The Sun Sets...

...on 2015!

I hope all your wishes come true in 2016!

CRS

I found this dude wandering around in the dirt, far away from the milkweed plants.

Even though I know I shouldn't intervene with Mother Nature, I picked it up and relocated it back onto the milkweed. I'm the CRS: Caterpillar Rescue Squad!

Rideaux de dentelle de France

Or..."lace curtains from France." After more than a year, we've finally gotten lovely new lace curtains all the way from France. They're perfect in the breakfast nook.

To Grandmother's House We Go...

 Road trip!

 We drove to Arizona through some of the worst weather we've experienced in SoCal: foggy, rainy, windy. Yikes! We had to stop at the Wisteria Candy Cottage, of course!

 Our yearly quotient of McDonald's fries (OMG they are so good!).

 Someone looks cozy back there...

 REALLY cozy!

 Our little traveler...

Crazy clouds, including a weird vertical rainbow effect there at left.

And then the sunset...

Tallulah-Palooza Friday and Merry Christmas!

Tallulah Mae helped Santa check his list--she didn't realize he kept a list of nice AND naughty--and she hopes that all of you had a lovely and peaceful day doing whatever it is you like to do on holidays.

Miss Mae spent the day sleeping, begging for food, howling and then barking when put in the bedroom during family mealtime, and sleeping some more. She counts it as a good day (although the howling/barking episode MIGHT have qualified her for the naughty list!).

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Dreams

Dreaming of Santa...

Gift Wrapping Gifting

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to wrap presents, so I decided to gather up some vintage supplies, put them in a vintage tin, and give it to a friend as a Christmas present. Kinda fun! I hope she likes it!

Twinkling

A lovely subtle Christmas display in our neighborhood. So pretty!

End of an Era

It's the end of an era: Albie's Beef Inn, located at the Travelodge on Hotel Circle in Mission Valley, is closing after 53 years (new owner, rent increase, blah blah) on December 23rd.

It is famous for genteel paintings of 1960s ladies in sheer negligees (delightful!).

So sad...it is a unique time capsule beloved by many (including us and my parents, my dad in particular). Au revoir, Albie's...we knew ye well.

Adam's, Albie's sister restaurant, served awesome breakfasts, including delicious corn fritters served with butter and syrup. It is, of course, also closing.

Tallulah-Palooza Friday

 Where is Tallulah Mae?

 Um, I think I've found her...

 Yep.

Hello, darling girl.

Baby, It's Cold Outside...

 We actually had hail the other night...weird!

So this was called for! Toasty!

A lovely dark winter beer helps, too...and Santa approves!

Not a Through Street

Winter sunsets. 'Nuff said.

Random Heart, Beach Edition

A Day at the Beach

Despite being busy with the usual nonsense plus Christmas stuff, I decided to just take myself to the beach today.

This is Cabrillo National Monument, breathtakingly beautiful, no? It was breathtakingly COLD and windy there today, which I rather enjoyed. I was down by the tidepools, but today was not a low tide so the pools were inaccessible.

The last two pics of are lighthouses (duh)--the first one is the first lighthouse built on Point Loma in 1855...it is up at the top of a bluff, which seemed like a good idea, except that fog and low clouds often obscured the light. The bottom pic is of the lighthouse used today, built in 1891 down at sea level.