Lingering Over E-Pics

It's been over three months since I got married.  Over 11 months since I got engaged.  So why am I lingering over engagement photo sessions?  The answer is simple. I never really did one.  We were on a tight schedule to get wedding things done since after we got engaged Eric had to leave for school a month later.  That gave us a month, 4 weekends, to get the cake chosen, meet with photographers, and check out venues.  That's not a lot of time.  Hence why we decided to skip out on an engagement session.  We did, however, get my mom to take pictures of us up at their 8 acres of land.  The pictures came out beautiful and served the purpose we needed them for - giving us a good picture for the STD's (save the dates...for you non-bridal people).  

I swoon over the artistic, lovey dovey e-pics.  I love the fun poses, fancy clothes, cute props, and interesting locations.  I love that the pictures take the couple and put them in a different light. The sessions I love the most are ones where the couple look like they were put in a movie and the photos are stills.  The pictures make the couple look so interesting, like people that you really want to get to know.  I love how these photo sessions can add a story to the couple, give them a background that each viewer can interpret for themselves.  Do you not know what I mean?  Well here are some pictures that make me drool.

I could keep posting pictures, but I am sure that eventually you would lose interest if my post became just a photo album.  Or maybe you wouldn't, but I won't risk it.  I love photos that have action, a story behind them, props, basically anything out of the ordinary.  Not to mention that a professional photographer also brings one thing you can't get at home, amazing quality photos.


I know that I can do a session anytime I want. I could technically schedule a photo session just because. However, I feel like photo sessions need to have a reason behind them. They need to be something that represent an important moment in time.  Wedding, engagement, anniversary, etc.  So since I yearn for an artistic, meaningful photo session, I have decided I know when I will do it.  I'm going to get my dream photo session when I am pregnant.  Problem solved.  It will be a time in my life that I will always want to remember, and I can do a really fun session since it won't matter if I ruin my clothes since I won't be wearing them a majority of my life anyway.  Rip a maternity dress? Meh who cares. You only wear it for about four months anyway, no harm.  


Here are some pictures that have influenced me and have proven to me that a maternity photo shoot can be just as artistic and maybe even more loving than an e-pic session.

Oh yes...those are amazing.  I need to be realistic though and realize I'll probably be bigger than all those women combined.  So instead of doing a photo shoot at 7 months, I'll go ahead and do it at five months. Problem solved.  I love those pictures so much. The hard part will be finding a photographer who has great ideas and knows the angles that I would have to be at while I am at the heaviest I'll be in my entire life. But I think it will be totally worth it.  So maybe I should stop swooning over e-pics and focus on one that I will actually be able to have someday, a maternity shoot.  I missed my window for the e-pics, but I'll be sure not to miss my maternity shoot window when it happens.  I cannot wait to someday frame these types of pictures of me, in a nursery perhaps.

LEMONS!

I am obsessed with Lemon.  I never really noticed it until lately.  Lemon drinks, lemon cakes, lemon candy...I just love lemon.  Would I consider it my favorite fruit?  No, that title still goes to pineapple.  However, my new realization that I am obsessed with lemon has made me take up baking.  No matter how often I go to The Cupcakery, I can't seem to get enough lemon pastries in my life.


Here are some recipes I have come across lately that I plan on making over the course of the next few months.  And if I notice I am craving lemon deliciousness more often than every couple weeks, I may end up trying all these recipes over the course of a month.  I'm already drooling...


Pink Lemonade Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Luckily at the same site I can actually access ANOTHER lemon recipe:
Lemonade cookies with Lemonade Icing

Thank you Pen And Paper Flowers for giving me two recipes for my lemon obsession.


Do you like muddy buddies? Well here are 
Lemon Chex Buddies

9 cups Rice Chex cereal 

1 1/4 cup white vanilla baking chips 

1/4 cup butter or margarine 

4 tsp grated lemon peel 

2 Tbsp lemon juice 

2 cups powdered sugar

This is going to be my go-to recipe when I am really craving lemon but don't have the time to spend all afternoon in the kitchen. It's my emergency lemon recipe.  I mean seriously, how easy is that?

Lemon Velvet Cupcakes

I love red velvet, so lemon velvet seems like it was destined to be in my belly.  I got the recipe from Anne Strawberry who happens to have a TON of amazing recipes on her blog.


Two Ingredient Lemon Bars

Recipe

The name says it all, two ingredients.  Technically it's three though if I want it to look pretty like the picture. I'll need powdered sugar to sprinkle on top.  However, judging by my strong desire to shove all things lemon directly down my throat, I doubt I'll take the time to sprinkle powdered sugar.  I doubt I'll even take the time to let these suckers set before shoving them in my mouth.


Lemon Cupcakes with Fresh Raspberry Frosting

These cupcakes from The Family Kitchen make me want to pass out. They look amazing.  The lemon cake, the fluffy frosting, UGH! NOM NOM NOM! I seriously want to make these right now, then show people how amazing they are, then eat them all in one sitting without sharing a single one.  I know mine won't look as lovely as those do, but they will still taste the same and that's what counts in my lemon obsession.  Man o man, nothing makes me happier than that cupcake right about now.

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

WOWWWWWWWWWWWW! It's like Let's Dish Recipes knows all my favorite things in life. Lemon cake AND cream cheese frosting? YES PLEASE! 


Lemonade Cake

Recipe

Simple, sweet, not a gorgeous picture, but GET IN MUH BELLAYYYYYYYYY!  There is not an abundance of icing, not ooey gooey lemony goodness, yet this cake makes my mouth drool and my stomach gurgle.  


Lemon Thyme Soda

Recipe

Oh, I could make this with my lemon cake and my lemon bars and have some lemon cookies.  That sounds lemony refreshing!


Lemon Pudding

I don't even like pudding...but I want this.  Thanks Galley Gourmet.


Lemon Gelato

Oh...muh...gawd.  Taste of Home knows how to make a girl happy.


Lemon Macaron

Recipe

I don't know if I like macarons, but I am pretty sure that I will like these.


So there you have it. Recipes that make me swoon.  I have never wanted to go home and bake so badly in my life. Those recipes look like they would make me the happiest girl in the world.  I believe my next quest will be to try each one of these recipes and create a post for each one describing my experience making the recipe and then comparing my outcome to the picture on the actual recipe's site.  That should be entertaining...but superbly delicious.

Cinderelly Cinderelly

When Eric is in Midland for school, I get shunned to my little corner in my sister's bedroom.  Complete with a twin bed and right next to a lizard cage with a bright red heat lamp and stupid crickets.

Lil Bit Famous

So as I usually do, I was strolling through the blogs on Wedding Bee and came across something oh so peculiar.  A picture of ME...IN THEIR BLOG SECTION!  What does that mean you ask?  Well, ANYONE can post on Wedding Bee, but not anyone makes it into their "blog" section.  You have to be selected to be part of that exclusive community.  And today, while clicking through the most recent blogs, my face popped up.  I got selected as the "Gallery of the Day" which is where they find a picture or a post they really like and put it on their blog part of the website so people can see some inspirational photos.  Without further adieu, here is my boring famous post.


http://www.weddingbee.com/2012/02/15/gallery-of-the-day-776/

Valentine's Our Way

This was our first year as a married couple for Valentine's Day.  When people think "Valentine's Day", they think romance, flowers, gifts, expensive dinners, and candles.  When they think "First married Valentine's Day", they think everything is even MORE romantic.  I don't disagree.  Valentine's Day is all about showing the person you are with that you love them.  It's a wonderful commercial holiday that reminds us when to be sweet to our partners.  Since I am a woman, I absolutely adore Valentine's Day. I mean come on, it's yet ANOTHER reason for my man to dote on me.


Naturally, I was very excited for our first married Valentine's.  However, after telling people what I was planning on doing for him, a lot of people gave me this look.

I think they were expecting a much grander display of affection.  When my response was "I'm baking cupcakes and then we're working out", I think people assumed I must hate the guy.  I thought it sounded like a perfect idea.  We could have sweets, work out (which is something we like to do) AND avoid the horrible waits at restaurants.  Win win win!  Turns out, people expect something like this at Valentine's Day. 

Not this

Well, I caved in a little and got what I thought was perfect Valentine's Day gifts for my man.  We ended up getting some champagne, pizza, and romantic comedies.  Then for his gift he got a pair of Texas Tech sweat pants (super romantic!!), cupcakes, and the most romantic amazing card you have ever seen.

 Not the most romantic gift ever, but at least I gave in and got "Valentine's-y" type things.  That counts for something.  Eric ended up getting me the best gift ever.  I know most girls would look at it and probably throw it at their man's face, but I LOOOOOOVED the gift! It shows how well he knows me, which is what matters to me on a holiday that celebrates love.

That's right, he got me a first aid kid, waterproof matches, Bear Grylls mini-survival kit, two battery-free flashlights, twizzlers, and Dove dark chocolate covered almonds!  What more could a woman ask for?


We ended up watching "What's Your Number" and "Something Borrowed", both were really good movies.  

I had an amazing Valentine's Day. And while most people would think the way we celebrated it and the gifts we gave are not traditional, that's fine.  We're not traditional people.  And now, when those people who judged us need help surviving during the apocalypse, they'll be begging for my help thanks to my handy dandy kit.

Top Chef: Puentes

Eric and I are obsessed with Top Chef. I mean, who isn't?  It' a show that combines food, drama, and reality TV...all things I love!  I love food so much, it's probably my best friend in the whole wide world. So naturally, I love shows that involve food, especially making food from scratch. That's not only awesome TV, but it also adds in a little supernatural. I mean come on, you give these people 30 minutes to cook a dish from fritos, bakes beans, candy corn, and flour and somehow they come up with this?

Ok not really, that's actually a rattlesnake taco thing they made.  But still, you get my point. I'm given just bread and a toaster and somehow this is what comes out.

So as you can see, my absolute love of food mixed with my absolute incompetence when it comes to cooking leads me to be obsessed with all things Top Chef.  Thanks to my obsession, I now compare all foods that I order to Top Chef creations.  I look at the plate and determine whether the judges would be happy with this meal.  Luckily, I am married to someone who plays along with me.  We did this a lot on the cruise.  We would look at our food and look for any mistake, like a drop of soup on the plate, and we would determine whether this would be appropriate for the judges.  Most of the time, we decide Padma would not be impressed.


So when it comes to me making our dinners every night, I feel sad every day because I know I would have to pack my knives and go home.  Good news is, I am slowly but surely beginning to cook. Lots of what I do now comes from simple chicken recipes and steamer bags as sides, but I know I'll get better. Not "Top Chef" better, but at least I think I would be able to make it through a quickfire at least once if I needed to...maybe.


So here are just two of the meals I have made lately.  The one I made from "scratch" (no steamer bags, and the other I made the side from a steamer bag.  I need to be a better blogger and take pictures of me in the process of making things. I think that would make for an interesting post!

Salmon Caesar pizza 

Lemon herb chicken, raw carrots, and alfredo pasta with veggies

The judges wouldn't approve of my plating, especially since the bottom picture is on a paper plate (major points would be deducted), but I think if they did a season called "Top Chef: Wives who burn toast", I would have a good chance at winning that season.

Things Learned From Wedding Planning

I am going to toot my own horn here and say that for never planning a wedding before (mine was obviously my first wedding), I did a pretty good job at getting a cohesive wedding theme put together.  I've also never really been involved in a wedding planning process either since I was the first out of my sisters to have a big wedding.  So I must say that for only spending 8 months planning a wedding, I did a pretty good job.  TOOT TOOT!

I did, however, mess up some stuff, require assistance from professionals, and cry to mommy a few times.

So here are my lessons learned.  There aren't MANY lessons, seeing as how I am pretty awesome and know a lot about everything.

1. Things WILL go wrong at the wedding. Period. End of story.
2. Wear long-lasting lipstick.  No matter how convinced you are that you'll keep applying lip gloss, you won't. You're lying to yourself.
3. Nobody will care about your wedding as much as you do
4. Don't leave men in charge of getting your overnight bag to the hotel room
5. Take the time to get a picture of just you and your husband on the wedding day.  This seems obvious...but some of us forget :/
6. Always plan to take longer getting ready than you should
7. Hire a day of coordinator, even if your venue provides one. These sweet little messengers from God are not overrated
8. Don't stress if your unity candle blows out. Lighting it twice just means the marriage will be twice as strong
9. Don't forget the ring bearer pillow
10. Your bridesmaids are NOT your slaves.  Let them have fun getting dolled up.  Their main priority is to look pretty and keep you from running away. That's it.  YOU chose to have a huge wedding, the responsibilities are mainly yours (and your mom's...duh)
11. Make lists of everything. Even the most A-type personalities will forget little details on the wedding day.  Give the list to everyone around you, even your dogs, so that nothing gets overlooked.
12. Don't open your mouth wider than necessary to put cake in it.  There will be pictures capturing your depth perception being off
13. Remember a camera is always on you
14. The two times you will have the most pictures taken are cake cutting and first kiss, don't make stupid faces
15. If you have a poofy dress, wear an adult diaper or go to the bathroom 457,596,204 times before the ceremony begins so you don't have to go find someone to help you during the reception
16. Set a STRICT budget! Or take your budget, divide it in two, and say that's your budget so when you go over, you still have enough money to pay for it
17. Think of your favorite time of year or holiday.  Now DON'T plan your wedding around that day
18. Put aside all ideas that your new husband helping you take off your wedding gown in the hotel room will be romantic.  In reality, you will be sticky, sweaty, and probably get stuck in the dress. Oh, and it WILL ruin your hair
19. Your marriage will last longer than Kim Kardashian's
20. Have fun. It is not easier "said than done", it is actually easy to do. The day of your wedding is about getting married. All the planning is done.  Don't be a cranky bride.

#14 - Remember, people are watching...

Proof number 13 is important

#12, cake is smaller than it appears