POPS!

growing up we had popsicle molds to make juice popsicles over summer break. i have no idea what happened to those molds.. when we go home i'll certainly have to do a search. mum or dad probably chucked it out when we moved houses back when i was in high school :(

anyway, back to POPSICLES! i love popsicles. especially the frozen yoghurt kind.. maybe i can convince someone to make some for the mehndi night.. or make them a few months in advanced and wrap them individually in wax paper?  i'm seriously tempted.

banana and coconut frozen yogurt popsicles

mmm.. does this remind anyone else of a pina colada? perhaps with a little rum ;)

easy, creamy lemon dream popsicles

this sounds deliciously fresh for a summer day and evening. i wonder if substituting the buttermilk for yoghurt would taste good..

kiwi ice pops

of course an ode to the kiwi..

et la pièce de résistance..

peach riesling and coconut cream popsicle

one half peaches and riesling.. the other half coconut and bailey's.. excuse my drool for a moment.

if i make any of these well in advance, will they keep?  i suppose most things in a freezer stay okay.  however some of these recipes say to consume in 5 days.  i guess if you used fruits from the frozen food section this wouldn't be such a concern.

from hostess with the mostess

petal tossing cones

here's an interesting idea for the mangal feras.. cones to hold the flower petals and rice that's tossed as the couples circle.  so simple, and very creative.

i find there are times when a few people dominate the flower petals stash while the bride and groom are making their rounds around the fire making it hard for others to participate.  this would make it easy for others to make sure they take part. place them in nicely decorated baskets placed at the front corners of the mandap, et voilà! added decor piece.

i have a stack full of scrapbook paper, so i can EASILY make these.  or convince the my little cousins to help me make these.. *evil grin* :)

from the knot blog

bridal attire - going traditional

prior to going wedding shopping, i was told a few do's and don't for my bridal trousseau. i wasn't always given a proper explanation for each thing to keep in mind, which is an unfortunate problem our generation faces - lack of proper explanations for traditions. anyway, back to the do's and don't i was told:

a bride is supposed to wear a sari to her wedding

a few years back, in discussion about bridal wear, i told one of my aunts i wouldn't mind wearing a chaniya choli on my wedding day. she told me that when you pass away, you're supposed to be cremated in your wedding attire since you're supposed to be dressed up like a bride (only if you pass away before your husband; if you pass away as a widow, then they put your wedding attire beside you). she said if you wear a chaniya choli, there's a chance the skirt won't fit when you pass away. i suppose that's a nice way of saying, "first comes marriage, then comes weight gain."

one year on the eighth day of navratri, a group of women attended garba in their wedding saris.  i asked one of my aunts why they were dressed in wedding saris - she explained that the eighth day is very auspicious, so you would wear your wedding sari again. well that didn't really explain much.. i really enjoy going to garba which is why i thought of a chaniya choli to begin with since i would certainly get good use out of it. doing a bit of not-always-reliable internet research, i couldn't find anything on the topic. i did find out newly-wedded women would wear their bridal outfit on their first karva chauth (a day when women seek blessings for their husband's long life by observing a fast). i suppose i need to talk to more people to gain a better understanding. anyway, if it's true that you would wear your wedding sari on the eighth day of navratri, then i wouldn't want to have a really heavy lehenga which i can't really wear again.. or dance in for that matter.

while shopping, i did try on both saris and lehengas. i really liked the lehengas because they made me look super skinny and were generally cheaper than bridal saris. the reason i ultimately chose to go with a sari is that i found the skirts on the lehenga far too heavy.. the weight of my sari and the weight of the lehenga felt the same when folded in a package; however when wearing a sari, i found the weight to be more evenly distributed making it more comfortable to wear over the course of several hours.

a bridal sari should be one unstitched piece of fabric

one of the trends i found shopping was the choli sari style, which is basically two different saris cut and stitched together. this style is to give the bottom pleats a different look from the part that wraps over your shoulder and across your front. it's a really nice style that creates a visual interest without making the embroidery look too busy.

during my trip to india, one of my mum's cousins told me that i'm supposed to wear a single unstitched sari for the wedding; not a two saris that have been stitched together. it was explained to me that back in the day, the poor would typically take scraps of fabric and stitch them together to make a sari to wear. on auspicious occasions, days of celebration, you shouldn't wear scraps - especially on your wedding day. i suppose it shows a sign of wealth as well.

i did end up buying an unstitched piece of fabric, rather than a choli sari. like i said, the choli saris had lovely contrasts, but the specific type of embroidery i was looking for was mostly found on saris that were unstitched. good for me i guess!

a bride should not wear gold on their wedding day
last year one of my cousins told me that brides aren't supposed to wear real gold on their wedding day, their jewellery is supposed to be fake. i wasn't given an explanation as to why .. and i've also been told otherwise - it's alright to wear gold on your wedding day. kind of makes me wonder though.. how long has fake indian jewellery existed? was fake jewellery available when our grandparents were our age? actually, i should say teenagers, because in most cases our grandparents were already married and had multiple children when they were our age. if fake jewellery is a fashion trend that was made avaiable in the last 50 or so years, then this point doesn't really seem valid.

i ended up buying fake jewellery to wear at the wedding.. prices for real gold is just ridiculously too expensive right now!

this is really all the advice i've been given to date in regards to my bridal gear. i seemed to follow the do's to the tee, more so out of preference than following traditions. what can i say? i guess i'm a traditionalist kind of girl.. kiwi's certainly in trouble.

save the dates!

the save the dates arrived at kiwi's doorstep last week.  they're small magnets designed with just the essential information on them.  and a picture of our hands.. yup, no faces.  i kind of won that battle.. faceless magnets.

anyway, i wanted to dress it up a bit and make a holder for the magnets.  kiwi suggested maps of toronto.  so i printed a cartoon'ish map on cardstock, cut them down to slightly larger than business cards, and cut slits on either end to slip the magnet through.  it turned out .. okay.  not how i thought it would look in my head.  ah well, it'll have to do.  if i thought it through properly, i would have made the map to be just slightly smaller than the envelope which would have looked a lot better.

one of the initial ideas to house the save the dates were origami hearts.  they would have been interesting, cute, and wedding appropriate.  but there were problems.. the hearts would have had to be huge to fit the 3.5" x 2" magnets, so then the envelopes would have had to be oversized.  some uncles and aunties may not realise you have to open the heart to see what's housed inside unless there was a label that said: OPEN HERE. with the paper being a map printout, i can't imagine that label standing out..  so i nix'ed that idea completely.

girly mirrors

i don't think i'd ever put this in the house.. but i think this would be great for centrepieces. especially if you're trying to go for a vintage or classic feel. place this mirror on a table and place a large pillar candle in the middle or a group of different height candles.. et voilà!

or if you don't like doilies, then maybe something more contemporary?

making these are ridiculously easy.. if you're willing to put in a bit of effort for your centrepieces that is.

from paper n stitch

6 ways to secretly find her ring size

if you're planning on proposing to your fiancée and don't know her ring size, here are six ways to find out:

phone a friend: contact a family or friend of your soon-to-be fiancée who may have bought a ring for her recently.
[kiwi called dad for permission to propose AFTER he bought the ring..]

borrow a ring: take a ring your soon-to-be fiancée wears (preferably on the ring finger..) to a jewellers to have it measured.
[considering kiwi and i live in different countries.. that's a bit difficult. really, the only way to pull this off would have been to have a family member do this on his behalf.]

when the ring can’t leave the home: estimate the ring size. try one of your soon-to-be fiancée's rings and mark where it falls on your finger. make an impression in a bar of soap or clay. trace the inside of the ring.
[i repeat: considering kiwi and i live in different countries.. that's a bit difficult. really, the only way to pull this off would have been to have a family member do this on his behalf.]

sleeping beauty: while your soon-to-be fiancée sleeps, wrap a piece of paper or string around her ring finger.
[creepy?]

when in doubt: size up! guess the ring size and get it resized after you propose.
[what if you guess a size that's TOO big? will she assume you think she's fat? she won't be able to wear it for the rest of the day/evening after you propose.. what if you guess a size that's TOO small? will she think she's fat? and again.. she won't be able to wear it for the rest of the day/evening after you propose.. if kiwi did that and i'd have to have it resized, i wouldn't have gotten my ring back for two months :S]

tell her it’s for someone else: tell her you want to buy a ring for your sister or mother.
[i can't see this going well at all.. a definite giveaway.]

so how did kiwi find out my ring size? when i went to visit him for valentine's day, we went wandering in a mall. we stopped by a jewellery store because he wanted to look at watches. when the sales person came up to help, he didn't ask about watches.. instead, he asked her to measure my ring finger. immediately after she measured my finger, he said thank you then started to walk away. i stood in the jewellery store awkwardly, quietly thanked the sales person, ran to kiwi and kicked him. i was so embarrassed! and a little disappointed that we didn't actually look at any of the rings.. i shouldn't complain because it worked out well for me in the end. i got a beautiful ring that fits PERFECTLY!

from groom's advice

six more weeks of winter..

today's groundhog day. and all three famous groundhogs around canada and the u.s. saw their shadows, which means six more weeks of winter! :)

a friend showed me video of the celebrations in wiarton.  loads of people had groundhog noses like the person here.. and some had crazy blue groundhog wigs.  she made a funny comment while she was showing me the video, which is quite true if you think about it, "if someone who has never been to canada or met a canadian saw this video, they'd think all canadians were nuts."

i swear we're not all like this.. please come to canada for the wedding.

from wiarton willie website

why didn't i think of this?! - part 2

for our sagai (engagement), i kind of sort of had a garden theme. it was at the hilton garden inn, in the garden room, and i was wearing yellow and green. (i realise it's a horrific colour combination, but i still love it.)

anyway, for centrepieces, i made 192 mini-cupcakes and over 200 gum paste flowers. with help, i also made mini cupcake stands to hold the cupcakes. to top it off stole 15 colourful butterflies from a 1 year old's birthday party (with permission from the birthday girl's mother of course..)

because we wanted our families to get to know each other better, i had assigned seating. yes.. i basically forced our families to sit together :) my place cards were floral cards from staples with labels stuck on them. not too exciting, but it did the job.

anyway, there's a point, i promise.. i found a placecard idea that would have fit with my theme beautifully! these little pots with something growing in it! it wouldn't have been as cheap as my staples placecards (would have probably cost about $1-1.50 per person), but it would have been far more interesting. only problem would have been customs. you wouldn't be able to take these back into canada (or any other country for that matter).. you know soil and seeds and all.

i guess i could have still done the pots, but instead of seeds and soil, stick a fake gerber on each. eh, i still prefer the plant idea. (a gift that grows as your relationship grows.. awww indeed.)

from toast and tables