Sally Annie Magundy

The Art of Craft - Sailor's Valentine

2012-01-30T10:13:00.000-08:00

(Charlotte and Pam's examples for the class - so charming!)

Oh! I had the most wonderful time at French General on Saturday.

Charlotte Lyons and Pam Garrison are so lovely, warm, sweet, dear, kind - which I knew they would be from their blogs but they are even more so, if that's possible?! Exponentially adorable! It was such a pleasure to get to meet them.

And how fabulous to be in a room jam-packed with other artsy craftsy souls! BLISS! I was seated with six fun, uber creative, ladies and got to meet a few others while gazing (mouth agape) at the yumminess of crafty good stuff, that is French General. Holy moly! I apologize for brain freeze and middle aged brain and not being able to remember everyone's names. Hoping to meet you all again at another event at FG!

There is this wall of marvelous goodies that calls your name, Come Hither, gather me up! hahahhahaa ( Sorry, this is blurry! I didn't even realize it at the time - I was so giddy with excitement.) The other side has marvelous fabrics to make you want to hole up in your home and never leave, stitching into the wee hours.

The only thing lacking in the day was time. I was there for three and a half hours and it went by as if it were less than an hour! WOOOOOOOSH!

I only took a few photos. WAH! And sadly I didn't get one of Pam Garrison but I sure got one of dear Charlotte ... and me.

So much fun!

2012-01-29T19:26:00.001-08:00

WOOHOO! YIPPIE YIPPIE YIPPIE

2012-01-27T08:10:00.001-08:00

Last year I was so excited to get a spot for Charlotte Lyons class at French General but I got a terrible awful miserable cold and couldn't go. WAH!

Miracle of miracles (thank you CHA for being in Los Angeles and bringing wonderful artists to town!), Charlotte is teaching another class this year at FG and tomorrow I will be happily seated at French General. AND if that wasn't wonderful enough, she's partnering with Pam Garrison! I can't believe my good fortune. YABBA DABBA DOO WOOHOO! So very excited I can barely contain myself!

The class is called Sailor's Valentine.

Look at the wonderful class examples made by Charlotte and Pam.

So romantic, like those wonderful sailor seashell valentines of old!

I hope I don't faint or drool or something. I hope I don't have performance anxiety. I hope I don't lose my mind and break my credit card and plunge us into debtor's prison, buying up all the wonderful things at French General that I've heard about for so many years ... bwahahhahahhaha.

I hope I remember to take pictures!

Happy weekend to you!

Vintage Birthday Vintage Thingie Thursday

2012-01-26T06:45:00.000-08:00

(Please join Suzanne at Colorado Lady blog for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

Happy Vintage Thingie Thursday!

Today is my birthday and heaven knows, I'm vintage hahahhahhahahahahha!

So this Vintage Thingie Thursday I'm sharing with you a bit of my very own Pin the Tail on the Donkey game from when I was little, that I found up at my parents house.

(in the background is vintage Hallmark birthday wrap that I also found.
Yup! My mother didn't get rid of much of anything!)

The game came with a booklet - 25 Party Games For You To Play.
I'm sharing the pages that are illustrated, aren't they fun?

Vintage Doll Rednesday

2012-01-25T07:58:00.000-08:00

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

There have been many heart tugging treasures found at my parents house the past ten months. A few things were long lost and all hope of finding them was waning. And then ... EUREKA! Out of the depths they sprang forth.

I am sharing a family heirloom today for Rednesday. This is either my maternal grandmother's baby doll (she was born in 1899) or my maternal great-grandmother's (she was born in 1870) baby doll. I can't recall with clarity what my mother told me, so many years ago now. My old brain tells me that my mom's words were "it was my grandmother's doll" but I'm just not sure?

(she has the most charming string of beads around her neck)

I would love to be able to date her - anyone know where to begin?

She needs lots of loving care and restoration. She is still tied to her chair from when my mom's mom passed away and my mother brought her home to our house (so many years ago now, it boggles the mind!).

Oh! I love her so!

(poor thing! she looks like a band of ruffians have tied her up and looted the china cabinet!)

Happy Rednesday!

Lovin' our Prez!

2012-01-20T09:14:00.001-08:00

How fun is that?!

Happy Friday!

Vintage Valentine Rednesday

2012-01-18T08:01:00.001-08:00

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

Happy Rednesday!

We went to the Long Beach Antique and Collectible Show on Sunday morning. I was on a serious hunt for Valentine stuff. There was practically nothing to be had, so disappointing! I did find these darling vintage Valentine's cards, aren't they cute?!

A new year

2012-01-17T16:11:00.000-08:00

Waving Hello to my new followers and those who have hung in with me over the past year here. I'm glad to say that little beams of sunshine are making their way through the sadness, finally. What's that famous quote, something about the "one thing I know about life"???

Oh, I just looked it up and found the quote ...

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
~Robert Burns

Gosh, what a journey grief is. And to be the last person still here in your immediate family! It is an alone-ness so very deep.

Heavens! What a roller coaster of emotions it all is.

On Sunday the hubby and I saw yet another production of "Our Town", which we both love so much. And if you know the play, you know it's all about love and family and death. Emily's monologue always reduces me to a weeping mess ...

"Good-bye, Good-bye world. Good-bye, Grover's Corners ... Mama and Papa. Good-bye to clocks ticking ... and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths ... and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you are too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it -- every, every minute?"

Wouldn't that be something to really and truly be engaged in life?! To not sweat the small stuff, to not even let the petty into our lives. But to live mindfully and meaningfully and cherish the moments of our lives ...

Birds and Blossoms

2012-01-12T09:57:00.001-08:00

(Please join Suzanne at Colorado Lady blog for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

Happy Vintage Thingie Thursday!

A lot of the time these days I am overwhelmed with the sheer amount of things I need to go through from my dad's house and fifty years of my family's life. But then a day like today comes along and I am awash in gratitude and pure pleasure and overwhelmed instead by the gifts that literally, have been bestowed upon me and left in my keeping.

This Vintage Thingie Thursday I'm sharing a bit of treasure,
a charming book entitled ...

Birds and Blossoms
and What the Poets Sing of Them

Published in 1887 (YES! 1887! WOW!). Such a lovely book, from the intricacy of the cover, the gilt edged pages, the moving words of the poets and the wonderful illustrations. Even the inside papers of the cover are lovely - green with birdies. (I apologize for the seriously poor photos, I had a dickens of a time trying to photograph the pages, worrying all the while that I would hurt the book.)

"And all the throng
That dwell in nests and have the gift of song;
Whose household words are songs in many keys,
Sweeter than instrument of man's ere caught;
Whose habitations in the tree-tops even
Are half-way houses on the road to heaven."
H. W. Longfellow

(illustration "Cat-birds and Garden-Roses")

The Friend In Shadow

I heard the faithful nightingale:
Like silver notes from blue-bells swung,
Like tender tones of human tongue,
Like golden cymbals clanging sweet,
Like castanets on fairies' feet,
Came forth that welcome, strangely dear,
To soothe my sorrow-freighted ear.
Ah, then I knew I had one friend,
Whose love with sunshine did not end.
Ethel Lynn Beers

(illustration "Cedar-Birds and Cedar-Bough")

"The birds around me hopped and played:
Their thoughts I cannot measure; -
But the least motion which they made,
It seemed a thrill of pleasure."
Wordsworth

(illustration "Sandpipers and Blossoming Beach-Plums")

By the Sea-Shore

The curved strand
Of cool, gray sand
Lies like a sickle by the sea
The tide is low
But soft and slow
Is creeping higher up the lea.

The beach-birds fleet
With twinkling feet
Hurry and scurry to and fro,
A sip, and chat
Of this and that
Which you and I may never know.
John W. Chadwick

(illustration "Owls at Evening")

From "In The Hemlocks"

At one point in the grayest, most shaggy part of the woods, I come suddenly upon a brood of screech owls, full grown, sitting together upon a dry, moss-draped limb, but a few feet from the ground. I pause within four or five yards of them and am looking about me, when my eye lights upon these gray, motionless figures. They sit perfectly upright, some with their backs and some with their breasts toward me, but every head turned squarely in my direction. Their eyes are closed to a mere black line; through this crack they are watching me, evidently thinking themselves unobserved. The spectacle is weird and grotesque, and suggests something impish and uncanny. It is a new effect, the night side of the woods by daylight. After observing them a moment I take a single step toward them, when, quick as thought, their eyes fly wide open, their attitude is changed, they bend, some this way, some that, and, instinct with life and motion,stare wildly around them. Another step, and they all take flight but one, which stoops low on the branch, and with the look of a frightened cat regards me for a few seconds over its shoulder. They fly swiftly and softly, and disperse through the trees. ~ John Burroughs

(illustration "Bobolink and Clover Blossoms")

I heard a little bird sing out one morning
While yet the darkness overpressed the sky,
And not a single streak of rose gave warning
That day was nigh.

It sang with such a sweet and joyful clearness,
The silence piercing with a note so fine,
That I was thrilled with sudden sense of nearness
To Love divine.
Mary Bradley

(illustration "King Bird and Cardinal Flower")

November

The mellow year is hastening to its close;
The little birds have almost sung their last,
Their small notes twitter in the dreary blast--
That shrill-piped harbinger of early snows;
The patient beauty of the scentless rose,
Oft with the morn's hoar crystal quaintly glassed,
Hangs, a pale mourner for the summer past,
And makes a little summer where it grows:
In the chill sunbeam of the faint brief day
The dusky waters shudder as they shine,
The russet leaves obstruct the straggling way
Of oozy brooks, which no deep banks define,
And the gaunt woods, in ragged scant array,
Wrap their old limbs with sombre ivy-twine. Hartley Coleridge

(illustration "Purple Finches and Peach Blossoms")

Easter Morning

Oh, hark ! in the budding woodlands
Now far, now near, is heard
The first prelusive warble
Of rivulet and of bird.
Oh listen! the Jubilate
From every bough is poured,
And earth in the smile of spring-time
Arises to greet her Lord !
Frances L. Mace

(illustration "Chewink and Trillium")

Beauties of Morning

But who the melodies of morn can I tell?
The wild brook babbling down the mountain side;
The lowing herd; the sheepfold's simple bell;
The pipe of early shepherd dim descried
In the lone valley; echoing far and wide
The clamorous horn along the cliffs above;
The hollow murmur of the ocean-tide;
The hum of bees, the linnets lay of love,
And the full choir that wakes the universal grove.
James Beattie

bits and bobs and a case of the blues

2012-01-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

ohhhhhhh ... today is a bit of a sad Sally day. Just when you think you have moved on along the process of grieving, the sadness smacks you like a tidal wave, knocking you over and pulling you down again with it.

The hubby had three lovely weeks off for the holiday break and we ramped up the fun meter and made lots of plans to pass the days. We saw movies and plays and friends and family. We read and rested and ate lots of good food. We happily ignored the things that needed to be done.

But today I feel like I'm in a comic strip ... it's sunshine and smiles everywhere for the other characters but for me, there's a dark cloud overhead.

sniffle sniffle WAH!

I started going through boxes from my dad's house again and came across these bits and bobs of cuteness - funny the things that are kept in a life, huh?! I like to think that perhaps my mom knew that one day they would be needed to bring a much needed smile and spirit-lightener.

Hope the sun is shining today for you! Sending hugs your way if it's raining!

Vintage Linen Rednesday

2012-01-10T11:11:00.001-08:00

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

Happy Rednesday!

I'm sharing some of my mom's linens with you this week.

This small cutie was hand embroidered by someone - sadly I don't know if it was by my mother or by one of my grandmother's. I'm guessing it was probably stitched by my maternal grandmother since my mom, horror of horrors please forgive me Rednesday pals, was not a Red lover. I also found several of these fun, colorful pot holders like the one pictured above, in various color combinations. So cute!

Aren't these two darling?! I especially love the Mexican themed one, how fun it would be with vintage Fiesta ware.

Baby Brownie Camera

2012-01-06T09:31:00.000-08:00

We have found lots of fun stuff in my parents things. After the priceless family photos and documents, this Baby Brownie camera may be my favorite thing. Isn't it the cutest?! I had fun googling it and finding out it was called the Kodak Baby Brownie Special model and was so pleased to read it's made of Bakelite - I finally have some Bakelite. WAHOO!

Happy Friday to everyone and wishing you a fun weekend!

Dennis the Menace Vintage Thingie Thursday

2012-01-05T15:19:00.001-08:00

(Please join Suzanne at Colorado Lady blog for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

I'm sharing some vintage Dennis the Menace stuff with you this Vintage Thingie Thursday. I'm going to guess these items were my brothers and were handed down to me - truth be told, I don't recall a particular fondness for Dennis the Menace. I tried so hard to please when I was little that the character of Dennis on the 1959 TV series was annoying to me hahahha.

(photo from Comics Worth Reading)

A fun vintage Dennis the Menace puppet - I tried Googling it for more info but couldn't really find any. I did find a vague reference that thought this was a Sears licensed item, in the late 50's.

Some fun Dennis the Menace comic books, all from the 1950's - Wanted: Dennis the Menace, Baby Sitter's Guide by Dennis the Menace and In this corner ... Dennis the Menace.

stuck in December on Rednesday

2012-01-04T12:21:00.001-08:00

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

Yoohoo! Hello! Happy Rednesday!

Another Rednesday has arrived and I do apologize, I am still digging myself out of boxes from my parents house and I came across these Christmas reds in one of the boxes this morning and thought, hmmmm they're RED and today is Rednesday. (the good news is that I am sending at least 16 boxes of paperwork off to be shredded tomorrow HURRAY HURRAH! Sixteen boxes lighter - doing the happy dance!)

I found this sweet repro doll ornament with a frozen Charlotte type head and these fun vintage thingies; two vintage chenille decorative doodads and a vintage Scandinavian candle holder, sadly missing one of its appendages WAH!

My mom would always recycle cute gift wrapping - here's a bit of some darling vintage Hallmark Christmas wrapping, circa the 1960's. Isn't it darling, I love the family portraits over the settee.

Happy Rednesday to everyone! Sure hope I wasn't the cause of any post-holiday heebie jeebie breakouts - I know it can be hard for some to revisit the holidays after January 1st teehee!

Blitzen the Unhappy Reindeer

2011-12-29T10:42:00.000-08:00

(Please join Suzanne at Colorado Lady blog for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

Hah! The things I've found in my parents stuff! I'm sharing this holiday recording today, Blitzen the Unhappy Reindeer, for Vintage Thingie Thursday. Uncle Archie, whoever he may be???, has even autographed the record sleeve. It was my brothers, so it must be circa the late forties, early fifties. The record is in pristine shape - sure wish I had a turn table to play it on. What fun that would be!

Wishing everyone a fun Vintage Thingie Thursday and
a very Happy New Year to you and those dear to you!

fa la la la FUN!

2011-12-17T09:01:00.000-08:00

(hahahaha - we are becoming old hands now at surreptitious photos of empty theaters!)

Last night we went to the Judith Owen and Harry Shearer Holiday Sing-A-Long and it was so much fun!

We didn't begin the evening in the best of shape - I had a splitting headache and my husband had been to the opthamologist and had had his eyes dilated for his exam and his pupils were HUGE! Which if you've had the experience is not fun, thankfully the house lights were low until nearly the end of the show.

As if that wasn't enough to put a holiday damper on the evening - the first two singers did Christmas songs that had been rearranged as jazz songs and I thought, UH OH, this is going to be a long night! Thankfully that changed immediately after and we never looked back into the strenuously slow and somber phrasing of holiday tunes again the rest of the evening.

Oh you guys! I wish you could have been there! For everyone who loves Christopher Guest's movies and Glee, Jane Lynch was there and she was wonderful and hysterical. For folk music lovers, Richard Thompson was there. For Spinal Tap lovers, Michael McKean was there with his actress wife, Annette O'Toole, who I've always loved and who knew she could sing and be so animated?! Julia Fordham (who I always remember of the song "Happy Ever After" with her gorgeous voice) and Julianna Raye were the jazzy ladies - lovely, just not what I expected when I thought of a holiday sing-a-long and all was well in the end teehee.

Harry Shearer did several funny songs and I swore I'd remember the titles so I could tell you all but they've left my silly old brain. Judith Owen (Harry Shearer's wife) wasn't able to be there but they showed a video of her and her singing was lovely and I want to find out all about her now.

So the first half of the show was the individual performers and after the intermission was the sing-a-long. SO MUCH FUN! Unlike the Beauty and the Beast sing-a-long we went to last year, where no one sang, I think everyone joined in this time.

The last song was the Twelve Days of Christmas and they divided us up into groups for each of the twelve days (except for Five Golden Rings, which we all did) and we were told to not only sing but to act out our Day AND that there would be prizes for the best. What a hoot! I wish I could describe the acting out of "Six geese a-laying" and "Eight maids a-milking"!!! bwahahhaha

The prizes were duly given out and of course they were kitschy and krazy and irreverant- reindeer poop chocolates, meshuguna mints and religious action figures etc.

So a wonderful evening was had by all, especially by the lady with a headache and her husband with the big eyeball thing going on.

Thinking of you all and wishing you lots of holiday joy!

sort of merry and bright

2011-12-15T15:21:00.000-08:00

(apologies to the unknown gentleman whose noggin is in the forefront of this photo!)

Last weekend we saw a stage play of "It's A Wonderful Life" - so very charming! It was staged as a radio show, with a sound effects guy and everything. So much fun. My husband took this photo of the stage with his phone before they announced none were allowed. Wuh oh. You can kind of make out the sound effects mans area on the left hand corner, he had lots of fun things to play with.

The whole experience was lovely - as we approached the theater, there was an a capella group singing Christmas carols and inside there were free dessert stations, to fill ourselves up on. I enjoyed the truffles. very much.

We're also looking forward to warbling along at Harry Shearer and his wife's Annual Holiday Singalong event - we've never been before but I'm sure it'll be a hoot.

Wishing you lots of holiday merry making fun!

Happy Rednesday!

2011-12-13T14:15:00.000-08:00

Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!

Waving Hello to my Rednesday friends!

Oh good gosh, my parents had a lot of stuff. While going through all of it (!), I found lots of things that I remembered from my childhood.

I'm sharing two wooden decorative figurines that I can remember playing with as a child and also a paper crane. So these are kind of "vintage" as I am older than dirt, at least that's how I am feeling these days at any rate teehee!

My mother had a wonderful side job that brought her lots of friends worldwide. Things of wonderment would arrive, sent from far far away as gifts of friendship. Letters from Japan quite often contained charming origami cranes, of varying sizes. A Japanese pen friend also sent these fun wooden figurines - there are pencil scribbles on the back of the smaller one's head, my younger self apparently wanted to give her a new coif!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T07:16:00.001-08:00

"Circa 1959, Times Square, Manhattan, NY: Macy Day Parade. Photo shows the “Turkey” one of the helium filled balloons on it’s way through Times Square. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS",
per the blog, Black Watch, here.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving,
filled with family and friends and lots of pie!

Vintage GE Refrigerator

2011-11-16T09:37:00.001-08:00

Calling all my vintage loving friends!

My parents had their old GE fridge on their service porch for soda, fruit, whatever, that didn't fit in their regular refrigerator.

It's in great condition, still works - was running until we unplugged it in July and moved it to the garage during the remodel.

It must be from the forties or fifties - anyone know how I research it? I would like to sell it but would like to know something about it first.

Thanks for any help you can give!

Tarra and Bella

2011-11-14T09:15:00.000-08:00

Have you followed the wonderful story of rescued elephant Tarra and her best friend, doggie Bella over the years? I was heartbroken to hear over the weekend on CBS Sunday Morning that dear Bella had passed away (in tragic circumstances) a couple of weeks ago. SOB SOB SOB!

Here are is the heartbreaking news from The Elephant Sanctuary.

the guest house

2011-11-08T12:20:00.000-08:00

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

~ Rumi

oh gosh, I've got quite a case of the blues today. I am trying to treat these visitors honorably as Rumi suggests but I am flailing and woebegone.

Time passes at an aching snails pace. No matter how many boxes I go through, no matter how much I give away or toss, there is the same mountain in it's place. The estate paperwork is confusing, without end and enough to denude a forest. GEEZ.

I hate the constant activity. I long to just sit and BE with my grief. I long to be creative.

Thank you for hanging in there with me.

Do you Pinterest too? If you enjoy Pinterest, you can find my Pinterest boards here. Yes, I have enjoyed it a bit too much bwahhahahhahaha!

forever

2011-10-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

to lose someone you love
is to alter your life forever
~ Jeanette Winterson

Some can walk through grief on their own, others cannot. Some have lasting support from their friends and family, sadly most do not. For some reason, those outside have a very short interest span regarding others grief. Those outside, wish the grieving to buck up and get over it very quickly. So most of us that are grieving, are not only suffering a tremendous loss of a loved one, but also the loss of a caring circle around us.

I found a wonderful grief support group a couple of months after my father passed away. A place where I could cry and sob and talk with other women sharing the same painful journey.

Tomorrow night is our last meeting. I am so grateful to have had their support and friendship the past six months. We are having a pot luck and we were asked to bring a favorite of our loved ones. I'm making ginger cookies, my dad's favorite cookies. Well that is if I'm not sick tomorrow - not feeling good today. WAH!

Today I made a little card to attach to their goodie bags. This is only the second time I made something since my father died and my gosh, it felt good to do something a wee bit creative.

I can no other answer make, but,
thanks and thanks.
~ William Shakespeare

So thank you so very much to our group of eight (+ one, our lovely and loving facilitator) for all of your listening and hand holding and sharing of resources and of late, lots of giggles. We are moving forward together. Thanks and thanks!

Modern Screen

2011-10-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

November and December 1936 issues of Modern Screen.
The advertisements are especially hilarious, so much fun!
Will try to share some of the inside down the road.

Happy Friday!

vintage stufferoonie

2011-10-06T14:38:00.001-07:00

I've found such funny stuff at my parents house! Here's a keeper, "New Easy-Way Conditioner" booklet from Jack La Lanne. Look at how young he is!

Barbie Magazine from 1965 with Skipper and Skooter and Ricky - I don't remember poor Ricky at all but I did have both Skipper and Skooter!

Sorry, I'm a techno-know-nothing and I don't know how to "stitch" or whatever it's called so I couldn't get a complete scan of this darling children's book from 1950 (which means it was my brother's book). Darling illustrations and some of the cut outs are still left inside the book.

A program from a screening of "The Greatest Show on Earth" - I don't know if this was for the premier of the movie or if you were able to purchase programs for other showings long ago???

EGBOK

2011-10-05T15:20:00.000-07:00

Yoo hoo! It's me ... over here ... yes, you aren't imaging things, I am actually posting to my blog!

First off, thank you to everyone who has continued to think of me and send their best wishes to me during this difficult time. I so appreciate your care and friendship, it buoys my sagging spirit to no end.

For the longest time I was too sad to post and too busy to post and now that life is beginning to weigh a teeny tiny bit less heavy on me, I'm not sure what to write. At all.

I guess the first order of business is to explain my post title, huh?!

I have been in the doldrums of late over our remodel project of my dad's house - the road has been bumpy and long and fraught with missteps. Our contractor is a nincompoop par excellence and his less than great workmanship has brought me to tears several times. WAH!

Anyway, so EGBOK came into my mind yesterday. It was a promotional tag line for a radio program here in Los Angeles many years ago and it means "Everything's gonna be OK" - a motto and reminder I need to tape to my mirror and everywhere else these days and take to heart.

Origin of EGBOK

My second (equally odd) choice teehee was TOAS-TITE. Has anyone else ever had a Toas-tite?

My mother made us Toas-tite sandwiches when I was little - white bread and Velveeta bwahhahhaha, placed in the Toas-tite on the stove. I thought they were the yummiest sandwiches in the whole world.

Well I found my mom's Toas-tite, obviously very much used and so far, even though it's so sorrowful to look it, I can't seem to let go of it.

(geez, it looks like my mom never cleaned the thing, doesn't it?!)

I found a site about it (well of course! is there anything left out there that hasn't been written about on the internet?!):
Toas-tite recipes

I'm taking photos of all the things that were dear to me but have no room for in my tiny, already busting at the seams house. First up, cooking utensils for my vintage-loving friends.

AND, I have come down with a hefty Pinterest addiction bwahhahhaha. I've found a few of you, my blogging friends, out there, pinning too - so nice to see familiar names and faces.

Please leave your Pinterest address so I can visit you if you feel like it!

Looking forward to hearing what you've been up to!

Sally

It's all so Mickey Mouse

2011-06-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

(please visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

I saw Suzanne's post today for Vintage Thingie Thursday and although I should be doing (many!!!) other things, I just had to contribute some of the mickey mouse stuff that I've found up at my parents house recently.

Please forgive me, my dear VTT friends, I won't be able to visit all of you and make comments today as I have done in the past. I am so overloaded with my father's Estate and I hope you will understand. I did want to share these things with you though as I've had so much fun participating in VTT and enjoyed all of you so much and miss you.

If you're a child of the fifties and sixties, you may well remember these things ...

My mom saved (almost) everything and here are my brother's Mickey Mouse bath toys, which were handed down to me. Gosh, I loved these so much at bath time!

Boy my brother was a lucky kid! He also had this fun Mickey Mouse Club Newsreel Camera.

Sadly it's missing a leg and won't stand up anymore ... sniffle sniffle boo hoooooooo

I also found two issues of my brothers Walt Disney's Magazine (formerly the Mickey Mouse Club Magazine), which I'll share down the road but I wanted to share two merchandise ads with you today since they have MM in them.

(I came across my brothers Mickey Mouse Club membership card and have no idea where I put it among the gazillion of boxes - hopefully it will resurface soon!)

Who's the leader of the club
That's made for you and me
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
Hey! there, Hi! there, Ho! there
You're as welcome as can be
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Mickey Mouse!

Mickey Mouse!

Forever let us hold our banner
High! High! High! High!

Come along and sing a song
And join the jamboree!
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Mickey Mouse club
We'll have fun
We'll be new faces
High! High! High! High!

We'll do things and
We'll go places
All around the world
We'll go marching

Who's the leader of the club
That's made for you and me
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
Hey! there, Hi! there, Ho! there
You're as welcome as can be
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Mickey Mouse!

Mickey Mouse!

Forever let us hold our banner
High! High! High! High!

Come along and sing a song
And join the jamboree!
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Happy Vintage Thingie Thursday!

A belated Memorial Day remembrance

2011-06-07T15:44:00.000-07:00

My maternal grandfather and his Swedish parents.

How do you like the length of my great grandmothers skirt?
And how about that mustache on my great grandfather?!
It's as big as a push broom!

Oh my gosh, the things I am finding!

I wish I had found these for a Memorial Day post ... my grandfather was in the Navy in WWI, on the USS Minnesota.

I found this on Wikipedia ...

On 6 April 1917, as the United States entered World War I, Minnesota rejoined the active fleet at Tangier Sound, Chesapeake Bay, and was assigned to Division 4, Battleship Force (BatDiv 4). During the war, she was assigned as a gunnery and engineering training ship, cruising off the middle Atlantic seaboard until 29 September 1918. On that date, 20 mi (30 km) from Fenwick Island Light, she struck a mine, apparently laid by U-117. Suffering serious damage to the starboard side, but with no loss of life, she managed to reach Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she underwent five months of repairs. On 11 March 1919, she put back to sea as a unit of the Cruiser and Transport Force. Assigned to that force until 23 July, she completed three round trips to Brest, France to return over 3,000 veterans to the United States.

I found these holiday menu cards my GF had kept from Thanksgiving and Christmas of 1918, holidays occurring after Armistice Day and I gather from the Wikipedia passage, the USS Minnesota was back at home in the States for those holidays, having struck a mine and returned for repair.

Those were days for celebration, we had won the war, the war to end all wars. WWI.

(Proclamation by President Woodrow Wilson)

(I chopped off my grandfather's name for privacy from the peeping Tom's
of the internet. I wonder who he was extending his compliments of the season to?)

(He even saved his cocktail napkin - yeah Grandpa!)

Later on, the USS Minnesota went to Europe and my Grandfather to Paris, specifically. I've found a ton of postcards from Paris that my GF brought home with him, showing the devastation in France.

He also brought home some books issued to him about Paris. I find this one rather odd in it's "up" attitude about our A.E.F. getting the most out of Paris in their short time there. Pointing out restaurants, theaters, etc., seems so very strange juxtaposed next to the heartbreak and ruin and rubble.

Forget me not

2011-06-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

(I found this lovely book at my parents house. When I can figure
out how to take pictures of the illustrations inside, I will share them.)

I am of two minds - I curse the mountains of things I have to go through at my parents house but mostly, I celebrate.

My history is buried there and I feel as though I am meeting my own life for the first time. Precious photos of love and family, remembrances of friendship and loyalty, tug at my heart.

I am the keeper of the flame now, the passer on of stories. How I wish I had listened harder, had asked more questions, delved deeply into the lives of those who came before.

I found this really rather beat up photo of my great grandmother yesterday, taken in Redwood Falls, Minnesota (only the slightest evidence of this fact is left, the "alls, Min"). It is water stained and taped together and taped together again. Instead of being discarded, it was held onto dearly.

After my mother's mother passed away in the nineteen sixties, this charming and much beloved sampler below, came to live in our home. It was stitched by my great grandmother (pictured above), I was thinking as a young girl all this time but I just noticed that her initials are for her married name. She was married in 1892, so it could be as old as that, or more recent. Oh, how I wish there was a date on it!!!

It has the sweetest little verse ... probably seen on a bazillion samplers, but it was new to me.

dear little house
dear shabby street
dear books and beds
and food to eat
how feeble words
are to express
the facets of
your tenderness

nature or nurture

2011-06-01T14:34:00.000-07:00

One of the fun items and treasures I've found at my Dad's house is this small cigar tin of recipes from my mother's family. It appears to have been begun by my great grandmother and then added to by my grandmother.

So it must be hereditary, the very tapestry of my being, this love of recipes and recipe collecting ... and some occasional cooking bwahahhahha!

The most fun was finding this Nestle's wrapper with a "new recipe" for Toll House Chocolate Cookies!!! OH! I love me some warm chocolate chip cookies ... mmmmmmmmm! I am guessing this wrapper is about seventy + years old ... since it says the recipe is "new" and the instructions state to chop the chocolate bar - chocolate chips had not been invented yet.

Imagine that, a world without chocolate chips. WOW!

Early American

2011-05-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

I finally (well I should give credit where credit is due - the intrepid husband found them AND he also found my great grandmother's baby doll! More about that down the road - she's like a giant Frozen Charlotte or whatever the name of those china doll heads you see everywhere now.) found a box of my mother's recipe clippings up at the house. They used to be in a kitchen drawer but living in their former home, was now a huge quantity of kitchen towels (too funny! my mother must have had the worlds largest collection of those relentlessly teehee cheerful, kitchen towels with bunnies and teddy bears, etc.).

I have been searching high and low for her recipe clippings and EUREKA, found at last. I have been longing to find them, hoping that perhaps some of my fraternal grandmother's recipes might be amongst them. Please please please. Let my grandmother have granted her daughter-in-law, her favorite and most oft requested recipes!

(Don't you hate when people won't share a good recipe?! Especially when it's family! What's up with that?!)

I've only begun looking through the box and it's so much fun. I found an envelope marked "house ideas" in my mother's handwriting.

My mother had champagne taste on a beer budget as they used to say. Probably the most frequently uttered words in my childhood home were "We can't afford it" and "When my ship comes in".

Many spare moments were passed dreaming over home decor magazines, oohing and awing, and visits to fine stores to window shop and dream some more.

My second childhood home, (the first having only been for a couple of years and having left no mark on my memory), was where my mother lived out her Early American dream. Early American furniture was all the rage when I was a kid. I found these pages that my mother had saved and sniffled and weeped with joy.

We had a Dry Sink, like the one featured in two of the images below ... which is still at my father's house (my third childhood home), which I am hoping to find room for in my house. (Along with a piece my mother called a Dough Box - so wonderful!). There is also a table/desk and a coffee table but I don't see how I can fit four pieces into my house that is the size of a closet?!

For some reason my memory tells me that the pieces are "real" antiques, not reproductions - I seem to remember, my mother and I visiting a man who sold antiques here in the Valley in Southern California. Could that be true??? Surely my memory must be faulty?!

Any ideas on how I find out?

(The dry sink pictured in this photo to the left of the stove, is very much like my mom's,
except for the latch. The credit states that this one above was made by Lane.)

(Here's a better photo of the dry sink from another publication, isn't it CUTE?!)

(We had lots of chairs like the one in the forefront on the right,
my mother called them Captains Chairs.)

Thanks so much for hanging in there with me! You're the best!
Wishing you all a very Happy Monday!

Look what I found

2011-05-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

sigh ...

I miss my Dad.

I miss my life. It seems so very long ago now that I had my own life.

My days are consumed with my father's Estate and my utter and complete lack of knowledge in that arena. Hit a major bump this week with a whackadoo of an attorney that had to be dismissed. Long story.

My parents never got rid of anything, so there is much digging and sifting going on up at the house. Tons of old business brochures, invoices, etc., but I dare not just heave the lot, for treasure has been found lurking in the most unlikely of places. WAH! So very tedious and time consuming.

On Monday, I was shifting some books around - I thought I had already gone through all the books, but no, wait, what is this???! Another bit of gold, tucked away.

I found this wooden book and I thought it must be a souvenir from our trip to Yosemite when I was eleven years old, which would have been grand but it turned out to be even better!

I found the visitors diary from my maternal grandparents cabin in Washington. Sadly there are only a few pages of entries and most of the handwriting is so very pale, blending into the paper now. But oh! It makes my heart glad! Seeing family members names and family friends names, that I remember hearing stories about in my childhood.

(love this entry ... "A wonderful chicken dinner, a swell time. Thanks so much.")

For all the finding of stuff, there are things that sill elude me. I cannot find my mother's grandmother's baby doll, I cannot find the quilt my mother was making me or the quilted pillows she had made. I fear my father must have given things away without asking me.

But I did find the ceramic donkey that held buttons all my growing up years and up to my mother's passing. I found him "buttonless" and underneath the bathroom sink, half a house length from his real home in my parents house.

I think he owes his sad fate to the first two housekeepers my father had after my mom died. Two charming ladies, sisters-in-law, who not only were great maids, but would move things about and decorate and cheer up the house for my father. Little did they know that they were messing with my memories and would create a search for me of some nearly fifteen years to find this beloved object of my childhood.

Alas, he is now packed away in one of the GAZILLION boxes in my poor little eleven hundred square foot cracker box of a house. (My house resembles a warehouse these days. WAH!) When I find him again, I will take a photo and post it.

Hope this finds everyone well and happy! I miss you all! Thank you so much for hanging in there with me.

Somehow the days pass

2011-04-29T14:47:00.000-07:00

I'm finding each day so very hard. Every morning I am filled to overflowing with anxiety and I feel my heart break all over again.

My father's girlfriend moved out sometime early this morning. She didn't want us to come up and say goodbye to her, she wanted to be alone, leave quietly and shut the door on all the sadness.

We saw her yesterday and said our goodbyes, she of the stalwart, smiling face and me of the weeping mess.

She had grown to be a symbol for/facsimile of, my Dad to me the past six weeks and with her departure came the reality (once again) that my Dad is truly gone.

I do not know how people make it through such heartbreak.

And yet I also know that I have made it through myself before when my brother and mother passed away nine months apart. Something that I never thought I would get past, that the pain would never diminish, and somehow it did. I know it now.

So they must be right, that time heals. Broken hearts. Somehow.

I will try to hang onto that.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-21T15:27:00.001-07:00

Long time no PEEP (hardy har har Easter jokie for you guys teehee! ... I know, GROAN!) out of me, I know! It's been so long that I had to put on my thinking cap and squinch up my face really hard to remember my password for my blog.

I've really been struggling a lot and haven't wanted to dump it all here on my blog. Please know I think of you all often and miss you. And I wanted to check in and say Hello and wish everyone a very Happy Easter!

I decided to "holiday-i-fy" a bit in the hopes of lifting my spirits ... you know, pretend as if and perhaps it will be. So the photo above is the bottom of my Easter feather tree but good grief, I couldn't get a decent picture of the rest to save my life. I am extremely camera challenged, woe is me.

I've invited my family to my father's country club for Easter Brunch, we've been going the past eight years or so - the club graciously said they'd love to have us, they all loved my Daddy. So it will be one last time there for us, at the place he loved so much.

Oh my gosh, the things I am finding up at my dad's house!!! I am fixed for life with items for Vintage Thingie Thursday! I found these two Easter cards to my father, from my brother and I ... given before I could write my own name as my brother has signed both of our names.

Wishing you all a wonderful Easter (hope those on Spring Break are having lots of fun!), hoping you can gather all your dear ones close and hold them near this holiday week.

I'm not sure what to write anymore

2011-03-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd write a little Hello post to all of you but somehow words are few and hard to find.

There was a lovely turnout for my father's funeral, lots of his friends from the business world, telling "Bob" anecdotes. It meant so much to be with his friends and hear how respected and beloved he was.

My father had told me he wanted his girlfriend to be able to remain in his house for six months after he passed away, so that she had time to regain her equilibrium and move to her property she has in another state.

Well ... she's decided to leave the Friday after Easter!!!

ACK!

So I'm pretty much bonkers over here, between being heartbroken and grieving, little (!) sleep, having to visit lawyers, etc., I'm now having to pick the girlfriends brain for answers to things I need to know before she leaves.

You'll find me curled up into a ball and rocking in the corner ...

I've begun going through the stuff in the house ... my mom and dad never threw anything away, so it's a slow, memory-laden, sorting out and untangling, mess, er, task. The good news is that some missing family movies were finally found. YIPPIE!

If you're still out there, a big thank you for hanging in there with me and I hope this finds you all well and happy! Hoping I can catch up with you soon and hear all of your news.

nighty night

2011-03-16T10:05:00.001-07:00

I just about fainted yesterday when I found this note I had written my dad long long ago when I was six or something?! It was especially poignant since with every evening visit or call to him in the hospital (and many during the daytime, since he was dozing so much), I would say to my dad, "Nighty night Dad, sleep tight".

A few hours from now I will be leaving for my dad's funeral. One young man is coming all the way from the East Coast for it - my father had recently mentored him and he's coming to say thank you.

Nighty night Pop, I love you ...

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away to the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other,
That, we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect.
Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same that it ever was.
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you.
For an interval.
Somewhere. Very near.
Just around the corner.

All is well.

~Henry Scott Holland

Making memory boards

2011-03-15T16:09:00.000-07:00

I hope this finds you all well!

I've been a busy bee over here making memory boards and a quick scrapbook of photos for dad's funeral tomorrow.

Thank you so much for all of your kind words, I so appreciate them.

Do not go gentle ...

2011-03-10T21:26:00.001-08:00

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

~Dylan Thomas

My dear father passed away peacefully today at 4:30. He fought long and hard to stay here with us, he railed and cursed the dying of the light but his poor body was spent and unwilling.

Thank you so very much for being there for me these past six and a half weeks, your friendship has meant so very much to me.

Botanical drawings for Vintage Thingie Thursday

2011-03-09T13:37:00.000-08:00

(For those who have been following my posts about my father ... his doctor submitted his discharge orders a few hours ago. He is to go home to hospice care at about eight PM tonight. The past few days have been very difficult, he has become dependent on the BiPap machine, struggling for breath otherwise. So heartbreaking. He had begun to spend the days sleeping again (we think due to the build up of CO2) and saying only a few words - his doctor ordered another blood transfusion yesterday and he is a wee bit perkier today. I got to talk to him this morning on the phone and needless to say it brought smiles and tears of joy. I will be leaving in a bit to go to the hospital but have all this nervous energy and thought I'd do a Vintage Thingie Thursday post while I am waiting for my husband to come home and we leave for the hospital. Thank you again for all of your care and concern and prayers for my father.)

(Please visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

This post is a continuation of my Rednesday post yesterday, here.

Today I am sharing a few pages from Aunt Lulu's college Biology notebook (from 1891) and admiring her delicate hand again (I have big clunky flourish-y handwriting and would love to have elegant handwriting!) and her drawings (I can't draw my way out of a paper bag!).

Happy Vintage Thingie Thursday!

Vintage reds for Rednesday

2011-03-08T08:36:00.001-08:00

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

Needing a little pick-me-up and distraction over here so I thought I'd get back in the saddle and do a Rednesday post of some family treasure I found recently.

I found these wonderful items belonging to my maternal great grandmother's sister-in-law. I think she was what was deemed a "spinster" long ago - she attended college, became a teacher and so far I cannot find that she ever married. I think she must have come to live with her brother and my great grandmother (or with her mother and her items were passed down to my grandmother).

Dear Aunt Lulu. I think she has the sweetest face. Did she really never have a "suitor"? Her school notebooks suggest an excellent and curious mind - perhaps she was an early feminist, wanting/needing to have her own voice, not wanting to give up her own pursuits, as women had to do back then?

(Lulu, in the forefront, seated on the ground,
wearing the same dress as the photo before,
wonder what the occasion was? High School
or College Graduation or???)

I am sharing a red(ish) autograph album that was given to her by three friends and also her red marbled paper-covered notebook from Carleton College, Northfield, MN, dated 1890.

I know my gnome, sprite, elf and fairy loving friends will adore this one! Isn't the little gnome charming?! The cover is velvet and I can't begin to guess what the image is made out of??? Would anyone know by any chance what the material used would be? It's thin and looks like plastic but I didn't think plastic existed in the late 1800's?

The inside has a lovely vintage graphic with a fairy riding on a bumble bee, surrounded by flowers and birds.

For some reason, this lovely treasure was never shared, never passed around for the collection of autographs, the pages left bare. Even so, I have a feeling that it was much loved, being taken out and looked upon, sweet memories of youth rekindled.

(the penmanship in the inscription is absolutely gorgeous!)

Oh my gosh ... and this, her college notebook with her course notes. Her handwriting and neatness are a marvel to me. How on earth does one take "neat and tidy" notes?! I sure never could or did.

I've only just started to read it but I thought this might be an interesting page to share with you ...
Oct. 9

By President Strong

Subject: How to gain concentration of thought.

Use your will power.
Be methodical.
Count every moment worth something.
Learn by your own practice how you can best do what you have to do.
Learn self-dependence. Do not allow others to do your work.
Do not forget the real object of education. The great end of education is not to acquire mere facts but to gain power.

(the "gain power" bit kind of freaks me out! Really, the purpose of education is to gain power? Really??? YIKES, such a weird thought and use of words.)

Six weeks ...

2011-03-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

Today is six weeks since my father fell and broke his hip and went into the hospital.

I'm sorry I haven't updated - it's just been more of the same but sadder. He had had a wonderful day on Thursday, so engaged and talkative and making jokes but now it's become very clear the ensuing past few days that my dad's lungs are really in dire shape. He struggles to breathe every morning when they take the BiPap mask off and replace it with the lesser mask. We had thought perhaps the reason was the shock of not feeling that blast of pressurized air and anxiety - but heart breakingly no, that's not it - the nurse gave him anti-anxiety meds and he was still struggling. The lesser mask is on the maximum it can operate but it is not enough for my father, so they had to replace the BiPap mask.

And they just completed the final test ordered on my father, a CT scan to see if perhaps he had a blood clot in his lungs. They found no evidence of any clots but they did find some more fluid build up.

The doctor hasn't been by yet this morning so I don't know what will happen next yet ...

Thank you again for hanging in there with me, for your continued kind comments, your support, your prayers, your friendship. It means so very much to me.

The best laid plans of mice and men ...

2011-03-03T10:59:00.000-08:00

... often go awry!

Or as Robert Burns said:

The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley

I was so looking forward to starting a craft project and a new book yesterday but alas, neither happened. WAH! I got caught up in working on my family tree on Ancestor.com and time just went wooshing by. Gosh, that's addictive.

Well until today at any rate - when things got oh so muddled with at least four generations of George Ross's appeared and got all crazy and intermingled.

One of my relatives wrote a family genealogy and I have that to refer to but there are other people on Ancestry.com who I share relatives with and they have some different dates.

So confusing. And that's working on a family line that I already have info on - all the work has been done for me, I just have to plug in the dates. (but then the dates conflict ... woe is me)

If source documents aren't posted, how on earth do you know what is the real date or fact?!

So I'm no longer having fun - instead, I am muttering under my breath and pulling my hair out. I am moving onto another family branch and leaving the dear Ross family behind for another day when I have eaten my Wheaties!

They moved my father out of ICU on Monday evening - the pinheads moved him into an unmonitored room. The portable monitors they brought in, kept him awake all night long and all Tuesday. ARGH!

Thankfully they moved him Tuesday night (at midnight), into a monitored room. We are hoping that he will be able to come home shortly - we keep hearing in a couple of days but "a couple of days" has passed so many times, that I don't pay any attention anymore.

Can't believe it's Thursday already, I have completely lost track of time - hope you're all having a great week!

I'm in need of a mental health day

2011-03-02T07:47:00.000-08:00

Not doing so very great over here.

Oh boy howdy - am I ever in need of a day off from my life!

I've tried my best to not bemoan and air the family dysfunction I grew up in on here - to keep my blog insanity free bwahahhahhahha. Suffice it to say that this episode with my father is royally dredging up the past for me and I am in a lot of pain.

I keep showing up for a man that treated my mother like doggie doo, a man that seldom hung out with his family, choosing god knows whose company over ours - a man none of us could ever please.

And I'm still showing up, still doing that dance for daddy, the can't you love me daddy dance. And coming up short again.

OUCHERS times a gazillion!

His only interest is in this new woman who yesses him, spoils him ... a woman who doesn't understand the history of her acts and what is being played out, that she is just the understudy, my mother having created the role.

Such familiar territory. Such deep wounds.

So without further ado and a big sigh of relief, today is Do Whatever Sally Pleases Day over here!

May your midweek Hump Day be easy to climb over today and the view fantastic!

A little craftiness & a diversion & a shock!

2011-02-28T11:29:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd show the little bit of craftiness I accomplished in the past two months - this is a craft blog after all! Sheesh. Poor neglected blog!

I was supposed to have a class with Charlotte Lyons (of House Wren Studio) in January and then my father fell and broke his hip and then I got sick with a cold, which became bronchitis - so I missed my class I had been looking forward to for so long. WAH!

I did make darling Charlotte a little present for being so sweet to silly old me though and I thought I'd share it with you and help cheer up my sad little blog. (I finally got it mailed off to her last week and she's received it so now I can share it with you.)

Charlotte loves to stitch so I thought a little sewing kit would be a fun and fitting gift for her.

In case you're interested in the specifics ...

An egg carton was my jumping off point for inspiration. I found some darling old fashioned mini black embroidery scissors (but with regular sized finger holes) online that fit in the carton, and made a little fabric insert to attach them to. I made a padded egg and embroidered "You're a good egg" on it, to place needles that were in use. I made an egg pincushion. I made Charlotte three cross stitch ribbons and wound them on antique thread spools. I had read a post of Charlotte's saying what size embroidery thread she liked and enclosed four colors in that size and also a packet of needles.

I also found a sweet little black hen online to go with my theme and found clip art online for a gift card to go with it.

I also made a card with a felt hen and raffia for her straw nest.

The class project was to be Charlotte's "Love Banner" and the class was two weeks before Valentine's Day, so I wrapped her gifts as I would have a Valentine's Day gift.

ETA: I forgot to add the following resources used:

Fabric Easter Egg Tutorial is from Retro Mama here.

Hen pattern is from Esprit Cabane here.

And I got all of one Valentine card made this year with all the hospital visits and worry. Years ago, I met a very sweet woman in a rubber stamp store while we were on vacation. She and I got to talking and she asked if I would like to exchange handmade Christmas cards with her and I said YES! (Which has gone on to include all holidays.) I didn't want to let her down this year and somehow managed to squeeze this out.

I found the tutorial here for a 3 D Heart Valentine's Day Card on The Creative Place blog.

The stationery that I used for a note, is an online printable. It's available here, on Creature Comforts.

Re a diversion ... I've been having such fun playing on Ancestry.com and working on a family tree to keep my mind off of all the stress and worry of my dad's hospitalization. It's great fun to see all the other families that are intertwined with my own.

It's also been a bit mind-blowing and illuminating (understatement! - since I had never heard of any LDS connection in our family) Unbeknownst to me, I found that my family has two (so far ...) polygamist unions in our family tree.

What?!

Yup!

One man had NINE wives and 43 children!!! Holy moly! The other one was an underachiever with only two wives and five children.

Perhaps this has been lost to time but I think not. I think it must be a family secret as I quizzed my Aunt and cousin and they were very odd about it - changing stories, etc.

I find it all fascinating and can't wait to delve in further. I love a good mystery!

I'm also stumped on my maternal grandfather's family from Sweden, any tips out there on how to research immigrants from Sweden?

And lastly, for my shock of the day ... when I saw my father at the hospital this morning, he told me that he wants to marry his girlfriend!!! Such a shocker!

I am glad that he has found love and happiness and grateful to his girlfriend for taking such good care of him but ... well ... I don't care for her. Not. one. iota. Blech. ARGH!!! She is bossy and opinionated and controlling and I could go on and on. But it doesn't really matter what I think, does it?! It's his life and nearing the end of his life, he deserves this small happiness.

He said he hadn't asked her yet, that he wanted to talk to me and that he wouldn't do anything I didn't want. I fought back the words that were welling up inside me and only said, it's your life Dad and your decision.

Geez Louise. What on earth is going to happen next?!!

My Dad is a bit better today - his CO2 levels went up again over the weekend, so he couldn't be moved out of ICU. They drained the fluid in his lungs this morning, that should make him feel better.

I listened to him to talk to two business clients on the phone this morning and he sounded like his old self in spirit.

Hoping his body will oblige!

Well, I've written a book after so long away, huh?! Wishing you all a Happy Monday!

One foot in front of the other

2011-02-26T08:07:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: Saturday 9 Am PST - No sooner had I hit publish than the phone rang. My dad's girlfriend said my father is experiencing difficulty breathing. My dad asked to speak with me and he said it "had been a really long day" - I guess he meant "night". He said he felt a little better now and did express that he was happy about his business again.

Please think a good thought that my father will be comfortable. Thank you!

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Every day we hear the same words ... we will get your father up today and move him out of ICU ... ARGH!

Apparently they don't really bother with PT in the ICU ... but they do tell you that your relative is severely deconditioned from laying around for weeks. No kidding. GRRRRRRR!

Thank heavens every few days my dad has had a very nice male nurse and he was willing to (try to) lift my dad up and position him on the edge of the bed yesterday. He helped my dad to sit up twice yesterday and the effort really pooped my dad out (understatement) but hopefully that's just a beginning on the road to recovering some body strength.

The pulmonary doctor said my dad's blood gases were much improved, YIPPIE! My dad has known him for a number of years and they're so cute together - the doctor always comes in with a golf joke or anecdote to cheer my major golfing-nut dad up.

They were to move my father out of ICU yesterday but there wasn't a bed available on another floor for him yet ... at least this time the issue was a lack of a bed for him.

Depending on how he does after he is moved out of ICU, we will decide whether or not we will rescind the hospice care order and choose regular home care instead, or not. My father's own doctor says that there are advantages to both and that we will review our options after the weekend.

If he is with-it mentally at the time of his release from the hospital, we know that the very word and thought of "Hospice" will be devastating to him.

He was barely "there" when we made the decision earlier and now he is conversant (and even making business calls to clients - he is so very thrilled over a new contract!). That said, he is experiencing difficulty breathing, just laying down, with no exertion.

Wishing you all a great weekend! Do you have any fun plans? We have theater tickets on Sunday and will be seeing a play starring Jane Fonda (I think it's her return to the stage after a gazillion years), not realizing it conflicts with the Oscars! Thankfully we're seeing the matinee but we'll still have to scurry home quickly - after picking up something yummy on the way home for dinner, of course. Three cheers for DVR's.

Thank you again so much for your continued care, concern and friendship, it means so much to me!

Dare I say ...

2011-02-24T11:52:00.000-08:00

... that today is a good day for my dad?!

He stayed awake for long patches yesterday and is doing so again today AND three, count them, three, doctors said that he was doing better today. YIPPIE!

He is even wearing his cranky pants today so he must be feeling more like himself teehee!

He told me and his girlfriend that he was going to "demand" to be sent home and sign himself out but then when his doctor arrived to see him, he only asked to go home. Poor thing, it's been four and a half weeks of a total nightmare for him.

Anyway, today is good and we're counting our blessings.

Thank you so much for all of your care and kind comments, I appreciate it so very much!

I'm so very tired of this roller coaster!

2011-02-23T15:08:00.000-08:00

ARGH ARGH ARGH

I am so dang confused and so very tired of being confused.

The last time I wrote I spoke about the ICU doctor painting the bleakest of pictures. Well ... the next morning when I visited the hospital, a Palliative Care doctor showed up to speak with me - I hadn't been told this would happen.

The good news with that visit was that she told us she thought my father would probably have "months" yet ... while the ICU doctor had said a couple of months and also said anything little thing could be too much for my father.

Things are (were?), moving at lightning speed ... yesterday afternoon we met with a Hospice Care company and signed up with them for Dad's care ... my father was to be reviewed for a day or two and if stable then released home to hospice care.

Well ...

I just got a call from my father's own private doctor and he said that there are still two procedures that the hospital can do for my father that may make him a bit better and feel better ... #1. a transfusion for his anemia, which the higher red blood count would help the oxygenation of his blood and #2, draining off the fluid around his lungs (which apparently my father has had done before and it was helpful).

So ... my dad's own private doctor is requesting the ICU staff to "treat whatever is reversable".

Well um, yeah!

I had thought that was the decision we came to with the ICU doctor.

ARGH!

And most importantly, my dad's own doctor said that my dad could have a breathing tube inserted for a short period of time and then have it removed and not be any worse than he currently is. (My dad's doctor is a heart doctor and he also had a pulminary [spellling?] specialist review my father's case.)

@&%^&!+#^&%$!!!

Why on earth did the ICU doctor tell us that my dad would never be able to have a tube removed, once one was inserted and that he'd be in a vegetative state???

I want to throttle someone right now - only I don't know who to throttle!

So we wait for those two procedures and see how my dad is and then if he is stable, the hospice company will accept him and he will go home and be under their care.

I feel slightly insane at this moment ...

Quality of life

2011-02-22T05:19:00.000-08:00

oh gosh ...

Well, we received a call from the ICU Doctor yesterday afternoon saying she'd like to speak to us about my father. We had already been to the hospital earlier on Monday, had come home, had just finished lunch, when the call came.

We met with the doctor and the picture is very sad.

We had been fooled by the stats on the machines, since my father's blood pressure was fine, his heart rhythm was fine, his oxygenation was where it should be, etc. and no one had suggested otherwise to us. Until yesterday afternoon.

My father gets better for a few hours and then there's a new worry. My dad's lungs and his ability to expel the CO2 are just about non-existent. He is walking a very narrow tight rope - any little thing could be more than his frail body can handle.

Heartbreakingly, his days may be very few or he may rally again, perhaps for a couple of months but not more - his new base line is so very low now and he doesn't have the strength to rebound yet again.

I'm writing this because I may fall quiet here and I wanted to let you know why.

I want to thank you all so much for your continued care and concern for my father and myself, your many prayers, well wishes, kind words of support and friendship. You are all very dear to me.

Thank you!

The long and winding road ...

2011-02-21T07:03:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone is enjoying their President's Day weekend!

Things remain pretty much unchanged around here.

Today is four weeks since my father broke his hip and went into the hospital. His oxygen numbers are getting better, his kidneys are improving after his severe dehydration episode, the tremors are gone but he is still too weak to sit up on the edge of his bed or in the chair. His doctor told us that his red count was low and they were possibly going to give him some blood units. They were also going to give him a swallow test using a fiber optic camera - yipes! - the regular one was not definitive.

So he is improved over the emergency state he was in one week ago today but still in ICU, still so very weak and now depressed.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

We went and saw the Academy Award Nominated Animated Shorts and Live Action Shorts yesterday - nice to have a bit of a diversion. We usually run around like crazy people, trying to see all the nominated movies but we're too pooped this year to chase them down.

I saw this really cute President's Day craft on the Etsy blog, from adorable Heidi Kenney's (of My Paper Crane blog) new book, thought you might enjoy it.

Photo from Every day's a Holiday: Year Round Crafting With Kids by Heidi Kenney.

Tutorial is here.

My Dad says he's progressing well

2011-02-17T09:44:00.000-08:00

The phone rang at 9:30, the caller id was my dad's girlfriends number and when I answered, it was my dad's voice. {smile}

He had the big mask on and it was hard to understand every word but he said that he hadn't slept well last night and he wanted to call because he was going to try to go to sleep now.

During every hospitalization he has had night terrors, delusions, etc. ... they have told us that it is pretty typical with elderly patients - they've called it "Sundowner's". When night comes, elderly patients tend to become more disoriented.

He said he's progressing well. Hurray hurrah!

I was thinking this is the only photo I have with my Dad when I was little. And good gosh, I'm not looking at the camera and his back is to the camera. WAH! Let that be a lesson, be sure and take lots of photos with your kiddies and grandkiddies with everyone facing the camera!

I'm not sure whose home this was??? This probably was the day my love of Huskies began?!! Look at that poochie, what a cutie ... certainly the star of this photograph.

It's nice to be seen

2011-02-16T08:49:00.001-08:00

a small update 2/16/11 10:00 AM PST - my dad's girlfriend just called me and said "Today's a really good day". WAHOO! She said that Dad is doing better and that his kidney's were doing well - I didn't know anything to the contrary about his kidneys but that's good to hear. She put my dad on the phone and he said he's doing well and to tell everyone he's feeling good. Which is of course a monumental overstatement but so very wonderful and reassuring to hear!!! Hurray for Daddy!

We saw my Dad in ICU yesterday. He was sleeping when we arrived. We stood on each side of the bed and looked down at him and after a bit, he stirred. My husband said "It's good to see you Bob" and my Dad replied "It's good to be seen". major heart melt! He went on to ask what the weather was like outside and we told him that it had rained and he replied with surprise "It did?!". And then he went back to snoozing.

We don't know anything further yet. We did run into his Social Worker and she seemed very nice and assured us up and down that they would find him an after care facility that also provides medical care this time.

Well sheesh! Ya think?!

Sorry, I'm really miffed (whopping understatement) about the huge holes in my Dad's care. ARGH!

I didn't get a chance to share this with you before ... on Valentine's Day, a card came for me, from my Dad! So surreal and freaky, to receive as I was hurrying out the door to the Emergency Room to see my father, terrified of the news ... obviously it had been picked out before he went into the hospital and his girlfriend had mailed it off (just before the darkest of days arrived, unbeknownst to her), to make it to me on Valentine's Day. sniffle sniffle SOB Happy Valentine's Day Dad!

I just talked to my Dad!

2011-02-15T08:13:00.000-08:00

a little update: My dad's girlfriend just called me and she said the nurse told her that their current theory is severe dehydration and his oxygen levels were really low.

ARGH ARGH ARGH!

How could they miss dehydration?! (we're talking about the most basic of things!) & How could they not be on top of a COPD's patients oxygen levels?!

Someone over here named Sally, is very cranky right now after hearing that GRRRRRRRRR!

My dad's girlfriend said he is still having some loopy moments but we're so thankful that he is a little improved today.

whew ...

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YABBA DABBA DOO!

My Dad's girlfriend just called me and said "Would you like to speak to your Dad?!"!!!

And then my Dad got on the phone and I could understand every word.

Doing a jig over here! Can you feel my smile all the way over there?! Bet you can!

We don't know what any of the test results were yet but we do know that he was dehydrated, has a bladder infection, he wasn't able to exhale the CO2, etc., all of which could account for his odd symptoms.

Oh! I forgot to ask him if he'd run into Elizabeth (Taylor) yet teehee!

(I had begun to write the following post before the phone rang...)

We spent several hours at the Emergency Room yesterday. They had taken all sorts of blood tests and a chest xray by the short time later when we got there but didn't know anything yet.

My father recognized me and said my name, which was an improvement over Sunday at the rehab facility. He asked what time it was and what was going on - so in the midst of all of this chaos, he seemed to be a bit more with it.

The ER doctor ordered a different kind of mask for my father, as he wasn't able to exhale the CO2. Within a half hour, his color looked better and he was twitching less and he finally appeared to be resting, rather than agitated.

The only news we received was that they did find out that he was dehydrated and had a bladder infection and fluid in his lungs and they were going to do a brain scan to determine if he'd had a stroke.

He was admitted to ICU (he can schmooz with Elizabeth Taylor!). Cedars seems to be determined to get to the bottom of this, thank heavens!

We feel that the previous hospital released him too quickly and that the rehab center didn't monitor him as a COPD patient should be. ARGH!

And that's for someone who has the ability to have the best of care, it terrifies me to think of what happens to people who have no insurance and/or are unable to be their own advocate or have family or friends watching out for them!

I am waiting for the plumber - we have a leak under the house - when it rains it pours, huh?!

I will update after I have spoken to my dad's girlfriend.

I'm a basket case

2011-02-14T11:28:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: 2/14/11 Noon PST - The rehab facility just called me and my dad is having some more issues and he's being sent to the hospital Emergency Room.

Please think a good thought for my Daddy ...

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We saw my Dad at the rehab facility yesterday. It was unbearably heartbreaking. (I think I've said that my Dad is 92 and still works - he's always been active and his mind and wit are the quickest of anyone I've ever known.) This man of stature, of robust health, looks tiny and frail and is out in some other orbit right now. The dazzling blue eyes didn't look at us but at something his continually moving hands were after.

He spoke my husband's name at one point, asking for his cap for some reason only known to him, but didn't say mine. I asked him if he knew who we were and he said yes, that he recognized us immediately but then he asked if we were going to Oregon or Palm Springs, which we had no plans to go either place.

I got a call at 7:50 this morning from a nurse and she said that his oxygen numbers had dropped and the doctor had ordered another chest xray - we don't know the results yet. (He has COPD and apparently giving him just the right amount of oxygen is very tricky.)

My father has shut me and my husband out of the loop the past three years, choosing his girlfriend over us every time. I think his being such a private, private person and having us so involved in his life and his care, made him really feel his age and he thought we judged him incapable of taking care of his self, which we did not.

Every single bit of this is so very painful ...

Weekend update

2011-02-13T10:12:00.000-08:00

I was hoping since my dad had improved enough to go into the rehab facility that the weekend would be a "non-event" ... no such luck.

I spoke with my dad yesterday and he was pretty loopy and out of it - he's had periods of disorientation with every hospitalization and we've been told that it's pretty typical with elderly patients. He called me "Mom" and said he'd like some eggs. And then he was babbling happily to himself in words I couldn't understand.

Well, his girlfriend just called me and he's still out of it - doesn't know who he is or where he is - that's never happened before. Before he'd say some off the wall stuff and then come back to reality - now he's just out there, in some other orbit, for more than a day.

WAH!

I asked MDGF why the nurses don't react/respond/comment on, my dad's disorientation and she said it's because there are all sorts of patients there with dementia and Alzheimer's - I said but my dad doesn't have dementia or Alzheimer's and she told me that my dad had been put on a drug that Alzheimer patients take - he was prescribed it for memory loss.

So she surmises that the nurses see that med on his chart and think he is a dementia or Alzheimer patient and pay no attention.

ARGH!

Thankfully his own doctor is the one on call today and he will come by and visit my father later today.

So frightening.

Happy almost Valentine's Day!

2011-02-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

UPDATE 2/12/11 - My dad was released from the hospital yesterday and went into a rehab facility. He went to one where his own doctor can visit him - his doctor doesn't have privileges at the hospital my dad was in, so he wasn't able to visit him while he was there - so that's good news. Pretty much nothing will happen over the next couple of days since it's the weekend, none of the therapists will be working, etc., so I probably won't be updating regarding his progress over the weekend.

Thanks again for all of your kind words and care, I so appreciate all of you!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!

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UPDATE - um, already! ;) 9:30 AM PST -
As soon as I hit "publish", the phone rang and my dad's girlfriend just told me that my dad had a really good day yesterday. YABBA DABBA DOO! Pending some blood test results, he may be moved to the rehab facility as early as this afternoon. YEAH!

Group hug!

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And somehow it's Friday ... the days are blending into each over here. I hope you're all well and happy!

I haven't heard anything yet this morning re my dad - they tend to do procedures, have doctor visits, etc. in the morning, so I haven't called in yet today.

My dad's girlfriend did say that my father was a smidge better yesterday and they were going to try to get him out of the bed at long last and sit him in a chair. I know from previous hospitalizations, how difficult it is to find someone and get them to help him into the chair and walk him - don't know what's up with that??? Are they massively under-staffed?

Have I told you that I adore Pinterest? I found this charming Heart Banner for Valentine's Day on it this morning.

Tutorial by Hometown Girl, here.

Happy Almost Valentine's Day!

One step forward, two steps back ...

2011-02-09T13:27:00.000-08:00

Mini Update 2:20 PST: My dad's girlfriend just called - they've already finished the procedure and are going to return him right to his room. My good gosh, that was FAST!

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Well ... I was in the midst of typing an update about my father (as my dad's girlfriend just called me 45 minutes ago) and then my dad's girlfriend just called me again, so scratch the first draft. :)

It turns out that, based on the Swallow Therapist's (wonder what the real title is???) assessment yesterday, she spoke with the team of doctors (my dad is at UCLA and since it's a teaching hospital, each patient has a bazillion doctors) and they decided that he needs a stomach tube.

So ... they just came right now to take him down to surgery!

Thankfully, it is a very short procedure ... but my dad is greatly depleted from the last five days (MDGF was telling me that my father was on his feet and standing up five days ago) - once again his white cell count is elevated (they say the pneumonia is gone) and he has some fever (they don't know why currently), his forearms are all swollen up (they don't know why - this has happened to him before during hospital stays - they ran scans on his legs yesterday and were going to be doing them on his arms but now he's off to have the tube inserted) and he just wants to sleep.

I got to talk to him for a moment just now and he seemed to be in good spirits.

It's currently looking like he will need to go to a rehab facility even though he doesn't want to - he is too weak at this point for his girlfriend to manage on her own with him as planned previously.

Your continued good thoughts, prayers and healing vibes are most welcome. Thank you so much!

Yippie yippie, Spring has arrived!

2011-02-09T08:59:00.000-08:00

Doing the happy dance over here!

Dear Charlotte has alerted us that the latest issue of Amy Powers
charming Inspired Ideas has just been released. WHOOPIE!

There are a couple of previews to whet your appetite here and here.

And I found this while blog hopping this morning, so very cute!

Tutorial for this darling hedgehog ornament here.

How do I love thee ...

2011-02-08T14:13:00.000-08:00

I spoke with my dad's girlfriend a couple of hours ago - long story, but my dad wasn't able to have his swallow test as planned this morning. They are hoping that they will be able to tomorrow (Wednesday).

My dad's voice sounds stronger, so it seems that he is gaining a little ground.

I gather once the swallow test is completed, the next step will be having a stomach tube inserted (once he has his swallow test and they document he can't swallow without aspirating).

The delays feel so long between each step, so frustrating.

whineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ...

Here's a lovely idea to make your Valentine ... How Do I Love Thee tags. A gorgeous printable that you personalize with things you love about your sweetheart.

(There are more creative Valentine ideas on my new heart blog here.)

From EAB Designs. Printable here.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
~ Elizbeth Barrett Browning

Monday blog love

2011-02-07T08:58:00.001-08:00

Ay yi yi! I'm um, trying to make darling Elizabeth's delightful Valentine doggies and ... failing miserably over here. WAH!!! Pipe cleaner crafts are for small children, aren't they? SOB! And I can't find my glue - I'm sure if they had their eyeballs and hearts attached, they'd be a little cuter ... wah! Oh! I did notice that Elizabeth's chenille stems are oh so much nicer than mine, the fringe on hers is longer and softer than on mine. I got mine at Michael's - I'll have to go ask E where she got hers!

Sally, down in a deep dark crafting hole today bwhahahhahhahaha

(more Valentine fun on my new heart blog too!)

And ... Sitting around sick, iPad in hand, planted on my ever expanding posterior, has led to this MAMMOTH list of yummy blogs! (There are even more ... don't want to make your brains explode ... am saving them for later!)

A Prairie Thistle Life
A Thing For Roses
A Thrifty Mrs
ArtJoyStuff
be present be here
City Cottage
crow and canary
decorology
eighteen25
Elderberry Street
Esprit Boheme
esprit champetre
Family Chic
going home to roost
Good Grief Girdie
Hannas - Form
Heirloom Gypsy
it is what it is
Keswick and Country
Kids Napping I'm Scrapping
La Maison Douche
le blog de Sharon
Le Monde de Catherine
My Grama's Soul
ocd: obsessive crafting disorder
Of Spring and Summer
One Perfect Bite
One Ripe Peach
Pleasant Home
RedBerry Barn
Shabby Cats and Roses
sixtypiggies
Something Special
Summerland Cottage Studio
the drawing board
They Draw and Cook
Thimbleprims Studio
Up The Creek Crafts
Vintage Flair
Vintage Girl At Heart
Vintage Valentine Museum
volume 25

Bored out of my tree

2011-02-06T15:29:00.001-08:00

Aw phooey! I wish I could say I was feeling better but I still feel miserable. I think I must be experiencing bad allergies on top of this cold/bronchitis hullabaloo. WAH! Throw boredom into the mix and I'm really not a happy camper.

So yesterday I created a Valentine blog to amuse myself - you can check it out over here. You know I love finding stuff on the internet so I had a lot of fun!

Are you making any cards for your sweetheart, or for/with your kids or for your friends? I usually make a few - here are mine from last year.

Somehow it's Saturday

2011-02-05T10:49:00.000-08:00

ay yi yi ... I feel like I've lost much of January and now it's not only February, but it's the fifth! How did that happen?! wooosshhh ... cough cough ... woooosh ...

I just talked with my dad's GF and she said my dad "just keeps getting better". SMILE.

He has to have another swallow test though in a couple of days. If he doesn't "do well" on it, looks like he will have to have another surgery to have a stomach tube put in again.

He is unwilling to go into a rehab facility (after several bad experiences)... he says will make do with services provided (a PT and a home care nurse, come for a few weeks, maybe longer) and the girlfriend (who is all over him anyway, aka Miss Boss Of Us All ... ACK!).

All of this because the poor guy slid off of the bed. ARGH! ARGH! ARGH!

Reminder to self: always have ones rumpus firmly planted in life!!!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

How did it get to be Thursday?!

2011-02-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

UPDATE 2/3/11 1:45 PST: I wanted to let you guys know that my dad called me at Noon to say Hello! Whoopie! tra la tra la

Now if I could just speak more than a few words without doubling over in coughs!

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YIKES! I seem to have lost days at a time over here. The days are just smooshing together, filled with little sleep, coughing fits and anxiety over my father.

The pharmacy is only a couple of blocks from me so like a twit I decided to just go pick up my antibiotics there yesterday, rather than wait for a delivery. My legs felt like wiggly JELLO! It all felt so surreal, like the real world was some alien planet. My head feels as though it's stuffed with cotton wool or whatever the saying is - maybe my doggie left some of her toys in my ear teehee!

The oddest thing of all was that I ran into my dad's girlfriend (henceforward to be known as "MDGF") at the drug store! I was so surprised that she had left the hospital and my dad. I yoo-hoo'ed her and we spoke for a brief moment before I succumbed to the bazillionth coughing fit of recent days.

The good news was that she told me that she had mentioned to my dad before she left for her errand, that some college game was going to be on TV and my dad got all excited about it and said YIPPIE!

YEAH! He understood and he responded.

And I just talked to her this morning and he is lucid and responding to prompts and questions and even, conversant. MDGF said that my dad was out of the room and having a procedure done, otherwise she knew he'd want to say Hello to me.

Doing a small, grateful, happy dance over here and daring to exhale.

Thank you so much for your continued care, concern, prayers and friendship.

another day at the sick peoples home

2011-02-02T10:40:00.000-08:00

I just spoke with my dad's girlfriend ... she says he's more responsive today. She said my dad opened his eyes when the doctors asked him to and my dad attempted to answer their questions. She said that his speech is very garbled ... so I don't know if his answers are making any sense?? Two or three days ago, which would precede this latest business with him sleeping so much, she said that he was pretty loopy and not making sense. He has had periods of being delusional with every hospital visit that I know of (which goes back to 2005).

But he's not been mentally out of it for this length of time before. WAH! They are still working on the premise that it is due to his fighting the pneumonia.

I've got a call into my doctor ... I just know that I've got bronchitis. I've had it a gazillion times in my life - but hope springs eternal, I just keep hoping and wishing I were one of those people who gets a cold and it remains simply a cold, no drama and no need for antibiotics. Alas, I'm not getting any better and I'm hoping my doctor will take pity on me with my dad in the hospital and not make me come in. Please please please!

My husband is going back to the doctor this afternoon since the antibiotics he was given haven't put a dent in his ear infection (from this cold bug) either. I do not know how he goes to work with pain in his ear (and all the other maladies of this rotten scourge of a bug!) - I've had two inner ear infections in my life and they are so painful, they made me cry and moan.

Aw geez. Sorry we are such a sad sack lot over here these days! On a happier note ... hooray for lolly gagging and dilly dallying teehee!

I am very much enjoying visiting the entrants of the Fifth (and Final) One World One Heart Event ... thanks so much Pammie for reminding me! Six hundred something participants (so far!) and everyone is giving away a door prize. Hope you have time to visit at least some of the wonderful participants in the event. Enjoy!

Signing off from sick bed over here ... sure hope you're all staying well and not felled by this low down, meanie, buggeroo!

My Dad is having a set back

2011-02-01T16:01:00.000-08:00

UPDATE 2/1/11 6:30 PM (PST): I had my husband call my dad's girlfriend, in case I hadn't understood correctly.

She told my husband that my father had spoken to her in the afternoon - of course that was after she had called me and scared the bejeezus out of me (and didn't even call me back and tell me that he had spoken to her!!! ARGH!).

She spoke with the doctor and the current theory is still that they had changed my dad's antibiotics and that the new ones were making him drowsy.

sheesh.

So sorry for the worry to you guys - I'm a basket case but there's no reason for me to take you along with me! Sorry!

Thanks for being there and I will try not post in haste again ...

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SOB!

I didn't call my dad's girlfriend this morning as I've been doing every morning, today, since I feel so horrible and it's hard for me to talk without having a coughing fit. I figured she would call me if there was something I should know.

She called a little while ago and said that something is up with him today ... she said that he "fell into a deep sleep this morning" and that he hasn't roused himself.

Currently all we know is that his white blood cell count is up. An infection could account for his behavior but she reminded me of his bad heart.

They are running tests.

I am so worried about my daddy ...

meanwhile ...

2011-02-01T09:44:00.000-08:00

UPDATE on my Dad - Thankfully he was taken off the breathing tube a couple of days ago, then placed on a huge mask (I think it must be like the sleep apnea ones) - I tried to talk to him over the phone and couldn't make out a single word he was saying through his mask but he was yakking up storm for me (and I replied in kind by coughing my head off in his ear, dear me!).

His oxygen numbers aren't high enough so he will have to continue on a mask for awhile yet. (We've been down this road before.)

He is supposed to have a swallow test today - he is aspirating whatever they are giving him.

(He has never been the same since his 2008 stay at UCLA - he lost the ability to swallow without aspirating during that stay and it was a long, long, long road back for him - he had to have a stomach tube for a year or maybe more, my old brain can't remember now. He fought long and hard to regain his strength and be able to eat and drink again, he's quite the trooper.)

Thank you so much for all of your many kind words and care and concern for my father! Please know you are very dear to me.

I am so sorry to be so tardy in updating! I'm feeling quite like walking death over here. This bug is unlike any I've ever had before ... it begins with about five days of your feeling kind of lousy but still functional and on your feet, which lulls you into a false sense that it may not be that bad. WRONG!!! So very wrong.

Then it smacks you on the head, kicks you in the stomach and throws you down for the count!

ARGH!

My husband has been sick five days longer than I have and isn't well yet - so run the other way as fast as you can, should you encounter anyone coughing out and about - you do not want this!!!

Oh! And I had to miss my class with Charlotte Lyons on Sunday! SOB! I have been looking forward to meeting dear Charlotte for so long, woe is me.

Thank heavens for iPads and the wonderful eye candy of Pinterest (how had I missed hearing about it before now?!), two new books, off to a wonderful start (this one and this one) and a mountain of unread magazines.

(I just remembered that I left the tea kettle on the stove to make some tea, thinking I'd hear the whistle, while writing this post. Which is lunacy since my head and ears feel like someone stuffed a beach towel in them. good golly gosh. GEEZ! There was about a tear drop of water left in the bottom. Ay yi yi. I guess I can't multi task at the moment bwahahhahha)

Back to bed for me (after checking the stove, that is!) ...

Thanks again!

My Dad is in the Hospital

2011-01-25T08:59:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: 1/28/11 10:30 AM (PST): My father now has some pneumonia, so they can't take him off of the breathing machine yet. They are hoping for tomorrow.

I'm now super sick ARGH! and I'm not sure if I understood my dad's girlfriend correctly or not but I think she said she spent the night at the hospital with him or at least stayed late into the night. My father panics with the tube in and attempts to pull it out, so frightening(!!!), so she stayed to soothe him.

How about a collective fingers and appendages crossed for the pneumonia to go away and swift removal of the breathing tube for my Pops?!

Thanks you guys!

P.S. And a big Happy Birthday to NanE! :)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE: 1/27/11 9:30 AM (PST): I was so hoping to not have anything to add, hoping all was smooth sailing but found out that my dad is still on a breathing tube in ICU. This was one of the MANY problems he had at UCLA during his 2008 stay there - his blood oxygen levels are low and he has to have the breathing tube in.

So if you feel up to it, got any spare Get Well Daddy vibes and mojo left, we can sure use it over here. sniffle sniffle ack achoo .... back to bed I go ...

-------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE 1/27/11 6:30 AM (PST): Sick as a dog over here but wanted to update you guys ... My father had his surgery yesterday and all went well. (hurray hurrah, doing the happy dance, best birthday present!) The last update we received from my dad's girlfriend was around eight o'clock last night, he was out of Recovery and they were keeping him in ICU last night because of his breathing and heart issues. Haven't heard anything yet today.

Crawling back into bed ... I may not update for awhile, just lay around like a lump. WAH! cough cough sniffle sniffle ....

Thanks again so much for all of your kind words, care and concern! Love you guys!

-----------------------------------

UPDATE 1/26/11, 9:30 AM (PST): Just spoke with my father's girlfriend - my dad's surgery is on for today but he is an "add-on" patient ... they will do all scheduled surgeries before they do his and there's no telling when his surgery will be - could be afternoon, could even be evening.

Hold the presses teehee ... phone just rang and unless previously scheduled surgeries go longer, Dad is now scheduled for twelve thirty today (currently, that is two and a half hours away).

My father has emphysema and breathing issues and also a wonky heart beat, so I'm a bundle of nerves over here. (He had a horrible experience at UCLA in 2008 and the memory of it lingers in my memory.)

Thanks so much for all of your care and concern and also for the birthday wishes! You are all very dear to me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE 1/25/11, 5 PM (PST): My Dad's girlfriend called me a little bit ago and said that my father's surgery is tentatively scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday) at noon, pending two test results ... hoping since the 26th is my birthday, it will bring extra good luck along with it!

(I spoke to my Dad around 3 PM, he said he felt good and he seemed to be in very good spirits.)

Thank you so much for all of your kind words and commiserating with me, I so appreciate your care and friendship!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Post:

My 92 year old Dad is in the hospital. WAH!

My dad's girlfriend called yesterday evening and said he was sitting on the edge of the bed and he slipped off the bed and onto the floor and broke his hip!

He'll have to have surgery - the doctors are meeting this morning to discuss whether he's a candidate for surgery or not and if so, there's a remote chance the surgery will be today - but more likely, it will be tomorrow or Thursday.

My husband and I are sick, so we can't visit him yet. (when it rains, it pours!)

Please think a good thought for him. I will try to update when I can.

Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen

2011-01-21T08:43:00.000-08:00

If you are a child of the sixties, I think I'm pretty safe in betting the homestead on your recognizing my post title as lyrics to a famous song of the era. If you're not, you're probably wondering what on earth I'm talking about teehee!

Well ... jumping up and down over here ... we're off to see a revival of the play "HAIR" this weekend. So cool.

I saw it the very first time with my mother in 1968. Fourteen years old. (yeah, yeah, I lied about it being my 29th birthday next week) And at the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood! (How perfect is that for a time and place, forever set in memory?!)

Sadly, The Aquarius Theater is long gone but we'll be seeing HAIR at the gorgeous Pantages Theater in Hollywood.

I've looked at the song list and I'm so ready for a singalong bwahahhahahaha! I think I remember most of the songs and the lyrics. This is going to be so much FUN!

I found my scrapbook from when I saw it the first time. (I also saw HAIR for a second time, the following summer - "the summer of love, 1969", as in "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair") It's paisley! Sunshiney, earth colors, paisley. Gosh, I loved paisley in the sixties. (still do!)

I am awash in memories of my teenage years over here ... swept away ... so great!

I'm reading the playbill and not only were the creators of the play HAIR in the cast I saw, but I also saw Tommy Smothers, Jennifer Warren and BEN VEREEN! Wow! What a lucky girl I was - wish I realized at the time.

(my ticket stub and L.A. Times review of play)
we were in row G, for all of $6.50!

(photos from teen magazine, "TeenSet",)
which I have no recollection of, at all.
Lyrics to Age of Aquarius, written down by me.

Please forgive the poor photos - I'll try and scan them later, I need to find a screwdriver to undo my scrapbook, it's stuck tight.

Okay ... me me me ... singalong time!

She asks me why, I'm just a hairy guy
I'm hairy noon and night, hair that's a fright
I'm hairy high and low, don't ask me why, don't know
It's not for lack of bread, like the Grateful Dead, darlin'

Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen
Give me down to there hair, shoulder length or longer
Here baby, there mama, everywhere daddy daddy

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair
Flow it, show it, long as God can grow it, my hair

Let it fly in the breeze and get caught in the trees
Give a home to the fleas in my hair
A home for fleas, a hive for bees
A nest for birds, there ain't no words
For the beauty, the splendor, the wonder
Of my...

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair
Flow it, show it, long as God can grow it, my hair

I want it long, straight, curly, fuzzy, snaggy, shaggy, ratty, matty,
Oily, greasy, fleecy, shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen
Knotted, polka-dotted, twisted, beaded, braided
Powdered, flowered, and confettied
Bangled, tangled, spangled, and spaghettied!

Oh say can you see my eyes, if you can then my hair's too short
Down to here, down to there
Down to where it stops by itself

They'll be ga ga at the go go, when they see me in my toga
My toga made of blond, brilliantined, biblical hair
My hair like Jesus wore it, Hallelujah I adore it
Hallelujah Mary loved her son, why don't my mother love me?

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair
Flow it, show it, long as God can grow it
My hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair
Flow it, show it, long as God can grow it
My hair

and ...

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius!
Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revalation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius!
Aquarius!

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius!
Aquarius!

Home Arts Needlecraft

2011-01-18T09:59:00.000-08:00

I'm joining the following meme's this week.

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

(Please visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

We went to the Long Beach Outdoor Antique and Collectible Market Sunday morning. I had a list of several things I needed for a project I'm making, plus there are a few vendors that I always enjoy that I looked forward to seeing.

Why is it when you're looking for something, you can't ever find it?! I couldn't find any of the things I had come for (and which are generally readily available every month WAH!) this time.

When I was ready to throw in the towel (after tromping around for three hours!), I found some treasure ... six issues of Home Arts Needlecraft. WAHOO! Just looking at the covers makes me smile. I hope you enjoy them too! I will try to share some of the contents, down the road.

Happy Rednesday and Vintage Thingie Thursday!

Something seems to be funky with Blogger right now, it won't load my other photos so I'll try to post the rest later on.

ETA: Sorry - I keep trying to upload my other photos and it just sits there, loading and loading, spinning and spinning - I'll keep trying or I'll try resizing them tomorrow morning.

ETA 1/19/11: Blogger still isn't cooperating for me WAH! It doesn't even connect ... it keeps saying it's waiting, it doesn't even time out, just keeps spinning and spinning. ARGH! So sorry, these are so very darling and I know you'd love them.

ahem ... Okie dokie now - tried again, making them smaller and smaller resolution - geez, just don't understand why blogger accepted the first three and not the rest???! Oh well ... here's the smaller resolution ones at long last ...

Monday blog love

2011-01-17T16:29:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone had a lovely long holiday weekend!

Blissitydoodah
Cabin & Cottage
Catnip Studio Chronicles
Deirdra Doan
Evi's Country Snippets
Humble Pie
Jo Wholohan
Katie's Rose Cottage
Les Carnets de Miss Clara
Lili M
Ozma of Odds
Papillon Bleu
Petite Michelle Louise
Retro Charm Garden
Robin's Egg Blues
Sepia Saturday
Tattered Chic
The Twice Remembered Cottage
Thistle Cove Farm
Victorian Vignettes
Vintage with Laces
vintagesusie & wings
Xela's Art Blog

Hurray for Pam!

2011-01-13T09:53:00.000-08:00

Doing the happy dance over here! My dear friend Pam, of Yoborobo, has just had a book released. To celebrate, Pam is having a giveaway of her book (actually several giveaways throughout the month), plus a darling plushie buddy, made by Pam herself. AND she's also providing virtual eats - you better get there fast because I've already eaten all of the fruit tarts bwahhhahhaa.

Grammie's Reds

2011-01-12T11:40:00.000-08:00

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for lots more Rednesday fun!)

(I am also joining Vintage Thingie Thursday this week.)
Please visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for lots more VTT fun!

I was having a bit of a problem coming up with something red that wasn't about Christmas and I started to go through my paternal grandmother's things and found a very small cardboard box. Inside I found some of my grandmother's sewing bits and bobs. So much fun. And there I found some reds. Yippie yippie yippie! I can remember my grandma making clothes for my Barbie dolls but I think that's about all the sewing she got up to in her later years.

Do you have memories of your grandmother sewing things for you?

I also found an envelope of photos - photos of my grandmother with three of her four sisters. I can't find anything to tell me the name of her sister missing in the photos, or what became of her. WAH! To all you young whippersnappers out there, remember to ask those questions early - almost every question I ask my father now, he responds with an "I don't know". Kicking myself squarely and loudly in the patootie for not asking sooner.

My grandma is the second from the right ... the smiling one, strangely enough. She was rather a tough old bird and tended to turn up her nose a lot in judgment of others and boy, did she ever have that "if looks could kill" look down pat!!! Good to know she could break out a smile now and then teehee.

I think I shared the following family group photo before ... I am guessing that the sister on the far left (of the above photo of the sisters), is the youngest sister in this family group photo below. My grandmother is the second youngest girl, smack dab in the middle of the group shot. Sadly, as I said, I can't match up the remaining three with the two remaining above.

I did find a newspaper clipping about one of their brothers passing away in 1951 and at that time, the newspaper only listed their being four sisters alive (and all other brothers had passed away by then).

My exciting news & the return of Monday Blog Love

2011-01-10T07:22:00.001-08:00

Jumping up and down over here. OH! I'm so excited!

The end of the month I get to take a class from one of my absolute favorite people in blogland and crafting, Charlotte Lyons. I am over the moon thrilled!

Couldn't get anymore fantabulous than that, huh?! Well, hold onto your applesauce ... the class will be at Kaari Meng's store, French General (that I've never been to before and have wanted to for YEARS).

Yippie yippie yippie! You can probably see my wacky grin all the way over where you are. :)

Charlotte Lyons blog, House Wren Studio

The class I am taking with Charlotte

The three days of crafts workshops at French General

I'm just taking Charlotte's class and it is the very last day of the three days of workshops - how wonderful it would be to go to all of the classes, huh?!!!

This is my birthday present to myself - I'm turning, mumble mumble, er, um yeah, twenty nine, towards the end of the month bwahhahhahaha.

Happy happy Birthday to me!

Drum roll ... the return of Monday Blog Love ... which I think most of you don't give a wit about bwahahhahaha but I know some out there do (thank heavens) share my love of blog hopping and discovering wonderful new blogs (well new to me at any rate).

(It seems so long since I've done a list, there may be repeats - I've given up on keeping track, the list has become a mile long and takes up too much precious time these days.)

Ann's Quilting Journey
atmosfera di casa
Atypical Type A
Cardan Antiques and Needlework
Carrie Strine
C'est facile avec Cecile
circles of rain
cori dantini makes
Daisy Jane
David's cottage down the hill
Dolan Geiman
Domestic Stories
Filando Rose e Cuori
Folk Art at Old Crow Farm in Vermont
four rooms
Le Blog de Clo
Lemoncholy's flight of fancy
Little Junk Shop
living art at the speed of life
Miss Mustard Seed
Mitzi's Collectibles
My Vintage Mending
Oodles and oodles
papernstitch
pleasentree
pugly pixel
Red Velvet
Sweet as a Candy
The Mark on the Wall
The Sweet Beet
While I Was Waiting
White Clover Stitches
Vintage Fairy Tales

A lazy weekend

2011-01-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

Our last hurrah, hubby goes back to work on Monday. We had plans to take in the new Resnick Pavillion at LACMA but I ended up with a really bad headache - I think it was from my back, for some reason it was really painful Saturday. OUCHERS! So we just puttered around the house on Saturday and laid low.

(photo from LACMA)

On Sunday, we finally made it to LACMA and the new gallery addition. We arrived just in time, by the hair on our chinny chin chins, for the last day of the Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico. Fascinating!

(photo from LACMA)

Also on display in the Resnick Pavillion is the most wonderful clothing exhibit, Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700 - 1915. Just gorgeous! Loved every bit of it. At one point I turned around and happened to turn right into another woman viewing the exhibit and we both exclaimed at the same time how wonderful it was and how amazing the condition the items were in, completely in sync. Too funny!

(photo from LACMA)

(Both photos of exhibit are copyright Museum Associates/LACMA)
First one, found on Fashion Is My Muse
Second one, found on Trolleyla

If you do a Google search for "Fashioning Fashion", there are lots more photos to enjoy.

Helloooooo!

2011-01-08T07:59:00.000-08:00

Are you out there "It's A Paper Doll Thing" blogger? Yoohoo!

Thank you so much for visiting my little blog and your sweet comments. I couldn't find an email address/link for you on your blog so I'm answering your question here, hope you don't mind?!

Re my post that you were interested in - please click on the link and scroll down to page 27 ... if you will then scroll up to the page above page 27, you will find page 26 (too funny, it was probably the only page that didn't have a number on it). If you click on that page, it will take you to a new screen and a larger image - if you look at the bottom right corner of the page, you will find the text you asked about.

Let me know if you'd like me to scan it by itself and I will put it on this post for you. :)

And waving a big Hello to everybody! I miss you all! Seems like so long since I've posted anything.

The hubby is still on vacation - he goes back to work on Monday. We've seen a couple more movies ("Another Year" and I'm experiencing brain freeze on the other one ... oh yeah, "Love and Other Drugs" - I wish I could permanently forget that one BLECH!) and we went to a Star Trek exhibit because the hubs is a Trekkie. Today we're off to see the new Resnick Pavillion at LACMA finally.

Looking forward to getting back into the swing of things in the coming week and catching up with everyone.

Happy happy weekend!

Happy 1-1-11!

2011-01-01T10:48:00.001-08:00

Happy January 1st, 2011!

Here's to bright and shiny new beginnings!

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T10:04:00.001-08:00

To my dear bloggy friends,

Thank you all for being such good pals throughout the year,
for being such kind and dear souls,
for your support and encouragement,
for being so creative and inspiring,
for bringing smiles and wiping tears,
thank you!

Wishing you good health, good friends and much joy in 2011!

Playing catch up

2010-12-28T12:07:00.000-08:00

My husbands busy supervising the moving of his mom today and I'm trying to catch up on things around here - hubby has been off for about a week and a half and has another week and a half of vacation yet. Things have been high stress with the holidays and now his mom's move, hopefully it will be relaxing from here on out.

We've had lots of yummy food and good company with friends and family, saw The Nutcracker and two movies; "The Illusionist" (a French animated film from the same man who did the divine "Triplets of Belleville" and based on a Jacques Tati screenplay) and "True Grit" (loved it! who'd have ever thunk that?! But then it's the Coen Brothers and I think I've loved everything they've done?!). We've yet to figure out what our New Year's Eve plans will be. WAH!

(little gingerbread peeps I made for T&L)

I'm glad to report that the USPS managed to deliver Twyla and Lindsey's package to them on Christmas Eve. WHEW! Thought for sure it had gone astray.

Doing the happy dance over here! Lucky me, I received the most darling package of Christmas card cuties from dear Elizabeth during one her giveaways and on Christmas Eve, so much fun! Thank you so much Elizabeth, they are indeed the most special and I will cherish them for always!

Looking forward to catching up with all of you and hearing about your holidays! Wishing you the most fun New Year's Eve and much happiness in 2011 if I don't get another chance to do so before hand.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

2010-12-24T10:58:00.000-08:00

Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas Eve and a very Merry Christmas!

I'm so excited, I've always wanted to go see The Nutcracker Ballet at Christmastime and we're going today. Yippie yippie yippie!

Here's my funny tags I made to go with the gingerbread house bags - I found gingerbread men patterns online and I wrote "You can't catch me", signed GBM on them, then I printed out part of the Gingerbread Man story for a tag and then, I stamped a cute little Christmas house for the third tag and put glitter on the roof.

I am now officially pooped out. I was going to make gift card holders but I've given up. WAH! Hard to admit defeat but it was time to close down the holiday workshop teehee.

Wishing you the merriest of Christmases and much joy in 2011!

My left eyebrow has been twitching ...

2010-12-23T09:59:00.001-08:00

... for a week now! Um, a wee bit holiday stressed out over here, I guess. quivery quakey so much to get done and time is nearly up.

Does anyone know how long Priority Mail is taking currently from the West Coast to the Midwest???! I'm so sad - I sent those adorable Two Crazy Crafters a package last week - today is day eight - and it hasn't made it to them yet! WAH! Is that normal or has a postal employee absconded with it teehee?

Dear Mister or Ms Postal Carrier, if you have this in your hot little hands, please forward it post haste to darling Twyla and Lindsey in time for their Christmas surprise!

I jest, don't get your knickers in a twist, dear postal employees and relatives, thereof - I'm just so frustrated and sad for dear T&L - there's something scrumdillyumptious inside and I hope it survives taking the scenic Polar Route to their Home Sweet Home.

WAH!

I'm working over time in the Christmas Tag Design Department and Assembly Line over here - and the pay stinks bwhahahhahhahaha! I'm holiday silly and happy today, or perhaps I'm loopy from exhaustion?! (I got up at four thirty yesterday morning, after having woken up at 3:45 and couldn't go back to sleep. mumble mumble.)

First up, I found these darling snowman sponges at The Container Store and I made not one, not two, but three tags for them - I know, call me crazy and obsessive. I had these vellum envelopes and I found I had a snowman punch (to seal the flap on the back of the envelope) - don't let anyone ever tell you that you have too much crafty stuff - I find it always comes in handy and more often than not, serendipitously!

Now I'm working on some tags to go with these darling bags from The Container Store, aren't they the cutest?! Every year I get Christmas Dish Towels from Crate and Barrel for everyone and this year, they are going into these bags (which are really meant for holiday cookies - but I'm a free spirit and color outside the lines and there are no cookies being made this year and and and I had to have them!)

Of course, the printer pooped out last night and cried to be fed a yellow cartridge ... thrusting we (me, myself and I), the Elves of Sally, even further off our crafty course. boo hoo sniffle sniffle holiday jolly again!

The truly funny thing is that I actually have almost nothing to wrap, as my list is very tiny, whittled down over the years from all of us getting older - it's all about magically foofing up what little there is - smoke and mirrors teehee.

Merry Merry Crafty Christmas to all the Elves out there!

Jack and Jill 1968 Christmas Annual for VTT

2010-12-22T14:31:00.000-08:00

(please visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

I don't know if there will be a Vintage Thingie Thursday post today or not but I'm over here driving myself insane, trying to finish up wrapping Christmas presents, etc. and I thought a break was called for before I am completely nutty.

So I thought I'd share some pages from the 1968 Christmas Annual issue of the children's magazine, Jack and Jill. Here are some fun kitschy retro crafts, darling illustrations, recipes, etc. for your enjoyment! (and a mental health break for me teehee!)

Well, it's begun to thunderstorm here, guess that's my cue to get back to the things I need to get done! Hope you enjoyed my little diversion. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

Merry almost Christmas Rednesday

2010-12-21T08:36:00.000-08:00

(please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and much joy in 2011!

I'm sharing some favorite Christmas book reds this Rednesday with you and a smattering of Christmas decor - we haven't got much done over here this year BOO HOO!

Slipping in a green one, did you notice? ;)

Does anyone else have this gorgeous book?
It was recommended years ago in Victoria Magazine.

Time to trim the feather tree, beginning with the most charming ornaments from Stephanie at Old World Primitives (here).

I'm like Pooh these days, a bear of very little brain. Silly me! I forgot I needed a tree skirt for my little feather tree but there was no stopping me - when I'm ready to go, I'm ready to go! A square of felt stands in for the one I will have to whip up lickety split for our Christmas to be complete. A mad dash in the rain to Jo-Ann's yesterday for supplies.

Oh no! ACK! The hubs wanted his Star Trek ornaments on my feather tree.
What was he thinking teehee?! The wifey said he could put them on top
of the curio cabinet - I'm a terrible wifey, aren't I?!

A little Christmas flourish of green with some Poinsettia's on top of my other curio cabinet.
(You can see some of my teddy bears, miniatures, etc.)

The mantel has not come together yet ARGH! I will show you a peek if I can make it presentable.

Happy Rednesday and Merry almost Christmas!

Three for the price of one

2010-12-20T14:51:00.001-08:00

Wishing everyone a very happy Monday! Thank you all so much for your kind comments re my mom and brother, I appreciate them and you very much.

It's been raining in Los Angeles for what I think (???!) is several days (or does it just feel that way WHINE!) and they say it will probably rain through the Christmas weekend. You know us, we are used to living in a drought and haven't a clue what to do with ourselves in rain.

Deep breath. We gathered ourselves up and brave little soldiers are we, we donned our raincoats and drove across town to my husbands best friends annual Christmas party on Saturday night. The familiar faces are getting fewer as the years pass but they have been replaced by new smiling ones, so it's always a lovely time. One of my favorite attendees is a co-worker of my husbands BFF, who bakes cookies every year and brings them to the party. She has the magic touch, they are the best cookies I've ever had! She made her delivery and vanished into the crowd - next year I will attempt to find out what her secret is.

Sunday morning, we were going to go to the Long Beach Outdoor Antique Market but it was rained out BOO HOO!

But we had the most fun on Sunday afternoon - we went to a matinee of "Much Ado About Nothing", which on it's own would have been wonderful but guess what?!! Lyle Lovett was part of the cast! (WE LOVE HIM!) and also the brother and sister team of the group Nickle Creek. How cool is that?! Three great things for the price of one!

We've seen Lyle Lovett a few times in concert but it was so great to be in the fourth row and get to see him sing and play guitar (and also act, a little tiny bit). They had adapted the play to include songs (Lyle Lovett's along with another songwriters) and somewhere along the run of the play, Lyle Lovett joined the cast. The play began with Nickle Creek and two other musician's playing and singing songs - so much fun.

There were lots of recognizable actors in the cast - Helen Hunt, Tom Irwin, David Ogden Stiers, Grace Gummer (Meryl Streep's daughter). A very enjoyable afternoon!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend too!

Dear Santa Vintage Thingie Thursday

2010-12-16T14:25:00.000-08:00

(Please visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

My brother and my mother one long ago Christmas - somewhere before
I was born, I think perhaps about a year, maybe two, before I was born?

I find I've really got the "sads" this holiday season - I'm missing my brother and mother so very much this year and I found myself looking through a box of my brothers stuff today. My brother passed away in '95 and my mom in '96 and yet this year, many years later, I feel rocked by the loss so intensely.

I was so gladdened to find this old Christmas photo of the two of them. It holds so many childhood memories for me, even though I wasn't in the picture yet (literally and figuratively!).

I don't know if you can make out the Santa decoration over my brothers shoulder? It was already old when I arrived on the scene (it must be from the forties?) - Santa holds a glass candle, inside there was this red liquid that would bubble when it got warm/hot. It was one of my favorite things at Christmastime as a small child ... later on my mother would worry that it was no longer safe and a fire hazard and I would not see it again WAH! I'm hoping that I can find it at my dad's house.

I'm cracking up over the funny tree! Geez - look at the big gap in the middle, so funny. I just saw an old Martha Stewart Home episode and she said that a gap is called an Elf Shelf - wonder what MS would call this cavernous example?!

Above the light switch is an iron candle sconce in the Pennsylvania Dutch style, that I remember well. And the little child's table my mom and brother are sitting at is one that I sat at on our front lawn, selling lemonade to passers by.

I also found this darling letter to Santa written by my brother.

("stace" kit = space kit???)

Dear Santa
I want a Bike. and
a kick ball. and
some Superman
P.J. and some
Army men. and
a Stace Kit. and a
mister wisard
chemical set

And then these charming old Christmas cards my brother received ...

(from 1946 - for his first Christmas)

(from 1947)

(from 1949)

(from 1951)

Yoohoo! Calling those adorable TWO CRAZY CRAFTERS!

2010-12-16T09:51:00.000-08:00

Dear Twyla and Lindsey,

A little Sugar Kissed Christmas Thank You has been sent your way
this morning via the good old USPS. Wishing you and
your dear ones a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Customs for Rednesday

2010-12-14T16:11:00.000-08:00

(please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

We went to the really fun Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale in Downtown Los Angeles on Sunday morning. I found a couple vintage Christmas booklets and a children's magazine, I thought I'd share the two booklets today for Rednesday.

The first booklet I saw was this one, Christmas Customs Around The World. It is a promotional giveaway from a Lincoln Mercury Car Dealership. Sadly there's no date anywhere on it - it looks like the 60's or 70's? I picked it up for the darling illustrations and seeing that it included Scandinavia (my mom's dad was Swedish), that sealed the deal. (Too funny though - now that I sit down and actually read it, it doesn't mention Sweden at all.)

The second booklet I found was this charming one of Christmas Carols and traditions, a giveaway from Richfield Gasoline Station Franchises (Richfield became Atlantic Richfield, became ARCO). Sadly again, no date printed.

Monday blog love

2010-12-13T11:44:00.001-08:00

(Here I am sitting on Santa's knee back in the prehistoric days!)

I keep finding more bloggers that are sharing wonderful holiday ideas and tutorials. Here are some of them. Enjoy!

Edited to add (there's always more on this bottomless pit of the internet, isn't there teehee?!)
A Swap For All Seasons, oh boy! does that swap look like FUN! Be inspired.
Sweet Tidings, Tutorials and Inspiration

A Beautiful Mess, 12 Days of Handmade
Ali Edwards, December Daily
Allsorts, Inspiration and tutorials
Betz White, Holiday Hints
BlogHer, 12 Days of Holiday Cookies
Bluebird Papercrafts, Inspiration and Tutorials
Cream Puffs In Venice, 12 Days of Cookbooks
Creative Chaos, Inspiration
Creative Kismet, Inspiration
Fave Crafts Blog, 25 Days of Christmas
Full of Bliss, Inspiration
Happy Zombie, 5 or so Days of Holiday Happy
Imaginisce, 12 Days of Christmas
Joli Paquet, Christmas Tutorials
Lisa Vollrath, 5th Annual Countdown to Christmas
LOL Foodie, 12 Days of Christmas Recipes
Maya Made, Green Handmade Holiday Round Up
Melissa Goodsell, Handmade Christmas
Michelle Last, 12 Days of Christmas
My Danish Kitchen, 12 Days of Christmas
Passionately Artistic, 12 Days of Christmas
Pink Paislee, 12 Days of Christmas
Teresa Collins, 25 Days Countdown to Christmas
Tim Holtz, 12 Days of Tags
What Megan's Making, 12 Days of Christmas Treats
Where Women Create, Twelve Days of Christmas
Whipperberry, 12 Days of Christmas

Fun Holiday Weekend

2010-12-12T07:52:00.000-08:00

Hellooooooo!

We're having a great holiday weekend over here, hope you're having a terrific one too!

Yesterday we saw "Dickens Unscripted" - a really fun improv theater thingie based on the works of Charles Dickens and they served an English Tea afterward.

And today we're going to the Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale. Cannot wait!

Wishing you a fun Sunday!

Waving Hello from the Holiday Workshop

2010-12-09T12:07:00.001-08:00

(the very best oggie doggie in the old wide world, Xmas 1998)
We miss you so much Boo Boo!
(edited to add: I just noticed that I typed "old" wide world instead
of "whole" wide world bwahahahha - guess I was really feeling my
age that morning!)

I'm feeling a bit under the weather over here, hopefully it's just allergies. I started the week with a two day headache OUCHERS. And now I'm feeling positively overwhelmed with holiday prep today. Maybe it's because I feel poorly today coupled with all the things I need to get done. sniffle sniffle WAH!

Hoping you're all ahead of the game or if not, you're enjoying the hustle and bustle!

Happy Thursday!

Getting holiday cozy this Monday

2010-12-06T08:37:00.001-08:00

Well, knowing me as you do teehee, you'll have figured out that I'm running behind on my holiday decorating over here. I just received the best, most delightful and inspiring kick start to the holidays though!

Twyla and Lindsey, the crafty mother daughter duo of Two Crazy Crafters, are the absolute sweetest and bestest of pairs. During their Sugar Kissed Christmas celebration they are counting down to Christmas and sharing the sweetest of holiday decor and tutorials with us.

And guess what?! Drum roll ... I won the Two Crazy Crafters A Sugar Kissed Christmas Giveaway. ME! I'm tickled (holiday) pink over here and jumping up and down with glee.

On Saturday, we went shopping for our Christmas cards and when we came home, there was a big box on the porch for me. OHHH!!! So exciting.

I received the most charming of holiday afghans, handmade by Twyla, which you can see pictured above. Now I'm all ready to cozy up with it and a cup of peppermint cocoa and make my holiday plans.

Thank you thank you thank you Twyla and Lindsey!

Please visit dear Twyla and Lindsey here for a Sugar Kissed Christmas and scroll down to enjoy every drop or start at the beginning ... Sugar Kissed Christmas began on November 26th, here.

Now that I'm off to a good start, I thought I might extend a helping hand of Christmas links and inspiration if you're a slow poke and need help like me.

Wonderful paper artists Michelle Wooderson and Melissa Phillips have created "Melissa's and Mishie's 12 Days of Christmas", a joint countdown to the holidays on their blogs.
Melissa Phillip's blog, "LilyBean Paperie".
Michelle Wooderson's blog, Mish Mash.

The Ultimate Handmade Holidays Master List 2010 from Sew Mama Sew. Wow!

Always charming, The Long Thread has many holiday links and ideas posted.
The Long Thread.

Online Holiday Zines

Inspired Ideas, the Christmas issue

Gifted, from Creature Comforts, holiday issue

Sweet Paul, holiday issue

Peace be with you

2010-12-03T10:01:00.000-08:00

Today is a day of remembrance and tribute.

We received one of those dreaded calls on Wednesday. The sad news that a much beloved business client and friend of my husbands had passed away Tuesday from cancer. We had last heard in the Spring that Larry was doing well and improving, also had a phone call from his daughter in the past month, maybe two about something totally unrelated and there was no mention of her fathers condition deteriorating. So very shocking and heartbreaking. Today we will be attending his funeral and memorial service. Wishing his family comfort in memories and the love surrounding them today.

Take time today to hold your loved ones near or make that call or send that letter. Time is fleeting.

Woof woof!

2010-12-02T09:57:00.001-08:00

(found via d.Sharp Journal)

Christmas long long ago on Rednesday & VTT

2010-11-30T13:33:00.001-08:00

Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for lots more Rednesday fun!

Please visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!

I thought I'd share some personal bits and pieces from Christmases long ago for this Rednesday and Vintage Thingie Thursday.

I found this darling Christmas card my mom sent out when I was a baby. My mom liked to save one of each card she sent every Christmas, to remember them. Did your Mom do that? I wish I could find some of the others, what fun that would be!

My mom sent out a slew of cards, between family, friends and business
acquaintances each year & she had the world's worst handwriting and
boy did she enjoy getting her holiday cards printed. I know you're
cringing if you're reading this Elizabeth, teehee!

My Dad is a Manufacturer's Rep for many companies - even still at the age of 92! Guess he knows his stuff, huh?! He traveled all the time when I was growing up and there were always the most fun postcards and letters for my brother and I.

From December 1960

Dear Sally,

Santa Claus
must be close
to here because
it's very cold.

From December 1960

Dear Sally,
I sure do
miss you fellers and
I hope to be
home when you
get this letter.
Haven't seen
Santa Claus here
but it's cold enough
to be the North
Pole. Wish I hadn't
forgotten my long
underwear.

(the envelope that went with the above letter, look at the funny return address!)
If not delivered in (my dad wrote) - 2 YRS
return to (my dad wrote) - A. Nutt
address (my dad wrote) - Tent #3
state & country (my dad wrote) - Hooverville, USA

Christmas 1960

Are you old enough to remember Western Union?
If you're as old as dirt like I am, you may have received one of these too.

Thanks for being a good little girl,
and minding your Mom and Dad.
My sleigh is loaded with lots of gifts,
to make you very glad.
I'll soon be leaving the cold
North Pole and heading down your way,
to leave these toys and things for you,
to have on Christmas day.
Merry Christmas,
Santa Claus

And my favorite thing of all, my stocking from when I was little.

Happy Sunday!

2010-11-28T08:47:00.000-08:00

Helloooooo! I hope everyone has been enjoying a lovely holiday weekend!

We had a great time and a rather reflective and bittersweet time, with friends and family on Thanksgiving. One of my cousins was unable to make it - having just finished chemo treatment, he was felled by something they couldn't address during his cancer treatments, that ended up requiring two surgeries. He ended up having complications from the surgery and was too weak to join us. My father, ever the trooper, had oxygen with him and didn't look well; my Aunt told us that she had in effect, been ill ever since we had seen her Thanksgiving of 2009; an elderly family friend had only just gotten out of the hospital two days before. So very grateful that we had this lovely evening with them. And my cousin's 22 (or is it 23 now?!) year old daughter represented the youth contingent and made us laugh lots and made the evening not weigh quite so heavily on our hearts.

Thought I'd show you my finished paper cone giftie Thanksgiving thingamabobs! They were a hit. WHEW! big ... sigh ... of ... relief!

The inspiration for these was Heather Bullard's charming tutorial here.

On Friday we saw a wonderful new movie, "The King's Speech". If you're an Anglophile, if you love Colin Firth, if you love period pieces, if you love history, if you just plain love good movies, this is a must see! Oh and it's such fun to see Helena Bonham Carter in such a different role after just seeing her in Harry Potter so recently (she's so amazingly and delightfully creepy in HP!). OH! And Michael Gambon is also in The King's Speech and HP ... oh and and, so is Timothy Spall. Wonder if I'm missing somebody?!

Yesterday, I made baked egg custard for the very first time ever. Tonight we're going out to dinner with my dad to celebrate his 92nd birthday with my brother's widow and my nieces. Egg custard, made by his mommy (my grammie) are a standout memory from my childhood for me and I thought it would be fun to make it for my dad. Well, not only do I have tremendous memories of my grandmother bringing over custard for my dad, I also remember not liking it, at all. ACK! So it was very hard for me to make it, making something that I thought of as yucky and not having tried it again as an adult - I wasn't sure how on earth it should taste or what the texture should be???! So I tried some out on my husband last night. He says it's perfect but you know what? It's still icky to me. I was hoping, praying, that with an adult palate, it might have improved and I might enjoy it now. NOPE. nuh uh. no way. BLECH.

How do you feel about egg custard? Yea or nay?

Wishing you a lovely Sunday!

Happy Almost Thanksgiving!

2010-11-24T08:15:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd share my Thanksgiving cards with you on this Thanksgiving Eve. I had a lot of fun making them! The photo is of the first batch - the batch with all the guessing and figuring out. WAH! I ran out of time to get some pics of the better, second batch, when I knew what I wanted to do.

Things change so many times at the Sally Card Making Factory - so many ideas flying around and the right one never seems to take hold unto the last moment. Anyway, I had initially been inspired by a Dalai Lama quote, something about roots and appreciation - so I knew I wanted to do a tree on my cards.

And then I happened upon Aimee Ray's book, "Doodle Stitching" at the bookstore (I already had her other book but not this one) and there was this darling tree pattern in it. I didn't have time to hand embroider so I did it on the machine and just cut snips of felt for the leaves and tacked them down with french knots.

And then I decided I wanted another quote for the inside - of course - how could it be otherwise?! The wonderful quote was now too elegant and lofty for my cutesy card. So the hunt began for a new one. ay yi yi.

I had the darling scrapbook paper on hand in the mountain of supplies and I had bought some upholstery remnants at the flea market and one became the grassy mound. And I used wonderful stationery from Paper Source - I usually make my own cards but it was really a joy and time saver to have PS stuff this time around. The most wonderful thing was that PS had craft colored paper for the inside sheet WAHOO! I'm going to be living at PS now.

And I'm still crafting as we speak over here. The number of attendees for Thanksgiving dinner keeps growing. Which is wonderful but - WAH! So today will be crazy busy. Here's a sneak peek of my cornucopia's, inspired by Heather Bullard's DIY tutorial. I didn't do a collage of vintage postcard backs like she showed, I just scanned and printed out a vintage manuscript and am using that instead. I'm using a vintage postcard and clip art for the tags on the cornucopia's.

Hope your holiday prep is all finished and you can sit back and enjoy your Thanksgiving!

I'm hoping to do a Vintage Thingie Thursday post tonight but in case I run out of time, wishing you all the most wonderful of holidays with all your dear ones!

Happy happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Monday

2010-11-22T14:59:00.001-08:00

(image from Martha Stewart)

Do you watch Martha Stewart? Last week she made a baked pancake recipe and Saturday morning I made the yummy David Eyre's Pancake recipe. YUMMERS! I understand it's like a Dutch Baby, which I've always wanted to make but never got around to.

David Eyre's Pancake recipe here.

(image from Google Images)

Saturday morning was a special day around here - we went off happily to see the ten am showing of the new Harry Potter film. The second to the last film, boo hoo. The theater was nearly full and the woman seated next to my husband had been to see the film the night before too - opening night and then back to see it a second time. She must have been in her late sixties, to early seventies. Too cute.

Afterward we had lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant. Are you keeping track? So on the list of Good Things Saturday so far we have; yummy breakfast, HARRY! and yummy lunch. WAHOO!

And then we came home and guess what? My copy of Holiday Magazine arrived. Hurray hurrah!

Holiday Magazine from Matthew Mead is available here only.

(image from Google Images)

Sunday we finally made it to see "Social Network", so good. I had forgotten how fast paced Aaron Sorkin's writing is, he makes my head spin.

Lots more fun planned for the coming week, the Auto Show tomorrow, etc. I hope you're all having a great one and not too frazzled over the coming holiday - I am of course, completely fried and frazzled, being the Nervous Nellie sort. ARGH! When I log off here, I'm off to try to make Thanksgiving dinner gifties for friends and family - I know I know, ever the last moment.

AND tomorrow is my Daddy's 92nd Birthday! Happy Birthday to you Dad!

Happy almost Thanksgiving to everyone!

Countdown to Thanksgiving

2010-11-18T08:54:00.000-08:00

Hellooooooo! Waving Hi to everyone!

I'm over here working on my Thanksgiving cards - getting the assembly line going and hoping to finish them today. Tuesday I was felled by a headache OUCH and so yesterday was inspiration crunch time and today is "make it work" day (don't you love Tim Gunn?!) teehee!

Here's a little sneak peek for you -

Won't you show me your cards too?! I'd love to see them!

Fun fun fun! Look at what I found! A little thanksgiving drawing of mine - I'm guessing I was in first grade??? Since it's approximately fifty years old, it can count as my Vintage Thingie Thursday too - or perhaps it's me that can count as the vintage thingie?! bwhahhahahhaha.

(It's all wrinkly and falling apart but I love it so!)

And I'm so happy I ran across this post this morning - now I know what I'm bringing for gifties for Thanksgiving dinner. Thank you Heather for sharing this darling craft with us.

Heather Bullard's DIY Thanksgiving Favors here.

Happy Almost Thanksgiving!

Turkey Tuesday

2010-11-15T16:53:00.000-08:00

I'm doubling up on posts today - I'm hoping to be caught in the throes of creative inspiration tomorrow, making my Thanksgiving cards. I have two ideas, fingers crossed one of them works!

Make individual turkey pot pies (or veggie ones) for your tykes
at My Baking Addiction.

Found via A Few Of My Favorite Things

Make this turkey bread basket liner from Make and Takes.
Found via One Pretty Thing

You must run over to the Fiskars site and see this
darling childs Thanksgiving place setting. CUTENESS!
Found via Craft Gossip

Make this darling felt turkey at All You Magazine.
Found via Google images.

Make Turkey Luminaries at Family Fun.
Found via Google images.

Make these yummy and fun cupcakes at Amazing Moms.

Found via Google images.

Make your little munchkins this Thanksgiving breakfast from Pop Tarts.

Found via Craft Gossip

Make a darling Turkey place mat at parrishplatz.

Found via Google images.

And parrishplatz was inspired by Squirrel Acorns, here.

Monday blog love

2010-11-15T10:07:00.001-08:00

Happy Monday to everyone!

Hope you all had a lovely long holiday weekend!

We saw two foreign movies, "Nora's Will" (the original Mexican title is "Cinco Dias Sin Nora" - Five days without Nora) and "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" (original Swedish title "Luftslottet som sprängdes" - literal translation: "the air castle that blew". As in "castles in the air"??? How'd that become a hornet's nest? Too funny.), the third installment in the trilogy of movies, from Stieg Larrson's books. Both movies were very good!

(I don't know why the video isn't loading???!
You can watch it here on YouTube.)

And we ate a lot of good food out ... one of the places we went is the new Culver City location for one of our favorite vegan restaurants, Native Foods. Their regular customers were invited for free lunch or dinner over the weekend, before it officially opens today to the public. We were allowed to have whatever we wanted and dessert too. (I had the Wasabi Bean Burger, the veggie soup and a chocolate cupcake - the hubs had the Reuben, save-the-chicken wings and pumpkin cheesecake. YUM!) They even added our "free" lunches onto our frequent customer cards - our lunch for the two of us was forty five smackers for FREE. And the place was nearly full when we were leaving and look at how full it got later in the day (in the video) so my gosh, what an enormous gift Tanya gave to her customers, huh?! Thank you thank you thank you Tanya!

Native Foods website is here.
Native Foods blog is here.
You can read Quarry Girl's blog post about the new location here.
Hot Off the Plate also has a blog post here about it.

2 Birds In A Pod
Ana Camamiel
Artfully Musing
Bustle and Sew
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Creations - Blog
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