That is the slogan for the fabulous combination of Caffe Vita and Theo Chocolates. Usually I don’t like math but in this case I am definitely making an exception!

They say that behind every cloud is a silver lining and in our case it was a chocolate lining! This past Saturday we headed over to Fremont to Jet City Devices to get my sadly cracked iPhone screen repaired. The guy who worked there Tom was so cool and told us to go grab a cup of coffee and be back in 15 minutes while he made the repair.

Fremont is a little local yocal town full of small cool bars and shops but the first thing I noticed was a very vintagy sign by a parking lot for the Fremont Almost Free Cinema - how cool is that?! Kind of like Cinespia in Los Angeles minus about 100,000 people! That night they were showing Metropolis which we would have loved to have seen had we not already had plans…

Then a sign on a brick building across the street caught my eye – it said “Theo Chocolate”. We had to explore! Seconds later we were surrounded by gorgeous piles of chopped chocolate samples – chocolate with chili’s, chocolate with lavender, chocolate with coconut and curry. Wow, the selection went on and on!

And perhaps to cleanse the palate, samples of delicious Vita coffee – nice and hot! What a dreamy and unexpected combination we had wandered into! Theo does offer a tour which we will definitely take the next time we are not so spontaneous!

Of course this kitty cat wrapper caught my eye although there was certainly plenty plenty of delicious looking chocolates to look at and smell!

The best part about Theo chocolates and Caffe Vita is that their entire business is based on Fair Trade. Part of their philosophy which I wish more companies would incorporate:

“At Theo, we believe there is no luxury in products that benefit us today, while jeopardizing future generations ability to meet their needs”.

Cozyland approves this message! We also approve chocolate and coffee at Theo and Vita – a total win/win!

Helen was in town from San Francisco this past weekend to attend a Microsoft conference. In an unbelievable coincidence she was staying at a friend’s house just up the street from us! Amongst the many things we did this weekend, just hanging out on the front porch in the sunshine was relaxing and fun. Of course as tech-y journalists, relaxing usually means having some device in your hands be it an iphone or a ipad.

I think I just had an icat. I’m still a little behind…….

I love this picture of Helen and Marc in the doorway. I think they look amazing!

Apparently not a whole lot unless the BBQ you were attending happened to be in Kimberly’s backyard right next to her vegetable garden! And there was a bit of confusion on my behalf on what is a mole and what is a gopher. Now I know…

A lovely spontaneous invitation for grilled scallops, potato salad and heirloom tomatoes – who could resist these summertime treats! Kimberly had been craving them since she finished the Master Cleanse and Marc and I had been thinking about them ever since we saw them wrapped in bacon at the Ballard Seafood Fest! (some things are hard to forget about!).

Gavin had recently given Kimberly an awesome grill pan – I think originally meant for hamburger sliders as it had 9 small compartments and this turned out to be perfect for the jumbo scallops Kimberly bought!

The grill is fired up and suddenly the ground starts moving. Not earthquake style mind you (and thank God!) but like something is pushing through the earth! What the hell??? What horror movie am I in? But Kimberly’s yard was full of evidence. She had moles and one of them was intent on joining us for dinner!

But have no fear, we managed to scared the little guy off, or maybe it caught one glimpse of Gavin’s guitar pic manicure and thought “to hell with this, these guys are freaks, I’m outta here!”

So the neighbor and his dog stopped by and fixed Kimberly’s backdoor light while we drank wine and ate scallops as the sun went down. I like how people (and even critters) just stop by. Making it another lovely Seattle evening. Thanks Kimberly!

I take a lot of pictures with my iPhone. For that matter I also make a lot of phone calls, text, etc. etc. So, you can only imagine my “horror” when I dropped my phone, smack down on the sidewalk on Saturday night and this was the result. What a dreadful sight, right?

Oddly enough the phone still worked perfectly. I just risked glass splinters every time I had to drag my finger across the screen to open it. If you think I was unhappy just imagine how MacIntosh super nerd Marc felt.

First thing in the morning we had to be solution oriented so first we emailed fellow super nerd Ryan and he emailed a link from Amazon for a temporary cover just for cracked screens. Cost – $12. Ok, cool – I can deal with that. Second suggestion was to just get over it and buy a Droid. Perhaps not in the budget right now. Hmmm… Marc’s research was coming up with lots of expensive options and then miraculously he found a place in nearby Fremont called Jet City Devices where a cool guy named Tom said if we were there within the half hour they would fix it for $75 and within 15 minutes. WOW! And that he did. Good as new as if the whole ugly drunken (oh, forgot to mention that part…) thing never happened.

And in that 15 minutes we walked around Fremont and made some amazing discoveries which I will post about next and are probably much much more interesting than iPhone screen stories! So I’m up and running again – big thanks to Marc for always figuring it out!!! and Tom for fixing it so fast and cheap!

Admist many conversations the night of the firepit and S’Mores, wine aside, I actually remembered one very important piece of neighborly information that Sherrie told me which was that the neighbors right across the alley have a fantastic plum tree! So when I took out the recycling the other day there it was – tucked in the corner and just bursting with plums. Not being able to resist I grabbed one off the branch and popped it immediately into my mouth. Wow! exactly what a plum should taste like – sweet, delicious and perfectly ripe. Not like those little grenades you might find in the grocery store!

So what to make? Lets start with a recipe for Plum Tart from Gourmet Magazine and a compote or chutney that I think would be delicious with a roasted pork when the weather gets a little colder.

About fifteen years ago my friends and I loved to do the whole Flea Market/ thrift shop thing and boy did we find treasures! I’ll never forget the $5 chandelier I found at Salvation Army that I stupidly got rid of when I sold my condo and then re-bought the same thing years later for $75. Oh well, live and learn. Seems since then that the Thrift Stores in Los Angeles went down hill, many of them replaced by Out of the Closet, a great charity but mostly full of bad stuff from the 70′s and early 80′s.

Now having a bigger house in Seattle to furnish and wanting and liking to add some more rustic pieces we set out to discover the Seattle world of Flea, Thrift and Antique. With Gavin as our tour guide, how could we go wrong? Hmmmmm…..

Our fearless leader took us to a great mix of places, high and low including this fantastic antique mall called Pacific Galleries where with the right wallet you could just go berserk!

Someone does a great job at merchandising!

My find a couple days later at a Yard Sale in Ballard and since this table had been” sitting out in the garden for a while” it was selling for the hefty price of $5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Miss Cozy snapped that table up so fast it made people’s heads spin!

And then they hit St. Vincent de Paul with the monthly 50% sale…….(since when do Thrift shops have 50% sales????)
Who cares cuz they do and we made out like bandits!

This vase almost has a Mercury glass type finish…

Pasta bowls from Italy and beautiful little dessert plates too

tall, skinny olive oil bottle

one of my favorites, an old wooden tackle box

sand hued pillows, a mix of old and new

and lots lots more – a couple little wooden tables, lamps, books and a few chairs all equal pure charm and that means Cozy!

I love impromptu get togethers but it seemed in Los Angeles that it never happened. People just lived too far away from each other or just didn’t like “dropping in” one their neighbors. I can understand this a little bit but it sure is nice to have your doorbell ring, as it did this past Friday night, and have your neighbors Sherrie and Scott invite you into the backyard for a little firepit surprise.

The surprise was a bag of marshmallows, a box of graham crackers and a couple of Hershey bars. You all know where this is leading!
S’Mores!!!!!!!!

I learned I’m a lot out of practice from toasting the perfect marshmallow (but they were still good and the fire department was not called!)

I learned that Zinfandal goes quite well with this fireside treat! Our bottle of Gnarly Head Zinfandal was a gift from my LA buddy Marissa and just so you know, it was really delicious and we did drink it with Mr. Gnarly Head himself! (G, I mean that in a good way of course!)

And if you are so inclined (mabye a little more crazy than cozy?) a funny tale and recipe for homemade marshmallows from SmittenKitchen.com

Whichever way you do it, campfires and S’Mores on a summer night are a cozy trip down memory lane!