The first shots

Here are the first shots from our professional photog. I think she does incredible work and I am so thankful to have found her.

We were told the jump in this one. I think Andy looks like a bunny but I love how high Colin is trying to get (furthest on the left).

Us with our amazing chapel in the background. I love how the girls made it look. And the sky looks both beautiful and ominous...in a good way.
Ahhhh....it's a keeper!

These are all I've seen so far. I can't wait to see more. Keep 'em coming Sarah!

Rewind

Wow, what a whirlwind! The past two weeks have simultaneously dragged on and zoomed by. We are glad to be home, though Andy begrudgingly left for work this morning and I am ignoring the living room still filled with boxes that have no home. So, in the name of procrastination, lets recap!

First stop: Hamilton County Courthouse

Andy had just flown in from DC where he unexpectedly had to spend the night in the airport. Poor guy hadn't slept at all...so it was the perfect time for him to sign the marriage certificate!

Filling out the forms. Did you know in Ohio, a female can get married at the age of 16 without consent of her parents or the court? If you are a male, you have to wait until you are 18.

After we got a celebratory lunch at Frische's Big Boy, Andy went to his parents for a little R&R before his Bachelor Party and I went flower picking! I wish I had more pictures of us at the farm, carrying our 5 gallon buckets, searching for the perfect flowers, counting to make sure we had 500 stems, and shooing the bugs away. But it was hot, we were sweaty, and when we were done, we wanted air conditioning and ice cream. Here are some pictures of Tiffany, my bridesmaid made florist, putting them into bouquets.

Tiffany put in some long hours for the bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages...and they were gorgeous!

Our bouquets in a cooler.

Even after everything was made, we had lots of flowers left over.

That was a lovely recap...until we meet again...

Speechless

I think it will take the whole honeymoon to process our wedding day. I loved every minute of it (except the nausea and sleeplessness) and wouldn't change a thing. Thank YOU for being a part of it.

If you have photos, I would really, really love to see them. We have a flickr account if you'd like to share:

www.flickr.com

Login: crankwedding@yahoo.com

Password: august1

Here's some that I liked (thanks Becky's and Karen's camera)...

We'll be in touch after the honeymoon in Quebec City...stay tuned.

Drool

Check out these pictures from the amazing wedding of the Broke-Ass Bride.

They're so dreamy...and they look so happy! I love it!

Digits

In the whirlwind of wedding planning, Andy and I have reached the stage of gift making. Actually, Andy's been doing the making and I've been working on the details of the weekend and making sure everyone is in the loop that needs to be in the loop. We've also been moving (still) and painting. Our hope is to be moved in and sleeping at our new apartment by this weekend. At this rate, I don't know if that will happen...but we don't have a choice. In one week and two days I leave for Ohio!

In other news, we both got cell phones yesterday! That's right, Andy and I have rejoined the fast paced nation and attached a phone to our hips. They look like this:

Cool touch screen, loud noises, buzzing sensations. It's a fairground in our hand! Along with the new toy, we also have new numbers. So, if you know us, make sure you have our new digits!

Neglectful

Andy and I have been ignoring the wedding these past few weeks. There have been lots of changes in our lives and our upcoming nuptials have had to be put on the back burner. We are getting back on track though and the help of others has really been helping.

So what have we been doing? Well, I made these hanging pictures for my good friend who is having a baby on Christmas Day. We are all so thrilled for her. I found the directions here: http://www.livingcreatively.com.au/projects/create_now_project.php?v=76

The background is in French, but I made one background in English because it's too cute. It says:

Animals are interesting creatures. They are not too dissimilar to you and I. In fact the other day while strolling through the park, I spotted a giraffe eating chocolate ice-cream. I know it sounds unbelievable but I assure you I saw it with my very own eyes! Anyway, it got me thinking about what animals like to do when they're not busy doing what animals do. Do birds write love letters in the sand? Do hippos like to read the newspaper on Sunday morning? What of the lion? Does he sing to himself as he bathes in the lake? There are so many wonderful things I love to wonder about, however one thing I know for certain is that crocodiles wear sunglasses. It's true! I saw it with my own eyes.

We have also been starting our move into the "Funky Farm House." It was left a lot dirtier than we expected, so we've been cleaning, moving some stuff, cleaning, moving some stuff, painting, moving some stuff. You get the idea and you've probably done this sort of thing before too, so you understand. I have no pictures of the inside, but this is our wonderful property.

Our tower house. That is our front door and our bedroom is in the green "tower." In between is a wood stove, a kitchen and a bathroom. Off to the right in the white building is our greenhouse and to the left is an animal farm.

On our farm we have chickens! We don't eat them though (except maybe a mean rooster).

And I like this guy. I call him the deadlocked goat. He likes to eat everything!

The owner is an amazing sculpture/artist. She makes stone walls that circle and loop. There are several on the property.

This is the view from on top of the hill looking at the barn. The barn holds the chickens, goats, sheep, and currently a pot-belled pig. Andy likes the pig. If you look closely at the tree, you'll see another art installation involving bicycles.

Inside this door house is a mound of stones that we can use to practice our own curving stone walls!

See that fence? That is literally three feet away from our patio. And that's a cow! There are sheep, goats, cows, and one llama that graze on that side of the fence. They are not a part of our farm, however, but since most of them are babies, they are really cute.

The view from our patio!

Hopefully more wedding posts will follow!

Kombucha

Kombucha is the Western name for sweetened tea that has been fermented using a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). You may have seen it in the store like this:

And it is expensive!

At our local herb shop (a real shop that sells just herbs), they offered a class on how to make Kombucha and supplied us with a start-up a kit: 2 jars (since both of us did it), black tea, cheesecloth for the cover, and the culture (or SCOBY).

Here is what we did:

We took our kit home and got everything ready. The culture is the white stuff in the bowl that looks like a bunch of fat. We also had our jar and bags of black tea.

We brewed the tea in some water with dissolved sugar. When it was cooled we added more cold water and then placed the cultures in the jars with the mixture.

Here is what it looked like.

We put our jars in a semi-open place not in the kitchen (you don't want the cooking odors to change the reactions in the Kombucha). I think we need another bookshelf! Can you find the clown?

Today our first batch was ready...it only took 2 weeks. It won't take as long once we have established cultures. We strained our finished product into this fancy maple syrup bottle. Nice isn't it!

As you can see, we already drank half the bottle! We love how it tastes and have enjoyed mixing it with juice and seltzer. Our instructor also suggested mixing it with liquor...it may defeat the health benefits, but it tastes delicious!