fun is a good thing to have

I'm exhausted. My weekend began Thursday night with the Sferra event hosted by fellow blogger, Ronda Carman of All the Best and Designer, Nathan Turner.

Ronda {All the Best}, Brooke { Velvet and Linen }, Myself

Christian May {Maison21}, Scot Wood {TartanScot},

and Jill { Material Girls }

Actually, I should rephrase. the fun began Thursday morning when fellow blogger/designer, Scot Wood of TartanScot graciously accepted my invitation for coffee.....which , 3 hours later, nearly became lunch.

We hit it off as though we'd known each other for ever. Later, we met back up at The Sferra event which was held at Nathan Turner's beautiful, West Hollywood shop. The weather was beautiful, the venue was resplendent and design bloggers were mingling. I really do love this about blogging, the fact that it brings together such a great community of people.

.........................................................................................

For the past two weeks, our friend P., has been planning a special birthday surprise for another friend, M. It's all been very covert, only riddles and clues and all via text messages. We were told to reserve the weekend for M.'s birthday and all else would be revealed in time. "Bring an overnight bag". Was one text.

Another read, "80s during the day and cool and breezy at night" {I was guessing Palm Springs at this point} "boho chic dinner attire", "bring your dancing shoes" and finally "be ready at 2, limo will be picking up outside of Megan and Nick's house". The great thing was, not even M knew who was going to be included in the trip. She too was just going to show up, overnight bag in hand.

nick giving the birthday girl a hug

everyone was armed with cameras.Unfortunately my battery died right after the Limo drive up. Leaving me with my iphone camera.

The Limo arrived, champagne was popped and we were off to a surprise overnight stay at The Bacara in Santa Barbara.

If you've never been, I highly recommend it. The grounds are spectacular, nestled between the San Ynez mountains and the Pacific. I love how only 2 hours out of Los Angeles, you find the terrain already beginning to look more like Northern California with the shaggy Cypress trees, and rocky coast.

Our digs were only the best {Our hostess is incredibly generous and always throws great parties}

the views were spectacular from that deck

And the meal was lovely out on the terrace with dancing until 2 a.m.

Amazingly, security didn't shut us down. A first for this group and birthday parties.

Oh and I need to give a shou' ou' for the special guest of honor,

'The iPod Boom Box' for whom without, this would not have been the party that it was. Available at Urban Outfitter.