California Living – Page 2 – The Creative Salad

Favorite Fall Activities

Autumn is upon us! Each morning fog obscures the view from our house and we bundle up in cozy clothes. Then as the day moves on, we peal layers off as the weather floats up to the mid-70s each afternoon. The leaves are slowly starting to change color on the vineyards and apple orchards near our house. What a different world than the New England fall I grew up with!

We’ve felt eager to repeat some of our favorite fall activities from years past:

Leaf Rubbings and Characteristics Activity

Gratitude Leaf Rubbings Garland

Leaf Exploration With Stencils

Savoring the Fall Things

Stay tuned for a host of new fall-themed projects to be posted this month… We’re in the thick of craft time.

Renga Arts

Thank you all for your kind words about our big announcement! We’re very excited!

Now let’s play a little blog catch-up, shall we? Here’s a post about an outing we took way back in May…

You know when you see a store that looks interesting and want to check it out, but never actually get around to finding the time to stop in?! While David’s mother was visiting us earlier this summer we stopped at Renga Arts, a gallery space featuring art and products made from recycled materials, that we’ve been driving past and been curious about for years.

We found an assortment of playful sculptures and artistic spaces:

And brought home these handmade magnets featuring towns in Sonoma County:

Love them!

Postcards from Monterey

My parents are visiting us from the East Coast, so this past week we headed south to Carmel, Pacific Grove, Monterey, and Moss Landing. We greatly enjoyed our wildlife encounters at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and in the Elkhorn Slough and Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary:

We so love living here in Northern California!

Click here to see more photos from our trip.

January is the New June

Instead of typical rainy winter weather, we’re enjoying summertime here in California’s wine country. 70 degrees, sunny… I keep reminding our family to wear sunscreen. It’s hot out there!

And so we’ve been doing all sorts of fun summer activities like scootering on the trail every day and biking into town with our friends’ awesome Burley Bee Bike Trailer:

Each day I walk through the house, opening each window wide, and sighing deeply as I breathe in the loveliness that is western Sonoma county:

Oh, and the birds loved their popcorn garland treat:

Our daughter is already talking about next year’s garland for the tree and doing it all over again. I love making family traditions!

Happy winter!

A Walk Among the Redwoods

My sister visited us this past week. What better way to introduce a city girl to the country than to take her on a walk among 1,000 year old redwoods?!

Those trees stand tall:

I love this photo of my sister laughing:

We learned that the above hilarity ensures when you ask a little girl, who is walking directly in front of you, to give you a little space, she may bring your scarf with her when she steps forward!

Inventing a game for playing in the forest:

Wishing there were water under the bridge to play Pooh-sticks:

Who’s that wild animal on our path?!

Super Leyba standing in a fire-ravaged trunk:

Teenagers spotted; those big kids can be so fascinating, even when they’re just sitting on a log:

Dancing it up in the forest because you can make your own music anywhere you go:

After a long walk, we hit nearest winery where the grown-up ladies tasted champagne and the youngling chugged some Izzi while we had a snack before heading home. Walking can be just so exhausting. ;)

We love you, Laura!