Lost Oak Winery

We celebrated Christmas today, Christmas in June anyway. For Christmas Mr. Lucas and I purchased a Groupon from my dad to go to the Lost Oak Winery for a tour of their facility and wine tasting. They did not expect to have such a huge turn out with their Groupon so they have been pretty booked. We just happened to have our your today and it was lots of fun. If you live in the Fort Worth area or ever come here to visit you must go! The winery itself is so pretty and the store front is very festive. You can rent space for a party or even a wedding. They were setting up for a wedding today. They have been awarded best pick for weddings by The Knot! Check out their calendar, they have lots of events! Yeah, there is a craft fair next weekend.

Joy lead us on our tour of the winery. She knows so much and has such a friendly personality. She told us that we could volunteer at the winery and would be able to help harvest the grapes and bottle the wine among much more! Jeff and I were pretty excited about that because we want to learn more. We would love to have a bed and breakfast winery some day. So, we figure what a great way to start learning how it all works.

She told us all about what grapes grow best in Texas but also said that Texas is still trying to figure it out. We have such crazy weather here and that can really make it difficult for the growers. You can even tell what grapes have been damaged by hail because the hail bruise them leaving black streaks on the grapes. All the grapes I saw were perfect. 

They have to also worry with wild pigs, deer, raccoon, and other pesky critters that want to harvest the grapes for themselves. They have to use electric fencing in order to keep them out. 

We ended our tour in the crushing room. Its where they crush the grapes up to be placed in the barrels where they will sit for several months before bottling. It was nice and cool in there on this hot June day. There, we were able to get a taste of the Blanc duBois. She asked us to to smell the wine and swish it around in our mouth to try to determine what fruit was in the grapes. Mr. Lucas immediately said green apples and he was correct! He should have won a bottle of wine. Meanwhile, my dad was cracking jokes and having a good time. It was pretty cute. 

After the tour we went back to the store front and listened to live music while we sipped on tastings of wine paired with cured meat, cheese, fruit, and nuts. We all got a list of the different wines they make there an picked our top 5 to taste.

After we finished the wine tasting we couldn't stop there and bought a bottle of Tres Uvas. This wine has made me appreciate white wine so much more. This was so much fun which was really needed for everyone.

In fact, we enjoyed ourselves so much we all became members of their wine club! Every other month for wine club members you go pick up 2 bottles of wine at discounted prices. On the pick-up day they have a party! Yep, that is my kind of wine club. We also get invites to special events, are the first to taste new wines, and receive free wine tasting and can bring up to 3 friends with us among so much more. This is going to be fun I think.

Cheers!  

Happy Things

Handmade things are happy things. I love handmade gifts that have thought and meaning behind them. Today, a good friend, "J", stopped by to bring us a gift.  He is extremely talented and made us 2 gorgeous shelves out of wooden wine boxes. Our other good friend "H" is a Sommelier and apparently has access to many wooden wine boxes. So, very talented "J" turns trash into treasure.  He even hung them for me!

Fancy wine box #1; a nice spice rack for the kitchen:

 I love the detail that he added inside the shelf.

 He also added this cute little shelf that I put my vintage pigs on.

 Fancy wine box #2; a nice shelf for my newly remodeled bedroom:

A side view with the original wine box rope handle. 

There is actually a hidden shelf with a sliding door! This is the part that the wine bottle was package in. 

I took down what I had there before and put in another place in the room because I though this fancy wine box shelf fit there perfectly!

So, today is a happy day, thank you J! I told him he needs to sell them on Etsy!

Cheers! 

Tuesday In Tularosa

This morning, I got up, made myself a little “great start” breakfast, and sat out on the deck. I think sitting on the deck has been my favorite part so far on this vacation. The weather is beautiful and you can’t beat this view!!

Jeff and I found a gas station and “cocktail lounge” called Club Gas, never heard of such a thing. But, you can also get vodka shots at the gas station and this is still all too new to me. In Texas, can’t buy liquor on Sunday or after 9pm on every other day.

They also have really neat flowers here called Red Hot Pokers. I want to go to the local nursery to pick up some to plant at home.

Later this afternoon we drove to Tularosa and went to the Tularosa Vineyards for a little wine tasting. Jeff and I picked up a bottle of Sangiovese.

They have a winery mascot. He was the biggest yet sweetest dog I have ever met. Apparently he is 6 years old and has grown up on the winery.

On Monday we also went to the Relleno Bros Winery for a tasting and Jeff and I picked up Dolcetto del Cielo. So, I guess you could say we are having really good luck with finding wineries. The unfortunate truth is that there are absolutely no knitting or fiber stores in this area of New Mexico! I am very disappointed. So, I took my disappointment and spun with it…..with a little roving I brought up here. Good darn thing I did!

Okay, back to the Tularosa trip…I am getting a little out of order here. After the wine tasting we went to the Three Rivers Petroglyph site. My dad kept calling them, Pyroglyphs, ha!

It was about a one mile hike up a rocky cliff and the view was amazing on the way up.

We saw some really interesting petroglyphs.

After our afternoon hike, we stopped in at the Three Rivers Trading Post. Jeff and I talked with a nice Native American who told us about his Grandpa Four Bears and the traditions of his tribe, which goes back to the leather birds.


After our little mini day trip, we all headed back to the house and I cooked red trout, asparagus, and roasted sweet potatoes. We also had a little of that wine we got from the winery!

Cheers!

TGIF and whatnot....

I purchased the coolest necklace from Bionicunicorn a few days ago and it arrived in the mail today, happy Friday to me! It was a nice surprise to come home to, especially after another exhausting week at work (and not to mention that I have been on call which means no warm fuzzy wine buzz for 7 days and tomorrow it is going to get cold!!!).














I love the little owl. There is something magical about him and I find the bright green eyes captivating, like they can put people in a trance. Hmmm, it would be great if this was a magic little owl and I could get people to do whatever I asked. How wonderful it would be to have Jeff in a trance everyday doing household chores and cooking dinner. I could just kick my feet up, have that glass of wine I have been wanting for the past week, and watch the Food Network. But, anyhoo...back to this fabulous necklace. I think I need to go shopping to buy an outfit to match it :-). It really is a lovely and well made piece. I think I may see more jewelery from the Bionicunicorn arriving in my mailbox in my future, the little owl just told me so.

On another note, sister and niece are in town visiting. My brother-in-law even stayed the week but he had to leave today to head back down to TRF for the weekend, duty calls! His family has a fantastic sword business, the best in the world!

Tomorrow my sister, Violet, and I are going Estate sale shopping with my parents....yup, my dad is even going, which I find quite surprising. I am sure it is because he wants to hang out with "his girls". I am on a vintage hunt and hope to find a few goodies! There is also a Goodwill down the street from my house I have never been to so, I think I may pop in there as well.

Happy Friday and Cheers to all!