Donations to the Crazy Furniture Lady, My Weirdness in Summer Wardrobe Themes, Party Prep and More

People know I love old things and love to repurpose and reuse and treasure things from the past and find good homes for furniture and collectible 'orphans'....just last week I was feeling accomplished as my recent simplification (stuff) was just about completed....then came the call Monday that there were a few things that would need and appreciate a new home, rather than be kicked to the curb somewhere...and I happen to drive by a really nice house near the winery that had a sign that said - 'please take what you want' so I loaded up and now the third bay of the garage has become home to these new beauties.....my daughter doesn't call me 'Crazy Furniture Lady' without good cause....

Project one is this incredible piece.....it was in need of a little love (oiling and buffing) and I just knew this piece would find a place in my family room.....it has so much personality with the little beveled mirror and the secretary folds out and is in pristine condition..... 

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I moved around some pieces and moved this in....I think it is happy to be here and the little space was just made for it!

 I put a few things on the shelf...a bowl of bittersweet from a trip to Illinois in the fall and the name of my blog, a piece of cranberry glass we got in Plymouth Rock and as a tribute to the former owner a sweet little angel....

 Here is a little close up of the angel and bittersweet....

 We had some fun and sunny afternoons with the boys this week....Dylan is still in is Military Mode and we made an Iwo Jima flag....he carried it around all over our cul de sac and in the canyon...

 Dylan on the canyon hoisting Old Glory.....i.e. Iwo Jima

 And his little base inside the toy room is full of Military Toys, aircraft carriers, planes and helicopters.  Since we live near NAS Miramar he can name every plane and helicopter that flies by....

 On Friday it was so warm we got out the pool and had some fun.....being the older brother filling the pool I think little brother got more water sprayed on him than the pool did!  Look at that grin on Dylan....

 The boys love watching all the birds in our backyard, bathing and drinking at our fountain and Steve always fills the bird feeders.  When the boys hike around they find pine cones and we decided to make some bird feeders with peanut putter and birdseed....

 First you spread the peanut butter on the pinecone....

 Then you roll the pine cone in the birdseed...

 Brody preferred the sprinkle on the seed with the spoon effect....

 Dylan is proud of his work and ready to hang his feeder....

 Look  GiGi!!!  

 We hung them in the Coral Tree in the backyard and waited for our customers....note to GiGi...perhaps a better idea to do this outside (after sweeping birdseed for 2 days)...

 After the boys left Sat a.m. I pulled together some things I had to make a wreath for the front door for the Throwback Prom Party next week for Kristens 30th....

 It only took 15 minutes and here is the finished project....I think I have $6.00 total in this....

 True confession time....I always pick a color and a theme for summer and then buy my purse and shoes and everything to match around that color....is this weird?  I have never confessed that before and maybe everyone does it...I really don't know.  Anyway, this year I am loving the multicolor bohemian look....I got these 3 pair of shoes and will be wearing lots of denim capris, denim skirts and solid bright colored tops...I also bought some fun multi-color wood jewelry to compliment....kinda like a flash back hippie summer vibe this year...

 I had lunch with 3 of my girlfriends Sat afternoon at the RB Winery....it was delightful and fun to get out and catch up on some long overdue visiting.  They all used to live in our cul de sac and all our kids grew up together and even tho they have all moved away, we get together every Christmas and try to meet up a few times a year.  The RB Winery is a beautiful place with great restaurants, wine tasting and great shops....it is at the Garden Shop there where I got the nest in my glass clocque....so after lunch I browsed back there and found this adorable framed bird picture with a bird with a baby bird on its back and it says 'Love'....I think it looks sweet near the clocque and the metal bird on my crescent table in the entryway...

Saturday night we had some great friends over for a patio dinner....I made this blackberry, pecan, chicken, feta summer salad with balsamic dressing....we ate and laughed and shared pictures and reminisced and planned.....

 And they brought this yummy Bundt cake....it was a wonderful evening....we have been on vacations with them before and we miss being around them so we all promised to keep better in touch and plan another long trip soon!....

Today 'The Addie', Shannie, Kristen, Brian and the boys are coming over to do a dry run for next weekend....I am dashing out to get bagels and we have a birthday party this afternoon....so nice to be home for a solid week and just putter and purtz around....I love it.  How was your week?

Sharing some STUFF.....

My AHA moment this week:  First you don't have any STUFF then you want to get STUFF then you want more STUFF so you keep getting STUFF and soon you have lots of STUFF then  your STUFF becomes too much STUFF then you want to get rid of STUFF....I am highly compensated for my brilliant thinking...sad isn't it.....and here is some random STUFF I have been up to lately....

Preparing some decor for a big birthday party that is coming up soon!  30 years of pictures of a special girl all tied up on an Eiffel Tower.....

 It has been YEARS since I have sewn anything with a pattern....in fact the last time I did I did not need glasses!  It was kind of fun trimming the pattern and cutting out pieces.....more pre-party work.....

 Dylan's green thumb continues to strive - his sunflower is growing fast and now almost as tall as he is!  His last day of Kindergarten is Tuesday - he too is growing too fast!

 The work on 'GiGi International Airport' is progressing well!....(when Dylan was about 18 months old I was traveling so much for work and he said he was going to build me an airport at my house so I did not have to go to the airport so much - such a sweetheart!)  It is quite the project and he and Brody work diligently on it!

 Sunday a.m. Dylan, Brody and I made Cinnamon Rolls and Dylan and Luke delivered them around the neighborhood....even the neighbors dog had one when Dylan accidently put his plate down for a minute!

I went through all my photo albums and pulled out all the Halloween pictures through the years since the kids were small and made one Halloween photo album.  What better cover than a picture of my dad who loved Halloween and dressed up every year way into his 90's....in this picture he was a witch!  When he got older we had one black graduation gown that had to be used for many things as it was easy to make him up in costumes with a gown.  Using that gown he was a Judge, Michael Jackson (complete with sparkle glove) a Vampire and a Witch!

Off to do more STUFF...it just never ends!

The Final Frontier - Part III

So the next few days we visited Glacier Bay, Ketchikan and Sitka....each and everyone beautiful beyond words....

They allow one cruise ship a day into Glacier Bay....they board a Native American that gives a talk about the sacred land and some of the history.....As we sailed into the Bay we passed lots and lots of scenic mini glaciers and mountains in snow....there was also a bear siting but it was just a dot on the horizon that moved - not close enough to get a good picture....

 Here is the huge Glacier - it was calving when we were there - they turned the engines off the ship so we could hear the thunder and watch the huge pieces of ice fall into the water....spectacular!

 These pieces of ice are the size of cars - I loved how they hit up on the ship....

 Ketchikan was beautiful and we hiked in the national forest where we found many totem poles and saw incredible scenery....

 These totem poles are huge and dwarf us as we stand next to them....

 Loved this picture of the ship with the Totam Pole in the foreground....next on to Sitka where we hired a local that took us to a place where they bait bears with scraps from the cannery - it was quite the negotiation for him to take us but worth everything to get to see these bears and eagles up close.....we stayed for hours and watched - we were close enough to see their giant paws and them wrestling for fish, etc.  The Eagles were/are amazing and much closer than our fly away shots....at one time we counted 15 of them in the trees where we were.

This was my most favorite find of all - not on any maps or tours....we hiked around and found this unmarked decaying house and totem poles - it was mesmerizing....I loved it.  We took lots of pictures and were in awe of it....later when we met up with a local she told us it was the Old Chief's house and tradition says that they must let their dwelling and totems decay into the earth so their spirits can stay there and be visited by the tribe....this was by far the most wonderful experience we have ever happened upon....

So a toast to you ALASKA - The Final Frontier - you were all we wanted to see and more......

The Final Frontier - Part II

Part II - Our first full day was at sea....so out our balcony we would see sights like these and we sailed along.....

so excited to see our first bald eagle.....little did we know at this time how close we would get to one!

We were a combination of exhausted/relaxed/lazy and spend most of the first day like this....

or like this.....

It was formal night and we are so over formal nights and lazy so we just went to the Lido deck in our cozy clothes and then went to the big show which was really good.   I have to say the entertainment on Holland is the best - live music everywhere!  We walked around the ship and Steve found in the Queens Lounge was a Rock and Roll band - it was packed - about 200 people or so and the live band was so good.  We found a place way in the back to sit and listened and Steve wanted to dance.  When we got on the dance floor we lost our seats (like vultures circling for a place to sit) so decided to dance a few and leave.  After a few dances they played the twist and we danced to that and started to leave and the cruise director grabbed us and two other couples and said we were going to have a dance off.  It was hilarious - we had to say our names, where we were from and then dance for about a minute.  We were couple number 2 and the first couple were like semi pro as we were watching them while we sat earlier.  Couple number 3 I think just met - they were funny....anyway after we all danced they did a clap vote and Steve and I were named Twist Champions and given this bottle of champagne which we decided to keep for the day we were at Glacier Bay....

Back in the room we re-enacted our moves that made us champs - yea, true dat, we had it goin on.  When I showed Adam he said it reminded him of Pulp Fiction - HAHAHAHAHAHA

The next day we were in Juneau.....we are not big on the organized tours with the ship - we like to gypsy around...however we did book one because we wanted to hike in the woods and do a camp out and do the gold panning.....it was so beautiful and fun and since we both love the outdoors and camping it was perfect for us!

(At this point in blogging I am really upset because it won't let me arrange these pictures right - grrrrr)  We did the hiking and gold panning first, then walked around Juneau and ended up at the Red Dog Saloon before we went back on the ship.....

The famous Red Dog Saloon where we met this lady who worked on the Princess Cruise line and spilled all the goods about cruises and the stores and tours they own in port.....she was pretty liquored up and ready to talk.....Steve ran into someone he used to date in Juneau something fishy about her!

I ran into someone I used to date as well - he hasn't changed a bit!

Gold Panning was fun....I am sure some of the streams are 'planted' and we were able to go off on our own and pan whereever we wanted....we love do do this!

This is where we hiked up to this old stream that they mined and panned in....we had fresh salmon by the campfire - we were in our element!

Beautiful waterfalls and everyone there is so nice...we would go back to Juneau!