The 411 on Gift Delivery

While continuing to procrastinate I found the following info about Wedding Gift Etiquite from Emily Post.

"... Generally, wedding gifts should be delivered to the bride's home or to the home of her parents before the wedding, addressed to the bride. When gifts are sent after the wedding, they are sent to the couple at their new address. When a couple is living together before the wedding, gifts are either sent to them at their home address or to the bride's parents if they are hosting the wedding. In some areas and cultures, it is customary to bring the gift to the wedding reception rather than deliver it ahead of time."

I quess the "some areas and cultures" includes Midwesterners who prefer to tote thier gifts to the reception.

The link also contains some good info about gift etiquite. But I say etiquite smetiquite. I am just thankful for any gifts at all. To our guests: bring it however you want. We are glad you are thinking of us.

Shower Fun

While home for Christmas my sister-in-law and mom's friends hosted a bridal shower for me. I am so thankful for the wonderful party and must share some of the great memories. I have to admit I was a little apprehensive to have a shower. I remember when we gave my sister-in-law a shower several years ago "hazing" was sort of the point. Also, showers tend to get um.. inappropriate at times. Also I hate the whole part when the guest of honor opens presents in front of a room full of people starting at them. Weird, right?

But this was a Midwestern bridal shower with most of the quests my mother's friends. Therefore it was miles away from the "shower" my friends back in AZ keep threatening, I mean offering, to host.

The party was at a small local winery (yes there are winery's open in Nebraska in the dead of winter - I was surprised too). The room was beautiful and we decorated with our engagement photos and plenty of other decor in our colors. This particular vineyard was not yet making thier own wine (take at least 5 years for vines to mature) but we did sample a few bottles of other local NE wines.

My sister-in-law did an amazing job creating a really cool Bride Bingo game. She made up these cute cards for each guest (and some for me to scrapbook :)). Notice the background? It is one of our engagement photos with Matt down on one knee. The game included questions that she had sent Matt to answer. They included the typical shower questions to see how well (or not well) we know each other. Since many of the guests have never met Matt it was a good way for them to find out more about us as a couple. The guests had multiple choice answers - but I had to answer blind. For every question I got right I could put a little star on Matt's photo. The star was supposed to represent "his starry eyes"...

I did okay on answering the questions. But was no ace. Anticipating this game, I tried to brush up on my M&M history. Where we met - check. First date - check. Date of engagement - check. What would Matt say was the food I can't live without? Chilli rellenos - wrong, I said cheese. Matt's favorite junk food? French Fries - wrong, I said chocolate covered peanuts. What would Matt say was my favorite movie? Jungle Book - wrong, I have never even seen Jungle Book so not sure where that came from.

I really needed to get back on track. It was sort of embarrassing. Then came a series of other questions. What was your most embarrassing moment in front of Matt? I definitely know this one. It was a few years ago when I bought him the Neil Diamond CD instead of the Neal Young CD for Christmas. I don't know who either performer is but Matt was sure to let me know that Neil Young is no Neil Diamond. In the end I think I only got about half of them right. But Matt also got a few wrong in his answers as well. Doesn't really matter. I always say we know each other better than we do ourselves.

The rest of the shower was filled with eating (it was around the holidays after all), chatting, and of course the present opening. I don't want to sound unappreciative of the gifts. It is really nice to receive gifts and appreciate the time, effort, and expense people go to. But why do they have to be opened in front of people. It just seems to put the focus on material gifts received rather than the people. I propose that we as society change this tradition and do something to embarrass the guests by asking their spouses questions about how well they know each other instead. Now that would be a fun party.
I owe a big thanks to all of the hard work my sister-in-law did with the game and hosting. Also I am thankful for my Mom's good friends for making some great food. If you were able to make it - I really enjoyed seeing you there. If you were not able to come - you were missed.

Registry Fun

I am a walking ad for Target. Many of my clothes are from the store and usually once a week I pop in just to see what its new. So it was only natural that we register here. One drawback is that there is no Target in my hometown. It is probably one of the last places in America with over 40,000 people that has no Target. Just another reason GI is behind the times.














Whenever I am in the store and see people with the scanner guns I am always jealous and was really looking forward to the day we would run around the store scanning things to our hearts content. I always sort of imagined it would almost have the same excitement as participating in a shopping spree. The kind that Toys R Us has when we were kids where kids got to run around the store for 10 to 30 minutes throw whatever they could into a basket twice their size. Registering at Target wasn't nearly as fun as a shopping spree, after all we aren't really getting the stuff - just making a list of stuff that we might get. But we did have a good time and Matt got to register for "man" stuff.

I also registered for my idol's latest cookbook and plenty of stuff for the kitchen. When we were registering it got us thinking that we don't actually even need more stuff. We have lived on our own for awhile so we have accumulated enough stuff. We are also in a position that if we want something we usually go out and get it. This process is making us think of alternative registries like a charity registry.

Another perk (other than just being able to use the scanner gun) was that we got a whole packet of info from Target including a pouch to keep receipts, lists, etc. I sent off for this a few months back. (FYI - when getting married you can get all sorts of free stuff that turns our really to be unnecessary but fun.) Really it is just a ploy to get you to register for more stuff and I now get a Target catalog in the mail about once a month. What is with the wedding industry? It is really making me think less is more.

Sorry Fiesta, I have a new favorite.

Sorry fiestaware. I have a new favorite. Similar bright colors, but amazing modern shapes. Bauer Pottery out of LA is my new find of the week. I would love a cake stand or set of spice jars. Oh, so pretty. The vases would make beautiful centerpieces for reception tables.

Fiesta!

Well the wedding is still 9 months away and I think it is a little early to be thinking about the registry. But since my mom can't help herself and already buying stuff I will give it some more thought. One thing that we have talked about was Fiestaware. I had thought about colbalt blue - to go with the new mixer- but didn't realize that Matt gets nauseous when eating off of blue plates. The solution is to go for a fiesta of fiestaware. This is what I want my cupboards to look like:

Maybe all 17 colors is overdoing it and we will limit it to shamrock, sunflower, tangerine, scarlet, plum, turquoise, peacock, and cobalt blue.

Next step will be to figure out where to register for fiesta. Dillards is looking like the best option.

Macaroons and Mixers

So I know that a mixer is the type of item that newlyweds typically put on their registry. But I couldn't help myself. I have been dreaming about a Kitchen Aid Mixer for years so when I got my stimulus check last week I ordered one and counted down the hours until it arrived. The challenge was to decide on a color. Did you know how many colors they have?! I have always envisioned my mixer siting on the counter as a my culinary inspirations so I took the color decision very seriously. The color will set the stage for our kitchen for as long as I own the mixer - hopefully forever.

First I thought Red. But no. Everyone has red appliances these days. White? A good classic color that will go with everything. But boring. I hate pastels so that eliminated about 10 colors. Chrome - I like shinny things. But looks like a space ship. Oh, persimmon or tangerine. But I am not that bold. Time to bring in Matt. He looked at the color choices for about 2 seconds and matter of factly said "Cobalt Blue". Brilliant! It was everything I was looking for and even has matching Fiestaware colors. This is usually how our decision making process goes. I spend weeks agonizing over a decision. Matt decides in a few minutes which is usually the one I arrive at anyway.

The mixer arrived a few days ago and now we can register for attachments!

One of the main reasons I wanted a mixer now is that I am obsessed with French Macaroons sometimes called Parisian Macaroons or Laduree Macaroons after the pateserie in Paris that first created them. I have never had them, not even sure I have even seen them. But they are beautiful, colorful and a sound like mix between a merengue cookie and a marshmallow - my favorite. I have been dreaming about how to make different flavors for the Garden Dessert Party in Nebraska (literally I was dreaming about them).

This is what they are supposed to look like. I used Martha's recipe of course.

Mine - not so much. First problem is that you are supposed to use a food processor to grind almonds into a fine powder. After buying the mixer I couldn't afford to get a food processor so I cheated and bought almond flour which was a little chunky so I didn't get a smooth texture. I am also lacking a few other useful tools. I only had a small piping tip so used a spoon instead of piping them out which made oval cookies about 3 x the size.

The mixer worked great. Except for when I got the bowl stuck and spent literally 30 minutes trying to twist it off. I was just about to call the kitchen aid hot line on the verge of tears when I thought of using vegetable oil. Luckily it worked.

So they didn't look the greatest. Definitely not petite dainty cookies. But the taste was literally the best cookie I have ever eaten in my life. Seriously. This is definitely something I will be trying to perfect by next May. The photo is of my cookie. I used red coloring for a pink cookie and white filling.