Modern Baking Necessities

Disclaimer: I promise to start a series of "wedding moments" posts in the coming months. I'm toying with drawings and I have some ideas in mind. I swear!

Moving right along to current matters: Baking.

Now that I have an all powerful and fabulously blue kitchen-aid my true status as Baking Maven (or Baven) can be acknowledged at optimum power.

If it is in your power to procure a kitchen aid, I highly recommend it. Don't go accessory shopping right after you get it like Drew and I did, it's highly depre-nsive (ie expensive therefore depressing). There's an ice cream maker attachment for a batrillion dollars. Need I say more? Don't ask me what ice cream is worth to me Retail Gods, you can't put a price on pure joy!

Really, flashy tools aside there are only three things that need to be in the kitchen with you at all times while you bake this holiday season.

They are:

1. Obnoxious music

2. Santa

3. Your 5 year old self

You see, recipes will have you believe that their "recommendations" in the form of "measurements" are holy laws written by the flying spaghetti monster on sacred tablets with raw lightning. This is not true. They are instead written by and edited again by the most uptight people you know. The ones who ask for a "sliver" of cake, break your cookies into bites smaller than the chocolate chips themselves and correct your grammar without smiling.

Are these the people you want to make Holiday treats for? I didn't think so. You want to feed SANTA and his belly that jiggles like a bowl full of jelly.

So, crank up that obnoxious music to encourage deviant behaviour and plant Santa on one side and 5 year old you on the other. These are your trusted advisors.

For example: There is no such thing as a "pinch" of anything, and definitely not cinnamon. COMMIT TO THE CINNAMON. Santa loves cinnamon and 5 year old you likes watching inertia huff avalanche like bombs of cinnamon onto your spoon and into your bowl as you try to measure with the exactness of a NASA scientist.

NASA scientists also like cinnamon.

Sometimes in your haste and enthusiasm to compile the ingredients for your latest venture you may find you have accidentally procured the incorrect ingredient. Fear not.

Today, for example, I bought a pound of shredded carrots for Martha Stewart's "Carrot Cake Cupcake" recipe.

As an aside, Martha Stewart recipes are like the sphinx of baking. You must answer their riddles three and pass all their tests to succeed. They will use words like "unsulfured molasses" making you think to yourself "Wait, there's sulfur in molasses?" and "sage leaves cut chiffonade" with a nice bracketed (optional) next to it to acknowledge with cutting precision what a rank amateur you are at life (if you're me they also lead to adventures at the grocery store, the place that used to be your friend, but since "chiffonade" is a cold, dark place where people think you are insane) These recipes also call for more bowls than most people own, to test your true commitment to the sport of baking. So load up on dollar store bowls and make sure your inner rebel is pumped and primed for the baking olympics when you pick up her books. And imagine how EXTRA satisfying it is to slightly alter Martha Stewart's recipes. You're imaging it aren't you? Excellent.

Back to the shredded carrots.

I got home to realize I had instead bought two bags of "french cut" carrots. I worried this style of cutting was too bulky for the unspeakably tasty delicacies I was preparing to create. I considered trying to slice french cut carrots even finer than they already were one-by-one with a kitchen knife and found this idea filled me with apathy and despair. Then I remembered Drew's magic bullet. I turned to Santa, who now sported sunglasses and was perched on a Harley as he pointed to Drew's magic bullet and proclaimed, "Let's do this."

5 year old me, excited by watching things blended to a pulp, ground her fist into her other hand for encouragement.

So I half pureed, half left them french cut and continued on my epic quest for delicious freedom. (currently finishing up in the oven after making 2 and a half dozen cupcakes and a loaf)

Why should you defy recipes even if it's in the smallest way? Because. Now that you are grown up and you've had the joy of realizing no one really has any idea what they're doing you spend your time divided between clinging to the false comfort of exact rules and having moments where your life is a grand musical and you are getting on the next train to adventure (the next train to adventure might be little more than changing an excel formula at your desk, watching it work and being flooded with a sense of omnipotent power, this is perfectly ok.)

Baking is one of the times you should remember that you have something new to bring to the game and you are unafraid to try. And being a grown up should be about making it up as you go, in the best possible way. With cinnamon. And Santa. And 5 year old you high-fiving your efforts. And the soundtrack the most obnoxious music you've ever liked.

For me it includes defeating Martha Stewart with subtle defiance, but you go ahead and find your special thing.

The End.

Photos

I promised these so long ago I'm ashamed.

engagement shoot photos--> Toronto Musical Gardens

wedding photos ---> King Edward Hotel

All credit to the fabulous Calla Evans and her lovely assistant Rachael! :)

Married!

So I did it! So much to say, photos to post, stories to tell I'm overwhelmed.

I'm actually debating trying my hand at a cartoon series of best and craziest moments.

Then I need to cartoon the honeymoon, and getting to the cartoon (aka worst travel experience ever)

Also to come: Pro and Con lists for major decisions, like changing my name. Possibly a series from this titled "Nat vs. Ontario Gov't"

Bottom line, my love for Drew, writing and writing about being married to Drew will no doubt explode into some kind of blog series.

xo, the Garsides.

2 weeks

Dear Future Brides,

As I sit here 2 weeks away from my wedding, after washing sharpie marker off my future husband after his bachelor party, after coming home from a Hawaiiain themed shower thrown by my girlfriends with so much love and care, after submitting the last of my numbers, my seating charts, my meal requests and our ceremony choices...I look back at all the ups and downs I have had planning out this day and all the different ways I have looked at it throughout my life until this moment and I find at the end I am just profoundly grateful for the people I get to share it with.

My advice to you, future brides, is as follows:

- remember to thank everyone

- reward yourself for the big tasks (like doing the seating chart - do this while eating really delicious cake, that is what *I* would do looking back now)

- give yourself unwind time (mine includes jane austin movies)

- have someone to confide in besides your partner (my amazing stepsis was like a ship of calm for me) and let yourself talk out your feelings

Brides, planning a wedding involves taking a lead with your own wishes and opinions in a way more public and yet personal than most of us are prepared for. We tell ourselves we're prepared but it can be overwhelming and emotional to assert yourself so much and feel the weight of the statement you are making about your life, your love and your future. It comes with so much happiness and excitement - but also so many decisions that state who you are to the people whose opinions matter most to you in your life. Do not feel guilty about acknowledging the intensity of that.

Overall however those same people who matter most to me are drawn closer during this time and I am reminded even more than usual about what I love best about each of them and find myself profoundly thankful to have each and every one of them.

Thanks loved ones, friends and unexpectedly delightful people I've met along the way. And biggest and best thanks of all to Drew, for choosing me and offering friendship, partnership and marriage with a sincerity that rings out like a note of music in honest harmony with everything I hold dear.

xo

Life & Times When You Love a Highly Distracted Man

There are so very many things to love about my future-husband.

He has a thousand dazzling little mannerisms I've enjoyed documenting in our time together and I find I look forward to the reoccurrence of each as a charming catch-phrase of lovely nature. Each one another reminding proof of what I love best about him.

Highlights include: a delightful 20's accent he uses when stuck in a huge crowd in the rain and holding my long umbrella . He holds it aloft and declares, "Out of my way shitheads!" and it makes me laugh every single time.

His observation out loud of things occurring right in front of us in tones of such objective honesty that they light up with humour.

The way babies immediately regard him with looks of recognition and adorable shenanigans follow.

Our mutual enjoyment of moments like this one: A guy in front of the Air Canada Centre in a t-shirt with the words "What's going on here?" written on it looking at the large crowd outside the place and declaring "What's going on here?"

However, the rich volley of these delights I enjoy on a daily basis must be continually punctuated by interruption because my future husband....is easily distracted.

Yes the world is a buffet of such distractions:

- nearby conversations (I often here the phrase "Did you hear what that guy was saying!" to which I reply, "Alas, I missed it over the sound of my OWN voice as I talked *to you*!")

- local wildlife (sea gulls flying in slightly more personal arcs than one might expect can derail even the most dramatic of conversations)

- regular noises from the apartment whose volume or location has changed (that creak was in the west wall last week - sorry what were you saying?)

- old men riding barefoot down king street on skateboards (ok this one was genuinely distracting)

Today's treasure came mid-hug and astonished me with its distance. Standing in our kitchen getting a very nice hug when 22 floors down from the window across the street at the lights someone walked by wearing head-to-toe red.

Yes, mid hug the words, "Whoa, that is a lot of red!" greet me and I turn around and struggle to find the source of this distant yet all-powerful distraction.

Happily after this minion of hug destruction was out of visual range I got the other half of my hug. :)

So many people go into a wedding...

Time to call out some of the added resources to the wedding buffet :)

1. Eini & Co Cupcakery - Willing to make me cupcakes with zero food colouring and put one at each place setting in a clear chinese take-out container as our favour :) They also donate a portion of their charges to a charity of your choice so I get another opportunity to support the Canadian Cancer Society.

2. The Vintage Gardener - Recommended by my planner these guys were SUCH a pleasure to deal with. Elaine is one of those rare people who truly and deeply loves what she does, you can just tell. They also had a package of flowers that worked out perfectly for me :)

3. Talen Events - Amalia is my planner and I truly cannot say enough about having her. Her knowledge of vendors has saved me (and her voice of calm), she is super organized and has thought of things I definitely would have forgotten. Knowing she will be there the day of is a true comfort to me. I can just relax :)

4. Meringue Stationary - These guys are making up my table numbers and place cards and are remodeling an Eiffel Tower canvas design for me to do it. I saw the sample this week and am SO excited :)

Further highlights:

5. Calla Evans Photograpy - I mentioned her before let me mention her again because we just love love love her. She did our engagement shoot recently (a fave proof to the side there) and she is just so warm and easy to be around it made the photos feel relaxed and easy. :)

A gallery of photos to come when the digital high rez are ready :)

6. Breia Noble - King Edward Hotel - Our wedding coordinator at the hotel deserves a dedicated blog post (possibly a monument in her honour) of her own. She has been warm and wonderful and has honestly spoiled us rotten. She didn't just make our wedding & reception dreams come true, she made our honeymoon dream come true as well. We pretty much feel that choosing the King Eddy and meeting Breia was the luckiest decision we've made :)

7. Etsy Artist Ceeb Wassermann - This Australian Jeweller made my bridesmaids necklaces by hand. The Sakura one linked above was for Jenny and I sent her a sketch of a moon & star version for my sister that she happily designed to perfection. The girls loved them!

And one last thing! Finally found my 'evening drink' dress for the day of on the lovely Ruche online boutique. Hooray! Waiting for it to arrive by mail :)

Shoes & Ties

So, Drew got his shoes at the Bay and they are Kenneth Coles with a nifty sneaker ankle/sole for comfiness.

Mine are satin dye-ables bought for a song at a shop called "Celebrations" where the shopkeeper crafts shoe details by hand as a hobby. The shop has beautifully decorated shoes hanging all over the walls. She sold me two hand-made flower clips (seen below) that have rare egyptian gauze (yeah the kind used on mummies!) and little swarovski crystals in the centre. There was such love and care apparent in her for making these. She sewed up one of the petals right there :)

Groomsmen ties are from Tom's Place (so is Drew's wedding suit that we fitted him for this weekend past) and his tie is from the Bay :)

His cufflinks also arrived today - they are spitfire planes - cause Drew, you may not know this, knows every plane in existence and names them in the sky for me :)

Wedding details? Check.