Photo of the Day (6.28.11)

Today's photo: A slice of Madonna Inn pink champagne cake.  We just got back from our fancy dinner at the Madonna Inn and we got this tasty slice of cake for it being our 3rd wedding anniversary.

Photo of the Day (6.27.11)

Today's photo: New farmyard fabric that I got over the weekend.  I saw this collection online so I was excited to find it locally at the Cotton Ball in Morro Bay.  Again, I don't know what I'm going to make out of it, but it was too cute to leave behind.

Photo of the Day (6.24.11)

Today's photo: Tiny daisies growing in our backyard.  They have sprung up with all of the weeds, but they are so cute that I'm not pulling them out.

Photo of the Day (6.23.11)

Today's photo: The fabric for the curtains I'm making for my parents' little teardrop trailer.  Graham is helping my dad build the cabinets, while my mom and I work on decorating it.  We're trying to work on it as much as we can before our annual Big Sur camping trip in July.  It's looking really good so far.  I told Graham he should write a post about the progress and share some pictures.  I'll be sure to show the after shots of the curtains.

Wedding Wednesday: The Food

We really lucked out with the food for our wedding reception.  We were lucky enough to have a family friend who is a caterer, and was willing to do the food for our wedding.  We were able to work with her and have everything that we wanted.

We started with a "lemonade hour" after the ceremony.  Lemonade, mimosas, and water was served as well as a beautiful spread of fruits, veggies, and cheeses.  I'm sure it was all as delicious, as it was beautiful but we were so busy taking pictures and hugging people that I hardly got a chance to see it, let alone taste it.

We did get to enjoy the food at the reception.  We couldn't settle on just one thing, so our buffet was a multicultural feast.  We had enchiladas, lasagna, salads, and more, as well as thai food from our favorite thai restaurant.  And it was all delicious!

We were so glad that our friends that own Jasmine Thai Cuisine in Morro Bay were able to personally deliver a tray of one of our favorite dishes.  And they were also able to stay for the ceremony, before they had to head off and open the restaurant for the day.

All photos by Allyson Magda

Photo of the Day (6.22.11)

Today's photo: Wild rose of some sort on my walk this morning at Sweet Springs Nature Preserve in Los Osos.

Photo of the Day (6.21.11)

Today's photo: I found this picture on my computer and I realized that I never posted about painting our bedroom.  Back in April, when Graham went to Augusta for work, I painted our bedroom.  I made the wall behind the bed striped using painter's tape.  I like changing something around the house every year as a surprise, but I think he's beginning to expect it.  We're really happy with how it turned out, it adds some interest to the otherwise blank wall.

Blogger was giving me problems last night and wouldn't let me add my picture to the post, and since a photo-of-the-day without a photo isn't much of anything, I waited.  So here it is tonight.

Photo of the Day (6.20.11)

Today's photo: Little cement bird planter that came from Miner's Hardware over the weekend.

I also recently upgraded to the premium version of Picnik, so I've been playing around a little more than usual with my photo editing.  By the way, I love Picnik for my simple photo editing, as I don't have (nor do I know how to use) Photoshop.

Photo of the Day (6.17.11)

Today's photo: Funky ceramic owl that guards our front door and our black-eyed susan vine.

Photo of the Day (6.16.11)

Today's photo: Treetops in Morro Bay.  I was playing around with my camera while Graham was pumping gas the other day in Morro Bay.  I think I better go out on a little photo expedition because I need more pictures to post for the photo of the days.  We'll see what we are up to this weekend.

Garage Sale Saturday

Last Saturday we got up early and headed to San Luis to go to garage sales.  I made a list of all the garage sales I had found on Craigslist the night before and then I left it at home, so we just wove our way through the streets until we found them.  We also made a stop for donuts to fuel our adventure.  It was definitely a popular garage sale day.  Cal Poly had just let out, so students were prepping to leave town and the weather was just beautiful.

We hit one where the woman told us she was moving that week and everything had to go, so make an offer.  I found a nice Pyrex Spring Blossom 2.5 quart casserole dish for 25 cents!  When she said 25 cents, I was like, "25 cents?!" and she told me I shouldn't question the prices.  I really was shocked though, I was willing a pay at least a few bucks for it.  So I happily handed over my quarter.

A little later Graham found something he was looking for too.  He found a vintage Royal typewriter.  Our plans are to hang a bunch of old typewriters on the wall in the office.  So we added this one, for 10 bucks, to my cursive typewriter that I already have, and we'll keep looking for more to add to our collection.  We tried it out when we got home and it works well if we ever want to use it.

That was all we brought home with us, but we had plenty of fun.  We ate donuts for breakfast and that always makes it a good morning in my book.

Photo of the Day (6.15.11)

Today's photo: Scrub jay in the backyard, here to enjoy the bounty of food at our bird feeder.

Wedding Wednesday: Tableware

The tableware was something that we thought long and hard about.  After all the thinking much time was then spent to complete our plan.  We thought about renting and then we thought about disposable.  There wasn't a big kitchen on site so it would be difficult to wash any dishes, so we were leaning towards disposable dishware.  I was very picky though, I still wanted it to look nice, and I wanted it to be as environmentally friendly as disposable dishware could be.  I looked for a while and then I finally found bamboo plates and flatware.  It had a very natural feel, that seemed to fit in at our garden party.

So, that solved the problem of plates and flatware, but what about cups?  We looked at plastic cups and plastic cups made of corn, but weren't really satisfied with the look.  Then Graham came up with the idea of using second-hand glasses.  That started our mission to find water glasses, champagne glasses, and water carafes for all of our tables.  We decided to just use a mixture of all different shapes for the champagne glasses including flutes, as well as the cute little coupes.  We scoured thrift shops and garage sales for weeks.  Our favorite spot was the Goodwill Outlet store in San Luis Obispo where you just dig through boxes of dishware and pay no more than 50 cents a piece.  Sometimes when we'd bring so many up to the counter, the clerk would just make a guess and it would be even less than 50 cents.  After finding them we made sure to wash them thoroughly, including a sanitizing iodide bath.  We definitely had a lot of fun finding all of our glasses and it was also a lot of fun for our wedding.

We picked out special glasses for ourselves and our wedding party.  Mine was a light pink color and Graham's had a fancy rim.

Our guests seemed to really enjoy the different glasses too.  We even let them take them home if they wanted to!  Some of our guests were even able to collect whole sets of glasses at the end of the day.  The water carafes were a surprisingly popular item among the guests too.  We have friends that use theirs on a regular basis.  If I were to do it again, I think I would even do it for the plates too!  Just make sure you have plenty of time to collect them all.

All photos by Allyson Magda

Photo of the Day (6.14.11)

Today's photo: Brass holiday wreath hanging over our fireplace.  It's a really cool wreath with little animals and figures for just about every season and holiday, so it gets to stay up year round.  I did some research on them and apparently some people call them friendship wreaths, but nobody seems to know when they were made.

I was taking photos of our garage sale finds from the weekend and decided to snap some pictures around the house (that's where this one came from).  I'll post about our garage sale treasures soon!

Photo of the Day (6.13.11)

Today's photo: Lavender in our backyard.  I've been working in our backyard a lot, trying to get all of the weeds cleared out.  Hopefully soon we will begin work on our backyard landscaping project.  Right now, it definitely looks better when most of it is out of focus.  We're really looking forward to have a backyard to really use and enjoy.  I'll be sure to take some before photos to share.

Photo of the Day (6.10.11)

Today's photo: The sunset in Morro Bay tonight.  Graham and I went to dinner at Bayside Cafe tonight and then I snapped a few photos before we headed home.

We plan on heading out to some garage sales in the morning, so hopefully we find some good stuff!

Photo of the Day (6.9.11)

Today's photo: Trees out in the backyard on a sunny day.

Photo of the Day (6.8.11)

Today's photo: House finch on the bird feeder in the backyard.  We set up my new feeder pole and accessories.  The birds seem to like it, maybe I'll make a post all about my bird feeding.

Wedding Wednesday: More Succulents

I already talked about how I had succulents in my bouquet, and there were succulents on our wedding cake. Well, we also used succulents as our wedding favors.

We ordered a bunch of little 2-inch succulents online from Cactus Limon.  I was worried about getting the succulents through the mail, but it was the best price considering we were ordering over one hundred of them.  The succulents all arrived at my parents' doorstep safe and sound in a big box.  We got little terra cotta pots at Michaels (they were having a sale on all the pots and we went to a few locations to get enough), then we sponge painted them to look mossy.  We planted a little succulent in each pot, then topped them each with sea glass that my mom and I had collected.  I put all of the succulents out in my back yard to stay in a nice sunny spot until the wedding, and they were doing great.  That is, until the weekend before our wedding when there was record-breaking heat.  It was something like 110 degrees in our backyard, and it was too late for some of my little succulents by the time that I thought about them.  Some of them were really wilted and sun-burnt so I had to go out and buy more locally.  The wilted ones made a comeback, not in nearly enough time for the wedding, but now I have them growing in our backyard as another reminder of our wedding.  After that, it was smooth sailing for the succulents (and for us), as it was a lovely 70-ish degrees on the day of our wedding.

I really loved our choice to use succulents as the favors.  It is so much fun to hear from our guests, a few years later now, that they still have the succulents from our wedding.  It makes us feel good to know that everyone is still caring for and enjoying them long after the wedding is over.

All photos by Allyson Magda

Photo of the Day (6.7.11)

Today's photo: Monty enjoying our new dining room rug.  He's been sad since we replaced the carpeting with hardwood, so now he has a pretty rug to roll around on.

Photo of the Day (6.6.11)

Today's photo: Zippers that I ordered on Etsy.  I got a sample pack of all different colors from Zip It Zippers, so now I can make more pouches with some nice zippers.

Photo of the Day (6.3.11)

Yesterday's photo: Somehow, I completely forgot to post a photo yesterday, I didn't have anything in mind, so I think I just forgot.  I went out and took a few photos today, so now a delayed photo for yesterday.  It's a tiny garden gnome in a pot on our porch.

Photo of the Day (6.2.11)

Today's photo: French onion soup for dinner in our little blue Pyrex mixing bowls. Tasty.

Mendocino Trip

The day after my birthday we left for a long drive up to Mendocino.  We made a nice long weekend out of our trip as a little birthday present to ourselves.

We stayed for 4 nights at the Stanford Inn in Mendocino.  The inn was beautiful, especially the grounds.  We had a wood-burning fireplace in our room and spent most of our time just relaxing and enjoying the view.  Included in your stay at the inn is breakfast from their restaurant.  The restaurant serves vegan food, and you get to just order anything you want off of the menu.  The breakfast was tasty even though I'm not a big tofu fan (I still can't get past the texture), Graham liked the tofu though.  I loved the potato dish they had that was country potatoes, beans, cashew cheese, onions, peppers, salsa, vegan sour cream, and avocado.  I had that two days in a row. Mmmmm.

The inn is alongside the Big River.  That's its name, I didn't make it up.

The gardens at the inn were beautiful.  Some of the gardens are used to grow fruits and vegetables which are served in the restaurant.  There were even llamas at the Stanford Inn!  As well as a pond with ducks.

We also visited Glass Beach and the Botanical Gardens in Fort Bragg, just 10 minutes north of Mendocino.  Glass Beach was as awesome as always.  I get so overwhelmed there because normally I would pick up every piece of glass I see at a beach, but there is just so much glass at Glass Beach.  I'm sure you never would have guessed that from the name.  The botanical gardens were also as beautiful as always, lots of blooms, and also frogs.  We also ate our favorite ice cream in Fort Bragg at Cowlicks, but I don't have any pictures of that because I ate it all too fast.

We made ourselves a tasty lunch one day of crusty bread, apples, and cheese from a co-op grocery store in Mendocino that is inside of a cool, old church.  We also made mimosas and ate the fresh-baked cookies the inn gave us.  Speaking of cheese, on this trip, I also discovered my favorite cheese ever: Herbs de Humboldt Chevre by Cypress Grove.  It was so good with crusty bread and apple.  You should go get some... and share it with me.

We also explored some of the local state parks such as Van Damme and MacKerricher.  We saw a bazillion banana slugs, but for some reason I didn't photograph any of them.

 

Our trip was awesome, and as always I can't wait to go back.  It was just so nice and relaxing.

Click on the panoramas below to see them full size.

  

 

Photo of the Day (6.1.11)

Today's photo: Canada goose at Laguna Lake last night, he was also enjoying his dinner.

Wedding Wednesday: Groom's Job

Tonight's post about our wedding focuses on one of the refreshments, the homemade beer. I was not going to be a groom that would sit by idly while my soon-to-be wife had to figure everything out. The only problem was trying to find something appropriate for a groom to take part in. The answer wasn't hard to come up with. One thing weddings absolutely need are drinks, and in our case beer was a necessity. With the wedding taking place in the summer we wanted to offer a refreshing summer beer. Blue Moon seemed to fit that bill, but we didn't want to just go buy the beer, we wanted to make it. I had already crafted a few beers and had all the equipment necessary to make beer so we just needed to figure out how to create a wheat beer that tasted similar to Blue Moon. The guys down at Doc's Cellar, our local beer and wine supply store helped out immensely. In about 3 to 4 weeks we had a great tasting beer in time for our wedding. We made the labels ourselves using Julie's label maker.


So if you know any grooms out there looking for a wedding job point them to their local beer supply store and get them going on something they might actually benefit from.


All photos by Allyson Magda