Tuesday, August 04, 2009

new blog design...almost

Jake and I collaborated on a new blog design for me!

And I will no longer be at .blogspot --- my new home will be my very own .com!

www.anneschitchat.com YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! (you can go check it out but nothing is there yet).

My 'new' blog will be launched sometime later this week.

I am so excited and am feeling very inspired and creative.

It is nice to have a husband who has mad in skills in...you know, human computer interaction and interweb coding. I love him.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

hoping to redesign my blog

And my life.



Currently hiding in my head.

Come back. Soon.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

chit chat chatter

Going to try a conscious stream of thoughts for a post today. Haven't been blogging much these days. Been busying trying to lose 10 pounds. Yup, 10. I really just want to fit into my old jeans. I miss them. So I have been eating better, trying to cut out carbs and gluten and sugar. But I still like mojitos WAY too much. Just ask Paige. I was a little tipsy the other night! I also go to LA Fitness. Just a quick 30 minute workout. This is hard when all I want to do is bake cookies and watch Ellen. But I have been slowly changing my routine and you know what?! It is getting easier to put on my ankle socks and new tennis shoes and walk the six blocks to LA Fitness. It feels pretty good and I even lost 2 pounds last week! I weight myself just once a week and also take my measurements (scary!). Have been eating amazingly well - summer produce is addicting and we pick up our farm share every Thursday and eat delicious snap peas, beans, lettuce, beets, turnips, kale, and green onions all week. I make egg salad and Thai turkey burgers and chicken salads with all the fixings and roast cauliflower and turnips and grill steak. The steak is from Whole Foods though.

Judy is a real sweet dog and she is one of my favorite things in the whole world. Next to Jake she is right up there. She is really into her new 'old' basketball that Mary gave her - it is quite challenging for her and has been known to distract her for 10-15 minutes in the backyard. She doesn't even care about squirrels anymore. Just kidding. Let's see what else...OH, I am really into sewing these days. Well, I guess just two pillows. But I finally figured out how the hell a bobbin works. The first pillow took me two days and a trip to JoAnn Fabric for a seam ripper BUT the second one took me only 10 minutes! I really had the hang of things by then. My next sewing project is covering these hideous chair cushions form my most recent chair purchase. Current chair count - 22. Holy Crap. Not all of them are upstairs but whoa! I might have a slight problem with chairs. Jake tells me this a lot. But I just love them. Jake's Grandma Joy has the coolest chair in her porch. I am on the lookout for one similar. Not that I need any more chairs.

Well, I think I need to stop this rambling post now. At least I still have some chit chat chatter in me. Were you really worried? :)

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Friday, July 03, 2009

strawberry picking

Strawberry Picking
We decided to go strawberry picking for our anniversary and it turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day! The strawberries are addicting - luckily you can eat and pick!

Click for more photos from the day!

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

wooden toy plane

Found this little wooden plane at a garage sale today for only $2 dollars!

Antique Wooden Toy Plane

The man who sold it to me said that it is a model Bonanza plane but is also called the 'doctor killer' - because at the time of original production only doctors could afford them...and many times when flying them they would spin out of control and crash. Found this to be true when I looked it up on Wikipedia as well.

I have it sitting on a side table in the porch.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

we're eatin' cake for breakfast

You know the tradition of saving the top of your cake in the freezer? Well, we have a small freezer and that cake was just too good to freeze it for a year.

We just ate it.

We picked up our fresh cake for our first anniversary yesterday and have been enjoying it for breakfast today!

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One Year Wedding Anniversary Cake

Happy 1st Anniversary Jake. I love you I love you I love you.

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Saturday, June 27, 2009

this week last year, saturday

By this time on Saturday my up-do was in place and I am having the best hair day of my life.
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We had woken up to blue skies but there was definitely a HUGE chance of rain and sure enough when we were done at the salon it was overcast and starting to sprinkle. But for some strange reason the rain was not sending me into a panic -- maybe it was because it was my WEDDING DAY!!!

I drove out to Camrose Hill in my car with Katie and Cassie following behind.

As I was driving the weather was patchy, with beautiful storm clouds and clear blue skies in the horizon. I will never forget what it looked like.

I was oddly calm considering my personality. However, my thoughts turned to a slight panic with the possibility of it really raining. I started to think of how sad it would be to not be able to share Camrose Hill Flower Farm with all my friends and family -- it is just so beautiful there.

THEN this song came on the radio with these lyrics (looking at them now, I must have only heard a few key* words - either way, it made me cry with joy, I just knew it was a sign that EVERYTHING was going to be perfect)!

Don’t stress, don’t stress, don’t stress
Just tell him to the left left left
Don’t stress, don’t stress, don’t stress
Cause we gone & we gone & we gone
*No stress, no stress, no stress
*Girl you deserve nothing but the best

*No stress, no stress, no stress

Girl you need to tell him…
That I'm leavin’ never to come back again
You found somebody who does it better than he can
*no more making you cry, no more them gray skies
Girl we're flyin on the G5 G5


I credit this silly silly song to saving me from a whirlwind of panic, a spiral of doubt, and for changing the course of weather that day.

That morning it was ABSOLUTELY pouring buckets at Camrose Hill while friends and family were setting everything up -- my Mom was totally without a doubt panicking. PANICKING.

I was freakishly calm as a cucumber.

As always so were Katie and Ben.

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Later that night guests told me that they drove to Stillwater (from all directions) with storms and pouring rain but as soon as they got near Camrose Hill it was clear and beautiful.

At the same time Jake, the procrastinator, did not disappoint! As soon as I left that morning for my hair appointment he began frantically calling jewelery stores in St. Paul looking for one that was open. He had decided to buy me a necklace as a wedding gift - pearls! WOW. He is a keeper.

Peter arrived at our house and they headed to Super Target and bought $250 dollars worth of umbrellas! Just in case.

We were all at the Farm and the day had officially begun. All of a sudden it was 1 pm and I hadn't even gotten dressed!
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After all the getting ready and taking photos we had to make a split second decision about the rain -- we had the iPhones in over gear checking the radar and at approximately 3:50 (ten minutes before people began to arrive!) the decision to be outside was made! Everyone started to assemble the chairs OUTSIDE for the ceremony (apparently, except for Katie and Grandpa Bill :)

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iPhone checking!

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Seriously, look at that sky!

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The ceremony was so beautiful. My Dad was hilarious. Jake looked amazing. My veil was super long. My family was so wonderful. Our friends were all there. Everything about Camrose Hill is magical. The barns, the fields, the flowers. And the weather, wow --- it was seriously freakin' amazing. Perfect Minnesota 75 degrees with a slight breeze. Perrrfect!
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The night was full of hugs, laughter, food, cake, flowers, wine, beer, dancing, s'mores and love. Oh my goodness I want to do it all again and just hit pause. It goes so fast with such a fury. And with a blink of an eye it comes to a close...the linens are off the tables, the flowers are in buckets, and the candles are blown out.
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But what a day, what a day to remember.

Friday, June 26, 2009

this week last year, friday

I remember waking up, last year on this day, and thinking - HOLY SHIT IT IS HERE. It was FINALLY Friday, the day of our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The day BEFORE our wedding!

This was it, this was the 'beginning' of the 'end' of our wedding planning!!!! There was no time left to plan, work out the details, or panic! Thank goodness.

The day was HOT, 90 degree Minnesota hot with humidity.

We met our family and wedding party at Camrose Hill for the rehearsal and it was so much fun! We put everyone to work though - moving chairs and figuring out the 'flow' for the next day.
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Ben and Becky had driven all the way from Colorado and made it just in time, we were so happy to see them!

Amanda had brought me the most beautiful 'practice' bouquet.
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Rehearsing the ceremony was very smooth and efficient because of our wonderful Officiant Reverend AnnaMarie Ronning. She was a pro! Jake and I had worked out all the details of our ceremony with her beforehand.
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After the rehearsal we all headed to The Dock Cafe in Stillwater and had the most delicious meal. Our table was long and sat in front of an entire wall of windows, we had the most beautiful view of the river. It began to absolutely pour, but that was fine, it needed to cool everything down.

Jake and I felt so happy that night and were so ready for the next day to arrive!

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

this week last year, thursday

Thursday morning my parents were at our house ready to help in any way they could.

So we extended our dining room table to 11 feet, drew up a huge reception diagram, and finalized the seating chart. After hammering it all out, I began to write every one's name on the place cards along with their table number (only making a few mistakes!). Then for the next two (or three?) hours my Dad whole punched the corners of each place card and my Mom and I tied raffia on every single one. Oh, AND we alphabetized them too! We were seriously emotionally and physically exhausted when we got done.
Gocco Wedding Placecards

Gocco Wedding Placecards

All I wanted was for the place cards to be blowing in the breeze at Carmose Hill Flower Farm on my wedding day.

That night Jake and I had to finalize the wedding program and our plan was to Gocco print 250 of them (just like our invites, rsvp's, directions cards, favors, and place cards). By hand. Late Thursday night. The day before our rehearsal dinner.

Well, after realizing that our program template was NOT going to physically fit onto a Gocco screen (and maybe freaking out a little bit)...Jake called Kinko's to see if they could help.

Twenty minutes later Jake arrived home with 250 beautifully printed programs!

We had LITERALLY spent hours and hours and hours printing all our other materials by hand and here we were, the night before everything was about to begin with printed programs in 20 minutes. It was hilarious.

We were ecstatic to be 'done' with all the details! And so ready to get married!
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