Author: Staci

Staci blogs about travel at TheVoyageer.com.

Brunch at Great Maple

Brunch has become so trendy lately, hasn’t it? Every weekend I see a few instagram or facebook friends tagging each other in brunch pics. For good reason, too–brunch is an amazing way to spend a Saturday or Sunday off (rare as that may be in my case) and have delicious pancakes or other breakfasty foods at an hour that (if we’re being honest) is much closer to actual lunch. Brunch is best spent with your significant other or a group of good friends.

Yeah, maybe you should go with a friend ;) 

Several months ago I heard buzz about a new brunch spot in Hillcrest, called Great Maple. The buzz has been lived up to as GM has been named one of San Diego’s best new restaurants in 2013.

Doug and I finally both had Sunday off at the same time, so off to Great Maple we went!

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I had lollywaffles (waffles on a stick) with four different kinds of sauce: raspberry, lemon curd, whipped cream, and dulce de leche. I also supplemented with a side of scrambled eggs. When my meal first came out I thought it looked really small, but I ended up not even finishing all of the eggs. The waffles were more filling than they look!

Doug had a savory veggie scramble–and loved it. Did I mention we spent the last half of October eating vegetarian? I can’t wait to go back to Great Maple and try some ham-laden eggs Benedict (my default brunch order).

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The restaurant is a rehabbed diner. The building been a mainstay of this Hillcrest neighborhood for years so I’m glad it a) wasn’t torn down for new construction and b) has been doing so well.  The interior was swanky (the bar area featured lots of brass) but I liked that they kept things like water glasses and coffee mugs simple and classic.

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My absolute favorite thing about the building is the exterior. There is something I just L-O-V-E about 1960s and 1970s style stone on the out side of a building. Or on the inside for that matter (give me a Brady Bunch fireplace any day of the week).

Happy weekend, all! Find yourself a good place to brunch.

If you’re in town, some of my other go-to brunch spots are the Crest Cafe (also in Hillcrest) and The Mission (several locations around San Diego). 

Instagram Fridge

This was such a simple project, and I’m in love.

A few weeks ago I realized that I hadn’t ordered any prints of my instagram photos in over a year, so I took advantage of a fall sale and ordered 60+ prints through the Postal Pix app.

The stack sat in my kitchen and I flipped through the pictures many times, but wanted to display them somewhere! I have a little scrapbook I started with instagram pics in it but I didn’t feel like scrapbooking. I did feel like throwing away all the expired coupons, takeout menus, and storing away old thank-you notes from my fridge, though… so I took an idea that has been done in 1,000 blogs before mine, and ran with it.

It started with cleaning off the side of the fridge and then cleaning it thoroughly with windex. Kitchen surfaces can get so grimy, can’t they?

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Then, I spread my prints out on the kitchen counter and started taping up photos in a grid. There’s about a centimeter (give or take) between each photo. I made sure to mix light, dark, and vibrant photos evenly so the eye isn’t drawn to any one area too strongly. One tip for a cohesive looking collage is to use one or two filters all the time, instead of always going with a different one, so the color wash is similar on them all.

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This was such quick and relaxing project. I love looking at photos and reminiscing. I completed the whole thing before my mug full of tea even had time to get too cold. Now I spend a ridiculous amount of time in my kitchen gazing at my loved ones and remembering great times.

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It also serves as an antidote to all the stark white, too!

Plants on the Patio

I never knew it until living in our rental house in Kansas, but it’s actually really easy to grow plants, if you do so outdoors. Turns out, nature knows what to do to make the magic happen.

Take this jade plant, for example…

jade

About six months ago, it was literally a stem broken off of our neighbor’s larger jade plant. We stuck it in some water and waited… and waited… until it sprouted a root. Then we put it in this pot I stole from my mom’s backyard, with some soil we stole from a planter bed in the complex common area. The rest is history. It’s literally four times larger than it started.

Then there is the succulent garden I planted right before our mac’s hard drive crashed in… February, I believe? Here’s how it started out:

succulent garden

And now, this:

succulents_growing

The baby-plant vibrant green is gone (sad face) but the plant is going bananas. I took one of the succulents out since it was getting so crowded. The hen and chick plant now lives in its own vessel, a pretty pitcher I picked up at West Elm on clearance for about $5.

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I’m going to see if it survives OK on the coffee table, but the apartment is a bit dark so if it starts looking sickly, the move will be made back to the patio.

I also bought a couple more plants at Lowe’s a few months when my mom came down for the day. My favorite plant at our Kansas house was a Wandering Jew, but I left it behind since I was skeptical it would make the move OK. Now, I have Jew, Part Two! I love that it came in a hanging basket.

wanderingjew

Finally, the most beautiful plant in the world, a Croton. The name itself generates visions of prehistoric rainforests and I love picturing this very plant growing tall and shielding a nest of baby dinosaurs, or something. Crazy imagination? Maybe, but check it out:

croton

My patio is shaping up to be a very fun and plant-ful space indeed. Now if only I’d come across the perfect outdoor chairs to replace our beach chairs (which threaten to fold up when one sits in them)…