Vegan

About month or two ago I watched a documentary.

It was some shady back alley film I found on the internet, it was full of heated arguments and night vision shots of sad mistreated animals being raised for the slaughter house.

This film brought up an anger and sadness in me, but mostly just made me want to puke.
(I wouldn't recommend anyone go through those 40 something minutes of emotions on purpose.)

It also gave me an epiphany of sorts.

Adventures in Whale Watching

Turns out trying to catch a pic of a moving whale is a lot harder then it looks.

Especially when you don't have a zoomy enough zoom, and you're wearing glasses that keep fogging up every three seconds, and then the minute you put the camera down to clean your glasses is when the big'ol thing decides to start doing back flips.

It was a whole thing you guys.

Port San Luis || Avila Beach, Ca

This post is actually a compilation of two separate visits to Port San Luis, because I waited so long to post this that I had gone again.
The second time was in an attempt to see whales though, not an actual intentional visit to the Peir so i guess that makes it fine.

Disclaimer: I did not see any whales. Unless you count the splashes a million miles away that people say were whales.
But, no pics didn't happen.

Avila Beach, CA || Avila Valley Barn

On this installment of Carina goes places, we're talking about Avila Valley Barn.

Big Sur, CA || Pfeiffer Beach & McWay Falls

In a continued effort to be a tourist in my own area, I packed up my camera, put on my hair and headed out to Big Sur a couple of weeks ago. Despite living smack in the middle or the Pacific Coast Highway, I've never made the drive up the cliff to Big Sur.

San Simeon, CA || Hearst Castle & Elephant Seals

One of my goals for this fine year of 2015, is to do more things.

Ya, I know how broad and general that statement sounds, but it is what it is.

I have lived in California my entire life, I have been to the beach, shopped at the farmers markets and gotten more sunburns then I can count. 

I have also taken great advantage of the beautiful place I live in.

There are so many "tourist" things I haven't ever done and so many places I have never been to.

You don't really appreciate things until you see it through other peoples eyes, I think. Like the beach for example, I think the only time I have ever been to the beach in the last ten years is if someone is visiting from out of town, or I am joining in on an activity with my nephews. Never, do I go of my own accord. 

Why, you may ask. Well, because it's always there.

Currently || March

San Francisco Trip and NEWSIES the Musical!

Let me start by saying Blogger is being really rude and uncooperative today, so sorry if things get a little weird...
If you follow me on instagram or twitter (@carinamdee ;) you know that this last weekend I had a super quick trip with some of my family to San Francisco and saw a performance of Newsies.

If you're not familiar with Newsies, it is one of my favorite movies ever, starring a young Christian Bale and a lot of amazing songs and dance moves. It is a movie that everyone in my family is obsessed with, and can recite every line and lyric because we have seen it approximately eight hundred times. 

It is now a broadway play which is touring around the country, and landed in San Fran for a few weeks. My sister happens to live in the SF area, and so us California local girls headed over to catch a show!

Caterpillars, a Beagle and a Party

Over Labor day. we had a surprise birthday party for my parents 60th. Technically speaking, my dad turned 60 last year-but between a wedding and a funeral last summer, a party just didn't happen for him. 

I did pretty much nothing for this party, except make cupcakes and take pretty poor quality photos.

Turns out when you are lightheaded and have blurry vision, your pictures may not come out completely in focus. Also no natural light in this building. oh well. 

My sister did the majority of the work, and made these awesome signs. (the party was a fifties diner theme)

All of the littles where trying really hard to suck something out of the straws, with no such luck. The original plan was to have a little something-something in the middle of the cupcake, but I had other things to do that day. Like have my closet collapse, and take my little flea-bag to the vet.
Speaking of the flea-bag:

Turns out she's allergic to fleas. Hence why the last two summers she loses half of her hair and is stuck in a cone of shame for weeks on end. She's on the mend now though, thanks for asking.
And as far as critters in the yard goes....

We had a boatload of monarch caterpillars in the garden last week. They ate through that milkweed and disappeared. Seriously, I cannot find a one anywhere. Maybe they ran away with the fleas. hashtag the bugs life movie.




Remember to follow along on instagram (@carinamcreations) for more current events!

Does anyone even still care about Thanksgiving?

Well too bad if you don't. 'Cause here it is anyway.

 Now that that is settled, we can get on with the Christmas holiday.

1 week!!

My Big Sisters Wedding.

My sister got married last week! What!!

It was a fabulous week, with an awesome party and too few pictures.

I debated with myself for a good long while whether to bring my real camera or not, and ended up without it which was probably a good thing, but I still regret it.

So, here are the incredibly high quality iphone pictures from the occasion!

 Me, a double chin and my littler, yet older sister in a photo stolen off of facebook. Thank you grooms grandma!

Some lady in the nail salon shortly before this photo proclaimed that we must be twins, which people say allll the time. I really don't get it, I don't feel we look anything alike. She's the spitting image of my mother, and I am definitely my fathers daughter.

Whatever, that lady was cuckoo pants anyway.
But don't my nails look pretty?! They chipped off two days later. rude.

Also at the nail salon, all of the non-english speaking workers kept staring and smiling at me. It was totally weird. Then they started talking to my lady, and she translated that they were discussing how beautiful my skin was.

Then that beautiful skin of mine turned bright red.

Such is the life.

Deedle-beanie gave each of us bridesmaids a little jewelry tray with our names on it, and an initial necklace. I've already worn said necklace only about every day since.

We stayed Friday night in the schmancy Dolphin Bay Resort. It was a really nice place, with a incredibly comfortable bed, amazingly nice employees, and hot lavender towels.
What the purpose of a hot lavender towel is, I am not sure. But it was nice to have anyway.

All of my beautiful nieces and nephews, minus the Krewser who was not interested in any more pictures.

The Mr. and Mrs.!

 For the wedding, I made each of the girls a a different hair clip/headband and all of the boys had bow-ties and suspenders.

My two oldest nephews, and a baby lizard.

Boys will be boys.

Photobooths are where its at guys.

I spent a lot of time in there, and thoroughly annoyed the attendant all night long.

I think I might buy one for the house. Good idea, right?

On a related note, my nephews asked me about five million times over the week when I was going to get married all ready. When I am eight-three was apparently not an acceptable answer to them.

I think it comes down to them just wanting to have another epic dance party.

Which is slightly ironic, as I have myself some awesome dance parties just about every day, and they refuse to participate. 

To see some of these awesome dance moves, you can go to the photographers little video here.

Where did I go?

Over the weekend, I hosted a bridal shower for one of my sisters. Last week was filled with prep work and family arrivals, and the weekend has been crazy busy. This is honestly the first time I have made it to a computer since Wednesday, and I am slightly overwhelmed with the amount of emails unread and shows in my Hulu queue. The last of the crew departs tonight, and so I will try to have some exciting photos for ya'll tomorrow!

Have a great Tuesday!

Garden 2013 // Part 2

Saturday, I shared with all you on the interweb, whats going on in my backyard.

Today, I am taking you through the gate, to the front yard. The place where my little tomato babies are growing up.

Technically I should have posted these in the opposite order; but I like to be a little backwards. It keeps life interesting, ya know?
The reason as to why my veggies planter is in the front and not the back, is simple. The front yard has a plethora of sunshine, while the backyard is mostly shade. Every surrounding neighbor has a giant tree in their yard, making a cool oasis in the back where things don't grow all that well. There are a few spots, which I filled up with an eggplant, peppers and cucumbers.

^^^Here's the gate we go through. You didn't know I was being literal about it, did you.

^^^My tomatoes are living in this planter box, which is built out of concrete pavers. I have four varieties of tomato plants, yellow squash, zucchini, basil, and some marigolds.

^^^ This was what the contents of my box looked like a couple weeks ago.

^^^ And here it is today. Beautiful, if I do say so myself.

Lets take a closer look....

^^^ They are growing!! It makes me so happy to discover a new little baby fruit everyday . :)

^^^ The four heirloom tomato plants I have are: Stupice, Big Beef, Yellow pear, and Chocolate Stripe.

I would have gotten one of every kind if I had the room, but I do not. Next year ;)

^^^ Marigolds are planted around the edge of the box, to add color and to prevent bugs and such.

^^^ You all know how much I love me some basil. {aka pesto!} I have to varieties, one is a large leaf the other one I cannot remember. I got it at farmers market, and they told me what it was but it was not labeled, so I don't remember. My memory is not so ripe these days.

The large leaf came in a four pack, so they are scattered around the tomatoes. It helps the tomatoes have better flavor, they say.

^^^ Heirloom zuchinni.

^^^ Yellow squash. Why is that one all bumpy and stuff? weird.

^^^Look! I picked one! and I ate it! and it wasn't gross!!

I've been pruning, and watering and giving daily love and attention to all these little buggers. 

Last year, My tomatoes pretty much failed. 

Between the gophers, replanting everything because of the gophers, a too shallow of box, and overwatering; my garden was not a success.

This year, the box is deeper, there are no gophers, and I only water every other day. (or when needed)

I also got better quality plants; heirloom, organic, pesticide free from Growing Grounds Santa Maria, via Rutiz farms. I also covered all of my vegetable plants in agricultural plastic, which I got from my padre, (he's in the biz; perks, I tell you!) to keep everything nice and toasty.

Because they are all heirloom, it also means that next year I can grow new plants from the seeds of the tomatoes. You can't do that with them Home Depot plants!

Maybe I'll even share some seeds with ya'll. I love you that much.

To see whats going on in the back yard, see part 1.