It's been a long time since you came around...

Or, I should say, it's been a really long time since I came along...

Things have been crazy over here at the Wing place. With what, you say? 

Well, my sister had her perfect baby girl. We're pretty stoked about that! I also got to spend some time with my adorable nephews! And we've figured out how to use this whole "google hangout" thing and that was super awesome! I love those little boys (and now that little girl!) so incredibly much!!

Three of the most precious things in my life!!

Our friends Tad and Abby got married!! 

Slightly dark, but we had a great time at their wedding!

Best cake toppers ever!!

We've been watching a lot of football! Go Dawgs and GOOOOO FALCONS!!

We had a pretty awesome Halloween. Actually...we had a few. 
Evan went to a Halloween party at our friends' house, 

then he dressed up at work 

and I dressed up with my work buddies for our monthly potluck dinner! Let's see if you can figure out what I'm gonna be...

I cut holes in a box... 

painted it yellow...

Ok. So I'm a stick of butter. But why?!

Well, obviously, it's because nothing goes better with Paula Deen
than a stick of butter and Smithfield Ham! Yeah...we rocked that Potluck Supper!

Once the sugar high wore off, we did something AWESOME!


WE WENT ON A CRUISE! Ah...so much relaxation packed into 4 days! 

I know this isn't a picture of the boat, but it's my favorite picture of the whole trip! :)

We've got a whole lot going on over the next couple weeks, too, so I'm sorry if it takes me a little while to update the blog again. It seems that I go through a "Daylight Savings Time-Warp" with my blogs, though, so it's entirely possible that I'll fall off the face of the planet until we get to spring forward in time again. Don't hate me because it's too cold outside to type! ;) Kidding, of course! 

But I really might. 

If you're one of the 3 people out there who actually read my blog, remind me to update you on stuff. Unless you're bored, in which case, buy me some craft supplies and a bottle of wine and I'm sure something will come of it! 

See y'all soon!

Celebrating Marriage!

While it's a little early to celebrate our marriage just yet (I mean, we haven't even been married for 6 months...), I was so excited when my boss asked me to help plan her in-laws' 40th wedding anniversary! 

It's so reassuring to see people who are still in love with each other after being married for so long! I can only hope that we will be just as happy in 39 years and 7.5 months! 

My boss and I scoured Pinterest for some amazing ideas and then put our own spin on things. I helped her create a wreath for their front door, a chalkboard sign and a fantastic cake. I won't go into much detail about the wreath and sign, but I'll explain the cake a bit more below. Enjoy these pictures in the meantime!

I have to say, I had SO much fun making this cake!

The boss didn't want anyone to bump into it, so she put it in the corner. 

It's not perfect, but I did it pretty quickly...on my lunch break. 

This actually turned out WAY cuter than I thought it would!

Ok, so this cake was a first for me. I had never worked with gumpaste before. It was SO much fun!!! I had such a ball! Oh, and the silly puppy did too. In fact, she decided to eat some of the leftovers...that was a fun digestive experience for her. 

I digress. I tinted the gumpaste, rolled it out, used a handy dandy cookie cutter and used these marvelous flower forming cups. 

You can find these at Michaels. They are super helpful!

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, I didn't have quite enough of the cups, so we improvised...with wine glasses. Wish I had a picture of this, but I was too busy to remember to document the process.

The centers of the flowers were crystal beads we found at Michaels. I threaded wire through the holes and twisted until I had little sticks. Obviously, these weren't edible. No word on whether anyone tried them, though.

I alternated between pink and white layers, different sizes and let them "set up" a little differently for each layer. Once they were kinda set up, I assembled them and stuck my crystal/wire stem through them. I wanted them all to hang naturally, but I hadn't thought to purchase one of these: 

So I had to improvise. I twisted the head of a wire hanger (Mommy Dearest flashbacks, anyone?) and let them hang from the fireplace overnight. Clearly I closed the door to the bedroom so no curious kitties or precocious pups would try to taste them. 

As for the cake itself, I basically doctored up a vanilla cake mix by adding a box of vanilla instant pudding and changing the liquid measurements a tad. Don't remember exactly what I did though so will try to find that recipe later. Promise! Scout's Honor! (Haha...but I wasn't a scout so you can't hold me to it!)

As with all icing emergencies, I defer to the person I consider to be the baking guru...Whisk Kid. I followed her directions for Italian Meringue Buttercream. Almost perfectly. Except I'm not perfect and I'm very impatient and this lack of patience and perfection caused me to have to wait a while for things to look as good as hers. Don't be like me. Follow the directions. And don't use boxed egg whites. They just don't work as well. 

Oh, and I also decided to flavor my icing with a little Amaretto. Just to make it interesting. Icing it was a royal pain. I wanted to make it as smooth as possible, so I kept sticking it back in the freezer and then smoothing it out with a paper towel. I know this sounds silly, but it really helped a lot! 

Anywho...after everything was said and done and perfect enough, I stuck the flowers in and, well, you see the final result...and apparently it tasted pretty good too! Success!! 

Happy 40th Anniversary to the Jones'. And yes, that's actually their name, not some pseudonym! 

White Wedding

As previously mentioned, we just got married. 3 months ago to be exact. I could go on and on about how magical and amazing this day was for both of us and how emotional it was, but that would be boring. I mean, it was magical. And it was amazing. And it was emotional. I mean, I married my best friend. I've waited my whole life to find someone who makes me feel like I can be myself and who really truly loves me, faults and all. In that way, this really was the most amazing day of my life. 

But, honestly...I don't remember very much of it. No, I wasn't drunk. But you know how everyone always tells you to "soak up every second" and that your wedding day will "fly by?" They were right. It did fly by. I really felt like it was a dream. 

The day started off like any other, except 2 of my bridesmaids had spent the night. One of them had a little too much fun at the rehearsal dinner and didn't wake up so "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" as I'd hoped, but I also woke up at the crack of dawn. I wonder why? 

When the girls did wake up, I had a momentary moment straight out of "Friends." You know, the one where Monica comes running out of her room saying "I'm getting married today! I'm getting married today" and then falls on her face? That one! 

Anyway, the rest of the day seemed to just fly by. Everyone else showed up at the apartment. They promptly made me a mimosa and put Bridesmaids on. That wasn't awkward to watch with my mom. We got our hair done, did makeup and headed out to the venue. We got dressed, took some pictures (we're getting to those) and had a few more glasses of champagne. Now, I'm sure you're thinking "glasses? plural? You sure you weren't drunk?" but I assure you, when you've got that much adrenaline pumping through your body, champagne turns into bubbly water. 

I was doing really great. No tears. No panic attacks. I was calm. Next thing I know, everyone is out there and it's just me and dad standing in the bridal suite, waiting to go. 

We walk down the aisle to the Vitamin String Quartet version of "At Last." Dad gives me away. I'm still good. And then it happens. Brett, my other big brother and best friend's husband, is standing up with us. Oh, did I forget to mention that he was our officiant? He got ordained online. Neither one of us has a church affiliation in Atlanta and we wanted something super personal. The first person we thought of was Brett. 

Anyway, he's standing up with us, welcoming our family and friends to celebrate our wedding. And then he looks at me and I look at him and he gets a tear in his eye as he calls me his "kid sister." Thanks, Brett. I was golden until that. 

If you know me, you'll know I cry. A lot. Easily. All the time. And this was no exception. Somehow I managed to repeat my vows, exchange rings and get married all while sobbing happy tears and constantly wiping my nose. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what happened.

To be honest with you, everything was pretty much a blur from here on out. I remember smiling a lot. Kissing a lot. Taking deep breaths and saying "oh my gosh...we are actually married." I remember having to ask for help every time I needed to go to the bathroom. 

I remember being really happy. And exhausted...but so happy! 

I will admit that after 6 months of intense planning, crafting, diy-ing and pinterest-ing, the moment I realized I had nothing else to do, I felt a little bit of post wedding-day depression. But then I realized I was on my honeymoon and I got a mojito and moved on! ;) More about that later! 

Here are some of my favorites from the wedding. I have to give a huge shout out to Pete Collins Photography, Texture Photographics, Lethal Rhythms Entertainment, Park Tavern, Flowers by Joanne and Diana Murphy for the huge roles they played in our wedding day. If Evan and I ever decide to renew our vows, I'd like to have this exact same team in place. 

That's my best friend...dancing? 

FYI...sparklers hurt. Bad.