Stone Cold Sobuary: Done-sies.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!
YOU GET A GOLD STAR!

Hey Party People! May I be the first to say, "Congratulations, you did it!" if you made it through all of January aka "Mocktail Madness" without a drink. I applaud you! And guess what? Your body, your wallet, and your mind do too.

What exactly did you do? Well, assuming you are like me and enjoy and average of 1 beer, 1 cocktail, and 3 glasses of wine per week...
* You did not consume 4000 calories, which also equates to at least 1 lb of fat {facts here and here}
* $150 cash, in YO WALLET (if you are in a household of 2 people, double that, multiply by 12 months and you have $3600 a year. YIKES)
* ~30 hours of better REM sleep, you're welcome {info here}

Now, how about that? It's always nice to start fresh and challenge yourself to do something healthy. I personally found it to be much more difficult this year than it was for me last year. I think because last year I basically made myself allergic after my birthday shenanigans, and also the dark January weather really got me down this month. I still like to do this little experiment to prove to myself that I can do it and to better understand the compromise I'm making when I decide to drink. It can have a big impact on my body, budget and well-being.

So for those of you who made it the entire month: I have a surprise congratulatory gift for you! If you completed Stone Cold Sobuary, let me know and I will send you a gift!

Happy New Year :)

Well, let's just say I'm real glad the holidays this year landed in a way that gave us Monday off of work. We spent today cleaning and being happy about our party on NYE. Lots of friends came over and it was a good time. We all walked to the park before midnight (a little stumbling parade of party hats and noise makers...joined by others who were on their way!) and watched the Space Needle fireworks.

Thankfully this cool person took a pretty good video - I was a little too focused on "wooooo"-ing to document:

Some pics from the beginning of the night:

For the early arrivals we had some Chambord Champagne - a great start!

The "tablescape" all ready to get some food on it.

Many thanks to Wendi for bringing over our NYE "flair" and helping make everything look spectacular.

I had fun making our chandelier 2012-i-fied...

I staged the End-of-the-Year-CDs on our coffee table, as well as some of "Annie's International Gifts and Treasures to share" (she was the unofficial Guest of Honor - Manilla was a long way to travel from - we were stoked to have her here!). And don't worry Michigan we received your CDs and I gathered up a batch to send your way!

I made these Peanut Butter Bon Bons (thanks again to Wendi for all the help) and I think they turned out pretty tasty. They were a bit labor intensive though so I'd need some strong encouragement if I was going to do that again...

Mom - the drink tower came in handy again. I didn't think we'd have any need for ANOTHER cocktail around but this thing is endlessly popular when there's water in it. What can I say, people like water. So we had two kinds.

I felt kindof indulgent when I bought this $10 ice bucket at Fred Meyer. But it's paid for itself since we've used it at just about every party since.

Riveting discussions, I'm sure :)

An end-of-the-night arty farty photo by Paula - I like how fancy this Chambord looks :)

Y'All it was a great time. I freakin' love this holiday. To 2012, and Sober January. CHEERS! Mwah!

Entertaining n' Stuff

A while back (before I had a job AND school on the agenda), I decided it would be brilliant to host a bachelorette party and then a ladies lunch the very next day. Hu-whaaa? Nawh, it actually all went smoothly and was a lot of fun.

Saturday night: hosting the starting line for the bachelorette party:

I made this Apple Cinnamon Sangria but without some of the fussiness (used more schnapps, didn't let it sit for 4 hours, skipped the "pisco" and honey). I tried to emulate this picture with my apples, but of course it doesn't look quite as perfect. Still cute though, I thought!

Of course we could not forget the obligatory laundry line of panties for the bride. We filed this entire line up with (mostly) impractical underwears :)

Good times were had by all. I know this, because I was a DD and have perfect memory of it all, which was delightful!

Sunday I hosted my first grown-up lunch for The Ladies. It was so much fun! I felt like a real grown-up lady. It was fun to give them all a tour of our house and catch up. It was also the perfect excuse for me to finally buy some of these French Macaroons from Le Rêve. They were a total hit...

I also got a Tuxedo Cake from Macrina and it was seriously good, You Guys. We have over half of it left so if you want to come over and have some please do so!!!

Downton Abbey!

Ahhhh, the good ole days! When you had a mansion and keeping it's integrity was #1. Downton Abbey is a miniseries on PBS and it stars none other than a totally hot manse. So I HAD to see it of course.

Our friend Josiane got her hands on this highly sought-after DVD from the library and holeee-crap this show is so good! We decided to make it a viewing event and theme-out our eats:

Those would be English Tea Sandwiches of smoked salmon and dill, and the classic "Cucumber Sandwiches". YUM! Also tea cookies (naturally) and some berries for a non-carb :) I'd like to tell you we drank the tea we had but we had Summer Beers instead (thanks Bethany for introducing me to this - you are brilliant. Also note: using cheap beer is crucial).

Check it:

Watch the full episode. See more Masterpiece.

You Guys: Thank Jeeze there is a 2nd Season coming of Downton! I have to know what happens to hot Matthew!

30th Birthday Re-Cap

...Oy...where to begin? I think I'm going to stay away from the ugliness that was my intolerance for alcohol on account of becoming an old lady, and just go with the highlights!

A snapshot of the night and illustration of how I wanted to be over the top with my bday costume:

Cupcakes from my favorite, Trophy, that may not make another appearance in my life until 2012. But don't they look pretty? (Snowball, Red Velvet and Samoa flavors)

There were some cute pics!

And then began the rounds of me making people take pictures with me acting like a ridiculous ham. They get much worse and unflattering than this, but it's my blog so I get to post what I want!

Lots of lessons learned by 30. Firstly: apparently I'm not old enough to resist peer pressure (jager, really, People??), but too old to handle a hangover anymore. "I'm too old for this stuff!" It was fabulous to have all my good friends there with me though and I hope they had a great time too. I'm seriously relieved to be in my 30s finally and can't wait to see what the next decade brings! :)

Lounging in Cap Ferat and Villefrance Sur Mer

I look back on these pictures and think, "wow, all we did on the Riviera was eat" - and I'm cool with that!

Check it.

This is where we stayed - our B&B is behind trees and stuff, but it's there.

The no-cruise-ships photo. :)

Villefrance, where we ate dinner!

Hello, this is my house. CRAZY

Ok so Keene declared this one of his top - perhaps even FAVORITE - meal we had in Europe.

Mine was definitely awesome too. And huge. And messy.

Escargot! I've never had to de-shell them before. ADVENTURE. They were really really good.

Another night in Velleferance we went to this cute little place.

Chillin'

Documenting the wine choice.

Can't get enough pizza!

I had to order spag in all the ways it comes. This time, carbonara. YUM.

And then chocolate mousse. Can't go wrong here.

I leave you with Mira (sp?), the dog that lived at our B&B. She was super sweet.

Ok YOU GUYS. I have something kinda different planned for tomorrow's post - thinking about giving this whole "video blog" a go. If I did an "Ask MansionMogul" Fridays, would you be into it?

Germany: Hittin' up the Castles.

Germany - the final chapter. So fun!!!

I got you these mountains.

Neuschwanstein!

From our b&b window...

We stayed in this little valley - this is on the walk to the castle. So gorgeous!

When we got to the top, check out this friggin' RAINBOW that was across the valley!!! It's no double rainbow, but it was still totally amazing!

Behold: The Castle.

Glorious! They don't let you take photos inside the castle for bs "copyright" reasons, but the best part of it was the outside anyway. Amiright?! Although I do wish I had video of our tour guide, who we named "Egor". We think he might've been a distant relative of Ludwig, because he was a weirdo!

Couples pic attempt. Don't trust strangers with my camera so self-portrait it is!

Keene's sneaky pic from inside the castle. Breakin' the law! We could see our b&b from here...

The castle that Ludwig grew up in just down the hill, Hohenschwangau.

After Neuschwanstein we headed over to Ludwig's castle that he actually finished: Linderhof. On the way, we saw some gorgeous green water and briefly passed through Austria. (I think)

Here she is!

He tried to make it into a "mini Versailles". Our tour guide here rocked! Also no pics inside, but trust me, it was off the hook.

Me in nature.

Entrance to Ludwig's "grotto"...

It was like Disneyland! He would sit in this little boat and have performances of Wagner, his fave. The lights here also changed color to fit the mood of the performance. AND he had a wave machine. Crazy.

Behold: the exit and outside of the "grotto". Kinda like what I would imagine the back of Disneyland looks like!

Pretty. All of the grounds were fabulous.

We picked up some Landjäger in the gift shop on the way out. Hardcore.

Meep meep! Check out our tiny rental car! Keene loved driving in Germany. No joke, all the roads looked like they were freshly paved! Oh, Germany.

One of our memorable meals in Fussen - the Schwangau version of Spätzle and gravy!

I'm orange in this pic and Keene's finger is over the lens but I am too lazy to photoshop! Deal.

He became a huge fan of König Ludwig Dunkel beer.

The castle at night from our b&b. Like a fairytale!

These Alpen Kuh were all up in the valley. This one was about to kick our asses.

They wear these bells that are hundreds of years old sometimes. And they all move around and it sounds like wind chimes. We could hear it from our hotel. My video of it - so charming!

There are deer in this pic - I swear.

And then, it was time to move on to Italy...I had to get at least one "Kinder Uberraschung" before we left Germany!

Surprise!

Bavaria from the air...

Pretty, right?

Our quiet time in Southern Germany was so beautiful and fun. I can't wait to go back!