Signs of Adulthood: Hostessing Baby Showers

My friend, Rebec is having a baby girl in September. So on Saturday some sweet friends and I hosted her baby shower in my condo's banquet room.

The shower was amazing! Mainly thanks to the amazing work of my friend, Carey, who did most of the decor.

Look how cute the tables were!


And the brunch food spread was amazing!


Besides the venue, I was in charge of coffee and mimosas (which happen to be two of my favorite things!)

I decided that the champagne glasses needed a little flair so before the shower I made some adorable (if I do say so myself) baby-themed wine charms.


Here's a closer look...


These were actually really inexpensive and easy to do. I just bought a couple colors of curling ribbon and these little table sprinkles from party city. Then I just threaded the charms, tied them on the glasses, and curled the ends of the ribbon. That way each glass had a unique charm and ribbon to people would know which mimosa or OJ was theirs.


I loved it!

Can I just say that the mom-to-be was so adorable and tiny! Here were are together...


And here she is with her loot...


I wish I'd taken more pictures of all the super cute clothes baby clothes that she got! All that cute pink stuff just melts your heart.

Here's me with a couple of my friends. Hair stylist and party planner extraordinaire, Carey, is on the right.

A True Wedding Keepsake

Remember 5 months ago when I said we were finally getting our wedding album?

Well, guess what FINALLY came this weekend?

I'll give you hint...


Yup, it's our beautiful leather-bound album!


With the thickest pages I've ever seen...


It definitely cost a pretty penny. But it is so worth it!

The professional layout...


And the awesome double page spreads...


We even got our "trash the dress" pictures in there...


I love it!

I had debated just making a blurb book of our wedding photos, but I'm so happy I went for the uber-professional album. It's a true wedding keepsake that we'll treasure for the rest of our lives. I told the Mr. that in case of a fire, he needs to grab this album, ha!

If you want to see the proofs of this entire album, you can check them out here...

Wedding Album Proofs

Europe Trip 2010, Part 3: Bavarian Alps & Castles

Between our second and fourth days in Munich, we took a day trip out to the Bavarian Alps to see Linderhof Castle, the town of Oberammergau, and Neuschwanstein Castle.

We boarded our tour bus early in the morning -- and quickly realized we were some of the youngest people on our tour. Our tour guide was an old German lady with a bun and a thick German accent. Priceless.

We then headed out to the Alps.


Linderhof and Neuschwanstien castles were both built by "crazy" king Ludwig II who reigned in the 1800s.

Our first stop was Linderhof palace. This was Ludwig's secluded private palace that built in French style to resemble Versailles since he idolized French King Louis XIV. But in fact, a lot of us commented that it's more ornate than Versailles since Linderhof was built about 200 years later, so craftsman had made gains in technology.

The castle was very pretty and was in such beautiful landscape.


Our next stop, Oberammergau. Total tourist trap, famous mainly for the passion play, which runs for about 6 months, only every 10 years. Only locals born in town, or living there for 20 years can be part of the cast.


Oberammergau also had lots of building painted with scenes from fairy tales, which is pretty cool.


There were also tons of woodworking shops with coo coo clocks, Christmas scenes and ornaments. But everything was pretty pricey so we didn't buy anything, but it was fun to look.


Then it was time for the main tour attraction, Neuschwanstein Castle!


Neuschwanstein castle is often called one of the most beautiful castles in the world and it was the inspiration for the Cinderella castle that welcomes visitors to Disneyland.

First we enjoyed a hearty German meal in the town below Neuschwanstein.


Then got our tour tickets from our tour guide and walked the mile from the town up to the castle.


But when we got to the top, I didn't have the tickets! Sheer panic. They had fallen out of my pocket!

So with 45 minutes until out castle tour, I decided to run the mile down the hill to see if I could find the tickets.

And at the very bottom of the hill, what did I find? Our tickets! Just laying on the ground. I was so happy! Then I realized that I had to walk a mile back up the hill... not so happy...


But at the top of hill I did celebrate with a Hofbrau Beer. Why? Because it was cheaper than a bottle of water. I love Germany.


And we still had a few minutes to hang out outside of the castle before of our tour.


We took a tour of the inside of the castle (no pictures allowed), but the inside was was pretty cool. Ludwig was a pretty quirky, whacky guy. For one, he was obsessed with the composer Richard Wagner and dedicated many of the rooms of the castle to him (including a swan room and a cave room).


The views from the castle were also pretty incredible.


So picturesque!


Overall our alps and castle tour was great. The only thing I'd change is I'd take a more age appropriate tour -- like Mike's Bike Tour. We did feel a bit like the kids on a seniors bus. But oh well, live and learn, right?

Next up? Venice, Italy!

Just joining the Europe recaps? See them all here.

Europe Trip 2010, Part 2: Munich

We arrived in Munich, Germany, after 18 hours of flying, one layover at Heathrow, and zero volcanic ash delays. We were SO happy to be there.

Actually our flight there was not bad at all. The highlights of the trip included: sleeping, the copious amounts of food that was served to us by American Airlines (I forgot what it was like to eat on a plane), the "Great British Food" and Harrods at Heathrow, and our British Airways pilot telling us the weather is Munich was "not too pleasant" (I love how blunt Brits are).

After our plane ride we took a train to the Munich central station and tried to walk to our hotel, the Le Meridian. But we walked the wrong way about three times. We ended up finding the hotel after a long walk and some crazy blisters from the ballet flats I wore (more on that later).


We checked into our suite (SPG upgrade, yeah!), took showers, blew out the power in our room with my American hair straighter (ooops!), and then went out for some late night food and drinks.


Our first day in Munich we did Mike's Bike Tour.

We met the group under the Old Town Hall.


We rode all around the city, learned a lot of Munich history, met lots of cool people, and drank beers together at the Chinesischer Turm Beer Garden in the Englischer Garden.

70% of Munich was destroyed in WWII, so they rebuilt a lot of buildings with facades like this one...


The Mr.'s favorite part was seeing the river surfing in the English Garden.


Note: I don't have many pictures from Mike's Bike Tour or our trip to Dachau because of a camera tragedy involving me accidentally deleting a memory card. It still makes me sad, so I don't want to talk about it.

I loved visiting all of the various "platz" and "strauss", the best being the Marienplatz.


Mike's Bike Tour was fun! I highly recommend that you do it on your first day in Munich.

After Mike's Bike Tour we went to the Augustiner Bierhalle for delicious weissbier and lots of German sausage. Yum!


Can you tell it was COLD in Munich? It was. Drizzly and in the 40s and 50s. Reminded us a lot of Seattle in March.

After that we did some bar harping around Schwbing. Went to a way trendy hookah bar, a Soccer (Football) bar, and what we think was a College bar that served buckets of mixed drinks. It was definitely not touristy in Schwbing, so it was fun to see how Germans spend their Saturday nights.



On our second day in Munich we went to the concentration camp, Dachau. I don't have pictures from there, but I was a very somber experience. Sad, informative, and chilling. We did the audio tour and saw the the barraks, bunk beds, crematory, gas chambers, famous gates, commemorative art, and the museum. Very somber and grusome place. It reminded me visiting the Holocaust museum in Washington DC. It was a tough thing to see, but I'm glad we went.

On our final day in Munich we visited the Viktualienmarkt but I started to rain on us, hard.


So we retreated to the beer halls.

First, the famous Hofbrauhaus...


We spent hours at Hofbrau drinking giant beers...


Eating German pretzels...


Listening to traditional music..


And eating giant pieces of pork hip and potato dumplings...


Next we did a little bit of shopping and then stopped by Schneider Weisse for more weissbier.


Yes, we drank a lot of beer. But give us a break, the beer in Germany is often cheaper than the bottled water!


Next up? Neuschwanstein castle and Oberammergau!

Just joining the Europe recaps? Start here!

Europe Trip 2010, Part 1: The Brief Recap

Before I do the detailed recaps of each location that we visited, I wanted to give an overview of our itinerary so you can get a preview of everything we did.

When I was prepping for our Europe trip I spent a lot of time trying to figure out where to visit and for how long, so I'm hoping this itinerary could help others in planning their Europe trips as well.

Europe Trip 2010 final itinerary

Day 1: Leave for Europe
Day 2: Flying, arrive in Munich late
Day 3: Mike's Bike Tour, Augustiner

Day 4: Dachau Tour
Day 5: Bavarian Alps and Neuschwanstein Castle
Day 6: Haufbrau Haus, Viktualienmarkt, beer halls, night train to Venice
Day 7: Arrive in Venice, Accademia Museum, Rialto, exploring the city

Day 8: St. Marks Plaza and Church, walking tours through neighborhoods and Churches, Doges Palace
Day 9: Train to Florence, Ponte Veccio Bridge, Bobbli Gardens
Day 10: San Lorenzo Marketplace, Church and Duomo, Michaelango's plaza, Palazzo Veccio Plaza, Pitti Place Gallery

Day 11: Uffuzi Gallery, train to Rome
Day 12: Coliseum, Palantine Hill, Arch of Constantine, Roman Forum, Pantheon

Day 13: Appian Way, Catacombs of San Callisto, Capuchin Crypts, Sacra Argentina/Cat Sanctuary, Piazza Navona, Spanish Steps
Day 14: National Museum of Rome, Baths of Diocletian, Borghese Park, Modern Art Museum, Campo Del Fiore

Day 15: Vatican Museum, St. Peter's Basillica, Trastevere
Day 16: Drive to Tuscany, exploring Cortona
Day 17: Exploring Montepulciano, wine tasting
Day 18: Exploring Siena, Main Piazza, Duomo, Train to Rome
Day 19: Fly home

Don't worry, these photos are just a preview! I'll be doing full recaps of the cities we visited with lots of photos, and linking to them from this page. Stay tuned!