Karis and Uncle Miguel

Miguel loves his niece!

 

Miguel trying to get Karis excited about Georgia Tech =)

I think Karis loves her Uncle Miguel too!

Love Is Brewing: A Bridal Tea

This past Saturday my mom and I threw a Bridal Tea Shower for a childhood friend. I have been so excited about this tea for a long time now and started preparing for it many months ago. I still cannot believe that it has already come and gone! Wow!

Since my parents are in the middle of moving and we knew that their house would be on the market this fall, my mom and I thought it would be best to throw the shower at different location. I imediately thought of having the party at a tea house because that seems very "Bridal" to me. I couldn't believe my luck when I discovered The Roswell Tea house! Besides being quite picturesque, it also offers food services accommodating the many food allergies (gluten, soy, dairy, chicken, vegetarian, etc) of all our guests!  We also thought it'd be fun to have a mother/daughter tea since the guests we were inviting were all high school friends whose mothers were also acquaintances and friends. In the end it was a mix of mothers and daughters though. Scheduling something on a non-UGA football weekend in the fall is hard when everyone else is also taking advantage of the "open" Saturday! We had a lovely turnout though and were so happy and thankful that our guests could make it!

Back in July I started gathering ideas for invitations. I spent hours browsing on-line paper companies and in the end decided to create something on my own. I wish I could take total credit, however I found an invitation for inspiration here and then whipped up the rest in Photoshop. I went through multiple versions, but in the end I decided I wanted something more classy, "Bridal" and something that looked like it would compliment a high tea. I axed out any tea motifs and drew a bridal bouquet instead. I paired the invitations with pink envelopes. I was really please with the end result and loved the sweet feedback I received from the guests!

I clearly love being crafty and couldn't have been more thrilled to have a reason to get creative! I decided to go with a bright colored, floral patterned theme. I also came up with the idea of using the phrase "Love Is Brewing" and incorporated that throughout the shower. We ended up having to provide our own tablecloths and, well, pretty much everything except the china.  Below are two pictures of how everything turned out:

I made this banner to hang, it reads: Love Is Brewing with the Bride's wedding date below 12.22.12. I also lucked out with having Cricut cartridges with the heart mugs! Too perfect and cute! I had to use them! I'm really please with the result, but a little disappointed too. This was the second version I ended up making and time just ran out on me. It was much more detailed in my vision, but like I said, I still think it looks cute and the effect was still created!

I also used my Cricut to make a banner to hang on the back of Sarah's chair. However, since the chair didn't end up having posts on the top, we tied it to the front with some ribbon. This actually turned out okay since we seated her towards the end of the room where the sign wouldn't have been seen by the rest of the guests had it been hanging on the back of the chair.

I also made a banner for the gift table

I also created some little tea-themed favors for all of our guests. I purchased tea infusers and little jars to fill with loose tea. Then on each infuser I made little bottle cap charms that read either "Love Is Brewing 12.22.12" or "cuppa ♥". The Bride's read "Mrs. Giovino 12.22.12" (her future married name). I made them in multiple background colors and added a little heart charm that read "love" on each as well.

I put the tea and the infusers in little brown, paper bags that I adorned with the love-mugs and tied with some ribbon. 

I knew I wanted to use tea tins as vases for the flowers. I found the pink ones at Publix and picked up the green ones at World Market. My mom and I purchased some loose flowers from Whole Foods and arranged them in the tea tins. The tea room staff had advised us to keep the flower arrangements relatively small since table space was needed for the tea service. The colors were perfect for the look I was going for, and again, I was really pleased with the end result. 

We had a florist make a corsage for the bride. The colors and flowers matched perfectly! Yay! 

That's pretty much it as far as decor goes. I couldn't have pulled it all together without the help of my wonderful mother! It was so much fun doing this together and I had a blast (as I always do) spending the weekend with her!

I have nothing but compliments to the Roswell Tea House! The food was delicious! I mean, really, really good! We had two teas, a seasonal maple tea and a wedding tea. I love tea, but I truly believe these teas would turn anyone into a tea person! To begin we had a choice of three soups, a butternut squash (which I got... yum!), a carrot ginger, and a tomato basil. Everyone commented on the wonderful flavors. Like my mom said, she had to stop herself from licking the bowl ;)

 

The tea service continued with tea sandwiches (cucumber, edamame, pimento cheese, curry chicken salad), scones, tea cakes, and loads of goodies... and this was just on our non-allergy end. The guests with the allergies assured us that the other options were just as tasty. Not only was everything yummy, it was also beautiful!

After we finished eating, we moved onto gifts. I didn't get too many pictures of this event, but the bride received many beautiful items to jump start her married life. 

Thank you, Claire, for diligently recording the gifts! 

My mom and I gave Sarah a Mackenzie-Childs tea pot in one of the patterns she registered for. The Bentsens (the Bride's family) collect Mackenzie-Childs pieces and my mom and I couldn't think of a more appropriate Bridal Tea gift!

Haha! Sorry, Sarah! This isn't the best picture, but it is the only one I got of Sarah opening the gift!

We had such a beautiful, warm October day! I'm so happy everything came together so well and we were able to celebrate the Bentsen Family and spend time with friends! Looking forward to December 22nd!

The Bentsen sisters, Amy, Claire, and the Bride, Sarah

Long time friends! The mother of the bride, Elisa, Amy, Claire, the Bride, Sarah, me and my mom, Lisa.

West Virginia, Mountain Mama

Though I claim to be a southern girl through and through, half of my heritage actually comes from West Virginia. I know, I know. ;) It's actually okay because, as my Dad had to prove to my Mom's Granny before he received her blessing in marriage, West Virginia is below the Mason Dixie line. Nah, I seriously have a huge place in my heart for WV and the mountains!

I traveled to WV with my Dad last weekend to visit his hometown and cheer on the WVU Mountaineers! I had so much fun! I hadn't been to WV since my grandparents moved to Florida when I was in grade school. West Virginia, and my Dad's home town in particular, are sorta like Disney World to me; I first visited when I was a child and all my memories there are great and magical ones. I loved revisiting places from my past and this trip was especially significant since as an adult I can appreciate things I wouldn't have as a child. 

We flew in to Pittsburgh, PA and drove down to Morgantown and Fairmont, WV. I stopped for some picture opportunities in the airport first. Apparently I got some bad looks from my attempt to "tackle" the football player who was clearly labeled "Do Not Touch"... oops. I didn't see that obviously. And William Penn didn't impress me too much. 

I really enjoyed seeing Fairmont, where my Daddy and his side of the family are from.

There is an East side and a West side to Fairmont. Bob-bob, my grandfather, was from the East Side, which my grandma just really turned her nose up at. =) Silly, small town politics. 

Driving over the bridge from the East Side to the West Side. 

I love history and nothing beats your own, personal history. My dad took me to see the house where Bob-bob grew up at, his childhood homes, and of course back to the house that I remember my grandparents last living in.

The house my grandfather grew up in

Looking out over East Fairmont

The view driving up to my grandparents' house... I would get SO excited when we would turn this corner as a child!!

SO many fond memories in this house! It's funny going back as an adult, everything seemed so much bigger, larger than life, as a child!

My dad took me to all the places I remember going when I visited WV as a child. We had to stop at Gabriel Brothers. It's basically like a TJ Max. My grandmother loved a great deal and we always had to shop at "Gabe's" whenever we were in town. I remember a HUGE Looney Tunes night shirt I got here as a child. I loved that shirt. I probably wore it till it got holes in it.

It cracked me up that in addition to the usual departments such as Juniors, Ladies, Men, Shoes, there was a hunting department! Haha!

So of course, I had to try on some things...

That jacket was WARM!

We also visited Muriales, a really yummy Italian restaurant that gives Andes mints with your check... the best! 

I found a picture of the Fairmont YMCA... represent, holla. 

One of the many reasons my Dad is the best... he got the wait staff to give us extra mints! And look! Our rental car came with the perfect little storage spot for them! 

A huge thing in WV is pepperoni rolls. Seriously. I saw these for sale everywhere! Bakeries, the concession stand at the football games, CVS... they are popular! We stopped by the Country Club Bakery in Fairmont and picked up a dozen rolls to take back home to Miguel. They didn't last long at home btw ;)



We also had to stop by Colasessano's... the BEST pizza. It's thick and square and full of yummy cheesiness!!!

Enjoying some pasta salad before the pizza came... bad choice, I should have left more room for the pizza!

My Dad also took me to see his grade school and his high school and Bob-bob's middle school.

Bob-bob's middle school

Apparently, my dad and his buddies tried to steal the bell outside Bob-bob's middle school... it didn't go so well.... it's a bit heavy... =)

My Dad's grade school... one class per grade 

I loved seeing my dad's high school! It was so different than the way I pictured it in my head. I pictured a one story, smallish building built in the 1950's. I also think it's really cool that both my Dad and my Grandma went to school in the same building. 

The doors were open so we were able to go in and walk around. It was fun to see the pictures of the past principles from both my dad's time and my grandma's too. I loved hearing about what Lo-lo (my grandma) thought about her principle and what my dad thought of his and his teachers. 

Friday night we decided to go to the high school football game. The east and west high schools share a stadium and my dad said pretty much nothing had changed since he went to games there. He said even buying the tickets was exactly the same.

As an added bonus, it happened to be their Homecoming game. The team didn't play so well, but it was an excellent cultural experience. The cheerleaders hair cracked me up. I'm sorry if you think this is cute, and I may be behind the times in this beauty fashion... but these girls were rocking some pretty serious, um... snooki poofs? Those things were seriously high and looked soooo funny in person! It was really comical! I wish I had had enough courage to go up and get a decent picture of their hair... but I figured it would look sorta sketchy having a stranger be that obvious about taking their picture. But, seriously. Those bumps have to be at least over four inches. How do they even get them to stay that high?!

Our last night in WV my dad and I drove around and through some of the surrounding towns. We happened upon a traveling fair in Shinnston. We had to stop and check it out. I asked my dad if he thought people would know we weren't from there and he just laughed in response. I did get a bunch of stares apparently. People thought I was crazy for taking pictures of everything... they thought I was acting as if I had never seen a fair before. Which is kinda true I guess. I felt like I was in a movie set in a small town. It was fun. But everything was super over priced. 

 

I'm going to blog about the WVU game, but in another post. For now I will just leave with some thoughts and interesting facts I learned while in WV...

There are strange stoplights that last forever... I felt like I was in Gilmore Girls...

just substitute my dad and me for Rory and Lorelai

There are a lot of scary bridges, that I don't think people should drive over....

There are coal mine ventilation things....

People carpet their front porches...? Like this wasn't a one house thing... there were fewer houses without carpet than there were with it.

Okay, to be fair it's to help the porches not be too slippery in the winter... 

This sign made me laugh...

It is WAY too cold for September up there...

We drove through a mountain! NOT COOL! 

But the tunnel was shorter than it originally felt like it would be and we came out to a pretty view of Pittsburgh. 

So much fun! Can't wait to blog about the game!