Craft Nite - Part 3

...with a few minutes here and there between major priorities....completion of a few items from craft nite....

Not a very good shot, but a special Valentine for a special Angel Friend.....

My lovebird placed in a wonderful shabby chic half price bird cage

something fun and different....1/2 price styro balls covered in ripped valentine fabric...so simple yet so pleasing to the eye!

Have you created any treasurers this week?

Craft Nite - Part 2

.....so, after days and days of sick babies, internationally traveling husband, chaos at workplace and dealing with contractors on water damage, passing of Auntie and more....here is item 2 from Craft Nite! Isn't she beautiful....note - designer is Kristen and she has a shop on Etsy - I am just the helper bee! Hoping we can get more accomplished this weekend - besides the yard sale, the trophy ceremony, a formal reception and oh yea, laundry, shopping, cooking, babysitting my granddogs....it's all good

Craft Nite - Part 1

Kristen and I decided to have a Craft night.....we talked about it and planned for it all week....we shopped and sorted and envisioned (is that a word?) and loaded up my dining room table with lots of materials to complete many many things!!! We were amped up on Diet Coke (real Coke for her)....we were going to whip all kinds of things out - we had a whole evening dedicated to nothing but uninterrupted crafting!!! Our plans to accomplish were unlimited....

This is Kristen at about 11 p.m......we got off to a good start and made lots of progress but underestimated gluing and painting and the evil actions of some renegade magnets.....sadly, what we thought we could accomplish and what we did accomplish was a different story.....

These are the only finished items - three beautiful valentine treat plates!!! Stay tuned - we are not defeated, we have been humbled and are regrouping and as soon as we finish a few more things I will post!!!

Blog of Christmas Past....Wednesday Thrift Store Finds!!!

So behind on blogging.....the holidays were so wonderful.....our theme for Christmas Eve was 'Elves' and everyone looked adorable in their hats. My two favorite elves decorated giant Gingerbread men as Gramps' wonderful enchiladas cooked away in the oven.....Dylan moved so fast the picture is blurred!!!

Two more very special elves and their reindeer dogs had plenty of christmas spirit.....

....and the official annual family photo.....dogs and all....'we wish you a merry Christmas'

Right after Christmas, my sister and beautiful nieces came down for a few days. We had so much fun - we thrift shopped, had lingering coffee and danish in Little Italy, picnicked at the beach, went to Glen Ivy for a spa day and just hung out and of course had our cooking contest which is getting to be pretty competitive....Steve's entree was TriTip and Mediterranean Salad, Amy's offering was Italian and Kim brought all home with yummy salsa and kick a** dessert. We all got into the kitchen on New Years Eve to make Chinese food and we hosted a fun Bunco party...followed by competitive Yahtzee....lots of laughs and good times for sure.....

Shannie was queen bee with rolling the full houses....Adam was so hot on the roll we wanted to send him to Vegas!
When my sister and nieces left Steve and I worked for days getting the house 'un-decorated' and getting back into the routine. Back to work, back to structure, back to dieting =(

.....and being Wednesday - back to Wednesday Thrift Store Finds!!!! Today I had to have a medical test right near my fave Thrift Shop so after that I headed over for a little shop....I remember when I was little and had to go to the Dr. my mom would always take me to Newberrys and get me a Dr. kit afterwards if I was good - think sugar pills, shots and specticles - I like to keep traditions so what better way than to shop away a medical appt! The pictures are a bit out of order but for $14.00 total I really scored!!! I saw this lady grab right under my nose this primitive shabby chic rocking chair...it was a beauty...I could tell she wasn't really committed to it so I pushed my cart around (hovered) in the area for a bit and found a really fab Federal Chair for $5.95!!! I was so excited and put that in my cart and headed off and found this really cute textured frame (.65 cents) that I thought would be cute painted candy apple red for Valentines day....then found these porcelain turkey S&P ($2.00)that I think I will spray paint turquoise for next Thanksgiving. So as I was shopping around I saw the lady come by without the primitive piece so I bee-lined over to the area she found it in and scooped it up....($5.40)I love all my pieces found today......when I got home I cleaned up my primitive and put it next to my sideboard in the living room and added some seashells....

Here is a better picture of the frame, turkeys and primitive....hard to see the rocking portion....about the size a toddler would sit in....wonderfully built and solid.....

Here is my BEAUTIFUL Federal Chair.....first I thought I would paint it white and shabby it up...but after I put it in my family room I really liked the patina on the black with the gold stencil (sounds ugly but is really beautiful) ...the seat really needs to be redone and I will live with it a bit before I finally decide...but look at the bones this baby has!!! What would you do with this?

So.....being a creature of habit I do love my ritualistic lifestyle, but I really did enjoy the 2 week holiday period and just hanging out with family, going to see the boys Christmas pageant, meeting friends for breakfast, family get-togethers, visiting good friends and taking in meals and gifts, sharing and loving and soaking up each and every wonderful moment.

What all did you do???? What new memories did you make???? Are you happy that life has returned to the normal day to day???

Christmas Projects I love.....

For a little boy who loves Mickey.....

and his older brother that loves airplanes.....

Two very special trees designed by their GiGi for their own rooms to sleep all night with the lights on feeling the love from GiGi and wishing for a visit from Santa (HoHo)....Dylan's is covered in paper airplanes (his fave) and a Star Wars Space ship as the Topper.....Brody's is Red, White and Green Mickey Ears with Mickey in a Santa Suit as his Topper (HoHo if you ask Brody)....Two very special trees for two very special boys....

.......and.....I love turning this.....

.....into this.....

Making pretty!

Christmas Holiday Fun

This weekend was full of Christmas holiday fun.....we started Friday night enjoying the inaugural concert at San Diego Museum of Man with the Gary Jules benefit concert. Adam, Shannon, Kristen and Brian met us there for a fantastic night. K & B had a babysitter and it was the first time we have been out for an adults only night in about 4.5 years. At first they were all sceptical of what we had invited them to. As we started to hear the magic of Gary's voice and the incredible acoustics of that 100 year old dome it was thrilling to see all 4 of the 'kids' skepticism turn to smiles and become mesmerized with each note and sound. They even bought all his cd's! We loved every minute and it was great to donate to the Museum for the positive changes that are being made.

Saturday afternoon Kristen and I were invited to an English Christmas Tea with some old friends and some new friends. We had a delightful afternoon sipping English tea and having traditional tea sandwiches and scones. It was fun to sit around and be leisure and enjoy sharing stories and conversation on everything fun and nothing important!

Saturday night Steve and I went to our 21st anniversary of our neighborhood Christmas party. The first year we moved in we invited the neighbors over for a Christmas dinner. It became a tradition and even tho almost everyone has moved away but we have always gotten together for dinner and ornament exchange for the ladies and tool exchange for the men - where we 'steal'. This year we went to Carlsbad! We had a wonderful dinner, lots of laughs and fun conversation and were entertained by a guest entertainer with some wonderful piano playing of Christmas songs on our friends incredible grand piano.

Sunday I helped sew some warm fuzzy blankets for some geriatric people to keep them warm at the holidays and all year.....it is a great start to the Christmas holidays!

Birthday Thoughts ~ Wednesday Thrift Store Finds ~ Noah Finds me ~

Steve and I both have 'holiday' birthdays.....we always celebrate in a mish-mash kind of way that is always overshadowed with other holiday festivities and such - obviously by our age we have gotten used to it, but it seems our birthday celebrations go on forever and I guess that is a good thing. Since we celebrate a lot and for a long time and with everyone we love when our actual birth DATE is on and we do 'normal' things people thing we are crazy....but it is really a day we get to do what we want and we love that!

So after celebrating since before Thanksgiving and wonderful lunches and dinners and calls and cards on my 'real' birthday it was so fun to do what I wanted to do. I took the day off work and when I woke up I thought to myself - should I be reflecting on my life, my future, my deep thoughts....after 5 seconds the answer was 'Nah - your good - get up and go!' So I did my annual donation to Rachels House (shelter for abused women and children) and I love starting my birthday out doing that. Just after I left there I had such sweet calls from Adam and Kristen and Brian called and both boys said on the phone "Happy Birthday GiGi!" with such gusto and passion it made me tear up. Along with calls from Steve, my sister, brother, bestie friends and my mom and 91 year old dad who told me he was trying to remember how old I was (21 I said!) it was so touching. Next, on to my favorite new passion where I spend a few hours and then planned to meet up with Kristen for a romp at our fave thrift store and then lunch with her and another good friend at Luncho Libre (funky fun). We try and hit up this thrift store when we are in the area and the last time I was there a couple of weeks ago I scored a really cool Fisher Price Ark with all the animals but no Noah so I have been bidding and losing on ebay to find one. I have looked at Toys R Us and Kohls, Walmart and Target and could not find Noah anywhere!!! Since our schedules were a bit out of sync I ended up first at the Thrift Store (along with 500 other people - big day for thrifting - every thing, except blue tags - 50% off!). I could hardly maneuver in the store and finally snagged a cart and I know I missed lots of good things because I literally could not physically get near them, but for $14.00 I think I scored really really good: Fisher Price Barn, 50 Firemen hats (for future birthday party), Letter A for my parents family picture wall, Fisher Price School house people and Tote, Playmobile 50 piece nativity set, Scooby Doo Valentine Musical Plush - all in really really great shape - most new and all pieces in tact! Then on to a fun fun lunch and then Kristen and our pal went on to the thrift store and scored as well. Kristen got about $150.00 worth of Thomas toys for $16.00 and our friend got a motorized corvette car - one of those that seats 2 kids and actually drives - for about 1/8th of the cost. Talk about cheap thrills!!! These were the best. Then I did a few more stops, had a few more fun calls and came home where my wonderful husband was making me the greatest birthday dinner ever! Scallops, shrimp, cherry tomatoes, asparagus and some wonderful sauce over rice YUMMY!!!! After dinner I was putting away my new 'treasures' and took out all the pieces of the Playmobile Nativity (50!) and low and behold in with all those pieces was a Fisher Price Noah - the exact one I was looking for to go with the Ark! I got goosebumps all over....how in the millions of items that flow thru that thrift store weekly, the hundreds of people that go there and everything is sealed and tagged ...really? really? NOAH FINDS ME - A CHRISTMAS/BIRTHDAY MIRACLE!!!! Have you ever had something like this happen? It is one of those things that if you saw it on tv or read it you would not believe it - but it is true true true!