Bueltelful

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Napa Valley

Chris and I were in Napa Valley from April 7th-11th! We found a Living Social deal for the Ink House, a bed and breakfast in St. Helena, and decided it was time for a vacation. We had never been to Napa before and loved the wine tasting, town searching, shopping, and eating. We also enjoyed hanging around the Ink House which had a great wrap around porch that we liked to sit on and read. The weather was great when we were there, much nicer than Reno was at the time.

The lovely Ink House

Old barn out back, super cool and super creepy

Pretty garden

Good lighting for an impromptu photo shoot


Even Chris thinks so

On our second day, we visited one of the Rutherford wineries, and they had a rusted train...


And we also went to Whitehall Lane, which was right next door to the Ink House

On our third day we explored the old basement with the oooold piano


And found wonderful street art. And we visited two wineries that day, Twomey and Tamber Bey, but I couldn't find any pics...

On day four we decided to roam around the National Park

It was lovely and had campgrounds. I'm not a camping kind of person, but this would be a fun place to go.

And our last winery visit was at Tedeschi. It was by far our favorite! We got a tour and were served by the 21 year old son who runs the winery with his brother and dad.

We learned how to cork bottles!

And we got to pet a peacock! I can die now, my life goal is accomplished

His name is Eddie, and he was so friendly

But not as friendly as the chicken, Blondie

So this was our room, Elvis stayed there while filming in the 60s, of course Chris wouldn't stop making Elvis jokes...

I do love my floppy hat

Dining room where we ate breakfast

Living room


Our port and sherry stash

We had an awesome vacation and can't wait to get back, although there are some other places we need to try first:)

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Hoppy Easter!

Hoppy Easter? I know, super cheesy, but I couldn't help myself. So our Easter has consisted of sleeping in, grocery shopping and cooking for Easter dinner, not too bad if I say so myself.

We're about to leave to go to Easter dinner in Tahoe with the McLaughlins and the Gregos and due to the fact that Chris and I are veggies (two months!) we were asked to bring a pasta dish. So I went to my trusted Pinterest food board and found an artichoke spinach pasta recipe and cooked it up, along with an ice cream sandwich cake, which is ridiculously easy and tastes amazing.

I've included some pics of my Easter decor because, well, that's all I have to show for this Easter holiday! Happy Easter!!

I see you Antoinette!

So the only thing I DIYed was the Easter branch tree, and only in the sense that I got the branches from the front yard and stuck them in foam. I'm kinda looking forward to not having to decorate the house for a little while, at least not until 4th of July, I kinda miss my house:)

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Cats, Loft Clean-up, and a New Volunteer Gig

I take a lot of pictures of our cats with my phone, too many, and mostly when they're sleeping cause they look sooo cute. This happens when Antoinette (never Achilles) hops on over to Achilles' papasan chair and sometimes, literally, lays on him and gets comfortable.

They're so cute! Especially the one with Achilles' paw around her...awwww.

So Chris was gone for a bit last week for Mopars on the Strip in Vegas, so I decided to tackle his messy loft, duhn duhn duhn. Not that he much likes me messing with his area, but I just told myself that I wasn't going to throw anything out or make it so it wouldn't be functional for Chris and his not so organized self, so I added three floating book shelves, I hung all of his pictures and certificates/awards, and just moved some stuff around, put things in little bins and pinned more to his cork boards.

The floating book shelves are so cool! I thought they'd be a unique way to store some books and little trinkety things. I have to say I really like the stick on cork tiles we got for his room, he has a lot of paper and patches he wants to keep, but they were just thrown in boxes, so now they're on display. I'm also very happy to have all those things hung up now, it filled in some wall space and got the pics off of his desk. And yes, that is an autographed signed photo of Wayne Newton:) When he got back he was very pleased with the work I put in, so that's always good, and maybe he'll let me tackle more of his cluttered areas around the house...

Lastly, I'm super excited because I started my second volunteer gig at a museum! I'm now volunteering at the Discovery Museum, which is a great kids' museum in downtown Reno. Yesterday was my first day and I was told to go out and play with everything, which I did! I had so much fun and I played with a bunch of the kids and showed them how to use some of the exhibits. I ended up with a buddy and she and I did the cloud climber together. Holy crap was I winded and not to mention exhausted! That little girl was climbing circles around me! Anyway, I'm happy to be there and happy to be gaining more experience!

Friday, March 15, 2013

Another Birthday Party, Tea and New Hair

When I highlighted all of the birthdays we celebrated in the last two months I forgot to mention Jenny and Fred's party! It was a lot of fun, in part due to the awesome fake mustaches we had, and of course the wonderful company.

Also, two weekends ago, we went to The Isles with some friends and had an awesome high tea! We'd never done one before, but it was so good, they served us bottomless tea with tea sandwiches, scones and other yummy treats.

Lastly, I kept forgetting to post about my hair! I got it cut three weeks ago and donated it to Locks of Love. My Pi Day post has a picture of my new hair, but I've included better ones here.

Happy Happy Friday!