My Favorite BLUE!

My favorite color is blue

The sight of the ocean true

I feast my eyes in sweet surprise

To see my puppy's hue was blue!

Dear friends,

Meet our sweet puppy, Sol!

Sol @ 8 weeks

She is a darling blue great dane from Victory Great Danes. We named her after the Spanish word for "sun" (Sol). She has most definitely brought great sunshine into our lives - even though our sleeping has suffered a bit. It had been 11 years since we had a puppy and to be honest we had forgotten how much work training a puppy is. Luckily, Sol has a wonderfully calm disposition and is always in great spirits. The fact that she takes to routines well is an added benefit!

We look forward to spending many years with her in our family and know that our dear Sydney is looking down on us with love as we welcome cute Sol into our life. We love her so much already!

Sol's first day at home.

Sol is such a good poser. Always ready for the paparazzi!

It was love at first kiss for daddy Chris!

Look at how big her paws are! One day she will grow into them.

She plays so well with others. Gwendolyn and Tia Alicia were so proud.

Olivia brought Sol a new toy. Sol decided to check it out before she welcomed it fully.

She was wiped out after all that fun!

Sol loves to take naps on your lap. Nice now that she is still about 10 pounds...
won't be as nice when she gets to be about 130+.

In her first week she learned how to sit. So CUTE and SMART!

Well - that is my life these days with Sol. Filled with simple, kind moments. She is so much fun. Cheers to ending the 2011 summer heat wave with our Sol! We are so happy to have her.

To keep our blue theme going I thought I should end my last summer blog post right & leave you with some of my other favorite "blue" moments...

Happy Summer's End to all!!

View from Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina headed to Ocracoke Island on the Ferry.

The famous "Welcome Hotel" in VillaFranche-sur-mer in the south of France.

Beach time in Sitges south of Barcelona, Spain.

Varenna, Italy on Lake Como.

Shell Beach in St. Barts.

Slice of heaven on Jost Van Dyke, BVI's.


Looking forward to Labor Day weekend!!

California Dreaming...

Dear friends,
A couple of you have asked when I was going to post pictures from my California adventure this past May with Gooch. Well, here it is and the pictures do not do it justice ~ Enjoy!

Driftwood in Carmel-by-the-Sea.



A little cafe in Carmel-by-the-Sea. I could have spent all day here people watching alone.



This was a house in Carmel that I totally stalked! It was on the corner of Ocean Ave & Scenic Drive.
 I think that says it all!

 

Swooooooon! Can't you see yourself having your morning coffee on the veranda overlooking the ocean?
 When everyone else is headed to work!  *Sigh*

 

Loved this rustic garage/shed. Carmel-by-the-Sea was filled with inviting vistas into private quarters.

Made it to Big Sur! Well worth the 30+ year wait since I first read about Big Sur in National Geographic as a little girl.

View of Bigsby Bridge

The terrain around Big Sur was constantly changing.

Leaving Big Sur. So sad, but siked to pick up Gooch and start our trip to SONOMA!



Let the fun begin!



We stayed @ a little B&B called An Inn 2 Remember. It was wonderful! Right on the square.
We were the life of the party here!  

Gooch and I got the bright idea to bike our way through Sonoma.
After all, we had ridden enough stationary bikes in our day! HA!

 

Gooch was ready for the challenge!

Our first stop, which took us out of the rain, was at Sebastiani Vinyards. Not our fave.

But we were in SONOMA after all and the rain had finally stopped!

Our next stop was on our top 5 list: Bartholomew Park Winery! It delivered - we purchased a couple of bottles & had them shipped home. Sadly they were consumed pretty fast and it is terribly difficult to find BPW out of California!
Guess we will have to visit again soon!!  

By this time we were STARVING! So we took a break from the bikes (and wine!) and
 found delicious treats in the Sonoma Market. We were VERY happy!

Speaking of the Sonoma Market, "The Bachelorette" finalist - Sonoma's own Ben Flajnik - will be at the Sonoma Market Friday, August 19th from 4 PM to 6 PM signing bottles of his Evolve Wines!
I can't believe I just shared that! LOL.

Next on our trek was one of Sonoma's oldest family run winery, "Gunbun" or Gundlach Bundschu.

We had a blast in their cave tour, more because of the cast of characters that were there..
and lets be honest, we had been drinking since 10:00AM! 

Taking in the view @ Gunbun.



Leaving GunBun this is what we found by their exit gates. Sooo true. Thank goodness we were headed to a private Cline Cellars tasting @ our B&B. By the way, Cline Cellar owners purchased the Italian Villa used in the Under the Tuscan Sun movie and are now hosting 8 day escapes to Italy for 9 lucky couples. Learn more HERE.

After the Cline tasting we were feeling REALLY REALLY good and stumbled into the Harvest Moon Cafe.
 We had the patio to ourselves, it was unseasonably cool for Sonoma, and we LOVED it!



We ate VERY well throughout our Sonoma trip but Harvest Moon Cafe was by far our favorite!

The food was amazing!

This was just our dessert menu!

Our selections. Yummy!

Sonoma was hard to leave. But San Francisco beckoned....

Gooch and I had such a fun time in California! This was just a little taste of our visit.

We have plenty more stories and pictures but I thought this was a perfect preview for now.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Share some of your Sonoma stories with us!

Patina Style in Atlanta!

Shhhh... I am going to share a secret with you: Velvet & Linen bloggers, Brooke & Steve Giannetti are coming to Atlanta! To our very own Peachtree Hills!! How exciting is that? The event is open to the public and I for one can't wait to attend! Want to go with me?

Having spent the last three hours reading and swooning over their new book Patina Style (a link to their book on Amazon can be found HERE) I must confess that if I were Oprah, this book would be one of my favorite things! Not only is the book actually fun to read, it has useful tips like how to turn Home Depot drop cloths into great curtains, how to choose colors based on your rooms sun exposure and  how to take bees wax to convert your wooden floors into something spectacular! As if this weren't enough (trust me there is way more in the book!) the pictures are BEAUTIFUL! See for yourself below...



Classic vignette of goodies.



These are antique Swedish doors/shutters repurposed into a super fun bookcase/closet on page 47!

Gorgeous bedroom. Totally simple and doable!

And who can live without this garden?

Hurray for the bloggers and self taught designers turned authors! I love to see people that turn their lifestyle into a way of life surrounded by the everyday beauty around them. The book is true artistry. I can't wait to meet them in September!