Happy Blog-iversary

Today marks the one year anniversary of this blog. A year ago I created this blog as a place to practice writing, a place to showcase my events, a place to remember this time in my life. 

But most importantly, I wanted to get into the blogging community in order to relate to bloggers and readers across the globe. And I've done that. I have to say thank you to Christine, Erin, Miranti, Dayna, Melissa, TJ, Milynn, Mihaela, Jai, and Rachel. All of your blogs, your designs, your style, and your personalities have inspired me to continue with this blog even though I nearly abandoned it after creating it.

This isn't truly my one year of blogging continuously. I posted sporadically from last April up until October 2012, and that's when I started blogging on a weekly basis. April marks the anniversary of the creation of this blog, October will mark the anniversary of me blogging regularly.

And tomorrow marks the end of my college career. Tomorrow is my last day of exams. I'm certain I've passed everything with flying colors (cum laude!) and I finally have my Bachelor's degree after 5 years of college.

This isn't the only anniversary this week. Yesterday, 6 years ago, I met my fiance, S. This coming Wednesday, May 1st, 6 years ago, we started dating. And Saturday, May 4th, this Saturday, we're getting married. Yesterday we enjoyed the day by visiting numerous flower markets and plant nurseries to fill up our porch for spring. Among of all of these celebratory days, I will still have blog posts for you this week! Coming from two of my favorite bloggers, Christine + Erin. Keep an eye out for their posts on love! 

Happy Blog-iversary

Monday, April 29, 2013

To The Courthouse

With our wedding coming up quickly, I wanted to share our trip to the courthouse to get our marriage license! It was another monumental check off of our wedding to-do list. Of course, like many things at the courthouse, we had to wait in line for a while, and then in a waiting room. While in the waiting room, there were girls wearing smiles and casual white dresses while their men wore their best pants and maybe even a tie. If love was made in a factory, this would be it. Even in the mundane frustration of waiting in line and waiting for your turn to be called, there was still excitement and smiles.  

We waited, and finally when it was our turn and we were called, the clerk didn't rush us, she took the time to answer any question we had, or to find someone that knew the answer if she didn't. All that's left is to have our officiant notarize it and date it on our wedding day. Then we send it back and it's official! Easy enough. I wish the same could be said for changing my name - but that's a different monster to tackle on a different day.

To The Courthouse

Friday, April 26, 2013

A Farmer's Market Recipe

Occasionally S will completely kick me out of the kitchen and make a meal for me. It's really hard for me to stay out of the kitchen while any one is cooking a meal because I really enjoy it, and I'm also a bit controlling about messes. However, this meal was a nice balance of S making dinner and me playing sous chef without worrying about the mess. There are times that I can truly get lost in the sizzling in a pan, the vinyl playing in our record player, and the glass of wine on the counter. This was one of those times.

S let me wash and slice our fresh radishes from the farmer's market. Even raw, the little white and red saucers were delicious. The recipe called for using the greens of the radishes as well - something I've never made before! It turned out I loved the taste of the greens more than the taste of the cooked radishes. The green part tasted like a wonderfully rich kale. 

I still think I prefer radishes raw in a fresh salad instead of warmed or sauteed for pasta. We sauteed them to be just translucent and the greens a little wilted. Just enough to pull out the flavors for the pasta. Below, you can see how the red radishes turned to pink. 

The nights are now warm enough to eat our meals on the balcony, like we do in the summer time. We brought our plates and glasses of wine out to our little bistro table. 

Slowly, but surely, we are tackling one wedding errand at a time. Now, I just need to find the time to put together some last minute items. 

Yesterday I spent most of the day studying for my upcoming exams. It was a little hard to concentrate knowing how close I am to being done. But it was also not as stressful, knowing that this will be the last time I ever have to study exams. Unfortunately, it doesn't make it any more enjoyable, but it does take off some of the heat. 

A Farmer's Market Recipe

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Rainy Weekend Recap

This weekend was full of April showers, flowers, farmer's market trips, and lots of errands ran for the wedding. I love how every Sunday we visit the same farmer's market and every time, the produce guy recognizes us and the bakery lady does too. The produce is always insanely cheap for bags worth of fruits and veggies, and the bakery woman is always so proud to show us what bread she'd made for the week. 

We ran some errands like finding S a belt and some clothes for the rehearsal dinner. He tried on his entire wedding day outfit and I marked his pants to hem them. We went over some songs and practiced dancing to our first dance in our living room. In the moment, I hope I smile and have as much fun as we do on our carpet.

Last week was full of monumental events, my 365 favorite things journal is full of good things from last week. On Wednesday, I went into to work thinking it was just another office day. Only, around lunchtime, my coworkers are throwing white balloons at me! It was another surprise bridal shower, this time with all of my close coworkers, who are more like friends. We ate food from one of our favorite caterers, and I enjoyed celebrating our upcoming wedding with them!

Thursday was actually my last day of school - ever. I will never again search for a classroom, sit in another lecture, or be assigned another group project. I have exam-week up ahead, but my classes are actually done! It was a little bittersweet on the drive home. Being that my last class of the day, the professor played this inspirational video, which left the class a bit in a "what am I doing with my life?" But mostly, it was bittersweet because I've been attending college for 5 years and finally, it's done. I loved every class I've ever taken because I love learning, but I'm done, and I'm relieved. What I've been working toward, it's finally here.

A week ago, we had a rainy wedding. I had such hopes for this wedding, as I do with every wedding. I get so attached to my brides and grooms that I don't want the rain to come in the way of them having the ceremony or reception that they wanted. 

This time, it was my first time with two grooms, so I really wanted them to be extra happy. And they were. They didn't let the rain ruin their day, after all, they were just happy to be having a wedding together. We have a rain back up plan for them and they have each other for support, so in the end, of course they were happy. 

Rainy Weekend Recap

Monday, April 22, 2013

I'm Yelle and you're listening to...

One of my favorite things is listening to the radio. It offers a way to calm your eyes that are constantly looking at a screen, a to do list, a task. I adore the radio, not for the music, but instead for the words, the news, and the old time radio shows. In this house we're constantly listening to NPR. Weekdays we tune in for the latest news, weekends we tune in for our favorite shows on story telling.  Blogs are just like my favorite shows; stories being told by real people in a beautiful way.

My favorite radio show of all time is based out of Chicago - shows you how I am meant to end up there! It's called This American Life and it's hosted by my favorite man-in-glasses, Ira Glass. Each episode has a theme and is broken into acts, each a story told by someone else relating to the theme. I've found out about so many beautiful stories this way, including an episode by one of my favorite authors, David Sedaris, in which he takes the listener through the streets of Paris (here's looking at you Erin). His streets of Paris are seen in the viewpoint of an ex-patriot so everything is so real and poignant. We listened to this episode via podcast on our way to Paris years ago, and it led us to find our favorite shop in Paris, the old taxidermy shop, Deyrolle.

Another amazing radio show is Radio Lab. Radio Lab also has themed episodes like TAL, but is told more conversational style by the two hosts who serve as interviewers. One of the readings for our upcoming wedding ceremony is actually from a Radio Lab episode on symmetry. You can listen to that episode here, it's the first story by Aristophanes.

It occurred to me recently how amazing radio really is. The idea someone had to bring mass amounts of people information at the same time. Kind of like the Internet, which is information at any time. Thinking of information traveling through the air waves to make it to yours and my ears.

I'm Yelle and you're listening to...

Friday, April 19, 2013

Working Girl: Pizza With An Egg

Recently we went to the farmer's market and picked up something we've never had before: duck egg. We decided that this was the perfect opportunity to make our favorite pizza at home. A pizza with an egg in the middle. 

This kind of pizza is not cut into slices, but rather into somewhat square pieces so that the middle piece is the egg in tact, perfect for dipping. On ours we put fresh mozzarella, crumbled goat cheese, roasted red peppers, and arugula. I think a touch of bacon or proscuitto would also be perfect on this pizza if you're in the mood for something meaty and saltier. It almost makes for a breakfast pizza!

We'll still end up going to our favorite restaurant because they are able to get the egg cooked to perfection. Timing is everything, especially with something as delicate as an egg in an oven hotter than 450 degrees. We've tried this pizza a couple of times now and haven't mastered the egg and cooking time. 

Everyone should know about the explosions in Boston by now. It took me until today to post about it because things like this really eat at the core of my being. When the topic is brought up or I see a Facebook status about praying for Boston, I don't feel hope, I feel immense sorrow. So much sorrow that I feel like it is flooding out of my pores. What haunts me is not why, but how? I could never imagine having such deep hatred that I would resort to hurting other people. And at the very same time, I am constantly losing faith in humanity when people do things like this. There are so many hateful people in the world, and yet, I could never imagine wanting to harm any of them... 

Working Girl: Pizza With An Egg

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Nesting

Last week we took a trip to Ikea on the hunt for a new bookcase. The area in mind is pictured above how it is now, and on Instagram you can see how it was before. We had a short black bookcase that has now been moved into our art studio/home office. 

It took some convincing, but I finally persuaded S that we needed a white bookcase to brighten up this space. It's on a wall with 2 windows and our sliding glass door, so light never directly hits it. Our items definitely needed some encouragement like a white base in ordered to be displayed beautifully. 

In the second photo, you can see one of our favorite oddities: a blackened deer antler. It's the only dark deer antler that we have, and we have over 25 pounds of antlers. Most antlers become white by being naturally bleached by the sun. On a lower shelf, with our coyote skull from Evolution on our last trip to New York, we have a bowl of antlers - displayed like most antique shops display their antlers. Holding up our animal skulls are some of my favorite cook books like Jamie At Home and on the other shelf, my favorite decorating books by Sibella Court.  

No book shelf would be complete without a David Sedaris book. It's accompanied by my blue morpho butterfly that I got on my trip to Costa Rica a few years ago, our sea horse skeletons from the sponge docks, and under a bell jar is an abandoned bee hive. I have such a love for abandoned items like antlers, bee hives, and theme parks. There must be something inside of me that wants to take them home when I can and help the items keep their worth for one more generation. 

Another favorite item displayed proudly on this shelf is our old tube radio. We found it at an antique shop and it sounds as beautiful as I imagine it did years ago. It's the kind of radio that takes a minute to warm up. We'll turn it on and then go into the kitchen to make dinner. Slowly, in the background we'll hear the voices of visitors, forgetting that minutes ago we tuned into NPR. It has such a deep and warm sound which makes it my favorite old radio that we have (we own 3!).

Next to our new bookcase is our little old piano, the only kind of piano that fits inside of a 2 bedroom apartment. Atop the piano is a bust of Chopin (fitting, no?), sea urchin spines with another sea horse, an old map, and a pile of old books that S once gave me as a gift. 

I feel like all of our items are displayed much more proudly in this bookcase. In the previous black one, the items got lost and ignored. This is a way to show off all of our favorite items, our own little cabinet of curiosities. 

Nesting

Monday, April 15, 2013

Undertones of Jasmine

I've been waking up early these days relishing in the blue light coming in from the windows and quiet hours of the morning. Our jasmine is in full bloom around our neighborhood and it put me in the mood for some jasmine tea. Starting the day off with calming tea instead of coffee is comforting. Add a magazine into the equation and it's the best way to start the day.

This weekend we're definitely taking some time to view some films at the Florida Film Festival. Every year we visit the FFF and watch the shorts, a collection of films anywhere from 2 minutes long to 30 minutes long. I love seeing the animated collection because it is always so refreshing, some happy, some sad. We always make sure to check the shorts out since it's unlikely we'll get the chance to see those again, where as we always end up seeing the other titles again whether playing at the theater at a later date, or on DVD. So this evening, you'll find us cuddled up at our favorite theater with a pitcher of beer and maybe even some truffle fries.

Undertones of Jasmine

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Blog Hop

I'm co-hosting my first ever blog hop. It's a collective specifically for BlogLovin since Google is doing away with it's reader. The host, BreAnna at Peacoats and Plaid, is one of the most real and down to earth blogger's I've have the pleasure of stumbling upon. Definitely take the time to check her out! 

<a href="http://www.peacoatsandplaid.blogspot.com/search/label/bloglovin%20collective" target="”_blank”"><img src="http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a268/bre916/bloglovinhop200_zps1f5121c1.jpg"/></a>

Welcome to the weekly Bloglovin Collective party!
There are many out there in Blogland like it, but this is THE Bloglovin' hop you do not want to miss.

YOUR HOST:
Bre @ Peacoats & Plaid

CO-HOSTS:

Jacklyn @ Jackie Jade
Ady @ When in Doubt Just Add Glitter
Sarah @ To Be Mrs. Collier
Yelle @ Tender Roots
 Bev @ Linkouture
Krystal @ The Unintentional SAHM
Sarah Jane @ Just the Two of Us


**Co-hosting slots are filled until May 16th**
Send an email to peacoatsnplaid(at)gmail(dot)com if you want to get on the list

Blog Hop

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Sunday Breakfast

One of my favorite blogs, Love and Whimsy by Milynn, has a series called Sunday Breakfast and it always makes me nostalgic for the weekend! My Sunday Breakfast consists of a little tradition that S and I started when we first started living together. We'd go to the farmer's market, pick up small, red potatoes to chop up, red peppers, and onions. After sautee-ing the potatoes, peppers, and onions in a cast iron skillet  we crack an egg over the top and put it in the oven to cook. The egg whites slowly drip in between the potatoes while cooking onto them, and the yolk stays golden and runny. 

This weekend I worked an event that we have every year for a fraternity. Typically fraternities and sororities aren't my thing, but the planner was so nice and the group, as obnoxious as they can be with a few beers in them, they were great too. They were rowdy at times, and made a whole lot of noise when they kicked all of the vendors out of the exhibit hall to do their ritual. Here's just a glimpse of their pig roast on Instagram.

This weekend we also got inspired to get a new bookcase for our living room. Towards the end of the month (the wedding!) we'll have a ton of family and friends in and out of our apartment so I figured we should make the updates that I've wanted to do before they all come. After I convinced S of this, we headed to Ikea. We picked out a lovely bookcase that almost looks like a farmhouse chest - so not Ikea style at all - and we decided to take it home! Until of course they were out of stock. Ikea staff were nice enough to tell us when the next shipment will be in, so I'll keep you posted on our little revamp of this space. Until then, hope that your week is off to a great start!

Sunday Breakfast

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Resolutions + Playing

I'm quickly learning how fast time passes. This year has had so much packed into it, I'm so happy that I've had my camera for this last portion of it to remember the moments. Every weekend that we have time off together, I try to make a point to do something that we love to do together. Farmer's market trips, cooking brunch while listening to jazz, and enjoying a meal on the balcony. We spent one weekend playing outside and I played with my camera. Not only do I cherish having these photos of ourselves at this time in our lives, I like the idea of having motion pictures of us to show all the little quirks that make me happy.

We went for a bike ride around our neighborhood on a rainy day and I filmed us. It's important to me to have our little moments of everyday nothings documented, because they really mean to most to me. I hope this little video and the other Resolution videos to follow will also inspire you to cherish every moment and to play outside this weekend!

Resolutions + Playing

Friday, April 05, 2013

A High-Profile Event

Before I get talking about this gorgeous event that I was proud to be a part of, let me introduce you to the new domain and design. Tender Roots is the name I have been thinking about a lot lately and the name I was in the process of changing my blog to when I wrote this post. I am now www.Tender-Roots.com and it feels so good! The name is something that I feel I can relate to more than just "Yelle Events." And have no fear, the feed is the same and the old www.YelleEvents.com redirects here. (The new name is already inspiring me - I did not intend that to rhyme!)

The name Tender Roots has a lot of meaning to me. Right now S + I live together in an apartment that we've had for about 4 years now. Even though we've stayed in it this long and love it so much, it's not our home forever. We know we will be moving away, whether in a year or five years, it won't always be our home . Our next home won't be our home forever and I don't even think the home after that will be our home forever. I really feel like my roots are tender and I have to be careful about getting too attached to a place I call home, for now.

Thanks for all of the encouragement on my previous post. Changing a blog name is a little scary and a lot of hard work. I'm not nearly 100% complete with the design (I want S to make a special header image for me - similar to the current one) and I won't ever be 100% sure about the content of this blog. I'm letting this blog go where ever it feels right and changing the name to Tender Roots felt oh so right. 

Recently we had a major event for a Fortune 500 company. I couldn't take photos that included any of their banners or signage, so of course I can't exactly say what company it was. Although, it was catered by my favorite central Florida catering company, the ones doing my own wedding, Puff n Stuff. The caterers even did the floral arrangements for this event which we a mixture of greens and and different textures. 

The dinner reception was held in our dinosaur exhibit and made for a wonderful conversation piece. I love it when our booked clients aren't afraid to embrace the exhibits that we have. This dinosaur exhibit was embraced in such a classy way, with shimmering pin-tuck linens and low and textured centerpieces. Even the addition of the blue up-lights envelope the room in a dramatically chic way. This exhibit hall is great on it's own without all of these special touches, but this exhibit hall really shines bright when the dinosaurs are embraced and not ignored.

A High-Profile Event

Wednesday, April 03, 2013