that low down dirtiest of dogs, the nasty old C, has come calling

We just found out a few hours ago, that my husband has been diagnosed with cancer. We go to the doctor Friday morning to hear all the details and see what the options are.  My husband said the doctor sounded upbeat on the phone but needless to say, we are utterly freaked out and devastated.

So just a heads up to let you know that I may fall silent and not be around here (or I may be around all the time for comfort or distraction ... who knows?!).

Thank you very much for your friendship and care over the years!

A Favorite Thing especially for you Claudia

For much of my life, I went to Saturday matinees with my mom at one of the many playhouses in Los Angeles to see live theater. I shared a bit about it last weekend as my favorite thing too.

Yesterday my husband and I went to see Val Kilmer in Citizen Twain, about Mark Twain. The fun began even before the play did ... Val Kilmer came out into the audience in his Mark Twain attire and did funny bits and interacted with the audience for five or so minutes before beginning his performance. Everyone was taking photos and my husband took a tiny bit of a video of him dancing with an audience member. (Sorry we have old phones and it's very poor WAH!)

We had especially great seats for the performance (all seats are very good at The Kirk Douglas) ... we were in the third row center and the seats in front of us were unoccupied, so it was wonderful.

The play was a lot of fun, having some unexpected contemporary references thrown in. I don't know if my mom would have enjoyed the updating, but I did.

And afterward ... I don't know if yesterday was special or not but, Val Kilmer came back on stage and while his makeup person took off his makeup, he answered audience questions.  He also told us that  his mom was in the audience and pointed her out in the second row and he told us how he had lived nearby many years ago.

So it was a very delightful experience and as always, memories of my mother tugged at my heart.

Joining Claudia in A Favorite Thing at Mockingbird Hill Cottage.

silly old bear

Sharing a bit of Winnie the Pooh today on Rednesday. All gifts from my mother to me ... a vintage Winnie the book, a mini Winnie from a teddy bear show, a Winnie mug from Sears and also some Christmas ornaments from Sears long ago.

Joining in the Rednesday fun at Cottage Sweet Cottage.

books books books

We're chugging along over here. Yesterday I went through (er, some of ... ) our bookcases, determined to find some, if even small, sense of order. We gave away a bazillion boxes of my parents books but apparently I still managed to bring another gazillion home with me. ACK! 

I wish I had taken a before photo, but here's the current after.  Four big boxes of books removed from these shelves and they're still overflowing.  All the shelves of paperbacks, are two deep.  WAH! I am pledging to cull this mess further and adopt a One In, One Out policy. 

(whisper whisper we have two more rooms of books too ... I know, it's frightening!)

I discovered I have FIVE shelves of cookbooks and I seldom cook these days ... good grief. Hope springs eternal, I guess LOL.

In between bouts of organizing and cleaning, I've been having fun looking at the participants of Mary Ann Moss's online class SEWN!  I want to join in and play along sooooooo bad!  And I just might! 

And I just noticed it's time again for the very fun blog hop, Where Bloggers Create at My Dessert Cottage. Have fun oooohing and ahhhhing and being inspired by all the great creative spaces!

Happy weekend to everyone!

gather ye here oh Franciscan ware aficionados!

I've been opening more boxes of my mom's dishes today.  We put it in boxes and brought it home more than two years ago now. Feels like another lifetime. Which I guess it really was ... nothing has been the same since my dad passed away.

This is some of my mom's Franciscan ware (mostly the Coronado pattern) ... but I'm not sure about the little "basket" with the braided handle or the serving dish with the braid on it --- it isn't stamped "Franciscan" but it has a similar feeling.  Anyone know if it's Franciscan or able to direct me to an online source with all pieces? 

I get such a kick out of the weird coffee pot and I adore the relish dish. Alas, I don't seem to have the creamer and the sugar bowl has lost it's lid. I was a smoker many years ago but it sure feels so odd to find ash trays these days.

There were more pieces at my parents house - this was the set of dishes I remember from when I was little but gosh, they were in sad shape when I found them. Cracked, chipped, discolored but these pieces above, seemingly were never used --- I take that back, the round platter was used, it has a chip.

If you've been with me for awhile, you know that I've had lots of things to mull over and decide what I could keep in my little house. I let go of the serving bowl that held potato chips and popcorn and potato salad, the bowls that I ate oatmeal and ice cream in, the dinner plates that held the latest casserole recipe my mom tried, etc., because they were so very sad looking.

I'm such a sentimentalist, it's ironic I find myself with pieces that I didn't even know existed ... I may end up selling them all ... well, except for the relish dish.

the way, way back

 (source)

our review ... TWO THUMBS UP!

Happy movie going!

a midsummer night's dream

We had the good fun of going to see a production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" last night at Tim Robbins The Actors' Gang, here in Culver City, CA.

It's a small venue, with unreserved seating, so we got there early and were passing the time in the lobby. I turned my head and there was Tim Robbins in the small group of people who had gathered already. He looked right at us and my husband and he exchanged Hello's.

Wait, it gets better.

We got to watch Tim Robbins eat Chinese food for dinner outside the theater while we continued to wait to be seated LOL ... and then, he came back inside and stood right next to my husband. My husband who has no problem talking with strangers or being star struck, just struck up a conversation with Tim Robbins about it being the 20th anniversary of Dead Man Walking (the book by Sister Helen Prejean, the source material for his movie)! 

(I, on the other hand, am painfully shy and don't believe in disturbing celebrities and so I pretty much acted like I wasn't with my husband hahhahahhahahhahaha.  Too funny.)

And there's still more ... David Robbins, his brother, did the music for the production and played live and Tim Robbins also was part of the three person musical ensemble. (A big apology to the lovely young woman who was the third member of the group for not having your name handy for this post.) Fun fun fun. So we also got to watch our new BFF throughout the production.

It turned out to be a work in progress, a workshop production, not yet open for review.  Their website states "This workshop production of A Midsummer Nights Dream will be presented with minimal costumes, props and scenery, relying mainly on the creative imagination of its players to realize Shakespeare's magical world."  It was charming in it's simplicity and the caliber of acting is always top notch there. It was a lovely and fun evening out.

Do you enjoy live theater? It's one of my absolute favorite things of all.

I was very lucky to have a mom who loved all the arts, especially live theater. If my (faulty middle aged) memory is correct, the very first play my mother ever took me to was a production of "Oliver", at a grand old theater in Downtown Los Angeles, The Biltmore.  In those long ago days, we'd sit high up in the nose bleed section, for something like $1.50 a ticket.

Downtown Los Angeles
Outside The Biltmore Theater, 1962

(source)

 Inside The Biltmore Theater, 1924
I wish I could have found a photo from the 1960's!

(source)

Regarding "Oliver", I found this on Wikipedia ... "The musical previewed in the U.S. beginning in Los Angeles with Edwin Lester's L.A (and San Francisco) Civic Light Opera Association, as a 1962 national tour" ... so it came to L.A. and S.F. before it even made it's way to Broadway.

(Oh! I just looked at the Civic Light Opera history and Oliver turns out to be the second play I saw ... Bye Bye Birdie was my first, at 7 years old.) 

Thank you Mom for sharing your love of theater with me! 

And I'm sharing my love of theater with all of you this Saturday on A Favorite Thing, at Claudia's Mockingbird Hill Cottage.

patriotic goodies

Sharing a little bit of red white and blue with you today that I found in my parents things. First off, a Lincoln button. Certainly is vintage. Is it a campaign button? Is it a button in support of Lincoln but not a campaign button? I need to research - seems too good to be true - wouldn't that be fun if it were really a campaign button from the 1870's (whoops! 1860's!)?!  And then I found these two unused patriotic Christmas postcards from 1910. My maternal grandmother would have only been around ten years old in 1910, so it would seem that these were my great grandmothers instead then.

Wishing you all a very Happy 4th of July! 

the beatles

The hubby is off for summer break and we've been going through boxes and more boxes and doing some maintenance and fluffing up around here. Not nearly enough fun has been happening!

I went through my two remaining boxes of 45's from my (childhood and) teenage years the past week. It's been fun looking through them (some of them, I honestly wonder what on earth was I thinking?! Gary Puckett and the Union Gap?!!! LOL). I think I was able to remember and sing (at least some of) every song but a few of them still, after all these years.

Remember these?  Gosh, I can remember watching The Beatles the first time they were on Ed Sullivan! My dad said they should get their hair cut with a lawn mower hahahhahhahaaha

We went to the Grammy Museum in Downtown L.A., weekend before last for the very first time, to see the Ringo Starr exhibit. Fun fun fun. Brought back so many memories. Why is it our teenage years are so deeply and lastingly, imprinted on our memories?! 

We've really been enjoying a Danish TV series on PBS, "Borgen" and yesterday we went to the movies and saw a Danish movie, "A Hijacking" - about a Danish merchant ship that gets hijacked by pirates. Very good but very unsettling. 

Tomorrow is the Santa Monica Farmers Market, something I love.

Hope you're all having a great summer, wishing you a very Happy and Fun, 4th of July!