Poodle Day

Every year in Carmel, CA they host a Poodle Day.  Owners of poodles headed for Carmel on Oct 2 this year.  They gathered for a small parade of poodles and proud owners and then head down to the beach for some less structured parading of poodles and proud owners.  Most of the poodles this year were of the standard variety in colors of white, black, brown and some with mixed markings. Of course, there were one or two pink and green dyed poodles, as well.

Our favorites were the Poodle Flag and the standard with the mohawk 'do.

The Good Internet

The Internet often takes a bad rap in the press.  Stories of scamming, identity theft and various other crimes can make some people look at the Internet as a dangerous place.  What we have not often seen publicized is the vast amount of good, kindness and generosity that occurs over the Internet.

Many times we have posted questions to a computer/software problem, sought a product/restaurant review or simply were looking for general information.  Unfailingly, there will be someone with a solution, opinion or answer.  More often than not no compensation is sought.

To these experiences we'd like to note one simple, but generous act.  In attempting to promote our website, www.bayrooster.com we have contacted many similar websites in an attempt to trade links. We recently received a response from www.myowlbarn.com.  We had come across this site when we were looking for owls around the Molly and McGee phenomenon (See our earlier post on Molly and McGee).

Anyway, we received a simple and kind offer from Shivani at www.myowlbarn.com.  We want to acknowledge this nice act of offering to help some anonymous person out there in the ether of the Internet.

Well, that someone was us. So, thank you www.myowlbarn.com.  We'll definitely pass on the kind gesture.

Our State Fair...

It's been a busy time for fun!  There's nothing better than to start off the fall by going to a State Fair!
They are full of tradition and fried anything on a stick.  Here are some pics from the Minnesota State Fair.

Welcome to the Fair (Hey, it's the Gopher State)!!

Carving the likeness of a State Fair Princess in butter (Believe me--sitting in that cooler they need that Kleenex).

Award winning baked goods.

A traditional favorite!!

Ginny in Peru

Check out our friend, Ginny's, trip to Peru.

Dinner in Victoria

Last night for dinner my sister set this beautiful, simple table.

One guess why we like this wine.

Farmer's Market

Here are just a few pics of the bounty of food and color that we saw at our local farmer's market.  Just great!!

Molly & McGee New Owlet

Right on schedule the last owlet hatched on Saturday.  Check out the live streaming here. Sooooo cute!

Molly & McGee

If you haven't seen the adventures of Molly & McGee as they hatch and raise their owlets you must check out the live streaming here.  There is one remaining egg that is expected to hatch on Saturday.

Country Decor Bird Houses

Stellar weather yesterday.  So, after spending a long day Saturday underground in the Moscone Center at the SF International Gift Show, we just had to get out into the abundant sunshine of the East Bay.

The day began by going out to brunch in Berkeley with a dear friend (You know that you are eating in Berkeley when the menu indicates which dishes are vegan and which are gluten free and most of the offerings are one or both).

After nibbling on some fantastic, if different, food we wandered over to a coffee shop hard by the U of C campus.  With fall classes still a few weeks away there were plenty of outside seating to be had.  Listening to live, soft jazz, we whiled the afternoon away.

Next, rejuvenated by the caffeine, we hit some home decor stores  in the area.  The big surprise was this pickup parked on the street.  The bed was decorated with about 50 bird houses.  There was an amazing array of houses.  Turns out that an area artist designs and builds bird houses.  The houses are made from recycled materials and are built in such a way that birds will actually use them.  He's apparently achieved some fame for his bird houses although we'd never heard of him.   Here's a link to the website:  http://www.berkeleyrusticbirdhouses.com/index.html.

Barnyard chic is for the birds.

Summer Season Barnyard Chic

Summer is an easy time to create a barnyard chic mood with simple things around the house...we pulled together an old July calendar with some fun napkin rings and a primitive slice of wood painted like a watermelon to instantly create a mouth watering collection.

If you don't have these same antique French flower pots, stack whatever pots you do have and group them with any thing with a red accent (strawberry plate, the comb on our friend from bayrooster.com) Finally the clay pig from my kitchen counter was moved to this pine hutch to socialize with our new goose, a great find from earlier this summer (see our entry for July 6, 2010). Remember to click on the photos for a larger view.

Early Girl

Our first tomato! She's an early girl and we hope there are many more to follow.

A simple recipe is to slice tomatoes with red sweet onion, fresh basil leaves, fresh mozzarela cheese balsamic vinegar and a splash of olive oil. Great on a hot summer evening.

Across the Pond

Ok. This is mere coincidence but we have to write more about the UK. We have just received the kindest, most generous gift. Our first international customer sent us two fabulous magazines (Period Living and Ideal Home) published in England. She also enclosed the sweetest note.

And if we may be allowed a little bayRooster.com crow out, this is a sample of what she had to say:

"I wanted to express my deepest thanks for the excellent service you gave me following my request for a rooster. I was your first international customer, but whilst faced with undertaking something you had not done before, you took charge and excelled my expectations. The rooster for my sister was gorgeous and now holds pride of place in her kitchen. He is a beautiful item and we are so pleased."

Now, we're a little embarrassed. But all we can do is say, Thank you, Heather.

And it doesn't stop there. The package has the most fantastic stamp:


The pic doesn't do the golden tones of this stamp justice. It is beautiful.

Now, you have to love a country that can give you Paul McCartney, beautiful stamps and kind people. Britannia Rules!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

We at bayRooster.com saw Paul McCartney in concert last night.
Fabulous! Fabulous! Fabulous!
We've never seen McCartney or the Beatles in concert so this was
a great treat. McCartney put on a fantastic 3-hour show. He never took a
break and his energy was strong all night. It was almost an honor
to hear the man who penned and sang some of the most indelible
songs of our time. If you get the chance, go and catch this true super star.

Introduction

At bayRooster.com we have decided to try our hand at blogging about our passion: Barnyard Chic home decor. We’re new to this but we’ll try tell you about our decorating tips, décor finds, travels and general ramblings. We won’t be posting our every move but only topics that we believe others may be interested in. Hope you enjoy it.

By the way--if you click a couple of times on the pictures below you can zoom in on them.

Over the July 4^th weekend we saw some interesting items. Tops among them was this fabulous goose. She's a real hand sewn beauty. She's been around the pond a few times and has a few minor discolorations (we're guessing age spots). But it was love at first sight. What can we say, she had us at 'Honk'!

We also came across these tin and iron sculptures. They're are a bit on the wild side but we loved their rough hewn look and vibrant colors. They would certainly look great in the yard in groups of three and will hold up well to the weather. There were pigs and goats and, of course, roosters, among the group.