Tag Archives: abattylife

In Memory of My Grandmother

Posted in Liz's Life by

This past Sunday my Grandma Germaine passed away after suffering from complications of a stroke. Although we have been anticipating that she would pass for some time, it’s never easy to say goodbye to a beloved family member.

Luke and I were lucky enough to be able to fly to Cleveland to spend time with my family and say goodbye to my grandma. While celebrating her life, I was reminded of what an extraordinary woman she was.

She raised six kids while working full-time as a guidance counselor with the Cleveland Public Schools. Believing that education was the key to a promising future- she even went back to school mid-life to earn her PHD in education from Case Western University.

She was devoted to her family, being married to my grandfather for 58 years, caring for her own mother until she died at 100, and supporting her six children, including my mother, whenever they needed it.

She was a tremendous grandmother as well, making trips to Toledo to see my school plays, hosting my dad and I on weekends when I’d have a volleyball tournament in Cleveland and always remembering birthdays and graduations.

I’m really happy my family got 86 years with her in this life. I hope she’s with my grandfather, dancing  among angels.

Any prayers or thoughts you can offer up for my grandmother and family would be much appreciated.

We’ll miss you grandma.

Glam Hair for a Glam Bride

Posted in Wedding Planning by

I have always been a bit proud of my hair- it’s long, dark brown and pretty healthy. It hasn’t been colored, straightened, or treated, so it’s in really good shape for my wedding.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about how to wear my hair on my wedding day.  A lot of people have told me to wear it up so I’m not fussing with it, but my heart is leading me in a different direction. I want to feel glamorous, beautiful and dare I say…sexy on my wedding day and to me to me there’s nothing more feminine than long, shiny, beautiful hair.

There are so many ways to wear long hair down, but one in particular has caught my eye in fashion magazines and celebrity red carpets- old school, hollywood, glam hair.

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I absolutely love this look! It is so classic, stunning and reminiscent of beauties way before my time.

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I’m having a hair test run done March 27th and I’m so excited to see how this looks on me. I just pray my straight hair can hold those beautiful waves!

What do you guys think? Am I insane for wearing my hair down? Is the old-school, hollywood look suitable for a bride?

Our Invitations Are Out!

Posted in Wedding Planning by

This weekend Luke and I spent all day Saturday addressing, stuffing and stamping our invitations. It was a big undertaking, but I’m so excited they’re out! Invitations were low on our list of priorities for our budget, but I think they turned out super cute!

I enlisted the help of a graphic designer I work with a lot for my clients to help create a custom-designed invitations based off this photo from our engagement session.

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We loved that this photo showcased the Chicago sky-line since our wedding it a trip for most our guests. We used this as the photo for our save-the-dates to get people excited about the city and then carried it over into our invitations.

I worked my friend to create invites that played off our yellow and green colors while maintaining the feel of the photo. What he created was a bright yellow and white design showing the city scape and our sillhouettes. The copy was in green and we chose a metallic, grass-green envelope.

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I’m really happy with how they turned out and we got it all for a steal!

You may also notice we incorporated some social media into the invites by giving our guests the option to keep their RSVP stamp and instead send us their response on the Wedding tab of my blog.

I’m excited to start getting more RSVP’s- it’s getting so close!

Bison Pot Roast

Posted in Sunday Supper Series by

Once a month in Chicago there is a farmers market in the a nature museum near my place. Luke and I stopped by the other week and picked up some goodies including farm-made butter (to DIE for!), fresh milk, aged goat and cow cheese, veggies and this giant hunk of bison meat.

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That’s 6 lbs of farm-raised bison meat. If you’ve never had bison before, it’s the leaner, softer, healthier verson of beef. In fact, I was really surprised to see how healthy bison is:

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Since 6 lbs is enough to feed an army, I had my personal butcher (Luke) cut it into steaks. As you can see, bison has very little fat on it.

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I cut up some carrots (check out those white ones!) and onions I got from the farmers market for the roast. You can also put in potatoes, but since I’m doing South Beach, I opted out.

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Next I mixed two cans of beef broth, two tablespoons of sugar, a package of dry onion soup mix, salt, pepper and some cayenne to give it a kick.

Then I placed the bison, veggies and a bay leaf in the crock pot and topped with the broth mixture.

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Everything cooked on low heat for 8-10 hours. If you can’t cook for that long, cook it on low for at least 6 hours and then turn it up to high for the last hour- hour and a half.

The result isn’t the prettiest thing ever, but it sure was tasty!

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We couldn’t get over how tender, flavorful and juicy the bison was. It was just as good and regular beef roast, with no where near the amount of fat and calories. I think I’ll be choosing it over beef whenever possible.

Have you guys tried bison? Do you agree that it tastes pretty darn good?

I hope you all had a great weekend!