California Dreamin'

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Lands End

A couple of weekends ago, we drove up to San Francisco and walked along Lands End. Lands End is a park in San Francisco within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It is a trail just west of the Golden Gate Bridge and by the ocean and the mouth of the San Francisco Bay .. at least I think that's how you'd describe the location. It was a beautiful day and the views were stunning.

We started out by the Sutro Baths and the Cliff House.

Apparently, the Sutro baths were built in the late 1800s ... and they were pretty big .. apparently at the time they claimed to be the largest in the world. I didn't read all the history but they were abandoned and in the 1960s they burned down. Not much left of them now.

The rest of the pics are of the walk.

The entrance to the trail (though we started at the other end and turned around here).

The Golden Gate Bridge ...

The USS San Francisco -- damaged in the Battle of Quadalcanal. There was a nice little memorial there to the men who served and and to those who lost their lives.

Some other views of the Sutro bath ruins with the Cliff House in the distance. After our walk, we went to the Cliff House for a drink and a bite to eat.

Some flowers we saw along the way ...

And my artsy picture for the day ...

I am really enjoying these Saturday walks. We have been to some very interesting and beautiful places. What a great way to explore.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Week 11 - March 15 - 21

Saturday - The Cliff House

Sunday - Spooky (the other cat)

Monday - Missed Day

Tuesday - The Devil Cat

Wednesday - Bellini (no champagne glasses here)

Thursday - a brooch (??)

Friday - Michelle's painting

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

New Beginnings ... March

I was going to post this on March 10th, but I did't. The bottom row on my laptop locks up sometimes which I find super frustrating and that, along with laziness, has kept me from this post.

This month I started a quilt for my grand nephew, Jones. He isn't due until June but I'm hoping to get this finished in time to give to his parents when I see them in May.

I don't want to show too much but needed to prove that I had actually started something new. So March's new beginning is the Jones quilt.

If you started something new this month, please feel free to link up and share.

Cocktail Wednesday

So, I'm a little late with the cocktail updates -- I had to get these in before tomorrow when we have a new one...

Two weeks ago, the cocktail was a Lemon Drop. I'd never had one before, but was assured by those who know, that it would be a good one to try. I went with this recipe.

My ingredients, modified only slightly:

1 1/2 ounces vodka
1/2 ounce orange liqueur (Triple Sec)
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 ounce freshly-squeezed lemon juice
Ice cubes
Sugar for dipping
Twisted peel of lemon

Yes, the bottle of vodka really is that big. Vodka, Costco style, and because it's such a bad picture you can't really tell that we're at the end of it ..

Again I used my fancy plastic martini glasses. I thought this one was good, a 4 out of 5. It was a little strong for me.

Last week's drink was a Shamrocker. The recipe was from here.

Since no one in my house is a Tequila fan, I modified it to use vodka instead.

1 part vodka
1 part melon liqueur
1/2 part triple sec
Splash of orange juice

Not my favorite. Maybe it would have been better with the tequila. However, it's really pretty and I used my new glasses.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Week 10 - March 8 - 14

Saturday - Rancho San Antonio

Sunday - Everybody Loves Raymond

Monday - C.S.

Tuesday - the pond near the office

Wednesday - Shamrocker!

Thursday .. no picture

Friday - Quinoa Breakfast Bars

Friday, March 14, 2014

Old Fashioned Glassware

So I bought these glasses at an estate sale on Sunday...

But I have no idea what they are used for. I thought maybe liqueur. My husband suggested candles. What do you think?

I also got these. They were fun to use for our cocktails this Wednesday, albeit a little small.

I'm going to link this up with my list, because the whole batch of these was $3 so each glass cost $.40 - so they are $1 items (oooh that's 12 items)!

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Working on the Grinch

So I finally got some of the Grinch blocks made. I need to work with the t-shirt and boxer fabric. Hopefully I can do that sometime this week. It should be good practice for making a t-shirt quilt, right?

I need to start my March quilt this weekend. I'd like to post for my linky party on Monday. It's a real stretch for me to start new projects when the old ones aren't finished (or even close), but I really want to push myself in this area. I hope that starting more means that I will finish more.