Saturday, December 11, 2010

Burnt Brittle


I decided to kick off my Christmas season cookie baking by trying something new this year, which actually wasn't cookies at all -- Bacon Peanut Brittle! I found the recipe on, of all places, the Mint.com blog, a blog which has nothing to do with lamb chops or mojitos, but rather personal budgeting. Bacon peanut brittle promised to be a low cost holiday treat, and while it didn't require any fancy ingredients, it did require some close attention.

This was my first time making brittle, or any kind of homemade candy, but everything was going smoothly -- I was fascinated to watch the corn syrup bubble and the heat on the candy thermometer rise... but apparently I was a little more fascinated by the scheme unfolding at the hands of Little J, Vanessa and Juliet on Gossip Girl to dethrone Serena as queen of the UES, because the candy got a little scorched in the saucepan.

That explains why it's so much darker than the photo on MyMansBelly.com. If you're the kind of person who likes their bacon extra crispy, or their drip coffee from Starbucks, you might still like my brittle. I know I'll still eat it. But maybe I'm best off sticking to safe standards like my Christmas Balls.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Sweet & Spicy Halloween


Tried something sweet & spicy for this year's pumpkin seeds.


I'm not sure I actually caramelized anything, but they are sweet and they are spicy and they are delicious!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Wedding Crafts & Gifts in Action

Check it out, my DIY hair piece totally worked! And stayed put even during this serious dance party to Pulp's "Common People."

Following the wedding we took three days to just RELAX right here in Brooklyn. Good bye wedding diet! Hellooo egg creams...

We visited the MoMA where there is an exhibit called Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen. Tupperware was featured prominently, and I was tickled to spy the very same popsicle molds I own, passed down from Mom and used in my popsicle test kitchen post last summer.


And while we made the rule not to touch the kitchen during our post-wedding staycation, Mr Homewrecker was super psyched to try out one of our wedding presents, a Moroccan-style tagine from the Brooklyn Kitchen. This is a photo of lamb shoulder tagine with apricots, chick peas and slivered almonds. Mmmm nom nom nom. Being married to a great cook rules!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

DIY Wedding Wednesday: Crafts!

Holy crap, it's only days until matrimony. Wedding crafts are in full swing and I wanted to just take a moment to share what I've been working on.


We wanted to give our guests some kind of personalized favor more unique than a baggie of chocolate almonds without spending a bundle. After seeing this blog post from Once Wed*, I got the idea to borrow the button maker at my office to make our own wearable favors. My friend Toby came over and we cut out something like 200 buttons from metallic paper printed on our home printer plus some abstract buttons made from scrapbooking paper that matched our color scheme. Cute, right?


After bookmarking several Etsy boutiques with feathered hair pieces for my maids, it occurred to me that I own a glue gun -- I can do this myself! Instead I bought "blank" hair combs and headbands from Etsy and glued on peacock feathers and silver embellishments. For my bride hair comb, I used bleached peacock feathers from Jamali Garden (a haven for DIY brides!) and added a 1950's vintage brooch I found at Pippin Vintage Jewelry in Manhattan. I'll share some more impressive photos after the pro takes pics at the wedding with our hair done did up.

Next? Glue several yards of silver decorative fringe onto my cardboard cupcake stand...

When you hear from me next, I'll be married -- wish us luck!!


*Footnote: I grabbed a lot of inspiration from Kim & Zac's wedding, whoever they are. I believe it's also where I got the idea to shop at Unique Vintage for my dress and where I got the idea to buy turquoise shoes. Which I did. Thanks Kim & Zac & Once Wed!


Monday, September 6, 2010

An Ode to Summer Sweets

On this last unofficial day of summer, I felt it was time for an ode to summer desserts.


Earlier this summer I got a cherry pitter, a blogger gift from Cookware.com, an online source for every conceivable kitchen item be it a coffee maker or an ice cream scooper. After a sloppy but delicious attempt at apple pie, I decided for the cherry pie to try a more traditional pie crust recipe from Joy of Cooking that relied on vegetable shortening. While the fresh sweet cherry insides were delicious, and the pitter a huge help, I gotta say the crust was greasy, too salty, and even more impossible to roll out and cut than the recipe I used for the apple pie.

But the real problem was my lack of a proper pie pan. As you can see in the photo above, the disposable aluminum pan I used leaked all over, effectively fusing my cherry pie to my baking sheet. I'm pretty sure much of this pie was consumed with a spoon directly over the sink.


My next summer dessert endeavor was much more successful. Down in Red Hook, Brooklyn is a whimsical spot called Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies. Steve's has these crazy delicious things called Swingles which are tart-sized key limes pies, dipped in dark chocolate and frozen on a stick.

[Pauses while you drool] Yeah, I know.

So when I received a set of tart pans as a wedding shower gift, the first thing I thought to bake was homemade Swingles. Luckily I found the actual Steve's Authentic key lime pie recipe on the Food Network's website, and it was surprisingly simple. Figuring out how to dip the tarts in dark chocolate, however, was much more challenging. Without a double boiler big enough to dip a whole tart into, I simply melted dark chocolate baking bars in the microwave and poured it over the top of the tarts, spreading it out with a rubber spatula. After freezing them for awhile, I flipped the pies and poured chocolate over the other side, then returned them to the freezer. Somehow it worked!


When I visited Steve's later in the summer, I realized that my Swingles were about 50% larger and I probably didn't need to melt an entire chocolate bar over each one, but hey, my decadent DIY Swingles sure made Mr. Homewrecker happy.


With the success of the Swingles, I confidently decided to wing it with another tart pan creation. My mom had given me a bag of rhubarb from her garden, so I improvised rhubarb blackberry tarts using the same graham cracker crust from the Steve's recipe. And whatta you know, it worked!


Of course no summer dessert ode would be complete without a nod to ice cream. And since I have not yet attempted to make my own, I would like to give a shout out to my favorite, local, hand-crafted ice cream -- Greene Ice Cream. Last summer the proprietors of The General Greene, a great restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, built an ice cream cart and started peddling kick ass Philadelphia-style (eggless) ice cream made in small batches from seasonal ingredients. Locals rave about the Salted Carmel Pretzel and I'm crazy for the Bitter Chocolate Mint. If you are ever in the neighborhood, run don't walk to The General Greene before ice cream season is over!

Bidding farewell to summer is as bittersweet as those Swingles, because the only thing I love more than summer treats, are the pumpkin and spice desserts of fall. Keep an eye out for another product review from Cookware.com or another of the CSN network of online shops -- perhaps it's time for a proper pie pan.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Crazy Bird Lady



Someone please buy this adorable bird vase. Because I already own something north of five ceramic birds, and I don't want to become that "crazy bird lady" at 30.

On sale for only $10 from ethanollie this weekend on Etsy.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Just in Time



The new apartment decorating has come along. Above is the living room with our new Howard Miller wall clock, a gift from the folks at CSN Stores -- an online one-stop-shop for everything from bedroom furniture sets to the kitchen sink. Literally. We love the simple and modern, yet traditional, look of the clock. It also has a special feature which resets the clock for daylight savings so you don't have to, but to be honest it made setting the clock to begin with a real chore. Check out the clock here.



We updated our living room, which featured a plastic folding table and a stereo on milkcrates, with a Formica dining table and funky mid-century lamp from Junk and a vintage cabinet from the Brooklyn Flea. Visitors always ask, "What's with the 14?" The "14" above the couch is a piece of found art, if you will, which Mr. Homewrecker picked up from a TV set he was working on. Not sure what its original purpose was, but it's made of some kind of frosty plexiglass and it looks striking on our wall. Now all we need before my parents come visit next weekend is an arm chair and a new rug. Something to really tie the room together.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

DIY Wedding Wednesday: We Wed Econo



I've started reading Michael Azerrad's book Our Band Could Be Your Life about the emergence of indie and punk rock in the 1980's, and I was reading the chapter about The Minutemen on the subway on my way home from work today. I'm still not sure I actually dig The Minutemen's herky jerky, weirdo music all that much, but I have mad respect for their attitude when it came to being in a band. No sense of entitlement, no egos, just a crazy work ethic and dedication to D.I.Y. and touring and releasing records as affordably as possible -- "jamming econo" as they called it.

That's my kind of guys.

I found myself thinking about The Minutemen again tonight as I'm hand-gluing together all the invitations for our wedding. The invitations we designed ourselves with paper we bought from a wholesaler and printed at a local copy shop. It's not unlike self-releasing a 7" or printing up your own show flyers. Just like The Minutemen realized they didn't need to wait for some almighty hand to reach down and make them rock stars like Journey or CCR, they could just Do It Yourself. And they did. So it was with us as we priced out all the professional stationers out there, we realized we could save a thousand bucks if we just got creative.

We wed econo!

photo nabbed from marathonpacks.com

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

D.I.Y. Wedding Wednesday: Summer Wedding Decor



While I'm still at work on our D.I.Y. wedding creations, I wanted to share some awesome design from some friends' recent nuptials. Above is a photo I stole from Facebook from my friend Valerie's backyard wedding. How cute are her "I'm a Fan of Valerie & Matt" fans?



Last month we escaped upstate for our friends' Hillary & Dan's Catskills wedding. Everything from the Save the Dates to the signature cocktails were perfectly coordinated hues of pink with brown and green accents. Hillary and our friends made dozens of tissue paper flowers which adored every corner of the venue (a Dirty Dancing-esque Ukrainian summer camp!), they glued fortunes on old timey soda straws plus many other creative touches that made for a very beautiful, personalized celebration.







Our talented friend Melissa, aka Cake Hero, outdid herself with a delicious collection of flower-topped wedding cakes.



Less than three months to our wedding, my decor planning -- and better yet, my SHOPPING -- is is full swing. I ordered a shipment of feathers and vases from Save-On-Crafts, an online wonderland of wedding D.I.Y. Of course I somehow shattered one of three 20" vases as I was unpacking it, but the fine people at Save-On-Crafts graciously agreed to send a replacement. I've also been making trips to the wholesale floral district for arm loads of willow branches (which I carried on my head back to my office where they are currently making my cubicle a willowy jungle) and taking lunch breaks at Paper Presentation to hem and haw over thank you cards and decorative paper from the scrapbooking section. Oh how Martha Stewart I could get on this wedding if I only had a little more time, budget and patience with pinking shears and glue sticks.

I got bridal-showered by friends and family in Chicago, which was a truly lovely event. I received about two suitcases worth of bath towels, steak knives, an iron skillet and a stone mortar and pestle, amongst other things. Needless to say, getting back on the plane was a challenge. I'm also the idiot who thought to put an ironing board on our registry, not considering how someone would manage to gift wrap it, let alone tote it to or from a shower or wedding. Nevertheless, I'm psyched to finally have a proper surface on which to iron. I might actually have to start ironing (crap!).

Next D.I.Y. wedding project? Invites designed my Mr. Homewrecker! Lots of gluing and envelope licking in our near future...

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Where Pies Go When They Die



While Mr. Homewrecker has been busy rearranging the house plants every day, I've been making myself at home in the new apartment by getting friendly with the oven. Perhaps not the best activity in 90 degree heat...



But I simply had to have pie after watching (20 years late) the Twin Peaks series! Pie and some good, hot, black coffee.



Even though my apple pie looked sort of effed up, it tasted damn good. Especially my homemade crust which tasted a bit like shortbread. Apparently the trick in making a successful pie crust is in keeping the dough chilled, but I managed to create a sticky, lumpy disaster zone nonetheless. If anyone has any pie crust tips to get the dough thinner without it becoming too warm or sticky, please tell me. Perhaps tip #1 would be, don't try to bake a pie in 90 degree heat.

Still, results = delicious, if not attractive. Next I will try my hand at Twin Peaks Cherry Pie, especially now that the fine people at CSN Stores have hooked me up with a time-saving pitter!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Don't Get Caught With Your Plants Down

Almost as if the gods of homemaking were listening (as opposed to the imps of homewrecking who live under my bed with the dust bunnies), I received an offer this week from the good folks over at the CSN network of shopping sites. Magically aware of my need for some new, affordable housewares for the new apartment, they have offered to send me a new clock to adorn the big empty space above our charming-yet-not-functional brick fireplace. Pics of the clock and the living room coming soon as we start to deck out the place.



Meanwhile, the bathroom and bedroom are almost totally put together! Mr. Homewrecker painted the bedroom a pleasing shade of tan and painstakingly restored the beautiful molding to its proper glossy white.



Rather than fight the super yellow bathroom, I embraced it with some coordinating yellow totes from Target mixed with some dark brown baskets. We also took a cue from home & food blogger A Hawk From a Handsaw and disguised the exposed sink pipes with a snake plant. Smart!



Now Mr. Homemaker has been on mission: PLANTS filling every window with green leafy things. He spray painted mismatched pots black to coordinate in the sunny bathroom window.

While I wait for my awesome new wall clock, check out CSN's 200+ specialized shopping sites -- everything from waterbeds to tailgating supplies!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Warm Weather Recipes: Lemon & Rhubarb



With the onset of warm weather here in Brooklyn, and in celebration of a kitchen finally unpacked from the move, this past week I've whipped up two refreshingly fruity treats. Finding rhubarb was a challenge though. Not typically found at grocery stores, I had to trek down to the neighborhood farmer's market -- normally not a big deal, but challenging as I recently underwent foot surgery and am only days out of wearing a surgical boot. But dammit I limped down there, and just when I thought no one had my sought after stalks, the last vendor in the row (a meat vendor, oddly) had a pile at $4 a pound. Success! On to the cooking...



LEMON SQUARES
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
  • 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for dusting
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
  • 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 3 lemons)
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan. Line bottom with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides; butter paper.
  2. Make crust: Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy. Add flour, and mix on low just until combined. Press dough into the bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of prepared pan; prick all over with a fork. Bake until lightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes.
  3. Make filling: In a large bowl, whisk together yolks, condensed milk, and lemon juice until smooth. Pour over hot crust in pan; return to oven, and bake until filling is set, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan.
  4. Refrigerate until filling is firm, about 2 hours or up to 3 days. Using paper overhang, lift cake onto a work surface; cut into 16 squares, and dust with confectioners sugar.
Recipe from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food

HSHW Notes: This turned out awesome, and Mr. Homewrecker was super impressed saying they were the best lemon squares he'd ever had! The crust, however, took way longer than 20 minutes to bake. Maybe 40 minutes in all. Not sure if it's the recipe or if my new oven is wimpy. Ditto for the filling -- I left it in an extra 10-15 minutes. Never got around to removing them from the pan to cut into squares. We just keep cutting pieces out of the dish and eating them immediately.

I swear I'm going to save a few for the upstairs neighbors who are letting us share their internet. Right after I eat one more...



PORK WITH RHUBARB COMPOTE AND LEMONY ORZO

Pork ingredients:
  • 6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons dried rubbed sage
  • 2 teaspoons fennel seeds, ground in spice mill or in mortar with pestle
  • 2 1/2 pounds pork tenderloins (about 2 large or 3 medium), trimmed of fat and sinew
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Rhubarb ingredients:
  • 3 cups 1-inch pieces fresh rhubarb (from about 1 pounds)
  • 3/4 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup water
How To:

First the rhubarb: Combine all ingredients in heavy large saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until rhubarb is very soft and begins to fall apart, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Transfer compote to medium bowl. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, about 3 hours. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover and keep chilled.) Serve cold.



Then the meat: Mix 3 tablespoons olive oil, ground black pepper, salt, dried sage, and ground fennel in small bowl. Rub oil mixture all over pork tenderloins; place in large baking dish and let stand 20 minutes.

Heat remaining 3 tablespoons oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook until browned on all sides, about 6 minutes. Reduce heat to medium; cover and cook until instant-read thermometer inserted into center of pork registers 150°F, turning pork occasionally, about 8 minutes longer for medium tenderloins and 10 minutes for large.

Transfer pork to cutting board; let rest 5 minutes. Cut pork crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices; arrange on platter. Sprinkle with parsley; garnish with sage sprigs. Serve with Rhubarb Compote & orzo seasoned with lemon zest and chopped parsley.

Recipes from Epicurious.

HSHW Notes: I was making the pork dish for a food swap with several lady friends, so Mr. Homewrecker advised I make thinly cut, bone-in chops instead so they wouldn't dry out before people got to eat them. I'm not sure if it really made a difference or not, but I gave it a shot. The only real change to the recipe was frying the chops for 3-4 min on each side -- which was a time saver in the end.



There's a shot of my meals ready for swapping. After trading, I came home with a spicy shrimp dish, sesame noodles with poached chicken, a lemony rice and chicken dish and a couple other great summery meals I'll be enjoying all week. Sharing rules! Best of all, the swap hostess has a beautiful roof deck where we sipped Prosecco, munched on grilled garlic scapes, fought to keep one guest's dog from flopping off the roof, and enjoyed a late spring NYC sunset.

Plus she has a box of kittens that need adopting -- come on, you know you want one:



Here's to summer time cooking, baking, grilling and to cute kittens!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Intensely Disappointing



For those who read this blog, you know that I may be sarcastic and self deprecating and frequently poke fun at the stupidity I observe out there. However, those who actually know me would probably say that I'm polite and understanding, perhaps to a fault. I wouldn't call myself a doormat, but I am prone to give people the benefit of the doubt way more than anyone deserves.

And that is why the experience I had with our apartment move last week makes me feel so crazy. I got terrible service from an otherwise highly recommended moving company, and then the manager of the company put the blame on me! Naturally I felt depressed by this situation and spent hours wondering if he was right -- was it really all my fault? Maybe by sharing the story with you, I will clear my conscience and find out from your comments where to place the blame.

Let me start by listing what went wrong:

> the move took six hours to move a 2BR apt 10 blocks
> the movers let our belongings pile up on the sidewalk, quickly irritating our new landlord
> they broke my lamp
> they left behind a piece of hardware for our bed, which my fiance had to go back to retrieve at midnight just so we could assemble our bed to go to sleep
> they LOST MY COFFEE TABLE

There's other things too that may or may not be their handiwork -- a snag on the love seat, a ding in the bookcase -- which could have been avoided had they wrapped or protected our furniture more carefully. But even just losing my coffee table alone was enough to make me want money back, payback, revenge even.

I called the next morning to complain. The manager wanted to know what kind of coffee table, what kind of bed hardware, as if a description would explain why these items did not make it to our new home. He said he would get back to me. This was not the reaction I wanted. Shortly thereafter we discovered the cracked lamp, at which point Mr. Homewrecker got on the phone to give Intense Movers a piece of his mind. After what seemed like a lot of unnecessary arguing, the movers offered us a $40 refund. Hardly even the cost of the coffee table.

So why, you may wonder, was I being told this way MY fault? The truth is, I underestimated how many boxes we were going to have to move. I accurately itemized our furniture, appliances and musical equipment to Intense Movers over email and estimated "15 to 20 boxes" for the rest -- the clothes, the books, the CDs, the towels, the blankets, the shoes, the pot and pans, the etc etc etc that filed our closets and cupboards. In the end it was more like 6o boxes, though most of no more than three cubic feet. I mentioned to Intense Movers on the phone a few days before the move that I thought I may have more boxes than originally thought, and I assumed that would be enough of a warning. At worst maybe they would charge me a fee for the additional stuff -- which they did. Fine.

Now I've hired movers in the past. They didn't ask for a super specific inventory in advance, just a rough idea and a number of rooms being moved. They came prepared to deal with whatever that actually means in terms of boxes. It seems absurd to me that I am the first person in the history of Intense moves who underestimated how many boxes she would have. Once you start upending dressers and digging out closets, it can be shocking how much crap you've crammed in there. But the manager of Intense Movers told me that they've never had this problem before. Really?!

So Intense Movers showed up for my move with only two dudes and a smaller-than-needed truck. I didn't mind that they had to go back for a bigger truck, and I was patient as they slowly moved all our stuff into the truck. I had expected better service for my money, but as I said, benefit of the doubt and all. I just let them do their thing. Plus they were cool guys. Nice guys about my age; a musician and a stand up comedian. White guys from hipster Brooklyn. Guys I'd probably hang out with.

Problem is, "nice" and "cool" a good mover does not make.



The last time I moved, I hired three Russian guys. They loaded my stuff onto their truck faster than I could sweep up after them, protecting my furniture in a tornado of plastic wrap and moving blankets and hoisting things onto their massive backs with inhuman strength. But I gave Intense Movers a shot this time because a friend thought they did a great job with her last move -- being extra careful with her vinyl collection, and related skills hipster movers are expected to have. And yeah, they were careful with Mr. Homewreckers drums, but while they were busy texting about band practice, someone walked off with my coffee table. FAIL.

When I called the manager again the next day to smooth things over and see if I could squeeze more of a refund out of him, he was borderline hostile towards me. I politely owned up to the underestimate of boxes, I allowed for the six hour move, the extra fee -- fine. I wasn't particularly mad about that (disappointed, yes; mad, whatever). But I could not see how losing and breaking my furniture was OK. In his opinion, however, if I had accurately estimated my boxes none of that would have happened. Whaaaa? I mean, sure, if a third guy had been there maybe he would have been standing on the sidewalk in that moment when the culprit walked off with my table. Maybe. Or maybe he would have been texting about band practice too.

In the end I talked them into refunding me a whopping $80, which I have yet to receive. And I swore to destroy them via social media and word-of-mouth. Therefore I ask you to consider when you read reviews of Intense Movers saying they are "cool" and "nice" if that is going to make your move a success as much as "careful" and "efficient" would.

Now that I've explained the entire situation, tell me (if you are still reading) -- am I to blame? Am I crazy for wanting money back, for wanting an apology, for wanting to write negative reviews?

Or is it as simple as LOST/BROKEN STUFF = JOB POORLY DONE?

**UPDATE - June 14, 2010**

After my prolific web bitching about Intense Movers, the owner Matt (who, I stand corrected, is not the guy I dealt with on the phone) called to talk about the situation. I appreciate him taking the time to do so, because really what upset me most was the way Alex (the guy I DID talk to on the phone) handled things. On my end -- lesson learned not to assume that movers will be prepared for the size of my move, in particular flat rate movers, so I should be more accurate in setting up the move to avoid the situation we had last month. On their end -- I hope they've learned not to trust the amateur estimates of their clients and to always send at least three guys to move anything bigger than a studio apt. That would be my advice anyway. That and dealing with unsatisfied customers a little more delicately.

Thank you Matt for the call, and I'm sorry Mr. Homewrecker gave you an earfull. For as much as I've griped here, I don't know how you do it -- heavy lifting all day + dealing with stressed out people like us.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

A Rose for Don Corleone



Ok, I'm a day behind on "DIY Wedding Wednesday," but I've been busy packing up the apartment for another move. It will be the 4th home in as many years, but this time we're really planning to settle in, getting married and all. Count on some HSW decor updates soon.

But for now, I'm back with another wedding planning post. I've been exploring the options for DIY wedding bouquets and flower arrangements, and wanted to share some advice and resources.

As you may know, NYC has no shortage of fresh flowers for sale at on almost every block at corner bodegas and neighborhood markets. We even have a wholesale flower district as one user on on the Brownstoner forum tells us: "There are still a few flower markets left in 27th & 28th street between 6th and 7th ave in Manhattan - good deals for bulk." Another user offers advice on hydrangeas, my wedding flower of choice, "to keep hydrangea going for more than 12 hours, you have to smash the stem when you get them home. take a hammer or something heavy and smash the stem. they need that much water. next day, cut and repeat. keep in fridge overnight helps too." Good to know if you are going the DIY route.

My fav wedding craft and decor site Save-On-Crafts has several guides on how to make your own bouquets plus all the supplies you'll need: satin ribbon, floral tape, corsage pins, etc.

After poking around on wedding forums like Indiebride.com, it sounds like mail-order bulk flowers are a good option for the crafty bride too. I have scoped out a couple like fiftyflowers.com and rosesource.com and I think this might be the way to go. No need to run an errand to the flower district -- the flowers come to you!

Has anyone out there tried mail-order bulk flowers before? Let me know your experiences and recommendations. I think I'm going to be going with Rose Source based on customer reviews, their prices and the fact that they can ship the exact pale yellow rose my husband-to-be is requesting. It's hilarious to me the wedding things he decides to have a strong opinion on. Like, I didn't think boutonnieres would be one, but he got this idea that he wants to look just like Don Corleone on the day of his daughter's wedding with a single rose on his lapel which he can sniff dramatically. Only the rose will be yellow, not red, because that's the color he chose for our wedding palate when he got a bee in his bonnet about wanting a pale yellow necktie. What a weirdo, I'm so psyched to be marrying him!



Finally, I wanted to share this great group of images I found on RuffledBlog.com showing single stem flowers on display in all variety of vintage bottles and vases. Those yellow roses will look beautiful in the bottles I've been collecting, like in the photo on the lower right.



To order your wholesale flowers -- from Alstroemeria to Zinnia (ok, not zinnia, but tulips, yes they have tulips) -- click here to visit Rose Source:

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Wedding Cake Toppers That Should Not Be

Oh hell no.







The 'Bride "In Charge" Wearing Pants and Groom "Not In Charge" Without Cake Topper' is so not okay:



And then these ones I have no problem with, except that instead of calling it what it is, it's the "Fashionable Bride And Groom Mix & Match Cake Toppers."



I guess "mix and match" is a cute euphemism for gay marriage.

These and many more wedding accessories -- some stupid, some perfectly adorable -- can be found at Wedding Star.