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!

Are you living your bucket list?

When somebody tells you that things in your bucket list are “impossible” or “never gonna happen,” don’t believe them. Anything can happen in life, and YOU are in charge of your own experiences and destiny more than anyone else. I have trust in you, you can make your bucket list come true.

When you think of words “bucket list”, or “adventure” or even “luxury,” it’s often small things that make the something a bucket list-worthy, or an event more adventurous, and luxury is often a sum of very small things (think extra inches flying on 1st class). I am not a real adventure girl, nor an adventure traveler. Yet when I look back what I have done, I know I AM an adventurer, I am testing my own limits, even if it isn’t mountain climbing or para-sailing. I was looking at old photos and found these 10 things that qualify for bucket list-worthy adventures for me.

I grew up in a small town in Finland only hoping someday to move to the capital of Finland, two hours away, and hoping to see some world too. I thought my dreams were big when I was young, but heck, I didn’t even know what dreaming big was! I never have really had a written bucket list, but if I did, all of these would be on it. So glad that I realized it – after I had already done them.

1. Take the ski lift – on the summertime!
Did you know that many ski resorts operate their ski lifts also during the summertime? It gives you the perfect opportunity to explore the mountain high, without actually having to hike up. In fact many ski resorts let you take your mountain bike up in the mountain with the ski lift for ultimate thrill ride down. Me? I took the ski lift up at the Canyons Resort in Park City, Utah and without a mountain bike. In fact, I was going up to the mountain for a cocktail party. Yes, I admit, my adventures often include wine.

2. See Thanksgiving Parade – in New York City
Who all like starting cooking early on Thanksgiving morning and watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade on TV? Me too. We did adventure to NYC one year for the parade in person. It was a cold day, we were not close enough to the parade, and got tired just standing on the side of the street, and after the parade it took us forever to get lunch in the little restaurant in the Upper West Side, not the best experience. The rest of the time we lived in New York we just watched the parade at home, on TV. If you go to see the parade in person make sure to do some planning where to watch it, and get there early enough to get a good spot!

3. Take a helicopter ride
Everyone has to experience a helicopter ride at least once in a lifetime. I recommend it for checking the views of your favorite travel destination, or to take you to the mountain top so you can ski it down. My one and only helicopter ride was after a date with my husband, who also let me sit in the front seat of the helicopter while he was flying it. We circled to see our hometown of the time, and the Christmas lights in our house. This romantic date idea is only recommended if your hubby has a few thousand flight hours under his belt.

5. Visit Elvis – in Graceland!
Years ago… we visited Graceland in Memphis and for any fan of the King, it is a must see. From Elvis-impersonators gatherings, to best milkshakes I’ve ever had (in the 50′s style diner), to shopping Elvis-memorabilia for a friend who loves Elvis, it’s an experience to remember.

6. Swim with the sea lions – in Mexico
Swimming with the sharks is too adventurous for me, but I have swum with stingrays. The most memorable swimming encounter is the swimming with the sea lions in the islands of Sea of Cortez in Mexico. The sea lions are huge and their size worried me a little, and I admit, I was just swimming the same waters watching them from afar, not really swimming with them.

7. Go to the Oscars and meet George Clooney
There are days I just sit at home and write, and think my life is so boring. Then there are days like today when I just sit at home and write, and think wow, what all have I experienced in my lifetime! Like the time I was reporting and live tweeting from the Academy Awards red carpet and George Clooney came and touched my hand. It was beyond even thinking of putting into my bucket list, until, you know, it happened. A reminder for all of us that even the weirdest wishes sometimes come true.

8. Horseback riding – in the Wild West
I took horseback riding lessons when I was a kid. I wore the fancy black helmet, and black long boots, and it was English style riding. While that to may sound exotic to many, that’s just the way we do horseback riding in Scandinavia, and the rest of the Europe. For me the real deal was getting to go horseback riding in the “Wild West.” The first time was on another romantic date with my husband at the Presnal family ranch in Texas (about 15 years ago) and the second time was at Paw’s Up mountain resort in Montana.

9. Beach vacation – with Minnie Mouse
If you know me, you know I have a weakness for Disney travel. I can’t say a Disney Cruise to me is a “once in a lifetime” bucket list thing, because I have been on several cruises. However, cruising the seas and visiting tropical islands like Disney’s own Castaway Cay with Mickey and Minnie Mouse is something that should be on every Disney-lovers bucket list.

10. F1 Race – in Singapore
Whatever your sports is – nothing beats watching the sport live instead from a screen at home. I’ve liked Formula 1 racing ever since I watched the races with my dad when I was just a kid, and seeing F1 race live was a phenomenal experience, especially because I got to do it in Singapore, on my first trip to Asia.

Your turn. Make a list of 10 bucket-list-worthy things you have done in your life!

12 Ideas for Cinco de Mayo Party

Are you ready to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and Mexican culture on May 5th? If you are planning a Mexican soiree or a fun Cinco de Mayo party with your friends, here are my 12 ideas to make your night a success. I created my Cinco de Mayo menu with fresh ingredients and infused the party and even the dessert with Sauza tequila, who sponsored this Cinco de Mayo post.

Cinco de Mayo Menu Ideas

1. Mango Salsa
Give your salsa a new twist and give mango salsa a try this mango salsa recipe, perfect for your Cinco de Mayo party.

2. Guacamole
You can’t go wrong with guacamole. The best tip: never buy ready made stuff, nor those spice packages, but always make your guacamole from scratch.
Guacamole recipe really is easy: 2-3 avocados, chopped onion and a tomato, minced garlic and half of jalapeno, fresh lime juice and cilantro, salt to the taste.

3. Southwestern Chicken Soup
I know what you are thinking… soup doesn’t sound like a springtime food, but this chicken soup is perfect party food that you can make the previous day and it just tastes the better the next day. Try my Southwestern Tortilla soup recipe and stay tuned for my chicken soup recipe.

4. Margarita Lime No-Bake Cheese Cake
My easy Margarita lime cheese cake is no-bake cheese cake, which you can also make already the day before. Fresh limes and tequila give this easy cheese cake a new twist.

Cinco de Mayo Drink Ideas

5. Tequila Shot Bar
As simple as it can be – add a self-serve tequila shot bar with shot glasses, lemons and salt. Even if you are not expecting a wild drinking party adding a tequila shot bar is a simple way to decorate. I turned an old soda bottle crate sideways and used it as the shelves.

6. Sauza-Ritas
Instead of being a bartender and making individual margaritas, mix a pitcher of Sauza-Ritas, a mixture of light beer and tequila is perfect for any kind of party crowd.

7. Lime Sangria
Make a pitcher of Lime Sangria for refreshing dinner drink.

Get the Lime Sangria and Sauza-Rita recipes here.

Cinco de Mayo Party Decorating Ideas

8. Cactus as party flowers
Instead of buying cut flowers that only last a week or two, buy cactus plants and use them in your party table center pieces and party decor. If you are lucky – you will use these same decorations next year too and enjoy them the entire year around.

9. Lime & lemons as centerpiece
Bowl of limes and lemons is an easy and fast centerpiece idea. The best? You can eat them after the party.

10. DIY Piñata
Give your party piñata a little more personality than just buying one from the party supply store, and make one yourself. Use a medium-sized cardboard box and decoupage it with colorful napkins or silk paper. Make your piñata to match your party decor by decoupaging it with the same napkins as you will use in your party table if you are using paper napkins.

We used a glass carrying crate from IKEA in our homemade piñata and added Cinco de Mayo text with felt letters on the side. The carrying case needed a top, but already had a handle for easy hanging.

11. Horizontal stripes
When we think of Mexican fabrics, we immediately think of the striped Serapes in the colors of the rainbow. If you have a Serape blanket, now is the time to hang it up on your wall for your party. If not, no worries. Use almost any multi-colored striped fabric horizontally. The horizontal stripes immediately give the Serape vibe.

12. Soup cans as vases
Washed out soup cans work perfectly as party flower vases or for utensils. You can also paint the soup cans or decoupage them with paper. This time I wrapped the cans with matching striped fabric to complete the party table look.

This post is sponsored by Sauza Tequila.

Have you met the Sauza lifeguard…? He’s equally talented in the saving of lives and the ways of love. And best of all? He’s ready to pour you a Sauza-rita, and listen as you pour out your feelings. This perfect man is perfectly prepared to help make your ladies night unforgettably fun – with Sauza Blue, of course. Check us out at http://facebook.com/SauzaMargaritas.

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Sauza® via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Sauza®.

Our team is pretty excited about the new movie The Big Wedding coming in theaters on April 26th, but our reasons are as different as our team is! Some of us love wedding movies, because we never really had a big wedding, for others it reminds of their big wedding day, and some in our team are still single ladies (and a guy) still waiting for their big day. We thought it would be fun to feature our different weddings – all very different, but all with the same happy ending! Read also more about the Big Wedding movie and how to treat your better half or a friend for movies for free.

Big Southern Wedding – Leigh’s Wedding Story

Leigh, our Luxury Travel Editor, had a Southern April wedding that rivaled the pomp and circumstance of British royal weddings on a smaller scale, of course. She and Will married in a downtown cathedral in Raleigh, North Carolina on April 6, 2002 at 12 p.m. And yes, she had those church bells ring 12 times before she made that long walk down the aisle with a 12-feet-Belgium lace veil, which was purchased by her mother-in-law in Belgium in 1961, cascading behind her.

Her reception was held in a stately, historic Raleigh landmark, which houses the five-star restaurant, Second-Empire Restaurant and Tavern. Long before William and Kate made it fashionable, guests at Leigh’s reception mingled over Butler-passed canapés. Her monogrammed wedding cake came straight from the pages of Martha Stewart Weddings.

Leigh says the entire ceremony went off without a hitch, but 11 years later, it is a complete blur except for one specific wedding memory. Leigh, who is not really a morning person, had to be at her stylist’s salon for her hair and make-up at 6 a.m. She had several cups of coffee to keep her awake, but she certainly did not expect a locked bathroom at the salon with the key accidentally left inside. By the time, her roommate picked her up at 9:30 a.m.; this Southern bride couldn’t get home quickly enough. She left the salon with a veil attached to her head, and one hand holding a shopping bag containing the rest of the 12-feet Belgium lace attached to her wedding veil, and the other hand holding her crotch. That’s not quite how you picture a Southern bride on the morning of her wedding, but at least, she can laugh about it now.

Private Hawaiian beach wedding – Adrienne’s Wedding Story

Adrienne, our California travel and fashion writer, decided after purchasing a home in Sonoma Valley with her fiancée, to forgo a big wedding in California and elope in Maui instead. The Hawaiian vacation had already been planned for months. It was to be a simple week-long getaway.
The day before leaving on the trip, her fiancée Bill suggested half-jokingly, that they elope while in Maui as they had been engaged for a year and a half with no date set. Adrienne jumped at the idea!

Once they arrived in Maui and got settled in their rented condo, they got to work on planning their elopement ceremony. Every place they contacted was booked for that Saturday, October 14th. Not surprisingly, they had their pick of places and times for Friday, October 13th. And it was a full moon. Everything was open!

Bill and Adrienne, who are not superstitious, had no problem marrying on Friday the 13th. They quickly found a Hawaiian officiant, booked a time at the Kea Lani Hotel in Wailea, applied for a marriage license, bought Adrienne a dress and a bouquet of flowers, and called their jeweler in California to overnight their wedding bands. Aside from their wedding bands being temporarily lost in the mail, everything went smoothly from start to finish.

After their ceremony, they checked into the most luxurious hotel on the island, Grand Wailea. They had reserved a garden room, the least expensive available, for one week. When they were told their room was not available, they panicked. The front desk staff gave them a key to another room and told them to come back if they weren’t satisfied with the accommodations. They made their way to the room, passing through a gated-off section of the hotel and went up the elevator to the top floor. Soon they found themselves standing before double doors. They looked at each other in shock and delight. Once they opened the doors they found a gorgeous, plush and enormous room, about 1500 square feet, with a spacious lanai overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It would be their home for the next week; an ocean view luxury suite at a bargain garden room price. Now who says Friday the 13th is an unlucky day? Certainly not Adrienne and Bill!

Courthouse wedding in Alabama – Katja’s Wedding Story

If you have heard Katja’s wedding story before… you know she didn’t really have a wedding. Katja met her husband Matt in Germany, and they are from the other sides of the world. Katja moved to the US four months later and they got engaged immediately. They lived in Alabama, where Matt was attending the US Army flight school at the time, and neither had any family or friends there. So not the romantic wedding story you’d like to hear!

Katja and Matt got married on a lunch break in a court house on July 2nd, 1998 in Enterprise, Alabama. Their witnesses were Matt’s family and his classmates, dressed in army uniforms and green flight suits, reminding of the movie Top Gun – if Maverick had married Charlie, that’s how they would have done it too. The thought made Katja smile on her wedding day – she was a young girl when Top Gun came out and she remembers riding her bicycle home from the movie theater swearing that she’d marry a pilot one day. Some girls dream of the big weddings they see in the movies, Katja just wanted the right pilot to keep her above the clouds the rest of her life.

The lace in Katja’s dress? Not heirloom, she bought it from a fabric boutique in Finland and designed her own dress and her mom sewed it. The beach? Not Hawaii, but a long weekend “honeymoon” in Panama City Beach, Florida – with the new in-laws! The wedding photos? Taken in Austin, Texas later that year, and they wore an evening gown and dress uniform to celebrate Matt’s “wings” from the flight school.

Outdoor Village Wedding in Slovenia – Satu’s Wedding Story

When friends and family heard that Satu, our Adventure Travel Editor was planning to get married in Slovenia, they immediately thought that she, a Finn, and her British husband wanted to get married in a “mutual ground”. But no, the main reason was that they wanted to give everyone little taste of the outdoor life they enjoy, whether it was rafting, kayaking, climbing, biking or hiking. And for those that really wanted some city life, shopping in Venice and Ljublana wasn’t far either.

When planning the wedding, Satu and Simon thought that it was going to be a mix of Finnish and British traditions, but little they knew that their local friends and villagers had some additional plans: the local traditions were to be in the mix too! According to the local customs, Satu was to come and get her husband-to-be from his house on the wedding day before the outdoor ceremony, as he owned a property in the village. So after spending a relaxing morning with her bridesmaids in the hair-saloon and hotel where she was to stay for the night, Satu made her way to the village and to their house. But, instead of simply getting her husband and heading for the ceremony, they had to face a series of challenges to make sure they were ready for the marriage. These ranged from putting on a diaper on a baby doll for Satu, to Simon having to tie a fly to demonstrate that he can catch food for the whole family. Best of all Satu had to prove her sportiness by rollerskating up and down the main road running through the village, in her wedding dress! Luckily there were many to catch her when on the way back she couldn’t quite brake with the skis…

Looking back, Satu remarks that the day couldn’t have been any better. The weather was amazing, the food which was organised by their local friends who own a fine-dine restaurant was fabulous, and most importantly many of their close friends and family had been able to make the journey to join their special day. “I want to get married again, to the same man and in the same place” she says.

Last Minute Winter Wedding in Finland – Reeta’s Wedding Story

Reeta and her Spanish husband Bruno had planned to get married for years, but the one time they had booked a date and venue, her cousin had booked the same day, so Reeta cancelled hers. She was determined to get married before they had children, so they sort of did in the end – two months before their first daughter was born! The whole event was planned in nine days, and was a small one. Reeta was working in England and her husband-to-be in Denmark at the time, and they flew in a day before the wedding back to her native country Finland. The required wedding certificate had been lost in the mail, so they weren’t even sure if the whole was going to happen or not until hours before the big event!

The wedding took place in December 2003 in the Greek Orthodox cathedral in Turku, Western Finland, and the wedding couple wore grey (perfectly matching to the weather): Reeta had bought her maternity outfit in Chicago in a recent business trip, and the groom wore almost matching light summer suit from Armani – not quite what she had dreamed of. Her fingers got swollen from the flight and the ring didn’t fit on; and truth be told she only started to wear it last year after getting it re-sized as her fingers never recovered! The happy couple didn’t have time to book a wedding photographer, so the groom’s father took (very few) photos and they honeymoon is still waiting to happen – hopefully in French Polynesia in the near future. This was certainly a very unusual affair and a day to be remembered!

Big Wedding – the movie

With an all-star cast led by Robert DeNiro, Katherine Heigl, Diane Keaton, Amanda Seyfried, Topher Grace, with Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams, THE BIG WEDDING is an uproarious romantic comedy about a charmingly modern family trying to survive a weekend wedding celebration that has the potential to become a full blown family fiasco. In theaters on April 26th. When you buy your tickets now to BUY ONE GET ONE FREE – movies and weddings are always more fun with a plus one! Get two tickets to see the Big Wedding for $12 at The Big Wedding movie official website.

One year in Sweden

A few days in a new place is enough to know if you ever want to go back.
Couple of weeks in a new place is enough to fall in love, and know a little how locals live.
A few months and you have a wonderful honeymoon period of learning the new ways, being excited about everything new.
Six months and the reality hits, and you start realizing what you left behind and the newness is gone and everyday grind starts settling in.
One year, and you are either ready to leave, or all settled in.

Or this is how it usually goes in expat or nomadic living. In our life it seems like nothing ever goes “as usually.” We hit our year mark this February, happy to be here, and feeling lucky and thankful for each moment. Then we got some dark clouds over our heads, just some stuff about work, visas, life and our rental house, and the past couple of months we have been going through 50 shades of anxiety about entire expat living. I unfortunately can not go into details, but let’s just say, funny things happen when you are forced to thinking differently. I literally went from loving every moment here to wanting to pack my bags and move out of the country. It didn’t help that my favorite part has been our gorgeous river view from our home here and our landlord gave us a notice to move out. Another expat family – returning to Sweden from California on short notice. What can I say? This is all part of nomadic living, and it’s not all sunshine all the time.

The perks of expat living way outweigh the cons though. And I am not talking about the perks that come with relocation packages, but about our lifestyle here. If I could describe our first year in Sweden, I think it would qualify for using word “epic” to describe it. I have been in 13 countries the past year (USA, Canada, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Italy, France, Monaco, Norway, UK, Vatican) and although many of them are current or past home countries, or tiny countries like Monaco and Vatican, they still count and tell a story how much we have been able to travel the past year. And no – we haven’t been gone all the time, in fact we spent almost the entire summer at home in Sweden, and we had visitors visiting us for over 5 weeks last summer, and we were able to do local day trips and got to know Östergötland part of Sweden pretty well. It has been an amazing year for our family, and ultimately we came here not for the career opportunities, but for the European lifestyle and focusing more in our family and what really is important to us.

This spring I learned that it might not always be good to settle in and be happy in the moment, but you have to remember to keep moving forward and dream big even when living in the moment. I am afraid that the past year I focused maybe too much in the living in the moment, and taking it all in and enjoying our new life in Sweden, that I got lost in the adventure. And I didn’t realize it until the status quo was changed by someone else by me.

Like said, I have loved living in our Swedish home by the river, but once we got that unfortunate call that we have to move out by the end of May, I remembered that when I drove to this neighborhood the first time I literally was swallowing my tears, and trying to hide what a disappointment it was to me to move from the US, a train ride away from NYC to the suburbs of small Swedish city. I had dreamed of sleek Scandinavian homes, maybe with less square footage but with minimalistic style, and while this house is nice and comfortable, it’s far from my Swedish dream house. And yet I had learned to love living here, and spent my days working by the window sighing how much I would miss this when we’d have to move out of Sweden and leave this river view behind us. Unreal how forgiving the river view is – I have been completely happy living in the suburbs thanks to the amazing view from one side of the house.

The entire thought sort of scared me – the view from one window had made me so completely happy that I had been blissfully ignoring the view from the other three sides of the house. What else I was looking in life through just one window? Was I blocking something else too?

I think what finally helped to get some disclosure for a few things, and us visiting back “home” in New York last week, it gave me clarity to see the “big picture.” I think part of our happy living in Sweden has been that we have also traveled and gotten out of the country. It’s not that we don’t like Sweden, we love it, but living in someone else’s land and feeling like an outsider is tough, however positive attitude you and the people around you have. It is important to be respectful of the new culture, get to know the culture and the traditions, and live in the new society, but at the same time it is important not to throw away what you came here with – your own traditions, your own values and your own culture.

Our adventure in Swedish will continue with a new chapter once we move to a new house next month. Looking forward telling you more about it.

To keep up with my daily life.. check out my latest photos on Instagram, you can find me on Instagram as Skimbaco and Katjapresnal.