“We’ll Always Have Paris”

WARNING! this post contains a lot of pictures! If you have very little patience for people who feel the need to over-document events in their life this post is not for you!

Hello Guys! Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while, but I have a good excuse…I was helping plan my 20th! Ya I guess that may not be a great excuse…but it’s my party and I’ll slack off if I want to. So normally I never do anything terribly over the top for my birthdays, but for my 20th I wanted to do something with a bit of umph, a fun, slightly glamorous, but still laid back-ish in style party. So I decided I would throw a French (Parisian) inspired dinner party, with some of my closest friends. I had such a blast planning, cooking, and spending time with my great friends! I am sort of a foodie so this party was the perfect excuse for me to cook all of the fussy dishes I wouldn’t normally prepare, like French Macaroons, those are some work! But lucky me I have a loving family so I didn’t have to do a lot of the work on my own. So enough talking I am sure you would much prefer to see what my party looked like so here ya go.

We strung up lights and set the table in the living room, so we had plenty of space.

This is the gorgeous flower arrangement my mother put together, might I add she said she has “never done arrangements before”. So even without training or practice my mother puts Martha Stewart to shame!

These are the awesome posters that we found for 60% off!

We decided to even decorate the front door area!

Our adorable little sandwich board. PS mommy wrote this! How cute is her handwriting?

Now for my favorite part…the food! These are the French Macaroons.

The gorgeous red fondant raspberry cake my mommy made me. Isn’t she just the best?

The delicious cheese tray.

Tapenade in endive leaves.

Our entire cocktail menu. Bloody Mary’s, tapenade in endive, cheese tray, and prosciutto wrapped around cantaloupe and asparagus. It was all incredibly delicious.

Quite possibly the most delish dish I have ever made…Boeuf Bourgingon and mashed potatoes. It was so good my mother who really detests beef, loved this meal like crazy!

Tea and coffee break. I of course had tea yummy 🙂

Then onto dessert cake and Shirley Temple’s.

Gifts! My sweet mommy got me real pearls for my 20th! Cute thing was when she gave me my gift I was wearing my fake pearls 🙂

This necklace was given to me by my very best friend (we’ve been inseparable for the past 11 years). This necklace is either from the late 50’s or early 60’s. And I am not ashamed to say when she gave me this I got pretty choked up.

I also got some other fabulous gifts too, I made out like a bandit, I received some lovely perfume (which I am wearing right now) and some great cards and cash (you can never go wrong with cash is all I am saying).

My great friends and lovely family honestly made this one of the most special birthday’s ever! I love you guys.

So I hope you guys enjoyed my post! And if any of you want the recipe to anything feel free to ask. Have a super happy Monday and a great Valentines. Love you!

 

“Can’t go yet”

 Well I suppose now that it is 2012 and everyone is chattering about 2011. Am I the only one who finds it funny that when the year is over people can’t seem to let it go? They need to talk about what happened, what they learned, what they saw, and where they traveled. I too like to reflect on things, to look back just to see how far I have come. However I can’t help but think of all the things I want to do, not what I have done. So in a way here are my resolutions, not so much for this year but for life! Here are the places I can’t go to yet, but have to see before I go for good.

1. Greece! It has been a dream of mine to go to Greece ever since I was a little girl. My late father always wanted to go, he said he wanted to see the ruins before they were gone! He also wanted to take my mother with, but he never got the chance, so when I go my mother will be going with me, taking us full circle and it will be without a doubt one of the most meaningful trips of my life. 

 

can you believe how blue that water is?

2. Ireland! Yet another place I have wanted to visit for a long time. I just love all the beautiful green rolling hills in the countryside and the quaint little pubs in the city! Not to mention that it is the Irish that have the cutest accents in the world! 😉

3. Italy! Who wouldn’t want to go to Italy? The food, the landscape, the cars, and let us not forget THE SHOES! Those Italians sure know how to make a great shoe!

4. France! I took two years of French and forgot almost all of it! But C’est la vie. 😉 France just seems to be a culmination of what makes me happy, beautiful architecture, fabulous foods, beautiful fashion, and countless photo-ops. The French are supposedly rude but I don’t care if that is true or not, I will find that out for myself without any pre conceived notions.

5. Austria! More specifically Vienna during ball season! I mean Vienna is one of the few places that still parties like its 1699 😉 and how many opportunities does a girl get to wear a ball gown?

There are a great deal of other places I long to travel to, but I thought I might just share some of my top locations. What about you guys? Where are some of your dream destinations and why? I hope you enjoyed this post! Happy Tuesday!