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A Little Tidbit + Reading List Below!

K, just had to post something awesome. It's funny how you put things out there on the net & forget about them and sometimes they just find their way back to you!
I posted a DIY Wine Shelf on this here bloggy quite a bit ago, and also shared it on Casasugar in one of the groups. They liked it enough to post it on their main page at the time, and not it has made it's way into a new little post called "How to decorate with wine crates"
Unexpected and fun! 
Check it out. Don't forget to check the first book of the reading list posted below if you'd like to participate!
hey, it's my kitchen!
The product of my DIY work.
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A Little Summer Reading List, Book One

So if you read my blog on an anywhere-near-regular basis you know that I have grand ideas that many times may or may not come to fruition 
I blame this on  my mom.
I don't know how yet, but I know it's.her fault. She probably didn't feed me enough leafy greens or something.
Damn that woman. lol I kid, I kid. Obviously she did something right because here I am living and breathing.
Ok back to the point ( sorry it's Friday or as I call it "Everyone has ADD Day"), I had a little project in mind that you probably thought I had forgotten, given-up on, danced-around or burned at the stake with all my other failed projects.
If you thought that, you were wrong!
In the time you spent eating your daily meals, getting your nails did, and thinking I was a flake, I have been scouring the earth for a good read or two.
I'm sorry that's a lie. Do you want to know how I found the first book in the Little Girls Summer Reading List?
I will tell you my secret if you promise not to think less of me.
I found the book that you (some of you) agreed to join me in reading, on one of my favorite celebrity gossip sites.
I know, how embarrassing!
Anyways I was reading somewhere that HBO was coming up with a new series based of yet another book. Now since I am a fan of almost all things HBO I thought, great I can finally get a chance to read the inspiration before they produce the show!
And if any of you watch True Blood you know that HBO series can be full of cheese & great subject matter for a lite summer read. 
So my first book that I will be reading and you will be pretending to read following along with, is 

The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death
"With a style that is razor sharp, an eye that never shies from the gritty details, and a taste for stories that simultaneously shock, disturb, and entertain, Charlie Huston is one of a kind. And The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death is the type of story–swift, twisted, hilarious, somehow hopeful–that only he could dream up.

The fact is, whether it’s a dog hit by a train or an old lady who had a heart attack on the can, someone has to clean up the nasty mess. And that someone is Webster Fillmore Goodhue, who just may be the least likely person in Los Angeles County to hold down such a gig. With his teaching career derailed by tragedy, Web hasn’t done much for the last year except some heavy slacking. But when his only friend in the world lets him know that his freeloading days are over, and he tires of taking cash from his spaced-out mom and refuses to take any more from his embittered father, Web joins Clean Team–and soon finds himself sponging a Malibu suicide’s brains from a bathroom mirror, and flirting with the man’s bereaved and beautiful daughter"

So ladies, it's your challenge if you are willing to accept it. lol. It sounds a bit outrageous and macabre, but that's my fancy. Did any of you like Six Feet Under? I read somewhere that Charlie Huston uses black humor & I said to myself, sign me up! I love postmodernist absurdity. I'm hoping this will read something like a John Irving novel but it may be wishful thinking. Oops don't want to give too much away because book number two might be a John Irving classic. ..
P.S. I am only sharing one book at a time because I'm coming up with them as I go along lol.
So is life.
I will have the participants posted on my sidebar ASAP since the reading list is officially starting!
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My Feelings Exactly. . .

Thank you Edith Saylor Style for this little treasure
I've got a bottle of rose champagne that I'm just dying to pop open!

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Pretty in Pink

Sometimes (often after a long vacation) you return to reality to find that a day is just too much, and you need something, anything to make it lighter. I say lighter on purpose. Not happier, cheerier, jollier. Sometimes days can just weigh you down, drag on and on, run you through the muck. 
And then, if you are a creative soul like myself (which I know you are!)
you get an idea in your head. Which no matter how ridiculous it may be, you are physically compelled to carry out, you just know it will make things better and you are determined to carry through.
So it came to be that I made a bright pink mini cake. Pink cake, pink frosting, strawberry topped.
The plan was hatched early on and during lunch I obtained the pans necessary to carry it out.
Thank you Sur La Table.
After work the rest of the necessary ingredients were procured. 
Finally, around seven o'clock in the evening, my masterpiece was born.
The bright pink cake of my dreams.
And you know what? It did cheer me up.
I hope it brightens your day as well.
In the end when you've cut it down the middle, split it in two and devoured its' most delicious center
you find that you feel a little bit better about your long day at work. :)
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Napa is for Lovers

of good food. good wine.
And a feeling that you just took a few steps back
to a different place.
A delicious time
When hidden jewls lay
just waiting to be found
and plucked
and savored.


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O.M.G. Love; Looks Good to Me

Time for a little break from sharing my Napa goodness.
Because, contrary to my current sentiments
there are other great things out there besides Napa Valley & red wine.
Or so I hear.

One of these great things I just discovered is the blog & illustration of Looks Good to Me
As you may know, I am obsessed with great illustration.
Especially anything involving watercolors!
So thanks to a new commenter
I was introduced to my newest art interest.
It's like melting ice cream on a hot summer day.
Love it!

I am just loving Caroline. She illustrates all my favorite things: wine, food  & fashion.
Check her out.

**Oh ps I wanted to share the fact that Aaron Brothers is having a penny sale! I found it out when looking for a photo ledge online & I headed over to our local shop.
Awesome! Buy one frame, get one for a penny.
You cannot beat that, especially when you want to frame some recently purchased prints!**
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I Left My Heart in the the City of Vines, Part Two

Day one of vacation and it was picnics and Pinots (ok, not just pinots but it sounds so good right? Lot's of red wine) lol
We headed to Regusci Winery, as we heard it had a sweet spot for picnic lunches.
We heard right. 
Surrounded by olive trees (they make delicious olive oil) and Cabernet grapes
we took in the scenery and enjoyed a casual lunch.
I swear I was in heaven.
Add a few pudgy--pudgy is putting in kindly, these doggies were quite the chubsters lol-- Corgi's guarding the grounds and a very kind server
who allowed us a taste of their $125 estate Cabernet and it was a really great beginning to our day.