Find of the Day

Perfect little porcelain condiment spoons from Crate & Barrel for just $1.50 each.

And I, um, already have bowls to match... (green one not pictured)

Crystal Cove Beach & State Park

Crystal Cove Beach is one of our very favorite beaches. It's a bit of a pain to get to (park across PCH and a long walk to the beach or pay $1 to take the bus down) but it is less crowded than most beaches and is always so pretty.

At the beach you can enjoy exploring the tidepools, go for a morning walk or just lay out and play in the water. At the State Park in the bluffs overlooking the beach you can take a nature walk, have a picnic lunch with a spectacular view or even bike the paved roads.

Parking is $10 at all of the Crystal Cove parking lots. Crystal Cove beach is located just south of Newport off of PCH.

TO EAT:

• Buy picnic items at the Trader Joe's located in the Crystal Cove Promenade just south of the beach area on PCH.


• Eat breakfast or lunch first at the Pacific Whey Cafe in the Crystal Cove Promenade. See previous post.


• Eat right on the beach at the Beachcomber Cafe but be prepared to wait a while! (And I mean like a minimum of an hour, sometimes the wait is hours long.)
  
  
• Walk up the hill to eat at the Shake Shack located right off PCH overlooking the beach.

Honey Pot

It's been a while since I've shared any fun dish findings with you. I love this Honey Pot from Anthropologie - it's just like Pooh Bear's! Scrawled out writing and all.

Hiking in Laguna Canyon

So after almost 6 years (ahem!) of living in Orange County, my husband and I FINALLY went hiking in Laguna Canyon. I still can't believe it took us so many years to get around to checking this activity off my mental list. The one time we did go try and do this hike, the trail was closed from too much rain! Ha - just my luck too!

The park is called the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. We parked in the Willow Canyon Staging Area right on Laguna Canyon Road just below El Toro. It was a beautiful hike, especially right now during the springtime while the grasses are still green. I'm sure it gets pretty dried up in the fall. There isn't much shade at all on these trails so I'd recommend going early in the morning or on a cool day. The trail is also very steep in some places, so no strollers, pregnant women, young children or people not strong enough get in gear and attack steep slopes.

Bring plenty of bottled water too. We thought we were just going for a little hour long hike, but you could go on for hours! We lasted for about 3 hours on my half drunk iced coffee. The views kept getting more and more beautiful that we hated to stop going and turn around. We did finally get to see the ocean as well.


P.S. Don't pick the flowers. Or even a flower! I picked one teensy flower along the trail at the top of the world, with no one around, and stuck it in my hair and the park ranger actually pulled her pick up truck over along the trail to stop and tell me to leave it there so it can reseed more flowers...for goodness sakes! At least I didn't leave my Starbucks cup up there!

Baby Shower Season: Invitations

Six of my friends are expecting this year! It's baby shower season for me. Is it baby shower season for you too? Several showers are on the horizon including one for my sister. She's expecting the first baby in my family! The little guy is supposed to arrive in August so her shower is coming soon.

With such a baby shower flurry, I thought I'd do a series on "Baby Showers" for you. First stop, invitations!

My sister's nursery theme is the Jungle and I found these perfect Jungle Boy invitations for her shower! When looking for invitations, my first stop is to peruse my favorite paper websites. I like to look through these websites to find ideas if I'm going to make invitations by hand, a ready-made invitation to purchase and print at home, and even ideas for how to word invitations.

Resources:

• http://www.tinyprints.com/
• http://www.polkadotdesign.com/
• http://www.paper-source.com/
• http://www.invitationbox.com/
• http://www.lemontreepaperie.com/
• http://www.paperieandco.com/
• http://www.paperstyle.com/
• http://www.redstamp.com/
• http://www.traylorpapers.com/
  

Wish List Cookbooks

I don't think I could ever have too many cookbooks. Here are two I recently purchased as prizes for a work event. After flipping through them, they were very hard to part with!


Cupcakes! - $16.95
This cookbook will send you running to the nearest Sprinkles to satisfy your recently on-set cupcake craving. Beautiful photography and tempting recipes like Lemon Angelsfood and Cinnamon Sugar Puffs - I don't know how you pick which one to try first!




Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics - $35.00
This book is filled with simple recipes which suprised me coming from Ina Garten. Many recipes have just 5-10 ingredients and looked like they focused on simple but flavorful recipes. There are also many helpful hints such as crowdpleasers and what not to make for a party.

Do you know the Donut Man?

Everyone should be lucky enough to know the Donut Man. The Donut Man is a local favorite hot spot for donuts...in Glendora, CA. They make a strawberry donut that is unheard of. It is worth driving 50 miles from South Orange County just to pick one up. My husband and I have contemplated such nonsence. In season they make fresh strawberry donuts, its a glazed puffy donut sliced in half and filled with fresh strawberries and strawberry pie glaze. It's even better than strawberry pie. The best thing $2.50 can buy.

They are open all night and you'll see local college students stoping by for an early morning fix. The Donut Man bakes fresh donuts all night long. They also make a peach one in season, I've still yet to try one...it's on my list of things to try before I die.