Friday, October 18, 2013

In my spare time...


I need 2 additional end chairs for my dining room table but didn't want to fork out $200 a chair. 
My friend had 2 ladder back chairs in her garage and was wonderful enough to let me have them. (Thanks Selene!) 

I have been wanting to experiment with chalk paint and thanks to my good friend Sarah Hartman with Dirt Road Decor, who passed along her chalk paint formula, I was able to turn these outdated chairs into bright, fun pieces.

My first project (completely experimental) was this:
$5 end table. Ugly, but has potential, right?

This was the perfect practice piece. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. 

Chalk paint is fun to work with and covers pretty much any surface. I have many more things I'm anxious to paint but just haven't found the time. 

But I did pick up some fun upholstery fabric for $10/yard, and this is my next inspiration.....
Stay tuned!





Monterey Bay

Kaleb had a week off for fall break and Eric was able to take 3 days off of work so we could turn a weekend into a long weekend at the ocean. 
We really had no intention of going to Monterey to begin with, but everyone I have talked with have told me Monterey Bay is a must-see and the Aquarium is amazing, especially for kids. So we started looking at motels in the area. Surprisingly, we found rooms for $69 a night - that weren't a dive and decided to go for it. Very, very glad we did!

The history of Monterey is fascinating. It originally was centered around a sardine canning company. Now, they have turned this into a huge tourist attraction called Cannery Row. 
Part of the aquarium is actually in the old sardine factory. 

There's tons of neat shops and restaurants on Cannery Row. 
Like Ghirardelli Chocolate - where they were handing out free samples!

Of course the boys wanted to check out the ocean right away so we found a beach, which is not hard to find in Monterey. 
They had been in the car for 5 hours so we let them run, but it was getting close to dinner time and we could smell the aromas of some amazing food. So we promised them we would spend 1 entire day at the beach, cleaned the sand off of them and went in search of seafood.
Which of course is not hard to find around these parts. 
We ate at Bubba Gump's - look how cool the kids meals are - served up in a boat. 
This was a fun place to eat, not to mention we had a ocean view at our table and watched a sea otter playing around in the ocean while we ate.

We started our first whole day with the aquarium because the boys were too excited to wait. They knew there were sharks and that's all that mattered from that point forward.

Creepy eels. 
Nemo fish
Sea horse
JELLY FISH. (My favorite)

We spent about 5 hours in the aquarium. We packed a lunch and rented a locker to keep it in, so the $113 we spent to see the aquarium was not bad and well worth it. (The food at he aquarium was very expensive.) 

There was SO much to experience and it was highly educational for the boys. 
I could have taken 100 pictures in the aquarium, but had to limit myself. 
They also have a viewing deck and after we saw everything inside, we went outside and saw dolphins swimming and playing in the ocean. There had been some whale sightings the past few days, but we didn't get so lucky.

Highlights:
* sharks, hammer heads and leapard sharks
* watching the feeding of the penguins
* jellyfish
* sting and bat rays
* sea horses
* kids play area amongst all the tropical fish aquariums (so mom and dad could sit and chill)
* touching the star fish
* watching a documentary on sharks in the amphitheater
* looking through the telescopes on the viewing dock
* the gift shop, of course, which included the purchases of 2 more stuffed animals, ugh!

Day 2: Carmel by the Sea (located just below Pebble Beach Golf Course, where the rich and famous play, $350 green fee, is all)

See the golfer (probably rich, ha ha, maybe famous)

And look what the little treasure hunter found: a famous golf ball!!

Do not go to the beach without a plastic bag for shells, otherwise they end up in your pocket. 

Weather was PERFECT. A balmy 72.

Sand bomb in hand.

We had to drive the famous stretch of coastal road called 17 Mile Drive. This, for my Montana friends, is equivalent to the Yellowstone Club. The homes are immaculate and big and beautiful. I didn't get any pictures of the houses, because quite frankly, who cares about ultra-wealthy people's big houses. We were there for the sea and the air and the sea lions.
Hard to really see, but take my word for it, the rock island was COVERED in sea lions, and there was a lot of barking going on. They are noisy creatures. We ate a picnic lunch here.  So cool!
More shells and nearby, the discovery of barnacles on rocks. (See, they learned something from the aquarium)
We went through 2 change of clothing between sand and water. They were covered!
LITERALLY!

Cypress trees, these trees are so beautiful.

The Warf:


The warf is smelly, but you get use to it.
These guys were so fun to watch. Notice the 2 laying up on the railing. How on earth do they get up there and how can that be comfy?
Was getting dark, but directly behind the boys down 2 steps was a lone sea lion, barking like crazy. The boys could have spent all evening watching him, bu clam chowder was calling.

Lo and behold, we found a place on the warf to have chowder - lol! Almost every restaurant on the Warf is competing for business. They stand outside and hand out chowder samples claiming to have the best, most original recipes. We got enticed into one place that offered a free calamari appetizer. The chowder was amazing. Any chowder is going to taste better in a clam shell bowl though.

Saying goodbye to Monterey the next morning. We went back to the Warf for the famous crepes we had heard about, and then strolled down the beach nearby for one last hurrah. 
We will go back, with one agenda, to go out on a whale watching tour. 
There were many whales spotted on the tours and we know that would be worth seeing.




































Apple Squeeze

This was the epitome of a fun-filled fall day. I'd never been to an apple squeeze - but I have picked my fair share of apples over the years. This event, however, is a little different. It all starts wih a huge apple orchard with all different kinds of apples. The owners of the property invite people to come pick all their apples, then groups of people help de-stem and rinse the apples before another group of people run them through a press to make fresh squeezed apple juice.

It was neat to be a part of all this apple juice-making activity. 


Picking apples was fun for the boys - especially operating the apple picking "cherry picker" stick. I'm not sure the actual term for this. :)

The press. This was quite fascinating to watch.

After grinding several baskets of apples and stacking up layers of pulp, it will get slid over (picture above) to the left and pressed.

Apple juice starts flowing into the bucket. This is bottled in gallons and sent home with the people who showed up to help! 

Look who got in on the pressing action...

And then they even fed us an amazing lunch on their beautiful property.


See how dirty Jaxon is? This is a sign that a fun day was had.

We froze our 2 gallons of fresh apple juice, upon the advice our friend, who is a seasoned apple-squeezing veteran. We'll break out the good stuff (unpasteurized) and throw it in the crock pot with cinnamon sticks for a special holiday beverage.