Bed with a View!

A few weeks ago my girlfriend got this great bed at IKEA in black and loved it......so I headed down to IKEA to check out the white one and I loved it, expecially the bead board on the back. You can pull out the drawer area and slide the top mattress across and it makes a king bed! We have so much company and always need bed space. My friends husband (engineer type) put it together in 6 hours....that was a little daunting as Steve was out of town and when I decide to do something, there is no waiting around. If it took an engineer 6 hours I just could not imagine how long it would take me! But tempted I was and felt up for the all night challenge.....then my girlfriend called me and said she saw an ad on Craig's list for the same bed, assembled, 5 days old. After a series of back and forth emails we agreed on a price and since our truck bed is limited with a hard cover, Kristen offered to drive me over to get it. Sounds good - right?

So, we agreed on a time and loaded up the boys and the directions were for us to drive to the address provided and then call the lady that listed the bed. We headed out by OB (one of my fave areas) and then the address took us to Sunset Cliffs - an incredibly beautiful area near OB. I called the lady and at first she was not answering (uh-oh) and finally called me back and then told us to drive down this alley and around this block and it was like a scavenger hunt to find her place. Kristen parked and I went to look at it....however, as I went through the side gate I stopped dead in my tracks and my jaw hit the ground. Her place had the single best view I have ever witnessed in my life.....I have been to all the Hawaiian Islands, Capri, Russia, Sweden, The Fiords, Scotland, England, France, Africa, all over the Caribbean, coasts of Spain, Italy, Canary Islands, Greece and no where ever have I seen a view like that. I could not move it was so stunning.....so after I regained my composure she showed me the bed.....it was just as she said, brand new and assembled! I agreed to buy it and she took it apart in some pieces and Kristen and I took turns hauling pieces down. It took me longer as I just could not move past that view.....unbelievable....these pictures do not do it justice. The boys were *perfect* as they were in their car seats and entertained by watching a professional photographer do a photo shoot across the street - she had a whole vignette set up with a wicker chair and old door, etc - very interesting to watch. Once we were loaded we headed to my place but Kristen was in a hurry so she took my car and left me her truck with the bed in the back, the boys came in with me and we hung out for a few hours until Brian got off work. Brian then helped me take down the old daybed and haul it to the garage and he and I unloaded the new daybed pieces. Then he was in a hurry and had to head out with the boys. (See a pattern here - they are busy people!!!) and at 10 pm that night when Kristen was done she headed back over and helped me try and assemble the rest of the pieces I could not figure out....but we did not have the instructions. We did find them on the Internet and if any of you have IKEA furniture you know what a challenge that can be to follow their cryptic instructions......however, we perserved.... We did find we were missing a couple of screw caps and I was leaving the next day at 5 a.m. so we did as much as we could and then called it a night. By the time I was home from my week long trip Kristen had gone to IKEA, got the pieces and Adam and her finished up the assembly. I am really really happy with it and love the white white against the moss green of the walls......but I kinda feel sorry for the bed, it had such a beautiful view and loads of fresh air and now it is a toy room that doubles as a guest room....but I like to think it will be happy to be here with lots of interesting peoples staying on it, drawers full of toys and little boys jumping on it......ahhhh but that view!!!

Back to School Pictures....

For some reason these pictures would not load on my Back to School Post!

Back to School.....

One of my fave pieces of furniture in my house is a table I designed years ago and a friend handmade for me. It is a mission style coffee table that has a hinge opening so you can put things inside that display through glass. I wanted to have things on my coffee table but did not want to constantly be taking them off to use it, etc. I have fun each month decorating it....

This past week the whole city has been in Back to School fever. Every commercial, every store display....it is the buzz....and it is so fun to see the little kids with their lists get their supplies and new clothes. It was a fun time for me when I was in school too.

In grade school there were very few malls in Phoenix so my mom would take my sister and I downtown for back to school shopping. This was a BIG deal. My sister and I would wear our little white gloves and dresses and we would shop with mom and have lunch at the Newberrys where you sat on these stools and ordered wonderful things like french fries and grilled cheese sandwiches. My sister and I would pick out our basics, which always included a new crinoline slip. After we shopped all day we would get to have warm nuts from a machine (also from Newberrys) and head home to hang up and play with our new threads. (I always hung up my clothes, my sister was the kind of throw it on the floor girl).

When my kids were in first in school I dressed Kristen in smocked dresses with big bows in her hair and Adam in colored shirts and ironed creases in his pants and I matched their outfits in color coordination.....along came grade school and there were malls everywhere and everything was surf related...Sun Diego....KFive....Roxy....all fun and bright and they were just as excited. They always got new backpacks (unheard of in my day) neon colored markers and glue that was colored.......

What I would also do for my friends kids and sometimes my nieces and nephews is have a back to school bbq right before Labor Day - kids only, no adults. We would play games and then they would win school supplies, but it was just the fun of being together with them that made it festive.

The grandsons are a couple of years away from Back to School but I was feeling nostalgic yesterday and decided to decorate the tablescape with Back to School theme. I have 2 yellow school buses and I went to the store and got new pencils and crayons and bright folders as a base and then put old school pictures of us and the kids all around. I even found my 1st grade class picture and I am going to have to tag some of my friends on Facebook with this one! I even have a school book that was my dad's in there - it is from the 1920's.

I am thinking about finding some random kid and taking him/her to get some back to school clothes just for the warm fuzzy feelings. I would probably end up on Americas Most Wanted or the 11pm news so I probably won't.

What feelings do 'Back To School' invoke in you? New beginnings? Favorite old memories?

Catching Up....

The past few weeks have been a blurr.....Adam and I drove to Phoenix on a quick turn around trip to pick up some furniture my MaMa Auten had. We left on a Sat a.m. and arrived in Phx and headed over to my Aunts at 3 pm, visited, loaded furniture, ate at my brothers restaurant, slept and headed out the next day at 6 a.m. to return home. It was great to have such wonderful time with Adam.

When my MaMa Auten passed, my Aunt Dixie and Uncle Bill needed furniture for their mobile home in beautiful Kachina Village (Flagstaff, AZ). A few years after they set up, my mom and dad purchased a mobile home 2 doors down and we spent some really wonderful times there.....we would go up on weekends to visit when we were in town and both Adam and Kristen spent many fun summer days up with them and cousins and friends.

Uncle Bill passed last February my Aunt (after some water damage) decided to close up their place and saved the 2 pieces for me that I wanted so bad (34 years!) - a drop leaf table and her dresser. The dresser and table were old old old when my MaMa Auten had them so they are really ancient pieces. Not the kind that you would see on 'Antique Roadshow' but just sentimental to me.

My MaMa Auten had a tiny gingerbread like house and it was about 20' x 20' total. Since she did not have a lot of room she had to maximize every inch/space. The window panes were beveled glass and it had crystal doorknobs. It had a front porch where we sat in the evenings and a back porch where we sat in the a.m.'s. We did a lot of porch sitting - either just the two of us talking or waiting for our ride to church or the grocery store on Wednesdays for double stamps!, watching people come and go from the Dairy Queen or with all the families and cousins sprawled all over her porch, concrete slab or lawn! I can still hear all the voices, laughter and how exciting it was for us kids when my dad or my uncle would give us a dollar as we would go to the DQ and buy dipped cones for 5 cents and it would feed 20 of us! We would make the trip back and forth delivering the yummy treats.

Inside the back door it had a tiny kitchen with an apartment size stove and refrigerator. That is where the drop leaf table was and we ate all our meals there. She was an awesome cook - a real country cook - everything was made from scratch - gravy, biscuits, pies, coconut cakes, etc. On the side is where she stored her dishes and kept her silverware in a bread box (have it). I would help her line the shelves with paper every spring and she got the kind that would fold over so a trim would hang off the shelf - lots of times birds as I remember. After church on Sundays she would get out her ice tea glasses (which I have) and make tea on the stove and poor in the glasses so we would cool off on hot Sunday days while our Sunday dinner cooked away. She had a medicine chest on the wall with a mirror and a chair underneath and I would stand on the chair and watch her cook, or stand on the chair and help her do dishes in 2 dishpans, then we would throw the dishwater out on the lawn - she was way ahead of the time for recycling!

The room next to it was a really tiny living room. She had a 'divan' and on the wall were her collection of plates and salt and pepper collections (have those). She also had a table with a tv on it (have the table) and a rocking chair (have it). In the winter she would move the divan under the window and put up her little gas stove with heating grids as she did not have central air or heat. She would light the stove with a match scratched on a rock (I have the stove, grates and even the rock!) I would stay in bed while she light the stove and then she would call me out to warm up!

Through the door and to the right was a tiny bathroom. The bathtub was a ball and claw cast iron tub - which was stolen after she passed. She did not have hot water and had to heat up my bath water in a dishpan on the stove in the kitchen and carry it into the bathroom and pour it into the tub. On the bathroom wall was a paper poem of MOTHER - M is for the many ways.....etc - wish I had that! All us little cousins were so afraid to go into that bathroom when it was dark and the roaches would come up from the bathtub drain and fly around when shocked by the light.

Outside the bathroom was her tiny bedroom. On the right was her huge white dresser. She kept her pocketbook in the right had top drawer and a box of chocolate covered turtle candy in the bottom drawer. I was not tall enough to even see the top of her dresser if was standing next to it but if I stood in the other room I could. It had long tall legs and a mirror on top. (This is the dresser my Aunt gave me and I was and am shocked at how small it is....they did cut off the legs and misplaced the mirror but the drawers are soooo tiny. I can remember her struggling to pull the huge drawer out and it is really only about 20 inches across - more like a chest of drawers). Next to the dresser was a walk in like narrow closet that I was always too afraid to go into. Then the wall across the back had her full length mirror (have that) and a cuckoo clock on top (my cousin John has that). She had a table where she did all her sewing as she did custom sewing and tailoring. The metal bed frame was against the other wall and she had a nightstand next to it with an old radio we would listen to when we went to bed. When sewing she would lay the fabric out on her bed and cut out the patterns. She made all kinds of beautiful clothes for ladies and they would come for fittings and she saved all the scraps in a scrap bag for me to play with.

So anyway, so happy to get these two pieces. I am not doing a thing to the dresser and you can see by the picture it is in my guest room, good to go. The table will be painted this weekend and distressed - will show an update when I get it finished!

I am so grateful to have all these pieces of hers and especially for the memories they all evoke when I see them.

Just Dance!

I just love this picture of Brody and Kristen dancing and had to share it!

It just says it all.....

Apricots!!!

One of my August rituals when I visit my parents is to pick hundreds of apricots at an abandonded tree near their house. It breaks my heart to see them wasted and rotting on the ground. The tree offers up thousands every year and I try and save as many as I can for my mom to make into yummy apricot jam.

Every time I pick them I am reminded of the song the kids sang when they were little because the flowers looked so much like popcorn...

I looked at the window and what did I see?

Popcorn popping on the Apricot tree

Spring had brought me such a sweet surprise

Popcorn popping right before my eyes....

I'd like to pick a handful

have a special treat

a popcorn ball would sure taste sweet!

But it wasn't so....tho it seemed to be....Popcorn popping on the Apricot Tree!

Dylanism: Mt. Rainer is Stinked!

I was out walking this a.m. and 'thinking about things' as Dylan says.....I love his Dylanism's....

After reading books for naptime, 'GiGi, let's talk about things'

After doing something wrong "I did a very bad thing'

"Of Course' when you ask him something.......who's boy are you? 'GiGi's boy"....and so many many more.

Weeks before we went to Seattle he saw a program on volcano's and was fascinated (he is 4). He asked a million questions all about them, etc. When we decided to go to Seattle he was excited and then said "Hey GiGi - isn't that where that Mt. Rainer Volcano is"? (what a memory he has). I said yes, and he said 'I don't want to go because it will erupt'. I tried to explain to him that it was dormant and he said, 'what does that mean' - I said like extinct - not going to happen....he thought about it a minute and then said 'Gigi - are you sure Mt. Rainer is Stinked?'

Sturgis.....It's complicated.....

Steve took off today @ 5:30 a.m. for days and days and days to and around Sturgis and back.

For Him: This is a good thing - he can ride his motorcycle all he wants, hang out with his guy friends, drink, party, check out the biker chicks, listen to Rock music, take rides around the area - he and an estimated 35,000+ fellow bikers for the 70th anniversary of Sturgis/Harley Davidson, staying at the one and only renown Buffalo Chip Campground.

For Me: It's complicated. I just don't get it. From the day he bought his first bike (2000) until now I struggle with the Whys, and maybe there is no answers to the Whys. It was a defining moment for me and one I was forced to deal with, something that I disagreed with, didn't want and felt that my opinion and choice did not matter - it was happening.....

I tried/try to be esoteric and say that what he chooses is not a choice over me or what interests I would like to share as a couple and try not to take offense to it - but that honestly does not resonate with me....not sure I believe it and I struggle with it....something about the choice/s make me, my thoughts and feelings, feel rejected, not important, not valued.....being raw here. I don't like feeling that way.....


Believe me, I do not believe couples should be together 7x24x365...however, it certainly makes me think what fun things we could do/have done together while he was doing things on his own on his bike. I have heard 'Get on the Bike and Go', but this was never an option for me (seen too many, heard too many tragic motorcycle accidents). This was discussed many times before bike #1 came home (how about a classic car instead - something we both can enjoy?).... we still have many interests we share, traveling, camping, Friday nights with the Grand kids, etc.

He has talked about selling his bike when he returns from his pilgrimage, referring to the fact that it is because I am not thrilled about the bike, but that does not hold water, my feelings did not matter when he bought bike #1; they should not matter if he sells his bike (#2)...don't hang that one on me.

I am not a victim, not seeking any consolation, do not want any pity, am not angry nor upset....this one falls in the category of things that make you go hmmmmmmm and wonder about it and try to figure out the actions and my feelings....it is the way I feel, not what it is or how it can be changed or fixed, or even if it needs to be. I admit I have often been judged as over analyzing situations (guilty as charged).

For Him: I do hope he is safe and has a really good time and it is all he hopes it will be. He works hard and this is something he really wanted to do ~ so good for him.

For Me: Still a work in progress.....and pretty bittersweet

What's Yellow, made of wood and had 26 years of dust on it?

Brody is such a little daddy....he loves Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse and puts them to bed , hauls them all around - inside and out....drives them around in his car, pulls them in the wagon, feeds them and believe me they have had many many washings and are loved to pieces....

......going back in time my little girl (Brody's mommy) at age 2 was such a little mommy and loved her cabbage patch kids and put them to bed and hauled them all around. They all had different personalities and 2 of the dolls would fight constantly (according to Kristen).

So.....during my insomnia one night I remembered when we moved to San Diego I had saved Kristens little wooden yellow bunk bed she played with when she was the same age as Brody (2). Steve and I drug it down from the rafters and cleaned it up and Kristen did her first sewing project - making blue Mickey Mouse blankets for Brody to cover his Mickey and Minnie.

I could not resist finding a picture of Kristen at the same age playing the the same toy and enjoying it so much.

Also nice to let go of some of my 'organized hoarding' treasurers =)

The Price was Right!

Love my new little treasure? Yesterday when Steve and I were making our way to Home Depot for our weekly title of 10% of our income - we drove by the neighbor on the corner and as we waved we saw he was having a yard sale - mostly motorcycle stuff and guy stuff and on the table I eyed this white birdhouse like item.....so I thought if he was still out when we drove back home I would look at it.....and an hour later when we turned the corner it was still there.



We stopped and visited and I saw that it was in great shape and was a candle holder inside (tea light) and at some point the candles must have spilled as wax was everywhere on the beveled glass inside. When I asked the price - he said - 'I want you to have it, bring me down a beer sometime' so when we got home I sent Steve down with a beer and cleaned up my new little treasure. Paid in full, thank you very much!



I think it fits perfectly in my living room and love the white contrast against the taupe walls. I also think it works with my birdcage too.....



I need to find the perfect picture for my shell frame - another thing on my long and winding list....