Tag Archives: adventure

This here is the Perfectly Flawed weekly round-up, so if you missed me on Pinterest & Facebook, this is where I’ll be sharing some of that LOVE on Fridays. Enjoy!

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Earth Day crafts, Chipotle, and More!

This week was the first week of Earth Month. This month for Natural Living Tips I’ll be covering how to green your clean. Yep, we’ll be making homemade cleaning products. Good for the planet and your loved ones!

The family is getting itchy, we need to travel:-). Though we’re taking a family trip to Key West in a few weeks, I can’t help but be thinking of the kids and I’s road trip this summer. I’m having visions of places like these:

After seeing this image on Pinterest, I now must read A Street Cat Named Bob. I’m thinking it may provoke tears in a way Dewey did.

Yesterday the kids and I stocked up on the veggies needed to make our own natural egg dyes. Beets, carrots, red cabbage, yellow onions and spinach. Take a look see here for more.

There is still time to get in on Hybrid Rasta Mama’s giveaway. A one-gallon bucket of Gold Label coconut oil and her e-book. You can enter through April 9th!

Until the 14th to purchase one of Chipotle’s upcycled/repurposed lunch bags, made out of old billboards. With your purchase you get a coupon for a free burrito on Earth Day, April 22nd.

Do you need some cool Earth Day craft ideas for kids? Here you go!

Leaving you with this picture of Addy getting ready to feed the Tarpons in the Florida Keys. She really did love it, can’t you tell:-)?

Peace!

After my 3-day solo trip in Big Sur, I met up with some of my very best girlfriends at the San Fransisco Airport. After stopping for lunch in Sausalito (which I LOVE) and then onto Trader Joe’s in Santa Rosa (oh, we’re getting one here in Sarasota this year:-), so excited!!!), to stock up with goodies, we finally made it to our VRBO in Guerneville around 7p. The property is beautiful, right on the Russian River, there is a Main House, the Cottage and The Town homes, nicely decorated with all the amenities. Sweet! Very different then my eclectic Rainbow house in Big Sur. We all un-load, Maii whips up a salad for dinner and the chillin’ begins. Some food, wine and conversation. Maybe a little too much wine, well, for me anyway:-).

The next morning we have to be in Healdsburg by 10a to meet Tommy and Mike, our guides for our biking adventure in Wine Country. PFMan and I did a combo biking/kayaking trip in July with the same company, Getaway Adventures. Ask for Tommy to be your guide, you won’t be disappointed. It’s a misty, cold day, but we’re troopers and we all gear up, ponchos and all, to prevent the skunk marking up your back on a wet day, ha. Off we go. Our stops today are, De Lorimier, Bella Vineyards and Amista . We had lunch at Amista, the guides had prepared a wonderful feast of salads, cheese, fruit, etc. We were famished and everything was wonderful!! Back on the bikes for our return trip, a total of 17 miles. Woot!

On Saturday, I had arranged to take the girls to The MacLeod Family Vineyard. This would be my 3rd trip, I just love this family and their wine! Every experience is a different one, you learn so much about their passion, their love, a truly unforgettable experience. This time George MacLeod the father and founder of the vineyard took all us ladies on a hayride through the vineyard, he had many stories and kept us laughing and learning. And did he say he’s 90?? Can’t believe it, he’s so sprite, so sharp too! A wonderful man. After the tour we joined his daughter-in-law Marjorie, in her home, for the tasting. We were the first to taste the new Rose’ and Sauvignon Blanc, they had just bottled them two days prior. All the wines were amazing. PFMan and I had joined their wine club on our trip in July. The MacLeod Rose’ is my favorite, it comes with the April shipment, I can’t wait! I can’t tell you about this family without mentioning Panda, the wine dog. You simply must go meet her and the MacLeod’s if you’re in the area. Tours are by appointment, run about two hours beginning at 10:30a. In July, PFMan and I will be bringing our children with us, Marjorie said they get to do apple juice tasting, sweet!

On our last day we took a nice walk through the Redwood Trees in Armstrong Woods and then drove to the coast, stopping in both Jenner and Bodega Bay. Jenner has beautiful brown sand beaches, enormous waves crashing into the rocky coast and lots of drift wood and fun colored pebbles which kept some of busy for quite sometime. Continuing down the coast to Bodega Bay (of The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock). We stopped at Spud Point Crab Company for their infamous Clam Chowder, highly recommend, then to Bodega proper to see the Birds house in person!

I really can’t think of a better way to have brought in this next decade. Happy 40th to me:-)!
Peace!

So, I’m 40! I’m not too surprised that I’m embracing it with love, I have been working towards this acceptance after all. I wanted to ring in this next decade in a BIG way, so off to Northern Cali I went. My first three days were spent alone in the Redwoods between Carmel and Big Sur California, one of my favorite places. Landing in San Francisco around 12:30 my first stop was Baja Fresh for lunch. I can’t help it, ever since PFMan and I lived in Vegas, years ago, I have loved BF and don’t miss a chance to eat the veggie burrito. Then down the coast I go. HWY 17 is spectacular, a curvy, tree-lined drive, just breathtaking. I arrive in Carmel to do some shopping for my stay. I’m determined to go veggie while I’m here so I stock my cart with organic produce, strawberries, asparagus, & pistachios. I’ve brought my herbal teas from home as well, oh and chocolate with sea salt:-). I turn down Palo Colorado Rd. to head to Don Loui’s. This image above is the point where Palo Colorado Rd. meets the Pacific Coast Hwy. Turning off down Palo Colorado was magical. See I’m a dreamer in the sense that I love environments that transport me, and when you turn onto this road you are placed immediately into towering redwoods, like a land of fairies. You twist and wind amongst the quiet giants, houses placed into the sides of the mountains like they’ve been there forever, all blending in with the trees, completely part of the forest.

Here I have my bag of goodies, camera & backpack (which was packed in my luggage and now used to haul only the few items I’d need for this portion of my trip), and up the mountain I go. Not too bad, about five steep switchbacks, with little treasures at every corner. Then the Dragon House appears, unbelievable! I’m through the Dragon house tunnel and onto the Rainbow House where I’m staying. Don, the innkeeper, is an eccentric. He’s been on this property since 1983. Then it was him, the land and a tent. The Rainbow house he built first. Yes, him and his son. Previously he was a contractor and landscaper by trade and it shows. Today there are 4 buildings, The Rainbow & Dragon House (rentals), his own home and an octagon above the rest with windows looking out over the mountain and Pacific Ocean, used for yoga and/or meditation. Beautiful, peaceful! He’s created many trails all around the property as well.

Though I highly recommend staying here alone, as a couple or small family, this is not for everyone. Forget a warm shower and none at all in the Rainbow House. Luckily I like going rough and dirty, ha. There is no oven and only a propane burner for stove top, and it’s QUIET (aside from the very loud frogs and owls at night:-). I like to think of the house like a tree house on crack, seriously! And since I like being transported, it was perfect for me, like a kid again.

So what’s a girl to do all alone in the mountains? Hike, hike, eat at her favorite restaurant in Big Sur, play words with friends, ha, take lots of pictures and hike some more. To my chagrin there was no big AHA moment or anything, just time with myself which in itself is a BIG deal for me. In my past being along has been very difficult. A good friend of mine text-ed me while there questioning how I was doing alone. He said he talks to himself a lot when alone, lol. Me too:-). And I did, much of it in my head, some out loud. But I was comfortable with it, the oneness, and that’s a BIG deal!

Please enjoy some of the many photos I took while on this part of my trip and look for a post on me joining the girls in Wine Country soon:-)!

Peace!

Previous trip to Big Sur with my honey:-)!

So far the new year has been jam packed with new and continuing goals around the homestead. I’ve already tackled my first poached egg, (not really a goal, but an added bonus), my first time making home-made pasta too. It was really good and I loved making it. Making ravioli tomorrow filled with Cashel Blue and Mascarpone cheese. Hello!

This weekend we got our butts in the pasture and dug out our fire pit, got some nice flat stones today to build the walls around it. One more trip to the stone house and it should be complete. Smores around the campfire here we come, and at home:-). Not that this will stop us from fleeing to the mountains, no way. Still have that itch. We were just talking about how we need to go ahead and schedule a trip to Black Rock Mountain in Clayton, Ga. Love it there.

The kids got bikes finally and Gavin mastered riding in about half a day and loves it, yay! Addy is really good at crashing so far, but she’s tough and laughs it off. She’s also learning piano now and really loves that.

So, I feel like we 2012 is really off to a good start for us. I hope it is for you too!
Peace!

Times Up!

This has been my Sunday 5 minute Stream of Consciousness.

Want to try it? Here are the rules…

* Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
* Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
* Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
* Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
* Link up your post at all.things.fadra.
* Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

The PFFamily in Key West - May 2011

I was up pretty late last night, four glasses of wine not settling well in my belly. I read, actually finished my current book, A Modern Witch, and then turned to my I-phone for a little research on a couple of things I wish to begin in the new year.

Last year around this time I posted about how I’m really not into making New Year’s Resolutions. I still refuse to put that much pressure on myself, but I do have a laundry list of things I’d like to do, change, see, stop doing, etc.

Before I begin my list for 2012, let’s see how I did in 2011.

Things I will be working on in 2011:

Family – Feel good about this. We moved to the country and began homeschooling, lot’s of family time.
Travel – Good here too. We began our yearly family trip overseas with Ireland in March, road trip over the summer along with nine days in N. California with PFMan celebrating an early 15 year anniversary. We took two cruises with a highlight on one out of San Juan, taking us to Curacao, Dominica & Aruba. To round it out, we also took a couple of much needed camping trips, one to North Georgia, one to Ginnie Springs in North Florida. Ahhhh….
Positive energy & intentions – This a failed miserably, well not entirely because I still have intent and know my triggers to self destruction.
Eating clean -Did well for a few months only. I did really well with giving up coffee and drinking more tea. Got to August then crashed. Have to reboot this one.
Organization – This will be a never ending battle, lol.

So what about 2012?

There are many personal accomplishments I would like to achieve this year. In the kitchen I want to learn how to make Thai and Indian food, get better at meal/menu planning and stocking the kitchen, learn to make bread, start canning regularly, shop at farmer’s markets and from local ranches and farms more often and consistently. This year is the year to get the chicken coop and run built, I’d like to have 3-5 egg layers:-). Also, get the hydroponic garden started and plant the Meyer lemon trees. We’re thinking things like, sweet potatoes, lettuce, strawberries, green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs at least. Going along with natural/sustainable trend we need to get the compost reinstated too!

Other Personal plans: Begin yoga and stick with it, it WILL be tough for me but I must prevail. Part of the Self-help, positive energy & intentions theme. Thinking about Tai Chi as well. Michael and I will get bikes, the kids are just getting them on New Years Eve (we’re celebrating our family Christmas when we return from NY).

In the house we need to get the great room painted and focus on the meditation garden off the master bedroom and Asian decor in the master bedroom/bathroom. I need to get the studio organized too, both the Tails Collection shooting/office areas, as well as organizing the arts/crafts area for Addy and I. There is so much space to work with, so I will most certainly get a bit overwhelmed, ha.

Travel plans! To start off the year and celebrate my 40th b-day, I’m heading to Big Sur for three nights! Doing a hike-in and staying ALONE, to reflect and get centered, hopefully, ha:-). Then driving north to meet my girlfriends for some time in wine country. The kids and I have a 6-8 week road trip planned for the June/July. Heading back to Big Sur, taking 2ish weeks to get there, stopping in AL, LA, TX, AR, UT and CO. PFMan will meet us out west for a 10 day California Adventure, then the kids and I will head back. I CAN’T wait!! And cross our fingers for Vienna/Paris for the Holidays.

Now I realize this is super loaded, these are just top priorities, which change, we tend to be indecisive at best, or as I like to say, Perfectly Flawed. Some things may not happen, others may be added, but at the end of the day or year, it will all be another super adventure, surrounded by my PFFamily and that makes me smile.

Happy New Year everyone!
Buon Anno!
Ein glückliches neues Jahr!
Feliz año nuevo!
Bonne année!

I can’t help but look back at PFMan and I’s trip to Northern California this past July. We went to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary, a bit early. I’m planning on going back in February to mark 40 years here on earth. Can’t think of a better way then to be surrounded by girlfriends, sipping wine, hiking in the redwoods, biking through wine country, etc.

PFMan had such an amazing trip. We did all of the above, took an incredible pedal ‘n paddle tour in Healdsburg, a town we absolutely LOVED! We booked the excursion through Getaway Adventures, our guide Tommy was super personable, knowledgeable on the wine growing process and the area. We started with a bike tour leaving from the Alexander Valley Campground, through the beautiful countryside filled with vineyards, first stop Robert Young, AMAZING wine here! This was one of three wineries we became members at and one of our favorites of the trip. Their Chardonnay is so rich and creamy! Then we headed to de Lorimier. Also good, but the highlight here was the beautiful pergola under which Tommy had set-up a seriously yummy spread of meets. cheeses, homemade salads, etc. Sweet! Time to sit back, relax before heading out the the Russian River for our 5-mile kayak trip back to the campground. A wonderful day, I highly recommend it!

So that was just one day, we also met with some very good friends, who in previous years had moved to N. California, for some trippin’ through wine country. It’s hard to pick a favorite day, but this one ranked high. On a friend of Wendi’s recommendation we ended up at Viansa. OMG! LOVE! This was our favorite vineyard/winery of the whole vacation. It felt like we had stepped off the train in Tuscany. The wines, every one we tasted, were all amazing, of course we became members, ha. They also have a large selection of marmalade, honey, sauces for everything and very unique I must say. I walked away with Truffled honey, and Chardonnay Carmel sauce. You can easily picnic here. They have a deli of sorts with packaged meats, cheeses, salads, and fresh baquettes. We grabbed a bottle of wine, an assortment of noshing grub and headed out to a table. This was one of the best lunches ever. Great friends, beautiful view, great food! Then we moved onto Cline Cellars and the goodness never ended.

We simply had way too much fun on this vacation. We spent a total of nine days in N. Cali, six of those in Wine Country, three nights in Guerneville (Russian River area, Redwoods – Hello!) and three nights in Sonoma, on the Plaza. We stayed at the El Dorado Hotel, right across the Girl and the Fig restaurant, a favorite of mine! We were also able to make it over to Bodega Bay, (Alfred Hitchcock – The Birds). Wowzer, COLD! But we had some super splendid clam chowder soup at the Spud Point Crab Co. and took the stunning drive up the coast to Jenner Beach. Watched the sea lions basking in the sun and playing in the water, took a nap in the car at Goat Rock, a walk in Armstrong Woods…. Enough said!

Other places we enjoyed immensely!

Willow Wood Market Cafe in Graton, Ca! – In the area? You must stop here.
The MacLeod Family Vineyard – I’ve been here twice now and will be going again. Call and make an appointment for a tasting/tour, you won’t regret it! Here’s a bit on the Vineyard when I went with my girlfriends this past February, this is becoming a trend:-).
Harvest Moon Cafe (just love the name) The ambience and food were both very good – in Sonoma on the plaza.
Spoonbar at Hotel Healdsburg!
Zazu – Farm to table in Sonoma
Also – The first three days of our trip were spent in Big Sur, you can check that out HERE!

Peace!

I'm a sucker for a castle in the countryside.

I’ve never really be fascinated with France.  Haven’t had the desire to go to Paris like so many do, I’ve always been more interested in Italy, Ireland.  PFMan and I had a wonderful first trip to Italy in Spring 2009, then we took Gavin & Addy to Ireland in March of this year. We could of course go back to either again and again only touching on places we’d like to see and spend more time in.  I do so desire to get back to Italy!  As a family, we have a goal to go abroad once a year, so we’ve been trying to plan the trip for 2012 and we’re having trouble.  The issues, money, time and all of agreeing where to go.

We did a little Family Poll last night to help us decide, everyone had Italy and France listed in the top 3.  Addy is crazed with the desire to visit Paris. She’s eight and badly wants to see the Eiffel Tower.  Gavin is really more interested in going to Venice, Paris 2nd, PFMan would love either, and I, of course, would love to go back to Italy but suddenly I’m interested in the French Countryside with a short jaunt to Paris, and stopping in Bruges, Belgium if at all possible.  Here lies the other dilemma, time. We only have two weeks.

First, let’s back up and explain why suddenly I’m even more interested in giving up my beloved Italy trip for France, the country I’ve not been to excited about visiting.  Not to say that I don’t want to go to France, there have just been other countries that have been higher in priority.  My family background is Italian/German so these naturally interest me more, I’ve never been good at pronouncing words in French so this really intimidates me, I’ve heard they don’t like Americans…. Ok, so back to my new found desire to see France? Well it all has to do with pictures.  Yep.  I’m motivated by stunning images of the French Countryside.  Being a photographer myself, it’s no leap for me to be inspired by beautiful photography and I recently hit the mother load.  You see, I love travel photography, I love food photography so when I stumbled upon this blog post by Cannelle et Vanille about her trip to Southwest France to teach a food styling and photography workshop, I was sold.  Not just because I must be involved with a workshop like this in the future, but my goodness, just look at these pictures!  The setting, it’s storybook and the food, hello!  I want to spend DAYS toodling around here.  Then I started clicking on the blog posts of the other ladies who attended this workshop and saw this!  Here’s the link to the cottage on VRBO.  Oh yes, we are!!  At least we hope to.  The plan is to head there in late March.  The weather will be cold, but the crowds will be sparse and it will also be more affordable.  So here I am somehow being magically swayed into ditching my beloved Italy for two weeks in France, yep, and stopping in Paris of course.  Time to spruce up my French.

Peace.

We’ve been here now exactly 19 days and it’s already been quite the adventure. We’re starting to make new friends, finding our farmers and markets, yep we have both close by. In fact, we recently learned that we can walk, yep, walk to The Dam Ranch (only .6mi from our house). They have fresh eggs, chickens, goats milk and cheese. We also visited the Miakka Farmers’s Market this past Saturday. It’s located at the Crowley Museum and Nature Center.

It’s so wonderfully peaceful out here, a little creepy too. We love to camp, primitively, so we’re not strangers to the dark, the crickets, critters moving in the trees, bugs, etc. But it’s something about having so much space, and it’s sooooo dark. I love it though, and I’m sure we’ll get used to this. We’re on a two-lane country road and our neighbors are only about 2ish acres away from us on two sides, a bit further to the rear of the house. It’s like we have our own nature park really. So many beautiful old Florida oak trees with hanging moss. The moss glows in the late afternoon as the sun shines through it, beautiful!

Then there’s the spiders. We have many banana spider friends, AKA Golden Orb Weavers. Yes, they do weave a golden orb, it shines in the light a glorious yellow hue. We had a Wolf Spider stop by the other evening. We, well PFMan, gently removed him from the house against his wishes. I’m usually the bug remover, but I’m trying to break PFMan in a bit. We had our friends over the other day and the kids found a Jumping Spider that had placed his web in a poor location, the walkway from the house to the walled garden. Just glad it didn’t jump on me while removing his web. I like spiders, but I don’t want them on me.

The Verizon man found a Gopher Tortoise in the yard behind the studio. Watching Lilith, our Corgi/Beagle mix, was loads of laughs as she saw the tortoise for the first time. She had no idea what she was looking at and really wanted to investigate. Poor little tortoise probably just wanted her to shut up. PFMan witnessed a family of opossums in the yard a couple of nights ago. Did I mention we pass soooo many moos and naaaas to and from our home. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of seeing those cows grazing. Love seeing the mamas with the babies. I haven’t gotten my camera out yet to capture them or the horses yet, but you can bet I will soon! For now I’ve just taken tons around the house.

Our dog Bear is not the Country dog, having already sprained her ankle, gotten into a Spur field (covered!) and has gotten her neck stuck in the gate leading to the pasture. That was fun, NOT! Everyone is still alive!! We’ll continue our adventure, we still have many boxes to empty and have been selling and buying furniture as needed. So it’s coming along.

Peace & enjoy the images:-)!

Bear, before spurs:-)

We had our first ‘living in the wild’ experience today. Our dog Bear got into some sand spurs. Actually, it was more then some, it was A LOT! It was the first storm since we moved in last Friday and the kids and I were outside with the pups while it was still drizzling. I had my camera in hand, they were running around the property on their new walkie talkies (they arrived earlier today in the mail). I was taking tons of pictures of our friends the banana and orchard spiders and of course our kitties, who were wandering the yard for the first time. Suddenly the dogs were gone, we couldn’t locate them for about 15 minutes, it had started to storm and thunder again. Then out of the wild, the fern and weed covered wild area between the house and front gate, Lilith comes running, then Bear shortly behind her. Only Bear was COVERED with sand spurs. There must have been 100+ easy. She’s a chow mix, longer hair (luckily she had been groomed not too long ago, so it was shorter than normal). Anyway, with the help of scissors, tweezers and a metal prong pet brush, oh and about 30 minutes, I managed to get them all off. UGH! Then we took a shower together:-).

Day done, Peace!

A small piece our new rural lifestyle.

House poor? Something we always steered clear of. We prefer to be travel poor. There’s this phrase I hear, something about being happy in the place you’re in… never subscribed to it. Don’t get us wrong, we LOVE to be around our little unit of four where ever we are as long as we’re together, we just never got hung up on the home thing.

Well, the need to stay in a place we aren’t truly in love with has changed all that. With the need to stay put in Florida, for the foreseeable future, we’ve decided to move to a rural community to give us the change we desire within our need to stay here. With that went re-examining our preexisting travel plans. And you know what? We’re okay with it… for now anyway:-). We’re so incredibly excited for this move, this change, that having to ditch our plans for a bit is okay. There will be so much to discover in our new town, our new home. It’s the beginning of another chapter, a new adventure, and I’m pretty sure we’ll be occupied much of the time investigating and rejoicing in our new surroundings.

I can’t wait to share it all with you!

Peace.