Monday, January 9, 2012

More from Michigan

Here are a couple more pictures from Michigan from the day before Christmas Eve. This was the most snow I encountered during my trip. Just a light dusting, really. We all took it easy at the house in the morning, except Daisy, who watched for and chased squirrels that tried to steal food from the bird feeders on the deck. Then we went into town for a little shopping. A couple scarves later, we stopped in at the new spice store in town. It smelled wonderful but all the choices were overwhelming. I ended up with two bags of fragrant loose tea which I'm hoping will last me a while. After, we stopped at the market to pick up ingredients to make this ribolita recipe from Heidi, which was absolutely delicious! It's my new favorite soup recipe. But don't try to make it on a week night, it takes some prep time. And it tastes even better the next day. I also made these after dinner, but they did not turn out very well. Can't win them all, right?







My grandma wearing my sister's ear muffs :)


This is about a quarter of the spices in the store. I loved the big jars and the rustic shelving. It's like a little spice cabin. They had a whole shelf of different salts from specialty sea salts to infused salts. And different kinds of chocolate to eat or to melt into warm milk. Bonus points for the big, super-sweet dog.




Friday, January 6, 2012

Life's a Beach


Hello! I'm don't know about you but I am very, very glad it is Friday. I know this was a short week, but it didn't feel that way to me. Here are some photos I took a couple weeks ago on my way home from getting my hair cut in Half Moon Bay. I decided to take the scenic route home and stop for pictures. It was less foggy than usual along the coast so it was very bright, but still kind of misty-looking. I have plenty of pictures to share from my Michigan trip so hopefully I'll have a chance to sit down and get through them this weekend. I'm hoping my weekend consists of: a latte or two, a chance to sleep in, editing photos, a new recipe cooked/made and possibly some de-cluttering, which actually makes me more excited than it really should.


By the way, I don't know these people but I couldn't resist taking a picture of them. They were pretty much asking for it. I like to take street photography to the beach, no big deal.


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Happy New Year!

Hello and Happy New Year! I hope your holidays treated you well. I have a lot of pictures to share from my trip to Michigan. Though everyone told me I would suffer a terrible amount of snow and a bitter cold I had never experienced, I didn't. The snow arrived late, about two hours after I left. Good thing I forced my zombie self onto the 6:15 a.m. flight instead of the noon flight. As for the cold, without snow we didn't do much outside so my exposure to the bitter chill of air was limited to me walking (or trotting) from the car to a store, restaurant or other well-heated building.

Here are some pictures of my Christmas starting with cranberry sauce for our Christmas Eve dinner and some handmade ornaments and ending with a walk in the woods on Christmas Day. It was lightly snowing and I was able to get some pictures of the dusting of snow before it all melted away.
 
 
 
 
This is my sister and grandma "acting natural" after they discovered me taking their picture through a twiggy bush.
And some sort of berry, of which my grandma suggested I take a picture.