Too Cool! So excited! Fall Grapes!

So have you ever seen grapes growing on the vine?

Like before they got picked and put in those bins and sent to the grocery store? Yeah, me neither. Seeing that I'm living in the wine country and it's harvest season I was beginning to think they* were making it all up. You know, maybe grapes are really grown on a truck, or they fall from the sky...hmm, that may be a bit messy to clean up...

Anyways, I saw them for the first time today! They're telling the truth I swear (see even I was starting to not believe them!

It was amazing! My mom and I were on the way back from Sacramento on the most gorgeous freeway (one that wraps through some of the prettiest vineyards) and I suddenly started seeing big purple bushels hanging from the bottom of the vines!

We immediately pulled over and I got out and ran over to take pictures (I had to show all my bloggy buddies of course!!)

It really was one of the coolest things and totally made my day!

The Proof:

* They refers to those people, you know the ones, the people who tells us facts growing up and later down the line, looking back we have no idea who told us it. Those people who expected us to believe these facts without giving us the cold hard evidence. Yeah, those ones.

Hoping your day is full of happiness thats as good as grape juice!

So I Met Francis Ford Coppola Today..

My parents, sister and I headed out to Rubicon Estate Winery for a reading of Francis Ford Coppola's magazine All-Story. The magazine is composed of short stories submitted by people both famous and not. The event was small but wonderful. There were three readings out of the magazine, one was written by Coppola. The piece was written as a short story of what happened before what happens in his new movie Tetro.

There were only around 15 people at each reading. My sister sat next to him on a sofa and they bantered back and forth. He showed her pictures of his grandchildren on his iPhone an wanted to see pictures of her in her costume from the performances (which ended yesterday) of The Tempest and was really excited to hear about how it went and that he was disappointed that he hadn't gotten a chance to see it.

My sister came away on cloud 9 and I'm so glad I got the chance to be there!

Francis Ford Coppola and I

The window at the top of the staircase.

Coppola collects "magic lanterns" which are lanterns that used to be used in the 1700's by candlelight (then by limelight-ie. "You're in the limelight") as projectors with painted glass slides.

The collection of 12 glass plates at the bottom of this picture actually tell the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

There were also full scenes on long single slides.

This was a piece lit from behind that changed colors throughout the picture until it cycled through the entire rainbow spectrum.

Definitely an exciting day!!

Friday Favorites - #12

My favorites this week consist of...

Favorite post- Whimsical Creations by Melanie's Wordless Wednesday

Don't you miss the days when sticking stickers all over yourself was cause for sheer delight?

Favorite Movie- Up! 

This movie was amazing, sweet and wonderfully done! I saw it in 3D so I'm not sure if the animation would have looked quite as impressive without the 3D but as it was, I loved it!

Cornerstone

Last weekend my parents and I headed out to Cornerstone and to Gloria Ferrer Champagne Cellars. We met up with my aunt and uncle (my mom's brother and sister-in-law) who were celebrating their 28th wedding anniversary (they got married within a few months of my parents who celebrated their 28th anniversary this past January). The view from the Gloria Ferrer was beautiful but my favorite thing was walking around across the street at Cornerstone. The gardens were very cool and while it had flowers it was really a sculptural or conceptual garden. It was very cool. 

Hopefully the sun will come out so that tomorrow can be spent playing in the garden planting many flowers! 

Have a wonderful night!

Friday Favorites - #10

It's time to give credit to the things that got me through the week!

My Friday Favorites this week consist of-

Favorite Post- John and Kate Plus DEPRESSION!! by Sweet Angel Memories

Favorite TV Show- Biggest Loser

The finale was wonderful and as always I loved watching how incredible everyone looked. I was especially impressed by how great Mike looked. Though I'm disappointed that Helen won instead of Tara (who's been my favorite since day one) I was inspired by the amount of weight that had been lost and the new found happiness on all (okay, most) of their smiling (now thin) faces.

Last weekend the family went to the Castello di Amorosa Winery which is literally a castle. It was beautiful with wonderful detailing! It was even one of the locations that the Disney Movie "Bedtime Stories" was filmed (which I still have yet to see) and part of the set is out front. 

A few pictures I took -

I hope your weekend is full of springtime beauty!

Wine Tasting

Saturday's weather was so perfect that my parents and I decided to take a leisurely drive through the vineyards. We stopped at the beautiful Cellar No. 8 winery and my parents did a wine tasting. 

I also had to share a couple of pictures of the incredible orchid I got from Trader Joe's!

Hope your weekend was amazing!