Pumpkin Patch & Sonoma

Fall is my favorite season, and one of my favorite things about fall is going to the pumpkin patch! 

I was starting to worry that my insanely busy October was forcing me to miss out on the fun this year, but last weekend on a whim I wound up at a little patch along Highway 12 between Napa and Sonoma. 

I've got a not so secret obsession with ugly pumpkins - seriously, the more discolored and knobby they are the better! This particular patch had the ideal selection of both pretty, round carving pumpkins and misshapen, mantle-worthy ones. 

 

 

We finished off the afternoon tasting at Michael Mondavi and Domain Carneros. It was my first visit to Michael Mondavi (not to be confused with Robert Mondavi in St Helena), but I really enjoyed their tastings and even scored a case of chardonnay for half off! Domain Carneros is one of my all-time favorites and I try to pop by for a flight of sparkling wines every time I'm up that way.

Tourist in my City

There are so many fun things to do in San Francisco that I never do unless I've got out of town guests. It has been ages since I spent some time being a tourist in my own city, but I more than made up for it last weekend!

We drove down "the crookedest street" (Lombard), people watched at Ocean Beach from the patio at Cliff House (we event spotted a wedding ceremony on their balcony!), fingered through the endless racks of used albums at Amoeba Music in the Haight, shopped the farmer's market at the Ferry Building, enjoyed a 90-minute sailboat ride on the bay, rode the carousel at Pier 39, where we also watched a magic show and took silly photos in a photo booth.

 

 

 

Wine Cork Birdhouse

Sometimes I get these bursts of creative energy, usually after perusing the internet and shouting out, "That costs how much?! I could make that!" Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't, but oh how I have fun trying.

My latest crafty venture was this wine cork birdhouse! My grandmother collects birdhouses, which are mostly displayed along her wraparound porch. All the family will be gathering Sunday to celebrate her birthday, so I thought this would be a fun little gift to bring along. I'm wishing I'd included some sort of wire hang for it, but she mostly places them on the porch alongside her flower beds, so I suppose it's just fine without.

Supplies:

Bag of assorted moss by Ashland

Two 6x6 wood squares by Art Minds

45 wine corks and 1 champagne cork

Hot glue gun

Instructions:

- Line up the corks next to the bottom wood square before you start gluing.

- Try to keep the glue lines toward the inside so it won't squish out and become visible.

- Glue bottom row of corks to wood square, reinforce with extra glue on the inside.

- Leave space for a door on the front.

- Glue second row of corks to first row of corks, reinforce with extra glue on the inside.

- Glue three corks laying down in the doorway as a perch.

- Glue second wood square to the top of the birdhouse.

- Glue champagne cork chimney onto roof.

- Glue as much moss as you'd like on the roof, allowing some to hang down slightly to cover any gaps where the roof wood square is not flush with the corks (this will happen since they're not all going to be the exact same size).