Grab your beach read: Visit your community bookstore, grab that must-read title for the summer, and head out to the beach. Carve some serious leisure into your busy schedule because page-turners. And beautiful shorelines. Reader's Bookstore in Sonoma has both new and used titles to coax you outside and under your umbrella.
Reader's Bookstore, 130 East Napa St., Sonoma, 707-939-1779, readersbooks.com
Harness that harvest: Celebrate your fruit stand haul by preserving it. Fill this mason jar with sumptuous homemade sauce from, say, fresh Sonoma tomatoes. Inside the jar is an apron with a botanical print and pun-y line (lettuce eat) to get you feeling herbivoracious. The berry basket comes with a pun-y, farm-y hand towel.
$24 (berry basket), $34 (mason jar), Wildeflower Sonoma, 107 W. Napa St., Sonoma, 707-395-4622
Mill your meals: Get some help in the kitchen as you turn your too-much-to-eat backyard bounty into scrumptious foods. A basic food mill is a useful tool for making sauces.
$27.96 and up, Hardisty's Homewares, 1513 Farmers Ln, Santa Rosa, 707-867-0827, hardistys.com
Entertain outside: Invite friends or family for a meal. Kick things off with an OUTSTANDING appetizer, like this bacon pepper jelly, which will make people talk with their mouths full to tell you how good it is. Throw it on a soft cheese and fasten your taste buds' seat belts.
$8.95, Jacuzzi Winery, 24724 Arnold Dr., Sonoma, 707-931-7575, jacuzziwines.com
Make some ice cream: Turn your home-cooking prowess into a chilly celebration of oppressive heat with an ice cream maker. From vanilla, to peanut butter, to fresh fruit sorbets, you're limited only by your imagination and what's not in the fridge.
$59.96 and up, Hardisty's Homewares, 1513 Farmers Ln, Santa Rosa, 707-867-0827, hardistys.com
Plot your picnic spot: Create a cozy spot for a picnic with this Kantha blanket, a Fair Trade product made in India in the traditional practice of quilting recycled materials. In this case, these quilts were repurposed from Saris.
$115, One World Fair Trade,104 Matheson St, Healdsburg, 707- 473-0880, oneworldfairtrade.net
Drink in a sunset: Don't just catch the sky's evening beauty as you go about your evening chores. Be deliberate about seeing the whole show. Head to one of these spots, and get cozy in a camping loveseat.
$82.96 (reduced from $99.95), Sports Basement, 1970 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa, 628-207-8136, shop.sportsbasement.com
Color the night: These colorful, nylon lanterns say celebration. Keep the brightness alight after the sun goes down.
$24, Urban Garden, Montgomery Village Shopping Center, 2313 Magowan Dr.,
Santa Rosa, 707-543-7037, myurbangarden.com
Does the back-to-school frenzy give you the summer’s-over blues? We’re here to remind you there’s still at least a month of warm days left in Sonoma, all perfect for fun and memory-making. Here are a few ideas to keep you enjoying those summer days to the very last – click through the above gallery for details.
