Stayed Home

Howdy, I stayed home over the weekend (I work on Sat. but not on Sunday).  Had a chance to go to my niece's b-day party at a skating rink but I had work to do.  I got more stuff packed up in my room in between cold drinks, (was it hot out or what?) towards listing the house and moving (boring).  Threw some non-chemical snail bait around some plants as the snails have been feasting, darn those hungry critters.

I think I figured out how I want my grannies to be attached.  Single crochet around each in white yarn and then go around again creating loops.  Then match the loops on each side and go through each set of loops, connecting the squares together with single crochet.  I'll think of the ridge that it will create around each one, as a sort of picture frame; framing and separating each one.

 

 

 

I put some green paper under them to show more contrast so you could see the stitches better.

Now I have 70 more to go before I'm done.  I'm in no hurry since it is supposed to be for leisure, not for rush and stress out!

Hey, I got 2 new, mailbox rental customers today and another person wants to open one soon!  If you want to open a mailbox, you don't have to live here as we do mail forwarding, too.

This post was late today since I was so busy and then I forgot to eat lunch, so I am posting now after I had my half of sandwich as dinner instead of lunch.

Time to go home, I'm outta here.

The Men in Brown

Come and meet the "Cream of the Crop" at United Parcel Service.  They help me make my business go 'round.  These guys work really hard and really long days.  When I think I'm working late, I'll be driving up the street and see a UPS truck still out delivering so I know they get home late and rarely eat dinner with their families. 

Here are my regular UPS helpers:

This is Danny.  He delivers the packages for my mailbox holders every afternoon.  On some days, I take packages off his hands that can't be delivered to my neighboring businesses because they are out to lunch.  This saves him from making a trip back.

This is Joel (he looks serious in this pic but he's friendly, really).  He picks up all my outgoing packages everyday about 4-4:30ish.  He just hurt his knee and he's taking a bit of time off.  I'll miss you, Get Well Soon, Joel!

All Wrapped Up, Gifts and Toys

Here at the shop, we can make your gifts pretty for you!

These are for Donna my long time customer; it's her son's birthday next week.  You should see what she brings me over the holidays to wrap up for her!

A couple weeks ago I painted a box red to hold these soccer balls:

Let me know if you want to purchase one!

My Happy Place

 

I took a much needed 3 day holiday over the Columbus Day weekend.  Since I rarely have a Saturday off I decided to attend the First Annual Fall Plant Sale at my fav place, Descanso Gardens.  It was in cooperation with Monrovia Nursery, Mt. San Antonio College Agri Dept. and Descanso.  They had speakers on Saturday which is why I wanted to attend Sat.  I learned all about the magnificent Oak tree and it's symbiotic relationship with other life forms.  Amazing!

 

 

Descanso has the most Camellia plants of any public garden in California.  They are everywhere throughout the garden but there is one place under the oaks where the majority of them live.  The best show of Camellia flowers is in January through March.  If you've never been there you should go because it's beautiful and peaceful.  They're open everyday except Christmas day.  Check it out www.descansogardens.org .  They have a large rose garden where you can get married.  This is the entrance to the rose garden:

 

On Sat. I also learned about how to graft citrus trees so you can have different citrus fruit on the same tree, new plants that have been hybridized by Monrovia Nursery that will grow well in So. Cal. and added my to my knowledge about vermiculture (worm farming); how to make compost tea that plants just love. Because I'm moving, I didn't buy even one little plant, boo, hoo.   Here's the plant sale on the main lawn:

 

They even have fish (Koi) in their ponds:  They'll swim close to the edge and the kids can reach down and touch them!

I've been going to Descanso Gardens for years; I  used to stroll my babies there.  It has improved over time although, I miss the Japanese arts/crafts/book shop they used to have.  I still have the origami books and some of the special square papers that my daughter just had to have.  I always stop in at the new Gift Shop before leaving:

Have a beautiful day!

New Walls

I've been busier this week here at the shop.  That is good since maybe it's a sign that the economy is recovering.  I do like to see when people come in with a "Loan Modification Agreement" that needs to be notarized since this is one more person that is gonna be able to stay in their house and not lose it to foreclosure.

My hubby and I went to see Michael Moore's, Capitalism: A Love Story film the other night.  A must see.  Go see it.  The truth about what is going on needs to be understood by everyone.  We need to take back our country.  That's all I want to say because I want you to PLEASE see the film.

Here are some pix of our new walls and ceiling:

 

The drywall mud has been applied sanded and is drying now.  Through that white door is the bathroom and a couple of walls and part of the ceiling needs to be fixed in there, too.  I'll show ya that soon.

In celebration of Halloween coming up, here is a couple pix of Mr. Spider that I almost ran into while leaving the house.  He was sitting in his huge web he made and sure gave me a scare and the heebee jeebies this morning.

Sorry if this creeps you out.

Feels Like Fall

Hey, yup fall is here.  Cooler today and I just passed by the thermostat and it says 68 degrees on it.  I have both doors open and there is a constant breeze through the shop this morning.   I wore a cotton knit lightweight long sleeve shirt in preparation for today's cool down.  Glad summer's over as I get tired of wearing the same thing!  Bill my mailman, just brought the mail and he is wearing long pants!  His usual attire is postal blue shorts.  Wow, it is just beautiful out today. 

Do you So Cal drivers ever use the Sigalert site on the internet before taking off somewhere?  I use it daily while I'm putting on my make-up, I have my laptop next to me watching the traffic patterns.  This morning there was an accident on the 210 east in Pasadena which is how I travel in the mornings on my way to the shop.  Lifeflight helicopter had to land on the fwy and the traffic was backed up for miles onto the 134 fwy above Eagle Rock for over 2 hours.  Glad I knew so I left later than usual and just got the tail end of the slow down on my way in.  Saved me time and I didn't get stuck, yeah!  Thanks to my friend Danny and his computer knowledge for my laptop!

Besides cleaning and most mundane Sunday chores, I got out my long abandoned crochet afghan project and I'm trying to decide how to attach them.  I have 69 squares now and here is a pix of some of them.  There is something about yarn and heat that don't go together and now since it's cooler I'll get going on this.  I really should finish it.  Every square is a different pattern with similar colors in each one.  Have any suggestions?

Progress

This morning I woke up from a sound sleep to "BOOM".  Sounded like a car had hit our house.  I flew outta bed and over to the phone and pushed 911.  When she answered I told her a car accident in front of my house.  She wanted more detail and I explained that I hadn't even looked out the window but I knew that it was an accident and to send help fast.  As she asked more questions I couldn't answer, I had to explain that I was awakened from a sound sleep and I was a bit disoriented.  I got off the phone and realized my own adrenaline was making me shake.  Looked at the clock it was just after 5am.  How many times in the last 9 years had I been awakened in the wee hours of the morning to accident sounds; squealing tires, shattering crash noises, booms and sirens?  Many times... and they were mostly bad.  People travel at way beyond the speed limit of 35 mph on my street at all hours of the day and night.  In the evening, when they are leaving Hollywood's nightlife they go speeding on the Boulevard.  JD and my son Shel, went outside immediately to find out if they could help out and found a young man who walked away from his thoroughly messed up vehicle.  AMAZING.  His guardian angel was paying attention for sure.  What happened was a car had come out from a side street and cut him off and to avoid hitting the car he swerved, lost control (no doubt because of going too fast) and his Acura SUV spun around and hit the light pole (that had to be the boom I heard and it was LOUD).  His tires were off the rims, one was completely torn apart and one side was really dented in according to JD.  I didn't go close to look, only peered through the window in between the trees.  He LIVED.  They don't always make it.  So please drive safely, thanks!

On a more pleasant note...Check out the progress on our basement.  Lotsa dust but hey, it isn't holey anymore.  Lookin' good!

 

Here is my happy Bromeliad as it looked this morning.  It's not a very good picture.  I was trying to get a close-up of the blue flower centers but I was too much in a hurry.  It's happy because, back in July I transplanted some of them and so they are gonna flower for me a little right now to show their appreciation.  They are bizarrely unique looking.  The florescent color is real.  They usually flower in Spring and then sometimes again in the Fall.  I wish the flowers lasted longer.  I wanted to make sure that I was spelling bromeliad correctly so went to Dictionary.com and I just found out that pineapples are in the bromeliad family!  Sure enough, the leaves are similar, kinda dry and stiff, learned something new today.  Here is what they look like when they are really happy:

Sadly, I am gonna have to part with some of my babies (potted plants) when we move because I doubt that I will have space for all of them.  Where we are now we have a large porch and it is filled with different potted plants that do well in the shade.  I'll letcha know when the time comes, what I'm gonna do with them all.  Meanwhile I want to think of happy things, like the young man who defied death this morning!