Five Guys

We finally got to check out Five Guys Burgers and Fries...affectionately known simply as Five Guys. We had heard big things about this place. It originated on the east coast, but from the look of their website it is moving westward. I would call them the east coast In-N-Out Burger. Like In-N-Out, they only have a few things on the menu: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, veggie burger, fries and cajun fries. Although, word on the street is that the "veggie burger" is just a bun with any vegetables you want on it.

Anyway, we walked in on a Friday night at around 6pm and there was a line about 8 people deep. The food was a little more expensive than I would typically spend on a burger and fries and such a place. $17 for both of us to have: a hamburger, a bacon cheeseburger, large fries and 2 sodas. We got our number (92) and took our seat. The restaurant is decorated pretty minimally. It kind of reminded me of Jimmy John's, but with less character. White and red tile with almost every square inch of the walls covered in articles about how great they are (Zagat ratings, food reviews, etc) and quotes by people raving about how delicious the burgers are. We waited for a while, maybe about 10 mins or more and all of a sudden we started hearing them call out, #95, 96, 99, 102...and remember, we are #92. So we are getting kind of pissed....We are hungry, they think they are awesome, they are charging us more than what we normally would pay for fast food and now, they obviously lost our order. So I got up and checked out the situation...sure enough, lost our order. They put a rush on it though and I had it in no time. They gained a few more points by doing this...

We got back to our table, took our first bite and immediately forgot about all of their shortcomings. It was delicious! The regular burgers come stacked double, which Jon and I decided is quite convenient. We don't like when you get huge burgers at restaurants and you have to cut them in half to be able to pick them up and eat them. Jon also liked that the bacon on his cheeseburger fit his burger and wasn't hanging outside the bun. The fries were good in my book, but Jon wasn't the biggest fan. They are fresh cut potatoes and were just salty enough. I mean, I added more salt (because that is just what I do) but I think they were good and salty for the regular fry eater. We got a large fry and shared it, but it was more than enough. We didn't even finish it. I think we'll share the small next time.

While we were there, we decided to rank our favorite burgers in terms of deliciousness. Jon thought Five Guys was better than Dotty's, but I don't remember if he liked it better than Culver's....and he doesn't have a soft spot for Gille's like I do. I rank my favorite burgers like this:

1. Culver's
2. Gille's
3. Five Guys
4. Dotty's
5. Sobelman's
Honorable Mention: In-N-Out Burger (Only because it has been about 3 years since I have been there and I don't remember really what it tasted like, only what I felt while eating it...which was immense satisfaction)

ring a ding ding

We got our wedding bands this weekend! It was much more painless than I anticipated it would be. For some reason, I thought it was going to be a really long process. You see, from time to time, if Jon and I would be in a mall or something, we would pop in a jewelry store just to see what they had to offer. I always left a little dejected because the channels didn't match up or my engagement ring paired with the band looked too big for my finger or the salesperson would tell me I should leave at least 6 weeks to be able to get the ring sized, etc. I should have known the original jewelry store where Jon got the ring would have a perfect match. And they did! I still had a couple decisions to make though. My ring is a round stone with 3 channel set princess cut side stones on each side. A channel set princess cut band would technically match it, but I was loving the round one! After wearing them both and staring at them both, I decided on the round band and I am so glad. I love how it looks together and alone. Jon opted for a titanium beveled edge band. Here they are...

...and the set

burgers and fries

This is an ongoing post I have been writing for the past month:

I love McDonald's. I love the McChicken, the Filet-o-Fish, the burgers, the nuggets, the fries and even the diet coke is delicious. It is so convenient, so cheap and so entirely bad for you. It was becoming too easy to stop there and get lunch or dinner when we were in a rush/not feeling like cooking, etc. So, I decided to give it up for the month of April (and any place like it)....and you guys, it has been SO hard! I kept thinking I wanted to have an ongoing post of how I felt about McDonald's that particular day, but I didnt get around to it until today (the 21st). Oops. So I will summarize how the last 2 1/2 weeks have been. Things were easy peasy up until the week of the 14th. Since then, I have thought about having McDonald's at least once a day. I am a crazy person! I know this. May 1st can't come soon enough! Except, since I have gone without it this long, I am thinking I should stick it out as long as I can. We'll see what wins out (probably McDonalds, I'm not going to lie)

21st - It's Monday. Enough said. I wanted to go to McDonald's for lunch because I know all we have at home are Lean Cuisine french bread pizzas. I had those 3 times last week. /// Went home for lunch and watched a little Big Brother After Dark and had an Herb Roasted Chicken Lean Cuisine. This is actually one of my faves. It was pretty good.

22nd - Jon calls me at work to ask me if Culver's is the same as McDonalds. I say yes, we cannot go there either, I proceed to think about butterburgers for the rest of the day.

23rd - not feeling real good. My glands are kind of swollen and soup sounds much tastier.

24th - Still getting over the sickness. Still not diggin the idea of McD's.

25th - we went to Dotty's for dinner. I'm not sure if that was cheating. We DID have burgers and fries (and cheese curds...mmmmm), but it wasn't McDonald's :) And, it's Friday. I don't cook on Fridays.

26th - kind of want McDonalds.

27th - Had soup for lunch. Jon made homemade pizza for dinner. McDonald's would have been convenient, but we chose to eat what we had in the house. Yay us!

28th - Stopped at Target to get lunches for the week...including 3 Cheese Ziti Marinara by Smart Ones. It is my favorite and I have not thought about having McD's.

29th - stayed late at work, then did some errands. Jon wasn't going to be home for dinner. I kind of wanted to go to McDonald's, but I didn't!

30th - we went grocery shopping right after work and didn't get done until about 7, so we didnt feel like going home and starting to cook a meal at 7. Typically, we might have gone to McD's or Wendy's since they are right down the street. Tonight, we went to Subway! Yay us!

Recap:
So now it is May 1st and we are planning on making dinner at home tonight, but we'll see what happens in the future. This experiment was meant not only to cut out something that is really bad for you, but also to save money and be in the mind set to make meals rather than eat out. And I think we succeeded in that. The times when we were tempted to just go to McDonald's, we took a step back and realized that we were just being lazy and to get our butts in the kitchen to cook something. Tomorrow is Friday though and it's possible that we could relight the flame with McDonalds. Bottom line: I think I will think more about the money and the calories before I ever go there again.

100 days

100 days to go and I have JUST kind of started realizing this thing is around the corner and need to get on the ball. What have I done in the past 50 days?

• met with Aly for a cake tasting. (must decide on what decorations we'd like asap)
• made appointment to get dress altered
• made reservation for rehearsal dinner (must decide what food and drink we'd like to offer)
• made appointment to talk to florist. Decided to only have my bouquet made by the florist and we'll do the rest.
• Suits were bought by the boys
• bought the ties for the boys
• reserved our hotel room for the wedding night
• made a list of songs we'd like to be played at the reception.
• finished second registry
• decided on bridesmaid dresses (need to make decision about shoes and accessories)
• met with our priest, got an idea of how the ceremony is going to go, took our marriage test

things that I NEED to do asap:

• make hair appointment for the day of the wedding
• get going on finalizing, printing and assembling invitations
• figure out honeymoon
• figure out favors
• pick readings, songs for ceremony

font help

Does anyone know the name of the "Seleta and Jesse" font below? Where I can find it? etc. Comments and/or emails (in bio) would be appreciated. Thanks!

save the date by Hello! Lucky

I love a bargain

I have some great news for the bargain shoppers (who isn't one?). On Sunday, while on my drive back to Madison from Milwaukee, I made the required and often dangerous (to my wallet) stop at the Johnson Creek Outlet Mall. There are 2 new-ish discoveries there that I must share.

First, The Cosmetics Company Store. This place is so awesome, I can't even stand it. They sell all your favorite cosmetics for about 30% less than if you were to buy it at the department store. And yes, those are the brands I am talking about: Bobbi Brown, MAC (my fave), Clinique, Estee Lauder, Stila, Origins, etc. Of course, they don't have the entire line and a lot of things are obviously seasonal gift packs and holiday colors that they can no longer sell, but who cares! I sure don't. In the past, I have gotten MAC eyeshadows for $10 and MAC powder for $18. This time, I picked myself up a Clinique gift bag that included: eyelinger, blush, a blush brush, eye cream, moisturizer, concealer and a lipstick (which I know I won't use) for $24!! Oh... and that all came in a makeup bag. Now of course these all weren't full size products, but I didn't really bat an eye at that. I was in need of some new moisturizer and I wanted to try a new eye cream anyway, so this was actually perfect for me. I'll try out the small version, and if I like it, I'll get the full size when I'm out. Here is a list of The Cosmetics Company Store in your area!



Next, Bath & Body Works Outlet! Yes, outlet! I am sure everyone has been to an outlet mall that has a B&BW, but it is just like a regular one that would be at the mall. Well, that is no longer. It is like a semi-annual clearance sale there 365 days a year now. White Barn candles for $7, lotion for $4, seasonal gift packs for 50% off...you get the idea. Again, they don't carry all of their famous scents that are in the regular store. They had a few, but mostly carried their scents that make appearances during the semi-annual sale. You know the ones: Plumeria, Pearberry, Rice Flower and Shea (my fave)...along with the other brands they sell: CO Bigelow, Henri Bendel, etc.

Pretty sweet, right? I thought so.

centerpieces

I made a little mock up of what our table might look like with a sheet and a black sash. Yup, I'm resourceful.

Idea #1 - Baby's breath. It's inexpensive, goes with my color scheme and would fill a vase for very little money. The downside is, it stinks! Seriously, baby's breath does not smell nice at all. This could be done with Queen Anne's Lace probably though. How does that smell?

idea #2 - Limes. This idea was #1 in my head before doing this test and it quickly went to the bottom after I tried it out. I didn't have any vases that fit them very well, so it was kind of hard to get a feel for what it would look like if it was packed full...but it still isn't my favorite and I won't be persuing this idea.

idea #3 - Apples. This is a front runner. I love how bold the colors are and that they would be consumable after the wedding.

that's awesome #2

If I had $170 to blow, I would seriously get these moustache necklaces. How awesome are these!?

Available from Digby & Iona

where do I live again?

I have not stayed in Madison for a whole weekend since the last weekend in February. A little ridiculous? Most definitely. We are busy peeps though, what can I say.

March 1-2: Green Bay for Todd's big 30th bday. Just 3 days later, I turned right back around and drove back to Green Bay when Cooper was born. I decorated that beautiful cake below. You want to know how I did it, right? I know you do. It looks so professional. Well, I'll tell you.

1. Buy a blank cake at Pick N Save the night before you go to Green Bay at 9pm.

2. Get home and realize don't have a tube of frosting to decorate it like you thought you did.

3. Decide you'll deal with it in the morning and watch an episode of Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee. Ironically, she is making cookies and made a semi-homemade frosting with powdered sugar, water and food coloring. You realize it is a little runny, but you are going to have it in the refrigerator overnight, so it should harden by the morning

4. Mix aforementioned ingredients and fashion a "30" on the cake

5. Place in refrigerator

6. Leave for Green Bay at approximately 9am the next morning. Hold the cake in your lap, to avoid any shifting that may occur had it been left unattended in the back seat.

7. Pick up Barney.

8. Place cake in the back seat now that there is an appropriate chaperone for the cake

9. Drive for about an hour and realize the cake has been on an angle with the sun beating down into the car and the design that was slaved over and carefully taken care of, now looks like this.

Oh, and here is Cooper, about 1 minute after I got the hospital and obviously needed a picture immediately.

March 8-9: In Milwaukee by myself for my cousin's baby shower.

March 14-16: In Milwaukee together to take a marriage test at St. Jude and for cake tasting with Aly. The test was seriously a scantron, #2 pencil style test that we took at the church rectory. I think we were supposed to take it in separate rooms, but our priest did not require that. So we pretty much compared answers on the entire test. We will be meeting with a couple from church to discuss the results in a couple weeks I guess. As for the cake tasting, we had a great flavors and designs to choose from. We haven't made any final decisions yet, but look how yummy! I couldn't stop eating the butter cream frosting. So delish.

March 22-23: Easter and we headed back up to Green Bay to celebrate with the fam.

Jon and I had to head back to Madison (the city) around the same time everyone else went to church, but were still getting our things together at the same time they all left, which left us alone in the house with Madison (the dog) for a little while. We were tidying up the basement where we were staying and Madison was sort of poking around down there with us, but then went upstairs. As I was packing up, I realized quite a while had passed and I didn't hear a peep from upstairs. I figured that probably wasn't a good thing and decided to check out what Madison had gotten herself into. What I found when I went upstairs was this:

That's right, just chillin on the couch, doing absolutely nothing. I took this opportunity to try and be artistic and had a little photo shoot with little Mad Dog

March 27th - My 27th Birthday. My golden birthday, if you will. Jon gets ready and is out the door before I even get out of bed most days...and when I went to the bathroom, I was greeted with this. So sweet :)

March 29-30: I was actually free and had a relaxing weekend planned until I decided to tag along to Chicago with Shari to visit Andrea. We went out for Mexican, drank margaritas and other cocktails and had a great time...of course. I expected nothing less, which is why I gave up my relaxing weekend.

April 4-6: Milwaukee again. Jon went to the Brewer game and we checked out the Body Worlds exhibit. Amazing. It is a must see. Todd went to the Brewer game with Jon, so we got to hang with Coop during the game which was great. It's hard only seeing him every couple weeks. You hear that, Gina? I want to see that little babe every day.

This weekend, Jon is out of town, so I am back in Milwaukee yet again. It has kind of felt like the old days before I moved to Madison. Last night, Meghan and I went to Pizzeria Piccola, which we used to do weekly 3 years ago. Afterward we went to Target, duh. Then we went back to her house where we talked and read magazines. Basically, it might as well have been 2005 because that is exactly what we have done on any given night back then.

Today, I had lunch at Chili's with some girls I used to work with at Betty Brinn. We had chips and salsa and margaritas (Yes, that's right, margs at lunch. We don't mess around). We frequented the Chili's happy hour back in '05 also. Afterward, did a little shopping with Mom. Tonight had dinner with Dizzy and Andy at Saz's and finished off with pie at Baker's Square. It was so random...and I am here to tell you that Baker's Square at 8:30 on a Saturday night is a little depressing. The french silk pie was yummy though.

The next 2 weekends we are actually staying home and our gas tanks will thank us.

pomanders

There were many things I never knew existed before planning this wedding, that seem to be every day vocab these days. Por ejemplo:

Chivari chairs. These things are highly coveted and go for about $8 a piece to rent. They are very fashionable and probably transform a room beautifully. I, however, will be using the freebies our venue is supplying.

Gocco. Pronounced go-co. This is a screen printer that many brides decide to use to print their invites. It is not cheap and is actually discontinued in the US. The only way to get one of these babies is on ebay, etsy or if you are traveling in Japan. Apparently they are big there.

the machine---

Miss Penguin of the Weddingbee's Gocco'd invitations---

Pomanders. Who else but MS would come up with this idea to make a tissue paper flower so beautiful? First she changed the tissue paper flower from being an elementary school project, to being a beautiful accent that you would be proud to display at a classy event.

But do you think Martha stopped there? Of course not. She took these precious little flowers and made them into a pomander. I wasn't so sure I wanted to have these at my wedding though. They would be great at a wedding shower, baby shower or decorating a present, but I wasn't so sure if they would be nice enough at a wedding....

...and then I saw VintageGlam's knot bio. Here she is...

...and here are her pomanders. Beautiful, right?

(VintageGlam's photo's by Jessica Johnston)

I figured since she executed the look of this tissue paper pomander, I should give it a shot also.

I bought the MS tissue paper flower kit a while ago, so I know the key to a beautiful flower is to zig zag the edges. Of course, the kit has perfectly symmetrical zig zags that result in a perfectly domed flower. for the pomander, I didn't think it would really matter if it was perfectly domed though, so I free handed a zig zag.

Then I accordion folded it like a normal tissue paper flower, tied it off with some floral wire and separated. (The quality of the this picture is horrible)

When I was done, I just stabbed them into the styrofoam ball. I tried to get them as close together so it would look really full.

And the finished product...Ta-Da!

(again, please excuse the horrible pic quality...)

The cost of this pomander:

Styrofoam ball - $2.25

Tissue Paper - $.03 cents per flower. ($1 per pack. I used 2 packs, which made 40 flowers.)

Floral wire - $2.50 for a ton of wire.

Time - Probably a total of 2 hours? I made the flowers while I watched TV and recruited Jon to fold paper.

I realized I got 2 different color green tissue paper after I left the store, so your eyes are not doing tricks on you. This pomander is in fact two-toned. It also is not the color green I am going for. I found a great apple green color that I think will look much softer and more in keeping with the colors we have going on. I was thinking of decorating the pews at church with them ala VintageGlam. The ceremony is only going to be about 25 mins though and I can't think of any purpose or place for them at the reception. So are they worth the time and energy to make? Kind of leaning towards no...but they sure are cute. We'll see.

attack of the spyware

We have a virus...a computer virus that is. Not sure what to do about it yet because we have both tried to manually get rid of it with no luck yet. We are thinking we are going to have to do a full restore. bleh. I haven't been able to do much wedding stuff (blogging, designing things, buying things online, etc) since this happened obviously and I'm not sure if it is a good or bad thing. I was going on wedding overload for a while there, so maybe a short break will be good for the mental health.

I have so many things to discuss also. Cake tasting, centerpiece options, tissue paper pomanders...but without being able to upload pics, those posts would be a little lackluster. I promise you though...they will come friends, they will come.

ehhh, flowers

I am so bothered by the idea of spending money on flowers. Yes, I understand they add a little something extra to make your pictures look gorg.

Exhibit A:

John Unrue Photography, Botanica Florist

Cassie Redstone Photography, Laura Cinotta Flowers

And, what else are you supposed to do with your hands when you are walking down the aisle? It would look weird if she wasn't holding those flowers, no?

Silver Fox Photography

and the tables...they would look amazing with a luscious centerpiece for each table.

Mary Ellen Bartley Photography, Seaport Flowers

But, do guys really enjoy wearing boutenniers? Wouldn't they look just as dressed up without one?

And how about those corsages you give to your mom, your grandma, and any other woman worthy of one. Do they really want a huge flower on their chest all day? Maybe some would...but I think they would look just as smashing without one.

Sure, I would love all these things if I had a huge budget, but the reality is, I don't. So what to do? I have put off contacting any florists because I think I will be able to do this myself. I might be crazy, but how hard can making a bouquet be? The answer is probably not that hard. But do I want to worry about making bouquets the night before my wedding? Not so sure about that either. The thing is, I think I would really enjoy making bouquets. I believe I am creative enough to undertake such a project, and with a little practice, I could nail it. On the other hand, I could end up with some really crappy bouquets and I will proceed to put my foot in my mouth. I'll think I'll try it out soon and update accordingly.


*All of these photos via The Knot.

nightmares part 3

In this episode, we were getting married at some sort of lake house that was very spread out and guests were sort of scattered everywhere...outside, down the road by the beach, in the house, etc. We had our ceremony, which was very unrehearsed and awkward and then I lost Jon in the crowd of people (remember, they were scattered everywhere). I didn't really notice it either until I got to this area where we were to take pictures and he was no where to be found. We waited around for a while, but eventually I got sick of waiting for him and was getting anxious because I wasn't enjoying spending a good deal of my wedding day sitting around and waiting. So I stomped back to the house down a muddy/dirt road, in my white dress and expensive shoes. When I got there, I scoured through the crowd of peeps trying to find him. It was like a scene out of a movie where someone is trying to make their way through a crowd and with every step, all you see is another body in their way. He finally appeared and I was relieved, but upset at the same time because he had just wasted a lot of time by disappearing. He also had already taken his jacket off, his hair was all messed up and he was kind of sweaty...and hello! We haven't taken any pictures yet! However, followed closely behind him, assumed to be a groomsman, was Vince Vaughn.

The End.

150 days

150 days until the wedding and what have we done:

• reception spot, photographer, dj, church, ceremony musicians, cake maker reserved
• invitations designed
• table numbers and escort card design decided (I think)
• dress and shoes bought
• centerpiece ideas narrowed down to a few ideas
• registered at 1 place
• decided on a rehearsal dinner place...must make the reservation
• blocked off hotel rooms at 3 hotels
• Once again got sucked into Big Brother. That show rules my life and I know it is dumb.

1 week old

Happy 1 week birthday, Cooper! We'll see you next week...make sure to stay tiny and cute until then...Jon hasn't seen you yet in your all your newborn-ness. You then have permission to grow into a big boy who can lift his head and such.

fonts

I have been a little hesitant posting actual things we will have at our wedding because there are people that read this blog that will be at the wedding and I would like the details that I have been working so hard on to be a surprise. I then realized that there are probably only a handful of people (that I know of) out of over 200 who read this and I needed to get over myself. So I decided that I could compromise. I will show things I am debating about, but not the finished product. Of course I will post things after the wedding, when the cat is out of the bag, but for now, I'll only be teasing...

Back to the fonts: A couple weekends ago I stumbled upon urbanfonts.com and dafont.com and I officially wasted away 2 days downloading free fonts. It was a little ridiculous, but I got some great ones that I knew could be contenders for our invitations and other paper products. We are hoping our wedding will have a classic, fun and laid back feel (duh. who doesn't?.), so we didn't want our invitations to be too formal. With that in mind, I wanted to find a calligraphy font, but not a real stuffy one. We narrowed our options down to 2 different font combinations...

We have made our final decision and I made up an mock invitation that we are super excited about. I had made one a while ago that we thought was definitely the one, but now that one seems so gross in comparison. I'm glad to have this done with plenty of time to get them printed and everything also. Having the design down for the invitations is also making everything else super easy to envision. The escort cards, programs, table numbers, etc seem to be obvious now that we have made this decison. I am having so much fun creating these things! I can't believe some people don't love this stuff and would rather pay someone to do it. I think I missed my calling.

Coop!

I headed up to Green Bay on Wednesday to check out my new little nephew. Little is a good way to describe him also. He is so tiny! As I was driving there, I was thinking to myself that he was 5lbs. 11 oz., and that that is not much more that a stupid 5lb weight at the gym. Bah! So little. I can't wait to see him again in a couple weeks!

#4

Yesterday was both super sad and extremely exciting. Extremely exciting because my first nephew was born! Super sad because Brett Favre retired. I will admit to not being the hugest football/Packer fan, but I enjoy watching the game from time to time on a Sunday afternoon. I am sure a lot of that enjoyment has had something to do with BF also. And for the past 16 years he was our quarterback. This is over half my life. The only other quarterback I remember seeing was Don Majkowski.

I am not as sad as most people, trust. I mean, this was going to happen. He has been threatening us for years. Now that it is here though, I can't help but be a little disappointed. I think it is because he was sort of the quarterback of all quarterbacks. The most seasoned, held the most records, started every game, won us a Superbowl, etc. All that and he was ours. We are proud of him and are sad to see him go.

btw...

...I found out recently that I disabled the ability for anyone to add my blog to an RSS feed. This is fixed, so add me if you wish. When you add me, it will say "Title Unknown" for some reason though. Still trying to figure that out. Maybe it's time for me to switch to wordpress.

nephew

I have a new nephew!

Cooper Thomas

5lbs 11oz.

18.5 inches

3-4-08

7:45

...I am on my way to meet him momentarily.