HAPPY 2010!

Hi!  Hope you all are up without any hangovers and ready to tackle 2012.  This year has got to be better than last year!

I rang in the new year with some friends in their lovely craftsman home in an old part of Pasadena.  We had a delicious simple dinner of prime rib, asparagus, roasted fingerling potatoes and spinach salad.  Home made carrot cake for dessert! 

Here are some pics of last weekend with my  brother, mother, sis and her kids spending a gorgeous day at the beach.  We played games and Andy my bro, brought his metal detector and Josiah having been told not to go in the water just couldn't help himself since it was so darn nice out!

San Clemente Beach Sunset Dec. 26, 2011

The sun set on another year but we get a brand new one, yeah!  Make it a great one.  

Thanks blog friends for visiting me and making me laugh and inspiring me with all your food and crafting projects this past year.  I'll be back soon...

Sights of the Season

Merry Christmas Everyone!  Happy Holy Days to you all. 

Here are some sights from my little piece of the world.  Enjoy your time off from what you regularly do and may you find some PEACE this weekend. 

My son, he's all happy that they sent another smoked turkey to a mailbox customer that isn't here any longer and she said we can always keep the turkeys since she didn't like it anyhow.  This is our 4th turkey!

Chocolate gifts for my delivery men and customers.

A tiny plant for my mom.

It's just not holiday time without this stuff!

Rushing to get a couple of gifts off the hook and into a gift bag!

From the backdoor of my shop you can see that Mt. Baldy has snow!

My little Charlie Brown tree that sits outside the door.  I got it years ago from Trader Joes and it was one of those tiny live trees with those little ornaments held on by chenille wire.  It's about 3 feet tall now.

Have a wonderful magical day!  I'm headed down to my mom's and then my sisters and then tomorrow off to my brother's and then back to my sisters.  Bye for now!

WIND

Wow, we had super strong winds approx 90mph (a record for us here) that hit us Dec. 1st, early Thursday morning.  Our power got knocked out at our shop for 6 days.  Six days of no income!  Whereas, many people lost trees and awnings and some even had structure damage from big trees falling on their property, all I lost was the NOTARY sign (shingle) attached to the awning in the front window.  God only knows where that ended up.  The wind brought a cold front and boy, it was cold and dark here in my shop.  I came in every day hoping that the power would come on and could only sort mail for my mailbox customers and sign for pkgs from Fedex and UPS.  I did manage to do a few notarizations since they are a "low tech" service; good ol' paper and pen!  Soooo glad that is over and can get back to business.  This is our busy time of year and we do way more shipping for people. 

I'm making a few crochet Xmas gifts that I'll post pics of after Xmas.  The shop is closed for the day and I plan to hopefully finish my holiday shopping today.  Don't hate me!!!! I just don't have too many gifts to get this year.  My daughter isn't able to make it out here so she wants me to send her some goodies from Trader Joe's Mkt. 

I like this pic.  It's from the Crate and Barrel catalog.  Kinda cute kid isn't he?  It put me in the holiday spirit somewhat so I  thought I'd share it with ya.

Hope you're getting into the spirit of things and enjoying the season.  Wish me luck finding parking spaces!

Happy Turkey Day Everyone!

Hope ya get to have family and friends around you and you eat til your heart (or stomach) is content!

I'm headed to Rancho Cucamonga to my (second to the youngest) brother's place.  Then whatever family members don't have somewhere else to be (about 6-7 of us) then we'll go to his girlfriend's family and celebrate there.  My bro wanted us esp., our Mom to meet his girlfriend's parents and family.  SOoooo, does this mean there are wedding bells in his future?  I get kinda nervous about meeting so many new people at one time at their house.  But I will just deal with it.  Since Mom and I aren't cooking the dinner like we originally planned, then we can sit and catch up on things.  I'm making candied yams with walnuts tonight since my bro asked me to "pleeeease" bring them.  Maybe I'll go visit my sis and her family at her in-laws for dessert since she'll just be across town.

I was planning to take Friday off for the first time ever since opening the shop but decided whatever $ I make on that day I get to spend on gifts, so there, Black Friday.  I'll make money instead of spend it.

Don't forget before delving into that pumpkin pie to give thanks! 

Be Good, Be Well, Be Happy!

Some things I've been doing...

What's been happening around here that I meant to post about sooner:
I got a new "Welcome" mat back in June for the front door after someone stole my neighbors and mine back in May.  It's big, heavy, stiff and super scratchy.  Hopefully it will be enough of a deterrent for any future stealing of my mat!!

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Back in Mid August, a lady drove up the curb and hit a chair that got knocked into the window of the Mexican Restaurant a couple doors down from my shop.  I heard a loud bang and then went out, hurried back in and grabbed the camera and took these photos for the restaurant owner since he's my friend.  The lady's guardian angel was with her since she managed to go between 2 parked cars, 2 trees and up onto the sidewalk and just hit the chair into the window which broke but she could have smashed into the place and best of all is NO ONE WAS HURT!!  We found out later that she had a mild stroke and doesn't even remember going up the curb.  Temple City is a sleepy little place and not much excitement happens here!

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Also in August, my eldest brother and his wife invited our mutual friend, Tracy, her husband and me to go on their boat for the day.  We piled in his Jeep and headed northeast a bit to Silverwood Lake.  I hadn't been there in ages and we had such a nice day.  Being on the lake was so relaxing that I wanted to go out and buy a boat so I could feel that way all the time but of course that is not realistic!!!  We all had a great time.  I didn't want it to end.  Tracy brought cup cakes for my b-day and the frosting had melted off but hey still tasted yummy. 

Getting the boat in the water

Magical glistening water

Floating outhouses were on the lake

Long may you wave!

Bye, Silverwood hope to see ya again next year!

The crew

I've picked up my hooks after a seemingly long hiatus!  I want to make some holiday gifts.  I still have tendonitis in my finger that happened from too much gardening and I've tried giving it a bit of a rest.  So I should have some projects to share pretty soon.

This year has just blown by so fast and I've made some changes in my life that I will write about soon.  Hope you all have a terrific weekend and are warm, safe and dry. 

OXOX

Happy All Hallows Eve!

Hi!  Here's my co-worker and me.

This is Skully.  He's had fun sitting on my boob all day!

 Weekend before last was my niece, Tamara's 13th birthday.  She had a sleepover with 6 friends and we all had a great time.  My sis wanted me to go and help with the party and of course I wouldn't have missed it for the world.  We split into 2 teams and had a scavenger hunt on Del Mar (the main street that goes down to the ocean and the San Clemente Pier) by going into the retail stores and restaurants that were open past 7pm and since it was a foggy night it was quite eery which made it more fun.  After that we had pizza and then headed to a frozen yogurt place.   Then we went back home so the girls could take the gingerbread houses that I bought at IKEA and make them into haunted houses.  Some came out great and some well....they won't become architects any time soon!!  

Two more girls came later.  The b-day girl is the barefoot kid.

We sang h-b-day and they ate the dessert and then it was off to the yogurt shop

Remember when we had small butts & we could share a chair with a friend?

All ready to decorate

Uh oh!

 

Well, I'm off to meet with some princesses, ghosts, goblins and some super heroes, they need their candy. 

Have a fantastic All Hallows Eve!

My Sadie is 1400 Miles Away!

My sweet daughter left on a jet plane to make her new home in Austin, Texas, boo hoo, sniffle, sniffle.  On August 23rd she left California with a little savings and no job.  Within a week though, she had 3 job offers and is now happily working for a large vitamin company.  She is staying with her best friend's family and will move out when she is ready.  Barely there 3 weeks and she's already purchased a car and cowboy (cowgirl?) boots!

This is a pic of us on her last day in CA just before leaving for the airport.  She plans to start a photography business and TX is a great place to do that since they are FAR more business friendly than CA is.  Two years ago, she had spent about 6 months just outside of Dallas, TX on a temp. project and called me when she was there and said she LOVED TX, the people are so friendly and that she might just move there someday.  Well, someday arrived and she is happy.  As a mom that is all you really want for your kids.

The following are some pics that were taken of her in the first month of living in Austin.  She modeled for a friend's photography business and I borrowed the pics from her blog.  They are very sweet and show Sadie's personality.  Is it alright to say that I love these pics or is that bragging???

If you live in the Austin area, her friend, JJ does creative photography and you can find her here: www.jjphotographyaustin.net

I've been a bit depressed lately and haven't felt like blogging.  I've been busier at work so hopefully it's a sign of the economy getting better!  Been going thru some changes that I'll write about when I can wrap my wits around it and can explain in a sensible manner. 

I'll be back soon!