Cacti & Succulents

Ever since planning my wedding over a year ago, I've been obsessed with succulents. I used them on the tables, as well is in my beautiful bouquet:

My sister took on the enormous feat of my bouquet and all of the floral arrangement at my wedding, and she blew me away with how amazing everything looked! I love the combination of a few traditional flowers with nontraditional non-flower flowers. There were succulents, billy balls, ranunculuses, golden rods (which my sis gleaned from the side of the road on the way to our venue), kale, another flower that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of, and not in my bouquet, but elsewhere at the reception, trick carns.

Succulents are gorgeous, and unique, and a non-flower flower that even my black thumb can manage not to kill! Cacti and succulents are in the same family, and both come in countless, spectacular varieties. BONUS, they can be found in the garden section of pretty much any home improvement store or supercenter, AND they're really inexpensive. Which is why I decided to make a lovely little centerpiece using multicolored cacti and various succulents, and an antique muffin tin I scored at the flea market for a mere $3. 

Also, some more pictures of my gorgeous bouquet. Can't believe it was already almost one year ago that I carried that arrangement with me down the isle...

The Best Guacamole That I've Ever Had (if i do say so myself)

I worked at a "Gourmet Mexican" restaurant during college and just after. An experience that left me with a taste for margaritas and a skill for making guacamole. I've adapted the restaurant's recipe to suit my tastes, and believe me, it's an unparalleled avocado experience.  

Settling In / Farmer's Markets and French Toast

Though we've been living in Franklin for about a month now, it still feels like we're still not really settled. It's amazing how long it takes to unpack all of the boxes and get everything set up satisfactorily, especially since we moved from a tiny apartment to an actual house... we didn't realize how many appliances we were missing. We just bought our very own washer! You know you're an adult when such a purchase actually makes you really excited.

One lovely part of moving to a new town is that we get to discover all new places; It was lovely to find that there is a farmer's market every Saturday within walking distance of our house! We scored some fresh, free-range eggs, yams, peaches, and some homemade Amish sour dough bread, which we transformed into french toast using  this recipe, with some minor alterations. In stead of all purpose flour, we used white whole wheat, we doubled the cinnamon, and added a dash of nutmeg. You should also know, that though the recipe says it makes 12 slices, for me, it only made 6... which is all we needed anyway! Add a sprinkle of powdered sugar and some real maple syrup and you'll be set up for impressive deliciousness! Oh, and some piping hot french press coffee doesn't hurt either.

                                                      Fresh eggs + Homemade sour dough

= delightful french toast.