Weekending!

March 25, 2013 by Summer

It felt more like the beginning of summer than spring this weekend! The weather was glorious and we had a beautiful weekend with family. Jeff’s sister flew in from Boston on Friday so Saturday was spent preparing a nice, early dinner for Jeff’s family. We went to the farmers market in the morning, bought ourselves some succulents for the house (I’ve been wanting more house plants), and did our usual produce shopping. Ellie enjoyed chewing on a potato she snatched from Jeff. Jeff made the most delicious shepherd’s pie for his family, even adding in a few parsnips from our own garden (yay!). We took a dog walk along the beach to end the evening. Sunday we started off with Jeff’s shepherd’s pie for breakfast (we jazzed it up with a fried egg and some avocado) and then we headed off with my folks down to meet Jeff’s folks in Santa Barbara (Jeff’s parents are leaving for a short trip to San Francisco tomorrow and then heading back to Boston on Friday). We stopped off at the Santa Barbara Art Show to see a wonderful quilter and blogging friend, Cory. It was exciting to finally meet someone I had been following for awhile now and she was just so sweet!! Her quilts and quilty things were beautiful and inspiring! I wanted to buy everything she had but this time around walked away with an adorable sewing needle book and an adorable bib for Ellie. Check out her beautiful things here! At the art show, we also bought some long awaited wind chimes. I’ve been wanting some for the front porch since we moved in and Jeff bought himself a handmade beer stein, of course. It was a really lovely weekend. I’m happily exhausted. How was your weekend?

Weekending!

March 18, 2013 by Summer

It was a very green weekend. Happy St. Patricks’ day to you! The fog rolled in and stayed thick until sunday afternoon. It seemed winter was upon us again. Ellie and Jeff seemed to be feeling better so we did our usual farmers market on saturday but stayed for the annual St. Patricks’ Day Parade downtown. Let me tell you, Ventura has some interesting parade people. It was fun and Ellie seemed to enjoy the marching bands and the chaos of it all. Jeff’s parents joined us and we invited them back to our place for potato and leek soup and hot cocoa. It was chilly that day! Ellie has been trying all sorts of new foods, peas, pear, squash, sweet potato. She surprisingly seems to enjoy the veggies over the fruits. I’ve been trying to add in solids regularly now these days, but it’s harder than I thought trying to make baby food and determining when to feed her etc. We’re working out the kinks as we go.

Sunday we celebrated my Mom’s birthday (it’s the 19th but she has to work). We drove up and over the grade, through the pea soup fog and into a much sunnier and warmer area of Southern California. We spent the day gardening and relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. I made a lemon pound cake for my Mom, that I couldn’t get out of the pan. We dug into it with spoons. Very Good weekend. How was yours?

* linking up with Amanda.

Weekending!

March 10, 2013 by Summer

It was a packed, busy weekend. The weather cooperated beautifully though and was breezy but sunny. There were quiche’s and orange pound cakes made for a girls brunch at my house. Wonderful friends came on saturday for a lovely day of chatting, good food and reminiscing. Sunday we got up late because of the time change, spending a nice morning walk along a path above the beach with the in-laws who are still in town and then hurrying off to a first birthday party at another lovely local in a park that looked out on the coastline. I finished another handmade owl for the little birthday girl and I think I’m getting better. They are getting faster and sturdier. The long weekend ended with a long nap for baby. It was a busy but lovely March weekend. How was yours?

*joining Amanda over at Habit…

Weekending!

March 4, 2013 by Summer

March is here! Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit to a new month! After a pretty tiring and non-productive first week of March with a teething baby who was needing Mama a whole lot more than normal, the weekend finally came. As quickly as it came, it was gone. Jeff took his parents hiking on the Channel Islands while Ellie and I went yard-sailing with my parents.We spent lots of time outside. It was so warm, I made sun tea. More plans for our garden were made including plans for a tomato raised bed. Ellie is enjoying all sorts of new skills (sitting and reaching, scooting around) and chewing on everything (including Gramma’s chin). Shrimp scampi made by the husband ended the weekend right. It went fast and I didn’t get nearly as much done as I would have liked but there’s always next weekend. Right? How was your weekend?

linking up with Amanda today.

Weekending!

February 25, 2013 by Summer

It was another busy, lovely weekend. Beginning with homemade banana bread for National Banana Bread Day, lots of silly time with Daddy, springtime flowers blooming all over the place, naps in the carrier with happy Gramma’s, homemade pizza, bottling of the home-brew, making handmade baby toys for a good friend’s shower, beautiful walks on the beach with the in-laws and to end the weekend, a wonderful “baby sprinkle” and a day of joy and reminiscing with old, dear friends. How was your weekend?

linking up with Amanda!

Weekending!

February 18, 2013 by Summer

We had beautiful, warm, sunny weather this weekend. Perfect weather to make the short trip to my parents house for a breakfast and a nice dog walk. My brother who hadn’t seen baby girl in awhile was there and enjoyed spending some quality time with his niece and of course, Gramma and Grandpa couldn’t help but get Ellie some new toys (for Valentine’s Day of course). We spent sunday doing chores… laundry, food shopping, cleaning and got our produce this week at the Ojai Farmers Market. A lovely market to visit on occasion, (especially if your child decides she’s going to nap on the way up there and on the way down. The same child who screams like crazy whenever we put her in the carseat. We are hoping this new fad of falling asleep in the carseat stays awhile). While in Ojai we stopped off at Barts Books, a very neat outdoor bookstore. Jeff found himself a couple good brewing books for his collection. The rest of the day was busy bathing stinky dogs, snacking on our fresh snap peas in the yard (yay winter garden growth!) , more laundry, cooking dinner and ending the day with lots of cuddles from a certain adorable someone in cloth diapers. A pretty low key but very nice weekend.

How was your weekend?

*linking up with Amanda

Weekending

February 11, 2013 by Summer

This weekend was warm one minute and chilly the next. I worked on getting pictures into frames and up on the walls, Jeff prepared his yeast for brew day, I made some incredibly yummy granola (which turned out so good, it will have to have its own blog post all together), lots of playtime with Ellie boo bear, we had some fantastic sunsets out our back door, took the in-laws to a local brew house and sunday was official Brew Day. Jeff hasn’t had the chance to brew beer since before Eloise was born and he has been itching to do so since we moved into our new home. Well today was the day – and he invited his mom and dad and my family to share in the experience (My mom and dad and sister made it). The weather was beautiful and we all spent the day outside learning to brew. We ended the evening with an early homemade dinner (because that’s the way we roll around here with a six month old- dinners at 4:30). A quick but packed with goodness weekend. How was yours?

Weekending!

February 4, 2013 by Summer

My in-laws are in town. They are staying about twenty minutes away from us in a lovely beach house and will be here for two months. They plan on cruising up the coast of California, staying in San Francisco for a while and then heading up to wine country for a bit too. Of course they will also be spending lots of time with their grandbaby too. We had a beautiful, busy, and fast weekend showing them around Ventura, seeing the town they’ll be staying in and enjoying their company along the beach. We also had a visit from my parents and Ellie had her first introduction to Grandpa playing guitar. All in all, it was another lovely weekend. How was yours?

*linking up with Amanda for Weekending.

Weekending!

January 28, 2013 by Summer

For such a low-key weekend it was certainly a busy one. It was rainy and wet off and on throughout the weekend so we were inside for a good part of it. Cloth diaper laundry was done, cookies were made for a cousin on bed rest and we got out for the occasional wet dog walk too. When it wasn’t raining it was foggy. There was a foggy but colorful trip to the farmers market and we went to lunch with the grandparents at a local spot with some nice live music and rice milk chai latte’s (yay!). We took a chilly and foggy beach walk before the rain came in again for the night. Sunday was wet in the morning but perfect weather for a visit to the antique market and a beautiful walk through Marina Park. We got our compost bin up and running too this weekend. Our worm bin was a fail last year on the balcony in Orange County, so we shall see how the compost bin goes. The wet weather is supposed to return this week. I know I’m being very Californian in saying this, but I’m ready for spring. What did you do this weekend?

*linking up with Habit this weekend

Weekending!

January 20, 2013 by Summer

It’s been a lovely weekend so far. It has warmed up and almost feels like early summer around here. We spent a lot of time outside, enjoying the sunshine and the warm breezes. Lots of sling dancing to The Beatles with the babe, dogs sunning themselves out on the deck, tea in the morning (because it’s still pretty chilly before nine, it is after all still winter). There have been visits from Gramma and Grandpa, the weekly farmers market visit, salads from farmers market produce (this week we tried some japanese dandelion greens that we’re amazingly tasty!), and picnic lunches and reading out in the grass. You can’t ask for a better weekend! How was your weekend?