Bright Lights...Big City

I still have not found my camera cord so I have not posted anything in awhile..Soon...maybe tonight I will go on the hunt again!

Anyways I got some great news today at work...I am going to NEW YORK...not all fun and games though..going for a week to work work work however I know I will manage to make sometime in the evening to wine and dine and take in some bright lights of the city! My co workers in New York seem to be excited too that I am coming back and promised to take me to see the sights...it's been almost 3 years since I been to New York and it was in the winter so it was hard to go out at night when it was freezing cold and snowing but this time it will be Summer in New York!
I don't know the official dates yet but it will be in the next few weeks..I am so very excited...Good thing I got a head start on my workout and diet..gotta fit into my fashionable attire for a least one night of Cosmo's in the Big City!

No Photos..

So once again I managed to loose my camera cord ..so I will not be posting up any of the pictures I took this weekend til later in the week ( If I find the cord).
anyways the weekend consists of BBQ's, Wine, Friends, children, Lemonade stands and tons of shopping....stay tuned!

The Summer To Do list..lots of vino

There are so many things I want to do before the summer is over and so many things I have lined up.

First Stop is the OC Fair! The hubby and I with the kids go every year. We like it cause it is much smaller then that LA county fair (which we go to that every year as well) and we can pretty much see everything. We love to stop and do a little wine tasting at their wine court area and go see shows and let Parker go on rides and play games. Usually every year we hit up a concert too but there is really no one I want to see there this year..except maybe for that Smiths Coverband for shits and giggles.

Moving along Gabe and I are dying to get out annual passports renewed for some warm summer nights and cool fall days at Disneyland. There were due in February but it was right before the summer months and I don't care for going to Disneyland in the dead heat of summer and the crowds..oh boy the crowds

Gabe and I usually love to go do a wine tasting at California adventure before we go into Disneyland..it's like our normal routine..it's just small tastings but it helps us relax through the hectic grounds of both amusement parks

Every summer Gabe and I take the kids (well now kids since I have two now) to the Water park. We usually go to wild rivers cause it is cheap and it has less hills to climb like Raging waters. We took Ava last year and she LOVED it. Of course we could not take her on major water slides but she had fun floating was us down the lazy river and they have a kiddie water park play area that she had a blast in. I think this year though we will go to Raging waters or maybe even Soak City..since we are considering also getting annual passports to Knott's as well and it includes Soak City....No wine tastings here....

SOLVANG!! It is a must that I get to Solvang again and take advantage of the free tastings I get through all the wine clubs I have joined there. I was just here a few months ago but I really could go once a month to this place. It is just so beautiful and the weather is always perfect!
Paso Robles would be another Must go to place as well!

For years I been saying and Planning to go to Glen Ivy Hot springs and this is something that I have to Full Fill! I don't think this will happen until the fall!

Speaking of Fall it will be Off to Vegas to meet up with our friends from far and close and have swanky cocktails at the 3rd annual Mondo Lounge weekend. Gabe and I went to the first one and it was a complete blast!

Here is a brief description of What Mondo Lounge is all about..

Mid Century Modernism, Las Vegas, Hollywood Glamour, Lounge Culture, Rat Pack Shenanigans, Martinis, Cocktails, Vintage Fashion, space age, Atomic era, exotica (ala Les Baxter, Esquivel), the fox trot, Eames era Style, 1950's, 1960's style, Bachelor Pad, Minks and black ties, stereophonic sounds, tikis, fezzes etc..

Of course I know I been on the fence with going to Tiki Oasis but it looks like we will be going! I have a few great pals that offered to let us crash with them in their room and I told them we will probably take them up on that offer...I am so excited! Time to get my Cabana wear ready and drop a few pounds while I am at it!

Anyways I know there is a lot of stuff in between coming up we are working out friends such as a few BBQ's, a couple cocktail parties, Dinner Parties, and some scooter events so I better get my Vespa all polished up.

Party, Party , Party

We had a incredibly busy weekend. Friday started off with cocktails at the Tiki bar at the corner of my work and ended up with more cocktails at home which I used a Ginger Lemonade mixer that gave me the worst indigestion I ever had and ended up calling the night a early one.

Saturday however was going to be a marathon day of activities...I originally had 4 events that I RSVP's too and had all intentions of going to every one of them but unfortunately only made it out to two.

We were off to Whittier for a Surprise party for Issac. I have to say their place is AMAZING for parties. They have 2 BACKYARDS!! One with a Pool and one with all this shady greenery. My camera was on it's last leg and I could not get very good shots and it was delayed when i would try and snap it.

Gabe was having fun mingling with the crowd

There was lots of food, drinks including Rum Infused strawberries and jell-o shots, and lots of good vinyl spinning on the turntables.

Let the dancing begin.

Look at those Jello shots..I only had one..if this were the only party I was going to I probably would have indulged in some more.

There was a ton of people there..it was Great fun!

The Birthday boy was having a blast dancing

Good times

Amazing pool Huh!

I don't know what was going on her but It was our cue that it was getting late and we had other places to be. We were on our way out to head to The Grove for a Duel Bachelor/Bachelorette party but we noticed it was way late to make it there and were a bit concerned about drinking and driving from there to our next location in Long beach and it was already 10 pm so we just went to our next stop that was closer to home.

A few scooters out front of The Basement where we went to.

Sitting down waiting for my cocktail. The basement is a really cool Underground club/lounge in Downtown Long beach. My friend holds his Mod/Soul club there once a month.

The inciters played that night...they were incredible!

We met up with Sean and Julia..they showed up right before we did

It got really crowded and we saw so many of our friends we had not seen in awhile there. We had two cocktails and socialized for awhile then we were both tired since our partying started at 4pm. So Gabe and I made a B line for the front door and grabbed some good ol greasy fast food before we went home.

I have to say it was a pretty good Saturday..I just wish I was two people so I could have went to all my events I had planned for.

Great Thrift Store Finds

So as you all know I love the hunt of finding a good treasure or two at local thrift stores and Boy did I find a couple great items this past weekend.
This is a awesome old vintage sewing chair

It opens up to store all you sewing needs and is in excellent condition. I spent twenty bucks for this but seems worth it.

This very awesome bowl set with Horoscope designs on it..17.00

I figure I would use this for maybe serving chips and using the smaller bowls for assorted dips.

Or I can serve some Ambrosia salad in them...so many things to do with it.

I think these were a couple of pretty awesome finds!

A Sneak Peek inside

So everyone has been asking about when they can come check out the new house. We have been lagging behind on the decorating but did manage to put some stuff up but there is still a lot of priming here and there but here is a sneak peek. Soon we hope to have everyone over for a cocktail party.

Well most of you have seen the bar already.

The House
Weird angle of the living room

One side of the living room. The end table will not stay there and I will probably be putting up tall lamps on each side of the buffet table

The couch- I have this one temporarily until I have the money to re upholster my vintage mid century couch

AC!!

Parker's room is a disaster at the moment

Ava's room...so much more to add to her room..but we got the curtains up!

The backyard..as you can see being well used

That's about it for now. Can't wait for everyone to come over and see it in person....

Suburbia is not complete...

Without a good ol faithful Milkman to bring fresh milk every week.
Today was the first day of having fresh Milk delivered to our doorstep from Rockview Farms. Rockview Farms is located in Downey which is not far from Lakewood where we now live.

When I read how there was still good ol fashioned Milk Man out there hard at work I knew I had to have it.

The Milk is not too much more then what you would pay at the grocery store and I love that it is delivered Ice Cold at your doorstep within 72 hours of being milked from the cow.

This morning I woke up at 5:45am and Gabe checked the door at 6am and there was a gallon of Milk and a Half gallon there of chocolate milk for the kids and the menu of extra things that we can order fresh from the farm such as sour cream,whip cream,half and half,butter,yogurt...they also will deliver fresh baked goods from a local bakery and a box of organic local grown vegetables!

On the last Wednesday of each month I am billed for my products I ordered or I can slip a check for the milk man underneath the welcome mat. I just LOVE it!

One day I hope I am up early enough to meet our new Milk Man..I hope he is cute (hahaha Just Kidding)

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Since we have a backyard we been spending a lot of our family time hanging out and BBQ'ing.

Yesterday my great uncle Jr brought over two bags of freshly picked vegetables from his garden.
There was zucchini, roma tomatoes and regular tomato's,cucumbers,green and red pepper, green bell pepper, green beans, artichokes and green onions.
I thought since I had so many vegetables a good homemade salsa was in order. Gabe had a few tastes and said what would be even better if we bought some crab meat and cilantro and made a fresh crab ceviche..Fantastic idea.
Gabe and I both thought what would be really great with fresh spicy and fresh crab ceviche...Margaritas!!

I had a whole fresh pineapple that was needing to be eaten so I skewered up a bunch of chicken and added some of the fresh pineapple and bell peppers and onions I got from my uncle and Whipped up a smokey brown sugar sauce and made some kabobs for dinner.

While the Kabobs cooked we sat outside in the backyard and listened to music ate and watched the sunset

Our little Margarita set up in the backyard.

The neighbor has been bringing us HUGE avocado's and they are pretty damn good. We chopped big chunks of it and added it to our ceviche

After dinner and a few rounds of very powerful margaritas ..Parker brought over the neighbors little monkey bike..I was cracking up so hard seeing Gabe ride it...I also dared to try it too but I would not allow Gabe to take my picture on the bike.

it was getting late but we had a very special treat for Parker set up.

We made our own frozen banana's with chocolate and peanuts and called it a night...not to bad of a Sunday.

Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific

Last Monday Ava and I had a mommy and daughter day and met up with one of my friends I have not seen in forever Amy and her daughter. We been discussing how we needed to get together and get the girls together so we decided to meet at the Long Beach Aquarium.
I was thinking I brought Ava before to the Aquarium but I could be mistaken

She did not know quite what to expect

First thing we did when we got there..And after I got my morning coffee...was go to the LorikeetForest. Bought a little thing of nectar and got mobbed for it almost immediately as we walked in. Ava I think really seemed to like them.

I was praying that I would not get pooped on.

She wanted to pet them but we got warned that they do bite and hard.

I think Cambria was a little unsure at first but she did not seem to scared

Ava got brave enough to try and feed the nectar to the birds

Now they were getting into the birds for a bit but soon they lost interest and rather played with the plastic protective doors at the exit.

They had this little rain section there that the girls were really loving. It was hard to get them to leave it.

Then there was the little playground. Ava went right for the Shark

Cambria came and joined her..it was pretty impossible for me to get a picture of the two of them looking at the camera at the same time

We tried to get them to sit together for a photo..I guess it was too stimulating for them.

Ava loved looking at the fish but i think every time I let her out she was more interested in wandering around

This was a big one

They actually were having a little convo at this point.

Pretty fish

I love the little cave areas. I tried to get a better photo but she was too hard to keep still.

Someone is looking tired

They had fun sitting here for awhile.

SEA TURTLE

One of the last things we saw were these sea dragons. They were really cool.

After the aquarium Amy and I walked the girls on the boardwalk area and Ava knock out on the walk. We walked over to get some Ice cream as well at Cold Stone.

It was a pretty nice afternoon..I really need to get with them more often.