Wedding Dress Shower Invitation set

As I mentioned earlier this week, my brother is getting married at the end of this week - such excitement!  Of course, we had to celebrate welcoming my brother's fiance into our family.  I'm so excited to be gaining a sister.  It's always been just my brother and I, it's nice to see our family growing a bit as we get married.  To celebrate the upcoming wedding, I offered to host a shower for my side of the family.  I had lots of fun putting my Silhouette to use (and some of my new found Royal Icing skills!)

Invitations

First off, I made the shower invitations.  I looked at hundreds (ok maybe not hundreds, but it seemed like it) of ideas on Pinterest.  And then I ran out of time, lol, and needed something relatively simple.  This idea fit the bill for the most part.  I used a dress card from the Silhouette store, but cut it in half.  

First I wrote out my text in Microsoft word so I could use the spell check.  Then I transferred my text and placed a text box inside the dress shape in Silhouette Studio. Next i used the print and cut feature (my first time!), to cut out two dresses per sheet of paper.  I cut the top half of the dress out of a pretty silver paper and glued that on top of the dress with the text.  Then I used a hot glue gun to glue the tulle over the top, an finally added a blue bow (to hide my glue marks!).  

Other than the fact that neither my mom or I caught the fact that I wrote down 2013 instead of 2014, I was really really happy with how these turned out :)

Gift - Dishcloths and Thank Yous

So once the invitations were out, I needed to come up with a gift for the lucky bride to be.  I wanted to come up with something small, but useful for my future sister in law.  Keeping with her wedding theme of blue and sliver, I made her some blue dishcloths (because I make a pair for every bridal shower I'm invited to), and then I decided to make some thank you notes to match the invitations.  When my aunt threw a shower for me when I was engaged, she gave me a set of thank you notes that matched the invitations that had been sent out.  I found it to be a very thoughtful gift and it made it very easy to quickly write my thanks yous after the shower.  Since this was my first time hosting a shower on my own, I wanted to do the same thing for my future sister-in-law.

I used the same dress card pattern as I did for the invitations, but added blue ribbons and a thanks stamp from Paper Smooches. 

Dessert

I made a simple meal for lunch during the shower, but I wanted to go a little bit fancier for dessert.  After checking with the bride to be, I learned that she preferred cookies over cake (which was just fine with me).  This gave me another chance to practice my royal icing skills.  I found a dress cookie cutter at Williams Sonama and decided to make hearts for something a little smaller (and simpler!).  The cookies were definitely a big hit with my guests!  I put their initials on the hearts and created white dresses with blue sashes and bows.  

  

Now to prep desserts for the grooms dinner and pack for a weekend full of fun!
Have a great day!

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Bachelorette Cookies - Royal Icing

My "little" brother is getting married at the end of the week.  I can't believe it!!!  While he is certainly not little anymore (in fact, he' been taller than me since high school), it's still a little weird for him to be getting married.  Despite that fact that he's getting married makes me feel incredibly old, I am over the moon happy for him and his bride to be.  There's been a lot of celebrating going on recently, and of course, I've been baking and crafting to celebrate the occasion, because that's what I do :)

I hosted a shower for my sister-in-law-to be, and I'll share details on that soon, but first I couldn't wait to share these bachelorette party cookies.  Can you say cute and fun?  Even better - they are Delicious - with a capital D.  Love love Love these cookies.  

  

I had been wanting to try royal icing for a long time, but had been a little (or a lot) intimidated by it.  This occasion gave me the push I needed (with a little inspiration from Pinterest!)

After giving the Royal Icing a try, I have to say that it is definitely not as scary as I thought, however, it IS time consuming.  So not something I want to do all the time, but for an added "WOW!" factor, it's certainly possible.  Royal icing gives you a lot more detail when frosting cookies, so f you are looking for something fancier, definitely give it a try.  If it's your first time doing royal icing, I recommend attempting now more than 2-3 colors - it will make your life much easier, I promise! 

Just a note - the meringue powder for the icing can be found at either a craft store (like Hobby Lobby or Michael s, in their baking isle) or at the grocery store.

Royal Icing Bachelorette Cookies

Adapted from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 TBSP meringue powder
• 5 TBSP water (plus more later for thinning)

Since this is a bit of a special recipe, there are also some tools you will need.  

• Sugar cookies (make sure they are completely cooled!)
• Gel Icing colors (I use Wilton brand)
• Small containers with lids for each color of icing you want to use
• Spoons
• Toothpicks
• Pastry bags with small round tips (I use size 2 or 3 for flooding, and smaller/other sizes for designs and decorating)
• Squeeze bottles

Instructions:

First things first, you'll need to make your icing.  Combine the powdered sugar, meringue power, and water in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.  Mix on low until well blended, then keep mixing!  You will want to mix for about 5 minutes until the icing has a matte appearance (it should not be shiny at all).  Now you will need to add a tiny amount of water - start with 1/2 teaspoons, until it becomes piping consistency.  Piping consistency is when you pick some icing up with a spoon and let it run back into the bowl, it should take about 5 seconds for the icing to be reabsorbed into the rest of the icing.  You can also test out a small amount in your pastry bag as well.  Try not to let your icing get too runny at this point (although if it does get too runny, you can add more powdered sugar to stiffen it up)

*Hint - while you are working with royal icing, make sure to keep any icing you are using covered in a container so that it does not harden on you!  Any pastry bags you are not using (but have incing in them) should be stood up in a glass with a bit of water in the bottom so that the icing in the tip does not harden)*

Ok, so now you have piping icing.  The next step is to tint your icing the color you want to outline your cookies.  Once your icing is colored, you are going to pipe a border around the edge of each cookie.  Let the icing set and harden.  

Next step will be flooding your cookies.  Once your border has hardened, you are going to thin out some more icing.  Take some of your icing in a separate bowl, and add a tiny bit more water.  Now you want the icing to flow off a spoon and disappear in 2-3 seconds back into the bowl of icing.  Let the icing stand about 5 minutes to let any bubble come to the surface, then give the icing one more gentle stir to pop the bubbles (this will save you time later).  Once icing is thinned out, use your squeeze bottles to "flood" your cookie with your main color of icing.  *Hint, you can use a toothpick to help drag the icing to the corners of your cookie if need.  Toothpicks also work great to pop any air bubbles that appear on your cookie.  

Before moving on the the next step, let you cookies dry and harden really well.  You can even leave them out overnight, if needed, to make sure the icing is completely dry.  depending on the weather or the temperature of your kitchen, your cookies could be dry in an hour, but wait longer if you are unsure.  The royal icing helps seal in the moisture of the cookie, so depending what type of sugar cookie you use, you shouldn't have to worry about them drying out. 

Finally, once your main color is done, you are ready to decorate with your piping icing again.  Let dry for at least an hour before packaging or storing.  I do not recommend freezing cookies that have been decorated with royal icing as the icing with gather condensation in the freezer and look funny. 

Congratulations!  You did it!  You decorated with Royal Icing!

To make lingerie cookies, I used a heart cookie cutter - who knew?!

<--- click the magic button for nutrition info and a printer friendly version!

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The 27th year

Yesterday was  my birthday, although it didn't really feel like it.  The last year has flown by... it seems like it was just last summer.  Looking back on this past year, from where I was a year ago, to where I am now - I have to say this has been one of the hardest periods of my life and the one filled with the most intense changes.  Holy Cow has a lot gone on in this past year!  Some of it good, some of it scary and hard, and some of it down right wonderful.

My 27th year in Review

July

I spent last years birthday celebrating with Matt and my cousins

Two days later, Matt and I went camping and biking with his family for three days

Near the end of the month, I celebrated my 2nd bridal shower - this time with Matt's family. 

Promptly after my shower, I returned to Rochester to work on packing (and no, this is not NEARLY all of my stuff... yet)  On July 30th, I moved to La Crescent.

August

I spent the first several weeks trying to unpack all of my stuff from the basement and straighten up Matt's house. 

I did, however, take a break to travel with my best friend R to New York City and see her get engaged!

Right after I returned from New York City, I turned around and traveled to the Cities to start the new school year.  This year, I changed positions.  I was no longer a teacher, but rather an advisor - like a counselor.  It was a tough transition as the advisory position was a new one, so there was lots of tweaking and figuring things out as we went.

September

Labor Day weekend saw me celebrating my third and final shower with my side of the family family and friends. 

The September was a blur of working long hours and frantically trying to pull everything together for our wedding.  Matt was working a lot of weekend hours, but he was being a really good sport helping me out a lot on his days off.

October
I got married!!!!  It was an awesome, amazing, wonderful day!

The hard work paid off!  Matt and I were married on a beautiful October day.  As everyone said, it all came together in the end, and the day went beautifully.  Our ceremony was beautiful and perfect and the reception was all we could ask for - we had a true party (complete with wedding crashers!) thanks to Matt's favorite band, Brat Pack Radio.

November
November seemed to stay busy as we settled into our house as a married couple and celebrated our first holiday as a married couple.  We continued our tradition of being lightbulbs in the Holidazzle parade on Thanksgiving weekend as well.  We also got a chance to celebrate Matt's birthday (he doesn't like big birthday celebrations, so we had a quiet dinner out, just the two of us)

December
December seemed to fly by as well, in preparation of the Holidays.  Matt and I did sneak in a visit to Rotary Lights to relive getting engaged.  :)  And saw the Canadian Pacific Holiday train when it stopped in our town.

We had our many Holiday celebrations with our families and tried to keep as many of our family traditions alive as we could. 

January
Matt worked... End of Story.  He worked a LOT - as in 90 plus hours a week.  It was insane.  He worked 21 straight days to start the month of January.  He would go to work at 9 in the morning and not return until midnight or two am.

February
We got a reward for all of Matt's work!  For one blissful week, right after Valentine's day, we got in some nice quality time when we were finally able to go on our honeymoon.  We went for a cruise in the Caribbean and it was so nice and relaxing and I loved the time with Matt and his undivided attention.  I hope that we can do something like it again sometime soon!

March

We thought winter was going to be over, but it seemed to stick around - basically snowing every Monday.  We made the best of things and went cross country skiing one weekend in March. 

April
April started off very nice, with a week off work for Spring Break.  I got to visit friends and took care of some appointments.  I traveled with Matt and his boss to his boss's hometown for his band's reunion, which was an interesting trip to say the least.
April, however, is no longer a nice month in my book, as it is also the scariest day of my life, when I had to call 911 and my husband was taken to the hospital.  Eventually he was diagnosed as having suffered a stroke and was released from the hospital five days later.

May
Thankfully Matt did not suffer physical limitations from his stroke, but he did have some memory problems and had a slow recovery, once we returned home.  May passed in a blur as I tried to catch up on being gone from school and attempted to close out the school year and complete my end of year work tasks.  Matt was home from work and had some follow up therapy appointments that also kept me busy.  I will be forever grateful for both of our families and my friends who supported us during this very difficult time, especially Matt's dad who would come each day to sit with Matt while I was working.

June
June saw Matt cleared to drive and return to work.  Very quickly he was back to a nearly unrestricted schedule.  He was able to help his company out at all of their big events in June (which means he worked every weekend in June).  So of course, my picture is of the two of us at an event.  On the plus side, the event was a Chicago and Daughtry concert and it was pretty awesome!

June also saw Matt and I make our 3rd annual camping trip to Whitewater state park - it's Matt's favorite park and he loves it.  I enjoy the time together, but this year the bugs and some rain got the better of me.  But for the most part we did have good weather and had fun hiking and exploring. 

July again
And here we are again - July.  We had a great time hosting our badminton tournament on the 4th of July and now we're back to my birthday.  Matt was working (of course) all day yesterday at the last St. Johns block party.  But I did have a good day (and make myself one awesome cake!)

So there you have it - my 27th year - sorry for such a long post!  But as you can see, a lot happened!  I moved, changed positions at work, got married, and went through a medical emergency concerning my husband.
While I may not have been ready to celebrate my birthday yesterday, I sure hope that next year is a little calmer and simpler and I can just slow down and enjoy life with my husband!

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Wedding Pictures - Reception

First Dance

Father Daughter Dance

Mother/Son Dance

3 generations dancing

Bremer kids waiting patiently to dance

My parents actually danced!

Band is firing up!

Dance like an Egyptian!

My Opa had purple hair for me :)

Yummy cakes!

Cutting the cake

Eating cake

Boquet Toss

"How many layers are there?"

My dad's speech

Best Man

Maid of Honor telling Matt to tickle me

Nervous to death to say my Thank Yous

And one armed push-ups in the middle of the dance floor

Siblings

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