A new piece for the shop.

Here's our newest table.  A sweet corner accent table for home decor.

Corner Table:  LINK HERE

This was a custom request by a very nice customer.  Isn't it cute?  I love it and want one for myself!  See our color choices HERE.

Softball tournament

My granddaughter, Angelina, began her first year of Bobby Sox Girls Fastpitch Softball this year.  Their (pink) team made it into the final playoffs.  Last night they played the purple team.  Because the purple team had gone undefeated during the playoffs, Angelina's team had to play them twice in order to win the championship.  If they won last nights game, which they did, then they needed to play them again tonight.  Last night's score was Pink 10 - 7 Purple.

One thing, the pink team was also the youngest team of them all.  The purple team had some big girls which you could see were sluggers if given the chance.  However, the pink team had some excellent pitching skills and got in some good base hits, too. 


Tonight's final score was Pink 7 - 4 Purple.  Yay!

Before game motivational speech: "Just do your best, girls."

Let's do it!

Angelina getting ready.

Warming up batting swings.

Angelina up at bat.  She has a good eye.

 A few of the others up at bat.

Game over.

Hip hip hooray.

Shake your groove thing, shake your groove thing.

The coach poses with one of the pitchers (on the left is his daughter) and the other is the catcher.

Wet coach.

Angelina getting her medal.

A pose for the camera.

The winning bats.

Celebration dinner with the family.

Saturday morning is the awards ceremony for Bobby Sox and right after that we'll be trucking it on over to Aiden's baseball game.  Little League playoffs begin this coming Saturday, so I guess we'll be going to a few more games.  ;)

Some small paintings I did recently.

It's been such a long time since I've painted.  A landscape, that is.  Something besides furniture.  Here are my latest little paintings and hopefully not my last.  Once I finish up in the yard and painting the house trim, I'm hoping that I can get back to my oil paints.  My true love.

Last year, on the big vacation across the country, our first stop was The Grand Canyon.  This little painting is only one of many gorgeous scenes I captured with my camera.  This is my first painting from that month long trip pulling our 5th wheel through such places as The Grand Canyon and Sedona, AZ, Aztec to Taos, NM, The Ozarks, New Orleans and on through Texas and back home to good ol' California.

And in March we took a little trip to Mendocino, one of our favorite places to visit.  I captured some beautiful scenic ocean shots of the ocean and painted one of Ten Mile Beach.

The Grand Canyon

Ten Mile Beach

My favorite plant

A long time ago I had a Hoya Carnosa houseplant that bloomed profusely each year.  I've been on the lookout for a replacement ever since and two years ago I found what I'd been searching for at Mid City Nursery.

For the very first time it's finally blooming!  You can see the first cluster hanging lower and on the upper part of the picture is the second bloom that showed up about a week ago.  They are long lasting flowers.

This first cluster appeared over three weeks ago and opened up to this lovely thing.

 They are waxy flowers just like the leaves and have a mildly fragrant scent.

This is how they start out.

Our things on t.v. and in the movies.

Two years ago, Disney bought a custom barber pole from us here and now it's available here and it's been in this commercial.  Look for the man sitting on the bench reading a newspaper.  Our pole is directly behind him.

Then someone purchased a vintage game from our other Etsy shop, Honey's Treasures.

It's going to be used as a prop in the upcoming movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty scheduled for release in December 2013 starring Ben Stiller. 

And yesterday, someone purchased one of our Railroad Racks as a prop to be in another upcoming movie called, Let's Be Cops.

A dream come true backyard.

Some shots I took yesterday.  We had a little (BBQ Burgers) dinner on the new enclosed back porch.  I'm in love with it.

Michael's new He Man BBQ area.

A beautiful pot we purchased yesterday with some fragrant climbing Jasmine to hide the messy ugly telephone wires.

A fish Mike made a long time ago and I have plans to add these to our shop.  Just haven't gotten around to it.  Hand carved with rusty tin fins.  Really cool for garden decor.

A new gazing ball Michael bought for me.

It's gorgeous!

The new patio chairs Mike whipped out for us.  Want some?

Jan and Gary came over for dinner and Mexican Train Dominoes.

Cheers, Jan!

Yep, that's me.

Intimate dinner party for four.

Looking out into the yard.

Life can sometimes be a bowl of cherries.

From this rustic arched metal gate, to the left, is the last section of the yard that I want to change.  I'm going to take up all the stepping stones and put down a path of small river pebbles to imbed them, instead of packed sand which is currently there.  We have large tree roots (not only the tree in the foreground, but another two trees in the back) lifting up the stepping stones and creating a tripping hazard.  My thinking is, if they are just set into small rocks that will no longer be an issue.  Plus, at the end of the path (it meanders over a little wooden bridge that Mike made) is an area with a trellis (is rotting) I want to take out and brick in another area for yet another small conversation setting.

I'm leaning towards a swing glider bench and maybe a couple of small tables.  I don't know...still trying to picture it in my mind.  Maybe once the path and bricked in sitting area is completed, then I will have my mind made up.