Bachelorette Weekend in STL

This past weekend my sweet girls treated me to the most fabulous celebratory weekend in St. Louis, jam packed with all sorts of my favorite things!

We started with dinner at the Roommate's precious little house - homemade roasted tomato soup and white cheddar cheese, homemade bread, and rosemary chicken-apple-walnut-blue cheese salad. I miss living with her...

Up next was frilly-gift time followed by an hour or so of watching Gigi & Finley (Roommate's roommate's dog), chase each other around the living room. I loved having all of my favorite girls in one place - such a treat.

Saturday morning, we all met up at the London Tea Room for breakfast. If you're ever in St. Louis, you simply MUST go to the tea room - it's indescribably lovely. I had a pot of the Duke & Duchess blend with a cranberry-orange scone covered in clotted cream and fresh strawberry jam. Pretty much the best breakfast ever.

The plan was to then grab coffee (yes, we like caffeine that much) on our way to our mani-pedi appointment. Our plans were blindsided (literally) by a couple of (again, literal) party crashers. A Ford Taurus came out of nowhere and t-boned Roommate's car in the middle of a rather busy intersection. Thankfully, Little Sister keeps calm in crisis situations and had it pretty much handled by the time I'd even processed what had happened. No one was hurt and we were able to get it sorted out fairly quickly.

Dealing with a car accident was not at all how we wanted to spend our morning, but we had some nice downtime waiting on the cops and the tow truck, then enjoyed a stroll through the SLU campus. All in all, it really didn't put that much of a damper on the day.

We finally arrived at the salon and enjoyed a very girlie hour of manicures & pedicures - note to self: wear a "Bride-to-Be" sash EVERYWHERE. People are SUPER nice to you ALL THE TIME!

Afterwards, we had lunch at one of my favorite spots - Companion - then headed back to the hotel for a quick change before our tour of the Botanical Gardens.

Since it was so late in the afternoon, the Gardens were relatively quiet (except for the no fewer than three weddings setting up as we walked around). Plus, the weather was delightful - making our tour even more enjoyable.

After our tour, we spent time driving around the city and made a stop at Kaldi's Coffee for a caffiene boost before dinner. Y'all...they have a Baked Maple Pumpkin Latte...BAKED. It actually has BAKED PUMPKIN in it. AND maple. If you aren't hearing me...baked pumpkin. It was phenomenal.

We had dinner on the Hill at Zia's - fabulous as always - then spent a few hours at Bailey's Chocolate Bar. Also excellent. I had a Chai martini - chai ice cream, rumchata, and vanilla vodka...OMG.

All of that on top of the fact that I got to spend an entire day with my girls - I couldn't imagine a better weekend.

The next morning, we enjoyed crepes, coffee, and mimosas at City Coffee House & Creperie and found out who'd won our Bachelorette Bingo Instagram competition (spoiler, Vicky won).

To fill you in, we all had a sheet with 25 squares on it - each describing a different thing we had to find throughout the weekend. The objects were open to "creative interpretation," and some of the photos we snapped were my favorites from the trip. More details at the end of the post.

Unfortunately we all had flights to catch or lesson plans to write or puppies to pick up, so the weekend had to end. I hated hugging everyone goodbye - but I'm sure January will be here before I know it and they'll all be back!

Ladies - thank you SO much for an amazing weekend. I'm so very blessed to have such a sweet set of friends. I cannot fully express how much each of you means to me. Can't wait to see you in January!

Til then!

Bachelorette Bingo

This is a collection of my favorites from the weekend, laid out on the board in their respective squares. There were two we struggled to get: Momma & Me (as she was having WAY too much fun with her buddy Rhonda), and Me talking about Paul (which Brittany DID get, but it's in video form, so not included). The full collection is available below (and also on Instagram under the tag #alanasgettingmarried). Enjoy!

A Giant Shoe made out of Shoes

Lauren

St. Louis Arch

Emma

What the What?

Heather

Alana’s Ring

Brittany

Fairy Lights

Gigi being Cute

Underground

Someone Laughing til they Cry

"A rose by any other name…"

Alana Caught by Surprise

Vicky

Favorite Meal

Pretty in Pink

Coffee

Alana with at least THREE of her Bridesmaids (no posing)

Kaitlin

Ten Little Piggies

True Love

Red Carpet Cupcake Challenge

As part of its 50th Year Anniversary Celebration, Youth Bridge (a local non-profit) is hosting a special multi-tiered competition called "Cupcake a-Palooza." Events over the summer months will lead up to the grand finale: the Red Carpet Cupcake Challenge (to be held on Sunday September 8, 2013.) In this challenge, 4 contestants from two divisions - professional and amateur - will compete in a live baking contest before a panel of celebrity judges. Winners take home cash, prizes, a trophy, and bragging rights.

To enter, contestants submit a photo and description of a previously baked cupcake as well as a brief personal statement about their history with baking and why they're right for the competition. 

A selection of those contestants are then chosen to participate in Round Two, where they bake their submitted cake for a new panel of judges. 

Then, the top four in each division are eligible to advance to the live competition on September 8th where they will bake a "Red Carpet" inspired cupcake.

Sounds cool, right?

I might have entered.

A little...

And I might have made it to Round Two. 

A little...

And I might be a little bit nervous.

A little...

But it's gonna be fine, right?

Right... 

So, my next task is to make these bad boys for a panel of judges. Fingers crossed they like them as much as I do!

Salted Caramel Mocha Cupcakes

• Description: Mocha cake with a chocolate-espresso ganache filling, frosted with salted carmel buttercream and topped with caramel drizzle and a few green sugar crystals. 
• Design: I modeled these after one of my favorite Starbucks drinks, and I wanted to include (and highlight) all the fun flavors in the drink.
• I used coffee to make the chocolate cake and included espresso in the ganache filling, giving it a lovely mocha flavor.
• For the buttercream, I used my standard recipe and flavored it with a homemade salted caramel sauce - I wanted to control the sweet-to-salty ratio, so making the caramel myself allowed me to decide where the perfect balance was. 
• I used a little of the remaining sauce to drizzle over the cakes and finished them off with a few green sugar crystals (to bring in the Starbucks green) and their characteristic green straw
• For presentation, I wrapped the cakes in white ribbon and a green sticker to simulate the branding on the cup. 

Send all your happy/good luck/you'll be fine vibes my way, k? I'll let you know how it goes. 

Happy Thursday! 

Life Lately

Wow - where did the last two months go, y'all? Oh yeah: a new cat, the end of the retainer work crunch, a graduation, a wedding, a couple other weddings, tornado season, and camp. That's where.

Sorry I've been MIA. How 'bout we play catch up for a bit? Let's see where'd we leave off - Little Bear's party, I think. Well, since then:

1) We rescued/took in/accidentally fell in love with a cat. Everybody say high to Grover Cleveland. He's "serving his second, non-consecutive term"...as a house cat. The Boy named him. Can you tell?

2) We painted a few things.

3) I made several batches of cupcakes. (Yes, those are margarita cupcakes. Yes, I used tequila. Lots.)

4) And a fancy dinner for the sweet Moms in our lives.

5) We went to the drive-thru zoo.

6) And tried all sorts of beer...in a parking lot...in the rain.

7) I got a hair cut. Not as dramatic as last year's (only an inch this time...not 15)

8) My best friend moved away, but not without one last fabulous night out.

9) The animals and I survived a tornado (or two) in my teeny half-bath.

10) Little Brother graduated

11) THEN HE GOT MARRIED!

12) So did some of The Boy's friends. And some of mine.

13) I spent a week with this little cutie...

And then I slept. A lot. Finally. I'll add more details on several of the above events throughout the week. Stay tuned and thanks for checking back in! We'll see y'all soon.

(Gigi seemed left out...so here's a photo of the cutest pup in the world, just for fun)