Visit to The French Laundry gardens

Did you know that the French Laundry gardens are open 24/7

and you are free to visit them whenever you please?

I just became aware of this last weekend and paid a visit with my mom, Amanda and Will.

There is such an incredible collection of fruits, vegetables and flowers -

I honestly could have stayed there all day.

Here are some snapshots of some of the fantastic

things we saw...

hello, sunshine

hello, brother!

they've created a gigantic tented garden with an elaborate system

that allows plants, such as tomatoes, to climb up

tall poles that extend upwards of 20 feet...

definitely considered pocketing a few of these seeds...

fledgling lettuces

i can only imagine how incredible these

tomatoes are going to taste...

just a tiny little squash...

i love Napa in the summertime!

calabaza?

hot hot heat

no garden is complete without a chicken coop

wanna know what this is? scroll down...

i just had to investigate, and yes,

it tasted like a watermelon flavored cucumber

imagine these greens with a tiny drizzle of

mustard vinaigrette

artichokes!

worth every penny

henri loved the gardens too!

Treasure Island Flea Market

This past Sunday my mom, Christina, Bette, Molly and I headed to the new-ish Treasure Island Flea Market. We had so much fun and found some really awesome goodies. I have not yet been to the Alameda Flea Market, but I've been told it's pretty overwhelming, so this was a nice warm-up for when I actually make it to the Alameda one ~ can't wait!

Here are a few pics of some of the great stuff we saw. I definitely recommend checking out the TI Flea Market, and it's best to get there on the earlier side. The flea market takes place on the last Saturday and Sunday of each month - 9:00-4:00pm, $5 entrance fee.

lovely weathered french textiles

I'd just like to make a note that Marie Antoinette never actually uttered these words!
It's still a great quote though, isn't it?

I bought these teacups and saucers for $1 a piece
Not quite sure what I'm going to do with them, but am
confident it'll come to me :)

Porcelain S&P shakers

I love bottles

Who doesn't love a good mason jar?

Ummm this was amazing: a mini automatic doughnut maker!

Fallen wood turned very cool natural planters

Matte beads reminiscent of sea-glass

homemade garden signs

really fun collage signage

Christina bought this incredible cheese/maize/ham/salty/sweet sando - jealous!

teeny tiny corked bottles

a gorgeous array of varied spools of thread

the funkiest/coolest candy jar I've ever seen

And finally - the best buy of the day! Teens and I found old red box letters: C for Christina and A for Allie! I already have a huge, I'm talking 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide, white letter P in my house so now I have all my letters accounted for ~ yippee!