I had been able to do previously. This particularly comes in handy when making my shutter-cards.
**Jake's Birthday
Jake celebrated his 28th birthday on Friday, May 25 and continued well into the weekend. Since Friday was my last day of work (woo hoo!), I was able to leave early at 3 and meet up with Jake, who had the day off. We then headed to the driving range so that Jake could hit some balls at the range with his new b-day present (which he actually got a couple months ago)-a Driver. We followed that up with a round of putt-putt, which I sadly lost.
After that, we met up with some friends and went to a new, trendy burger joint downtown Des Moines, called Zombie Burger and Lab, where they make a bunch of unique/gourmet burgers that all have zombie themed names. They also had some very creative and amazing adult shakes. It was a fun atmosphere and very delicious. One of the coolest things they had was a huge bar with over 130 different beers and the option of getting a flight of beers for only $9! They served this on a wooden paddle splattered with "blood" and circle cut outs for the glasses. After dinner, we headed to a new bar called, "Woolys", where they had some amazing live music.
**New Job
Well, kind of. At the end of the school year, I was given an opportunity to join the Urbandale chapter of the National Educator Association. I was currently in the process of applying for an NEA/Public School scholarship for my masters degree, and it seemed like perfect timing. I volunteered myself to be the treasurer, and was elected! This will definitely be another way for me to be more involved in our district. Last week, I met with the union president and got everything transferred over.
**School Supplies Last Wednesday, after dinner at Red Robin for the conclusion of Jake's b-day celebrations, we stopped by OfficeMax so that I could get a few supplies for my upcoming graduate classes that start at the end of June. I was only planning on getting a few things, but walked out with much more! The best purchase was a new laptop bag at a steal of a price, thanks to the clearance section. I was wanting something larger to replace my work-issued one so that I could keep everything in one place-my laptop, binder, school books, pens, planner, etc. I spent last night getting everything organized-something I oddly enough LOVE to do! Jake called me Monica from "FRIENDS".
**Cupcakes!
Last Thursday was my last evening shift at the Y for at least the summer, and I promised my coworkers that I'd bring in some cupcakes as a peace offering for ditching them. I made confetti cupcakes in both standard and mini sizes with my homemade buttercream frosting. You can get the recipe HERE. I normally just frost my cake with a knife, but saw a post on Pinterest that showed how to create professional looking frosting using piping bags and tips.
The tip that I used worked out very well for the mini cupcakes, but not as well for the larger ones. I need to get a larger one for next time. I also got to try out some silicone cupcake wrappers that I had gotten as a Christmas present. They worked out very well!
We have lots of exciting things coming up in June, that I will be sure to blog about, so be on the look out. I hope everyone is having a great start to their summer-even if it hasn't officially started yet.
Well folks, I am officially another year older! Yesterday I celebrated my 27th birthday and I must say, it was fantastic! After work, I went to dinner with Jake and his family at Red Robin, had a very delicious (and free!) burger alongside a bottomless root beer float. I also got some really nice gifts, with my favorite 2 being from Jake.
Wednesday after work, he surprised me with a tee-shirt from the show Big Bang Theory. For those of you who haven't seen it, you really need to. It is HILARIOUS! To sum up of the meaning behind the shirt-one of the main characters is Sheldon, who is an OCD physicist living next door to the stereotypical blonde hottie, Penny, who moved to CA to become an actress, but ends up working as a waitress at the Cheesecake factory. In one of the episodes, Sheldon gets sick and all of his friends avoid him because he's so whiny and needy when he gets sick. Penny, doesn't know any better and gets roped into taking care of Sheldon, who requests that she sings him a song his mom used to sing him when he was sick as a child called, "Soft Kitty".
For my "real" present though, Jake got me the Cuttlebug I was wanting!! I'm so excited to play around with it and see how it enhances my cards! Be on the lookout for some upcoming posts, highlighting some projects with it.
Now I know what some of you are thinking; what's a birthday without some cake? Don't worry, there was definitely cake! As you know, ever since I was little, I have loved baking-particularly cakes and pies. Unlike most children, I never wanted my mom to make my cake-in fact I would get mad if she did-so every year, I bake and decorate my own cake. This year, I made a yellow cake with white buttercream frosting. Unfortunately, I'm not what some people would call a true baker because I use a boxed mix and don't bake it from scratch. However, my real joy is in the decorating part. While my cake isn't from scratch, my buttercream frosting is. I use the Wilton recipe for making it:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening (I use Crisco)
4 Cups of powdered confectioners sugar
2 Tbsp Milk
1 Tsp clear vanilla
Step 1: Cream the butter and shortening together
Step: 2: mix in the vanilla and milk
Step 3: Add in the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, blending thoroughly
To assemble my cake, I use a bread knife to make sure each layer is flat so that they will line up flush. I put a layer of frosting between them and then put a thin layer all around it to create a crumb coat, which seals in all of the crumbs so that when you fully frost the cake, you get a nice smooth and clean coat. Just make sure that after your crumb coat, you let the frosting set. I'm not totally happy with how the cake came out because I made a mistake on the side detail of the cake and had to start over, creating a not so smooth look, but in the end it tasted delicious! And that's all that really matters-right?
I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! Jake and I had the perfect amount of time split between hanging out just the 2 of us and with friends. Friday night, we went to dinner at a restaurant called "Bang, Bang" where you create your own meal from various meats, veggies, noodles, and sauce combinations and then watch the chefs cook it up on a huge stone grill. It was very yummy. Saturday, Jake went golfing with the guys, while I worked at the YMCA and then took my dog, Buckles for a walk since the weather was so beautiful. Afterwards, we met up with some friends at a local restaurant and bar for some food, drinks, and karaoke-and had a great time! Sunday, we watched stayed in, ordered take out, and watched an HBO movie called, "Game Change", which I highly recommend.
Aside from a great weekend, I've also gone a little crazy making card boxes. I just love how they are turning out and am so, so excited to have a beautiful way to show off my cards. It's also a great way to use some of my excess cardstock that has been laying around. Who knew it could be so easy. Here are some of my latest patterns.
As always, if you love anything you see enough that you've "gotta have it", you find any of these items listed on my ETSY site.
Each night, Jake and I always say goodnight to each other by saying, "I Love You" and the other one saying, "I Love You More". (This being a shortened version of when we say: I love you, I love you more, I love you more than most, I love you most of all") I love this little ritual and for Christmas this year, I asked for and got a necklace with that phrase engraved over and over on a Mobius Strip (which also appeals to the math nerd in me). For those who don't know, a Mobius strip is a mathematical concept of a strip that has one single twist in it and then the ends are connected to form a circle-like shape. The neat thing about it is that you can start at one point, traverse the entire surface (both sides) of the strip, and return to the starting spot. The inside of the strip becomes the outside, and the outside then returns to the inside. I personally think it's even cooler than an infinity symbol.
While Jake and I celebrate our love everyday, we still like to do something a little extra special together and for each other on Valentine's Day. This year, with it falling on a Tuesday, it made it a little harder since I usually have obligations after work M-Th. I didn't need/expect any gifts from my beloved this year, but I knew I wanted to get him something. After wandering around Scheels for a little bit, I found the perfect gift. Now it's no surprise here that Jake loves the Vikings, and so a Coach's Vikings jacket was a very appropriate choice. I was so excited to give it to him along with my "Prince Charming" card that I made!
My sweetie wasn't without surprises himself. I got a call around 4 that day from my school secretary saying that I had a package waiting for me and that it was marked perishable, so I better come get it. (I hadn't been at my building that day because I was an all-day district meeting). Excited, I headed over to pick up and found a dozen HUGE chocolate covered strawberries! Do I have an amazing husband or what?!? Because I had orchestra that night, and Jake wasn't feeling well, we decided to postpone our evening plans and make up for it on the weekend. Instead, we enjoyed each others company, played a little Jeopardy (along with the contestants on the show) and had some great take out from Jethros. Honestly, it really doesn't get better than that!
Now, Valentine's Day just wouldn't be Valentine's Day without a little crafting, and this year was no exception. Jake's work was doing a little party and card exchange, so I agreed to create some treats and cards for him to bring. I've been wanting to continue perfecting my cake pop techniques, so I made heart shaped ones from Strawberry cake and various colored candy coating-resembling the conversation hearts candy we all know and love. To make the heart shapes, I used a small heart-shaped cookie cutter. First I rolled the cake "dough" into a large ball and then flattened it out until it was about 3/4"-1" thick, then cut it with the cookie cutter. Initially, this proved to be harder and more frustrating than the football cake pops I made a couple weeks ago. The hearts were a lot more top heavy, so when I went to dip them, the weight of the heart along with the candy coating caused them to fall apart. I had to throw away quite a few of them. I soon enough realized that instead of dipping them, if I tilted the coffee mug full of melted candy coating on it's side, I could hold the cake pop horizontally to dip and then flip it to the other side to coat it completely instead of dipping it vertically. Worked like a charm and I ended up with 40 beautiful hearts! Unfortunately, the Wilton edible writers totally STINK! They did not work at all. I was pretty disappointed because it prevented me from fully carrying out my creative vision. However, I still think that they turned out pretty darn cute.
To package them, I put about 1/2 in the same styrofoam block I used for the football ones, except covered it in red paper this time, for Jake to take to work with him. The other 1/2 I put into small cellophane bags in bunches of 3 and tied them with a silver twist tie for me to bring to work. Cake pop batch #2=success.
Finally, I made 12 Valentine's Day cards for Jake to bring for his co-workers and ended with some that I really liked. These were my favorites.
This Sunday, my Valentine and I are planning on going to dinner at Red Lobster (I've never been!) using some gift cards we got as a wedding gift-Thanks Uncle Johnny!-and then going to see the movie, "The Vow." Should be a great way to end our weekend!
I will openly admit that I couldn't care less about the Superbowl. I just can't for the life of me get into football, and I've honestly tried. (Though my husband, Jake, would beg to differ) I didn't grow up watching football, never attended a single football game in high school (I always had swim practice and couldn't go, but from what I recall-I really wasn't missing much), and my college's team was a joke. However, I did end up marrying a man who lives and breathes football. Jake's HS football team were district champs, he was an All-State offensive lineman, and had he been just 3-4" taller, he most likely would have received several college scholarship offers to play. Every fall, my Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays consist of football and I am frequently inundated with Fantasy Football talk. You'd think with all of this exposure, I'd now be a football expert-but alas, this is not the case.
While watching and talking about football isn't exactly my favorite activity, I do enjoy tailgating and the food that comes with football, because let's face it-I like food. A.LOT. Of course, the Superbowl just wouldn't be the Superbowl without lots of great food. This past Christmas, my in-laws got me a Cake Pop book to feed my love for baking and I was very excited to have a reason to make my very 1st batch of cake pops. These weren't just going to be any cake pops, but FOOTBALL cake pops! I also figured that it's about time I have a baking-related post since that's what 1/2 my blog is supposed to be about, so here's a chronicle of my adventures in cake pop making. Materials:
*Boxed cake mix (I chose funfetti) *Canned Frosting (I usually make my own, but for the purpose of these decided to use canned)
*candy pop sticks
*Wilton Melts (You can also use chocolate or almond bark)
*12"x4" styrofoam block
*Green cardstock
*White out tape (or a pen will do)
*White Crayon
*White Sharpie paint pen
I started by making the cake the day before assembling my cake pops as recommended by the book and a friend. The next day, I cut off the brown layers of cake (top/bottom/edges) with a bread knife. Then, in a large mixing bowl, I crumbled the cake into very fine crumbs. Once there are no large pieces of cake left, I added the frosting, mixing it in with a metal spoon. I used about 3/4 of the jar like the instructions stated, but I think it ended up being a little too much frosting. The next time I do it, I will use just a little bit less. After all of the frosting was mixed in, I started to form my footballs. I started by rolling a ball that was a bit smaller than a golf ball. Then, I rolled it into a cylinder shape and pinched in the ends to make it look like a football. Once each one was formed, I laid it on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper. I also made any adjustments to the shape then. After all of my dough was used up, I covered the tray with seran wrap and placed it in the freezer to set.
While my footballs were in the freezer, I made my base to hold the pops in when they were done. Altogether, I had 23 pops, so I decided to put them into 3 rows-2 rows of 8 and 1 row of 7. To go along with the football theme, I wanted my base to look like a football field. I used a 12"x12" piece of green cardstock, which fit perfectly. To hold it around the styrofoam, I just taped it (step 1). I didn't want to glue the paper on so that I can reuse my styrofoam block for a different project. I had originally planned on using my white paint pen to draw in the field lines, however I quickly learned that they don't work on paper since they are water-based; the ink seeps into the paper and the pigment doesn't show up. Luckily we had some whiteout tape which worked perfectly for drawing the lines. I started the 50 yard line right in the center of the block at 6" and then marked off each of the other lines 1" apart. (step 2)
To do the numbers, I knew that I couldn't use the whiteout tape, so I came up with an idea that would allow me to use the paint pens after all. Since the paint pens were seeping into the paper, I knew I needed something to hold the paint up above the paper. To fix that problem, I used a white crayon to write the numbers, in the hopes that the paint would sit on top of the wax. Worked perfectly! (step 3)
The last thing I needed to do to get the base ready was mark where the sticks for the pops would go. I didn't want them to be too close to each other, so in between each yard line I made a mark at 3/4" from either side and at the 2" mark. Then, I used a pen to poke through the paper and into the styrofoam at each mark. This made it easier to poke each stick into the block. (step 4)
By the time I finished my pop base, the cake molds were ready to dip. Before I took them out of the freezer, I got my coating ready by melting it in the microwave on the "defrost setting" stirring every 30 second until completely melted. On the counter where I was dipping I also had my sticks ready along with a bunch of toothpicks. While dipping, I only had about 5 cake molds out at a time to prevent the rest from getting too soft while sitting out. The dipping process was a little harder than I anticipated because my pops were so large and hard to coat completely in one sweep. I ended up having to use a spoon to pour the coating over the cake to ensure that it got covered completely. I used the toothpicks to help smooth out the coating, pull off any excess, and help make sure that there was coating connecting the stick to the cake. (Note: before dipping, put the tip of the stick in the candy coating and then push it into the cake piece not quite half way through). The coating dries VERY, VERY quickly, so I didn't have to worry about it dripping onto my base and ruining my football field, but I had laid wax paper over it anyway. Once they were all dried, I took out all of the pops and put them on a plate to decorate.
To do the laces on the footballs, I used the left over canned frosting and added a little bit of milk to get it to a consistency that's good for piping and filled a disposable piping bag using Wilton Tip #3. While the final product doesn't look as polished as I had hoped, I think that for my first attempt they turned out pretty well. And holy-cow did they taste good!
Now that I've gotten my feet wet-I am very excited to try new designs and
work to perfect my cake pop techniques!
There are so many possibilities out there-what do you think I should do next?
My dear blog world, I promise that I have not forgotten you, even though it's been over a week since my last post. I do however, have a lot to update on, as I have been very busy enjoying my new craft table and room. But before I get to that, I have another wedding recap post as promised in my last post. The focus of this one is ceremony decorations.
Jake and I got married in my grandmother's church, Gethsemane Lutheran Church, which has a long family history. My grandma has been an active member for over 60 years, having raised my mom and her siblings in this church. My mom, aunts, and uncle were all married at Gethsemane, and it was important to me to carry on that tradition. I also know that this meant the world to my grandma, and would have made my grandpa beam with pride.
Gethsemane has a large, beautiful sanctuary with stained glass windows throughout, so there was not much decorating needed at all. After much thought, I decided that the only thing I wanted to add to the already gorgeous space were pew decorations and memorial candles on the altar.
I found the inspiration for my pew decorations at THIS website, but made a few modifications to the directions to make it a little easier and more cost effective. Materials I used were:
*12 styrofoam cones-Dollar Tree
*Royal blue fabric-JoAnns in the remnants section (a great place to find discount fabric when you don't need a lot of it)
*Pearlized push pins (38mm)-JoAnns
*Hot Glue Gun/sticks
*5/8" Satin Ribbon in silver
*Silk hydrangea stems, 7 of each in blue and white-JoAnns (Tip, I bought these either when they were on sale BOGO, or 1 at a time using a 40% coupon, as they run about $6-$7 a stem.) Total Cost: $75
To assemble, I hot glued the fabric around the cone and to the top of the cone. The left over fabric at the bottom, I twisted and wrapped to the back and pinned it in place. For the ribbon, I found the middle of a long piece and pinned it about 1/2" from the top on the seam of the fabric. I brought it around to the front and overlapped the ribbon once (step 1) and then twice so that it had a twisted look (step 2). I used a pearl pin the in the middle of the twist to hold it in place (step 3) and pulled the ends around the back and pinned them again so that they wouldn't move, and then brought the ends back around the front and repeated the first 3 steps, making sure that the twists lined up correctly (step 4). I made 3 twists down the front of each cone.
The next step was to add the flowers. I kept the blue ones intact, but separated the white ones into small pods and stuck those into the styrofoam on the front edge along the top of the cone. Then, I stuck the blue flower stem (the whole thing) into the back of the cone and pushed it down far enough so that it sat right on top of the white ones. Finally, I added a ribbon tied to floral wire and hot glued it into the back. To hang my pew decorations, I hung them around the pole to the candelabras that were inserted into the end of the pew.
As for my memorial candle project, they were turned out to be so much easier than I thought they would be. I found the directions in a book I had bought just after we got engaged. It's called The DIY Bride: Crafty Countdown by Khris Cochran. While I wasn't able to use anything else in the book, the tutorial for these candles made the book totally worth it. Have you seen the price of customized memorial candles?!?
Materials used:
*Vellum-I bought a pack of it from CardsandPockets when I ordered my invitation supplies
*Embossing Tool
*Pillar candles-Ikea
*wax paper
*Candle template in word. (contact me if you would like it, I am happy to share) Total Cost: $15
Once the vellum is printed and dried, cut down document to fit on the candle. Lay candle on wax paper. Use the embossing tool to heat the surface of the candle. Once it starts getting shiny, gentle roll the vellum onto the candle, which will fuse with the melted wax as it dries. Do this all around the candle.
You can also add ribbon and other embellishments to your candle for a little something extra. I made 4 memorial candles for my paternal grandma, maternal grandpa, cousin, and Jake's best friend. On the back of each candle was a popular quote: "Perhaps they are not the stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us, to let us know they are celebrating with us in spirit" (I have also seen an ending that says, "to let us know they are happy"). One of the neatest compliments I got on my wedding projects was from my photographer who loved these candles. He said that he's seen lots of memorial candles before, but he has never seen ones with pictures on them, and marveled at just how personalized they were.
Well folks, this is the last post in my wedding recap series. I also took on other small projects, such as personalized bubbles, a monogramed aisle runner, and escort (place) cards, programs, but do not feel need to chronicle them on this blog, since I really want to spend more time focusing on current projects instead of past ones. I will however leave with you a final picture collage of those wedding extras I did.
