That is the text message that I woke up to on my phone yesterday from my mom to me. Yesterday was our anniversary! Or "anni" that is. And 6 months that is. It has gone by so fast. And so beautifully. Kristopher Orr just posted wedding day photos on his NEW BLOG. Check it out. I have been so happy to be married to Garrett and we did have a happy anniversary celebration yesterday. Let me tell you about it:
To start off the day, Garrett and I woke up and went downtown to pick up our fruits and veggies for the week. We have been ordering our produce through a food co-op called Bountiful Baskets for months and we LOVE it (it is inexpensive, run by volunteers, we get great fruits and vegetables, our food stays fresher longer, we get to try new things like sunchokes this week, and we end up eating a whole lot of fresh food all the time because of it). Thank you Aunt Fay for telling us about Bountiful Baskets. Any ideas on how to prepare sunchokes in an appetizing way?
After we got our basket of goodness, we had our 6-month anni brunch at Communal here in Provo. Garrett had biscuits and gravy and I had buckwheat crepes with ham and gruyere and mixed greens. We also each sipped from glasses of Allred Orchard's apple juice and shared a raisin scone with lemon curd and clotted cream. Mmmm... way to make a fabulous Saturday morning. If you haven't been to Communal yet, I HIGHLY recommend it to you. It has been my favorite place to experience any kind of dining out in Provo recently. I am not a huge fan of eating out because I love to make great food at home and I am usually much more satisfied with a home-cooked meal, but Communal is an absolute delight. I could rave about them forever. But I will end here with saying that I have only been absolutely thrilled with each occasion I have been lucky enough to eat there. Dinner, dessert, and brunch have all been out of this world. I still have yet to go for a lunch... Here is a link to their website and their blog.
After our brunch we spent some time at home resting/digesting, catching up on some much needed sleep, working out, and so on. In the evening we drove up the canyon and enjoyed some time in Park City. We had a reservation at the Bangkok Thai on Main (I know, lots of food and eating out) and also enjoyed some wandering up and down the main street and feeling many fur coats and blankets in a fur store also on main street (it is fun to see all the people up that are attracted to that ski town and we enjoyed the snow). Now we want a blanket made of beaver pelts (and if we ever move up to Canada, I want a fur coat too). Ever felt beaver??? Maybe that will have to wait for another anni and many more months of marriage. But bring on the many more months. I am loving this marriage thing. I highly recommend it. Even more than I highly recommend Communal ;)
Thanks for listening to me tell you about our six-month anni. It was luxurious to say the least. Initially I just wanted to share the link to Fer's new blog and then I just couldn't resist sharing more about our day yesterday. I struggled not to tell you everything about the delicious Thai food we also enjoyed in the evening, but I thought you might think I was a little too much of a crazy foodie if I did. Contact me for details if interested. I also recommend that place if you like a great Thai food. It is Garrett's favorite pad thai so far. If you know of better, please share! And especially if you have a great recipe of how to make excellent pad thai at home. We have tried a few recipes and have never been as content as we are with the dish at Bangkok Thai on Main.
2.20.2011
12.14.2010
Well hello, hello
It's a little late. At night. Oh, AND I'm a little "late" making another addition to our blog. I know, I know, it has been MONTHS!
It took a lot of courage to face the blog tonight. So just be happy that I am returning. I do want to be a "good blogger". And if anyone is feeling generous and filled with the Christmas spirit of sharing, I would love to have a tutor to teach me how to create a beautiful and artistic blog. To be able to make it personal. I would like that very much.
There is so much to catch up on. Last time I posted, we were not even married! This weekend will be our 4-month anniversary. So yes, it did take me a long time to get back on here, but we sure have enjoyed ourselves and both finished our undergraduate degrees in the mean time! I will take some time to fill in the four month gap, but right now I will just stay in the present. I have a little story to tell.
Normally I wouldn't be blogging at 10pm (I know you are thinking that normally I do not blog at all). Normally, I would be cuddling with Garrett reading a book or sipping steamed milk, but tonight he is stranded in Wyoming after a series of unfortunate events. He was out working with his work truck in the prairies of that barren wasteland looking for dinosaurs and normal things like that. He drove over some ice and then drove some more. A light on his dash turned on so he made a mental note to take it in soon to check it out. And then... the engine seized. I bet that felt awful. His story is that the ice must have been really thick and punctured something under his truck. When he got out to look (after the truck was done for) he saw that all the oil had spilled out. It just makes me cringe to think about it.
It was cold and he saw some work trucks down the road. He started hiking. The snow storm was moving in. He reached the men and found out that a bus was picking them up shortly. It was the last one into Evanston, WY that evening. The bus came and took about an hour to arrive in Evanston. By then it was stormy and late and he decided get warm, get something to eat, and get a room. He'll have to call the rental company and his employers in the morning and figure out how they want to take care of the mess. Until then, I am without my sweet husband (he really is so sweet and thoughtful!!). And that is why I am blogging in the evening when I should be cuddled up comfy cozy with Garrett.
Just thought you might want to know. Normally he doesn't stay overnight so I really miss him when things like this happen.
With that, I should be off to bed. Good night and sweet dreams! May sugarplum fairies dance around in your head.
P.S. If you haven't yet, and want to catch up on viewing all our wedding photos, you can click HERE. Kristopher Orr did all the photography. I adore his work and am so grateful that he was able to shoot our wedding!
P.S.S. Kind of random, but do you ever feel like this when you are trying to tie up all the lose ends at the end of a semester? Handing in papers, finishing projects etc...
It took a lot of courage to face the blog tonight. So just be happy that I am returning. I do want to be a "good blogger". And if anyone is feeling generous and filled with the Christmas spirit of sharing, I would love to have a tutor to teach me how to create a beautiful and artistic blog. To be able to make it personal. I would like that very much.
There is so much to catch up on. Last time I posted, we were not even married! This weekend will be our 4-month anniversary. So yes, it did take me a long time to get back on here, but we sure have enjoyed ourselves and both finished our undergraduate degrees in the mean time! I will take some time to fill in the four month gap, but right now I will just stay in the present. I have a little story to tell.
Normally I wouldn't be blogging at 10pm (I know you are thinking that normally I do not blog at all). Normally, I would be cuddling with Garrett reading a book or sipping steamed milk, but tonight he is stranded in Wyoming after a series of unfortunate events. He was out working with his work truck in the prairies of that barren wasteland looking for dinosaurs and normal things like that. He drove over some ice and then drove some more. A light on his dash turned on so he made a mental note to take it in soon to check it out. And then... the engine seized. I bet that felt awful. His story is that the ice must have been really thick and punctured something under his truck. When he got out to look (after the truck was done for) he saw that all the oil had spilled out. It just makes me cringe to think about it.
It was cold and he saw some work trucks down the road. He started hiking. The snow storm was moving in. He reached the men and found out that a bus was picking them up shortly. It was the last one into Evanston, WY that evening. The bus came and took about an hour to arrive in Evanston. By then it was stormy and late and he decided get warm, get something to eat, and get a room. He'll have to call the rental company and his employers in the morning and figure out how they want to take care of the mess. Until then, I am without my sweet husband (he really is so sweet and thoughtful!!). And that is why I am blogging in the evening when I should be cuddled up comfy cozy with Garrett.
Just thought you might want to know. Normally he doesn't stay overnight so I really miss him when things like this happen.
With that, I should be off to bed. Good night and sweet dreams! May sugarplum fairies dance around in your head.
P.S. If you haven't yet, and want to catch up on viewing all our wedding photos, you can click HERE. Kristopher Orr did all the photography. I adore his work and am so grateful that he was able to shoot our wedding!
P.S.S. Kind of random, but do you ever feel like this when you are trying to tie up all the lose ends at the end of a semester? Handing in papers, finishing projects etc...
7.22.2010
So we are not very good bloggers...but we did get our invitations out AND registered!
Apparently we are "supposed" to write a new post more frequently. That really shouldn't be too hard. We have a lot going on that we could share.
1. We are celebrating that we got our out invitations out!!!!!!!!!!!
And we are soooo excited that we don't have to work on them anymore. (Garrett is especially excited. He did A LOT of work on them himself!) I am just hoping that we didn't forget people... making the lists for invitations has been the most stressful thing for me (Karli) of all the wedding planning so far. But the Overseas and U.S.A. invites were mailed this week and the Canadian ones were taken up to Canada and we've received report that they too are in the mail. (Canada post seems to take a little longer..)
Kristopher Orr (a family friend/practically Karli's brother) took all of our engagements and will also be the photographer at the wedding. Check out all the engagements here. We think he is a great photographer and can't wait to have more pictures taken at the wedding.
Another great friend designed the invitations. She recently started doing wedding invitations and you can check out her blog here.
2. Our second reason for celebrating right now is that we finally made the trip up to Bed Bath and Beyond to finish up our registry. We did most of it online, but we wanted to hit up the store to feel the towels, sheets, etc :)
If you want to see all the fun things that we picked out from Bed, Bath, and Beyond click here. (Use the name Karli Low to find our registry)
We also registered at REI! Search Garrett's name (Garrett Schwanke) to find our registry.
1. We are celebrating that we got our out invitations out!!!!!!!!!!!
And we are soooo excited that we don't have to work on them anymore. (Garrett is especially excited. He did A LOT of work on them himself!) I am just hoping that we didn't forget people... making the lists for invitations has been the most stressful thing for me (Karli) of all the wedding planning so far. But the Overseas and U.S.A. invites were mailed this week and the Canadian ones were taken up to Canada and we've received report that they too are in the mail. (Canada post seems to take a little longer..)
Want to see the picture we used?
Kristopher Orr (a family friend/practically Karli's brother) took all of our engagements and will also be the photographer at the wedding. Check out all the engagements here. We think he is a great photographer and can't wait to have more pictures taken at the wedding.
Another great friend designed the invitations. She recently started doing wedding invitations and you can check out her blog here.
2. Our second reason for celebrating right now is that we finally made the trip up to Bed Bath and Beyond to finish up our registry. We did most of it online, but we wanted to hit up the store to feel the towels, sheets, etc :)
If you want to see all the fun things that we picked out from Bed, Bath, and Beyond click here. (Use the name Karli Low to find our registry)
We also registered at REI! Search Garrett's name (Garrett Schwanke) to find our registry.
6.24.2010
Spell check is going to have to get used to "Schwanke"
I've noticed a trend. People start blogging when they are engaged or married.
On June 11th, Garrett put a ring on it.
And since we are now officially engaged, we've decided it is appropriate to start our very own blog!! Secretly I've wanted to start a blog for a while.. so I'm excited.
I've been wanting to share pictures from our engagement and from our recent trip to Oregon and of the amazing rubber stamp of our faces that Garrett JUST BARELY finished carving out (he is literally sitting at my side working on it :) So I'll start with some engagement pictures and a brief story of how it came about:
Mom was in town and staying at my Aunt Fay's house in Heber. Aunt Fay and Uncle Tom had invited us to come up to their home that weekend for a BBQ. I suggested it to Garrett. He was hesitant so I made it easy for him to say no and he suggested we spend a little time together on the weekend since I'd been with my Mom and busy with school most of the week. "How about we go out Friday AND Saturday night?" I couldn't see anything wrong with that. I knew we were "going on a drive". And I thought it was a lovely idea. It wasn't the greatest weather for being outside (rainy) so a drive was the perfect way to enjoy some nature without getting wet and cold.
Garrett picked me up at 5ish and drove me South of Provo towards Mount Nebo. We drove up the mountain road and it got REALLY foggy. Most of the time we could only see 50 ft or so in any direction. That was a little unfortunate (since I'm sure Garrett would have preferred a more scenic drive), but it didn't keep us from enjoying the time to just visit and see the limited view we had of the roadsides.As we climbed up in altitude, we kept hoping that we would get above the clouds and come to a beautiful view of Mt. Nebo. Unfortunately that didn't happen. We got to the Nebo outlook and it was still white white white.
The way Garrett proposed was really sweet and creative. He had a book made and that's what I saw first. He told me he had something for me and pulled it out. The cover was made of a map of Waterton--my favorite mountain place--and it had a green tie on the side of it. Inside the front cover I found a watercolor painting of Chief Mountain (an original by Garrett Schwanke) which is, to me, the icon mountain of my home in Southern Alberta.
After I admired the book and the painting and read the love note written to me on the back of the painting, Garrett opened the book further to reveal the hole he had cut out of the pages in the back and I spotted my rings threaded onto the green tie:
(Green tie hand-crafted by Jasmine ;)
Garrett found the rings on Etsy. Check out the artist who designed them and made them especially for us:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/bmjnyc
Barbara has been really great to work with!
And don't worry. Garrett's band with be matching.
On June 11th, Garrett put a ring on it.
And since we are now officially engaged, we've decided it is appropriate to start our very own blog!! Secretly I've wanted to start a blog for a while.. so I'm excited.
I've been wanting to share pictures from our engagement and from our recent trip to Oregon and of the amazing rubber stamp of our faces that Garrett JUST BARELY finished carving out (he is literally sitting at my side working on it :) So I'll start with some engagement pictures and a brief story of how it came about:
Mom was in town and staying at my Aunt Fay's house in Heber. Aunt Fay and Uncle Tom had invited us to come up to their home that weekend for a BBQ. I suggested it to Garrett. He was hesitant so I made it easy for him to say no and he suggested we spend a little time together on the weekend since I'd been with my Mom and busy with school most of the week. "How about we go out Friday AND Saturday night?" I couldn't see anything wrong with that. I knew we were "going on a drive". And I thought it was a lovely idea. It wasn't the greatest weather for being outside (rainy) so a drive was the perfect way to enjoy some nature without getting wet and cold.
Garrett picked me up at 5ish and drove me South of Provo towards Mount Nebo. We drove up the mountain road and it got REALLY foggy. Most of the time we could only see 50 ft or so in any direction. That was a little unfortunate (since I'm sure Garrett would have preferred a more scenic drive), but it didn't keep us from enjoying the time to just visit and see the limited view we had of the roadsides.As we climbed up in altitude, we kept hoping that we would get above the clouds and come to a beautiful view of Mt. Nebo. Unfortunately that didn't happen. We got to the Nebo outlook and it was still white white white.
The way Garrett proposed was really sweet and creative. He had a book made and that's what I saw first. He told me he had something for me and pulled it out. The cover was made of a map of Waterton--my favorite mountain place--and it had a green tie on the side of it. Inside the front cover I found a watercolor painting of Chief Mountain (an original by Garrett Schwanke) which is, to me, the icon mountain of my home in Southern Alberta.
After I admired the book and the painting and read the love note written to me on the back of the painting, Garrett opened the book further to reveal the hole he had cut out of the pages in the back and I spotted my rings threaded onto the green tie:
(Green tie hand-crafted by Jasmine ;)
How did he know I'd always wanted to get engaged on a mountain? Of course I was thrilled and bursting with happy feelings. Garrett asked me if I'd marry him and I said yes. Then we tried to take some pictures outside the car in the rain/mist/fog.
Before we drove back down, we had a little dinner of some of our favorite things including PB and Banana sandwiches, aloe-vera drink, and mixed berries. When we got back to Provo, Garrett's sister Katelyn and our roommate, Katie, had some friends over and had prepared a chocolate fondue.
And there it is. We are happily engaged and busy with planning our wedding. It has been busy trying to balance that with school, work, and trying to enjoy the beautiful summer here in Provo. But wedding planning is fun. I just can't believe it's me planning the wedding this time!
Here's to hoping that we'll see you in Cardston on August 19th for our wedding!
<3 Karli
P.S. For those who have asked for a better picture of my ring, here you go. The set will be completed with a wedding band much like the yellow gold twig ring (top ring) just in rose gold:
Before we drove back down, we had a little dinner of some of our favorite things including PB and Banana sandwiches, aloe-vera drink, and mixed berries. When we got back to Provo, Garrett's sister Katelyn and our roommate, Katie, had some friends over and had prepared a chocolate fondue.
And there it is. We are happily engaged and busy with planning our wedding. It has been busy trying to balance that with school, work, and trying to enjoy the beautiful summer here in Provo. But wedding planning is fun. I just can't believe it's me planning the wedding this time!
Here's to hoping that we'll see you in Cardston on August 19th for our wedding!
<3 Karli
P.S. For those who have asked for a better picture of my ring, here you go. The set will be completed with a wedding band much like the yellow gold twig ring (top ring) just in rose gold:
Garrett found the rings on Etsy. Check out the artist who designed them and made them especially for us:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/bmjnyc
Barbara has been really great to work with!
And don't worry. Garrett's band with be matching.