summer road trip: first stop

Our first stop was at Tara's. mr. a-go-go and I camped out with her and family for a few days before we hit the road. We hit up an antique store and a thrift or two but mostly we talked...and talked...and talked...mister did not have to play Barbies with Alaina but he may have had to play Monster High, I couldn't tell ya...Tara and I were too chatty (and it is possible I did my best to convince them to move to SLO, I'm ever hopeful).

So chatty in fact that nary a photo was taken save for an antique mall adventure and a last minute click happy moment to document the wee bit of crafting we managed and a peek at Tara's lovely home. Can I tell you how much we adore Tara and her family? Having got to see them twice in six months I can almost imagine we're actually in the same town even though we are not because if we were, I'm not sure we would get anything done.

Until next time my friend, here's to good talks, good eats and good (crafty) times!

oh yes...there was a trip

I spent too long editing our road trip photos. It was a month ago and not one peep on the blog-o. Sigh. Once again my head is too full to write. So for now, here is a wee bit o collage fun so you can get the picture...

a few pics from the weekend...

pinterest: homemade horchata

 

 mr. a-go-go loves himself some fresh horchata. Having lived in Los Angeles we were mostly able to eke out the natural from the not-so-natural. Sadly, too many eateries serve a mix-based beverage. We have yet found a place in town up here that serves a freshly made horchata, so when I found this pin, I went for it. The recipe comes from A Wooden Nest and is so super easy you could begin a batch right now! The next batch will have a smidge less sugar and a smidge more cinnamon. Happy Horchata-ing!

who needs a workout?

I went to the thrift yesterday with the sister a-go-go. Not just any thrift mind you, THE thrift. Wednesdays are their half off days and their base prices are generally happy even without the added discount. When mr. a-go-go arched his eyebrows and me going thrifting, I told him I wasn't planning on getting spend-happy but that I was looking for a few specifics...jeans, printed t-shirts and of course...a suitcase or two.

I came out with a full-sized tie-quilt in all sorts of 1970s brown and blue calico glory, a large floral printed fabric suitcase, three pair of jeans (sadly only one fit), a zillion yards of a most awesome grey and floral fabric, two vintage dresses and a dozen or so tops both for wearing and cutting. The damage to my wallet was just under thirty-smackeroos. I now wish I had picked up the vintage burnt orange office chair. But still...I am more than thrilled with the quilt, fabric and suitcase. I am now also recovering from workout arms. Which is what I get by bundling the whole shebang pver one arm at a time whilst I scroll through the racks. Seriously folks, my arms are T I R E D !!!!

Who needs a workout when you can shop AND strength-train?

Pictures coming sooooon.....

it was hot i did nothing aka whoozy, wheezie, wonky

 It was hot yesterday. Really hot. Hot even by non-central coast standards. I hit up the market pretty early in the morning planning to prep everything for meals when I got home but I pooped out due to the heat. For the past two weeks, when I hop into Eleanor in the morning the temp has consistently been 58 degrees. A nice 58 degrees. Yesterday when I hopped into the car an hour earlier than usual it was 72 degrees. I knew it was going to be hot.

I love grocery shopping. I really do. I especially love it in the fall. The root vegetables are dominant, their jeweled tones all flashy and pretty. Halloween sweets are on end-caps, pumpkin spice everything is everywhere and coffee and tea call out to more than usual...that is...when it is not 80 bazillion degrees outside. Well, maybe that isn't all true. I did come home with rainbow chard and a butternut squash and a pumpkin to cook up. I however did not actually do any prep work or cooking. Instead I enjoyed a bowl of marshmallow cereal and then a jar of iced coffee followed by a jar of iced water and for dinner it was yogurt and fruit. Like I said...it was too hot for any cooking or prepping. I couldn't even muster up a crock pot adventure. I looked sadly at the browning bananas on top of the microwave and wished I could make banana bread without baking it. I should have made a smoothie but the brain got all cloudy from the heat.

On the plus side, like I said, pumpkin spice everything was at the market and so I quite enjoyed my trip to Trader Joe's (yeah, I know, not that I can actually smell pumpkin spice anything but the memory is there so allow me to bask). It helped that I remembered to replace all the cloth bags in the car as we took them all out for the road trip. My little town now charges for plastic bags...go little town! I took advantage of the air conditioned market and noodled my way from aisle to aisle as I obsessively crossed items off my scribbled list. I remembered my list! Go me!

When I got into the car for the drive home the temperature had shot up to 86 degrees. Guh. As I threw my plan for prep work out the window I stopped at a red light and wondered at the large number of geese honking overhead. It made me smile, seeing all those geese honk-honking away. It made me smile even more to see the guy on the corner miss his crosswalk wander as he stopped to crane his neck and goggle at the gaggle overhead.

Ten minutes later as I hit my side of town, the temp was a smidge under 100 and it was only 9:15 or so. I got all the groceries put away and enjoyed my bowl of dessert cereal before a most joyful and epic phone chat with my favorite all around friend. Hours later found me wanting to be productive but all I could muster was a read and a laugh at my other favorite all around friend's work post. Tara and I had been chatting about deadlines and such and I was looking forward to seeing what she came up with for her It's a Wrap post at the Crate Paper blog. My laugh was out loud when I saw what she did, it was brilliant...it IS brilliant. I laughed because we have an inside joke about being psychic twins and well...up there is the picture of my wee pile of crafty bits I had planned to work on before it got to hot. My plan is for something altogether different than her lovely tags but the supplies are pretty much identical. It helps that I got to shop in her craft closet while on our trip. If you aren't familiar with Tara's style please take a looksie.

And now I babble. It was hot, I had things planned. I got to talk to Stacey for two hours, I picked up a little here and there, I watched a Netflix DVD and whined about the heat. The tiny casa warms up a bit but still is much cooler than outside. I put together a couple of music mixes for some young people in my world and took advantage of the mama a-go-go's ceiling fan and television. By the time we got home and were trying to sleep, the heat of the day combined with the allergies that the wind brought I found myself whoozy, queasy and wheezy. I should have had more water throughout the day. I barely slept and now it is 5am-ish, I'm up and on my second jar of water. It's warm already. I hope it doesn't heat up as much as yesterday. I got kiddos to wrangle and food to prep and possibly a library adventure and fabric excursion. Hello Fall!