Blue Velvet on Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day everyone! Hope your day off was filled with sunshine, time with friends and BBQ's!
I didn't have the day off today but the boat company I work at was hosting the sea plane splash in, so we had a big BBQ outside and watched all of the planes landing and doing flyby's. It was so exciting to see all of the planes land right in front of us; I was pretty impressed because some of them were tiny and we had pretty big waves out on the lake today!







After work I went to yoga (if you follow me on twitter you know that I've been having a serious yoga obsession lately) and then hung out with Rach on the beach. We juggled and played on the playground. It was the perfect way to end the evening.
Tomorrow we are going to a fire dancing class, I am so excited! Lately I have been really into poi and hooping (perhaps I need to join the circus?) and such so I think it will be really fun!





This dress is still my favorite dress in my closet. Wearing it out in Tahoe got me quite a few stares though! I went in to work to check my schedule and got told by one of the guys I work with "you look like you stole your grandma's wardrobe" and by the other one that I look like I "go to church and secretly listen to Jane's Addiction". I can never win here, haha! Oh and you may have noticed from the photos that we haven't quite reached summer status. I'm really hoping for it though! I can't wait to spend all of my time off at the beach!
Boots, Coat, Belt, Brooch: Vintage, thrifted; Dress: Topshop




What did you do for memorial day?

Oatmeal Pancakes with Mango Ginger Sauce...Yum!

A few of you have been asking about my pancake recipe, so here it is! I learned to make these pancakes when I was living on a farm in the South of France, and my lovely Canadian friend Alissa cooked them for us on hard work days when we needed something delicious in our stomachs! Even though they are pretty healthy with wheat flour and oats, the butter in them makes them taste so light and decadent. They are perfect with mango sauce, maple syrup and bananas, or homemade jam. If you don't know how to make jam, check out my how-to post here. It's delicious and makes the perfect gift!

Oatmeal Pancakes:
3/4 cup quick-cooking oats
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons whole milk (I like the raw kind!)
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar

Soak oats in 3/4 cup milk for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt in a large bowl.
Stir egg, butter, brown sugar, remaining 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk, and oat mixture into dry ingredients until just combined.
Heat a griddle over medium heat until hot and brush with butter. Working in batches, pour 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto griddle and cook until bubbles appear on surface and undersides are golden-brown, about 1 minute. Flip with a spatula and cook other side, about 1 minute more. (Lightly oil griddle between batches.)

Mango Ginger Sauce
1 Mango, peeled and cut into quarter sized chunks
1 Punnet of strawberries, quartered
Handful of crystallized ginger
3 Tablespoons sugar
Combine the mango, strawberries and ginger in a saucepan and heat on medium heat. When they have cooked down a little bit add the sugar and cook for a minute more. Spread generously over the pancakes!

Happy Friday!

Woodswoman

Well hey there guys. Life has been so good lately! Yesterday I had the day off so I made oatmeal whole wheat pancakes with strawberry, mango and ginger sauce for breakfast, and went on a beautiful hike to Eagle Lake with my friends Rachel and Bobby. The hike was pretty snowy; we had record breaking amounts of snow this year (in some resorts the last time they experienced this much snow, almost 700 inches of snowpack, was in the 1880's) so lots of it still hasn't melted! Luckily we came prepared with our hiking boots and Tahoe mettle and we made it up the mountain to the lake, which was deserted, since everyone else had turned back because of the snow. We watched some blue jays flitting about through the trees and took lots of pictures. Last night I had the last spring session of my writing class, and then headed out to get some post writing drinks. It's interesting, I feel like I know so many intimate details of these women's lives because of reading their stories and poems, yet I've never really talked to them outside of class. It was so much fun to hang out with them without writing, they are such a hilarious bunch! After our drinks I headed back to my house in the boonies, where the local pizza place was having a going away party for my friend Kim. They had a DJ, jello shots, unlimited serve your own beers on tap, and free pool, so it was a great party! I am sad to see her go but she's moving to Portland, so she will definitely be one more friend to visit on my list of people-I-love-who-live-in-awesome-places. Today I drove back down to San Francisco because I have to get my fingerprints taken because I am getting my US citizenship(!).







Fascinator, Shorts, Belt, Earrings: Vintage; Cropped Tee: Ross; Sandals: Steve Madden
I really like how these photos turned out. I just took the camera I am carrying, a Pentax, into the shop because the shutter wasn't coming back up again after taking pictures. Of course when I went into the shop it was working perfectly fine. Boy, did the camera repair guy make me feel dumb!







What do you like to do on your days off?

Mobbin'

Just thought I'd pop in to share a few photos of Rachel, my brother and I mobbin' on my bro's minibike. It was so much fun! I hope you are all having a fab Sunday. I'm off to go sit on the beach and read for a little while before I have to go to work. I hope you do something equally as delightful to soak up the sunshine today!

"Fire on the mountain, run boys run/the devil's in the house of the rising sun."

I just went back down to the San Francisco Bay to have a little quality time with the fam and enjoy some non-snowy weather (Riiiight...it was pouring with rain the whole time. I bite my thumb at you, weather gods!). I went with my friend Rachel, who's from Virginia, so it was so much fun to get to show her around. We went for a very muddy walk on the reservoir, lost the dogs after they chased after a pack of turkeys and then found them half an hour later, explored Grizzly Peak (the truck was far from happy about all the hills, but we made it!), had some exciting thrifting finds (an airplane brooch, 80s sunnies, books on conspiracy theories, and so many country cassette tapes...Willie Nelson what whaaat!), ate ridonculous amounts of cheese then salivated over the raw food at Cafe Gratitude, had some near death experiences at the crazy intersections in Berkeley (2 girls+huge old beat up truck+bay area=confusion), bought the most perfect bridal shower gift in the world and tons of cards from Blue Barnhouse, cooked up two epic feasts, played with my chicken Beatrix Potter, went mobbin' on my brother's minibike, watched my brother get an award for excellence in automotive technology at my old high school, sucked on sunflower seeds til we were oversaturated with salt, ate ice cream and drank beer, played shuffleboard (I beat Rach and our friend Chris twice!), got spanked by Rachel at pool, talked to my sister on the phone who I have not spoken to in months (she's always off doing things like staying in monasteries in Tibet and going on the Trans-Siberian Railroad), did some more mobbin on the minibike, and had an epic drive back up the pass to Tahoe this morning. We spent the whole car ride listening to a cassette we got called "Driving Tunes: Country, Volume One" and blasted Devil Went Down to Georgia like it was going out of style. It was so much fun! Sometimes I miss living close to a city...but then every time I come back to the mountains I remember how much I love being here!





I have been feeling weird about posting my outfit details as of late because it's always all thrifted, but here goes: All thrifted except for the tee, which is h&m. Yaaaay!



What have you lovelies been up to this week? Tell me some happy things!

Oh hey, it's May...and it's snowing!

Last post I was very excited about the AMGEN bike race. Well, thanks to a little frequent visitor in our Tahoe lives, snow, it was cancelled. I felt so sorry for all of the fans who had come up to Tahoe to see all the racers and the organizers of the race. The bicyclists would have been unsafe if they had ridden though; we got about a foot of snow today and they closed the pass on the highway at one point! The racers are skipping stage one and starting stage two tomorrow, where they will go from Squaw Valley to Sacramento. I'm just hoping that this time the snow holds off long enough for them to get out of the mountains!



The pictures of my car don't really do justice to the amount of snow we had. That was just this morning. Later that day I spent ages scraping the snow off my truck and I've been having to drive around in 4WD, not something that I thought would be happening this close to summer. Here's to having powder days in May!

Witchy Woman

I am so excited that blogger is working again! I was going to post this yesterday, so I'm really glad it finally got fixed.





I love how these photos look a bit eerie. I was hoping they would come out this way! The last time I wore this skirt the photos were equally as creepy, haha.
This is actually my next door neighbors house; they just moved out so I am free to peek in their windows as much as I like! Tahoe is really quiet right now. The summer crowd hasn't arrived yet so there are lots of empty houses.
Boots, Skirt, Belt, Camisole: Thrifted Jewellery: Gifts





There is one exciting thing going on though; the AMGEN race! It is one of the biggest bike races in the world, and the first stage is right here in Lake Tahoe. It is supposed to snow on Sunday, the first day, so hopefully all of the bicyclists will be ok and not slip on the roads. If only they made chains for bike tires! I am really excited to watch the race, I think it is going to be amazing to see!





Do you have any sports that you love watching?

Live from Woodstack

If you follow me on twitter you know we've been having a major wood stacking sesh over at my Tahoe HQ. Our next door neighbors moved out and left three cords of wood behind so we have been stealthily moving it into our woodshed, along with splitting up the big rounds they left behind. Working the axe all day has been giving me some serious shoulder muscles, that's for sure! Hope you're all having a fab Tuesday. I'm off for a glass of wine and some games of pool!



Are any of you doing Kaelah Bee's 30 day mind and body detox challenge? Her two ideas, to make the internet a happier place by abstaining from negative blogging, and cutting out sugar from her diet, are such good ones! I always try to avoid putting negative thoughts out into the interwebs, so I'm going to have to think about a "mind" challenge, but I'm pretty sure my "body" challenge will be trying to practice yoga 5 times a week. My body is going all soft since the ski season is over (and I'm not working out for 8 hours a day) so I need to do something to get my strength back! Let me know if you're participating, I think it's a great idea!

Spring Garden/"Hi, my truck is famous!"

I'm inordinately excited about the fact that there is a picture of my truck in the San Francisco Chronicle today. I'm a big dork, but here's the link. Kind of cool, huh?



I am so happy about springtime and the fact that I can wear these Steve Madden heels again! I bought them in the middle of my road trip last summer when we had been on a pretty big shopping ban so I was so excited to wear them. I still love them lots!



I normally wear this skirt as a dress but I decided for once to wear it the way it was made to be worn, and I loved swishing about in it. I normally chop any long skirt that I buy because I like them to be mini length but I think I could get used to wearing them like this; I felt so ladylike all day!





We have been doing some major home improvement projects at my place; the other day we moved almost 2 cords of wood into our shed and we've also cleared our patio and started making space for our garden. I can't wait to start growing lettuce, herbs and other delicious things!




Do any of you have a backyard garden? If so I would love any advice you can give me!

Cupcakes!

I know I said I would post pictures from the cupcake race that I was doing with my ski students forever ago, but I just got around to it now. Whoops! You guys should try the lemon cupcakes, they are absolutely delicious. I used this recipe but substituted yogurt for the buttermilk and put lemon curd on the top instead of frosting. So so yummy!



If you have kids, these vanilla cupcakes will be a hit, I promise. I used this recipe (which is perfect for baking in high altitude, they came out so fluffy) and added sprinkles to the batter to make confetti cupcakes with vanilla frosting and sprinkles on the top. The frosting is incredible, I want to try putting it on some chocolate cake, it was just so good!
Happy baking (and Cinco de Mayo too)!