Settling in with starry skies, coffee grounds & way too many ticks.

Ah settling in, a term that spans so so many individual experiences and circumstances. I have “settled in” so many times in so many ways, and not one time has been all too similar to the previous. This time, however, without question, has been the most unlike any other settling in experience.

First, neither Dan nor I have ever lived in a rural setting. It’s gorgeous, so still and sleepy, but just a few blocks away is the main vein between Sonoma & Napa, so we’re still close to the traffic whizzing past, and only 10 minutes from town, 5 minutes from the Park & Ride where we meet up with my friend & coworker Tish, and 45 minutes from Marin, the North Bay of San Francisco.

The nights are amazing, we technically live in Schelleville, which is south Sonoma. It’s the blue collar country for sure, lots of trailers- both the kind you pull & the kind you park, plenty of sheep & goats, vineyards everywhere, but also one giant flood plain near the sloughs. There are little clusters of neighborhoods, and we live in one on the south side of Highway 12 between Sonoma & Napa. Schelleville is known for certain things besides the lower median income, things like the afternoon winds that pick up around 1pm or so and continue until about 7 or 8pm. My favorite part though is the clear open sky broken by the mountains to the West. The stars are so bright they illuminate the field and the neighbor’s dogs scouting out us newbies.

Settling into a trailer is… different. It’s not as hard as I thought it would be, it’s so small yet you adjust astonishingly quickly to that. You learn to pull your arms closer to you as you cook, your eyes play tricks on you about how far away the other is during conversation, and you still find yourself too lazy to get up to refill your coffee so you ask the other who happens to be already standing. We don’t have much of a kitchen sink so we’ve covered it with a cutting board for more prep space, and we’ve concocted a makeshift kitchen sink outside. For the first time in my life I enjoy doing the dishes, haha, but how do you not when you’re standing in the cool breeze gazing at the stars? Typically doing the dishes involves a glass of wine or two, chatting with Dan as he grills something tasty on our free (!) grill from Craigslist, inexplicably getting coffee grounds everywhere, watching Charlotte frolic as she’s well-behaved enough to be off leash, and pausing, staring at the stars as if they’re staring back.

Now many already know this, but there are some sides of rural life that aren’t so romantic. Ticks, for instance, fall into this category. And there are a lot of ticks out here. A lot. Unfortunately for us, Frank is a magnet for them. I’ve already pulled two off of myself, one off of Dan, one off of the floor and 5 off of Frank. Yikes! We hate using strong chemicals on the dogs but we also hate Lyme disease, so we’re going to have to resort to Frontline, unless someone has a suggestion for us.

Aside from all of this, we’re as settled as we feel like being for now. We still need to repaint the interior of the trailer, as well as buff the paint off the top of the trailer, as well as repaint the blue stripe, but what’s the hurry? The sun has begun to shine on a regular basis, so as part of the process of settling in, Dan and I have been doing our due diligence in exploring our new community the best we can by bicycling, spending time at the library, hanging out and people-watching at our favorite spot on the plaza- the Swiss Hotel, and going to wine tastings- including a gigantic one this weekend in San Francisco where we met some incredible winemakers and people from Anaba Wines, Comartin Cellars, J&J Cellars, Westwood Winery, Stomping Girl Wines, Canihan Family Cellars, Due Vigne, and more. Soon it will be hot outside, so we’ll be working on getting our outdoor kitchen more structured, our garden planted, and an outdoor living room setup, because let’s be honest, why else would you move to California than to settle into the outdoors and drink wine?

Well, we made it!

First and foremost we’d like to apologize relentlessly for falling off the face of the earth for a while. And by a while we actually mean 3 months. For those of you who were in contact with us over these past few months you understand that it’s been… well, a little hairy.

For those of you whom have been left in the dark, here’s a brief review:
- I (Bridget) filed for bankruptcy on October 4th, something that was hard for me to swallow, but proved priceless in Dan and I’s ability to start over and on the right foot.
- We were married gleefully 11.13.10 – it was brilliant and so much fun!
- The same weekend in mid-December that I flew to San Francisco for a job interview (that I did not get), Dan drove down to Lebanon, MO to buy our trailer! Pictures and a full description with before/after details will ensue in another post- sorry to leave ya hangin!
- We received notice of the bank taking the house over (let ‘em have it!) on January 12th, and we made our final arrangements for our exodus to California.
- We left Kansas City officially on Sunday, January 23rd, and drove for a week to finally stop here in Sonoma, California on Saturday, January 29th at our new home, 2 1/2 acres with trailer hook-ups in the countryside.

So, that’s the brief recap! It was tumultuous, emotional, stressful and liberating. I’ve hemmed and hawed over whether or not to even mention the bankruptcy & the foreclosure, but at this point, after all that has transpired, we’re so ready for a new way of life. No more shame in not being able to fit into the traditional square house with the day job type of life. No more passing on adventures and opportunities because we’re afraid we’ll fail. No more living according to other people’s standards & mandates (even though we know they have the best of intentions). No more living outside of our means because that’s what we think we’re supposed to do. We hit the reset button in the biggest way imaginable and we moved to California to pursue our passions: wine & growing things responsibly and sustainably, while living as small as we can.

Us on our journey, somewhere in Texas

We’ve only been here a couple of days, but we feel incredibly relieved, and relievedly incredulous. It’s hard to believe that this is real, that we’re actually here, that those vineyards next door aren’t a dream, that the 60 degree weather is actually the winter here, that the horizon filled with rolling hills aren’t a pretty painting. I can’t describe how amazing it is to feel something other than anxiety or fear, I don’t remember the last time I was this excited or hopeful, and I’m not about to let this go!

Dan should start work next week at the Costplus World Market in Greenbrae, which is north San Francisco, just across the Golden Gate Bridge. We live in Sonoma, the middle of wine country, which is about a 45 minute drive from San Fran on a good day. He’ll have a commute but it shouldn’t be too terrible since he’s not actually going to have to cross into the city itself. He worked part-time for World Market back in Kansas City to save up for our move out here, and found that they’re a really fantastic company to work for. His store in KC wanted to hire him on full-time, but since we were ready to move they essentially facilitated a transfer for him. How great is that?

I am still unemployed, which is frankly striking fear deep into my core, but I’ll find something in Sonoma so I can ride my bike to work. We’ve been through the city a few times and there are plenty of places for me to apply to; tons of boutiques, garden centers, farms, wineries, offices, hotels, etc. I’ve done a little of everything, it seems, so I know that I’ll find something. In the meantime and in between applying for jobs, I’ll be working on the trailer, painting it and hanging art, getting all the things put away that had to be strategically stored for travel. Also, I’m going to be building a site much like this one for my mom’s salon, Pure Bliss Salon in Sioux City, IA. The salon’s owner/manager Kathy is fabulous and is letting me build it for them at my own pace so that I can fine-tune my graphic design, and then they get a website out of it. Great arrangement, don’t you think?

What about the dogs? They couldn’t be happier! They were unfathomably good for the week long road trip and have settled in nicely in the trailer. They love being able to sleep on our bed during the day , and they looooooove being able to frolic through the tall grass in our 2 1/2 acres! It’s not entirely fenced in so we are still walking them on their leashes but they don’t seem to mind whatsoever. Plus, there’s a little irrigation ditch that runs through the property, so Frank can’t get enough of bounding through the grass & then crashing into the water, much to Charlotte’s disdain as she always gets sprayed.

This is when Charlotte discovered llamas.

Next door on three sides we have llamas, horses, sheep, roosters & hens, dogs, and gardens like you can’t believe. It’s so foreign to me to look next door and see among the corn rows plants like agave, grapevines, citrus trees and palms. The dogs are equally flabbergasted, but definitely more by the livestock and less by the flora.

Serendipitously, around the corner just a few blocks is Homewood Winery. The name is enough for us to shake our heads in disbelief, we haven’t even been in to taste yet. As if that’s not enough, we now live on Dale Ave, Dale being the name of my grandfather on my mom’s side. Our landlords, Mary & Dave, are phenomenal.  They’re so kind and accommodating, they’re not charging us extra for arriving a few days before the 1st and they’re patient with us in paying our first rent late (since I goofed and got all our money tied up in PayPal, long story)! They’ve actually been through similar circumstances themselves so they aren’t pressuring or judging us in the slightest, which is something we’ve encountered frequently over the last year or so.

We’re so happy, humbled and thankful for our good fortune in our journey, for the ample and unrelenting support from family and friends back in KC and all over, for that matter. We hope that we get visitors in our new environment because we know that everyone will be bowled over by how gorgeous it is here, and we hope that some how, some way, we’ll be able to repay the graciousness, empathy, compassion, hospitality and love that has been shown to us along the way.

I know, I know, I promised I’d post more often

Once again, we’ve been busy!  Busy getting all of the details ironed out, all the bits and bobbles gathered that make the whole thing come together, and of course, all the officials officiated.  But more about that in another post!

In this post I’m going to show how I made the invitation envelopes!  I have to apologize for the dreadfully blurry pictures, I was taking them one-handed with my old cell phone in a relatively dimly lit room.  The invitations themselves, along with the RSVP cards, were printed for trade-out by a dear former client couple, Anastasia Spartan & Dan Mellott, or DAnastasia for those who like combo titles like I do!  Dan M owns a few UPS stores, so they graciously volunteered to print our invites in trade for flowers/decor stuff!  Isn’t that awesome?  They look so good!  To play into our theme of “Home is wherever there is you”, we decided to make our envelopes out of maps that I collected from downtown hotels.

First, here’s what the final product looks like:

The finished home-made map envelope

So!  Ready to see how it’s made?  First, you need to cut your sheet of paper to the right dimensions.  Since our invitations are a custom size I simply took an invitation and laid it on a full sheet of paper, in our case a map, and folded it a myriad of ways until I found the right dimensions for our project.  You want to leave a margin of about 2 inches above the invite for the top flap that closes the envelope, roughly 1/2 – 3/4 of an inch to the left & right each for the side flaps, and then a margin of about the total height of the invite, minus 1/2 -1 inch, below the invite.

I used a finished envelope as a guide

Fold the bottom flap over the invite (sorry for the blurriness!)

Next, with the invitation laying on your paper, placed according to your margin folds, fold the bottom flap over the invitation & crease the fold.  You can also use a finished invitation as a guide, which is easier to do once you have one completed, because then all you have to do is line up the top flap along the top of the paper & fold the bottom flap over it (as seen in the first picture, but in the second picture you can see how it will look using the invite).

Fold the side flap over & crease

Fold the other side flap over

Now that your bottom flap is folded over, you need to fold each side flap over & crease them well.  Since you’re folding two layers the inner margin layer will want to slip out some, which isn’t a big deal, but try to make the them as close as possible for a neat crease.  Crease each flap all the way from top to bottom.

Fold the top flap over

Now you’ll want to unfold your side flaps so they’re back to open flat all the way across the width of the envelope, but leave your bottom flap folded on top of the invite.  Fold your top flap down, over the invite & the bottom flap, and crease all the way across.  You’ll have a better crease if your side flaps are open.

Open top & bottom flaps

Now open up your top & bottom flaps.  Pay attention to your creases and where your invite rests inside them.

Cut along the bottom flap crease- stop at the side flap crease line

Cut along the bottom flap crease line, but STOP at the side flap crease line, so your cut should only be about 1/2 inch long.  If you cut past that side crease, then you’re going to cut the bottom flap off your envelope.  Repeat on the other side.

Cut along the side crease line on the bottom flap

Cut down the side crease line on your bottom flap only.  If you cut all the way up, next to your invite, then you’ll cut your side flap off & your envelope will be open on the side, and all of your mail will fall out, you’ll cry, and the post office will be irritable.  Don’t give them more reason to be grumpy.  Repeat on the other side.

Cut your top flap sides off

Cut the side flaps off the top flap

Now that your bottom flap sides have been trimmed off, as seen in the top picture above, you need to do the same to your top flap sides.  The only difference here is that we’ll wait to cut them all the way off, as you’ll want to cut them at a diagonal based on where they meet the bottom flap.  But first, turn your envelope around so the top flap is closest to you, & cut down along the side flap crease line, stopping where you meet the top flap crease line.  Repeat on the other side.

This is what the envelope should look like at this stage

So this is what your envelope should look like at this stage, with all the flaps cut as they should be.

Fold the bottom flap back over the invite body

Next fold your side flaps over- see how much easier they fold now that they're one layer

Fold your bottom flap over, then your side flaps on top of it.  Pay attention to how well they fold now that they’re one layer.  If when you fold your side over, the bottom flap buckles, then you need to trim your bottom flap just a little.  If your bottom flap extends over the side flap crease line, you’ll need to trim off whatever goes past the crease line.

At a diagonal, cut the side flap from where it meets the bottom flap to the top flap crease line

A closer shot of where to cut

Now that your side flaps are folded over and you have the loose sides hanging over the top flap, you need to cut them off.  To look nice & make it easier to insert your invitation, cut at a diagonal from where the side flap meets the top of the bottom flap up to the top flap crease line, meeting the cut you made previously, to remove the hanging flap entirely.

Completely cut out envelope

So there you go, it’s all cut out and should look just like that.  Now it’s time to glue, and remember, rubber cement is your friend.

Start gluing!

Now fold over and smooth

Open up your side flap and paste on a thin, even layer of rubber cement along the outer edge. Finding the right amount of cement is a process of trial and error, but you don’t want so much that it oozes out when you fold your flap over.  A little is okay, just wipe it off, but try to keep the glue from getting into the crease of the side flap, because if it oozes that way when you fold it over, you could potentially glue your invite into it’s envelope. This would be hilarious, but sad for the person who wanted to read the invite.

Repeat on the other side

Now just repeat on the other side.  Check inside for glue seepage, make sure your flaps are secure and aren’t sliding around (a sign of too much glue/cement), and fold over your top flap to make sure it doesn’t hang over the sides.  Make any adjustments you see are necessary, and voila!  Finished!  You have just made your own custom envelope.  The most important part now is to reach your right arm over your left shoulder and pat yourself on the back, well done you!

All done!

Invite, meet Envelope

They go together like peanut butter and jelly

Ta-daaaaaa!!!

Enjoy!  Email me if you have questions or suggestions, or just comment down yonder.  Thanks for reading, talk to you all soon~

Love, Bridget

The revised menu, new & improved, and it even flies!

Well no, it doesn’t actually fly, but its still awesome.

What a challenge: catering your own wedding on a shoestring budget.  We have probably reworked our budget 19 times by now.  Thanks to a boat load of help from some old friends and plenty of work on our part, I think we have it.

For starters, we are not doing a whole local hog (insert tears of disapointment here).  It’s just too expensive.  When you purchase a whole hog, just for your information, of course (vegetarians look away now), you pay by what is refered to as the hanging weight.  Which is the hog, appropriately slaughtered, minus the organs.  Just like a whole fish from the grocery store.  This would mean you are also paying for fat, lots of bones, and a very heavy head.  We opted instead to purchase roughly one hundred pounds of blade in pork shoulders for $0.99 per pound.  Since we are doing pulled pork sliders, this will work just fine.

So with that said, the new menu is reworked as follows:

• Pulled pork sliders served with fresh pickled vegetables, aioli, carolina style bbq sauce, and slaw.
• A smoked trout and arugula salad with olives and peppers.
• Roasted garlic platter served with roasted red pepper conserva and homemade infused olive oil.
• I’m thinking smoked salmon with capers, red onion, and hard boiled egg.
• My version of bacon and eggs, which is deviled farm eggs with mini bacon lardons drizzled with truffle oil.
• Lots and lots of crusty bread along with a couple of other items that we are working on…
• Cheese and olive platter.
• Butternut squash and red wine onion ravioli.
• Crowd-favorite homemade hummus & pita.

Then of course we’ll have our potluck dessert which should be absolutely incredible.  Bridget’s mom is going to be making her signature pecan & apple pies, a german chocolate cake, her sister will be making cookies, her dad & stepmom will be making some cookies, and Bridget is going to be making us a key lime pie.

We are still working out the floor plan for the small plate spread.  The only other things we have left to check off the list are compostable plates and silverware, and cutting out the napkins (which will be later constructed into a quilt).  Also we still need volunteers to clean up at the end of the night…

Dan (and Bridget)

 

The Search Continues…

I can’t even begin to count how many times we’ve heard this question in the past month or so: “Have you found an Airstream yet?” Blargh! No. We wish! And to be entirely honest, we’ve been getting a little antsy about it. Thus far we’ve physically looked at three Airstreams/Avions, and have emailed or called about at least 15 more, whilst perusing about 8 different Airstream classifieds sites. But don’t fret! What we have learned in the process has been priceless, and the fact that we didn’t get at least one of the trailers we looked at is purely fortuitous upon further research of the models.

Part of the reason that we’ve not settled on a particular Airstream is because our logistical variables have been in flux. First, we were looking for a camper that was small enough to pull with our Nissan Pathfinder, but we weren’t entirely sure what size was “small enough”, or for that matter “big enough” for us to live in. We found that little Avion from an earlier post, but realized much to our dismay that it was just too small to live in at 21-feet long. Then, we started to look for a full-size pickup to be able to pull a larger trailer like the 31-foot ’78 Sovereign we looked at down in Carthage, MO, but finding a reliable truck in our price range and under our parameters ended up being an exercise in exasperation.

We’ve decided that a 50′s model Airstream in the 25-26-foot range is our best bet.  Still pull-able with our Nissan with some techinical additions & maintenance, which I will explain momentarily, yet still plenty of live-in space.  Plus, from our research and according to Airstream afficianados all over, the trailers built in the 1950′s were the most well-designed and well-built.  They were designed with 4-inch steel bar subframes, aluminum interior & exterior panels, with the interiors painted with lifelong zolatone paint as opposed to being covered in vinyl, and the furniture & built-ins were made of solid birch, meaning no particle board that bloats & breaks apart when wet plus is heavy as all get-out.

The additions and maintenance to the Nissan that I referenced are going to make it easier on the car to be able to pull the Airstream, as well as provide preventative maintenance needed to keep it running its best for a long time.  Nissan Pathfinders are great SUVs as it is, built well, long-lasting, light for an SUV and the 6-cylinder engine has a lot of get up & go.  Its max towing capacity is 5,000 lbs. as is, but with the suggestions & help of the great guys that I work with at Sallas Auto Repair we’ll be adding a transmission cooler, a new set of Michelin tires (best tires on the market), repacking the bearings, doing a front & rear differential service, getting an alignment, a transmission flush, and of course adding a class III tow hitch as well as a weight-distributing hitch.  Once these additions & service work has been done she’s going to be in great condition, and we won’t have to worry about a new loan for a new pickup, or where the dogs are going to ride while en route.

To get all the work done on the Nissan we’re selling our Mazda 3, which is really a great car, but we just don’t need it anymore.  We’ve got about the exact same amount of equity in it that is needed to complete all the work & tow upgrades on the Nissan, so that has proven to be quite the lucky deal!  Now we just need to get it sold…

So that gets us up to current on the search! We know more now about what we want to do and are capable of, and although the clock is ticking, we feel relief in making an educated decision rather than one of haste and naivety. We’ve been eyeballing an Airstream just a few hours away in Marion, KS, owned by The Airstream Guy.  He’s got a 1958 Airstream Overlander, just 3,300 lbs. and already gutted, with a near perfect skin and only a little bit of belly/frame work needed.  It’s in rough shape on the interior, which is pretty common for the age & price range its in, as all too often people will buy these for a restoration project and tear it all out, then not be able to finish it or lose interest. So Airstreamers like Mark buy them as-is and either sell them with parts or restore them. I’ve talked to him a couple of times about this trailer, and Dan & I are on the fence about whether this is the project for us at this point. Today Mark told me about another trailer he just picked up in Michigan, a 1954 26-foot Airstream Cruiser with the whale tail, which are hard to come by. It’s in the same price range as the Overlander, but it requires less interior work & weighs about the same, to boot. We’ll be going down to view them both next weekend, and we are excited. We have a really good feeling about not only these trailers, but working with Mark, the Airstream Guy.

We’ll keep you posted on what we end up with!  Til then, have a lovely week!

Bridget & Dan

BOOM! 2 new pages!

Well, only one is actually new, the other was put up a while ago, I just haven’t written a new post to alert everyone.  Woops…

The first new page is A New Kind of Registry, as in lieu of a traditional gift registry for our wedding, we’re opting for gifts of money via PayPal.  There is a link to our PayPal on that page, but there is also one to the right of this page titled Give the Gift of an Airstream Lifestyle. Upon clicking, you will be routed to PayPal to donate the amount of your choosing to help us reach our goal of buying a vintage Airstream trailer, rehabbing it to live in, and moving across the country to start a new way of life.

The other new page is Want to Help Out?  As you know from reading this blog, we are doing our wedding as much on our own as possible, but in the end it’s the amazing help from friends & family that is going to make it truly incredible (and achievable).  On this page we have a link to a form that people who want to pitch in can fill out, which will help us tremendously in organizing & planning what exactly we’ll be able to do. 

If you have any suggestions on tasks that helped you on your wedding day, have questions about our PayPal gift process, or if you have any other contributions, please comment below!

Thanks for reading & have a spectacular week!

Love,

Bridge & Dan

How was your Labor Day?

Hope it was glorious and full of sun, bug spray, grilled things and high-fives!  Dan had to work, but the zoo pulled in record attendance so that’s fun.

Angela & I had a lovely summery wedding on Sunday so yesterday I very sluggishly worked on the invitations!  Woot!  They’re nothing like traditional wedding invitations, but that’s what you expected, right? 

On Friday I did some flowers for a past client turned friend, Anastasia Spartan-Mellot, who is a complete & utter gem.  She made the most generous offer to print Dan & I’s invitations for trade-out, as her hubby Dan owns a printing company.  I’m so excited, and from a mile away I could hear my printer sigh from relief because we were going to print them ourselves!  So, all that’s left is for me to finish up the invitation file & send it to her, and then Angela & I are going to make the envelopes from maps of Kansas City that I spent an hour collecting yesterday (thank you Kansas City Convention & Visitors Bureau!).

Speaking of the KCCVB, I picked up some brochures & maps on things to do while in KC, so this week I plan to add a page on here to offer up ideas for out-of-towners.  And!  We officially booked a block of rooms!  We chose the Q Hotel + Spa after all, as the 6 other hotels I called couldn’t offer the same deals.  A page about the Q is soon to come, but know that for $99 a night (+ tax, of course) you get a nice (if a little small) room, a hot breakfast, 2 free drinks a night at their cocktail hour thingee, and a FREE shuttle to & from the Reception!  Isn’t that awesome?  We thought so!  The block is called the Kelly/Wood Wedding block (ooh, just got happy goosebumps), and it’s being offered through October 12th, so if you call after that you’ll have to pay the regular room rate.

Also, after hours of interwebby research, Dan found out that classic Lox/Gravalax (salt & sugar cured salmon) isn’t that hard to make.  So he is currently testing out his newly found recipe as we speak, and I’m not going to lie, I am PUMPED.  I absolutely love salmon in any way, shape, or form!  If its good, we’ll make it and serve it at the wedding! 

This weekend wild-caught Coho salmon was on sale for like $9 per pound, which is a great price, so that’s why we went for it, because as you can imagine we’re on serious spending lockdown.  When you can swing it you have got to go for the wild-caught Coho or Sockeye salmon.  They have the best taste, aren’t dyed pink, aren’t grown under disgusting & disparaging conditions like farmed salmon, and their populations aren’t endangered.  Hopefully there will be another similar sale coming up soon so that we can sweet-talk our buddy Craig to let us Kryovac a big fillet for the wedding. 

Aren’t you so excited?!  No?  Well can you tell that I am?

Long time no post, many apologies!

But we can say in earnest that this was most unintentional, we’ve just been profoundly busy.  Busy planning the party of the year!  Yes [epic air arm-thrust]!  We have been busy little bees buzzing about, planning food with this chum, planning drinks with that chum, planning rings with another chum {the always outstanding Mrs. Genevieve Flynn- but more to come on this in another post!}, et cetera, et cetera.  

So!  We’ve been sketching, discussing, costing & analyzing six ways from Sunday about the menu.  Here’s what we’ve got so far, but of course this could all change:  Dan, my man, is going to be doing all of the catering by his amazing self!  With the help of a couple of his wonderful buddies Craig Adcock and Chris Beveridge, Dan will be creating a spread of munchers & nice bites to nosh on throughout the evening, rather than to make a ginormous dinner to try to please all palettes.  We’re thinking home-made hummus, a smoked trout salad, roasted garlic & peppers in olive oil, local crusty breads for dipping & slathering, spinach salad with goat cheese & home roasted red peppers, smoked salmon, homegrown edamame with a dipping sauce, some sort of crowd-pleasing cream based dip, and if we play our cards right, a whole smoked/roasted Ossa Boa hog from our buddy/flower farmer Ethan Jones’ brother’s flock {is it a flock?  or a gaggle?  or a herd?}, with pickled homegrown onions & okra and aioli for sliders.  My contribution, you ask?  Well, none other than mini tatortot casseroles in muffin cups!  Iowa makes its presence known in this smorgasbord!  There are some other things that I know he had in mind but I’m drawing a blank, or maybe I just can’t hear over my stomach.  I’m beginning to think that writing this on an empty belly was not my best idea.  

I know what you’re thinking: sounds expensive with all that smoked salmon, smoked trout, and a whole hog!  Well, I’ll have you know it’s surprisingly not.  It’s actually coming to about half of what we originally had thought food was going to cost us!  I can tell ya that having our own 20 x 25 foot garden will be coming in handy in a big way.  Plus, the help that our friends have come forward to offer is an absolutely indispensable aid in reducing our budget, and for that we will be forever grateful.  Speaking of…  

For the refreshments, two of my lovely friends Ann Grace & Lorena Gregory have most graciously volunteered to bartend!  So have your tips ready guys & gals, these gorgeous vixens not only deserve to be showered in riches for their sheer beauty, but they’re doing this free of charge just because their awesomeness overpowers them!  We’re hoping to serve one keg of something local and one keg of a classic ‘yard beer’ like PBR.  And once again, Mr. Chris Beveridge is going to swoop in & save the day by letting us use his tap-cooler system!  Yay!  For non-alcoholic drinks I really really want to make cider from local apple cider producers, and we’re thinking of also serving fruit punch.  We’re not big soda drinkers, and although we know they’re popular, I just don’t love the idea of the super sticky mess or caffeinated kids.  Thoughts?  

What about the wine?  Well of course we didn’t forget it, are you crazy?!  We have no shame in our game when we say this, but We. Love. Three. Buck. Chuck.  Deal!  Trader Joe’s rocks!  And although we don’t have one here in KC, we are giddy about our upcoming trip to St. Louis to hit up the nearest Trader Joe’s to stock up on a handful of cases of cheap wine’s best.  We’ve also talked to a couple of friends in the local wine purveyor crowd & we’re going to get a medley of close-out wines to mix it up a little!  

Now, as much as we’d love to have everyone enjoy themselves well into the evening, we do want to ensure everyone’s safety & comfort.  In an attempt to prevent over-indulgence and possible intoxicated driving, we’re doing a half-cash-bar.  So the drinks are on us until 10pm and then after that it will turn into a cash bar to slow down the drinking.  Is that a deal?  Great!  Another way we’re planning to prevent drunk driving is by arranging shuttle service.  Thus far we’ve not nailed down any specific hotels, so don’t call for reservations yet, but we’re seriously considering the Q Hotel as they not only offer complimentary breakfast & free cocktail hour every night, but they’ll do free shuttle rides to & from the reception all for $99 a night!  It’s not far from the Plaza and it’s in Westport so there is plenty to do nearby, outside of wedding celebration time, of course.  That’s a pretty fair deal, right?   

So what else have we been up to?  Well, for one thing we designed our magnets that my brother Brendan is going to make for us!  Brendan, or Blen/Vern for those who know him, is an anomaly.  He is hands-down the most hilarious yet smarmy yet hyper-intelligent yet sweet as muffin pie yet evil mastermind yet kitchen whizz you’ve ever met, and to fill his time he works at Fedex Office, where he’s going to print up our magnets!  To add to his list of credentials, Blen will soon be able to check the box next to Spiritual Leader, as he’s going to get ordained & be Dan and I’s officiant!  How awesome is that?!  I’ll keep you all posted on how that process works as I’m excited to find out, but I know a handful of friends who’ve had this done for their weddings so I’m sure it’s not too bad.  So would you like to see the magnets?  Great!  Here ya go:  

Coming to a fridge near you!

  

So?  What do you think?  We were going for a kind of retro travel postcard look, which ties into what we’re wanting to do with ourselves soon: travel in a vintage Airstream trailer.  This look is like the subplot to the closest thing we have to a “theme”, which we’re rounding out with some other elements which will come in a post soon.  Til then, we’re going to keep working on trading in the cars for a truck to tow our Airstream, saving money, working on the details and researching researching researching!  

Share your thoughts or suggestions on places to stay or shuttles to use, non-alcoholic drinks or whatever tickles your fancy!  Be back soon with hopefully a bloggie blog upgrade so we can share our song and some videos of the doggies!  Take care~  

Love,Bridge & Dan

Airstreams & Birthdays

An obviously fantastic combination, don’t you think?

Last Thursday, August 5th was Dan’s 35th birthday!  Yay!  While he thinks he’s now old, I know that it’s all in your frame of mind and when he’s not thinking about what number label he has, he’s still young & jovial the rest of the time.  So we celebrated!

Angela, my uber-fabulous business partner, and I had a lively & lush tropical wedding reception on Friday, so unfortunately we couldn’t really celebrate Dan’s birthday on Thursday.  But Friday night we had a gaggle of lovely pals over for wine & cheese & conversation, and laughed into the wee hours of the morning- so much fun!  Ann played with a coconut, Tori played with hats, Victor played with Tori, Amy made a delicious pie, Gen & Kev made fun conversation and Mary & Joel made it in time for a nightcap.  Dan picked out all of the cheese, he got Maytag Bleu (from Iowa!), Drunken Goat (my flava fave) and a triple cream Brie (the party champion).  I grabbed wine, hummus, pita & olives in Westport, along with a little birthday gift of 3 seasons of Mr. Show (hat tip to Joel of Blue Window Creative- great friends of ours- for letting me know where to find it!).  Here is where I will commence a rant about how awesome World Market, where I got the wine, is:

World Market is by far one of my most favorite shopping establishments on the face of the planet!  There are great pretties to adore, great cards to make Moms laugh, great candles & incense to de-putrify the house of stinky dog smell, great great wines under $10, great lunch food, great chocolate & great coffee, and extremely great earrings!  Essentially under one roof there is an abundance of this gal’s favorite vices, and they are all affordable to boot.

Okay, now that I’ve got that out of my system, I will finish the detailing of the weekend!  So we awoke Saturday morning a little squishy but super excited because we had plans to go see some Airstreams we found on Craigslist!  Ends up we only got to see one but it was such a good time.  It’s actually not an Airstream, it’s an Avion, which is similar but made by another company.

This little ’58 Avion camper is 21 feet long, so it’s small.  But it’s light and in really great shape for it’s age. It’s owner Paul is a fine chap, very knowledgeable and friendly, and has a dream spread that left Dan & I drooling for hours!  Paul is a serial restorer of amazing old things, including his 1892 Victorian home in Liberty, a ’57 Chevy wagon, a ’63 (?) Vespa, a ’70-something Westfalia VW bus & then some. 

The exterior is in really good shape, it has a 13-panel constructed shell with a near-perfect single piece bellypan.  It needs a new axle & tires, bearings repacked, etc., but that’s to be expected at its age.  The interior has started undergoing a renovation, the appliances have been removed and the electrical has been somewhat updated, but it needs to be worked on more.  The kitchen sink is in amazing shape with the original water purifier intact, but I think the plumbing might need some work.  Paul has recovered the benches of the front bankette as well as the rear twin beds, and has all new foam & fabric for the cushions, they just need to be put together.  He also has fabric for matching curtains, all yellow with cheery blue dots & stripes.  Super cute, I have to say!

Very cool experience, a fantastic place to start.  Paul also shared a stellar website with us, www.SilverAvion.com that has come in handy for him.  I will definitely be adding it to our Airstream Reference link section!

After viewing our first possibility of a new home, we went back to the house to make Dan his much-anticipated birthday dinner, and as I type this my mouth begins to water again!  We went to McGonigle’s for a rack of lamb and although we spent a pretty penny, it was still cheaper & better than going out.  Dan prepared the lamb by smothering it in a paste of mustard, flat-leafed parsley, rosemary from the garden, roasted garlic and Shatto butter.  He seared it in the absolutely kickass Mario Batalli grill pan Meghan got Dan for Christmakuh a few years ago- magnifique!

He also prepared white beans with spinach and roasted garlic in the tagine, I made some red wine onions and we made a platter of marinated heirloom tomatoes.  We completely forgot about the onions until the next day- bummer!  Oh well, we were both sidetracked by dessert: homemade key lime pie!  Holy mother of darkness it was good!  The entire meal was enjoyed with a nice bottle of wine, a Broadley Pinot Noir from Oregon.  With full bellies we fell asleep with smiles on our faces.

Sunday was no less adventuresome, we grabbed our dear friends Mary & Joel Schroeder of Blue Window Creative to snap some sweet & mushy pictures to celebrate our recent engagement.  We went to our favorite leisure place in the entire metropolis of KC, the Deanna Rose Farmstead in Overland Park.  We petted the goats, avoided the stinkiness of the hogs, fed the koi fish, laughed at the prairie dogs, cooed at the bobcats and sweat buckets in the grotesque heat.  Mary & Joel are tremendous sports for braving the convection oven-like elements to once again take our pictures and we will forever be grateful for their company & generosity!  Once we get the pictures back we will be sure to share!

For the cool-down session we met up with Joel’s family in Westport at The Foundry for pitchers and grub, where I spazzed out and dropped a ramekin of ranch dressing only to have it explode 4 feet in all directions, but mostly on my face.  Flawless execution, really.  Upon leaving The Foundry we bumped into a dear old chum Mikey Stallings, who happens to have one of the best vertical leaps this side of a basketball court, and grabbed a beer with him at McCoy’s.

All in all it was a delightfully action-packed weekend, we are pooped and content.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Now what?

As I’m sure many of you can relate, once the sublime buzz of a grand happening starts to wear off, you often become a little lost on determining “the next step.”  Having been in the wedding industry for roughly 5 years, I at first felt quite confident that this would be a piece of cake.  Then people started asking detailed questions, to which I replied with a blank stare and a stammered “Oh, uh, we, uh, um…”  After about 3 of those instances, I realized with disdain (because you know that I flippin hate to be wrong) that this is a whole new ball game!

Upon a seemingly rational conversation with myself, well, as rational as that can be, I decided we needed to first set a date & book a place to hold the ceremony & reception.  Dan & I talked at great length and have decided to do a private ceremony, as we both get extremely uncomfortable in front of large groups of people.  This was a hard decision to come by as we adore our rather large gaggle of friends & family, but figured it was more important for us to celebrate via the reception with said loves than to have them sit in stiff chairs while we awkwardly mumble & sweat at the front of the room.  We’ll save that for dancing!

So let’s talk about the reception – everyone’s favorite part!  We intensely want to party like it’s 1999!  And who wouldn’t?!  We’ve been together for 5 1/2 years, although we felt like we were married within just a few months of being together, so we feel like we should make up for lost time!  Don’t you agree?  So we recalled every place we’ve worked at over the last handful of years & thought hard about what we wanted.  We realized we wanted a barn with little to no strings attached, somewhere cheap and friendly, where we’re not locked into using any particular vendors.  Such a wonderful place exists, and it’s literally one mile from our house!  We’re going to have our wedding at the Alexander Majors Historic Barn at 82nd & State Line Rd on Saturday, November 13th, 2010.  Hooray!!!

We’ve got all sorts of fun ideas planned, and the food- sweet mother of darkness!  Since Dan & I are wanting to foot the bill ourselves, we’ve decided to do a later reception & serve appetizers at grazing stations rather than do a full dinner.  I desperately want an Iowa-themed station with corn cakes, single serving tator tot casseroles, dips, deviled eggs, potato salad, you know, yellow & brown foods involving corn and/or cream.  Dan supposedly likes the idea, although recalling the look of bewilderment on his face upon mention of such an outlandish idea does bring me immense amounts of joy.  We’ll also do an herbivore table with things like veggies & fruits, hummus, roasted garlic & peppers, artisanal bread, cheeses and olives, more olives, and so on.  And of course, for our beloved meat-eaters, the plan at this point is to do a whole smoked hog.  You’re welcome Dad & Brendan!  Now pardon me as I wipe the drool from the spacebar here                 okay, excellent, that’s much better.

Next we come to dessert.  Here’s a cyber high-five because I know you’re pumped like I am!  Following our path to non-traditional land we’ve decided to forgo the classic wedding cake in lieu of a sweets potluck!  Yes, you read that correctly, a sweets potluck!  Dan’s not a big sweets person, because [gross-out warning] he’s sweet enough as it is, and he’s not much of a cake eater.  His kryptonite is key lime pie so that will likely be what we cut- yes, some traditions will be honored.  Some.

 

Decorations are covered, obviously, since I’m a floral designer, and I’ll tell you now we really don’t plan on having very many   fresh flowers.  Surprised?  Don’t be, I really don’t like the waste associated, and I have enough “stuff” to fill a space beautifully without sacrificing the lives of blooms.  I don’t have too many specific details planned, I enjoy throwing it all together as I go so that’s the intent. 

I will tell you however that we’re going to be making our own photobooth, as well as a toasting booth!  We’ll not be doing any formal toasts or speeches, because let’s face it, no one likes to stop eating/drinking to hear one uncomfortable person struggle to stay nice, say something clever and stare out at a sea of blinking eyes not understanding the punchline because “you had to be there.”  Instead we invite everyone to get awkward/silly/sappy/stoic/poetic/exuberant in front of a video camera that we can watch later, and possibly with your permission, post on Facebook.  Just kidding!  If you’re lucky…

So I’d say we’ve got some plans laid out!  But we’re always looking for suggestions, so please do share your do’s & don’ts, what you’ve seen that was great/awful, requests and any randomness you think we’d enjoy.  I promise to be back sooner with another post!

Love,

Bridge & Dan