november – Casa de Berry

2014, nails, november, paris

Paris Vacation – random #2

December 8, 2014by casadeberryLeave a Comment

Our Parisian friend, F, had been posting pictures on my Facebook page for a while, pictures of vending machines. But these were no regular vending machines.

Oh no.

These machines were full of NAIL POLISH.

Yeah.

Like I needed another reason to love Paris.

Of course, we went to find one early on in our vacation.

I have been wearing the green color, Yumi, for about a week now. There is a bit of wear at the tips of the nails, of course, but it is barely noticeable. The formula is opaque in two coats and the brush is a dream. Suffice it to say that if I had to tell myself to just get three and walk away because I could have bought every color on the machine.

We’ve had a rough week with the boys having the puking plague and my husband being, uh, elsewhere (I will tell you about that in a few weeks), so when I get a bit of time later I think a change of polish color is in order. What do you think, red or blue?

2013, entertaining, family, holiday, november, thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2013

November 29, 2013November 28, 2013by casadeberry4 Comments

Our Thanksgiving celebration was pretty damn awesome, I have to say. We hosted as we have for the past few years, but this time it was super special because we got to meet the littlest member of the family – and the current titleholder of The Most Chunkalicious Thighs in Existence. Here she is with our oldest, who is so good with babies:

Our menu had most of the usual dishes, plus a butternut squash soup Steve had tried in Napa and wanted to recreate. It was my favorite part of the meal.

Other than cooing at the baby.

I forgot to include poached pears in the menu, it was something Steve tried a couple of years ago and it was a hit, so he makes it every year.

Seriously, our little cousin could feed a family of four for a week with one of her thighs.

We are not having any more kids so kindly allow me this temporary baby-insanity. Happiest baby ever. Mama J, you are doing a great job!

I hope your Thanksgiving – or your Thursday if you did not celebrate – was a good one. I do not partake of the brick-and-mortar Black Friday craze, but I will definitely be checking out online sales – are you braving the crowds to get a deal?

2013, about me, birthdays, fashion, foxy, november

42

November 13, 2013by casadeberry10 Comments

This is how old I am now. I’ve been 42 for a couple of days now, since 11.12.13 😀

November 12 happens to be a popular date for births in our family. My sister was born that day as well, although on a different year. My cousin was also born on that date and so was a cousin-by-marriage.

My latest birthday started wonderfully, with some presents and my three men singing Happy Birthday to me. My sons happened to have the day off because of school conferences so it was a very lazy day, spent mostly in pajamas, except when I decided to try on my gifts:

My husband got me a beautiful fedora and an adorable fox sweater. Because yes, I am totally into the whole fox trend. I also used some of my birthday money to get these sweet fox earrings, although mostly because my dog’s name is Foxy. The day ended with our cousins watching the boys so Steve and I could go out to dinner, which was paid for by my mother-in-law, who kindly gave me a restaurant gift card. Sa-weet!!!

I have to say that I am a very lucky girl. I have a wonderful family, sweet friends, I get to stay home with my monkeys, I am over the plague we all had (except for the cough, but I can live with that) and I hope the rest of my 42nd year is as wonderful as the first few days have been!

2011, california, colors, decor, entertaining, family, home, husband, living room, november, parties, Uncategorized

Swedish baby shower

November 28, 2011December 2, 2011by casadeberry5 Comments

Over the weekend, I had the honor of hosting a baby shower for my sister-in-law, K. Her husband is from Sweden, where they live, and she’s visiting for a couple of weeks, so it was out only chance to get together and celebrate. I keep referring to her baby as baby Thor or baby Freya, but no, those are NOT the names they’re considering 😀 In fact, some of the names K likes for a girl (they don’t know the gender yet) are the ones I would have given to my child if I’d had a girl. I would LOVE it, if K’s baby is a girl, for my new niece to have those names I love, so yes, I am a little biased in what I hope she has.

Since we don’t know the baby’s gender yet, I decided to do the shower in the colors of the Swedish flag – blue and yellow:

I even learned to make pompoms!

Some of the wine was renamed with the names of Swedish places and the mommy- and daddy-to-be’s last name.

My husband did an amazing job decorating the house for Christmas, it looked beautiful!

I came up with a few games, including a crossword puzzle:

I had a blast planning and hosting the shower and even got gifts from my mother-in-law and sister-in-law for hosting! My husband was a fabulous assistant, he took many photos, helped set up, kept people fed and with drinks, he made my job so easy. K said she had a good time and was very thankful, which means the world to me. I am so excited for baby Thor or baby Freya to arrive next spring!!!

2011, autumn, baking, boys, candle, cooking, dining room, entertaining, family, food, home, husband, kitchen, love, lunch, november, thanksgiving, wine

Our 2011 Thanksgiving

November 25, 2011November 25, 2011by casadeberryLeave a Comment

Our thanksgiving lunch went beautifully; Steve and I planned, made lists, set up a schedule, and with some help from our family, we had a great time. I printed the menu and set it up in the dining room:

My father-in-law showed up early — he was in charge of the turkey — and also helped out with the rest of the cooking. He and my oldest had a blast peeling potatoes:

Soon my boy was a potato peeling expert!

I had told my husband that I’d seen (can’t remember where!) an idea to use a wreath as a centerpiece and he came up with this:

Isn’t that cool?

Soon the rest of the family showed up and we started doing the oven-revolving-door dance. Dishes would go in, in twos and threes, and something yummy would come out. Soon our dining room table looked like this:

This was about half of the food we made. The wine took up one of the hutches ;D and the desserts people brought took up another.

Here is some of my wonderful family.

The little cups hold the butternut squash bisque, which was DELICIOUS – Steve made it from scratch and I am so happy there is some left over, because I’m having some of it for lunch!

One of my favorite moments was when we all shared what we were grateful for and my oldest said he was grateful for “the colors of autumn”, I thought that was so unusual and sweet.

I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful, and if you don’t celebrate it, then I hope today is a great Friday and I wish a wonderful weekend for everyone! I’m going to leave you with the menu we had for our Thanksgiving Lunch.

2011, bath, bronze, colors, home, husband, november

The Bathroom Saga – Sink and Faucet

November 21, 2011November 20, 2011by casadeberry5 Comments

The last time y’all got a look at my bathroom was when my husband re-tiled the floor.

We had previously painted the walls, changing them from white to Ralph Lauren’s Chamois.

The next part of the ongoing transformation was to replace the sink and faucet.

When we moved in, the sink was already in poor condition. It was still working fine but it was rusted and stained. Over the years, it kept rusting to the point that there was a hole in the sink, so water could fall through into the cabinet. This is how it looked when removed:

Ew, right?

I wasn’t a fan of the banjo-shaped counter or the marble itself. It is apparently really pricey and top of the line, but as I’ve said at the beginning of the year, I am a complete peasant and I like what I like, regardless of price or trendiness.

I wanted a plain, white sink, so we went with this oval one from Lowe’s. For the faucet, I went with the Caldwell by Moen. They look so good together.

Uncle D was there to help my husband, Steve, and answer any questions – the amount of knowledge Steve has gained from Uncle D is truly invaluable. Here he is in action:

The coolest part, though, was when Steve couldn’t find his level and Uncle D downloaded an app on his phone and had a level ready to use in 19 seconds. No, we don’t have iPhones. Yet.

Here is the new sink in place

Isn’t it lovely, all that clean, sparkling white?

The faucet is gorgeous, too

I’m off to get more of the Chamois paint to touch up the areas that got messed up during the removal of the old sink. I am so happy with the way this bathroom is (almost) looking. My hubby went above and beyond and repainted the door back to its original white loveliness, too. Once the paint is touched up this bathroom will be ready for the next few gatherings we’re hosting. I’ll tell you more about that in my next post. Happy Monday!

2011, autumn, birthdays, california, friends, gifts, husband, lunch, november, outdoors, photography, restaurants, wine

Birthday weekend, part 3

November 17, 2011November 15, 2011by casadeberry2 Comments

After leaving Castello di Amorosa, we drove to Joseph Phelps for the tasting our friends C&D had set up for us.

Joseph Phelps has not only great wines, but also glorious views from their tasting terrace:

The tasting we had included their Insignia wines:

My favorite was the 2006 Insignia, followed by the 2005 Cab. I am a Bordeaux girl at heart but love Cabs as well, so this tasting was right up my alley.

Me with our friend M. Yes, I am a hobbit. Ironic since she is from New Zealand 😀

For lunch, M had made reservations at Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, a super charming restaurant from the owner of Brassica and Mustards. I loved that the window boxes surrounding the restaurant were full of vegetables!

I had the Backstreet Burger, my husband and J had the Adult Grilled Cheese, and M had the Duck burger. Everything was delicious and we headed back to the hotel for a nap. More about my birthday weekend tomorrow!

2011, autumn, birthdays, california, chocolate, drinks, fall, friends, history, husband, november, photography, restaurants, wine

Birthday weekend, part 2

November 16, 2011November 20, 2011by casadeberry12 Comments

My husband had planned a surprise for Saturday morning, my actual birthday. He and our friends convinced me to get up early and “beat the rush” — I am a morning person and I thought, hey, if you want to get up at 6am too, whatever. Well, the three of them were in on the secret, which was a balloon ride!

Unfortunately, Calistoga was very foggy that morning so it was canceled. Boo. Hiss. At which point my husband told me of the plans and I was disappointed but not as much as the three of them, who were so excited over the balloon ride. Oh well. It was a super sweet plan and someday we’ll go up and see the sights from way up high.

Instead, we ended up going to a winery I’d been wanting to visit for a while. If you ever get a chance, you should visit Castello di Amorosa.

image above from destination 360.com

Dario Sattui, owner of V. Sattui, built this castle in the style of a medieval Italian castle, and only produces Italian style wines. You can read the story here. It is quite historically accurate – following modern codes and regulations, of course – and it was nice to see details like the one my husband pointed out; a warming fire used to heat the rocks that made up the walls and then that heat would radiate into the rooms, making them cozier.

This place is breathtaking, and to someone who a) likes wine, and b) is a history addict, visiting Castello de Amorosa was a great experience.

My husband at the entrance of the castle.

The banquet room

My husband chose to have the wine & chocolate tasting. Honestly, this day just kept getting better and better! Our guide, Alene, was awesome, full of information, engaging, etc. After the tasting, we headed over to Joseph Phelps because our friends C&D had set up a tasting for us there.

I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow 😀

boys, craft, fall, gardening, mantel, november, orange, paper, thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Mantel

November 14, 2011November 15, 2011by casadeberry1 Comment

As you might have seen in my silly turkey garland post, our mantel has been de-Halloween-ed and is now ready for Thanksgiving. But last Thursday the boys and I made a little something to add up there.

I got the inspiration for this from pinterest, of course, but I decided to make this craft with stuff I had on hand.

I have been saving glass jars for the past few months, I’m trying to replace plastic food storage as much as I can, and I had a few pasta sauce jars that weren’t all the same size but they worked in a group.

Then I added a band made of scrapbook paper, created the letters and border on Photoshop, and added some curling ribbon. The contents of the jars are dried out corn husks and stems from my backyard.

I think it looks nice atop my dark mantel:

As you can tell, my boys have started to pick off some of the poor turkeys’ eyes and even one of the faces (look to the right end of the garland). As long as they don’t eat them, I’m fine with it 😀 The dried sunflowers on the right are also from my backyard, we got tons of seeds, so yummy!

Hope you have a great Monday!

boys, craft, fall, family, november, paper, thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Craft: Turkey Garland

November 9, 2011November 30, 2011by casadeberry3 Comments

I saw this cute place setting craft at my favorite paper store

Source: paper-source.com via Claudia on Pinterest

and I’d been thinking of making a garland with my oldest, so I decided to make a variation of this cute turkey. I had all the materials except the eyes, so that was $1.99 spent.

First I punched out the body out of brown construction paper and cut tan triangles for the beaks:

Then my boy added googly eyes – we thought that would be a lot more fun! I asked him to go crazy coloring with oranges and reds on yellow paper, for the plumage.

Some of them looked silly, and my son said he wanted to make them all different because people are all different 😀

Then we taped the turkeys onto orange curling ribbon:

Et voila! Here is our beautiful, fun, and very silly turkey garland!!!

I love walking into my house and seeing this fun garland that my son and I made together. He loves doing crafts with me and I am planning more Thanksgiving fun – hope you enjoyed our Turkey Garland!