Sunday, May 23, 2010

My Talented Bridesmaid

My very talented bridesmaid Carrie came over for lunch today and dropped off our gorgeous wedding present that she made for us. Its a bridal portrait that she drew and had framed for me, and also made prints for my parents. It came out so gorgeous, she is so talented! Here is one of the prints. Her attention to detail is amazing, we will be hanging it up with all the wedding photos we get framed.

Monday, May 17, 2010

The Honeymoon: Part 2 Germany


We arrived in Munich around 3 o’clock in the afternoon of course to us it was 10 in the morning, by the time we got the rental car and found the hotel it was almost 6. In Munich we stayed at the beautiful ultra modern Sofitel hotel right in downtown Munich, so we were able to walk everywhere. The room was gorgeous two stories, very modern, with one huge window that was the entire outside wall upstairs and downstairs and a gorgeous shower that we might be coping for our bathroom renovation.


The staff was so nice and surprised us with champagne and strawberries and a very nice hand written note for our honeymoon right when we walked into the room.


Then when we went upstairs to the bedroom they surprised us with the cutest bride and groom rubber duckies.


After freshening up and talking to the concierge about a non-touristy place to eat, we headed out downtown walking to the Marienplatz, it was so close and just like you see in pictures. We had a little trouble finding the first two places he recommended, but we stumbled across the third and went inside. We had no idea, that Germans sit family style anywhere there is a seat, with complete strangers. We didn’t mind, the food was so good, the best food we had in Germany, and so was the beer. Dan had the Wiener schnitzel with German potato salad and I had the sausage platter with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut, they were both so good. After dinner we enjoyed a few more beers, an after dinner drink, and then walked around downtown. Since we had not really slept the night before and arrived in London around 5am our time, we were ready to go to bed, but took some advice and stayed up to try and get on their time.


Going to bed at 11 didn’t help I still woke up around 12:30pm, good thing we changed our plans to go to the castles the next day. We decided to walk around town again went to lunch at a little place that had the best fries I had ever eaten, I had cordon bleu wiener schnitzel and Danny had currywurst. Then we walked all over to Marienplatz again, Hofbräuhaus, the opera house, the royal residents and the gardens then back to the hotel.




After relaxing, and freshening up we grabbed a taxi to head back down to Hofbräuhaus, since we didn’t go into the right section the first time. What a neat place, I can understand why it’s a must see, such a fun atmosphere with great food, beer, music and company. We sat with a nice family from California and two wild German guys that were friends with the band that made the evening very interesting. After a dinner of pork knuckle, a sausage platter, chocolate mousse and beer we decided to call it a night since we were determined to get up early the next morning.


We managed to get up and out early and headed to Fussen to see the castles, yes not one but two gorgeous castles in Fussen. King Ludwig’s parent’s summer home, Hohenschwangau, he grew up in and another castle you can see from it the summer home he built for himself, Neuschwanstein, that Walt Disney based his first castle Sleeping Beauty’s castle in Disneyland on. They both were gorgeous and I couldn’t believe they were built in the 1800’s they looked so medieval. King Ludwig was very eccentric! Since we arrived a little after 11, and the next tour for the first castle was 12:40 and then the next castle 2:45 we got to spend some time enjoying restaurants, shops and a horse ride to the top for the second castle. It was a great day!! Tiring, but well worth it!






Since we changed our planes to reverse the days instead of going back to Munich after the castles we headed to our next stop Rothenburg. I had seen pictures of this adorable town and just had to go, I had actually saved pictures of this town on my computer and never knew where it was then found it again when researching Germany, so it was a must see. We got in a little late so the town was pretty much closed, so we ate dinner at the cute hotel and then called it a night, so sweet the hotel surprised us with rose petals on the bed!


The next morning we went out early to walk around the town, it was so cute it almost seem fake, I kept thinking I was at Disney in Epcot or something, realizing of course no this is the real thing that they base it off of silly! It was so cute! After a nice day of walking, shopping, and eating, we grabbed some of their famous dough balls and headed to find where my parents lived in the 70’s where my sister was born.







After getting lost because of the GPS we finally made it to Kirchburg, took some pictures to send my parents and headed to Freiberg for our next stop. We arrived in Freiburg to the beautiful panorama hotel which is on the side of a mountain and overlooked the entire city, just gorgeous! We had a little bit of a rough time finding a place to eat, we ended up going to a Chinese Buffet, yes a Chinese Buffet in Germany, same concept, but very very different. After dinner and having some difficulties finding our way back to the hotel because of construction and one way streets we went back to the hotel to enjoy the complimentary bottle of champagne and our last night of German MTV because the next day we were off to Paris!!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Lilly on Ruelala!!!


Lilly sales event is going on right now at Ruelala!! It just started!! I managed to snag these!! They had adorable purses too for very cheap, but I am on restriction, oh well, next year! I hope they are as cute on as they are online! Let me know if you need an invite to Ruelala by leaving your email in a comment.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Honeymoon: Part 1 New York

We had such a great time on our honeymoon. Dan planned the whole thing, most of it was a surprise to me, and it was really wonderful, he did suh a reat job! We left the Monday morning after the wedding around 10:00, which I recommend to everyone, going the very next day would have been too difficult. The first stop, because I love it and we could get better flights to Europe out of it, was New York City!!


We only stayed one night, but had almost two full days since our flight left at 10:45pm Tuesday night, so Dan wanted to go all out for that one night, so we stayed at The Plaza!! I have been obsessed with The Plaza since I saw Home Alone 2 in the movie theater and I was finally able to stay there!


We arrived early afternoon to LaGuardia and went right straight to The Plaza to freshen-up and drop off our luggage. Shortly after we started down 5th Avenue for some shopping, and sightseeing, stopping for some Chinese food before doing more shopping and sightseeing. FAO Schwartz, Bergdorf Goodman, Tiffany’s, Omega, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, lunch at Pearls, Time Square, 42nd Street, Kenneth Cole’s, Saks 5th Avenue, then back to The Plaza to relax and get ready.


Downstairs the doorman Jose was nice enough to tell us that the house car was available in 10 minutes, a Phantom Rolls-Royce!! It was gorgeous and so nice to ride in even though our ride was short to Le Cirque. Le Cirque was amazing, the best food and service I ever had in my life and Betsy Johnson stopped at our table to talk to our waiter, OMG!!! She was so close I could have touched her, she looks exactly the same in person and wearing leopard print, it was so neat, but I played it cool since we are in New York City in Le Cirque.











The next morning we decided to walk to Bloomingdales enjoying a nice breakfast at a small café on the way. We spent so much time shopping at Bloomingdales and got a great tip to check out The View restaurant at the Marriott Marque. After Bloomingdales we stopped for some New York City pizza, went to Top of The Rock for the amazing view and some great photos and then made our way to The View just to check it out. It was closed so we decided to cancel our reservations at Peter Lugar and make reservations for dinner that night, early enough to catch our flight. More shopping, this time for Danny, then to Saks to get my second wedding present, I wanted to wait and get on our honeymoon, I decided on a new purse (I am now not allowed another purse for an entire year). Then it was time to eat at The View! What a neat concept, it’s on the top floor of the Marriott Marquis and it’s a revolving restaurant so you can see the entire city while you eat! The food was very good, and the view was amazing, I loved that they had cocktail napkins with a skyline map on it, very helpful! Finished dinner and grabbed a taxi back to The Plaza to pack up our new stuff and make our way to JFK.




Top of the Rock!


The View! Dan's in the same spot but the view is different :)


After a very long taxi ride we made it to JFK to one of the best parts of the trip, while checking in the British Airlines employee Debra, noticed we had not signed our passports yet and asked if they were new. Danny explained we had just got them for our honeymoon and we didn’t know we needed to sign them. Next thing we know she goes to the back and then returns to get on the phone with someone, then she tells us we have been bumped up and we get to enjoy the British Airways lounge! She gives us dinner vouchers too, but we were still full from The View. A nice relaxing wait in the lounge, with a huge assortment of snacks, cookies, finger sandwiches, a full liquor bar, internet, tv and a spa for the very long layover. I enjoyed some cheese and crackers and a glass of wine. Then it was time to get on the plane, what a difference the upgrade made, Dan actually had leg room and the flight attendants were so nice. I tried to sleep right away since it was almost 11, while Danny enjoyed the personal movie library, but we were interrupted by dinner service around midnight, yes dinner service at midnight, it was yummy so I didn’t complain, who was I kidding I was too excited to sleep. After dinner I did manage to sleep some, woke up around 5 our time as the crew was getting ready to land in London for our layover. I was able to sleep once we got through security in the terminal since we had a small layover, then it was on a plane to Munich...

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Spring Decorating

I just love these girly Spring decorating pictures, makes me want to redo my backyard and have a party!








These might be a little too girly for Danny but these are doable and are perfect for the clam bake I want to have sometime this summer. We redid our patio last summer, getting new furniture for around the pool and the underroof area, but now I would love to add things to the backyard area.













And how perfect are these...

this blog from The Finer Things...



And these plates from Martha Stewart at Macy's, I just had to get them...