~ behind the blogger

Happy Halloween!

I'm so excited to be featured on this fine holiday on one of my favorite blogs...

The Enchanted Home.

Tina is one amazing woman. She has a super-popular blog with tons of devoted followers and she happens to be building and designing a beautiful (and ginormous) house! I am doubting that this is new information for anyone reading this post...

Tina has been an inspiration to me on many levels. We have giggled through emails about our similarities and I give her a hard time because she is so over the top in everything she does! I can't even begin to keep up! When I finally find the time to catch up with a few of my favorite blogs, I swear she is the first commenter on every single one! Including mine! I adore her sense of humor and have enjoyed immensely watching her progress through the building of her spectacular home. Aren't we lucky that she is unselfishly sharing the process with us?! Lord knows we enjoy every detail in those posts! Keep 'em coming Tina!

I have one last post to share this week from our Napa trip. The "Happy Halloween" image above is from a lovely dinner at L'Auberge du Soleil... oh so wonderful. More Napa Valley gorgeousness coming your way!

Now head on over to The Enchanted Home for my "Behind the Blogger" Interview!

~ napa valley vintage home

This is the third post from our recent trip to Napa!  Upon arrival, I could hardly wait to get to Vintage Home, one of my favorite places to shop! The store is so inspiring with every display beautifully done and Ira Yeager paintings everywhere! 

(Along with a million other things I want in my house!)

Check it out...

The Ira Yeager paintings are magnificent and I just stood and stared and oooohed and aaaahed... Now, I will tell you that I have been known to ooooh and aaaah while shopping. I get a little excited about seeing lots of charming things all put together in a beautiful space. However, these were genuine ooooh's and aaaah's... I'm telling you I could have stayed there all day! 
(The paintings were hard to get good shots of since they are hung so high... my flash created a glare in several of the images, but I can't stand not to share them despite the poor photo quality!)

If you've been following this blog for a while, you will know which painting is my favorite. It will be an easy guess...

The Cow!! I really, really love this cow. And, can you see what's around his neck? I didn't even figure this out until I was home and drooling over my photos... Those little white blossoms? The orange citrus fruit? They are TANGERINES! FRENCH TANGERINES! Don't you think it was meant to be? I know! Me too! 

Surely you can see why I'm obsessed with Vintage Home and everything in it... Visit Vintage Home online HERE. It's the next best thing to actually visiting the store in St. Helena... I have images from the Vintage Home website in my current banner. I am seriously gaga over this charming store! 

~ swanson vineyards

Most likely, few of you have read my very first post on The French Tangerine. I thought about starting a blog for a while, but put it off thinking it sounded too embarrassing... So what got me to finally sit down and write that first post? Well, Swanson Vineyards. I'm not talking about the wine... (No I did not get hammered and then muster up the nerve to start a blog...) In the middle of winter, in Nebraska, it can get pretty gloomy and as I was organizing photos on my computer, I came across our Napa photos from a trip taken several years before. Inspired, on that gloomy day, I was compelled to write that first post and share... You can read that first post HERE.


When we returned to Napa last week, Swanson Vineyards was at the top of the list. It's almost like taking a quick trip to the south of France... See for yourself...

Boy did I get my fill of Ira Yeager paintings... I've mentioned in past posts my obsession and total love for Ira Yeager paintings... Whimsical paintings with charming animals, peasant vintners, and french writing...  Swanson Vineyards houses quite a collection, and the paintings have come to define the look of the Salon, for me anyway.

The Sipping Room is next door and also has a nice collection of Ira Yeager paintings... I especially love this one painted on a gorgeous trumeau mirror... Isn't it awesome? Seriously! 

I think Ira must have painted these watering cans... they match the edging of his paintings!

The courtyard just outside the Salon and the Sipping Room is enchanting... Like straight out of a fairytale.

Could have been in the European countryside by the looks of these images, right? So absolutely charming and wonderful... Can you see why I'm obsessed?
The smell of those ripe grapes in the air is enough to make me feel a little tipsy. Believe me, I was drunk on beauty!
(FYI: I was not literally drunk. Alcohol was consumed as part of the tasting, and thoroughly enjoyed as a matter of fact, but drunk in the previous sentence is used playfully to describe my sense of being lost in the beauty, being happy about the beauty...)