Did I tell you that my fiance is greedy?

Since it is the season and I have been baking my kiester off, I thought I would include the recipe for the item Roe can't seem to get enough of (I mean it is borders on gluttony!).

My master plan every year is to capitalize on fresh peaches while they are in season and bake enough cobbler to get me through the winter or at least till January. But no Mr. Roe has to eat it all at once. When the mood strikes (which is often) he jumps up and screams "Cobbler Time!" and does his happy dance. Then he precedes to eat it with a heaping of ice cream.

So tomorrow I am back at peeling a million and one peaches to make cobbler, which I am storing in Roe's mother's deep freezer. Hopefully I will be able to sample some come winter (but I doubt it).

Two words for Roe: Greedy Ass!

Peach Cobbler

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Filling
Fresh Peaches Sliced (About 4 cups)
2 packs of gelatin (I believe it’s the equivalent of 1/4 cup)
At least 1 teaspoon of cinnamon ( I added more but it is to your taste)
At least a 1/2 cup of sugar (Also more if you want it sweeter - I think I put in 3/4 a cup)

-Blend all together and set aside

Topping
2 cups of Flour
1 cup of sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup of milk
1 stick of butter
1 tablespoon of baking powder

- Sift all dry ingredients together.
- Melt Butter and add milk to it
- Slowly stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients
- Pour over peaches in dish.
- Bake in oven till knife comes out clean from center. ~50 Minutes

I AM ADDICTED TO PORN: WEDDING PORN!!!!

I think its time that my dirty little secret comes out of the closet. I am hooked, I am addict, I need a fix every day. I am addicted to wedding porn.

How did I know that I had a problem? When I promised myself that I would stop subscribing to wedding blogs on Google Reader at 15 subscriptions and here I am just having added my 30th today! When I wake up in the morning I reach straight for that Iphone to see the latest blog updates and before I go to bed at night I check for new feeds and may reread the posts from earlier. It is a running joke with my fiance that I love the Google Reader more than anything else in the world. And that my friend I do not find amusing, because in every joke and the phrase "I'm just kidding" is a grain of truth.

And it was so easy to get to this point. The pictures are so beautiful and colorful (damn it! its called eye candy on all the blogs for goodness sake), it appeals to a woman's inherent desire to admire and aspire towards having pretty things (like shoes, dresses, gifts, etc), it taps into an emotional nerve so that you can vicariously live through others and experience a wedding day through pictures and stories over and over again, should I go on?

I have tried to wean myself off but to no avail. I am hoping that on my cruise next week I am able to curtail my habit. But will I be back here again in a couple of months? Will my Google reader wedding subscriptions go even higher?

Pray for me.

Oh Etsy How I love you, let me count the ways

If you asked me just 4 months ago what is "etsy" I would have said "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?"

But now I am completely and utterly in love. I need to view etsy almost everyday. I look for reasons to casually drop by to peruse through all the delectable goodies.

Needless to say I am addicted.

Here are some of my favorites:

loyalty and blood - purchased these as bridesmaid invitation gifts


lizzybleu - purchased these for Roe which he will be wearing on our wedding day



Boojiboo-so I can stroll around the house and play 50's housewife



muchachaK - I am so lusting after her jewelry rolls and reversible clutch



Simplyseasonal - love to do these as favors or just have them in my own personal "make me feel good cause I am have a sucky day" food stash

Official Proposal

So I have been negligent in posting one important detail of our wedding, how Mr. Roe proposed to me. I have to admit that its not the most romantic or exciting story that some brides have. Roe and I came to a mutual decision to get married, maybe its our age and fully knowing what we want in a spouse and having been through a lot of "frogs" . We both realized that this was something special early on and that we would be great together. However, I will admit that he did know a little before me. Early into our dating Roe would throw out casual statements like "You are going to be my wife", "I see us spending our life together", etc. And when he said this I was overtaken with a sense of calm and it just felt right. So we decided back in April to get married but my official engagement was not till July. How do you explain that after little under 4 months of dating you are getting married. Crazy right?

So Roe planned something special for me for my birthday - a trip to DC for fun and relaxation. He booked everything and would not tell me where we were going. Now I knew that 2 weeks previously he had picked up the ring, so it was locked away in the house. (Torture for most, but given my laid back personality it really didn't bother me. I figured I'd get in due time.) He booked us at the Hyatt in Crystal City VA, which was really nice. That day we arrived (which was my birthday) we went exploring in Old Alexandria window shopping at little shops. We often look at furniture and home goods laying plans and cataloging stuff we love for our next home. After walking through Old Alexandria for about 2 hours we came back to the hotel to change for dinner. Roe wouldn't tell me where we were going, so I was pleasantly surprised when we landed in Georgetown on the waterfront. Our first choice for dinner was Sequoia, however, they were fully booked on a Wednesday night and only had outdoor seating. Given that it was like 90% humidity that day, no way did we want to sit outside. Luckily near by was a lovely spot by the name of Arcadia. Arcadia had a very Northwestern feel and all their produce and meats come from cooperative farmers. Well I really made a pig of myself. As I am in the midst of fighting sleep, which I am notorious for doing after a big meal, I see Roe reach into his pocket. I just welled up and started to cry - and I mean cry hard like a baby. (Is this what I have to look forward to on my wedding day - uncontrollable tears and my ugly cry face?) He took my hand and started to say the most lovely things, half of which I don't remember. All I know is that at the moment I have never loved a man more than I loved Roe. Unfortunately I was crying so hard that the waiter must have thought something was wrong so he cam over midway through the proposal. Bless his heart! But after assuring him that I was ok Roe continued on and placed the ring on my finger. See how HAPPY we look!!!!!

Here other pics from our trip.

Stationary Vendor

We have been on the hunt for a stationary vendor. I have been collecting quotes from people over the past couple of weeks and it has surprised me the range in prices. We originally thought that our initial budget for our stationary would be more than sufficient for a wedding our size, that is till my paper crazed self got carried away with all the paper products for the wedding. So we have doubled our budget. (I know shame on me! But I LOVE PAPER and I really want to have beautiful stationary.) It makes you question if its worth it and do people really appreciate it, its something that most people will casually glance at and then throw in a pile somewhere. Well I plan to frame mine after the wedding as a memento. And it took some convincing and cajoling to get Roe to go along with my grand scheme of everything.

We have our last vendor meeting this Saturday and I am hoping that this is the lady we decide to go with. She has lovely, truly beautiful work. I am just hoping that her prices are reasonable and fit into our budget.

Will post more after our final decision is made and give an overview of everyone we considered. Until then sharing with you my stationary inspiration board.

The Shoe Wars - I still may win but the chances are slim

So needless to say my fiance and I have drastically different views on wedding shoe attire for both men and women.

For women he is a supporter of the tradtitonal ivory or white bridal shoe.

[photo Dyeable Shoe Company]

While I have fallen in love with the trend of the colored wedding shoe.



And to quote him "Its ridiculous!". And he is not too pleased at the thought of seeing me with colored shoes the whole day. But I don't care. Baby wants colored shoes, and Baby is going to get colored shoes.

But because of the colored shoes I had to concede to the "Gators". (I inwardly cringe right now.) I don't like Gators and never will. They just evoke images of Huggie Bear to me. But he swears that nothing is more comfortable or finishes off an outfit better than Gators. I was adamant at first that he had to have a more traditional shoe for the wedding but because of the colored shoes and to be fair, I had to back down on it. So now its a Gator wedding.

One for You and One for ME!

Okay, so I said that I was not going to be a bride dictator and demand that my bridesmaids wear the same dresses. I have two bridesmaids that are as different as night and day. One is classic the other trendy, one is understated the other flashy, one is tall and willowy the other extremely petite with curves. I want them to look and feel great in the dress they wear, and I highly doubt that will be accomplished in forcing them to wear the same thing. In fact I think its Mission impossible to find a dress that would look fantastic on both of them.

So I was going to designate a designer and say to them choose what looks best as long as its chocolate brown. I was leaning towards J Crew since I love their classic flirty styles and figured that maybe they could get another wear out of them.

Until I saw the bridesmaid dresses from Priscilla of Boston and I fell in love!!!

I totally wanted to change my mind and have them each wear one of these lovely creations. [photos courtesy of The Knot]

Darn it I was lusting after them myself. In fact I was lusting so hard that when I drove by the shop this weekend and I saw the beatiful papaya dress with the ruffles in the window I told my fiance that we had to go in and try it on. So we went in with him being very uncomfortable since in his words "he was entering an inner sanctum of women" and tried on both the ruffled concoction and the strapless dress with pockets. Needless to say they were both AWESOME! And I decided on the spot to get the ruffled dress for myself to wear to my friend's wedding in May. And I am putting the strapless number on the short list for my rehearsal dinner. And to top it all off I get a 15% discount for having bought my wedding dress there and being a preferred customer. Can we say YEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

What else I love about the dresses is the fabric. Its a cotton which is perfect for spring/summer weddings/functions and so appropriate for daytime. They offer their cotton dresses in a range of lovely colors, which includes brown, but was disappointed that there was no soft pink. The papaya pictured here was the closest thing ;-(

So I am going to let my bridesmaids still choose the dress of their choosing from PB as long as its cotton (and maybe chiffon - another choice for a daytime summer wedding), tea length, and its chocolate brown.

But would it be odd to have worn one of your bridesmaid dresses to a friend's wedding earlier in the year? What do you think?