Deer Joyride

What's that?

You and your entire family would like to go for a ride?

Well OK then! Done!

BTW, this is NOT my car and these are NOT my deer. Wonder who they belong to, hmmm?

Pie Day at the Fair

OK, y'all: I'm about to brag, so please bear with me. Guess who won a second-place ribbon at the San Diego County Fair on Pie Day? Me! Yay! Check it out...that's my sugar cream pie--made from my Grandma Betty Maxine's recipe, and her very own rolling pin, seen in the top photo--up there, sporting its pretty red ribbon.

It was a bit of an experience getting the pie to the fairgrounds in one piece: it had to survive freeway traffic; parking in a dirt lot; riding a shuttle with kicking toddlers sitting beside me; a metal detector; and fair-goers swerving around in front of me with their Zucchini Wienies (!) as I raced to get it to judging on time. Whew!

There are all the ribbons, lined up and ready to be distributed...

Here is my pie (second from the top), lined up with the competition in its category ("other").

I held my breath as they cut into it...I had no way of being sure that it had set up to the appropriate firm consistency. This is a delicious but rather unpredictable pie...sometimes it turns out runny for no apparent reason. Not this time: check out that lovely little slice o' heaven above. Yummmy!

The lady who won the blue ribbon in my category has been entering pies for 25 or 30 years, I was told; she won two other ribbons AND the grand sweepstakes ribbon. I was defeated by a master, obviously!

It was really fun and I'm SOOO glad I did it...my grandma was an unbelievable baker of pies*, but she never entered her pies into any competitions. I feel like she might be smiling down at me right about now.

*My mom ain't too shabby, herself! Maybe the pie-baking gene got passed down...

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

"Do you want to play with me? Do you? Huh? How 'bout now? Do you want to play now? Do you? Now?"

Modern Art? Or Melted Mochi?

It's melted mochi ice cream! Pretty...and tasty, even in this melted state.

It's Twine, Y'all

Um, no {shifty eyes}. I don't have a problem with acquiring twine and twine-like materials...why do you ask? {clutches twine to bosom and runs away...}

Water, Lily

A Sign

REST already, will ya?! Even the neon signs are pleading with you, for goodness sakes!

Happy Father's Day, Starring Miss Tallulah Mae

Here's to fathers near and far, those still with us and those who have gone to another place...we send all our love.

My own sweet father always has been and always will be my Daddy...Happy Father's Day, Daddy Man: I love you so!

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

Gotta love the little pinky toes peeking out at top!

Carded, Again

Another card I made...
..which I now see is a bit crooked at the bottom! Ah, well, that adds to its handmade charm, yes? Yes!

Carded

I love to make cards with vintage paper ephemera, such as this card of buttons. (I plan to put my cards in my Etsy shop one of these days!) The graphics on vintage packaging really make my heart sing--not only are those ugly bar codes missing, but look how a sweet illustration elevates a prosaic object (card of plain white buttons) to a work of art.

M'Kay

I heart this sign for KSandwiches for two reasons: one, the "i" is dotted with a star (takes me back to my sixth-grade class, where our teacher made us all use first-grader paper and trace our letters to relearn cursive because we were dotting our "i"s with hearts and stars and smiley faces--all of this on pink and purple notebook paper, mais oui. Also, while she was a nice teacher, she really did resemble Benjamin Franklin in a faux Chanel suit.); two, and most importantly, the "K" is made up of baguettes (at first I thought they were hot dogs, which would have been way cool). Even so, love it!

I haven't eaten there, but the menu looks interesting--Vietnamese sandwiches and boba.

Nursery Time

I thoroughly enjoyed my latest visit to the local nursery. In addition to this lovely wagonload o' annuals--my cutting garden was a disaster this spring since almost none of the seeds germinated (mysteriously)--here are some other things that made me smile:

Miss Socks, who meow-quacks at you to encourage you to continue petting her.

Butterfly No. 1 enjoying a zinnia.

Butterfly No. 2 snacking on what I believe is a so-called teddy bear type of sunflower (though I'm not positive what flower it is...).

And our old friend Miss Apis, scurrying around this sunflower. Her pollen bags were not loaded, so I'm not sure exactly what she was doing...
"Meow-quack!"

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

Hmm...my head is saying "Minnie Mouse," but for some strange reason my heart is telling me "Minnie Pearl": "Howwwwwwwwwww-dee!"

I know Minnie Pearl wore a hat with the $1.98 price tag still attached, not a bow, but still...

Shadowy

Just...shadows. That's all...

Pretty in Pink

Isn't this pincushion so pretty? It matches my peonies perfectly! (I won it during a giveaway hosted by the fun and informative blog Sew, Mama, Sew; this lovely was created by the talented Leah, who blogs at Sew Spoiled. Yay! And thank you, Leah.)

Alien

Don't these passion vine flowers just look like they're from another planet?

Skwerlnanigans

Why hello, little kitty.

Whatcha lookin' at?

Ah, I see . . .

SKWERL!!!!!!

Mr. McSkwerlerson is enjoying a light repast...naughty squirrel!

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

Even though she's only six, Miss Mae is going gray around her eyes--even her little eyelashes have turned white.

If you make the top photo bigger, you can see my camera reflected in her pupil--she's certainly a well-documented dog!

A Peach of a Cherry

Pretty!

This Reminds Me of Something...

No, those of you with naughty minds, not THAT! The colors remind me of HoJo's, which used to have marvelous orange roofs and turquoise accents (not to mention fried clams [pre-vegetarian days, obvy] and 28 flavors of ice cream...ahh, the good old days!).

Cheese Whiz

Yum...goat cheese with herbs and olives, from Venissimo Cheese, a fabulous local cheese shop.

And we had some other little cheesy delights, too. You really can't beat bread, cheese, and fruit for a satisfying repast, can you?