Four on Friday

 

 :::1:::
I'm a house hunters addict, and this week I saw what may have been the best episode yet. Actors Sarah Wright (Marry Me) and her husband Eric Olsen (NCIS) were looking for a second home in Jackson Hole. They were both adorable and Jackson Hole has quickly made it on my must-see-soon list. If you didn't catch it, keep an eye on OnDemand


 :::2:::
Joel hurt his foot running about two weeks back and after two weeks icing it and staying off of it, he was still in pain. We were worried that it might be broken, but we got to an orthopedic surgeon at UCLA yesterday and I'm happy to report that it's not. He's got tendinitis and with some topic treatment, rest, and athletic tape he should be back running in just a few weeks.

:::3:::
Early this week I had the lucky privilege to try on wedding dresses with my cousin Erin and it was just so much fun. She looked radiant in every dress, and BHLDN in Beverly Hills provided such a fun and special experience for us. Clearly I'm a very #basic B because not only was I tearing up every time I saw my cousin step out of the dressing room, but every time anyone walked out of their dressing room I needed a tissue too. We found lots of potentials so we had to celebrate at lunch!

:::4::: 
Joel is going away for work so I'm flying solo all weekend. I've found that in order to fully enjoy the time alone, I need to keep a few things on the calendar to keep myself from getting bored and lonely.  I've lined up a few girlfriend dates and workout classes so that I can actually enjoy the alone time. It's a fine, fine line!

 

Sailing

Beyond all of the fun weekend plans and quick getaways, it's actually been a pretty tough month for my family. We lost a dear, dear, dear family friend this week and have gotten less than stellar health news from other loved ones the last few weeks. 

Life is so fragile and so unpredictable and so damn scary sometimes.

More times than not, if I let myself go to that dark place of fear and anxiety and sadness and grief, all I really want to do is climb in bed and never come out.

But, we can't do that, and as my mom said, life is never smooth sailing, but we just have to figure out a way to roll with the winds and not tip over.

So, I'm going roll with the winds and try and remind myself of all the good things around me. I wholeheartedly believe focusing on gratitude and sending positive energy is magic that heals. At least a little.

So today, I am thankful for 

:::Rosé

:::David Beckham sightings after SoulCycle

:::Weekend plans

:::New Girl

:::My ugg slippers

:::A dog that likes to cuddle

:::A good book

:::Pintrest

:::These gap leggings (buy them, I bought two)

:::Scented candles

:::Anthropologie

:::California weather

:::Group texts

:::and all of the obvious stuff that I feel bad leaving out but don't need to write it because I'm thankful for it every damn second.

What I Wore

Work It Girl

 

Monday

  

Jcrew blouse, Paige jeans, Cole Haan boots, KS necklace

Tuesday

 

Jcrew button down, Banana sweater, Joe's jeans, Franco Sarto booties 

Wednesday

 

Jcrew turtleneck, Paige jeans, France Sarto booties, KS necklace

Thursday 

 

Cynthia Rowley blouse, Gap pants, Ivanka Trump heels 

Friday

 

The ever popular J.Crew blouse (that I can't find online anymore!), Joe's Jeans, TB wedges

House Updates

Last week, we got some very exciting news - Joel got a promotion at work! He has been going through the interview process since August so not only was I beyond proud and excited, it's also a relief to have it over.

His promotion is going to keep us in Los Angeles longer than we had originally signed on for (3-4 years). It'll be our 3rd year here in February, and we are likely here for another 3 at least. 

Once the papers were signed, we had to decide if we were going to stay in our condo or move on.

Our house is great, but we've started to feel like we are growing out of it. Closet's have reached max capacity and we were getting tired of living with stuffed cabinets and drawers.

Long story short....we decided to stay. Financially it makes the most sense and we couldn't find anything better on the market in our budget. By deciding to stay, we knew we needed a major overhaul - so this weekend we basically moved out of our house and then moved back in.

The biggest, or most noticeable, change was to this area behind the dining room table.

It wasn't an efficient use of space, and with our small kitchen, it wasn't doing enough of what we needed that space to do.

On an impulsive and frustrated whim, I ran to World Market and within twenty minutes I was loading a huge shelving unit into my car. Joel was out with a buddy, so I brought it all the way up to our unit and started to build it. When I make my mind up, you can rest assured shit is going to get done.

Before dinner I forced Joel to help me build it and then all day Sunday we did major, major, major work. 

After one more round of accessories shopping we have a totally new situation going on and I'm already loving it. 

We moved our wine fridge and turned our antique cabinet into a bar and now we have a whole booze station, which is pretty fun.

 

The house is never done, but the changes we did this weekend have already made an enormous difference.

Five on Friday

 

::: 1 :::

The 2015 calendar is starting to fill up, and while it is full of great things -  I need to find a way to cope with it, take it day by day, and not be overwhelmed by it. I feel like a broken record but this blur of busyness makes me feel like life is going by too fast.


::: 2:::

My sickness came somewhat well timed. I was due for a long booze detox and not having a strong appetite helped me keep carb potions low after so much vacation eating. We stuck to our weekly menu like pros this week and I can already feel the difference after eating properly for 5 full days

::: 3 ::: 

Did you see Natalie's post,  at DDBD, about her 3 day food diary? I loved it, and it made me rethink some of the stuff I've been pausing to post on here. I find myself over-thinking my "weekly menu" posts, or daily life posts, or whatever,  because I start to think, who the hell cares what we ate for dinner, but, I find the true daily posts the most interesting of all, so I'm going to try over the next few months to add more of those to my blog.


::: 4 ::: 

I haven't been to McDonalds in well over a year, or maybe two, and I think the only time I've stopped is for one of their ice cream cones....well, randomly I started aggressively craving a shamrock shake. I need to get my hands on one! I found this recipe online, and if it doesn't live up to the hype, I'm going to have to start a March 1st countdown.

::: 5 :::
We've got a low key weekend on the books except for Saturday. My sisters boyfriend Michael is in LA for business and is staying with us for the night. I love that he is coming to hang out with without Hannah....he earns major bonus points in my book for that!

And a good reminder before the weekend

Cheers!

Thoughts for Thursday: Health

Hot water, lemon, honey, and cayenne pepper

I had a chest cold from hell this week but I think I was able to nip it in the bud faster than normal thanks to this little concoction I was having 2-3x/day. I actually don't mind the taste, and it made almost an instant difference.

I know that drinking warm water and lemon is good for you on a daily basis, so it might have to make a more frequent appearance around these parts.

I also chugged an Emergen-C packet every morning, and I have Joel doing it too so he doesn't get sick. I think Emergen-C works if you use it when you start to feel the onset of cold, I'm pretty sure once you've got it, it can't help you, but I guess it can't really hurt.

Also while I was perusing ways to get rid of my cold as quickly as possible, I saw a lot of information on essential oils. Have you used them? I've seen a few friends sell/post them on Facebook, but I'm just not sure I believe the hype....Thoughts?

 

Any other tricks of the trade?

Napa/Sonoma Recap

Our trip to Napa and Sonoma was really relaxing, really fun, and really really beautiful. It was my first time in Napa and it couldn't have been more lovely. I kept finding myself saying that it felt like we had left the country. The rolling hills, charming little towns, the whole thing felt like a far away world.

The House
The house we stayed in was located in Windsor about 15 minutes outside of Healdsburg. The house was spectacular so we tried to spend as much time in the home as possible. We ended up cooking dinner every night because we just didn't want to leave.

Day 1
I met Joel early since he was in San Fransisco for work. He picked me up from the airport and our first stop was lunch at The Marshall Store in Point Reyes. I was starving (and cranky) by the time we made it but dang did it turn my mood around. The views and food were spectacular - and it really started the trip off on the right foot.

On our way to the house we stopped at Lagunitas Brewery which was a nice pit stop to pick up some beer and listen to some live music. I was anxious to get to the house though, so we stayed for 1 drink and then headed to the house.

After we got checked in, it didn't take long to get comfortable. We made pizzas, sat in front of the fire, listened to music and hung out in the hot tub. I was so glad that it worked out that Joel and I got almost a full day to hang out at the house before everyone made it up to join us.


 
My cousin Amanda and her boyfriend made it to the house at midnight so after a quick recap with them, we all headed to bed.

Day 2
In hindsight, I'm really glad we had this grand photoshoot outside, because it turned out to be the only day that we could actually see the views from the house. Since we were up so high, the house sat in heavy fog for the rest of the weekend.


 

We ended up using a company in Napa that sent us a driver to drive our rental car. It was by far the cheapest option and it turned out to be pretty perfect for the entire weekend. We had to bring her to Avis to sign onto our contract, but it worked out because we dropped off Amanda's rental car and Brent and Dawn met us there as well. Our first stop of the day was to Christopher Creek.


Christopher Creek is a family owned winery and the six of us had a private tasting that turned out to be really fun. The guy leading our tasting was young and quite the story teller, but had our glasses full the whole time which is always a good thing.

 

We picked up sandwiches at Big Johns Grocery (that were ammmazing)  and took them to Simi's tasting room to sit outside and have lunch.



Our last stop of the day was Medlock Ames in Healdsburg. We all loved Medlock wines and their winery was awesome.
 

 

Everything was sustainable and solar powered, and at 5pm they opened a bar that served craft cocktails and beers. Plus, any winery that served cheese with their tastings gained extra points with our group.



That night everyone pitched in and we made an Italian dinner with pasta, meatballs, caprese bread and ceaser salad.

         

We played taboo, hung out in the hot tub before turning in.

Day 3
We woke up pretty early and after sitting around the fire and having coffee, we decided to hit the gym to work off some of the wine that we were sure to be indulging in the rest of the weekend.

After the gym, our first spot of the day was Pride Mountain which turned out to be our favorite tour of the trip.

 The wine tour was through their wine cave where they store 2400 barrells as well as host tastings and private events.

Not only was the tour one for the books their wine was divine.

 

 The only let down was that it was pouring rain and pretty freaking cold so we didn't get to spend much time outside enjoying their property. 

After the tour we went to downtown Yountville to shop around and have lunch. I wanted to pop into Napa Styles because I love Michael Chiarello and the last time my parents were there he was there and was signing cookbooks. I wasn't so lucky but it was a really fun store.

We had a nice lunch in Yountville before our 2pm tour at Stags' Leap. We really enjoyed this tour, but it was very historically driven and after more than an hour...they started to lose us.
 

I will say though, Stags' had the most beautiful grounds of any place we visited.

Our guide was telling us that last season pottery barn had a photoshoot in this passion pit for their catalog in case you recognize it.

 

Our last stop of the day was a champagne tasting at Domaine Carneros which was a really nice change of pace. We ran late to our appointment but got there with enough time to have a solid round of champagne.

After drinking wine all day, champagne and cheese tasted so, so good.

That night we had gotten a few pounds of fresh dungeness crab and made fish tacos and corn on the grill too. 

Day 4
After breakfast our group went to Dry Creek and we decided to join Wine Wonderland, which a bunch of wineries were participating in. We each paid $60 bucks for a glass and then carried is around from winery to winery for unlimited pours and light snacks throughout the day.

Our next stop was one of our group favorites; Truett Hurst. Laura had recommended this spot as one of her favorites, and since she has yet to lead my astray - I knew we were in for a treat.

Their winery had tons of space to sit, relax, and drink with gorgeous views, beautiful gardens, and even chickens and goats to check out.

And lots of adirondack chairs ;)

Another crowd favorite was Ridge. We stopped there before lunch and their wine and property were equally fantastic. Am I sounding like a broken record yet? Seriously Napa and Sonoma are such stunning.

 The rest of the afternoon was spent in downtown Healdsburg which was the most charming town. We had lunch at Willi's which had pretty good small plates, then popped into a few tasting rooms and shops before ending the day at a bar for a beer.

I think this was the day that everyone ended up drinking the most during our trip, and I'm blaming the unlimited pours on that one. We were all pretty much falling asleep in our chairs at 9, so after pizza and a few rounds of Heads Up, we called it an early night.

Flying back to LA from San Fransisco is so easy. We were able to get on an earlier flight home and after 45 minutes in the air, and a 15 minute drive home from the airport, we were home at 2:30 in the afternoon. It couldn't have worked out better.

This trip was awesome. It was relaxing and beautiful and it was really nice to spend time with good friends. A long weekend is just not enough time in Napa and I'm already plotting my next trip back.