Wedding crazy

Wow it's been a long time since I've posted. My only excuse is that I've been busy with wedding stuff. I spent the August long weekend in Nova Scotia ostensibly to do wedding stuff but really just to relax. The main reason my parent's shelled out for the tickets is because I wanted to be at the tasting with the caterers (too long watching I Do, Lets Eat not to be excited about this). The food was excellent; so excellent, in fact, that I'm having a hard time choosing which dish I want. We're giving guests a choice between Chicken Parmesan and Salmon Pico de Gallo. I really liked them both, so I'm going to have to let Mr. Broccoli decide first. Then, I'll just take whichever one he doesn't and eat off his plate.

We've been busy making the invitations, which is looking more and more like the most certifiable idea we've had so far. The invitations are going to be mini hand-bound books, complete with pages and a "hardcover" binding made of card stock. Originally we were going to fold the card stock so as to give them little spines, but we've quickly abandoned that as impractical and unnecessarily time consuming. Since there are 3 events - the Nova Scotia wedding, the Toronto wedding, and the reception for our friends - there also has to be 3 distinct invitations, each with their own wording, guest list, and colour to help us keep track. They are also going to have reply cards that look like the old check-out cards in the backs of library books (pre-digital age; ask your parents). With any luck, we'll at least get the Nova Scotia invitations in the mail this weekend since that is the first event. Cross your fingers.

I'm also knitting my wedding bouquet, and the bouquets for my bridesmaids and the corsages and boutonnieres for the wedding party. That's somewhere around 40 knit flowers, with leaves and some with stems. I'm hoping to have time to make a lace binding for the 3 bouquets, but we'll see how that goes.

In the midst of all this DIYing, we've decided to outsource some things. I've found an artist on etsy to custom make our wedding topper; it will be the 2 of us sitting on a loveseat with books open on our laps and my cat on the armrest. We're having it done in her "Elegant" style that you see on the website. I've also ordered my tiara from etsy. I love this whole hand-made wedding thing.

Shoe woes

I hate shoe shopping. I really do. My feet are size 7 (usually, anyway), which seems to be the size that always sells out first, and the ball of my foot is just a bit wider than the average 7, but my feet are too short for size 8. Argh! In the stereotypical-girlie-shopping departemnt, I much prefer to drool over bags. They don't have to fit anything.

But, of course, I can't exactly walk bare foot down the aisle, so I needed to buy shoes for the wedding dress (actually, 2 pairs, but lets deal with one thing at a time, shall we?). My parents came to visit this past weekend and we used this opportunity to go shoe shopping. My mom has a much higher tolerance for shoe shopping than I do; in fact, she bought her shoes for the wedding first, and plans to look for a dress to match them!

We went to the Eaton Centre and looked at almost every shoe store in the mall before we found the perfect pair. Our main concern was the heel; I'm an absolute dufous at a lot of "girlie" things and one of the highest on that list is walking in high heels. The heels couldn't be too high and they couldn't be stilettoes. Walking down the aisle is the very last place I want to fall flat on my face (and end up on America's Funniest Home Videos or whatever knock-off version is playing now). The shoes we found are white, of course, with just a little peek-a-boo of an open toe. The heels are stiletto, but the only go up about an inch and a half. I think I should be able to handle that! They have 2 little circles of leather around the part that crosses over the top of the toes for some visual interest.

I'd love to be able to post pictures of the shoes, but that is not currently possible, due, in part, to those cute little circles of leather. First, the salesman had to go to another location in the mall to get the shoes in my size, which took about 10 minutes. We almost left, thinking he had forgotten us and gone on his break. When he brought them to me to try on, we discovered that one of the little circles of leather wasn't glued on like all the rest; it just kind of flopped there looking lop-sided. No problem, they said. We'll just glue it down for you, no charge. Standing at the cash register and watching the saleswoman pack them into the shoe box Mom noticed a line of glue along the top of the leather circle.

She pointed this out to the salesgirl show said, "no problem.  I'll just clean it up".  So she took out an arsenal of cleaning products: lotions, brushes, cloths, sprays.  But when she was finished, instead of a small line of glue there was a big grey smudge across the top of the toes!  Mom asked if they had another pair in that size and she said it was the only one.  So we asked if we could get a discount, since it looked like we would now have to buy white leather dye to fix it.  Because they were already on sale, she could only give us $10, which we hardly felt was compensation for watching her ruin my wedding shoes right before our eyes.  At this point the manger came over and took the shoe out of the salesgirl's hands to fix it himself.  Of course, all he did was the same things she had just done and he turned the grey smudge into a black one!  Finally he suggested she look to see if there were any in the warehouse and thankfully there were.  So the shoe store is going to ship them to me, free of charge.  Hurray!

What's in a name?

If you had asked me a week ago how I felt about taking my husband's name after marriage, I would have replied that I didn't much care one way or the other, but that he did so I would take his name. Then my dad asked me to take a hyphenated name so that I could keep my maiden name as part of my legal name. He was asking this because he was updating his will and he didn't want there to be any complications due to my name change when it comes time for the will to matter. All of a sudden, I realized that I do care. I've really grown attached to this Broccoli thing, and I certainly didn't want a hyphenated name at all. Plus, I have to think of the kids growing up with either a hyphenated name or a different name from their mother, both of which can cause confusion. Mr. Broccoli, of course, said it was entirely my decision to make (although he did really like the Broccoli thing, as well). What to do?

I spoke with a co-worker who got married 5 years ago, and she gave me the perfect answer that makes everybody happy. She said that legally changing your name is a long and pricey process and that nowadays, most women don't do it at all. Instead, the "assume" their husband's last name. This means that once I have a marriage license I can legally have all my IDs, credit cards, bank accounts, passport etc changed over to my new name without actually having it legally changed. I will still legally have my maiden name and I will still legally take on my husband's. Hurray for answers that keep me from having to make a decision!

In other news, I went home to Nova Scotia a few weeks ago for my bridal shower. It was a nice, relaxed, intimate affair in the living room of a waterfront house my parents own and rent out in the tourist season. My mom and grandmother catered it themselves and we used it as a chance to try out some wines for the reception dinner (I loved the red, an Italian called Masi. Still looking for a good white, though).

It was mostly my mother's friends, but they are all women that I've grown up with so I didn't feel out of place. Both my grandmother's were there, of course, as well as my cousin's wife and their oldest daughter who I hadn't seen since she was 7. She's 13 now. I'm sorry, but I don't remember ever giving her permission to grow up. She's supposed to stay little and cute like when I used to babysit her! There was also the daughter of one of my mother's best friends, another former babysitting charge. I hadn't seen her since she was about 13 and I was 18. The first thing she said when she saw me was, "Oh my God! You're so old! I can't believe you're getting married!". I'm so old?! Is that any way to talk to her venerable elder? :)

Here are the few pictures my mom took with my new camera:



Me, surrounded by my booty! Oh, and the guests, too.

A crowd shot.

I really think that paper plate hats covered in gift ribbons and bows will be really in this summer. Watch for it. My little cousin made this for me and did a wonderful job.




The spread. Yum

The all-important cake. This was baked by an old friend of mine from high school. My mom ran into her a few days before the shower and found that she's starting a home baking business. I had just picked my wedding colours the day before, that beautiful Autumn orange and my favourite colour, dark green, and it's great how she was able to incorporate that into the cake decoration.

Preparing the cake from group consumption (aka cutting the cake).

Wedding update

This whole wedding thing is really coming together. We've booked a hall for the reception in Toronto; we're having it at the Gladstone. I was there in university and it was a real dive at the time, but they've fixed it up and it's exactly what we're looking for. Since the Mosque ceremony will be family only, this reception is for our friends so we're planing to have it like a cocktail party with a very casual feel. The Gladstone is booked for the entire month of October except for the one date that we needed it! It was fated.

Yesterday, Mr. Broccoli's mother and sister took me shopping for an Indian wedding dress. The shop we went to did more casual wear than wedding dresses, but it was kind of nice to only have to try on a few dresses instead of dozens. The first one I tried on was a champagne coloured dress that had caught my future MIL's eye in the first place:



It's quite nice, but as you can see it quite washes me out. Remarks were made about my need for a tan, but that's what I expect being the only white girl in an Indian dress shop. :) Here's a close up view of the lovely needlework on the blouse.


See, not quite to washed out close up, but still...

Then she saleswoman brought out a purple dress.


A little colour makes a big difference, doesn't it? This one was also lovely, but not quite it, either (sorry for the blurry picture. It was taken on a blackberry).

When the saleswoman had first brought out a pink dress, I said right away that I wouldn't even try it on. Although my mom (among others) has always told me how good I look in pink, it's just not a colour that I picture myself in. After I tried on the purple dress she found another pink one of a different shade, so I consented to try it on.


And that was it. Even other shoppers in the store were coming over and saying "wow". The longer I had it on the more I liked it. We decided that this was the one.


Again, sorry for the blurry pic.

Of course, we had to find accessories.


I'm totally blinged out! The necklace is so large that it extends beyond the lower edge of the picture. It was hard to get the forehead piece to stay (I don't know what it's called). I'll have to pin the chain in securely for the wedding.

Here I am, the total outfit.

We still have to get shoes, bangles and a hijab and the dress needs a fair bit of tailoring to fit (outfits at this kind of store are all one size and it's up to the wearer to have it fitted) and to lengthen the sleeves. I really wanted something that was very different from the wedding dress I'll be wearing at the church wedding, and this is definitely it!

When we got back into the car, I found that the metalic embroidery had left scratches all over my arms! The things we women do for beauty.

Seeing green

Spring is looking like it might actually be a reality, despite sudden swings between 14 degrees and 10 below these last few weeks. All in all, I remain hopefuly that the Earth will continue on its usual orbit and that the weather will become consistently warm once more. With that in mind, 2 weeks ago I planted my first tomato seeds.

I made a self-watering seed starter out of a Tim Hortons water bottle from my lunch. I started out by cutting it into two at around the place where the bottle becomes ribbed (for her pleasure? I highly doubt it). The plastic bottle cap was thin enough that I was able to poke a hole in it using a metal poker that I have. I think the original purpose has something to do with tying up meat with string, but I bought them in university when I used to have an annual egg dying party for Easter. They're great for poking holes in the shells to get the insides out!

I got some cotton yarn from my yarn closet and cut off about 6 inches. I inserted it through the hole and tied a knot on the inside of the cap.

I filled the bottom with water and the top with potting soil (my potting soil from last year had completely dried out and it was quite an ordeal to re-introduce moisture into the soil). I made sure to keep the yarn as centered in the soil as possible. Then I placed the soil-filled top with the cap facing down into the water-filled bottom. Now the cotton yarn becomes a wick! I've barely touched it for the whole 2 weeks and I've certainly never watered it. Yet the soil is as moist as it was when I first planted it.

Somebody please think of the bees!

I love bees, I always have. I love their shape, I love their colours, I love their fuzzy little bodies, I love that my name starts with "B", and I especially love their honey (I really love honey!). But I have come across some startling news. Apparently, the honey bee population in North America is dwindling! Yee gads! I first heard about this on Planet Green, the sister site of TreeHugger.com. Apparently Haagen Dazs is trying to bring awareness to this issue with a website and by promising to donate part of the proceeds from the sale of their "bee-dependent" ice cream flavours, including a brand new flavour called Vanilla Honey Bee. Yum. I hardly need an excuse to eat high quality ice cream, especially with spring (supposedly) upon us and summer round the bend.

You may be thinking, "why would I care if the bees all die? I don't like honey, all bees do is make honey and sting people". Well there, fussy britches. Don't write off bees so fast. Making honey is the most obvious thing that bees do for people, but it's far from the most important. Bees are pollinators, so along with birds and bats bees are responsible for fertilizing 1/3 of all of our agriculture. Every third bite you take of a peach this summer is thanks to the work of bees. So raise your spoons high and dig in for the bees!

Hey, where'd that sun go?

Despite the imminent snow forecasted for today and tomorrow, we' had yet another lovely weekend. I think, if we have to keep see-sawing between winter and spring weather, I like our current mix of cold, bitter weekdays (when I'm stuck in my window-less office) and warm, sunny weekends when I can go out and play. With the previous weekend being a long weekend, the weather gods decided to take that into consideration and gave us a lovely Friday, too!

On Friday Mr. Broccoli and I went to mosque with his family. There isn't really an equivelent to East in Islam, but because everyone gets the day off it tends to be one of the days when everyone goes to Friday service. We didn't balance this off by attending church on Sunday, but when we have kids that will definitely be the rule. Before mosque we spent about an hour and his parents' house so that I could go through the picture boxes with Mr. Broccoli's mother. My mom wants to do a slideshow during the reception and has asked for pictures of my sweetie growing up. I ended up taking all the boxes and albums home and I will hve a phone conference with my mom sometime this weekend to decide which ones she wants.

The rest of the weekend was taking up with my fierce and sudden urge to nest. All I wanted to do was spring cleaning, so I did several loads of laundry, some organizing of my craft studio, and some baking. I'd like to get into the habit of baking every weekend. I made some crepe batter, which I promptly forgot about in the fridge, and pie crust dough. The crepe batter will keep for a few more days, so I'll need to make the crepes some weeknight this week. Ihope to keep a batch of cooked crepes in the fridge for quick breakfasts.

The pie crust was an experiment of sorts. I took the recipe from a 1970s book about cooking food for the freezer. I got it at a church sale and I love how it refers to freezers as brand new technology and even has a chapter on why you would want to bother buying one. I substitued whole wheat flour for white in the hopes of making it more nutricious (Mr. Broccoli is trying to lose weight), but it turns out the whole wheat flour isn't as easy to work with. It took more water than the recipe called for to make it ball up without crumbling in my hands (and I still didn't quite overcome this) and it baked into a much denser crust. I wanted to make little mini pie crusts to use some of my homemade caramel apple jam as filling, but the only circular cookie cutter I had was smaller than the tart molds so I ended up with all kinds of little slightly curved disks of whole wheat crust. Hmmm, not quite what I was going for. Next time, I'll use white flour so I can get a sense of what it's supposed to come out like and then maybe experiment with substituting part amounts of whole wheat flour. I'll also need to get a larger circlular cutter of some sort. Maybe an aluminum can. I'm still eating the little disks with apple jam for breakfast.