This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure policy.

I’m back with Friday Favorites again!  Life has been SUPER CRAZY BUSY this past week… last weekend we drove to the Bay Area for my Father-in-Law’s birthday, then drove like a fireman back to the Valley to meet my relatives for dinner as they were spending the night at our house. Why? Because my cousin got married last Sunday and our house was closest to the wedding facility.  The wedding was Sunday night, I stayed up late but had to leave the wedding early because I had to get up at 3:30am to go to work. Ruff! It was so nice seeing both sides of the family, but let me tell you, I’m still recovering from it all!

Welcome, October!

Can you believe it’s already OCTOBER? I can’t! Yesterday it RAINED for the first time in like, ever, here in California. I couldn’t believe it! I was so happy as I’m from the Pacific Northwest and it’s still so strange to me to go months without feeling a raindrop on my face!  With October though, I’m dreaming of pretty trees changing colors…

Starbucks Toasted Graham Latte

Have you tried it? I did! It’s actually pretty good. I ordered mine without whipped cream because I think otherwise it’s way too sweet. I have had it two separate times: one in a Grande and one in a Tall. I think the tall version tasted better for some reason… anyway, it tasted like a s’more minus the chocolate and marshmallow. Thought it was pretty tasty.  I would also like to say that I totally love their Fall cups! They are just so cute!

New Shoes

I can’t help myself. I have a shoe problem. The problem is, I love shoes. What makes it worse is, I love expensive shoes. I saw these while shopping in downtown San Francisco recently and I knew I had to have them! They are a low heel (which is so hard to find!) AND they are fancy. I wore them to my cousin’s wedding. What I totally love about them is that they are black patent leather AND they have gold spikes on them!  Don’t you like the spikes around the heel??

Pumpkin Spice Tea by Tea Forte

My Parents were recently on a road trip and stopped at some fancy tea house in Canada… and they brought me back some pumpkin spice tea by tea forte. I was a little skeptical, pumpkin spice tea? Sounds weird. Well guess what! It was good!  It had a really really nice taste to it. It is a black tea. Oh, did I mention the tea bags are adorable? They are

Cute Clothes for the Fall

I spotted some other really cute clothes for this Fall while shopping in downtown San Francisco recently. I thought I’d share what I found..

The red plaid skirt and shirt from Kate Spade are so super cute, they would look good at a Christmas party, don’t you think??

I totally fell in love with Vince this Fall… I had never really heard of them nor bought anything from them before… but I stumbled onto the prettiest tie dye silk blouse that I just had to get… then I saw their amazing sweaters! LOVE.  Why yes, I’ll take one of each below for Christmas. Cool thanks.

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I’m back again this week for Friday Favorites! I’ve been putting up my Fall decorations this week but it has been SO HOT here (108 was the top temp) that it kind of ruins the Fall mood a bit!  The last time I even saw rain was July 7! (and that was in Oregon)

Salted Caramel Cheesecake
We went to the Cheesecake Factory not too long ago and we ordered cheesecake (We don’t normally order cheesecake so it’s kind of a big deal). We split this salted caramel cheesecake and it was SO GOOD!!!  It was rich, of course. In fact, we couldn’t finish it all. The cheesecake defeated us!  If you haven’t tried it and you like caramel, I’d give it a taste!

New Apple Products
This week Apple announced new products that won’t probably be available until Christmas.  I have been iffy about the apple watch, my husband loves his and he thinks I’ll like one, but now they came out with new colors that I like. They have a gold colored apple sport and a rose gold apple sport. Apparently now third parties are also designing bands for the watch because the apple bands I find to be boring and aren’t really doing it for me. I like the gold and navy combo on the left though.
Do you have an apple watch? What do you think???

More importantly though, they released their new iPhone which is awesome for me because it’s my year to get a new phone! woot! There are lots of options… the bigger or smaller iPhone 6s, and then you have to choose the color too!  Right now I have the gold one. Maybe I’ll stick with the gold one. I think I’ll get the smaller phone because I have an iPad mini and the other phone is so huge it won’t fit in my pockets or in my designated purse slot for it!

Long Live the Queen

As you may or may not know, Queen Elizabeth is now the longest reigning British Monarch! She surpassed Queen Victoria this week. It’s really quite remarkable. I’m including some pictures of her in this post… I do like the royal family but it could just be because we simply don’t have one!

She is a little girl holding her beloved corgis… then as a teenager.

Here she is on her coronation day, pictured below.Did you know the diamond in the scepter is 530 carats?! And the giant one inside of the imperial state crown is 320? They were made from the same diamond, the Cullinan diamond, which in its uncut form was 3000 carats! Read about it here!

Every year at the opening of parliament she wears her big giant crown. She’s like, yes, my pions, kneel before me… okay, maybe she doesn’t think that. Maybe she thinks, okay, I will come put on the show and remind you all who’s boss around here… ok I’ll stop now.

 I can’t believe how many US Presidents she has outlasted.

She loves her horses and rides them even in her 80s without a riding helmet. Apparently her security sources don’t like that. But a Queen does what a Queen wants to do.

 Remember in the Olympics 2012 when she was with James Bond. May be most American’s favorite moment of the Queen, isn’t that what we think of England? James Bond, Royalty, and Tea?

I leave you with this picture of her in Scotland wearing all of her Scottish garb, literally, as the Queen of Scots.

Pumpkin Week is next week!

Are you ready for pumpkin week next week? I’ve been busy baking up a storm and decorating like a fiend getting ready for pumpkin week. On Friday, I’ll end with a link party where YOU can link up your pumpkin-related posts and we can just have a pumpkin party together! I’ll pin all the links to my All Things Pumpkin Pinterest board!

Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Five on friday at A Liz Adventures .Friday Favorites at the Diary of a Real HousewiveOh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

It’s Friday! Can you believe it’s the last Friday in August already? It seems like yesterday we hopped in the car and drove up from Southern California and permanently moved!!

Pumpkin Week!

If you follow my blog, you will know that I announced I will be hosting a Pumpkin Week Sept 14-18. I will feature a bunch of different pumpkin related posts!  On the finale of pumpkin week I will host a pumpkin themed link party where you can link up your favorite pumpkin posts!  How much fun is that? I will also pin all of the posts to my “All Things Pumpkin” Pinterest board!  

Are you excited? Bookmark my blog, follow me on bloglovin, instagram, twitter, pinterest, and google plus.… just so you remember to come back and party!

Salted Caramel Snacks

I was at Costco this week and sampled these salted caramel baked corn crisps.  Obviously they were good, as I know have a Costco-size bag of them at home! They hit my sweet tooth without all of the calories… and they were just the right flavor I was in the mood for as we head in to fall. Don’t you think salted caramel tastes better in the Fall and Winter? 

Golfing!

This past weekend we visited my parents house in Reno and went golfing! They live near a golf course and my husband and I decided to go visit and get a round of golf in.  I hadn’t swung a club in over 3 years… my husband hadn’t played in 4 years.  We were really rusty. Granted, I’m always really rusty since I never took golf lessons. In fact, I don’t have my own clubs.. I just use my husbands. We’re cheap like that. Anyway, it was pretty fun! I like driving the golf cart but despite driving I still got 7500 steps in on my FitBit and we only played 9 holes! Pretty good! I think it is something we could continue playing in the future.

Do you play golf?

Making S’mores with Ghirardelli

While we visited my parents we made s’mores as they have a fire pit in the backyard. I did take pictures but they all turned out blurry… apparently I can’t hold a s’more and try to operate a camera.

Anyway, instead of milk chocolate we tried ghirardelli milk chocolate squares filled with caramel. It was pretty good!

 We *almost* tried this chocolate which now in retrospect I think would have been really yummy!

 With Fall coming up though, I think the pumpkin spice chocolate would taste delicious too!

Alright, that will do it! See you in SEPTEMBER!!

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Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Momfessionals, and Grace and Love

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It’s Friday!!  I saw this little meme and thought it was funny… 

Dior and I

Have you heard of this documentary? It premiered this year. It’s about Raf Simons’ debut designing for Atelier Dior.  He was in a new position at a new company, and he had to design an entire haute couture collection in 8 weeks.   The documentary goes through the process while narrating excerpts from an autobiography of Christian Dior.  

I really enjoyed this film. It was interesting to see how a concept turned into a reality.  If you like Project Runway, then you will love this documentary. It’s like Project Runway, but for real, with a much bigger budget! 

I wanted to share with you some pictures of the famous floral walls from the haute couture show of that season.  Raf had an entire apartment covered floor to ceiling in fresh flowers. Can you imagine how it smelled?  

Paris Maps

This week I received in the mail “Paris Maps”.  They are these pretty hand drawn and watercolored paintings from Carol Gillott, an ex-pat living in Paris.  Also, she runs a cute blog, Paris Breakfasts.  While they are only copies of the original art work, every month she has a new issue. It’s so much fun getting them in the mail! Additionally she includes little business cards from Paris… so you can pretend you were there! You can purchase both Paris Mail and Paris Maps here.

Fall

I was at Homegoods this week and couldn’t help myself.. I bought this cute table runner and little pumpkin candles. I haven’t decorated the rest of the house yet (as when it’s 106 outside it’s hard to think it feels like Fall!) but I am starting to get in the mood. I will admit I will miss the long Summer evenings.

Mackenzie-Childs Wallpaper

Did you know MC came out with wallpaper?  While I’m not too sure I would use it, I certainly think its cute. I really like the polka dot paper! What do you think?

Hope you are enjoying these last weeks of Summer… while I know the start of Fall isn’t ’til the end of September, in blogland Fall starts around… now!

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Is it Friday ALREADY?! Where’d the time go???

Going to the Ranch
You know what I love about Summer? Going out to the Ranch.  Just about 10 minutes from us is a large farm operation that grows a multitude of vegetables… including fresh corn!  They pick truck loads and just dump it in the back (as you can see). We’ve been eating this corn all Summer long. We’ve slowly watched their corn crops come down as the Summer carries on.  We get most of our fresh fruits and veggies here. It’s really fantastic! This isn’t just “buying local” this is like… micro local! ha!

A Cute Box

I got this cute Quimper box in Napa not too long ago. It was full of Breton shortbread cookies.  Honestly, I bought the cookies for the box. Do you ever buy things for the box? I admit, I have a box problem. And a bag problem. Why can’t I get rid of my designer shopping bags??

Fall is Coming
I’ve noticed that Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma now have sneak previews of their Fall inventory.  I was flipping through a Bethany Lowe catalog that was mailed to us… I thought these two things were cute: an owl lantern and a “Boo” garland with vintage Clapsaddle characters

New Shoes!

I bought a new pair of shoes… these pretty Christian Louboutin pumps! I don’t know why that red heel is so alluring, I guess it’s called good marketing!  I am hoping they fit! They’re supposed to arrive this weekend! And yes, I am aware these shoes are insanely expensive – that’s why I found them used. It’ll be our little secret.

Perseid Meteor Shower

Did you catch the meteor shower that started this week? Every summer, the Perseid meteor shower occurs.  The night of August 12 and August 13 produced the best conditions because there was a moon-less sky!  My friend, husband, and I sat outside here in the country and did some star gazing for several hours.  I think we saw approximately 30-40 shooting stars! It was amazing!  If you missed it, it still continues tonight. So look outside after sunset! While star gazing, I also use this cool iphone/ipad app called SkyView… it shows you constellations, satellites, and planets! There is a free version and a paid version – I received the paid version for free as it was one of Starbucks’ gold members perks – if you are a Starbucks gold member, check it out and download it for free! (I was not paid to write about this).

not my photo, someone took a cool time-lapse of the meteor shower!

Well, that’ll do it for this week! See y’all on Monday… where I’m going to talk about eating in Paris!!

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Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Momfessionals, and Grace and Love

Five on friday at A Liz Adventures .
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Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

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grumpy cat on Monday and then on Friday! hee hee.

Zinnias!

The zinnias in the garden have been blooming like mad for the past month. I shot a few pictures with my iPhone this week.  Aren’t they so pretty?? I want to cut them and put them in my tulipiere but then I won’t have any zinnias in the garden… so I’ve left them outside!

New oven & Baking
We got a new oven and new stove this week.  Our previous oven here sucked. It ranged in temperature from 250-350 degrees even though it was set at 300!  The old stove only cooked at hot and hotter… there was no “simmer”.  This week my husband made a dutch baby pancake in our new cast iron pan in our new oven!  Doesn’t it look delicious?

Now, can someone tell me, why are there 3 names for this pancake? Dutch baby. Swedish pancake. German pancake. Which one do you call it?

My new Favorite lotion

This here is my new favorite lotion: black honey by archipelago botanicals. It smells so heavenly!  I love it! Check it out here

Little French Bud Vases

Everytime I walk by the table and see this little bud vases I bought in Paris it reminds me of my trip over there this Spring.  Aren’t they cute??  I wrote about my favorite places to shop in Paris this week, you can see that post here.  

Mango Black Tea Lemonade

I tried Starbucks mango black tea lemonade this week (with half the sweetener)… it was really good! It was really nice and refreshing!

Well, I saw this meme and thought it was kind of funny…

Thanks for stopping by!!!

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Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Momfessionals, and Grace and Love
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Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

It’s Friday and I’m back with some more Friday Favorites this week! Can you believe July is over?? I can’t. It was a big month for us. Moved from SoCal to NorCal.  Both of us started new jobs. Big things happening over here.
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French Pastries
I have a French pastry problem. The problem is… I love them and can’t stop eating them.  These pastries are from Craftsman & Wolves in San Francisco.  The one of the left is a raspberry eclair and was delicious! The one of the right is called a peach twinkie.  It is nothing like a twinkie!  With the edible flower blossoms and fresh peach cream inside, it is a delight!  If you are heading to San Francisco, I recommend going there.  I wrote about them in a blogpost here.

Honey
This honey from the Savannah Bee Company is one of the best honeys I’ve ever had. It’s an orange blossom honey and it actually tastes like orange blossom! I’ve many other orange blossom honeys but they never actually taste like orange blossom.  But this one does! As you can see, we already used half the bottle!

Pumpkins!
We planted pumpkins on July 1 when we moved it and this was them earlier this past weekend. We planted them from seed. There are 6 different varieties.  I’ve been outside cackling around like a witch… grow my pretties!  While they look really big, they need to started growing like mad if we are to have pumpkins by Halloween!

Pretty Tile
This past week we were playing at the San Francisco Design Center and I saw this pretty tile design on the wall.  Wouldn’t you love to have this… in your kitchen, bathroom, or outside, or anywhere? It’s so beautiful!

 Liberty London at Nordstrom
This past week when we went to the downtown San Francisco Nordstrom’s we checked in at Liberty London’s pop-up store!  If you’ve never heard of Liberty London, LL is actually a department store in London that sells really cute products!  They are known for the cute floral prints! They have no current store in the USA, so Nordstrom struck a little deal with them.  Nordstrom is exclusively selling their merchandise for 1-2 months.  If your local Nordies doesn’t have the pop-up store, that’s okay, you can get everything online.  I purchase the gardening gloves on the bottom right – they are soft and cute, and long to protect my arms from the rose thorns!  Here are some of the other things I eyed as well… oh, did I mention they give you a free cute little shopping bag if you buy something?

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Hey o! It’s time for Friday Favorites!

Nicky Hilton’s Wedding Dress
How beautiful is this wedding dress that Nicky Hilton wore to her wedding last weekend?  It is custom-made Valentino gown costing $75,000!  Isn’t it just beautiful?  The bride is beautiful too, of course!

Normally I would not be a fan of the sleeved gown with the turtle neck, but this is such a beautiful creation I love it!

I am sure the pictures do not do the gown justice.

Isn’t the bride just stunning?

But even when you’re a billionaire, your wedding day cannot be perfect.  The driver of this Bentley (!!) drove over part of her veil!  Luckily it did not wind around in the wheel well, but I am just horrified for her!  And this was on her way TO the ceremony, to make matters worse.  

She married a Rothschild and got married at Kensington Palace.

THIS PIZZA
I know, the picture is blurry.  But this pizza was soooo good.  It is from Kaleidoscope pizza in Medford, Oregon.  It has fresh spinach, red pepper, mushrooms, garlic, mozzarella on garlic olive oil.  It is soooo good.  I’ve put my husband on a mission to try to figure out how to copycat one of these.

MOONSTRUCK CHOCOLATES
Ever heard of them?  They are a local chocolatier in Portland, Oregon and they make the cutest chocolate truffles!  Look at them below! A school of clown fish! From left to right: sea salt toffee, peanut butter, raspberry, and blackberry. So cute and delicious!

The other flavors we tried were: peach (left), vanilla caramel (middle) and lemon (right).  The lemon truffle was to-die-for.  Like how these look? You don’t have to go to Portland to get some, you can have some shipped from their online store here. (no I wasn’t paid by them to write this, but I’ll gladly accept payment in the form of chocolate hint hint)

MOVE COMPLETE!
I just wanted to give everyone an update about my moving: our stuff FINALLY arrived. Only 10 days late.  It arrived the day we headed up to Portland… went to Portland… came back and now we’ve been busy unpacking like mad!

We moved out into the country on a couple of acres.  It’s my parents house but they don’t live here.  They are letting us live here in the meantime…. I will tell you what we did with a big announcement in a separate post!  I started a new job this week too.  I was so super stressed out but it has gone well. One problem in the country though is the internet.  We had major major internet problems that just got fixed last night.

wahhhh I need the internet.

Written at http://peoniesandorangeblossoms.blogspot.com

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Moving
For those of you that regularly follow my blog, you heard that I am moving.  We moved from Southern California (the Inland Empire) to Northern California (Sacramento Area).  We were so incredibly happy when we drove down the Grapevine and saw the great Central Valley in front of us… it was full of orchards and fields of crops.  We totally love it.  A lot of people turn up their nose to the Central Valley but honestly, who can hate such a place where 1/4 of the Nation’s food is produced (seriously, I’m not making that number up!). One of my favorite road trip “games” to play while I’m bored is to “name that tree”… basically when you drive by a bunch a crop of trees you guess which type of trees are growing. Sounds lame but it kills hours of driving time.

But more importantly, our stuff has NOT arrived.  Why are moving companies so shady?  They picked up our stuff 1 week ago.  They said it would be delivered the next day.  And the next day rolled around. And then the next day. And the next day…. still no stuff!  AND ONE WEEK LATER (yes I’m yelling) STILL NO STUFF.  Good thing I personally took my computer and a week worth of clothes.  But seriously, I NEED MY STUFF!  It’s one thing to say “it will be delivered in a week” but it’s another thing to keep lying to us about which date it’s going to get here. How do they not know? It’s a 6 hour drive. It should’ve arrived same day.

heard it through the Grapevine

Inside Out – the Movie

Since we have no stuff, we went to the movies for the first time in 8 months.  It’s a cute movie by Disney-Pixar about the different voices and emotions inside of your head.  It’s about a family who moves from the Midwest to San Francisco.  Guess what, the movers lose their stuff (uh, great, sounds like real life).  So inside of the mind of the little girl, we meet Joy, Anger, Disgust, Fear, and Sadness.  During the new process, we learn that basically sometimes it’s okay to be Sad.  That’s the short story. I tried to sum it up… but just go see it. 

Peaches
In the new house that we moved into, there are a lot of peach trees.   I immediately got the song from the 90s stuck in my head: “moving to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches”.  There are peaches coming out of our ears!

Flowers!
There are hundreds of rose bushes where we are at.  While we were waiting for some of our furniture to arrive, I put together this rose floral arrangement for fun.  These roses smell so good!

UnREAL
Remember two weeks ago I was super sad that Game of Thrones ended?  Well, I’m still sad but I have a new TV show to watch.  It’s called Unreal.  It is on Lifetime.  Do you like The Bachelor or the Bachelorette?  Well, basically this comedy show makes fun of the bachelor.  It is a behind-the-scenes look about what life is like on the set of Everlasting, which is a Bachelor show knock-off.  UnREAL is on Lifetime on Mondays at 10pm.  I don’t normally watch lifetime, but it showed up in my app on my apple tv and then… I found it… and started watching… and now I like it!  If you like the Bachelor, this show is for you!

the bachelor? Nope. This is UnREAL!

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As this is my last weekend in Southern California before the big move up North, I thought I would share some of my favorite things that I like to do in SoCal!

Disneyland
My favorite thing to do in Southern California is to go to Disneyland.  I had an annual pass for several years.  It was so much fun just being able to pop into the park for an afternoon or evening.  Sometimes on my way home from South Coast Plaza (aka the biggest mall on the West Coast), when traffic was too bad I would stop by Disneyland for 2-3 hours, grab a bite to eat and go on a few rides. Granted, the pass prices have gone up significantly, I still love to go.  I will miss going here the most. The 60th anniversary celebration is going on right now, check it out here.

Disneyland!

While living down here, I achieved a bucket list item of mine: go on every single ride at both parks.  I did it.  I even battled my fear of heights and went on the giant ferris wheel just to say I did it.  The other people that I shared the car with thought I was going to pass out when we were sitting at the top. It’s all good. No passing out or vomiting occurred.  Needless to say, my fear of heights remains present.tt

Radiator Springs in Carsland!

The first year I moved down here Carsland had *just* opened.  It was SO CRAZY packed.  The Radiator Springs Racers is a lot of fun though.

delicious treats at the cozy cone motel

But my favorite time to go to Disneyland was during Halloweentime.  What’s nice it’s still light out later in the evening and the weather is really quite nice as well.  It’s warm but not too hot.  I love how they decorate the whole park with a Halloween and Autumn theme.  I would go during Tuesdays or Wednesdays and there would seriously be no one in the park.  I would just walk straight on rides without a wait. It was so nice!  I will miss doing that!

Halloweentime is the best!

I wrote about my experience at Disneyland during Halloweentime here in case you missed it.  I also wrote about my experience at Disneyland during Christmas time here if you missed it. 

Bottega Louie

My source of French pastries when I’m not in France.  Granted, this store is all the way in downtown LA (so 1 to 2 hours depending on traffic from mere) but it is closer than France!  I wrote about my experience at Bottega Louie here.  Now I’m sure I can find a French pastry shop in San Francisco, but Bottega Louie copied Laduree down to the cute little boxes.  You can see their website here.  

Roger’s Gardens

I will really miss shopping here. Or more like browsing since it’s expensive.  This is the BEST home and garden shop.  They have lots of plants, and unusual plants, but during Halloween and Christmas they really out do every one with their seasonal selections.  They have unique products that are high quality and beautiful.   You can seriously spend hours looking around.  We might have to make a special trip during Christmas time to enjoy some SoCal Winter and get some shopping done!  I wrote about Roger’s Gardens during Halloween and Christmas.  You can check out their website here.

They always had the neatest displays…

They would completely redecorate their whole store during the seasons. 

They have a whole bunch of highly decorated Christmas trees each with a different theme… so there is something for everyone!

The Pacific Coast Highway and the Beach

There’s nothing quite like cruising down the PCH and going to the beach.  Even though the Pacific Ocean is cold here, lots of people still swim and surf in it!  I just liked sitting on the beach… the water is too cold for me!

Sprinkles Cupcakes

This cupcake store is the famous one that claims to have started the cupcake trend nationwide.  They even have cupcake ATMs so you can get your fix 24/7.  I personally like the peanut butter chocolate chip cupcake the best!  You know what else is nice? Grabbing a Sprinkles Cupcakes then enjoy it while doing my other favorite thing… sitting at the beach. Check out their website here.

Red O Restaurant

Our favorite restaurant is by Top Chef Master Rick Bayless.  His food is traditional Mexican cuisine with modern interpretations.  It is SO GOOD.  This is kind of a swanky restaurant and we would only go here for special occasions.  Check out the website here.

One of his appetizers is a sampler of guacamole… each cup holds a different flavor.  Our favorite was the walnut pomegranate.  I know it sounds weird, but is is delicious!!

The Pasadena Flea Market
I loved going to the Pasadena flea market held once a month at the Rose Bowl.   It is the second Sunday of every Month.  It was so much fun… granted, I only found some treasures in my price range a few times.  The website is here.

While I will miss some things about SoCal, I am so excited to be moving up North.  San Francisco is my favorite city in the US, so I’m excited I will be much closer to it!

Thank you for stopping by!!

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Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Momfessionals, and Grace and Love 
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Friday Favorites at the Diary of a Real Housewive
Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

Written at http://peoniesandorangeblossoms.blogspot.com

It’s Friday which means… Friday Favorites!  I found this Friday Meme… I know that’s how we all feel when we leave work on Friday.  

Fit Bit!

I got a Fit Bit last week! And guess what?! I LOVE IT! I wasn’t too sure about how much I’d like it… because, well, it’s not very pretty.  But then I started wearing it around… and I love it! It tracks my steps, my calories, my flights of stairs, my heart rate (resting and during exercise), exercise calories burned, and even my sleep pattern!  A full review is coming soon as I’ve only had this thing for 1 week but let me tell you… GET ONE!  I think the HR monitor is the most important thing…. so get the one I got here: Fitbit Charge HR

Les Marquis de Laduree

So, remember how I’m totally obsessed with Laduree?  Well, what I didn’t tell you is that Laduree also has a shop dedicated to chocolate… it’s just… I didn’t take pictures when we were in Paris. I know, I’m regretting it. We window shopped but simply weren’t in the chocolate mood that day (it was hot).  BUT, don’t fret, because they now have an instagram that shows off all of the pretty chocolate creations so we can drool from a far…

 OH WAIT. I just figured out how to imbed instagram pictures. CHECK IT OUT: I feel a little bit like a computer genius right now. 

Pains au chocolat tout chocolat #lesmarquisdeladuree

A photo posted by Les Marquis de Ladurée (@lesmarquisdeladuree) on Jun 11, 2015 at 12:15am PDT

Fancy Houses

Do you ever go to model homes just for fun?  With the temperatures here now hitting 100 every day I am totally dying to jump into a pool.  We went to some model homes for fun and I totally love the indoor-outdoor living.  Now during the day I would definitely keep the outdoors out… but come evening time it would be nice to have some dining outside like below… don’t you think?

Moving

I wouldn’t call moving a favorite, but it’s a reality.  We’re moving in less than 2 weeks and have been busy packing.  I hate packing.  It’s nice to throw some things away that I don’t use anymore, but seriously, where’d all this stuff come from?  We’re headed up North to the Sacramento area and I’m so excited to start a new life up there.  As much as I’ve loved SoCal, I’m totally over the traffic and the amount of people down here.  Sacramento isn’t exactly small, but we’re moving to the country where it will be quiet.

Who hates moving? ME!!

Game of Thrones
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT And I have a lot to say about this…
I meant to write on this last week and even started my post on it but then apparently I got side tracked and hit post before I even wrote about it! Whoops.  Did I mention that this post contains spoilers?
First off, can I just say that I can’t believe we have to wait ANOTHER YEAR to find out what the end to all of those cliffhangers?  Nooooo!!!

How I felt at the end of this episode!

Ok, ready? Here come spoilers.  I cannot believe that Melissandre was FOS when Stannis rode down to Winterfell only to have half his army leave him and to be wildly outnumbered.  Then she peaced out when she realized that they were going to lose.  I kind of feel bad for Stannis, only kind of, because he literally lost everything trying to take over the Iron Throne.  But I guess there’s a word called Karma and that’s what happens when you burn the most lovely character on the show, the Princess Shireen.  Brienne of Tarth kills him with a capital J for Justice.  But then she misses out on Sansa lighting a candle int he window, forcing Sansa and Theon to grow a backbone and jump out of the castle for freedom.  But c’mon.  We know they’re going to get caught.  Nothing good ever comes for Sansa.
Next, we go to the lame story plot of picking up Myrcella from Dorne, only to find she gets the kiss of death from the lame-o Sand Snake lady.  I’m over this plot and I’m not talking about it anymore.  I’m glad she’s gone from this story.
Queen Cersei finally confessed to one of her many sins for which she is forgiven for, and she’s forced to walk a nude walk-o-shame back into her castle.  I felt bad for Cersei for the first time in this series, but honestly, she’s a terrible person and had it coming.  Letting her go back to her castle to the newly reborn Mountain was the Sparrow’s biggest mistake.  The Sparrow effed with the wrong person.
In the mean time, Drogon the Dragon has dragged Dany over to who-knows-where and is acting like a teenage boy by only laying around wanting to eat and do nothing.  So Dany wanders off only to be surrounded by her old people, the Dothraki.  I have no idea what they have to say to her, but likely it’s not good news.  This also leaves Tyrion to rule Mereen in the short run.  I think he will do a fine job, and some day when Dany gets back to Mereen she will see he’s worthy as a Hand.
But let’s talk about the most important thing: Jon Snow.  The little kid tricks Jon Snow into thinking his Uncle has come back… only to be greeted by a Traitor sign and then his death.  NOOO!!  Jon Snow can’t be dead!  He’s like… the most important character besides Dany.  Honestly, I don’t think he’s dead.  Why?  Because he can’t be!  I find it highly *convenient* that Melissandre has now showed up to the Castle right when Jon Snow dies.  This show has magic all around… I think she’ll resurrect him.  She’s obsessed with his blood, remember?  While the show writers say dead is dead, we all know that’s not true.  Look at the Mountain… he’s back.  I feel like I’ve been stabbed 12 times Jon-Snow-Style by George RR Martin after this episode…

All and all, I thought episode 8 and 9 of this season were much better than the season finale… with the White Walker King raising his army of dead and Drogon being the true hero of the day and rescuing Dany.  I can’t wait to see what the next season brings… but we’ll have to wait another year.  I guess for now I’ll have to watch reruns of Downton Abbey and Outlander… Actually, I found a new show on Netflix. I’ll write about it next week.

Thank you for stopping by!!
You can also follow me by clicking on these: bloglovin, instagram, twitter, pinterest, and google plus.
Sharing at…
Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Momfessionals, and Grace and Love 
Five on friday at A Liz Adventures .
Friday Favorites at the Diary of a Real Housewive
Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

It’s Friday which means another edition of Friday Favorites!!
 Cute Strawberry Tweets (err, Treats)

I went to a Tea Party this week and someone made the *cutest* strawberry birdie treats!  Look at them!  They were almost too cute to eat. But then my stomach said ‘eat it!’ so I did. It was really good!  The nests were made out of chocolate rice kripsies and coconut.  The strawberries were filled with a cream of some sort. I forgot to ask for the recipe, so I did a pinterest search and I think they are from this recipe.

Macarons
I’ve been busying baking macarons these past two weeks.  As I’m moving up to Sacramento, I’ve been busy baking these for my coworkers as a big thank you for all of the good times these past few years.
This time I’ve made pistachio and salted caramel.  They are good.  If you’re interested, you can get the recipes here: pistachio macaron recipe and salted caramel macaron recipe.  These pics were posted on my instagram last week.

Pistachio Macarons

If you’re wondering what the dark spots are on the shells of these salted caramel macarons, they are from the outside of the almond.  For this batch I had used almond flour from Trader Joe’s… and let me tell you, never again! The dark spots drove me nuts.

salted caramel macarons

Sailing in Newport Beach

This past week we went to my friend’s wedding.  They got married on a yacht in Newport Beach.  It was so much fun!  I really enjoyed sailing around in the Harbor where the sea was calm.  We were all dreaming about which pretty house we would buy if we were billionaires.

S’mores Frappuccino Review

This past week we finally got around to trying to new S’more Frappuccino at Starbucks.  I, for one, am not a *huge* frappuccino drinker.  I normally drink coffee in the morning and the frappuccinos are really too sweet for a morning coffee.  With that said, we tried the S’mores frappuccino in the afternoon.  To my surprise, it was actually pretty good.  Per Starbuck’s website, it is a Marshmallow-infused whipped cream, milk chocolate sauce, a creamy blend of graham, coffee, milk an dice, finished with more marshmallowy whipped cream and a graham cracker crumble. Whoa.  Let’s for one not pretend for one second that this isn’t a milkshake with coffee in it.  Because that’s what it is.  It wasn’t sickeningly sweet like I find most of the other frappuccino’s.  Granted, I only had a few sips of this drink.  I’m not sure I could drink a whole tall one of these… maybe one of the new mini sizes.  But, at 320 calories a drink, this is no daily ritual.  Anyway, I think it’s worth trying for a sip or two.  But for the rest of the time, I’ll stick to my Skinny Caramel Macchiato.

Charles Faudree’s “Country French Legacy” – The New Book!!!!

French Country Legacy

french country kitchen

I just got Charles Faudree “Country French Legacy” in the mail this past week.  OMG, I loooooove it.  I spent several hours pouring over the pages studying everything.  There is just so much to look at in every picture.  I love how inviting his homes feel.  I noticed I really love blue in the bedrooms and red in the study.  I love how he mixes all different fabrics together.  I also love how he decorates with a lot of animals in the paintings and figurines he chooses.  I could go on and on about how much we all love Charles Faudree, but if you haven’t bought his book yet then you need to!  You can get it at the link above!

Thank you for stopping by!!
You can also follow me by clicking on these: bloglovin, instagram, twitter, pinterest, and google plus.

Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Momfessionals, and Grace and Love 
Five on friday at A Liz Adventures .
Friday Favorites at the Diary of a Real Housewive
Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

I am back with another week of Friday Favorites. I have been having fun writing Friday Favorites as it gives me a chance to write about things or share this that aren’t quite long enough for a whole blog post.
This post contains affiliate links.

Salad You Need to Try

healthy white bean salad

One of nice things about Summer is that fruits and veggies are fresh.  I found a salad recipe on Pinterest and it was so good I have to share it with you. It is a white bean salad with avocado, tomato, and onion.  That’s it. Super healthy and super tasty.  Adding this to our Summer line up.  Because the dressing doesn’t have any mayo or yogurt, it would work well for a BBQ.
Lemons

When life gives you Lemons…

When life gives you lemons (or when your Uncle does)… You make lemonade. And lemon cake. And lemon flavored zucchini. And salad dressing with lemon. I made this lemon cake which was so incredibly good.  The recipe is from the Barefoot Contessa and surprisingly it uses Greek yogurt in the recipe to help cut the calories. All the other pound cakes call for 1-2 sticks of butter! Yikes!

my lemon cake picture as proof I made it!

French Country Group Boards

join a group board!

I have just discovered group boards on Pinterest.  I know I am late to the game with this.  It is so confusing to try to figure out how to join a group board!  So I started a new one, French Country Decor with easy instructions on how to join!  I know there are a few others out there.  That’s ok.  I also started a new google plus community that doesn’t require an invite. Can you believe no one had done that yet?

Favorite Shoe

the valentino studded pink flats

I don’t know why but I have been loving these caged studded flats by Valentino. I have been seeing them everywhere online and in the store. I just love them! It’s like a delicate ballerina flat went punk.  I also love them in all black. Only problem, I know these will look terrible on my feet!! All pointy shoes do! When you wear size 9.5, the point easily makes your foot look like a size 11 or 12! A dainty shoe turns into a clod hopper! I guess this will remain on my lust list.

Game of Thrones
*SPOILER ALERT*
You know it wouldn’t be a Friday Favorites without me writing about my current favorite show- GoT!  This week, entitled “The Gift” gave us a gift… Cersei in jail! It’s not like she didn’t have it coming!!  When she put the High Sparrow in command, did she really foolishly think she could imprison the Tyrell family without having the High Sparrow turn on her?  Religion will eventually rule the Iron Throne, for now.  As for the wall, Sam needs to like with Gilly. And Sansa I think is going to eventually try to kill Ramsay with the tool she stole while he was busy trying to show off his power.  What out, the little bird is going to get you!  As for my old hero Jorah, he got to give his Gift (Tyrion Lannister) to the Khaleesi much earlier than I expected, but I’m afraid it’s not going to be good enough.  She’s still pissed at him and probably won’t ever change her mind. Can’t wait for next week!

sorry Cersei #notsorry

Laduree Paris Review

I *finally* got my first post from my Paris post up and running!  These things take time.  I’m still salivating over the pictures that I took.  If you haven’t seen my review already, check it out, because I review things like this pretty Lily of the Valley macaron!

ALSO, I JOINED instagram!!!  You can follow me by clicking the link!  It is full of pretty pictures that I don’t post on the blog (at least most of them).

Thank you for stopping by!!
You can also follow me by clicking on these: bloglovin, instagram, twitter, pinterest, and google plus.


Foodie Friday & Everything Else  at RattleBridge Farm
Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Momfessionals, and Grace and Love 
Five on friday at A Liz Adventures .
Friday Favorites at the Diary of a Real Housewive
Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

I had so much fun with last week’s Friday Favorites that I decided to do it again!!

Pretty Peonies
I just *love* peonies (um, obviously as my blog name is peonies & orange blossoms) and I FINALLY found some. They were Trader Joe’s for a reasonable price.  So I snapped them up.  They have been so pretty watching them open up!

We took this slo-mo video of the peonies opening up in my tulipiere and you need to watch it.  It is SO pretty and it’s amazing how fast the peonies opened up!  This video was taken over a time period of 4 hours.

Peonies blooming from Angelina B on Vimeo.

PiYo 
PiYo stands for Pilates-Yoga and it is a new workout video set that I ordered from Beach Body.  I am trying it because it helps build strength while increasing your flexibility.  As we all know, the more flexible you are, the less likely you are to get injured.  It sounds like it’s easy but when I’m done with a session I’m soaked in sweat!

This is how I think I look when I’m doing PiYo…

 But I think this is how I actually look…

Have you ever done PiYo before? What do you think? Leave a comment!

Weekend Trip to Ojai!

We went to Ojai this weekend and stayed at the Ojai Valley Inn Resort & Spa.  The hotel grounds were so pretty.  There is a full golf course, multiple pools, a beautiful restaurant under old oak trees, and a wonderful spa.  The husband and I both went to the spa and enjoyed some much-needed massages.  I can now touch my chin to my chest post-massage.  See, massages are therapeutic!

Unfortunately the weather is a bit chilly, too cold to get into the pool.  Oh well, I suppose I can avoid skin cancer this time.

Game of Thrones
*spoiler alert* *spoiler alert*
Well, apparently I can’t help myself talking about GoT.  The show is just soooo good. Do you watch it?  This week our poor Lady Sansa married the crazy guy.  Why does Sansa always get screwed? Seriously.  The poor girl can’t catch a break.  Did you like the attitude she handed to that other girl though! You Go Girl! Here’s what I think will end up happening… the Boltons will die in a fight and Lady Sansa will eventually return as ruler of the Stark House of the North.  Right??  Her wedding was eerily beautiful though.  OH. And Queen Margery is a dead woman.  Queen Cersei is so clever… no one mess with a Mother Hen!

Strawberries
Strawberries are in season and I was playing around with my camera and took this pretty picture.  Everyone’s been posting these delicious looking strawberry recipes but I have a confession: I like them plain the best (if they are sweet enough, that is!).  We got these strawberries from a farmer in Oxnard, California.  Did you know that the state of California produces over 85% of America’s strawberries??  That’s a lot of strawberries.

strawberry fields forever

In the meantime, don’t forget to follow me: bloglovin, twitter, pinterest, and google plus.

Foodie Friday & Everything Else  at RattleBridge Farm
Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Momfessionals, and Grace and Love 
Five on friday at A Liz Adventures .
Friday Favorites at the Diary of a Real Housewive
Friday Favorites at Meet @ the Barre
Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM

I’m trying something new today.  It’s called Friday Favorites.   It seemed like a fun party!
This post contains affiliate links.

I’m partying with Erika, Andrea, and Narci .

PARIS POSTS
I know I’ve been back from Paris for TWO weeks but I took a gazillion million pictures and I’m having a hard time picking and choosing and sifting through them.  A trip report is coming… SOME DAY.  In the mean time, I’m still pretending like I haven’t worked the past 6 of 7 days in a row (with 2 more to go, yes I need to leave for work soon) and instead pretending I’m eating some macarons in the Tuileries garden…

YES this was real life two weeks ago.

See, I can’t make this stuff up. Look. Look at this below, a SWAN in a real fairytale village.  I promise when I get my pictures and posts up you will want to read them!

#isthisreallife?

NEW SHOES:
For our 2 year wedding anniversary this week, my husband and I gave each other new tennis shoes.  YAY!  We both like to work out together and we both haven’t had a new pair in like… 5 years. That’s a long time. Especially for a shoe horse like myself. I got the Saucony Ride 7 and my husband got the Nike Zoom Structure 18.  We both love them.  Links are below.

Nike Men’s Zoom Structure 18 Running Sneakers from Finish Line • Nike • $119.99
Women’s Saucony Ride 7 • Saucony • $109.95

#TBT to my wedding week. Or is it #TBF? (Throwback Friday?)
I couldn’t not include at least one picture from my wedding as I happen to think it was the most beautiful wedding of all time ever. ha! I’m biased, okay??

Here’s a little wedding peek-a-boo…

Ok so I kinda loved my dress and shoes.  Shoes were CHANEL. OMG. drool. Dress was Monique Lhuillier. love. swoon. sigh. sigh again.

I did not have a traditional wedding cake.  We had a French gateau.  AKA”Le Fraisier”.  It is essentially a French strawberry shortcake.  Confession: I don’t like normal cake that much.  So we had a cake in the center with a whole bunch of mini French gateaus and sweets on a bar.

Le Fraisier French Wedding Cake // Peonies & Orange Blossoms

 Oh the flowers. They were so pretty. Peonies, garden roses, lily of the valley, sweet pea, and fuchsias.  Why did they have to wilt and die??

Wedding Bouquet Table Flowers: peonies, garden roses, sweet pear, lily of the valley, fuchsias.

GAME OF THRONES
*SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT*
Do you watch game of thrones??  I don’t know why but I looooove this show.  Even though it’s so gruesome.  The plot is just so good.  When I watch it, time goes by so fast. I feel like I’ve just sat down and then BAM. 1 hour was gone and it’s over.  And that’s the sign of a good show.  It makes you feel like you’ve left reality for a while.  Can we talk about Jorah though?  Jorah was my hero. For real.  Of course, after Ned Stark.  But Ned Died.  And now Jorah is gonna die. He’s got the stone man disease. Nooooo!  I guess I have to find another hero (for now).  I’m rooting for Stannis Baratheon.  He’s one of the few who’s smart and seems to have a plan.

WEEKEND TRIP
This weekend my husband and I are headed to the Ojai Valley Resort for some R&R and to celebrate our anniversary.  I’m so excited.  Confession. I wanted to go here because I saw it on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.  My husband was like, um, how’d you find out about this hotel? It’s like, in the middle of nowhere? And I’m like, uh, I heard about it, somewhere. And then I fessed up.  I saw it on the trashy tv show you don’t like! GAAH.

Last thing, a FUNNY STORY
So I was talking to one of my patients this week, a 10 year old girl.  She had just started her menarche the week before for the first time ever.  So I asked her how she liked it.  She looked at me and said “WOOF”.  Her Mom and I LOL’d forever.  I’m still giggling.  Yep, pretty much sums that up.

OMG, I had so much fun writing this!   Should I do this again? Seriously though, I’ve gotta get to work now.

In the meantime, don’t forget to follow me: bloglovin, twitter, pinterest, and google plus.

Written at http://peoniesandorangeblossoms.blogspot.com
Linking up with these fabulous link parties: Inspire Me Tuesday, Foodie Friday & Everything Else, metamorphosis Monday
Friday Favorites with A Little Bit of Everything, Momfessionals, and Grace and Love 
Five on friday at A Liz Adventures.
Friday Favorites at the Diary of a Real Housewive
Friday Favorites at Meet @ the Barre
Oh Hey, Friday! at September FARM