Stickers!

So i got the stickers that will seal the wedding invitation envelopes. They're not as red as i was hoping they would be but  i think that they are quite nice!

The Wish Tree

Instead of doing a guest book we're doing a wish tree. I think that it is a tradition that was popular and may have started in Japan. 

André is trying to get the metal workers at his job to make us a tree. If  that doesn't work i'm just as happy spray painting some willow branches to be honest. 

I once again checked out Etsy to find what i needed for the individual tags. Guests will write down their well wishes for us on the tags provided and then hang them on the tree for us to enjoy. The shop that I got the cut outs and bakers twine is called Ready2QuiltShop.

Gifts for my attendants

I got my maid of honour an engraved gold clover charm because she wears the same golden necklace every day and i wanted something that she would end up wearing more than once.  I got myself a star. I found the rest of my attendants gifts on etsy! The shop is called Mykonos.

Everything came well packaged and it was a very friendly shop to deal with! I'm not sure which girl will get which necklace but I really like the leaves for a fall theme! They were super cheap too :D Cuz I'm classy like that.

From the same store I also bought the 4 of them each a brooch that has a vintage look to go on either their dresses or their shrugs if we get them. 

So that's the bridesmaids mostly taken care of. The bridesmaids dresses are black and i'm pretty much letting them pick them out themselves. We have two so far which are fantastic and we got for a steal as well!

We'll probably do red shoes as well although i don't think i'll hold anyone to that as reds are so hard to match. I'm definitely getting red for me though :D 

André doesn't have any ideas as to what he wants to get for his side of the wedding party but he'll come up with something.

The Invitation

So I finally got down to making the main part of the wedding invitation. The concept changed a bit over the few months but it came down to this main design. It took me two tries to get the silk screen for this right (it's the only way that i could do the white on red image) and even then it's far from perfect but i decided to count my losses and pull the prints for the invitations anyway. 

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This was the concept design

A close up of the finished product. I actually have purchased a corner rounding cut out since then but i'm not sure if i will end up using it on the main thing as i didn't successfully manage to get them all centred but I will probably end up using it on the RSVP postcard that i still need to finish designing or the wedding info sheet or both. 

I did around 100 cards. There are definitely about 10 that I did before i had hinges to use with the screen (that made it a million times nicer and easier to do) that are really poor but once we finalize the guest list if we still need those 10 invites i will just touch them out by hand. 

The cards used are by cardblanks. About $32 for 10 not including envelopes. As red is my favourite colour I was pretty picky about these lol. The white ink is actually a silkscreening fabric ink from speedball. I did these using the photo emulsion method. 

Found a deal on envelopes at michaels. 50 white envelopes and cards for $5! Amazing! I decided to cheap out on the envelopes because they're just going to get ripped open anyway. André decides to use the cards for the RSVP postcards or the Thankyou notes so we'll see! In the end I'm just glad I finally did it. I hope that people like them!

Cupcakes for the man child inside all of us

This isn't really a recipe. It's super simple and there are many variations but i thought i would post it regardless incase someone hadn't tried this idea yet. You never know right?
I made cupcakes to bring to work for valentines day (and a few days later for my manchilds birthday) and decided I wanted a little more than just the usual solid cake cupcake. Here is my solution that is stupidly simple but was very delicious and popular.

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First, make some cupcakes. I like to take the ghetto lazy approach and use a boxed mix, and to make it extra ghetto, whatever one is cheapest.

Next choose a filling. I decided since this was an experiment to just play it safe so I bought some jello chocolate pudding. It ended up being delicious but i feel like if i had really wanted to make it pop i would have put something different in it like whipped cream with custard and strawberry or something. As long as it fits through a cake decorating tip of whatever you use to fill these than it will do.

To fill the cupcake i filled up a icing bag with the pudding but i feel like if you didn't have one of these you could just use a ziplock bag and cut off one of the corners. I used to do that all the time when i was icing things.

I used a regular icing tip. I chose the one with the largest opening since i wanted to make sure that the pudding could get through. In retrospect i think i may have let the pudding set too much and it  made filling the cupcakes a tiny bit more difficult than it had to be. But seeing as this is so easy that didn't really make for hard times :D

The rest is super fast you just stick your icing tip into the top middle of each cupcake and fill it up with pudding. I liked how you could feel the cupcake inflate. You just have to be careful not to overdue it because i found that it was harder to cover them in icing later when there was pudding on the top. 

And then of course you finish them off by decorating as lazily and us uninspired as you can because you left making your valentines (or birthday whichever is the case) cupcakes far too long and you have stayed up too late making them.

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I made my manchild a special lunch for his birthday and as is tradition drew on the lunch bag for him. If you are a fan of adam hughes then you might recognize this horrible butchering of one of his beautiful drawings. Is was late okay?

Ridiculously delicious Moroccan style soup

With a wedding dress to look good in next October I've really started to think about mixing it up in the kitchen. I need to get out of the habit of eating out or just eating a boxed meal. For me this means trying new flavours! I have wanted to try Saffron for awhile but the cost has kind of dissuaded me. While perusing the web the other day however I came across a soup recipe that was right up my alley! I'm glad I did because the results were remarkable!

Now I should mention that the first website that I found this recipe on was missing both an ingredient and a step but it turned out well despite the fact. For example I didn't know to add zucchini and i also didn't know the step of sautéing the onions but it all came together in the end. Soup is pretty easy this way. As a little addition I took a left over soft taco shell and baked it in the oven at around 400F and added it as a delicious garnish. Very easy to do :)

Here is the proper recipe as i found in  Cook’s Illustrated The Best 30-Minute Recipe book. 

3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 (15.5 oz.) cans chickpeas, drained
1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes
¼ teaspoon saffron threads, crumbled
Salt and ground black pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 onion, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cumin
2 zucchini, cut into ½-inch pieces
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
2 lemons, quartered (for serving)

1. HEAT BROTH MIXTURE: Bring broth, chickpeas, tomatoes, saffron, and ½ teaspoon salt to boil, covered, in large saucepan and set aside.
2. SAUTE ONION: Meanwhile, melt butter in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in onion and ¼ teaspoon salt and cook until softened and slightly browned, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. SAUTE AROMATICS: ADD BROTH MIXTURE AND ZUCCHINI: Stir garlic, ginger, and cumin into pan and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in broth mixture and zucchini, scraping up any browned bits. Bring to a simmer and cook until zucchini is tender, about 10 minutes.
4. SEASON: Stir in cilantro. Off heat, season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with lemon wedges.

I really recommend this. My pictures don't do it justice but it is so good! It also makes about 4 servings so it's good to take to work a few days of the week. Good times. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Well the weather outside is frightful...

Even the smallest amount of snowfall seems to shut down the city that i live in. I am usually torn between loving the snow and hating it. I've come to the decision that as long as i am inside somewhere warm where i can see the snow in comfort that it's not so bad after all. It also gives me the excuse to live off of soup.
My friend Izzy recently served this at a Wino Lino night that she had. It isn't a complicated recipe at all and yet is very tasty. It's pretty cheap too if you already have the spices.

*Izzy's Lentil Soup*

1 Tbsp. oil   (It doesn't specify which but I used a extra virgin olive oil)

1 med onion, chopped

1 tsp. tumeric

1tsp. ground cumin

3/4 tsp. salt

1 cup dry red lentils

5 cups water

2 big handfuls greens (kale, spinach or whatever you like)

1 Tbsp. grated ginger


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* Heat oil over medium heat
* Toss in onions, spices and salt. Let this mixture sweat/cook a few minutes (Tossing)
* Add ginger, lentils and water
* Bring to a boil - reduce heat to med-low
* Once lentils are soft, toss in greens and stir gently
* Season with salt and pepper to taste