First of all . . . have you ever seen a cake HALF this adorable??
This weekend a big group of us went to Russian River Valley to celebrate a friend's 30th birthday. On Saturday we got a driver (Dane!) who carted us around to various wineries. Though I was disappointed to miss the Freeman Winery for obvious reasons, we had plenty of fun at the ones chosen by the birthday girl--HopKiln, Matrix, and a few others whose names were far less important to me than the copious amounts of wine I imbibed. ;) At one of the stops we had a personal wine guide--an older gentleman named Don who was brimming with naughty jokes, at one we had a delicious picnic, and at another there were hula hoops . . . now hula hoops and wine is a pretty stellar combination!After a break back at our hilltop cabin (and a stint in the luxurious hot tub), we had dinner here, a fantastic Sonoma restaurant and garden that serves locally grown food and is famous for their pork. While I, of course, did not indulge in the salumi/prosciutto/bacon that came out plate after plate, everyone else seemed to think it was the most heavenly meat in the world. Zazu, the restaurant, cures their own pork, which is pretty darn impressive if you ask me. I asked the chef to make me a vegetable concoction (my only rules were no meat and no mushrooms), and the waitress came out with the most gorgeous plate of house-made pasta and all kinds of greens: kale, spinach, brussel sprouts, and shaved Italian cheese. Incredible.
Now back to the cake. Below is a picture of Cheryl, the birthday girl, posing proudly with her Barbie cake. The cake was created by the talented Ms. Morehouse, who went through several thorough and meticulous steps in order to yield this ridiculous, amazing creation:
All in all, an incredibly fun and restorative weekend. I'm so lucky to have such wonderful, beautiful, talented, passionate, hilarious friends. I need to remind myself of that every day so I never take it for granted.
In other news, as I'm sure most of you know, the Golden Globes were this weekend. I'm only vaguely interested in the awards, as I rarely see movies and I don't know most of the tv shows, but every year I get incredibly psyched about the gowns! Each year, after scrutinizing all the gowns, I deem one of them my favorite. This year's Claire's-Favorite-Red-Carpet-Gown Award goes to Ms. Chloe Sevigny, who wore this stunning, silver-lilac Valentino ruffled dress:
Can you believe it?? I'm not sure I've ever seen something so breathtaking. It's just LOVELY. That's the best word I can come up with. Anyone else have favorites?
Last, please keep one of my best friends in your hearts and thoughts and prayers and positive energies today as he had surgery this morning to remove cancer. I'm very worried about him, but encouraged by his determined, positive outlook. I'm working on a "positive vibes" playlist for his recovery . . . any suggestions?
xoxoxoxo