Hellooo!
It's the last day of January! (And if you get this in your inbox, happy 1st day of February!) How did this happen? I just deleted the entire first 2 paragraphs of this post because I wrote it three weeks ago and it's no longer relevant! It was close to my birthday then, New Years Day, that now feels ages ago. Anyway, that's what happens when life interrupts my blogging schedule. Really I have no schedule, but I'm working on it.
If you've been following my blog you know I love Ojai! If you're new here, oh hi, I love Ojai! OMG I am SO corny. Anyway, it's a sleepy, artsy, magical place about 2 hrs from Los Angeles. I also love the
Lavender Inn and have stayed there many times. It's a French B & B and all the rooms are different so it's fun to stay in a different room each time, but I've never stayed in the charming Provence Cottage before which is where we stayed for my birthday weekend. Two east coasters, two west coasters, (who are former east coasters), my sister and girlfriends of 30 years. It was a sunny Friday morning at my house and we were off!
The cottage was oozing with charm and couldn't have been more perfect for a girls weekend! It has a 4 person limit and it's a one bedroom but with plenty of room in the living room for two roll out beds. Since I was the birthday girl I got dibs on the big king princess bed, and I did feel like a princess, in case you're wondering :) Then we wrote names on paper and they picked who got the bed with me and who got the roll outs. It was very Real House Wives of Atlanta, without the hair pulling of course ;) And if you ended up on a pull out you could sleep in front of the fire, not to shabby. It was like a big girl slumber party!
We arrived just in time for lunch at one of my favorites,
Papa Lennon's, and it was warm enough to eat in the garden. Gotta love California winters! Salad and garlic fries. FYI, the best garlic fries on earth ~ life in balance.
After lunch we settled into the cottage, it also has a private garden, an extra treat as the main garden at the Lavender Inn is also very beautiful. We walked around and then enjoyed wine/tea and cheese in front of the fire in the main living room and met some other fun women also staying there. And another birthday girl too. Here's a look at some of my favorite spots in the garden.
Dinner at
Agave Maria's, (I love that name,) great Mexican food and atmosphere. It was chilly but our corner booth, complete with heat lamp, allowed for us to eat outside. I didn't take any pictures, which I regret because it's so pretty, but sometimes it's good to just be in the moment and enjoy. At least that's what they tell me. After dinner we cozied up for lots of gabbing and relaxing. It took me 10 tries to get a good boomerang of our feet to instagram. They put up with me, in spite of falling off the bed.
Breakfast at the Landender Inn is amazing. They have a gorgeous old French kitchen and everything is homemade with local ingrediants.
It was a little rainy but that was fine because today was spaaaaa day! Our bike rides didn't happen due to the rain but we ended up staying at the spa longer than we expected. And oh being at the
spa all day really sucked, said no woman EVER.
Saturday night it was pouring rain but since we were in walking distance to everything we jumped puddles with the big umbrellas provided by the Inn and went to dinner at another beautiful restaurant called
Osteria Monte Grappa on the main strip, East Ojai Ave. I've previously only had lunch here outside in their beautiful garden but dinner was a whole other great vibe and we loved it! Creme Brulee with a candle anyone?
After a long and lovely dinner it was more puddle jumping back to the Inn and slumber party activities. What happens in Ojai stays in Ojai.
Sunday morning was another great breakfast and then we literally walked down the street to take a class called Soul Sunday at
Yoga Shala. It was amazing. In fact this picture of us below, which I love, (that's me in the gray), was taken by a women across from us in class who came up to us after at the farmers market, also next door to the Inn. She wanted to know how we glammed up so fast. Don't we all look so relaxed?!?
With the rain gone, it was time for lots of walking and shopping. I was gifted a new green baby. His name is Oscar, a Fiddle Leaf Fig. He's supposed to grow into a big tree if I don't kill him first. He's actually doing very well. These are notoriously hard to take care of but I think people over water them. The plant maven at the store said water only every 7-10 days when he's bone dry. If you're a plant and decor lover visit,
Found 230 Studio.
Then we discovered a brand new favorite for lunch,
The Nest. I think it's fairly new and it's amazing. Now this will sound weird because I'm going to talk about brussel sprouts but seriously we all went crazy over these brussel sprouts. They were incredibly delicious. Just look at this food! This place is now on the repeat, repeat, repeat list! Notice how fries always make their way in there among the healthy stuff.
I think we should make this an annual thing! Girls weekend, life long family, and big girl slumber parties. I highly recommend them! Who's in?
More Ojai
here,
here and
here.
