pantone color of the year : 2012

2012 has been dubbed the year of Tangerine Tango by Pantone.  I think the color is more orange and less red than what the swatch looks like in the press release (above).

Here are a few things that I pulled on Polyvore to get a feel for Tangerine Tango.  Remember that lighter shades can be drawn from the color to get a more creamy orange (reminds me of Orange Bang!) or keep it as a saturated almost tropical orange color.  Is it bad that I'm ready for spring now?

turkey noodle bake

We had leftover soup and I decided to make a casserole type noodle bake.  Keeping this recipe from Pioneer Woman in mind I made my own noodle bake.  I thickened up the soup (about 2-3 cups) with some extra butter, flour, and milk.  Threw in some noodles that were cooked a little under al dente and some pulled turkey meat.  Gave it a stir, poured it in a casserole dish and topped with it with mozzarella cheese.  350 degrees for 30 min and browned the top with the broiler.

unsolicited wedding advice wednesdays : rings

I think more engagement rings will have color to them in the future with the influence of rings like the sapphire royal engagement ring.  Diamonds beautiful and traditional but for many people they're just not economical especially when you consider that the wedding will not be cheap either.  For me personally I preferred having color to my engagement ring because it seemed more interesting and unique than a diamond that everyone has.  Plus, I knew that Mark was definitely limited to a budget.  Mark chose the ring himself (with the help of some secret agents) but I definitely dropped hints that I didn't want a diamond.

Check out beautiful examples from Bario-Neal that use colored stones and that I think would be really pretty engagement rings.  I like the raw stones and the reticulated bands (kind of bumpy) bands that they have on the site.  I'm not suggesting that you buy rings from Bario-Neal (unless you really want to) but get ideas from the site and find a jeweler who can make an affordable version.  Definitely not for everyone's taste but it's nice to know that different options are available out there.  One thing that I'd like to mention is to keep the wedding band in mind when you think about engagement rings (or mention to your guy if he's choosing the ring).  For example, my ring's tapered band is so that a typical wedding won't lay flush to it.  It'll require a custom wedding band to match but we didn't discover this problem until we went wedding band shopping.  Probably something that should have been pointed out by the jeweler that Mark went to but oh well it doesn't keep me up at night.

[1, top] Custom Turquoise Ring
[2] Cala Sapphire Ring
[3] Avens Ruby Ring
[4] Custom Airy Sapphire Ring
[5] Custom Bezel Ring with Rough Sapphire
[6] Custom Rough Emerald Ring

honey : modern comfort cafe

Today, our "Sunday," we had brunch at Honey in Glen Ellyn, IL for the first time.  One of our friends had good things to say and we were kind of in the area so we checked it out.  I had the Caprese Benedict which is two poached eggs on a tomato-basil foccacia bread with fresh mozzarella cheese and topped with a creamy basil pesto infused hollandaise sauce.  I love pesto and I love eggs benedict so it seemed like a match made in heaven.  Was actually pretty good.  The eggs were wonderfully poached (you know how I LOVE a runny egg) and the pesto went really well with the dish.  The foccacia bread was a little tough in the beginning but once it soaked in some yolk and pesto it was fine.  Mark had the Lunchbox Meatloaf Sandwich which was good too.  The sweet potato fries were good.  The point-and-shoot picture of that came out blurry so I'm not putting it up.  :/ Sorries.

date night dinner

It's our Saturday on Mondays so Mark wanted to have a date day.  We tried a new place for dinner, Tom & Eddie's in Lombard, IL.  They serve 'gourmet' burgers.  Mark tried The Ampersand signature burger (top) and I tired the Baby Bella & Swiss signature burger (bottom).  They were pretty good...not sure if it was worth the price.  What REALLY impressed me was the Boylan sodas that they had on the fountain.  Trader Joe's used to sell Boylan sodas at but no longer.  :(((  I believe they had 5 flavors at Tom & Eddie's....my favorite being Black Cherry.  I think I would go there just to get a soda and bring a huge jug to fill up. 

the most wonderful time of the year

I love the Christmas season.  My friend Steve and I always start listening to Christmas music as soon as Halloween is done.  I have to do it secretly because Mark gets mad when Christmas encroaches on Thanksgiving.  I hope your hearth is filled with holiday cheer.  If not then get on the ball this weekend, yo.  These are the Woodland ornaments from Martha Stewart at Home Depot.  A set of 71 is like $20.  Not the best quality but a pretty good deal in my book.  Don't forget to buy hooks.

how to tie a tiny bow

Ok, so I thought about posting this under my "Unsolicited Wedding Advice Wednesdays" but I thought, "Naw, bows are cool everyday."  So I spied this trick while in China with my lovely work buddy, Shelby, what up!  We were looking at notions and embellishments but I saw a lady making tiny bows out of really short pieces of ribbon.  She had a box of maybe a couple THOUSAND pieces of ribbon...uber cray cray.  But she was cranking them out in seconds and I just stared as Shelby was busy working haha.  Anyway, I wanted to share this trick because one thing I HATE is wasting ribbon.  God, I'm such a nerd.  

Please forgive my horrible looking nails.  I totally forgot to buy nail polish remover at Target today.  :/

Step 1:

Cut your ribbon.

If you're not sure how long to make your ribbon piece I suggest making a test ribbon first.  When you find a length that works measure it and keep it to the side so you can cut your ribbon pieces to the correct length.  You'll find that the width of the ribbon will impact how long to make the length.  My ribbon width is 1/4" and the length was 6.5" from tip to tip.  

Step 2:
Loop.
Take one of the ends and make a loop close to the end with the rest of the ribbon behind it.  Notice that the short end is on top of the loop.  This makes one of the tails and 'rabbit tails' of the ribbon so if you already have an idea of about how long these part should be then you'll know how short to make this first loop.

Step 3:
Wrap.
Use your right thumb to hold the loop made in step 2 and wrap the long piece of ribbon around your thumb.  This will be the middle part of the bow.

Step 4:
Pull the second loop through.
Ok, this might be tricky to explain but the next step is to make another 'rabbit ear' with the remaining long end and pull it through the middle loop around your right thumb from step 3.

Step 5:
Tighten.
Even out the tails of the bow and the size of the 'rabbit ears' of the bow and tighten.  You're done!  You've made a tiny bow without wasting extra ribbon and it only took a short amount of time!  Adhere these bows to scrapbook pages, cards, crafts, invites, hair clips, whatever you like!