Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Spinach Strawberry Quinoa Salad

As promised, here are a couple more yummy recipes from our recent backyard picnic. Enjoy! 

Spinach Strawberry Quinoa Salad

2-3 cups sliced strawberries
4-5 cups spinach leaves
6 cups quinoa
1 cup sliced walnuts if desired

For Vinaigrette: 
1 cup canola or olive oil
2-3 tbsp honey
6 tbsp lemon juice

Cook quinoa as directed and cool. Make vinaigrette by mixing three vinaigrette ingredients or simply use a balsamic vinaigrette of your choice. Mix strawberries, spinach, quinoa and walnuts if desired. Toss in vinaigrette and serve. 



Egg Salad Sandwiches on Oat Bread

24 hard boiled eggs, shredded
1 1/2 cup veganaise or light mayonaise
2 tbsp grainy mustard
2 tbsp diced dill
salt & pepper to taste 

Mix ingredients. Chill. Spread approximately 1 cup egg salad on bread and serve. May add capers, relish, curry or wasabi to play with flavors (but this is a delicious, standard egg salad as is!). 



Pin It Now!

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Perfect Picnic Bridal Shower

I was so thrilled to get to be a part of planning this past weekend's backyard picnic bridal shower. Not only was the guest of honor one of my longest, dearest friends, but the hostess is my cousin who will soon be moving across the country. It was a sweet event with two of my most favorite people in the world. And I can't wait a minute longer to show you how it all turned out!


Isn't it the sweetest?! And I can tell you first-hand, it was not only wonderful to look at but absolutely wonderful to taste, too. My emphasis as an event planner has always been on tight budgets and great presentations, but thanks to a very talented hostess, this event also had array of {incredibly} yummy, homemade food for guests to enjoy as well. Lucky you, she's agreed to share a few of her personal recipes with us throughout the week! Stay tuned.

First up: choice of egg salad on oat, southwest bean wrap or good 'ole PB&J wrapped in wax paper and tied off with red gingham ribbon or bakers twine. Recipes to come!!




Sides included a quinoa walnut salad and strawberries. For dessert: homemade oatmeal creme pies individually packaged in mini paper bags and embellished with printables by Kelly Medina Studios. Recipes to come!!

To drink: Blueberry iced green tea and Strawberry basil lemonade. {YUM} So refreshing for a warm summer day. Recipes to come!!


If you've seen my events before, you know I love adding lots of special, small details. Here, we used lots of custom pennant banners in coordinating red, white and cherry paper, old cherry preserves jars to hold the silverware, vases of red tulips and lots of old wooden crates and wire baskets for that old, sweet summer picnic feel. 


Guests were assigned a household item to bring in lieu of a card to help the new couple get their pantry started. During lunch, we asked guests to write a "Date Night" idea for the couple to use in their first year of marriage. We also invited the groom in for a casual interview to give both sides of the family a chance to see the couple interact in person - this of course was the highlight of the afternoon! :)


An old desk embellished with coordinating pennant banners acted as our gift table. 



I {love} getting to celebrate people with such special events! For more event ideas, checkout my other parties here. Now for a simple, but tasty recipe!


Southwest Veggie Wraps

2 cans rinsed black beans
1 cup shredded cheddar/monterey jack cheese
1 cup sliced grape tomatoes

1/2 cup diced red onion
1-2 tbsp cumin

1-2 tbsp diced cilantro
salt
2 avocados sliced
10-12 10" flour tortillas

Mix first seven ingredients together. Add 2-3 thinly sliced pieces of avocado to tortilla then layer with 1/3 cup of bean mixture. Roll & serve.  


Congratulations, Beth & Jeremy!!


Pin It Now!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Fireman Baby Shower + Giveaway

I'm very excited to get to share this adorable baby boy shower that I recently coordinated in a fireman & dalmation theme. This event had some fabulous {special touches} that I hope will inspire you as you plan your next event! 


If you've seen my events before, you know I love a decadent dessert table! This baby shower was no different. We had two cakes, a dozen cupcakes, two dozen cakepops, chocolate chip cookies, frosted sugar cookies, kit kats & hershey bars - {YUM}!


The custom firetruck and dalmation print cakepops were by April's Cake Pops and are one of my favorite dessert table additions! The cupcakes and cakes were embellished with the most amazing fondant toppers done by Natalia from Haute Tart. She created a gorgeous custom cake topper with a "Welcome Baby Maddox" message and fabulous dalmation and fire hydrant toppers for the cupcakes. They far exceeded my expectations and took the dessert table to the next level. {AND} Natalia is giving away a $25 shop credit to one lucky NBrynn reader today!! Easy entry below.


I {LOVE} how these adorable "Fire Chief" boots doubled as vases for the main food table! For centerpieces, I used recycled tin cans and added a handle to look like a pail, topped with some printable package circles and set beside a fireman helmet. These were extremely inexpensive, but a very cute addition!


We carried the fireman theme throughout the party with "Welcome Baby Maddox" banners, napkin wraps, "Wishes for Baby" and "Gifts" signs and candy bar wraps. 


Guests were greeted with a sign-in table, where they could leave a well-wish for baby and mama. We hung a belly banner across the front of the entry table, showing the progression of the mama-to-be's growing belly. Each guest received their own bag of "Red Hot Popcorn" at their seat. If you are interested in this yummy recipe, you can find it here!


It was a special event for a special occasion and one I was excited to get to be a part of! Here's  one last look at the main dessert table. Hope you found something that made you smile and don't forget to enter our Haute Tart giveaway below.




More about Haute Tart...
I have been creating edible fun for the past five years. I started with cakes locally & now operate out of a small studio kitchen in Milwaukee, WI. I have been selling my custom fondant art on Etsy for a little over 2 years. I originally operated under my cakery name "Crumby Art" but decided to seperate the two businesses at the start of 2013, now my etsy shop is titled Haute Tart. I have been very blessed to have over 1200 Etsy sales, most of which are from repeated customers. There's nothing I love more then making the same little boy or girl's cake toppers with each growing year, its a very special feeling. Aside from work, I am a mommy to four wonderful children ages 4-10. They are definitely my biggest inspirations! I love working with all of my customers, new & repeated, in creating sweet works of art for their big days!




Vendor Credits:
Fondant Cake & Cupcake Toppers: Haute Tart
Cakepops: April's Cake Pops
Printables & Invitation: DimplePrints
Event Coordination: NBrynn
Pin It Now!

Monday, May 13, 2013

Stepping Stones of Pain

Last week I needed to come up with a handful of meaningful memories about my mom for a Mother's Day project one of my sisters initiated. It seemed like an easy enough task given that I have an extremely devoted, sacrificial, thoughtful mom. She worked very hard to provide for us, nurture us and help us achieve our goals. Even on a very tight budget, I cannot recall a holiday that she neglected to presented us with some token of love and celebration. As a grandmother now, she continues to pour out her love and devotion.

Despite all that, however, the memories didn't flood in like you'd think they should. At least not the good ones. Rather, my first 15-20 minutes of reminiscing was filled with trauma, pain, betrayal, loss, embarrassment and anger. All true memories. All real events. But not all that happened in my childhood. Yet I struggled initially to recall a truly joyful memory with any real clarity. It felt as if only the bad has any real staying power in our hearts, at least in mine. 

I did come up with some good memories - lots of them actually. But the initial flood of bad memories has been bothering me ever since. Especially as I think of my own children and the lifelong relationships I crave with them, I keep asking myself, "What will they remember?".  Why was I only remembering every terrible snapshot from my childhood and how I can I navigate my own children toward a different experience? 

These questions have been floating through my heart all week and have given me a new perspective on myself and my life over the past few years. I've realized that remembering the bad and traumatic of childhood isn't where it stops for me. In "introducing" myself to some new friends recently, I've found it difficult to express who I am without mentioning the devastation of losing our foster son a week before his adoption should have been finalized and all the other relational and spiritual unraveling that surrounded it. Granted, it was a true series of unfortunate events that wreaked havoc on our careers, our family, our friendships and our faith. But it all happened three years ago. Three years that have been filled with new careers, new friends, new life. And yet the pain and the loss is what feels like the most crucial information to share about myself. Why? It's all true, all real, but not all that I am. 

I've thought and I've thought this week and stumbled across a pretty clear revelation about myself. I see now that trauma and pain is often where I let my heart dwell and my mind wander. It hasn't been an intentional decision, but certainly a lifelong habit. In my late teens and early twenties, when I would "tell my story", it would usually be full of the painful, life-changing trauma's that I experienced as a little girl - addiction...abuse...betrayal...failure...It was like one stepping stone of trial to the next with all the green grass of good lost in between. I repeated these "stepping stone" stories so often in my mind, that I think they eventually became the only dominant or real memories I had left. And I wonder if this is something we all do - walk along these stepping stones of pain in our mind and lose sight of all the good along the way. 

That's what I've done with our more recent losses. I've let them define me: 

I am Pain. 

I am Loss.

I am Failure.

I am Devastation. 

I am unloveable, unfriendable, unfindable.

One stepping stone of pain to the next, walked across over and over and over again in my mind and my heart until it has become the dominant story of who I am today. But it's so, so incomplete; so warped and so biased. It's rooted in reality, but has become a reality all its own that's not accurate and not fair. As much as I know that painful experiences will always be a part of my story, I never want them to be the whole story. 

In realizing this pain-dwelling habit, I've been challenged to fill in the missing pieces; to paint a more accurate picture of who I am, for myself more than anything. Here's what I see today:

I am Brave.

I am Vulnerable.

I am Authentic.

I am Alive.

I am mother, wife, friend, daughter.


May I become her more and more. 
Pin It Now!

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Cease Striving

I recently realized that I am okay being {imperfect}. 

You may be thinking, "Big deal." or "Good thing!", but for me this was - and is - a truly revolutionary realization. 

You see, I've lived with labels like "over-achiever", "teacher's pet" and "go-getter" all my life.  In personality tests, I always found myself in the "natural leader" category. I was the one chosen to represent the school or the team at a conference and was always the one to take the lead on a group assignment, volunteer for the biggest job that needed done and make sure everything came together in the end. I said "no" to almost nothing and have always felt an immense pressure to live up to all those labels and self-inflicted responsibilities. 

To put it simply, I have always been a perfectionist. 

The drive to {be more} has been a deeply ingrained, immensely motivating force in my life. It pushed me to try diet after diet after diet starting around the fifth grade, to maintain strenuous exercise plans into my twenties, to invest in diet pills and other concoctions, to go for days not eating at all.  It pushed me to maintain a 4.0 throughout high school and earn the title of Valedictorian, then to go on to be the first in my family to earn a Bachelor's degree paid for in full by myself without loans. It's pushed me to carry the weight of decisions that weren't my own, to fight against injustice with complete abandon, to look, to compare, to strive for more. Sometimes the striving has led to great achievements, sometimes to disastrous ends. Perfectionism is a double-edged sword in that way. 

This mantra in my head has been constant: "More, more, more, more". Regardless of the area of life - mental, physical, relational, spiritual - for as long as I have memory, there has been this nagging feeling that it's just not enough. Or rather, that {I'm just not enough}.

Part of my recent realization has been the discovery that perfectionism has been one of the key ingredients in my Christianity. In being completely honest with myself, I've realized that my need to be more and do more is what pushed me into faith in the first place. Well, perhaps that's too simplistic. But perfectionism was at least one of the biggest reasons why I felt a need for a Savior or a faith at all. At twelve I was already on a quest to "greatness" - aka perfection - which would require all the help I could get. God sounded like a pretty good route to my end goal and the thought of someone perfect seeing me and loving me despite my imperfection was astounding. 

My faith is very much in process these days, so I am still sorting out what bearing this discovery actually has on it. Perhaps it is just new understanding. I tend to think it is an awakening to a richer, truer way of doing life and faith. 

But back to being perfect. Well, I'm not. And if there's one thing that I have learned loud and clear in the past few years, it's that this world is not perfect, people are far from perfect, systems and governments are apallingly imperfect and no matter how much time passes or how much effort I put forth, "perfect" still stands in the distance, miles and miles from my reach. The "more" mantra doesn't cease. It's an endless cycle of striving and achieving and striving and failing and striving and striving and striving....

I'm passionate about being and becoming a truly authentic, real person. And the reality is, {perfection isn't real}. At least, not in this world, not anytime soon. AND THAT'S OKAY! This truth has become like a ferocious lion inside of me roaring with certainty, "It's okay. You're okay. Imperfect is OKAY!!". It's normal; it's real; it's relatable; it's just fine. 

Me on a morning walk recently
I wouldn't have been able to put all of this into words a year ago or even a month ago, but the certainty of this revelation has been taking root in my soul for a few years and is now shaping the way I view life and others and yes, even myself. I find myself totally comfortable with the thought of being and remaining imperfect throughout this life. I'm at peace, even happy, with the state of my post-baby body (yes, saggy boobs and all; they were bound to start sagging some day!). I'm calm about the messiness of the spiritual journey I've been on. I feel more aware, more thankful, as far from perfect as ever and as close to loving myself as ever. 

I should add that my quest toward perfectionism has not meant a sudden shift to laziness or apathy or boring contentedness. On the contrary, coming to terms with my own imperfections has birthed a swelling, freeing self-confidence within me that has resulted in trying things I would have never tried before, working late into the night and rising early in the morning, and hoping for depths of friendship and richness of life greater than all my striving dreamt up before. I work hard, I hope a lot, I expect a lot. I'm messy and in process and loving this {imperfect} journey of life.


Pin It Now!
 
Design by Small Bird Studios | All Rights Reserved