Wine Tasting in Santa Rosa & Sonoma

  Over Labor Day weekend, my husband and I, along with some friends, flew to northern California for another friends wedding. I love when our friends have weddings in cool places. Before the wedding festivities, we had to hit up the wineries in Santa Rosa, where we were staying, and Sonoma (all very close). We got a driver and piled in their SUV (the only way to do it) for a day of drinking wine, but also breathtaking views and lots of laughs.
While we were there, all of Cali was going through a major heat wave - and north, were we were is not used to this kind of heat!  Barely anywhere has air conditioning - and it was a record breaking 104 degrees the day we were out wine tasting.  So, we got a bit creative for the wineries we decided to hit up, and big thanks to my awesome sister-in-law (who along with my husband's brother/her husband, live in the San Francisco area) knew a lot of the best places and was able to pivot with the heat and plan out a great day!
Overall, we went to 3 wineries, and ate lunch on the way.  I've mapped them all out below, and you can see pics from our day below, too.  But a quick overview of where we went because I loved them all for different reasons!

First: Matanzas Creek Winery - This place smells amazing, because it's a lavender field, too.  This place has the most beautiful views and lots of shaded areas to relax and drink your wine outside. Next time, I want to visit in June during lavender peek season!
<Before our second stop, we stopped by Cafe Citti for an amazing lunch.>
Second: Deerfield Ranch Winery - This place is in a cave! What more can I say? It was super cool down there - the temp and the experience.
Third: We went to St. Francis Winery, which had me thinking about my grandfather, whose name was Francis. Besides that, the views were also amazing here and had a nice cool inside to hide from the outside heat!

Here is a Google Map of our route and the wineries we hit up. Though there are tons more that are all great, I highly recommend these ones - ESPECIALLY for a hot day! They had great shade, and a winery in a cave cannot be beat. A very cool (literally - the cave stays in the 60s no matter what the weather outside is) experience; a great day overall!

During our time in Santa Rosa, we stayed at the coolest home that my sister-in-law found on Airbnb. It was super nice, spacious for all three couples and had an awesome back patio with a pool. Because of the super hot heat wave, we definitely got a lot of use out of that pool!

I'll share the wedding next!  But for those curious - my wine tasting outfit & swimsuit:

(my t-shirt was from Madewell)

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Pizza Party with the Kids!

Earlier this week, my husband was out of town for work - so the kids and I decided to splurge on pizza for dinner, but not just any pizza - homemade pizza.  And since I was the sole entertainer for the evening (first of two), I turned it into a pizza party to give us plenty to do before bedtime.   Does anyone else get a wee bit nervous when they are 100% responsible for an extended period of time more than they're used to?  Maybe it's because I'm a working mama, so most of the time when I'm with my kids, it's in partnership with my husband.  And typically I'm the one traveling for work... But I do love the one on one time and getting to do something different, and of course, it's always no big deal (but I do find myself reviewing my CPR and heimlich instructions from kid training - haha).  Ok, so maybe I'm just neurotic. I digress... Pizza party for all! I picked up different ingredients to make two different kinds of pizzas (with the best pizza dough from Trader Joe's): the standard pepperoni that I know my kids will eat, and an experiment kind that I'm pretty sure no one will even try except for me.  And as luck would have it, we all had fun - and even had enough ingredients left over for the pizza after Nora ate more of her dinner from the set up!

 I gently urged them to add kale to their pepperoni pizza in the form of getting to decorate the pizza more!  They weren't nearly as excited to actually eat the kale after it cooked as they were to add it to their pizza masterpiece.

The second pizza, my experimental one, actually turned out pretty good!  The kids helped me "decorate" it and Nora even tried it after it cooked (she ate the strawberries off of her slice).  It was created out of goat cheese, sliced strawberries, basil and balsamic vinegar atop whole wheat dough.

Oh hey - pro rookie tip: put your basil on AFTER your pizza cooks (unlike kale, it doesn't taste as good crispy).  This one tasted more like dessert - the fruit tastes so good cooked!

Do you have any fun homemade pizza ingredients/kinds I can try? 

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Bull...

Dog! You thought I was going to say something else, didn't you? I don't own a bulldog, but if I did, he'd definitely wear a cute little bow tie like this. This might be one of my favorite little sweaters. That and the fox one. Little animal print sweaters are all the rage right now, and thankfully you can find a wide variety of them! 

Keep reading to see the rest of this outfit and shop for animal clad sweaters!

Painting the night away among friends and wine

Starting the night with buckets of wine and blank canvases, a group of girlfriends and I gathered for a BYOB painting class at Hook Gallery & Framing located in Kansas City at 45th and State Line near Westport & The Plaza areas. 

Our "inspiration piece" was Van Gough's Starry Nights painting.  Out instructor, the owner of the gallery, who also reminded me of a dark haired  Matthew McConaughey led us through each layer.

This space also opens it's doors to private parties...and I'm thinking this would be a fantastic place to have my 30th birthday... Anyways, if you live Kansas City, check it out. If you live somewhere else, I'm sure you have something similar. I've heard of them called Canvas & Cocktails in other places.  

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I've Gone & Done It

Joined Facebook that is... Chasing Davies is now on Facebook!  Ok, stop jumping up and down with joy and like us already! ;)

Why?  Well, it's just another way to get your daily dose of Chasing Davies style - in clothes or in home decor, watch the baby bump, find random links and things that I'm currently loving (and might not blog about), amongst other things that make you go 'hmmm....'!

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Twirling

I am SO glad that longer, knee-length or midi skirts are back in style, let me tell you.  So much easier to dress for work and my legs do a bit better with a skirt that is longer than micro mini.  Plus you can twirl in them, and that's a lot of fun!

Sorry if I made you dizzy.  Twirling is just so much fun. :)  Thanks to Lulu for taking these pics.

{Top, actually a tunic tucked in - Banana Republic; Full skirt - Oldie Banana Republic, Earrings - SF China Town, Shoes - Marshalls, Ring - Banana Republic}

You know those rings that are double fingered?  Well, this is not one of those - but it's face flaps over my second finger, making it look like one of those double fingered rings. I like it better this way because my fingers are still free.  But hey - stop looking at my unpolished, ultra bitten down, stress-ridden fingers!

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For the Love of {Bright} Tights

Happy Friday!  Here's a little brightness to start the weekend off.  


Dear Tights,
You make any outfit a little more fun in the winter time.

But now I see that I need red tights.

I'd also like turquoise tights.

And while we're at it, 

I should get hot pink.

xoxo,

Meggy

P.S. Have you enter my Giveaway yet?  $35 credit to get anything you want!  Find out more, here.

Chuckie Dog Picks Out a New Toy!

Chuckie the dog got not one, but TWO new toys this week.  As he's always been a sucker for stuffed animals, rather than manly dog toys (such as kongs, etc), we decided to get him one of each and let him chose.

That little turd... see what he picked!



That my little sissy dog. He's too funny.  Happy Weekend!

Live By the Words of Gaga.

Easily one of the best concerts ever.  I saw Lady Gaga at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, MO and had one hell of a night.  Sang and danced all night long.  Some highlights:

Fans dressed up (or down, depending how you look at it) - I wish I had worn something a bit more fun:

She played "Just Dance" within the first few songs!  Little clip for you....



If the video above doesn't show up for you, click here to view (that is not me screaming, I don't think...).

I was oh, so close to Miss Gaga:

"I love you and you love me, we love each other.

I want you to leave here tonight, loving yourself more."

Not short of bloody drama:

She has a new song, not one of the 100 songs on "The Fame".  It's about a boy from Nebraska and it's so very pretty:



Again, if the above video doesn't show up, click here to watch it.  Update: if you want to see and hear the full song of You and I - She was on the Today Show - see it here!

If you can get yourself to a Gaga concert, do it.  So much fun!  At least this little monster and the other thousands of fans did!