Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending a fabulous event in Waukee at Schade Winery hosted by the Burt Family, before heading out to Chicago for my mom's wedding reception. 

Schade Winery in Waukee.

A winery in Waukee? Who knew! Most of the people who attended and/or heard of it later had no idea.  The winery itself was very serene. I couldn't get over how I had never heard of it. All I wanted to do was have a picnic one the beautiful lawns that they had. 

Music, Wine, & Food.

The musical program was setting up when we first arrived. From the parking lot, we were escorted to the front lawn in golf carts. They had a couple of bars setup featuring the wineries best wines. 

Dinner Reception Location. 

 The event was catered by Maid-Rite and everything from the food to music to company was amazing. They had a live auction and swag bags. The evening was just perfect. 

A very special thanks to the Burt's for the invitation. It was a magical evening for a great cause. So honored to be invited and able to enjoy great music, food, wine, and friendly and fun company :)

City Bakery.

Have you been to City Bakery in the East Village?

Eggs & Avocado Breakfast.

It opened late Fall and has been a hidden gem. They don't do any advertising or social media marketing at all which is why most people don't know what or where it is exactly. The owners of La Mie opened this cute little cafe in the same place that Bagni di Lucca used to be.

They used to only be open for lunch Tuesday thru Friday but have recently extended their hours to accommodate breakfast goers as well as Saturdays for those strolling around the East Village. I hope it stays open, the food and service are amazing... but you shouldn't expect anything less since they are the masterminds behind La Mie :)

Have you ever been to eden? It's probably one of my favorite places in Des Moines. Jen has always been an amazing person to work with when I am looking for the perfect gift for someone. I still remember when I first moved to Des Moines and her cute little boutique was on the corner of E. 5th and & Grand. The new location on E. 6th is gorgeous and as serene as her original home. 

Anyhow, as the years have passed, we have become rather close and I started working for a her little after I had moved back from California, very part-time, of course. It was always the highlight of my week because working with her doesn't feel like working at all!  Here's a little project that we have started last month on Mondays when I work.

eden's impromptu kitchen setup.

I came into work a few Mondays ago and Jen has purchased a bunch of ingredients because she wanted to have a Waldorf Salad for lunch. Not knowing what it was, I kind of hesitated to make one but she had a recipe and I went to work on figuring it out. 

Waldorf Salad ingredients. 

I looked at everything that I had and knew it was  going to take a while to chop everything up. Once I read the recipe over once, I knew exactly what I was making and had a clear vision of what I wanted it to look like.

Three Types of Apples.

I used to not like apples very much but now they are an important part of my breakfast. When I am on the run, I throw one in my bag and snack on it either first thing in the morning or after my lunch. If you didn't know already, I have a super sweet tooth so I always want something sweet after every meal and apples help me cut some calories once in awhile but what I really crave are chocolate chip cookies.

Chopped. Cubed. Ready.

Once I have successfully chopped the apples, celery, and grapes, I made the dressing and threw them all into a bowl. I added the yellow raisins but waited on the walnuts because I thought that they would be a lot more prominent if they were sprinkled over the top of the finished product.

Assembling Process.

Once all of the ingredients were nicely covered in the dressing, I laid out the romaine lettuce leaves on a platter and carefully scooped the mixture of the leaves.

Jen purchased a rotisserie chicken so that we didn't have to cook anything, which we don't have a stove at eden, just a microwave. So I pretty much gutted the chicken for all of its meat and topped our salad with it.

There you go! A pretty fabulous Waldorf Salad, don't you think? I used to not be a huge fan of salad's but recently I just love them. This salad was refreshing and perfect for the Spring-like weather. After this, Jen and I vowed to make something for lunch every Monday with the challenge that we couldn't used a stove but we could bend the rules for some dishes and pre-make some stuff at home first, if needed. Let the challenge begin!

If I haven't told you already, I have been working at Salon Spa W in the East Village since August and I love it. I never thought that I'd be working at a salon but I appreciate the beauty that all the stylists create and the happiness people feel after a great spa service. 

I am the Director of Guest Relations and take care of the marketing, public relations, bridal, front desk, and all of the our social media as well. I really enjoy it and appreciate it. Here's a little tid bit about what I get to do on a daily/weekly basis.

Branding for Salon Spa W

 The more we grow and expand, the more we have to create a brand for ourselves. I get to do that :) The screen printing was by the amazing staff at 8/7 Central.

Unveiling Parties with VIP Guests.

 If Public Relations means getting to leave work early to attend a fabulous event with fabulous people, why not right? We have several VIP clients and getting to mingle and attend events with them is a lot of fun. I always have to remember that I am representing our company!

TOP 200 Salon Party

Not only do I get to attend parties, I get to throw them too! We were named a Top 100 Salon by Elle Magazine a few months ago and in April we were named a Top 200 Salon by Salon Today Magazine so I got to plan and throw a party at the salon for all of our guests. We had prosecco, a fabulous cake from Cake Me, I'm Yours, and prizes. It was a lot of fun. 

Professional Head Shot

Our website should be up to date pretty soon with my head shot. I just ordered my business cards as well which I am very excited about :) Yes, there are days that my job is super stressful but at the end of the day, I do really love what I do, who I work with, and what we create. 

This past weekend I went home for several reasons, one of the main ones being that my mom's husband was in the hospital and I thought that he was having surgery so I wanted to be there for my mom. However, they let him out of the hospital before I got home and they were post-poning the surgery until after May 19th (their reception date, since they just got married through court).

I left work early on Saturday and got in late. I was super stressed when I got in with everything going on my life but once I got home, talked to my mom, and had a glass of wine (okay..two, but who's counting!) I felt a lot better. We started watching Sweet Home Alabama... "it was just the ticket"!

Mexican Benedict at NOSH

The next morning, I had brunch with my big sister, Grace, and my dad. It was really, really nice. We went to this cute place called Nosh in downtown Geneva. If you've never been to Geneva, you must. The town is super cute with great restaurants, shops, and beautiful scenery. The dish above was the Mexican Benedict with chorizo, avocado, poached eggs, and a jalapeno topping with potatoes on the side. I love Eggs Benedict and this was even better :)

Savory French Toast at NOSH

My sister and dad split the Savory French Toast and some omelet. I don't enjoy omelets so I didn't bother taking a picture of it. The french toast though....yummm! It was topped with bacon, caramelized onions and drizzled with some type of cream sauce. The toast was actually slices of a french baguette. We topped it with maple syrup, ugh, heaven!

My sister and I ordered mimosas and my dad looked at his watch and asked, "Don't you think it's a little early to be drinking?" We were sitting by the bar and the bartender smiled and my sister and I giggled and said "Our dad doesn't understand brunch, so please make him a bloody mary." He didn't drink much of the bloody mary so Grace and I finished it for him.

Gelato at All Chocolate Kitchen

After brunch, Grace was telling me about this fabulous chocolate store called the All Chocolate Kitchen. Chocolate? I'm there! The shop was really cute, with gelato, chocolate truffles, cakes, and pastries. It reminded me of Extraordinary Desserts in San Diego, but obviously different. 

Truffle Selection at All Chocolate Kitchen

They had a huge selection of chocolate truffles. I wanted to take one of each but only picked three. They had fruit inspired ones, liquor inspired ones, and savory flavored ones as well. The only bad thing about the morning and afternoon was all of the rain! Other than that, it was nice to have time to spend time with family :)

From the entire weekend, the pictures above are the only ones that I took! I had dinner with my mom and best friend Becky and her husband Dan that night. I always love seeing them, we talk about everything and give each other advice. The next day I got to my my cousin and her baby and then had a great lunch with an old high school friend, Eric. We hadn't seen each other since high school but recently reconnected. He'll be visiting Des Moines soon, and who doesn't fall in love with Des Moines, right? I know I did!

Oh, hey! There you are... I guess that's what most of you have been saying to me! There have been SO many changes in my life the past several months that the last thing on my mind was my beloved blog. I am happy to report though, that I am officially back :) I am sorry it's been so long but the first thing that I would like to share with all of you is that I think I can officially call myself a RUNNER! 

Me, a runner? No way, right? My friend Lauren giggled at me when I told her I was a runner. She said, "All I can see is a vision of your running with a designed bag at your side and a scarf waving in the wind behind you." I had to laugh! I never thought I would be a runner even though I always secretly wanted to be because my big sister, Grace, has been a runner since middle school but I was too lazy.

Well, I have changed my tune, and to get myself motivated, I signed up for a 20K in June. Kind of a big leap from not being a runner to committing to (12.4) miles right? Well, I think most people who know me will agree with the the fact that when I say I am going to do something, I am really am going to do it :)

Dam to Dam 2012 Logo

So there you have it... My registration is complete and I have been in the process of training for the last 3-4 weeks with a running date of Saturday, June 2nd. I even somehow convinced my best, Bethany, to run it with me. She hadn't been running in a while but I told her we needed to run (8) miles two weeks ago. She agreed but then as the date neared, I think both of us were hoping that one of us would cancel or want to reschedule but I told her... "We said we were going to run eight miles today... and even though it's raining and I hate the rain... we HAVE to do or else we won't later." And we did it :) It was amazing. I usually hate the rain, but it was actually very relaxing/calming to run in the rain for an hour.

Date: Wednesday, May 9th at 10:26 a.m. (Finish Time)

Two weeks later, with small runs in between, I was set to run (10) miles today, and I did. I was laying in bed this morning at 8:30 a.m. thinking to myself, "I can do it tomorrow, right?" But I got my butt out of bed, threw on my running clothes before I changed my mind and ran out the door. It took me (1) hour and (33) minutes to run non-stop ten miles. I can't even begin to tell you how proud I was of muyself. I have never run so far in my life and as much as I wanted to stop and walk, I kept going with the goal in mind.

If you're free and in Des Moines on Saturday, June 2nd, you need to be at the finish line cheering me and Bethany on. Running that far is a super accomplishment and I am excited to cross it off my list.