Wedding Shower Recipes

Here are the recipes for the treats I made for Kelley's shower this weekend.

Petit Cheesecakes from the “Colorado Cache” cookbook
18-22 servings

3 8-ounce packages cream cheese
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
1 t vanilla
2 cups sour cream
1/3 cup sugar
1/2  t vanilla

Cream until fluffy the cream cheese and 1 cup sugar. Add eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Bake at 300 degrees for 40 minutes in paper line muffin tins (2/3 full). Remove from oven and allow to “sink in.” Frost with sour cream mixed with 1/3 cup sugar and 1/2  t vanilla. Return to the oven for 5 minutes. Cool and freeze, muffin tin and all. When ready to serve, thaw at room temperature for 30 minutes. Top with fruit.

Devil’s Food Mini Cupcakes from “Cupcakes” cookbook
18 cupcakes

3 1/2  T soft margarine
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper (need 18 regular-sized cupcakes, can be mini). Put the margarine, sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda, and cocoa in a large bowl and using an electric hand whisk, beat together until just smooth. Using a metal spoon, fold in sour cream. Spoon batter into cups. Bake for 20 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool. Frost with cream cheese or chocolate frosting

Lemon Cupcakes (recipe turned into mini cupcakes, not a loaf cake. Frost with favorite cream cheese frosting.)
White Sangria

A Book-Themed Bridal Shower

So, our little Shelby kept us rather busy last night, so I didn't get to post about the shower I had for my friend Kelley this weekend. I imagine my blog "schedule" will be off for a while as we work into our routine with her. And focus on potty training. She is a pretty smart dog though—last night she mastered going down the stairs and today she was playing fetch. She really likes her fabric turtle and chewing on her bed, so I think we need to get her some other fabricy toys, like a rope. She also had her first treat, and she is really picky about them. She only likes the soft treats, it seems. We might make a visit to PetSmart today, depending on how tired she is later.

So, anyway: the book-themed bridal shower. Kelley and I were both journalism English majors (from Colorado at UNL), so it seemed fitting that we asked guests to bring her books for her bridal shower gift. I made up the invitations in yellow and wrote a poem for the occassion: "Cathy had Heathcliff, Elizabeth had Darcy, Kelley has Shawn, So let's have a party." Then I instructed people to bring a book: a cookbook, a favorite book, or just whatever they thought she'd like. I had planned on doing custom bookplates for Kelley to put in the books later, but I wasn't sure if she'd want to return them if she got an accidental repeat, so I didn't. But she didn't get repeats, which was exciting. Kelley also wanted to have recipes from people, so I included two library cards with each invite for people to write on.

We didn't really have a shower game, but had people explain why they brought her the books. It was very laidback and we just drank sangria and ate desserts. I made food that corresponded with her wedding colors, which were black, white, and yellow. I made devil's food cupcakes and lemon cupcakes, both with cream cheese frosting, and mini cheesecakes. I intended to make a jello mousse, but it did not turn out, so Nathan and I just ate it. It was stilly pretty good. Decorations were super simple—I just pulled a book vase out from our wedding and bought daisies to put in it. Then I had black and white plates and napkins. I'll try and post the recipes I used later tonight while watching Glee!

It was a really fun shower, and it was fun to get book recommendations, as well. I might try and make an adapted "book shower kit" to sell in my etsy store.

So We Got A Puppy . . .

We had a big weekend. Friday I threw a book themed shower for my friend Kelley, then we had her wedding on Saturday. And on Sunday we got a puppy! We had been thinking about getting one for a while, but we wanted to wait until after the wedding and our honeymoon. We had thought about waiting until after New Year's or next spring, but then started looking and got attached to the idea. I found some shelties at an animal shelter that I thought were cute, and showed them to my friend Leah. She told us that her boyfriend's brother's dog had just had sheltie puppies, so we made a date to go look at the girl puppy, Dakota.

When we got out to the farm, Dakota was very cute and really took to Nathan. She loved sitting in his lap and playing with him. So we took her home with us. She had never been on a leash before, and she did not like it. Jess also warned us that she might get car sick but should be OK. Not so much. She threw up all over Nathan's pant leg as we pulled into PetCo's parking lot. It was probably the funniest thing I've ever seen. We picked out lots of toys for her and got her a bed, a crate, some treats (that she doesn't like), a collar, and a leash. When we took her home, she was very confused and kept turning her head and looking at us. We put her bed out and she went over to sniff it, but wouldn't get in it. Eventually, she got in it and slept for the rest of the day. We're trying to get her into a routine and get her housebroken, but she seemed very overwhelmed yesterday, so we're trying to find a balance in "establishing dominance" and also giving her a break because she's still scared and homesick. She is also really good at sitting, but it's only when you want her to do something she doesn't want to (go potty, come outside, go for a walk on the leash). We don't want to tell her no so she'll never sit again, but we also need to get her to do what we are commanding.

She is very cute--I invite everyone over to meet her whenever because we need to socialize her while she's still little.

I'll be back later today with the details on the book-themed bridal shower!

Book Review: Sarah Strohmeyer

So, today is the first day of book reviews for my blog, and I had a really hard time deciding what book to choose for the inagurual post. Which is part of the reason why this post is up so late in the day, compared to my earlier attempts this week. I thought about writing about the first book that made me love reading (Little House In The Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder) or my go-to book when asked for recommendations (God-Shaped Hole, Tiffanie deBartolo, thanks to Lisa Petak) or my favorite book that makes me look like an English nerd (The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway). But instead, I want to (maybe) introduce you to the author that I've been talking about lately and whose books I've been devouring—Sarah Strohmeyer—and also talk about why I like reading chick lit. Because honestly, at this point in my life, it's what I read a LOT.

I'm not actually sure how I came across Sarah Strohmeyer's books initally, but I know they were recommended on Facebook by one of my favorite authors—Emily Giffin—so I requested them from the library. I started with The Sleeping Beauty Proposal and found that in addition to being funny and intelligent, it had some interesting thoughts on the role of marriage in a woman's life, especially fitting for me as a newlywed. Then I read The Cinderella Pact, which dealt with weight, body image issues, dieting, and friendship in addition to appearances. The Secret Lives Of Fortunate Wives was a little less serious in terms of "issues" but it was interesting to read about the roles that women (and men) played in this more upperclass society and how everyday things such as marriage and working fit in. And the one I just finished, Sweet Love, addressed divorce single parenthood, old loves, and breast cancer. Also, in some way, most of them had a character that was some kind of writer, mostly journalists, which I'm guessing comes from Sarah Strohmeyer's personal experience.

I think there is this a stigma that goes with reading, or even writing, chick lit that it's silly and stupid and full of fluff. And some of the really good stuff is silly and full of fluff. But what I liked about all of these books is that they tackled serious issues in a way that was relateable in some way, if not directly. And yes, they generally have happy endings, and yes, a lot of these women do spend a lot of their time chasing men, and sometimes, the situations they end up in can be kind of silly. But aren't these aspects of real life? In these books, no on is saying you need a man to be happy, or you need to be model skinny to be happy; instead, they tackle these, in my opinion, everyday issues, in a way that makes them relateable and enjoyable to read, no matter how big they are, without presenting negative stereotypes of women.

And that's why I like chick lit, aside from having some fluff to read after a day at work. Because if you look hard enough, you can find the big issues and think about them and how they relate to you, or how they don't relate to you, and take away more than just a fluff story.

My To-Read Pile

Nathan got me started on having  a "To-Read" pile, which consists of books that you have that you haven't read yet. He puts his in a particular order and used to start reading the one next in line when he finished. I think I've messed that up a bit by giving him new books to read that he kind of sneaks ahead. And that's how my "To-Read" pile goes.

Except I'm working on it. Last night, I ended up reading/finishing the book I got at the library yesterday rather than cleaning my house for the bridal shower I'm having Friday (oops), and so I had to pull something from my "To-Read" pile. It's the book that Nathan got me for Valentine's Day (a tradition we've started) called "The Believers" by Zoe Heller.

Other books in my "To-Read" pile include:
The Cutters, Bess Streeter Aldrich
Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Alboom
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time, Mark Haddon
Anthropology Of An American Girl, Hilary Thayer Hamann
Free Land, Rose Wilder Lane

Library Visit

Today during lunch I made my weekly trip to the library to pick up a book I had requested. It’s the closest we have had to “fall” weather, and it made for a nice outing. My favorite part about the Lincoln Library System is that you can pick stuff online and pick it up at whatever library you want. That, and you can return books to wherever you want. I have three near my everyday life that I can pick from, and so this is very convenient.

I spent some time looking at the sewing books before grabbing my book, but I didn’t find anything that really fit with what I was looking for. I’ll probably have to go request one as soon as I find the right one at Barnes & Noble. Or maybe that’s something I should consider buying.

Returned:
The Sleeping Beauty Proposal, Sarah Strohmeyer
The Cinderella Pact, Sarah Strohmeyer
The Secret Lives Of Fortunate Wives, Sarah Strohmeyer
My Name Is Memory, Ann Brashares

Checked Out:The Handmade Marketplace, Kari Chapin
Sweet Love, Sarah Strohmeyer

What Do We Read?

Last week, Nathan sent me this survey that shows what people like to read and also determined that Stephen King is the most popular author. Most people read fiction, mostly mysteries. I have actually never read any Stephen King, so I will have to add that to the “to-read” pile.

My reading life probably most consists of fiction. To pull from their categories, I would say I mostly read literature and chick lit and also add historical fiction. I am currently loving Sarah Strohmeyer, if anyone is looking for a light read with still substantial messages.

What about you? What do you mostly read? 

word fancies Why

Last night I went over to a sorority sister’s house for an alumnae get-together and got home a little later than I expected, but it was a fun night out.  This relates to today’s word fancies “Why” because of my sorority’s open motto: “The pen is mightier than the sword.”

I think this week’s posts have really illustrated the reasons why I started this blog, so if you are still curious, go back and reread them. I want today’s why post to instead focus on why I want to write, which is something I’m still trying to understand. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I’m a reader. I’m not saying that the two go hand in hand all of the time in every situation, but for me, I think that my reading life has made me want to have a writing life, too. I also think that writers, and readers, for that matter, will only be as good as the support they have from a community.

I want to credit my parents for turning me into a reader. I can’t remember a time that I haven’t loved reading, and I think they are the reason for that. My mom, who is also a reader, would take me to the library and let me check out eight Baby-Sitter’s Club books at a time, and one of my favorite memories growing up is her reading me “A Wrinkle In Time” that I got for Christmas. My dad does not read books, or at least I don’t think I’ve ever seen him read a book, but he reads. And I know that he believes in the value of reading to children based on a conversation I had with him a few years ago in which he told me that he thinks it’s the best thing you can do with your child. So, both of them probably played a huge part in my love for reading. They also supported my early attempts at writing, listening to my stories and reading what I had written.

I don’t think you can ever question the role of a good teacher in someone’s life, particularly as children are learning what they are good at and what they want to do eventually. I was incredibly lucky to have English teachers who recognized my passion for literature and writing, and they truly helped shape the reader, writer, and person I am today. I had several these, but one in particular who is now one of my dearest friends. I think she is the one who really pushed me into believing in my reading and writing abilities and hugely responsible for where I am today. And more importantly, she is still constantly encouraging me as I figure out my life and what I want to do with it.

Nathan is also a writer, though he does it for a living. He writes for computer publications, one of which I’m an editor for. Yes. He is a writer and I am an editor. But now I’m also a writer, and he has joined my support system in kind of an editor role. He’ll tell me what he likes or doesn’t like (not in a mean way), and we can talk about writing together to make it better.

I have friends that support me, as well, who read my currently baby blog and comment on it and encouraged me to start it in the first place when I was scared to. I have an aunt who took me to a literary conference on writing historical fiction (which is my next goal!) that truly inspired me and will really be the foundation of whatever I do. Of course, my siblings and my extended family also play a huge role in my writing support system.  I think all of these people truly believing in my abilities are what made me want to write, and they are also the people that will support me as I do.

A word fancies Where Side Note

Today's NYT (edit: yesterday's. I only found it today. It was meant to be.) has this article from Ann Patchett writing about her house. She is probably one of my favorite "modern" authors, and I love houses, so thus, I must love this article. Also, how moving is her last paragraph?

This is where I do exactly the thing I’ve always wanted to do, be a writer. This is the window from which I see entire days go by from dark to dark, never going farther than the end of my driveway. This is the place my husband comes back to every night, to this house where we were married and we are married. What I mean to say is that it is a good life wrapped in a good house.

 I feel I can definitely relate to this with our house, as it's the house we lived in when we got married and where we're starting our married life together, working together to make it ours and sarting to really persue what we want out of life. And we do have a good life, and a good house, even if it's not quite "finished" yet. But is anything ever finished? 

word fancies Where

I lied—I really thought I would be up this morning to write before I went to work, but the fact of the matter is, I’m a bad sleeper, and on the nights where I’m a really bad sleeper, I have a hard time getting up. Last night was one of those nights. I was up later than I should have been finishing a book and then kept having a crazy dream extension. When I was little, my cousin’s wife told me that if you try to go back to sleep in the EXACT same position, you would dream a continuation of the dream you were having before you woke up. Apparently that was the case last night, and while my dreams weren’t actually frightening, they were realistic and confusing and led to disorientation. Which leads to late wakeups.

But enough excuses, onto the where for the week. I’m going to focus not so much on where I literally write, but where we live: Nebraska. Don’t worry though—I’ll get to the house and my writing room eventually. And that will be a pictures post! I hope . . .

While I currently call Nebraska home, I was born in Colorado, and I have always been a mountain girl. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t camp, ski, hike, snowboard, or really do anything outdoorsy that you generally associate with mountains, though I have before. Rather, I like the way they look. I like seeing them at sunset, knowing which way is west, and just having them there. I appreciate the fact that my parents bought houses based on views rather than actual house conditions, because being able to see them right out a window there is almost comforting.

So how did I end up in Nebraska? This was a question that everyone asked me once I came here. It seems to be that people who live in Nebraska can’t fathom why anyone would come here willingly, and people who live anywhere else can’t fathom why anyone would want to come here.

Here’s how I would respond in college:

"I wanted to go somewhere out of state." This was true. While my schools were much larger than some of them here, particularly Nathan’s schools, I had gone to school with some of the same people since Kindergarten. Which isn’t a bad thing—it’s a great thing, in fact—but I was ready to branch out and not only get a new perspective, but be able to be who I was without people instantly putting me in a box that they had put me in back when we first met. Not like I had a bad reputation, quite the opposite in fact, but I wanted to learn who I was someplace new, rather than somewhere where people could still defer back to the Whitney they already knew.

"My parents are from here." Also true. My parents are originally from Western Nebraska and both graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where they met. (Note: However, because they are from Nebraska, it seems that they had something like two degrees of separation their entire lives. So it goes in this state—everyone knows everyone through one to three mutual acquaintances.) I am a sucker for tradition (aka routine), and I loved the idea of idea of attending a school that much of my family had. However, everyone assumed that my parents “made me” attend their alma mater. False. They were very supportive in my college hunt, and would have been proud no matter where I went.

"Valentino's Pizza." Partly true. I do love Val’s pizza. For those not familiar with it, Valentino’s is a restaurant that serves delicious pizza (and recently, I’ve discovered delicious spaghetti, too), and it’s really only a Nebraska thing, though they have branched out. It was always a special treat to have when we’d visit here, and during college on my way home, I’d stop in Ogallala to see my grandma and pick up half-baked pizzas to take home. Delicious.

But none of these were really my real reasons, and I don’t think I can ever really explain why I came here and why I love it, but I’ll try.

There’s a feeling of being here that’s hard to recreate. I’m not just talking about Husker game days, where you can feel pride and enthusiasm and unity in the air while you’re walking around or sitting in Memorial Stadium. That feeling lasts throughout the year and extends past our football team. I like that everyone seems to know everyone else and you can become friends with people you meet in everyday places. And yes, Nebraska can be conservative, but it’s also conservative in that it hasn’t lost values where you are generally nice to people, considerate and friendly, and people are willing to help you out if you need it.

I think that there is also a welcoming feeling. When I went on college visits, none of them felt as right as Nebraska did. I felt like anyone I talked to was glad I was here and wanted me here. While you can chalk that up to awesome recruiting efforts on UNL’s part, I don’t think I’ve lost that feeling as the years go by. And ultimately, this is why I chose to live in Nebraska, and I’m glad I did, even if I miss my Colorado people and the mountains.

word fancies What

What is word fancies? What is my purpose for this blog? As I outline in the “About word fancies” section of the site and the blurb to the left (edit: right; directions are not so much my strong suit), I want to use this blog as an outlet for my writing and as a place for me to share my thoughts, ideas, and what I’m learning about being a grown-up, a wife, a friend, a reader, an editor, a homeowner, and whatever other adjectives I can come up with to describe myself.

When I was first introduced to blogs, they seemed to be a little too much like journals that everyone could read. This is coming from the not-even-teenage girl who asked her sister to burn her journals if she died, a kind of morbid thought for someone so young. (Note: I still have some of these journals, and I don’t know what my young self was thinking: They are mostly just chronicles of my elementary school life and which friend I was mad at. Nothing too scandalous, but I suppose it's all about perspective.) This type of blog works for some people, but I found I never kept up on the ones I created at the urging of friends.

Then I started working 8-5 and just needed a break from work sometimes, and reading other people’s blogs provided that. I learned that there were blogs that were targeted to specific interests—my interests—and blogs that provided tutorials and inspiration and ideas that I could relate to. And then I got engaged and discovered wedding blogs and the amazing ideas and inspiration you can find on them.

One blog led me to another blog and then another blog. Friends recommended their favorites, and those blog authors recommended other blogs. Pretty soon, I was reading the same blogs every day and making these people’s sites part of my daily life. And I learned that blogs can become communities, businesses, or really, whatever you want them to be. So now, it’s just a matter of defining what I want mine to be, and I want that definition to change and evolve as I keep writing it.

I never took any creative writing classes in college, because I was too scared to branch out of the organized loveliness my journalism classes and literature-based English classes provided me with. But now I find myself wishing I had, as my writing feels so structured and I can’t seem to break out of that shell.

For example, I kept a journal of our recent trip to Europe, where I detailed what we did every day on our excursions, our experiences at the ship’s bar, and even what we ate for dinner. It wasn’t until I had my husband (still weird to write that!) write about our day in Rome that I realized I was doing that. Rather than talk about our itinerary and what we had seen, he described his impressions of the city and what it meant to him being there. I don’t think that either of us has a correct writing style; instead, as my friend Leah points out, he’s in “writer” mode and I’m in “reporter” mode. I hope that this blog can force me to write creatively while still reporting, because after years of journalism, it’s unlikely it will ever leave me.   

Because I want this post to tell you what you can expect to read here, I want to point out that I will try to incorporate pictures as I get going, but as this is a writing blog, it’s likely that my posts will instead feature lots of words. Or a moderate amount of words, depending on how I’m doing that day. As an avid blog reader, I know that pictures can add interest to your posts and provide illustrations to complement what you’re talking about. But for my blog, I’d rather focus on my writing and intersperse pictures if I find it to be necessary. I have nothing against pictures (really—you should see how many we have hanging up in our house) but I want to do what works for me here. And because it’s my blog, I can do that. So I will, and I hope you will enjoy the words I come up with.

word fancies Who

I think the who will be the hardest part of my 5 Ws project this week, but as it's the most important, I will start with it anyway.

My name is Whitney, I'm a 20-something editor living in Nebraska. I got married in September 2010. There are the basics.

I have a large, loving family and many friends who are so valued in my life. A very lucky girl, indeed.

I like to read and write and have been doing both for as long as I can remember. I got into journalism thanks to my time on my high school yearbook, though I also consider going into teaching one of these days. I am a fast reader and have my own special way of reading that no one, especially my husband, understands. Maybe I'll figure out a way of explaining it someday.

After planning our book-themed wedding for a year, I find that I need to create projects for myself to have something to do. So, I like to craft, especially scrapbooking, and am planning to learn how to sew. I am also (slowly) learning how to cook And of course, now I have this blog.

I find nearly all people, places, and things interesting. I like to laugh, and get choked up easily during books and movies, even if I've read them or seen them more times than I can count.

So, there's me in a nutshell. As I keep writing, I hope more of who I am comes out.

Once Upon A Time . . .

When I was little, all of the good stories started with "once upon a time . . ." and thus, my blog will, too. When I first started learning how to write stories, I was taught that you must focus on the five Ws: Who, What, When, Where, and Why. This week, as an introduction to my story, I'll be focusing on those five Ws and how they relate to who I am and this blog. Stay tuned!