Things you don't need to know

I started to make a list of accomplishments I completed and things I will miss for 2013, then I stopped. I choose to not dwell on the past, it is what it is. So instead I choose to expand the whole reason for blogging, to share a little more of myself.

Live Run Sparkle shared this quiz posted by Two Thirds Hazel, and I couldn't resist filling it out. I really love a link-up. The whole aspect of filling out the quiz and adding to the link-up made me happy. It speaks to how we bond as bloggers and share our lives. What a funny little action, here are some random facts about me that I'm sure no one really needs to know, but I may have to admit I spent plenty of time visiting others links.

I'm so curious how other see themselves, expressing yourself and describing yourself are really two quite different things. I'm always happy to express myself, that's why I'm comfortable blogging, that's why I write and pretend I can draw in my notebooks, its why I hoop and dance and crochet. I cannot be wrong at my expressions... However, describing is different, I never have been good at describing myself because in some ways I suppose it could be wrong. There's something precarious in exposing what I think of myself. Which was actually something that snuck up on me while filling this out, something that made me feel vulnerable. So for your own entertainment and me choosing to be a bit out of my comfort zone, here is my list of things, no one needs to know about me.

Please share your link if you fill this out, I'd love to hear any of your answers as well.  So for the last time in 2013, thanks for checking in.

Christmas Hangover

Hello,

Hope everyone's holiday was amazing, even if it was just a day off to eat Chinese. Ready for my post-Christmas confession:

I had fudge for breakfast. Well I had a yogurt and grapes after that, but fudge was the first thing I consumed today. It just sounded so good and is fantastic when it's fresh.

Now on to playing catch-up, we spend last Sunday to Tuesday in South Lake Tahoe. Tahoe is about 2.5 hours from Napa so it's a great getaway spot. If you've never been to the California foothills, definitely put it on your bucket list.We're lucky enough to have lakeside condos there to enjoy. Had to share some of the beauty

Our lakefront view

 On Monday we took the Hevenly Resort Gondola to the top of the mountain which allows for stunning views.

 There is a view point half way up with a great coffee shop and mimosas yum! Its a great place to stop and take pictures and just really enjoy the view of the lake. We spend about 30 minutes walking around and enjoying all the different sides of this view, they also had viewfinders which were fun for P; they helped her really understand how far up we were.

The one thing I didn't really get pictures of were all the tracks in the snow you could see from both this view and out the sides of the gondola car. 

We enjoyed trying to name them all, deer, rabbits, and what we assumed to be mountain lion or bear.

This is an adorable picture of my parents that I just love. 37years going strong and they make me so happy.

We all made it the 2.5 miles to the top to enjoy a beer and some really excellent garlic fries and a little people watching.  We all had a discussion on the groups of people filing in and out of the 1 door open rather than the 3 other doors available, and pure inability to hold doors for others. Funny the cold must have frozen off their manners.

After all was said and done it was a nice quick trip to the snow, I'm not a huge cold fan so just a few days was great. However I do wish I had more excuses to dress P up like this. <<
We also enjoyed a dinner of Prime Rib and a fantastic bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from 1982 to share. I caught up with some cousins I almost never see anymore and had some quiet time to stitch'n'bitch with my cousin lola.

Hope everyone's holidays were wonderful also, I'd love to hear all about it. Back to work next week and planning a fresh start to the new year!

Did you travel during the holdiays?

Plane, train, or automobile? 

Are you a fan of snow?

My survival guide to Christmas 2013

Along with spreading cheer and organizing my work world, getting home focused and fully prepared for the holidays is another mountain to concur. Reading, the lovely, Livwithroses 25 days of Christmas Bucket-list. Now I'm not exactly that organized, however I have found some great ideas around the web to contribute to this year's wonderfulness.

TO GIFT:

I made these crocheted socks last year for my sister, shes always cold, I've made her two new pairs this year, they take me about 45 minutes per sock so a not too intensive project for gifting! 

I love the idea of gifting more than just a gift. So encouraging my future nieces with an excuse to enjoy a bath I packaged some cute little spa things an these adorable Peppermint Sugar Scrub from Mommy Musing.
For my "always the hostess" cousin, who has a beautiful bar I found this great Mrs. Lilien's Cocktail Swatch Book in the retail shop at work and had every plan to make this fantastic Homemade Limoncello... but who would've guessed it needed 10 days?! Guess it will have to be attempted next year.

TO FEED:

I'm cooking Christmas Eve dinner for my folks and I'd love to share with you my plans... if they had been finalized. However I always love to have something to share to that's easy to make early and pick up after work. Two great appetizers that are tried and true or me: Prosciutto Wrapped Melon and Chevre Fig Spread

TO DECORATE:

I wanted to incorporate some green aspects into our decorating this year... yes besides the giant fir in the living room. This may or may not have been inspired slightly by the Christmas episode of "Glee". So here are some great ideas from a few bloggers I love this Broken Twig Tree, I think it would be a wonderful idea for P to decorate and for the fireplace the Bows on the this Pine Cone Garland make it a delicate and beautiful touch to bring a little outdoors in.   

TO INDULGE:

When all is said and done some of my favorite times with my family is just spent sharing stories and reminiscing. Nothing like some new Spiced Cider recipes to try share.

Now that I feel like I have  hold on things, I'm off to Lake Tahoe on Sunday for a few days!

 What was your favorite find to help you out for the holidays?

Are you traveling anywhere this week? 

What TV show had your favorite Christmas Episode this year?

The happiest season of all - just try to catch your breath

My coworker just found out there is a town named Center Sandwich in New Hampshire... We are now making plans to go there, sit in the center of town and eat the center of a sandwich... I think the holidays are officially affecting our sanity. 

In the wine industry we are currently  nearing the end of OND (October, November, December). I have prepared for this season reorganized my files and stocked my desk with sparkling water and Larabars, found extra care for Little P and have countless to-do lists floating around. This is crunch time were incessantly busy for 12 weeks trying to process thousands of orders and ensure every single customer's Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Kwanza, Christmas, and New Years tables hold the exact perfect wine to make their holiday season.

Yountville's newest #charliebrowntree

Please don't take this all as a bad
thing. Its my favorite season at work really. I thrive on chaos and constant movement, and in January when it's all said and done the members that call us back just to say thank you for our recommendation, sweet note, or extra-effort that helped their family celebrate the way they should. Which helps but doesn't completely account for the stress, because there's still a bit of a disconnect. So on Monday our team took a mini field trip out of the office to the overpass we're closest to in Yountville. Under the overpass is the sweetest little scraggly tree (fern?) that seems to have been there forever. We felt the sweet little tree needed some love and decided to do something about it.

How do you all spread cheer this time of year?

What is your busiest time of year? 

Where is the strangest city name you've heard lately?

Delicious autumn!

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. _George Eliot

Autumn has finally joined us in Napa. We have reds, oranges, and yellows everywhere, on the trees on the vines and on the people. Well mostly me maybe, I really have a slightly unhealthy obsession with the colors mustard and cranberry right now.

Here are some of my favorite views from our valley this week:

My walk into work right now

The sky blew me away the other day

Two wonderful pictures from Thanksgiving:

Princess playing at the Napa Riverfront

The newest cousin to our Thanksgiving table

And one stunning, utterly typical Napa Valley picture that make working on Black Friday so much less painful:

The future in-laws and the Thanksgiving mess

Happy Holidays! Now, is it January yet? 

Let me preface this by saying I adore by boyfriend's family. Its the first family I've really felt comfortable around. However we've not been together that long and its really his family. I love them, but when we're there, its all about him. Just how I like it. I'm not a fan of being of the center of attention, anywhere, let alone somewhere I feel I don't need to be.

Last Thanksgiving we did with his family was easy, he took me around and introduced me, then I grabbed a glass of wine and watched Peyton play. While he was the chatty entertaining one they focused on, just the way I like it. At the end of the day he's quite a few things, my security blanket, my favorite distraction and my designated driver. So why the boyfriend/future in-law/family based ramble?

His parents asked us to Thanksgiving in late July, yes 4 months ago. We thought that would be great, agreed to go and had planned ever since. Until Sunday, on Sunday he found out he has to work on Thursday from 3-6. Guess when dinner is? yep 3pm. So here is my dilemma, his family still extended an invitation. And they're not "oh we feel like we should still invite you" they're more the "no really you should be here because you said you were coming" types.

To be completely honest, I'd be more comfortable with my parents, who are also hosting, and could probably use an extra hand. I would get more time with my cousin and her new baby. I would be able to sip wine all afternoon and not worry about leaving. I'd just be more comfortable. But how do I tell them that? I don't want to be rude, and I'm sure I could be just fine...

Is the holiday more about putting your own feelings aside for the comfort of your family or in-laws as a whole? Or do I stop by the in-law's, drop a bottle of wine, and go play with the new baby?
What do you all think?

And you thought cooking was messy! Ha

Bad Sick Mommy

I'm currently in bed, I've been run-down at the end of every work day, by the time I'm home at 6pm I'm weepy, sore, and ready to collapse. All the signs of fighting off some sort of bug. Normal people (from what I'm told) take action. They stock up the medicine cabinet and consume nothing but tea and soup for a few days. Apparently I'm not normal, I despise cold medicine and the lagging wonky feeling it tends to cause. Which is funny based on some past decisions of ingestion I've made in the past. hrmmm

Regardless here I am banished to rest, yes this is my version of rest. After a few hours of crocheting => while watching Netflix this is the next least exhaustive thing I can do. Really I'm bad at this. I don't
know how to not make use of my time. I'm not saying I don't love diving into the couch and wearing out my DVR, but I rarely just watch. I watch while blogging, I watch while working in my art journal, I watch while painting my nails, I watch by doing our laundry, or I watch while organizing bills.

So in order to keep from going batshitcrazy feeling like I was wasting time I decided to do a little research instead. Here are my some of my finds from the bed ridden:

SHOP:
My sister-in-law always seems to have the greatest little shrugs, which are ideal for this crazy California weather. She passed on MissFitClothing's Etsy Shop which has tons of them. I think I know what I'm getting myself for Christmas.

EAT:
I'm a complete sucker for Hot and Sour Soup but never looking into making it, it seemed complicated somehow... but leave it to The Daily Meal to make it easy. This is definitely on my list of meals this winter!

CREATE:
I'm a very intermittent crocheter, fairly decent at it when I do it. I'm in the middle of a beautiful large blanket but found these great pattern for wrist-warmers from Lulu Loves who always has a wonderful project inspiration. but I actually need to finish a project to make use of new inspiration...Here's what I've been working for a few *cough 8* months

READ:
Here are a few blogs that have kept me entertained during my confinement:

Two blogs about beautiful lives and fantastic fashion from great Mommas:

http://livwithroses.wordpress.com/

http://29andnona.blogspot.com/ 

Two hilarious ladies dedicated to fit lifestyle:

http://fit-personality.com/

http://www.hungryrunnergirl.com/

And two beautiful blogs that celebrate general loveliness:

http://www.happinessisblog.com/happiness-is/

http://www.mypeacetree.com/

How do you recover when you're not feeling well?
What's your best Netflix recommendation?

Californian: Let's go to the Beach in October!

As of October 22, my honey and I have been together for 2 years officially. It doesn't sound too long, but it's the longest relationship I've ever had, and the least difficult (which is probably what attributes to its going so well). Regardless our adorable obnoxious success I came in here to express one of the most glorious perks of being a Californian: Nearly year round beach trips! We snuck off to Sea Ranch which is on the Sonoma County Coast, just south of the Mendocino County Line.

Found it!

We had a wonderful relaxing few days and I just have to share so I can brag about the beauty of our coast:

Stopped on the road just for this great shot.

Shell Beach in Sea Ranch

I love tide pools - so much going on!

What's an anniversary without bubbles?

Stunning place for a panoramic

Celebrating the wonder

Thank you for indulging me while bragging about sharing our recent get-away.

Whats your favorite get away spot?

When was the last time you put your feet in the Ocean? 

Which ocean?

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Hooping Love - Fitspiration

My hooping was mentioned in my piece about the collection of fairly random classes . However I guess I didn't quite expand on hooping and how it has become part of my life.
Hooping has created a safe and quiet space in my workout that creates a ray of light even on my roughest days. There is something so meditative about being stuck in a circle and creating expression through movement. A sense of prideful accomplishment with new tricks and a larger drive to keep
trying when it didn't pan out. There's always something new to learn and what's more exciting is someone new to learn from.

There is a super rad "love note"  from a hoop blogger Anah, my favorite excerpt:

"I felt with anyone holding a simple plastic circle. This person could be old or young, any race, any political affiliation and of any gender. If they had a hoop, they were family… period. Just like any family, some felt closer than others, but the love was always there" 

Princess Birthday Success - Chocolate Drizzled Popcorn!

I don't like grocery-store cupcakes. That may sound snobby and maybe it is, but they're oily and the frosting is always way too sweet and overall flavorless. So, if I'm splurging on a cupcake, it better be a damn good one. That being said if you are ever close enough (or willing to pay shipping) do yourself a favor and check out Sift Cupcakes, they're divine and totally worth the calories.

But I digress... My cupcake rant was started from pretty girl's birthday request. She wanted the cute pink cupcakes from Safeway for her class birthday and I made a face, which she giggled at. I'm too stubborn to send her with the same hum-drum cupcakes her friends had, which was combined with my distaste for bad cupcakes I hoped would lead to a little creativity. As her birthday drew near, I felt stuck.

A friend recommended one of the great Snack Mixes posted by Little Baby Garvin, which was great but that meant another trip to the store, which in my post birthday party haze, I wasn't exactly prepared for. Instead I decided to improvise a bit with what I knew I could dig out of my cupboards: came up with popcorn, an assortment of chocolate chips, and sprinkles and here is what happened next:

Air popped popcorn (about 3 cups un-popped), with just a hint of salt. Spread out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper:

Melt milk and white chocolate

Then drizzle, drizzle, sprinkle:

I put handfuls of the mix into sandwich bags for easy serving in class - what are some of your boring treat alternatives?

Earn the Burn - I think I'm becoming a runner

I never expected to be a runner, I felt it was boring, and stagnant as I've said before, I prefer trying a wide array of odd classes. However sometimes even a quick class can be complicated to make time for and get motivated to get in the car for. A few months ago I stumbled across Fit dash Personality - a tumbler page from a hilarious 20something runner, who's main message was something I could not only understand but totally agreed with:

Slowly but surely her lifestyle and exercise plan seemed do-able. The super clean eating may take some time to get used to, but I'm doing much better than I used to be. Running however has been actually happening (which is shocking to me). So here goes my newest fitness proclamation! I will surprise myself with my ability to run, eat better, and commit to be fit.

Here are a few tips that I've collected that really made me feel confident I can do this:

1- ACTUALLY GO! The hardest part for me was actually putting on my shoes and stepping out the front door. Your first run will be the hardest, so rip off that bandaid and get out there.

2- Start sloooow: even if you're an athlete and go to the gym, learning to run is not easy on your body. If you try to commit to 5 days a week to start off, you'll likely get burnt out and give up.I started on Tuesday, then ran again Friday and have kept that up for almost 8 weeks now. Make it managable and you're much more likely to succeed.

3- Pace yourself: I took about 2.5 miles for my first run and found a tip that recommended you run until your get winded, run another 15 seconds and then walk until you can run again. This has worked very well for me, I've shaved almost a full 2 minutes off my average mile.

4- Track yourself: I'm a huge fan of the Nike+ Running app. I take my phone with me anyway for music so, its super simple to just let the app run while I do. It shows me my route, average speed, and speeds throughout my route (sprints and slow downs etc). Regardless of what you use, be sure to keep note of how long it took you, how far you went and how you feel. Nothing keeps me motivated like watching myself improve. 

5- Reward yourself: I'm a single mom and often feel guilty "splurging" on myself for no reason, however if I've earned it it feels much more justified. So I've started setting goals, which allow me to really strive for something and stay motivated. So here goes my newest fitness goal proclamation!

Goal #1: 3 runs each week for 2 months 

Reward #1: New workout tanks from Rome&Romie

I'll post new goals as I make them, but every plan has to start somewhere. What are some goals (and rewards) of yours? In fitness or general life?

Mermaid Madness - Success Story!

Sunday was a beautiful day for a party in Napa. We had a magical mermaid affair and because I'm perfectly happy tooting my own horn with some of the adorable details, projects and a few shout outs to the vendors and friendly favors that made it happen.


I touched on the invite last week here. I sent it on to a local baker as inspiration for the cake, and it turned out be-a-utiful! Massive thank you goes out to Sweet Sensations in Napa for making this for us.

Here is my favorite fishy project from the event:

Super simple craft! I had the lanterns left over from a party a few years ago, and the inspiration from a picture on pinterest. They came together with a sharpie and some tissue paper fins and tails pushed through and taped small holes cut in sides. I may keep them in the garage just because they make me smile.

Oh look they make her smile too! 

After all the success I almost feel more relaxed about the next few months of holiday chaos. Next Step: mermaid for Halloween.

Sure I'll try it!

I have a theory about learning new things... my theory essentially is "why not?" - I want to try everything once. Sometimes only once but still once. This is a theory I try to press on to Pretty Girl constantly so she too wants to try everything, even if it's only once.

Napa just happens to be a great place to have this particular theory.  We happen to have a very wide and sometimes quite surprising range of classes offered. Most of the ones I have tried, and gotten Pretty Girl to try are physical. However there is a whole other group of artistic bases offerings that I have  yet to scratch the surface of.

For me fitness and motivation have never been easy, going to the gym 3 days a week only happened when I had a gym buddy who literally came by and picked me up.  Here are a few of our favorites and why I love them:

  Sunglow Hoop Dance: Lilea has an amazing passion for hooping! She's amazingly willing to share that passion with locals and teach so many adults that you can do it and it just takes a little coaching. She also hosts partys and performs throughout town. Hooping has been a great addition to my fitness regime something easy to do but is great on your core and has childcare built right in!

Dance: Really any dance, but latest discover has been a great class from World Beat Dance Collective. A delicious look into dances from so many cultures from Afro-cuban and Samba to Hip Hop, throw in a Yoga warm up and cool down and my legs are sore for days.

Some of the best classes for Little P have been dance and swim. She loves music and loves to dance so we've tried a couple different sources. The first class we were in was cancelled due to a small class. So she recently started Hip Hop with Young Champions - its turning out to be a great program for her and she's really excited.

Our other big class has been Swim Lessons. We love to travel and I hope to travel wit her as much as I did when I was young. Swim lessons was a requirement for us. So she swim in each of the 7 seas and every pool in every hotel!

Please take the next class you find interesting, try out a class, grab a friend and go look silly. You'll make great friends and be amazed at what you can do.
Or at least just have a great time hanging out!

The Return of the DJ

2 years ago, one of my last posts prior to my hiatus featured The DJ. Well I guess I didn't go into much about him really, just that he existed and was an inspiration for why we are drawn to passionate types.

Then he was new, we were working out our expectations of each other and really ourselves. The short story is the last 2 years have been great and he'll continue to be part of the DreamTeam.
 

He's still a DJ known as Artimus Prime and regardless of what pays the bills, music is his passion. And regardless how much I understand listening to his music speak there a higher level of appreciation and camaraderie to listen to him 'geek out' over music makes me feel less of an obscure artsy type when it comes to all my expressive and reflective activities. And even explores that side of me further... encouraging things like my Hooping Habit and our trip to Burning Man in 2014.

What's even better is that we can spend time practicing our separate arts, together. Its like having a permanent soundtrack to work from! I'll go swoon elsewhere now.

Photo credit goes to Samantha Madnick over at Samanthaphotos.com

mermaid madness

My soon to be 6 year old is a mermaid, well at least she wants to be. We're in the middle of planning a wonderfully sweet mermaid party.

Now I've been terrible about setting aside writing time in the midst of party planning a strange array of other activities, however I can't help but share the lovely invites designed by the amazing lady behind LIVWITHROSES . She hasn't gotten her permanent store up and running but was willing to help out a friend. :)


 Maybe next week will include many adorable projects that turned out just as I hoped, but only time will tell. (Suggestions are still welcomed at this point). Have a wonderful week!

Marketing to Millennials.... Wait I'm a millennial

I've always had an interest in marketing. A look at how we take in the things around us. No one is immune to marketing. Everyone relates to something about a brand. Whether it be a sensory experience, favorite colors, sounds, smells or textures.

Or just a feeling, that's always a sign of good marketing for me, when I can't quite tell you why I like it. When its more about essence and emotion than tangible aspect. That's when marketing hooks me and makes me think about a brand.

Benefit does a great job of this; their marketing and social media are all fun, bright and delightful. I'm not a bit fan of pink, or their creepy vintage doll heads but their whole image. Sweet, classic, vintage. They constantly use words like "gorgeous" and "lovely", which are things I say. Glorious round soft words that create an environment where every woman feels beautiful. An essence that makes me feel lovely and like I'd fit right in.

This leads me to think about my consumerism. At work, our department is required to seek approval of our marketing team but we rarely get insight into their future plans. Last week we got a look at the coming year, and the targeted market, which just happens to sound familiar. The key aspects are: millennial  (25-40) mostly female, disposable income, and status seeker (which I'd never admit out loud). This slide from our marketing team, was targeted at me.

It actually made me happy. Let me known I was in the right place and solidified my brand loyalty, and that I was working for the right company.

Now if only I didn't have to try to explain the appeal of the essence to the rest of my coworkers. 

Last (well only) summer rain...

It rained on Saturday. Not drizzled or misted with the morning fog. Really rained. From 6am to 4pm it came down steady and we got almost an inch on the valley floor.

For local vineyard managers this isn't the best news. It has all the potential to ruin most of the crops left on the vine. So this rain means we brace ourselves for catastrophe as an industry.

However on a personal level this rain is delicious. This rain comes on one of the few days I don't have my daughter, which is always a little disorienting for me, so the rain made it perfectly acceptable to dive into fall properly. Movies and soup and a well worn couch. I spend the day dressed in leggings and a log sweater and a scarf. I always forget how much I like scarves. 

My honey had to work which I guess was both a little disappointing and selfishly nice. It was good to have a day to reflect, to write and to feel the seasons change. Happy fall! 

Socially Invoked Mom Guilt

I stopped by the bank on my way home on Tuesday; a mom from Pretty Girl's School happens to work at my bank. At 5:30 on a Tuesday, she causally inquired where my daughter is. A simple enough question that happens to invoke one of the few feelings I despise most as being a mom...  Mom guilt. Massive mom guilt.

My parents live 5 miles from me. On most Tuesdays my amazing parents pick up munchkin and take me off payroll for the night. I tend to spend the time running errands before relaxing with the DJ but still, standing in the bank, I felt guilty. "I have the night off" doesn't feel sufficient but "my parents take her at least once a week so I don't go postal" seems like a bit of an over-share. So the sweet Mom who works at the bank was forced into mildly awkward silence, in the quiet of the bank, as I evaluated my options. What level of honest was I willing I offer?

Why are we so afraid of other parents. Why do other parents' opinions weigh in so high on our personal scale of concerns? I can't answer those questions. Which really bothers me if we're being honest... 

I'm proud of my life. I know that nights off are good for me. I know that P and I are closer given our space and my time off. But in the bank. Faced with another mom it felt like a cop out. I finally answered her question with something like 'oh my folks have her...' Then qualified it with how much my mom works in the classroom and my work schedule. With any luck someday ill remove the qualifiers. 

Napatastic: the smells of harvest

There is a sweet pungent smell just about everywhere in my home town this week. We live in the valley of wine and food and have begun the Harvest of 2013. Although my vino related job is spent inside, its always a thrilling time of year to be here. From grape trucks to dozens of international interns around the valley our world becomes a different place for several months each year.

Harvest is a great time of year, for so many reasons.One of my favorites is the sense of hope and awe that comes over the winery teams.  We can't help but be excited for 1 to 2 years down the road when this harvest will truly show us what it's worth. When corks are popped by consumers, not just winemakers. When critics get their say, when a new vintage graces the shelfs and let's our most loyal consumers find a new passion for our brand.


It sound like a lot of one little act. One annual event can give us so much hope and promise and that this same passion and joy are thrown into each and every harvest season. Even through the good, bad and ugly.

This year, like last year, is expected to be incredibly good. The first promising words begin a new cycle of great expectations and a sense of hope over the valley. All because we're dumping fresh grapes into bins. 

Round 2....

I never travel without my dairy. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.- Gwendolyn Fairfax in The Importance of Being Ernest

 
I've always been a fan of the journal, writing things out, seeing my words on a page and making my thoughts clear. So there have been countless journals over the years, many physical and a few virtual. So here were are back again, to a way of sharing my life with others. It has been almost 2 years since I've regularly blogged, carrying a moleskin has been my outlet of choice in the mean time.

Strangely in 2 years time, the basics have not really changed. Same home, same boy, new job but similar position. There have been some losses and gains. Our extended family has lost some awe-inspiring souls however I've really gained the boy and his family.

So here is to round 2 (okay really like 202 but for this particular blog we'll call it 2). To trying to blog again and chronicle this crazy life I love so much. To embrace the Napa Local lifestyle of wine, food, parenting and local camaraderie. The lifestyle of a mad, though surprisingly stable, 20 something who can't wait to turn the next corner. 

"-You are quite perfect Miss. Fairfax 

-Oh I hope I am not that. It would leave no room for developments, and I intend to develop in many directs" 

The Importance of Being Ernest 1952 (which is amazing film)