House Pictures

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Years. Our home remodel has taken up a lot of our time over the last two years, and I've had several people ask about pictures, so here's a post of our home in it's current state. Still much to do, but the walls are all up! ;)

Dining Room:

Original Hutch:

 

Living Room:

Kitchen:

 

Complete with dirty dog bowls:

Bathroom:

 

(tub and a stand-up shower, divine!)

The screen-print below was bought from my dear friend Colleen Murphy:

Hallway: laundry and handmade chalkboard, office to the right:

 

Guest room/TV room:

 

Bedroom:

Front of house (new windows, door and siding)

 (patio work is up next!)

Before siding:

  

After siding:

I love having lemon trees:

Vegetable garden with basil, tomato, peppers, garlic and green onions:

     

Outside our front gate:

 

Mr. Avocado tree, complete with lovely fall colors:

Hope this year has been good to you. It has been full and fulfilling for us!

Winter Wonderland

I grew up in Canyon Country, CA. This is in the Santa Clarita valley just north of Los Angeles. When I took pictures of my cousins family in early November, it hailed that day. And on my way home I passed by the neighborhood where I grew up and stopped to take a few pictures. It brought back some nice memories for me. Here are the pictures:

I lived in a community of red-tile-roofed houses on Wildwind Road:

It rarely snows or hails (every 20 years or so), so it was kinda fun to see:

Still green in the park though:

The view! At night, we would look out at the lights and call it our jewelry box:

Homemade Egg Nog!

Last night, Sam and I made homemade eggnog! We used Alton Brown's recipe on food network's website. It was quite incredible! Here's the process via photos:

Ingredients:

Separate eggs, whites and yolks:

Beat yolks til they lighten in color, then add sugar gradually til it is dissolved:

Add milk, heavy cream, bourbon and nutmeg:

Empty that mixture into a separate bowl. Then beat the egg whites in the mixer:

You beat until they are "soft peaks" (sort of the consistency of foamy whip cream). Then add a bit more sugar and beat until they are "stiff peaks" (a bit more stable, see picture below):

Whisk two mixtures together and chill (we waited about an hour):

Then serve with a dash of nutmeg on top:

The perfect compliment to your holiday meal! Merry Christmas everyone!!

Lunar Eclipse, 12-10-11

Sorry if the image above is hard to look at... It's my first attempt at a "gif"

At 5:30am, the moon was a crescent shape, getting covered by the shadow of the earth. It was completely eclipsed between 6am and 7am, and was supposed to be a reddish glow. By 6:31, when it was supposed to be at it's peak viewing, the moon was hidden by the Los Angeles haze. Oh well...

Here's a picture at about 6:10am:

 

Sunrise pictures:

 

And sun up at 7am, downtown for breakfast at the Original Pantry.

Wildwood Canyon Hike

And so arrived the day after Thanksgiving where most people work off that turkey by shoving through dazed and confused shoppers at the mall. Instead, since I had punished my stomach by over-eating the day before, I decided to give it some loving by finding a new hike. I looked up suggestions from a few fellow hikers over at http://www.modernhiker.com/ and found out that Wildwood Canyon Park in Glendale has a great "leg-buster" hike for a total of 4 miles round trip and ~2000 ft elevation gain. It's a great workout with beautiful views and is super close to my house. It also only takes about an hour and 45 minutes. I tried it out and loved it so much that I came back Sunday with my cousin Nikki and Tuesday for a night hike with my friends Cory and Hillary. Here are some pictures I took along the way(s):

FRIDAY:

This is probably my favorite picture, a panorama of the Verdugo Mountains (with the lovely Rita, of course):

This is what the trail looks like most of the way... climb, climb, CLIMB!

A view from the top, the trail goes aaaall the way back down to near that grassy area on the right:

 At the top you can see the other side of the mountain (Montrose and the Angeles mountains)

and all the towers along the fire road at the top:

...halfway back down (that's the tower at the top!)

SUNDAY:

Sunset hike, you can see downtown in the distance:

My cousin Nikki!

The turn-around point at the top:

TUESDAY:

My first night-time hike, wearing my headlamp:

We saw several pairs of eyes in the dark, mostly deer.

Luckily I had company, Cory and Hillary:

This hike is halfway up Harvard Rd. in Burbank. There is a parking lot at the bottom of Wildwood Canyon Rd. and you keep taking the trail all the way up til you see a trail sign on the left. You can take this trail all the way up to the tower, or you can keep going straight and take a loop back down to the paved Wildwood Canyon Rd. And there you go! Check it out if you live in the area.