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

Birthday Party 28

One week ago I turned 28 (who knew the song by Sleeping at Last called Page28 would almost be prophetic?). This new year of my life marks the beginning of something new and awesome and a new season is ahead.
I want to start something new on this blog also. As I am planning many events and little and big parties and weddings here and there I want to start sharing these events and let you take part in it and see what I did, how it turned out and where my creativity went so to say. And as the birthday party this year was quite the bash I cannot think of any better way to start this Event section than with my party.

The most important thing for me was to bring my closest and best friends together around one table. Share a meal. Share conversations and grow closer in friendship. I love Kinfolk Magazine and their manifesto and their attempt at things so a lot of inspiration came from there. I mostly use pinterest to safe my ideas and inspiration. Pinterest has really helped a lot in keeping me inspired and not lose the things I see and love and I keep going back to my boards to get inspired.

I like it when events have a central theme and something to follow. It makes everything fit together and connects the dots.
Also I am not the person to do big puffy flowers and tons of cutsie colors and such. I like things to look effortless and as natural as possible. I like to use things I already have or make things instead of buying them.

It all started with some really basic invitations I designed and handed out to my closest friends. They really set the tone for everything else that was to come and people were already anticipating all of it!
For me personally invitations are one of the most important things when it comes to a party, wedding, event because they are the first thing your guest will see. It will set the tone and atmosphere and really the quality for the whole event!
After the invitations were handed out there were 3 important areas to take care of: 1) Food, 2) Decorations and 3) favors.

As I had planned it to be a garden party in my parent's backyard it was clear that everything would be focused around grilling some meat, along with having salads, cheese, bread and grilled veggies. My dad is the big "grill master" and sure loves making food for people so that was a big plus.

When it comes to decorations I didn't want to overdue it so I just used some mason jars as candle holders and bought two bigger succulents. That was basically all I had for decorations.

I really did put some effort into making the favors because I really wanted to bless my friends and give them something with meaning and something on the way for their summer/year/season of life. So I printed out the end of a Mark Twain quote in the same design as the invitations. I hand wrote all the tags with my pen and ink.

As an entree and appetizers everybody got homemade lemonade in cute little juice bottles with their name printed on. I bought the bottles on ebay and printed the name tags in the same design as the invitations. The recipe for the lemonade was from here and everybody loved it. With that I served nachos with guacamole because I always make guacamole. It is one of my favorite things!
Also for the first time I made my own focaccia bread (recipe taken from here) and it was sooo good.

I spent the whole afternoon preparing, baking, squeezing lemons, setting things up and all I could think of were my friends and how much they will enjoy it and be together and how we will have the perfect night together. I had of course put together a playlist with really great music like Mumford & Sons, Andrew Belle, The Novel Ideas, Josh Garrels and many other great musicians.
And then it started, music playing, lemonade ready and everything set up. And my friends came and ate and we laughed and took pictures and hugged and talked.

The whole time the sky looked like this I loved it more than having the perfect sky. Of course we were constantly thinking about rain and wondering when the storm would come but it didn't really affect us and only rained for 10 minutes. Everybody just lifted the tables and we cuddled up under the covered patio.

As the sun had set we made a fire, ate dessert, made s'mores and looked at the fire. My friend got out his guitar and we shared the perfect summer night.
I honestly loved every second of that party and because I had planned well in advance I was able to enjoy it and spend time with my friends rather than running around trying to get it all done then.
Yes I did put a lot of effort and planning into the party but truthfully in all the preparation I was so excited to see my friend's faces. I was so excited to honor them.
That is what planning events for me is. Creating an atmosphere where people come and feel home, feel welcomed and can relax. It is planning those moments which they will always remember and I really hope I achieved that this past Saturday.

xoxo

Ramona

PS: You can follow my pinterest to see what inspires me.

Summer, Tailgaiting, The Windy City and an American Wedding

I know I know I know it has been forever and I have not shared anything from my recent travels to Chicago to attend my friend's wedding.
Truthfully at first I tried to still savor the moments and experiences had and right after that I fell completely back into daily life and with my soon to be new job (more on that soon!) there was just no time.
Nonetheless I really do want to share my adventures with you. The time in Chicago definitely was a time-out for me. A time where I unplugged from all social networks and email. It was exactly what I had needed to clear my mind and be open for new inspiration and and reaffirmation when it comes to my calling and the things in life I think I am supposed to do.

When it comes to traveling in the States I had only been to California and Colorado so far, but never the Midwest. And I feel it has been the most American experience I have ever had.

Or let's say it this way: Going to the Brewers - Arizona Baseball game preceded by 4 hours of tailgating was probably the most American experience I have ever had in my entire life. There was barbecue on a parking place, Hamburgers, Country music, corn hole playing, fireworks and cheerleading. Basically anything us Europeans associate with America because it is what we see in the movies. I loved being there and experiencing it especially because I got to see a glimpse of culture and people and the way life is done in other parts of this globe.
Honestly I did not have a shimmer of an idea of how Baseball is played but I knew what a home run was and I new there was fireworks with a home run so I just kept on screaming, "Fireworks, fireworks, fireworks". I probably looked and sounded like the weird European girl but it was fun!

The weekend in Milwaukee was followed by me being a complete tourist, walking block after block and taking pictures in Chicago.

Can you find me? I really walked around like a tourist with my map and Lonely Planet travel guide. But I enjoyed it and loved taking pictures. The architecture of the city was really impressive and I thought very well thought through. Also the city doesn't feel that big being the 3rd largest city in the States.
I often enjoy exploring cities like that by myself mostly because I get to go in my own pace taking it all in.
My travel guide also had some really good recommendations for food and after having walked for hours in the burning heat I went to a place called Elate and declared it pure research for my new job. I absolutely loved the place and yes lunch was a little unhealthy, it was still amazing and the perfect break followed by going up the John Hancock building and more walking.

But after that I kind of was done being a tourist and wanted to see some other things. So I decided to take the bus to Wicker Park and explore the local shops and galleries there and then take the "L"-Train back.

On the train I think I was reminded of every single action movie I have ever seen where the explosions were in the train, the fighting scenes on the train and I felt quite interesting hoping nothing would happen. Ha, I guess I'm just good at imagining things.

I was in the city three times and yet for me going to other places it's often not really about the place but about the people you meet and the adventures you are in with these people because you can look at a building, take pictures, read about the history and not really understand because if these words are not filled with the life of people and the laughter and the conversations all of it is meaningless. But with it the place is awakened to life and you really start understanding not only the people but the place and the history of it all.
That is why I am so thankful for experiencing exactly that. People. For making new friends and getting another perspective of things. That is what made this trip really special and memorable and that is also what made it hard to leave in the end.

And so the last days of my visit where filled with spending time with new friends. I stayed with an amazing couple throughout this whole visit and I believe God strategically put me there to learn and be inspired and mostly encouraged to keep on walking, to stay focused and to be reassured of my gifts and talents. He gave me an outlook into something that could be and remembered me of my heart's desires.
The wedding was beautifully set in a garden/park and I love seeing how two people become one before the Lord.
I am absolutely grateful for having had this time set aside to breathe and just be. I am so happy I chose to go to the States this year and it was definitely the perfect timing to be there.
There are so many memories I took home with me and I am ready now for the next season in my life.

xoxo

Ramona

PS: On the way back to the airport we listened to the Mumford and Sons album which is why it is my Current Soundtrack. It is a reminder of that time there.

Soon...

This is more or less a teaser of what's to come. I had a fantastic time on my travels and you know how it is when you come back. It just takes some time to settle back in, arrive at home and process all the things seen, experienced and done.
But I promise there will be pictures and tales about tailgating, Baseball, Fireworks, the Windy City, meeting new people and american weddings.
So... stay tuned.

xoxo

Ramona

pictures taken with instagram @ramonasebald