Happy Weekend!

Happy Weekend dear readers. How great is this Minimalist Spook dining room. My good friend Kristen decorated this year at her 5 year-old son’s request. She lives in a beautiful Scandinavian-like home in Connecticut and did this just right, I think. I love her style.

What are you all up to this weekend? We’re going to the Circus! I cannot wait. This will be the bebes’ first time under the big top and we have ringside seats. I’m so curious as to what they will think of it all. They’re still pretty young so there’s no telling how long they’ll be game, if they’ll like it, be scared, I don’t know- all bets are off with two 16 month-old little people. Chances are one will love it and the other- not so much, that seems to be the way things go around here. Cin Cin and Happy Weekend!

What I’m Drinking This Weekend:

Cold Heaven Makepeace Pinot Noir: from the Santa Rita Hills in the Central Coast of Cali. Morgan Clendenden is in charge here. Yes, of those Clendendens. She’s married to wild man Jim, the legendary producer of Santa Barbara’s Au Bon Climat, one of the first wines made in the French style to really put the Central Coast on the international wine map. We served Au Bon Climat’s Chard at our wedding. Big fan.

I can’t get enough of the St. Rita hills ever really, but particularly at this time of year. Their pinots are earthly and mellow but yet bright with ripe fruit and spice. They don’t tend to carry that heavy barnyard note that Willamette Pinots do (though I love that too), these Pinots are of a different breed. They go terrifically with fall fare. I’m thinking about making a roast chicken with some roasted carrots and maybe some red roasted potatoes with fresh rosemary- a real roast fest to pair with this beauty. If you have any good roast chicken tips, please send them my way!

I’ve been visiting this wine region since I was an wee Angeleno back in the late 90s, just out of school. Dare I say, it is my most favorite wine region anywhere. A pre-Sideways devotee, I’m always true to these parts. With wacky Dutch-influenced Solvang a few miles down the road, the Lompoc Wine Ghetto, an ostrich farm and Pea Soup Anderson’s in nearby Buellton, this region is right up my alley. I’m a happy camper when the Santa Rita hills are in my house.

A Few Things:

1. A nice reminder of what the weekend is for via Kinfolk Magazine. It would be great to live the weekend this way at least once in a while.

2. I need to get myself an espresso maker on the double so that I mix up these bad boys- Easy Espresso Martinis- a fun idea for a late Sunday brunch party.

3. These Halloween looks are killing me. Little Miss Wintour. Toddlers as fashion icons- come on- these are great. Oh Happy Day rocks out the homemade Halloween goodness with killer creativity and style- three cheers for Jordan Ferney. (Her artist hubby, Paul Ferney, is creating a canvas of our bebes for Christmas via his Commission Project- I can’t wait to see it, what a talented couple). Check out these great homemade Halloween looks via her blog as well- I love that robot, so old school.

4. The ultimate IKEA hack, this kids’ bike was purchased as a stool. Yes, you read that right. I would like to meet the mind of the person that thought this up. Talk about thinking outside the box- how do you look at a stool and think- bike!? I love it.

5. These shoes. Not in the budget I’m afraid, but a girl can dream.

6. This clutch. From one of my favorite etsy shops, somebody better buy this before me.

7. Holy fall feast- I made this salivatingly good mushroom herb lasagna this week via this month’s issue of Sunset Magazine. Made with béchamel sauce and lots of fresh herbs, it’s is completely awesome. For those of you who read this blog, you know I love my Sunset Magazine. It’s a hold-over I think from all the dreamy western trips I took as a kid. That and my mother-in-law used to save her issues and give them to me each month. After she passed away, I subscribed myself and look forward to it every month. For me, their recipes have never failed to make our mouths very happy. I love their travel, wine, interior and outdoor features as well. Big fan, all around.

8. This is hilarious. Real men posing like male underwear models. Bravo guys!

And a few other things:

Alice Munro just won the Nobel Prize for Literature. A master of short story writing, her Runaway is one of my all time favorite reads- haunting and thoughtful, her characters really stick with me.

Can somebody please explain this 3-D printer thing to me. They’re going to start 3-D printing human organs? I just don’t get it.

There is a VEGAN strip club in Portland. I can’t believe I just wrote that, I don’t even get it. Tofu and naked gals, hmmm.

Brown butter and all its wonder.

Did you know that it costs New York State $167,731 just to house one inmate for one year. I can’t understand this. That’s like going to Harvard (almost).

Real Simple’s Smart Decorating Tips for Any Space

Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov has vowed to cure death within the next three decades with his “2045 Initiative”. Say what? It’s all very Avatar involving cyborgs and the “quantum nature of consciousness” and the like. Trippy.

Paintbrush-free indigo mountains by artist Lynn Pollard. These are so dreamy and zen-ful. Lynn paints the mountains near her Atlanta home using a special dipping technique the involves a vat of dye and paper- no paintbrushes here. Check out her work at u-gallery.

I love the color palette of this kitchen.

For all of us that fancy ourselves little Liebowitzes, here’s an easy guide to shooting interiors that I find works well with other still life too. I love that stick figure drawing. I’ve caught myself in that position on the floor many times never to any success.

Diesel has launched a home collection. Look at this crazy couch!

A Francophilian playlist via Anthropologie. I’m always in the mood for some Frenchie tunes. I’ve been listening to the bebes French music lately. They take a little French class every Wednesday morning which is hilarious. They bop around and listen to tunes, play with a giant marionette and tiny papillons. It’s super cute although I’m not sure they’re really learning anything, they do love it. I love it too though mostly I sit there in a full-out sweat hoping that my little man doesn’t throw a fit when he has to put back his rubber serpent or vache. Mon Dieu!

{Images: Halloween Dining Room: Kristen Schaefer, Matches: Kinfolk, Espresso Martini: Emma Chapman, Lasagna: Annabella Breakey, Mini Anna: Sarah Hebenstreit, Ikea Bike Hack: Coroflot}

Related posts: