The Great Cookie Bake

So something I totally underestimated in time was baking all the cookies for our favors. I figured if we started at 9am or so, we'd be done around noon. Plenty of time to chill and hang out afterwards, right? Wrong. We didn't finish until like 2:30pm or so.

First of all, the guys were assembling to go get their tuxedos that morning. In our house. There were only three guys there (The Candyman, his Best Man and my Dad) but it was like there was a tornado of testosterone in the house. The Candyman and The Best Man were threatening each other to a wrestling match. Lots of loud and big smack-talking. Then my Dad made some sweeping, political statement (he refers to himself as a Federalist, The Candyman calls him a crazy, angry Republican) that got The Candyman all up in arms and when those two start a political "discussion" it goes on and on and on and on and on....so I stopped the whole thing by screaming, "EVERYONE NOT BAKING COOKIES, GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!" So they left. And it was almost 10am. Damn.

Now, I believe that these cookies are the best effing cookies ever. I have lots of people who have had them who feel the same way. They also fit my color scheme of chocolate brown, ivory and sandalwood. I'll share the recipe at the end (and no, it's not the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe). These cookies are high maintenance to make. There's a ton of prep work.

You have to grind the oatmeal into an oatmeal flour.

You have to beat these up with a hammer so that they are bite size pieces.

You have to mix all the goodies together to make just the right consistency.

You roll them into balls so that they come out the same size, then they have to cool (yeah, this is where I jacked up the timing. I really didn't think that through).

We had two stations going at once, each with a double recipe. That's a lot of freakin' cookie dough, people.

Here's the MOH chronicling the whole affair!

After the cookies cooled, my Mom slid one cookie into a bag and taped it shut. We were able to fit 3 cookies per box, but we did have to squish them down a bit. Since they were all still ever so slightly warm, this didn't hurt them a bit.

I put the cookie recipe on the top, then put the lid back on and slid the pre-tied ribbon back on. Let me say, this was the best thing I did: to pre-tie all those damn bows saved me oodles of time on this project. If you're DIYing a lot of things, try to think of as much stuff to do in advance to save time on projects that can only be done right before the wedding day.

The Amazing Cookie Recipe

2 cups butter, room temperature
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups brown sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in blender to a fine powder)
24 oz. chocolate chips
1 tsp. salt
1 8 oz. Hershey bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
2 tsp. vanilla

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.

This is the "official recipe." However, I do not follow it. If you use all of the blended oatmeal, the cookies will be too dry. I generally leave out about half a cup, but I really just go on the taste of the cookie dough (What? A good cook tastes as she goes!). Here's the other important tip: mix the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in a separate bowl and add that to the butter mixture first. Then slowly add in the oatmeal flour until it's the right consistency.

The Hershey Bar I use is dark chocolate. I've used Ghirardelli dark chocolate too. No difference. Milk chocolate bars mixed with the semi-sweet chips isn't as good - it's too sweet. I also don't grate it. I beat the bars with a hammer to make bigger chunks. Don't do this on your kitchen counter. I go outside and do it on the pavement with the wrapped bars in a plastic bag. I use walnuts for the nuts. Pecans are too sweet. Almonds are just gross. I've tried it, trust me. I also did pine nuts once. That was just weird - they were too oily. The only other variation that I think is slammin' is substituting half of the semi-sweet chocolate chips with peanut butter chips. The Candyman had a food-gasm when I made them this way. The best advice I can give is to make sure there is always more "stuff" in each rolled ball than dough. Consider the dough just an adhesive to keep all the chocolate and nuts together.

All of this took us a lot longer than we thought. If I had borrowed an extra cookie sheet, we could have finished a lot sooner as we could have had double batches baking at the same time. As we were finishing, the guys had come back from tuxedo-fitting and cheese-burger-eating and were smack-talking in the living room while the girls slaved away in the kitchen. Typical. :)

You know what? I know this recipe by heart. I do. I just went back and looked at the template I used for the recipe card I put in the favor boxes. It's not right. Eh? I'm wondering if the version I actually printed is the same one I just looked at. I know I halved the recipe for the cards, maybe I jacked it up by doing that? OK, how freakin' lame would that be if I gave all my guests the wrong recipe??? Perhaps the only upside to that is that no one will be making them as well as I do! Well, except for all you people I just gave the recipe to. :) Oh crap. Oh well. Enjoy!

P.S. If you received one of the favors and note that the recipe is wrong. Please don't tell me. Just use the correct recipe above. Denial is sweet, as are these cookies.

Our bad-ass ride.

First, I called Reggie today, our day-of driver-extraordinaire. We had originally planned for a 6:15pm pick up, but we needed to move it up to 6pm. I love talking to Reggie. I can't wait to meet him. How weird is that? Every time we get on the phone, I'm like chatting with the guy for an hour. He told me that he drove Holly Williams (grand-daughter to legendary Hank Williams) and her new husband this past weekend. They got married at historic Cedarwood. Amazing. I hope someone posts some pictures soon. Apparently, Kid Rock sang some tunes at the wedding. Pretty bad-ass, I'd say!

Things at Casa de Candyman and The Thirty-Something Bride are a little on the stressful side, but only because we're getting down to the wire and have a bunch of bullshit we have to deal with like insurance adjusters, car rental people, car dealerships and all that goes with one getting their car stolen. Happily, all we need to do now is wait for our reimbursement check and we are all set. Whew! Done! Who else has that crap on their to-do list?

Remember how I said I wasn't going to do the match boxes? I lied. I've been working on them sporadically and I finished them this weekend. They are cute as hell. I'll bet no one even notices them! I love them though and it was a good mindless-in-front-of-the-TV-activity.


On Saturday I delivered all the floral crap to my florist. I cannot tell you how happy I am to have all those bud vases OUT of my house. I sold a portion of them to her for the same price I bought them for (actually a smidge more as we just took off her delivery and set-up fee off the cost of our bill). Nice. After the wedding, I'll be selling 85 more, so get ready.

I also put together the centerpiece for the kid's table. I wanted to do something sort of fun for them. I really wasn't sure what, but I knew it would have something to do with candy. Last week I headed over to Party City, just to get ideas. I got one. I bought these crazy lollipops with really long plastic stick-things that were $.33 each. I also bought this gigantic bag of candy for $9.99.

Mmmmm, SweeTTarts and Smarties. I can make myself sick off those things!

I poured most of the candy into one of those glass hurricanes I was contemplating using as a centerpiece oh, so many months ago. Then I used the long "stemmed" lollipops like "flowers." I also went to the dollar store and bought a big bag of Pixie Sticks to use as "filler." My florist would be so proud of me.....

I'm going to take the extra candy and just scatter it all over the table too. Instead of the formal boxed favors, I'm going to put out boxes of Cracker Jacks I got for $.50 at Wal-Mart. Fun! These kids are going to be so jacked up on candy that by the time they get to the dance floor, they'll be going nuts! It's going to be awesome. I'm sure their parents will be so pleased....

I also got the drink menus printed out to put at the bar. It took me forever, but I FINALLY decided on the red wines. I bought a case of Puerto Viejo Reserve Pinot Noir (it will pair well with our chicken dish), two cases of Jean Bousquet Malbec (it's a favorite that I got ON SALE!) and a case of Dancing Bull Zinfandel because it was kick-ass cheap and actually, pretty darn tasty.


The Candyman and I also went to a party where I got a little sauced and I connected with a groovy chick who might get me involved in an area (business related) that I've been contemplating for a while now. We also went out for sushi. Our sushi guy made us this:

It was a really busy weekend, but it was a good weekend. The sun FINALLY came out on Sunday and it remains shining today. I wonder if it'll hold another 13 days??? Keep those fingers crossed people! Hope everyone had as good a weekend as I did. I'm tired, but in a good way.

Aaaaaaaaaaaah..................

Long weekends are so hard-core-crazy-rock-n-roll. I love them, LOVE THEM! It was such a wonderful weekend on so many levels.

On Saturday, The Candyman and I went to our reception venue, Mere Bulles, and met with Carlin regarding a lot of little details for the reception. Since I'm bringing in a ton of stuff, I wanted to make sure it gets put where I want it all to go!

I took a few things into Mere Bulles with me and had asked Carlin to have our linens set up for me to play with. I did and it just looks so super-fab, I can't even tell you. I took in my chargers, my bud vases and a mock-up of my favor box. We even swung by the Harris Teeter and picked up some ivory flowers to put in the bud vases, just to get a good visual! I'd share pics, but you know what? I want to keep this one secret! You're just going to have to wait until I do recaps to see it all! ;) I will show you this picture of the flowers though. I put them all in an arrangement when we got home. They looked so pretty in the morning sunshine, I snapped a quick picture!

Saturday night The Candyman and I had a date night out at PM on Belmont. It's a happy medium for us - I can get sushi and he can get a burger! Yum! It was great because we had one of those kinds of really meaningful discussions that make you a better, stronger couple. You know what I mean?

Sunday we did nothing. And I mean nothing. I think the most productive part of our day was the nap we took all snuggled up on the couch. Well, I guess that's not totally true. We did wander out for sustenance and I did put all the favor boxes together. Let me tell you how much I hated doing this. Why? Because it involves tying bows. I hate tying bows. Hate. I just can't get bows to look right - ever. I have a feeling it might have something to do with the fact that I'm left-handed and learned to tie my shoes from another left-handed person who was taught by a right-handed person. My bows always look like crap. So, I spent way too long tying and retying the stupid bows.

Here are all the boxes I put together a long time ago- back around Easter. They have been sitting in the attic, waiting....

Remember all the thank you tags I printed and punched out? No? You can read about it here. I took all of those and punched a hole in them to thread the ribbon through.

Then I set to tying, retying, tying, retying all the damn bows. Why? Because I am a freaky, OCD perfectionist, that's why! Don't judge. So, you might be wondering to yourself, "Why is The Thirty-Something Bride tying all these bows around boxes with nothing in them?" Well, I'll tell you why. Because when it comes time to pack these suckers, all we'll have to do is slide the ribbon off, stuff the boxes and slide the ribbon back on. I think that would be much easier then trying to tie a bazillion bows the way I want them the day before the wedding, no? That way we can get a nice assembly line going of moms and cousins and aunts and stuff a bunch of boxes and be done!! I really do not want to stress about stuff like bows two days before the wedding. That would be mega-lame of me.

It's a sea of boxes!

It's a sea of bows!

I can't believe that The Big Show is only 33 days away! I've got most of the tasks and projects done, I just need to finish things up - like place cards (can't do it until all the RSVP's come in) and table numbers (again, RSVP's for the final numbers). I feel like I'm just humming along. Stress is at a minimum right now. Although, I did dream I was fired last night. Maybe that was the sign for me NOT to buy the expensive dress from RueLaLa. Hmmm.....

P.S. As I was finishing this post up on my lunch break, the office manager came in and asked me if I was available to go to Minnesota the week of October 5th. Um, hello? Getting married that weekend folks, no can do. Keep your fingers crossed that the sadistic powers that be don't actually make me do this.

The List

I made the list last night. The list of crap left to do. I tried to be as specific as possible. Whoa. Let's not go there today, shall we?

I've got a few things I've forgotten to mention along the way, so I'll just all caught up on that instead of re-living the dreaded "to do" list.

A couple of weeks ago I went grocery shopping solo (this is actually an activity The Candyman and I enjoy doing together) and hit the Super Wal-Mart near our house. We hate the SWM. Hate it. We prefer the Publix because they play fun music we can dance to in the aisles. However, SWM is cheaper and since we are still on Wedding Financial Lock Down, SWM it is. Boo.

As I was meandering up and down the aisles wearing my iPod (it drowns out the screaming children), I found two more goodies I'm planning on doing something with. I can't even remember how much I bought of these! They might go in the OOT bags, or on the Kid's Table.

The old school Cracker Jacks were $.99 for 3 boxes. I can't remember how much the mini Moon Pies were, but I didn't care. Moon Pies are part of the Southern Culture. They are made in Tennessee! In the lovely town of Bell Buckle (about an hour south of Nashville), they even have a RC Cola and Moon Pie Festival that includes a 10 mile run! For my fellow runners out there, you know how good that would taste after a long run!

On to other updates. Panties. Yes, that's right, panties. Or, more specifically "thong-tha-thong-thong!" Yes, indeed. I am going to blog about panties and you can't stop me. I am generally a commando kinda girl (I know, TMI, but hey - you're still reading, right?), but for some reason that just doesn't seem "appropriate" for my wedding day. Besides, there are going to be people helping me get dressed and I really don't think flashing them my parts is something they signed up for. So, off the Victoria's Secret I went, armed with a recent $10 off coupon I got in the mail (you know I loves me my coupons). This shopping excursion was during our tax-free weekend, so I saved an extra 9.25%! I got three pairs of potential wedding panties and a few pair of post wedding/honeymoon fun-things. See!



Did I ever mention to you guys that I'm a Featured Bride on The Wedding Chicks blog? Well, I am. They offered us bloggers 50% off their store and I bought this cute T-shirt that is just like my OOT bag that I knocked off from them. I love it! The quality is really good and they are on sale now. You should get one!


Last, but certainly not least - make sure you enter the 100 FREE Save the Date contest here!

P.S. Did you guys know that Micheal's will accept JoAnn's coupons? Why am I just finding this out now?

"I Wish" Wednesday

Oh, the wish is easy today! It's for TIME! The tick is tocking, and I do not mean the one associated with babies!

I had abandoned the idea of DIY personalized match boxes, but I'm rethinking the idea and I'm placing that blame on The Graphics Fairy. If you aren't familiar, you should be!

She has awesome FREE graphics for personal use. There are limitations, so just know her rules before you download, etc.

I found this super-cute antique style frame that I added my own text to. I dropped the image into a template I made in Word that will fit and cover the match boxes. I'm not totally loving it, but it's close. The font needs to be bigger and I might rotate the whole thing. The date falls on the spine of the match box and then the other text on top and bottom of the box.

Source

She also has this vintage Marriages list that I simply love! Go get lost on her blog. It's worth the time sucker.

Source

Thoughts? I could really go to town on this if I just had some more TIME!!! Anyone know where I can get some more?

P.S. Don't forget to enter my contest for 100 FREE Save the Date Cards from Rachel Jasper Designs! Enter here.

The Best Lotion Ever

As a kid, I had horrid skin. Simply horrid. It was dry, painfully so. I also had lovely patches of eczema at the insides of my elbows, behind my knees, my wrists - just about any place I could bend.

For a while, the doctors thought I was allergic to water and I was only allowed to take a water bath once a week. Other days I had to use Cetaphil to "wash." Ever meet a 5 year old who wanted to bathe? That was me!

At any rate, it turns out I was allergic to lanolin as well as citric acid (lemonade, ketchup, oranges, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, kiwi, tomatoes, etc.). I've outgrown most of these allergies, but I still can't touch anything with lanolin in it. It gives me the skeeves as well as "itchies" (what I used to call my eczema patches).

I used to use this awesome and awesomely expensive lotion called Ala Derm. You can buy it here. I used to buy it by the case. I switched to the cheaper Lubriderm several years ago.

Then a couple months ago, my friend Kathy came to visit and brought me a sample of her "homemade" lotion and I've been using this ever since. It's awesome, I swear. Here's the recipe:

• 1 bottle baby lotion (any brand), 15 oz.
  
• 1 small tub petroleum jelly (the 1.75 oz size, about 2 tablespoons)
  
• 1 4 oz jar Fruit of the Earth Vitamin E Lotion (use this brand!)

Photo courtesy of Amazon.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with a hand mixer with a whisk attachment, if you have it. Otherwise, just mix with a hand-mixer for several minutes. You need to make sure the petroleum jelly is really mixed in well. You can spoon some of it back into the vitamin E tub. I put it all in a Tupperware container.

If I had a bigger bridal party, I'd definitely be making this, putting it into cute containers and giving them as gifts. I might still do it.

Invitations? Check.

The invitation are finally done! I am a little worried though. I had one left over invitation. I know all the invites got put into the pocket-folds, so I think this was an extra. I did, however, have three extra response cards and two extra response card stamps left over. This leads me to believe that I forgot to put these in the invitations. I am trying not to beat myself up over it. I hope the person/s who don't have a stamp will float me the 44 cents to tell me they are coming. I hope the people who don't have response cards, but do have an envelope, will tell me. Or, I could have done it all perfectly and these are just "extra." Um, yeah.

I'll mail these a few weeks after I get back from Asia, but I really wanted them completed before I head out. So happy they are done!

Here's the front and back. I know there could be some of you gasping in disbelief that I printed my addresses. Look, the reality is that I'm not going to try to hand-calligraphy these. I'm also not going to pay to have it done. The labels came with the invitations and the printing is pretty and cohesive with the font I'm using on all my printed wedding materials.


I also got to printing the stuff for my wedding favors. I mentioned before that I plan to bake my awesome cookies as favors. I'm going to include the recipe/instructions in the box. I printed on cream colored card stock that I bought at Kinko's for $11.99 for 250 sheets. This will be more than enough, but hopefully I'll use the paper for more fun stuff for the wedding. I haven't nailed that fun stuff down yet.....
Here's a copy of my template:


I grabbed the scrolly thing at the top from Fotosearch, created the template in Word and got to printing. The recipe is printed on one side and the instruction on the other, using the same template. I bought a handy-dandy-mini-paper-trimmer-thingy from Joann's at 40% off, for $11.99. I could have saved an extra 10% off this past weekend, but I didn't want to make the extra trip to save a $1.19.

Photo courtesy Joann's.

This took me a while to get the hang of, but once I did, I plowed through the trimming!

For the "Thank You" medallions that will go on the outside of the favor box, I set up another template like so:
I inserted the artwork I created earlier this month. Go here to read all about it! I printed these out on the same cream colored card stock. When I bought the handy-dandy-paper-trimmer-thingy, I also bought a handy-dandy-paper-puncher-thingy. It was also 40% off, so I paid $7.99. Since I am not a member of the scrap booking community, all these handy-dandy-paper-gizmos are very exciting to me.

Photo courtesy Joann's.

Punching in progress!

Since the favors will be something that is assembled the week of The Big Show, I won't have those photos for a while. I haven't decided the final concept of it anyway. I've got left over flowers from my invitations that can be incorporated somehow. Hmmm....gears cranking.

DON'T FORGET! Go here and register for a $50 Gift Certificate from Moments of Elegance!

$50 Gift Certificate - My First Giveaway!

I am SO excited for my first giveaway! The folks over at Moments of Elegance would like to offer a $50 gift certificate to one lucky reader! You can use it to purchase wedding favors, bridal shower favors, wedding jewelry - anything they offer on their site, which is pretty big. They have it all categorized really well. I totally appreciate that because I get really annoyed at user un-friendly websites. In fact, I browsed their eco-friendly section and found these cool items:

Seaside seed-packet favors. These come in the two colors shown here with coordinating or contrasting ribbon. You can personalize the window paper!

These are biodegradable poppers! I'd still double-check with your venue to see if you'll be charged a clean-up fee, bio-degradable or not!

Here's what you gotta do to enter!

1. Go to Moments of Elegance and check out their goodies.
   
2. Leave a comment on this post to let me know what you might use the $50 gift certificate for.
   
3. "Follow" my blog and you'll get another entry.
4. If you're already a Follower and want another chance to enter, post my new BUTTON on your blog and I'll enter you again. Make sure you tell me that you've done this either in your comment or with an email.
   
5. New Followers who also want to post my BUTTON will get you double entry! Again, you've got to let me know!
6. Deadline is Friday, May 29th at midnight!
   

The html code for my button is here:

<a href="http://thethirty-somethingbride.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://xs139.xs.to/xs139/09215/clip_2998.jpg" title="Free image hosting powered by xs.to" /></a><br />

Cut and paste into your gadgets (blogspot users) using the javascript/html option. If you need help with the code, please email me and let me know!
thethirtysomethingbride@gmail.com

Good luck to everyone! I am SO EXCITED! I want everyone to enter!

Paper and Cake

OK, so if I wasn't 94.27% done with my invitations and hadn't already purchased all my printing stuff as well as chosen my wedding colors, I would totally buy this instead.

The company is called Paper & Cake and of course they have a lovely Etsy shop. They have buy-what-you need templates for all kinds of party supplies and invitations. These are the wedding goodies I like:

You can buy each template for $10, with a 10% discount on 5 or more items.
* Invitation
* Response card
* Save the Date card
* Ceremony Program cover
* Map card
* 8.5 x 11 Letterhead
* Menu
* Favor Bag Topper
* Favor Box
* Place Cards
* Circle tags
* Table numbers

They also have fun bachelorette party supplies for $5!

Check out their blog and become a follower. Why? Here's why:

"We do love our followers.... so here is a special offer, just for you.

How does "buy 3 $5 sets, get the fourth free" sound? Just purchase your three sets in our Etsy shop, and write in the message area which set you would like us to throw in for free.

This offer does not ever expire... that is how much we love you!"

Favors and Free Filigree

Hey Folks! So, I've been working on my favors sporadically over the last month or so. In order to keep my DIY from getting out of control, I'm sticking with my BRIDES brand color theme and purchased the coordinating pieces from Michael's using their in-store, on-line and bridal magazine coupons. It's saved me a ton of money thus far. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself here....

I had a couple of ideas for favors and I'm still coming up with new ones, but The Candyman got his vote in early on, so I need to keep my eye on the ball and not get distracted (Oh look! Something shiny! What? Oh, right. Focus.) . Some of the first ideas color coordinated with my ivory, chocolate and sandalwood (bridal lingo for beige) color story. My first thought was to do pretzel rods dipped in milk, dark and white chocolate, placed in clear cellophane bags and tied with ribbon. I've done these before and they are a piece of cake (this has nothing to do with my cake baking trials, just so you know).

Photo courtesy of Dawn's Popcorn.

I also considered making my famous Chocolate Covered Cherries, but they are a pain in the ass to make and pack and I only make them every other year for Christmas because they are such an ass-ache. The do seriously rock. Seriously. I really don't understand how anyone can not like chocolate covered cherries. Seems like a crime almost, but there are people out there. Me? I can't wait until the day after Christmas when all the left-over boxes at Walgreen's go on sale, 2 boxes for a buck. Hell yeah.

Man, I digress easy. OK, so no pretzel rods, no cherries. CD's printed with our faces? Nah. I wanted it to be something a little special, but not hard to do. I didn't want M&M's with our faces on them. Or little plant your own tree branch things (you know people are just going to toss those suckers) or whatever little gay, throw away thing I could come up with. No. No. No.

I casually mentioned The Cookies to The Candyman and he was all for it. There was no further discussion, The Cookies won. The Cookies are from a recipe someone sent me claiming it was the Neiman Marcus urban-legend recipe. It is not that recipe. I've checked. It has similar ingredients, but it's not quite the same. At any rate, they are damn fine Cookies. I've given them as birthday gifts to several people and the response is always top notch.

The Cookies needed a gift package vehicle and I was trying to figure out what to do. Martha had her little cookie jar Idea of the Day, but those jars are not cheap. I looked over at a great resource called the Sunburst Bottle Company, but I couldn't find what I wanted there either. Back to Michael's I trudged (oh, who am I kidding, I freakin' love it there now). The cheapest packing I could find were 3" square little DIY boxes that match the card stock color of my invitations. Sweet! I had one 50% coupon and one 40% off coupon, so I dragged my mom with me over Easter and got two boxes of 50, which will be plenty. My mom bought one box of boxes for me, so that was cool!

Photo courtesy of Michael's.

I was able to fold most of the boxes together pretty quickly over a few evenings. Last weekend, I did a test run on a batch of cookies (I needed a cake-break) to see how many would fit and I can get 3 cookies in each box! I'm planning on lining the box with tissue paper too. I will need to enlist The Candyman to assemble these, hopefully without eating all the cookies! The boxes come with the ribbon shown in the picture, but you know I'm not going to settle for just that. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it quite yet, but I have this mocked up for a potential tag that I'll print on ivory card stock (sorry about the blur, trying to keep The Candyman sweet). I got the outline border from Martha's down-loadable monograms, edited out the monogram and added my own text to match my invitation font. I also changed the color to my R95 G42 B0 colorway.
I will include The Cookie recipe printed on ivory card stock that I can slip inside the box, on top of the tissue. I wanted to put my filigree-scroll pattern from my invitations on the recipe card but it looked kinda crappy, to be honest. I went on-line and Googled FREE FILIGREE CLIP ART and found this amazing website called FotoSearch (kinda sad I didn't find this prior to STD's and invites!). I grabbed a clip and modified it a bit and came up with this to match my font color:

I've put it at the top of my recipe card on the front and the back and it looks pretty cool! I've just got to print and cut everything. That is, unless I change my mind about all this. Thoughts?