Royal Hats...the gemmiest of the little gems...

Honestly, after yesterday's wedding I am thinking there will be a monster side hat trend upon us Americans.  But one hat that I'm pretty sure won't be trending on this side of the Atlantic is this little gem worn by Princess Beatrice.  Some hats looked like plates, some bowls, some birds, some ferrets, some soy sauce cups, but this one?  Yikes!  Hope no one pulls one of these out at our wedding next March!

Kinda into hats right now myself,

Hannah

Our Wedding Color Palette!

Here are some swatches of the colors we chose for our wedding...it's a coral, navy, robins egg blue/light blue and white combination!  We've stuck with these colors for a few weeks now, so pretty sure they won't be changing any time soon :)  Hope you guys like it too!

Love looking up pictures and blogs these days,
Hannah

Ivana can SAAAAAAAAAIIIIIINNNNGGGG

So in the Fall, Ivana joined an a-capella group called The Nuances at Davidson.  By joined, I mean she made the cut!!!!!  A few weeks ago, my mom went up to Davidson to watch Ivana perform her first full solo (i think it was the first full one...either way, she rocks).  See ya Christina Aguilera, Ivana's turn to rock the mic.  Here are The Nuances performing "Halo" (the girl in front, Ivana!!):

Love,
Hannah

Hannah Zier Fan Page on Facebook ~ "LIKE" me!!

Wedding Dress Shopping - Round 3 - Got it!

Saturday was the third time I went dress shopping for our March 2012 wedding!  I didn't just go to one bridal shop (like I had the past two times) in one day.  We went to FOUR.  We left Fort Lauderdale at 9 am and and got home by 6:30 pm.  And luckily, 8 1/2 hours of shopping proved successful!  Here's a picture of Ivana, my mom and me in the wedding dress.  Muaaaahahhahah.  Only Ivana, my mom, our wedding planner and the ladies at the bridal shop know what it is!  This is a fun game, but not sure how long I can keep a secret.  WOo!!!!  So excited! 

Love,

Hannah

Key Lime Pie...the "I don't know how to bake" person's dream recipe

I few years ago, I stumbled upon a recipe for Key Lime Pie that I still use today.  I tweeked it a little (by tweek I decided to use 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk instead of measuring out specific ounces) to make it easier to make.  The reason I say it's the dream recipe for someone who doesn't know how to bake, is because of how easy it is to make it.  Seriously.  And you can make it even easier for you if you buy pre-made graham cracker crust.  And it's nearly impossible to burn it.

I'd like to add, by the way, that I've converted non Key Lime Pie people into Key Lime Pie Lovers with this dessert!

What you need:

• 9" graham cracker pie crust (or larger if you want...it will still fit)
• 2 cans sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces each)
• 3/4 cup key lime juice (located in the juice section of your grocery store usually)
• 1/2 cup sour cream

What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix sweetened condensed milk, key lime juice and sour cream in a bowl until smooth.
3. Pour the mixture into the pie crust.
4. Stick the key lime pie in the oven for 15 minutes and you're done!

Love,
Hannah

And I always thought Easter was about cute, fluffy bunnies...

When I went downstairs one day to the front desk of the condo, I was startled by the condo's Easter bunny hanging out by the couch near the front entrance.  Startled? A bunny?  I thought they were cute and fluffy?  Not ours.  This is how people in our building celebrate Easter... (or maybe this is how they scare all the children away...)

Big bunny foo foo...

Chilling on a tan couch,

Spookin all the visitors,

And showing off her heals.

Nough said,

Hannah

Fiesta Friday ~ Premade Margaritas!

Last weekend, we went up to Wellington to visit our friends Mary and Brian.  Ben and Brian went to go play gold while Mary and I packed up a drink and headed to the beach (much cooler I think)!  In her handy water bottles, we added some premade Strawberry Margaritas...which I've never had before but now that I have I am a believer!!  One the way to the beach, we made a quick stop into Total Wine to get some more Margaraitas.  Instead of Strawberry we ventured out and got Pomegranite.  Great decision.  These bad boys kept us company as we sat on her lounge chairs for hours until we were forced to leave by the rapidly rising tides (no joke, we were getting washed away).  While I'm always a big fan of making my own Margaritas from scratch, I can now say that premade mixes are just as good.  And if you're ever out looking for a new Margarita to try, Strawberry or Pomegranite are great choices!

Cheers!

Hannah

Prank Calls...they're still cool

Remember back in middle school and lower school (ehhh maybe did it in high school) when you used to get together with your friends and plan prank calls?  Sometimes it was to people you knew...and other times it was definitely random numbers.  I can't specifically recall any one prank we used to do, but there were plenty.  Looking back, they're still funny.  But grr I wish I remembered the specifics!  It would make this post more relatable.  Oh well. 

So although I've grown out of my own prank calling phase, it doesn't mean I don't like hearing them.  Every morning (and they replay it in the afternoon), Elvis Duran and the Morning Crew play their own version of prank calling: "Phone Taps."  They are, for the most part, hilarious and have me cracking up to myself while driving down 595 on the way to work in the morning.  They recently started putting up some of their classic phone taps on their site, so I thought I'd share the link for you to enjoy!

Elvis Duran Phone Taps

Love,
Hannah

Fare Weather Fan and Proud of It

Yep, I'm a fare weather fan.  And I'm not ashamed to admit it.  I just have more fun rooting for a team that's winning, right?  Charlie Sheen will agree with me at least, "duh."  So when Bosh and Lebron joined the Heat to make the Big Three with D Wade, I was ecstatic!  I don't know why but when a famous person lives in South FL, I feel like they are my friends...not in a creepy way...but in a "yeah they live within 40 miles from me and it's awesome" kind of way.  Plus, I like when attention is drawn towards SFL because it makes people want to come visit more often!  And I feel cool...just saying. 

To kind of show you (more like tell you actually) how embarrassingly excited I was that they joined the Heat, I threw a Miami Heat sorta party at work.  By party I mean I brought in red and black balloons, wore red and black, and supplied red and black and hot (get it the Heat) foods for everyone in the breakroom the day after Lebron signed.  Just another reason to get excited about SFL and bring food to work!

When Sarah Mas and her girlfriend Jess were in town, my mom thought it would be a great idea to go to a Heat game with the family!  I loveeed the idea of course because of the yummy snacks and the proximity I would have to the Big Three.  Before then, it was just the TV, and now I would get to see them in person!  The funny part is (which I show you in a picture below), is that we had the 2nd farthest seats in the stadium.  Looking down at the players was like playing with my Polly Pockets when I was in 2nd grade.  Itttyyyy bitty.  They actually look bigger on the TV haha but it was still awesome!

Here we are about to go into the game....mom's taking the pic.

Yep, only one row behind us...

Polly Pocket throwback

Winning,

Hannah

Wine corks, stolen items, spare change and fishbowls...

Membs the time I did a DIMS project with Jayne to make a new wine cork container and we failed?  Well, last week Ben and I went to Lulu's Baitshack on Fort Lauderdale Beach to get some food and a fishbowl.  You see the fishbowl in the picture below?  Yep, that's our new wine cork container.  Except we put it in the dishwasher and it's no longer fish bowl shaped.  Sad day. May just have to go back for a new one!

The fishbowls and food at Lulu's are great.  And the fishbowls are free.  The fondest memory I have at Lulu's is when Jayne was down a few years ago.  We went to Lulus to get their mountain of nachos (which are the best nachos to date I've ever had at a restaurant...covered in red beans, spicy chicken, sausage, cheese, jalapenos, and more) and a fishbowl.  When we finished our fishbowl (I might add they give you an extra shot in an alligator toy...you can kinda see the alligator above) we decided it was only appropriate that we keep the fishbowl.  Without knowing it was actually FREE, we dumped the ice under the table, shoved the fishbowl in my beach bag and darted.  We felt so accomplished until a few months later I found out we didn't have to jump through hoops to keep the fishbowl.  So while we thought we were living life on the edge by hi-jacking a fishbowl, we were actually hi-jacking a free souvenir.  Good times either way. 

In addition to being a great souvenir and wine cork holder, the fishbowl is a great coin holder!  Ben and I went a few years ago and he brought the fishbowl back to Winston to hold his change.  For some reason these fishbowls always come with good stories because one day someone broke into Ben's fraternity house and stole his fishbowl.  THAT'S IT.  Not his laptop, not the TV, nope. His spare change. Guess not all robbers know what they're doing.

Gone fishin',

Hannah

Fiesta Friday ~ Birthday Shots

In the spirit of two birthday this weekend (my dad's today and Avi's on Sunday), today's Fiesta Friday post is about the Birthday Shot!  Never had one?  Well, you're in for a real treat because it tastes almost like chocolate cake.  When you see the ingredients you won't believe me, but you'll have to try it for yourself!

What you need:

• one part vodka
• one part hazelnut flavored liquor (amaretto, frangelico...)
• slice of lemon
• sugar

How to take it:

1. Dip the lemon into sugar.
2. Fill a shotglass up with half vodka half hazelnut liquor
3. Lick the sugar off the lemon, take the shot, then bite the lemon.

Cheers!
Hannah

Love Flowers!

I love love love flowers, and over the past two weeks we've added a beautiful orchid plant and tulips to the condo!  Before we just had pretty fake flowers that were bright yellow to help liven up the condo a bit...now we have real ones :).

Last Wednesday, I got a phone call from Tony at the front desk of the condo.  He said "Hannahhhhh, got some flowers here for you!"  Of course Ben and I perked up and went downstairst to get them.  They came in a 1.800.FLOWERS box and I have to be honest, flowers in a box is the best invention ever!  We got tulips from Lisa, Carolyn, Jess, Chelsea and Michelle as a congratulations and they were so incredibly fresh!  no joke...first I took a picture of the box because I still cannot believe how fresh they were once they came out of the cardboard coffin.

Then, I took a picture of the tulips in a vase on our table...so beautiful!

The week before, Kate brought us a gorgeous orchid plant also to congratulate Ben and me...another amazing addition!  We put it on the counter by the front door so everyone can see it when they first walk in.

Thanks guys!

Love,

Hannah

Wedding Dress Shopping Day 1

Sorry!!! No pictures of the dresses I tried on...Ben reads my blog (by choice I'd like to add).  But I thought I'd keep you all posted on the Wedding process!  Two Saturdays ago my mom and I went to Miracle Mile to go wedding dress shopping.  I had an appointment at Priscilla of Boston at 10 am and another appointment at a bridal shop whose name I will not mention because we left within 5 minutes (I will explain later). We started off the morning by waiting outside the shop and forcing a couple to take a picture of us so we could document the day.

me & mom!

Finally, they opened (we were early haha)...we took a seat and then it all started! Yay!

The girl who helped me was named Lauren and she was amazing!  She did such a good job making suggestions, helping me put the dresses on, showing me veils, jewelry, and clamping the dress on with car cable clamps.  I wish I could post a picture of the clamps..they're super turtle.  Anyways, the service and atmosphere at Priscilla of Boston was incredible.  I couldn't have asked for a better experience.

Fast forward an hour and a half and we were done.  Our next appointment was at 12:45 so we roamed around Miracle Mile for an hour and grabbed some lunch.  Come 12:45 and we go to our next appointment.  Terrible...I'll leave it at that haha.  Let's just say it was nothign like the customer service and atmosphere they had at Priscilla of Boston!

Playing Princess,

Hannah

The Only Things from Tiffany's I've Ever Owned...

Not a diamond, not a necklace, not one of those chain necklaces with a plaque on it that every girl got for her Bat Mitzvah back in middle school, not a vase...BRIDAL NOTES!  One of the ladies at work gave me a set of three bridal notebooks from Tiffany as a congratulatory gift for getting engaged :).  I took a picture of the wrapping because I love the Tiffany Blue color.  I'm sure the notebooks will come in handy soon...

Love,

Hannah

Card Shopping...why 3D cards are that much cooler

There's something about getting or buying a card that has a 3D element to it.  I don't know what that something is, but it makes a card so much more fun!  Papyrus has some goodies...they also have glittery cards which I love!  Check out this card Jayne got Ben and me...it has a cute towel rack with 3D towels on the front!

Love,

Hannah

DIMS ~ What started off as a project for wine corks...

When boredom strikes...head to Michaels craft store!  Originally, I wanted a new container for the growing collection of wine corks Ben and I have in our kitchen.  Currently, they are sitting in a margarita glass which was crafted-ly (not much of a real word but I hope you know what I mean) hi-jacked from a Mexican restaurant with Jayne a few years ago...but I digress.  Back to the story.  So Jayne and I went to Michaels with the intentions of finding cool glasses to paint in cool colors to make them look artsy and cool.  What we thought would be an hour long project, ended up taking about 10 minutes and we spent more time rubbing the large fishbowl glass because it felt cool then actually painting.  See below:

Caught red handed ;) ... clever, Jayne

Jayne's awesome martini flower...my not so awesome red bowl, which at first was multi-colored and looked more like a fire than art.  That's where the rubbing came in and we made it just red.  

Then, clever Jayne again said...why not make it into the Cool-Aid Man!  GENIUS.

Lesson learned: I still need a new container for the wine corks.

DIMS-in it,

Hannah

J Marks ~ great atmosphere, food, oh, and PEAR MARTINIS

Last month for Valentine's Day, my mom and dad gave Ben and me a gift card to a restaurant we'd been dying to try: J Marks.  Every time we'd pass it on US-1 by Sunrise, it would be packed!  Plus, it looked like it had a fun atmosphere, so we were pleasantly surprised when they gave us a $75 gift card.  Of course, we went the following weekend and everything lived up to our expectations.  The food was great, the drinks were delicious, the service was amazing (you'll see why later) and although they said we had a wait of 45 minutes, our thingy (not sure what those small plastic things that light up are called) lit up after 5 minutes.

Here's a play by play of our experience:

We started off with two Pear Martinis--suggested by our waiter.  They were AMAZING!  I wish I had the recipe...based on taste I'm thinking it was as simple as vodka and pear schnapps, but I could be wrong.  That could be the cheapified version of a pear martini.  Maybe they put those angosta bitters or whatever (recipes always call for those and I never ever can figure out what they are or where to get them.)

Then came the bread.  In the words of Usher, OH MY GOD.  So soft, so warm, so good!  I think you can often get the sense of what type of food you're going to get at a restaurant if their bread is to die for.   J Marks is no exception.

For an appetizer, we split Bruchetta.  Again, amazing.  Delicious, crunchy baguettes covered in balsamic vinegar (which I thought was a nice touch instead of the typical olive oil spread), diced tomatoes, basil and Parmesan cheese.

For our main course, we split Swordfish.  I've never had it and Ben was in the mood for seafood so we went for it.  That night, it was one of their specials I might add, so they may not have it when you go.  But, it tasted great, so I'm sure the rest of their seafood is impeccable.  For our sides, the swordfish came with asparagus and we ordered as side salad (top right corner).

While we were allowing our food to digest, I was telling Ben a story.  I don't remember what the story was about but it must have been really intense because mid-way through my story telling, my arm gestures got really big and I knocked over my Pear Martini!!!  I wasn't even done!!!!!  Embarrassing to say the least because (a) I wasn't done and (b) I was sobes.

Love,

Clumsy

White Balsamic Mahi Mahi

White Balsamic Mahi Mahi is technically a dish Ben and I concocted.  I say technically because we originally found a Mahi Mahi recipe on Allrecipes.com that we intended to make.  But, due to my lack of memory (I assumed my parent's had ginger seasoning, but when I showed up to take it...I was wrong) and our decision not to go to the grocery store to pick up random ingredients that we figured could be replaced by our limited selection, we came up with our own Mahi Mahi recipe.  Luckily it worked!  We made a perfectly flakey fish that didn't have an overpowering taste like some fish recipes can have.  Here's what we did:

Ingredients:

• 2 Mahi Mahi filets 
• 1 1/2 tbs honey
• 1 1/2 tbs soy sauce
• 1 1/2 abs white balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• dash of olive oil
• salt and pepper

What to do:

Season each filet with salt and pepper and place them in a baking dish.

Combine honey, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, garlic and olive oil in a small bowl and pour over seasoned filets.  Marinate for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, put filets in a 350 oven for about 20 minutes.  After about 20 minutes, check the Mahi Mahi and make sure it's good and flakey.  Once done, add it to your sides (whatever they may be...we used rice and a salad) and enjoy!

Unda da sea,

Hannah

Finding Jupiter ~ Britney Spears Cover!

Listen!!!!!!

Love,
Hannah

Fiesta Friday ~ Chocovine Re-visited

Two weeks ago I suggested buying a bottle of Chocovine...this Friday, I have a new way for you to enjoy Chocovine.  It's delicious plain, but if you add water (about 3 to 1 ratio) it's even better!  The creamyness kind of goes away, which I like, and it's a bit easier to swallow.  No sipping, it's gulping time!  Seriously, try it. 

Amy, try it again with water this time.

Cheers,
Hannah