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"True, I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy."- as said by Mercutio, Romeo and Juliet, Act I, sc iv by William Shakespeare.

vino.

I like to think of this blog as my little ode to things that cross my path that I find lovely. Currently, it appears to be wine and interesting ways of entertaining...I hope you enjoy another post on something fantastic to enjoy!

Bear Flag Wine caught my eye with it's interesting bottle label. The white is fantastic, a mix of chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, symphony, French colombard, and muscat wines. It's complex, as you're not quite sure what type of white you are having at first - but after serving it at my party, everyone was happy.

The labels are so personal looking, and I've taken my bottle and am using it in my room as a vase. After some more digging, I found out that the artist is Eduardo Bertone, whose personal website has a large portfolio of his work. His work is unique, and brings back more original and interesting works of art compared to the multimedia/digital design that we are seeing in so many forms today. Below are more examples of his work.

Make sure you pick up a bottle of Bear Flag the next time you're getting together with friends - let me know what you think!

fête.

There are few things better than relaxing on your back deck with a glass of wine in hand and a good friend by your side. With many of my friends leaving to head back to university, I decided to mix things up a little bit. I made my gathering an open house, to allow people more flexibility with their Saturday night plans. My first guests arrived around 5pm, and continuously came and went over the next few hours, until we took the gathering downtown. I wasn't stressed, had no prep work to do while guests arrived, and was hosting about four people at a time, which made it more comfortable for connections to be made. Isn't it fantastic when things work out and you didn't plan it that way?

PINK SANGRIA

I love the idea of having a signature drink that all guests can have (hint for other students - this was also inexpensive!) My drink of choice is always rosé wine, and after I found this recipe in Chatelaine Magazine, but put my own spin on it.
(picture via my lovely friend Tyler-Rae!)
Chop:
1 firm peach into small pieces
1 cup of watermelon

Half 5 large strawberries

1 handful of raspberries and 1 handful of blackberries

1 bottle of rosé wine (750-mL)

2 cups of white grape juice.

Put all the fruit into a large pitcher. Add the white grape juice and one 750-mL bottle of rosé wine (I used Beringer's White Zinfandel) Mix together carefully with a large wooden spoon. Cove and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or longer. When serving, add a can of soda water to the pitcher and pour over a few pieces of ice.

This was the most requested recipe from the evening - enjoy enjoy enjoy. Here's a few more pictures of the garden theme...




More entertainment posts to come! Let me know what you think!
*Photography by Portia Favro.

oh.

This is Lady Gaga's world and we're all just visiting. Wishing that I had been in Vancouver for her concert this week and trying to figure out how to get to her Toronto one!

Happy Friday and I'm off to celebrate being down all my work for the summer!

reunion.

This is one of my most favourite times of the year - the anticipation of back to school, but still having the freedom of summer to bask in daily. As much as I'm excited for classes to start and get back into the normal routine, I know I'll yearn for these warm days in a about a month. But that's the way the ball bounces I guess.

I've written about this before, so I won't have another rant. Perhaps I am too positive and always see things in the better light. I suppose since getting hurt, everything is just a bonus to walk, dance, swim, run. Everything. It takes too much energy to hate things. One of these things I'm finding people detest is high school. I'm coming from a different perspective of having attended three different high schools (one was only for two weeks, if you want to throw that out, no worries) but I hate it when people bad mouth where they really grew up. Our friends, work, drama and lives began and developed in high school as much as at home.

The first time I stepped into Kelowna Secondary School, I thought I was in the worst place on the wrong side of town. It was all indoors, very strange from my outdoor, California campus (no snow makes a difference) and I was the new kid. I would be lying if I said that it wasn't hard. It sucked my first year and I was so angry at the world for making me move to the frozen tundra of Canada.

However, dance saved me again.

I joined the dance team and had the opportunity to perform for my school, tour to Vancouver and meet an amazing group of people. The turning point was when I got to dance in the year end show in 2007. I put myself out there with my modern solo, and I thought things were going to go so badly, as most Kelownaites had never seen this type of dance without the "interpretive dance" joke.

KSS became one of the places that I have had so much opportunity to grow and learn. Classes, after-school activities, clubs, grad events...it's a magical place where I met my best friends that I love today. The teachers connected with their students, we had an older demographic (only grades 10-12) so could have a more sophisticated events calender.

During my dance class today, I discovered one the parents was actually a teacher at my old high school - she said that there was just something special about KSS, where the teachers loved coming to work.

I'm hoping to plan our grad class's 10 year reunion. I hope to see you there if we graduated together.

I'll hand the rest over to the beach boys:

decals.

All I want for my birthday.

last.

rosa.