For me, fascination of a place lies within its history. Europe is an endless playground in discovering history and culture. I think the best way to take everything out of traveling is to explore old towns with beautiful streets and ancient buildings. I seek to find the most idyllic places, away from the touristic spots and get the feeling of authentic, local lifestyle.

I love many places but by far, Italy is definitely on my top list.
Living in a villa on a hill in Tuscany, the sunsets from our kitchen window were breathtakingly beautiful.
In Rome, I could sense the history in each street and hill, overlooking the light colored silhouette of the city.

When I got a chance to participate a tour organized to a fishing village near Rimini, I did not hesitate for long. I got the familiar feeling of Italy already on the train ride from Bologna to Cesenatico, watching the countryside and idyllic houses flash by.

The canal floating through old town and surroundings are really beautiful. It has been claimed that Leonardo da Vinci himself designed the canal. Buildings have the most sympathetic shades of pastels. The riverside is full of restaurants to enjoy a local fishmeal or stop by for a gelato. We spent the days riding with bicycles by the kilometers long beach, stopping to sip an espresso to the cozy cafes and wonder around the historic blocks of the Old Town. Must to-do is also a cruise on the sea on a hug, ancient sailing boat, which we got to enjoy with 30 bloggers around the globe.

For me, traveling is always an escape from routines back home – living in the moment and soaking up the most of the foreign culture and habits. Still, I strive to maintain healthy lifestyle while traveling – I don’t believe in restricting anything in my diet. I want to try the local cuisine, but naturally, prefer it as local and fresh as possible. In Italy, I loved to start my mornings with fresh fruit. Because we were active during the day (which is often the case while traveling) I didn’t, however, stress over eating pasta and bread during the rest of the day. If you ask me, laid-back attitude to some extent is never a bad thing. I admire the Italian women who have free way of thinking regarding food and still manage to look healthy and gorgeous. (Of course, I went straight back to normal diet back home including the green smoothies :)

Cesenatico is at its best during the warmest months of summer, when you want to escape the heat of the cities and spend a few days lying on the endless beach, do some exercise and enjoy delicious food. The exercise opportunities in Cesenatico are unique. Tennis and beach volley courts are located centrally and a lot of arranged classes are arranged for everyone to take part of. The surroundings themselves make you want to be active – cycle, walk and run at the seashore.

The fastest way to get to Cesenatico is to come by train from Rimini or Bologna. I flew to Bologna and took the opportunity to explore this beautiful city for a day as well. This way I got to enjoy both the beautiful fishing village Cesenatico by the coast and also to explore the heart of Northern Italy, Bologna. I heard that also Rimini is beautiful and worth visiting. Also, the amazingly beautiful sovereign state San Marino is less than an hour drive away. I’m sad I did not have time to visit this state that is claimed to be the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world. A destination on my bucket list for sure!

Top 5 reasons why to go to Cesenatico:
1.      Perfect escape destination for enjoying the atmosphere of a historic fishing village by the sea
2.      Delicious food – here you can find fresh fish, authentic Italian espresso and the perfect gelato
3.       Laidback attitude – forget schedules and plans and go with the flow
4.   Activities –find a organized class or independently explore the city for example by bike
5. Location – perfect few night stop for Italy exploring trip

Interview with Katy Paterson of ChamorroChica

In my book Instagram as your Guide to the World I feature several great Instagram travelers, and one of them is Katy Paterson from Singapore, she is Chamorro_chica on Instagram. Katy is an American expat living in Singapore with her Australian husband. You can read about her travels on her travel and lifestyle blog, ChamorroChica. Today I have an honor to feature Katy here at Skimbaco Lifestyle so we can all learn a little bit more about her! Katy will also be one of the co-hosts of our #IGTravelBook Twitter party on Monday!

Katja: Tell me more about your blog and how you got started.
Katy: I started my travel and lifestyle blog, ChamorroChica, in 2011. I had recently moved to Singapore from Sydney, Australia where I lived for four years. I decided to take a break from the corporate online space and get back to my passions. Writing and travel are two things I love most in life. I’ve had a love affair with travel and living abroad ever since my semester in Spain many moons ago. I began writing about living in Singapore first on my blog followed by my travels that year to Sydney, Bali, Hong Kong and back home to the States. I found that I really enjoyed writing about these travel experiences giving people an “inside glimpse” to these places, things to do and see, great dining experiences and more. Over the past couple of years I’ve continued to have a travel writing focus while also including some lifestyle posts about places and restaurants here in Singapore. Travel pieces on my blog include destinations such as: Australia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Japan, Spain, Argentina, Hong Kong along with various places in the U.S.

Photo by Chamorro_Chica

Katja: Tell us about your expat lifestyle.
Katy: I have truly enjoyed living overseas and continue to love it. During my time abroad I’ve been fortunate to have done a good amount of traveling which has enriched my experience even more. Travel and writing are my passions. Being able to do both of these things and share my travel experiences with others is fulfilling. I hope I am able to inspire others to travel through my travel writing and photos.

Katja: How long have you been using Instagram and what kind of photos you typically post from your travels?
Katy: I started using Instagram two years ago. During my travels I typically post photos from the travel journey such as the airport lounge, in-flight experience, sights at the destination, nice accommodation, food whether it be a memorable dining experience or an outdoor market and beautiful things that I want to capture like a colorful ocean sunset in Bali.

Photo by Chamorro_Chica

Katja: What about when you are not traveling? What kind of photos you post then?
Katy: When I’m not traveling I post photos of things in my day-to-day life, Singapore, social experiences and more food!

Katja: Has Instagram helped you to find a new travel location or connected you with people?
Katy: Instagram has definitely helped me add to my destinations on my travel list. When I see another traveler’s photos of an intriguing or beautiful place I instantly add it to the list. What I’ve found even more fulfilling is when people see my travel photos on Instagram and are inspired to travel to somewhere I’ve been. Tokyo, Japan is a specific example of that I remember. A friend of mine who saw my photos on Instagram and read my travel blog told me after seeing the photos and reading about my experience she wanted to visit now. It wasn’t somewhere she had a strong desire to go before. It’s a wonderful thing when people becoming inspired to travel places they really had no idea they would ever want to go. On the other hand I’ll get comments on my photos from travelers who have been to that same place or had that same experience and they love the fact that memory was brought back for them. Who doesn’t love to re-live their travels through memories and photos? Seeing photos of places and people from all around the world on Instagram truly makes an impact on people.

Katja: How has traveling changed your life? What would you say to someone who is just starting to travel to inspire them to travel more?
Katy: Traveling has changed my life in many ways for the better. I’ve become much more open-minded to different places, people and things since I started traveling. The experiences I’ve had during my time living overseas and traveling have helped me grow as a person in a way that wouldn’t have been possible had I stayed in the States. I’ve also found my desire to travel more places and learn about different cultures becomes stronger after each trip. My advice to people just starting to travel would be to go to as many different destinations as you can and immerse yourself in the culture. Really make an effort to live and be in the moment during your travels. Open yourself up to new people and experiences. Don’t stop traveling. Always be planning your next trip even if it’s way down the road. I’m also a firm believer everyone should live abroad at least once in their life. Here are ten reasons why I believe that.

Katja: How do you live Skimbaco lifestyle – enjoying life in the moment? What is living life to the fullest to you?
Katy: I try to live life in the moment by doing things I enjoy without hesitation. Living life to the fullest to me is truly knowing who you are as a person and going after those dreams and passions that make will make you happy. Spending time with the people you care about the most in your life and cherishing those moments. Whenever I’m traveling I feel like I’m living my life to the fullest. Recently we took a desert safari in Dubai and went to the top of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. When I’m experiencing things like this I really feel like I’m living life.

Katja: Where will you travel in 2013 and what kind of photos can we expect to see from you on Instagram?
Katy: In 2013 my travel plans so far include: Australia, Bali, California and the U.K. I’m hoping to get some trips around Southeast Asia in to Cambodia and Vietnam this year also. I’ll be sharing photos from all of these places on Instagram along with more Singapore pictures.

Photo by Chamorro_chica

Connect with Katy

ChamorroChica
Instagram – chamorro_chica
Facebook fan page
Twitter – @chamorro_chica
Pinterest

Welcome our new writer Dana Bach Johnson.

Wonderlust: The Great Gatsby

We are so excited about the ”The Great Gatsby” movie! This new lavish version by Baz Luhrmann is set to make the Jazz Age sparkle and prove F. Scott Fitzgerald still shines bright. The beloved novel showcases glamorous lifestyles amongst turmoiled relationships. Leonardo DiCaprio is so dapper as Jay Gatsby and the beautiful Carey Mulligan twinkles as Daisy Buchanan. The story is so timeless and the movie promises to be full of great drama, stylish clothes, and amazing parties. Get inspired and go see “The Great Gatsby”! Here are some of my favorites inspired by The Great Gatsby movie, what I really recommend though – read the book as well!

The quote

The style

Are you loving this style as much as we are? Luckily there are now many Great Gatsby and 20s’ inspired collections available and out hot tips to check out now include: Warby Parker’s  1922 limited edition eyewear collection, Modcloth’s 1920s inspired accessories and clothing,  Out of Print’s Great Gatsby Collection and that fabulous mens Great Gatsby Collection by Brooks Brothers. Once you seen the movie and stocked up on your own fabulous 20s ensembles it’s time to throw your own The Great Gatsby garden party!

The movie

Enter the world of glitz and glamour, parties and beautiful houses of The Great Gatsby:

I am a big believer that our learning never stops, and it should not stop.
And it absolutely should not stop with academic education, and in fact I believe you often learn more about life and especially about yourself in out-of-the-normal learning settings. That’s one of the reasons why we travel with our children – we want them to learn first-hand about different cultures. The thing is – you don’t have to even leave your house nowadays to learn new skills. I wouldn’t own an online magazine today if I hadn’t learned everything there is to learn about blogging and publishing, and I learned it all via internet. Internet learning doesn’t have to end with your professional research though. I recently learned how to make sushi, and my husband learned how to change breaks to his Audi S8 via online lessons we found. What is the latest thing you have learned to do via internet?

Just in: new online learning site Curious.com

You and me are not alone – the demand for learning new things via online lessons is growing fast, and a new website called Curious.com just launched earlier this month.

At Curious we believe in lifelong learning. Learning for its own sake. Learning that happens beyond classrooms, and not only in academic subjects (unless you count beer brewing, pipe soldering, and organic gardening as academic). Learning as a necessity of living.

Curious is a website with hundreds of lessons on topics ranging from cooking, to ski lessons to crocheting, and more! I found salsa dance lessons, got ski tips and learned a few recipes and tricks in the kitchen – just in the past few days. The lessons are short and many come in series (for example the salsa dance) so people in different levels can jump in when they feel comfortable. The best part about the actual video lessons is that they are sectioned to different sections and watermarked to tell more about that specific 30-60 second slot. If you have ever tried learning something complicated with a step-by-step instructional video, you know how frustrating it can be to try to find the specific spot in the video and listen to the instructions for the 10th time.

Many of the lessons are free, and the rest of them are only a few dollars. Instead of having to enter your credit card information every time you want to purchase a lesson, the currency used on Curious is Curious Coins. Each coin is worth $1, and to celebrate its public launch, Curious is offering new members $20 of free Curious Coins. Curious has something else cool going for during their launch month – check out the Curious blog for their Pinterest and Twitter contests to win an iPad mini – great for your “learning on-the-go.”

Come chat with us

Curious is hosting a Twitter Party on on May 22nd from 6-7 PM PST (9-10 PM EST) with #iamcurious to chat about lifelong learning and I will be one of the panelists on the Twitter chat. I hope you join us, and share what you have been learning lately!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Curious. All of my opinions are my own. And really, I learned to make sushi and dance salsa online.

I am beyond thrilled to announce that my first ebook Instagram as your Guide to the World – How, What and Who to Search and Follow on Instagram to Help You Travel the World just published this week and it is now available on Amazon.com for an introductory price of $4.99 for a limited time. You can also sign up for my newsletter and get a shorter version for free later this summer. I will be giving a free short version of the book as a .pdf for my newsletter subscribers for free of charge sometime during summer 2013. You can sign up for my personal weekly email here.

Million Little Travel Guides

I was honored to have the
New York Best Selling Author Chris Brogan to write the foreword for the Instagram as Your Guide to The World-book.

Katja is leading a movement of sorts, one to help others create a million little travel guides. But this isn’t entirely about Katja. She’s just our “point of view character,” as they say in movies. She’s actually here for you. Because when you’re done, you’re a recruit. You’re part of the movement. And you have work to do. The world needs your perspective, your take, and your inevitable greatness. We are, after all, creating a million little travel guides, and your work starts now.

says Chris Brogan about this book.

Chris Brogan is CEO & President of Human Business Works, a media and education company helping equip the Personal Business Revolution. He is the New York Times bestselling author of six books (so far) including The Impact Equation.

YOU become a travel expert

My easy-to-read ebook will help you to learn to use Instagram effectively as a travel guide. I will teach you how, what and who to search and follow on Instagram to make your travel planning a much more pleasant, even fun, experience. You will learn to connect with real travel experts; tourists exactly like you and local people. They can tell you the secrets the tourist guide would never reveal. This book gives you a fresh new way of seeing how, what and where people, like you, travel. It also helps you to find an amazing community of people and see different perspectives of our world.

I will also recommend a few supplementary tools that you can use in addition to Instagram to get the most out of your experience. This book is mainly a technical how-to-book, and you can skim through the topics and the tips pretty quickly if you are a seasoned Instagram user. In addition to the technical tips I have added a few travel photos and short travel stories in this book to highlight what this book really is about: an inspiration for you to discover the world! This book isn’t just about new technology and social media, but about discovery, community, and experiencing the world.

After reading this guide YOU will become an expert in finding exotic places to visit and insider tips on what to do – anywhere in the world. My hope for you is that you will not just find a new way to find photos and travel destinations, but that you are also able to make new friends around the country and around the world. I also hope you will learn more about different cultures and see just how different our beautiful world can be – and also see how similar things can be on the other side of the world.

The best thing about Instagram isn’t the technology. The best thing about Instagram is the people who use it. Take time to connect with the people behind the photos.

Remember to also share your own photos! I want to see your pictures from your travels, so remember to connect with me on Instagram, my username is Skimbaco. You can also tag your next travel photos with #IGTravelBook to share them with other readers and travel experts mentioned in this book. I would like to invite you to join our community of Skimbacoers, and share the pictures of how you enjoy life with the #skimbaco hashtag.

Join me in living life to the fullest, and sharing our world travels!

Get the Instagram as your Guide to the World-book now and learn more about the Instagram as Your Guide to The World-book here.

We are used to constantly be ”effective” and on a rush. Once in a while perfection is to escape the everyday life, and take your time to enjoy to little things in life. No harm traveling far away of the everyday surroundings and for a week, forget your to-do list. Enjoy company of your closed ones, the sun and the feeling of not having to fulfill any responsibilities at the moment. This was my recent trip to Playa del Carmen in Mexico.

The main purpose of our trip was to escape the everyday life and endless darkness of the winter in Finland, where I come from.

Catch some vitamin D from the sun, just take it easy.

Playa del Carmen, Mexico. One of those places that leaves you want to go back and explore more. Endless white sand beaches, mild wind and palm trees, and laid back attitude comes first in mind when reliving the memories. Delicious fresh guacamole and colorful fresh fruit, of course.

Playa del Carmen was perfect for relaxing and taking it easy.

However, as my family is as active as I am, we wanted to get out of the resort as well. Chichen Itza, one of the new seven world wonders, was a must see. The Chichen Itza is a Mayan City on the Yucatan Peninsula, between Valladolid and Merida. It was established before the period of Christopher Columbus and served as the religious center of Yucatan for a while. Loving history, I found it fascinating to explore this ancient Mayan village and learn more of this mystic and intelligent tribe.

On our way to Chichen Itza, we made a swim stop at a cenote. The cenote was huge, 130 deep feet.  It was amazingly refreshing to hop to fresh and clear water after a sweaty drive.

On our way back we drove through an atmospheric town with colorful building and happy people on the streets. This was the authentic kind of Mexico which I definitely want to explore more. Next time, I will pack my pack back and discover the authentic Mexican villages and people.

This time – I found my inner peace from relaxing on the beach.

I hope you enjoyed the few Instagram photos I posted from my trip to France. Stay tuned for many more photos and my new discoveries from France, including my tips for Paris, pictures from Burgundy and the towns we visited during our trip.

Trendy way to see Europe: River Cruising

One of the trendiest ways to cruise these days is cruising in slow pace on the rivers of Europe. Europe has over 1,300 rivers, and 14 of them are over 600 miles (1000 kilometers) long. You could probably spend a year or two just cruising the rivers of Europe. Not to mention that many European cities are by rivers, including Paris, Prague, Vienna, Lyon and London, offering so much for you to see. What really sets river cruising separate from sea cruising is the significantly smaller vessels, much more intimate settings, and the opportunity to truly see the scenery and experience European countryside and cities in a way impossible done by any other method. Instead of getting on a tour bus and driving to the next town and constantly checking in to a different hotel during your journey, the river boat is your floating hotel where your own private chef and waiting staff are waiting for you with a cocktail when you arrive back from a day of sightseeing.

Many river cruise vessels carry over 100 passengers per boat, offering a more affordable way to river cruise and you can also find many day cruises around Europe to get your river cruise feet wet figuratively speaking. The real top-of-the-line of river cruising is with smaller river barges that carry less than 15 passengers. The real luxury isn’t just the private chef and floating hotel room on the river barge, the real luxury is the slow way of traveling forcing you to slow down and relax, and truly to enjoy the local lifestyle, scenery and cuisine. River barges offer a much more relaxing way of traveling than the larger river boats.

Slow traveling: river cruise on a barge in Burgundy

Our Global Inspirations writer Reeta and I had an opportunity to cruise in the Burgundy area in France last month with European Waterways, on their L’Impressionniste river barge on a three day press trip. L’Impressionniste is an old cargo barge turned into a luxury river barge for 12 passengers. Typically L’Impressionniste has one week long cruises in Burgundy with different themes, such as golf, wine tasting and family cruises. Our trip started with a stay at the Hotel Westminster in Paris, and after a Sunday morning in Paris, we were transported by European Waterways vans to Fleurey-sur-Ouche in Eastern France where the L’Impressionniste was waiting for us. The three days we were on board L’Impressionniste was not just an immersion to European river cruising but also to wines of Burgundy and falling in love with the beautiful French countryside.

The L’Impressionniste travels at around 5 mph giving you plenty of time to take photos and enjoy the scenic view as the barge slowly moves from one lock to another on the Burgundy Canal. The lock houses are gorgeous and usually the lock keepers live in the lock houses.

A lock keeper takes care of several locks in his/her area and was helping the barge crew to get through of all of the locks and once the lock was closed behind us, the lock keeper took his scooter and drove to the next lock to wait for our arrival to help opening the lock.

The slow-paced cruising is a hit among retired people, and the demographic of the typical barge-cruiser tends to be good 20 years older than I am. You might want to send this link as a recommendation for your mother or mother-in-law, but don’t just yet dismiss the river cruising for you either. If sitting on the deck of a river barge with a cocktail or wine glass in your hand and enjoying the views of French countryside is too slow-paced for you, you can choose also walk or bike by the path by canal until jumping back in on the next river lock again. During our walks by the canal we saw many other passenger barges, and local people enjoying the canal path by biking, walking or rollerblading.

One of my absolute favorite things on the entire cruise was to borrow the bicycles from L’Impressionniste and bike to the closest little towns to take photos and take a quick peek how life in the French countryside looks like. I’d say picture perfect.

Floating Hotel

Think of river barges as floating hotels, but instead of just paying for the nightly fee, your vacation is all inclusive. The daily trips, the food, the wine, everything included. No surprises whatsoever. The L’Impressionniste had been updated lately and has air-conditioning but no TVs in the state rooms. The cabins are moderately sized, especially compared to Paris hotels. The mood was “rustic French countryside on a boat” more than anything else. The stateroom isn’t an inviting oasis where you want to spend a day, but the barge had outside deck, inner dining room and sitting area giving you plenty of space for reading a book or having some quiet time.

Breakfast was served in the dining room each morning and we enjoyed café au lait with panne au chocolat and croissants like you do when in France. The lunch and dinner was cooked by Chef Selbey each day, who surprisingly was British but mastered the local cuisine like Coq au vin or Quiche Lorraine. I was equally delighted by his perfectly cooked lamb with minted peas. Each meal was thoughtfully paired with Burgundy area wines, typically white for starter and red for main course. We enjoyed local wines from Hautes-Côtes de Nuits to Moulin-à-Vent and everything in between, and with each wine the hostess of the night would tell us more details of each wine we enjoyed. Each evening I realized I did need at least ten more years of wine drinking training before being able to keep up with the wine drinking pace on board L’Impressionniste.

Wait, there is more. Our days we filled with more wine tasting and visits to local vineyards and towns. Stay tuned for more details of our French culinary tour, the wine and the day trips we took during our river cruise. To make sure never miss a travel post, please subscribe to the Skimbaco Travel Feed.

European Waterways

Prices for a 6 night cruise aboard the 12 passenger hotel barge L’Impressionniste are from $4,750 per person in a twin/double en suite cabin, including all meals, wines, an open bar, excursions and local transfers. Full boat charters are also available.

Contact European Waterways: Toll Free 1-877-879-8808 and check out www.gobarging.com for more details.

Disclosure: I was a media guest of the European Waterways, and received a free one night stay at Hotel Westminster, flights and the river cruise on L’Impressionniste. All other costs associated with this visit are my own, and my opinions are always my own.

Pictured above: Laura Ashley Cressida Heart Basket and Tool Set, Hunters Original British Rain Boots and Burberry Belted Leather Rain Boots

Creating an Unforgettable Mother’s Day

Still looking for that perfect gift to show your mom how much she means to you? Here’s my winning tip for you: try to think what your mom is passionate about and go for that theme – and make it a truly a day of celebration, rather than just a present and flowers delivered via web or a quick lunch in a restaurant.

Her ideal present might not be anything tangible in terms of goods, but maybe an experience, or a surprise visit from you if you haven’t seen her for a long time – after all time is the most valuable asset we have – and once it’s gone we can’t get it back… The key is to give it from the heart, and not just by opening your wallet and picking up some fancy presents. Make it a day with loved ones, doing things that mom would love to do.

If you are now thinking that your mom has no passions or hobbies that you are aware of it gets a bit trickier. It is possible that your mom has no interests whatsoever, or it could be that she’s still at that stage where she’s dreaming about something, but hasn’t gotten the courage or time (or what ever the reason might be) to get started. Try to think about what she’s told you before, directly or just hinted subtly, and something’s got to come on top. Then just go for that idea even if it ends up being a spring clean of the garage together and a champagne picnic between the boxes. She’ll so pleasantly surprised and happy!

My English Garden Dream Mother’s Day

Personally I have been pining for an opportunity to work in a garden for the past four years when we didn’t really have one, and this is what my perfect day would be like (hint for the husband as I know he reads my articles). No, it’ now a few diamond bracelet or Jimmy Choos, although the latter will be included, sort of, as I’d love the Jimmy Choos of the gardening world – aka a really fancy pair of rain boots (or wellies as I call them) suitable even for trotting the puddled streets of London! If I ever had a lawn as perfect as the Queen has in front of Buckingham Palace I’d be really happy.

So my perfect mother’s day would have a few of these elements – and I would’t turn down all of them taking place in the very same time, but that just might be plain greedy:

• A lovely breakfast in bed (what can I say, just a family-long tradition and i have nothing against keeping up with traditions – especially when there is a home-made cake too)
• A little family project in garden (this year, my dear husband, I’d like a couple of raised beds so we could plant some herbs and lettuce – and strawberries for the kids)
• Family BBQ in the garden (ribs, English sausages, asparagus and potatoes, need I say more!)
• A lovely afternoon stroll in a nearby castle and it’s blooming gardens – great for the body and mind and also gives me some garden ideas. And since it’s likely to be an afternoon it would the perfect time for a proper cream tea in the castle
• A pair of fabulous wellies, or maybe even two: Classic Hunter’s boots for muddy school runs and forest walks (and music festivals, just think of Glastonbury) and Burberry ones for glamming up (and I keep my old butterfly boots for the garden). Wellies are the must-have item item of the year and they are like sandals last year – no shame of owning more than one pair for different occasions
• And finally: there is always a need yet for another garden tool – so a fancy clippers or cute bird feeder will do (and this year a moss-killing set for the lawn might be hot commodity too!)

Castles, gardens and cream teas is what I dream of!

All this would make me eternally grateful and feel so cherished, at least until next year when I’d hope to have a lovely day again. And yes, for next Father’s day I am planning to follow the same format for my great husband too!

The best Mother’s Day gift I have received was from my stepdaughters. A couple of years ago, they surprised me with an afternoon tea at home sophisticated enough to rival that of Ritz Carlton in San Francisco.

Tori, my youngest stepchild, planned my Mother’s Day tea for two weeks. She carefully selected the menu, shopped for all the necessary items, then enlisted her older sister, Kayla, to help with the preparations. They set a beautiful table with our antique wedding china that was my great grandparent’s, adorned the table and the house with fresh flowers, and used cloth table linens.

We had two different French teas, champagne to accompany two types of homemade scones, an arugula salad, cucumber and smoked salmon finger sandwiches, and crostinis with goat cheese. While we enjoyed our meal, we listened to French songstress, Edith Piaf.

For dessert, we indulged in Tori’s homemade banana, Nutella, Grand Marnier crêpes and Kayla’s chocolate covered strawberries.

With the beautiful table setting, carefully prepared food, and the added element of surprise, it was a Mother’s Day I will always remember and treasure.

If you’re wondering how you can make your mother, grandmother, stepmother or wife feel special, appreciated and honored this Mother’s Day, serve her an Afternoon Tea she will never forget!

Parenting Without Borders

I love this picture of my girls – my middle daughter is saying “I was born in Germany” and my oldest one is teasing her “but you don’t speak any German, I do!” taken from our last trip to Germany after 10 years we moved from there to United States. Now my oldest studies German in Swedish – at her school in Sweden. Our multicultural parenting styles have mixed even more in our nomadic lifestyle of moving from a country to another.

Today I’m excited about teaming up with Culture Mom Media, and the author of Parenting Without Borders: Surprising Lessons Parents Around the World Can Teach Us by Christine Gross-Loh and many other great moms to co-host a Twitter party tomorrow about parenting in different cultures and promoting Christine’s new book.

Our three children were all born in different countries (in Finland, Germany and USA) and my husband and I were raised very differently affecting our parenting choices. He grew up in a conservative family in Texas, and I grew up in a liberal family in Finland, and I remember when we first started talking about having children, our ideas of what raising children together would be like were as far apart as the geographical locations we were from.

Our first discussion about raising children together happened in 1998 and we have come a long way since that. We have developed our own parenting practices that neither of our parents fully approve. I think my in-laws think our kids are being raised by weird Finnish traditions, and my parents think our kids are raised by weird American principles. Nevertheless I kind of think they are proud of us for by doing so many things “wrong” we have somehow managed to raise three very intelligent, creative, tolerant, well-behaved and above all, happy, children. You know what I think? I think there isn’t one best way of raising children in any particular culture, but you as a parent have to make your own choices what’s best for your own child. I also realized that many of the “liberal” ways of Scandinavian parenting were very traditional and “old school,” and oddly many of the “conservative” American ways were actually on the bottom of the list how I wanted to parent my children.

It has been very interesting now when we have moved back to Scandinavia. I loved the freedom I had as a child, but after being a mother in the USA it was not easy to move to Sweden and be a mother in this very different culture, where children are given much more freedom to do what they want to and much less supervision and structure. It was easier for me to be the more Scandinavian-style mother when our children were young; I breastfed them all, we co-slept in a family bed, and we started education at home early on with games and riddles but wanted to keep the kids playing as long as possible and after a few months of preschool experience in New York for our first one, none of our children went to preschool. Scandinavian children are taught to be very independent from very early on when it comes to taking care of themselves, and being unsupervised for example.

Yet after living in the American culture for years I also realized that maybe some of the basic parenting advice from my own culture wasn’t that good after all. Let’s take “Saturday, candy day” for example. Many Finnish and Swedish kids have a “candy day” on Saturdays and while it’s great: it limits the amount of sweets eaten by the kids and it’s meant for their better health, it also teaches bad eating habits = restraining yourself and then binging. Many Finnish children grow up and they tend to take another weekday habit, called “a Friday bottle” – where the Saturday sweets-eating has turned into binge alcohol-drinking on Fridays. It shocks people here that we don’t believe in a candy day, and let kids eat candy when they want. The real shocker is that they are educated enough and probably eat less candy each week than an average Finnish or Swedish kid on an average Saturday.

There are so many different ways of parenting, and I do believe that it benefits every parent to learn more from other cultures and from other perspectives to ultimately make the best decisions.

Join us for Twitter chat!

Please join us for a Twitter chat on today Thursday May 2nd 9PM EST.

Some of the questions covered:
How to build our own global village and answer the universal question: What is best for our children?
Do you ever compare your parenting skills to others?
Are you one of those people who pays close attention to how parents around the world are parenting differently?
Are you surprised to hear when different skills from across the globe can help or transform your own?

We’re thrilled to be teaming up with the author of Parenting Without Borders: Surprising Lessons Parents Around the World Can Teach Us by Christine Gross-Loh. In her book, she takes readers on a multicultural tour of the world’s best parenting practices – from Finland, Sweden and Germany to France, Japan, China, Italy and beyond to examine how international parents successfully foster creativity, discipline, independence, resilience and academic excellence in their children.

During this party, we’ll get right to the heart of and dissect the matters we care most about when it comes to raising children: life skills, eating habits, manners, expectations, mom guilt, sleeping and our obsessions with praise (too much? not enough?). We’ll learn what we’re doing right and what we’re possibly doing wrong, and we’ll all certainly come away with a new slate of practices and goals.

Three moderators guiding the discussion:
Carol Cain from Girl Gone Travel (@carolacain)
Mara Gorman from Mother of All Trips (@motherofalltrip)
Katja Presnal from Skimbaco Lifestyle (@skimbaco) (that’s me!)

Please RSVP here and talk to you on Twitter at 9pm EST on Thursday night at hashtag #ParentingWOB. Talk to you soon!