Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts

Monday, September 21, 2009

Wedding Weekend Pics: Driving range

Went to the nearby Birch Plain driving range w/the guys on the saturday before the wedding, gave me the chance to work out some nervous energy, launching some (definitely not all) little white balls off the fake little grass rugs. Jeff, Jason, Kev, B and I went through three large baskets pretty quickly, and my too-tight grip yielded a nice dime sized blister on my left hand thumb.

My default swing is steeped in my years as a little leaguer, so its tough for me to relax and lock out my left elbow, stand up straight...basically do all the things that differentiates a golf swing a baseball swing. Still, even I was able to hit a few straight.

Check out the pics from the range:





Wednesday, September 2, 2009

A Crapload of Cookies

Let me just say that I truly do enjoy baking.

Now, that being said, I never want to spend a morning baking 150 cookies ever again. My kitchen gets too hot, I will inevitably burn at least one finger, and I end up covering every visible surface in a light dusting of flour because I'm too impatient to add the flour to the wet mixture sloooooowlyyyyyy.

What IS fun, though, is spending a few hours with your girlfriends EATING cookies, drinking wine, and laughing about how ridiculous it is to create 120 cute little bags of homemade cookies.

Last night a bunch of my girlfriends came together to help me finish putting together the wedding favors. I stole the brilliant idea from my bridesmaid Gina, whose mother and mother's friends did the same thing for Gina's wedding last year. What I didn't realize was the difference just one generation makes in executing said idea.

Who knew how long it would take me (and my friend Renee) to measure, cut, and tape the cute little recipe cards I wanted to attach to each bag? I didn't. Who would have thought baking 13 dozen cookies 2 days before I leave for Wedding Weekend might be cutting it a little close? Not me. And who thinks about cold storage for 120 bags full of fresh baked cookies? JC, that's who. Needless to say (although I will), I came home last night super excited that my friends and I pulled off this extravaganza and finished all our personalized wedding favors. We packed up all the bags and left them in Renee's (kinda) cool basement to store for a couple days. Well, JC was more concerned about poisoning all of you than I was because he convinced me to go BACK to Renee's at 10:30p last night to unpack all the boxes, clean out Renee's refridgerator, and jam 120 cute little bags into every available space. Thank goodness she doesn't eat much.
So when you're enjoying your late night bag of delicious, non-toxic cookies...please give thanks to Renee, Gina, Katie W, Katie T, Annmarie, Meg, Rachel, Jen, Aunt Sylvia, and Marsha. Enjoy!

Friday, July 3, 2009

Engagement Shoot Part 2: The pictures!

Esther
"Are they up yet?"
JC
"Nope, not yet...it'll probably take about a month, they are super busy this time of year, and that seems to be about the turn around time they usually have. I think its pretty amazing that it only takes them that long, actually."
Esther
"How about now, are they up yet?
JC
"Nope, not yet...it'll probably take about a month, they are super busy..."
________

This is pretty much the daily conversation for the month of June, so you can imagine the JC+E joy when I checked http://www.justinmarantz.com/index.cfm?postID=220 this morning after breakfast with Brendan, one of my groomsman. We are finally ON their blog!
One saturday in early June, our experience with the dynamic duo was nothing less than completely natural and easy. Its probably the rare combination of their personalities, energy, professionalism and artistry that can make it seem that way. We do know that behind this apparent ease was an intricately engineered clockwork whizzing away at light speed. And switching between our relaxed natural state, and the realization about what's going on behind the camera is one of the things that made a day with the Marantz's such a special one.

When we arrived, we found their mini parked on the crushed seashell drive, and the Justin and Mary already comfortably relaxing, having just done a wine tasting at the very same picnic table we ourselves had done our post-engagement toast, wine and cheese mini-meal.
Cool. We quickly dressed, after garnering their of advice on what outfits would look better together, and several hours zoooomed by. We did break quickly to slam down some cheese, fruit and crackers for a second burst of shooting, but from what I remember the sequence was as such:
We shot next to some flowering weigelia, got well acquainted with the old rusty ford, then in front of some symetrical doors of a barn, and then in the vines.
Then we jumped in our cars, down the estuary lined roads, to find that a final shoot at the closed-for-the-evening horseneck beach wasn't in the cards, but the tenacious J+M was up for some quick shots on Gooseberry Island (...it has a facebook page? weird) as the sun was fading. So...how did they make these pictures look like a great sunny day at the beach? Nice.

We were all kinda cold, and definitely hungry, so I invited the (very generous, thank you again) Marantzs' to have dinner with us at the Back Eddy, where we've had a number of our post-beach lunches. We really love the ardent use of local and ultra fresh ingredients, from the oysters to the salad greens to the house made pickled carrots. Anyway, getting to know Justin and Mary was a natural continuation of the day, and I instantly got the feeling that I would start inviting them over with good regularity for some of my 'everything from scratch' dinners.
If they only lived less than three hours from Boston. Seriously, though, when you are in the area, let us know. I want to cook for you. I know you're very busy, but you have to eat. :)

I did leave the evening with some doubts and regrets...
I have been experiencing some serious camera envy (see if you can guess which of the above pictures from the Marantz-machine, and which are from my POS digi...yeah, not that hard), and the experience sealed the deal. I'm seeking Justin's advice on what might suit my budget/needs, and will be picking up a digital SLR well before the wedding, so I can be acquainted with it before the honeymoon. I should probably stop proscrastinating on the Lasik too, but that's another story...

Having read almost all of their posts, and going through many months of anticipation, now to see ourselves up there in all kinds of digital glory...

well, Justin, Mary...

let us just simply say:

thank you
________

JC+E

Monday, June 8, 2009

Engagement Shoot Part 1: Prep

JC & I had our engagement shoot this weekend with our fabulous photog team of Justin & Mary Marantz. I'm not really comfortable posing in front of the camera, so I was a little nervous and needed an entire morning to prep. What should I wear? I don't have a clue what to do with makeup...should I get it done? JC will be upset if I look like a clown!

Fortunately, I had my own little wardrobe and style team in my good friends Jen & Rachel, who came over to help me get ready! Jen even made a makeup appointment and came with me to be "the mean one" in case I had a hard time telling the lady I wasn't happy. So while JC bottled half of our wedding beer and did 10 loads of laundry (finally!), I sat in our bedroom drying my hair while Jen & Rachel discussed the merits of "simple and classic" versus "glamorous and dramatic." Fortunately, they decided that I'm the more simple & classic type so outfits, shoes, and accessories were carefully picked to help me look my best. J

Then it was off to Bobbi Brown for my first ever makeup application! Not as scary as I had imagined, thankfully. And I had Jen there as a reference point for how my face was transforming. Pursed lips meant she was unsure of a certain application or look, the smile and nod meant approval. And an "Oh! That looks amazing!" meant I needed to buy that product. These are the rules and they are firm.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Fun with Wordle

For those of you who enjoy spending countless hours playing with meaningless stuff on the internet, I've found a fun new way to waste my time. I found a link to this website on one of the many blogs I peruse these days (told you, tons of wasted time). Wordle is a totally frivolous tool for creating "beautiful word clouds" from your own text. You can change layout, font, colors, etc and keep generating unique and random iterations of anything your heart desires. This one was my first inspiration when thinking about our wedding.

Have fun! And try not to let too much time slip away...
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