this little life of mine

I discovered this sweet little Buddha statue sitting on a fence in the corner of the Garden Wedding Chapel in Morro Bay. I used PicMonkey's Daguerreotype effect in Brady, and the Focal Soften to help the Buddah stand out.

I finally updated my Art Wall with some shots I took in Morro Bay a few weeks ago. Top row from left to right: spikey yellow flowers, "Iron Man" on a gate outside The Garden Gallery, Morro Rock, and a turtle sculpture. Bottom row from left to right: a giant succulent, a bush with some pretty purple flowers (sorry, I don't know the names of any of the plants!), two seagulls sitting on a rock, and an old row boat. In case you're wondering, I edited several of these photos (the old rowboat, the purple flowers, the turtle, and Morro Rock) using my favourite photo editing site, PicMonkey. I hope you enjoy them! Cheers!

So, Saturday mom and I drove over to Cayucos with the intention of checking out the Sea Glass Festival, which I thought looked like a lot of fun, and seaglass seemed like a neat thing to start collecting in a vintage mason jar. The drive over 46 west between Paso Robles and the coast was gorgeous - the hills are so green and the trees are starting to come out adding to the fresh, clean, spring-like feel. In fact, when we turned on to HWY 1, the green grass on the hills was so bright it was almost blinding! I'm just sorry I didn't get any pictures of it, but I was driving, so it was impossible. There was a lot of traffic and tons of cyclist out as well, so there really was no safe place to pull off to take pictures. Ah, well. I'll have the memories!

When we got to Cayucos, the place was PACKED! Granted, it was a gorgeous day - sunshine, blue skies and about 80 degrees! - so tons of people were taking advantage of the great weather by going to the beach as well as the Sea Glass Festival, or just browsing the quaint-looking downtown area. Both parking lots I planned to use were full and closed, so we drove through town to see if there was any street parking. There was not. We decided it was not worth the continued effort and stress as well as having to enduring the inevitable "people poisoning" we were sure to get by dealing with the huge crowds at the Festival. So, we just drove through town, got back on the highway, and headed to Morro Bay instead. We do plan to return to Cayucos some weekend when there's nothing special going on, so we can explore the downtown, pier, and beach.

Morro Bay was bustling as well, but not as bad as Cayucos, and we found a parking space down by the Embarcadero right away. We noticed some changes to the Embarcadero right away. One restaurant was gone, and a new one was already starting to move in. I can't remember what it was before, but I was kind of surprised, because it had been there for a very long time. Another surprise was a new wine and olive oil tasting room that opened up. I don't remember the name of the winery - it wasn't familiar - but it was doing pretty good business. There appeared to be another tasting room getting ready to move in behind it. The fun little antiquie-thrifty-kinda-junky store was gone, and while I wasn't really surprised, I was disappointed because I enjoy looking through those kind of stores.

There were several kayaks and paddleboarders out in the bay, as well as these two who were hanging out beneath the Morro Bay Fish Company hoping for some lunch, and a pair of snoozing gulls who gave me some serious side eye!

Speaking of lunch, we decided to go somewhere different than The Dutchman or Dorn's, and after checking out the displayed menus of all the places along the Embarcadero (Fishbonz was apparently closed down, which is sad because we always planned to go there, but never made it), we decided on The Galley. It's small, but very nice with super nice, friendly people and delicious food. I had the fish tacos and mom had the grilled fish sandwich, and we were both impressed with our dishes and ate every bite! My only disappointment  was that despite having a full bar, they didn't have a drinks menu, so I ended up just having iced tea. (It was really good iced tea, though!)

We ended our trip by discovering another fun new store that I can't remember the name of, but it is full of eco-friendly items like seatbelt wallets, handmade candles, vintage books and toys, and display items like a old brownie camera and manual typewriter. I had a couple things I though I might go back for, but didn't this trip. Maybe next time! Finally we wandered around our all-time favourite MB store, The Garden Gallery. Mom and I always enjoy looking at all the fun planters, fountains, wind chimes, and other garden décor, and dream about being able to grow succulents (which we can't because it's too hot here). They had a really nice St. Frances statue I might go back for, as well as a really cool concrete koi fish that would look great in our dry creek, but they didn't have any small ones and the medium and large ones would look weird. Maybe next time.

So, all in all it was a really fun day away from cleaning, organizing, and tossing stuff out. I'm a bit disappointed I didn't get to the Seaglass festival, but maybe next year we'll go earlier, or better yet, stay over Friday night and not worry about parking at all!

What did you guys do this weekend? Did you have fun? Did you have to work? Tell me all about it in the comments! Cheers!

These red-skirted hula dancers greeted us as we reached the beach during the Morro Bay High School Bands on the Run 5k.

Oh, hello, October, where did YOU come from?!?

There's not much to post this time, as September just flew by and I'm sure I lost a week somewhere, but here are a few of my favourite things from the ninth month of the year:

Inspiration: The Central Coast Writers' Conference! Awesome as always, I'm SO glad I talked myself into attending (I almost didn't go this year!)! Our Keynote speaker, Anne Perry, couldn't make it in person, but through the power of modern technology, she was able to be with us over Skype! I took her Backstory class, and got some great tips I'm looking forward to including in my novel. I also took a class on world building and poetry writing, both of which I believe will come in handy as well!

Vacation: My mom and I used the Writers' Conference as an excuse to spend a long weekend in Morro Bay. Although we'd just been there in May, it was still fun and relaxing, and we basically spent a lot of time just sitting on the balcony drinking coffee and tea and enjoying the view of Morro Rock. As usual we stayed at the La Serena Inn, because they give me a great deal for attending the conference, and it was really nice despite the cable being wonky (I think the remote was broke!), and the pilot light having to be on in the gas fireplace all the time, which I believe would cause seizures in sensitive folks with the little flickering light bouncing off the ceiling all night. Gah! Anyway, instead of browsing the shops on the Embarcadero (as we'd just done that in May), we wandered around the antique malls, thrift shops, and used book stores in the downtown area. It was great fun because I didn't even know these stores existed! This one little bead shop? Had a delightful secret garden in the back! There are things I may be going back for!

Cosmetics: So, I started using the Josie Maran Black Oil Argan Oil mascara I bought at Sephora a while ago, and quite like it. I have to top it with Bare Minerals' Locked and Coated waterproof top coat, because it's not waterproof on its own, but so far that hasn't affected the performance. I tried to take some pictures, but can't really get close enough to show how the mascara looks on my lashes without showing off my horrible dark circles and wrinkes around my eyes, so, sorry 'bout that! I also started using Origins Gin-Zing eye cream and face cream, and while I'm not sure they're doing exactly what they advertised (brightening and de-puffing), I do like the smell, they feel good on my skin, and they're certainly not doing any damage!

Fragrance:  Despite purchasing a new fragrance not too long ago, I ended up using Geurlian's Le Petite Robe Noir (Little Black Dress) most of September. Something about it being dark when I get up in the morning, and the black-to-dusty-purple-to-pink on the bottle just kinda felt right together, I guess. Also, it smells nice, and tends to last a long time.

Also: Ulta Beauty opened in the Target Shopping Center in Paso!!! Yay!!

Books: I read the most delightful middle grade book in September: The Riverman by Aaron Starmer . I really loved  The Other Ones, his previous book, and am looking forward to reading  The Whisper (The Riverman book 2) when it's released next March 17th. Also, I started my first ever Anne Perry book, The Cantor Street Hangman, and I'm loving it! She's truly an amazing writer!

TV:  With the start of the new TV season, I've found a few new shows that I'm loving so far including Forever, Gotham, Z Nation, and Selfie. Also, I'm enjoying the return of Marvel Agents of Sheild and Sleepy Hollow, and might actually watch Survivor and The Amazing Race this season since it appears neither of those shows are including any hideous Big Brother contestants or returning players.

Food: My favourite thing foodie-wise this month was the delicious creme brulee I had at Dorn's restraunt in Morro Bay. SO amazing and decedent!

Well, that's really about it. I'm going to try to keep better track of my faves in October, so stay tuned for what I hope will be an awesome post about some of my favourite things!

Cheers!

Earlier this week I meant to write up a comprehensive recap of last weekend's adventure in Morro Bay, but this week has been crazy busy for me, and I just didn't get it done. Therefore I'll be recapping briefly in five bullet points:

• Morro Bay was beautiful! We had sunshine and blue sky Friday and Saturday, then a return to the usual overcast skies on Sunday, which was fine. The only problem was the wind, which was outrageously brisk!
• Mom and I planned to just have dinner in our room Friday night, but with Bella Vino's Wine Bar and Bistro just down the street, we couldn't resist going for a glass of the delicious Green Eye Chardonnay and their amazing bruschetta!

  

• Saturday was the Morro Bay High School Bands on the Run 5k/10k/Half Marathon. I walked the 5k in a little over an hour (I think; honestly I'm not sure how to read the sheet below. I thought I walked it in 1 hour 16 minutes, according to the timer by the finish line, but the sheet looks like it was 1 hour 32 minutes. I don't know. All I know is I FINISHED!!), and despite the pain in my shins and feet, had a good time. That deep sand is a bugger to walk through - I don't know how the runners did it!  Later, mom and I wandered around the quaint little shops along the Embarcadero and had lunch at Stax Wine Bar. I can't remember the Chardonnay we had there, but it was good, as was their Caesar Salad special with steak (although to be honest, the steak might've been better if it'd been cut in strips, rather than 1/4" cubes). Unfortunately, I ended up with some rather uncomfortable issues (which I've mentioned before), and spent the rest of the day just relaxing in the room as much as possible.

  
  
  

• Sunday I felt much better (why? who knows? I don't even know why I felt miserable in the first place!), and we were able to do some more shopping along the Embarcadero where I ordered a silver ring with an etched floral design at an gallery shop in Marina Square and bought a darling bird nest garden stake (photo coming soon!) at another gifty shop,  and a summer-weight white sweater at Poppy's. I probably could've shopped more - Poppy's had some awesome jewelry as did Fiona Bleu gallery - but I really should clear out some old jewelry first, and also I ordered tons of stuff online recently, so there will be another closet purge coming soon, too!
• Later we had lunch at Off the Hook where I had a delicious soft-shell crab sandwich and tried their Cosmo martini which was made from Sochu instead of vodka. It was pretty good, but I could tell it wasn't as strong as a vodka Cosmo would've been. After that we wandered around a little more then headed home to get ready for the week. We had to mow and water the lawn, and I had to prep for a full week of work as well as after-work activities every night this past week, including tonight which is the Art and Wine Tour downtown Atascadero - always a fun time - and tomorrow, Saturday, which is the Central Coast Oyster Festival in Avila Beach. Can. Not. Wait!

  

• Bonus Bullet Point: Wow, reading this back it sounds like all I do is eat out, and drink wine and martinis! Really, my life is not always this much fun! Cheers!

Seals and Sea Lions snoozing on the rocks in Morro Bay.

Morro Rock, Morro Bay, CA.

So I finally printed up some pictures from last September's trips to Pismo Beach and Morro Bay. I got some lovely shots (this was beFORE my old elphie's stewy mishap), and fully intended to post them by Thanksgiving weekend, but then my printer and computer suddenly stopped communicating, and after spending a couple weekends trying to fix the problem myself AND getting a Geek Squad tech  involved - both to no avail - I finally went out and bought a new, basic office printer. I kept the photo printer because a) it was expensive and not that old, and b) it still works perfectly just not with my computer, but after the horrible experience I'd had, the idea of printing anything that wasn't absolutely necessary left me with a feeling of dread, so I put it off. This past weekend, I finally just dropped a bunch of my favourite shots onto a disk, plugged the disk into my photo printer, and printed away. I'm so glad I did!

Also, you may have noticed I titled this post "Art Wall: January 2011". That's because I foolishly fully intend to post a new set of pictures EVERY MONTH THIS YEAR. Yeah. We'll see how long that lasts!