Wedding Weekend! Part 1

Life for us is always crazy! But we are in the midst of a wedding week right now. Tomorrow our dear friends, Katherine and Cordie are tying the knot. We are so excited for all of the festivities. It is always a whirlwind of chaos and celebrations. Last night I hosted a Bachelorette party for the bride. We all wore black with the bride wearing white. It was a fun group of ladies.

We all met at my house and hit up a local restaurant- City Cafe. It is a local fav in Rochester. I am obsessed with the blue cheese ball appetizer. So yummy! It was such a treat to go out with the girls without my babies. Don't get me wrong, I love my girls but it is so fun to dress up and laugh with friends. So I left the hus with the z babes to go out on the town. Well, for 2 hours at least. The bride is one of our old youth gals from The Gate back in the day. But Katherine has turned into a dear friend to our family. There was even a season where she lived with our family. Her entire family means a lot to us. Back at our wedding, her parents made Beef Brisket for our wedding reception, all 500 people that came. :) Last night was about celebrating HER. We had 2 gals from Canada, 1 from Florida, 1 from NYC and the rest of us are MN folk. 

After din, we came back for dessert- Cass Casa style. I had cozy socks for my peeps to put on to stay warm. Fire place on. Keurig ready to rock it out. Trader Joes Italian Sodas ready to be made. and many desserts.....

I LOVE HOSTING! Seriously, it is the best excuse to clean, decorate and whip up desserts. I love baking. I made two of my favs....Tres Leches cake and Espresso Torte from Test Kitchen. I also had

Cookie Butter out from Trader Joes....making peeps try it for the first time ;)

Speaking of Tres Leches Cake.... Here is my recipe for you. It is soooooooo good and supa easy!

You will need:

 1 box of Yellow cake mix

 1 can of sweet and condensed milk

 1 cup of milk (I use almond milk)

 whipped cream or cool whip-- i make homemade with vanilla and sugar:)

 1 pint of strawberries- cut into 1/4  pieces. (sometimes I add raspberries too)

Preheat oven to 350. 

bake the cake in a 9x13 pan. 

once out of oven. poke holes and pour the S&C milk and almond milk over the cake. allow cake to cool. I usually keep it on the counter for an hr and then put it in the fridge. 

Make the whipped cream and put it on the cake. top it off with the berries! Easy, right.....and heaven!!!!

Last night, we also had two babies celebrating with us for the festivities.... Baby Kiyah (2 months) and Baby Inez (6 days old). So prec. 

Look at Inez's hair...so cute! Isn't it crazy how big Zakiyah looks compared to Inez. I love babies....so stinkin cute. It never gets old. They were precious.  I thought I would show you some Throwback pix from KO and I....... I met katherine when she was only going into her 11th grade year and now she is 25. crazy town. She is like a sister to me. We have stayed close while she was over seas for 5 years, through many life changes, and periods of growth. We worked together at two salons. She has been a auntie "tia" to my babies and another daughter to my ma-pa. We love you! 

This pix is taken in Duluth, the summer of 2009 with Katherine and Elizabeth (sisters). We went up to D town to stay with my college friends. I was pregnant with Zion here...found out right when I got back from this trip. ;)

  Chicago baby! We went on a youth trip to chicago. Katherine was home from YWAM for a few weeks and got to go...I think this is circa 2006! Love. so many mems on this one...

My Wedding....xoxoxo 08-07-2005 Katherine was serving us at the head table.... I am sitting with my sisters....Cara and Chels! 

This is 2005! I think this was taken at Chelcy Walkers high school grad! crazy!!!

Let the party weekend begin. I am a bridesmaid...Andy-officating....Zion-flowergirl and Zakiyah gets to be held and spoiled. more on the wknd on Sunday! loves. 

Fall Inspiration for Hair

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the 1940's era. It is has continued to hold such a vast variety of inspiration. I love the red lips. the pin curls. finger waves. floral prints. the hats. the fashion gloves. the femininity of the decade. Women rocked it! I have been so excited with the come back from this time period on the runways, magazines and stores. It is so fun to play with on a daily basis. I dare you to buy some red lip stick and rock it out. Or wear your hair different than the average day. I am tempted to hit some consignment shops or my Grandma's closet for some fun vintage wear. 

MINT GREEN! what a fun color. I am so excited to wear normal clothes again. Now that I am not pregnant, I am looking forward to exploring with my wardrobe again. I recently went to the Mall of America and could not get over all the mint green everywhere. So fun. There is even a bakery in my husband's home town that has this color in it. I am obsessed. 

Isn't this so fun?! I love the look. the messy braids. the color palette. the lip color with the fusion of the two contrasting colors. Messy braids are stickin around. I wish I had long hair to do it up! 

So beautiful. To get this look you need day old hair.. dry shampoo. (my fav is Eufora, which I sell at Tala) and a braid. 

curls are RADIANT! I heart them. Here are some of my favs. 

  MENS FASHION is blowing up. I love that we are finally going bold and more runway savvy. I love the hipster look right now mixed with the 1950's mod style. So fun. I am really enjoying the Elvis, the slicked back Fonzy, the shaved sides with the length on top. Parting the hair is back. So fun. Say goodbye to the spiky look, or the mo-fo-hawk. TIME IS A CHANGIN. Step out of your comfort and rock a new look. here are some of my favs:

 oh Macgyver....i love this look.

 Just kidding. there was a time for this and its not returning......:)

I love this look. so in. so now. so easy and fun to dress up or down.

  and here is an example of having shorter more tight sides with some fun texture and wave on top.

Enjoy....what is your fav look right now?

Fall Cass Life

I love FALL in Minnesota. We are so spoiled here with the 4 seasons. I tend to complain about winter but overall we have it good. Andy has been working really hard on our back yard since we moved into this house 2 years ago. This summer we had the opportunity to buy a Rainbow play ground from some youth kids that have out grown it. Zion is loving it. Andy just got it up a few weeks ago with the help of our neighbor Mike. They had to clear brush, cut down some trees, level it off, water it etc. But it looks fab. We have mulch down to help prevent muddy children. It is awesome to watch Z play back there. This picture was taken from our deck. 

 This is a shot from the deck at the changing colors. my FAV>

It is so pretty. I can't get over it. I still pinch myself that I get to wake up to the majestic view everyday......

 My dad recently came to visit for the day and I had him hang up this beauty. My mom gave it to me for my 30th a year ago. She is so stinkin talented. I heart HOMEMADE! It matches so well with our colors in our home. I have it hanging in living room. My dad made the hanger and I painted it yellow.

 Here is some fall-age in the entryway. I love my apple orchard finds. I put the gourd on the mug rug from Jody. My candle is from Hallmark. The rocks are pier 1. The frame and the hurricane is TJMAXX.

I put the pumpkin in my adorable Martha Stewart birdie cake stand. So prec.

 I got these pumpkins two years at Target on clearance. I love them.....Perfect on the table for decor. I like the contrast of the stick table runner with it.

Love myself some fall mantle love. 

I had fun decorating the mantle with some pumpkins, gourds, and flowers. I got the clock at Hobby Lobby, yellow vase at TJMAXX and the mirror is from Target. I think the "C" is from Restoration Hardware. 

 Zion is girl after my own heart with all the art she likes to do. It is a daily question around here from her, "mommy, can we do a project"? It is so cute. She had fun painting the pumpkin that now sits outside our front door.

 Then there is this pumpkin. HOW CUTE! Our friend Chelcy made this for Zion when she was born. Kiyah is getting so much use out of it with it being the perfect season for it.

Speaking of my girls....look at this gem. so special......heart melting now.....

My lovely mums.....that don't look this good anymore. I am so bad with flowers/plants. augh.....What are you doing for fall? Have a favorite tradition.......or recipe to share? loves. xoxo

I create

It has been awesome having a maternity leave for the obvious reasons....spend time with family. bond with Zakiyah and Zion. Make family dinners/eat family dinners. ( normally we don't get family dinners Monday-Thursday do to our work schedule) Just the act of slowing down has been wonderful, well the Christy version of slowing down. But I have been doing some fun changes on the home front this fall.

I got together with my friend Kati recently and mentioned that I wanted to do a chalk board wall in the kitch. She told me she had extra chalk board paint that I could use! PERF! So that day I took advantage of nap time and made it happen. This is a before pix of the kitchen.

After! I love it. I have yet to buy dust-less chalk. Did you know it exsisted? Best invention ever:) We are going to use the chalk board for bible verses. quotes. meal planning. notes. art. and Z2 art. I am excited. 

  Here is the left wall by the desk area.

 the right wall by the patio door. I moved the floral art on the wall by the door. Isn't the ice cream parlor table precious. Our good friend, Shel has borrowed it to us for as long as we can use it. Zion lives at this table. I also switched out our curtains for a more fall/cozy look. They are from a good friend of mine. I think they are from Linens 'N Things. They are a burnt orange Micro fiber. I love them. I have hemp wrapped on them now since we are still using the deck.

Here are the old curtains. They are Pier 1 gold striped. I love them as well. But its fun to switch out seasonally. I still really want to paint the rest of the kitchen this winter. I just can't decide what color to do. Ideas, anyone? 

Here is a close up of the curtains. I love myself a good damask pattern.

I also just picked up this awesome vintage tray that is from my Grandma Cherie. It totally reminds me of growing up and having happy hour at her house. Cheese/Crackers and Root Beer for the kids. I put it in my dining room on the buffet.

Isn't it cute?

I also just made this painting on a canvas! I love it. I have been really into layers my art with different textures. I took an old painting from our old house and recycled it up. Considering it was just sitting in our storage room.

Here is the before painting. I love it as well but it was time for change. I started with using mod-podge and glueing newspapers on the canvas. Then I took some sticker letters and wrote out scripture. "The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God." Andy picked out the verse. Then I painted over the stickers with different colors. While the paint was still wet, I peeled off the letters and allowed the painting to dry. Then I took a sharpie and outlined the letters so they popped off the canvas more. I wanted to paint poppy flowers on the canvas too. So I whipped up some flowers and then used some paint markers (best thing ever btw) and wa-la! It was done. I have it hanging on my fireplace stone. I LOVE IT!

I just hung this Bless All Who Enter sign by my front door. My Friend/client gave this to me for Christmas last year. I have been meaning to hang it this whole time and finally got around to it. Great quote for the entryway.

On top of the craziness at our house, Andy, my rockin hus just finished our deck! PTL. I love it so much. It was a long summer project. Digging holes. putting posts up and having it look like a pergola all summer. When we had Kiyah in August, he finally had time to work on it. It was such a busy summer for us so that was the best time for him to concentrate on it. A shout out to Mike, Luke, and Isaac for helping us out! We went with composite deck wood in a light gray and white metal spindles. I LOVE IT SO MUCH!

  It is 19x12 feet. It is the perfect size for our fam. It is a balcony deck....no stairs needed. Especially with our small flat portion of the yard.

 Zion sitting on it right after it was done. Isn't it gorgeous?

Here is a view from the kitchen facing out. We are so spoiled with this view.
So that is the updates on the projects at the cass casa. xoxo.

Zucchini Banana Coconut Bread

I just have to say that I love zucchini desserts. It is crazy how many recipes there are out there with this fab. veg. The other night I created a mighty good loaf of bread. I loved it so much that I thought I would share:)

Preheat oven at 350. grease (2) 9x5 bread pans. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

1 1/2 c. almond flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. nutmeg

3 c. shredded zucchini ( dry the shredded zucchini)

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. sugar

2 ripe bananas

1/2 c. melted coconut oil

2 eggs at room temp.
1 c. greek yogurt (i used greek gods plain 2%) at room temp.

1 t. vanilla extract

I mixed the dry ingredients together and added them in 1/3 increments to the remaining ingredients. Then pour the batter into 2 pans!! 

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Enjoy! It is defnitley a Cass fav! Make sure you let the bread cool before serving! 

3 Things

Three things I am currently loving right now for my hair.......

Serious Conditioner! This has been been a staple for my hair for over 5 years now. It is by far the best deep conditioner I have used. It has sunflower seed oil and peppermint extract. It rocks!!! I use it once a week. It is perfect for all hair types. dry scalp issues. post summer dry hair. great for rebuilding your strength and protein for the hair. It smells heavenly! I love it. all you do is leave it in your hair for 5 minutes...and wa-lah! Its only $26 for a tube and lasts forever!

Another thing I can't live without for styling my hair is my teasing brush by Monroe. It is made of  100% boar bristles. It adds volume and is heat resistant. One of the main reasons why it is beneficial to use a teasing comb verses a brush or normal comb is this prevents breakage and spilt ends. It is easy to use and awesome. They are $15 and well worth every penny.

Oh Moroccan Oil, how I love thee. This product has won so many awards for many great reasons. It is the staple for styling my hair. I love it on every hair type. It creates a barrier when you apply in wet hair for styling. That way heat won't affect it. It is great for adding weightless shine and creating volume. Moroccan Oil prevents breakage and spilt ends. I sell it in two sizes- one is $17 and $43. The big bottle should last a year. All you need is one pump. You can apply in wet/damp hair or dry hair. Oh and did I mention how great it smells. The aroma is amazing. You will love.
If you need any of these products, come on in to Tala. Mention this blog post and I will give you 15% off.
Happy Friday!