Garters For The Bride

Cupcakes and garters. Those are my deeds for all my family and friends for their big events. I love 

both jobs. When I got so deep into the cupcake biz, I had no time to enjoy it. Now I get to 

enjoy making cupcakes for a large group of people and garters for the bride. There's so much 

more to baking cupcakes when you know it's as a gift than a 'have-to'. The job somehow 

becomes easier and more enjoyable! On that note, I'm not making cupcakes for Courtney's 

wedding but I did get the opportunity to make her garters for her big day.

Supplies
lace elastic or lace material to attach to elastic band
material to make flowers, color and texture up to you
jewels, pearls, etc as you wish
fabric tap to tap to your leg (for a just in case support)

Measure your leg where you plan on having your garter. Subtract two inches from
your leg measurement (if you're just using the elastic lace) and that will be what you need
for your length. Sew the ends together, doubling up on the sewing to ensure it stays
together. Depending on the type of flower you want, I will send you on your way to
Google and youtube videos that will show you the exact type you want to make.
Otherwise, I hot glued the flowers onto the garter, then topped them
off with the rest of the decor by hot gluing them as well.





Why this one turned out looking so pink in color I don't know, but I swear it's not pink!





Find a fun little craft box to wrap them in and leave them as is or find a way to
paint or cover them. Green and coral remind me of Courtney, but I went
with green since she has green in her wedding.

Courtney and Stephen are getting married on June 29th. We're so excited for them to tie 

the knot, but bummed we'll be missing the big day. We wish you two the happiest 

and most amazing wedding day and marriage!

FOR THE REST OF YOU:
For any of you out there that need me to make a garter for your wedding day, let me know.
I won't charge $200 like other places do, but I will charge the supply cost and maybe
a little tip would do for the time I put into it...that's all!

♥

Paleo Crepe Du Jour

Ya know what's awesome right now...I love rolling out of bed, throwing on a sundress, and biking 

in my sandals to the farmers market on my weekends off before many people are there to get 

what I need. I still look half asleep, but great thing is that there's very few people to notice. 

Then I awkwardly bike back uphill home in sandals as they keep slipping off my pedals. 

Makes for a more difficult ride than it needs to be. I did get new pedals, just haven't 

gotten around to putting them on. Stupid. I'll do it one of these days.

The other thing that's great is cherries. The cherries in Hood River are amazing, but they 

weren't open yesterday so this morning I cruised down to the market before Ty got up 

so I could make him these yummy things...

(similar recipe from paleomg who got it from someone else)

Cherry Crepes With Coconut Whip

3 eggs, whisked

1/2 C light coconut milk

2 tbsp coconut flour

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp honey

2 C farmers market cherries, pitted (about 1.5lbs)

1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil

4 tbsp honey

1 can Trader Joe's coconut cream (or any full fat coconut milk), refrigerated overnight

1 tsp vanilla

Place the oil and cherries in a saucepan on a med-high heat. Mix around to get the cherries coated 

in oil and let simmer until they cook down. Stir every so often to make sure they don't stick to 

the pot. When they've cooked down enough, you can add the honey. While those are cooking, 

mix the first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl. Be sure to get all the clumps out of the mix as best 

you can. Heat your grill or pan on med-high heat and spray with coconut oil. Scoop one 

large teaspoon of the batter onto the grill or pan and spread out nice and thing...just as crepes 

are! The smaller sizes are easier to flip than making big ones, just an FYI. Once ready, flip and 

cook on other side. Continue to do this until you run out of batter. Dump your coconut cream or 

milk (without the water portion) into your kitchenaid or what have you, mix on high, then put your vanilla in the whip and mix on high again until you get the right whip consistency.

We had to throw some protein in the mix because they are fairly sweet.
Who doesn't want some bacon with a nice sweet brunch?

Au revoir!
(one of the few things I remember now from my french class)!

♡The Stanleys

OMG We've Been MIA

Not sure what happened to me in the last week. I went somewhat MIA. We were enjoying 

downtown Vancouver in numerous ways, finalizing some projects, hanging with neighbors, 

wine tasting, and partying with the fam. I also felt like I spent half my week going to appointments. 

I love appointments, especially dental appointments. Probably one of my favorite things. I got my 

teef cleaned and they feel great. Ty hasn't been in years and our brother-in-law is a dentist. 

Something is wrong with that if you ask me. Mr. Stanley I think it's time for an appointment.

Here's a little summing up from the last couple days...then I promise I'll start posting some 

good stuff like recipes, crafts, and/or some summer fun ideas!

1) We celebrated my mom's birthday by going to Woody's Tacos in downtown Vancouver.

If you've never been, go. Like go, now! Shrimp tacos can't be skipped over on the menu! Then 

we all tested out the tandem bike and walked the neighborhood to scope out homes in the area.

HBD Mom!

2) WOD in the Park with Crossfit!

3) Solo drive in the Gorge to the Lavender farm and then a wine tasting

tour for Courtney's bachelorette!

I can't live without going to this place several times a year. As much as we're looking

forward to our big trip, I will still be looking forward to getting up here in August

to see all those lavender bushes blossomed and fuming with the lavender scent!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

♥The Stanleys

June Resolutions

First thing...I've been thinking a lot of what I need to do before we leave. Trust me, thinking for 

like the last several months. Somehow I've been thinking so much I haven't gotten 

anything done. Serious problem because now there's only about 3 weeks left until we leave. 

Awesome.

Second thing...usually I hang with the kids once a week, but since we'll be gone we've been

putting together a fun little deal I'll share with you when we're all done. Part of it I was going 

about my biz, searching Amazon for certain items we'd need for them. Well, when I 

searched for centipede toys (they have giant ones in SE Asia) this is what came up...

"Prickly Animal Vibrator, Long Centipede Vibration Rods!!!" 

No joke a huge centipede dildo with "vibration rods" which were all the legs to the 'pede! Call 

me naive, but seriously a vibrator??? Definitely not what I was expecting, not that anybody 

would have when you're trying to find a child's toy. I'm still taken back by it.

Third...I know we usually do individual goals and better together goals, but this month we're

combining everything since we are a married unit and crunched for time. We have lots of 

projects to accomplish before we leave...None of which you probably care what they are 

so I'm not going to list them. However, we do need some help on one of them!

JUNE RESOLUTION...

We still have to raise almost 600 buckaroos for our volunteer project in Cambodia!

We're asking any of you interested in donating to these 2 silly 

world travelers to please let us know!

 

Unlike the rest of our previous monthly resolutions, none will be beneficial to you. However, 

the benefit of donating will be getting this unit of 2 to Cambodia to tackle the job of 

building sports courts for kids who do not have the opportunities we do here to

play basketball, soccer, or volleyball. Now, that's more of a benefit than 

anything we've ever done before. Thanks to you all who have

donated to our trip already!

♡The Stanleys &

our soon-to-be Cambodian friends!

May Resolutions Revisited

We smashed May resolutions. By smashed, I mean that we got nearly each one
completed at the beginning of the month. It's just that I'm only getting around
to actually make a post about it...now that it's the beginning of June!

*Garden...done. However, I killed the grass. I overkilled the weed spray and it wiped out some
of the grass. Over the next month, hopefully that will return to us. Otherwise, does it surprise
you I planted many lavender plants? Didn't think so. We'll have some of the best smelling
lavender around plus some white lavender to set it off just a bit! We even did the
barkdust for our neighbor with our leftovers.

BEFORE

AFTER

Oh there she is! The wacky neighbor...

*Fundraising...we've done our work communicating with someone at a place near our

house. Bummer deal is that we have yet to hear back from them...I guess we

accomplished the task by getting the ball rolling, but have no control over

the rest of it. Stay tuned so we can invite you all if we do a big fundraiser 

or for that matter, any sort of fundraising  at this point!

*Cabinets...done. I've already showed you the pic, but here it is again.
I do need to repeat how awesome it is when it's that organized. Seriously, go back and
take a peek at how to organize inexpensively and in an extremely easy way!

*iPad book...I will always be learning more and more about that damn thing. I was never
meant to be real techy and I've decided I don't care to be all that techy. Somewhere
in the middle is good for me.

*Birthday weekend...Ty put together an amazing Victoria, BC weekend for us. I still
want to go back and relive that. Go back to week 2 of May and check out where to
stay, what to see, where to go. Worth your time!

*Time-worthy...I'm pretty sure Ty spent most of his time in all efficient ways possible.
I rarely saw him laying around, on the computer, or doing nothing. I have quite the
hard worker in my hands and I love that!

Even at rest, he was still researching our SE Asia travels!

We got so much done at the beginning of the May, but yet have so much to do before
we take off this month on our trip. Stay tuned for our June resolutions!

♡The Stanleys

Grain Free Doggies!

I think I turned into the neighborhood dog lady. I just delivered dog treats to neighbors, sent
them to Southern Oregon, and gave some to Jack & Aubry's dog. I may have had an
overkill with dog treats. However, I made friends with all of them so I'm thinking
they'll never bark at me again.

I did spend more time making dog treats than I ever have making sugar cookies. In fact, I've 

never liked making sugar cookies because they take so long for me to make. I seem to be 

able to bake anything else just fine but when it comes to cut out type cookies, forget it. 

Why I spent all that time doing it for a dog I have no idea! What I do know is that 

our pups should have the opportunity to eat whole foods just like we do, so
why not put them in fun shapes?

These special dog treats were made for my best bud's dog, Rudy. He is just the cutest! That
guy is sprouting to be a nice looking young man. I felt the need to make sure he was 

getting some grain free/nearly all-paleo treats for that growing body, so here ya go!

1 sweet potato, microwaved and then peeled

1 egg

1/4 C coconut milk

1/2 C peanut butter

2 tbsp flax meal (mixed with 2-3 tbsp water)

1/2 C coconut flour

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

Mash your sweet potato in a bowl, then combine all the other ingredients with the mash.

If you want to make shapes out of the treats you'll have to add more coconut flour

or else they'll stick to everything. I did half my batch of the mix more dry (with

more flour) to make the shapes, then added some more milk into the batter

to make biscuit-like treats that were more moist. Cook for 15-20 min.

Pull out of the oven and let cool. Not as appetizing treats for us,

but good thing is that if you ever did get in a crunch

you could always snack on one oddly enough!

Why they're good for your dog...

*Sweet potatoes: high source of fiber. Helps them poo. We all like that, right?

*Eggs: good source of protein. We need protein, so do they.

*Coconut milk/flour: helps with various skin conditions to keep their coat nice and shiny!

*Peanut butter: only non-paleo item, but close enough. This is of course, a good source of fat.

*Flax: again, more fiber=more poo. Plus you get the good omega-3 fatty acids for skin & coat.

Hope your dog enjoys them...

and if you're in a pinch, you can always eat them too!

♡The Stanleys and our dog friends

Portland Bride & Groom...Stanley's Get The 'Last Look'!

The Stanleys just got some ink. How in the heck did that just happen? Well it wasn't our doing. 

Our photographer does such an amazing job with her photography, they loved everything 

she offered and they decided to use one of our wedding photos for the "Last Look."

I've been trying to keep it a secret, but we all know how that goes. I managed to contain it to 

just our immediate family, but now I can let loose. Congrats Chris on going big in the mag 

and getting published day in and day out!

Next time you are at the store, check out Portland Bride & Groom. Last page, Cori & Ty, 

Gorge-ous Wedding venue, Christin Rose photography. It will be the first and last time 

you'll probably ever see us in a magazine, so soak it up my friends!

♡The Happily Married Stanleys!