Hippie Chick

My daughter asked me the other day if I was a hippie when I was younger having just looked at some very old pics of me.... No, but yes. I tried to explain. Waaay back in the summer of 1969, I was 14 and 1/2. When your young like that you always state the half or quarter or three quarter mark because you just can't wait to get older. The summer of 69 was a memorable one for me because it was the summer I was to travel to upstate New York and partake in a little know rock concert by the name of Woodstock. No, I didn't have a ticket or even an invitation, heck I didn't even know how I was gonna get there living all the way on this side of the country, but, we planned it. My girlfriend Diane and I actually talked, very matter of factually I might add, about going. Oh man, we were excited. We were gonna perhaps hitchhike or maybe one of our relatives could take us, you know, because they took us everywhere anyways, so why not? We just assumed we were gonna go and that was it. We talked about the people who were to perform and their music and the more we talked about it the more excited we got. Remember, I was 14 and Diane was 15 already...we were practically grown up. I don't know what the heck we were thinking. Did we seriously think that was gonna happen? In 1969 not only were there "hippies", but the "hippie" culture found it's way into the main stream of USA, especially young teens, like us. So, it's no wonder we assimilated into that way of life or at least tried. The clothes we wore, the words we said, how we carried ourselves and most importantly the music. I remember being in the back of a truck going down the highway (that's when you could do that, now it's against the law) with Diane and her family on the way to Ensenada Mexico and a group of Hell's Angles were coming up behind us. Needless to say, us two girls in the back were ecstatic to see such a sight...there must of been 25 or 30 of them coming up all around us with all those wonderful shiny motorcycles totally chopped. What did we do? We thrust our right hands out of the back of the truck, held them high in the air and flashed them the peace sign and most of them flashed it back. That gesture was a direct influence from that era and that event will stay with me for the rest of my life.

We never did get to Woodstock, I guess reality hit us and we decided paper dresses and window pane stockings were as far as we would go in terms of living on the edge, but you can say a lot about the 60's, good and bad, but when I threw them guys the peace sign, I meant it and I still do. Peace Out ~

Go See It...

Finally went to see the movie Julie & Julia. Run, don't walk to see this movie, or at least that's my opinion. I have loved Julia Child for a very long time. I always knew there was a lot more to her than what the viewer saw. I bought her biography about a year ago and was amazed at her life story. This movie barely touches on it but, her accomplishments changed how women in particular, cook in America. She was witty, charming, naughty, intelligent and a spy....YES, a spy!

This movie made me want to eat and cook and create and entertain. A truly charming story that will take you away for a couple of hours to culinary heaven...and there's nothing wrong with that!

Pace Ourselves...

Tonight me and the hubby went for a walk. It was good. We talked and laughed. Said hello to strangers and inquired about a RV that people around the block were packing.

The air was cool and there was a gently breeze. As we were walking I told him, I love my neighborhood. He told me I love walking with you. Really? Yeah, he said...you walk at just the right pace. I responded with... Pacing is good!


I'm just say'n

Just Aprons Strings...

Since I've been blogging, I made a few, as I call them, blogging friends and one of these new buddies is Martha from Martha's favorites.Well, leave it to Martha, after reading one of her post, I made a comment about how much I enjoy vintage aprons. You all know me, I comment about most things and so, next thing I know, I receive this pretty little thing in the mail

How did she know it matches my kitchen perfectly...I don't know, but she included this very pretty Theater Mask Pin too! Sorry the pic is terrible. I am not a photographer but I just wanted to show you all my little gifts and mostly to let you know that Martha is a very kind and generous person....no strings attached...

My 5 Minute Thought This Morning

I lay here. In bed. I don't want to get up because I am glued to the mattress. My mind begins to wonder. Can't I just lay here all day, naw..... perhaps just half the day. There's nothing earth shaking that I have to get up for. I gaze up at the ceiling fan and just stare at it. It goes round and round and that's all. I can do that ...do nothing. Why must I get up? I have everything I need at my finger tips, T V remote, book, magazine, phone...I'm not getting up. What if I have to go the bathroom, then I'll have to get out of bed and if I get out of bed then I might as well get dressed and go about my day...I won't go to the bathroom. So here I am. Looking outside my window. Nothing going on there. Don't want to watch TV. Can't read, I left my reading glasses downstairs. I can go get them but then I'll be out of the bedroom. Think of something else. I'll call someone. No, I'll have to explain myself as to why I'm still in bed. I'll try to sleep some more. I close my eyes. I think I can see sunlight through my eyelids. I start to contemplate thin skin and old age. My eyes scan the walls....a plaque with the Missbrenner family tree going back 6 generations. Would they stay in bed? No...their German, they don't sleep.
My body is starting to become unglued. Fight it! I'm gonna stay here if it kills me. Damn it, I have to go the bathroom and who's going to feed the cats. I get up again...

word verification

darsh, nestesor, doiduc, nujhbis, fialisyn, turched,slabosi, whashato, slatso...
What? You don't know these words, these words that are probably used daily about a millions times. These are some of the words that I've come across to make comments on peoples blogs.
You know, the word that is supposedly secret and only a human can key in on a computer to gain entry to a sight that is private or one that contains precious info. It is called "word verification" and I looked it up because after months of typing them in like the robot droid that I am, I suddenly had to know how it worked...I doesn't take a house to fall on me, as my grandma use to say.

Purpose: When you enter this word, it ensures that your results are being displayed to a real person, as opposed to a machine that is collecting information for illegal purposes.

Being the real person that I am, I can totally type in the magic word and still make off with your goods so I'm not quite convince that this is a for real security technique. I bet that someone working out in the silicone valley came up with this one and at the time it was a good idea, but people rip people off on the www all the time using the magic word or not. I'm sure that guy is a multi millionaire by now and is on to bigger and better projects.

For instance, inventing a machine, device or chip that can duplicate a group of letters arranged in such a way that would let some stranger, preferably a criminal or someone out to rip off your recipes and pics of your pets,(which in my eyes are criminal acts too) gain entry to someone's blog. And while I'm on a roll with ideas, how about this one? While Eric and I were at the beach one day, I came up with "The Beach Rover" which is basically an ice chest that has big monster tires and is used by remote control, so you don't have to lug it from your car through the sand dunes down to the shoreline. In fact, I'll go ahead and enter this blog entry for just a few days, but after that, I'm gonna delete it. I'm not giving anyone any ideas....I'm just say'n


ps. I wrote this post while under xanax...sorry if it doesn't make sense or...if it's better than most...I'm totally responsible.

The Real Playhouses of Orange County...

The other day I met Brenda for breakfast at the Irvine Spectrum. For those of you who don't know what or where that is, it's basically a very high end outside shopping mall in Orange County, CA. Have you seen The Real Housewives of Orange County on cable television, well, this is where they would shop I would imagine. Anyways, after our breakfast and gabfest, we took a stroll and stumbled upon these very upscale, very expensive and totally gorgeous Playhouses. That's right, these are Playhouses that are auctioned off for charities and people actually buy them for their children. They were fenced off so most of these pics are back or side view shots...doesn't matter they're still rather impressive!

My brother and I built a playhouse once.....in a tree. And I made a playhouse by hanging blankets on a clothes line. I guess times have changed huh? Ok, I feel old again!

Oh yeah, and one of these buildings is a dog house. Lucky Dog!

Math is Fun...

Today is my daughters Trig Study group. That's Trigonometry. As I walk through the dining room where they are supposedly studying, they are having a grand o' time, laughing and carrying on. Who knew math could be so much fun? Today I am doing housework. So, what do I do to make that fun?



This...















...I'm work'in on it!

Flying Alarm Clock....

I was rudely awaken this morning. Suddenly and sharply. It wasn't a lawn mower or construction crew anywhere near me and it certainly wasn't a baby although they can be rude. Living in California you'd think it was an earthquake...nope, just the sharp sound of a screeching noise. I have been told about it and my daughter said she has witnessed it before but I have never imagined experiencing this ruckess.


A Flock of Parrots...


I was woken up by what seemed like a pack of Pterodactyls. You know, those flying dinosaurs, not that I know what they sound like, but I've seen Jurassic Park many times and that's a pretty good description. I walked fast to the window ( I don't run anymore) and lo and behold....screaming parrots sitting on the electrical lines. Wow, very impressive....and loud, just squak'in and talk'in and then they just flew off. What a way to wake up!

p.s. I had to look up how to spell Pterodactyl....I'm not that smart....I'm just say'n

vespa

I want a Vespa. I love these little scooters. I have admire them from afar for some time now.
When you say the word Vespa, it conjures up images of beautiful Italian people riding around town on cobblestone streets, throwing their hair back and laughing, all while holding a glass of wine. I can envision myself tooling around my little town in one of these babies. People will point at my brand new green, (you know it had to be) Vespa and they will scratch they're heads and question themselves in wonder because they won't believe there eyes when they catch a gander of me. My head will be flung back, mouth wide open and my legs will be spread eagle as the sound of weeeeee will echo all through the streets. I want one....I'm just say'n

Whew! Done!

It's done, the remodel and the painting and cutting and measuring and everything else. We started in April and we finished end of July. I don't think 3 months is bad especially since we only worked on weekend...most of the time. Eric did an amazing job and he's still talking about the living room revamp for next year. As you can see, I'm still playing with it and by that I mean, moving things around...until I like it and then I'll move it around some more. So here it is, from start to finish, good angles and bad angles; bad lighting, good lighting and everything in between! The pics are mixed up...meaning before and after..you can figure it out.

I wanna give a shout out to ....Big Lots, Savers, Michael's, TJ Maxx, Marshall's, The Goodwill, Home Goods, Cynthia for giving me the fabric to make the table runner, The Dollar Tree, Tuesday Mornings, Magnolia, Lowe's, Home Depot and Lamps Plus for supplying the fun accessories and building supplies to make this thing happen. I also used some items from other parts of the house and I painted some things white as you will see... Enjoy!

lEt'S NoT fORgeT ErIc AnD hiS mAd sKiLLs...

Door to Door Fruit

Recently my friend Marie wrote on her blog about how simple life was when we were kids and how we would spend our summers. Besides staying out till passed dark when our mothers would stick there heads out the front door and yell our name to come home, we climbed trees, played tag, red rover, hide and seek, jumped the fence and went on Safari at the riverbed, played with the water hose...only because I wasn't allowed to have a slip n slide...but I'm not bitter, anyways, my point is, my summer memories are chuck filled with adventure and good times. One of my favorite memories are me selling fruit door to door and yes, you read that right!

My maternal grandmother lived on a huge plot of land that was filled with fruit trees which consists of Lemon, Orange, Avocado, Peach, Plum and Fig trees. I would always help her pick the fruit off the trees and put them is boxes. For whatever reason, my grandmother was always telling me that I was her favorite. She said this so much and in front of family, that it just became normal and I never questioned it till many many years later...Anyways, she tells me, because your my favorite girl I'm giving you this fruit so you can sell it and make some money.
Well, such a honor was bestowed on me, I couldn't say no and actually I didn't know what to say.
Selling fruit? How do I do that? Who would buy fruit? On our way home in the car, I asked my mother if I make a sign and put it on the front yard, would people stop by and buy fruit? The answer....NO! Your gonna have to go door to door. OK, you'd think I would be mortified with just the thought of going door to door schlepping fruit, but nope, I was too naive to think it could be embarrassing or anything remotely strange. So I did, for about 5 or 6 summers and I was good at it too. I had regular customers and learned the value of money as I had raked in a whopping $15.00 on average. So I guess life back then was a lot more simple especially when your young and you have no preconceive thoughts on how people see you when your pulling a little red wagon filled with food.

Latest Treasure Update

Just a quick glimpse as to what I did with those very expensive finds on one of my weekend hunts.


ThAt LiTtlE dEcORaTivE tHInGy...

peek a boo!

THeE GiAnT ArTicHoKe...


le GReEn EArrINg...


KiTTy sPa...

This is Cleo. Ginger was there asleep but when I came outside, she thought I was gonna feed her and she jumped down and started begging...but they both use their new beds.

Latest Finds...

Before I left town, I ventured out and
wondered through a few yard sales
in and around town and stumbled
upon this sweet Toile blue and off
white fabric tray.








I didn't have anywhere to put it but I couldn't pass it up and I would figure it out later. So now I've decided to use it as a little cat bed for my kitty's when they are outside. Pretty good for $1.00!

Then I found these. A black cooling rack and and a cobalt blue Pyrex pie pan. I needed the rack but the pie pan will be a nice pie giving gift as the total for these two finds....a whopping .50 cents.

This was some sort of decoration that I'm sure was part of a bigger piece. For a nickel I purchased it and placed it up against an antique mirror....perfect!





These earrings are green and the minute I saw them I jumped at it fully knowing what I'm gonna do with them... plus it was only a quarter. You'll just have to wait to see...I promise I will show you!











....and last but certainly not least, this giant artichoke in an urn just waiting to be placed up against my fireplace in the living room. It has a hairline crack but you would never no if I hadn't told you. But I will tell you it cost me $1.00 So the moral of this story....you can spend $2.75 and add a little flare to your home.....NEWS BREAK!!...the next post will be the dinning room and that will be it for big projects for the year. I'm pretty sure.

palm springs

There are shoe skid marks from the hotel room to our car as I am forced to come home. We are back and I'm not happy about it but as always, I'll adjust. Eric goes back to work on Monday so we still have a little time left. We had a very very relaxing time. Hey...did I say it was relaxing?

The only complaint Eric had was that the pool area didn't allow bottles so he had to drink corona in a can....big woop. Like I said...we swam and lounged, we ate and swam some more. When we got there the temp was 111, but with every passing day, the temps came down to a pleasant 98.
Really...it wasn't that bad. So, I'm back and everything is fine and my plans for today besides laundry is going to a friends yard sale. Here are some pics that passed the bunny guard. Pictures of us at the pool, eating and road runners...yes, you read that correct...they were everywhere ,including tons of jack rabbits. It was like being in a cartoon and waiting for the "Acme anvil" to fall on us...lol My favorite memory...sitting at sunset on the steps of the pool with my hubby, drink in hand and listening to the cicadas serenade us. Anyways, Enjoy~

It'sTime...

Yes!!! It's time, it's time for our Vacation baby. It's time for me to relax, probably poolside with some sort of tropical drink in hand and summon people at my every beck and call. It's time to pamper myself and perhaps schedule massages or a pedicure or whatever I want. It's time for me to sleep in as long as I want even if it means that my family has forsaken me and went somewhere without me. As long as there is a note...I'm good.

It's time for me to stay up as long as I want and switch channels on the TV being that there is probably 500 channels to choose from and not one person can stop me because I will have my own TV. It's time for me to not cook because we will either eat out everyday or someone else will decide they've had enough of Restaurant food and will brake down and whip something up....it won't be me. It's time for me to eat any damn thing I please anytime, anywhere and anyhow, because I can, plus I will spend most of my day time in a pool exercising, swimming and frolicking and a lot of my evening walking about. It's time for me to let lose a little and go shopping with the intent of buying me a little sump'in, sump'in, whether it's a cheesy tourist trap or a high end establishment. It's time to spend some quality time with my hubby and daughter and talk and talk and laugh and laugh some more. It's time to relax and reflect and to put things in perspective and enjoy each other and realize what we have because we are lucky to have it and even more lucky to have each other.


PS...I will be gone all week. I don't have a lap top so....brace yourself, I won't be blogging till I get back and I know it's hard to believe but I probably won't even turn my cell phone on either. I will have my notebook that I usually carry around so that I can jot down things that will jar my memory and when I get back, maybe, just maybe I will write about them or not depending on how exciting it is...or not...I'm hoping for not, as I am anticipating becoming one with a pool lounge chair....although, you can experience a lot from that point of view.....tootles ~

What inspires me...

Red polka dots. Yup..my whole kitchen is full of them from pots, pans, bowl sets to pictures.
















The Ocean. I live pretty near the ocean so I can go when the need hits me. It calms and relaxes me and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.



Music should be number 1 on the list. It
is so important in my life I don't think a day
goes by without it. It's the background to my
life in good times and in bad times. All
types from Jazz, rock, show tunes and
gospel. It makes me happy and sad and
everything in between.







Cold rainy days inspire me to nest. I love to bake and pitter patter around the house. I also love to cuddle with my hubby. It hardly rains in California so I look forward to winter time so I can light the fireplace and candles and settle in.



last but not least....other blogs inspire me. They inspire me because I learn so much and I am amazed how well written they are. Also there is a whole lot of creativity out there..Impressive!



...and so, there you have it. There's probably a dozen or more
things that inspire me, but I'm writing this in a hurry...

tootles,
bunny