good ideas

You've heard of reduce, reuse, recycle, and have you also heard of refill?

In the words of Edible Santa Barbara: In an effort to reduce their carbon footprint, Municipal Winemakers sell their wines straight from the tap, in reusable glassware, sealed with convenient swing-top closures.

By using washable glass containers, these wineries not only decrease waste and energy expense, they are also able to reduce transport, labor and per bottle packaging costs, a savings they hope to pass along to the consumer. Labels, cork and glassware can cost the winery up to four dollars, but with reusable containers, customers pay for the bottle with the initial purchase and can return for discounted refills of their favorite wines.

I LOVE this. Chuck and I went to the winery tonight and bought a refillable liter of this Syrah. Unfortunately he won't be able to try it since i will be taking it with me tomorrow...

Here.

In the morning i'll be driving about three hours east to a ranch near the Sequoia's. I'll be spending the weekend with about fifteen girlfriends, some going back all the way to kindergarten! it's our annual (sort of, more like whenever we can make it happen) girlfriends get-a-way.

This is something i look forward to more with each passing year. Here we are two years ago in Bend, Oregon. When i am with these girls (there will be even more friends this time, thank you facebook) i feel like i'm back in highschool, oh the fun we have! I'm almost ready to go... I've got my wine, now where did i put my cowboy boots?

Have a great weekend sweet friends (i wish you were all coming too, couldn't we have a big blog meet-get-a-way?).

♥ lori

p.s. if you live in the Santa Barbara area (and you like wine) check out Municipal Winemakers here. They are even entirely paperless, i signed for my receipt on an ipad and then they emailed it to me. so cool.

oh the sea

closing up shop at the end of the day
i can hardly wait to get to the beach.
last night as i put the key in the door to lock up

and turned to walk down
i thought to myself (once again) how lucky am i
to be able to do this.


on the sand, carefully stepping around newly made sandcastles
and giving the seabirds a wide berth
(they have to fly if you get too close)
i breathed deeply
and sent out a prayer of thanks.

at that moment
my phone rang
it was my girl, in NYC.
"what are you doing momma?"
"here, at the shore, walking, it's so beautiful today"
"please take a photo and send it to me"
so i did with my phone
and it made her happy
and she sighed and said
she misses this.
so much.


i know there are a lot that miss this,
like my child that's away from home
many of her friends (off to school too).
and even some of mine,
and even some of you,

so
i took some more photos,
this time not with my cell phone
but with my camera
the beauty and wonder of the sea...

this is for you:
lindsey, corey, nicky, nolan,
mila, christoph, anja
amanda,

hannah
you!

i hope that this makes you feel better,

just trying to figure how

i can send

a care package

with a little sand

salt water

and ocean breezes too!

♥ lori

last week was the coldest day on record here

five days later

the national weather services thermometer (in los angeles) broke

when it reached 113 degrees.

the hottest day ever.

as soon as i got out of work

i ran to the beach

and jumped in the ocean!
then i made some popsicles.

summer has finally arrived.

p.s. owen got his own little swimming pool in the backyard where he's been splashing happily and bobbing for his toys. he's terribly cute when he's all wet. oh owen.

♥ lori

at the ranch(s)

hee hee hello

more on the alpaca farm below! but first...

after putting my green sleeves in the shop this morning, i walked to the alpaca ranch again,

and when i got back home, i found this! someone made a treasury and included one of my

cozies! (she sent an email, so nice) along with all these others green finds! can you see it? thank you so much!

back to last night, on our way to the ranch,

i felt a little self conscious taking photos, so the ones i took were kind of made quickly, discretely. (so not very good) :(

i also had the wrong exposure set all weekend agg! oh well...

but they do show some of what we saw...






the weather was spectacular




ahh





we took a walk and found a pond on the property, and frogs, hawks,

horses and deer





we ate oysters on the half shell







and then sat down to a candlelit dinner

we were serenaded by an acoustic guitar,

~ and then a pumpkin arrived to take us

back home :)

next morning








alpacas!








the owner of the alpaca farm is south african, some of the alpacas have african names

here is where the wool is sold and new knitting classes are going to be held!

i love it here

bye for now alpaca (and horse) ranch,

have a great week ahead everyone!

♥ lori

green sleeves

the first green sleeves are ready for my shop, but they'll have to wait till tomorrow, this morning i was playing here and tonight we're going here!

each sleeve has been named for a tree. and along with a name, a meaning. i had fun researching these and i learned something too.

i realize that not taking a paper cup is the best policy, and hopefully that will be something that will happen in the not too distant future. i try to bring my own, but it's not always possible. i guess it's still best to do what we can!

mine

(hee hee, i keep changing my mind which colorway i like best)

if you'd like one too, please go here (i'll do my best to get them up tomorrow)

and now, my first customer...

it's Amanda! from Travels with Persephone!

She's here in California for family and came out of her way to meet me!

it truly was like greeting an old friend, we couldn't stop talking and smiling.

I was lucky enough to meet her husband and sister as well. So wonderful.

I hesitated putting up this photo (aggg! here we are! ha ha), but then i thought how better to show the genuine kindness written all over her face. blog friend meetings are like the next frontier heh?

good times.

♥ off to the ranch lori

care packages

I asked my daughter for suggestions, what would be helpful or needed in the care packages that I'd like to send her, while she's at school in NYC. Here is her (unedited by me) response. I think she really would like her bike.
:)



hannah's email,

Subject: What I Want You To Send Me In A Box.‏

Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. Bicycle. And Goldfish.




Love, Hannah Rose.

(haha, okay honey, shipping of bicycle is on the list) :)
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :



in other news, THE SUN CAME OUT.
living under a blanket of fog for months,
made seeing the sun today
SO sweet.
i walked down to the beach after work
and felt like a person seeing for the first time,
shadows, sunlight glinting off the water, color.
i waved hello to the horizon
my husband is out there for three days
working.
if you look closely at the video, you might see them.
the islands he's on.






this day was like a care package for me :)
thank you so much for all your kind (super nice!) comments on my last post,
i so appreciate every single one. i think i'll have a shop update coming soon!

♥ lori

*s.i.w.e.f.

dear diary,


:: this week my eldest son turned 29

:: he called breathless "i was on a paddleboard two miles off the coast, we were surrounded by at least twenty migrating blue whales!"

:: my youngest girl called " i got a job!"

:: my youngest boy called also "i got in! "(the school he was hoping for)

:: my middle son sent to me in the mail a letter and an apple gift card! he said have fun!

:: my oldest child made a commercial for lexus

:: my husband was offered a job as editor of a (big) magazine (he had to turn it down though)

:: my sister heard my mom sing the words to a james taylor song



i felt immense joy and pleasure at all these things
(* so i won't ever forget)

then i
took a hike
visited a gallery where my friend has a showing
spent four days with my dear friends here from germany
went on a date with my husband
showed a friend how to knit cables and she gave me some of her handmade beeswax candles
and then, after work, i started working on these...

i am going to call them green sleeves. the embroidered patch is my own design, the knitted pattern is found here. instead of wasteful paper cardboard sleeves, i hope others will want to try these reusable cozies. they keep your tea or coffee warm and keep your hand comfortable. because a comfortable hand is important indeed!

little friends approve of the soft wool

and now for the winner of the give~a~way

nice to have helpers

3 years housewife and bhavana! congratulations! yes, it seems i couldn't help myself and chose two, please email me with your addresses, thank you everyone.

♥ lori

p.s. thank you so much from Chuck (and me too!) for all your kind words on my previous post, i love that photo of him!