weekend wishes

may your weekend bring sunshine and blooms

may all of your plans fall into place

may you get your 'stuff' done early so you have some time to relax

may you fill your body with good food...

...and your mind with positive thoughts

may you overcome any obstacles or darkness with confidence and ease

may you take a new path or test a new skill

and may you enjoy each and every minute of all of it.

I think I hear the whistle blowing in the distance~ I'm outta here!
Happy Friday y'all.

♥ T

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I have issues

Well my friends, aside from suffering from bloggers-block, job-stress, full time working~mom-guilt, not spending enough time with hubby~wife-guilt, nightly glass of wine-habit, etc, etc,... I also suffer from I DON'T WANT IT WHEN I SEE IT, BUT ONCE I GET HOME I DECIDE I MUST HAVE IT~ buyers-hesitation-obsession {see previous occurrence of this here}. HELP!

Episode #2,524,893 occurred at Round Top this past weekend.

Mom and I braved the 90 mile drive and horrendous, 100+ temps on Saturday to visit the big antique event at Round Top/Warrenton. We spent the full day there. I came home with 3 small things and spent a whopping $70. Despite the heat, we had fun and felt like we covered enough territory in our 4+ hours in the hot and dusty fields.
There were a few things I saw that I liked, but not enough to move my sweaty, sunburned arm to my purse to pull out my wallet and actually purchase.

I ended Saturday with hopes that I'd forget about those 'few things' left behind and awaken Sunday with only quality family time on my mind.
I woke up at 2am on Sunday morning in a slight panic. There were things I passed up that were quite reasonably priced. How could I pass them up? Why? After this weekend I won't be able to get back out there. I must get back and find them.

I NEED that Swedish, tilt top wine tasting table for my living room. I'll call the vendor in the morning and if it's still there, I'll head back.
So back we {thanks for keeping me company AGAIN mom!} went, late Sunday afternoon. Returning home just in time for dinner, Swedish table, crock, and bread board in tow. The two cute pieces on stands were my big purchases from Saturday (ha!), along with the flower vase in the first pics.
Next stop~ 2 kooboo chairs and eventually moving the gray hutch out of the room.

Anxiety and extra mileage aside, I'm very happy with my new wine table. Perhaps the silver lining with indecisiveness is once my mind is made up on something, I'm typically very satisfied and happy with it in the end.

Many of you commented on my weekend post that you're also suffering from bloggers-block. How's it going out there, getting any better? I'm sure with the approach of fall, Halloween and the big holidays we will all feel our creative juices creeping back.
Patience I guess.

xo friends~
crazy T

On my mind

Hello...are you still out there?

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I'm an absentee blogger.
A touch of busy + a heap of bloggers block = silence.

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I'm not ready to talk about pumpkins and cooler weather.

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Boots and sweaters will have to wait awhile as well.

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So a visit to your blogs and a long stroll around pinterest and here we are.

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I'm heading to Round Top this weekend so perhaps I'll come home with a few treasures and something to blog about.

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For now, I'll wrap up my long work week and spend a quiet weekend with the family. Reading, playing, running, and drinking wine...you know the routine.

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Here's to you and yours and a new dose of blog inspiration in the very near future.

xo~
Tricia

{l'amour}

Look what I came home to last evening~

Right there on the kitchen counter when I got home from work.
The flowers are gorgeous, but what stood out most was seeing those 3 little words written on the paper. You know, those words you can't get him to say on the phone to you when he's out watching football with the guys. hee, hee. ☺

Je t'aime ♥~

Tricia

Escaping the Texas heat

It's pretty sad when your heat-escape destination is Orlando, Florida~ but it was a good 15 degrees cooler than the Houston temps over labor day weekend.

In all honesty, hubby has family there and we've made a promise to visit them every year. It's not a hard promise to keep considering how sweet his aunt and uncle are and how they completely spoil us with a fabulous home cooked Indian meal AND tickets to Universal Studios every year. ☺

Now that our little one is in elementary school it's become tricky finding the time to go and not have her miss too much school. This year we opted for a 5 day stint over the long labor day holiday weekend.

Here are a few {iphone} photo highlights from our escape:

EPCOT

MAGIC KINGDOM

The highlight of the trip for this kid was finally being able to get a feather in her hair, after begging all summer. She also lost an upper tooth while on the 'It's a small world' ride (thank goodness it didn't happen on splash mountain!).ANIMAL KINGDOM

*Notice the fingers crossed in hopes of our safari jeep not falling through rickety bridge into croc pit below! UNIVERSAL ORLANDO





The 'simulated' Harry Potter ride through Hogwart's was absolutely incredible!!
Believe it or not, we really only spent a full day at the Disney parks and a half day at Universal. We spent a lot of time relaxing and playing around the pool and even snuck in some shopping at the Orlando outlets.

Coming back to the Houston heat/drought and the horrific fires just North of our city was a major bummer. Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the fires.

Enjoy the rest of the week.
xo~
Tricia

Coming up for air...

...for just a quick second, then it's back to the grind. It's been one of those weeks at work and home and I've been a bad, bad blogger.

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I'm chugging along and needing about 10 more hours in this day, while managing to still count down to the official start of the weekend. In just a few hours I can let my hair down, throw on a tank top, shorts and flip flips and pour a BIG glass of vino and BREATHE.

Enjoy your weekend friends!
xo~
T

The long weekend in Napa

**Warning~ this is a long one so go ahead and pour yourself an extra cup-a-joe first**

I'm just now getting around to the full post on our long weekend getaway to Napa in mid July. I ran {post here}, and we did the spa thing {post here}, but the true highlight of our weekend was the wining and dining that took place.

First stop is always CornerStone in Sonoma where I pick up my race bib.
Alsina Grill:

Artefact Design & Salvage:
The foggy drive up from San Fran. We fly in late Friday evening and stay near SFO (major money saver), then get up early and drive up North to Sonoma / Napa.
Such a scenic drive.

OK~ back to CornerStone.

Messing around in the gardens after getting my racing paraphernalia.

The race always begins at the Domain Carneros Winery. Funny, we still haven't visited this winery but someday...

After last year's trip {post here}, we learned that our bodies just can't handle too many wineries in one day, so this year we planned differently. We made reservations at one winery per day, but we made those 3-4 wineries really count and went for the big guns this year.

SHAFER:
Oooh la la, Shafer.

The Shafer visit starts with a short tour of the grounds and the Stags Leap region.
If only I could have bottled up the smell of all the lavender. It was intoxicating.

This was a group tasting in the large dining room. It was very informative and by far my favorite wines of the trip. No cave tour and no frills {other than some crackers and a tasting book to take home}, but some damn fine wine!



Nothing like a wine buzz at 11am on a Sunday morning. ☺

REVANA:
We were headed up to Calistoga from Shafer and our guide at Shafer recommended we stop for a quick tasting at Revana, located in St. Helena.

Another opportunity to bring out the fruit, cheese and crackers that we toted around with us to each winery.

As you can see the grounds were impeccable, but the wine was a pleasant surprise, especially coming straight from a Shafer tasting. Revana is a very small production and complex wine, the speciality of consultant Heidi Barrett. Like most wines she touches, this is said to move to a 'cult' wine status soon. I loved this wine and am looking forward to receiving our shipment in November (when the temps are cool enough in Houston for wine to be shipped).

QUINTESSA:
Our first day in Napa we had a reservation here as it's one of our favorites. Another hard to find and complex Napa wine. The tastings at Quintessa are always informative and personal but this was our first time taking the full tour.

Each winery has a different story behind their French Oak barrels. Some only keep the barrels for 1 year while others keep them for years. Some are hesitant to open the barrels at all while others allow tastings straight out of the barrel. Some barrels costing upwards of $1200 each....very interesting.

You start with a tasting in the dining room area, complete with cheese and crackers. Then you move down to the production area and the caves, then up to the hill overlooking the valley and the vines.

PRIDE:
After the race we had a reservation here {thanks to our friend Stephen, mentioned below} The winding mountain road up to Pride Mountain Winery had me a bit green, but after stepping out of the car and taking in the view and the fresh mountain air I was just fine.

The tasting at Pride was quite thorough starting upstairs in the wine tasting room, then heading down into the wine cave for tastings right out of the barrels.

Then on to a large patio to finish our wine.

The ruins from the Summit Ranch winery dating back to the 1890s.

We brought some cheeses up with us and sat on a picnic bench overlooking the mountain tops before our drive back into Napa.


Restaurants:
Rutherford Grill:

We stopped in for a late lunch at Rutherford on our first day in Napa and the place was packed! Luckily we found 4 seats at the bar. Although we didn't have a true meal here, this was one of our food favorites of the trip. Amazing how just salad and sandwiches can make such an impression. We'll make a reservation next year and have the full experience.
Oenetri Restaurant, Napa:
Oenetri was recommended to us by a Napa local and it didn't disappoint. Casual atmosphere and somewhat unusual menu. Delicious!

Angele, Napa:
Another recommendation by a local. This was my favorite meal. We sat outside, brought our own bottle of wine, and ate the best hamburgers in this world (off the menu).

Strolling around Napa before dinner.

CELLAR COLLECTIONS:
If you're ever in the market for smaller production and hard to find wines at much better prices than what you'll find at the winery, shops, or even on the internet, Stephen at Cellar Collections is your man! He'll ship it to you or pack it up so you can check it in with your luggage for your flight home. We bought most of our wine from Stephen on this trip rather than buying directly from the vineyards~ which was a huge savings for us.

He and his wife Janice had a small wine tasting for us one evening and we ended up leaving with a few cases of wine to take home on our flights. They are the sweetest people and great wine afficienados. They hooked us up with many of our dinner reservations and (some hard to get into) winery reservations.

Finally, the run. The Napa to Sonoma half marathon is such an incredible experience that I hope I'm able to return for years to come. Just when I get burned out on running and training for more events I look back at pictures of this event and can instantly recall the smell in the cool and dry Napa Valley air and the feeling of crossing that finishing line and it keeps me getting up at 5am to train, train, train.

I am blessed with a committed hubby who travels with me on running trips and great friends who do the same.

Love to Rob and Tara for making the long trek with us!

Overall, this was the trip of the year for us. We really had a phenomenal time {even though we missed our little bug} and Rob and Tara were great travel companions. Everything was easy and relaxing, no fuss, no rush. We stayed at the Marriott Hotel and Spa in Napa which was a good location and comfy rooms. Love those beds.

Cheers~
Tricia