When You Don't Have Room for a Christmas Tree

Before I could post this here, Mick swiped it and posted it to Reddit, which, then led to it being used on Gizmodo, and now it's all over the internet. Ugh! So you may have already seen this, but here is my humble little Christmas tree this year. I made it using a string of Christmas lights and lots of packaging tape! Happy Holidays!

Growing up means starting your own traditions

One down-side of moving across the country from home is the increased likelihood of lonely holidays. With no family making the trek to visit us this Thanksgiving - and I'll be honest, no motivation to get ourselves out to either Minnesota or Florida - we had an awesome realization. We have a FREE 4 day weekend ahead of us. Never was there a better opportunity to take an awesomely long & relaxing camping trip. 

With an already prepared turkey and our bikes in tow, we headed out for Big Sur on Thursday morning.

By 4pm we had reached Riverside Campground and set up our camp at Site 12, next to a beautiful portion of the Big Sur River. 

We positioned our tent to open up facing the river so that in the cold mornings I could open up the door and admire sweet sweet nature while still snuggled up in my sleeping bag. 

After getting our site set up it was time to start on our dirty gourmet Thanksgiving dinner. *Note to self: giant yams take way too long to cook. Just buy two or three small ones instead of one big one. 

Lezlie, you will notice the wine bottle that we're using with our candelabra, Three Lab Chard! :). The other bottle on the table was picked up the previous in Napa. A deLICIOUS white.

I could lay here forever. 

Friday afternoon we hopped on our bikes for a 4 mile ride to Pfeiffer Beach. Let me tell you, those scenic coastal roads may be beautiful, but the hills are BRUTAL. Once we got on to the back road that takes us to the beach it was 2 miles of crazy downhill. Didn't pedal once. Not a good sign for the return trip, but a fun experience nonetheless. We came upon some horse friends just before we reached the beach.

Pfeiffer Beach is known for its purple sand caused by runoff of some material from the cliffs behind it. Look it up, that's exactly the explanation Wikipedia will give you, I swear ;) 

With amazing surroundings and amazing company, things can get a little silly. 

I caught him mid wind-up. Ha ha ha

We visited the Big Sur Pub (also called The Maiden, I believe) for dinner on Saturday night, looking for some social interaction and delicious beers. We found both! We were chatted up by an older Spaniard woman and her biker husband. She came from Spain to California 33 years ago and believes California is the best state in the nation. She was also ecstatic when Mick suggested she put jalepenos on her beef philly sandwhich. She swears she will never eat her favorite sandwich again without jalepenos.

All in all, we had an amazing, relaxing, beautiful long weekend in Big Sur. I hope that we get the chance to share this place with our friends and family soon! And you bet we will be celebrating more Thanksgivings this way.

Friday, Saturday, Sweaterday

It was a couch & netflix weekend for this sickly little family. We finally made it out of the apartment Sunday morning to get some fresh veggies from the farmers market for juicing next week. I came up with a concoction that is by far Mick's favorite juice yet. In case there are any juicers or aspiring juicers out there reading this, here's the recipe:

1 large cucumber

1 pear

1apple

Enough kale

1/2 lemon - peeled, unless you like soury sourness

Some mint - more than a little, but not a lot

Throw it all in the juicer and drink it up! 

Oh! So, I made the infinity scarf I'm wearing here. Tutorial coming this week :) It's like 1 step, so don't get all too excited. I'm very cheap when it comes to the effort cost of my crafts.

Your Skin Like Porcelain

Hope you all had a fabulously spooky Halloween! I had fun creeping people out in my porcelain doll makeup and Mick danced a damn good Charlie Chaplin :)

Transitions

Live in San Francisco for any amount of time and you will learn about layering. It is always necessary to have a few options ready for any single outfit. You've got to be prepared for cold, colder and that slight chance that it might be too warm for a sweater. The latter came out to visit over the weekend and it was welcomed with open/confused arms.

Mick and I spent the weekend camping and stand up paddleboarding up in Marin. By disconnecting from the internet, TV and what feels like the rest of the world, we get the chance to reconnect with each other and ourselves. In a word, I feel rejuvenated. Pictures to come :) 

DIY Necklace Storage - Au Naturel

I like my craft projects to be 3 things: quick, easy & cheap. This tree branch necklace hanger is no exception. Jewelry storage problem #22 solved. Yay, me! 

Short Skirt & a Long Jacket

And I stayed warm

There's No Place Like London

Some pictures (and stories) from Mick's and my adventures last week.

Mick had a 10 day business trip in London and, having just done one a month earlier, told me he could not do it again without me. So, for my birthday, he bought me a plane ticket to go with him. Because of the crazy year I've already had, I had 0, yep zero, vacation days left so I packed up my home office and brought it with me to the UK. 

We were there for the last 3 days of the Olympics (with no desire to try and attend any events, mind you) and while Mick spent most of that time at the office, I took the time to explore the neighborhood of Shoreditch and work out of a few different restaurants/cafes each day. The people watching was superb. 

On the last day of the Olympics, evening came and Mick was still working away (poor guy). I decided to catch a bus to a nearby park where the closing ceremony was being broadcast for free to the public. What I should have realized is that 'free to the public' means 'sleep over night to get a spot' and that casually strolling in 10 minutes AFTER the ceremony starts would not land me a place to watch. After being turned away by a nice police man who asked me if I was from Canada (Really?), I began to walk back to the Shoreditch area, figuring I will catch the ceremony (at least the Spice Girls part) at a bar near the hotel. A young boy saw my face (a bit disappointed at my failed mission) and exclaimed "Cheer up Darling! We got THIRD!". This is the point when I started to notice the excitement in the air. Team GB had placed 3rd in the Olympics and they were excited about it.  Just being there for that night and the energy in the air is something I won't soon forget.

Other cool things happened, like when we got to go see Sweeney Todd, I may or may not talk about them here in the future :). 

Here are the pictures I mentioned before I started rambling, and yes, nighttime was about the only time Mick and I got to see each other. 

Red Market

Kebabs at Red Market

This place is basically a playground for adults

Hoxton Square Park

It was only fitting that I try this beer. I was a Shoreditch blonde for the week :)