Tag Archives: Santa Barbara

WAIT!

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Vignette in Ralph Lauren, NYC by Slim Paley

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Hold on!

It simply can’t be Labour Day Weekend yet!

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To accompany your stroll

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Poolside at The Coral Casino, Montecito, California.

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The weather in Santa Barbara is so GORGEOUS right now.

Hot.

Blue skies.

Nary a breeze.

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Eat your heart out down there in the S. of F. :)

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Fernanda Cameron for SIS magazine

Iriving & Fine top

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 I’ve hardly been to the beach

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There are still so many summer books to read (like, ALL of them :( )

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So many blue & white stripes yet to wear…

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Armani 2012

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Salvatore Ferragamo resort 2012

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Armani 2012

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photos to take…

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Footwear to consider…

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Accessories to splurge on

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Blue Rope Chairs from the “Melt Down” Series by Tom Price, U.K.  VIA

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Jean Paul Gaultier

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and rooms to “phooff” up…

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Slim Paley

The “Raoul Textiles” shop, Santa Barbara, CA

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Not to mention all the summer cocktails I was going to concoct…

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I’m just not READY.

I’m going to be like the party guest that won’t leave,

still banging on about summer & watermelons while every one else has moved on to pumpkins & cashmere

But isn’t that the beauty of writing my very own blog?

NO BOSS :)

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Cheers & Have a fabulous Holiday Weekend!

xoxo

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A Tourist at Home

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Los Olivos, California

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Recently my husband and I have been playing tourists very close to home.

Not quite sure what’s come over us, but it’s fun!

I guess these are the things you start to do when your children begin leading their own lives (the nerve)

Truth be told, we’d also become a little guilty of what I call “Disneyland Syndrome” – you know-living so close to something special that you end up taking it for granted?

 Like the person who tells you they live within the shadow of the Eiffel Tower but have never been to the top and you’re thinking “Whhaa??? Are you nuts?!”

Well, that was us.

So on a day when Santa Barbara was tucked beneath a heavy duvet of marine layer, off we went to Los Olivos, located aprox. 40 minutes north east of us.

In less than 25 minutes we were feeling the kiss of the sun as we crested the top of the mountains separating the ocean from Solvang, Santa Ynez, and Los Olivos…

home to some of the finest vineyards in California. World-class vineyards.

That’s right- there was WINE over there for God’s sake!

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and beautiful scenery, epically different than Santa Barbara’s.

Positively “Bonanza-esque”

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Large animals with big horns

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Wind-thingies

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Our first stop was  Harrison Clarke Wine where Roger Harrison (accompanied by sweet Rita above) gave us a most enjoyable and educational tour of his vineyards.

Roger is a man in full with a real passion for what he does.

What a pleasure to see.

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Really, the photos don’t even do it justice.

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Magic beans!

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Roger’s lovely wife Hilarie led us through a fun tasting, and I must say, the couple were very gracious about our total lack of wine knowledge.

We just knew that all the wines tasted good to us.

I was reminded of one of my most important New Year resolutions; To learn something new every day.

Doing fairly well on that front :)

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Afterwards, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at “Sides” in the little town of Los Olivos.

Good thing a friend had told us of the restaurant.

As you can see, it exists quite happily with no signage.

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Naturally I felt compelled to order sorbets to match the awnings. 

The one on the right was lemon verbena flavored, fabulous.

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We ended this most excellent day by stopping by the Clairmont Lavender fields

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Which were not quite in full bloom  (NOW is the time)

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 Meryl, the proud owner of the farm, shared a photo of her fields published.

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Who knows what or where our next local adventure might be?

The infamous pea soup in Buellton??

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It’s a beautiful life Rita.

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Comprehensive List of Santa Barbara County wines & vineyards

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Happy Weekend Everyone!

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Can We Talk?

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Can we talk??

Have you ever been applying  your make-up and thought that a very fine, stray hair from your make-up brush was stuck to your face and gone to remove it only to find it was a line??!

  Me neither.

(right by my your eye)

I was just wondering if that had ever happened to you.

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So, speaking of getting gussied up…

We attended a stunningly beautiful wedding this weekend.

Now Santa Barbara, as most of you probably know, is a magical location for a wedding,

and this one was no exception.

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Love was literally in the air :)

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Of course due to privacy,  I won’t go into any details but…

‘Twas a Black Tie affair.

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I wore an ultra-violet evening gown with hot pink suede Christian Louboutins (never to touch my feet again, such was the agony of the experience) and carried my hot pink patent Alexander McQueen oversized clutch.

(We’re talking borderline too big for ‘carry-on’)

I do love a clutch that you can actually fit $%#@ into though, don’t you?

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The Satan Spawn Shoes (sorry Mr. Louby)

You know it doesn’t bode well when you’re applying band-aids before you’ve even left the house.

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I wish I’d had these instead.

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and while we’re on the subject of shoes

( I think we can all agree; a subject very near & dear to our collective heart :) )

Never have I been to an affair

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where the men seriously gave the women a run for their money in that department

(no pun intended)

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Wish I’d gotten a better photo of this gent’s wonderful zebra skinned evening slippers

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And I so wanted these…

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Gorgeous bespoke beaded gems (size 15 1/2 no less. Dude-that’s a lot of beads…)

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Truth be told, I’m absolutely loving the resurgence of the evening slipper for men & women right now.

So much so I even convinced my husband to pay a visit to the Stubbs & Wootton website the very next day.

See? miracles DO happen!

it’s just all in the timing…

When love is in the air, anything is possible.

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And is it embarrassing to say I still get a little thrill at a good cluster of Disco Balls?!
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If only I’d had velvet slippers to dance in!
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Congratulations Beautiful Newlyweds
May you trip the light fantastic for many decades.
xoxo
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*Footnote ;
Many thanks to Leslie v.W. for sending in this additional pic. from the evening!
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Great Minds…or what?!!
xx
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The Good Earth

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Slim Paley photo

What a stunning weekend we enjoyed here in Santa Barbara!

We felt very blessed indeed to be on the other side of the country from Irene, though Older Son lives in Manhattan so as you can probably guess there were just a few phone calls and gentle reminders to buy flashlights & batteries, followed by “MOOOMMM, REAlly, I’ll be FINE“.

 Hey, that’s my job.

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Saturday I woke up very early (one guess why :) ) and convinced my husband to go to the local Farmer’s Market.

What a treat! I hadn’t been all summer and I was truly inspired by the abundance of delights our local farmers had to offer.

I picked up everything from passion fruit to ginormous fresh stems of ginger (another post)  They filled the house with the most divine scent you can imagine- you only had to close your eyes to be in Hawaii.

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At the other end of the scent spectrum, check out the size of these scallions!

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(we just used regular honey for this, but I’d like to try making the Lavender-Rose version; recipe here;

In a glass jar mix 1 quart mild honey with 3/4 cup dried organic rose petals  and 1/2 dried lavender flowers  (I’m going to try to dry my own, how hard could it be?).  Seal and let stand on a sunny windowsill for 2 weeks.  Warm jar under hot water and strain into a clean jar. Store in cool, dark place.

(Recipes via Food & Wine magazine)

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Like going to church on Saturday, “Mama’s” homemade jellies provide stained-glass visuals at the entrance to the market.

“Mama” calls everybody “Sweetie” :)

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Not sure what these are, but awfully interesting texture, they’d be beautiful in a big ebony bowl

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Have you ever seen purple green peppers?

I’ve seen yellow, red and orange green peppers but never pecked a pack of purple peppers pefore.

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The plums were positively bursting to be ‘crumbled’

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Dragon Tongue snap beans

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Lemon cucumbers

I don’t know what you do with them.  The vendor was about as helpful as a sidewalk crack.

Read this and be sorry Mr. Lemon Cucumber Vendor.

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Beets like sunsets

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Crazy eel cukes

I could go on and on…I took so many photos at the market (husband tapping foot, patiently wheeling my purchases) but I’ll leave you with a cool drink, some carrots and a delicious recipe for crudite dip.  Aren’t we all healthy?!!

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I think you could substitute greek yoghurt for mayo?  Just don’t take my creme fraiche away from me.

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Watercolour carrots by Slim Paley

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Love your last few days of August!.

xx

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.For market days & locations click here

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Viva La Fiesta!

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Slim Paley photo

It’s FIESTA time this week in Santa Barbara!

 We are enjoying absolutely gorgeous weather for it too.  The atmosphere downtown is appproprately heightened and the streets are swelling with all the Swells :)  My favourite  Maitre’D With No Equal, Eric of the infamous Lucky’s in Montecito  tells me business is booming and judging from the valet line of cars on Coast Village Road  these fine summer evenings, it’s obvious Eric speaks the truth. It’s also obvious that Josh Holloway, aka “Sawyer”, is being a tad lackadaisical (you have no idea how long it took me to spell that) about stalking me at Lucky’s.  We celebrated my father’s 80th birthday there just the other night. Lord Almighty they shake a mean vodka martini. Just not quite mean enough to conjure a Sawyer sighting.

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But back to La Fiesta;

It’s all guac, salsa, chips, chile rellenos, margaritas, & peach sangria all the time…. Friday is the big parade on State St. The children all dressed up just melt your heart.  It brings a salty tear to my eye to remember Older Son in his full fiesta attire taking part in the parade many, many margaritas ago… (just to clarify those would be my margaritas not his :) )

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If I were going, which I’m not, as I have other obligations that day, I might be tempted to pull out my cherished Giorgio di Saint’ Angelo velvet shawl, a little piece of 70′s perfection that I bought at auction  several years ago. So very Jerry.  It came with a halter top that’s smaller than a kleenex. Single ply.  God bless you The 70′s.

Mika Ninagawa

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A vintage Fiesta poster

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oh so pretty!

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Dransfield & Ross cocktail napkins from The Picket Fence, Ketchum Idaho

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Elliott Mann Bag (link below)

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via The Loaded Trunk

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Moschino crocheted lantern

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Steven Meisel

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Table Throw  from Etro.

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John Conroy Images

Elliott Mann bag

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Pillow from The Loaded Trunk

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This is a rather special Fiesta as it also marks the 225th anniversary of our beautiful Santa Barbara Mission

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I love these little individual “Mexican Trifle”s – Double dip to your heart’s content!

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Watermelon Sangria

(via Allrecipes.com)

Directions

  1. Place 9 cups of watermelon cubes in a blender; blend on high until very smooth. Strain juice through a mesh strainer into a large pitcher. Pour the wine, vodka, triple sec, and simple syrup into the pitcher. Stir to combine. Mix the remaining 3 cups of watermelon cubes, the lime quarters, orange sections, and blueberries into the sangria. Chill for 4 hours before serving..
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“Goth Fiesta”   It’s a look.
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Have you read Conquistadora yet?? It’s receiving wildly mixed reviews but I must say I’m tempted.
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Viva La Fiesta!!

On the rocks with salt please :)

For  schedule of events & more info click here

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