Are you Ready?

For Halloween that is.....

Such a spooky time with all the kiddies out and trick or treating and all the houses decorated. There are some that even get the dogs involved now with costumes. We haven't but I have thought about it. Well I will have a special post tomorrow with my spooky Halloween charm bracelet and a blog hop hosted by Thespa over at Vintiquities Workshop. We had some really fun and spooky charms created by all the participants.

Here is a look at some of the charms I have created for Halloween this year.

I had fun creating the word art with the copper wire. I know it's hard to tell but the top charm is a skull bead with a hammered piece of copper wire and crystals with handmade head pins. Lots of cool charms to come.

We were traveling for 3 weeks in the motor home so being home has been nice although I'm still not caught up with cleaning and laundry.

I was able to capture some deer photos as they roamed the campground we were at. They were almost tame as they really didn't care if you were there or not. I stayed my distance as I have heard that they can get pretty mean if they are used to getting fed by people and you don't feed them.

Our last little trip was to Oregon's wine country and to go to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum. It was a great week. I don't think I have ever tasted so much Pinot Noir in my life, some good and some not so good.

These were taken by my husband with a little point and shoot and they turned out really well.

At the Space Museum the Titan 2

One of the very first passenger planes.

It's hard to imagine how large this plane is. It is the Spruce Goose the largest wooden float plane. It is massive.

Fun trip but yes we are glad to be home.

A Little Wine or Maybe a Lot

This week is our sojourn to Napa, CA. We are always on the quest for new and interesting wines and different wineries. We like the small family owned wineries as they have a little bit more personal feel. First stop on our list was Jessup Cellars. Oh my, what wonderful wines. I recommend making a reservation for a tasting as you get personalized treatment but you can just walk in also. I think the tasting fee is $20.00 but if you buy then it is waived. They are very liberal in their pourings and in fact will pour more wines than what is on the tasting list. We've been wine club members for over a year and love all the wines we have received but my favorite is called Jewel which is a red wine blend. Of course that would be the name of my favorite wine. They don't have any for sale right now but they do have the other red wine blend called Table for Four which is really good also.

Yesterday we ventured out again after doing a little grocery shopping. We cook our dinners at the condo vs. eating out each night as we do have a full kitchen. First stop was Hope and Grace. We found this little boutique winery last year and I just love their Chardonnay. They also just released a new Malbec which hubby liked. Then onto to Peju. We visited them about 4 years ago and haven't been back as we were trying others out but decided to go back this year. What a change in the winery. They have made some beautiful changes in their tasting room. We had our tasting in the marble room. Floors, countertops, everything was made of this wonderful green, brown marble. They have some wonderful sculptures outside also.

Today was an interesting day. My turn to drive us around and I thought I would take the Silveraldo Trail and hit some of the wineries up to St. Helena but I took a little detour. Yes, it was planned the moment I knew I made a mistake, I decided that this was the new plan. We went into the hills, around corners, up and down until we finally came to a lake. Don't know the name but took a few pictures anyway and then headed back toward Rutherford and came upon another lake...took more photos and continued on until we found a winery that looked interesting. It became our first winery stop of the day.

Rutherford Ranch was a pleasing surprise. We tasted several of their wines and then decided to join their wine club. They had the best Old Vine Zin that we have tasted in a while. So we had to buy a few. Knowing that we were going to get our first club shipment later in September that's all we purchased but the wines are very drinkable and affordable.

Walking around St. Helena was fun. We had lunch at a sidewalk Italian cafe and did a little shopping. Found a cool toss pillow all embroidered with California regions, hit up another shop called Findings that had some funky jewelry (yes I bought something) and then headed back down Hwy 29 towards home.

We just couldn't stop with one winery so found another one on the list that was along the way and recognized it as a sister winery of the Frances Ford Coppola winery that we are members of called Rubicon Estate. The Coppola's  purchased it in '75 from Inglenook Estate which was world renowned. I was so disappointed in the Rubicon wines since we love the Coppola wines. The people at the winery are very nice, the grounds are gorgeous but the wine was very pretentious. Heavy, dry and not drinkable unless you had some really heavy food which we did not. Tastings are $25.00 and you get to try 5 wines. I really don't recommend this winery if you are just out having a good time and wanting to try some good drinkable wines.

Tomorrow is another day so hopefully we will find some fantastic wineries and if not I'm sure we will have a good time trying.

Too Much Wine

I don't know, can you ever have too much wine? I think we tried this weekend. We've been tasting all kinds of wines in the Tri-Cities for Spring Barrel Tasting and now everything tastes the same. I think all we do is eat and drink on these weekends. Good thing we only do this once a year. My brother got a new smoker and cooked tri-tip roasts all day on it tomorrow and today we had some wonderful baby back ribs. OMG, tender and falling off the bones. If you don't like meat you wouldn't do well around my family.

We drove the motor home over (about 5 hours from our house) and parked in front of my brother's house. Just like being at home having your own rig to sleep in. The daughter came with us and promptly the first night here broke her big toe. Needless to say she didn't go out tasting with us yesterday. We did get her out today for a couple of winery tastings.....yes, she is still trying to catch up in her wine tastings back at the house. This picture was taken about 2 minutes ago and I just found out that one of the bottles she opened for dinner is now gone (only her and my brother are drinking wine at this point) and the current bottle only has about 1 glass left in it......humm maybe I should go get it.

These were a bit hit.

They are wine cozies I made and posted about HERE. I made them for everyone in our party about 12 plus made about 11 extra. After the first two wineries yesterday all my extras were gone (sold for $10.00 each) and my mother (little salesperson that she is) started passing out my business cards and telling them I'll make more and put them up for sale. So, now I guess I have to make more LOL. They were perfect for walking around to the wineries and having your hands free.

As you can see most of us have our wine glasses in the cozies around our neck. I'm kind of surprised at the comments we received from people yesterday....okay they were drunk happy people but they all seemed to like the little cozies. I do think you need the right atmosphere to be wearing one otherwise you may just look like a geek.

I hope everyone has had a good weekend. We will be headed back home tomorrow morning, hopefully it will be good weather.