Friday, September 23, 2011

Fabulous Trip!!!

I have been so blessed!
I just returned from a ten day jaunt on the west coast
I spent five days in Napa, California with eleven "girls"
It was the most incredible experience
Then I flew to Phoenix, Arizona and two of my "artbooking" friends
(Regina and Lynn)
met me there and we spent four glorious days vintage shopping,
antiquing, visiting scrapbook stores
and then the highlight of the trip was a class
with our dear friend Carol Wingert
I do not know if I will get everything in one post....

I will start with the Napa trip
This trip was to celebrate my BFF'S friend Judy's 60th birthday
and does this girl know how to celebrate in style
EVERYTHING we did was first class
We giggled from day one then cried when we said goodbye
I will post some of the pictures so you can get a "feel" of
just how lucky I was to be able to celebrate this occasion!!!
This blog will not let me turn this picture around
This is me "stomping the grapes"
at one of the wineries we visited
Judy bought us our "costumes"
It was a hoot and a half
We all had so much fun....
We picked our own berries....
That is the vineyard in the background - just gorgeous
This is a picture of the group before we went out into the "fields"
I am fourth from the left holding the little adorable
puppy in the crate!!!
The people at this vineyard were the nicest!!!
One more group picture before our stomping....
It was a fabulous day which holds many dear and cherished memories!
This is a picture where I (we) took morning walks!!!!
Out the back door of our seven bedroom villa were vineyards
and the views were breathtaking!

Just one of the many wineries we visited
Me and my "BFF" Kathy!!!
Gorgeous flowers on the Hill Family Farm...
This farm is where many of the local restaurants
(French Laundry, Ad Hoc, etc - Thomas Keller's restaurants)
all go to select their daily "pickings"
We were privileged enough to have a private tour of the farm
with a lesson in tasting and smelling
It was amazing and another highlight of the trip
Everyday we thought that day was the best day and then the next day
was just as fabulous
Napa is gorgeous country, the weather was incredible, the company was perfect and the itinerary Judy put together was ideal
A dream trip!!!

From Napa I flew to Arizona where I met Regina and Lynn
I had a day to rest (which i really needed!!)
From the minute they arrived we were on the go visiting store after store
and shopping till we dropped!
Here we are at our first stop
Mystic Paper
A very vintage, kitschy paper store
We visited two other stores also and called it a day
(Regina and Lynn did not get to the hotel until 3:00 so that was a lot)
We toasted our first day over cocktails that night....
YUM-O!!!!
Day two started out meeting carol for breakfast which was great!!!
We could have sat and talked for hours but we were on a mission
and she had a lot of work to do for Saturday
This store was a highlight of our trip and it did not disappoint....
I just wish we lived closer so I could have bought some of their
incredibly priced furniture!!!!
Here i am with my new pillow wearing a crown!!!!
Just look at the furniture and all the vintage goodies in the background!
More deliciousness...
We also visited Rust & Roses, Sirens & Saints, French Bee, Paris Envy,
The Secret Village, Scrapbook Barn and the list goes on and on....
We had another fabulous day and then found the best yogurt place
Orange Leaf Yogurt
It was delicious and we were hot and tired and
it gave us energy to continue!!
We drove what seemed forever but we found
Scrap Happy Sisters and it was worth the drive
(thank heavens we had "aggie" with us -
that is what we named the Garmin!)
We had dinner and then crashed.....
Friday was another nice day
We ate breakfast on the concierge level and then headed
out to Oldtown Scottsdale
But on our way we found the "PINK CHAIR"
This is one of my favorite pictures
Main Street in Mesa has lots of "sculptures"
and last time Regina was there she remembered
the pink chair but they moved it
We also found a yarn store that was not opening for ten minutes so we walked Main Street and took pictures of the sculptures...
We visited the yarn store and we all bought yarn to make this scarf!!!
We were on our way to Oldtown Scottsdale
when we saw this last sculpture and we stopped!!! 
Literally!!! 
Regina pulled over so we could have one more "kodak" moment....
How cute is this!?!?!?!?!?
Oldtown Scottsdale was great
Just what you would picture "old" Arizona to be...
How corny....
There was lots of great "rusty" stuff...
Too heavy to "schlep" home...
Made some new friends...
Had a fabulous lunch...
Then it was time to say "adios" to Oldtown Scottsdale!
We made one more stop in Scottsdale...
This was a great store and lovely people owned it...
The kind of store I would love to teach in if I loved there...
This store was in the "arts" section of Scottsdale and we wish
we had time to walk around - maybe next time!
Because we had another important stop at...
We went to the Agave Spa at the Kierland Westin
It was fabulous...
We all had different treatments and we were NOT disappointed!!!
Here is Lynn in all her glory..
and Regina...
and Moi!!!!
We had a great day to say the least!
The day was topped off with a little shopping..
And then dinner at...
It was delicious and the atmosphere was perfect!
Truly made us feel like we were on "VACATION"!
And what a vacation it was...
I am going to post this now and I will leave the class
we took the next day with Carol Wingert for the next post.

Hope you enjoyed all of my escapades.
They were both wonderful, fabulous trips with incredible friends

Hugs and More,
Peggy