Back from the windy city!

I had the absolute best weekend in Chicago (and Carol Stream/Bloomingdale/Wheaton)! Saturday we packed up and headed out on our adventure to Illinois, it was a frosty cold morning so me and my mama warmed up inside while my dad braved the freezing temperatures to go hike to the rental RAV 4. Luckily the snow had stopped so we had a lovely drive through Wisconsin before we got to our final destination.

When we finally got all checked in to our hotel we headed over to my friend Boofys family's house for some real Chicago style pizza. After dinner I got to meet some of her friends and her boyfriend Rob. We spent the evening visiting and playing with her friends Ali and Scott's son Aiden (who is just way too cute and obsessed with watching fans!).

The next day we headed out to the city for a day of fun with Boofy and her sweet mom as our tour guides!

We started the morning off with some amazing applecider doughnuts from boofy's bakery that she picked up for us! Once we made it out of the parking garage (we got a little lost) we headed over to my new favorite shop where I bought some postcards, Christmas presents, a surprise for Chris, and some a few treats for myself! I absolutely love Chicago, there was celebratory Obama merchandise everywhere, so boofy and I bought Obama sweatshirts to keep us cozy warm!

After doing some shopping we wandered around looking at all of the cool art Chicago has! We especially loved the gigantic silver bean!

I also loved the ever changing faces... I could have stood there for hours watching them change!

Our last big stop was to Macys, formerly known as Marshall Field to see the Christmas decorations and the famous Walnut Room!

I fell head over heels for the top floor of macys, this is my dream window... ahh if only I could wake up to that every morning!


Boofy and I snuck in to FAO Schwartz even though we were probably the oldest ones in there with out babies of our own! While lusting after the sweet little dresses in the Ralph Lauren section for my future baby girl we felt sorry for the headless mannequins so we started a "Save the headless mannequins foundation!" (donations can be sent to my paypal hehe)

On our walk back to the garage we made a quick stop off at Garret's popcorn, the best place for popcorn in Chicago (or anywhere for that matter). I also picked up the most amazing peanut butter chocolate toffee there which I have been slowly savoring!

Once we got back to Bloomingdale we dropped boofy and her mama off, said our goodbyes and headed over to Barnes and Noble so I could check my lap top before bed (the hotel's wireless wasn't having a good day). As I was sitting there sipping on my herbal mint tea and chatting with my sweetie I turn around to see Boofy! She had been over at Rob's but he was sleepy so she decided to pop in and hang out awhile more, so we headed back to my hotel and stayed up late visiting and laughing in the lobby!

My last morning in IL boofy took me to "my store" (boy was she right on that one!) called it's our earth in Wheaton. I had a field day in there browsing their antiques and unique crafty things! I ended up buying two packs of vintage hair pins (one with birds and the other with forest friends) and a flattened glass bottle, that I think will be perfect to set on my nightstand and toss my rings in before bed!


(Boofy purchasing the cutest ornaments and me with my glass bottle)

After that we said our goodbyes and I made her promise to come visit me in California and I'd show her all the cool places there! We hit the road again with only a few little stops. One including the sweetest antique store where I found a vintage orange juice pitcher and 6 glasses all with tiny pink flowers on them! I also checked out their selection of antique art deco rings : ) Found my dream ring in amongst them! It seemed like it took forever to get home but we finally made it back to my grandparents house for a dinner of delish homemade pizza!

Life in the forest

Nothing feels more like winter than being at my grandparents house in the woods! It's so beautiful no matter what window you look out of it's filled with trees and soft sunlight. Thank goodness for that sunlight today since we kept loosing power due to the tiny storm we had this morning. Me and my grandma stayed inside making headbands and necklaces while the rest of the family was outside splitting wood for the colder months! I did slip outside to snap a few pictures of them working though as proof that the Californians can get ready for a Minnesota winter! When it got too cold to take anymore pictures my grandma and I came back inside and she took a box down filled with antiques to show me that will one day be mine. I wanted to take home this tiny little plate that's about 100 years old to hang on my wall that I've been working on. I'm just too nervous to bring it on the plane, if it got smashed I would be devastated! After all the wood was split us girls headed out to scour the craft shops for material and silk flowers. We had a very successful mission! I ended up with yards of chiffon and veiling plus more ranunculus stems than I can count! I think I'm set with plenty of crafting supplies for the rest of my 10 days here (plus I have all the goodies in my grandma's craft drawers). On the way out of hancock the woman told us it was supposed to snow tonight. I got all giddy!

Anyways I should be off to sleep, I'm going to my grandma's gourmet group luncheon tomorrow at 11:00 and since I'm still on CA time that feels like 9:00 to me! I need to be up nice and early so I don't have to fib about not having eaten breakfast 30 minutes before I got there!

Let it snow!

We've finally been getting lots of rain but I'm so in the mood for snow! Don't mind the fact that it's only snowed here twice in my life! I'm going ice skating tomorrow so that will be close! I think the let it snow headband I put up for sale a few days ago is the ultimate ice skating accessory! It's just so retro and sweet.

I'm off to write a paper for Folk Literature and the Arts while enjoying the drizzly weather I can see through my window!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Goodness

When I was attempting to make an un-sweet birthday cake I ended up finding an amazing recipe for chocolate peanut butter bars. I've already sampled them a bit so I can attest to their wonderfulness. They still were pretty sweet.... but really.... whats up with hating sweets anyways?!

(On my favorite desert plates from William Sonoma with my cute little noritaki tea cup I picked up at the estate sale this morning in the background!)

If you're a fan of Chocolate and Peanut Butter (and who's not?!) you absolutely must try these!

Ingredients:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 cups powdered sugar

2/3 cup peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips, melted (6 oz.)

Directions:

Combine everything but the chocolate chips, and press in a greased 8x8" pan.

Spread melted chocolate chips over top with a spatula, covering entire surface. Chill 2 hours.

I added some crushed peanut butter oreos on top of the chocolate before chilling, I also cut back on the powder sugar a bit (trying to make it less sweet!). I must say this was the simplisest most delicious recipe I've made in a long time.

Bungalow featured in a treasury!

Bungalow's Catherine Dress Gloves were featured in this amazingly beautiful treasury! I feel so flattered to have been picked! Here's the link to the treasury http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=30335

I'm off to bake birthday treats for my boyfriends birthday!!

Girls Day!

Today was very eventful! Ali and I have been talking about wanting to go to the Turlock flea market for awhile now but since it opens at the crack of dawn and I'm a sleepy head so it took a long time to get the oomph to go. So I crawled out of bed at 6:30 AM and drove to turlock. I saw it was on East Ave (right by one of my favorite thrift stores) and that isn't the best area of Turlock, which is so sad because it's a beautiful neighborhood filled with old sweet homes. As soon as we got going and turned the corner we saw two women trying to push an enormous pick up truck so my mom stopped and asked if they needed any help and we got out and helped them push, then the woman across the street from us drives up and gets out too, when in moments we had that truck moved. Us girls in the "hood" are pretty darn strong! So after that little ordeal, I gave Ali a call, woke her up, and told her I'd be a couple minutes late because we'd been rescuing some neighbors! When we finally got to turlock, it was in just as scary a neighborhood as I had guessed. So I call Ali to tell her to wait to get out of her car until we can meet up with her, but instead I get her sister because she accidentally left her cell at home. I go in to a panic because the place is mobbed and I'm not seeing her cute little prius anywhere near. Finally my mom and I park down the street and hike it in when I see a familiar back in front of me...I called out "Ali!?!" and thank the Lord it was here... we were all freaking out! No one likes to be lost without cell phone in scary parts of Turlock.

We were pretty discouraged when we first walked in, I was listening to air musique (the french radio station) on XM on the drive there imaging it would be like the Paris flea market (ok well I knew it would be nothing like it but I was hoping!). Instead I should have been listening to the Spanish channel because at first it looked more like little Mexico, which was fun too! Just different than the antique shop owner I met in monterey told me it would be. She drives 3 hours at 4:00 in the morning just to come to this flea market so she gave me high hopes! Once we got past the stands of veggies, socks, and contact lenses I found the treasures! I found the coolest pendant and cabochons (which I've already made something out of!), and these super retro wall hangings (some of which I'm spraying white and putting up for sale on Bungalow and the rest are going on Appleschloss!). My mom found this amazing Danish (which is our heritage) table cloth, it's been well loved but it'll be beautiful when my parents remodel the kitchen. It's white with blue embroidered seagulls on it, perfect for how the kitchen will be decorated!

After we scoured through the market (which I eventually began to love) we headed over to this amazing retro diner Latif's for breakfast. It was like a trip back in time! So cute! Once we were satiated we wandered around downtown turlock looking for the bakery who's sign we could see out the window. Sadly they had gone out of business but on our hunt we found my new favorite store, Vintage Rose Interiors. I had a field day in there, it reminded me so much of Anthropologie. I bought a sweet little card, and these gorgeous recycled grocery bags for my grandma and aunt, of course I couldn't help but pick up one for myself too. They were just so unique, very feminine and my whole family loves beautiful eco friendly finds! So I think they will make the perfect Christmas present. It's a husband and wife who own the store. The husband and store mascot (a tiny little dog in a basket named Winston) were working there today and they couldn't have been more welcoming! Fresh coffee offered, beautiful free gift wrapping, I'll be back there often! That is just the kind of store I dream of opening. Everything in there is on my Christmas list now!

I want this!

Isn't this ring gorgeous??? I was browsing through etsy today and now I want the "connected" heart ring so bad! Everything in soulyyours's shop is amazing! Go check it out! http://www.soulyyours.etsy.com