Catering VS DIY

My friends are overbudget already and that does not include alcohol or food!!!


Now they think hiring a caterer will be cheaper...
I strongly disagree. When we looked into catering it was easily $2000 if not more. $300 covered the cost of our meal and I was lucky enough that Sparky loaned me her catering supplies for the weekend since her restuarant didn't have any events that weekend.

Our menu was simple but everyone loved it!
Herb Rubbed Pork Tenderloin Baked Ziti Salad Garlic Bread

I would love to cater their wedding with either a full buffet menu or heavy hors d'oeuveres. I can easily do it for $500 or less. Plus even though Sparky passed away it doesn't mean I no longer have connections at Sparky Town. Or that I didn't plan on asking everyone I know for their platters to borrow.



Sadly they are so focused on small simple ideas that they are not seeing the larger picture. Which would save them $1500 easily!

Did you get a professional caterer, or did you or a friend/family member take the DIY route for your wedding?

I need a vacation!

Work has been stressful lately and its not my dream career. It just pays the bills.
And unfortunately I don't just have the money to take time off or start up my own business.

So I'm thinking of creating a long weekend, in order to get household project finished before it gets cold. Seeing how I'd love to get the house in order, finish painting the cabinets, and turn the ironing board cabinet into a spice rack! I'd also love to make our nightstands using old wooden boxes and create our pot and pan rack out of old bike rims. I need time though. And entertainment for Max, because sometimes his naps mean a break for me too!

I wish I could afford to be able to go out for about every meal though, there's some new restuarants I'd love to check out!


So the question is, if you could have a vacation what would you do?

wedding help

So I've been meaning to post. Just when life should settle down...it gets crazier. Max is about to turn one. And he's finally getting a tooth! Not going to be like his dai, and have to gum his way through his first birthday. He's such a champ at eating, and chewing. I'm sure he's hating the pain, just as much as Krystal is with her chronic tooth pain. Yet, one he can eat a raw carrot that's not been grated I'm sure he'll appreciate his teeth. Good friends of ours also decided to get married. Since we've been there, done that x2 we thought we'd help out. It turned into a week plus of helping with the invites. They turned out pretty awesome if I say so myself and I got to sort of learn and play with inkscape along the way. I also offered to cater since I've been there, did that with wedding #2. I think it'll be fun and much more challenging than our menu. Since they want a cocktail hour and a sit down dinner via buffet. Plus alcohol. I'm trying to figure out a way to make this work. I know I will but I want to give them something amazing while still keeping it frugal. Which for me would nix a lot of the alcohol but it is something they want. So I'm sure I'll start working on a series about their wedding, to hopefully help out others. I haven't really been able to find all the information I've been looking for and would love to help the wedding scene because it doesn't have to be as expensive as everyone thinks it should be.

Chicken Wing Burgers

So I'm without pictures for this post but I promise to take them the next time I make these again! I was standing in line at Wegman's deli counter which is so cleverly placed near Olde World Cheese. I looked down and saw in a refrigerated case that Yancey Fancy Buffalo Wing Cheddar now comes in slices. My brain started turning and I thought what if I got some ground chicken and made burgers with the two? We were moving in a few days time and I already planned on Faux Ribs and marinated Chicken breasts with a few Hoffman hot dogs for the meats. So of course I added on Chicken Wing Burgers! As I was getting ready to form my chicken patties, my mom who was dicing an onion for me for Cold Broccoli salad offered to dice up some more for the chicken patties. I recently had a delicious, spicy burger from a coworker that had onions in it so I thought why not? I brought them out to the grill and let the one side cook, flipped and put the slices on the cooked side so that it would be perfect by the time that the other side was cooked. We didn't have as much help with moving as we thought we would. However, I had two other people try them besides me and they thought they were delicious! I served the burgers on potato hamburger buns. However, I do have a few revisions to try out next time: 1. I'd love to add diced celery to the meat with the onion 2. Get some bleu cheese dressing to help knock down the heat They are delicious reheated as well!

Exhausted

Max is almost 10 months old now and getting into everything! He has an army crawl going on, only pulling up onto us to stand. Hasn't figured out quite yet how to stand and walk. Summer is upon us and that means hot days and trying to do fun things around naps and lunch. I honestly can't believe he's about to be 1 in August! Summer also means I'll be taking some more days off of work. Its been a long time since I had a day off besides my regular days and June 7th cannot come soon enough. But I will start blogging more soon, we are moving on June 22nd and finally getting internet at home again.

Dream job?

What's your dream job? Why is it your dream job?

I'm passionate about cloth diapers. Yet, I don't want to own a store, though I wouldn't mind working for one. I'm also passionate about people cloth diapering when they just don't have the money to use disposables but really don't have the money for the start up cost and/or the accessibility to be able to wash and dry them.
I think these foundations giving people cloth diapers is amazing and I know that I qualify for free diapers but yet I continue to buy them because I know someone has it worse than me.
Honestly I want to start a sliding scale ( read no cost or low cost) diaper service with modern cloth diapers, no prefolds and covers, to families in need. In order to be able to financially keep the charity side afloat I see the need to make a wash your stash service available to the public.
My problem: I don't know where to start.

2 lbs and arthritis

Max had a weight check today and he gained 2 lbs in two weeks. I'm thrilled!

He's always been a slow gainer and so at his 7 month appointment when he lost 10 ozs we decided to do our best. I'm attributing the amazing gain to being able to just breastfeed on demand for a week and a half, no pumping and no bottles plus he ate about three avocados on top of his love of solids.
Can I mention how I loved not pumping? I despise it so much, would love to buy a new pump but don't really feel like it makes much sense. Also tacked a visit for myself when we took Max in. It's official, I have arthritis in my spine. It has been quite the bother lately and its time I took a more proactive approach.Travelling the internet this evening looking at my passion cloth diapers. Time to either get serious about this blog or let it fall to the wayside... only way to make it happen is to find time, not wait for it to happen.