Category — Random

Peggy, Shelia, and I went to Sweet Salvage yesterday morning and something super exciting happened to me!

I had the privilege of meeting one of my styling/lifestyle/blogging heroes who is an editor and photographer!
I know!
It was awesome!

I’d read the night before, on Facebook, that she would be there – so I went to her blog and left a comment that I was one of her stalkers fans and was excited at the possibility of meeting her.

And then it actually happened!

Peggy and I got there about 45 minutes before the doors opened. We were holding a space in line for Sheila, who was coming separately. Peggy went to the car to deposit our coats and scarves, as it was warming up while we waited.

There is a sidewalk that runs alongside the store and is adjacent to the parking lot.  As I was standing there on that sidewalk, I see this woman get in the car that is right in front of me. I think, “What kind of crazy person would leave and give up that great parking spot now, only minutes before the doors open?”  I look closer and lo and behold, it is her!

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In case you’re not local and just in case you haven’t heard – we’ve been freezing here in the desert this past week.

Literally freezing.
It’s not right.
This is the desert!
That land of saguaro cactus and yucca, not ice and snow!

Winter is our prime time! It’s what we live for, perfect weather! Not freezing temps that damage our desert-loving plants. (Yes, those are sheets covering plants and trees in my backyard.)

We aren’t supposed to be moaning and groaning about the weather now, that’s what we have 6 months of summer for … 115+ degree days … that’s our moaning and groaning time.

I am not happy! Not happy because it forced me to get out and try to pick as many of my Meyer lemons as I possibly could pick in one day. I wasn’t able to get them all. Close, but not all. The photo above represents about 1/4 of the crop I got off the tree.

My dad took home a full crate plus a full shopping bag.

The tree was the most prolific it has ever been. Here is what it looked like on Thanksgiving day.

So many lemons, that they were laying on the ground, still attached to the tree. The weight of them brought them down that far.

In late November and early December, I picked all the low lemons and took several bags to Les Gourmettes, to share with the teachers and students there.

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As of 4:30 PM yesterday, my house is nearly back to normal. With a boat-load of help from Connor, Christmas is packed up and put back in the crawl space.

I still need to clean up my sitting room, which served as “the wrapping station” this year. Since I was using a walker during the time I was wrapping, it looks as though a bomb went off in that area. I’ll get that cleaned up today and all the regular “decor” put back into place. Then I am done!

So what’s with that photo above, taken of stacks of apples at Costco, you ask?

You see, my husband, David, eats an apple every single morning. Seriously! Every. Day. He rarely gets sick, so I suppose it is true, that an apple a day does keep the doctor away.

Costco sells apples in these wonderful little domed containers.  Back in October, I began to save them with the thought that they would be perfect to hold and store Christmas ornaments.

They are perfect!

The space between every two apple rounds doesn’t come up completely, so you can even place long ornaments there and take up two spaces.

Next, I placed a sheet of bubble wrap on top to prevent items from slipping and jiggling. Then I just closed and sealed the lid, and everything is safe and sound.

Turns out, the container is perfect for my delicate bottle brush trees too. No crushed or damaged trees to deal with next year!

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This past Wednesday, the day that the article about collecting recipes came out in the Arizona Republic, I received a call from an elderly gentleman in Mesa. He left me a message saying he’d read the article and thought I might like to have his deceased wife’s collection of cookbooks.

Image via Pinterest

With the hundreds of cookbooks I already own, it may not seem as though I am picky about what cookbooks I have, but honestly, I am quite selective.

I called back and after I listened to the man’s story of losing his beloved wife and the bookshelves of cookbooks that he wanted to empty and be rid of – I said, “Yes, I will be happy and honored to come over and take the books off your hands.”

Connor, my dad, and I, drove to his home in Mesa and piled all the books into the back of my car. Once we got home I went through them, hoping to find a treasure or two.

Guess what? I found my treasure – the kind of gift that just keeps on giving.

It’s called “How to Entertain at Home” by Sylvia K. Mager with the editors of Today’s Woman. Published in 1952 by Fawcett Book. Its 142 glorious pages sold for a mere 75¢.

And yes, that bottom photo on the cover is of children trying to bite at hot dogs dangling on strings from the ceiling!

Please allow me to share some of the important requirements for entertaining in 1952.

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I hope your Christmas was merry and bright. Ours was absolutely wonderful! Although, I did overdo it a bit (trying to move about without the walker) and I’m paying the price today!

I’d planned on posting photos of my Christmas Eve and Christmas Day tablescapes, but I haven’t even begun to format those photos yet. Coincidentally, I was featured on the front page of the Arizona Republic today, so I’ll share that article with you instead and save the tablescapes for tomorrow.

You may recall that I told you the photographer from the Republic was coming, only two days after my release from the hospital, to take a photo of me with my cookbooks for an article about Millennials and recipes… well, here it is.

Here I stand, on my own power, painfully clutching my first edition of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the walker was pushed away. Anything for a bit of good press! 🙂

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On Saturday, the names of those lost in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy were released. As soon as I saw it, I posted this on my Facebook page.

The post received a huge response, but one of the first and the most inspiring came from my friend of more than three decades, Nancy Jones. Nancy is the mother of 7-year-old Zada. Here is what she said:

“The names have now been posted. The ages as well … many around Zada’s age. Zada and I will write all the names on paper and cut each one out and put each inside a little clear crystal ball ornament, so we shall always remember them.”

I responded:

“I plan to do the same thing! Thank you, sweet Nancy, for a wonderful and beautiful idea and a way to remember. xoxo”

So I went to work typing out each name. Green ink for the adults. Blue for the little boys. And pink for the little girls. I printed them wirelessly but had to wait for Dave to return from the office to go upstairs to retrieve them for me. I was anxious for those couple of hours, wishing I could get up those damn stairs myself. I wanted, I felt as though I needed, to do this now!

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I am writing this from a hospital bed on Sunday evening. What happened, you ask?

Yeah, um, I kinda fell, about 20 feet off an extension ladder while putting up Christmas lights… no big deal.

OK, it is a bit of a big deal. I fractured my pelvic bone in two places. Do you wanna hear the whole sordid story? Sure you do! We all know how much people love to tell their accident stories to anyone within earshot. Of course, I do too, so here goes.

Let me begin by acknowledging that we all have our fears and phobias. I, for instance, am deathly afraid of fire. Strange for someone who uses fire in the form of a gas range every day, but I’m not afraid of that sort of controlled fire.

I’m afraid of fire in fireplaces, or campfires, the sort of fires that can easily and quickly get out of control and rapidly spread. In fact, thirteen years ago when we moved into the home we now live in, I insisted, against a lot of opposition from Dave and the kids, that we switch from a real Christmas tree to an artificial tree because the house is a 2-story and I couldn’t even think of the kids sleeping upstairs with a real (and eventually dry, crispy, fire-hazard) tree downstairs.

That said, let me quickly assure you that I am not in the hospital due to a fire. I mention the whole fear and phobia thing to let you know that my husband, Dave, is afraid of heights.

Because of that, every Christmas when we put up the lights on our house, he puts up all the lights except for the ones on the two high gables. I climb the extension ladder and put those portions up. He deals with extending the huge ladder and securing it and I climb it and put up those lights. He also holds the ladder while I climb up and while I’m up there… holding it the entire time until I descend. Above is a 2008 photo of the side gable, which I did first this year and, as usual for the last 12 years, all went well and without incident.

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I’ve been so into wrapping gifts creatively this past few weeks. I think it all began with the vintage French ephemera I purchased at Sweet Salvage and turned into wrapping paper.

I was so happy with the end result, that I’ve gone crazy for wrapping everything with just about anything except store-bought wrapping paper.

From there, I began searching out pretty wraps on Pinterest and ended up creating a new board dedicated to it, called That’s a Wrap.

Marissa’s birthday was a week ago, today. Here are a few of the gifts I wrapped for her.

A hard-to-wrap canvas shoulder bag was enclosed in a burlap sack wound with twine and accented with fragrant fresh herbs of rosemary and bay leaves.

More of the vintage French ephemera paper, this time simply tied with French wired ribbon.

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Marissa Lynn

Today is my sweet Missy May’s 25th birthday! This is one of my favorite pictures of her. That sheer joy in her face… it’s still there!

Evident in this photo of Marissa and her boyfriend, Jeff.

I believe they may be on the roof of her house in San Francisco. Not sure if I like that. It’s three stories high and it’s not like there’s a rail around it or anything. I know, I know, she’s 25, for goodness sake. But I’m still her mom!

And as such, I’ll never stop thinking about her happiness, health, safety, and well-being.

Here I am with her Godmother, Laura, preparing her dress on her baptism day. Isn’t she just the most beautiful baby? She is still that beautiful, inside and out!

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Hey, Crafty Ladies (sung to the tune of Gangnam Style)

I had not planned on posting today… you know, kinda busy cooking up a storm for the big feast tomorrow. But after doing this quick paint job yesterday, I could not resist.

So…

How do you go about turning something like this…

…. into something like this?

Pretty fantastic, right?!

Here is all it takes. Well, these three things, little tap water, and about 5 minutes of your precious time.

The Krylon Looking Glass spray paint is supposedly discontinued. At least according to the salespeople at Hobby Lobby, Micheal’s, and Ace Hardware.  I snapped up the last four cans at Ace. It’s not cheap either. I paid $15 a can, but I did find it for you on Amazon for $11 a can. You’re Welcome!

My advice – if you want to do this project. Either call around to the hardware and craft stores near you or place your order on Amazon, pronto!

I’ve had the glass pumpkin for years. As a matter of fact, I have three of them. I was contemplating putting them in the Goodwill pile but then I spotted this technique on Pinterest and decided to “mercury glass” or “mercury-ize” them instead.

I love how they turned out!

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