it's a celebration: 2 years!

we celebrated our 2nd anniversary w/ a nice quiet dinner at home last night. wade picked up dinner at the tin angel around the corner from our house and i created ambiance!! ;)

fine china & crystal, candles, the pretty bouquet wade had delivered earlier in the day & ray lamontagne on vinyl in the middle of our blooming container garden. our own private 5 star restaurant. i even dressed up our terrace lighting w/ yellow and white draped streamers. (note to self: next time check the wind speed! they were pretty - but a bit of a fire hazard once the wind started blowing.)


i have a feeling we'll be spending many more evenings out on the porch this fall!

celebrating 2 years ...

wade and i celebrate our second anniversary today!

i've always wanted to do "performance reviews" on (or around) our anniversary - so romantic of me! this morning we talked a lot about what we've done with the past 2 years and what we look forward to and want out of the years to come. we talked about the things that we were proud of in our marriage along w/ areas where we each wish we were better. i am such a lucky girl. i really love this guy. and i am so thankful to be w/ someone that love me & encourages me the way that wade does daily! it only gets better! :)

i've shared several of these pictures before - but a little walk down wedding memory lane:

photography: adrian hitt // venue: historic rose mont in gallatin, tn // flowers: import flowers (designed by myself + mother & bridesmaids the night before!) // catering: val cheatham  // cake: patty cakes // pies: mother & mother-in-law / band: hit & run bluegrass // dress: pattie talbot @ seam // bridesmaids’ dresses: dessy // bride's makeup: heather cummings // bride's styling: samantha roe // photo booth: reed hummell photography

{ oh yum } mini mason jar pies!

yesterday i shared this post on our anniversary celebration(s) and all the yummy food we ate - including these delicious french breakfast muffins. and today i'm back w/ another post on food. yikes - doesn't sound like someone that is planning a trip to hawaii in less than 2 months!?! but - it was after all our anniversary. a perfect excuse.

so today ... mini gfree mason jar pies:

(makes 10 4oz pies)

for the crust:
(modified to gfree from cook's illustrated foolproof all-butter pie pastry)
2 1/2 cups gfree oat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 sticks cold butter (cut into 1/2" chunks)
3 tbsp sour cream
1/3c ice water

1 // mix together the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. add the butter little by little and mix until coarse crumbs.

2 // in a small bowl, mix together the sour cream & 1/3c ice water. add 1/2 of this mix to the dry mixture and mix a few times. repeat w/ the remaining sour cream mixture. pinch the dough w/ your fingers - if the dough is floury, dry or doesn't hold together, add 1-2 tbsp of water. mix until no dry flour remains.

3 // on a floured surface, gather the dough into 2 discs and wrap each tightly w/ plastic wrap. refrigerate 30 minutes before using.

there are lots of fantastic pie filling recipes all over the world wide web; however, i cheated & picked up a can of strawberry pie filling. next time i will work from scratch but i was working w/ 2 hours on saturday am before wade returned home.


let the fun begin:

preheat your oven to 400ºF.

1 // on a lightly floured surface, roll out your dough discs one at a time until each is approx 1/8" thick. cut the crust into approx 5" squares and then press each square into a separate mason jar. i found the easiest way to do this was to create a cone w/ the center of your square lowering it into the mason jar.

2 // fill each jar w/ pie filling until about 3/4ths an inch from the top of the jar. w/ the extra dough creature your little tops - this is the fun part! i made several lattice top pies and a few w/ little heart decorations.

3 // add the tops to each jar and press into place. crimp the little edges as best you can. and last but not least - sprinkle the tops w/ a little sugar.

4 // place the prepared pies onto a cookie sheet. bake at 400º for 20 minutes. turn the heat down to 250º & rotate the cookie sheet ... bake for an additional 10 minutes. the crust should be lightly golden & the filling should bubble.

hot & ready:

these yummy little pies will last 2-3 days in your pantry, an additional 2-3 days in your refrigerator and up to 5-6mo in the freezer. who am i kidding though - they would never last 5-6mo! :)

i baked 5 of my little pies and prepared 5 more to freeze for later. a little note: if you plan to freeze your pies before you bake them. make sure that the top of your pies is below the top of your mason jar. well duh, blair.
credits:
bebas - font squirrel 
learning curve - dafont 
blog bling - pugly pixel 
underwood champion - font squirrel 

{ hello munday } our first anniversary

a bit of a different {hello munday} this week. instead - a recap of our 1st anniversary celebration(s) yesterday! celebration(s) - bc both wade and i were determined to plan the day. as a compromise - we split the day into 2 parts: i planned breakfast & wade planned dinner.

part 1: a sunrise breakfast picnic.

i kicked wade out of the apartment on saturday so i could do all of my preparation ahead of time. {it is after all almost impossible to keep a surprise when living in a 750 sq foot apartment.} thanks to some {PINspiration}, i prepared a little sunrise picnic for radnor lake:

* an old quilt
* a couple of books of poetry
* orange juice & champagne for mimosas
* heart-shaped honeydew & cantaloupe
* a yogurt, granola, dry fruit & nut parfait
* mini mason jar strawberry pies
* two warm mugs of jasmine green tea
* our wedding china & silver
* and these yummy cinnamon & sugar french breakfast muffins (via velvet lava cafe):

on sunday morning, i woke wade a bit after 6. we packed our picnic into the car and drove to the park. unfortunately nature wasn't aware of my picnic plans - another rainy fall morning in nashville, tn. nor was the park - plastered w/ big NO PICNIC signs. and then there was the incredible vegan indian food from the wedding the night before. ho hmm. glum but not defeated, we drove back to the apartment instead and picnicked at our kitchen table.

part 2: dinner & a movie.

unfortunately we couldn't dedicate a full day to our anniversary. we went to church and then drove to gallatin for wade's grandpa's 78th birthday party. and i ended the day w/ my high school girls bible study.

while i was away, wade prepared his dinner surprise:

* tons of candles.
* lemon rosemary chix
* smashed sweet potatoes & asparagus
* red wine
* our wedding china, silver & crystal
* the wedding blanket we brought home w/ us from morocco
* our very own private viewing of casablanca
* and a million sweet memories of our honeymoon.

he was even at one point determined to turn our living room into a tent - much like the one we ate under while on our honeymoon. note to self: must purchase more sheets for spontaneous tent building.

a very delicious and successful anniversary - if i do say so myself. :) i hope you had a lovely weekend too.

his & hers stationery

{source: 1 // minted, 2 // silhouette blue, 3 // rowhouse14}

this sunday is our 1st wedding anniversary. my how time flies!!! we've made reservations for a little weekend away in early october. and just decided today ... i will coordinate the first half of our day and wade the second. (somewhere in the middle, we will fit a trip to his grandpa's birthday party and my high school girls' bible study.)

wanting to stick w/ traditional anniversary gifts ... we've decided to buy couple's stationery {1st anniverary = paper}. i of course immediately took to the web pulling all sort of fun inspiration. while wade had 1 requirement ... crane & co. hmm. today we also decided that we're both going to have to give a little - a lesson we've learned all to well during this first year! ;)

so saturday we're planning a little walk to social graces the stationery store down the street to support local and compromise.

i'm off to brainstorm the perfect anniversary breakfast!

credits:
bebas - font squirrel 
learning curve - dafont 
blog bling - pugly pixel