Sharon B~one of a kind

Missoni-Adventure

2011-10-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

It was one month ago today that I woke up extra early on a Tuesday morning to get myself to a Target before 8:00 am to grab the few coveted items from the Missoni for Target collection. I was really not prepared for what I saw and what I endured! My adventure was well planned out days before, All I really wanted was the glass serving bowl and maybe a sweater, but it was the bowl I really wanted. I decided to go to the Target closest to work, since there are 3 all within 10 minutes of each other, I could hit all 3 before work, which is exactly what I did, I just didn't bargain on showing up to work early and empty handed.

I got to the first Target at 8:07 am and there was not one piece of Missoni left anywhere in the store other than in someone's shopping cart! I left immediately and drove down the street to the next Target, arriving at 8:20 am to the same fiasco! I pulled into the parking lot of the 3rd Target at 8:35 am and didn't even get out of the car, people were walking out with no bags and I over heard a group of them telling the group walking in that it was all gone...
I had been texting my fabulous friend Eddie during all of this, he was at his 2nd Target in Orange County. I called Eddie on my way to work to let him know I was giving up, but Eddie had found my bowl, he was holding it as we spoke! I could quit now, Eddie had my bowl for me and that was the one piece I really, really wanted, mission accomplished! Of course that was not the end of it for me... as soon s I got to work at 9:15 am, I tried getting on Target's website to see what was left there! I got on about an hour later and by 11:30 am I had purchased a cardigan sweater and a skirt, it was to arrive the next week. The End, right? Of course not! I hit 4 more Target's on my way home to see if I could find anything left! I hit many more Target's the rest of the week, until I saw a sign saying Missoni for Target will not be re-stocked. Now that I had put the quest behind me, I received 2 emails from Target letting me know my shipment will arrive later than they originally told me. I sadly resolved myself to the fact that my sweater and skirt may never arrive, but my faith in Target was validated when my shipment arrived on the original arrival date they gave me back on September 13!

I am very pleased with my purchases, the bowl is even more beautiful than I imagined and surprisingly, I really like the cardigan sweater. The colorful throw is the only item that got away, but it was online only and now selling on eBay for nearly $200! Jason Wu for Target is next spring, but I don't think that collection will ever reach the frenzy of Missoni for Target!

An Epic Visionary

2011-10-05T19:15:00.001-07:00

The world lost a very remarkable human being today, a man who's legacy is truly amazing! This post would not even be possible without the existence of Steve Jobs. I am composing this on my iPhone, sitting in a bar feeling quite sad, yet very inspired by what Steve accomplished in 56 short years. I will always Think Different.

Aunt Bebe Day 2011

2011-09-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

Last year my nieces and nephew surprised me by having Aunt Bebe Day, a holiday on the 2nd Sunday in August to celebrate me, the best Aunt EVER... seriously! (at least that is what they wrote on my card).
This year we had a whole day of feasting on my favorite foods (taquitos with runny avocado sauce and cupcakes), we painted wine glasses (each of them painting one for me) and they made a CD of all the music that reminds them of me! As I was listening to the music and having fun with my nieces and nephew, now in their 20's (except Ruby who will be 9), I realized the impact I have had on their lives. How many other Aunt's have a special day to celebrate them and all they do for their nieces & nephew? They have turned around and showed me the love I have showered on them from the day they were born, that is VERY special, that is what the BEST AUNT EVER does, seriously!

Jackson Five ~ ABC

Jet ~ Are You Gonna Be My Girl?

B-52's ~ Rock Lobster

Harry Connick, Jr. ~ The Bare Necessities

Katy Perry ~ California Girls

Jamiroqui ~ Canned Heat

The Waitresses ~ Christmas Wrapping

Tom Jones ~ Delilah

Madonna ~ Into the Groove

Muppets ~ Christmas is Coming

Jackson Five ~ I Want You Back

Elvis Presley ~ A Little Less Conversation

B-52's ~ Love Shack

Justin Timberlake ~ Rock Your Body

Madonna ~ Santa Baby

Justin Timberlake ~ Senorita

Tom Jones ~ She's A Lady

Technotronics ~ Pump Up The Jam

Katy Perry ~ Teenage Dream

The Go-Go's ~ Vacation

Fifth Dimension ~ Wedding Bell Blues

A Visit to My Past

2011-07-31T10:14:00.000-07:00

My one of my first jobs was working at one of our local fabric stores, Fantasy Fabrics at the Whittier Quad. When I say one of our local fabric stores, it is because I eventually starting working at the other local fabric store, Maxime's Fabrics in Uptown Whittier. I love fabric stores! One of my favorites was Fabric King that I would always visit with my Grandma. This was a different kind of fabric store, where all the fabric was flat folded on tables, no bolts to knock over and try to get back where it belongs. And the fabric was cheap! You could make a cute dress for $2.00!

I learned to sew on a sewing machine at a very young age, as soon as I could run the machine I was off! My Mom taught me how to work the machine and read a pattern, but like most things, I taught myself the rest! I picked patterns that challenged me to learn more, but mostly I picked the things I wanted to make, and that was my inspiration to learn how! When I got to Junior High I was way beyond the wrap around skirt everyone made in Home Ec class. I was given permission to make a jacket with a hood matching plaid. By the time I was in High School I made most of clothes. My junior year I had to fill in a time with a class and the only one that looked fun to me was Advanced Sewing, but I had not taken Beginning Sewing. I had to ask the teacher if it was okay to join her class, she had to test me to see my skills, I told her I had made the pants I was wearing, which were baggie jeans. I was let in the class.

I have continued to sew, though I admit not as much as I'd like to in recent years... I sew mostly crafts nowadays. But back in the day I visited at least 2 fabric stores a weekend, sometimes 4, if I was on a mission! I made most of my clothes, even while working at Nordstrom. My niece Sydney was the best dressed child around! I made most of her clothes and the rest I bought at Nordstrom. I made all of my Mom's dresses, I made clothes for my friends, I made our Bridesmaid dresses for Jennifer's wedding and I was the Maid of Honor!

Sadly there are not many Independent fabric stores around anymore, but yesterday I visited one of my favorites that is still going strong, M&L Fabrics. I had not been there for a couple of years, but it was pretty much still the same... lots and lots of fabric everywhere! At first I was overwhelmed and had noticed all the prices had gone up, this was a place I could find great deals at $1.98 a yard! It is still a deal at $2.49 a yard and I did walk out of there yesterday spending $25.00 for 3 dresses and a new cover for my ironing board, but more important is how spending that hour in the fabric store jump started my creative juices and inspired me. I am completely at home at a fabric store, a real fabric store, not a Joann's Super Store, it is my "candy store" it is my past, and I am happy when I visit.

Amigurumi

2011-07-28T07:59:00.001-07:00

Amigurumi, a set on Flickr.

Just a few of the little friends I have made...

Muggle Born

2011-07-18T07:17:00.000-07:00

I have been spending my summers with Harry Potter for 12 years now. It was the summer of 1999 when I first heard about this Boy Wizard, Harry Potter. I picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at the end of summer and could not put it down, I never wanted to leave this world of wizards and magic. I have read all 7 books at least 3 times each, I read each book before he movie was released and read Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix one more time because they were my favorite books of all 7. I will admit, I enjoy the books much more than the films, but the imagery in the films do capture the world in my imagination!

As I was driving home on Thursday, I could not stop thinking about the midnight showing of the last Harry Potter movie being shown at midnight everywhere... I made a last minute decision to go see the movie at midnight! Why wouldn't I? I was at Borders when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book was released, why would I NOT see the movie at midnight? I am SO happy I was there at midnight for both, they are experiences that you can only have once. I actually saw the movie again a few days later and the theatre had no buzz of anticipation from everyone, and no one clapped and booed at the appropriate parts. The fans who have embraced Harry Potter by dressing in their robes, carrying their wands...that is what made my midnight experiences so special! I am finally, after making so many for others, making myself a Gryffindor scarf.

It is pretty amazing how these books and films have become such a huge part of our culture. I introduced my nieces and nephew to Harry Potter right after I read Book 1. They were 13, 12, 11, 9 and 7 when I gave them Book 1 to read. We had a Harry Potter themed Craft Day in 2000, making magical snow globes, drinking Butter Beer wearing lighting bolt scars on their foreheads. A couple of years later I was thrown a Harry Potter Birthday Party where all the guests wore glasses like Harry and I even got a wand! (Thank you Simone & Nicole!)

I am sad that there will be no new Harry Potter adventures, but like Harry is told at the end, everyone is always with him in his heart. For me they will always live in my heart and imagination to be shared and revisited forever.

Grace

2011-05-29T11:45:00.001-07:00

I was my Grandma's only Granddaughter. I spent LOTS of time with my Grandma growing up. I was devastated when she was taken from me very suddenly. It took a very long time for my heart to heal. My Grandma visited me in a dream and told me Love was all I needed, so I filled my house with Love! Grace is everywhere in my house. I find pennies in my bags without ever putting them there, that is Grace. I use her Waterford high ball glass as a candle holder, so the light can dance all over the room. I cook with her Pyrex colored bowls. She was an artist and her paintings hang on my walls. One morning during breakfast Vince made a comment about the paintings, it was a mean-spirited teasing, and I warned him about making Grace mad! When Vince came home from work he said all day long he could feel something tickling him and he could not get rid of it. He finally found one of my hairs on his shirt as the culprit. I told him that was Grace.
There have been many other incidents... the other day when Vince was frustrated because the lights over the oven were not working properly, he spent a very long time trying to get them to work. They were finally working and I made a comment about the lights and he snapped at me. As soon as it came out of his mouth, the light went out. We both looked at each other and said Grace!
This morning while playing Words with Friends, Vince was bragging how he was going to break 300 points and I was going to loose. He had 289 points to my 282. It was my turn and I played QIS for 48 points, the score was now 330 to 289. I laughed and said, "Thank you Grace!"

Ringabling

2011-05-12T07:06:00.000-07:00

I love to wear rings! I always have. My hands look so naked with out at least one ring on them. I'm not sure where the fascination began with wearing rings, and I do mean multiple rings at one time, maybe it's because it's the one piece of jewelry you can actually view all day and admire? You don't see your earrings or necklace, or even a bracelet if you are wearing long sleeves...but you can see your rings no matter what you are doing. I sometimes get distracted while driving when the sun catches a particularly large rhinestone ring I wear, throwing dazzling sparkles all over the inside of my car! For me the bigger the ring, the better! I like when a ring is HUGE, not gaudy, but interesting. I know that comes from playing with my Mom's cocktail rings from the 70's. The rings were big to start with, then I put them on my little fingers and they were HUGE! I have almost as many rings as I have shoes (almost). During most of the 90's I wore a ring on nearly every finger, every day! Most of my rings have a special meaning behind them, I still have the turquoise ring given to me by my 6th grade boyfriend bought on a field trip to Olvera Street. I have my high school class ring. The Claddagh ring given to me by a friend who went to Ireland. The clown ring that has hinged arms and legs so he can dance on my finger. The platinum triple pearl & diamond ring that my Grandma's sister gave her on her 30th wedding anniversary that was then given to me on my 30th birthday. The Tiffany ring given to me by my parents on my 40th birthday. The Tiffany ring VJ gave me for Christmas. Sadly I have lost a few rings over the years, I still think about one of my favorite rings I lost when I was about 8, it was a Little Kiddles ring, a big pink sparkly flower that opened up so you could remove the teeny tiny doll that was inside the ring. I have found some on eBay and have bid on them, but I really wish I still had mine!

The Smell of Easter

2011-04-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays, while it doesn't create the anticipation that Christmas does or your birthday, it was a holiday I very much looked forward to, with many reasons why...
I always got a new outfit to wear, head to toe! It usually included some white lace tights and some fancy white shoes, the year I got white cork bottom clogs was the BEST! Besides the new outfit and shoes, there was the baskets. I could always count on a few things every year being in my basket, a box of bite-size Butterfingers, a tiny chenille chick and a new box of 64 crayons! It was the box of crayons I was always most excited about (okay and the shoes...) To this day when I open a box of crayons I think of Easter!

Life is a Playlist

2011-04-19T08:13:00.000-07:00

I picked up Love is a Mix Tape many months ago to read, based purely on its title. The title spoke volumes to me, I didn't need to know the book was about. I finally read it and the book was louder than I ever imagined! Rob Sheffield and I live parallel lives when it comes to the role music plays in our lives. Without giving much about the book away, each chapter is a mix tape playlist and what events inspired this tape. I have been making mix tapes since I got my first tape deck in 8th grade. I had mix tapes for everything... I made my own "greatest hits" of favorite artists, favorite radio hits, I even made a mix tape of music about Los Angeles by Los Angeles bands as a term paper companion on regionalism!

My mix tapes don't stop when the cassette player died. No, I moved on to mix CD's. The first mix CD I created the first week I had my brand spanking new HP computer was of all the 45 singles we had growing up. I made the CD for my Dad as a birthday present. The CD ended up being the soundtrack in a photography studio when my brothers and I had portraits shot for our parents for Christmas.

My mix CD's became legend. I had friends requesting copies of my mix CD's of 80's music, dance music and one of my favorites, I called Stupid Night. Stupid Night was the music played at Live Bait on KNAC night in Long Beach. Nicole and I went every Tuesday night, but we didn't want to tell people where we were actually going, so we just called it Stupid Night... I think my all-time crowd favorite mix CD is my 2004 Christmas CD that I sent out as my Christmas card. Every holiday season people who were lucky enough to receive it tell me it is their favorite Christmas CD or that it isn't Christmas till they play my CD! That is what it is all about!

But now it is all about the Playlist on my iPod! Oh I still burn CD's for people, but now they are a copy of one of the many playlists on my iPod. There are playlists of 80's music, 90's music, Disco Boogie, Let's Dance, Groovy Bossanova, Summertime, This is Halloween, Vive le France, Swingtime and of course Stupid Night. I have a playlist for every mood, every occasion. I made a playlist of all the music used for all 6 seasons of Sex and the City. I made a playlist of the music used on Freaks and Geeks. I made a playlist to play at my Dad's birthday party. Come to think of it... I think my Dad is to blame here for my music mixing obsession! When I was a little girl, my Dad would have record albums spread all over the living room floor making a mix reel-to-reel tape!

So my life really has been a playlist from the beginning!

Personal Style Icons

2011-03-20T19:53:00.000-07:00

I spent a very stormy day watching movies and it wasn't until my last pick I realized the main women in all three movies are my personal style icons... Carrie Bradshaw, Eleanor and Amelie.

As I settled into the big chair & ottoman I call my "Island" to wait out the storm on the first day of spring with my knitting projects & current book club choice close by, I went to guide on the TV to see if there were any old movies to watch. I found the first Sex & the City movie, which was perfect since the day before I had stumbled across the last episode of Sex & the City and of course watched it! I next watched Slaves of New York, I bought the DVD a few months ago after watching Breakfast at Tiffany's, when I had realized some of my most favorite movies happen in New York City. Since the rain was not letting up and the living room was getting darker, I ended up watching my all-time favorite movie of all time, Amelie. Watching these 3 films back to back, it hit me that the heroines of all 3 films are not only all looking for love, but doing it in their own personal style, including Holly Golightly!

Reunited with an old friend...

2011-02-23T18:29:00.000-08:00

Getting dressed this morning I could not find the perfect shoes to wear among the many, many pairs on my closet floor. That is when I found them. Sitting between a pair of JC boots and my black Frye Harness boots, my 8-eye Doc Marten’s. I took them out of storage when we moved and forgot I had them in the closet. I didn’t really put them there to be worn, it was more to protect them and keep them safe. When I pulled them out I literally had to dust them off and when I tied them up, we were both very happy to be reunited! It has been at least 15 years since they have been worn and it feels just like back in the day, now we need to find a mosh pit!

Getting Crafty

2011-01-12T07:34:00.000-08:00

It has been 55 days since my last post, but there is a REALLY good reason for it... I've been getting very crafty! I have been giving handmade gifts for Christmas for nearly 25 years and this holiday season almost all gifts were knitted! I started making the gifts back in June and did have to deliver a few gifts after Christmas. My handmade gifts ranged from knitted hats & bracelets to crocheted coasters and flannel pajama bottoms! I was so inspired by making my gifts this year that I think it is about time to re-open/stock my Etsy shop!

Just One Song?

2010-11-18T07:09:00.000-08:00

I was recently asked the question, "What is your favorite song of all time?" I immediately answered Sweet Blindness by the 5th Dimension. The questioner was very surprised by my answer. But I admitted that I can't pick one, I have 3. My all time favorite songs that I can listen to over and over are Sweet Blindness, Lovely Day by Bill Withers and Best of My Love by The Emotions. I know, crazy that there are no Beatles songs or songs from the 80's on my list. But these are songs that I can listen to over and over and make me feel. I may listen to all kinds of music, but there are certain songs that make me feel something when I hear them, those 3 songs make me feel like dancing around the room, which happens makes me feel very happy!

This Is Halloween

2010-10-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have lots of holiday music on my iPod and I have made a playlist of songs remind me of the summertime, but I thought about Halloween and why we don't listen to Halloween music? I listen to the soundtrack to Nightmare Before Christmas all the time from October to December, so I made a Halloween playlist that I have appropriately names, This is Halloween:

This Is Halloween-Marilyn Manson
The Monster Mash-Bobby Pickett
Every Day Is Halloween-Ministry
Thriller-Michael Jackson
Scary Monsters (& Super Creeps)-David Bowie
Bela Lugosi’s Dead-Bauhaus
Little Ghost-The White Strip
Vampire-Antsy Pants
Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)-Concrete Blonde
Moon Over Bourbon Street-Sting
Moondance-Van Morrison
Cemetry Gates-The Smiths
Them Bones-Alice In Chains
I'm Shakin'-The Blasters
Ghost Of Stephen Foster-Squirrel Nut Zippers
Werewolves of London-Warren Zevon
Witchy Woman-The Eagles
Delicious Demon-Sugarcubes
Lil' Devil-The Cult
Runnin' with the Devil-Van Halen
Sympathy For The Devil-The Rolling Stones
Reptiles And Samurai-Oingo Boingo
Bedbugs And Ballyhoo-Echo & The Bunnymen
Bedbugs-Squirrel Nut Zippers
Bugs-Pearl Jam
The Candy Man-Sammy Davis Jr.

13 Going On...

2010-09-27T07:51:00.000-07:00

If I was asked, "What year of school would you go back to?" My answer would be 8th grade. That year, including the summer before and after the 8th grade school year was the absolute best time of my life! I was a cheerleader my 8th grade year and the group of us cheerleaders did everything together, as a group! We had a few additional non-cheerleader girls in our group, and together we had a blast! We did everything together, walked to school, had sleep-overs every weekend, rode our bikes all over town, went to the movies, toilet papered the boys houses... Sadly we separated in high school, split to 3 different high schools. We recently reunited for the first time since that summer before starting high school. Looking around the table at all my lost friends I saw the 13 year old girls that we were, we all still have that same spirit we had at 13. I started thinking about this and I realized, I still feel like the 13 year old girl I was. I still love to play with my friends, ride my bike, make my arts & crafts and dance around the house. I still am that 13 year old little girl, her spirit has never left me!

Spiders From Mars

2010-08-14T07:39:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I like spiders, aren't girls suppose to be afraid of spiders? I have always liked them. There is something about the fact that they look so delicate, like little pieces of dancing lace, but they can be deadly. It may also be the creative spirit in me that views their ability to weave these amazingly beautiful webs as a work of art, even when dead things are caught in them. I get so excited when I discover a big web with the spider sitting proudly in the center. I never kill a spider in the house, if it is a teeny whisper of a spider, I simply blow it in a different direction. If it is a larger, potentially threatening spider (I have been bit by a spider in my sleep), I show it the door and out it goes!

The other morning after my shower I discovered the most unusual spider I have ever seen... a four-legged spider! The spider had legs on only one side of their body, it was a physically challenged spider! It moved as if it had all it's legs intact, at first I worried about it's survival, but then I imagined this spider is a survivor and has probably lived in this house for a hundred years! He lives in the walls, he has fought battles against his prey and the elements, he is the wise old spider that is a cautionary tale to the young! This spider made me think of Aragog from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He very slowly moved his way down my shower curtain and disappeared, back into the walls of the house...hopefully this spider will cross my path again someday.

Aunt Bebe Day

2010-08-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

Sunday August 8 is Aunt Bebe Day! I was very surprised by the announcement and declaration by my nieces & nephew. Aunt Bebe Day is the celebration of an "amazing and best Aunt ever" (I am quoting here). My nieces & nephew threw me an Aunt Bebe Day surprise party today complete with a sign, gifts and cupcakes all for me!

Back in 1996 I started a family tradition of "Craft Day" with the kids. A few days before Christmas I had them all over to my house for the day to make their parents and Grandma & Grandpa a christmas gift. Soon Craft Day became a slumber party at Aunt Sharon's house, I made all the kids pajamas every year and we watched the original Parent Trap and Grease eating popcorn & drinking hot coco. They have made some fun crafts: snow globes, scrapbooks, magnets, decorated frames with self portraits taken by them and one year they made puppets and put on a puppet show on Christmas Eve for the family. Every year I would try to top the craft from the year before. We have missed the last 2 years, mostly due to scheduling issues, the "kids" are now in their late teens and early 20's, with the exception of Ruby who only missed out last year because of my new job & moving to a new house...

The kids decided to get together this summer and have a "Craft Day" to make a craft for Aunt Bebe (me since Ruby gave me the new name when she started to talk). I have some very cool glass mosaic candle holders handmade with love by my amazing and best nieces & nephew EVER!!!

Big Dipper

2010-08-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

I am a big dipper... I very much enjoy any food that is to be dipped into some yummy concoction! I have already mentioned here my love for taquitos, which are best dipped in green runny avocado sauce. But I do seriously have a huge affection for dipping. I even had a birthday party where all the food served was dipped: taquitos of course, ranch with chips, bean dip, chili cheese dip with fritos and for dessert, chocolate fondue! While on the subject of fondue, The Melting Pot, is one of the BEST ideas for a restaurant EVER! Everything has to be dipped there!!! I'm not sure how or when this all started, maybe it was with the taquitos? Maybe it was when I started dipping my French Fries in ranch dressing? Maybe it was all those fondue dinners in the 70's my Dad was so fond of? I really can't pinpoint when or what started it all, perhaps it is just a natural act of nature, to dip.

Lost in Sweden

2010-07-04T12:51:00.001-07:00

I have been lost in a few books the past 4 weeks... I was suppose to be reading Little Women for Book Club (we met on June 29) but I got a little sidetracked with some other good reads. First I had finished reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog, a nice little story from France. Then my niece informed me Candace Bushnell had a new book out, The Carrie Diaries, which I read in a day and a half. But the book I was most excited to read was The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest. I had pre-ordered it on Amazon back in November, it arrived June 1 and I let Vince read it first, since I had read the first two books in the series before he did. It turned out no one actually finished reading Little Women for book club, 3 of us cheated and watched the movie (myself included). However, 4 of the 6 of us did read The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest... Once I opened that book I could NOT put it down! I was transported back to Stieg Larsson's Sweden, full of secrets and espionage, a place I have now visited 3 times. I have not seen the Swedish film versions of the first 2 books, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo comes out on DVD July 6 and The Girl Who Plays With Fire comes opens July 9, so I will be making a couple more visits to Sweden this week!

The View Up Here

2010-06-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

My current favorite shoes are 5 inch wood bottom platforms from Jeffrey Campbell Shoes, that I affectionately call, "My Big Girl Shoes". They are the highest, tallest shoes I have ever worn and I wear them well, I can even run in them! The strange thing about wearing these shoes is the different view I have on everything being 5 inches taller up, the air is different up there. Counter tops are lower in the kitchen, the mirrors are lower in the bathroom and I have to move the seat back when I drive wearing them... But as much as I love my big girl shoes, I don't wish to be 5'7", I like my world down here where I am only 5'2" and have to stand on my tippy toes to see myself in the bathroom mirror. I like being closer to earth rather than up in the clouds...

Drago, Zippy, Rocky & Iggy Pop

2010-06-02T06:56:00.000-07:00

When I lived in the Shore the only animals/critters I came across were the silverfish in my house and the green parrots making noise in the palm trees. Now that I live one more block east of the ocean, I have all kinds of critters in my backyard! We knew when we moved it that the man next door raised Pigeons, white Pigeons that he passes off as white Doves... At first their cooing creeped me out, but now it is almost a white noise soothing sound. There is a little black bird who sits perched outside our living room window who makes a whistle much like a catcall whistle from a construction worker. It still cracks me up every time I hear it, which is often! Our neighbors behind us, who we share the backyard with, have 2 cats, Drago & Lenore. Drago has adopted me. He sleeps on our landing in back, he walks me to my car in the morning and a couple of weeks ago he presented me with a dead bird he killed for me! We have a Squirrel (I call him Zippy) who hops from the pigeon coop to our neighbors roof with ease. One morning I watched his acrobat show and was very entertained, jumping from the roof to the patio, to the hanging plants where he hung upside down back up to the roof and back to the pigeon coop... This morning Zippy & Drago were on the roof playing a little game of chase. At first I though Drago was trying to bring me a new present, but then I realized Zippy WANTED to be chased. Zippy ran into the tree and Drago followed and a few minutes later Zippy reappeared on the roof and Drago was chasing him again. There is also a VERY large Raccoon who visits our backyard from time to time to eat the cat food. We had a rumble in the backyard last week between the Raccoon (I call him Rocky) and Iggy Pop, the black cat who lives next door with Willie Nelson the Terrier (their real names). From the looks of the fur on the grass and the fact that Iggy Pop looked unharmed the next day, I'd say Rocky lost that bout!

A Day in the City by the Bay

2010-05-23T18:58:00.000-07:00

JetBlue had this very incredible deal about a month ago, for one day only you could purchase a one way ticket between Long Beach and San Francisco or Oakland for $9. There were only 6 days you could travel on, we traveled on the very last day. We arrived in San Francisco at 9:20 in the morning, hopped on BART and headed over to Dottie's True Blue Cafe for breakfast. We didn't really have a plan, there were things I wanted to see and places he wanted to stop by, but mostly we just let the day take us along... we explored Union Square in the rain, ducked into Cocoa Bella for chocolates, browsed at Chronicle Books, took a walk through Buena Yerba Gardens, checked out the Embarcadero, had a drink at Tadich Grill (the oldest restaurant in California), did some wishful shopping at Crate & Barrel and the last stop for the day before heading back to SFO for our 8:30 flight was the Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel that is in danger of becoming extinct. This was my first visit to the City in over a year, a place I used spend 3 days a month at. It was also our first full day spent together since New Year's Day, it was pretty special to be together doing nothing in San Francisco for the day!

Heart of Our Home

2010-05-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

We have been in our new home just over 6 months now. There are still boxes that need unpacking, pictures to be hung on the wall, a 2nd bedroom that needs lots of attention and a garage that needs even more attention! But in these last 6 months we have mostly been adjusting to our new surroundings, discovering the neighborhood and finding a new routine while at home. With more than double the space now, more space to spread out, it is interesting that the kitchen has become the place where we spend the most time. It is a brand new remodeled kitchen, with new cabinets, stove, sink, granite counter tops... the works! With a perfect dining area attached, where we just happened to put the computer, we find ourselves in this room even more than the living room. I find myself doing a lot more cooking now, I made a pie, I had never even wanted to make a pie before! We eat at home a lot more, eating most of our meals at the dining room table, a luxury we just did not have before. I look forward to Sunday morning breakfast at home now, enjoying our joint effort cooking breakfast and toasting our collaboration over Mimosa's.

You Spin Me Round

2010-04-16T07:16:00.000-07:00

As I have mentioned many times, I cannot breathe without music. It has been this way my whole life. Our house was filled with records and there was always one playing on the record player in the living room. I had my own record player by age 4. It looked like a suitcase, but when you opened that suitcase and plugged it in, watch out! The first records I played on my record player were mostly kid 45's, I'm A Little Teapot, The Hokey Pokey and lots of Disney "read-a-longs". But then I discovered my Dad's 45's! My absolute FAVORITE was The 5th Dimension's Sweet Blindness. Oh I how I danced around to that song, over and over again! I have that song on my iPod and still cannot resist dancing around when I hear it, and yes, it does take me back to when I was 4, playing the record in my room! When I was 5 my Dad started taking me to the Library where I discovered you can check out record albums just like books! I had a rotation of Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper, and Yellow Submarine, all of which were played on my little record player in my room!

About 10 years ago my Dad and I were at the Long Beach Veteran's Stadium Flea Market where we stumbled across a suitcase record player EXACTLY like mine, it was even the same color! It worked perfectly, but needed a new needle, I bought it for $20. I spent the next week looking for a needle, but then gave up the search when it turned out to be not so easy. For my birthday last year, a friend who has jukeboxes told me my gift was that she would find me a needle for my record player. After 4 months of searching, she delivered my needle this week, I installed it and we played records all night long on my Imperial "Party Time" record player! First record played with the new needle, The Bay City Rollers, of course! But my Dad is bringing me all my 45's and the very first 45 played will be Sweet Blindness and I will dance around the room!

Chick Magnet

2010-04-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

When I was a little girl I LOVED baby chicks. My Grandma put a little tiny fuzzy chenille chick in my Easter basket every year that made me happier than the Sees chocolate egg and box of 64 crayons (which I got every year!) I would draw baby chicks all the time and Woodstock was my favorite Peanuts character because he looked like a little baby chick...

I can honestly say that I loved baby chicks to death. When I was about 4 or 5, our next door neighbor psychologist was doing a study on the incubation period of chickens and happened to have a garage full of baby chicks. Once hatched he would bring the ones that survived into the house in a box. His son & I would play with the baby chicks, however... I often would squeeze them because they were so cute! Unfortunately did not understand at the at age that I needed to be gentle with them and I literally "loved them to death". Yes, I would squeeze so hard that I killed them. I did not find this out until a few years later, when taking a train trip down to the San Diego Zoo with my Grandparents. A week before the trip my Dad gave me a little insta-matic camera to take pictures of the animals. I kept talking about going to the Petting Zoo and seeing the baby chicks, but was sternly instructed I could take pictures ONLY, I could NOT touch the baby chicks! I took nearly an entire roll of the baby chicks and I did not touch. Happy Spring! Happy Easter!

Fashion Validation

2010-03-21T07:10:00.000-07:00

It is said that women dress for other women. This is part true, but I think most women dress for themselves. When I am picking out an outfit to wear I take many things into consideration, number one is my mood. Next is my shoes. I decide what shoes I want to wear first and pick out my outfit accordingly. Of course the variables change depending on weather, location and if I have something new to wear... But no matter what the reason is why you pick out what to wear, once someone has said, "I love your outfit" or "that dress is so cute" or "You look very nice today", it validates everything.

My new neighbor who lives behind me gets a front row view of my morning walk down the runway that is our back steps. She is usually sitting on her patio having her morning coffee when I leave every morning. There has been mornings where I had a very hard time picking out something to wear and sometimes leave the house not feeling quite right about my outfit, but as soon as my neighbor says, "I love your dress!" or "Those shoes are SO cute!", I feel good and my confidence returns to full strength. Not that my goal every time I get dressed is to get that kind of response, but it sure is nice to hear, especially from the general public. I have had the nurses in my doctors office get excited over my shoes. A woman at Trader Joe's stare at me in the dairy section making me think I know her but couldn't place her, only to have her tell me she was admiring my dress. But my favorite was a little boy of maybe 5 tell me my dress was very pretty.

Avocado Sauce

2010-03-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

I love taquitos! I have been eating taquitos since I can remember. My Dad used to bring me home a pair of the deep fried rolled tortilla with a slice of beef lunch meat rolled inside (at least that is what it looked like...) from Candlewood Burgers every time he went there. I'm not sure if it was that my Dad would surprise me with them or the yummy green "avocado sauce" in the little plastic cup with the lid, that my Mom let me keep, that I dipped them in that made me love them SO much? As I got older I would pick this meal on my own, but I would eat TWO orders, that's FOUR taquitos and TWO little cups of "avocado sauce"! I ate taquitos everywhere they were available! Little League games served them in the snack shack. Marquees made a package of 6 frozen taquitos that came with the green "avocado sauce" in a plastic packet I had to defrost under hot water while my taquitos cooked. In Jr High I ate them at Gus' Burgers on the way home from school but would order extra "avocado sauce" to also dip my french fries in. When I moved out on my own for the first time I ate them at Volcano Burgers in Los Alamitos.

In the last 15 years or so I have noticed that the "avocado sauce" has changed quite a bit. Candlewood & Gus' Burgers are gone now, so I stop by other burger places like them to order my taquitos but the sauce is never what it used to be like. Even the sauce that used to come with the Marquee's taquitos changed to real "guacamole". I started eating taquitos with just sour cream or salsa, but it is not as good as the yummy green "avocado sauce". The good news is I have found an even BETTER version of that yummy green "avocado sauce" at Trader Joe's, and it even comes in a SUPER SIZE version of the little cup with the lid I liked so much!!! If you are at all interested, go to your local Trader Joe's and pick up a container of their Avocado Salsa Verde.

Is it a Cinderella thing?

2010-02-20T18:30:00.000-08:00

I just finished 2 separate weeks at shoe shows in Las Vegas and all I can say is, I tried a on a LOT of shoes!!! One of my many duties is trying on shoes to show people how they look on the foot. I was in our booth barefoot most of the time, I did have my own shoes to wear, but I was too busy trying on samples to keep them on. Our sample size is my size, since I am also the fit model. I hit me half way through the 2nd day that I am a little like Cinderella, I keep trying on one shoe for people, with them getting excited that it was the perfect shoe, to buy. I don't really mind trying shoes on all day, besides, Cinderella is my favorite Princess, we are very much alike, we multi-task, sew and try on shoes.

*The shoes in the photo are the shoes I wore for the show that spent most of their time under the table...

Coco My Co-Worker

2010-01-24T09:58:00.000-08:00

Whew! Has it really been a month since the whirlwind of the Holidays? 2010 so far has been a busy year! At work we are preparing for Spring 2010 and at home I am trying to get organized and get some new projects going...

I have been at my new job for 4 months now and feel fairly confident in what I am doing now. As with most jobs, there are perks, sure I get to take home samples (which just happen to be SHOES), but my favorite perk is Coco. Coco is a little ragamuffin of a dog. At first glance she looks like one of those cute little lap dogs carried around in designer doggie totes, but Coco is not a girlie girl dog. No Coco likes to chase squirrels and birds in her backyard. She runs around in the rain. She brings you rocks and twigs as tokens of friendship. She jumps in my lap with muddy paws when she wants some attention, sometimes even standing on my desk. Coco is needy, she wants lots of attention. But Coco's heart belongs to Jeffrey Campbell, with Jeffrey traveling all over the globe she seeks attention elsewhere when he is gone and I happen to be the target. When Jeffrey is not around Coco is at my feet, follows me everywhere, is either on my lap, on my chair behind me or in her bed next to my desk. But... when Jeffrey is home, Coco abandons me, she is nowhere to be found, because she is with Jeffrey. Even with her ditching me for the attention of a man, Coco is still my favorite co-worker.

Magical Christmas Memories

2009-12-25T11:14:00.000-08:00

I have always felt that I had a very special childhood, filled with fun and wonder, my Grandparents are very much responsible for that. Christmas time at my Grandpa & Grandma Miller's house was especially magical. Grandpa had made this amazing town for under the tree that a train ran through. There were mountains, tunnels, bridges, roads to drive our Matchbox cars on and even little people. Coming up through the center of this magical town was a spectacular tree covered in silver tinsel "icicles" that I carefully helped Grandma put on. My Grandma and I always watched Hallmark Hall of Fame's Littlest Angel together every Christmas season. I recently searched for a DVD of the Littlest Angel and discovered that it had only aired from 1969-1972, which means I only watched it 4 times. I had the record album, which I played over and over. I found a copy of The Littlest Angel last summer and I sat down and watched it a few nights ago, and the memories of Christmas at my Grandparents flooded back to me. I was surprised at how much of the little details I remembered from the program, but then when you are 5 years old, magical moments like that make a big impression on you! Merry Christmas!

One & Only

2009-12-15T19:25:00.000-08:00

I am the only girl on my Mom's side of the family, five boys and me, my Grandpa's "One & Only". I lost my amazing Grandpa today at age 89. My Grandpa lived in Wisconsin and before that in Guerneville California, so he was not very close by. I visited when I could, especially when he lived in Northern California. My Grandpa built most of the houses he lived in himself and made beautiful furniture, I have many pieces that he built, which remind me of him everyday! My Grandpa always asked me if I had any "projects" for him. The last project I requested was a box to store all my remotes in. We collaborated on many projects, from the time I could hold a hammer. He gave me my own hammer with my name carved in the handle, by him, that I still use! Together we made a jewelry box, a footstool and a frame for the mirror hanging in my bedroom. He even made me hand-carved buttons with an "S" on them! I suppose I got a lot of my creative handiness from my Grandpa. The best thing is, I know my Grandpa loved me very much and I am reminded every single day, because he is all around me.

My Grandpa and his one & only!

Making a Home

2009-12-12T08:24:00.000-08:00

It has been just a little over a month since we moved into our new place and it is finally beginning to feel like home. Of course I wanted it to look and feel like we had lived here for a while, just days after we moved in. Crazy, I know! But now it feels like home. We have hosted a birthday party and cooked our first Thanksgiving dinner for my parents. Now with the holidays and cold weather here our new home is quite cozy!

Welcome Nest

2009-11-11T07:33:00.000-08:00

The day after we moved in our neighbors behind us left a bottle of wine on our back porch with a lovely welcome note. Monday a little welcome nest, for lack of a better description, was left on our front porch. No note was with this very fun "nest", but the goodies and fun it contained were awesome! It resembled a basket-less easter basket, filled with little plastic eggs, skull pencils, toys & fortune cookies. inside the little eggs were sayings:

"Intrigue is in your future...beware!!"

"Your presence livens up any gathering"

"Don't pull any one's finger... a foul wind approaches"

We have been speculating as to who could have left such a delightful welcome gift. I know it was someone thoughtful and creative, and have narrowed down my suspects to three such individuals...

BIG Changes

2009-10-28T06:03:00.000-07:00

It is a huge deal to start a new job, which I did on September 21. Not only did I start a new job, but it is working for a company I have WANTED to work for since they started nearly 10 years ago! I am not going to say much about my job, only that I very much enjoy it, but how could I NOT enjoy working for Jeffrey Campbell Shoes!

Now, as if starting a new job is not enough disruption in my life, I am moving my home of 8 years to a place twice the size! After nearly 2 years of searching for a place with everything on my "Wish List", it finally appeared! On Halloween we will be moving to a beautiful 2 bedroom duplex with built-in cabinets, hardwood floors, a fireplace, washer/dryer hook ups, a backyard and a garage. (Yes, those were the things on my "Wish List"). My warning to you is... be careful what you wish for, it just may come true!

Little Ghost

2009-09-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

I made this little ghost a few nights ago and now the White Stripes song "Little Ghost" has been playing in my head ever since...

Number 9, Number 9, Number 9...

2009-09-08T14:21:00.000-07:00

It is no secret that I love The Beatles. No, I LOVE The Beatles!!! The Beatles make my heart smile. The Beatles are the first music I can remember. I remember belting out "Hey Jude" on the jungle gym with Alison Woss in Kindergarten as loud as we could. I would take out albums from the Library instead of books, rotating Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour, when I was 8 years old. I had "The Complete Beatles Lyrics" paperback from Scholastic Books that I spent hours devouring while listening to my albums from the Library... (I have somehow lost that book, which makes me VERY sad!) I was going to marry Paul someday... I loved when it was "Beatles Week" on the ABC 3:30 movie, HELP! is my favorite of all the Beatles movies (love when Paul shrinks...) My Jr. High Graduation present was tickets to Beatlemania. I was obsessed with the Sgt. Pepper movie with Peter Frampton & The Bee Gees, because of the music. I have seen Paul McCartney in concert once. I have seen The Beatles LOVE show in Vegas twice. The ring tone on my first cell phone was "Fool On The Hill". I even liked Across the Universe, very clever use of The Beatles music. The Beatles are so much a part of my life, that it is very hard to explain my affection properly. So just imagine, (no, that is not a John reference..) how excited I am for today, 9-9-09... The original Beatles catalog has been digitally re-mastered for the first time and is available today, 9-9-09. AND, The Beatles: Rock Band is available today, 9-9-09! There is a limited edition version that comes with a replica of Paul's Horner Bass that I want SO badly! I will probably end up buying that limited edition Rock Band, but what I REALLY want, is my Complete Beatles Lyrics paperback from Scholastic back...

Hawaii to Greece in a Day

2009-09-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I had the unique opportunity to attend two distinct cultural events in Long Beach. My Aunt Fran performed at the E Hula Mau Saturday afternoon and competed on Sunday. It was held at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center and had everything Hawaiian there... food, leis, muumuu's, even real tribal tattoo's! It felt like you could possibly be in Hawaii, the smell of the sea breeze, listening to the ukulele players,watching the lovely hula girls sway their hips...

Then I spent early Saturday evening at the Long Beach Greek Festival at our local Assumption Greek Orthodox Church. I had always heard about it and seen it advertised in our local paper, but had never attended. What a very fun festival! The FOOD! It was a 3 day event and I was very tempted to go back each day just to be able to sample everything!

The one thing that stuck out in my mind about both events was the cultural traditions both events embraced. I love cultural groups that have great traditions. Both the Hawaiian & Greek cultures have traditional music & dance. Both cultures have fabulous regional food. And, both regions are Islands... My Great-Aunt lived in Hawaii on the North Shore for 30 years, so I have an affection for the Hawaiian culture. My kitchen is filled with Hawaiian memorabilia from both my Great-Aunt and from my trips to Hawaii. And... my Aunt Fran is a "Hula Dancer", so the influence of the Hawaiian culture is everywhere in my family!

Aunt Fran & Dad at Seven Seas Restaurant, Hollywood CA

A Hard Stick

2009-09-03T06:54:00.000-07:00

I have had an irritating cough for about 4 years now. It comes and goes... it can be brought on by a laughing fit or gets really bad and turns into bronchitis. I have gone to my Doctor many times over the years to treat the cough and usually leave being told to take cough syrup. I finally decided to ask my Doctor if it could be brought on by an allergic reaction to something, she said yes and had me tested for food allergies. This meant being stuck with a needle and blood drawn. I don't do that well. This time round I was told I am a "hard stick". My veins are very small and hard to find, which means when they do find them, getting the needle in is very hard... a hard stick. They stuck me at least 6 times before giving up and sending me to the lab the next day, leaving my arms very bruised and bloody. I finally did complete the test, getting it done in my hand. Now I wait to see if I am allergic to dairy, the thought of no more cheese is very sad, but if the sacrifice is to not cough anymore, well then... no more cheese it is!

Back to School Fun on Polyvore...

2009-08-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

If you want to have some styling fun, go discover and create on Polyvore!

Back to School by Shoegalwest featuring Anna Sui

Cat Scratch Fever

2009-08-08T08:06:00.000-07:00

We have been house sitting/cat sitting for two weeks, we have one more week to go. The house does not really need our attention, so we are really there for the little kitten that lives inside the house. His proper name is Leon. He is also sometimes called, Mushata or Mushi Mushi. I call him Leon. He has only been living in the house for 6 weeks, he is only 4 months old. I am NOT a cat person. I have never been fond of cats, never had a cat, I am allergic to cats. When Leon first arrived at his new home, I would have nothing to do with him. That all changed the first night we arrived to feed the cat and put him to bed... We couldn't find him anywhere in the house, but could hear him, I panicked a little, but then he came crawling out from under a cabinet. I picked him up, he nuzzled into me, gave me a sandpaper kiss and that was it, I fell in love with a cat. I am by NO means a cat person now, I am a Leon person. Even if he does kiss me then bites the same spot the next second, all my cat scratches will heal in time...

Hot Fun in the Summertime

2009-07-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

July has not only been one very hot month, it has been one very fun month, full of summertime activities, including my vacation... I kicked off my vacation on July 2 seeing Farragut North at the Geffen Playhouse. It was very good, I thought I would be distracted by seeing Mr. Big and Captain Kirk on stage, but I was not. The very next day I rode my bike down to La Palapa, a quaint little restaurant on the beach in Belmont Shore, to meet some childhood friends (one of which I have known since we were 5!) We celebrated the 4th of July kind of quietly with friends. The following week was a very fun-filled one... took my nieces on a road trip down the coast to visit The Wee Loft Toy Shop in Dana Point, where I worked for most of the 80's when they were located in Uptown Whittier. There was a BBQ with family, an afternoon at the beach and we ended the week going to the OC Super Fair on opening day. Before going back to work I attended the Renegade Craft Fair Sunday. It was so inspiring being among so many talent artists and kindred spirits!

You would think that was enough for one vacation, and it was, but I had even more activities to attend after my vacation! The Book End Babes met at my house the following week for a hysterical night of sharing our Harlequin Romance stories with each other (my book pick for the month!) We went to the House of Blues to see the Arc Angels. I made dozens of cupcakes for Cash's 2nd Birthday party. And now I am trying to finish a 3rd reading of the Half Blood Prince so I can go see the movie! I have always re-read the book before seeing all of the Harry Potter movies. I want to see The Half Blood Prince before I leave for Vegas next week to attend the WSA Shoe Show...

The Kids getting a "Foot Massage" at the OC Super Fair Opening Day 2009

Sharon the Dancing Bear

2009-07-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

I am officially obsessed with the Super-Cute Crochet book! I have made many of the projects, even posted a few here (Vince & Buzz the Emu). I decided that Vince the Rhinestone Spider needed a friend so I came up with Sharon the Dancing Bear...

Sharon loves to dance. Her favorite dance partner is Vince the Rhinestone
Spider, but she has to be careful not to trip over all his feet, so she mostly likes
to just dance while he plays the piano and sings. She also likes cupcakes and
makes them to share with all of her friends.

Buzz the Emu

2009-07-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

I've been on vacation for the last week or so, with the 4th of July holiday thrown in there. I will write later all about that adventure, but for now, this is one of the many things I have been up to...

Buzz the Emu

Buzz is a private detective and owns an eighties car, a DeLorean. He is very vain and goes to the barbers twice a week. Sometimes he has problems fitting his head in the car, so he has made a hole in the roof to avoid ruining his hairstyle, but he didn't' realize what the wind would do to his carefully coiffured locks.

The Musical MJ

2009-06-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

I know I just wrote about music, but sorry like I mentioned, I cannot breathe without music. As we all know by now a VERY influential music artist suddenly left the earth the other day. I have been referring to Michael Jackson as MJ for a while now,since mentioning his name in recent years is not associated with his music. But for me, it has always been about the music. I liked the Jackson 5 growing up and liked MJ's solo music. I love to dance and like him or not, you have to admit, MJ knows how to dance and makes music to dance to... Yes, I have been listening to my MJ playlist for days now, dancing around where ever I am, hoping that where ever MJ is now, his heart is full knowing there still are LOTS of people out there that know it was all about the music.

My Guitar Heroes

2009-06-24T22:24:00.000-07:00

I've said it many times, I cannot breathe without music. I wake up with it playing in my head, I can tune in to a song barely audible in a store or restaurant and I never leave home without my beloved iPod. Today on my long ride home from work I decided to listen to the news instead of music for a bit. When I did go back to listening to music, I tuned into the radio instead of my iPod doing some station surfing. A thought crept into my mind, why do I rarely hear my two most favorite artists on the radio and how did I become so enamored of them in the first place with little radio exposure?

I discovered G Love & Special Sauce about 10 years ago, when "Rodeo Clowns" was briefly played on the radio. It was played enough for me to become slightly obsessed with finding all the previously released CD's by the band. I now consider G Love & Special Sauce my favorite band. I see them at least once a year, sometimes 2 or 3 times a year!

I am not quite sure of the time frame of when I discovered John Mayer, I was watching MTV with my Dad one day when the video for "No Such Thing" came on. I was mesmerized by this very tall boy playing the guitar. Heavier Things came out pretty soon after I saw the video, that was when I discovered that the song I saw was on Room For Squares, there was TWO CD's by this amazing boy that plays the guitar! I have since met this boy who plays the guitar, and consider him one of the most talented musicians today.

The very interesting thing about these two guitar heroes of mine, is how very similar they are. They both absolutely LOVE music, the same as I do. They are two of the most amazing guitar players I have ever seen. They both play a National Steel (my absolute favorite guitar!) They both have a great career despite not getting much airplay on the radio (at least in the LA market...) And I follow both of them on Twitter.

Dancerina

2009-06-08T08:06:00.000-07:00

Like most little girls, I wanted to be a Ballerina when I grew up. I loved to dance, I loved the clothes Ballerina's wore, I even had a Ballerina doll, Dancerina. I took Ballet lessons for many years, switching as I got older to other forms of dance, as my Aunt was a Dancer/Instructor at Steven Peck Dance Studios. This past weekend I attended the Long Beach Ballet's production of Beauty and the Beast. As I watched the beautiful performance I had a tinge of regret having not stuck with my Ballet lessons, but at the same time I realized I truly am a Dancerina at heart. I still love to dance and I often lean toward wearing dresses that look an awful lot like a Ballerina's outfit, full skirt, tulle & fitted bodice. My Aunt still dances, though she took some time away to raise a family, she went back to being a dancer and at age 50 she became a real Ballerina, dancing on her toes!

Me & Dancerina, my Brother Stephen & his guns...

Finding Friends

2009-06-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

I have been on some sort of "social networking" website for nearly 10 years. First Friendster was the place to be, then along came Myspace, a place for friends. Soon you starting hearing about this facebook site, it was all too much. For a while you were either on myspace or facebook, they are two different kind of people that populated those sites. At first I most definitely fell into the myspace side of the argument, but then things shifted a bit. I don't know if it was changes being made on both sites, but all of a sudden I found myself abandoning myspace and embracing facebook whole-heartedly! I know the immediate hook was having a guy I grew up with finding me, and then it seemed each day after someone else from the past would find me. I have since found many friends from the past that I had lost touch with and it has been great getting to see them and catch up. I have met up with friends from elementary school, junior high, high school, former neighbors, people I met working at Nordstrom, old dance partners and friends that got-married-moved-away-divorced-moved-back (you know who you are...) I have over 130 friends on facebook, 5 are family members, 28 are classmates, 49 worked with me at Nordstrom. I still get random friend requests from friends that surprise me and every once in a while that one person finds me that I thought was lost forever, you know who you are...

Communicating Among Friends

2009-05-16T07:27:00.000-07:00

I talk to Nancy nearly every day. I email Jen nearly every week. Jen and Nancy are my closest friends. I have been friends with Jen for 20 years, we met while working at Nordstrom in 1989. I also met Nancy at Nordstrom, but a few years later. Jen and I "talked" to each other every day at Nordstrom through emails, all day long... and that is how we still primarily communicate. We occasionally speak on the phone, but it usually a brief conversation, usually when one of us is on the way to the others home. I very much enjoy the fact that we communicate through the written word, it is SO us! Nancy and I talk on the phone all the time. Even when we worked together at Nordstrom, I only knew Nancy from phone conversations, it was many years later I finally worked with her in person. Nancy and I talk on the phone nearly every day. Sometimes we will text each other if we can't talk, but is is a rare occasion that we email each other like Jen and I do. I started thinking about this the other day when I was at the car wash waiting for my car, talking to Nancy on the phone. When we hung up I checked my email and had a couple of emails from Jen that I replied to. That is when I realized the dynamics of how I communicate with my two closest friends.

vince the rhinestone spider

2009-05-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

I bought a new crochet book Saturday called Super-Cute Crochet. I have several Amigurumi crochet books and certainly did not need to add another to my already growing collection, but as I flipped through this book at the store, I shut the book immediately when I came to this project and went straight to purchase the book. I made Vince on Sunday.

vince the rhinestone spider
Vince used to be called Incey Wincey, but now he prefers to be called by his proper name, Vince. His hero is Elvis Presley, although he also likes Neil Diamond. He’s an expert piano player due to his eight hands and loves to belt out some rock n’ roll classics. He tried learning to jive, but kept tripping over his feet.

30 Long Days

2009-05-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

April has only 30 days, but this past April felt like it lasted forever! Granted, I did have one very busy April, there was lots of "red" on my calendar. Each month I print out a calendar with my work travel schedule on it and write in red ink everything else, hence, all the "red" on the calendar. April had red on nearly every day. We started the month with a 3 day visit from Dylan, ending that week with a bicycle event in Downtown Long Beach as well as House of Hayden's 7th Anniversary Party. The following week I was in San Francisco for work ending the week with Phil Shane and celebrating Easter. I took the week after Easter off for a little "Spring Break" and tried to fit in as much as I could, doctor appointments, hair cut, dinner at the Tuck's, lunch with Nicole, Renee's birthday, Thunder Thursday (the kick-off to the Long Beach Grand Prix) ending that week by throwing a birthday party for my Mom at my house! The rest of the month was sprinkled with one more special birthday, a day trip to Vegas, the Festival of Books, a visit to the ER & 3 day hospital stay (not for me) and an evening with the Book End Babes (my book club). I thought the month would never end, but here we are in May and as I look at the calendar on the wall, so far there are only 8 days with red on them, and there are 31 days in May!

Fashion Is My Passion

2009-04-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

I believe that there are things people are born to do, their destiny, their natural talent. I have known from a very early age that I was creative, but from that creativity came my passion for fashion. Some of my early drawings are of clothing, where I would draw my "perfect outfit". I discovered Paper Dolls around age 4, my favorite was a doll that I punched out from a Hallmark birthday card. I loved that I had so many fashion choices for my paper dolls, I would sometimes even make them new outfits. I loved getting the new McCall's Magazine each month so I could cut out the Betsey McCall paper doll in the back of each issue. Later I discovered Barbie. She was 3-dimensional and I could SEW her new outfits, which I did nearly every day! My Barbie, who was actually Barbie's friend PJ, had quite the wardrobe. When I outgrew playing with dolls I moved on to making clothes for myself. I would sketch my ideas in this little sketch book I carried around in my bag. It is fun to look through it now and see all the outfits I actually did make, which is nearly all of them. Years later I became a Stylist at Nordstrom, dressing all the mannequins in the store. A few days after I started that job I realized that I was doing what I have done for my entire life, dress dolls.

A very large lot of paper dolls recently fell into my lap. They are mostly from the 50's & 60's, movie stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Reynolds and Doris Day. I have spent many, many hours cataloging the dolls and all their outfits. I am not sure what I am going to do with them yet, as the dolls don't actually belong to me, which is why I have been scanning them into my computer for a later purpose. The art of paper dolls is sort of lost on today's generation of girls. I still have my paper dolls tucked safely away in a metal box so the silverfish can't harm them. The Partridge Family is in there, Betsey McCall, a few Hallmark card dolls and so many more. And now these beautiful paper dolls from yesteryear have a safe future with me. Soon I will figure out the perfect way to share them with other little girls, who will appreciate them as I do.

My Generation

2009-03-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

I have had several conversations on the topic of growing up in the 70's & 80's, which by unanimous vote was the BEST time to grow up! I was a kid in the 70's and did high school & college in the 80's. I'm sure you have all received that email with all the things we had (or didn't have) growing up... Since there were only a few channels to chose from on the TV (unless you were lucky and had ON or Select cable TV), we would play OUTSIDE. We rode our bicycles (without helmets) and played games we made up ourselves (usually as we went along...) all over the neighborhood, as long as we were home when the street lights came on. When we got older, we went out nearly every night to a club, dancing or to see a band play. I myself went out dancing 3 or 4 nights a week in the 80's at El Paso Cantina in Long Beach and watched bands play at the Whisky a Go-Go on the Sunset Strip.

The reason why I am mentioning this is because I was having a conversation with a 21 year old who said the Wii was for "older people". I disagreed and he admitted that it also appeals to young kids too, but his generation was not much into it. I later thought about what he said and it all makes sense that his generation is into the XBOX and PS2 more, that generation did not grow up active, playing like WE did. The Wii makes you get up off the couch, move, PLAY! Just like we did growing up.

What am I doing?

2009-03-13T11:03:00.000-07:00

I started my blog for two reasons. First, as an exercise in writing, second as a way for my family & friends to keep track of what I am up to or I suppose, "What I am Doing"... I have since joined Facebook, reconnecting with so many friends from both high school and Nordstrom that I had lost touch with. One of the fun features on Facebook is updating your status, letting your friends know what you are doing right now. Yesterday I joined Twitter, which is basically a combination of my blog and Facebook status. On Twitter I let people know what I am doing in 140 words or less. I sometimes wonder if this is too much information, but to be honest, it is very fun!

In the Company of Men

2009-03-04T17:21:00.000-08:00

It is not a new revelation that I am more comfortable in the presence of men rather than women. I am not saying I prefer the company of men over women, I am just more at ease, more comfortable with men. I have never spoken to a professional about this (Dr. Valerie, perhaps you can confirm my theory...), but looking back on my life I think I know exactly why this is. I grew up the only girl with two brothers. I am the only girl on my Mother's side of the family, with my two brothers and three cousins, that is one girl and five boys. I got to really thinking about it and realized that most of the men I am close to in my life are brothers, I am not saying I am friends with a lot of pairs of brothers, but most of the men in my life have brothers and no sisters. As I was searching my memory trying to prove my theory wrong, I realized that most of the women I am close to are the only girls in their family, whether they have brothers or are an only child. Not that this explains anything earth-shattering about me, except maybe explains why I like Jackass so much, being a girl and all...

Let's Get Physical...

2009-02-23T20:44:00.000-08:00

Yes, I have been a little absent, but I have a really good excuse! As I mentioned before, I recently bought a Wii. I have been doing a LOT of bowling and playing a little golf. As a matter of fact, I am a Pro Bowler, achieving a high score of 245, twice!

Last week I finally found a Wii Fit. It is awesome! I want to do the Wii Fit ALL the time! I've lost 4 lbs. since I started to "get fit". I do yoga, run, ski, but mostly Hula Hoop! Who could have guessed that at age 44 I would become obsessed playing with video games. But is the Wii really a video game?

Oh, and I did get that HDTV, the day after Valentine's Day, and had fun hooking it all up. I even figured out how to hook the new TV into the surround sound, it's awesome!

Wired

2009-02-09T09:56:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure exactly when my fondness for electronic equipment began, perhaps when I was 3 years old and got my suitcase record player? I have always had some kind of music player, but as I got older I started to lust after more complicated electronics. When I moved out on my own I was so excited to purchase a TV and VCR. Then came my first DVD player, I now have 3 DVD players - my first, my fabulous surround sound five disc player and a portable DVD player for traveling. I bought my first PC in 1998 (I know, can you believe that was when I got my first computer!) and upgraded to a Mac a year ago. I have and iPod and iPhone which I cannot live without (I have no idea how I did before?) This past weekend I purchased a Wii. I have never owned video games. Even when we had an Atari growing up, I didn't really play with it much, maybe a game of Pong or Tank here and there, but definitely not play with it for hours. The Wii however, I played for about 6 hours the day I brought it home...

Of course I love what the electronics can do, but I really enjoy the challenge of hooking up the components and having success when everything is plugged in and works. Next purchase, an HD TV...

I'm a Hooker

2009-01-29T08:02:00.000-08:00

My New Year's Resolution for 2007 was to teach myself how to knit. My goal was to knit a sweater by the end of the year. I learned in about 2 months. I still have not knitted a sweater, but I discovered so many other things to knit that were much more challenging and fun that it didn't matter. How was I to know when I picked up the Stitch 'N Bitch books that I could knit a cupcake, knit & felt a bowl or make a tiara out of crepe paper?

When the same author from the Stitch 'N Bitch series did a crochet book (The Happy Hooker), I got it, and thought I would eventually learn to crochet... But I was enjoying knitting too much and nothing motivated me to learn to crochet, that is, until I was shown a couple of ADORABLE crochet books. I visited Jen right after the Holiday's and she showed me this book called Creepy Cute Crochet. I was instantly smitten! I could not get the little creature's out my head, I ordered the book from Amazon. It arrived Wednesday and I declared I would learn to crochet the following weekend! Not only did I teach myself to crochet, I made a project from the Creepy Cute Crochet book, one of the last projects in the book, an adorable little monkey in a Fez. He was one of the biggest challenges I have ever attempted. I started working on him Sunday afternoon and attached his Fez Monday afternoon. I kept saying that maybe the reason why he was one of the last projects in the book was because he was the hardest. That night I was flipping through the book to pick my next creature to make when I noticed there was a "Difficulty Level" for each little creature. My little monkey's difficulty level was EPIC. I can't tell you how relieved I was to see that. I was now very proud of myself that I got through one of the most difficult projects to LEARN to crochet ending up with the most adorable little monkey to show for my effort! The very next day I made my next creature, Nosferatu...

Where Were You...

2009-01-23T08:07:00.001-08:00

There are moments in time that come up in conversation when the question is asked, "Where were you when..." Growing up the huge "Where were You" was JFK's assassination, I was born a year after. I vaguely remember watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon in 1969, I was 4 years old. In 1992 there was the Los Angeles riots, but that was a local event. There really has not been a defining moment in history that I could say where I was until September 11, 2001. But now I have a good story for where I was on January 20, 2009 when our 44th President was sworn in. I watched the Inauguration Ceremony of Barack Obama high in the sky on a tiny TV in front on me on a JetBlue flight to Sacramento. It was interesting to land in my State's Capitol on that day, there was this energy in the air that you couldn't really explain other than this was a very special day in history and everyone knew it. When I arrived in San Francisco later that day, the energy on the streets in the Union Square area was the same. If you didn't know better you would think it was a holiday or something. There were so many people on the street, like they were celebrating something special, which is exactly what that day was.

On the Radio

2009-01-16T22:35:00.000-08:00

For the last 5 years I have been listening to the best radio station EVER, Indie 103.1, here in LA. I discovered it a week after it went on the air in December 2003 and unfortunately I was listening this past Thursday when they announced they are going off the air effective immediately. My first thought was, "Is this a bad joke? April 1 is months away". But no, it was true and very, very sad. It is no secret how much music means to me. When I discovered Indie I thought I found a slice of heaven on my car radio. I streamed the station on my computer at work, I bought the CD's of all these new artists they were playing on air. Without Indie I would never have discovered so many great bands - Jet, The Von Bondies, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Lily Allen, Modest Mouse, Ben Kweller, Scissor Sisters, The Vines, Snow Patrol, The Fratelli's, Feist, The Eagles of Death Metal, MGMT, Vampire Weekend... I guess I will have to rely on Apple commercials for new music now. In beginning there were no DJ's on the air, but soon the morning show was hosted by Dicky Barrett from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones (later replaced by Joe Escalante from The Vandals). Henry Rollins "Harmony in my Head" was on Monday nights, Saturday nights Camp Freddy took over the airwaves (mostly Dave Navarro & Billy Morrison with a revolving door of the other Camp Freddy members). Brent Bolthouse & Danny Masterson had a weekly show as did Crystal Method. I will miss Jonesy's Jukebox most. If you ever had a chance to listen in on some of his very memorable interviews, you could have caught Steve Jones reminiscing about the Sex Pistols with Johnny Lydon or hearing great stories about Frank Sinatra as told by Paul Anka. The last show I heard was this past Tuesday when Jonesy's guest was the legendary Brian Wilson. That was one of the many things that made Indie truly "Indie", musicians playing the music, legendary musicians. I am very happy to have an "Indie 103" playlist on my iPod. I have been adding music to it for the last 4 years and have a fairly good representation of the station's playlist that I will listen to now in my car instead of the radio.

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-03T08:30:00.000-08:00

I have to say, the 2008 Holiday Season was very good. For me the Holiday Season officially kicked off on November 24, my birthday. Like usual, I celebrated my birthday for a little over a week (and one day in December), lunches with family or friends, a Phil Shane show with more friends... Thanksgiving was very lovely and the day after I put up all the Holiday decorations and started playing the Holiday tunes, then it was weekend after weekend of Holiday fun. There was some Holiday something-or-another every weekend. I did LOTS of baking... six batches of my famous scrumptiously delicious fudge, the kids decorated sugar cookies and new this year was the tree cake. We watched many Holiday movies snuggled in on the couch, the original Miracle on 34th Street (in black & white), Elf, A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (again, the original), Love Actually... Christmas was magic, like it was when I was a little girl.

Smelly Memories

2008-12-19T07:56:00.000-08:00

Not that I have researched this subject, but I am pretty sure it is a scientific fact that smell affects your memory. There may even be a scientific term for it, but I like to refer to it as a smelly memory. Yesterday I was at the Drive-Thru window at Starbuck's and the aroma that came out of that window hit my brain full force with the memory of morning time growing up when my Grandparents came to stay with us. It is a very happy memory, my Grandparents usually stayed with us for the Holiday's. Wet Eucalyptus is another scent that hits my brain hard. My Junior High had Eucalyptus trees all over campus and when it rained the trees became very fragrant. Junior High was my favorite years of school, now when I smell Eucalyptus trees in the rain, my brain transports me back to Junior High. There are not that many scents/aromas that affect me that way, probably because there are some obscure smells that hold special memories, like the combination of pipe tobacco and sawdust remind me of my Grandpa, but how often does one come across that scent? There is that perfume company that makes scents like "Fresh Cut Grass" and "Dirt". I think there are a few that they missed, "Halloween Candy" (the smell of all the Halloween candy in one bowl), "Crayola" (the smell that hits you when you open a box of 64 crayons) and "Wet Ditto Copy".

Christmas Time is Here

2008-12-08T22:57:00.000-08:00

This is such a busy time of the year, and also one of my favorite times of the year. I love all the festivities, making my famous scrumptiously delicious fudge to give away, all the decorations & lights, the holiday spirit you can feel in the air. As a little girl I thought this time of the year was so magical and I suppose in a way I still do, I still get excited when A Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph are on TV.

Last Saturday was The Belmont Shore Christmas Parade. I was very ambitious and invited our families and a few select friends over to enjoy a pre-parade holiday party before heading down to our staked out spot on the parade route. I had always wanted to do this, but my place is so tiny I didn't think I had the room. I am very happy I decided to have the gathering, everyone had a lot of fun and it was a great way to kick off the holiday season! I tried to make it a festive evening, I handed out Christmas Trivia questions to answer, had lots of food, gave away holiday crackers to my guest (the kind with prizes inside, not the kind to eat) and of course I made my first batch of scrumptiously delicious fudge, of which was nearly completely devoured! I was hoping to spread some Christmas magic and I am pretty sure it worked.

Life in the Shore

2008-12-04T08:10:00.000-08:00

It is no secret that I love my neighborhood. Living two blocks from 2nd Street in Belmont Shore has it's perks, some being plenty of shops and restaurants footsteps away. Having spent time in both New York and San Francisco walking around little neighborhoods, I get the same feeling when I am on 2nd Street. Last night I especially had this feeling. The air was crisp so I was bundled up as we walked down to the end of 2nd Street to our local record store (yes, some still exist), Fingerprints. We were there for an "in-store" performance of Dave Alvin, promoting his new CD, which turned out to be quite a special night. The walk down 2nd Street, running into friends on the way and there, being in a RECORD store, watching Dave play and tell stories... it was one of those moments that makes me just love where I live. My next 2nd Street adventure will be December 6 for the 26th Annual Belmont Shore Christmas Parade!

Santa Ana Snow

2008-11-17T13:17:00.001-08:00

On a visit to New York City a few years ago I found myself in the middle of a snow flurry on a warm spring day. I was confused by what was falling from the sky. I told my friend it looked like snow, but it was sunny and warm outside? Moments later we were in the Anna Sui shop and the salesperson asked us how we liked that snow flurry. I turned to my friend and I said, "I told you it was snow". The salesperson laughed and asked what else would it be? I told him I was from Southern California and when white flakes fall from the sky on a warm day they are ashes. We had a major "snow flurry" this weekend, especially bad in Long Beach, where all the smoke and ash from the horrible fires were blown to by the terrible Santa Ana winds. Having experienced being displaced from a fire destroying my home, my heart hurts for all those people who have lost so much weeks before the holidays. I too was not in my home for Thanksgiving. Having gone through that tragedy made me realize what wonderful friends I have.

Miss Independent

2008-11-14T08:51:00.000-08:00

I have always been a very independent spirit. Growing up as the oldest/only girl in a family dominated by boys, I learned early on to do things by myself. I have never lived with a roommate, which has made me even more independent. But I have not lived alone for quite a while and now that we have become very comfortable in our new co-habituating environment, I have been forced into accepting that I am not alone, I have someone there who can and wants to help. Believe me, it was not easy to give up anything, but now the trash is taken out miraculously when it is full and my gas tank is suddenly full when it was on empty. It has been hard for me to accept that there is someone else here that wants to help me, but I am slowly getting used to it. I even asked if the oil in my car could get changed while I was out of town, not only was it taken care of, my car got washed and the bags of cans in the back of he car got taken to the recycle center! I am still very independent, but it nice to know there is someone in my corner ready to be tagged in.

Fall Update

2008-10-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

Now that i have my iPod back in order I have been enjoying the fall season. The cooler evenings got me inspired to snuggle in with some knitting in my lap. I have been wanting to make a short scarf ever since I saw one last winter on a friend of mine. I found the perfect pattern, tweaked it a bit and voila! A Scarflette! I have made two and I'm working on a third. I am keeping the one with the flower, don't know who the lucky gals will be to receive the others...

I have been reading for our book club, I was the only one who finished Love in the Time of Cholera (very proud of myself!) I am almost finished with Eclipse, the third "Twilight" book. I may take a little reading break, I have some Christmas projects to work on, though I do want to read the new Candace Bushnell book...

I have also been doing a LOT of cooking! I have been pouring over my Susan Branch cookbooks, the Autumn book has been on my coffee table since October 1. We seem to have delicious artichokes at least twice a week. I had never made Chicken Piccata before, I found a good recipe and made it for the first time with roasted asparagus, YUM! For dessert I have been making a butter, almonds and brown sugar concoction that I heat in a skillet and serve warm over vanilla bean ice cream. I even attempted some scary "Lady Fingers" for our book club meeting (I was suppose to use pretzel dough, I used breadsticks instead), but they are still pretty cute!

The Day the Music Died

2008-10-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

I have recovered nearly all the music I lost on the evening of October 7 on my iPod. It all started so innocently, I had put my first movie on my iPod, Sex and the City (of course). It had been on my iPod for over a week but would not play, it would only play the audio. Frustrated that it would not play the movie I plugged my iPod into my iTunes to attempt to fix the problem. What I did instead is add to my grief. By syncing the movie to my iPod it removed all my songs from my iPod. This was approximately 5000 songs gathered over the last 3 years. I cannot breathe without music, look to the right at the "Who Am I" section, it is the second most important thing about me! I am listening to Frank Sinatra right now as I tell this tale... After another trip to the Apple Genius Bar (my third this year), restoring my iPod to be as if it were brand new, I began to load all my music back on. I did not have my music backed up in iTunes, I have nearly 300 CD's, as I put them on my iPod I took them out of iTunes. Why did I need the music on my computer and on my iPod when I owned the CD? Well, I am leaving EVERYTHING in iTunes, that is my backup, which is also backed up. I got all my music (including some new stuff) back on my iPod in 5 days, I am breathing much better now and happy to have my iPod back from the dead.

Witches, Vampires & Werewolves

2008-09-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

I have been a little neglectful writing as of late, yes I am busy with all my many projects (making my Christmas cards, completing a blanket my Grandma began knitting, making Ruby's Tooth Fairy costume...) But the real reason is that I have been visiting, via books, a world of witches, vampires & werewolves. It all kind of began when we started our book club in July. We had to make a list of books we wanted to read. One of my books was Season of the Witch, a book Jen had read a while ago and told me I had to read. Well, I got the book on Amazon for a bargain so when I finished our first Book Club read (Saving Fish From Drowning), I read Season of the Witch. Our book for October is Love in the Time of Cholera, I picked the book up at Target one day along with the following month's book, Twilight. The Twilight series of books has been highly recommended to me by Nancy for a few years now. I started reading Love in the Time of Cholera, but Twilight was sitting there begging me to pick it up, which I finally gave in and did (and read in 2 days), only to receive an email from Jen saying she had bought Twilight at Target as well and is reading it instead of our October book too! Jen has read all four, I have read the first two, Nancy is loaning me the next two this week, so I have about 7 days to finish Love in the Time of Cholera before going back to the world of Vampires & Werewolves...

Change of Season

2008-09-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

I don't have a "favorite" season. Whenever I have to answer that question, "What is your favorite season?", I say all of them. But the thing is, I like the season to be what it is suppose to be, when it is suppose to be. I want April showers to bring May flowers. I want it to be hot in the summertime, cooler in the fall, chilly and raining in the winter. Living in Southern California, there really is not the "change of the seasons" that there is in the Mid-West and East Coast. In the fall, instead of cooler weather and leaves falling here, we have hot winds and terrible fires with ashes falling. What I really enjoy more, is what each season brings with it. Fall for example, you get new clothes for school, there are new TV shows to watch and Halloween and my birthday are around the corner!

Seeing Stars

2008-08-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

It all started back in February. I was strolling around the Salon Shoe department at the Nordstrom in Las Vegas when I laid my eyes upon the most dazzling pair of shoes. I work in shoes. I am around shoes all the time, so to be truly dazzled, well, that is quite a feat (no pun intended...) I gently lifted one of the shoes off it's riser to see how much I could not afford them. They were beautifully sculpted, I mean, they were a piece of art! These little pieces of art for my feet were a mere $495, that is $249 each. They were Italian, Miu Miu, to be precise. Months went by and the lovely shoes haunted me. I would pick out outfits and think, "Those Miu Miu's would go perfect with this." Then in June, Nordstrom had their Half Yearly Sale and I could now purchase the shoes for a bargain at $249 for both! That was still quite steep for me, however, now that they were on the racks I could try them on with no guilt of not purchasing them. And they were lovely on my foot, customers near by said so! But again, I left the store without the shoes. A few weeks ago Berdie came home very excited about her Designer shoe purchases from the Nordstrom Rack. She bought two pairs of Prada shoes for something ridiculous like $300. It was a GREAT bargain. I jokingly asked if my Miu Miu shoes were there. Berdie replied, "the ones with the stars?" My heart sped up. Yes, the Miu Miu's were there for $169. I did not run out that moment, not even the next day. I mulled it around in my head for a few days. I decided I needed those shoes. I deserved those shoes! I was in the Valley working and made my way to the Nordstrom Rack in Topanga. There in the size 7's sat my Miu Miu shoes with the stars. I slipped one on my foot and a customer walking by said to me, "You are buying those shoes, aren't you? They fit you perfectly." I smiled and told her I have wanted them for months, she said they were mine now. Not that I needed any confirmation, but I made the purchase that day. I had always wanted to someday own a pair of Manolo Blahnik's. But just like you don't always fall in love with the man you dream about, I now own a pair of Miu Miu shoes instead of Manolo's and couldn't be happier, the fit is perfect.

Frida

2008-08-17T21:56:00.000-07:00

Last month when I was in San Francisco for work I noticed a lot of people walking around Union Square with large bags from the SFMOMA with Frida Kahlo on them. Curious, I pulled up the museum on my iphone and discovered that there was a Frida Kahlo exhibit there that opened in June. I HAD to see it! Unfortunately the museum is closed on Wednesdays, which was my free afternoon that visit. So this month I made arrangements to arrive in the city early on Tuesday to see the exhibit with my friend Heidi. We saw it last Tuesday and I am SO glad I saw it! It was so inspiring, so beautiful, so personal, so moving, I could go on and on... Growing up, Georgia O'Keeffe was my idol, my inspiration, the reason why I wanted to paint. I discovered Frida Kahlo much later and only recently learned more about this amazing artist and woman that made me appreciate her contribution to the art world so much more. I have to admit, I left the museum with this overwhelming desire to go home and paint. I haven't pulled out the oils, brushes and canvas yet, but my creative juices have been flowing none the less!

My favorite painting was "My Dress Hangs There", there being New York City.

Cherry Bomb

2008-08-12T07:06:00.000-07:00

I was reading the Fashion ROCKS magazine that came with my new Vanity Fair on Sunday and there was a book they were promoting called Cherry Bomb: The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Better Flirt, a Tougher Chick, and a Hotter Girlfriend, and to Living Life Like a Rock Star. The title was catchy, if not the longest I've seen, it was inspired by the Runaways song of the same title, which is a favorite on mine (on my ipod) for sentimental reasons. The very next day I was driving around town running some errands and Cherry Bomb by the Runaways came on the radio. The first thing I thought of was how strange that I had just read about that book that borrowed the title. The next thing I thought about was when I was in 8th grade at South Whittier Junior High (1978) and a few of us girls were talked into performing in the 8th Grade "Talent Show" as the Runaways singing Cherry Bomb. So Alison, Nina, Cherie and myself practiced lip-syncing to Cherry Bomb for weeks. We didn't win, I think the boys who lip-synced to Led Zeppelin won. As I was singing along in my car, I realized that this song is over 30 years old and it still holds up today. I am not interested in purchasing the book, I don't need to, I could have written it myself!

Live Music!

2008-08-03T16:32:00.000-07:00

I love to see live music. I love the whole experience. The dark room. The booming of the bass in my chest. Sometimes having to wiggle your way to the front, especially if it is your favorite band! I know that this is usually something that the young enjoy more than a woman of my age, but I have found myself over the years not really tiring of seeing a good band live. I recently saw Duran Duran at the Nokia Theater and had a blast, the boys look the same to me now as they did 25 years ago!

When I was in Vegas last week for the shoe show, I had been invited to a big party held in the ballroom at The Venetian. The entertainment for the evening was Train and Third Eye Blind. The friends I was with wanted to get closer to the stage when Third Eye Blind was playing, I told them to go ahead, I'd stay where I was on the edge of the "pit". They returned minutes later saying it was too crowded. I grabbed their hands and told them to follow me. Moments later we were front center, that is a photo of Stephan Jenkins, the lead singer of Third Eye Blind taken with my iPhone...

Fun in the Summertime

2008-07-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

This summer has not been as fun-filled as last summer, but fun none the less. I have less free time for fun this summer so I have to pack the fun in when and where I can. I have been trying to participate when I can in Jen's Summer O' Fun. This week we joined Jen and her clan at the OC Fair. We spent most of our time (um, all of our time...) in the Fun Zone, the kids really had a great time! I took Ruby, Aitana & Gabriel and we had a BLAST! Of course the big slide is my favorite ride there...

Jen took some fabulous photos of our day at the Fair, take a peek here.

The other HUGE project I have been squeezing into my schedule is throwing a 21st B-Day Bash for Sydney at The Cellar. It's not a surprise party, but I have been trying to plan a few surprises for the day. One of these surprises is the goodie bags I am putting together. They will be filled with temporary tattoos, Malibu Rum lip balms (our Sponsor for the event) and shot glasses that I applied little 21's to. I had an old friend in Texas make little vinyl 21's and they came out even better than I imagined, thank you Ryan!

So now I am off to Las Vegas for the WSA shoe show, I will be there for 5 days, 3 days too long to be in Vegas. When I return the summer fun continues... our first book club meeting, Sydney's 21st B-Day Bash and a Summer O' Fun outing to the beach!

Summer Vacation

2008-07-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

I took last week off so I could enjoy a little summer vacation. I did not go anywhere for vacation, as a matter of fact, I hardly left my neighborhood! I ventured out only twice, once to go visit Jen and then Saturday night we went to the House of Blues on Sunset to see The Reverend Horton Heat. Other than those trips, I stayed put, keeping myself very busy! On the first day of my vacation I had "big people" furniture delivered and spent most of the day re-arranging and re-organizing everything in my living room. I am VERY pleased with my new living room, it is so comfy, so inviting, which is probably why I did not want to leave my house...

The reason why I started my vacation with the furniture move was to show it all off on Tuesday for my Sex and the City Trivia Game Night Party. The party was a HUGE success, it was the perfect gathering of gals. By the end of the evening we had eaten lots of yummy treats, drank a pitcher of Sangria, a bottle of Chardonnay and a bottle of Champagne, answered the trivia questions and decided to start a book club! The next day I took Ruby to visit Jen, Owen and Edie. We went swimming for most of the afternoon. It was the perfect day to spend lounging in the pool, something I have not done in years! I had a blast!

I also filled my time by finishing a book, starting another , rode my bike all over town and made a whole gang of new girls! It was the perfect vacation!

Lulu, Bebe & Coco

2008-06-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

Last week I visited Jen and she showed me the most adorable dolls she made that she found on this adorable website , she had shared with me a few weeks ago. I was immediately smitten with Jen's dolls, even without faces. The next day I dug out all my cute scraps of fabric and felt, downloaded the pattern and got to work on making some dolls myself! My plan was to make a doll for a birthday gift for a sweet little girl who turned 9 on June 22. Well, after making Lulu, I decided she needed some friends, so I got to work on Bebe and Coco! I have never made a doll before, years ago I made lots and lots of Teddy Bears of all sorts, but no dolls. I certainly had never painted a face before, so I was quite pleased with myself at how adorable they came out. I have since made three more dolls, one for me and the other two for friends who saw them and wanted one for themselves...

Technical Difficulties

2008-06-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

I am currently experiencing technical difficulties, BIG TIME!
It all started out to be a nice, normal Monday. Since I work from home I woke up at 7am to get all my work done early so I would not be sitting in front of a computer in the hot, hot heat. Then at 10:01am my beloved iMac froze up on me and was not to be recovered, HUGE sad face! After many, many attempts to revive my computer myself, phone calls to the Geek Squad and Apple Support, I finally had to unplug my iMac and take it to be looked at by a professional. The horrible news is, they will have it for at least 5 days! I am able to write this tragic story on a lovely borrowed computer (thank you! XOXO) Now, as if that is not enough to go through in one day, at 7 pm I went to relax and watch a little TV and the TV was out, nothing, checked everything, dead. The Universe was obviously telling me to STOP! I listened. I turned on Billie Holiday and worked on a very fun project. I will write all about my new project when my iMac comes home...

A Penny in my Purse

2008-06-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

When I was a little girl, every time I got a new purse, my Grandma would put a penny in it for good luck. I am not sure if it was an Italian thing or not, but after she passed away I received many of her handbags and of course I found a penny tucked away in each of them. I bought a new handbag about a month ago and the other day I was scrounging around on the bottom looking for something I thought was in one of the pockets and I discovered a penny, that I had not put there. This is not the first time this has happened. I have several small bags that I use for going out and lately I have been finding a penny in the bottom, again, which I had not put there. After finding this latest penny, I went back and checked in my "out of rotation" bags and each one had a penny in the bottom of the bag! My only explanation for this is, my Grandma is still putting those pennies in my bags for good luck!

...well, that's just fabulous

2008-06-02T23:37:00.000-07:00

I have the last words spoken by Carrie Bradshaw, four years ago on the series finale of Sex and the City, written appropriately on a hot pink post-it next to my bed. She said, "When you find someone to love the you YOU love, well, that's just fabulous". That spoke volumes to me (obviously, enough to put down on a post-it!) That was the kind of love I had been looking for, that was the kind of love I wanted. Now, let's flash forward to the present, the girls have returned in a movie, a highly anticipated movie for me (those who know me well know how much). After two cosmopolitans in the bar at Islands before the movie, we made our way to the 3:55 showing of Sex and the City: The Movie. We were surprised to find a line waiting to get in the theatre when we arrived, but I was even more surprised at how dolled up all the girls in line were! I mean, of course, I was no exception. I had worn my lovely Isaac Mizrahi floral summer frock (with a tulle petticoat attached!) and my bee-you-tee-ful Report Signature pumps, but I had come from work... I actually really liked the fact that everyone was so excited to see this movie, they were inspired to dress up, making it a special event. I read the next day in an article in the LA Times about girls dressing up everywhere to see this movie and making an event of it, comparing them to the fans that dress up for Comic-Con. I actually thought of it more as the "Big Girls" version of dressing up as your favorite princess when little girls go to Disneyland... As for the movie, I LOVED it (I actually saw it again Sunday afternoon, with my Man-Friend). Without "spoiling" anything for anyone, my favorite part of the movie was the love. I liked that love was the underlying theme. The love of your friends, the love of a man and most important, loving yourself. And yes, I too found someone to love the me that I love, and it IS just fabulous.

Purple Trees in the Shore

2008-05-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to ride my bike every day for at least 30 minutes. I love riding my bike, so this is not difficult for me to do. I am just not always available to ride my bike. I see lots of beautiful sights along my route which is mostly near the water, one of these sights are the purple trees among the palm trees. The Jacaranda's are in full bloom, which to me signals the coming of summer! This morning I ate breakfast on the beach under palm trees and this evening my bike ride took me through the Marina where all I could smell was the ocean. This is why I LOVE where I live, how can you have a bad day when the day is so beautiful!

Grandma Jean

2008-05-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

These last few weeks have been quite exhausting. It all started when I was in San Francisco and I received news on separate days that people have died. The first memorial was the following Sunday (where I attempted to undress John Mayer...) The next Sunday after that I woke up to the news from my Dad that my Grandma had passed away. My Grandma had been very ill for months and months so this was news I had been anticipating. I spent some time with my family Sunday afternoon before heading to another Memorial. I then spent all of last week working on a lovely memorial program for my Grandma to hand out to loved ones at her funeral. As I started gathering photographs to use, I got the brilliant idea to make all the photos into a slideshow DVD (I love my fancy new computer!) Though this project consumed me, it most definitely was the best way for me to remember my Grandma and give her the proper tribute that she deserved. I stayed up late every night, till 3 am the night before her funeral. It was all worth it, what I gave my family was exactly what my Grandma would have done!

The funeral was in the morning of Cinco de Mayo, it was short and sweet, just like my Grandma. My Dad wrote a beautiful eulogy for her, he was afraid he would not be able to make it through, so my Brother was in the "Bull Pen". But my Dad delivered it perfectly, showing his emotions at the end, as he should. I have not shed a tear yet for my Grandma, at first it was bothering me, when my Grandma Grace passed away I cried for years. But I spent a lot of time with my Grandma Regina the last several years and I know that she is in such a better place now. I think this world was getting to be to much for her and now she is with Grandpa, the love of her life. She worried so much about about her loved ones and worried more when she could not help them. Now she is exactly where she needs to be to watch over everyone, and she has the wings now to do it properly!

Undressing John Mayer

2008-04-21T11:22:00.000-07:00

I was attending a sad event Sunday afternoon, yet once there, it turned out to be a very lovely celebration of love and life. There were very well known people at this event, at one point I was standing between Justin Timberlake and John Mayer. It was too much for this girl to contain herself... After many, many glasses of champagne, I approached John Mayer. I first introduced myself (even though I was wearing a name tag... again, too much champagne) and then apologized for not getting tickets that morning for his show at Irvine Meadows. I explained that I just do not like that venue, but I loved his show at the new Nokia Theatre in December. Now, as I was apologizing for not buying tickets, I was playing with the buttons on the front of his shirt (yes, the champagne!) and John looked down at me and asked if I was going to take his shirt off. I am pretty sure I turned as pink as his shirt was. But he was very gracious to this champagne filled girl and we even chatted about him playing in Long Beach, how nice the Nokia Theatre is and about the John Mayer Trio.
If by some bizarre googling act you read this John, sorry and thank you.

The Whole Apple Pie

2008-03-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I bit the Apple, so to speak and I am now officially a Mac user. It was the obvious next move for me to make. Two years ago the iPod changed the way I listen to my music forever. Then eighteen months later the iPhone changed the way I keep myself dialed in everywhere forever. So since I am on vacation this week (I took a Spring Break), I decided to take advantage of having a few days in a row to learn my new computer. I am still a little lost, but it sure is a heck of a lot of fun!!!

Happy Spring Happy Easter

2008-03-23T10:26:00.000-07:00

It was crackers from scratch for Christmas Day. For Easter I thought it would be cute to stuff cherry tomatoes with pesto...it is so exhausting competing with Martha all the time!

Something in the Way She Moves

2008-03-16T16:54:00.000-07:00

I had to dress up the last 3 evenings, not Red Carpet dress up, more Hostess of the most fabulous party dress up. Since I am a girlie girl, I jump at the chance to wear a fancy dress and "big girl shoes", you know, shoes that make you much taller than you are, very high heels. As I glided across the vast room I found myself in these past evenings, I was very aware of how everything was moving on me. One of the evenings I wore a rarely worn black dress Madonna designed for H&M with fishnets and very tall boots. The bottom of the dress swished all around my knees as I walked around giving a peep show of my fishnet covered knees. I liked the way my dress felt as I moved in it, you just can't help but feel very girlie! The next evening I dressed vintage bombshell, in a gold satin cocktail dress. It is a brocade with a star pattern, very Jackie O in the 60's. I wore it with a bright melon colored jeweled cardigan sweater and very high heel pumps. Since the dress is very fitted and I was wearing the big girl shoes, I noticed I could not walk without, how shall I say, shaking my groove thang, my money maker, my booty... I have to admit, I love the way high heel shoes and a fancy dress make me feel and move.

Viva Las Vegas!

2008-02-18T19:32:00.000-08:00

I am off to Vegas for the Shoe Show. I thought I would share a highlight from the last show in August... See me dance!

Aloha from Tonga

2008-02-09T08:56:00.000-08:00

I am quite enjoying my work trips to the City by the Bay. I get to go on fun adventures with my friend Heidi once a month. A couple of months ago we visited the Sushi Boat, which was very entertaining. This week however, we had a VERY exciting adventure. After the "Saints Came Marching By" during our dinner at the Jazz Bistro, we hiked (and I do mean HIKED!) up Mason Street about 7 blocks to the Fairmont Hotel. Legend had it that there was a tropical paradise buried inside this lovely hotel. We were sure hoping the legend was true after that very steap hike up Mason. We followed the signs to Tonga and what awaited us there was better than I could ever have imagined, well worth the hike! With volcano walls, a lush tropical garden, the sounds of Lionel Richie's All Night Long played by a band on a boat in the center of the "ocean" and ladies wearing beautiful purple plumeria leis...I was in Polynesian Heaven! We sat at the bar and were immediately handed menus with only fancy tropical drinks on them, with drawings, not photos of the described concoctions. Heidi ordered the Chi Chi. I ordered the Tematangi Ubangi. They arrived with a very generous slice of pineapple wedged on the side, topped off with a cherry and pink paper umbrella (which eventually ended up in our hair). Heidi being truly adventerous/curious, ordered a second drink. She ordered the Pineapple Royale, served in one of the biggest pineapples I have ever seen! ALOHA!

Bee-you-tee-ful

2008-01-29T08:26:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that I love shoes. I work for a shoe company and spent 12 of my 16 years at Nordstrom in shoes. I must admit that since leaving Nordstrom, I have not been as obsessed about shoes as I was. When I was at Nordstrom I would wear a different pair of shoes each day for weeks, nowadays I wear either my Reef flip flops or metallic ballet flats most days. Well I recently fell head over heels (yes, pun intended) with a pair of Report Signature shoes. They are the most beautiful shoes! I first saw them in December at Nordstrom in Las Vegas . After that first sighting I could not stop thinking about them. It has been a long, long time since a pair of shoes had that affect on me. I spent another month showing the shoes to everyone. Last week the shoes arrived on my doorstep. It was a dreary rainy day. They were out of the box and on my feet in a blink of an eye! I have not officially worn them out of the house. For now they are prominently displayed in my bedroom for all to admire, and I have been showing them to all that enter my house. THANK YOU KERRY!

An Itch for Scratch

2008-01-21T13:34:00.000-08:00

It may have all started with the success of my cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook? Or it could have been inspired by the crackers I made from scratch on Christmas Day being such a huge hit? Which ever success it was, I most definitely have been inspired to venture out and try some more new recipes. Last week I made a very hearty and delicious Italian Stew, a recipe I received from Daily Candy a few weeks ago. Today I made Mac & Cheese from scratch. It is an old Martha Stewart recipe that I cut out of her Living magazine years ago and finally had the confidence to attempt it! It was a heck of a lot more complicated and time consuming to make than Mac & Cheese out of a box, but oh so worth it!!!

Happy Birthday to The King

2008-01-08T20:41:00.000-08:00

Today is Elvis Presley's 73th birthday. There is no particular reason I know this other than, this is the kind of random trivial knowledge I have tucked away in my brain... I am in San Francisco for work today and my Chrysler Sebring has Sirius Satellite radio, which is AWESOME! As I was searching for the perfect station to listen to for my drive from Sacramento to San Francisco, I landed on lucky 13, the "All Elvis" station. No, seriously. I celebrated The King's birthday driving in the pouring down rain listening to the broadcast live from Graceland. Happy Birthday Elvis!

Where Does it Go?

2008-01-04T07:27:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!
I cannot believe it is already the 4th day into 2008, how did that happen? Just a blink of an eye ago I got home from Yew Nork! I did have a VERY busy holiday season... I did a lot of baking, made 6 batches of fudge by Christmas Day, frosted 4 dozen cookies days before Christmas and made crackers from SCRATCH for Christmas Day! Since I am such a crafty girl, I made some gifts too. I got very inspired to make jewelry from this great book! There were so many things going on in December, starting December 1st with our local Christmas parade, where all my neighbors had festive fun parties. I had an event to attend every weekend of December, a John Mayer concert, a Tree Trimming Party, a G. Love & Special Sauce show, Ruby's 5th Birthday, the Naples Boat Parade and a performance of Long Beach Ballet's Nutcracker to attend. That is just the fun stuff I had to do, I still had to travel all over for work and deal with that last minute shopping stuff! I have to say, I had a very nice and relaxing Christmas Day drinking champagne and after a few glasses...indulged in a little karaoke, but you won't be getting that story!

Yew Nork, Yew Nork

2007-12-21T07:51:00.000-08:00

Time keeps ticking by me, I can't believe it has been two weeks since I have been home from Yew Nork (as Ruby May calls it...) I want to write about my adventures in Manhattan, but I have only a few minutes right now (Christmas is moments away!) So I decided to tell all about the two most bestest moments from my trip.

A few hours after my arrival early Tuesday morning, after visiting Alice in Central Park, I told Jen I wanted to take a peek at the windows at Barney's. As we approached the first window on the corner of Madison and 61st, I grabbed Jen's arm and moved her quickly to the next window, for standing there talking about the window trim was none other than the spectacular Creative Director for Barney's, SIMON DOONAN!!! For me, this is one of the most ultimate New York celebrity sightings. Simon was being interviewed for a show. At the next window I was attempting to regain my composure by pointing out the cool stars in the window made of soda cans when Simon sidled up next to me encouraging me to make some stars myself. As Simon and I began our crafty exchange, the woman began asking me questions about the windows, the camera was thrust in my face and the surreal scene ended with Simon suggesting I turn my house into a disco!

Now as if meeting Simon was not enough excitement for me, two days later I met my other style icon, Patricia Field. Patricia is best known for dressing Carrie Bradshaw, she was the costume designer for Sex and the City. Patricia was doing an in-store appearance at the Macy's in Herald Square. There was no way I could not take a chance to meet one of my idols! She was just as cool as I imagined she would be. I told her about being a stylist at Nordstrom during the height of Sex and the City and how I would attempt to copy her styling on my mannequins, which often got me in trouble...

I have many other exciting things that happened on my trip, but meeting not one but BOTH of my ultimate style icons in the same trip was truly amazing!!!

Stay Tuned

2007-12-10T18:13:00.000-08:00

San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, New York City last week, making Christmas gifts, attending Holiday events... I need a moment to catch my breath!

I will tell you all about my most fabulous trip to New York very soon, until then enjoy some pictures of the highlights of my trip...

Tis the Season in San Francisco

2007-11-27T21:16:00.000-08:00

I am working in San Francisco for the next couple of days. After checking into the swanky Parc 55 Hotel, I took a walk around Union Square. There is a huge tree in the center, snowflakes all over the outside of Sak's and the scent of fresh cut flowers fills the crisp air from all the corner flower shops. I took a peek at the windows at Macy's (they have real LIVE puppies and kittens in them...) then did a little shopping at H&M and ended my evening at The Sushi Boat with my friend Heidi, who lives here (your sushi arrives on a little boat!)

The coolest thing is that I am posting this on my iPhone!

Tag, I'm It

2007-11-20T07:35:00.000-08:00

Apparently I have been Tagged by Jen. These are the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or weird things about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Now, I am not very good at following directions. As a matter of fact, I suck at it. So I suppose that can be number 1...

1. I rarely follow rules and/or directions, whether it is following a pattern or parking where I am suppose to park.
2. I don't like to walk on grass.
3. My favorite job was when I was a stylist, I loved dressing my mannequins.
4. I don't like biting into food, I prefer "bite-size" food.
5. I talk to myself all the time. (You are not alone Jen).
6. I used to collect Teddy Bears, at one time I had over 300 bears.
7. I only eat the white Mother's Circus Animal Cookies.

Now, this is where I am suppose to "tag" other people. This is where I don't follow the directions...the people I would tag have already been "it".

Birthday Week

2007-11-19T18:19:00.000-08:00

Sunday was the kick-off of my "Birthday Week". My birthday is November 24, it has always been celebrated on Thanksgiving with my family, and sometimes actually falls on Thanksgiving. When I was younger I did not realize that Thanksgiving was celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, I only knew it was my birthday on Thanksgiving. Once this was figured out, around the age of 10, I began to celebrate my birthday for at least a week! When I turned 10 I had my first Slumber Party. It was mostly my fellow Girl Scouts, but they were also my friends. This was one of the first times I celebrated my birthday on a day other than Thanksgiving. Of course, I still celebrated with my family on Thanksgiving.

By the time I started Junior High, my Birthday Week was an annual event. My friends at school would throw me a party the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. My family would celebrate my birthday on Thanksgiving. My Aunt would take me shopping for a birthday gift the day after Thanksgiving. And these days, it is pretty much the same. For my 40th Birthday I was thrown a party by some very good friends at their art gallery, The Caged Chameleon) and got to dance in a cage (my request) which was held the weekend before my birthday, my actual birthday was on a Wednesday that year, so I celebrated with Joey that day, with my family on Thanksgiving and ended the week celebrating at Disneyland with my Annual Passport friends.

Yesterday Darian surprised me with an impromptu birthday party. She will be in New York for Thanksgiving and wanted to celebrate my birthday with me. I had invited her to come over Sunday afternoon to knit with myself and Berdie, but she showed up with a cake, a present and wine! I love my Birthday Week!

Stitch N Bitch Session: One

2007-11-11T22:39:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I had my knitter friends over for our first Stitch N Bitch session. Berdie and I have been knitting together on Sunday afternoons for a few weeks. I mentioned the book I read, Knitting Under the Influence, how the gals in the books get together on Sunday's and knit. Berdie suggested I should do that, so I sent out an email to Jen, Darian and Amy inviting them over for an afternoon of knitting and munchies. On a cold and cloudy afternoon (perfect for staying in and knitting) Jen, Darian, Amy, Berdie and Jakki arrived with lots of munchies and their knitting bags. Jakki tagged along with Darian, who taught her how to knit this afternoon... It was a very lovely afternoon, I really enjoyed the creative energy that was in the room.

I enjoy when I can inspire others to be creative. I think everyone is creative in their own way, I am sad when someone says they are not a creative person. This afternoon I had five creative ladies sitting around my living room working on their knitting projects, Jen making a fabulous sparkly top, Amy finishing up a cute handbag, Berdie working on a wrap, Darian teaching Jakki how to make the garter stitch and myself knitting a bowl to felt. What a perfect afternoon!

When exactly is too early?

2007-11-09T10:48:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make. I listened to my Christmas playlist on my iPod this morning. I am usually the one telling my nieces that they cannot listen to Christmas music until the week of Thanksgiving (they usually begin to listen in July...) So of course I felt a tinge of guilt this morning listening to The Waitresses Christmas Wrapping as I was driving to Target. I am now going to defend myself. I could not help it! The Christmas decorations are up on 2nd Street in Belmont Shore ready for the parade, the Trees are in the Bay waiting to be lit on Thanksgiving evening, I worked on my Christmas cards last night (almost finished making them, yay) and the tree arrived in Rockefeller Center this morning on the Today Show. I am super excited about that because I will be there in New York the week after the tree is lit and apparently, this is the 75th year the tree has gone up there!

Since I am now in the holiday spirit, I thought I would share my playlist with you. Many of you already own the CD I sent out a few years back as my Christmas card that is the playlist. It was and still is a huge hit. I know for many of you it has become a holiday tradition (listening to my CD). I put all my favorite holiday songs on it and over the years people have told me that many of the songs are their favorites. Nancy's favorite song is the Bing Crosby and David Bowie "Little Drummer Boy". My neihgbor was excited that the Partidge Family was on the CD. And of course my nieces love the Watiresses Christmas Wrapping.

Christmas Wrapping ~ The Waitresses
Simply Wishing ~ Wings
Jingle Bells ~ Barbara Streisand
Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer ~ Harry Connick Jr.
Frosty the Snowman ~ The Ronettes
Santa Claus is Comign to Town ~ The Partidge Family
Twelve Days of Christmas ~ Teh Muppets
Little Drummer Boy ~ Bing Crosby & David Bowie
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas ~ Tony Bennett
Christmas Time is Here ~ The Peanuts (Vince Giraldi)
Sleigh Ride ~ Squirrel Nut Zippers
Cool Yule ~ Louie Armstrong
Santa Baby ~ Madonna
Mele Kalikimaka ~ Bette Midler
Do They Know It's Christmas ~ Band Aid
White Christmas ~ Darlene Love
Blue Christmas ~ Elvis
Baby Please Come Home ~ U2
2000 Miles ~ Teh Pretenders
Winter Wonderland ~ Eurythmics
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm ~ Dean Martin
What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? ~ Harry Connick Jr.

So Dang Busy

2007-11-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

Where does the time go? I had intended to write here once a week. I was doing great for a while. But lately I have been going weeks between posts, only because I have been so dang busy! I will catch you up...

In September I was given a promotion at work. I now have extra responsibilities and all of California and Nevada as my territory. This means in addition to traveling to Las Vegas once a month, I am also traveling to Sacramento and the Bay Area once a month. I am looking forward to my Northern California visits.

I have many knitting projects going on, among them, a blanket, a skirt for Ruby, a "boy" scarf for no one in particular, a cupcake for an upcoming birthday, felted bowls and a knitted cap. I have made a couple of these knitted caps, I really like how the Gryffindor cap came out (it is actually USC, but I prefer Gryffindor).

I have had a few friends request some sewing projects. I worked on some curtains for The Jordan Four's new house. I'm embroidering a sweater for Darian. And I recycled a couple of her favorite t-shirts for the lovely owner of House of Hayden, which came out VERY nice.

As if all of this is not enough to keep me very busy, I have also been working on my Christmas cards, which I have been making myself for years. This year I had a great idea that was good "on papaer", but has proven to be quite a task. And, I have made 3 batches of my mini cupcakes in the last 6 weeks for various birthday's. I frosted the latest batch this morning...

So, I really want to be writing more often, but between the traveling, the crafting and the baking, well, the time just gets away from me!!!