Filoli

So call us crazy, but we took an afternoon trip only days after getting home from Milwaukee. We'd be wanting to visit Filoli since seeing this article back in March. W has been back to work full time since finishing school. His weekend is now Sunday and Monday which doesn't work for Filoli with it being closed on Monday. Work needed him on Monday night which replaced his normal Tuesday. So with Tuesday now open, we took the opportunity to go...even if we were trying to get the house back to normal and E on his regular routine.

Our drive to the property

 Loved the trees out in front

The estate is located in Woodside, CA and is just breath-taking. The whole grounds and inside the mansion as well. After watching a video on the property's history, we took a self-guided tour through the mansion. 

W was definitely coveting this kitchen and this safe.

 My two favorite rooms were the above sitting room and the library.

I would die to have one of those ladders with wheels that moves across the shelves!! {the small ladder on the far left}
 This is what E thought of the whole place:

  Clearly, amused by his parents choice of the afternoon activity. ;)

And the ballroom was amazing! Decorated with beautiful chandlers, floor-to-ceiling paintings, Tiffany blue paint and gold accents! Would love to have been invited to a ball here in the early 1900s.

Walk-in fireplace...because, you know, every true mansion doesn't just have a walk-in closet.

 From there we headed to the 16 acres of gardens.

Right after this entryway was an area that totally reminded me of the Secret Garden. Up the staircase that's behind me was a platform area set up for a wedding. How cool to get married here?!

In the rose garden we found a very awesomely named rose even if there's a typo. ;)

W took a picture of me smelling my rose.

Love me some weeping willows!

 "Time Began In A Garden".... love love love this!


We had a great family day date and are definitely planning on coming back in the spring time. It is truly amazing how much volunteer leg-work goes into keeping this place presentable. Could you imagine the time it takes to dust? No thanks! I can hardly keep up with my 1,500 sq. ft. of space! But we're thankful that the last owners, the Roths, donated this place to the National Trust of Historic Preservation. What a privilege to see such beautiful creations, both man and God-made!

Live. Love. Local.

My dream come true is to have a pretty sustainable veggie garden, fruit trees, and some chickens. We wouldn't necessarily live in the country to do this, but we definitely do not have the space to make this dream a reality for now. A girlfriend of mine buys all her dairy products locally from a farm at not much extra cost and has done a good amount of research on diary, which I love. But the choices around here tend to "break-the-bank."

I'd been researching some local alternatives for several months like drop-boxes and home deliveries, but none were really what we wanted. So I was super excited when I found out we have a CSA member farm right here in town. Then the idea was shelved for awhile until our local newspaper did a story on them recently. After chatting with friend who was also excited about the idea and with the farm at farmer's market, we finally decided to become a CSA* share-holder and split the share together. I figured it was the perfect way to test the waters. I'm beyond stocked!

Every Friday, we'll head to Terra Bella Family Farm to pick up our crop share. For $15 a week, we support a local farm and get the best/first selection of their vegetable and fruit crop. This farm also partners with two other certified-organic farms and a local bakery. Getting to take Ezra with me to visit a farm weekly is just another added perk! So although we're far from our own sustainability dream, this is a step in the right direction.

Thanks, Stef, for getting this ball rolling!! ;)

*Click the CSA link to find a local farm near you.

We're Ready!

Hope this autumn's a cold one.

Firewood, Anyone?




...in other news, look what I haven't killed yet!!

A Garden Of Cacti

William found The Ruth Bancroft Garden through our recent Via. {We actually get a lot of our vacation and day trip ideas from that magazine. It reminds us of a place and I'll research a more frugal B&B. Via inspired our Oakhurst/Yosemite anniversary trip.} So, even though the weather was lousy, we packed up a lunch and headed out to see some cacti. We were lucky in that it was a "Plant Sale" day so admission was free.

 The garden was beautiful in an unconventional way. It held all sorts of different species of native Californian plants & many cacti we had never seen before. Although cacti aren't really considering pretty, we definitely loved seeing all the colors, sizes, funky design, and shapes.

Sadly, Ezra pretty much missed the whole thing, but we were so excited that we traveled both directions without an angry baby passenger! I hope he's growing out of the "I-hate-my-car-seat" phase.

The Chicken and The Egg

Last night I posted on my facebook status that we eat so many eggs that we really should just get our own chickens. Well, one thing I like about facebook is that people comment! :) And a friend from college told me about this amazing website. Wow!! I would seriously like to own a chicken or two, which reminds me that I need to resurrect my veggies garden too. I don't think we have enough space right now, but I'm not forgetting this website if we ever re-locate!!


(photo from backyardchicken)

Art Under the Oaks

Yesterday we went to see Art Under the Oaks at

It's the first time I've ever been to LIvermore's Alden Lane Nursery & boy, was I wowed! They have the most spacious & beautiful grounds. William & I walked around the plants & checked out the local artists' booths. Another fun & free event. Gotta love our area, so many great things to do!


And we enjoyed some yummy shaved ice too. It was so hard to walk out of there not spending any money. So many pretty plants, garden decorations, and art.

Bon Apetit

I made my chef husband drool tonight...Bet you can guess where those tomatoes & basil came from :D

Muhahaha, it's alive!

Our jack ('n the bean stalk) is bearing us beans! Just look at those baby bell peppa's. And one of our tomatoes is actually the color of red. Booya! The leaves are looking kinda dead even though I water them every day & a lot too. Any gardeners who know about wilt-y leaves? Or how about when we can actually start picking & eating? Those two details seemed to have escape me when I planted them. :) Still working out the kinks...guess, it goes to show how much faith I actually had in growing something edible. Didn't think I'd get to this stage...hee hee

Update on Garden

Silly, I know..but I need to post more updates so here's one... about my ever growing garden. We have over a dozen tomatoes growing from the one plant I potted awhile ago. I also have 2 baby green bell peppers now and the green bean vines are crazy. I now completely understand the whole 'Jack & the Beanstalk' thing. This thing is a monster & started to take sun from my other plants. I'm so hoping that the flowers will soon bear some beans to make this giant thing worth it! :)