Valeria Out Loud

Hey hey guys!

Hope today is finding you well.

I’m currently sitting in the ‘pool’ for jury duty. I wish it was a real pool with sunshine, hot weather… and a cocktail in hand. Instead I am here with way too many angry looking strangers coughing around me.

Since I am here with all of this free time I can share our weekend, our oldest daughter had her confirmation! Woohoo!!

Our smart cookie worked hard over the past two years for confirmation. Between all of her services and volunteering, she has grown tremendously.

Before I get into details I have to ask…where has the time gone? She is days away from turning 17!! How is this even possible?

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Before the ceremony.

I had our daughter’s sponsor-her oldest and best friend, and, my parents meet at our house. This way we could present her sponsor with a gift, get some pictures in the yard-and my parents could then follow us to the church.

Here are some shots of before…

The ceremony.

The day was beautiful. It was sunny, warm with a slight breeze. Everyone looked beautiful. And arrived early as I asked. Haha We weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside the church once the Bishop started services so this is all I grabbed beforehand. The parish had a photographer on site snapping pictures from the altar. Can’t wait to see those!

The Bishop’s ceremony and prolific words resonated with me. As he received all of the kids’ letters on their chosen Patron Saint and had one-on-one conversations detailing why these kids chose their sponsors and why they were being confirmed, he found this class had a theme. Their grandparents. He spoke about learning of these beautiful kids and their relationships with their grandparents, or other important figure heads of their families and lives. It hit me hard as I did not grow up with my grandparents. Unfortunately, my grandmothers died before I was born, and I was fortunate to have met my grandfathers when I was 7, during my first trip to Sicily. It was the only time in my life to meet them before they died. With this personal sob story, the Bishop’s words hit me because my kids have been fortunate enough at their ages to have all four of their grandparents in their lives. Highly religious grandparents. It’s something I like to think about often. How wonderful it has been for them to foster these relationships that, to be frank, I can’t relate with.

Congratulations to all of these beautiful kids!

THE CELEBRATION

We celebrated our daughter with a reception at a local restaurant with fifty of our closest friends and our family. It was a great turn out, but best of all, I was able to see the joy on our daughter’s face as she partied with her favorite people. 😊 All of her hard work paid off.

Let’s talk party!

The party theme.. Every party has to have a theme! I went with my all time favorite theme…shabby chic. I planned the whole look around the idea that I had of rustic floral hoop centerpieces- which I ended up making.

So let me start sharing how I made those to emphasize the theme better.

The centerpieces…

I truly love the shabby chic look. The style is vintage, and eclectic. It comforts me that I can mix and match media and materials to create fresh looking items that have a rustic feel. So for her party, I decided that I would forego a proper centerpiece of flowers and created two different styles, but similar centerpieces. I made 8 centerpieces all together; 4 of each look. The two centerpieces both start with gold floral hoops on a wood block base decorated with sola flowers and crystals; the defining colors were from the blue eucalyptus and maroon feathery leaves that were used. They turned out just as I wanted, which was a huge hit of the day.

The colors of the flowers reminded me of our daughter. They were soft pinks, ivory, light and dark denim blue. There were mixes of textures and shapes, and they paired so well with both the eucalyptus and the leaves.

The cake….

Our daughter requested a classic modern cake; the look of a naked cake (a partially frosted cake- where the ribs of cake are exposed on the sides). Very shabby chic! 😂

We had initially planned to buy a cake through our local bakery, but the past two cakes did not come out the way we planned (ie ordering a vanilla cake w chocolate pudding filling, what arrived was a vanilla cake with vanilla filling …both times 🤦🏻‍♀️).

We planned for me to make the cake with out schedules- which freaked me out! I am NO baker. Nor decorator. I was nervous because this cake would have to feed 50 ppl, and after I did some research to figure out portion sizes, the cake would have to be three tiers. Multilevel, guys. I drafted out a look using the food safe flowers similar to the ones from the centerpieces and jumped in with both feet to create her cake.

I have no experience doing this but I did it.

Soooo, let me just toot my horn right now. I embodied some type spiritual baker this day baking and decorating this cake….and it turned out a pretty good looking cake. Just like I hoped! Our daughter lived it. And guys, EVERYONE RAVED ABOUT IT! Lots of guests didn’t believe me that I made it. Ha!!

The cookies…

The reception…

The restaurant was beautiful, matching the theme perfectly. Everyone enjoyed the atmosphere. The drinks and food were fantastic, everyone ate a plenty, and the drinks were a hit. We had a buffet of apps; calamari fritti, three types of bruschetta, and, entrees of chicken marsala, steak and fries, salmon on spinach and chicken fingers. We had personalized cocktails too! See below:

• My Patron Saint (cosmopolitan)
• The Sacrament (rum punch)
• She’s confirmed (mock-tail for non drinkers/kids)

Here are a few pics of the day:

We had a great time celebrating one of our favorite young women. We are blessed with her and her sister, and, pray that their lives are full of light and love.

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I loved re-living her day today! It was fun, emotional and beautiful, just like she is inside. My special girl. ❤️

Well, I am waiting to head in for impanelment, so I have to run soon. Can’t wait to learn about this case. If I’m chosen. Haha

Tonight I have my third session of pottery class, so I hope to have something fun to blog about tomorrow. I’m so excited! Ok well. Here I go! Thanks for stopping by!

…till next time. xoxo