Saturday, July 30, 2016

Our Vacation Part 2: Paso Robles, CA




 For the second part of our trip we traveled south and inland to the beautiful area near Paso Robles.  We chose a wonderful rural B&B called Sundance.
The lovely italian villa and surrounding countryside seemed to be right out of a romantic novel or movie. 
From the back side of the house at sunset. (above)
 The driveway leading up to the front of the house. (above)
 More views from and of the property.
 Our gorgeous view from the back patio where we had our breakfast. (below)

And this was our breakfast companion every morning.  A cute, tiny little lizard.  He was a very sociable little fellow. :)
We were served a delightful breakfast every day.



When we arrived we were offered to upgrade our room at no extra charge. How nice!  The room was very pretty and the bathroom was huge and luxurious.

I loved the tiles on the staircase leading from the entry foyer of the home to the upstairs guest rooms.

 A day trip to Morro Bay and the small town of Cambria.  (Most of the photos I took when out and about at these places were on my Kindle and not the best quality so I won't post them here.)
Below are a couple of the big rock at Morrow Bay.

 During our stay at Sundance we ate dinner all 3 nights at McPhee's Grill in Templeton, CA.  It was only a 10 minute or so drive and was in a very small town, but the food was great.  Our favorite food of the trip was on the last part of our trip (which I'll tell about later) and the carrot cake at McPhee's.  So sad I didn't get a photo.
We ordered it 2 nights for dessert.  One night we just skipped dinner (because we'd had a big lunch earlier) and just got the carrot cake.  It was a large piece with yummy icing, a small pitcher of delicious caramel sauce to pour over it and scrumptious ice cream on the side.  Ohhhhh....heaven...mmmmmm! (and probably 5 of those 10 pounds I gained) haha

Link Up:  Visible Monday

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Our Vacation Part 1: Carmel, CA

 

















The first 3 days were spent in Carmel, CA.  Such a beautiful place.  Lots of shops and restaurants.  The 17 mile coastal scenic drive was impressive.  Some of the castles homes along this route were palatial!
On this part of our trip we also drove into the Carmel Valley area and along the coast of Hwy 1 around the Big Sur area.  Gorgeous. 

We stayed at the Country Inn B&B of Carmel.  It had the biggest soaking bathtub I've ever seen in my life.  The inn was within a couple blocks walking distance to all the shops and restaurants, but just secluded enough down a tree lined street in a residential area to be away from the hustle and bustle of tourists.  It was a perfect location.

You may click on the photos to view them in larger size.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Dressing Made Easy: Another Outfit Option Using The Jeans/Tee/Scarf Uniform

Adding the scarf and cork wedged sandals to a basic long sleeved tee and white jeans makes for simple choices and easy dressing.

This another tee of super soft fabric made by Jones New York.
The white jeans are Miracle Body.
The cork wedged sandals are Liz Claiborne.

Monday, July 25, 2016

My Casual Uniform

We're back from our trip!  Had a good time, but we were SO glad to get home and back into our routine.  We ate soooooo much while we were gone that we both gained 10 whole pounds!!!  Eeek!  I've lost about half of that already just getting back to our healthy eating.  Five more pounds to go to get back to where I was.
This casual outfit and was worn before we left, but was also taken on our trip.  I wore a variation of this nearly every day while we were gone and loved it.  Jeans (or other pants), tee (long or short sleeved), and necklace...and most days also adding a scarf. 
This is such a comfortable look for me that I plan on adopting it to use as my staple "uniform".
Since I do have so many other clothes I will continue to rotate and wear those as well, but over time I'll gradually be eliminating more and more things from my closet.  Eventually I hope to be left with a more minimal and casual looking wardrobe.
The blue long sleeved tee is Great Northwest Clothing Company.  I have several of this brand and love them.  They're so soft.
The jeans are a high rise denim legging by Mossimo.  Love these too.  They're stretchy.  Thank goodness.  With that 10 pound weight gain these just stretched with me while we were gone. haha
I'm not sure what brand the jacket is.  The label was torn off when I thrifted it.  
The sneakers are Keds.  I am surprised at how often I've opted to wear these.  I always figured myself to be more of a "sandal girl", but these sneakers are not as big and clunky as some others I own (old Sketchers) and I like them much better. 
Well, I'll get around to posting some pics from our trip within the next week or so.
Thanks so much for stopping by and thank you to those who left nice comments while I was gone.  :)

Friday, July 22, 2016

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Saturday, July 16, 2016

A Silk Cardigan

 I generally don't like purple shades on myself and had this cardigan in a donation bag.  I'm glad I salvaged it because I ended up liking and feeling good in this outfit.



*I'm still on vacation.  Posts have been pre-scheduled until I return.