Balboa Park ~ Trip to San Diego

My beautiful trip to Southern California included Balboa Park in San Diego. 

 It is a must see for everyone!

 The architecture is stunning.

It's a peaceful place.

And of course the weather is perfect.

Succulents galore.

Our destination ~ The incredible Botanical Gardens

It is a "must see" and one of the most photographed places in the park.  It was built  for the 1915-16 Exposition along with the adjacent lily pond (too early for the lily pads)  Note to self:  Go back when they are in bloom.  Each lily pad will grow to several feet wide!  It is one of the largest lath structures in the world and made from redwood.  Truly a sight to behold!

Inside shot, looking up.  It's huge, and makes you a little dizzy!

 The real attraction of course is the flowers!

 And they are amazing!

 And beautiful!

They don't even look real, so pretty!

And my beautiful Sweetpea, Elise Nicole!!

I can't wait to go back in May for the arrival of Sweetpea II, hit some more Farmers Markets, more meditating on the beach, and maybe make it back to Balboa Park!!

Namaste ~ LeslieMichele

Local Farmers Market

Hurray, A Local Farmers Market!! 

Freshly made crepes, tamales and many more goodies to enjoy while you shop

After my recent trip to Southern California I absolutely had to find a farmers market near home.  My daughter and I were so spoiled being able to go to a different farmers market everyday in SoCal and choose what we wanted to have for our meals each day.  What a treat it was!  So I got home and have been on a mission.  There are a few in the San Antonio, and New Braunfels area.  I started with San Antonio.  Much to my joy and relief I found The Quarry Farmers & Ranchers Market!  It is in the parking lot of The Quarry Market situated adjacent to Whole Paycheck (this is what we call Whole Foods Market).  In it I found quite a selection of vendors (be sure to check them out HERE).  Live music, wonderful organic fresh vegetables, fruits, pecans, beautiful live plants, gorgeous orchids, fresh pesto, granola, decadent pastries and earthy breads and the most wonderful beef filet!  There is plenty more here, those are just the items that caught my eye on my first visit.  Oh yes, I will be returning!

One of the things I love most about Farmers Markets is the friendly people you meet!  There is such a pride in what they do.  They are full of helpful hints for preparation and tons information.  You know exactly what you are getting and where it came from!

This Miss Patty, she's silly and fun!  

This darling lady that helps take the fear out of owning your very own miraculously beautiful orchid.

Just the sweetest couple ever!  

Don't go home without there delicious Basil & Parmesan Pesto and Roasted Garlic and Sun-Dried Tomato!!  YUM.

Beautiful variety of Granolas!

Take a quick trip to France!

Bring home gorgeous &  rustic Baguettes and Sweet Brioche

My beautiful bounty for the day!

Black Radishes!  They are huge and so beautiful!  

A little more bite than your normal radish and I can't wait to experiment with them.  Be sure to check out my favorite Radish Soup & Radish Dip on my other blog The Chef In My Head

 Fresh Beets, one of my favorite things!  

Check out my favorite beet recipe on my other blog The Chef In My Head

 Most unusual new veggie for me....Kohlrabi!

Kind of a cross between a cabbage (kohl) and rabi (turnip)

 Aren't these beautiful!  Elise and I bought these multiple times in California.  

I just love the sweetness of these when they are roasted or grilled!

So when you are in the area, please don't miss this market!  They are there every Sunday 9am - 1pm rain or shine!  I can't wait to see what they have as the weather continues to warm and things really get growing!  Maybe tomatoes, peppers, strawberries......the list of possibilities is endless!

Namaste ~ LeslieMichele

Farmers Market Love

Oceanside Farmers Market

So I am simply loving my trip to sunny southern California!  My grand-baby girl (due in May) is getting bigger by the minute and my daughter is doing really well with her pregnancy, she looks beautiful!  We have been walking about 4 miles a day along the ocean.  I think I have never seen so many strollers and soooo many cute pups!  I'm sure I am driving everyone here in California crazy with my "Good Mornin" each time I pass someone.  It's just the Texan in me, no apologies here.  

We have had a wonderful time hitting all of the Farmers Markets!  They are in different areas (all near by) so there is access to fresh eggs, fresh fruits (beautiful blood oranges), lovely ultra fresh veggies and the most beautiful fresh flowers, bunches and bunches of them.  The last farmers market we went to had fantastic fresh fish, lots of variety.  So tonight, we will be having John Dorie fish from Australia with cremini mushrooms and green onions with some kind of brown butter sauce I will make up in my head.  To go with that we found gorgeous golden beets that we will roast and the tops will be sauteed with garlic and green onions......yum.  All of these goodies came from the Del Mar Farmers Market.

Strawberries,  OMG, the strawberries!   Fields and fields of them everywhere!!!  They are delicious and  of course, super fresh!!

Carlsbad Farmers Market Goodies!

(the asparagus was fabulous!!!!)

Namaste ~ LeslieMichele

Days 3 & 4 ~ Baby Tab Blanket

Day 3 ~
  

We are getting down to crunch time before EliseNicole and I leave for San Diego for go put this precious baby's room together.  So excited, so much to do, so much to pack and ship, so much laundry to do before we leave...  Just a tad overwhelming.  

 Love this Indian influenced fabric and hand picked ribbons!

This day I devoted my meditation completely to my daughter and our grand daughter due in May!  Sewing this Tab Baby Blanket (you can find the instructions HERE), making 6 different quiches (thank you Melissa!), 36 Lemon Curd filled cupcakes and a bazillion blueberry and lemon poppy seed muffins all for her baby shower.  You can find the quiche recipes on my other blog The Chef In My Head. 

One trillion pins, just go ahead and count them.

Any-who, it was a great day.  It appears when you devote yourself to someone else and their happiness (my gift), that your legs and feet don't hurt quite so much from standing on tile for hours (God bless my Gelpro Mat).  Seriously, taking the focus off of yourself and putting the focus entirely on someone else makes a huge difference.


Day 4 ~ Also my birthday!

When we were originally looking at the calendar months ago and choosing a date for EliseNicole's shower, when asked, I deliberately aimed for my birthday.  I wanted the focus off of me and it was a perfect opportunity to shamelessly use my daughter for that purpose.  I recognize this now as a symptom of something else larger I really need to work on.  It now appears blindingly clear that when you set your heart to give, the Universe conspires to give back to you whether you are prepared for it or not.

Miss Jane's beautiful home

Dear friends of ours (a mother and her daughter) gave EliseNicole a beautiful baby shower.  Miss Jane's home was lovely, full of light and beautiful colors chosen just for EliseNicole.  Her daughter was the angel that helped me with the preparation for the quiches to be served.   They both worked so hard with all the preparations and it was absolutely perfect!

Terrible pic of amazing avocado, gruyere cheese,

spinach, goat cheese quiche

Lemon Curd filled cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting

Blueberry and Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

EliseNicole's baby shower was perfect!  So many loving family and friends came to share a day celebrating this "little tiny baby's" arrival!

Beautiful new Mommy!

Precious china antique baby with tiny crocheted layette

This baby girl is starting off her fabulous shoe collection right!

She doesn't know it yet, but she comes from

a long family history of shoe loving girls!

Thank you again to all of the special people in our lives, you are a gift to us each day!

Namaste ~ LeslieMichele

29 gifts...Day 1

Please go get this book & read it!!

My sweet friend H. loaned this book to me and I am racing through it!  It is such a beautiful story, well here's the scoop:

About the Book
One month after her wedding day, thirty-three-year-old Cami Walker was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and the life she knew changed forever. Cami was soon in and out of L.A.’s emergency rooms with alarming frequency as she battled the neurological condition that left her barely able to walk and put enormous stress on her marriage. Each day brought new negative thoughts:
I’m going to end up in a wheelchair. Mark’s probably going to leave me. 
My life is over. Why did this have to happen to me?

Then, as a remedy for her condition, Cami received an uncommon prescription from a friend, an African medicine woman named Mbali Creazzo: Give away 29 gifts in 29 days.

“By giving,” Mbali told her, “you are focusing on what you have to offer others, inviting more abundance into your life.” The gifts, she said, could be anything, but their giving had to be both authentic and mindful. At least one gift needed to be something she felt was scarce in her life.

Cami was amazed by what unfolded during her month-long journey.

29 Gifts is Cami’s poignant and unforgettable story of embracing the natural process of giving and receiving. Many of her gifts were simple—a phone call, spare change, even a Kleenex. Yet the acts of kindness were transformative. By Day 29, not only had her health and happiness turned around, but she had also embarked on creating a worldwide giving movement.

The book also includes personal essays from others whose lives changed for the better by giving, plus pages for the reader to record their own journey. More than a memoir, 29 Gifts offers inspiring lessons on how a simple daily practice of altruism can dramatically alter your outlook on the world.

Believe me that was so much better than I could have described.  

Be sure to check out Cami's website HERE

So today, I began.  I gathered fresh eggs from "the girls", painted a wooden tray, filled it with raffia grass, added a couple of paper flowers, these beautiful eggs and took it to my sweet neighbor.  She was so surprised as it was "out of the blue" as they say.  I appreciate her very much as she is such a dear sweet friend (and a little crazy) and I love her!

Much to my surprise, she sent me home with fresh dill and cilantro from her sister's garden!

I want to see what will happen in my life if I really commit and focus my energy on giving for 29 days.What space will it create in my life for new and unexpected things to occur? What shifts will I see in my thinking and behavior as a result? What impact will my gifts have on others? These are just a few of the questions I have. 

Today was different.  More joyful and lighter!  And I can't wait for tomorrow!!  Oh, and the punch line....If I miss a day, I commit to starting all over again.  Yikes!  I just typed that out loud!!

Abundant Happiness ~ Namaste

LeslieMichele

Buddy ~ You're going down!!!

Pretty, you say?  Rat bastard, I say!!!

This is what I found diving in my koi pond this morning!!!   ERRRRR  It appears I still have all of our koi but all of our goldfish are gone!!  

So now I am bundling up, parka, hats (yes more than one), extra socks, you name it because of course it is only 31 degrees outside and I'm dealing with this stinking slimy, no good scavenger!!  Yes, he left a slime coating on the top of the pond because he's FILTHY!!

Yeah, you better start walking off!

What is that on your beak?  Fish scales, better not be!!

I admit he's kinda cool looking, he'll look even better

mounted on my wall!!

The netting I had last year to cover the pond is lining the circumference of the garden because the stinking deer were eating my veggies during the summer.  Ahhh, living in the country.  So now I am digging through plywood and trying to find something to put over the pond.  Ohh happy days. :-[

Yeah Buddy, Bring it!

Namaste, not today, I'll "honor" his dead rotting carcass!  ~ LeslieMichele

Oh Crap......Oooo Awesome!

So I used to have this great little skirt.  I could throw it over my yoga shorts, my swimsuit, when I wanted to get comfortable, pretty much all the time I wore it..... UNTIL(wipe away slowly falling tear).  Until the one dreaded day that I drop a bit of bleach on it.  And seriously, I am not one of those women that can walk the model walk, you know the one, with one hand on one hip the other dangling seductively by my side (I needed the hand down past my left hip to hide the bleach spot).  I just can't pull that look off without looking like Quasimodo.  Don't think I didn't try though, because seriously I LOVE this skirt.  I know...I know, just buy another skirt Leslie you say.  Well that's not going to work this time.  For one it came from Athleta and for the life of me I have never found the gold it should be lined with for the price, for two they don't have it anymore (yes, of course I considered it) and three I'm saving up to spoil not 1 but 2 sweet grand-babies due in May!!

You look, I can't.

So I am your "Plan B" kinda girl and I was determined to find a way to artistically remedy this mishap.  Surely I could find a way to make my ooops look like it was part of the plan.  If bleach left one spot, it could leave more.

Oh for God's sake, open your damn eyes, it's HUGE!!!

So I put this old piece of foam board inside it, kinda smoothed it out a bit, poured a bit of bleach into a cup, got out my handy dandy Q-tips and went to work in true zen-like fashion.

Exhibit A

So what do you think...tell the truth...okay you don't really have to.  I LOVE IT.  Got me a few paisley designs, got me a little flower power, a special bit of OMmmmm and a goovey peace sign just to round things out a bit.

What do ya think???

Find that bleach spot, I triple dog dare ya.

Namaste ~ LeslieMichele

I'm Cheap!

I love winter, the fuzzy sweaters, scarves, warm soups and hot toddies.  But, and isn't there always a "but", I hate laundry, specifically laundry in the winter!!  Is it just me, do you also notice the mega amounts of laundry in the winter?  It feels like it takes three times as long to finish (insert groan here).  More sweaters, sweatshirts, jeans etc.  And is it also just me that feels like I am spending a small fortune on laundry detergent?  Seriously, when I see 17+ dollars again, for a big container of detergent, I cringe!

So I finally got around to making my own powdered laundry detergent!  I know my sister and her friends have been doing this for quite awhile, but I just got around to it.  So here you go!  It's loads cheaper (pun intended) and it does a great job!

1 4 lb 12 oz box Borax (2.15 kg or 76 oz) found in the detergent isle

1 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (1.81 kg) found in the cooking isle

1  box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz (3 lb 7 oz) found in the detergent isle

3 bars of Fels-naptha soap, found in the detergent isle (you can also use pink Zote soap instead of Fels-naptha)

2 small containers of oxyclean or store brand oxyclean (try to get about 3.5 lbs total (1.58 kg)) found in the detergent isle.

(this is optional, I added it into mine because I'm a freak about white whites)

You should be able to find all of these items at your grocery store.

Start out by grating your Fels-naptha soap just like cheese. You can use a food processor (woohoo!) or just use your hand held grater, what ever you have.  Don't worry the Fels-naptha will dissolve in your washer, and yes, even in cold water.  

How do I love my food processor...let me count the ways

Toss all ingredients in a 5 gallon bucket lined with a garbage bag. This part makes your whole house smell great. Once everything is mixed, I twisted the bag closed and rolled it around on the floor to mix it up, store soap however you like.  I used the empty oxyclean to put a smaller amount in and I used the scoop included to measure the perfect amount for 1 load (2 scoops for heavily soiled loads).

Prettiest pic I ever put on my blog, oh yeah!

This detergent is fairly mild smelling, it is not over powering. If you love a strong scent you may have to add a fabric softener to each load.

Rub-a-dub-dub...laundry detergent in the tub!

This took me all of ten minutes to throw together. And I got to use my favorite food processor (have you seen my other blog?  You'll understand).  Aaannnnnd, I'm saving a ton of money!

Taa-Daa!  I'm Cheap and proud of it!

Namaste ~ LeslieMichele