Mason and I were married in Kansas City on March 31st, 2007. Our wedding was at a historic loft building downtown, with the ceremony on the top floor and the reception a few floors down. It was perfect... and the joy of being surrounded by family and friends on that day was priceless. I can't believe it has been a year... so much has happened and many things have changed. It's true that as time goes on, love truly grows deeper. Here are some of my favorite pictures from our day.
Mmmm, chopped salad. Need I say more? I threw this one together tonight and it was delish! And, I actually took pictures this time. The pics aren't that good, but go me.
Yummalicious Chopped Salad
from Blog Soup
Serves 2-3
**all ingredients should be chopped.*** duh
1/2 head crisp iceberg lettuce
1/2 roasted red pepper
4 baby carrots
1 stalk celery
1/2 tomato
1 4"x3" slice of low fat swiss cheese, or any crumbled cheese you have on hand
4 slices of salami
4 artichoke heart halves
1 pepperoncini
3 tablespoons Rao's Italian Herb Dressing or your favorite italian dressing
Chop it all up, combine, then pour over dressing. Fold until the salad is nicely coated. Season with salt and pepper to your taste. Enjoy with your favorite pasta or chicken dish, and an enormous glass of wine.
To what to my wandering eyes shall appear.... Costco now offers stationery and wedding invitations. There's no doubt I am a sucker for cute stationery. The selection is pretty damn good, and most pieces are 25-40% off!
The "Carrie":
Love this shower invite... especially because it was used for one of my wedding showers!
Fun coral invite... great for a destination wedding:
Love love LOVE this pink & green dot design:
Cute preppy gators:
Last but not least, a gorgeous peony wedding invite.
My tote finally arrived yesterday, and I was pretty disappointed :( Loved the color, but it was much smaller than I thought it would be and really just looked like a big purse as opposed to a business bag. Back to the drawing board.
My BFF from college Heidi has just welcomed her son into the world! Welcome Baby Trey, you are just perfect!
Happy first day of spring, my luverlies! Spring is by far my favorite season; there is nothing better than driving around on that first warm day with the windows down and the music up. I got married in the springtime. Congrats to you for making it through a long hard winter... there are warmer days ahead! For more gorgeous pictures of spring, please visit The Pioneer Woman here.
I am very tired of schlepping my work materials & proposals around in my arms, so I have decided it's time for me to invest in a business tote. This will give me a more pulled together look for appointments and also for that moment when my boss catches me walking in late to work, which is pretty much daily. A gal at my office has a super cute basic black tote that looks to be of very high quality, so being the inquiring girl I am, I asked her where she got it. "It's actually from Franklin Covey," she said as she began to point out all the uber-convenient features for me.
Now I have seen some UGLY women's business totes. I mean, that crap at Office Depot should not even be an option for anyone. I wasn't going to settle for any of that junk. After poking around on the Franklin Covey website a bit (apparently people still use datebooks?), I found the gem pictured above. First let me say that I love love love green - it is my favorite color. Plus I have tons of clothes, coats, etc in black, so I thought this punchy green would be a great splash of color with some of my outfits: very eye catching, yet chic. Now I am a bit annoyed because I can't get any better pics of the bag to download, so I kindly invite you to visit here, where you can see some additional images. The side view pic is probably my favorite, and you can also see the cute lining inside. I doubt I will be using the shoulder strap much; I'll probably just sling 'er over my forearm. I believe they're having a sale right now on totes because I got an automatic discount at checkout.
Because I cannot believe. NASCAR now offers a line of women's shoes. After seeing this, I am strongly considering dedicating Blog Soup to all things ridiculous, and this one certainly ranks near the top. According to my friend Leslie, each of these styles could be easily worn by a woman at an RV party in the infield donning a string bikini and mardi gras beads.
Ladies, start your engines:
Green means go! I present to you the Nascar Arlene. Can you see the checkered flag on the silver piece? And if that wasn't enough, the inside is branded with the NASCAR logo as well.
And here we have the NASCAR Wendy. The checkered flags add so much to the style of this piece.
Feast your eyes on Venus! I think I saw these down at the Cheetah a few weeks ago.
Don't overlook Judy. Those flags are handstitched after all!
Last but not least, the quintessential daytime stripper shoe, the Eva.
All of this fine footwear can be purchased at Zappos.com. If you dare.
AKA the grossest food concoction of all time. Paula Deen, are you serious?
Here we have a hamburger, topped with a fried egg, topped with bacon, sandwiched between 2 Krispy Kreme donuts. Disgusting. I especially like how it is called the Lady's Brunch Burger. If I ever saw a broad downing this thing at a Sunday brunch, I would gag. And then try to take lots of pictures of her.
I have to add lots of veggies to my diet, so coming up with new ways to cook them is always a fun challenge. Here's a recipe that is full of flavor that I just really love. This combination would also make a great pizza topping. Sauteed Artichoke Hearts with Roasted Red Peppers and Garlic from Leslie at Blog Soup 1 can quartered artichoke hearts (you may chop these up a bit more if you wish) 3 cloves roasted garlic 1 roasted red pepper, chopped 1 tsp olive oil salt & pepper balsamic vinegar or a splash of Garlic Expressions to taste Warm olive oil in a skillet. Add artichokes, garlic and chopped peppers, season with salt & pepper. Saute for approximately 5-7 minutes. Transfer to plate and splash with balsamic vinegar or Garlic Expressions dressing.
This past weekend the sister-in-law was in town for a conference. I love it when people travel for conferences, go for like 2 hours, and then spend the rest of the time doing absolutely nothing productive. Those are my kind of people, people. So anyway, while she was in town, we took her to some of the places we love to take visitors. Two Urban Licks. Mary Mac's for fried chicken... the best I have had so far in Atlanta. Their mac & cheese, not so much though. (Personally I am also really wanting to try the fried chicken at JCT Kitchen and Watershed.) We also went to improv at Whole World Theatre which is a complete riot.
Saturday afternoon, however, was my treat of the weekend; better than any dessert I could have had at any of the aforementioned restaurants. Sister-in-law wanted to do something touristy and Atlantan. After weighing our options (Georgia Aquarium, Margaret Mitchell House, World of Coca-Cola) we decided on the CNN Studio Tour. Now let me give you a little background here folks. I have an unnatural obsession with CNN and Headline News. It started in my late high school / early college years. First it was, you know, just a little Headline News before I went to bed. Then I started to dabble in a bit of Lou Dobbs. That led to a morning ritual of Robin & Company. Before I knew it, I was a full blown CNN addict. It was totally out of control.
Ok maybe that's a teensy bit of an exaggeration, but seriously, I watch it all the time. My republican friends are probably rolling their eyes right now... I have heard it referred to as the Clinton/Communist News Network many a time in the past. (Of course I will not disclose my political inclinations on this blog.... but who I voted for on Super Tuesday may certainly surprise some of you....Sarah!) Anyway, if Fox News would just get their schit together, they might have a chance up against CNN. But that political set? Give me a break. It was probably built in someone's backyard. Moving on.... oh yes, back to my addiction. My CNN sked is usually as follows: Morning Express with Robin Meade in the mornings (love her), maybe some CNN Newsroom when I get home, and of course AC 360 and the occasional Larry King as I tuck into bed. Don't worry, I watch actual TV too. Not to mention that I was a journalism major in college, so that really fueled the fire. Needless to say, this visit to CNN has been about 10 years in the making.
Although we couldn't take pics on the actual tour, CNN World Headquarters is quite the place. It takes up a whole city block and there is a hotel inside the building. It also boasts the worlds longest escalator. The tour started off in the control room theater, where we got to see what about 8 different cameras were shooting, and we could also hear the director talking into the earpieces of all the reporters getting ready to go live. Next was the weather/special effects area. We found out why weathermen don't wear green shirts, and also how they removed Lt. Dan's legs in Forrest Gump. Very eeenteresting. My favorite favorite favorite part of all of it was seeing the newsroom and the reporter's desk. Even though it was a Saturday afternoon, the whole room was abuzz. It was so great and it really reminded me of why I majored in journalism. Although I'm in advertising now, it was hard not to want to go back to what made me choose my major in the first place. Someday.
More pics for your viewing enjoyment:
Mason, Larry and Glen:
AC and I on assignment:
It's going to be cold and blustery on Robin's bewb today:
Live from Atlanta, this is Blog Soup.
I am a dork.
I have changed the fonts and colors on this blog many a time. I think this one is final.
From Wikipedia: Narcissism describes the character trait of self love, based on self-image or ego.
The word is derived from a Greek myth. Narcissus was a handsome Greek youth who rejected the desperate advances of the nymph Echo. As punishment, he was doomed to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Unable to consummate his love, Narcissus pined away and changed into the flower that bears his name, the narcissus.
The lovely Stacey of Simply Tasty has tagged me! So, it's my turn to be a narcissist and do a meme. :) Enjoy. 1. I won the spelling bee in 5th grade on the word "unique." This was after my shameful first-round loss in 4th grade on the word "olive." I spelled it o-l-v-i-e. This is one of my mom's favorite stories to recount. Obviously I don't make the same mistake today because I drink lots of martinis. 2. My favorite game show is Jeopardy! Note that I wrote Jeopardy! with the exclamation point. Recently, Jeopardy! (is the exclamation point getting annoying yet? It kind of is.) had online tryouts. I would have liked to do it, but in all honesty if I were to be on TV I would like to lose some weight first. Games in general are fun though - some of my faves include Catch Phrase, Mad Gab and Scrabble. 3. Countries I have been to include Spain, France, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Canada, Grand Cayman (is that it's own country?), Greece, and Turkey. Countries/continents I would like to visit, in order of preference: Japan, Australia, South America, Switzerland, Germany, England, Ireland Thailand, Russia. Hubs has business trips coming up this year to my top two, so I will be batting my lashes and laying on the sauce as much as possible so I can go with him. 4. I worked at Gramma Sally's Pancake House in high school. I had the ugliest uniform ever -- it consisted of a teal green polo shirt (size XL which was huge on my 5'0" 115lb frame) and a hideous thick teal green cotton skirt that came to about mid-calf. All this paired with nude hose and nude colored shoes. HAWT. Before Gramma Sally's, I worked at IHOP where the uniform consisted of a one-piece dress number with puffy sleeves and an apron. WTF was I thinking? 5. I love love love to sing. It is one of my favorite things ever and it makes me so happy. Probably my most favorite singing moment was when I sang a gospel solo in front of about 4,000 people at Chicagoland Showcase. It was awesome. So, there's 5 semi-interesting (and fit to post) things about yours truly. The beat goes on! I hereby tag: Delectables Eggs Over Medium Kim's Blank Canvas Julie's Foodie And go! "5 Things" Meme Rules: 1. Link to your tagger and post these rules. 2. Share 5 facts about yourself 3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them). 4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their Blogs.
