Video Crush

There's no words that I can think of to describe the photoshoot video below!

Beltane Ranch, Sonoma Photoshoot from andrew msv on Vimeo.

Wasn't that breath-taking?

Another Wonderful Weekend

Well, another weekend has come and gone...

Saturday, Ted and I rode our bikes up to the Zoo and checked out the new Elephant Odyssey (which was amazing!) and then we attended a house party with some friends. We had a blast! The weather was perfect! The food was awesome! And of course the drinks were flowing :)

Sunday, we made some breakfast and watched a Netflix. Then some of our friends came over to visit and have some lunch! Then Ted's sister and her fiance came over to listen to the wedding music Ted has created for the two of them. It makes me cry just listening to it! How cool is it that they get a completely custom, one of a kind, wedding ceremony music? Anyways, I did his sister's hair and we talked about what we were going to do for makeup on the "big day". Then we walked up to Luigi's for some pizza and stopped by the bakery for some dessert!

All in all, the weekend was GREAT!

I'm In Shock!

First Farrah then Michael...

Two icons pass away and leave us all speachless! It's completely surreal to me that Michael Jackson is no longer with us. It makes me so sad for him and his family that he was ridiculed, had everything taken away from him and now that he's dead... all of the media is jumping on it and praising his life. It's just not fair that the media can push someone over the edge and once they go over, mistake it for just another news story!

A Sad Loss...

Early this morning, the beloved Farrah Fawcett lost her long battle with cancer. My heart goes out to her family, she was only 62. While I was working at a restaurant called The Fish Market, she and her boyfriend, Ryan O'Neal came in to eat two days in a row. She looked extemely tired and very skinny. But there was no doubt that it was her! I actually took them their drinks... her voice was weak but she was very pleasant. In some way, even though I only met her once, I feel deep sympathy and I feel a loss. Kinda weird, I know!

High Fidelity

I've seen the movie a million times but I just never got around to reading the book... until now. I just finished it last night and (in my opinion) it was better than the movie! They did a pretty good job casting and such but I think it would have been much better in London (where the book takes place) because a lot is missing. There's so much that doesn't "transfer" if you get what I'm saying! Anyways, I did enjoy it and if you click on the "book" link above, it's on Google Books for you to read!

Mock Board

Do you ever have days that you stress about them getting here for so long that once they're here, they're already gone? That was yesterday for me.

I am in Cosmetology school and we had a "mock board" exam yesterday (meaning our teacher treated this midterm as if we were at the real State Board exam. There was no talking, we used real people to do our timed procedures on, and we were graded on every single thing we did.

I'm normally okay under pressure but right before we started, my friend hadn't shown up yet and I started to panic. She was on her way through traffic but we were starting already. She showed up literally in the last minute but everything worked out just fine. I got my confidence back after the first procedure and I think over all I did very well. I completed 4 out of the 5 procedures. The last one was what they call a "State Board Set" and this is to demonstate all hairstyling techniques without tools. You fingerwave the entire head, then use rollers, stand-up pincurls and forward and backward pincurls. This was my first time doing it on a real person, we normally do this on our doll heads. Well, I almost finished! I had 4 more pincurls to do when the buzzer went off. Oh well! I did my best!

MDA & Father's Day

On Saturday, we were invited to the MD Tailgate BBQ and a Padres game. It was pretty good last year so we decided that we'd go with Ted's family and a couple of friends. The BBQ was great! Drinks and icecream were free! The weather was overcast and sorta perfect actually. We decided to go to a tavern near by in between the BBQ and the game because we were craving nachos and wanted to get them for a decent price... not stadium price. We sat at a booth with the game on right behind us and we decided to just stay there and watch the game! All in all, the day was great!

Then, Sunday morning, our friends came over for a french toast and bloody mary breakfast! We met up with Ted's parents to take the hike up to see his grandparents (about 1.5 hours away). The weather couldn't have been nicer! It was about 85 with a perfect breeze! We had BBQ again but who's counting :) It was such a pleasant Father's day!

Pillow Talk

I am having a really tough time finding "the right" pillow. I like firm but not rock firm... all of the pillows I've been getting are great in the beginning but within one month, they are flat as paper.

Any suggestions?

*Update: Ted bought me a wonderful pillow... hope it works!*

Embossing

I'm doing my invitations myself (with the creative help of Ted's sister, Sarah) and I love the way embossing them really adds a touch of elegance. So Ted's mom was so kind to let me use all of her embossing stuff for my invitations! I know it's pretty simple but I searched online for techniques and came across this video:

Hope it helps!

DIY {tissue paper garden centerpieces}

This is a cute idea for a DIY project for your wedding centerpieces.

For more wedding goodies, check out OnceWed, if you haven't already...

Peonies & Craspedias

are my favorite flower! But they won't be in season for my wedding so I searched the Internet to see what options I had... and to my surprise, I stumbled across this.

A sewing project for peonies! How cute are these? If I'm going to have fake flowers, at least they will be handmade... Oh, I'm excited to get started on this fun little project!

Do these flowers make anyone else as happy as they do me? I just LOVE them!

Away We Go

This looks amazing! Wow, I don't know what to do with so many great movies coming! I guess I'll have to bust out my student ID and make for a few cheap date nights... well, kind of cheap!

Loving Ikea

Ikea is a great place to look for vases, lanterns, candles etc...

first row: snartig $0.79ea, farm $1.99ea

second row:rotera $4.99ea, karaboda $2.99ea

third row: salong $4.99ea, sockerart $6.99ea

{recipe} Chicken, Rice and Veggies

As a student, I try to stretch out the dollar to the max and have come up with a solid meal with just a few ingredients.

Ingredients:
4 frozen chicken tenders, defrosted and cubed
1 cup frozen veggies (any combo)
1 box Rice a Roni (I used low sodium chicken flavor)
4 cups chicken broth or stock
1 can cream of chicken
any kind of poultry seasoning (I used one called roasted chicken)
pepper
hot sauce (I love Tapatio)

Directions:
Boil 1 cup of chicken broth in large skillet. Throw in veggies (frozen is fine). Cook for 3 minutes. Then throw in cubed chicken. Sprinkle with seasoning and pepper. Reduce heat to Medium.

In a smaller pot, follow directions for rice but instead of water, use chicken broth. Simmer for 15 minutes and then pour rice into larger skiller with chicken and veggies.

Pour in cream of chicken and stir everything together. At this time, I added hot sauce. Let it simmer for another 5 minutes and then serve.

It's the easiest, cheapest meal and it's very flavorful! When you need to feed 2-3 people for under $10, this is the best option! Enjoy!

Nordstrom Wedding Dresses

Sue Wong Beaded Lace Gown-- Sale: Original $458-Sale $183

BCBGMAXAZRIA Lace & Tulle Tier Gown-- $570

Laundry by Shelli Segal Strapless Charmeuse Gown-- $295

Phoebe Strapless Silk Chiffon Dress -- $348

Whatever Works

Okay, this movie looks amazing! Larry David in a Woody Allen movie... why has this never happend before?

{recipe} Yellow Curry Chicken & Veggies

I found myself craving Thai food but my expenses aren't willing to cooperate lately so I searched around the house and came up with a pretty tasty version of my own.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb frozen chicken, defrosted and cubed
• 1 pack frozen veggies, defrosted (I used peas, carr, greenbeans, broccoli)
• 1 cup frozen potatoes, defrosted (I used potatoes o'brien)
• 1/4 cup chicken stock or broth
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp ginger (I used powdered ginger)
• 2-3 Tbsp cayenne pepper
• 1 Tbsp garlic salt
• 1 lime (I used the kind in the container)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 3-4 Tbsp yellow curry powder
• vegetable or canola oil

Directions:

Heat oil in a large skillet on Medium. Saute onions and garlic until translucent. Throw in potatoes to brown them. Sprinkle with garlic salt and cayenne pepper. Put in veggies and place a lid on top. Cook for 5 minutes. Then pour in chicken stock/broth and bring to a boil. Put lid back on and cook another 5 minutes. Pour in coconut milk, yellow curry, ginger, and squeeze in lime. Put lid back on, lower the heat to Low and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Serve over jasmine rice.

My Official Color Board

I love the blues, greens, and grays with a splash of bright yellow!

My dress will be ivory, with maybe a gray flower or ribbon.

My ceremony shoes are yellow and my reception shoes are silver.

The table decorations will be shades of blue and green with cream and yellow flowers

Ted Amazes Me

Let me just brag a little!

My future husband is an incredible guy! His sister asked him to write & record her entire wedding ceremony music. This is quite a challenge (he's never done anything like this before) but he was ready to take on the challenge and the music he's come up with so far is beautiful!

I feel so lucky to be engaged to such an amazingly talented musician and can't wait to see or actually hear what he has in store for me over the next 60 or so years.

Two Save The Dates?

As you all know, we had some beautiful engagement pictures taken a little while ago and I had plans to send out an Engagement Announcement to everyone. Well, we got engaged in December and it's already June... so an announcement doesn't seem necessary anymore but I still want to send out an "announcement" of our wedding since we are having a very intimate ceremony (50 people) and there are a lot of people that won't be joining us for our special day. I don't want anyone to feel completely left out, you know?

So, Ted and I have come up with a plan. Send out 2 Save the Dates.

The first one is more or less a "Wedding Announcement" (including one of our engagement pictures) and the second will be the actual Save the Date invitation.

We got in our Shutterfly order of 100 pictures for less than $15. The quality isn't amazing but it is definately worth the $15!

Back To School

I used to love school. I used to pretend I was a teacher and loved grading pretend tests and writing on the chalk board. I thought I was going to become a teacher when I grew up.

The older I get, the more I really don't care for school and realize all of the politics and complete lack of interest (on the teacher's part) that is involved. I want to be finished with school so I can do something else with my life. This Cosmetology program is a LONG 2 years... going to school every single night from 5:20-9:45pm. It really takes a toll on my moral and ambition!

Wish me luck. Tonight I start my "most challenging" semester. I hope I have a change of heart soon and begin to really love school again. I think that's the only way I'll be able to make it through the next 6 months!