Worth the Price of Admission

(Sorry for the slightly blurry photo.) I dearly love these Christmas corsages; I've found quite a few of them at estate sales. I love everything about this: I love the fact that someone took the time to make it and then wear it proudly; I adore the little mushrooms; and the disgruntled little snowman with the pipecleaner scarf? He is, as the title of the post says, worth the price of admission!

Bob(by) Pins

These crack me up--first of all, I think the blonde looks more like a Miss Linda; the woman on the left looks as if she slightly disapproves of the whole thing, while Miss Jaunty Scarf is excited about the bob pin experience. What's also funny--you can't see it here because it is in tiny type--is that the package on the left says "Rubber-tip (simulated) bob pins." Simulated rubber?

Oui

I bought these old composition books at an estate sale; I like to use the old lined paper in collages, etc. One of the books had this surprise inside: French lessons from 1937! Tres (why can't we put in accents in Blogger?) cool, non?

Boxy Goodness

Purchased at an estate sale: a box . . .

. . . that opens up like this--it contained yarn samples. Love it! I'll probably store--guess what--yarn in it. It was a bit stinky, so I put a bag o' lavender in there. Mmmm. . .

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

Tallulah Mae factoid No. 763: She LOVES a good cup o'joe!

An addendum to yesterday's post: a kind commenter said that gophers are cute, and I agree completely (annoying, but cute!), which is why we hope the fox urine works to scare them away (into someone else's yard). I simply won't use the traps--yucko. I might put up a sign: Gophers, take a hike (please). Thank you.

January Showers (Deluges) Bring...

It's so chilly and stormy here--which is fine since it's winter, after all--but I like to look at photos of flowering loveliness to remind myself that after the mud/gophers/weeds/etc., come these (LOTS of these: it's nigella, or love-in-a-mist, which is a prodigious self-sower).

Operation Fox Urine has begun--let's hope the gophers aren't very clever and are fooled by the smell (which is rather nasty, by the way); we spread a lot of it, so maybe the gophers will think a small herd/skulk/troop/lead (don't you love all the wacky collective nouns for groups of animas?) of foxes has taken up residence. As for the weeds . . . sigh.

Preview: Japan (Yay)

(Drum roll please . . . ) B. and I are going to Japan this summer. Yay!!! A couple of weeks ago I went to the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park to watch a tea ceremony celebration, which was absolutely lovely. I consider this little visit to have been an appetizer before the main course to come. And did I mention: Yay!!!!

Filed Under "Totally Unnecessary" and "Are You Kidding?"

I mean, come on--was it really necessary to graffiti a CACTUS? Sigh.

Sing It, Julie Andrews

Raindrops on roses . . . . . . and whiskers on kittens.

By the way, does anybody else love The Sound of Music as much as I do? I can literally recite the dialogue . . .

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

This looks like some sort of Cubist rendering of Miss Tallulah: Picasso would be proud.

It's Alive!! Er, It's Finally a Pillow

Finally! Remember this post? Well, I got out my sewing machine . . . and promptly had a problem with the bobbin shuttle, so off to the repair shop; just as well, actually, since the poor thing hadn't been out of the closet in, um, shall we say, some time, so it needed to be tuned up. Upon its return, I quickly sewed up the sides, stuffed a natural fiber-filled pillow form in, and voila (wah-la, right, Dawn H.?), le pillow. Ooh-la-la?

I Feel Better Now, Thanks

Today was a much better day--and these definitely helped!

Don't Breathe Down My Neck, Please

I felt overwhelmed today, for no good reason, as if the guy above were bearing down on me. Ever have a day like that? It's not as if I have a pile o' work waiting (I don't, thank heavens), or my house needs cleaning (I did that already), or . . . I don't know, just a big fat "BLECH." Simple tasks seemed monumental, small trivialities loomed mountainous. To counteract such crappiness, I did what any smart person would do: I baked cookies!!

Out With the Old...

This is what it looks like when someone--not me; my beloved Doc Martens went bye-bye a while ago--decides to get rid of some punk regalia...but I know that there are still some spiky bracelets hiding around here somewhere...no dog collars, though.

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

"What?! Macaroni and cheese for dinner AGAIN?!"

Hello Sailors: Red (Orange) Sky at Night, Red (Pink) Sky in the Morning

Here's something I don't see very often: the sunrise!

This is my usual view: the sunset. Both are certainly lovely ...

Chai Latte No. 1

The first one of 2008, with Miss Various and Sunday, at Bread and Cie. Many more where these came from, right Robin?

Extreme Knitting

I made this keyhole scarf as a Christmas gift . . . I've made one before, from cotton; this one is alpaca and silk. I love the pattern (it's from Stitch and Bitch).

Apparently I don't know my own strength: check out the knitting needle, broken in two places!

It was a vintage plastic needle; I don't really like plastic needles, but they were the only size 9s I could find. I was simply tapping the needle against my leg--the first time it broke--and then it snapped again as I put on a stitch counter to act as a stopper at the back. Ultimately I was knitting with the far right portion--it was like knitting on a pencil! Too funny.

A Tale of Two Booties

(OK, the last vestiges of Christmas '07.) While I was Christmas shopping in an antique mall, I saw these darling little papier-mache Santa boots, which the tag said were hand-carried over from Belgium. I HAD to have them; I did buy something for someone else there, thus justifying (to myself) my buying myself a little prezzie.
Imagine my utter delight and amazement when I opened THESE Santa boots, given to me by my friend Alice. We'd certainly not ever talked about Santa boots--but there you go. One more pair, and it's officially a collection. How cute are they?! (Thanks again, Alice!)
These pix were taken with my new darling/adorable/amazing/cool-o-rama camera--now I will always have a camera with me to capture all the blog fodder out in the world. It was a gift from my sweetest B., who got tired of hearing me exclaim, "Darn it, I forgot the camera again!"

(He's the best! Really and truly. And not because he buys me cool presents--for a zillion other reasons, large and small.)

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

Wow, pretty paperwhites . . .
Tallulah thinks they're lovely . . .

And REALLY REALLY tall.

(By the way, there is apparently a way to keep the flower stems shorter: by giving them alcohol. Which I didn't do. Obviously.)

A Great Big Ol' Happy Birthday ...

... to my father, who has always been a shining star in my book. (And always will be.)

Happy Birthday, Daddy, from your baby girl.

Easing Into It

I decided to give myself permission to ease into the new year and all of my goals and ambitions (which are many) for myself in it. Our tendency, I think, is the whole, "OK, it's January 1, today I start exercising/eating right/writing in my journal/whatever; if I don't start doing it today--and if I don't do it EVERY day, I will fail." I'm sort of that way too, and oh, the recriminations that follow on about January 4 when I neglect to fulfill one of my goals! So, for me, it was perfectly fine that I didn't get done all the things I thought about when I woke up this morning. The year is young!

One thing I intend to do from now on is stop using the word "should," as in, " I should do X," or "I should have done Y, but I didn't." Too much guilt wrapped up in that. Instead, I will use the words "I will do..." or "I will try to do..." or "it would make me happy if I did. . . " It's a small change, but a positive one, I think... What are YOUR wishes for 2008?

In and Out

Wow, it's 2008 . . . time to savor all the good things from 2007, let go of the bad ones, and look forward to a chance to start anew. Things go out, things come in, just like the tides.