Scandinavian Grace

Please just tell me when you're sick of hearing about Scandinavian things. Seriously, I realize that it's a little out of hand lately, but I can't help myself. I recently came across the online store, Scandinvanian Grace, and want to magially export everything from the store into my apartment. At the snap of a finger. Ok, ready? SNAP. Nope, that didn't work. (Better freshen up my magical powers.)

I just love the clean simplicity of Scandinavian design with a few splashes of fun patterns. What can I say? I'm a simple lady with some... sass? Yeah, sass. I have to tell you though - my cousin had this exposed bulb lamp at her place in Sweden and I couldn't stop looking at it. The picture doesn't give it justice. It's perfect. When I came home, I Googled everything I could think of to try to find it, but had no success. Then magically, one day I found this site and immediately looked at lighting - and BAM - there it was. It's pretty pricey for what it is, but I'm still considering it. Don't judge me.

I'm also considering these bath towels, flatware and champagne flutes. For now though, I'll just put them on my "one day" list. (That list is getting way too long!)

Found: Lamp, Bath Towels, Flatware, Champagne Flute

The New Girl

Is anyone just as intrigued/excited/curious about this new show? I adore Zooey Deschanel.

Captured

Unbeknownist to me, Stephanie took my camera hostage at Autumn's wedding and snapped some photos of Joe and me dancing. I'm sort of in love with all of them because they capture the moment so nicely. Aren't candid photos the best?

(Thanks for taking photos, Stephers!)

Wine & Cheese, Please

One item on my summer to-do list is to throw a wine and cheese tasting party. Well, this Friday I was able to give that line item a big, ol' check mark! I had the ladies over to do some blind wine tasting, as well as eat delectable treats, including cheese & crackers, grapes, walnuts, dried cherries, olives, salted Italian chocolates and thanks to Baker Erin, some tasty almond-roca-like-goodness.

Ever since I worked in a wine shop years ago, I've wanted to throw this kind of bash. I don't know what took me so long, but I can't wait to do it again! We all brought a bottle of cabernet sauvignon, between $10-$20, but I also threw in a $3 bottle to see how it'd fair. Then I hid the bottles and we got down to business, deciding whether or not the wines were earthy or fruity or dry or tannic. Often times we'd pick up on the same characteristics, which made us feel like we kind of knew what we were doing (even if we didn't)! I also taught them the 6 s's of wine tasting: see, swirl, smell, sip, savour and spit. (But we didn't spit because that's just plain nonsense.)

Now for the party details. I made labels for the wine glasses because it was inevitable that we'd mix up wine glasses throughout the night without them.

Some of the treats, including water to rinse our glass between tastings. (Oh yes, we're so sophisticated :))

I provided a list of possible cheeses and everyone signed up for a different kind, so the cheese platter was perfectly varied - from hard pecorino to ultra-soft triple cream to the favorite of the evening, the drunken goat. Not your typical goat cheese, but very delicious!

An intermission from the food shots. This is when Autumn was trying to "savour" by kind of bubbling the wine to get the full flavor. Yeah, it makes you feel really silly. And you can't help but laugh.

Erin's scrumptious almond roca treat. (Yes, Mom, it's the same recipe you use.)

Concealed wines waiting to be judged.

This is how they ranked, best on the left - which was actually Autumn's wedding wine! The $3 bottle got 5th place. And mine got last! Oops. The wine shop lady must have led me astray!

And the ladies of the evening, right after Erin let out our infamous "there's-no-way-you-can't-laugh-after-hearing-this-crazy-laugh" laugh. Let's just say you'd never think that sound could actually come out of such a sweet face, but let me assure you, it can.

Next time I think we'll taste whites. Chardonnays, perhaps? Or maybe even choose-your-own-white? At any rate, I'm sure it will be equally as fun. Thanks for coming over, ladies! Can't wait for the next wine night!

Back in the groove of things

But I must admit, it hasn't been easy. The long runs feel long, even if they are half the length of my training runs last year. But, I guess that's why they call it training. Less than two months until my next half marathon!

via/Pinterest

La Casa del Mojito

Awhile ago, Joe and I were in no mood to cook. I got off work a little late and he had just gotten off a long stretch of work over the weekend, so we thought we would treat ourselves to dinner at La Casa del Mojito in Maple Leaf - a Latin American-inspired restaurant that offers drums to play at your table and the perfect summer evening cocktail, the mojito - not too sweet, not too strong and incredibly fresh.

It's extremely difficult to choose an entree on the menu because everything sounds so tasty. We decided to just point to a couple dishes at the next table when we ordered, "We'll have what he's having and what she's having." Very sophisticated way to order, I must say. We ended up sharing the pabellon (shredded beef dish) and some sort of pork dish. Both were scrumptious, but we agreed that the beef dish took first place.

I will definitely be making it back to this hidden gem - the little yellow building off of the I-5 exit to Lake City is not to be missed.

P.S. This is how wow'd Joe was with the menu options :)

Summer BBQ Picnic

I've told you time and time again, how much I love me some picnics! So when there was talk about a Friday evening picnic last week, I was all over that. Bring on the grilling, sun, fun people and Straube's amazing peach cobbler shortbread bars! Of course, we also had a special guest appearance from Zeke, who could not get enough of the local wildlife (read: squirrels). It was a delightful picnic that lasted until dark because we didn't want it to end. Let's do this more often, kapish?