Our Wedding Photos Have Arrived!

Yes, we are in the pouring rain with no umbrella.

After a much-anticipated few months, we finally have our wedding photos in hand. I could not be happier with the results! The images truly capture what a great day it was. 

After a restless night of sleep on the night before my wedding I awoke to a muggy September day with an afternoon tornado warning (yeah, you read that right). Maybe some brides would go into freak-out mode about the weather, but not this one! I was determined to be calm, cool, and collected and roll with whatever the day decided to bring on. 

Truthfully, the rain was a blessing in disguise. Even though we weren't able to go to the three locations we had scoped out for photos, our photographer knew about an area that was covered, but would still give us the look of being outside. (This is really important: hire a photographer that knows the area well, so he/she can think on the fly about creative alternatives to your requested spots). 

Why You Should Watch Cougar Town Tonight

I really love Cougar Town. It's not just a show for chicks, it's a show for awesome people everywhere! Maybe my husband wouldn't approve of me sharing this with you, but he actually enjoys Cougar Town. 

Finally, the producers got smart and started to make fun of the name, because the name, Cougar Town, has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the plot of the show. So, it's understandable that it's a turnoff for some viewers. However, I highly recommend that you give it a shot, and here's why:

Our Cozy and Quirky Living Room

We've lived in our new place for just over a month now (yes, we've gotten past our renter's remorse). We've made really good progress on most rooms, but there's always more work to be done! As I learned from Diane Lane in Under the Tuscan Sun, when you move into new place you have to pick one room to focus on and make it your own. Since we spend a lot of our time in the living room it was important to me to get it feeling cozy and comfortable for us to lounge around and watch movies.

Our decorating style tends to be a mix of modern and old world, with some funky accessories and eclectic details sprinkled throughout. The home we moved into is significantly more modern than our previous apartment. The lighting fixtures, flooring and appliances are all updated, but the house still has some historical details, like the radiators, which are basically artistic sculptures in each room.

1. Built-in entertainment center (probably from Ikea) - Mirrored box from Home Goods (our attempt at hiding our cables, wires), some of our favorite books (Bespoke - The Men's Style of Saville Row by James Sherwood, Our engament photo album/wedding guest book self designed on Adoramapix, The Essential Batman Encyclopedia by Robert Greenberger, World Whiskey by Charles Maclean, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Sartorialist by Scott Schuman), Media boxes from Ikea.

2. Built-in glass shelf above television from Ikea - Brown vase from Home Goods, Silver candle stick holder from Ikea (it doesn't seem to be available any more), Blue hand blown glass vase a gift from my bestie who lives in Egypt, large white vase and leaves from Home Goods, the copper bird was a gift from my grandmother (she has no idea where she got it, but it's really cool).

3. Pink Panther - A gift from my grandmother to my husband for Christmas. A little background, my grandmother was a world traveler, she's collected many antiques or unique artifacts from around the world. My husband has always talked about how he wanted some "manly" lion or tiger statue or artifact in our house, so I told my grandma this and she said she had the perfect thing for him.

4. Coffee table tray from Home Goods - Always complete with a fun book: The Sartorialist: Closer by Scott Schuman, and some magazines, GQ and Bon Appetit

New Year, New Goals

I have mixed feelings about New Years resolutions. On the one hand, I don't think that I have to wait until the first day of a new year to decide that I'm going to make some changes in my life. On the other hand, I understand the  importance of the milestone, a new year means renewed focus. Now is as good a time as any to start making changes and setting some new goals. 

I'm a firm believer that you have to be held accountable for your goals, or you'll find excuses not to achieve them. So, here are mine, I'm laying it out there for you. Periodically, I'll check back in and update you on the status of my goals and accomplishments throughout 2013. 

2013 Goals/Resolutions for Marissa:

Career

• Take online workshops and courses to improve skills in graphic design and video editing 
• Bring a renewed energy to my current job, go in with a positive mental attitude and creative ideas

Personal & Relationship 

• Work on listening skills and making sure that my first reaction in a conflict is not to be defensive
• Do something nice for the hubbers on a daily basis

Toes to Bar

Health & Fitness

• Get to the gym three times per week
• Stick to the paleo diet Monday through Friday
• Be able to do pull ups (without resistance assistance band), toes to bar, and hand stand push ups 
• Compete in at least one CrossFit competition

Financial 

• Save money towards a down payment on a home (yes, I have an exact dollar goal, but I'm not sharing that with you nosy folks)
• Start a retirement savings account. (I can hear you now, *gasp* "You don't have a retirement account?!?" Well I did have one at a previous job, but when I started my new position in Philly a few years back I never set one up or moved my funds over from my previous account. So, I'll be doing that this year.)

Blog

• Set aside more time to focus on the blog and post at least twice a week. Lucky you, you'll be hearing from me more often.

Fitting in a Workout During the Holidays

'Twas the day before Christmas and all through the house, cookies were baking, and I sat on the couch with my spouse (clearly, poetry is not my forte). The truth is, we were feeling a little sluggish after a few days weeks of not eating the most nutritious of foods and a less than consistent work out regimen. We decided that it was time to get moving. 

Rather than paying a cool $20 per person to go to a CrossFit class at our home-town affiliate we decided to do an at-home workout. That's one thing I love about CrossFit, many of the exercises you can do in the comfort of your own home. Pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, kettle bell swings, running, jump rope and burpees all require little or no equipment.

BryGuy and I started brainstorming what type of workout we could do. Given our space constraints we decided to take our workout into the front yard, and embarrass ourselves in front of all of my parent's neighbors. 

Here is our pre-Christmas workout, which we appropriately named, Earn Those Cookies. So if you happen to be stuck somewhere without access to a gym and want to do a quick workout, here's what we did. 

"Earn Those Cookies"
Workout of the Day (WOD) 12/24/12 

50-40-30-20-10
Double unders on the jump rope (meaning the rope makes two rotations for every jump)
Sit-ups

Between each set of dubs and sit-ups perform 10 burpees and run 100 meters 

Dubs first!

Then sit ups.

Followed by 10 burpees

Then a 100 meter run.

And repeat many times.

This photo makes me chuckle because it looks like BryGuy is dead,
but I swear, he's working out here.

BryGuy finished in an impressive 17 minutes and 10 seconds
I took slightly longer (my dubs blew chunks that day...) 20 minutes and 40 seconds.

When in Rome (or at Home)... Eat Carbonara

I need to provide a little background. If you've ever been around anyone that does CrossFit, you will have probably heard the term "Paleo" come up. The paleo diet basically refers to eating like a caveman, and consists of primarily eating wild plants and animals. For the most part, we try to follow the paleo diet Monday through Friday and then on the weekends we relax a bit and let ourselves indulge in some carbs and non-paleo alcohol.

Well, long story short, this blog post is not about being paleo. My point is, this post is the exact opposite of paleo! On our honeymoon in Italy this past September, we knew that paleo eating would be a thing of the past. I mean seriously, who goes to Italy and doesn't plan to eat enough pasta and bread to fill a small bus? Basically, we fell in love with pasta and pizza all over again in Rome (maybe because we had been depriving ourselves). 

Well, we've been craving some of those classic carb-loaded dishes ever since we returned. The one I've been thinking about most, spaghetti alla carbonara (although, cacio e pepe is arguably it's equally tasty, yet simpler, relative).

The BEST pizza I've ever put in my pizza-pie-hole. From Bonci's Pizzarium 

Spaghetti alla carbonara is like a staple in Rome (think perfectly al dente spaghetti coated in a cheesy/eggy sauce with small chunks of crispy and chewy ham throughout). However, it surprisingly hard to find in Italian restaurants in the States (well, good carbonara is). So, last Friday, I'm taking a little stroll through DiBruno Bros mini-market on my lunch break and I stumble upon this big hunk of pancetta. Ding ding ding! I get the bright idea to try and make some spaghetti alla carbonara at home that very evening. I call up the hubby, ask him to pick up a few essentials at the market and rush home, eagerly anticipating the moment when I'll get to shovel pounds of that pasta in my mouth.

A very merry coquito factory

My husband and I have a holiday tradition. Each year we make Coquito (think eggnog with cream of coconut and rum, lots of rum) as a gift for our families and ourselves. It helps to put us in the Christmas spirit and I'd like to think that we've become quite the professionals at whipping up industrial-sized batches of the liquid gold. 

Coquito ingredients, ready to go!

We've got this thing down to a science. First, we do the grocery and liquor store run to pick up all the essentials, then we get organized so we can just keep the batches brewing. BryGuy methodically measures the spices, vanilla extract and rum (that explains why it comes out so strong every year). 

I can be found hovering over the stove to make sure the egg yolks and evaporated milk heat up to a precise 160 degrees. Then we combine all ingredients in the VitaMix and let it rip. 

BryGuy carefully pours the Coquito into wine/bourbon bottles we've saved for the occasion or pitchers from around the house. Then we start taste-testing and BAM! it officially feels like Christmas Time. Here's the recipe we go with Coquito Recipe on Allrecipes, we may or may not double the suggested amount of rum...(we definitely double it). 

Coquito 
(Adapted from Allrecipes - makes 8 servings)

Ingredients
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1 (14 ounce) can cream of coconut
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup white rum
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
In small saucepan, combine egg yolks and evaporated milk. Stirring constantly, cook over lightly simmering water until mixture reaches a temperature of 160 degrees F. The mixture should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Transfer mixture to a blender, and add cream of coconut, sweetened condensed milk, rum, water, cloves, cinnamon, and vanilla. Blend for about 30 seconds. Pour into glass bottles, and chill overnight.

See more photos after the jump.

We had renter's remorse. But we got over it.

This past weekend we did the big move... approximately four blocks down the street from our former apartment. Originally BryGuy and I were going to do all of the heavy lifting on our own. Don't laugh! I do CrossFit, I'm quite strong. But the Man upstairs decided that we needed a little more assistance and he sent my wonderful father and brother from New York. Looking back, I really don't know how we would've done it without them. They were the best non-professional movers a girl could ask for (Thanks pops and Z!). We started loading the truck at 8 a.m. and had everything into our new apartment by 12:30 p.m. 

The evil U-Haul and BryGuy
(doesn't he look happy to be moving?)

There were a few hiccups, like our U-Haul's battery dying, twice, and our queen-sized box spring not fitting up the stairs to our bedroom. But other than that, things went well. When all of our furniture was moved to the new place, we did a very thorough cleaning of our old apartment. As we stood there in our bare apartment that we had lived in for almost three years, BryGuy and I got a little emotional. We loved that place, it has been our first "home" together, it's the home we lived in when we got married, we've laughed there, we've cried there, we've entertained our family and friends there, and the truth is we were starting to miss it already! It was in that moment that we started questioning whether or not we had made the right decision to move. We were faced with all of these boxes of unpacked things (and we were really really exhausted), and we started having regrets and doubts.