A place of contemplation

During my wonderful two weeks off I've biked out here almost every day. It is my bench and my place of contemplation. I sit here and think, spend time with God, read my Bible, journal, think some more and oh what decisions have already been made here. It is a beautiful spot and I love being there.

Do you have places like this?

xoxo

Ramona

On top of trees

Yesterday my sister, brother in law and friend Melina went on a hike where at the end you can take a walk on top of tree tops. It's pretty exciting to be up 23 m above the ground and basically over the trees. We had some amazing views up there over the Black Forest. It was so much fun to just be in nature for a whole day, breathe in the air of flowers and trees and summer. And the funny thing was that the day passed by so slowly which I absolutely loved.

xoxo

Ramona

Snippets from Camping

My friend Alyssa and I went Camping last week at Lago Maggiore in Italy and before I give you any details on it these images and collages have to suffice.
Hope you enjoy. The time was fantastic!


 
xoxo

Ramona

A breakfast in the park

This morning I decided to have breakfast outside instead of in the apartment. So I packed myself a little bit of a picnic, got on my bike and biked to one of my favorite spots. It's out in the fields close to a park and so calm and quiet.
There I set by myself on a blanket, ate my breakfast bagel and drank my iced coffee. I read my bible and wrote my journal.
Time seemed to pass so slowly and I was able to just be. Listen to nature around me, listen to the trees as the wind blew through them and took in the smells of the plants around me.
It was absolutely wonderful and I am sure I am going to repeat this throughout my vacation.

xoxo

Ramona

Summer breakfast

Yesterday was one of those days when you're on vacation where you stay in your pajamas all day long and watch your favorite TV shows. It was too hot to go outside anyways.
To start my day off I made some awesome breakfast, sat on the sofa and watched One Tree Hill - my all-time favorite TV show.

Later that day when it started cooling down I took my bike out and biked to my favorite place to read and write my journal.
That's what I love about summer. You just go outside, sit somewhere and enjoy the smells, the air and the birds twittering.

xoxo

Ramona

Summer... finally

Last Friday was the last day at my old job. It was quite emotional and sad saying good-bye to a place I worked at for 7 years. First as an intern during university and then as an assistant. But it's time to move on and I am so excited about what's ahead and all the adventures yet to come.

So... I am on vacation now for 2 weeks and it's just amazing. So I thought I'd share with you a little bit every day of me living into each day of this time. So... have fun with the pictures I'm going to be posting every day (except Wednesday through Friday as I will be camping in Italy!).

Here's what happened so far:

xoxo

Ramona

Summer Playlist

I know it's been a week but it's crazy here right now and I only have one more day at my current job before I go on vacation and before I start my new job! Super excited about that right now!

Anyways usually Thursday is somewhat of a musical day and I have updated my Current Soundtrack with my summer playlist. I had put it together for my birthday party and thought it would fun to share with you!

So, turn up the volume, enjoy the sun and listen to some awesome music - that's at least what I've been doing!

xoxo

Ramona

Thursday Tunes

This week this song keeps being my go-to. I listen to it all the time. And of course it's Bon Iver. He's an amazing artist.
I am just going to share the song with you and let speak to you itself.
xoxo

Ramona

Thrive

Today I was somehow contemplating the word to thrive. I did so because I was thinking about my life and my dreams and the kind way I want to live and come forward in life.
So I looked it up in the Merriam Webster Dictionary:
to thrive:
1. to grow vigorously: to flourish
2. to gain in wealth or possession:
3. to progress toward or to realize a goal despite of or because of circumstances

Wow. Does that get you as excited as me? I love that word. Not because of the word itself but it is a verb which means we should be thriving. To thrive in life. That's how I want to live. I don't just want to go from one day to another but I want to change the world and do something, invest myself for a greater goal. I want people to look at me and say that I am growing and flourishing, that I am progressing and realizing a goal despite of the circumstances.
And in all of this I want God be glorified! That through all of that I am giving Him honor and worship and praise.

As I look ahead to this coming fall and my new responsibilities and my new job that is the kind of word to describe me. That when I start and when I work, that I grow and learn and progress and realize goals.

So here's to that. Here's to thriving and flourishing and a bright future ahead.

xoxo

Ramona

To my future Love for ever

Right now I dream of you and I and of a thunderstorm that would arise with pouring rain and lightning. And the lights in our house would go off and we would light every candle we have and make a fire. We would cuddle up under the blankets and talk for hours upon hours. We would share our dreams and hearts and thoughts and we would always remember that moment when our love grew ever deeper.

yours forever

xoxo

Ramona


PS: Photo taken on my drive home in the craziest thunderstorm the other day.

A pink vintage bridal shower

Yesterday we threw a bridal shower for one of my very best friends. I am also planning her wedding so be prepared to find picture of her wedding here soon also.
The funny thing with this shower was that I already knew exactly how it was going to be and what we were going to do in February. It was one of those moments when I feel hit by lightning and in one creative power hour plan the whole thing through from invitations to decorations to food to favors. So all the planning was basically done already months before we threw the actual party. Her maid of honor brought in some amazing ideas too to make the whole thing perfect.
When I plan parties for other people one of the most important things for me is to make it perfect for them. It is not about me or how I would do it but about them and what they would love. That approach of course does not diminish the work, the creativity or the pursuit of excellence in the planning.
My friend Clarissa loves all things vintage, cute pink or pastel pink and she loves writing letters. So we definitely had a theme here.

As you know from my last post I put a lot of effort into the invitations to set the tone for the rest of the party. For the invitations I chose a design from Wedding Chicks and turned it around a little bit for our purpose. I printed it out on creme lightly structured paper that you would use for writing letters and put it into pink envelopes. When it comes to the font I tried to do a mix between typewriter like fonts and something a little more girly, handwritten.
For the decorations I really didn't want to go too overboard and stuffing it because the apartment we did it in was already filled with so many cute decorations that we could keep it simple and nice.

I had asked a few a her friends to make the streamers which we hang all over the living room. They were done in the same colors as the invitations and looked great with the white walls and brown ceiling.
In the guest room of the apartment we had a little station where we put my mom's old typewriter that had paper in it saying "I liebe Dich..." (German for I love you). That station was part of the photo booth we created. We took Polaroid pictures which guest could paste into a book and write a personal note for Clarissa. That was Tanja, the maid of honor's idea.
For the photo booth we had used this idea from here and also used the same colors as the invitation. It looked perfect and everybody loved it!

It was a ton of fun and the photos turned out amazing.
Now for the food and the favors: We actually had the food catered by one of our very good friends. She is for me the most creative and amazing cook and delivers more than food: love, passion, creativity, hospitality. She is amazing and the food was so great. We had pink lemonade (recipe taken from here) with cute paper straws and re-used the bottles from my birthday party. Then we had savory food and after the presents some amazing dessert with cakes and what not.
For the favors we just stuck with the theme and prepared little letter writing kits. I got the idea from Terrain (a pretty awesome shop if you ask me) and turned them around for us.

It was such a beautiful celebration and we were able to really honor Clarissa not only with presents but by getting together, by putting some effort into making the shower something to remember for her. These are the last couple weeks as an unmarried woman and to be part of her life and her journey is amazing. At the end my pastor prayed over her and blessed her for her coming marriage.
Clarissa loved it a lot and we hope that she will pick up that book we made her many years from now and remember those beautiful moments with her best girlfriends and important women in her life.

And again with this event it wasn't about the decorations and the favors or making it the perfect little party. It was about creating an atmosphere, about creating moments which she will never forget. The whole planning and crafting and creating and baking and making was all part of creating that atmosphere. It was the framework in which memories happened.

I believe if that is our attempt at hosting a party and throwing a party for somebody else than it will always turn out amazing because you put your heart and soul into make it something beautiful for somebody else.

xoxo

Ramona

PS: you can always find more inspiration and event ideas in my Event section of this blog.

Dreams and Goals

Last weekend we all went to do some archery which truth be told I love! So out there on the range and in nature, bow in hands and focusing on one single goal I had to think about dreams and goals and making things happen.
As most of you know from my Hopeless Romantic post I am a dreamer, a romantic and believe that dreams come true.
Over the last year I really have learned again what it truly means to dream and trust that they will come true. I have learned to not only dream those dreams and fantasize about them but to actually go after them and believe that they will come true. Something I had always done. Something I did when it came to moving to California for a semester a few years ago for example. But you know over the years you start getting settled and somehow I didn't have those big dreams anymore.
Until last summer when I really started forming these dreams into words and seeing how all of a sudden there was a lot actually that had just waited to come out and be spoken about.
And as you know I knew that something big was coming up last fall. I knew something was starting and just around the corner and honestly up until this past May I didn't know what it was.
And then it was there right in front of my eyes. The moment I had been waiting for for months and months that moment when your dreams come true and instead of just dreaming about it you actually start planning it and by planning it you start making goals. And by focusing on these goals you keep on moving forward and that was exactly what I had needed.
But to finally come to my point as I have mentioned before I will start a new job starting September. I will be managing an awesome Café and Restaurant here in town called Elemenz. It is quite the challenge and such a new chapter and season in my life. But I am ready for the future. Ready for the challenge and ready to see this dream come true and reach the goals after goals.

xoxo

Ramona