Saturday, September 27, 2008

Break Through with Dora!




Dora is my mom. Dora and I have pretty much never seen eye to eye. Whether it was my hair or my clothes, playing "boys sports", moving to L.A., being an actress whatever, she usually said "NO"and I, have usually put up a fight. I am a dreamer I see things in color lots of color, I celebrate weirdness and unconventional things, Dora... not so much black and white-right way wrong way. So this wedding business has been a bit difficult for her, because two of her sons took the traditional path. They had beautiful big Greek weddings and followed tradition and that made Dora happy. For the past few weeks I have been trying to explain some of my plans with my mother over the phone. My ma is old school, doesn't use computers or DVD players nothing, so not the easiest to show her colors or dresses or anything really. Well thank you Voula! Voula is my sister in law, my mother trusts her judgment and thinks she is far more sophisticated than me. She is and thanks to her who looked at my blog told my mom everything looked good and I WAS doing a good job planning; my mom seemed more at ease talking to me today and that made me happy and more at ease. Cut to lunch today, John and I went to this restaurant which is a L.A. landmark called Phillipe's. They serve french dip sandwiches, fresh pies, 10 cent coffee, 70 cent lemonade really good and old timey. What I loved was the plates everything was served in. They are made by Pulpex, they are brown and made from recycled fibers. John and I thought these are sturdy and we liked the way they looked and not to mention that they are green and by "green" I mean good for the environment. I was a bit weary to tell my mom that I'm gonna use paper plates for the wedding, but you know what she understood the concept, she understood they weren't flimsy ugly paper plates from the grocery store. She thought it fit with the food we were serving. So even though I know you won't read this, Thank you mom thank you for letting me do it my way.

Friday, September 26, 2008

The Good Life




About two weeks ago I had gone with Murph to IKEA and in the" as is" section found these black iron candle sticks. They have a good sturdy base and I really like their shape, but....hate the color so I bought a set to see how they would look painted. TADA! Apple green candlesticks! Still trying to put together the color palette for the wedding, have an idea. Anywho, went by yesterday with Patricia my neighbor and picked up ten more for one dollar a pair, ONE DOLLAR A PAIR! This wedding is coming along slowly but surely. That was just the beginning of the day, when we got home John brought home Red Velvet Cupcakes from a restaurant called Auntie Em's Kitchen. He brings me dessert, he is SWEET! I highly recommend trying them way better than Sprinkles, the cheesecake frosting is creamy and rich and the cake was moist and tasty. So recap art and crafts, yummy cupcakes, cute cuddly dog and the most awesome giant ever. That is the good life.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Yeah for Spigots!





Did you know that its spigot not spicket? I love these big glass jars with spigots. I'm thinking a rum punch and a vodka lemonade for the wedding in these big jugs so cute-right? The top two are my favorite but only hold 2 gallons each and don't love the plastic spigot. However the big one on the lower left holds 5 gallons and can be monogrammed.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Ooh La La!



Today I stopped by these two lingerie stores is Siverlake, I drive by them all the time. I was with my cousin Murph who is in the process of designing her own line of lingerie, so we took a little adventure. Absolutely adorable. They also carry sizes up to 38DD, that don't look like grandma bras!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

CAKE TIME!





Today I went over to my friends house to babysit for her 2 year old, Luke while she ran an errand. Laura makes amazingly pretty cakes. I met her about 5 years ago at the YMCA taking care of her 3 kids(she's up to 4 now) and we hit it off right away. She usually doesn't do wedding cakes but she is making an exception for us! Pretty Special. Her blog is listed to the right under the blogs I like, its My life is a piece of cake.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Once Wed DIY cakestand- SWEEET!


As many of you know I have quite a sweet tooth and love everything sweet. Check out this DIY cake stand I came across on the CRAFT: blog. Click here to see for yourself.

Holy Guacamole!

Today we picked the church we're getting married at and nice avocados for guacamole! For the past few weeks John and I have been trying to figure out what church we would get married at. We originally were hoping to get married at a Greek church in L.A area, but unfortunately we did not get through the red velvet rope, in the words of the priest,"I'm running a buisness." Even though I don't always agree with the church, it is a tradition I want to carry on. I think its special that we are joining in the eyes of God not neceserily the church.  My first instinct was lets go to Vegas I'm tired of this bullshit, but the man upstairs sure has a way of working it out.   Today we woke up got ready and headed to the Hollywood farmers market with our friend Shannon, we enjoyed some fresh lemonade and a few other goodies. I also wanted to make guacamole so I picked up the ingredients at the market. On our way home I asked John to stop by our landlord's church, St Kliment. Our landlord is an old school Bulgarian Orthodox priest, who has invited us to his church many of times. When we got there the service was over so John and I went and lit a candle. Then we went around back were Father Nikola sat talking with the men having a drink and enjoying there Sunday afternoon. As soon as he saw us he immediately came over gave us a hug and introduced us to some of the other parishioners. It was warm and friendly again we looked at each other and knew this is where we wanted to get married. Found a church and I made some great Guacamole, another great day. Enjoy the recipe I got it from Melora Hardin's(The Office) housekeeper back in the day- Oh Hollywood!



Guacamole

2 ripe avocados
1 small tomato
2 cloves garlic
1 small yellow or white onion
1 lime
2 tbsp. fresh salsa(store bought fine)
salt
pepper
hot sauce (optional)

Chop onion, tomato, cilantro and garlic. Scoop out flesh of avocados, mash up with fork and save a pit to keep in the bowl with the dip to keep the avocado from turning brown. Add the other veggis to the avocado, sqeeze the juice of one lime and add the 2 tbsp. of the salsa. Add salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste.  mash it all up. Thats it, nice and easy! Enjoy.

So Blessed!

There is so much I want to share, but I'm gonna start with what is on my mind tonight, cause I'm starting to plan mine and John's backyard wedding. With in the first 10 minutes I met John, I knew my life was about to change. I know it sounds corny but I physically felt electricity, not lusty Grease lightning chills down my back kind, but a friendly warm feeling, like I had known him forever, just had no memory of it. We always joke that in heaven before we were born we high fived and said "see you soon." To put it simply hes my best friend that I can kiss and we get to have a sleep over for the rest of our lives! So after dating in Chicago for 5 months we jumped in his 67 chevelle and drove to L.A. the best road trip of my life. That whole ride we looked at each other and knew that this was it, all we did was laugh and dream. I am blessed to have such a supportive, loving, compassionate, talented and funny man to share my life with. Life has moved pretty quickly since last year, we live in a cute one bedroom duplex with our dog Juju who is sweeter than pie and have a huge Avocado Tree in the backyard. I am so excited to throw the party of our dreams under that Avocado tree. So this is my way of sharing the wedding plans with everyone back home please feel free to share ideas and comments. We our blessed to have loving family and friends and an extra special angel in heaven looking over us.