mitsuwa.

we were just introduced to mitsuwa japanese marketplace. oh em gee.

first: it is a huge market with the oddest things. we picked out three different drinks based on the label and ended up with milk flavored soda. grapefruit pulp in water in a can. and iced tea with a picture of dirt on the label, which, ended up tasting like dirt. oddly enough.

second: the store "trendy" is basically one big engrish store. so funny. and they have talking toilets. what trendy shop doesnt?

third: the ramen shop has 72 varieties of ramen. heaven. i had #31, spicy ramen. it hurt my throat going down it was so spicey and so good.

scotty went a little nuts. here is what he ordered, and ate:

beer battered tacos. beer belly.

ever since we randomly went to this moroccan/mexican restaurant on a whim... i have been OBSESSED with their "make your own taco plate". obsessed. like "can we go there for the third time this week?" obsessed. and scott is obsessed with the margarita cart. so its a win win.

last night scotty attempted, and succeeded, at home made casablanca style make your own tacos. every detail was covered.

yummy beer battered cod. hand fried. yep:
it was even assembled the way they do it at casablanca:

note the white sauce- thats yogurt, mayo, dill, minced jalepeno and capers, and a bit of cayenne pepper. what a guy!

and just because summer time is almost here, i had only TWO tacos. not three.

yummmm....

The Evans Fam

Um, so like 15 minutes ago I mentioned allowing people to help you, and asking for it, and how one family in particular is becoming my favorites. Well, here, for example.

I asked if I could please maybe have a piece of wood for the cake stand. You know, figuring I would be so stoked if they just let me have a tiny little round... And here is what they send me.

I STILL have to pick my mouth off of the floor when I look at it. Even my hubby got all giddy when he saw it. I LOVE WOOD (thats what she said).

Oh, and if you are wondering if they added little cake toppers so I could get a feel. Yes, they did. They are the best! Thank you John and Kathy and Amy and Annie and Chris! We really love you guys so much! You are making our day SO SO special!

More of their awesomeness can be seen at: http://www.ndctimber.com/

AND amy has created a fab little boutique: check it out! bon lemon!

yes, i know that i am the only one who reads this blog, but maybe one day that will not be the case, and i get pay it forward to them!

Weight, Bloat, Jiggle, etc...

So we are officially at 38 days until THE BIG ONE and I am still walking around self conscious in my bathing suit and feeling my sides jiggle when i move up the stairs. It is go time. I don't want to look back on pictures and wish I would have not eaten like shit for a year before the wedding. Well, I guess that is out of my hands, but at this point, I dont want to look back and wish I would have taken the 38 days (minus the three for the bachelorette party of course) seriously.We are also going to Greece and I want to look like a little newlywed hotty on our trip and I want to look back on pictures and feel OK. Better than OK. At this point, the only honeymoon clothes that are exciting me are cover ups. HA! (I have to mention that OF COURSE i want to look good on my wedding day, in my wedding dress, BUT they are so dang flattering I have nothing to really worry about- except for arms, and I have been working on those bad boys).

Anywho, I am off to day three in a row of spin and I am on day three of eating healthy-ER. Better than nothing.

Here is some of the things that are serving as my honeymoon inspiration...

All from Victoria's Secret, duh.

Ok, I have simmered down. I got my desired budget. I am back to being a sweety again.
I have been cooking. And I have also been really lovin my man lately. I always love him but I have been overwhelmed with my love for him lately. I consider myself lucky.

For my *first* bridal shower, I received many items to make my kitchen a more domestic place. So I figured I might as well enter the kitchen once in a while. Check out how nice and shiny my All-Clad dishes are...
Last Friday I made him dinner. I made Ina’s Endive, Pear, and Roquefort Salad and Salmon and Lentils.
It was very delicious. (thank you to my wonderful friend, Nikki, for coming to the rescue and teaching me some very serious life skills- like, read the whole recipe before starting, do not substitute ingredients, and tuck your fingers in while chopping with your Wusthof knives. Thanks momma! You da bomb.) We sat at the table (sadly, a rare occurrence), talked a lot, and drank lots of white wine that made us very lovey dovey. We were also in bed by 10:30pm, which is heaven…

So tomorrow night I will be a domestic goddess once again. I have put out the feelers for what my man would want… He always asks for things like stew, or briscuit, or split pea soup, or noodle coogle... all things that begin with "my mom's ________". All things that his mother happens to make immaculately and in turn make me an insecure little chef.
Also on the agenda for a very exciting weekend- we are going to purchase our ketubah! Woop woop! I am excited to pick out the most artsy fartsy and colorful ketubah the Judaica store has to offer. I am excited to tell all of my gentile friends what it is. I am excited to sign that shit with my man on the day of our wedding!

96 days to go

... And I am for sure freaking out a little. Not about getting married to my favorite guy around, just EVERYTHING else. Our pictures. The band. The Food. The Parents. The flowers. The "fun factor". The "oh my god all of these little details that the bride worked on and put thought in to for a year are just the most incredible, cute, thoughtful little ideas" ideas. Basically just everything. On my to-do list- get some pics like this of us.


And feel as relaxed as these two lovebirds look...


Cutie Patootie Wedding via Once Wed

I also want our ceremony to be warm. Like this one, below. I am crossing my fingers that my yuppy family loosens up and lets us have a relaxed, loving day where their hatred for the outdoors, sunshine, and (gasp!) LAWN (!!!), can be put aside for four and a half hours.

I would loooooooooooooooooooove to get a moment like this with my new hubby! Pretty please Big Sur, Sunshine goddess, and McClure Pictures. Thank you. I want to make us a sign like this:
And I want hugs like this every day. Every second of every day. That looks like it feels good. Whataguy.


All of the above via the website that could get me fired if the IT department looked at how much time I spent on it.

cakes

When I was first asked about a cake I could not care less. I knew a few things: 1. I did not want cupcakes. They are so 2009.
2. Whoopie pies are just silly.
3. I love the tradition of grooms cakes. And I have no idea what would make a good one? A bottle of vodka? A pack of parliaments? A slumlord? This one is gonna be a tuffy. Maybe I will lean towards taste and do pecan pie a la mode, or his favorite- noddle coogle (do you think I could get my future mother in law to make coogle the morning of the wedding? ha!) :)


But now I think I DO care...these cakes are bomb. I have sent them to our patisserie.





This decision will also be a tuffy. Whatever kind of cake we choose- get in my mouth! I can't wait to meet you!

Long Post- Probably because we got a lot o sh*t done...

**UPDATE: Of the 9 things that we had to do this last weekend- we did 6! Pretty good! We did not get baby sitter referrals because we decided we are not doing this (if you want to bring your kids to the wedding- you have to watch them! What a concept!). I didnt get around to hair and make up- next time. And cake- apparantly you have to be pretty exclusive to get Michelle from Big Sur Bakery to make your cake. Good thing we ARE and our amazing day of/all around best help ever, Cheri is going to git-r-done. **

Happy Monday!


We just returned from another great weekend in Big Sur! The weather was heaven! We got so much done and I think we were both able to take a spoonful out of our stressed out cup and add a spoonful to the excited cup! Aside from the fact that I feel like our wedding is going to be a ZOOOOOOOO (300 people- fml), it is going to be so special.

We raced up on Friday morning to meet Cheri at the site… ahhh…Ms. Point 16. You are a very special lady. Cheri is so rad- she makes me feel so calm about everything. There really aint a thing to worry about when you have a woman like her on your team. I walked around the site and got giddy and took pics and fantasized about our day.

We then proceeded to reward ourselves for a job well done at Fernwood Tavern, aka “The Dog” (mind you, we were rewarding ourselves for very little- driving to Big Sur and making it to Point 16 by 2pm? Hard work you two! Go celebrate! We are so stupid.) . I have been “dieting” so I rewarded myself with hot wings, a salmon quesadilla, and a buffalo burger and fries. Oh, and about 15 glasses of Pinot Grigio, a jack and water on the rocks, and a late night shot of well tequila with our new "friend" Ben. Needless to say, I spent the night in the bathroom. You got me again, Big Sur! I still love you though.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the Big Sur Bakery. OH. MY. GOD. It was heaven. Go there. Now. And have the breakfast pizza. Yum. And if you are hungover like I was, have two mimosas. Yum yum. After breakfast we drove up to Carmel Valley (he drove, I slept) to meet with John from Paradise Caterers. They are making the feast for the rehearsal dinner. A cute little BBQ if you will… even though it is at the SICKEST art gallery ever! I think my man was getting a little jealous on the way back because I would not SHUT UP about how nice and thoughtful and caring and accommodating and charming John was. But its true- he is! I heart him mucho! image via my blackberry. We were dumbfounded when we walked down the path to find this. Seriously, I was like pissed off at how pretty this was.

Sunday before heading south we met our awesome florist, Kate Healy and cranked away all of the (really really fun) details! The flowers are going to look awesome! We are so stoked! She is another lady that makes me feel so calm… I don’t have a worry in the world (aside from the ridiculous and embarrassing size of our guest list, the fact that we don’t know where to have the stupid brunch the day after the wedding, we have about 100 people too many for the rehearsal dinner, my sister and I are in (another) fight over her worthless husband, I don’t have anyone to do hair or makeup for us bitches, the “rounds” that I have been daydreaming about may not happen, and I am the most awkward person on the planet so I am still staying up at night worrying about having to be charming and sweet and funny and pretty all weekend).




Lovers.

Food!

Where does one begin with this? I want it all! I do not feel like I have been greedy when it comes to flowers, or jewelry, or a super expensive designer dress (even though I ended up with one) or even presents- I felt so greedy walking around crate and barrel with that registry gun… but I am adamant about wanting awesome food! I love food! My favorite kind of food is MORE! (This is part of the reason why I am starting boot camp with my lover next month- more on that later) We want the food to be delicious from beginning (my dad is the guy at each wedding who stakes out where the passed appetizers are coming from and waits by that door) to end (I want a dessert bar and possible bar food passed out towards the end of the night to keep the energy up, and soak up the booz)- we also want to be local when possible, organic, and look amazing! Easy feat! Now I sound greedy, I know! Inspirations below:

style me pretty
I love this for when people first get dropped off at the site- only ours will read mojito, sangria, and "john daly". A little cool off- and jump start.

style me pretty
I cannot find the perfect picture to depict the raw seafood bar we are going to have- but this will do for now. Are those scallops? In my head they are.

style me pretty
my other true love- heirloom tomatoes and burratta, and on a simple white plate... oh yes please.

thank you for the idea, and you too audge.


ummm, smores... ? does it get any better than smores??? my girl audra had us over for smores the other night! my wedding brain started to quietly churn. we just happen to have a fire pit at the site! consider this done.

image via the ever helpful style me pretty

some late night munchies will help everyone show up for the morning after brunch (I know, mothers and etiquette are forcing all guests to feel obligated to come to yet another wedding activity after the wedding. He and I do not even want to attend. Sorry all...)

Is it bad that this gets me more excited than dress shopping did??? Hence the need for boot camp!