Monthly Archives: March 2012

Happy Thursday!

First, a shameless plug and humble request: Vote For Us? Our SERIOUSLY amazing wedding photographer, Katelyn James, is holding her annual LOVE SHOTS contest! She has a photo representing every couple’s wedding that she photographed in the last year and the WINNING COUPLE gets a 20×30 canvas of a photo of their choice! AHHH. Seriously.

I love this for two reasons:

It just shows the generosity (and sheer marketing prowess) that Katelyn has for her clients
Canvases are ESSPENSIVE, y’all. Seriously. Those things cost a lot of American dollars… and seeing as how we got married a little over a month ago, we’re still recovering from spending a lot of American dollars on our wedding. Granted, it was worth EVERY penny (and we saved a ton of money doing 97% of it ourselves, but that’s neither here nor there).

So, would you be AWESOME and visit Katelyn’s site and go to the bottom and click “JOHN + MOLLY” and vote for us! You can vote every day until Monday, April 2nd at noon!

Moving on.

Now that I have my very unattractive shameless-self-promoting-plug out of the way, we can get to the good stuff.

SIGNS. At a wedding.

John + I knew that we really wanted personal touches all over the wedding and I knew I wanted to get as creative as possible. However, I was working with a VERY small budget and not a lot of time. When you’re working a lot, trying to pack an apartment, move, and get married, and all the whatnot, time is limited.

Well, on one of my many trips to Michael’s, I saw blank white canvases were on SALE. Yes! Score! And acrylic paints were on sale, TOO!

So BOOM. I had an idea for signs!

So, I took a Tuesday night, had a cold beverage, a good friend, and painted away!

I glued fabric rosettes on some to spice them up! And tried to come up with creative ideas all over the place!

“Biscuit Snatcher” is a term of endearment our Pastor loves to use when referring to children. I thought it was perfect.

Photo by Katelyn James Photography

Sweet tea… and that other tea. You know. Unsweet tea.

Photo by Katelyn James Photography

Now, I had quatrefoils ALL over our wedding. I’m a Phi Mu. I love quats. Sue me.

So I knew I wasn’t going to do a traditional Mr. and Mrs. chairback signs. So I made those puppies. QUATREFOIL CHAIRBACK MR. AND MRS. STILLMAN signs. Oh yeah. How awesome are they?

Photo by Katelyn James Photography

This one I loved instead of a “Thank You” sign – however, sadly, the day of the wedding we were so busy running around that we never took a picture with it. Oh well. Anyone want a “much obliged, y’all” sign?

Anyway – all in all – for the canvases, paints, and time – I spent about $17 TOTAL and about three TOTAL hours making the signs and all the things that went with it. Not too shabby.

What creative projects have YOU done recently? Ideas? Thoughts? How have you saved money? Post pictures! Link your blog! Do it up!

xoxo, All for now.

oh, and vote for us.

English Muffin Bread

1 Reply

Shortly after I left for college, my dad and his fiance moved to Florida and purchased a house down there. Even though it’s a long drive, I always look forward to visiting my dad and Bonnie in Florida every Christmas.

Other than just relaxing in the warm Florida weather, Christmastime, and seeing my family, one thing I love about visiting is the inevitable ENGLISH MUFFIN BREAD with breakfast every day.

This recipe is actually Bonnie’s recipe, but after this past Christmas, I finally asked her to send me the recipe because I love the bread so much.

It’s a real dense bread, but toasted with butter… there’s really nothing better. It even makes good sandwich or panini bread. I love it. I made my first batch a few weeks ago and we just finished the second loaf.

Now, because the batch makes two loaves, and because it’s all natural ingredients, the bread will mold quickly. SO, unless you plan on eating both loaves in a week, I recommend wrapping one loaf in tinfoil and freezing it. The bread holds up really well. I also leave the loaf I’m currently eating in the fridge. If you leave it out, it’ll mold pretty quick.

Anyway, here’s the recipe. ENJOY!

Ingredients:
6 Cups of all-purpose flour (or bread flour – it’s really good with Gold Medal Bread Flour)
2 Packets yeast
1 Tbs Sugar
2 Tsp Salt
1/4 Tsp Baking Soda
2 Cups Milk
1/2 Cup Water
Cormeal

Directions:

Mix THREE (3) cups of the flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking soda.

Heat the milk and water (in the microwave for 30 seconds to a minute) and add to the mixture.

Mix well.

At this point, mix in the rest of the flour.

NOTE: The dough is going to get SUPER thick. Like, REALLY thick. It will worry you if you’re not careful. I may even recommend just tossing out the mixer at this point and mixing the rest of the flour with your hands. Prepare to get messy. But it has to be done this way.

Grease TWO 8″ or 8.5″x4″ loaf pans and line the bottom with cornmeal. Split the dough and place in the pans. Sprinkle the top with cornmeal.

Cover with a cloth or twel and place in a warm, dry place for 45 minutes. (I use the mircowave – DON’T turn the microwave on!) Let the dough rise.

Then bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Boom! Voila!

What do you think? Comment below and let me know if you try!

All for now. xoxo.