Lake Shoecraft mini vacation

My parents, grandparents, Mr. F, Janie, her boyfriend, and I, spent the weekend at Lake Shoecraft this weekend. (This is an hour Northwest of Seattle.) 

My Dad loved the old wooden water skis, used as signs, around the lake. He recognized them as vintage Dick Pope Jr. 1962 Cypress Garden water skis. We call our grandmother, Tootie, and she was a hoot the whole weekend.Everyone enjoyed fishing for Perch, Bass, and Trout. Janie had just caught one in this picture, but it jumped before I snapped the photo.Here it is, again! It was even warm enough to swim, Saturday night. Tootie had everyone stretch before getting in the water!Janie, Mom, and me outside the cabin at Lake Shoecraft.Grandpa Larry was hilarious too.We had delicious, fresh grilled Trout and cedar plank Salmon Saturday night.
This is our sunset view from the balcony!

More pictures from the lovely Lake Shoecraft to come!

I had a fabulous fun weekend and have 200 something photos to edit after work today! 

Happy Monday!

Girls in white dresses...

 ...with blue satin slippers. 

 These dresses featured on the Cherry Blossom Girl and Absolutely Ladylike are just a few of my favorite things...

Almost all photos taken by The Cherry Blossom Girl at Maria Lucia Hohan's Atelier

 

[Found on Piperlime]

I am away for the weekend, relaxing on a small lake in the country with my husband, parents, and grandparents. Photography by Corrie Bond found here

Enjoy these dreamy images while I'm gone!

Equestrian Shoot by Jose Villa on M loves M & OnceWed

Earlier this month, I saw this sweet photo shoot titled, Love is in the Air by Jose Villa.

 [All photos are from Jose Villa and M loves M.]

I adore these amazing equestrian themed photos, also featured on M loves M and OnceWed. If we ever have a wedding anniversary photo session, I would love it to be like this one with the lovely couple from M loves M.

Jose Villa lends such a magical, romantic quality to these photos. Each picture looks like a grown-up, little girl's dream.

These ribbons remind me of mine from horse shows as a teenager. They now lay dusty in my parent's horse barn, so perhaps I should dust them off!

Jose Villa also has a stunning photography blog, check it out! 

The light in this barn is makes it look so charming and gives a fairy-tale quality to the shoot. I'm quite envious of the fashionable Mara, the blogger behind M loves M.

[All photos are from Jose Villa and M loves M.]

Night over the castle

Night over the castle
Originally uploaded by cuellar

Doesn't Prague look like a fairy tale city?? I'm sooo psyched. I just found a great slash-proof purse, I'm practicing basic Czech phrases, and I'm almost ready to start packing two weeks in advance. Mr. F and I are even going to buy bigger luggage! We just realized packing for 10 days will not fit in our typical wheeled carry-on bags!

St. Vitus Cathedral/Katedrála svatého Víta

San Vito Katedrala / Catedral de San Vito
Originally uploaded by Txanoduna

Only 16 more days until I can see this breathtaking cathedral inside the Prague castle grounds! I've heard the views from the castle are amazing!

"St. Vitus is the spiritual symbol of the Czech state. A Gothic masterpiece, work on the cathedral was commissioned by Charles IV and began in 1344 upon the site of an earlier 10th century rotunda. In all, it took nearly six centuries to complete.

Its first builders, Matthias of Arras and later Peter Parler, built the chancel with a ring of chapels, St. Wenceslas Chapel, the Golden Portal and the lower part of the main steeple.

The final phase of construction only ended during the period 1873-1929.

As well as being the largest and most important temple in Prague, St. Vitus Cathedral also oversaw the coronations of Czech kings and queens." [Source: http://www.pragueexperience.com]

Looking for travel luggage tips, especially purses

We're leaving for Prague in a little over two weeks! I can't wait. I've been considering getting some kind of travel purse for wandering around town with all the tourists. Do you have any suggestions?

This TourSafe Security Wallet is rather cute...and anti-theft!

I like the slim, accordion style purse but it may be too similar in size to my money belt. I'm also interested in the VaultSafe Basket Weave shoulder bag because I could fit my camera, my Moleskine notebook, and a water bottle in it. It also has  "a steel cable reinforced cross-body shoulder strap, and steel mesh embedded in the fabric, which foils slash-and-grab thieves"! Here's another Anti-Theft hobo bag option too. 

 There's also the Daymakers Medium Vertical Microfiber Security Purse. It comes in more colors than black and tan too!

My husband found a bunch of security travel bags on REI, but they're too unisex for my taste. Where is the cute and happy medium? Please help me find a travel purse!

My wine and kitten filled Saturday

Mr. F and I checked out a new urban winery called, 8 Bells, yesterday! As we walked into this small, yet lovely whitewashed room, the first thing I noticed was the Winslow Homer painting. He's one of my dad's favorite artists.The painting is also titled, Eight Bells. We tasted the delectable Chardonnay with fresh shucked oysters, by one of the winery owners, also the herbacious Tempranillo, [label from 8 Bells website] and a selection of spicy reds from the winery's hobby label, Shellback. We picked up our friend, Nichole, in the south end of the city and checked out Full Pull. It's a charming hole-in-the-wall wine store. On Saturday, they were pouring wines from the phenomenal Rotie Cellars. My favorite was the Southern Blend with Grenache, Syrah and Mourverde. Mr. F loved the Northern Blend with Syrah and Viognier. We even saw the infamous wine blogger, Sean Sullivan of Washington Wine Report at Full Pull!! (If you're interested, there's a wonderful review of Rotie wines currently featured on Washington Wine Report.)

Our next stop was the Seattle Animal Shelter to look for a kitten for Nichole. It was like kismet. She spotted this lovely grey, black and white kitten immediately. 

Meet Finn, Nichole's new kitten! He's cute and spunky! Finn played for a few hours straight and then fell asleep me. It was adorable.Today it was raining in the morning so, we ran errands and cleaned house...not as exciting as Saturday! I did edit nearly 100 kitten photos too! Now we're having a Czech language tutor come over for basic language tips. I can't wait!

Dreaming of J.Crew and cupcakes and movies...oh my!

The cast of the Romantics looks like they are having so much fun wearing J.Crew and nibbling on cupcakes. I'm excited to see Adam Brody, Malin Akerman, Josh Duhamel, and Katie Holmes in a movie together. I've loved Katie Holmes since Dawson's Creek and Adam Brody in the O.C. (Joey and Seth were characters I identified with at a very impressionable age.) The entire photo shoot is featured on J. Crew as well as a behind the scenes video and a contest!! I hope I win!!!

(Apparently Elijah Wood and Anna Paquin weren't able to make this photo session. Perhaps Anna Paquin was too busy in the hot, hot Rolling Stones cover shoot with her True Blood costars, Erik and Bill. I'm tempted to post that photo but my Mom reads my blog and it is way too racy for her!) I also suggest checking out the Stylist for the details on what the actors and actresses are wearing! Here's a cute sneak peek at the movie....[source]

Plus, Quinn from Glee is in this movie! 

[source]

I cannot wait until it comes out next month! If you're interested, www.theromanticsmovie.com has the trailer! I plan on reading this book before the movie comes out, September 10th, 2010. Have you read it?