I went to my local Habitat for Humanity store today and I am very happy. Cookware and glassware were both 50% off and I racked up. I got a cute little enamel roasting pot for $2.50, a vintage atomizer for $1 and three sets of tea cups for $13.50.

Since my finace is English and the wedding is in January, we’re serving hot tea and hot chocolate at the reception.  I think these teacups will look beautiful stacked up together waiting to be used. Now I just have to keep my eyes open for more sets…

So I’ve been thinking about adding some paper goods to my etsy shop. What do you think? I think it would go well with my paper bangles and I’m always looking for paper and paper cutting supplies to make the bangles, so it would make sense to make other paper items. I’m thinking note card sets and/or stationary.

Here’s a long overdue update on the dress shopping two weeks ago. We went to Bridal Mart in Burlington, NC  and I ordered a dress! I was not expecting to pick one on my very first outing, but this one was “the one” as they say. By the way, if you know someone in NC who is looking for a dress, I highly recommend Bridal Mart. They had a large selection of dresses with good prices and the staff were very friendly (but also un-intrusive). The only down side is they don’t have individual dressing rooms, so you have to change in a big room full of people, which I did not like.

I can’t believe I found THE dress on my first outing.  I only tried on 10 or 11 dresses before finding the one I wanted.  Unfortunately, I can’t share any pics or tell you about it because I don’t want my fiance to see or know anything about the dress until the wedding day. 

I can tell you about my mom’s dress, though. She found one last weekend in a little bridal shop in Hamlet, NC called Bridal Nook. Yep, there is actually a bridal shop worth going to in tiny little Hamlet! The owner there was very friendly and helpful and she had a really good selection of dresses. My mom ordered a mother of the bride dress in the Caterina line by Jordan Fashions. The photo on top is the one she ordered. It comes with a little lacy bolero. I chose the color “pebble” to go with the wintry blue theme of my wedding. The girl on the right in the second photo is wearing a dress in pebble.

Today will be my first outing to look for a wedding dress. I’m excited and a little nervous.  The place we are going is a 15,000 sqft building in Burlington, NC. I’ve never been there, but we’ve heard some good things about it from friends.  I looked through some of the designers they have and I like the looks of Casablanca Bridal and Mori Lee Bridal the best. Of course, trying them on could be a completely different story. Here are some of the dresses I want to check out.

Wish me luck!

First of all, I’m sorry that I haven’t posted in awhile.  My wonderful holiday in England sadly came to an end on the 29th and I had to fly back to America to rejoin reality.  After being there for over two months, it’s been a little difficult to readjust. I’ve been busy catching up with friends and family, recovering from the jet lag, unpacking and doing lots of wedding planning.

For those of you who don’t know, my boyfriend (or should I say fiancé?) and I got engaged during my trip.  We are planning to apply for a visa for me to move to the UK and we are planning the wedding for January, 2010. Needless to say, I have TONNES to do.  On top of looking for a job and planning a wedding less than 6 months away, I have to go through all the steps to apply for a visa and get ready to move overseas. I can’t believe this is all happening!  I am very excited and a little bit overwhelmed.

Luckily, my sister in law, who is also my maid of honor, has jumped in with both feet to help with all the planning.  We’ve already decided on most of the decorations and the seating chart for the ceremony and who will be wearing what.  Last night we chose my colors.  I knew that I wanted a few different shades of blue-green and I wanted the colors to look wintery to go with the Jan wedding theme.  Here’s a tip if you’re planning a wedding. Go to your local hardware store to choose the exact colors you want from the wide variety of paint swatches available. Once you’ve decided, pick up a few extra swatches. You can give these to the bridesmaids, mother’s of the bride and groom, the cake decorator and so on. This way, everyone knows exactly what you mean by “icy blue” or “dark teal” and will be able to choose accordingly.

So here are my colors. Aren’t they pretty?? Just in case you are wondering, they are all Valspar colors and I used the Valspar website to find the colors online to make my digital color palette. Also, check out my Inspiration board to see my dream dress and some of the decorations I’m thinking about.

Since the chocolate-chocolate cupcakes I made yesterday were so good, I thought I’d share the recipe that I found on a great blog called CAKE ON THE BRAIN.  If you head over to the blog, be sure not to miss the amazing, breath-taking Ariel’s Underwater Castle Cake that CakeBrain made for her daughter’s birthday.

I used CakeBrain’s Chocolate Cupcakes recipe for the cake and the icing and borrowed her idea of using Marshmallow Fluff Filling, except I used chocolate cream instead.

I designed a recipe card using an editable .pdf, so you can print the cupcake recipe or edit the text to print your own recipes on the cards. Enjoy!

Download the recipe here.

Yesterday was my birthday!  Since my fiance had to work, we’re saving the celebrating for tonight and tomorrow, but I got to open my presents and make cake.    My fiance gave me a selection of presents from etsy: a necklace made from an Edwardian bead, a cute reusable fabric lunch bag and some mineral makeup that I picked out. Isn’t he sweet?

I also got a Wilton Dessert Decorator from Linda, which was part of the inspiration for my cupcake tower.

I decided to make a cupcake tower because I’ve seen a lot of them around lately and I wanted to give it a try.  It ended up taking a lot longer than I expected (around 3 hours!) by the time I made two types of cupcakes and three batches of icing and did all of the decorating. I’m really pleased with how it came out.

The white cupcakes are basic vanilla, and the chocolate ones are moist chocolate filled with chocolate cream.  The white and pink icing are creamcheese buttercream and the chocolate icing is chocolate ganache buttercream.  I think the chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing were definitely the best.

Oh, and by the way, the dessert decorator made things so much easier (and prettier, I might add).  The tube held a lot of icing so I didn’t have to refil often and the pump was easy to squeeze. The icing came out quickly and evenly. If I ever do this again I’ll probably make it easier on myself by only having one type of cupcake. Then I’ll have more time to do the decorating.

It’s all about home decor this week

Linda, my future mother-in-law, was busy baking this weekend.  She made anzac biscuits which are dense, chewy, sweet cookies with oatmeal and coconut and a very tastey coffee and walnut cake.  I made a swiss cake roll but it wasn’t pretty enough for photos.

Anzac Biscuits

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F)

1 cup flour

4oz butter or margerine

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup Quaker oats

1 cup coconut

2 tablespoons golden syrup

1 teaspoon baking soad

1 tablespoon hot water

Mix together all dry ingredients (except the soda). Warm syrup and butter together, do not make hot, merely melt. Pour hot water over baking soda and mix all ingredients well.  Roll into balls, put on greased tin and bake for 15 mins.

Coffee and Walnut Cake

for the cake:

175g/6oz self-rising flour

125g/4oz butter or margerine

175g/6oz golden caster sugar

1 tbsp instant coffee powder or granules

2 large eggs

50g/2oz walnuts, roughly chopped

for the icing:

1 tsp instant coffee powder or granules

1 tsp cocoa powder

75g/3oz unsalted butter, softened

175g/6oz icing/powdered sugar, sifted

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).  Lightly oil the bases of two circular cake pans and set aside.

2. Beat the butter or margerine and sugar together until light and creamy. Dissolve the coffee in 2tbsp hot water and allow to cool.

3. Lightly mix the eggs with the coffee liquid. Gradually beat into the creamed butter and sugar, adding a little of the sifted flour with each addition.

4. Fold in the walnuts, then divide the mixture between the two prepared tins and bake for 20-25 minutes.

5. Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before turning out onto cooling racks.

6. To make the icing, blend together the coffee and cocoa powder with enough boiling water to make a stiff paste. Beat into the butter and icing sugar.

7. Sandwich the two cakes together using icing and sprinkle sifted icing sugar on top to decorate.

Lately I’ve been on a free printable files kick. If you haven’t seen my posts from the last two weeks, click here and here for more downloads.  This week I have discovered Jinjerup and Twig & Thistle.  Click on each photo to download the files directly from the blogs.

Jinjerup’s cute fruit bookmarks and kitchen labels.

Treat box with recipe by Twig & Thistle.