Seth's Artwork

My son, Seth, drew these.  Not only is he a sweetheart, he's so very talented.  He plays the piano beautifully and has composed several of his own pieces.  Some day I hope he can create a CD of his piano music.

Baking

Made beef jerky today!  Hot, spicy, salty and chewy.

It's Christmas

My Santa Collection

Finally have a little semblance of Christmas in our home, we just put up three little woodland trees with a few of my Santas underneath.  The first one on the left is a little store bought Santa, I made the second and third ones, the fourth and sixth Santas were made by a relative and the fifth was made by a very dear friend, Teresa.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

I've always loved this portrait of Snow White by Solocosmo.  I purchased a lovely pendant of her to wear around my neck!

More Christmas by Jessica

Two Carols by Jessica, a friend

Some Neat Things

Red Retro Record Player

Picnic Basket

Barber Shop Quartet

Hairless Teddy Bear LOVE

Vintage Gameboard

Here's some of my recent favorite picks!  I'm so very tempted to buy that hairless teddy bear, he's so darn cute!  I love the vintage game board, such a cool home decor piece with a truly nice graphic design.  The record player brings back such fun childhood memories of me playing my 45's and that green picnic basket, wow!  I'm ready to pack it full of some homemade goodies and head off to the park as soon as the weather turns warm in the springtime.

Vintage Teddy Bear

Just wanted to share this cutie pie I purchased for myself today.

Vintage Teddy

As you can see, how can one resist this face?  And that foot?  He's way too adorable!

Classic Movie

Watching this version of Pride and Prejudice tonight and having some popcorn with grated Parmesan cheese.  Yummy!  Can you tell that I love the very beautiful and classy Greer Garson?  Love her!!

Christmas Eve Dinner

A few things I recently purchased on Etsy for our Christmas Eve dinner with family, wanting to make the table attractive and a little bit festive.  I love mixing things up and not have everything so matchy matchy.

The first set of linen place-mats are trimmed in gold with goldenrod needlework accents, the second set are satin roses with a golden trim with napkins and lastly are four creamy antique napkins from the 1940's.  I adore setting the table with my special dishes, freshly polished silver and crystal goblets and I always appreciate the time and effort that someone takes to make a table look so pretty and inviting.

4 vintage linen placemats

4 more vintage placemats with napkins

4 linen napkins from the 40's

Burned

I cooked this dish ahead of time this evening, took the pot of beef out of the oven and did the stupidest thing.  I grabbed the lid with my bare hand.  Ouch!

Been soaking my hand in cold water for the past half hour and it's still burning.  Gotta go soak it more.  Oooh it hurts.  There is a mark streaking across my fingers where the handle of the lid touched. 

By the way, I tasted the sauce and it's delicious!  ;D

Beef Bourguignon

 

We're having company for dinner tomorrow night and I've always wanted to make this dish, so I am.  Serving alongside boiled potatoes with parsley, baby peas, green salad and french bread.  Julia says that all her French dishes will be served with French Bread at the table, because, it's French isn't it?  Dessert, depending on how much time I have, will be either my famous Dark Sweet Cherry Pie or a simple chocolate mix in the pan snack cake.  I'm sure Julia would go for the pie.  I'll have to go to the store to buy some vanilla ice-cream if I do make the pie.  Decisions, decisions. 

Do you love to watch Julia as much as I do?  Love her voice!  She's so cute when she makes a mistake and something flops or whatever, and then she 'fixes' it.  After all, she says, no one is watching, are they?  She's so down to earth, how can you not adore her? 

Autumn

Gorgeous autumn scenery, not far from our home - taken last weekend on a Sunday drive to drop off some furniture to The Find in Petaluma.  Just look at the leaves of golden mustard, burnt orange and fiery red, along with mossy green rocks, lavender woodland underbrush and vibrant green grasses dotted throughout the landscape.

Sweet Oskar

Many of you might have seen or heard about this blind kitten which was born without formed eyeballs, if not, here he is for you to enjoy.  In the first video, the owners put bells in the ball so he can hear where to find it.  Oh my goodness, how precious!

Oskar battles the hair dryer:

Oskar and his buddy, Claus:

What joy to love and be loved!

Near Accident

I've been putting off writing about this because of how close I came to being seriously hurt or possibly even dying and honestly it brings tears to my eyes to relive it.  Since I love to write and am hoping to become a more interesting story teller, here's my experience...

Just before noon last Thursday, on my way to a dental appointment in Alameda, I was in the slow lane because my exit was coming up soon.  On my right was a wall or barrier of some sort which narrowed my lane considerably.  Along on my left comes an extremely huge truck about to pass me.  I kinda freaked out to say the least.  Firmly gripping my steering wheel I attempted to keep my truck as close to the right side as possible without hitting the barrier and keeping clear of him.  This monster truck hit my drivers side mirror somewhere towards the middle section of his truck as he was passing.  Initially I was shocked that I was actually hit by such a large vehicle and sort of had this 'did this really just happen to me?' reaction.  It briefly crossed my mind this was how I would die and prepared myself for another impact all the while trying to stay calm and in control, trying to keep driving straight down the middle of my lane with tons of thoughts flitting in and out of my mind.

The second crash never came.  He passed me and I was safe and very grateful to be alive and not injured.  I thought of calling 911, asking myself 'Is this a life and death emergency?'  My answer was no because I was not hurt, so instead I called home and left a message on my machine with his Tennessee license plate number.  Honking at him and trying to capture his attention I figured it was safer to get off the freeway at this point than risk going after him and getting myself in a much worse accident.

To say the least I was pretty shaken up but drove on to my dental appointment.  All the while my tooth was being worked on, I was dreading my return drive and couldn't keep from worrying about it.  Thankfully there was still plenty of daylight when I began the journey home in the late afternoon and I stayed clear from trucks of all sizes.  By 5 pm, in all my life, was never more relieved to be home.

One thing I've learned from this and you can as well, is DO call 911.  They could have put an APB out and perhaps the highway patrol would have spotted him and pulled him over.  Our insurance company said they will do their best to contact the registered owner but cannot guarantee anything.

Minimal damage considering...

His paint left behind.

Update:  I was just informed by AAA that the his license plate was not registered.  Not registered.  Can you believe it?

Jewelry Party

Yay, last nights party was a success.  The Lia Sophia Jewelry is beautiful and I must say the website and brochure doesn't do the jewelry justice.  Everything sparkles and is very well made.  My friend, Diana Dempsey, is the Lia Sophia Advisor and you can purchase jewelry directly on this site and she'll get the credit for it.  Great Christmas gift ideas!

I need to mention that this company gives a Lifetime Warranty no matter how it breaks or gets damaged, even if it's your own fault; the only thing you need do is save your receipt.  Diana told us one day she was at work, at her desk and as she stood up her necklace got caught in the drawer, broke and went flying off in all directions.  The company replaced it without a problem, she just had to mail the broken necklace in an envelope back to them.   

Lia Sophia Jewelry Link

I bought this necklace and this necklace, at Shilah's party in September which is the first time I learned about Lia Sohia.  Last night I got three free pieces of jewelry and four pieces of my choice for $15- each.  Some of the items I got from last nights party;  Orbit Earrings, Improv Necklace, Reflection Necklace and matching earrings, Plaza Necklace.

This one is gorgeous and I plan on getting it at the next party I attend: Silver Lining.  For some color, this one is so pretty as is this one.  And Miss Stunning.

So there you have it, Lia Sophia Jewelry.  Divine.

Pretty baubles

More Cookies!

Today was an incredibly beautiful sunny day for the middle of November and guess what I did to end this gorgeous day?  Yessiree.  After dinner, I baked a triple batch of those delicious Pumpkin Cookies (recipe in another posting below) with the wonderful sugar topping.  Been on my feet for the past 135 minutes and now I can put my feet up for a spell while we watch the Antiques Roadshow.

I'm having a jewelry party this Friday night and thought a small platter of Pumpkin Cookies would be a nice little dessert to serve along with some fresh cut pears set out on a pretty plate from Dan's Produce.

Dan, The Produce Man

Growing up in Alameda, I went to school for many years with Dan Avakian.  Dan started working at the local open-air produce market as a teenager in 1976 and eventually bought it from the owner.  Dan is sharing some tips Here on how to pick out fresh pears.  Wow, so many different varieties to choose from!  I'm heading to Alameda on Thursday and will have to stop by before my dental appointment to pick up a few pears and will remember to 'check the neck.'   

To read Dan's story, click Here and to see more here.

Dan Avakian

If you'd like to visit Dan's Fresh Produce:

2300 Central Ave
at the corner of Oak St
(between Oak St & Park St)
Alameda, CA 94501

Pumpkin Everything!

Shilah recently told me about a 50 cent sale on pumpkins at Raleys, so yesterday after the gym, we stopped and picked up some.  She bought two since there are four in her family.  Mine was a medium to large sized pumpkin.  Last night, I cut, cleaned and roasted my pumpkin @ 350 degrees for about an hour cut side down on a cookie sheet.

This morning I scraped the soft flesh and pureed it in my blender, which gave me about 5 cups of pumpkin pulp.  Since pumpkin pie is delicious, I made two!  I love to eat pumpkin pie for breakfast, minus the whipped topping.  Hey, it's got fiber in it and that's good for you!

While the pies were baking I set about to make some Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Glazed Topping.  These cookies are so good, I doubled my batch and I'm going to share my recipe with you.

 Pumpkin Pie Cookies

1 cup sugar

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup softened butter

1 Tbsp. finely grated orange peel

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix first 4 ingredients.  Put flour, b.p., b.s., cinnamon, salt in a bowl and mix.  Add to pumpkin mixture.  Stir in raisins and nuts.

Drop by dough onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake until light brown, 8 to 10 min.  Remove from sheet and place on cooling rack.  Spread with Brown Glaze.

Brown Glaze

1/4 cup butter, melted in small pan on top of stove

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla 

1 tsp. milk, only if needed for spreading consistency.

Mix all ing. with a wooden spoon.  Frost each cookie with a small amount of glaze.  

Yummy cake like cookies!

The house smelled delicious and smells even more delicious now.

Going to roast all the pumpkin seeds tonight, they've been soaking in salt water since yesterday afternoon and are now drying on paper towels. 

Museum of Wonder

The first time I heard about Butch Anthony was on one of our favorite television shows, American Pickers.  We love Mike and Frank cause they seem like a couple of regular guys having fun with a lot of humor thrown in, entertaining regular folks like us.  Laughing feels so good, doesn't it?

A folk artist from Alabama, Butch has a wonderful knack for turning junk into art.  They say he's part mad scientist, part genius.  I love the word he made up: intertwangled.  Now there's a word for ya!  Intertwangled most accurately describes his work for it's made up of found, discarded objects and turned into treasures.  I fully enjoy listening to Anthony's southern twang and watching his laid-back manner.  See one of his interviews on YouTube here.  Butch's work is such an inspiration and what a delightful character he is!  Great job, BA, we love ya, from Lisa and Mike in good ol' sunny California.  Keep up the good work!  xo

Butch Anthony speaking: Hey y'all, welcome to my Museum of Wonder Shop. I like to take found objects and turn them into art.

Mr. Doo Nanny himself featured in the NY Times here

Silver Queen Sweet Corn

Recycled Book Art

Girl with Red Flower

Girl with Candle

Clark Balloon

The Artist Sandbox ~ Justin ~ Bucky

I'm so excited to share with you a little about Justin Geer.  I met him through Etsy. 

Justin

 Justin says:

I'm a local Atlanta artist who spends most of my time acting, making music and creating whatever types of art I feel inspired to work on. Currently I have begun working with light to create magical themed items.
AKA Bucky Higgins; The Weather Report, Here, and here.  My favorite is Bucky's bedtime story.  I love this character!

I adore Bucky Higgins!

Not only can he act as you can see in the funny Weather Reports as Bucky, Justin is a talented pianist.  Justin's piano music is relaxing and soothing to listen to.  I purchased one of his cd's and am using it for my massage clients, for which it's perfect.  He also has some Pop Culture Comedy Music which is fun.  What an entertaining guy!  I think Hollywood ought to snatch up this Bucky character for some children's Saturday morning show, which I would watch just to see more of Bucky.  Although it might not be what Justin has in mind for his acting career, you'd have to ask him.  lol

Justin Geer on Facebook and follow his art blog.

And this wouldn't be complete without sharing some items from his Etsy shop.

Brass Green Lantern Seafoam Bubble Autumn Night Light Ring ~ Glow in the Dark ~ Adjustable

Songs From a Piano B

Kids Trick or Treat Safety Lights

Early 20th Century Vintage Pink Piggy Bank

Magic Glass Pocket Wand w/Copper Handle ~ Lights up Costume Accessory

Reel to Reel Book w/Secret Drawer Stash

Thank you, Justin!  Love your work, all of it and I wish you the best success for the future.
~ Lisa xo