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Wood and Metal Side Table

June 14, 2015March 27, 2018

This weekend, I finally finished up a simple little project that had been on my to-do list for a long time. Making over this side table with a little bit of spray paint and the wooden stump cake stand from our wedding.

I bought this table on clearance at Target for $10 a couple years ago. I love having it in the living room, as it is super convenient to pull over to set my laptop on or whatever while I’m working from the couch. However, the style could’ve fit in better with our decor and I didn’t love the cheap laminate top.

If you remember from our wedding (three years ago!), I bought this thick wooden tree slice to use as our cake stand.

Since our wedding, it has just been sitting around our house with no real purpose. I didn’t want to throw it out, but I didn’t have a good use for it as is. So when we went back to our hometown a few weeks ago, I brought it with us, in hopes that someone we knew with a chainsaw could cut it up for me into more usable pieces.

I was over at my friend Tonya’s house chatting with her and her mom, when I remembered that her brother, Tyler, had cut several wood slices for Tonya for her wedding. The cake stand just so happened to still be in my car and her brother agreed to cut it down for me. He even cut it into three slices, so I have other pieces that I can use in the future for other projects. (Thanks Tyler!!)

Tonya also helped me scrape off some of the bark that was falling off. (You are the best Tonya!!)

Then once we got back to New Orleans, I sanded down the wood top (no one wants to get splinters from your side table!) and added three coats of satin finish polyurethane, while Drew lightly sanded and spray painted the base with oil-rubbed bronze spray paint.

It really takes a village sometimes!

I love how it turned out! I think the wood and black combo make it look a lot more sophisticated and fit in a lot better with our style. I love the thicker top and that I was able to use something with sentimental meaning!

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NYC Fabric Design Workshop

June 9, 2015March 27, 2018

This past weekend, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to New York City and attend a three-day Fabric Design Workshop led by the amazing designers Heather Ross and Anna Maria Horner. (I’ve mentioned AMH several times on here before, you might remember me meeting her at Quilt Market last year).

Three days of insight into the fabric design and manufacturing industry, peeks into the design process of Heather and Anna Maria, looks at their sketches and fabrics, great conversations, learning a different design process, and exploring the awesome city of New York. Above Anna Maria is showing us an example of her original sketch and then her final pattern (Eucalyptus from Pretty Potent).

Again, another sketch to final pattern example. This one is Small Gathering from Folk Song. I was so happy that she showed this particular example, as this fabric was actually quite influential to my own story. When I was prepping for my freshman dorm room at Tulane, I bought this fabric (in her Good Folks collection in the sea colorway) to make a pillowcase for my bedding. That fabric ended up being the jumping off point for my dorm decor. It was while I was living in that dorm room that I realized I had a passion for design and that I wanted to be a designer. Not long after that that I read an article in Country Living about Anna Maria Horner and saw this sketch on her bulletin board in the photo of the article and realized she was the designer of my pillow fabric. I had always been a collector and lover of fabric, but hadn’t before thought much about the design process or the designers behind them. That article and AMH’s fabrics started my desire to learn more about this elusive industry and made me want to design fabric of my own!

I also love the sweet illustrative style of Heather Ross’s work and I loved getting to learn about her process as well. In the photo above, she is showing the class how to build repeats in Photoshop using one of my designs as an example. Loved seeing the subtle differences in the colors she chose, verses the jewel tones I was originally using.

I really love how the final pattern came out. It is a different style than my other work (much more sketchy and hand-drawn looking), but I really love it! As I said before, the original colors I used were jewel toned, as they usually are, and in Heather’s demo, she changed the colors to these. I loved seeing my work re-colored and in a new light. These aren’t colors that I typically would have chosen, but I love how they work together. It has me looking at colors differently now! Anna Maria also gave several talks about her color theories in her work and I loved hearing her perspective.

From AMH & HR on Instagram:

For this course, we learned how to design pattern repeats in Photoshop. At first I was a little wary of that (I like using Illustrator for pattern design), but in the end, I actually really loved learning this process and the different look it gives the artwork. Although I do really like the flexibility of designing in Illustrator, I might give this Photoshop design thing a try more often! (Photoshop was the first Adobe product I starting using, way back in grade school!)

The class met in the same building as Heather’s studio, on Fulton street in the Financial District in Lower Manhattan. It was only a few blocks from the new Freedom Tower/One World Trade Center, and was an awesome area to get to explore a bit. We walked over to Chinatown one day for soup dumplings for lunch.

I was in class most of the time we were in NYC, but I got the chance to explore a few other places in the evenings. This was my third time visiting NYC, so I didn’t try to squeeze in a lot. I really wanted to make a trip to MoMA, but alas, it wasn’t open late enough for me to make it after class. It was Drew’s first time in NYC and he explored craft beer/coffee/food places during the day while I was in class.

Chinatown, the East River Ferry (we stayed in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn), Flatiron Building, Times Square, The High Line (so awesome!), Chelsea Flea, ABC Carpet and Home (so amazing! floors and floors of amazing furniture, bedding, awesome rugs, etc…). I’ve had a great time every time I’ve visited NYC, but this time I really fell in love with New York! The weather was amazing, I mastered riding the subway, and I came to appreciate the determined energy about the city and the fact that so much is all at your fingertips. It was a really awesome trip.

I’m so glad Heather and Anna Maria put this class together and I’m so grateful for them opening up their careers to give us advice and insight. I came to New York with a mini portfolio of designs and I left with a different perspective and new direction and ideas for my work. This class made me grateful for my art degree and left me wanting to draw/paint/sketch/block print and in general put a little more art into my design work.

Interested in taking a similar workshop? Heather is hosting another Fabric Design workshop this fall! Details can be found on the workshops page of her website, here. Anna Maria also hosts different workshops at her shop, Craft South, in Nashville. Find more info on her workshops and classes, here.

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Life Right Now * May 2015

June 3, 2015March 27, 2018

Right now in life, I am:

MAKING patterns!! My journey in surface pattern design has progressed by leaps and bounds the past few weeks! I’ve almost finished up my first collection of designs! So exciting!
COOKING the first blackberry pie of the season, GF Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy for National Buttermilk Biscuit Day (May 14), lots of yummy Beef and Rice Salad Bowls, my Mamaw’s sweet tea, and her fried round steak and mashed potatoes and gravy.
DRINKING sweet tea! Just like my Mamaw used to make it. We also made mint juleps during the KY Derby/Jazz Fest in the mint julep cups I got Drew for Christmas. A little secret though, mine is just ice water with mint. Bourbon isn’t gluten-free.
READING Heather Ross’s book How to Catch a Frog.
WANTING to finish my first surface pattern design collection and make more!
PLAYING Kacey Musgraves. Loved seeing her at Jazz Fest this month!! Also loved seeing John Boutte and the music at Front Porch Fest. Can’t believe it look me 6 years of living in New Orleans to finally make it to Jazz Fest. It was awesome!
SEWING MY DIY WEST ELM CLOTH NAPKIN PILLOWS!! FINALLY!! If you remember, I had been talking about wanting to sew them in my Life Right Now posts for months. So glad this is finally done and they look awesome!
CROCHETING nothing lately. I have multiple projects in the works, just haven’t worked on them recently. Crocheting has taken a back seat to other creative endeavors.
WISHING I could re-live just one day with my grandparents. They were such incredible people and I miss them so much. I enjoyed spending Memorial Day weekend running around their house, scanning in old photos, re-living memories, and playing with Fergus, my sister’s goat.

ENJOYING dinner on the river with my dad, husband, and older sister and her husband and kids (me and Jackson). Catfish, family, BYOB (wine in our case), pretty views, and a nice (slightly fishy) breeze off the water.
WAITING for our next adventure. We have several exciting ones coming up! I can’t wait!
LIKING this Saturday at the beach for my birthday. Photos here, here, and here.
WONDERING why it took me so long to simplify my office area. It is so much nicer to work here without the visual overload it was before.
LOVING this pattern with my handwriting and seeing my designs on actual fabric!
HOPING to get to work on some DIY projects around the house this summer. More walls need to be painted and I have a project to do with my tree stump cake stand from our wedding, now that my best friend, Tonya’s, brother, Tyler, helped me cut it down while I was at home a few weekends ago.
MARVELING at the beauty and the peacefulness in my favorite place in the whole world. I spent so much of my childhood running through that creek in the backyard of my childhood home (photo below). It was so nice to take a walk back there with my dad when I was at home. Boy, how I miss the country.
NEEDING to “fill my heart with what’s important and be done with all the rest.”
LEARNING new bits of design knowledge every day.
SMELLING peonies, peonies, peonies, and more peonies.

WEARING these new j. crew shorts (in aubergine) and my new little gold quatrefoil necklace. 🙂
FOLLOWING along on my progress from painting to pattern with these India ink sketches, here, here, and vectorized here. I’m loving how the final pattern came out and that I was finally able to combine my painting into my pattern work. This was the first time I’d sketched in India ink in 3-4 years!
NOTICING the beauty of Southern Illinois (me and my sister, Kelsey, in my dad’s friend’s vineyard).
KNOWING how much I wish there was a Dairy Queen closer to Uptown New Orleans. I think I ate DQ at least once a day when back home. Mini Turtle Pecan Cluster Blizzard with Cheesecake pieces for the win.
THINKING about summer travels, decorating plans, and future career plans.
BOOKMARKING this kitchen renovation and this breakfast nook.
CELEBRATING my birthday, my niece’s 10th birthday, and my friend Jessica’s college graduation. Lots of celebrating this month!
OPENING birthday presents! I didn’t really open it, but I bought a church pew for our dining room this month! I’ve been looking for one for years and my sister found one for me in Nashville. My dad is overseeing its renovation and I can’t wait to get it to New Orleans and into my dining room!
LAUGHING at life? I don’t remember any particular funny moments this month. But it was a great month with lots of fun times.
FEELING grateful for this life I live. For family, for the country, for artistic talents, and Adobe design software.

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Beef & Rice Salad Bowls

May 27, 2015March 27, 2018

This is my version of a Vietnamese rice bowl/beef salad that my Vietnamese sister-in-law makes. Lately I’ve been in love with this quick, simple, tasty, and filling meal. We’ve been making it at least once a week! (Thanks Trang for the inspiration!)

Beef & Rice Salad Bowls
makes about 4 servings

Ingredients (for the beef marinade):
-1 lb beef skirt steak, sliced in small pieces, against the grain
-4 Tbsp GF tamari soy sauce
-1 Tbsp rice vinegar
-1/2 tsp sugar
-3 cloves garlic, minced
-1 Tbsp fresh ginger, grated
-pinch of salt
-sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper
-(optional) 1 Tbsp chopped fresh lemongrass (the soft part of about 3 sticks) — (I use this if I have it on hand, but leave it out if not)
-1 Tablespoon butter (for cooking)

Ingredients (for serving):
-cooked white rice
-raw, unsalted peanuts, chopped
-lettuce
-tomato, chopped
-cucumber, chopped

Directions:
1. Combine sliced meat and marinade ingredients (soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, garlic, ginger, salt, pepper, lemongrass) in a glass or plastic bowl with a lid. Stir together. Place lid on container and return to fridge. You can leave beef to marinade for a few hours if you like, but I generally just let it sit while I prepare the rest of the meal.
2. Cook rice and prepare salad ingredients.
3. Heat skillet or wok. Over medium-high heat, melt one tablespoon butter. Once butter is melted, add beef (including marinade) and cook several minutes, stirring occasionally, until cooked through.
4. Serve beef over a bed of white rice with salad and chopped peanuts (this is my favorite, so that the rice soaks up the beef juices) or serve beef on top of salad with rice on the side.

Enjoy!

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White and Gold Pillows from West Elm Cloth Napkins

May 18, 2015March 27, 2018

This weekend I finally finished a project (in under an hour) that I’d been talking about for the last 6 months! If you remember from several of my previous “Life Right Now” posts, I’d mentioned buying these cloth napkins from West Elm:

They are beautiful as napkins, but I had plans to use them to make pillowcases for throw pillows in my living room. I bought them last Thanksgiving, seam ripped out the seams, washed them, and then they sat for months just waiting for me to iron them and sew into pillowcases. The hold up was with pillow forms. All the pillows that we had in the living room had poly-fill inserts. Poly-fill inserts are cheap, but over time they get flat and I feel like in general they just don’t look as nice. For these, I wanted to use down/feather pillow inserts. They are more plush, cooler to the touch, and hold their shape better (you can also give them the “chopped” look if you are into that). I found some in the size I wanted on Amazon, but when I ordered them, they sent me the wrong size. I had to return those and when I went to buy more, the price had gone up. Eventually I ended up buying some from a different seller at a great price for two 22″ pillow forms (these ones at $35 for two).

I just love how they turned out! I love the bit of shimmer the gold sparkle adds and the way that it ties in with the gold frames on the wall. They even look fine with our green couches (that will hopefully one day be replaced with something more neutral).

With these, I sewed a zipper in the bottom so that I can easily change them out or wash them. I wish I’d done that with those patterned teal ones I made. It was quicker to sew in the zipper than it was to hand sew that opening shut and so much more convenient! (here is an easy tutorial if you don’t know how to sew in a zipper).

You could buy enough fabric to make these for the same price or cheaper than the cloth napkins, but this is a great option if you come across a napkin fabric that you really like! Love these!

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GF Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

May 14, 2015May 21, 2018

In honor of National Buttermilk Biscuit Day (May 14), here is my recipe for gravy and gluten-free buttermilk biscuits.

Gluten-Free Buttermilk Biscuits
recipe from Fine Cooking’s Gluten-Free 2014 Magazine – makes 10-12 biscuits

Ingredients:
-1 1/4 cups Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour
-3/4 cup cornstarch
-1 Tablespoon sugar
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if your GF flour mix already contains xanthan gum)
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cubed
-1 large egg
-1 cup buttermilk

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix together all dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt) until well combined.
3. Cut butter pieces into flour mixture with a pastry cutter (or a fork or two knives), until the mixture resembles course crumbs.
4. In small bowl, beat egg and add buttermilk. Mix thoroughly.
5. Pour liquid mixture into flour mixture and stir with a fork until all dry ingredients are moistened and mixture comes together into a soft dough.
6. Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of dough onto prepared baking sheet, spacing 2 inches apart.
7. Bake until golden brown, 12-15 minutes at 375 degrees.
8. Immediately transfer biscuits to a wire cooling rack. Serve warm.

Sausage Gravy

Ingredients:
-1 log Jimmy Dean mild breakfast sausage
-2 Tbsp butter or bacon grease
-1/4 cup flour (I use my GF flour mix)
-2 cups milk (I’ve made with unsweetened almond milk and it works great too!)
-salt & pepper

Directions:
1. In skillet, melt butter or bacon grease on medium-high heat.
2. Scramble and cook sausage.
3. Reduce heat to medium, add flour, and stir until slightly browned.
4. Slowly add milk, stirring constantly, until gravy is thickened.
5. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
6. Serve with warm biscuits.

These biscuits are great with gravy, butter, jam, or plain!

Enjoy!

Life Right Now * April 2015

May 2, 2015March 27, 2018

Right now in life, I am:

MAKING ceramics! Finished up all the pieces from my ceramics class this month. So happy with how they turned out!
COOKING tortilla soup, gf strawberry fruit tart, gf strawberry muffins, grits and grillades, avocado toast, avocado salsa, mojo pork, black beans, lots of rice.
DRINKING green tea with lemon and honey in a mug I made myself.
READING Heather Ross’s book How to Catch a Frog.
WANTING to simplify everything in my life. I’ve been on a mission the last few months. The stuff in my house, closet, work routine, the blogs I read, the ways I spend my time – everything.
PLAYING records on our new record player! Drew has been wanting one for years and we finally bought one!
SEWING nothing.
CROCHETING an afghan that I started months and months ago. Don’t think I’ll finish it anytime in the next couple years…
WISHING I hadn’t developed a head cold on our vacation that stuck around for weeks. But this kitty snuggle while I was sick melted my heart.

ENJOYING our wonderful road trip across California.
WAITING for our next adventure.
LIKING the idea of finally working on some design work in our bedroom!
WONDERING what it is that Drew likes about working in the beer industry.
LOVING flowy, summer work tops. And this haiku from my friend Emma at the close of our sharing an office.
HOPING to figure out a good, natural hair routine. I tried Dr. Bronner’s soap and conditioning rinse for several weeks, but just couldn’t deal with how nasty my hair felt while using it. Any recommendations on a good natural shampoo and conditioner?
MARVELING at the beauty and diversity of our country.
NEEDING to get back to work on my surface pattern design portfolio. Lots of ideas and inspiration this month.
LEARNING all about Hashimoto’s thyroiditis or Hashimoto’s disease. My endocrinologist confirmed that my hypothyroidism and gluten intolerance were caused my this autoimmune disease of the thyroid.
SMELLING the sweet, sweet smell of sweet jasmine (photo at top).

WEARING the usual! Loving my cleaned out closet from last month! I think there might still be some more cleaning out to do though!
FOLLOWING (or rather stalking) Craigslist searching for the perfect nightstands and a mid-century modern long dresser for our foyer. I’ve also searched all over online and in a bunch of stores in New Orleans for nightstands. Why are good nightstands so hard to find!?
NOTICING lots of nature this month in our travels. How I miss hills, waterfalls, hiking, and so many other things while living in Louisiana.
KNOWING that life is good.
THINKING about plans for the future and how far Drew and I have come since we met.
BOOKMARKING paint colors and possible desk configurations in preparation for the office renovation happening this summer at work!
CELEBRATING the beautiful weather, even the plethora of rainy days we’ve had lately. It will be way too hot here before long. Enjoying these beautiful days with walks outside, Plum Street Snoballs, and eating outside at restaurants.
OPENING new a new duvet cover and king shams for our bed from West Elm. I’ve had my eye on these ones for years!
LAUGHING at our sweet and funny little kitty. Missed her so much while on vacation!
FEELING grateful for this life I live.

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Ceramics Class

April 30, 2015March 27, 2018

My senior year of college, I took a hand-building ceramics class because I was required to take a 3-dimensional art class for my art major. That class made me fall in love with ceramics. Don’t get me wrong, I love painting and I love digital design, but there is something so nice and rewarding about creating a 3D object with your own two hands, whether for art or function. The fact that it can often be functional is also really nice. I only have so much wall space for paintings, but can always use cups, bowls, mugs, vases, and platters (or gift them!).

Anyway, the class I took in college was a hand-building class (not wheel-throwing), so I made several platters, but mostly art pieces instead of functional ones. I made a giant artichoke (you can see it on my living room bookshelves in our house tour, here), a miniature replica of my childhood home, and a few other pieces. Unfortunately, I took the class my senior year and didn’t have a chance to continue into ceramics more than that.

Signing up for another ceramics class has been on my list of things to do for several years and this year I finally made it happen. Well actually, a friend of mine, Christina, who has an extensive ceramics background, made it happen. She wanted to get back into ceramics again and asked if I wanted to join her.

We signed up at a local studio (Earth and Fire Studio) for two hours one night a week, for two months.

During this studio time, I decided to learn how to work on the wheel. It takes a while to get it down, but I’m so happy with the 11 pieces I made in the last couple months!

None of them are perfect (which I kind-of love), but they are all functional! The first pieces I threw are the short, fat ones (that light pink one in the back and the white speckled one in front) and then as I got better I was able to make bigger, thinner, pieces like the mugs and bowls.

Ceramics is such a process. Cutting and wedging the clay, working on the wheel, letting things set-up and get leather-hard, carving, trimming, making and attaching handles, bisque firing, glazing, final firing. I think it is really neat how ceramics relies on all the elements – earth, water, air, and fire.

I’m so glad I took the time to learn this new skill and to spend time with a friend while doing it. I wish I had more time and energy to keep doing it! I’ll be back again sometime! In the meantime, I’ve been enjoying drinking my morning tea out of a nice ceramic mug I made myself!

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Bedroom Design Inspiration

April 25, 2015March 27, 2018

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, then you might know that our bedroom décor has always been the thorn in my side of our house. It has just never been what I’ve wanted it to be, despite many small changes here and there (I will give it credit and say that it has come a long way from where it started…). It is a small room with great natural light, but the wall color has always been wrong, the bedding has never felt put together enough, I’ve been searching for the right nightstands for years, the headboard is too long for the bed, and I’ve yet to get the curtains where I want them. I do love Drew’s dresser and our gold pharmacy style lamps though.

I’ve had some ideas of what I wanted to do in here for a while (neutrals with black and white and pops of color, mixed patterns in the bedding, open wooden nightstands with a drawer, simple, breezy white curtains…) and it is simply time to make it happen. One of the best ways to get a clearer picture of where to head with a room is to go back over your Pinterest boards and look at images of rooms that you’ve pinned. You are guaranteed to find a pattern across the images when you look at them together. I think this is one of the best ways to really visually see your style emerge.

For me, that means a room with neutral bones (neutral walls, flooring, headboard, furniture), different scales of patterns (geometric, organic, florals), and both soft and deep jewel toned colors (plum, teal, mint, raspberry, lavender) in places that can easily be swapped out when I want a change. I also love deep, dark caramel wood tones and gold and black hardware.

I already knew all those things of course (look at the rest of my house and my style in general), but it always helps to see other rooms that fit within your style and what you like/don’t like about them.

So what is on the to-do list for this room?

Nightstands (after over four years of searching, I finally found and ordered ones I loved, but unfortunately they ended up being out of stock and it just wasn’t updated online! I was so sad when I got that order cancellation e-mail! Back to the drawing board.)
Curtains (simple, breezy, white)
Bedding (I love Kerry Cassill’s block printed textiles and I’ve been eyeing that West Elm duvet for years! I really want to design my own patterns and have them printed on fabric for some of the bedding though!)

Those are the main areas I want to address, but there are also a few things on the “maybe” list:

New rug? The one we have is fine and neutral, so I might not change it, but it is a little too small and I like the idea of the rug adding in some extra pattern.
Paint the walls? (for the 3rd time…) When we moved in, the walls were a tan color with reddish/orange undertones. I hated it. So we painted it what I thought would be a nice creamy white, but it turned out too yellow. Finally last summer I got tired of the pale yellow, so we painted it a warm grey color that we already had the paint for (it is the same color as the office/studio). It is definitely an improvement, and I’m glad we tried to use what we had, but the color reads totally different than it does in the office and looks too blue in the bedroom. I really want it to be a nice creamy white (like our living room color). But I want to see if changing up the bedding and curtains makes me like the current color more.
New headboard? I do love the history in our DIY old door headboard, and it has gotten a couple makeovers over the years to help me like it more, but it drives me crazy that it is too long for our bed. It sticks out like 8 inches or so on each side. It is heavy and is attached well to the bed, but it does move/shake around a little when you get into bed or move around. I would really love something that is upholstered and is softer on my head when I sit in bed to read. (also see next point)
New layout? Our room is tiny, so there isn’t a lot of room for re-arranging, but lately I’ve been wondering what the bed would look like centered under the windows on the back wall. I think it could look great, but our current headboard is too high and covers up way too much of the window to make it work. I might try this layout if we decide to switch the headboard.

I’m excited to finally have a relaxing retreat in our home that I love! Stay tuned for the progress!

P.S. Click here to see what the bedroom currently looks like.

All images used in the design board above can be found, with sources, on my “for our apartment” Pinterest board. If you can’t find something you are looking for, let me know in the comments below.

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California Roadtrip

April 16, 2015March 27, 2018

Drew and I just got back from an amazing vacation! We spent just over 8 days taking a road trip across California!

The map above gives you a good idea of our route. It isn’t completely accurate, because Google Maps would only let me put in 10 destinations and we went to several other places in the San Diego area. In general, this is where we went:

Friday, April 3 – Fly from New Orleans to San Diego, California. We got there around 6 p.m. and Drew’s brother, Wes, his wife, Trang, and their 8-month old baby girl, Aili, picked us up from the airport. We ate dinner at home with them and stayed with them in La Mesa, California.

Saturday, April 4 – We all had a lovely breakfast together, then Drew went to work with Wes at Societe Brewing, stopping along at a coffee shop along the way. Trang, Aili, and I got ready and went to North Park to walk around in some cute shops (loved Pigment). Later on, we picked up Drew and had a nice lunch. We had a nice afternoon walking around at Sunset Cliffs (one of my favorite spots in San Diego!) and then stopping by to eat some raw desserts at Peace Pies. We headed back home, prepped dinner, Drew and I took a walk around La Mesa, we visited with Wes once he got home from work, and ate dinner. After dinner and more visiting, Aili went to bed, Trang and I had a great time chatting about fabric design and our business dreams and Wes and Drew went out to check out Fall Brewing, Counsel Brewing, Toronado Bar, Hamilton’s Tavern, and a burrito shop for him to get a California burrito (with french fries in it).

Sunday, April 5 – Drew and I took a nice morning walk around La Mesa while Aili took her morning nap. Then we got breakfast from a restaurant called The Mission and ate it at the Cabrillo National Monument, overlooking the ocean and San Diego. Then we visited Torrey Pines beach, Coronado Brewing, Ballast Point Brewing, AleSmith Brewing, and had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant before heading back home. Drew and I were exhausted from travel and the time change, so we fell asleep at 6 pm! We woke up later to visit some more before going to bed again.

Monday, April 6 – We woke up and had brunch at The Cottage in La Jolla, then spent the morning hanging out at La Jolla Cove (another favorite spot in San Diego!). The weather was so nice, the water so beautiful, and there were some sea lions sunning right next to us on the beach! We walked around in some shops in La Jolla, had some awesome gelato, then left to drive around San Diego a bit more. We drove up to Carlsbad, California to check out Pizza Port Brewing and walked around there and went to the beach. We also went to Lost Abbey Brewing (can you tell that Drew and Wes are into craft beer!?) and then had tacos for dinner. We spent the rest of our last evening in San Diego visiting with Wes, Trang, and Aili — Drew and Wes sharing some great beers together, as always.

Tuesday, April 7 – We had breakfast together one last time, before packing up our stuff to head to get our rental car. On the way, we stopped by a gluten-free bakery in Santee, California (my great-grandpa used to live in Santee). Drew and I headed up the coast, stopping in Laguna Beach, California to check out Kerry Cassill’s gorgeous block printed linens shop (beautiful area too!) and then we continued on, stopping to eat lunch at Joe’s Falafel in Los Angeles (probably a totally random place to go for our only stop in LA, but it was delicious!). We would have explored LA a bit more, but we had more ground to cover and we didn’t want to exhaust ourselves. We did see the Hollywood sign as we drove through. Then we headed up and into the mountains to the Ojai Valley. Gorgeous area with mountains and orange groves. We dropped our stuff off in the pretty little cabin we stayed in, then walked around for a bit, enjoying the scenery, visiting shops, and eating dinner in the little town.

Wednesday, April 8 – We woke up, packed up our stuff, then headed into town for breakfast. The drive from Ojai to Yosemite was gorgeous. We drove through the mountains, seeing green hilly mountains, sharp stone ones, and dusty desert hills. We drove through the Santa Barbara pistachio farms, stopping to get a bag of pistachios to snack on from the Santa Barbara Pistachio Company. We also passed the Sunmaid Raisins vineyards. Then continued on, stopping in Fresno for food/groceries for our stay in Yosemite. We continued our drive into Yosemite where there was snow on the ground!! I had thought that we were going to drive though the Mariposa Grove on our way into Yosemite to see the giant sequoia trees, but I guess you had to go off the main road to see those (and I think the road might have been closed to there because of the snow). I’m a little bummed we didn’t get to see those, but I guess there is always next time!

Thursday, April 9 – We woke up, ate breakfast in our room, then bundled up and headed to the Yosemite Valley Floor to start hiking and exploring. We visited the Yosemite Visitor’s Center, then hiked part of the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls (it was steep and slippery, so we didn’t hike it all). We packed snacks and our lunch, so we stopped on a rock along the trail to eat lunch while admiring the scenery. After that we relaxed for a few minutes by the river, then headed over to hike to Mirror Lake. That hike was much easier and less steep, but Mirror Lake was less impressive than I had imagined. We stopped back by the Vistor’s Center to see the Gift Shop and Yosemite Museum Exhibit before heading back to our car and then back to our room. It was an exhausting day of walking! We made dinner in our room and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and watching HGTV.

Friday, April 10 – Drew and I both developed head colds when we started heading into the mountains on Wednesday, so by this point, neither of us were sleeping very well. I guess this day it came to our benefit, because by 6 a.m. I was wide awake and tired of laying in bed and not being able to sleep, so we got up super early (for us!) and packed up our stuff and headed out to make our way to San Francisco. It worked out well that we left early because we made it to San Francisco by lunchtime. We stopped downtown for lunch, walked around in some shops, and Drew checked out a bar with some local craft beers on tap. After that, we headed to the Ferry Marketplace to check out a gluten-free bakery and walk around the pier a bit. Then we drove down past the piers to get a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge before heading to check into our room. I took a brief nap, as my head didn’t feel good and I was exhausted from lack of sleep. Once I got up, I drank some tea, then we drove through Golden Gate Park, up to a beautiful look-out over the Golden Gate Bridge, then past the Painted Ladies, and on to a little seafood place for dinner. After dinner was ice cream and then a stop at the Palace of Fine Arts and then a drive through Chinatown.

Saturday, April 11 – We got up and had breakfast at Radish in the Mission District. I had the gluten-free pancakes with freshly-squeezed orange juice and Drew had the biscuits and gravy with hashbrowns. Both were great! After breakfast, we headed North of San Francisco to Santa Rosa, California to go to Russian River Brewing, then Petaluma, California to check out Lagunitas Brewing. We then drove around through Napa and Sonoma, admiring the gorgeous lush hills and vineyards, eating dinner at The Red Grape in Sonoma, California. After that, we headed back towards San Francisco to the Berkeley/Oakland area to check out Faction Brewing (amazing sunset views of SF), head to IKEA, visit Rare Barrel Brewing, and lastly to Target to get cold medicine!

Sunday, April 12 – Our flight back to New Orleans left at 6:15 a.m., so we had to get up at 3:00 a.m. to have time to put gas in the rental car, drop it off, get through the airport, etc. So that wasn’t fun! But we made it to our flights on time and got back into New Orleans around 3:00 p.m. (we had a stop over in Dallas). Let me tell you, flying with a head cold is no fun! I woke up that morning with a raw throat and no voice and the change in elevation/altitude hurt my ears so bad! It wasn’t until Monday that they finally popped and started feeling better (although not 100% for a few more days!). I could barely hear all day Sunday! But we were so happy to see our kitty again!

Overall this was such an amazing trip! California is just so beautiful! We saw cities, small towns, beaches, mountains, valleys, deserts, rivers, streams, lakes, waterfalls, hills, orchards, nut groves, vineyards, bays, sunrises, sunsets, and so much in between all in the same week! Drew and I had been to both San Diego and San Francisco before (we got engaged in San Diego almost 5 years ago!) and flying is so convenient, but you just can’t see the same things you do when you drive across a state. Such a different experience! And really, for us, 16+ hours of driving across a week is no biggie. We are used to driving 20 hours (10 there, 10 back) from New Orleans to our hometown in Southern Illinois over long weekends, so this trip, with such beautiful things to see and the driving spread out over several days, was super enjoyable!

Until next time, California!