wine cellar chronicles

http://pinterest.com/vintagebruja/wine-cellar-chronicles/

i am in love with the idea of what imagery pinterest has allowed my mind! i had to dedicate one of my boards to a lost but never forgotten memory in my life, our beautiful wine bar that allowed us so many amazing memories of people, places, and most important our love of wine!!!!
ever since we had our wine shop, i have always wanted to go mobile. being that every one lives busy lives...i wanted to do wine tasting inside our customers homes. as a pharmaceutical rep, it wasn't always easy to get some of my clients to our wine bar. every time they would ask about "wine picks" i always had a great choice, but no matter what, they needed to taste it! so, to go from the oc (aka orange county, ca), to the ie (aka inland empire, ca), was for the most part, out of the question.

it was because of this business venture my husband and i did, that we decided that we wouldn't let the failure of our business and everything we lost, to leave us with the fear of never starting a business again. although, we decided that wine, and everything that comes along with the business wasn't what we wanted to do again! but....because of the love of people we encountered while running our business, is what we were craving yet again. combining the people idea, going mobile, and love for out latin culture, we have decided to try our chances at another business!!!!
after we closed our beautiful wine store, we're still huge wine buffs with a dream of continuing our knowledge of wine and owning a wine cellar again one day. however, instead of selling the wine, we want to collect and store it, to eventually entertain with it! we'd like to keep it as a hobby that we can share.

we, were always excited about latinos in the wine business, and we loved following their success. we had the privileged of staying at the ceja winery while we took our napa tour of vitners. this was probably our fondest memories of our napa trip. the ceja family was so hospitable in allowing us to stay on the property in their guest bedroom!!!
they cooked us dinner and paired every plate with their wine, the stories of the plantation, and the amazing harvesting.
now, we make sure, ceja sits at our dinner table, every chance we get!

salut!

http://pinterest.com/vintagebruja/wine-cellar-chronicles/

once upon a dream...

12 more days and i will be in north carolina with all of my kindred spirited crafting women!

yahooo! i can't wait to enjoy jennifer hayslip's event:

i'm so excited because not only am i going to attend this event...i am also going to be a vendor! yahoooo! i can't wait to share my pictures with u all! so stay tuned because, i can't wait to share all my fav pix. it's going to be fun! fun! fun!
for those of u who are going to be missing this event, shhhh, i have a secret. there is going to be another event coming up that u just can't miss! kim caldwell is going to be putting on another star studded event in may next year.

affaire at tiffany's

omg! i'm smitten by the theme. keep checking her website and her blog for the updates!  i can't wait for the teaching line~up and projects! i think it's going to be ridiculous!

save up! because this is going to be amazing.

mary engelbreit

memories of the mary engelbreit home companion workshops! one year l8r.

i'm loving the collaging technique i figured out. i can add so many fun photos to one event and share!!! so cool! needless to say, at this event  i met so many awesome men and women. well, hehe there was only one man, mathew mead! but bottom line, i met some fun women.

  

i thought it would add a nice touch to my collage if i named all the people i met while crafting in the stl! although it was a mary engelbreit event, there was still a sense of intimacy with the women who where there!

i had a great time....except for the tornado that touch down not to far from my hotel room.

there's alot of weather that goes on in the mid west, & the south! i know i'm a california spoiled brat. so when they say take cover and hide in your tub...i'm thinking, there is no way i'm going to spend the rest of my time sleeping in no tub!

although i don't have a picture of her, another girlfriend i met at the event is the lovely dee foust. i had to take this picture from mr. mead's website. hehe

 she's going to be teaching ay jennifer hayslip's event in north carolina, in october.i'm excited for her, and to take part in this event! let's see what adventures north carolina will bring?

although, i'm not a huge baseball freak, this venue was pretty cool! 

the cardinals busch stadium in st louis missouri.

i made this collage for my son. he's not a big baseball fan but he does love that i'm traveled.

besos!

still enjoying the pasteures...

of the devine paso robles, ca

even though we don't have the wine bar anymore, wine still stays very close to our hearts. i mean, don't get me wrong, do i miss the wine bar. no! do i miss all the amazing people we met, and there incredible stories, absolutely!
one other thing that i didn't think i'd miss, that i think about all the time is, all the events with the wine makers, and entertainers. bringing joy to the people of the community, bringing different wine regions to people that had never been out of the inland empire. educating them on wine etiquette, vintage, varietals, and pairings. those are the things that i think about....especially after seeing victor talk to some of our old winemaker friends.

{yup! in that picture at the top right is good old justin, the original
owner of justin winery. he has since sold the winery to the owners of fiji water.
since in the next 3 years he'll be obsolete,
i asked him to sign my poster}

the experience alone, in hind side, was worth everything we lost! why do i say that? because when victor and i married, it was to be together,sharing quality time and raising a family. those 2 years of the business, we were married to the business. our family suffered, mainly the children, because, it took every ounce in our body to keep that baby alive and thriving!!! we couldn't afford a full~time helper, so we had to visit dad at the bar. he was there 6 days a week. with the way the economy was suffering, especially in our area, i didn't see no light at the end of that tunnel. if the borders bookstore next to us was suffering, a brick and mortar shop was definitely going down! we hadn't been open long enough to get a huge clientele base to withstand what the economy was doing.

{morro bay, ca ~ shark bait, bruuuhhh haha!

after our beautiful stay at the summerwood inn, we decided to check out the rest of the ca coast, especially, morro bay! we love watching animal planet's shark week. and every year, morro bay is mentioned because of the blue whale migration, and the great white sharks!!! so, victor and i decided... let's go see what this area is all about! although, we didn't take the tour out into the ocean to see the whales because victor wanted the kids with us. we ask some of the people that came of the tour boat if they had seen anything? and yes, they had some great picture of the blue whales.so, next time we head up with the kids, that will be on the top of our list of things to do!
i fell in love with everything about this beautiful quaint town! my goal....is for us to retire here some day!

besos y amor!

laguna beach

here are a few of our favorite shots from our family vacation.

Happppppy Anniversary!

we made it! 13 years!

so to celebrate, we went to the coast of southern california~ laguna beach!!!

the montage resort.

everything about our stay was awesome for us and the kids. they accommodated it all! 

 this was breakfast at the loft

 

then of course it was off for the spa treatment

 steam room! i'm melting, i'm melting....what a world! what world!!!

 sauna....eeeh! i felt like i was in arizona by the river!

 

for 13 years....it was just the rejuvenation we needed!!! 

aaaaah!

PUBLISHED!!!

...i can not believe that almost 17 years later, i am seeing myself outside of myself again!!!

 

i remember when i was invited to the premiere of dangerous minds starring michelle pfifer. i was in the other actors class not the main class but...when i was sitting in the audience watching the movie, i almost crawled underneath my seat when my scene came on! i just couldn't believe that there i was...watching myself. it was the weirdest feeling! i remember my mom being so proud of this moment! when she saw that i had sank into my seat...all i remember her doing was moving her lips....whah!whah!...!!!

when i finally came back to reality, i could hear her say, why are you doing that? get up! and i jumped back up in my seat to watch the movie again. LOL! then i came on again....whooop! right back down i went.

this was that moment...only 15 years later. 

however...to see that my son is so proud of this moment...and that he's the one who took on our family's creative side, makes me blush.

anyway...this is the article that "creat with me" published. and it's such an honor.

if this art piece could talk!!! boy o'boy....

{To be continued}