I've often talked about our day trips on this blog and when we go day-tripping, it's often in this little guy, my husband's restored and most beloved 62 Corvette.  Oh, this car is so much fun!  It makes you feel happy, and people smile and wave when they see an old red Corvette on the road, and I don't think I often see my husband as happy as when he's driving Little Red. 

It's such a perfect little car.  It's all shiny sexy red on the outside, and vintagy nostalgic in the interior.   It goes vroom vroom just like it should and purs like a tiger when it's idling.  It's been in the shop for a long bit, and when we finally got it back our first outing was to the coast.

Local olive oils.

Local honey.

Copper garden tools.

Marinated Artichoke Hearts

Hey Miss Bella, how did you sneak into this post?

Hello!  I've been awol from my blog and blog reading.  Summer gardening and some trips have kept me busy, but wanted to show off the garden before I go off on another trip to take my mom to her high school reunion in a small farm town in southern California.


But first, look what I won!  A beautifully squishy soft 450 yard hank of grey alpaca/bamboo mix won from Lori over at Knit Zilla.  She raises alpacas and will soon be offering her yarn for sale.  But right now she has another give-away on her blog so rush right over and become a follower, that's all it takes to enter her give-away!

With it I plan on making the Stripe Study Shawl by Veera with the equally gorgeous cream alpaca/silk blend from Silver Springs that I got from Stitches West.  These two yarns are so soft and pretty, I'm sure it will become a favorite.  I also love that they are from animals that live in the US plus they're milled here too.




Our 39th anniversary was last week and we went to Waterbar in San Francisco.  We LOVED it, the atmosphere, the food and the view.




It was a perfect place to celebrate and we will definitely go again.  I don't know if you can tell from this picture but to our left there were two round 2 story fish tanks in the main dining room and to our right was this view of the bay bridge.  Amazing.


The garden is keeping us busy.  Watering and weeding and harvesting is never ending but it's all part of the rhythm of summer that I cherish so much.





One last thing, we had a fun day at my lys, Uncommon Threads.  The rep from Madeline Tosh was there with a sample of every yarn in every color that is offered.  You can imagine how exited we all were, much better than a candy store!


I love the frenzy created by women in love with yarn, and naturally got caught up in it (!) and ordered some beautiful ToshDK in a pink named Vintage Sari and also, Robins' Egg, a pretty turquoise for a scarf.

All the best, Kristen

Just in case you missed the most adorable video ever!

A lunch to honor the Fellowship Committee in charge of all the food happenings at our church.  Excellent cooks, tireless workers, always with a smiley face and a kind heart.  Ladies, you deserve a break today.  Let's have lunch!

We started off with champagne and sparkly lemonade.   Have you tried Sofia?  It's from Coppola Winery, and named after his daughter who directed one of my favorite movies, Marie Antoinette.  The winery is a very special one in California's wine country history and is housed in the historic old Inglenook Winery.  It's a beautiful setting plus it has a fascinating museum of memorabilia from all the great  Francis Ford Coppola movies.  Fabulous and a MUST see when you visit the wine country!

The roses below are from David Austin's English rose, Graham Thomas.  A beautiful true medium yellow and a prolific bloomer that grows into a very large bush.  Dainty flutes are from Napa Style and pewter tray is Donatello from Arte Italica.





The table was set with mother's Imperial Candlewick and my aunt's goblets.


The table cloth is ancient thick linen with a beautiful hem, purchased at a Stanford University rummage sale for a song.  Big score for my linen stash. 


All the roses on the sideboard and dining table are also from David Austin.  This one is The Pilgrim and is a pale lemon yellow and is as pretty as a petticoat.   From another very large and prolific bush in my garden.




The vases are from a collection of old vintage medicine bottles and canning jars that I found in my grandmother's basement.  The napkins are from my collection of Le Jacquard Francais.


On the menu was this beautiful first course from Ina Garten, tiny wee puff pastry goat cheese tarts.  Try it!  You must!  A seriously delicious little treat using frozen puff pastry which I love love love to use because it's so easy and using it makes a big splash!  Like you've really worked hard and been cooking all day.  But you haven't. 

I used fresh herbs plus beet and chard thinnings from the garden and made them smaller since it was lunch.  I have an abundance of radishes so they were included for some spicy crunch.


Here is a picture of them before they went into the oven, they tasted even prettier than they looked.


Main course was provided by Maryann, my sweet co-hostess.  You can find the recipe for her Curried Chicken Salad here, (oops, not yet) on our new cooking blog, Presbyterians Can Cook! moderated by moi.  It's in it's infancy, but we felt it was perhaps the easiest way to share our recipes with each other, but of course you are invited to the blog cooking party too!  I'd love you to follow us, we have some great cooks that will be sharing their favorite recipes.


Dessert was served in mother's vintage Rosenthal champagne coupes.   We still have 10 and I love to use them for dessert these days.  I crumbled brownies into the coupe, added fresh blackberries, topped with chantilly cream and raspberries.  Scrumptious.