Wedding Cake Book

Hi all!  I have some fun and exciting news to share.  Awhile back, the ladies over at CAKE let me know that some of their cakes were going to be published in a book...the author contacted me for my information and then a lot of time went by with no word, and I honestly forgot about it!  But just this week we learned that the book was just published! 

The cake that I had at my baby shower for Drew is featured in the book! I worked with Kimberly on the design of the cake and I loved the way it turned out! Click here to see the post from my baby shower.

I haven't ordered my copy yet, but I can't wait to see it!  P.S. if you're in San Diego, the ladies at CAKE are fabulous...weddings, birthday, celebrations...and they even have a bakery now!  I always get the banana truffle cake, but they are all amazing! 

Our trip to Charleston

Our trip to Charleston started out with my first time flying first class.  It was ah-mazing and such a relaxing way to fly across country!  I watched "We Bought A Zoo" which was cute but cheesy.  Can't go wrong looking at Matt Damon for 2 hours though!  The little girl in the movie reminded me so much of my little Drew.  I saw in the credits her name is Maggie Elizabeth Jones....too funny! 

Here we are at the rehearsal dinner on Saturday night.  It was at Rue de Jean in downtown Charleston.  This was the first night we got to see everyone.

My girls Amy and Stacey at the rehearsal dinner.  Seven kids and two sets of twins between us.  Sexy mamas! 

Charleston had some really fun shopping.  King Street is the main drag downtown that had a lot of great boutiques, antique stores, great restaurants, and some high-end shops.  I found these Staffordshire dogs at a huge antique sale and decided to take them home with me!

We also walked through a huge market area that is similar to our farmer's markets out here.  This was my favorite booth filled full of beautiful butterflies.  I picked up one for Drew's room.

On Sunday, Jason and I decided to do a historical carriage ride tour of downtown.  It was really informative and the weather was perfect.  We saw a lot of churches and I just loved this one's unique gate with the red door!

I would just die if I lived in a pink house with black shutters!  I tried to talk Jason into buying a second home here in the south!  When we heard that there is a similar house on the market for $24 million, he just rolled his eyes at me. 

Here is the waterfront.  The homes across the street were just amazing. 

Ahh, the black shutters again.  Look at the design around the door and the ivy growing on the steps.  So charming!

I am just being silly here.  We stopped in this hat store and tried on a bunch of huge hats.  This one was $200!  Yowza.

Here was my buddy Max.  Isn't he handsome?

Me and Jason on the carriage ride.  So relaxed!

We went to a Gospel Brunch and here was my first ever taste of grits. Can't say I'm a huge fan, but maybe if you added about two cups of cheese on there!

Congratulations Clay & Britt!  Such a beautiful ceremony.  I loved the bridesmaids dresses...every shade of teal and blue.  Flowers were simple white bouquets of peonies, roses, and dahlias.  So pretty!

The wedding cake!  Loved the rosettes!

The reception was at an old Rice Mill.  It was such a beautiful wedding and reception site!  I must tell you they had a mac 'n cheese bar for dinner.  I did mine up with truffle oi and bacon!  "When in Rome"!!!

Oh how I loved my Anthropologie dress.  It was the most comfortable dress I've ever worn AND it had pockets (which I discovered half way through the evening)!

Stacey and Amy both had ridiculously awesome necklaces on.  I was feeling a little left out!  Smile.

Charleston sunset at the reception.

Here are all the boys, aka "The Tappers".  Yes, they named themselves that in High School.  There have seven weddings out of this group....3 more to go! 

Stacey and I being silly at the reception.  I think I ate about 100 Charleston Chews that they had laying around everywhere.

 

Well, that's all she wrote on our trip.  It was such a great time to get away and see good friends.  We wished we could have had one extra day to explore!  If you've never been, I highly recommend going to Charleston!

Tristan Quigley Designs

A way long time ago I went to an outdoor even in our little community in San Elijo. Tristan Quigley had a booth set up with beautiful pictures of her kids that immediately drew me to her. I took her card and tucked it away. Back in November, I contacted Tristan and we immediately connected. Tristan ended up shooting our beautiful family pictures shortly after. I cannot say enough great things about Tristan! Being a mom herself, she knows how to work with the kids and has patience. Drew gave her a run for her money that day, I assure you!

Check out Tristan's website and here was her blog post of our session. Tristan is preggers with her third little girl! I would contact her soon to book a session before she pops or tuck her info away for your next family photo!

DOMINO's back!

Hi friends! I have to say, it was a sad, sad day a few years ago when Domino Magazine made the announcement that they would stop publishing their magazine. That was one of those magazines that I got giddy looking forward to it arriving in my mailbox every month. I know I am not the only one. Before there was ever Pinterest, I would tear out pages and pages of Domino and safe in my "inspiration" file folders (see a few examples below). Yes, I have their book, but I still missed the magazine. Matchbook (p.s. it's fab) the online magazine, is the closest thing I have gotten to my Domino fix since.

Many of you know that I took huge inspiration for Drew's nursery from a room I once saw in Domino. This was long before I was ever pregnant with Micah. Here is the actual page:

I had been a "fan" of Domino on Facebook, and one day recently I was checking FB, and I saw their post that they would be coming out with a special edition issue. I was SO excited. Here is their Facebook page and if you're on Twitter, their handle is @DominoMag. I found mine on Saturday at Target.

I highly recommend you grab one for yourself, if only just for the resources in the back! It gives great suggestions on some easy changes for big impact updates for your home. I was most excited to see they are planning a September issue as well! Yippee! Let me know if you got your Domino fix too!

Family Photo Books

How much do you love Pinterest? I recently came across a "pin" that I knew I would do. I often pin all these ideas in my "DIY projects" board, just to tuck that idea away for the future. When I saw this one, I knew I would do it!

I have often wondered when I would start organizing all the 12,000+ pictures I have in our iPhoto. A big chunk of those pictures were taken this last year and since we had Micah. I came across this pin from A Thousand Words blogger, where you can check out her full post here. Inspiration overload! I immediately went to Blurb.com. Since my M-F job is in the Publishing industry, I was really eager to check it out. I have used other book sites through Costco and Snapfish, but Blurb blows those away, in my opinion.

So, off I went. Every spare minute for a couple weeks I meticulously organized iPhoto into folders by year and added every picture that I liked in there. Those of you who have kids know that you get lots of good ones, but you can't frame all of them. This is a perfect solution.

I whipped out 3 books and even found a 20% off coupon code online! Woohoo! I decided to buy the iPhone/iPad version of our books too. Here are some pages...



I chose the 8x10 hardcover books. They really came out great! I started doing a Christmas letter with our cards two years ago, which summarizes our year, so I decided to put that in the introduction of each book. These are going to be a great addition to our wedding and engagement albums. Blurb.com also does Instagram albums, so once I get some more pictures, I'll probably do that too!

Easter festivities

We sure had a busy few days surrounding Easter! First up, on Saturday morning, we took the kids to the floral trade center in Carlsbad to get some blooms for our Easter table. Drew was having so much fun...I'm looking forward to the days we do flowers and weddings together!

Here we are planting jelly beans in the backyard for the Easter Bunny (thanks Pinterest for the great idea)!Our first time dying Easter eggs. Micah had so much fun....most of the eggs are green, which is his favorite color.
On Easter morning, we went to a sunrise service, bright and early at Ponto Beach. This is our 3rd year doing this...unfortunately I left my camera and phone in the car, so no picks. So bummed about that! We came home to see the jelly beans had grown into lollipops over night!

Next up were their Easter baskets. Aren't those bunnies adorable? Thanks to my good friend Amanda, she did these cuties just for Micah and Drew.

Drewey got a new "Yo", a.k.a. a cell phone (hello = yo). Micah got a Nerf gun with darts (what was I thinking?) and I couldn't get him to hold still for a picture the rest of the day....no joke.

Next up were the eggs hidden in their rooms. Three eggs each that they had to find. This was something my mom used to do for us.

Micah's first Cadburry egg. He didn't like it, so I volunteered to finish it for him. Yum.

A little game of peek-a-boo with the curtains!

Here is our dining table...all ready for guests! I wrote on the eggs that we dyed the day before with a Sharpie is the seating "cards".

Drewey was ready to go at the kids table.

I made popcorn with melted chocolate and sprinkles....thanks again Pinterest!

Took Drew a little bit of time to adjust to all the people in our house!

Here is the good stuff....dessert! I made (from scratch) the french silk pie and an apple pie cake, with homemade caramel and vanilla ice cream. Soooo yummy!

My parents surprised the kids with some presents. Micah got an airplane toy and Drew got Perchance, an owl BlaBla doll. Here she is taking him for a stroll in her stroller later that evening!We had such a wonderful Easter. I hope you had a great one too!