From Russia, with love.

It's official, the Moscow Mule comeback has finally arrived at our humble abode. With refreshing ginger beer serving as the base, plus an added citrus zing from the lime juice, the Mule is the perfect drink to help us all endure a Pacific Northwest winter. 

Not to mention, the Moscow Mule is essentially responsible for popularizing vodka in the United States. Can I get an amen?

Ingredients are as follows: 

- vodka

- ginger beer (commonly you use Crabbie's, which also contains alcohol. However, you can also 

  use other brands, as well as non-alcoholic versions)

- limes

Superbly simple!

So here is how one puts together such an enticing concoction:

1. Fill your glass with ice. The Mule is best served in a tin-lined copper mug which helps keep the libations deliciously cool.

2. Add 2 oz of vodka, juice from half of a lime, and top off with the ginger beer.

3. Stir together and garnish with a lime wedge. 

And if you're feeling adventurous, you can find some amazing variations on the classic Mule here.

And last, but most certainly not least, you can use Mule as the perfect excuse to acquire fabulous monogrammed copper mugs from Mark & Graham to add to your barware collection. 

Happy sipping!

Off with her head!

So I haven't posted in practically forever. There's been plenty worth sharing, I just never had the motivation to sit down and share it.

Well it's a New Year and with it come new priorities. My goal in 2014 is to take more pictures, document more memories, and stop making excuses. Easy, right?!

Luckily, I'm back with a bang! This past weekend the Ella Dynae team and I pulled off a Valentine's Day photo shoot inspired by Alice in Wonderland. The shoot featured a fabulous tea party and a brand new Queen of Hearts costume.

The costumes are being featured in Party Style Magazine's February/March issue, so I'll hold off including those images (as incredible as they are!). Stay tuned to The Diary of Ella Dynae blog for those images soon!

What I can share is the tablescape that I designed for the tea party scene of the photo shoot! Check out the whimsical fête below!

Photography by Merlin Showalter

For the tea party table, I was feeling an eclectic vibe and wanted to create a cohesive hodgepodge of decadence (a contradiction, I know, but it makes sense in my head). I collected antique bone china teacups of various floral designs, filled old glass bottles with water tinted by food coloring, and used dusty gold lace for the tablecloth.

Photography by Merlin Showalter

In the theme of hodgepodge, I mixed metals by pairing the gold tablecloth with silver serving trays and serveware. I hand made the "drink me." and "eat me." signs by using a chalkboard paint pen on matte scrapbooking paper. Finally, I tied in elements from the costumes to the table by using the same checkerboard fabric from the Queen of Heart's dress for the napkins.

Photography by Merlin Showalter

Some of the teacups I chose to stack, evoking a tea party thrown by the Mad Hatter. I secured them using duct tape (there is seriously nothing that duct tape can't do!) and adorned them with garden variety flowers in the party's color palette. The rest I filled with sweet treats like red velvet cupcakes that I decorated with heart stickers stuck on toothpicks.

Photography by Merlin Showalter

Ok guys. This was seriously the hardest thing in the world not to take apart and eat. I am a sucker for any carb, but then you cover it with sugar? Oh. Dear. Me. Unfortunately, seeing as the donuts sat out for over 48 hours, their edibleness was greatly diminished.

And finally, here was the full finished product:

Photography by Merlin Showalter

In a perfect world, we would have held the photo shoot in an actual garden, but alas, we live in Oregon and are perpetually cursed by rain, wind, and fog in the month of January. Le sigh. So we tried our best to create an English garden atmosphere and I think we faired rather nicely, if I do say so myself! In fact I think the fake topiaries and oversized paper flowers added to the overall cartoonish Wonderland feeling. And props to the hubs for the idea of hanging the clock ;-)

Parties, princesses, and fairies, oh my!

I want to introduce you to someone. Her name is Ella Dynae and she lives in a world of beautiful whimsy and fabulous make-believe, where fairies are real and princesses throw decadent parties just because they can. 

Ella Dynae is the brainchild of my dear friend Richelle who hand crafts each of these custom-made, heirloom-quality costume pieces. She allows little girls everywhere to actually become the fairy princesses that they already know they are and enter into a world of make-believe that is so priceless in the nurturing and cultivating of a child's imagination.

What impresses me the most about Ella Dynae's products are their perfect fit and overall wearability. While visually stunning, they still are extraordinarily comfortable for even daily wear and the materials can withstand a child's play.

It has been such a pleasure being able to watch Richelle carefully execute each design and develop Ella Dynae into what it has become today.

Doesn't it make you wish you were 8 again?

This is why I am so incredibly excited to announce that Richelle and I are joining forces and creating a new Elle Dynae line of customizable party supplies! Why not be able to design a one-of-a-kind soirée around one of these fabulous costumes?

The party packages are coming soon, but in the meantime, here's a sneak peek to what we've been cooking up:

I'm looking forward to sharing the final product, but while you wait, head on over and check out Ella Dynae!

Bubba.

So I've been debating about writing this post for awhile now. Part of me feels as though it's inappropriate for me to talk about my brother and his passing in such a public, superficial space. Another large part realizes that there is so much more to life than bridal showers and home improvement projects and that I should probably start acknowledging it.  I guess I'm finally talking because I've been inspired. Inspired by anger. Inspired by confusion. And inspired by compassion.

Sibling love.

What first got me opening up was the frustration and anger I felt on Memorial Day. Yes, my brother was an active serviceman when he passed, but that's not why I had a tough day. In fact, the whole Memorial weekend was fairly uneventful and mostly just consisted of drinking margaritas and shopping around with my momma. Rather, it was the fact that the local news that evening chose to run a story on my brother's passing without my family's knowledge or consent. A sort of human interest story on a vet who had passed. While the details of how and why this story came to end up on the news is no longer important, it did teach me a valuable lesson. It made me realize that the reason why I was so upset was that a stranger was telling my family's story and that I could fix the situation, not by getting angry, but rather by taking the responsibility to tell it myself. Pretending like his death didn't happen and not acknowledging this fact out loud doesn't change a single thing and I'm not winning any dignified points by navigating this craziness privately. So here it goes.

Bubba and I at my high school graduation.

 It's been 5 and a half months since my brother's passing and the strongest emotion that I currently feel is confused. Not confused as to how or why he died. I think I've accepted that. Just confused as to the appropriate way to deal with all of this. Sometimes I feel like I'm handling this all a little too well and that I'm coming across as callous. Other times I feel like it's my job to hold it together and be strong and that any deviation from that is selfish and indulgent. But most of the time, I have no idea what to feel. Grief is something that looks and feels different every day and you are constantly having to reassess how to cope and carry it with you. I guess what I have taken away so far is that losing a close family member is bigger, deeper, and more profound than any of us could ever understand and that I will probably spend the rest of my life reevaluating how it has changed me. 

All gown up.

 Finally, I'm compelled to share because of the outpouring of love and support I have received. So many people have come to me with their own stories of loss and I am totally blown away. At first I feel awful that I never knew about this tragedy in their life, but then I'm amazed by the fact that they survived it. I might not be able to see all the little broken bits inside that they are still trying to reassemble, just like me. However, because of that, I can see that they haven't let loss dictate their lives and I am beginning to see that it's OK to not let it. In fact, you almost can't if you want to get up out of bed everyday and keep enjoying life. In the end, I guess it is something that I will have to walk with everyday, but at least I'm still walking.

My special place for Bubba.

Wedding Post: Staying under budget.

Throwing a wedding is tough. Throwing a wedding for under $10,000? Herculean.  You've got to cut costs without cutting corners.

Here's a rundown of places we saved some dough:

Not hiring a wedding planner. Instead, hubs and I managed the details which in the long run made for a much more personal day. The Knot Book of Wedding Lists became my new bible. We did however, hire a "day of" coordinator, which I highly recommend for any one who is a fan of their sanity.

Buying my dress off the rack. Once you accept the fact that at the end of the day, it is still just a dress that you wear once, then saving money begins to sound a bit more romantic than a trip to a designer boutique. By shopping at a vendor who came through town with designer samples, I was able to get a $1500 gown for less than half the original cost. Win.

Purchasing everything else off of Etsy. Instead of paying over $200 for a chapel length veil, I payed $40. Instead of $250 for a bridal belt with cheap rhinestones, I got mine for $140, handmade. 

Win. Win.

Having the ceremony and the reception in the same location. This kept rental fees much lower than they would have been, guests didn't have any extra traveling, and the ever-enjoyable cocktail hour could begin promptly :-)

Using our Costco membership. No really, I'm not kidding. We not only got crazy deals on our invitation suite and printing our wedding photos ($45 for ALL of them!), but we also bought a new printer and ink that we used to print the wedding programs ourselves.

Getting a friend to officiate the wedding. We had a close family friend ordained online for only $30 and in return got a ceremony that was moving and meaningful.

Only using live flowers for bouquets and boutonnieres. For everything else we used bare branches that we spray painted in metallics. I mean if it's going to die the next day anyway, might as well use something that's already dead! Where we did use real flowers, we chose blooms that are grown year round and are voluminous in size (i.e. David Austen roses, baby's breath, hydrangeas, carnations).

Bringing in your own booze and only serving beer and wine. This way we could buy it all wholesale and just pay a minor corking fee. Also, with all that money saved, you can get booze that people actually want to drink and then it won't bother them one bit to do without cocktails.

Use only a small display cake and then serve sheet cake. It tastes the same, no one can tell the difference, and saves a buttload (yes that is an actual form of measurement) of money. Plus, then your guests can actually eat cake right after your cake cutting. Also, by saving said buttload, you can get a cake that...wait for it...tastes good! Use buttercream frosting instead of fondant (cheaper anyway) and splurge on luxury fillings (we used fresh raspberry jelly and Stumptown espresso mousse).

Know when to use the handy iPod. The hubs and I are blessed by an array of absurdly talented musician friends and therefore, we were able to have live music for the ceremony and most of the reception for a minimal cost. However, they are our friends first and foremost, not wedding slaves, and so we wanted to give them a break to sit back, eat, and enjoy themselves. We used Dixieland jazz (the hubs downloaded 40 songs for $10.99 off iTunes) on the iPod for cocktail hour and dinner. People are so loud and distracted at this point anyway, why waste live music on them.

All photos (except the first, you can thank Instagram for that one) courtesy of Kaela.Mey Photography!

Birthday Bliss.

Last weekend I celebrated my 26th birthday with the hubs and beloved friends and family. Here's what went down:

saw a show.

played hookie from work.

drove up the coast with the hubs instead.

found a lighthouse.

more importantly, found brews.

and seafood other than mo's.

continued voyage in search of jellies.

and sharks that can fly.

did a little deep sea diving. vintage style.

finally arrived in Portland. pretended like I wouldn't be in my bathing suit in Vegas in 2 weeks.

enjoyed opulent fine dining at El Gaucho.

hit the streets of the city I miss the most.

rubbed elbows with the beautiful people.

urban farmed.

swapped birthday cake for apple pie. 

(yes I know I have a lot of pictures of food. yes my idea of a good time is eating.)

returned home with all the birthday swag.