I want to go back, back to Cali, Cali

Planning our trip for next week has me thinking about our vacation last year.  What a trip!  B and I headed out West to California and took in all that San Francisco, Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley had to offer.  We had the most incredible time!

Started the trip off with some dim sum in San Fran's Chinatown

Followed by Bloody Marys and oysters at Fisherman's Wharf.

Dinner at Oola

Incredible and inventive drinks!

Hands down the best thing I ate the whole trip...potato chip wrapped scallops (with garlic fries of course).  Yum!

First stop in Napa, Frank Family Vineyards. 

Phenomenal Zins.

Dinner at Willie's Seafood and Raw Bar in Healdsburg.  Delicious lobster rolls!

Our B&B in Healdsburg - The L&M Motel

It is the cutest, converted roadside motel that takes you back.  Campfire, croquet and...

S'mores!

My favorite!

Lunch at Coppola's Rustic.  Amazing!

One of the highlights of the trip - Seven course food and wine pairing at Mayo Reserve.

Highly recommend!

Dessert! Blueberry, creme fraiche and basil trifle. 

We stayed at the El Dorado Hotel in Sonoma, right on the plaza.

Perfect for walking to the Farmer's Market on the Square.

Cheers to unbelieveable trip in California!

Cannot wait to see what our NYC adventure brings...

New York State of Mind

I am counting down the days to next Wednesday.  B and I are headed to New York, and I am SO excited.  B has never been, and it's been years since I was last there.  Now I'm just torn trying to finalize our itinerary.  So many sights, so many restaurants, so many shops...so little time.  I don't know how I'm going to cram everything I want to do into our short trip.  I guess that is the beauty of an NYC trip though...no matter what you do, how much you plan or how little you plan, sometimes the greatest experience is one you just happen upon.

Of course we do have some 'musts' on our list. 

#1 Yankees Game

Cannot wait to see the new stadium!

And of course, this guy... :)

 

#2 My old stomping ground

#3 Yum!

Aside from pretzels at the game and a creamy treat at Shake Shack, trying to determine where we will indulge in some fine dining.  Is anything more overwhelming than trying to pick between all the fabulous eateries this amazing city offers?  I'll keep you posted on what we choose!



Blog Envy

Wow.  It's been two months since my last post.  Forgive me.  Can I just say these last two months have been such a whirlwind!  On March 10th I launched CakeWalk and since then I have been in full cake pop mode.  Seriously!  What a joy it has truly been, and I am blown away by the response I have received.  So many friends and family have supported CakeWalk, but what has been so fun is meeting so many new people and being able to provide sweet treats for the special events in their lives.

Well at least you can see I did not stop blogging all together.  CakeWalk has managed to have regular postings, well minus the last few weeks. ;)  I've been so busy making orders I don't have time to even upload my pics!  Trust me this weekend I am finally catching up.  Plus I swear if I would spend the time I do reading other people's blogs on my own blogs, I'd be rocking out posts daily!

Which leads me to today's topic...Blog Envy.  My hairdresser better translated this to Life Envy. ;)  Do you guys have it?  Do you know what I'm talking about?  You read all these fabulous blogs from people doing fabulous things in fabulous places and well, blog envy takes over.  Where the green-eyed monster takes over for me is when it comes to pictures.  I am just blown away by the photography skills of people out there. 

Check out a few of my favorite blogs, that I admit, I am envious of... :)

http://www.kellehampton.com/
http://www.hitherandthither.net/
http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/
http://tweedinthevillage.blogspot.com/

And this new one I just discovered today!
http://mycakies.blogspot.com/

And of course (these belong to some of my favorite people!)...
http://www.courtneycallahanpaper.com/blog/
http://themandas.blogspot.com/
http://dgrahamkostic.tumblr.com/

Do you have blog envy?  Pass along your favorites! 

An apple a day...

Yikes!  I am so behind with my blogging.  Forgive me.  I do have a good excuse though (CakeWalk...we'll get to that later!).  So, I have to back up a few weeks and share a post about the fabulous time I had with my mom and sweet friends from college.

So, my dear friend Whitney is preggers, and we have been planning her baby shower since she shared the news she was expecting when we were all together for our Chicago girls weekend back in November.

Our fabulous custom stationer, Courtney, came up with the cutest theme celebrating Whit and the upcoming arrival of the apple of her eye.



As soon as we set the apple theme, I knew I wanted to do apple cake pop favors.  My mom decided to fly into Nashville and spend some time with B and me before road tripping it to St. Louis for the shower.  We had THE best time.  I don't think I could have pulled off the cake pops without her.  Of course I am my mother's daughter and we definitely waited to start the cake pops at 8:30pm Friday night before needing to be on the road to STL at 8am the next morning.  Let's just say at 1am we were still decorating apples, had not packed and had not slept.  Finally at 3am we decided to hit the hay before we were up at 7am loading the car.  5 hours of driving in the rain later, we made it to St. Louis.

We had the best time there!  We stopped off at Court's sister's house where they were hosting a Marie Antoinette themed bridal shower for their soon to be sister-in-law.  Court asked me to make the cupcake cake bites for their favors.  Didn't they turn out so cute?

Check out Court's blog to see the rest of the details from that shower...

After catching up with the Callahan clan, Mom and I shopped 'til we dropped for all things CakeWalk.  We finally checked into the hotel and rallied to get ready to meet the Ott/Manda crew.  We had a fabulous mother-daughter dinner with Whit, Lynn and Shelby at the yummy restaurant Court recommended, Sugo's.  Delicioso!  After a fabulous meal and many, many laughs (I think the restaurant was ready for us to leave!) we headed back to the hotel to crash.

So, now check out how well the shower came together!

Court did a fabulous job with the invitations and all things paper.  How cute are all the tags?

Auntie Ellen's apple butter was quite a hit!

Ellen's adorable banner!

The beautiful mom-to-be

With her hostesses

Could not have pulled it off without Court!

Whit gave us adorable Kate Spade bangles...

They were engraved 'Hot to Trot' on the inside. :)

My mom was such a big help!

A successful shower honoring our dear friend!  Now we just cannot wait to meet the pea! :)

Fashion Police

Well, what did everyone think of Sunday night??  I know I am a little late with this post, but it's been a busy week.  We had SO much fun Sunday at the Belcourt Oscar party!  They really rolled out the red carpet, literally.  Upon arriving on the red carpet, guests were able to pose and play in the Yelp photo booth.  They had so many fun props! 

This year the food was even better than last year.  Risotto balls, firecracker shrimp, chicken satay, meatballs, smoked mozzarella pasta salad...from the looks of my plate you would have thought it was my last meal.  Plenty of wine, spirits and bubbly to boot!  Aside from the actual red carpet arrivals and awards show, I was more interested in the people watching at the Belcourt.  Lots of interesting outfits and accessories!

I have to say I was glad I was at a fun party because honestly I was really underwhelmed with this year's show.  First of all, I was really not that impressed by the fashions shown on the red carpet.  Now I have not yet watched the E! Fashion Police, but here are my picks for best and worst dressed.

Best Dressed

Cate Blanchett - My Best Dressed!  I absolutely LOVE!!!

 

Look at that back!  Amazing.

Worst Dressed

I love you Reese, but wow.  You look so dated.  Sadly not dated enough to be hip.

Now aside from the fashion, I was pleased with the actual award winners.  No real surprises, and if you check my previous post, I was pretty close with my predictions.  One thing I was not pleased with, the hosts.  Wow, I think Will, Amy and I did a better job hosting the FMJH talent show back in 9th grade.  That's seriously what I felt like I was watching.  I would love to know who had the bright idea to put James Franco in a pink gown.  It just was bad.  Oh well, maybe next year Billy Crystal will be back...'You look marvelous!'