my new favorite

Fall is one of my favorite seasons — the chill, the boots, the excuse to eat food from a crock pot. So this weekend, we went to Goodwill, and bought a West Bend vintage crock pot — so cute.  Here is my fiance Ken’s newest — delicious creation.

Cassole of Farro & Chicken Sausage

• 1 cup of Farro
• 1/2 cup white beans
• 14 oz chicken sausage
• 3/4 butternut squash cubed
• 3 small onions
• 4 cups of chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• 1 tablespoon Marjoram
• 1 teaspoon of sage

Directions:

1. Brown sausage and butternut squash in a deep fry pan.  Toss in sage & marjoram . Cook until browned (they don’t have to be cooked through). Throw browned squash and sausage into crock pot.
2. In the same browning pan, caramelize 3 small onions along with thyme. Throw it into the crock pot.
3. Put Farro, chicken broth, and white beans into crock pot.  Pinch of salt & pepper.
4. Cook for three hours on medium or high.

Enjoy.

Ken and I are planning our wedding, and as with any event there are a ton of decisions to make.  Although sometimes there is tension, in general, we have our true values in common.

One thing we have in common — is a love of technology.  There are a ton of sites & vendor to choose from, including paid and free options.   As a social media & events consultant I was excited to use all of these resources to celebrate my own event on and offline. Here are social media tools we are using for our wedding:

Building a Wedding Website.

Tool: Google Sites.

Why?

Well, luckily I’m tech savvy, but even more important — my fiance is a web designer.  We wanted an easy site structure that we could just add content too.  So there are lots of great wedding site vendors to use if your not in love with someone who knows html.

Extra hint: Treat yourself to a custom domain name. We’ll use it for our wedding blog and then continue to update it as our personal blog site.

Buy a domain at: Dotster or Go Daddy

Social Group for your wedding party or intimate family

Tool: Facebook Group

Why?

Our Facebook group is private and includes just our parents, and my bridal party.  This is a group that will allow me to deal with more specific details of planning, and to get advice from a small group to help me make a decisions.

Also, I’m planning a wedding in upstate NY when I live in Seattle, so social media is a great way to involve several people in conversations.

Couple’s Twitter Feed

Tool: Twitter

Why?

We’ve had a twitter handle for quite a while, but this will be a great way to ping our guests with last minute details & instructions.

Dance Mixes - First Dance.  Dinner Music.  Reception.

Tool: Spotify

Why?

There are a great number of sites (like here & here) to get lists of wedding songs for every moment of your special day.  Spotify is a great way to find all of the songs, create playlists, and choose your favorites.  Give it a try.

We will give you a sneak peak of all our sites once they are completed.  Stay tuned.

Last night Ken and I went to a concert at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. I have seen the band — by my calculations — at least 25 times in my life. My first show was while I was in high school. One of my favorite things in the world is to bring a great picnic, sit in the grass & watch a show.

I went early to stand in line before the gate opened.  At first, I felt a little silly.  I’m not a kid anymore.  I couldn’t help but wonder, is waiting in line for a band something a grown woman should do? [Note: last week, we waited in a line for a movie about a wizard school, so…]

But then I thought, what else is there to do in the world, but get excited.  

We should all have things in our life that are worth: 

• Getting up early for
• Staying up late to see
• Driving a long way just to spend the day
• Paying too much to experience an expert’s work
• Losing your cool to make someone laugh
• Breaking something apart to put it back together as something new.
• Crying because it makes you so happy.
• Running home to tell someone about it.

Enjoy your life.  Have a great weekend. 

in no particular order.  .  .

• i like that I’m recently engaged and building a relationship that thrills me.
• i like that I drink champagne without a special occasion needed.
• i like that my current consulting clients are also my friends.
• i like that my fiance said, “I’d like to take a break from my computer life and work with children.” always room to re-invent yourself.
• i like that I have lights on my deck that remind me of an inner-city Italian restaurant.
• i like that I have family & friends whom I adore, and I mean I adore them.  
• i like blogs with pretty things, and friends who send me magazine subscriptions (just because they know I like them).
• i like that my sister calls me on her way to work.
• i like that my parents are riveted to the Tour de France (and will be going to see it for themselves).
• i like summer. (even though it hasn’t felt much like summer in Seattle.)

Too many blessing for one person to hold. Have a good weekend!