Find a Good Book, a Relaxing Spot and Enjoy August!

We're enjoying our last couple of weeks of summer here in beautiful Lake Tahoe! Late July and August has been chalk-full of fun; a roadtrip, a state fair, and much more. I'm working on many posts to show the fun.

In the meantime, why don't you grab a book, hop into one of these Adirondack chairs above, and enjoy these last few days of summer!

Can you hear the stream? It's right next to the chairs above!

What about the wild flowers? There's still as gorgeous as ever!

When the wind has picks up in the afternoon, head inside and find another comfortable spot to finish that book!

By the way, I'm knee deep reading "The Help," by Kathryn Stockett. What an amazing read! It's keeping me up late into the night. If you get a chance, definitely give it a read.

Happy 2nd Birthday Blog!

All Festive Birthday Cake Images from Betty Crocker Website

Today is the second birthday of my blog! Part of me feels like I've been blogging for longer than 2 years, it's become such a integral part of my life... Although I only blog once or twice a week, (besides this last 2 weeks when I was on vacation,) I must admit, I think about my blog a lot more often than that... new ideas I should post, taking lots of pictures, etc, etc.!

Just the other day, I reread my first post, To Blog or Not To Blog. It was a great reminder of why I decided to create a blog.

So, on those days I fret about what to post... and/or whether anyone would want to read it, I have to remind myself time sure does fly by, so any attempt to capture memories, ideas or musings is a good thing!

Thanks for reading!

P.S. I had fun surfing Betty Crocker's website to find fun cake ideas. Check out their Happy Birthday Ideas page for more pics!

Tourist in My Town

Even though I live just 20 minutes south of the City now,

I still feel like San Francisco is my town.

With our French exchange student here,

we've been playing tourist!

Lots of fun, and of course, lots of fog!!

I had some fun in Photoshop this morning!

Here are some shots from one of our days touring.

This city sure has some amazing views!

Enjoy!

La Tour Eiffel

No, I haven't really been on vacation... even though my blog has been quiet for a week... I've been a busy bee getting ready for our French friend's son to arrive! He arrived last night, and in his honor, I thought I'd write a post about the icon of all French icons, the Eiffel Tower.

As I toured around my house, I must admit, I found many Eiffel Tower mementos here and there. Here are just a few I thought I'd share!

At the top is the classic vintage postcard of the Eiffel Tower. I picked this up at a flea market in the south of France. It's just one of those "staples" or must-haves in the ephemera department.

Another postcard-- I love the acrobats and "circus-feel" to it.

Here's my ticket stub from riding up the Tour Eiffel several years ago.... I must say, I had the worst case of vertigo as we went up and down!!

And now for something fun... an Eiffel Tower cookie creation!! I picked up this cookbook a couple years ago after the movie Ratatouille came out. It's a fun book-- with lots of great recipes: crepes, croque monsieur, ratatouille (of course), and more...

It also has this fun cooking project, the Eiffel Tower Cookie Sundae!

I made this with my kids one day. Our towers weren't nearly as pretty as the ones in the book, but it was fun to make and then eat, of course!

Now off to tour our new house guest around California! Stay tuned for more French inspired postings soon!

A European Staycation

In honor of Bastille Day (tomorrow), as well as a French family friend coming to stay with us for a month (starting next week), I thought I'd have myself a little European Staycation this week!

First off I will highlight one of my all time favorite outdoor looks-- the globe string lights!

I can hear the music in the background as I look at these inspiring images! We've strung them on our patio too, but I need to get a couple more strings, so I can get the full criss-cross effect!

So, tonight, we'll head outdoors, sip some delicious French Rose and enjoy our first evening of our European staycation in our outdoor cafe!

A Bientot!

Wild about Wildflowers

The Sierras in July... you just can't beat it!
The clean air, the mountain scenery,
the Sierra rocks, and the wildflowers...
ooo, the wildflowers!


The bright colors against the earthy greens and browns
of the surrounding area make these flowers POP!

This bunch looks like the red, hot fourth of July fireworks!

Just looking at these pictures makes me smell that fresh mountain air,
and look forward to our next vacation in Tahoe...

50 Incredible Years!

My parents just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary!! It's been almost 3 days since all the festivities, yet I feel like I'm still just recovering... and it wasn't even my 50th anniversary!!

What an amazing party. It was held on the same day and same place as my parent's wedding 50 years ago. Ironically, the weather also needed to repeat itself with a scorcher of over 100 degrees, just like their day.

For the special day, I created a custom banner, based on my "I Do" wedding banner. Here's a picture below...
I had so much fun working with actual pictures from their day... they fit just perfectly with the collage of ephemera in the background.


I especially love the picture above of them toasting the day. My mom also wanted a larger banner to go over the band, so I created this long one with background colors similar to the flower color scheme.


Here are my parents, toasting to 50 amazing years! It was definitely a party I'll never forget!

To 50 more incredible years!!!