Summer Invite

Earlier in June they also featured my SUMMER invite design. I forgot to post it here on my blog. I also loved how this invite turned out. So fun and well SUMMERY!
Summer Party Invite

Celebrating the 4th

Tiny Prints has a Blog and lately they have been featuring my invitation designs. Pretty exciting to have my work featured while I am just contracting for them. I loved how this 4th of July invite turned out- so it was nice to see it featured.
4th of July Invite

here is one of my invitation designs - it was sponsored on TinyPrints blog post.
Pretty exciting. Second one that was used for design inspiration.  http://blog.tinyprints.com/birthday-party-ideas/chalkboard-birthday-party-inspiration-board/

Chalkboard/Magnet board

This was one of my favorite things I did in my old house, I may need to find a place for it in my new house.  Using craft paper I created a template for my wall with a cut out for the light switch.  I took it to a sheet metal manufacturer and they cut me a large sheet per my wall space. Then I hung it to the wall with liquid nails. That is what the sheet metal guy suggested. But my husband had to screw it in at a few places due to some warping during transportation.  Then we painted it with 2 or 3 coats of chalk board paint. It is BOTH a magnet board for notes my sons artwork as well as a chalk board.  I chose this wall space because a.) it was the only open space and b.)  I got tired of taping my sons art to the wall here and the paint chipping off.  It was so fun to have and use and I was sad to leave it behind.

New house

Many of you have asked to see our new home, "post pictures" etc... Quite frankly, it's a mess and a work in progress. I don't feel like posting photos of this unfinished work. It's kind of like when an artist doesn't want to show their work until they are done. That is how I feel. However, I got this fun little fish eye lens adapter for Christmas (thank you mom -Denise). And I am having fun taking picture of why I don't want to show you the house. It is filled with the plumber, the painter, the electrician and the drywall guy.
Here is the sneak peak or the "before".

They had to cut channels in the drywall just to feed electricity to the lights & fan

can you see Samson? He is peeking through between the ladder steps.

at least they put in dining room lights in time for Christmas dinner. But the wall paint wasn't an exact match so they had to repaint the whole wall.

One of my favorite views because you can see the kitchen and family room together.

A day in Napa Valley, Last Stop: Silver Oak Vineyards

Silver Oak was a vineyard I wanted to visit. I made a reservation but cancelled it when I discovered my wine partner preferred whites. It didn't feel right to drag her to try a bunch of reds. However, while at Chappellet some of the guys had said they went & it was great.  Now, I first heard of Silver Oak from my (non-drinking) husband. He was on a business trip and at dinner they had ordered this wine and raved about it. So when he got back to Houston, he promptly went to specs and purchased a bottle for me to enjoy. And I did, eventually.   I was salivating to think we were so close to the estate and I wouldn't get to go. But after Chappellet we literally had 30 more minutes before all the winery's closed. We were close, our driver was game and Joelle was game. So we got to go here for a walk-up tasting. Again a totally different experience than the other places.

I loved this day because of all the diversity of all the vineyards.  Every experience was completely different. I learned quite a few things. But my two favorites that I learned about my pallet and it is that I like non-malo-lactic wines (which lends itself to whites if I am going to even like them) and that I enjoy the Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon made from Napa Valley grapes OVER those Cabernet made from Alexander Valley grapes. Don't get me wrong both wines are wonderful!!! But when it comes to buying a bottle, I opted for the Napa Valley Cab. I mean when you are already spending that much money on a bottle of wine, what's a few extra $10's to get the Napa Valley Cabernet? I wrote on the bag, do not enjoy till 2016, though my wine guide Stephen accused me of being impetuous and is certain I wont wait.

Regardless, if you come visit me in 2016, the occasion may be pretty special and we may just need to open that fine bottle of Silver Oak!

On another note, Stephen also gave me a free tasting for Twomey (in Healdsburg) it is also part of the Silver Oak family. So when I go back, I will definitely need to go try one of their wines.  If you come visit me any time soon, we will be sure to go to Twomey.

On the way to Silver Oak, while I still had light, we drove by this golden vineyard and amongst the vines was the glorious Flag and symbol of our American freedom! I am not sure you can tell how large this flag is, but it was awesome and I had to capture it.

This is the vineyard right outside Silver Oak.

The entrance of Silver Oak. I love the stone building.

When you walk through the grand doors, to the inside, this is what you see.

To the left of the tasting bar is the alcove with the wine cellar. This place also had a gift shop.

Details of the alcove with the wine cellar.

Those are some large magnums of wine.

This place was built for entertaining. This was a private tasting room. It was getting ready for a large crowd of people to come.

Looking into the tasting bar and gift shop from the alcove.

Gift shop.

Yes- I did try some wine while I was here. And this is my wine of choice. The one I bought.

From the stair I captured some ladies shopping and gabbing in the gift area.

And from said stairs I ascended to see what was upstairs and discovered what appeared to be offices.                                         I want to work here, if I could work in an office like this.

Probably my favorite photo. Taken from the alcove. I love how you can see both the offices from upstairs as well as the wine tasting bar below.

The logo on the bottle is the tower out front of the Winery. And they had a wood carving of the tower behind the wine tasting bar. It is amazing.

A day in Napa Valley, Third Stop: Chappellet

The third vineyard we went to was called Chappellet. It was recommended to me by a friend in Houston. She raved about them, it was her favorite. And I have to admit the wines were all incredible. (Maybe all wines in Napa Valley are amazing??)

One thing about Chappellet was their logo. They have a good look and what I found out is the triangle shape of the logo is actually the shape of the building we were sitting in. When you look at the building from an aerial perspective the building is a pyramid. And the splits in the logo are the actual windows that in the architecture let in the light. The architecture is brilliant and the natural light is beautiful in the building.  I love that they used it for the logo.

I admit, I couldn't stop taking pictures of the barrels, but there were so many of them.

The peak of the pyramid was so high and there was a stair case that ascended to the top, I got permission to go half way up and what a view I had! Breath taking, rows and rows of barrels.

I think why the barrels fascinated me was because the previous two vineyards were not producing anywhere near this capacity of wine. It's quite miraculous.

Wine in the tasting room and another perfect use of the logo.

They had some classic bottles in the tasting area.

At this tasting, there were 8 of us strangers, joined together to taste the wine. It was kind of fun to meet the people around the table from us. And of course everyone started to compare notes of where they visited and where they would recommend, etc. It was really a fun group of people.

From this view you can see one of the far points of the pyramid. And you can see the big vats in the distance.

Look at all that aging wine. The other point of the pyramid to the left was the front lobby. Truly a impressive use of space.

This was where rows converged.

There are some metal barrels in the distance.

peeking over the tops of the barrels from the catwalk. I love the wood ceiling.

After this tasting I was feeling pretty good. We emerged from the dark tasting room to discover the glorious setting sun.

Wine tastes wonderful, grapes are cute, and even the vineyards are gorgeous. Everything about this experience is wonderful.

Look at the colors in these leaves.

We descend down into the valley towards our next tasting.

A day in Napa Valley, Second Stop: Stony Hill Vineyards

Can you imagine if you grew up going to visit your grandparents house?

We drove to the top of the hill (or mountain) and discovered this wonderful home nestled amongst the vineyards

Our guide Fred, his grandparents bought the property after WWII and started developing wine.

His Grandpa had the grapes carved into the beautiful solid wood doors.

vines growing around the enrty

while ZD used new barrels, Stony Hill used barrels that are older than me and Fred.

These barrels were from France

I loved see the diversity throughout the day how the barrels are stored

I loved this rustic old cellar like building with low lighting.

such character! some day I will have wood lining my ceilings where I live.

More berries and vines because I liked them.

Loved the aged signage

Loved the vintage door

LOVE THIS! it could definitely be used for a marketing piece for their family vineyard.

Such a breath-taking view. The weather was wonderful!

Can you spot little Lucy? She is Fred's dog and she is in this photo. She was having so much fun, made me wish I was a dog.

You can barely see the roof of the homestead to the left peeking above the tree line.

Something I missed living in Houston was the changing of the trees when the seasons change to fall.

One of my favorite things about this wine tasting was that we were invited into his parents home/ his weekend home to taste all the lovely wine. He even pulled out an incredible Syrah for us to try and that is the one I bought. But, I loved the Gewurztraminer! and the Chardonnay was good too because it was non-malo-lactic.

Hanging out with Fred was like visiting with a friend for the day. The tour was so nice and intimate. This was the view from the patio off the dining room table. With a view like this, I could eat at that dining table all the time.

Missing my Japanese Maple in my yard in Houston, though I will admit it never turned this beautifully.

It was like stepping back in time, how they left their property as natural. I love the texture of moss growing on an old stone wall.

And the texture of this old bench.

This was one of the biggest slugs I have ever seen. I put a leaf there to show scale but not sure if it does it justice.

Lastly, call it strange, but yes I will photograph a bathroom, especially when it is as lovely and inviting as this one. I love the big armoir.