Texas Hill country - Fredericksburg, Texas

My mom has been in town all week and the other day she had a wild hair to drive out to Fredericksburg. I love a good road trip, so I indulged her. The Texas Hill Country is filled with all sorts of adorable little towns all with major German influence with super cute Main Streets that now house antique shops, silly souvenir stores and quaint little restaurants. The Hill Country has also become a contender in the wine scene, so you can make a day out of it and hit the wineries for wine tasting. We left after lunch, and didn't really have an agenda, as we have both been several times, so we kind of forgot that the town shuts down at around 5:30PM.
We rolled into town at around 4:30PM, so we didn't have much time to do any serious shopping, but I gotta say it was pretty nice to have the sleepy streets to ourselves. We made a pit stop into RED, which is a really nice shop and great for designers looking for a more modern rustic junky vibe and then we wandered into the Fredericksburg Brewing Company for a snack and some vino. That's really about it. We had to walk off that insane bread pudding, so we made lap, feasting our eyes in all of the shops. If you want to make the most of the day, I would leave bright and early, wear comfy shoes and have a little patience. It's a very popular weekend 'day tripper' destination filled with everyone from families to biker enthusiasts.
Fredericksburg is roughly 78 miles / 1.5 hours due West from Austin.

Red in Fred

the main strip

um this is totally a Boot Bag for your cowboy boots

Sorry Mom! 

Kinda cool that we used to actually MAKE things in this country...

Insert Lee Greenwood song here

The rest of my photos from this trip can be found on my flickr page here 

Happy Mother's Day

'God could not be everywhere and therefore he created mother's'
Jewish Proverb

Swim in Barton Springs - CHECK

My Austin Bucket list has another little notch on it's belt. Numero Uno was to 'swim in Barton Springs' and I did so last week. It was a beautiful sunny day, not too hot, not too cold and I jumped in and it was cold, but as my girl Yvette once said...'it will cool you from the inside out'
These past few months when I have described my goals via this blog, swimming in Barton Springs was always one of the main things that I mention (albeit with a very embarrassed ashamed look) because, it's almost a rite of passage for those who live in Austin. I can't believe that I have lived here since 2007, that's four very long hot summers, and I had not yet dipped myself in this invigorating natural spring.

It stays at 68 degrees year round! How cray is that? Open daily. Admission is $3.00.
Details here

'Dog Beach'

NATASHA!!!

So, I'm listening to Pandora.com, The Beach House station to be exact and 'Bird's Lament' by Moondog comes up. I start shaking my head and tapping my foot to the beat and at the same time trying to figure out where I have heard this little gem...and then it hits me..PARTY GIRL!
'Heh Heh HELLOOOO!' It's only one of the funniest scenes ever filmed. Parker Posey was the Queen of Indie Cinema in the 90's and this is just a testament to her talent. (sigh...sometimes I miss the simplicity of the 90's;))

Mother's Day Gift idea: Photo Book

 

Click here to view this photo book larger

Obviously, I love to take pictures and back in the days of film, I used to get all of my photos printed up and I even made albums of all my escapades. From High School thru College, I always had a camera on hand and pretty much documented every little event, dinner, bar outing, and International trip I took with much enthusiasm. The wait to pick up my photos always seemed so long, I can't believe that was just over a decade ago. Now, with the advent of digital, we take so many photos, post them to Facebook, Flickr, Smugmug what have you, but how many of us actually go one step further and make prints? I know I have gotten extremely lax about the whole process and it kinda makes me sad. 

This past Christmas I decided to gift everyone a framed photo that I have taken, some for sentimental value, others because I just find them cool and want to share some art. I have decided that moving forward, photos will be my gifts. Mother's Day is less that a week away and I had the idea to make my mom a photo book from our trip to West Texas in early March. I took over a thousand photos for heavens sake, so they should live somewhere else other than my iphoto library. 

Shutterfly.com  is offering expedited shipping if you order by tomorrow, May 3. It took me under an hour to edit, select and create my photobook. It's being shipped to my mom in time for Sunday and she can display this memory in her house and have some great stories to tell as well. 

I realize I am displaying her gift online before Mother's Day, but I have a sneaking suspicion that she won't be checking my blog.... ;) She usually only does when I inform her of new content. So...here is hoping that she does not feel the need to wander over here before Sunday. 

What we bought at The Natural Gardener

As I previously posted here, planning a first garden is a process. I've been reading, Amy 

Stewart's, 'From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden. It's her story of the trials and tribulations of planting her first garden, but the way she tells it, you feel like you are getting to know her and at the same time learning some valuable and humorous lessons. 

Ok, back to my garden, after you spend lots of time on your hands and knees prepping your dirt, then you get to go shopping! We went back to the Natural Gardener to buy our plants and seeds. We ended up with lots of baby tomatoes, easier and less of a pest magnet. Squirrels LOVE to munch on the big guys, as I learned a few seasons back when I shared a garden. We also got TONS of peppers, so I imagine we will be spicing it up later this summer. The rest of our selection ended up being corn, eggplant, tri-colored beans, okra, cucumbers and watermelons and a bunch of herbs. 

Vast...

Goats live at The Natural Gardener!

Laura searching out the goods

Picking out tomato varieties 

The pantaloon wearing Rooster

So big, they need a map

Laura REALLY wanted this stylish hat ;)

Boozy Bundt Cake

Mono is a good affordable vodka

Some lemon zest for fun

Voila!

In the battle of Salt vs. Sugar, SALT always wins in my book. Perhaps that is why, I'm not into making sweets. Not that this is any newsflash, but, Baking is difficult. Rachel Ray admittedly hates it and I can relate. I have never baked a pie and my previous experience with sweet treats was quick baking cookies. I'm not really a cake person and I'm definitely NOT a cupcake person. Forgive me. I think they can be super cute and fun and I love how adorable and trendy pretty baking has become, but frosting is so sugary and thick and not my style. When I first tried this cake at a friend's dinner party a couple of years ago, I was amazed at how much I actually enjoyed it, all in all its basically a simple coffee cake. It has liquor, which makes it fun :), but not overpowering. So, it's an adult dessert.
Oh, did I forget to mention...it's a called a Black Russian Cake. There are quite a few recipes, but I like this one from allrecipes.com. It's REAL easy and I feel pretty stoked that I can actually make something and be proud of it.
It's a winner and I promise you everyone LOVES this cake.