Wednesday Wedding: Invitations

I wasn't sure what to do for WW this week, but since invites have become my main priority for the last week, I thought why not write about what I know and what I've been working on.

I found my invitations months ago, as I got my Save the Dates to match, and those were sent out in October. I wanted my invitations to be fairly simple, formal, and still fun. I am pretty particular about how such things look, what fonts are used and colors, and Wedding Paper Divas have made the process quite simple and customizable (though they couldn't quite make my first plan happen, unfortunately). Since we're not actually getting married, and we already have the same last name, I had to alter the text from what you would typically see on an invitation. It would look kind of weird to see "Sarah McPherson and Kyle McPherson invite you to blah blah etc..." At least I think so. I finally ordered the invitations yesterday; they will make them according to changes I've requested (like colors), and email the proofs to me to check over before they print out 90 copies and mail them to me.

Our Save the Date, on our fridge, you know, so we don't forget when it is.

and some screen shots from WPD

It's not a big secret what my invites/save the dates look like, so I don't mind sharing some photos, and there are some changes I've made. I've personalized and ordered the invitations, response cards, and information cards. We will just need to include a little slip with information our registry, which we have yet to create. The invites will go out mid-March, if all goes as planned!

Anyway, that's my invitation experience, pretty painless so far! *knock on wood* I will probably do another post on the invitations once they are all mailed out and I start to get RSVP cards back :)

I also just found this awesomely simple idea for some decor. I was planning on having striped straws at the wedding anyway (see the invite?), and this garland would be so simple to make. I found it via Studio DIY. Hooray crafts!

via

Pancake Day

Aside from it being the kittens' birthday, today is National Pancake Day, so I discovered thanks to facebook. They are giving away free pancakes at our favorite place, IHOP, but we're due to go for our anniversary next week. I decided though, to attempt another puffed pancake, this time with lemon! This sounds like a good idea, and generally was, but I was the only one home at the time, and those things are big, too big to be completed by one person alone. And you can imagine they don't save well. So, some of it went to waste. But it was delicious! All you do is sprinkle a lemon all about, then sprinkle with powdered sugar. Better than the apple one I made the other day (though I believe that with some experimentation, the apple recipe can be perfected). The lemon, however...definitely a winner. Just make sure you have someone to share it with. :)

Happy Birthday Kittens!

These two.

Darwin & Huxley
sometimes called: Miss D, Huxtable, Mr. H, Huxtabee, Hux-man, DW, D, H, lady, or Hux

are one year old today.

I have had them since they were seven weeks and teeny tiny.

They fit in Kyle's pockets and in my shoes.

They are now a bit bigger. But just as cute.

and funny

and playful

and soft

just a little more chill and don't wake me up so early

and don't accidentally scratch me so much with their little claws.

They spend their time bird watching, cuddling, trying to run around on the wood floors, napping, running around outside hunting bugs, playing with toys, sleeping on me, eating, and sometimes misbehaving.

They were my comfort and joy when husband was gone.

and always will be.

Kyle and I have a lot of fun with them.

Best kittens ever.

more

In Which I Cook Chicken Thighs

Today was a very productive day. I did a bunch of cleaning around the house, like, on hands and knees scrubbing the bathroom floor with Clorox wet wipes cleaning. I worked out, paid a bunch of bills, got mad at my former school (AU) again and dealt with that, played outside with the kittens, organized things, cleaned some more, figured out a rough menu for the week, and cooked a pretty great meal. I'm now working on wedding invitations (I need to stop playing with them and just get them done) and watching The Voice while husband naps. Oh, and I wore a dress today, a rare, rare thing for me to do.

On to the chicken thighs. Peach whiskey barbecue chicken.

Before making this dish I had never cooked chicken thighs before. Turns out, they are the most unappealing looking part of a chicken to cook with. I am a little...cautious and slightly picky when it comes to meat. I don't like it looking like the fleshy animal that it once was, basically, and I don't like tasting gristly or extra chewy bits. Oh, I love dissecting things and looking at fleshy parts in a scientific sense (so much), but in a sense of- I'm going to put this in my mouth and chew- not so much. I usually meticulously cut away any skin, tendons, fat or any extras that remind me of my forensic anthropology class, until I have just a hunk of meat. I want to see muscle, and nothing else. With this recipe, and chicken thighs, the whole thigh looks like a hot mess, and were I to cut it down I imagine I would be working with very little Sarah-approved meat. So, I just went for it, trusting the end result would taste too amazing for me to even remember what it looked like going into the pot. I was making this meal mainly for Kyle, anyway, who is not a picky meat eater. Here goes. 

smashed taters

My smaller plate. Still unsure about the chicken.

leftovers

You see how my piece of chicken ended up there in the second to last picture? Luckily Kyle loved it and finished it up for me ("what?! The skin is the best part!"). It was really good; the sauce was amazing and tasted wonderful on the potatoes as well. However, it was still chicken thigh, and I still picked at it. I'm really happy with how it turned out, even if I didn't eat much of it myself. Yum yum.

The recipe for the chicken:

Peach Whiskey Barbecue Chicken

and I roughly followed this recipe for potatoes. I didn't add bacon, used chives instead of green onion,  yellow potatoes, and no french fried onions. Roughly, I said. :)

Smashed Potatoes

Puffed Pancake with Apples

Earlier yesterday evening I saw that Naomi at Rockstar Diaries posted this quick and simple recipe for a puffed pancake. I thought I'd try it as a dessert for Kyle and I to share, and top with some baked cinnamon apple slices. The pancake puffed more than I was expecting, but tasted fine. I thought it was pretty good; I'd like to try it with some different things, jam and powdered sugar maybe next time. Or cook it with the apples right in the pan, like so. It reminded me a bit of the Austrian dessert my brother John made for us, kaiserschmarrn. 

Have a great Monday! I may have another food post later today, as I'm trying this recipe for dinner! 

Gomez the Band

Gomez, my favorite band, headed back across the pond for a 15 years celebration tour, and husband and I went to see them in Dallas yesterday. They are also doing a couple shows in Austin, which is much closer and a great music city (so I've read), but they are during the week and the band would start playing at about the same time we need to go to sleep. Dallas is a little under two and a half hours to the North of us, and not our new favorite place for driving. We made it to our first stop, In-N-Out Burger, a fast food place known to those on the West coast. I don't have any particular connection to it from my nine years living in CA (expect remembering it was good even though I always thought it smelled like fish near the place), but it was fun to experience a little CA flashback. Our attempt to then head to the concert venue was interrupted by traffic and almost running out of gas while stuck in it. Yeah, that was not fun. We were not pretty, calling Telefact to help guide us and trying to get my iphone to understand we were on the highway, not the little roads below. We made it to a gas station, though, by giving up taking our exit and heading the opposite direction. Luckily, it was still pretty close and easy to get to the Palladium for the show, with 15 minutes to spare before the doors opened at 7.

 People gradually made their way in; we were the 5th and 6th people in line to get in, and the show started at  8 with an opening band Hey Rosetta!, from Newfoundland, Canada! Never heard of them, but they had a cello and were pretty good. Then Gomez came out! They split their show in half- the first half was songs they picked to play, and the second was the top 10 songs we voted on for them to play (when you bought a ticket, you could go select what songs you wanted them to play). And they were awesome. We were right up close and they played some of my favorites (though really I enjoy all of their songs). It was a great show, and I'm happy to have finally seen them live (after two missed opportunities to see them in Pittsburgh and DC). I just love them. 

cellist from the other band joined in

(Abbreviated) Setlist via

and lastly, I took this video of Gomez performing (most of) Detroit Swing 66