"The Dog Pound" is Dog Heaven in Carmel, CA

The city of Carmel, CA is known for being particularly dog friendly and it's just a 2 hour drive from our place in Larkspur. It's not uncommon to see merchants with bowls of water out for the pooches, and they even have a fountain dedicated for dogs to drink out of. We went this past weekend, and it was hard to walk a block without someone stopping to pet Holly or ask how old she was. Shop owners were quick with a treat or an invitation to come into their shop with dogs in tow.

One restaurant, "Forge in the Forest" even has a dedicated patio just for patrons with dogs. It's called the "Dog Pound," and they serve every dog a free bowl of water and bones. They also have a specialty menu where you can order a treat just for your pet. Holly LOVED her chicken entree. Although it was chicken breast, she didn't seem to have any complaints about it being dry.

Lovely Pieces Design

My sister-in-law is a really talented graphic designer who lives in Brooklyn. She recently started designing her own line of hand made letterpress note cards, tote bags and other good featuring the designs she's made.

I was blown away by the sophistication of her designs. I received this tote bag as a birthday gift and can't wait until Christmas. Ashley - keep on designing girl! I need some new t-shirts, wall art, and sofa pillows!

If you're interested in checking her out, she's got her own blog at lovelypiecesdesign.blogspot.com and she's just getting her own store up and running on etsy.

Alcoa Wrap

Ever heard of this one?


What about now? See the lower left of the photo. Somewhere along the line, Alcoa Wrap had a re-brand.

Marshmallow Madness

I had the Dumbo cake for my birthday one year, and I LOVED the marshmallow elephants on the cake. I've never been a fan of marshmallows by themselves, but with Eagle Brand populating the recipe file, I never had to worry. If your pastel colored sweetened condensed milk dessert wasn't sweet enough, just add marshmallows. Like a Jell-O mold with canned fruit added to it, marshmallows don't do much for added flavor - but they do give recipes some err......added texture.

Hunky Football Players Sell Iced Tea

When I think of football player endorsements, I think of shoes. Or sports drinks. Iced tea? Not so much. I had to look up who Don Meredith was, but apparently the folks at Lipton thought he'd be great at convincing the ladies that Iced Tea was not just a drink for summertime.

I love how the ad takes the hard sell. As if the idea of drinking Iced Tea year round was blasphemy. I also love how they've got him enjoying his iced tea in two different settings. One outdoors, and one indoors in a room with wood paneling and a ping pong table. Steamy!

Pudding in a Cloud

Seeing this reminded me of one of my favorite dessert treats when I was a kid. Pudding in a cloud. Simply put: chocolate pudding on top of a pile of Cool Whip. I love how the ad shows instructions on how to make it, as if it was really hard. I also love how they refer to it as a heavenly new idea. Seems like pudding and whipped cream were around before that, but maybe the real breakthrough was in the ratio of cream to pudding. Mmmmm.

Cooky Sheets

I started this post by trying to think of snarky ways to poke fun at the mis-spelling of "cookie sheet" but then did a search online and discovered that the joke is on me. Apparently "cooky" is another word for "cookie" and in 1963, Betty Crocker published a "Cooky Book." Who knew?