Wedding Wednesday- A Wedding Photo Display

One of the first ideas I had for my wedding reception decor was that I knew I would like to have a lot of photographs as a way to tie the guests to the event and have them be included in the event too. I decided early on that I would collect the wedding photos of all the married guests and create a timeline beginning from our grandparents and ending with the latest of our friends or relatives to have been married.

In about April I started collecting wedding photos. Guests would either scan and email me their photo or they would mail me a hard copy and I would have to scan it myself. The whole process turned out to be quite a project! After the photos were printed, I had to figure out a way to display them and ended up using 2 large pieces of foam board taped together and wrapped in silver wrapping paper with lighter silvery coloured snowflakes all over it. (I got the paper at Costco in October, thinking- "that might get used for the wedding" and it ended up being used for SO MANY things. I'll post about "that paper" another time).  

I wanted to make sure I included who the guests in the photos were and when their wedding was. I hand wrote a little tag to go with each photo and carefully arranged them on the board. 

In the end, it was beautiful and a real conversation piece at the wedding. We put it in the entrance to the reception and many guests were seen throughout the evening examining every hairstyle and wedding dress through the ages!

Burger Cupcakes

Hello! This is Holly here, friend of Miss Tweedle and fellow domestic goddess. 

Here is a picture of us all at my wedding! 

You can see Miss Tweedle and Tom and there's me and my hubby, Ed too!

Ed is obsessed with burgers. He loves all types: big burgers, slider burgers, gourmet burgers, homemade burgers (well, maybe not veggie burgers!). When we travel to new places, he researches that city’s best burger, and then we go there to test it. To date, his favourite burger is at the Shake Shack in NYC. Ed waited two and a half hours in line for our lunch. And I can confirm: It was delicious. 

Ed also gets pretty excited about birthdays, so I every year I look for ways to really knock his socks off. This year, after getting a bit of inspiration from Pinterest, I decided I would surprise him with mini burger cupcakes! It’s been on my secret to-do list for a little while, and I couldn’t have been happier on how they turned out. 

On to the recipe...the blogger who I was inspired by used boxed cake and store bought icing. I love to bake, so I decided I'd compromise and make the vanilla cupcakes and buttercream icing from scratch, but used a boxed brownie for the burger patties.

Firstly, I prepared the brownie mix as per the box, but instead of baking in a 8x8 or 9x9 pan, I used an 8 ½ by 11 pan. This made the brownies the perfect thickness. I baked them at the same temperature, but for only about 2/3 of the directed time. To be sure, check with a toothpick and if it comes out clean, they’re cooked. 

Next, I moved on to the vanilla cupcakes. My Martha Stewart cookbooks are well trusted, so I turned to Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes recipe titled “White Cupcakes”. As the cookbook describes “white cupcakes, made with egg whites only (instead of whole eggs), are very light and delicate.” I wanted to make sure they were as pale as possible, so I thought the egg white option would be perfect since I use farm fresh eggs which have very bright yolks. 

White Cupcakes, pg. 154

3 1/4 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
5 large egg whites, room temperature

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.  Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.  Stir vanilla into milk.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter until smooth.  Gradually add sugar, beating until pale and fluffy.  Reduce speed to low.  Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until just combined after each.

3. In another bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form (do not over mix).  Fold one third of the egg whites into the batter to lighten.  Gently fold the remaining whites in two batches.

4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full.  Firmly tap the tins once on the countertop to release any air bubbles.  Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.  Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely.  Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature or frozen up to 2 months in airtight containers.

After I got the cupcakes in the oven, I used a cookie cutter to cut out the brownies for the burger patties. If you don’t have a round cookie cutter, a tuna can would work as a general guide, but you may have to trim down slightly. 

My absolute favourite buttercream is from the Martha Stewart: Baking Handbook.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting, pg 386

• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 4 large egg whites
• 3 sticks (1 ½ cups) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place sugar and egg whites in the heat-proof bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, and whisk until sugar has dissolved and egg whites are hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. Test by rubbing the mixture between your fingers; it should feel completely smooth.
2. Transfer bowl to mixer stand. Using the whisk attachment, beat on high speed until mixture has cooled completely and formed stiff and glossy peaks, about 10 minutes.
3. Add the butter, one piece at a time, and beat until incorporated after each addition. Don't worry if the buttercream appears curdled after all the butter has been added; it will become smooth again with continued beating. Add vanilla, and beat just until combined.
4. Switch to the paddle attachment, and beat on the lowest speed to eliminate any air pockets, about 5 minutes. If using buttercream within several hours, cover bowl with plastic wrap, and set aside at room temperature in a cool environment. Or transfer to an airtight container, and store in the refrigerator, up to 3 days. Before using, bring buttercream to room temperature, and beat on the lowest speed with the paddle attachment until smooth, about 5 minutes.

Once I had the icing prepped, I divided it into three bowls and tinted with food coloring. One red for ketchup, one yellow for mustard, and one green for lettuce (or relish, your choice!).  

After the cupcakes had cooled, I sliced them in half and put a patty on each one. Instead of using a pastry bag, I used a small Ziploc bag for each colour of icing, filled the bag with icing and then snipped a small corner of the bag for the piping tip. I piped a bit of each colour on top of the burger patty and then topped it off with the cupcake top. To really make them realistic, I sprinkled a few sesame seeds on top of the “bun”.  

He was blown away by the detail and deliciousness. 

I put a candle in one of them and then: happy birthday surprise! 

I’m not sure that there is a better way to combine my love of baking and his love of burgers!

On collections

Mama Tweedle here again!

Like many people, I love to collect things but I hate to dust them.

I have collected many small items over the years relating to my career in journalism. These were sitting in shoeboxes or filing cabinets. I wanted to display them, without having to dust them, so I started to search for a glass-topped table. It wasn't easy. The only ones I found online were very expensive, well over $1000 not including the cost of shipping.

But finally I located this coffee table at Ikea. It has a large drawer that pulls out from either side, allowing you easy access to arrange your things.

The problem was that it only comes in white. I wasn't sure how the Ikea finish would handle repainting, but I bought the table anyway for less than $200 and painted it with black laquer so it would match the rest of my family room.

I had a great time lining the drawer with sheets of scrapbooking paper and arranging my memorabilia.

And best of all, my special things never need dusting!

Sister Tweedle's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hello all! 

I’m Miss Tweedle’s little sister Melinda, Sister Tweedle, and while she and Tom are away galavanting on their much anticipated honeymoon, I’ve been given the opportunity to blog about one of my favorite things… chocolate chip cookies. The way I see it, well made chocolate chip cookies (are there any other kind?) are the essence of life – they are suited to basically every occasion, fill those ever appearing voids, and never go underappreciated when handed out to friends.

Growing up the youngest of three sisters was pretty awesome (most of the time) because it allowed me to observe and essentially copy all the qualities I liked about each of them. From Miss Tweedle I developed a love for baking and cooking, crafts and clothing (about half of my wardrobe has been handed down from her – win!). I have a lot of memories of spending time in the kitchen together, watching her create something delicious or attempting new recipes. Most of them would turn out great, others… not so much. The best times were making cookies. Katie always let me mix the batter with my hands and lick any of the spoons. When it came time to roll the dough into balls for baking, I always remember the eager anticipation of waiting for her to say, “Ok, you can eat that one”. Raw cookie dough, who doesn’t love it! 

And that is why I love chocolate chip cookies – there is nothing more comforting or reminiscent of a childhood home.

It took me whole year to find the perfect recipe. While I was in university and living with two boys, for some silly reason, I decided that the house cookie jar should always be full. I was naïve and didn’t know how much boys ate so I was constantly re-baking and re-stocking. After all the internal grumbling about having to bake yet ANOTHER batch, I realized that had it not been for the boys' continuous hunger I would have never found and perfected the best recipe to my exact liking. It was worth it.


Sister Tweedle's Chocolate Chip Cookies:

½ c. butter (room temperature)

½ c. brown sugar

1/3 c. white sugar

½ tsp. vanilla

2-3 tbsp. water

1 c. flour

¾ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

1 c. chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 300’
• Cream the butter so it loosens up and gets fluffy. Add both of the sugars a little at a time and continue to cream together for a couple of minutes (the longer the better). Add the vanilla and water. The more water you add, the gooier the cookie, so add however much you want depending on your cookie preference.
• Mix together the dry ingredients and then add them to the buttery-sugar mixture. Just before the dry ingredients are completely combined with the wet, add your chocolate chips. Use whatever type of chips you want! Sometime’s I even get really daring and mix it up with multiple kinds.
• Roll the dough into balls and line them on a pan. 
• Bake them anywhere from 12-15 minutes. It really depends on what type of cookie you like and how much water you added. I find that if I add 2 tbsp. of water and cook them for 12 minutes they turn out with soft innards and a slight crunch on the outside. Also, take them out just before they look done, because they will continue to cook for a short while out of the oven.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! 

An eye for a bargain

It's Mama Tweedle again!

Miss Tweedle has a good eye for a bargain, and I have to take some of the credit for that! She was dragged around to flea markets and thrift stores practically from birth. 

Last spring my husband and I bought a second home in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island. We spent a month furnishing the entire house by visiting second-hand stores and garage sales. 

Fellow thrifters, I'm telling you straight up, Vancouver Island is Secondhand Heaven.

I decided to go for the mid-century look because that was the vibe of the house, and that style of furniture is plentiful and much cheaper than antiques.

Here's a photo of my family room. OK, I won't lie, I did buy the couch on sale at Sears.

 Everything else in the room was a steal of a deal.

Floor lamp, $15, garage sale.

Table lamp, $2, garage sale.

Authentic vintage Danish teak coffee table, $40, junk store.

Orange vinyl armchairs, $35 each, junk store.

Teak end table, $10, garage sale.

TV stand, $35, thrift store.

Drapes, half-price at Fabricland and I hemmed them myself.

Cushion, half-price at Fabricland, $5.

Buddha batik on wall, free, my husband brought it home from Thailand in 1972.

The patio furniture was bought used from a second-hand store.

The other rooms are similar. I even found a whole range of orange and brown flowered dishes, and vintage glasses, for my kitchen!

Wedding Wednesday- the mother of the bride

Hello again from Mama Tweedle.

Anyone over fifty knows how difficult it is to find a flattering dress for a special occasion. I was determined to look my best at Miss Tweedle's wedding, and the search took me through many department stores and several websites - Nordstrom, Talbot's and The Bay.

And I did not want black.

I was on a trip to Europe when I found the perfect dress at a Berlin department store called Karstadt. Very suitable for a 60-year-old pear-shaped body, it had elbow-length sleeves and a full skirt with a crinoline, and it was made from a synthetic material that doesn't wrinkle. I agonized about the colour before I broke down and bought it for 119 Euros, or about $150 Canadian.

Wouldn't you know it? When I got back to Canada, I found the same dress in Laura in Calgary for $149.

I wanted to break up the monotonous black with pearls. As my niece Tricia says: "We're pearl girls in our family." I found a lovely chunky pearl bracelet and necklace, and a jewellery designer named Leslie Israelson here in Invermere made me dangling earrings to match the necklace. Thank you, Leslie!

Because the wedding took place on New Year's Eve, almost every woman there was wearing black including both my mother and my sister. My cousin Marilyn wondered if we would look like a gang of Italian grandmothers, but everyone looked just lovely.

My sister Mary found my mother's black lace skirt in Vancouver, and I helped her choose the jacket with the ruffled neckline at a local shop.

At eighty-seven years old, she was the most beautiful woman there, second only to the bride!

Mama Tweedle here!

This is Miss Tweedle's Mother speaking! I'm happy to be sharing the blog while Miss Tweedle and Tom are on their honeymoon. You may be wondering where Miss Tweedle got her name. It was her childhood nickname, and we think it still suits her. Here are a few photos of little Miss Tweedle.

She was a girly-girl, always loved dressing up . . .

playing with dolls . . . 

cooking . . .

and, of course, eating! 

 These favourite occupations have lasted until today!

A-honeymooning we will go!

It's spring break!!!!! Tom and I are going on our honeymoon!!!!

Can you tell that I am just a little excited??!!!!??!!!

Don't worry, I am leaving my blog in very capable hands. My mom- "Mama Tweedle" will be posting a bit as well as some of the other domestic goddesses I know!

Enjoy!

This is what they call it in the biz.

An "overhaul".

Do you like the new look of the blog?

Thanks to Becca at Jumping Jax Designs, my blog now looks like a "real" blog!

This is what the last few days before spring break is like....

Trying to keep a straight face when kids do things like this:

I managed to hold it together until I got home. And then I had the world's biggest laugh attack. Please tell me you think this is as funny as I do....

Wedding Wednesday- Bridal Makeup

I live in a town with no makeup artists, so I was forced to be left with my own devices when it came to my wedding makeup. I didn't want to look too done up, but I also wanted to look different from my everyday routine so I had to figure something out! I am not a very fussy makeup person and had never worn foundation before, or primer or anything too fancy! So I had my work cut out for me in order to learn about what was most important to buy and how to apply it.

I spent a good few weeks watching makeup videos on YouTube and by far my favourite makeup blogger that I came across was Makeup by TiffanyD. She seems to know what she is doing and had great tutorials on her blog. This is the one I modelled my wedding makeup after:

I watched this video dozens of times and bought the makeup that was similar to what she had. I couldn't get the exact eyeshadow palette as they no longer sell that brand in Canada- at least that is what I was told at Sephora. 

Speaking of Sephora, I also went there with a picture (see above) and had them show me what kinds of things I needed to buy. They applied everything for me at the store for no cost and showed me how to do it all. They were really helpful! In the end, I really saw the importance of foundation and powder and all that stuff I wouldn't normally buy or wear on a regular basis. It made a world of difference when applied properly. 

On the day of the wedding, I had to be pampered, so my friend and bridesmaid Lisa did the makeup for me, but if I had to, I could have done it myself after all my research and practice! 

Here is what I ended up using: 

1. First I applied this foundation evenly all over the face. And... didn't know this before- you apply it with a brush! Just a regular old powder brush. 

2. Then you have to "set" the foundation with a light powder. It really made a difference. 

3. Then we did eyes. I didn't end up using any eyeliner. We just used a thin brush to apply the darkest eyeshadow just like eyeliner right along the lash-line. I found that it wasn't so harsh that way. And that's what Tiffany did :)

4. We used this eyeshadow as a highlight for the previous palette. 

5. This is my favourite everyday bronzer that I use all the time. We applied a little bit to the top of the cheekbone. But I didn't want to risk looking too orangey in pictures, so I hardly put any bronzer on. 

6. This is what we used for highlights on the face. We applied it just below the eyebrows on the brow bone, high on the cheekbones, a little bit on the center of the nose- down the middle right between the eyes and a little bit just above the lips and under the nostrils. (That is supposed to make your lips look fuller!)

7. Becuase I didn't go heavy on the bronzer, I went heavy on the blush. I was a blushing bride, after all! I also wan't to create the glowing look and the blush helped. 

8. Lastly, 3 layers of mascara and this stuff is magic! It makes those babies LONGGGGGG! 

Have fun makeup-ing. Careful, makeup buying and watching and trying gets addictive!

Chocolate Diablo Cookies

The other night I was watching Food Network and these cookies were being served from a food truck on the show Eat St. For some reason, they looked SO GOOD to me. It was weird because I am more of an icing, vanilla, chocolate chip, sugary cookie person, than a chocolatey, fudgey cookie person. Although don't get me wrong, I'll eat ANY cookie, cake, cupcake, sweet, treat, crisp, square or fudge put in front of me. Anyway, I digress...

Something was calling to me and telling me I.HAD.TO.TRY.THESE. COOKIES. 

So I did. 

They are called "diablo" cookies because they have cayenne pepper in them. It gives them a nice bite. They are crunchy on the outside and soft, dense and fudgey in the middle. Definitely not your grandma's chocolate cookies. Click here for the recipe! 

5 pictures from my weekend

I finished my work week and left a nice tidy classroom with the sun shining in the windows.

On Friday night I joined a group of lovely ladies to learn to make Vietnamese cuisine. Now that I really know how to make them, pretty sure I'm going to OD on salad rolls. 

I made cinnamon bubble buns. Enough said. 

This is Tom's parents' dog Lester and their friend's dog Trixie. Lester is the big one. 

My quilt and I spent some quality time together on Sunday. 

I hope you had a good weekend!

SWOON.

Why, oh why, aren't we civilized like the royals?

Seriously, pink and black??... A ruffled emerald green jacket with a pencil skirt??!

They're killing me.

Photo courtesy of Daily Mail UK

Wedding Wednesday- Some inspiration

I found great pleasure in spending hours and hours of my time while planning looking at wedding blogs and websites.

Here are my faves:

1. The Knot: www.theknot.com. There are HUNDREDS of pictures on there!!! I found lots of hairstyle inspiration there, as well as bridesmaid dress ideas and centerpiece ideas. You can click through dozens of pages of photos in every wedding category you can think of. You can also choose and click through other weddings with the same colour scheme as you.

We also used The Knot to create our wedding website. It was free and it turned out quite well. You can see it here. It was easy to set up and edit and guests were also able to RSVP to the wedding through the website. It compiled a list of all the RSVPs and their email addresses. Handy stuff!

2. Style Me Pretty: www.stylemepretty.com. I have been following this blog for about 2 years now- since long before I was even engaged! Every day they post a featured wedding with lots of pictures and descriptions. Their taste is very elegant and there are lots of DIY and vintage things featured. Pretty, pretty, pretty! AND- they now have a Style Me Pretty Canada site! I keep thinking I'm going to see someone I know on there...

3. Of course... Martha Stewart Weddings! www.marthastewartweddings.com. Like The Knot, you can search through hundreds of pictures of details and decor ideas. There are some GREAT ideas for reception decor and she also posts step-by-step how-tos for a lot of projects that are featured in pictures.

4. Wedding photographer blogs. I followed and STILL follow a few local wedding photographer blogs, including the photographer we used. I admire their work and think they do a great job of capturing the day of all days for their couples.

Alan Maudie www.alanmaudieblog.com/

Banff Wedding Photographers www.banffphotographers.com/

Nathan Elson http://nathanelsonweddings.com/

Claire Dibble http://www.dibblephotography.com/blog/ (Our photographer!)

Tracy Connery http://tracyconnery.com/

Kyla Brown http://www.kylabrownphotography.com/

5. We Met in a Bar: http://wemetinabar.com/. Heather Harney is a woman who lives in California and planned her own wedding and profiled all the planning on her blog. She now has a little boy and runs her blog as more of a mommy blog. But her wedding stuff is worth looking at. You can browse through all her categories on the right-hand sidebar of the site.

Have fun drooling over all the pretty pictures!

If you have any favourites, leave them for me to check out :)

The great quilting debate of 2012

To machine quilt or to hand quilt? That eez thee question!

This pillow is my quilt inspiration. 

I have decided to.... drum roll please!... HAND quilt!!!!

Then I can have a quilting bee! Pretty much the only reason why I chose to it that way was so I could say "quilting bee" as many times as I want.

A week's worth of socks...

THIS is a week's worth of sock laundry in our house...

6 days.

2 people.

WTF.

You have to teach them everything!

The Aboriginal Ed Support worker was in my classroom this week talking about Aboriginal people and animals (to go with our science unit on Canadian animals). She talked at length about how the Aboriginals used buffalo. In her talk, she told them they used the hides for teepees and the brains for tanning hides, etc. At the end of this, she said, "Do you think Aboriginal people still live in teepees?" and they ALL said YES!

We all thought this was very funny, and aren't they cute and kids say the darndest things!

But... really, you just have to TEACH them everything! You can never assume a child knows anything, because how would they? They have probably just figured out that Aboriginals wear loincloths, live in teepees and carry spears! (If that?) If they have never thought to question this (because why would they?!), they probably honestly don't know. 

Kids in my 2/3 class have only been reading for information in the past year. Before this, they have been learning to read and probably not acquiring much knowledge from reading books independently. So, in reality, they have only been able to read and acquire their own information for about 6 months. That is not a lot of time! Sometimes we think the questions they ask are so funny and cute and innocent and uninformed. But we have to give them some credit! They are only 7 or 8 and they have only been reading well enough to inform themselves and retain this knowledge for a short time. Most adults have over 20 years on those guys! Nothing is just obvious to them. Nothing!

In the meantime, we can still think they are funny and cute and that they say the darndest things! Because they are and they do! And aren't I lucky that I get to spend every day helping them acquire knowledge.