the Wonderful Wedding Show

Oh other people's weddings, i adore you.

Nothing is better when some one else is getting married. There is no stress on your own part, and you get to see what that person would do for a $20,000 party. Yes it's about the love and the beautiful couple, but you get to see the essence of those beautiful people in event form.

I have been invited to very few weddings, as there hasn't been very many weddings in my family and I'd have to give my friends a good ten years before anything like that goes down. Other peoples' weddings offer a chance to dress up, free food (and hopefully free booze) but you never think about how that wedding came to be so majestical and who has to scrape the wax out of the votive from the candle you were playing with.

This past summer I became apart of the Events by Emma crew. It combines things I love to do: meet new people, craft, design, and have the most fun crew to work with. I have always been interested in interior design, but EBE takes those elements of good design into a whole other fantasy level. Even though the wedding turns out being glamourous, the work isn't so glamourous. But, I wouldn't have it any other way, I'm not the type of person who can just sit there, I like to be moving (which is why I'm constantly fidgeting in class).

Lifting, windexing, carrying, pushing dollies, packing, unpacking, packing, dishes, more dishes, dishes, crafting, laughing, organizing, more laughing. It’s still fun, just not what people picture. It's not like the J.Lo movie.

Since school has started I decided to not be a part of EBE until summer starts (CreComm and a weekend job is enough for me). But the girls at EBE invited me to come and check out what they put together for the Wonderful Wedding Show at the convention center. EBE had a booth on the third floor with all the other booths, but they also had an entire banquet room devoted to "Inspiration by Colour". There were probably twenty or more tables, each designed with a specific colour or theme for brides to get an idea of all the options there are, instead of thinking traditional. From mysterious navy, to a burlap themed table setting, I could not take photos of all my favorites. Here are just a few highlights of my favourite EBE work at the wonderful wedding show.

This is the main booth, all done in sophisticated white. It was probably the tallest booth there. That is our fibre glass gigantic alter thing. Flowers can be cascaded down the top, or it's a great way to incorporate lighting. 

Inspiration by Colour (pic stolen from fb, Sacha Bouchard)

one of my favs, wood inspired, my mom took this pic lol

close up of this beaut

burlap inspired, adorable with just baby's breath

green! clean, sophisticated with some spunky details

cascading orchids in a lace rimmed cylinder vase

antique table setting. DROOL

EBE is one of the top 5 planners in Canada, and I just feel so blessed to be 

able to see the beautiful creations that fit each couple so well.

It's in the Genes

My favourite science question: are we a product of our environment?

I wanted to perhaps come up with a scientific theory why some people are so picky, but after thinking about it, maybe there isn't a specific reason.

Being picky, I have discovered, can come from many different sources. Perhaps it's your environment and what people around you like to eat. Maybe your parents forced you to eat your broccoli and now you love it, or maybe that's the reason why you despise it. Perhaps it could be a part your genetic makeup and your brain tells you what you like and don't like. Or perhaps for no reason at all your just annoyingly selective and are a brat when it comes to what you like to eat (like me). Here's a peek and my genetic picky background (sorry rents).

My mom is genetically picky. She basically has no choice. She is lactose and tolerant, diabetic, allergic to broccoli and cauliflower, and was a vegetarian for as long as I can remember but has just started eating chicken for health reasons. She has like no options. She doesn't take any diabetic medications so she has to eat a certain way in order to keep her blood sugar good. I could never eat that way, nor could I not drink milk. I drink a 4L to myself. Her genetics tell her what she can eat, and it also might be a pre-programmed thing if you have a distain for let's say, seafood.

My dad is the total other end of the spectrum. He can eat what he wants, but he chooses not to like it. He's raised Ukrainian Canadian, but he doesn't like what his dad liked. My Grandpa would like to eat everything really rare, and maybe that caused my dad to act the opposite. My dad will burn things. He'll leave his burger on the BBQ way longer than me until they are dark little nuggets of burgers. My dad is also particular like I am about the little things. He microwaves his plate before he puts food on it, he always makes a square pizza so there's more crust, and he must only use his favourite bowl, plate, cup, mug, fork, spoon, and knife.

I must be just annoyingly selective for no reason, because my brother tosses my theories of experience and genetics out the window. We both have the same genetic picky background and same childhood environment, but we like total opposite things. I hate, but he likes: spicy food, cabbage rolls, sauerkraut, raw garlic, and won't eat McDonalds. I really like Micky D's and I have a passion for seafood, my bro won't even eat a shrimp.

I think that particular theories could work for certain people, but altogether I'm not sure if there can be a sure fire scientific theory (except it would be cool if there was). I suppose as a race we just have to learn to not be so picky.

There you go, a blog about psychology and food .

Dippy Eggs

Being a self confessed picky eater, there is not just the issue of WHAT I eat, but also HOW I eat it. Things such as pizza and burgers I can scarf down quick no problem, but meals like stir fries or a full plated diner (like chicken, fish or beef with veggies, carbs and other goodness) require me to eat very slow and mindfully. It's the science of the perfect bite. Ratios of deliciousness.

Over easy eggs, toast and bacon is seriously the best combination. It's a staple that I love in the morning, but I do have to be a bit picky about it.

I cannot eat sunny side up. The membrane around the yolk must be fully cooked. And scrambled eggs just don't make sense to me, my favourite part about over easy eggs is eating the yolk and white part separately.

So, once I have perfectly cooked and plated my brecky, I always follow the same routine. I open the yolk with my fork so yolk doesn't infect the other food (including the egg white) and rip off sections of my crust to dip in the yolk. Once all my crust and yolk has been demolished, I move on the creating the most perfect delicious bites.

Following my science of the perfect bite, I cut pieces of egg to perfectly fit a corner of toast. I top it off with a teared piece of bacon, and there you go. It's all about the ratio. Not too much toast, or egg, or bacon. If hash browns are added for supreme breakfast awesomeness, I eat them with ketchup. In NO way does that mean that the ketchup can touch anything else.

Level up breakfast? Ukranianize. With egg, with toast, with kobausa, with perogie. Oh, damn. My arteries also like this one. Most unhealthy breakfast, but so Ukrainian and oh so yummy.



I call this blog Dippy Eggs because that is what my best friend calls them lol. She did when were maybe about 11, and it's just funny. So when we go out for breakfast we always get the same thing: over easy, with marble rye, with bacon, cube potatoes and chocolate milk. But she has to order dippy eggs. And we eat it the same way <3


You know what, she might even be pickier than me...

Fav Picky Eater

My favourite picky eater has to be Sheldon Cooper from the Big Band Theory. He forces his firends to order only certian foods from certain restaurants on certain nights. He the only person who could actually force his pickiness onto others. Not only does he make being picky hilarious, he makes me feel not so bad about bugging the McDonalds people for no ketchup extra ketchup. Or no tomatoes on my wrap from Timmys. Or how I won't allow certain foods to touch.

In this clip Sheldon and Penny are in a feud and she gets back at him by making him think something could be wrong with his burger.






Sheldon Cooper is a whole other world of picky. Every thursday (or maybe friday) is pizza and retro game night that must only be ordered only from a certain restaurant. In this clip, Leneords new girl firend is a lawyer and finds loop holes in Sheldons roomm mate agreement so the firends can order greek food on Sheldon's pizza night.

Christmas Feast

The best part about the Holidays is food, and holy dina did I eat. Apart from the Christmas dinners and treats, I went out to eat a lot. Like I mean ALOT. I usually try not to go out and eat that that often, but Christmas break offered more than enough reasons to park myself in a restaurant and blow my limited cash on food and drink. One reason why I don't like to go out to eat is I'm so frugal. 

One of the first new dishes I tried for my blog was Sushi. I was impartial to it. Not a fan but I would eat it if I had to eat it in a social situation; but over the break from school I went TWICE. I went to Sushi Ya the first week off of school with some fellow CreCommers and oh damn was it good. They just knew the right stuff to order and it was a quality restaurant. We had rainbow rolls, shrimp tempura rolls, chicken teriyaki (my fav) and veggy ones, among other things.

During that whole week after I had the most insufferable Sushi cravings. I can get kind of obsessive with a new dish that I fall in love with. When I first discovered how much I love PB&J I would have at least one sometimes two a day. So, the last week of holidays I went to Asoyama Sushi, closer to my house with my boyfriend for the first time. We have been together for years, and friends for even longer and he loves Sushi (actually he'll eat anything, he's the one person I know who could win Fear Factor) and we have never gone for sushi together.

I'm still not an expert at ordering, like a person who's never been to Starbucks trying to order a latte. So, some things were not the same as when I went to Sushi Ya. I wanted a Shrimp Tempura Roll but I failed to say roll and we just got giant breaded shrimp, with no plum sauce. :(   I'm starting to know what I like (not the tea) and  I just needed to give Sushi another chance.

Other than that I went to Perkins, Montana's, Boston Pizza, The Old Spaghetti Factory, Altos, and that doesn't include fast food. I am ashamed, but my justification was it was the very last weeks of 2011, the perfect time to gorge. Being the foodie I am, I'm not going to stop eating out, but it's about moderation (a word I had no comprehension of on break). But I did have some great lunch dates catching up with people I love.

2012 will hopefully mean more healthy eating for me (even though I literally just ate a plate of fries). It's wrong, but when I eat a healthy meal, i justify eating pure garbage later. I would like to this year have a complete day of healthy eating without a chocolate or a treat, sugary drink or junk food. I also need to work on my obsessive pizza addiction ;). 

 

my christmas cookies me and grandma made :)