LBC Party, Sour Beer, and Other Adventures

On Friday night the Mr. and I threw a final party at our condo. The theme was "The Long Beach Experience" and it was so much fun!

We saw a lot of friends we hadn't seen in a while and I think people enjoyed our creative "Long Beach" theme.

As part of the party the Mr. wanted to do a Tequila Tasting, which was actually a huge hit! We sampled 7 different kinds of tequila (the Don Julio Anejo was my favorite). We even had scoresheets that I made up on the computer. Here's all the tequila in our freezer before the party started...

PS - We have A LOT of tequila left so if you ever want to drop by for a margarita let me know.

We also did a "Long Beach Visual Trivia" competition. I printed out pictures of 10 Long Beach landmarks/items and people had to guess what they were to win a small prize (Starbucks card).


This one was easy. It's the Queen Mary!


Visual trivia is a lot fun and the best part is that people can't look up the answers on their phones very easily.

Continuing with the Long Beach theme we also had handcrafted “Long Beach Longshoremen Burgers" and regional “Hipster” microbrew beer (I forgot to take pictures during the party because I was having too much fun).

Speaking of beer, I recently tasted "Sour Beer" for the first time and loved it! So I hunted some down at BevMo and had a couple of bottles of this Sour Beer for the party. Yum!


Have you ever tried Sour Beer? I guess it's an up-and-coming trend. The Week magazine (which I actually read every week) even did a little special on it last month.


A couple of weekends ago we drove down to Oceanside to have lunch with my parents. On the Oceanside Pier there were several of giant pelicans that clearly had no fear of people. Here is my Mom and a pelican that's almost her size!


Speaking of beasts... I often try to take pictures of our cat, Judah, but he rarely looks at the camera. A couple of days ago I caught him basking in the morning sun and snapped this pic with my phone. Consider your soul stolen, cat!


When I became a follower of Jesus almost seven years ago I bought an NIV Study Bible. If I have my way it will be my bible for the rest of my life. But recently the cover started to really peal and fall apart, so I covered it with some words and pictures I cut out from magazines and then "laminated" it with clear tape. I think it looks pretty nifty and it's not falling apart anymore. Crafting win!


And finally, because it's random/funny, here's a picture of a co-worker and I with "mustaches" at recent work party. Hers is actually a fu manchu, but you get the point, we're ridiculous. I'm so lucky that I work with such fun and funny people.

Mother's Day, Luau Bridal Shower, and my BFF is Back!

So this post is a few days late. I hate when bloggers complain about not being able to blog, but seriously work has been kicking. my. butt. So bear with me...

Last weekend was Mother's Day. I was so glad I got to spend the day with my Mommy!

This is one of my new favorite pictures of us -- taken on Mother's Day 2011.

This is what I gave my Mom for Mother's Day. A Blurb Photo Book of all of the trips her and I have taken together. Just our mother-daughter trips.


It includes trips to Lake of the Ozarks, Quincy IL, Chicago, Boston, Salem, San Diego, and New York City.

She loved it!

This Mother's Day was a tough one for me, so I was happy that I was distracted by co-hostessing a bridal shower for my God-Sister (my God-Mother's daughter) on Mother's Day. My Mom and I co-hostessed it with another Mother-Daughter that we're all good friends with. And the shower was mainly Mothers and Daughters that we're close with. Very fun.

Here's some of the fun food and decor. Reminded me a lot of my own 2008 Luau Bridal Shower.


The food was so good and my Mom made amazing Mai Tais!

Here are the hostesses, the bride-to-be (in black and white), and her Mom.


Also, my best friend in the whole world (aka my childhood playmate/maid of honor/almost sister) is BACK from her 2.5 years in Ecuador for the Peace Corps. I missed her SO much. I got to spend a lot of last weekend with her. I am so glad she is back! Sadly, she is moving to Washington DC in August, but I know I'll see her a lot more when she's in DC rather than Ecuador.

Reunited and feels so good!


Are you still best friends with someone from your childhood? Do you see them a lot or a little?

80s Party!

My friend had an amazing 80s themed 30th birthday party on Saturday. Great food, drinks, music, decorations, and of course, COSTUMES!

The Mr and I had a blast dressing up.


Clearly our friends did too!

That's the birthday girl in yellow.

Our husbands - looking like a Guns N Roses tribute band.


Everyone at the party who dressed up in 80s attire.


There was even a costume contest and my friend who dressed up as Tom Selleck and I won!


Although I personally think the girl who was dressed as "Flashdance" should have won.

We made her dance around to "Manic" -- it was amazing!

I {heart} the 80s!

Monday Musings

Things on my mind...

• The dinner party on Saturday was huge success! I have fully redeemed myself from my cooking failures. Our guests loved everything and even complemented my cooking skills! The gazpacho (cold soup) was huge hit. The Mr. did a great job on the steaks over arugula. And the mini-pots of chocolate dessert was ah-mazing. I officially love that William-Sonoma cookbook. In all the stress of cooking I didn't take any pictures, but this is what the gazpacho looked like.

• USC Trojans lost to Washington. I almost cried. That's all I want to say about that.

• On Saturday night the Mr. slammed his hand in the door out to our condo balcony. He cut his finger really bad I'm we're pretty sure he fractured the top bone of his finger. We tried to go to the emergency room at 11:30 PM on Saturday night and the wait there was over 3 hours (there was also a crazy man in the waiting room barking like dog. I heart LA). Since we figured he didn't need stitches for the cut and since doctors can't do much for a broken finger, we immediately left and just went to Rite Aid to buy a finger splint. Poor guy.

• Like millions of other Americans we are officially "underwater" on our home loan. But we confirmed can't refinance to a lower interest rate through the government bailout plans, because we haven't missed any payments. I find that very ironic.

• I got my annual bonus today! Too bad taxes ate over 1/2 of it. Don't you hate that about bonuses?

• In less than four weeks we will be BOSTON! I'm so excited for our week vacation to New England!

Ok that's enough randomness for now. How was your weekend?

Dinner Party Planning

When I was engaged I had all these dreams of holding fancy-schmancy dinner parties at our condo complete with Hostess with the Mostess-style center pieces and "the good china."

Flash forward one year, and I think we've had about two dinner parties with two couples. Not to say we haven't had people over. We do poolside burgers & BBQs, football watching parties, dessert parties, and copious booze fests with friends at our home; just not real dinner parties. Why not so many dinner parties? Because I'm not exaccctttlly the next barefoot contessa (see here), but I think I may be getting better.

Well tomorrow night the Mr's old boss and his wife are coming over for dinner and I figured, "what the heck, let's give this dinner party cooking thing another go."

So I dusted off my Williams-Sonoma "Bride and Groom" cookbook



And tomorrow night we'll be serving...
- Appetizer: Veggie platter
- Soup: Gazpacho
- Main Course: Steak with garlic butter over a bed of arugula with crisp rosemary potatoes
- Dessert: Chocolate Pots de Creme

The Mr. is doing the steak and I can premake the gazpacho, veggie platter, and chocolate pots. So I don't think I'm setting myself up for complete failure. I promise I'll post on how it goes next week! Be prepared for some hilarity.

Do you have any tips for successful dinner party hostessing?

Luau Bridal Shower

It’s amazing that I’ve never shared my Bridal Shower on this blog! I had a fabulous Bridal shower in June 2008 before our August 2008 wedding that was hosted by my Godmother at her home in San Diego.

Since we were honeymooning in Hawaii, we thought it would be apropos and fun to do Hawiian Luau theme.

It’s very easy to be cheesy with a Luau theme, so I told my Godmother to steer toward a chic, vintage take on the Luau theme.

I even made her an inspiration board based on what I imagined a vintage Hawaiian Luau Themed Bridal Shower to look like:


And here is a look at what she created for my actual Shower!

{Click to Enlarge}

It was such an amazing Bridal Shower; complete with mai tais, leis, orchids, sand, pu-pu platters, palm trees, and fan favors. She had so many fun details! Here are some of my favorites…

The invitations


The florals


The sand and palms décor


The entryway to my Godmother’s house (me, Mom, and Grandma!)


My Godmother and me with my chocolate orchid cake


Opening gifts! I love our facial expressions.


Thansk for stopping by on "Show Us Your Life" Friday!

Bridesmaid as a Mrs.

This weekend was my friend, C's wedding and I had the honor of being a Bridesmaid in it. This was my first time being a Bridesmaid since I've become a Mrs. myself.

I had an absolute blast and their wedding was simply stunning. I took over 100 pictures, but here a few for your viewing pleasure...

Details in the Bride's bouquet:


All the Bridesmaids getting ready:


The beautiful Bride!


Getting ready:


All of the centerpieces befor they went in the ballroom. Beautiful:


Me and three of my Gamma Phi sorority sisters who were also bridesmaids:

Pretty in Pink!


The stunning ceremony setup and Chuppah:


Being escorted by a Groomsmen:


Bridemaids waiting for the Bride:


The Bride coming down the aisle:


First kiss! Mazel tov!


Not the newest newlyweds anymore!


Mr & Mrs!


It was an interesting experience being in a wedding again, but this time not as the bride herself and now having the wisdom from being the bride. I tried not to be a "know it all" and tried to give the bride my unconditional support and love. My other goal was to be as low maintenance as possible, and not complain about anything.

I was also reminded a lot of my own wedding - the feelings I had that day, the vows we made, and how much I love my husband.

I could not be happier for the new Mr and Mrs. S! They are an amazing couple and I'm so happy to have another friend in my very small "wives club."

Berzerk Weekend

Is Wednesday too late to recap the weekend? I think not.

Friday night I got my hair done by my friend and hair stylist extraordinaire, Carey at Ten Salon in Long Beach.

My hair is a lot blonder and bit shorter. I love it! Carey styled my hair so cute and wavy (why I can't do create this look on my own?)


Then the Mr. and I headed out to Cirque Berzerk. A Cirque show in LA.


The show was great! It was no "O" but it was a lot of fun.


We had great seats. Look how close we were!


Saturday I tormented the Mr. for a couple of hours by having him clean the house with me. Does anyone else feel like getting their husbands to clean is sometimes like pulling teeth?

Then I cruised over to Nordstrom Rack and bought this little top:

The price? $9! I love Nordstrom Rack. You have to be in the mood to wade through all the ugly and odd-sized stuff, but there are definitely diamonds in the rough for great prices!

The reason I wanted a new shirt is that Saturday night was my Consulting Firm's Summer party at Lucky Strike in the new LA Live in Downtown LA. Here we are before we left for the party.


We took the Metro from Long Beach to Downtown so we didn't have to have a designated driver. How un-LA of us, huh? If you look closely at these pics, I'm not wearing my engagement ring because the Mr. wouldn't let me wear it on the Metro. Ha!

Sadly, I have no pictures from the even because I didn't bring my camera. But the event was a lot of fun and LA Live is so cool!

Up next this weekend? C's Wedding!