I can finally say with happiness that DH and I are totally, completely settled into our house….except for our garage.  We have all of our pictures and decorations up, our downstairs living room emptied to make space for our new fusball table, and a house-cleaning system in place that happens every weekend. 

With my newfound confidence in creating and maintaining a clean, welcoming, warm home, I decided to branch out to hostessing.  I’ve always been a little bit scared of hosting parties and gatherings.  Will the food turn out all right?  Will people show up?  Will we be bored?  Will there be enough space? 

But, I decided to face my fears and invite some family over for brunch, the Seahawks game, and some fusball (DH’s new favorite hobby) this morning.  We bought a new griddle, went grocery shopping, and polled everyone to see what kind of food they wanted cooked for brunch. 

It went really well!  I was happy that people showed up, I didn’t burn any of the food, and I felt comfortable cooking and entertaining at the same time.  I had to lock my cats up :(  but kept the kitten out and everyone loved playing with her. 

Next hostessing that I’m going to tackle:  our housewarming party on December 9.  I know it is a ways off, but I’m actually excited about planning it, sending invites out, creating a menu and decorating…..it will be fun!! 

First, let me apologize for the extreme lag in my blogging.

Second, allow me to explain it. In the past four weeks, life has picked up like a whirlwind and now it seems that everything is settling in it’s proper place. We’ve signed a lease on an apartment, I’ve started my new job, we’re in the process of buying Tom a new car, and, because I am insane, I’ve decided to become Suzy Homemaker and start cooking all our suppers so we can save money on food.

Now, for the most part, I am a fine cook. I like food, no scratch that, I adore food, and I sort of learned to prepare meals out of that pleasure. I have a knack and a love for cooking. I’m not satisfied with a boring meal of plain chicken and rice. Give me roasted peaches, couscous, a pot pie from scratch. I will happily stand over a hot stove for hours on end with a big glass of iced green tea to keep me cool, whisking cornstarch into the gravy and testing the temperature of the roast.

And then, I was tempted by a Martha Stewart recipe for turkey breast that could be done in the microwave. Trust me, at first I was wary. But the picture looked so good, and while I wouldn’t rely on her for my stock market tips, Martha has never steered me wrong in the food department. She seems to enjoy it as much as I do.

But still — wrapped in bacon, stuffed with fresh herbs and from prep board to table in 20 minutes? Too good to be true, I thought. I went with it anyway. Preparation took hardly any time at all. When I stuck it in the microwave, it looked like a promising, tasty supper. Fifteen minutes later, the microwave let out it’s three beep signal, and I went to retrieve the magically good, quick recipe.

What I removed from the oven was less like turkey and more like chunks of leather. What had been high quality turkey breast was now nothing more than a flavorless jerky.

In that moment, as I stared at my disappointing concoction, I remembered what I already knew. Things we enjoy in life are worth the extra effort. In a society where everything is done in a hurry, movies are On Demand, the internet is high speed and coffee is instant, maybe I need to take a minute (or twenty) to stand over a simmering pot, slow down, and enjoy the simple satisfaction of a meal made right.

I wanted to post quickly that things are going really well in my newleywed life, but I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t had time to post.  I have parent-teacher conferences next week so its been chaos getting prepared for that. 

We just had our 2 month anniversary last week; DH brought flowers home and we went out to dinner.  I have to say that with the addition of our new kitten to our household, I’ve been thinking a lot about when we have children.  I look at the way he takes care of her and plays with her, and I can only imagine the amazing father he is going to be!!

Time flies so fast that I forgot that this year marks 11 fabulous years since we started Bliss! Weddings/Pash.  We started in 1995 soon after we returned from our honeymoon in Italy.  Let me tell you… in 1995 the web was a vast, unknown territory for most.  I am a computer programmer by trade and I was already in-love with the web since my first intro via the Mosaic web browser two years prior in 1993.  The celebrity of the day was Marc Andreeson - tech dude and genius behind the evolutionary Mosaic web browser which eventually became the Netscape browser.  How I wanted in on those Netscape stock when they went public!  But I digress…

Our idea was simple: share our recent experiences in planning our wedding and to get others, who are going through the same experiences, to share with others on our website.  Easy - I know how to program and my hubby is sharp with the business-side of things.  Popular websites at the time were The Knot (although for awhile they were just on AOL before they joined us on the web), UltimateWedding.com, WayCoolWeddings.com, Della and James and WeddingChannel.  Well, WeddingChannel bought Della and James (such a great name for a gift registry!), and TheKnot just bought WeddingChannel. 

We’ve met many people over the past 11 years and we have learned so much.  And in those 11 years, we opened our store, Bliss! Weddings Market, selling distinct and hard-to-find wedding favors, favor packaging, gifts and supplies for your wedding.

 We’ve received so many awards over the years, the most prominent being named Forbes magazine’s “Best of the Web” in wedding planning.  We’re top-ranked organically in both Google and Yahoo! and that can’t get any better.

We L-O-V-E weddings and we plan on being here for a very long time dispensing the best ideas, information and advice to the newly-engaged.

Here’s to many more years in BLISS!

Ahhh… that’s me finally taking a breather… Wedding season 2006 is officially winding down.  It was a great year for us!  Plenty of editorial coverage in Brides, Modern Bride, InStyle Weddings and Martha Stewart Weddings.  They love us! they really, really love us!     While it’s definitely not as busy as it usually is during January through September, it’s busy internally.  Meaning, I can get down to analyzing the books, sourcing and adding new products to our 2007 collection (you’ll LOVE it!), adding new features to our website, and planning our marketing strategy and budget for the next year.

Thanks to all of you for your continued patronage and hope to see some of you (wedding consultants) back here in 2007!

I love these big, silk flowers atop each wedding favor box!  The colors are very autumn and gathered altogether, the boxes make a fab impression!

via Flickr whitneybee

DH’s best man and his fiancee were over this past weekend, and we inevitably asked tons of wedding questions about planning, decorations, dresses, photographer, etc.  Now that I’ve forgotten about the last minute stressors of wedding planning, I love wedding planning and hearing about other people’s weddings.  We haven’t seen them since our wedding (2 months ago) so of course we were excited to hear all about their wedding and how their plans were coming along.  They, however, didn’t seem as excited to talk about the wedding. 

And I tried to remember…..did I hate wedding talk?  Did I hate answering questions about color schemes, decorations, guest list, ceremony, etc?  Or was I so caught up in the excitement of planning my dream wedding that I would shout it from the rooftops to anyone who would listen?  I did, sometimes, hate to give answers to questions that I’d heard a million times from a million different people that seemed simply repetitive.  I never realized how disappointing it can be to be on the other end of those question/answer sessions.  People were genuinely interested in wedding details, and maybe sometimes I shortchanged myself and them by looking no deeper than the repetitiveness of their questions. 

I’m not planning on planning another wedding, but I will keep this experience in mind the next time someone asks me how my job is going and I feel like I’ve answered the question a thousand times, or when I return from vacation or visiting family.  People care and are genuinely interested. 

DH woke up sick yesterday and it devastated me.  He wasn’t sure what was really wrong…upset stomach, small fever, and no energy.  I felt like such a wife, running around to get things he needed and making sure he was taken care of.  We had a family function to go to last night, and he doesn’t like to seem weak so he tried valiantly to act like he wasn’t sick, but battled the whole time.  Today he stayed home sick from work, and I resisted the urge to call to check on him every time I had a break.  When I get home, it makes me happy to see his energy restored and that he is feeling better.  He was all over me, demanding attention and said he had missed me all day. 

On another note, a longtime staff member at my school passed away last week, and it was a tough couple of days for the entire school.  I had never taught with her, but the loss of her impacted the entire school, myself included.  I held my husband a little tighter this weekend and got in contact with my family, and made sure I left my kids on a good note on Friday.  It made me remember to cherish every day and live for the important things, not the ones that won’t matter tomorrow. 

To-be weds are clamoring to reserve either the date 07-07-07 (a Saturday night) or 08-08-08 (a Friday night).  Chances are 7-7-07 is probably already reserved if your venue of choice is a very popular location.

Gotta attend this must-see event if you are getting married and live in the tri-state area!  Celebrity wedding planner, Preston Bailey, and baker extraordinaire, Sylvia Weinstock will be speaking.

Register at www.WeddingMarch.com