Weekend vibes + dirty diapers

Comin’ atcha for a weekend recap, on a Tuesday.

So, this morning I ended up putting on a pair of jeans, socks, a long sleeved top, and then my new Superdry hoody overtop. My husband looks over at me and says “all those layers?!“. Clearly I’ve become accustomed to the weather here in California and I hate that! I cant get over the fact that I am putting on two layers of long sleeves at 18°C (64°F – I had to google that one, because I’m forever thinking in Celcius and probably always will). So yes, I am wearing a lot of layers and can you believe I have downfilled slippers on and my fingers are cold?

Here’s the sight of me right now, as  you read this, what I am wearing right now. Ridiculous! This weather is like St. John’s summertime. Am I right?slippers-and-hoody

Getting back to the weekend recap, I wanted to tell you another funny story about babysitting. You guys probably already know that my neighbour and I, with our two small dogs, and her little-big baby, walk around our housing complex almost every night, and sometimes multiple times per day when she was on maternity leave. I filmed a YouTube video telling you about that time I was changing his diaper when he was just weeks old. The little feller was – not even kidding you – laughing at ME, changing HIS diaper. Because I could tell he had no idea what I was doing.

Well folks, I looked after (the now 7 month old) baby once again. This time, it was for a couple of hours and the little guy was at my house. Baby and I chilled out for the entire day as my neighbours … guess what?…. MOVED OUT of their apartment. Shame on them for not being my neighbour any more, haha. I gotta give them credit, they picked a house 3 miles from ours, so at least we can still visit one another without technically driving to a completely different city. I’m still sad about it though.

baby legThe little guy is more interactive and fun to be around now, because he can sit up, clap, laugh… and boy oh boy even though he can’t crawl yet he can still move around the room! Guess that’s why you can never leave babies unattended. I’m happy my neighbour although my husband and I not being parents yet, still trust us to leave their baby with us. A humble brag, but I think it’s because I have a lot of patience, plus I’ve been around the lil’ fart since my neighbour announced her pregnancy to me.

When she dropped off her baby, she told me he already had a dirty diaper cleaned once already. Awesome — no dirty diapers while he’s over at my house.

BARMP.

WRONG.

During that same hour she dropped him off, he had a stinky surprise. In my head I ask myself: How long do I let him toot for? How do I know he’s “done”? Oh, trust me you guys— you will know. And forewarning, open the windows before changing the diaper. And because he is a boy, you need to be careful while changing him: pee can launch far. I had to text my neighbour after everything was done, apologizing for the amount of wet wipes I used.

I think the baby does this on purpose, because he knows I don’t know what I’m at. He knows he’ll get a kick out of me. He laughed the entire time too, silly fella. Preparing me for motherhood, I swear. Luckily the hours flew by, as I fed him three times, with a nap (for him) in between the gigs and the reels.

By the time my neighbours had finished moving their everything’s into their new spot, it was only mid-afternoon and like I stated the time flew, but it crawled at the same time. I was ready to crack out the wine and cheese as soon as he left haha! wine-glass-cheersI’ve been waiting to use my fancy new cheeseboard (it’s the Lyna Marble and Wood Cheese Dome from O.co), and Sunday night was it. It was a wine and cheese for two — so the multiple wine bottles in the background were just for props to make the cheeseboard look nice. Hey, bloggers gotta blog.

cheeseboard

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I had saved two macaron’s from an event I went to earlier last week and the cheese was from The Cheese Shop in Carmel-by-the-Sea, when we went the weekend prior, on a spontaneous trip to Monterey + Carmel + Big Sur. Blog post for that coming soon too by the way.

Cheeseboard-from-OverstockIsn’t it the fanciest cheeseboard you laid your eyes on lately? I kinda want to put apples or lemons in it for the time being when I’m not using it for its purpose. I keep it out on the kitchen island at all times. I also think it’d be fantastic for doing flat-lays for beauty product shots with some sprigs of pine surrounding it. Right?!

What did you guys get up to this past weekend?

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Visiting Hofsas House in Carmel-by-the-Sea

Hofsas-House-HeaderFor my husbands birthday I surprised him with a two day honeymoon to the 3rd romantic city in the world Carmel-by-the-sea, California. You see we got married in less than a week, and immediately packed up our belongings to move to the United States. We never did have a chance to have our honeymoon, so I took it upon myself to book a small one for us. The only thing I told him leading up to his birthday was to clear his weekend schedule, something I knew would prove to be difficult.

Imagine an unplugged weekend where you reconnect with your loved ones. A beautiful place where the entire town shuts down at sunset and is completely quiet. Street signs, and store fronts made from wood, no street addresses to get to a place, just the customized names on houses or businesses. This is Carmel, a welcoming and friendly atmosphere from everyone who was visiting and living there. The incredible pacific coast line was simply breathtaking. Today, I’m taking you through our trip and stay at the Hofsas House.

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Romance-pkg-on-bed

Wine-and-Cheese

Laying-on-rose-petalsWe called Hofsas Hotel in Carmel-by-the-Sea our home for the past two days. The location of Carmel-by-the-sea is about a square mile on Carmel Bay. Hofsas House is walk-able to Carmel itself, where it has many boutique stores to meander through, a diverse selection in restaurants and wineries, everything in walking distance.

Once we collected our room keys and walked in through the pink dutch doors, we were taken back by the hospitality. Our room was completely decorated into this romantic honeymoon suite with rose petals, fireless candles and Hershey kisses (an added upgrade guests can request for a fee) with a massive king sized bed with treats and a dog bed off to the side for Alfie. On our bedside table there was a bottle of wine and a cheese platter from The Cheese Shop, which guests can order to their room for $30. Talk about a warm welcome, hey?

Hofsas-House2The three of us (Alfie came too!) took off for this two day weekend to explore this town for the first time. We have heard a lot about this place and its beauty. We were welcomed with open arms, even after arriving an hour later than anticipated due to traffic, from the charm of the Hofsas House, which is in its 3rd generation of the family run business. We had about an hour to get ready for supper at The Grill when we arrived. Perfect time to re-curl my hair, swap out my cozy clothes and change into a silkier blouse and skinny jeans for our date night.

Fireplace-Alfie-and-ICarmel is much cooler at night, so we took advantage of our in-room fireplace and had a cozy fire each night. There’s nothing quite like sitting in in front of a warm evening fire.

Enjoying-our-fireplace

Hofsas-House-breakfastThere were trays available if we wanted to enjoy our continental breakfast in the comforts of our room.

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Selfies-at-Hofsas

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Alfie-chewing-on-boneCarmel is known for being incredibly dog-friendly with tons of restaurants catering to your pooches. At Hofsas House, not all rooms are dog-friendly but the ones that are take special care and go the extra mile to make your family pets feel much more at home. Alfie is crated and we bring his with us when he travels, but to our surprise he hopped on the plush dog bed in front of the fireplace to chew on one of his bones that we picked up in Carmel at Diggity Dog.

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Carrie-of-Hofsas-HouseCarrie Theis started working at Hofsas House with her Grandmother Donna Hofsas, the founder of Hofsas House over sixty years ago. Carrie has since taken the position full time and moved to Carmel to run Hofsas House. You can tell she takes great pride in not only the business aspect of Hofsas House, but she truly lights up, talking about Carmel. She gave us many suggestions as to what to do while we were in Carmel along with supplying us with wine walk tour tickets, and reservations to The Grill, a fantastic restaurant where we had a delicious 3 course meal, which I’ll talk about in an upcoming blog post. Our impression of Carrie is that she doesn’t care just about the business she runs with the family, but more about the village itself.

Out of the 38 rooms on the Hofsas House property they are each decorated differently. Looking past the retro feel to the room we had, it has its charm. The room itself was huge and we had a lot of extra space which felt comfortable. I got sparkly eyes looking out the Dutch doors in the morning when I realized the view we had. There’s nothing like waking up in the morning and taking in the Pacific Ocean air. It’s clear I missed the ocean living in central Canada for a number of years after growing up in Newfoundland.

Arriving-at-Hofsas-House

Alfie-and-me-outside-HofsasSaturday night we were completely wiped from our day adventure to Point Lobos where we had a picnic lunch provided by 5th Avenue Deli. We hadn’t planned on staying all afternoon until the sun set, but the place was more breathtaking than we had imagined. More on that spot soon! I loved the hospitality we received from Carrie and everyone at Hofsas House last weekend. Since we are so close to Carmel, we’re excited to return sometime to explore the other areas we didn’t get a chance to. Big Sur is definitely on our to-visit list, along with a trip to the neighbouring city, Monterey.

Hofsas House Hotel

San Carlos St, Carmel, CA 93921, USA
Phone: 831-624-2745

To learn more visit – www.hofsashouse.com

Our stay was hosted by Hofsas House, however the opinions in the blog post are 100% my own.

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