heartbreak coffee

The women of Heartbreak Coffee are some of the nicest you'll meet, and they are passionate about what they do. Gretchen and Michelle are opening up a brick and mortar shop in downtown Long Beach, reviving an old storefront and helping to revive Long Beach Boulevard. Saturday Geoff, Chloe and I got a taste of what their shop will be like when we visited their PopUp shop. The coffee was yum, as were the pastries, and we ran into two friends, it felt just like a neighborhood coffee spot should feel. 

They have two days left on their Kickstarter Campaign. Check them out, maybe you can lend a few dollars, or if not, share their page. They've come so far, but still have a ways to go! Did you know that if your goal isn't met on Kickstarter you don't get any of the funds? True. They knew the amount was high, but alas that how much it costs to move their roaster and get all the proper licensing and start a business. If they don't reach their goal then they need to get investors, etc. The storefront will still happen, just on slightly different terms.  

I can tell you it will be a lovely shop. Their aesthetic is gorgeous, Chloe said, "I want to come here every day!" And she's got pretty good taste, that one.  

Wishing you best of luck Heartbreak Coffee!

camp debbie day one

 

Chloe and I are serious horse lovers, and so is Geoff's sister, Debbie. Now, a lot of people like horses, but not everyone is a full-on LOVER.  There is one sure-fire way to know if you are a true horse lover, kind of a litmus test, if you will. When you drive by a stable do you inhale deeply? If you do, and you love that smell I'm pretty sure you are a LOVER.  So, we three girls bonded over the love back on this trip and since then she and her husband have moved from Santa Barbara to Weldon.  At every family gathering Chloe and Aunt Debbie would chat it up about her horses, and more recently Debbie has been inviting Chloe to come stay for a few days. We started referring to this idea as Camp Debbie and since it is a three hour drive, I couldn't just drop her off, I would really have to stay at Camp Debbie.  You know, to conserve gas and all.  (I totally wanted to go to Camp Debbie! It sounded way too fun.)

Chloe of course chose the first week of summer to go, because she's seven and why would you wait for the best week ever? My being 39 (for two more months!) and practical I thought why not do it towards the end of summer so that you have something to look forward to? But I couldn't really justify putting it off. There would be June gloom here on the coast anyway, let's go! Debbie and Jim were agreeable to this time table, and so the first week of summer was spent at Camp Debbie and man was it a good time.

It's going to take me a couple posts to get through the week because not only was it fun with horses, it was also a photographic dream. So there are lots of pictures.

We arrived around 4pm after a quick stop in Mojave. There were so many places I wanted to stop and take photos on the way, but Chloe wanted to get there so badly, she only humored me in windy Mojave. Actually it was windy everywhere that day. We arrived, unloaded the car, met all the animals, gathered eggs, had a quick ride, fed the horses, and headed into town to pick up Chinese food. Whew!

winding up for the end of the school year

It always feels like it should wind down but it couldn't be further from the truth. The last two weeks of school are the toughest (on me at least.) The amount of things to contribute to, finish, pay for, and remember is unrelenting. I just remembered this minute I have yet to put all of Chloe's patches on her Girl Scout vest for her bridging ceremony tonight. Seems silly since the ceremony is to bridge into Brownies where she'll get a whole new vest that I will need to fashion a whole new lot of patches onto. But this one must be complete. And um, many of the ones I'm putting on have already fallen off from my first round of apparently insufficient hot gluing.
Also on the to-do list:

• Make Blurb book for teacher with portraits I took of all the children and include a quote from each child.
• Make that Blurb book again so that other parents can order. (no, you shouldn't have to do that, but my username had to be changed and so on and so-forth.)
• Go to birthday part in BFE.  Can't grab a gift since there are no stores in BFE, so add that to Monday's to-do list. 
• Finish report on woman inventor. 
• Buy a $5gift for pen pal gift exchange. 
• Sign permission slip for walking field trip to pen pal's school.
• Wrap and remember take gift. 
• Pack sack lunch for walking field trip. 
• Attach patches to girl scout vest. 
• Make gifts for Girl Scout leaders (this is going to have to wait till later in the week when all other gifts will be made.) 
• Check to see what dues I still owe for previous girl scout meetings. 
• Wrap teacher's gift.
• Bake and decorate several dozen summer-themed sugar cookies for gifts to teachers, girl scout leaders, the mom who made scrapbooks for the whole class, the parking guy, principal, secretary, friends, and anyone else who has helped us out this school year. We appreciate people. With cookies. 
• Get oil change. 
• Have tires rotated. 
• Shop for husband's birthday which happens to also be the last day of school. 
• Shop for husband for Father's Day which is three days after his birthday. 
• Shop for Dad for Father's Day. 
• Design and make t-shirts for Camp Debbie.

Also? Really wish I'd remembered about the patches sooner, because we are missing two petals on her vest and look how cute this is.  I could have made her vest really cool had I shopped earlier. The local scout shop which is right down the street? It's closed the second and fourth Monday of every month. Dang it!!