Stalker Sweater

AltSummit had many challenges and rewards, but the biggest challenge for me was the wardrobe pressure.  As many of you can clearly see I am not a fashion blogger. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE fashion. I make sure and watch the Spring, Fall and Haute Couture fashion shows online via Elle. My favorites are Chanel and Marc Jacobs.

Weeks before leaving to Salt Lake City I was on the hunt for fashionable clothes at a budget that I could easily afford.  My go-to stores are Anthropologie and J.Crew. I hit the sales right after the Holidays. I'd had my eye on the boucle sweater above. I usually buy a new black sweater every year as it's an easy quick layer for the chilly LA winter mornings. It's a basic for my wardrobe. While I'll was in New Mexico I made a trip to the local Anthro store to find this sweater. It was too small, even at my goal weight I'd never fit in that size. So I waited till I returned home to LA.

Here's where the stalking starts. On my day off I go into the local Anthropologie store. I run right to the ten sale racks. I go to the black sweater section, look all over for this beauty and well, it's not to be found. I had told myself I probably wouldn't find it, and I was ok with that. I said to myself  "you'll find something else you like just as equally."

So I go to the rest of the sales racks and scour them for fashion idea's and great looks. On my way out, low and behold is a lady admiring herself in THE sweater, it's my size I can tell. What would you do now? Wait? Say something to her? Let it go? I decide to wait and wait and wait, then it turned into hovering. This woman could not MAKE up her MIND! She tried it on, asked her mum, (she was English) and her sister and the mirror. After waiting a few minutes I finally spoke up. No I did not say "if you decide not to buy that I'd love to have it," because you know the moment you say that, they think it's a really special sweater and buy it, even when they are indecisive about it.  So I just ask "where'd you find that sweater?" She proceeded to point me to the rack, which I knew didn't have my sweater. SHE DID. So I continued to hover. Then in her indecisive mind she hands the sweater to her mum and says she'll be back, needs to visit the Loo (British remember).

Let me tell you she took a really long time. I looked at the entire top floor of Anthropologie, ridiculous, but I REALLY wanted this sweater. So I finally decide to sit down on a couch and Instagram away while I keep an eye on her, her mum and her sis.  Yes STALKING now. Finally, she returns, puts the sweater back on and off and on and decides to buy it. She gives me one glance as she walks away. She KNEW I wanted that sweater. Do I let it go. I tried, really, really, I did. No I didn't chase her down, but I did ask the sales clerk about the sweater, I pulled up the image above on my iPhone and ask her if she has any in the back. She looks, and no they don't. I sheepishly try to tell her I saw one in the store and someone just left to buy it (MY SWEATER).

She wants to help me out so she pulls out her mobile device connected to the store to see if it's anywhere. Oh did I tell you it sold out online, so the store is my only hope. No such luck. Super nice sales clerks talks with me about what size I want and asks me to follow her downstairs to look on the computers. Here it goes, you ready, are you really ready...as I am walking down the stairs, right there, on the landing, hanging on a rack, is MY SWEATER in the MY size. Yes my stalking paid off and the indecisive lady left me a little gift on the stairwell. The sales clerk was dumbfounded and hugged me, she was so glad I found it.

I tell you I had a shopping rush and ran right down the stairs so fast I practically knocked people down, ran right to the line and danced all the way home with my beautiful boucle 40% of the sweater. Stalking does pay, though I don't recommend the humiliation in admitting I did this for a black sweater. Enjoy!

Authenticity

I've been inspired, thus the new blog look and feel. This is something I've wanted to do, but thought better to wait till after the AltSummit. I'm glad I did. I'll continue to fine tune this space in the near future. Thank you @SquareSpace for being such a fabulous partner.

This past week I spent three days with some of the most genuine, uniquely creative people that I've ever been in one room with.  The #1 theme I took away from the AltSummit in Salt Lake City conference is "be true to yourself."  Just about every session made this abundantly clear.  Here are a few quotes from some of the power sessions and two of my favorite speakers, Jasmine Star (Personal Branding) and Karen Walrond (Finding Your Voice).

"stay true to your brand and audience"

"keep it real"

"take what you have, make it work"

"shake what your mama gave you"

"who am I, not who I aspire to be"

"what am I doing to capitalize on who I am?"

"stop comparing my insides to their outsides"

"curate my life"

"create my own story"

And Stefan Sagmeister, what to say about this uniquely witty, smart individual.  I heart him and his lovely fiance "Stefanie" I mean Vita! I was able to spend part of the day with them at Sundance in Park City on Saturday, amazing people. He was inspirational beyond belief during his keynote, a standing ovation, and that's not because he posted a full frontal naked picture of himself (gasp!). It was because he was an amazing speaker who inspired the entire room to greatness. Here are his top points to ponder on:

• Thinking about ideas and content freely
• Traveling to new places (you have to, to be inspired - me)
• Not stuck doing the same thing over again
• Working on projects that matter to me
• Having things come back from the printer that are done well (love it when I get a print of my photography and it's as beautiful as I imagined- me)
• Getting feedback from people (let me know what post moved you, what did you like/dislike about it - me)
• Designing a project that you feel is partly brand new and partly familiar
• Working without interruption on a single project

Once again I must thank @WilsonArt for selecting my counter post and giving me a ticket to AltSummit. I am beyond grateful. I have lists and lists of idea's, brands and people I want to work with, editorial calendars I want to create. I am giving myself one year to turn this blog around and attend next years AltSummit with idea's and much more confidence. Also with less lbs., love the photobooths, me, not so much. Might be inspired to write about that to, we'll see.

Trader Joe's

I have so much to share about AltSummit in Salt Lake City. This conference was beyond my expectations. I'm in the process of writing down the high points and action items for this space. I'll share more of that later.

Pre-Alt, well actually Wednesday morning, before our sponsored dinner that night I started planning my snacks. Everyone said you must have snacks during the day. I didn't want to pack snacks in my luggage and to take away valuable room for my wardrobe that I MUST have. So I did my research.

As many of you know who following me on Instagram (@itsweetsavory) I love Trader Joe's. The first thing I do when I get to a new city is look to see if they have a Trader Joe's. Low and behold Salt Lake City opened it's first TJ's in November. My plan was to go on Wednesday when I had all that time before the evening dinners. However, I got caught up in my explorations. Plan B was to get up early Thursday, 7:30AM walk to TJ's, it's only 7 blocks away, get my snacks, water, etc., and walk back to the hotel. Great plan right? Hmmm.

As soon as I embarked on my walk it started ice raining. I say that because as soon as the rain hit the sidewalks it was immediately turned into ice. So instead of walking to Trader Joe's, I skated to Trader Joe's. Oh and the 7 blocks, yeah not so much, those were LONGEST blocks I have ever skated.  Seriously, this was another one of my idea's that seem great and immediately went bad. By the time I made it to Trader Joe's it was 8:10, I shopped in 5 minutes and then asked if they could call for a taxi. I was not going to walk back, it was a blizzard out there. After waiting 15 minutes for the taxi, he called back and said he couldn't make it, traffic was bad because of an accident. I started to freak now, I was going to miss the opening of the conference and have to walk back in a blizzard.

What was I wearing you ask? Well I got dressed for the conference, while my sweater, jacket, hat gloves, and shoes were warm, my pants were paper thin Banana Republic. That equals frozen legs beyond anything you can imagine.

Here's where I praise the frozen city of Salt Lake. Despite the cold and gloominess, everyone in this city is extremely nice and helpful. The Trader Joe's staff were amazing. One of the employees, Erman (I know I'm spelling his name wrong), offered to take me back to the hotel. At this point I was desperate and willing to go with any stranger, I actually pondered asking a few of the soccer mom's in the store for a ride. But this employee offered me a ride and insisted I wait in the store till he brought the car up to me so I wouldn't get wet. Seriously, who does this, nobody in L.A. would do this (yeah I know it never rains in L.A). He drove me right up to my hotel and I insisted on giving him money. I told him "now you've put Trader Joe's customer service to a whole other level."

The Farm Shop and Kei and Molly

For the past several years when I go to Albuquerque I like to take a slow drive down Rio Grande Blvd (25 miles is the max speed limit). When I was a kid we drove down this street all the time where you can get views of the old ranch houses and horses, there use to be buffalo. I remember going to the buffalo house when I was in pre-school. During the Fall the trees down this boulevard are the golden color cottonwoods I love so much.  My favorite farm is the old Simms Farm which is where the The Farm Shop is. It's in the original Creamland Dairies building and is part of the property connected to the Los Poblanos Inn, which has a rich history found here.

My mom visits here yearly for the Lavender festival, they have rows and rows of lovely lavender.  It's an organic run farm and supplies the ingredients for the amazing dishes that are served up at the Los Poblanos Inn. The Farm Shop sells lavender spa products, artisan foods, gourmet kitchen and gardening tools and locally made gifts from all over New Mexico.

Lemon lavender gelato, refreshing and tasty. Thankfully no too much lavender, but just enough for the essence of the taste. I've had llavender panna cota which tasted like creamed perfumed soap, not ideal, this was the opposite.

Every corner is artfully directed and begging to be bought.

Lately I'm obsessed with the tea towels from Kei and Molly, here's their story. Next time I visit I want to look them up and see if I can meet these amazing women in person, I love everything they make. Their towels are beautiful and hang in the light filled windows of the Farm Shop. Check out their Etsy store

Mom has bought me two so far, and our last purchase was a typical mom daughter conversation.

Me:  I like the turquoise one, but it has a cross in it, so maybe not

Mom:  It's pretty, but how about the ones with the coyote

Me: Nah, I like the satelite dishes

Mom: Why?

Me: It's kinda cool, and sci-fi, and New Mexico

Mom: I don't get it

Me: It's ok, I like it

Mom: But why would you want that in your kitchen?

Me: Why wouldn't I, look at the conversation we're having about it

Mom: Your funny, you like weird things

Me: Mom don't you remember when I was a kid, if you don't like it, buy it, I'll LOVE it, that hasn't changed.

Mom: I guess, ok I'll get you that one.

Me: Thanks Mom.

So now I have two the orange citrus slices next to the indigo blue satellite dishes.

Lovely right.

Driveway up to the Inn and Farm. It's breathtaking in the winter and fall its AMAZING with the golden leaves on the trees.

I never get tired of this view when you walk to the Farm Shop, especially as you wonder around with chickens and peacocks, both white and the typically amazing blue and green.

White peacock.

Driveway out...just as lovely.

The Farm Shop

4803 RIO GRANDE BLVD NW

OPEN DAILY 9:00A – 5:00

505.938.2192

Alt Summit Salt Lake City

This time next week I'll be attending the AltSummit in Salt Lake City.  I am beyond excited to be attending it's really about getting back to basics (just needs salt) and building from there.  First off, I missed the initial registration day and it sold out, second I won a ticket to attend, and third I REALLY WANTED TO GO!! Oh and the bonus is I won a free counter top makeover and sink for my kitchen from Wilson Art, more about that later.

I am attending with 3 lovely ladies (Deborah, Felicia and Britney) my fellow bloggers and moms.
The classes  range from earning revenue on your blog, personal branding, being a contributor to other blogs, to finding your voice. Yes please, to all of them. Some amazing bloggers will be attending from all over the country in addition to the sponsors and special guest, Jessica Alba.  Can you tell I'm excited.  Hopefully I'll have much to share from all my learning's and who knows this site might be due for another amazing makeover.

Random Monday Thoughts

Random Monday thoughts: Weren't Tina and Amy perfect on the Globes? Can't decide what I thought of Jodies speech. Why wasn't Ben nominated for an Best Director Oscar? How cute were Ben and Jen (not Lopez)? Loved Kate Hudson and Lea Michelle's dress, but she was too tan. And for after the Globes for all you Downton Abbey Fans this is a spoiler alert...but I had to share a video clip about Edith and then you too can laugh at the music choice. Only Morrisey would do for this tale. Enjoy.

Route 66 Signs

Mid October we had to take an unexpected trip home to New Mexico for a family funeral. While I was devastated by the loss I appreciated the time to be on the road for 12 hours and unwind from the crazy L.A. lifestyle. SB and I pass these signs all the time and have taken some analog film shots, but this time we just jumped out and took a few iPhone and Android shots. It's such a competition between us to get the best shot, but it pushes us to try all kinds of filters, angles and apps.

In December we took another trip home to see family.  Unfortunately we got stuck in Gallup (worst town in NM) for 2 days while everything was closed to fix the car during Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  So we took advantage of the great signs in the town and took a few digital and iPhone shots.

On the way home I talked SB into taking a historical detour down route 66.  

Enjoy all the cool signs and a trip down the past.

Mini Cheesecake Cookie Dough Bites

I have an upcoming book swap party to go to and I've been experimenting with a few desserts.  I saw this one on Pinterest and decided to take a chance at it. I followed the recipe from the My Baking Addiction blog

here

. 

Only thing I got wrong is that she uses normal cupcake sizes and I went for the mini cupcake version. The portions for the mini-mini cheesecakes are 1 TBSP of graham cracker crust and 1 TBSP of cheesecake filling, 1 TSP of cookie dough. I have to say these were delicious and I'll definitely be perfecting this along the way. I did make the full size see above, but for me it's too rich so I think I'll stick to the mini cupcake size, was perfect for a party especially when there will be ton more desserts.

Fall in Los Angeles

Fall in Los Angeles can be beautiful.  These images were taken in early October, but I just found them on my camera.  Great sunsets and a slight chill in the air.  Also sometimes you find Tori Burch shoes on the sand, that is until the model twirling in the water comes back and claims them.

What do you do on your counters?

Let me tell you my story before anyone jumps to conclusions. Last weekend I played host to my niece (a dear friends daughter). We have no kids of our own so occasionally I borrow other peoples kids. Well frankly I love my friends children....especially when we get to give them back. [sly smile]

So I had a house full of teenage girls. I proceeded to walk them down to the mall, who wouldn't like the mall, I did, even if my feet didn't.  Upon returning home we chose a movie to watch. I so thought this would be the easy part, teenager girls like chick flicks right....answer here would be NOooooooo!  Though we did settle on a chick flick, iRobot was a serious contender, sorry Spongy, next time.

Ok, so why the pictures? Well I have added additional counter space for my kitchen, thanks to Ikea, It's a better place them my counter tops covered in 1960's old ceramic tiles (not the cool type, see below), that are broken and uneven. I sacrificed a kitchen table for more flat workspace. So I thought I would share it's multi-purpose use.

During pauses in the movies I had the girls roll out pizza dough, two girls to each pile of dough.  Then we put them on pizza stones, they chose their toppings, I bake.

After pizza's were in the oven we cleared the path for our art project that would start after the movie.  I got this idea from Pinterest and was posted from the 700 Experience blog

here.

  Those who follow me on Instagram (itsweetsavory) know I experimented with this by myself during the week before. By myself was the key problem, you need to have a buddy.  So each girl picked her color palate with the box of crayons I scored from the 99 cents store. Then we took some cardboard and a glue gun and glued the crayons onto the board, leave one inch of the crayon hanging off the cardboard.  Now it was ready for some melting.

Speaking of melting, here's our last melted cheese and veggie pizza....Nice right. This was delicious.  I made crust part easy and bought my dough from Trader Joes. Usually I make it myself, but I had too much to do. Toppings included cheese, obviously, tomato's, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, mushrooms and pepperoni. I don't really like sauce on my pizza and though others do, I didn't remember this part, so no sauce.

Back to the melting crayons.  The girls perfected this part, they got tired of holding each other's crayons and figured out how to tape the cardboard with glued crayons on the wall behind.  And yes I have splattered wax on my wall before I realized it and then we pulled up the craft paper and fixed that. Thankfully this is my patio.

One request I had made to a few mom's, was "have the girls bring a blow dryer", weird right, well that didn't happen so we had one blow dryer, mine.  Yes I had to scrap off hard wax the next day.  So,

not

complaining, because this was easy and the girls got creative.  Some chose to cover the whole canvas and others just did one side and left white space below.

Here's one up close, great texture and color.  

Have fun and enjoy your counter as much as I do.  Enjoy!

This post is my entry into the Alt Summit Blog Carnival Contest sponsored by Wilsonart International, Inc.

Vegan Chocolate Sorbet

Quite a few weeks ago I was going to a friends house for dinner who happens to be Vegan.  So I challenged myself to make some dessert that she could eat.  I comb through a few websites and settled on David Lebovitz's amazing recipe for ice cream, he's genius and this was so rich and scrumptious you can't believe it has no eggs or milk in it.  Thank you DAVID...LOVE this.  Found his recipe on Food52

here.

Best part was I finally got my ice cream maker out again and forgot how easy it was to use.  Enjoy!

So creamy and amazing.

Day in Malibu

Quick post on yesterday as we had a full day in Malibu starting at 7AM and ending the day at 5PM.  Lots of adventures with great friends by the beach and in the canyons.  L.A. offers such a variety of things to see and explore which is why so many of us live here, but Malibu has it's own culture.  People run into friends on daily errands and coffee breaks.  There is a more relaxed attitude here. 

At one point we needed to make a stop at a restroom and we walked threw the camp grounds at Malibu State Park.  No one there except the fallen leaves of autumn and me and Heather traipsing in our sandals to the restroom.  After we made sure that there were no creatures lurking in the restroom we ran in and out as quickly as possible.

 Zuma beach was lovely.

Malibu Kitchen for quick breakfast.

 I guess we need to be Bob's friend if we want to park here.

 Clouds were amazing this day.

Canyon's were so quiet and beautiful.

Take a ride thru Malibu Canyon and Enjoy!

Madness

New song I'm kind of obsessed with, and well it's the kind of word that describes my week:

Perhaps you like a few other Mad related songs:

How about the remake of the above song:

Or how bout a little Prince Buster:

Oh, I could go on and on.  Anyone else have some goodies?

Milo & Olive

Milo and Olive, a neighborhood bakery and pizzeria, opened almost a year ago in November 2011. I've been hearing great local buzz about this place and have passed it many times on Wilshire Blvd in Santa Monica. It's run by the team of Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan who are also behind 

Rustic Canyon, Huckleberry

 and 

Sweet Rose Creamery

. 

The 

menu includes fresh baked morning 

pastries

 and

 bread

, wood fired 

pizzas

, farmers market inspired 

salads 

and small plates in a hip and warm environment.  

Seats are readily available in the morning at the counter. This is always a fun place to sit and watch the tattooed cooks. I like to guess what they are making. At lunch, counter and communal tables are available. The pastries in front look mouth watering.  First trip there I had a latte, eggs and bacon (a no carb day), so I'll have to go back to try what looked like the best sticky pecan roll 

ever.

Simple exterior

Cool simple interior.  I like the no fuss.

Next time round I shared a lovely fresh salad and a few pizzas. 

The crust was divine, and I'm a huge mushroom fan, so this, with the melted fontina cheese, was delish.

Prosciutto, Burrata, Arugula Pizza...so mouth watering.

These desserts were entering the room while we ate our lunch, I was dying.

Zoe Nathan has stated that she's using different grains to enrich the flavor of her breads.  Well if this is any indication, it's working.  It's a cornmeal cake with a blueberry jam, topped with a vanilla bean cream cheese frosting and fresh farmer market blueberries, your going to die happy.

Please stop by and visit this place, you'll not be disappointed.  Enjoy!

Milo & Olive

2723 Wilshire Blvd. 

Santa Monica, CA 90403

ChocoVivo Venice

During my four month hiatus from real life work, I was able to explore a few local shops.  I came across an article about Choco Vivo, a chocolate shop in Venice. Anyone who knows me KNOWS I love chocolate. So I went exploring online first to their website. If you haven't read Patricia's stories on her blog you should go 

here

. She is a true entrepreneur and someone who took a great leap of faith to do something she loves.

So I drove a mere 10 minutes to Venice and went looking for this tiny shop nestled on Abbot Kinney. I so wanted to meet Patricia, she sounded like me in her March blog posts, but she wasn't there that day. 

I sampled a few of the chocolates. I've never really tasted true pure chocolate. It's all DARK chocolate no milk or soy lecithins added, so it's pure goodness. 

Her stone-ground beans to bar method is mouth melting ecstasy.  I tried the almonds to sea salt and the mayan tradition (spicy and delish).  She also has chocolate butters and does a nice sampling on the First Friday's down on Abbot Kinney every month.  

A must visit place when your on the westside. Abbot Kinney is the perfect place for this entrepreneur.

Beside's the great little store, she's also at these Farmer's Markets:

Tuesdays:

 Culver City,  2 pm – 7 pm, 

Sundays:

  Mar Vista, 9 am – 2pm 

Try some samples.

 Loved the great packaging for my purchase. 

Choco Vivo

504 Abbot Kinney Blvd

chocovivo.com

Manic Monday

I'm kinda wishing I was on this road right now.

Alt Summit Blog

As most of my readers know I've ventured on a slight career change to a more technical type of job.

Still in the marketing area, but more tech focused. I am now working from home, yes I have set hours and I change out of my PJ's every morning, not saying much about the upper undergarments, depends on the weather.

Over the past 6 months I've been trying to be regular about posting and finding my voice on this platform.

I am interested in so many things. Travel and food seem to come to the top, sprinkled with my life activities.

Good friends and

bloggers

My Life at Playtime

and

A Simply Raw Life

have turned me onto

Alt Design Summit

. E

ach

year they have summit's that happen in a different city. They also have a blog with the best advice on being a better blogger and running it as a business. In January, the Alt Summit is in Salt Lake City. The registration day came and went for

SLC

as I was in the middle of 3 weeks of volunteer work and didn't log in on time to register. In the meantime I've been regularly reading their suggestions, tweets,

facebook

posts and their featured classes. This is invaluable information for any blogger, established and brand new. 

For blogging inspiration and business advice check out 

the new Alt blog

.  

I'm determined to go to SLC to be inspired by all those bloggers out there. 

One of my favorite blogs post on Alt is about

Building an Online Community

. This is practical advice and I said to 

myself "DUH! Make it happen."

Lately I've had a little interest from the outside on my Cuba story and am DETERMINED to finish it. Yes my Dad knows about the story being in the

blogosphere

and has encouraged me to finish it.  I have to say my favorite blog post is this one

Cuba A Bittersweet Tale Part III

, makes me cry every time I go back and read it.

Enjoy!

Books I've Read

Dear ITSS Reader,

   As summer comes to a close, you all must have read a few books, while traveling, camping or just laying at the beach. Personally, I've read quite a few starting in the spring and into the summer. All of these stories are varied, which is good. This all thanks to our book swapping parties and a couple of shopping excursions to Costco and Barnes & Nobles. The last one I read is my favorite close second in Julia Child's memoir. 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is such a great fictional story based on the German Occupation of one of the Channel Islands off the coast of Great Britain during WWII. I know you may think that sounds boring and tedious. But one, it was educational and two, though it's a piece of fiction based on facts, you really believe these people exist. They become your friends. I laughed out loud and cried and smiled throughout the book. It's written in the style of letters exchange by quite a few people. I had mixed emotions about this, but then I couldn't wait to read the next letter. This is a must read, I think my Mom would love this book. 

Go here to purchase!

Now reader, this next book is alarming and educational. I probably wouldn't have picked this up, but someone at the book swap party said it was a must read. It's a piece of Non-Fiction.  Why is it alarming?  Because as I sip my latte's and take walks on the beach I am oblivious to all the seedy interactions taking place around the world. You will see inside U.S. politics and the manipulation of so many people and countries for greed. Made me irritated and mad, but I feel slightly more informed. Personally I think this should be a movie, although parts of it I'm sure have already been used. It features a few countries, Panama and Saudi Arabia sticking out most in mind. If you are like me and grew up in the 70's you'll understand the oil crisis issue (long lines at the gas pump ring any bells) in the U.S. much more after you've read this book. 

Go here to purchase!

This one is a very small attempt at satisfying your Downton Abbey drought.  It's a quick summer read of how American's love having titles and do all they can to make sure their rich little girls marry an aristocrat of some sort. 

Go here to purchase!

Julia Child's story made me want to go back to school. In fact I checked out a few culinary schools looking for a good story and to feed my pastry passion. This is a delightful read and an inspiring tale of how a woman can start a new career later in life. If you didn't love Julia before this you will afterward. This goes on my top 10 list of favorite books. 

Go here to purchase!

If you can't travel aboard physically, how about mentally? This book took me to Venice and an intriguing fictional story of glass blowing. It made me want to go back to Versailles, you'll have to read why, and back to Venice and the Island of Murano. Now Glassblowing is one more thing to add to my ever growing list of things I want to learn if I had eternity to do so. 

Go here to purchase!

Did you read Eat, Pray, Love or just watch the movie?  If you read it you'd love Luca Spaghetti, which is why I picked this up.  He's a funny story teller and a passionate Italian and AS Roma fan.  I fun read.  

Go here to purchase

Now reader I do hope you are intrigued by these books.  It's a nice mix of serious, fluffy, informative, inspirational stories both real and imagined.  Enjoy but please tell me what are you reading?  What was your summer favorite book? Tell me please.

Sincerely,

Tanya

Pismo Beach

So after are three weeks of volunteer work in the blazing heat of over 100 degrees everyday, our friends treated us to a few days in Pismo beach.  About 3 hours North of Los Angeles. We rented a house steps from the beach with a view of the Pier. I took tons of pictures so sorry for the picture overload below. These 3 days were thoroughly enjoyable and varied.  Long walks on the beach in the morning and sunset, surfing, wine tasting, whale watching (unintentional), reading and cooking.

 This is the first time she's used her board and had never waxed it. 

SB showed the young teenagers how to surf and freeze in the cold water (wetsuits NOT optional.)  In the meantime Bekah and I did the TJ shopping and then off galavanting to Laetitia Winery.

Sunflare on the Pier.

Here's the house we stayed in.

View at sunset from those windows.

Bench at Edna Valley Winery. When we arrived here we encountered a woman who drunkenly said "they have the best wines in there."

Lounging and wine tasting area at Laetitia winery.

View at Edna Valley winery. Gorgeous.

Ok so we talked the girls into going to a Loufa farm. I had no idea how loufa's were made, and I was pleasantly surprised by this whimsical and educational little farm. Did you know Loufa's grow on vines. I had no idea.

This is what a loofa looks like, kind of like a squash, from the squash family in fact.  It dries out on the vine and then you take it out soak in water and peel off the harden skin.  Voila a loofa, free of pesticides and ready to scrub-a-dub-dub.

Did you know there are at least 3 kinds of lavender.  I didn't.  The most used is English (which is kind of soapy smelling), then French (middle ) and finally Spanish.  See what you learn at the loofa farm.

We drove up the road a bit and explored the other beaches, specifically Avila Beach.  We found this lovely country farm. Included organic fruits and veggies. Also had kitschy kitchenwares. They grilled sweet corn and we ate it sitting on haystacks. Seriously country folks.

Ice cream stand in a barn. Delish.

Some fun photos below of our days lounging.

Random chair on side of road.

Instagram Images

I have been away on a volunteer assignment, so not much cooking being done, just a little exploring. Enjoy some of my Instagram images over the past few weeks.