it's march, already?!

hello! happy national women's day. (ha ha)
well, actually, it's a pretty big holiday in russia... kinda like valentines here. which reminds me, i should call my mom... 

anyway
 
i've been making granola for the last few wks. experimenting with recipes...actually i don't have patience for real recipes sometimes, & i often find that recipes have way too much sugar/sweetener in them, so as a rule, i only add half the sweetener that a recipes asks for...sue me!
my own, latest,  "recipe" has been my best one i've made, so far. i bought some coconut butter....& it tastes so good! i add about two tablespoons of softened coconut butter & four tablespoons of agave & sprinkle some nutmeg & cinnamon to about two cups of rolled oats & some nuts. this time i also added chopped apple & toasted it all at 325degrees for about 30min or until lightly brown,  it turned out terrific!
(i know it turned out pretty good, b/c my mother in law, who doesn't normally try my "interesting food" had some, and liked it!)

i put some granola into a bowl, then pile on my favorite fruit!
add a little almond (or soy or rice or w/e) milk to it, a dalop or almond butter.....mmm
[also, if you have ever made granola and have any tips, let me know!!]

this is the nut butter & coconut butter i used. wow. rozzy is really selling that coconut butter!! sexy!

nate got this little navajo pattern vintage jacket, we both really love it, so we share it. but just to be clear, it was a present for me...so it's ...mine. :)

here's my little sweet niece, izzy. she is so chunky and soft and smells like a the best baby smell. she's just so loveable. (sorry, very self indulgent here, but hey-- we look cute together :) )

last weekend, we went to the Alemeda flea market, near san fransisco & it was insane! so huge, we walked around for about four hours & didn't even get thru the entire thing. & it's right on the water, with amazing views! nate & i went with our friend leeza, she's awesome.
we're planning on going next month too... what is it about a flea market that is just so fun?
maybe it's b/c you might find that something, but you don't know what it is, until you find it.
(got that cowboy-witchy hat there!) 

ok bye guys.
coop & rozzy are loving their new little beds their momo got them. they look like little berries to me. (the beds look like little berries...kitties look like tiny little cuddly aliens still :) )

road trips

that's coop up there, sipping his water from our fake glass. i guess cats don't like to drink water if you put it by their food. we discovered this with both of our cats, they would only drink water from our glass, the second we we're not watching our glass.
so now we have, what they think are, our glasses full of water all over the place, for them.

i spoke too soon before, when i posted a picture of our future house & bragged about all those fruit trees. now, i've learned my lesson. mums the word. we're not getting that house, & working on getting into a different one. only once we have the keys in our hands, will i share anything about it. you just get to follow our many road trips. this time we went to san francisco, on our way to LA.

as much as i love tradition & sticking to the things we're used to doing, i love equally (or more) finding new places to add to the list!
i found this awesome vintage shoe store on etsy, (james rowland shop) & have passed up several pairs of booties simply b/c i couldn't try them on.  since it's an actual shop, in berkley, we finally, got to visit it in person.
aside from buying my new favorite pair of booties, the guy who was working there (james rowland himself?idk..) happened to be vegatarian too & recommended a vegetarian japanese restaurant called cha-ya. & we loved it.

 

 then we walked to cafe gratitute & got a raw dessert. $9 for a slice of "cheese cake." i know that's nuts, b/c i can list off many things i could have bought instead of it. but ya know, sometimes you just  feel like a nut.

we spent all day in fresno today, with our neice & nephew. nate made cookies with them & then built obstacle courses with them, in the backyard.
we each bought a cactus today, tried a new restaurant, saw a blind dog (which i wanted to adopt) & saw a millipede for the first time.
tomorrow early early morning, we're heading to LA.
see you guys later.

foozball

how 'bout that game sunday, right?
just kidding. well, i did watch a tiny bit of it, actually.
we invited a few friends over, for brunch on sunday, and my friend texted me back & said her husband was secrectly hoping to watch the game too. so i said "nate, is there a game on this sunday?" and he said said "yeah, the super bowl"
doh!

so brunch plans quickly turned into an all day hang sesh. my sister & her kids came too, and my friends brought their kids. so cute to watch kids hanging out. so awkward at first!
we went on a walk to see the goats & noticed the tree rope across the street was still there with a pile of hay as a landing pad! i don't know if we were trespassing or what, but i do know how much fun everyone had. fearless, awesome little kids.

in other news
coop is still fat. & loves to purr in the sun. 

& in more other news. i'm going to try and post a recipe once a week. nothing will change here, i'll still post regular life photos, but i'll try & add some recipes.
i make food often, and sometimes the food turns out pretty spectacular [sometimes just pretty good, ha]
anyway. first up, to break the ice,  a little lunch i made myself the other day.

Mango Avocado Lettuce... tacos?

chopped up the following

1 mango

1/2 [or whole] avocado

an apple
3-5 dates

1-2 stems green onion

handful of favorite sprouts

mint & cilantro

squeeze:

1 meyer lemon

sprinkle:

a pinch of sea salt 

a pinch of cayenne ;)

scoop some of the salad onto romaine lettuce leaves. & wa-la!

next time i'll probably add cucumber, and try a peach instead of mango...or both! who knows!! 

simple little lunch, so easy but feels and tastes special.

i get a lot of inspiration for recipes from this raw chef i watch on youtube. [check her out if you're interested in that Dara Dubinet]
sometimes i'm inspired by, simply, what's in the fridge. or something i see on the food network!

oh & btw, i didn't just eat those four little pieces of lettuce, i ate this entire plate of them :)

alright guys. as usual, i like to overwhelm you with one mega update, full of 10000 different things. oh well. c'est la vie.

wassup?

so, we're still floating in purgatory.  only a couple weeks more of going between our families' homes.
most of the time we're in sacramento. the weather has been so nice here & our families are really sweet too, so really it just feels like vacation...but it's gone a little longer than planned...& we're working while on vacation... so it's not like vacation at all.
yeah, you get it. ha  ha

well, first things first, here's a little sneak peak at our new place! if everything goes as planned, in just a couple short weeks, we'll be hauling our shite up those stairs (we're leaning towards paying someone to do it...)

did i mention there is an orange tree and tangerine tree and umm... one of those... how you say... avocado trees on the property! anyway, more on all of that later.

it's been really fun to visit our LA friends too. some of their families are growing ;)

our pal bobby, after playing tennis, with nate.
(see, people play tennis in january in LA)

we made dinner at our friend's house, & came up with a pretty fun idea, you should try sometime!
i made the dough, rolled it out, and everyone put the toppings they wanted on their part of the pizza. turned out really cool. (mmm... looks so good right now. thinking about dinner while doing this post)

 these were two pictures were taken in LA too. new socks, and  a pretty view. thank you.

maybe that's what everyone who's getting "fed up" with LA should do... move to bed stuy in brooklyn for a year,[during the worst winter in (what was it...) 100 years(?)] theeen come back to LA, see how you feel. not to dis brooklyn too much more, b/c we had a lot of fun there too, but i sorta feel now like that was a prison sentence in a way... ok maybe not that bad, but that's just me, right now. talk to me in a couple years, see what i'm saying then. lol. jk. lmao. brb. hi.


ok. and finally. my etsy shop has been updated with cute stuff, AND it's featuring some stuff for guys too. ( most of the stuff is unisex, b/c i wear nate's clothing...and he wears mine)

check it out! ok. bye![click on images to go to the item ;) ]

  

     

i really need to study html :/

i have been messing around with it today, but just can figure some things out.
anyway.

a few latest updates. we found a home! so happy!! will give more details once it is finalized!! 3 wks from now for sure! yay!!!

i am getting good vibes from 20-12

my friend is married now.
we've been traveling up and down the coast every week. (went to the redwood forest most recently!)
my other friend darkened my hair for me.
nate started helping me run my etsy shop! (now featuring clothing for guys too...more to come)

ok. that's all. more exciting posts to come... promise!

 

ok. a short one this time. don't forget to take a peak at the ol etsy shop! support the cause y'all! (jk)