Oatmeal kind of morning

I love oatmeal. (didn't as a child, but do now) I love mine with walnuts or pecans (pecans today) and dried cranberries and brown sugar. Whoops, in an attempt to share my oatmeal with you, I got a little heavy handed with the brown sugar! I love it my low bowl. I'm obsessed with my low bowl. Everything is yummier in my low bowl teehee!

Done with my oatmeal now ... I'm over here trying to figure out what to get at the market for the holiday weekend. We're vegetarians but we'll still probably barbecue veggie burgers or tofu dogs or veggie skewers.

Our dear neighbor Fred's Memorial Service is tomorrow but that's about all we have planned. It's going to be a whatever-moves-us at the time weekend. Perhaps some live theater, if we can grab some tickets to a revival of South Pacific. How have I never seen it on the stage before?! Perhaps a movie, there's a French movie hubs wants to see. Or a trip south to the Long Beach Flea Market sounds like fun. Always good stuff there. Maybe some puttering in the garden. And of course there are a gazillion books at the ready.

Hoping everyone has a great Memorial Day Weekend, relaxing or action packed, whatever brings you joy!

(free vintage postcard images from HubPages)

In loving memory and tribute to my maternal grandfather, who served in the Navy during WWI.

(a pin I found in his things, not sure when it is from?)

(I think this must have been taken shortly after he enlisted because there is a comment on the back that it will also be his graduation photo ... I think it means from college as from the date he was born, it appears that he enlisted in the Navy in his early twenties, to serve in WWI.)

(outside his family home in Minneapolis)

(outside the family home in Minneapolis, clowning with his brother)

(a patch from his uniform)

Vintage Blue Bird Thingie Thursday

UPDATE on my father-in-law: My husband called at 12:30 PST and said that he had heard from his stepmother - she said FIL had made it through the surgery just fine and was back in his room. WHEW! Thanks again for all of your support!


(UPDATE on my father-in-law: My husband called his stepmother at 7:15 PST this morning and he was told that his father had just been taken from his room for his surgery. She didn't know how long the procedure was supposed to last. Stomach doing flip flops and my eye lid is twitching ... I'm very anxious and not good with this kind of stuff. Thank you all so much for your kind words and prayers, I so appreciate your words and your care and concern!)

(Please visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for info about Vintage Thingie Thursday.)

Happy Vintage Thingie Thursday!

I found my Blue Bird book from 1962! Fun fun fun! And possibly even more fun, I found the list of girls in my troop. I read each name to myself and could conjure up memories of almost every one of them. And you know that was a long long long time ago for this brain!

Were you a Blue Bird or a Brownie? I was a Blue Bird because my mother was a Camp Fire Girl when she was young, but I really was a Brownie wannabe. Boo hoo!

Here is the cover of the book and some pages ...

And here are some photos from May 1963 (gasp!),

when we "flew up" to be Camp Fire Girls.

I'm the brunette and the blonde is Debbie,
who was my best friend for many years.
We are in her backyard celebrating.

Camp Fire Girl diorama (tablescape teehee!) by Debbie's mother.

Debbie, me (Sally), Nancy, Paula and Francine. I remember you guys!!!
I have no idea what wo-he-lo means???!

Paula, Debbie, Francine and me (always the tallest!).

Vintage Pattern Rednesday

Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for info about Rednesday.

UPDATE on my Father-in-law: Since we didn't receive any call yesterday, in the evening my husband first tried his step mother's cell phone and she didn't pick up, so he left a message. He waited a bit for her to return his call and when she didn't, called his father's hospital room. We found out that he was going to have surgery this morning at six am. ARGH! When was anybody going to call us?! miffle piffle posh! Sorry, that makes me so cranky that no one called to tell us the surgery plans.
My father-in-law called himself this morning to say his blood wasn't thin enough, so the surgery has been rescheduled for tomorrow.

On to Rednesday!

Sorry, I really had to scramble to find some red. Except for a couple, these are more like a bit of red, than red. But I think they're so much fun. Vintage sewing patterns of my mothers. I LOVE the big skirts and tiny waists. Only two have a date - 1953 and 1954.

Here's the star of my Rednesday teehee! I used it as an image for a card I made for my friend Pam, of Yoborobo. (Whoops - I should clarify - when I say "I used it", I mean I took a scan of it and used the image. See card I made after pattern package.)

Guess who came for lunch and an AWARD!

Still waiting over here for news about my father-in-law. Not a peep out of anyone yet. WAH! I'm passing the time working on my youngest niece's graduation gift (and being a nervous wreck).



Isn't it wonderful when you need a bit of cheering up and someone very sweet, serendipitously thinks of you?! Darling LV, of Thoughts from Meme's Corner, gave me the Trendy Blog Award. How dear and fun is that?! I met LV through Vintage Thingie Thursday and she's a sweetie!

Thank you so much LV for thinking of me! :)

Upon receipt of the award, one is to post about the award and choose ten bloggers to in turn, give the award to.

And the greatest thing about this one is that you don't have to talk about yourself. Hurray hurrah! That's my kind of award.

Here's my ten, dear blogging friends, in alphabetical order ... Trendy Bloggers all!

Elizabeth @ Creative Breathing
Ellie @ Ella's Edge
Jenny @ Pleasant Places
Kate @ The Garden Bell
Leslie @ Brookhollow Lane
Lori @ Run Lori Run
Pam @ Yoborobo
Stephanie @ Old World Primitives
Twyla and Lindsey @ Two Crazy Crafters
Valerie @ Une Gamine Dans La Cuisine

And ...

Look who came for lunch! Can you see the squirrel eating out of my bird feeder? I was in the kitchen making my lunch and I turned around to see this fellow having lunch ... upside down. I grabbed my iPhone and took pics. Too funny, he'd grab birdseed and then pull back from the feeder and hang by his feet, eating birdseed!

Father-in-law in hospital

I have not been able to stand the sound of our phone ringing since my brother and my mother passed away nine months apart. I panic every time it rings at an "unusual hour".

We received a call at 6:20 this morning from my husband's step mother that his dad had had a small stroke and is in the hospital.

Some of you may recall his trip to the hospital several weeks ago (when he had fainted and it ended up being a low blood pressure episode) and that the doctors were watching an 80% blockage in his neck. It's my understanding that they didn't operate weeks ago because he could have had a stroke during the surgery.

They are now planning on doing the surgery, they were waiting on test results when they called this morning. Once again, they caution that he may experience a stroke during (due to) the surgery.

My father-in-law is in North Carolina, so it's very hard to sit here on the other coast, not being able to visit him. Waiting for the phone to ring.

Monday blog love

Happy Monday to everyone!

Good gravy, the weekend went by fast! Lots of errands, housecleaning and then some fun on Sunday.

Ever the procrastinators, we finally made it to the special exhibit at LACMA, American Stories ... on the last day of the exhibit. By the hair of our chin-y chin chins! We'd seen several of the pieces included before but it still was a lovely exhibit.

But first off, we went to Farmer's Market for breakfast at Loteria Grill, YUM! And then I went berserk at B & N and came home with these ... please, if you should see me about to enter a bookstore, tackle me and give me a good talking to! Ay yi yi.











A Gathering of Thoughts
A Gentleman's Samplings
Banner Haus News
bear bits
Days of a Sampler Lover
Froken Skicklig
Happy @ Home
Ivory Blush Roses
Joy's Thoughts and Things
Le Manior Rose Blanche
Linda Ruthie's Apron
Lissu's Dollhouse
mommy lion
My Byrd House
Never Enough Time
Petits reves blancs
Rusty-Prim
Shabby Chic Green Cottage
Sweet Finds
The Adams Family Mini Mansion
The Stone Fence Cottage
The Vintage Polka Dot

Homegrown Revolution

Love this! Found via the blog, Goodness Recycled (click on both text words "this" in her Earth Day post - both links are wonderful!)



I have been following this inspiring Pasadena, CA family for several years but I hadn't seen this video about them before.

They have a website, Path to Freedom.
And they have a blog.

I love the idea of "walking backwards" and becoming free. Free from pesticides, additives, genetically modified foods, high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, etc. And good gosh, what about the BPA in cans and plastics ... shiver shiver shake!

We're growing tomatoes and lettuce this year, hope to enlarge that exponentially next year!

Have you found yourself more interested in growing your own food too? I'd love to hear about your plans and your vegetable gardens.

Vintage Photo Thingie Thursday

Please visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for info and participation in Vintage Thingie Thursday.

Oh goodness me! Sorry I'm a bit late.
I forgot to plan for Vintage Thingie
Thursday, so I'm sharing two family
photos that I had already scanned.
Whew!

This is a photo of my maternal grandmother.
(You can also see her in my banner on the far left hand side.
My grandfather is standing behind her and
the little girl in the center is my mother.)

Isn't this a fun photo?! Girl's Day Out! This photo includes
my maternal grandmother's (remember, pictured above) mother,
(my great grandmother). She is the first one on the right,
in the back row (counting the three young women behind
the wooden bar/banister as the back row),
with the light dress and white plume on her hat.

Or perhaps it's easier to just say she is the second
from the right??? (So sorry to be confusing.)

Happy Vintage Thingie Thursday!

Vintage Mag Rednesday

(Visit It's a Cherry World for info on Rednesday)

A vintage McCall's home decor magazine that was my mom's. The bums didn't include a publication date so I'm not sure what year it's from??? 70's or 80's? I'm sharing some of the pages that included red with you today. Happy Rednesday!



The text on this one above says "everything but the zingy print is red, red, RED". Um, yup. Yes sirree.