Life 2.1

I have a serious Pinterest addiction.

I love it.

It makes me want to have my own house and DIY the hell out of it. On Saturday night and again on Sunday afternoon, I sat listening to the USF Dons baseball game online, while pinning.

In fact, the two meals that Dave and I ate on Sunday were recipes found on Pinterest.

I made Apple-Pancake Rings which weren’t bad, after some minor tweaks and accounting for some ingredients I didn’t have on hand.

I’d make them again, but I recommend a double-dip into the pancake batter. And because I’m not a fan of syrup, we used powdered sugar which was a good thing because they weren’t terribly sweet. I might sprinkle a little sugar on the green apples prior to dipping next time.

Because I’m constantly scouring Pinterest for delicious-flavored things, I was inspired to throw out a dinner suggestion of chicken-caprese panninis for dinner and despite Dave being quasi-alarmed at my addiction to Pinterest, he supported this dinner thought.

Since we had to head outside to get the necessary dinner items from the store, and since the weatherman–in a shocking turn of events– was wrong about the rain coming on Sunday, we went for a hike in the marshland in South Napa before shopping.

This was a good idea because I had spent the last 36 hours staring at a computer screen, scrolling through the new pins. I think Dave might have been a bit concerned about my mental state at that point, so his suggestion of the hike was a smart one.

I had no idea the marshlands in South Napa even existed for hikes! It was a perfect place to get out and stretch my legs after being inside and online and it felt good to walk around in the sun for a bit. We explored the trails for about 45 minutes before heading to the store to get the chicken-caprese pannini ingredients.

The dinner recipe was also a success, though again, next time I would marinade the chicken in balsamic vinaigrette or something. The flavor wasn’t bad but Dave and I both agreed it just needed a little something else.

I still have a serious Pinterest addiction, but at least Dave keeps me balanced with non-computer activities. I suppose he can’t argue with Pinterest as long as I keep making delicious things from the site, right??

No Comments | In: Delicious-flavored foods, Living the Vine Life, Social Adventures | tags: hiking, Napa, Pinterest, recipes. | #

I scrapped for 4 whole days.

It was glorious.

Of course, I wasn’t going 24/7 but I was close. Below are the much overdue results of my long weekend. Some of the highlights in the layouts include a good portion of my time in New Orleans, specifically when the Saints won the Super Bowl, which was promptly followed by Mardi Gras. There is also the Christmas Eve travel debacle that will live in infamy. Who could forget that?

All these new layouts have been added to my gallery (doesn’t that make me sounds fancy?). I felt so productive when I saw all my creations. Then I saw that I still had Christmas 2010 and all of 2011 to go. Oy :/

click to enlarge

2009

The Watkins-Piper Nuptials

Christmas (what little I got to celebrate)

2010

The Super Bowl! (or, as we call it, Lombardi Gras):

Mardi Gras with Joe

My former (then-current) boss turned 40

St. Patrick’s Day in San Francisco

Weekend at the Beach House (May)

Big Metal came to visit! (July)

Morgan’s Birthday Shindig (August)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Saturday

No Comments | In: Scraptastic Stuff, Social Adventures | tags: layouts, scrapbook, scrapbooking. | #

All of my New Orleans friends have awesome photos of Mardi Gras posted on Facebook. I looked at them longingly, thinking of how awesome it was when I went in 2010, right before I moved home.

Dave received the following email and thought of me:

He promptly made reservations when he saw me light up at the mention of crawfish etouffee.

We arrived to a very festive atmosphere last night and lots of purple, green and gold and I had a great view of SportsCenter so I was a happy camper.

Then they rolled out the menu. And do you know what I had?

One of everything.

Seriously. I was under the impression we picked from each category. Nope, not so. We were served everything, family-style. Though Dave and I are convinced they pre-portioned everything for groups of four so the two of us got huge portions of everything.

Take a look at my dinner menu last night (and subsequent lunch today).

Yea. All that.

In a shocking turn of events, we left completely stuffed.

In other news, I miss easy access to crawfish.

2 Comments | In: Social Adventures | tags: Cajun cuisine, Farmstead, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Napa Valley. | #

With all the wedding activity that immediately followed my mid-week birthday, I didn’t have a chance to recap the fact that I’m 29.

Yes, I’m 29. Next year will be 30. Next year I’ll have a party or something. 29 just seems like a non-event in comparison.

Since it was a Tuesday (read: a work day) and of course because of Murphy’s Law, it was the busiest work day I had had in a long while. Phones ringing off the hook, meetings galore…you get the picture.

Dave took me out to dinner at a new restaurant neither of us had tried…Brassica is the new Cindy Pawlcyn place that features Mediterranean-inspired dishes (it used to be Go Fish, which had an awesome lobster mac-n-cheese).

It wasn’t bad; I had braised beef and Dave had the roasted chicken. All was tasty and the portions were ridiculously large. We enjoyed dessert, which was something that looked like flan when it was served but had the consistency of creme brulee. It was delicious and mocha-y and cinnamon-y…yum!

We asked the server to take our photo but she accidentally took a video; here is the screen capture of that since the video looks similar, only with Dave and I smiling, asking each other through gritted, smiley teeth if we thought she had taken the photo yet.

Corner Booth – prime for people watching

Dave knew that the weekend coming (wedding weekend) would be far too busy to continue the celebration, so being the thoughtful one that he is, he booked my birthday present– a massage at The Meritage Resort in Napa– for this past Saturday. The day turned into a one where we played tourist, doing all things Napa Valley and taking advantage of the things that we never get to do despite living here.

The massage, to start, was flippin fantastic.

Because he is a smarty, Dave booked it for 11 so I could sleep in, then informed me that I had access to their spa, jacuzzi, steam room, etc. for the rest of the day if I was so inclined. I thought that sounded good but I haven’t ever done anything like that so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The massage itself was an hour and it was so relaxing. Following that luxury, I helped myself to some lemon-water and hung out in the steam room for a bit. My skin felt amazing and so clean. 2 hours later, I was showered and felt so rejuvenated that I debated putting make up on because my skin actually felt like it looked good enough to forgo. Then I thought it was probably the fancy spa lighting and I dabbled a little bit on for good measure. Good thing too, because we went out to lunch at Fremont Dinner afterwards, which meant being seen in public, something for which I prefer to be wearing make up so as not to look like I just rolled out of bed.

It was such a gorgeous day, we decided to cap off our afternoon with some wine tasting at Artesa since I had never been and the views were amazing, especially on a clear day. It is down in Carneros and so high above the valley floor you can see for miles. I had no idea!

The picture doesn’t even do the view justice–it’s awesome

It was such a relaxing morning/afternoon…

No Comments | In: Social Adventures | tags: birthday, Napa Valley. | #

Let’s be clear with the title of this post– it was my cousin LEIGH’S wedding weekend that just took place. As such, I was her Maid of Honor and this of course comes with VERY important duties, such as her bachelorette celebration! Leigh is in retail and October-November-December are essentially akin to my August-September-October, which is to say, insanely busy and not so easy to plan a getaway. So to work around her (and selfishly, my “busy season” I opted to do a spa day the morning before her Big Day to try and help her relax and get ready to be a bride. This was especially appropriate because she had literally been working every.single.weekend.ever and I thought it would be a good idea to get her out of her work mind and into bride mind.

I arranged a private “retreat” room at the Villagio Inn & Spa in Yountville and we had optional mani-pedi appointments for those who wanted to take advantage. For those who didn’t need their nails done, they joined us for breakfast and hung out in our room. The below documents the girly-ness that went on Click to enlarge photos and an actual wedding post will follow shortly.

PS- I know my birthday was also last week, but given that it was a Tuesday (work day) and the wedding took place Saturday, that post is on hold. Dave and I celebrated with a nice dinner out (more on that later) and he is giving me a present this Saturday, as it’s our first 2-day weekend together in a while. The birthday post will come post-birthday present

2 Comments | In: Living the Vine Life, Social Adventures | tags: bachelorette party, Napa Valley, spa day, Villagio Inn & Spa, wedding. | #