Brunch 09.26.2013 - Baby's First Brunch

Panini Cafe, Aliso Viejo

Hello Kittens!

October has already been incredibly busy and the next two weeks are packed to the gills as well.  Due to that fact, I've started booking Brunches for November!  I've had Brunch on the brain and realized that I did not share the Brunch that I had with Stephanie at the end of September.  For shame!

I was wondering if I could post about this at all since we took precious little Avabella out for her first Brunch with the Ladies (really, you can never start them out too young).  Stephanie has made the decision to keep images of her daughter off of all social media sites, and essentially any non-food photos of our Brunch were of either Avabella or one of us holding her.  Which makes them off-limit!

I then realized that I couldn't NOT share this spot with you and while I do have a few photos from the first time we ate at Panini Cafe, this one is going to be short and sweet, because when you have arguably the most adorable baby with you, taking photos for the blog are forgotten.

There are locations for Panini Cafe across Southern California, so no matter where you are, if you find yourself hungry, it's definitely worth your time to find the closest one to you and stopping by!  Stephanie and I have Brunched at the Aliso Viejo location twice and they definitely know their way around some eggs!!  And something to make you feel even better about Brunching here is that they serve only farm fresh organic eggs.  I've become obsessed about the chickens my eggs come from in the last few years, so this was a BIG plus for me!

The first time we visited was in 2010 and I STILL dream of how fantastic the smoked salmon scramble was...

Also their mimosas and coffee are guaranteed to put a smile on your face.  That's not an exaggeration.

This time, Stephanie and I both went with eggs again - and let me tell you how difficult it was to NOT order my smoked salmon scramble this time around!  I ended up with the Tomato Basil Scramble which was delicious.

Stephanie created her own scramble and while I'm not sure what she put into it, she was quite happy with it.

The food was excellent, the mimosas were tasty, the company was fabulous, and the littlest lady was an absolute angel!  Couldn't have asked for a better way to spend a Saturday.

I've updated my Church of Brunch page, in case you were having problems deciding on a location for your next outing with your ladies.

Happy Brunching Kittens!
XOXO!!

Babies, Babies Everywhere!

Hello there Kittens and happy last day of July!

How did we get here?  I'm not quite sure, but what I am sure of is that I'm finding myself surrounded by babies lately.  Tante Melinda in full effect!

With my travels this month and an unexpected, yet incredibly welcomed, house guest this weekend, I find myself with a growing list of things to cover.  Which is a nicer way of saying I'm behind in posting...

At the beginning of the month, I attended the baby shower of my favorite cousin.  Unfortunately, my camera did not, so while I have no photos of that day, here is one of us having Brunch in December.

It may very well have been on this day that the twinkle in Becky's eye later became my nephew...

And it was up to Tante Melinda to help Becky stock up on bath supplies and books!  Natch...

Seriously, how cute is this bath wrap?!?!?!?  Unfortunately, they do not carry these in adult sizes at Pottery Barn Kids...

Since I had very little notice for this shower, the gifts were limited.  It makes me feel like a bad Tante and will be rectified...

While the items for bath time fun were on the registry, I went rogue as soon as I hit the bookstore.  But really, what little boy does not require a little Curious George?

When I was working on Avabella's library for Stephanie, Barnes & Noble was sold out of one of the most important story collections ever published, so I picked up two copies of The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh.  One for my new niece and one for my eagerly awaited nephew!

"If ever there is a tomorrow when we're not together...there is something you must always remember.  You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.  But the most important thing is, even if we're apart...I'll always be with you."

The lessons of friendship, love, loyalty, and self-worth are so beautifully taught in this book.

I wrapped everything up and headed out to spend a beautiful, but HOT, day with a fabulous girl I rarely see because she lives in New York.  It was also wonderful to visit with my other cousins - all scattered across the country.

Port is an exceptional helper.

A few weeks later, I headed down to Stephanie's.  Since Avabella is only 6 weeks old, Stephanie is not yet able to venture out for Brunch.  Since she could not come to Brunch, I brought Brunch to her.  I took the opportunity to wrap up a few things for our new little lady.

While in Mexico, I found the most adorable dress in the gift shop of our hotel and simply could not pass it up.

So, I packed up the dress and the second copy of Winnie-the-Pooh into a shiny, happy present and headed out for Avabella's first Brunch!

Granted most of my Tante duties up until this point have consisted of buying presents, I think I'm going to be VERY happy being a full-fledged Tante!  I have no doubt that both these wonderful couples are going to make spectacular little people and become absolutely wonderful parents.

XOXO!

Brunch 06.22.2013 - Four Generations of Fabulous Ladies

Plums Café, Costa Mesa

Good morning Darlings!

I hope you slept well.  I slept like a baby for 10 hours which was desperately needed!  The last few weeks of hard and fast living have caught up with me (HAHA!  More like a busy schedule without an adequate amount of sleep).  I've got more than enough on my agenda this weekend to keep me busy...unfortunately it does not include Brunch.  Though I can relive Brunch last weekend to get me through it as it was fab - naturally.

You know that something is important to you when you wake up early on a Saturday.  And last Saturday, my alarm went off at an uncivilized hour for a weekend.  But there was much to do - my schedule was filled with some of the most fabulous ladies I know.  Ladies spanning four generations!

I started my day by driving down to South County to visit one of my best ladies, Stephanie, and her brand new baby, Avabella.  And when I say brand new, I mean BRAND new.  Avabella was born on the evening of June 17 and while I had popped in for a quick visit the next afternoon at the hospital, I wanted to check in on them again.  The Day 5 check-in is VERY important!  While she is very tiny and very new, I can already tell that she will be a beauty - just like her Mommy. Stephanie has made the decision to keep photos of Avabella off social networking sites, so this will probably be the only photo I share with everyone...at this age babies don't look that much different.  I just wanted to share how excited I am that my niece has FINALLY arrived!

As with any new parents, Stephanie and her husband are in the process of figuring things out, but they are such a great team that they are making it look easier than I've ever seen - at least to an outsider.  Since they are establishing routines at this point, I decided to pop in for about an hour before I headed to Brunch - I didn't want to get in the way.

After that visit, I headed into Costa Mesa to meet my friend Britni for Brunch.  Since you have to go through Costa Mesa to hit Newport Beach and it was a beautiful day, everyone seemed to be headed for the beach and traffic was TERRIBLE!  I had never been to Plums Café before and one of the reasons that I picked it was that they take reservations.  In any coastal area - especially on nice summer days, this is a huge plus!  What impressed me about this place was the fact that they were also very accommodating when I called and told them that we were stuck in traffic, though they probably get that a lot!

I was surprised when my GPS routed me to a tiny little strip mall with an inconveniently small parking lot.  Plums probably gets a lot of phone calls from people pushing their reservations back while they're trying to find parking.  I highly recommend this place, but consider yourself warned!

Braving the beach traffic and the teeny-tiny parking lot was totally worth it once the drinks and food started to arrive.

Check out the fabulous menu!

Plums will turn any entrée into Brunch for the piddly amount of $8 which adds bottomless coffee or tea and an adult Brunch beverage!  Britni ordered the Oregon Berry Belini and I ordered a Mimosa.  We were both happy with our choices!

And then there was the food.  Everything.  Was.  Spectacular!  I ordered the Smoked Salmon Hash which was out of this world!

Britni ordered the Apple-Honey Sausage with Eggs which she was very happy with.

As we have learned, everyone loves a little sweet to go with their savory, so we also split the Willamette Hazelnut Pancakes with Marion Berry Compote.  I previously posted about the Klondike Sourdough Pancakes at Bubby's in New York...these hazelnut pancakes tied with them as the best pancakes I've ever had.  If you visit Plums, you MUST try these!

After we ate, we continued catching up over a second round of cocktails, and this time, I also ordered the berry belini.  That was delicious as well.  Based on the Yelp reviews and our experience, everything here is delicious!

I had a fabulous, albeit short visit, with Stephanie and then a fabulous Brunch with Britni.  After we parted ways, I headed over to Oma's.  My mother joined us and while my plans to start getting Oma's stories on film for the documentary were thwarted by the fact that her hair was in rollers, we had a fantastic afternoon!  She pulled out a book that had a photo of my paternal grandfather as a young man.  He was a musician in Germany that performed all over Europe - even performing for the King and Queen of Sweden at the royal palace.  Too bad neither my sister nor I inherited his musical abilities...  This photo is of him in the Musikkappelle in 1929!

Throughout the course of the day, I spent some amazing quality time with some fabulous Ladies!  It's not uncommon for me to spend time with three generations, but with the birth of Little Miss Avabella, this was the first day that marked FOUR generations.  And that, Darlings, is fabulous!

Here's to all the fabulous Ladies I know, spanning the generations!

XOXO

Let's Get Literary - The Velveteen Rabbit

The Velveteen Rabbit

Margery Williams, 1922

Hello Bunnies!

I feel like I've strayed a little bit from blogging responsibilities, and while I'm STILL working on Oil! for March's Book Club Meeting, I'm going to share a few other things with you before that post is completed.

From my last post, you now know that the eternally fabulous Stephanie is going to bring another Little Lady into the mix.  While I proceeded to go out of my mind in shopping for clothes, because, really, how could I not?  I also found myself at Barnes and Noble.  I LOVE books and I think that growing up with a big library is essential for children.  So, I have taken it upon myself to build one for this Little Lady.

Enter The Velveteen Rabbit.

I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but I never read this children's classic before purchasing it for the baby shower.  One of my best friends got married a few years back and her brother read an excerpt from this book during the ceremony and, without knowing the exact context, I cried.  Hard.  So, once I brought this home, I decided to read it before signing and wrapping it.  This little book is only 40 pages, but the emotion and intensity that is packed into those 40 pages of this children's book is really quite spectacular!

If you've never read it before, keep in mind that you will absolutely need to sit down with a box of tissue to get through it.  I bawled like a baby...it was to the point that I had to set the book down, sob for a minute, attempt to pull myself together, scold myself for being affected THIS deeply, read a few more pages, and repeat the process.  It's not that the story is tragic, but it's told so beautifully and really drills down to the core of what life is all about - loving and being loved in return.

'For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand it all.
"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day...
"Real isn't how you are made, " said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
'Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up, " he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen at all once," said the Skin Horse, "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily...Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
The Rabbit sighed. He thought it would be a long time before this magic called Real happened to him. He longed to become Real, to know what it felt like; and yet the idea of growing shabby and losing his eyes and whiskers was rather sad. He wished that he could become it without these uncomfortable things happening to him.'

One of the most profound lessons for a little girl to learn is that, no matter what she looks like, she is beautiful and that those who truly love her, do not do so because of her physical appearance.  It's such a powerful thing to have instilled within you growing up in this image-obsessed culture!  '...the little Rabbit grew very old and shabby, but the Boy loved him just as much. He loved him so hard that he loved all his whiskers off, and the pink lining to his ears turned grey, and his brown spots faded. He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy. To him he was always beautiful, and that was all that that little Rabbit cared about. He didn't mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn't matter.'

Not only does the Rabbit become Real because of how deeply the Boy loves him, but the Rabbit loves the Boy in return.  He loves him enough to sacrifice of himself for what the Boy needs.  'And then, one day, the Boy was ill. His face grew very flushed, and he talked in his sleep, and his little body was so hot that it burned the Rabbit when he held him close. Strange people came and went in the nursery, and a light burned all night and through it all the little Velveteen Rabbit lay there, hidden from sight under the bedclothes, and he never stirred, for he was afraid that if they found him some one might take him away, and he knew that the Boy needed him.'

Once I finished reading, I knew that I also needed to gift a Velveteen Rabbit - so that's also been added to the 'next time' category of shopping for the baby.  It's not that I don't have oodles of time...she hasn't even arrived!  So, with that in mind, my book purchases for the baby shower started small, but I already have quite a long list of books for her library.  The other two that I bought were Grimm's Fairy Tales because everyone should know the classics and The Very Hungry Caterpillar because I remember this from when I was a kid - and also because a very visual book about becoming a butterfly is appealing to every little girl!

 

So yes, I just reviewed a children's book.  But really, if you've never read this, you must do so immediately.  And if this one doesn't make you feel something, perhaps you, yourself, are not Real.

Happy Reading (and sobbing), Bunnies!

Breakfast at Tiffany's Baby Shower 04.06.2013

Hello Darlings!

When was the last time you went to a truly fabulous baby shower?  I'll give you a minute to think about that...take your time.  Anyone?  Anyone?  Yeah, that's what I thought.  Most baby showers are tedious affairs that are more of an obligation than anything else - no matter who the mother to be is.  Personally, I went to an absolutely fabulous shower just last weekend.  One of my best friends and arguably the most fabulous pregnant woman you will ever meet, Stephanie of Love and Lace, is having a Little Lady of her own and it's a pretty safe bet that I'm just as excited as she and her husband are...alright, one step below their level of excitement, but still more excited than I should probably be since it's not my actual child.  I am not a baby person.  In fact, I find most babies to be pretty awful, but this particular one, I'm SUPER into...even before she's arrived.  I suppose I have to be, with the fact that my ever-present partner in crime will soon be a mommy and our fun will be significantly affected.  If I don't like the little squirt, I'm royally screwed.  But I digress....

Stephanie has wanted a little girl for a long time now, so as soon as she found out she was going to have one, this Mistress of the Soirée began planning her Breakfast at Tiffany's themed baby shower.  The fabulosity started with the Tiffany Blue onesie invites.  Despite the fact that my kitchen may forever shimmer if you look at just the right angle, how could I NOT love this fabulous invite?!  PS - if you love the invites, you can get them at Stephanie's Etsy shop!

Before we actually get to the shower, let's take a minute to talk about the fact that if anyone knows what's good for them, they will invite me to their baby shower.  I tend to go a bit overboard...but in my defense, there are very few baby things that aren't ridiculously adorable!  Alright, perhaps 'going overboard' is not the appropriate phrase...if I'm being honest with you (and I feel that we're at that point in our relationship that I can be), I totally lose my shit when confronted with baby clothes!  Even with taking many, many things out of my cart, I've already spent a small fortune on this child...and most of the things I didn't purchase have just been put into the 'next time' category.  (I may very well be screwed.)

In German, 'Tante' means Aunt and I've already decided that I will be 'Tante Melinda' and also that I will be this child's favorite person (outside of parents and grandparents).  And in this role, I will be responsible for teaching her many things.  One of those things is that tutus are not just for ballerinas - and I'd like to go on record to say that ballerinas are WAY better than Princesses.  I could write a brief dissertation on the evils of Princess Culture, but I'll leave that for another day.  So, even though I already purchased a black and white dress with a black tutu skirt (couldn't help myself, I HAD to!), I decided that I also needed to be the one to get her her first pink tutu (technically this is a pettiskirt, but it's close enough).  And that kicks off the highlights of my baby clothes purchases (because who doesn't love baby clothes?).

I discovered a FABULOUS site, Rufflebutts.com, where I was able to get the skirt, coordinating shirt, and the BEST thing I found - personalized, embroidered ruffled diaper covers!  And while I was at it, I figured she would need little striped leg warmers, so I picked up a pair of those as well!

I then headed over to Old Navy after seeing Stephanie post this onesie on Pinterest.  I'm pretty sure I have found my Achilles' Heel - and it's anything with a ruffled bottom.

But truthfully, I really liked this little Parisian Kitty onesie better.  Though, no matter which one is your favorite, the little shoes might just trump both!  What's nice is that I stayed with a theme, so the shoes perfectly compliment both these and the set of plain onesies - versatility is always a plus!

I'm seriously obsessed with these shoes!

As ALWAYS happens at Target, I went in to get wrapping paper and walked out with another sizable baby clothes purchase.  Will I never learn??  But when you are faced with black scooter skirts, black and white striped onesies, pink coats, and grey and pink kitten outfits, it is nearly impossible to resist!

And I would have been stripped of my Tante title had I not provided this Little Lady with her first pair of sunglasses...

Now, onto the shower itself.  This was a co-ed brunch - so less of a traditional shower and more of a party.  What was nice was that there were also no traditional shower games - just good people and fantastic food and refreshments.  

In addition to some fabulously themed cupcakes, there was a real focus on learning.  It's really never too early to start.

What WAS traditional was the opening of the gifts.  There were some really cute gifts and Stephanie had a really cute helper!

I was very happy that both our parents-to-be seemed to be as enamoured with the pettiskirt as I am! 

It was such an enjoyable afternoon and I'm getting excited that we are nearing this Little Lady's arrival.  She's not even here yet and she is already very much loved!  Such a wonderful way to come into this world.

Welcome to the world Darling!  Your Tante Melinda can't wait to meet you!