backyard snapshots

Back in the Bay Area.
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Welcome

My front door.
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2:6 frantic cleaning and organizing

It took 4 hours to get one tiny coffee table that looked like this:
into this:Because, stop me if I'm alone here, once you start putting things away, isn't it just natural to filter and re-filter, move and remove, sort and weed out?

Well, as I mentioned, I'm leaving on Saturday. And my home is always the cleanest when I'm gone. It's not because I fear that if something happens to me (knock on wood), good Lord my mother-in-law will have to go thru all my s**t, (altho that has crossed my mind, I admit it), it's just that when I come home i feel so much more at ease if my home isn't chaotic. Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this. There's gotta be other people who do the same thing, right? My kitchen will be clean, the floors swiffered, and the living room will be liveable. And there will be loads of food and tangerine juice in the fridge. Because Jimmy's not coming with me (boo) and the boy won't survive on cereal alone for 6 days. Which reminds me, we're out of raisin bran.

After my 4 hour cleaning duty, I plopped on the couch admiring the maple wood table, which I haven't seen since August because that's when Jimmy's parents came over for his birthday. With such a clean table, I felt inspired, so I made a supa kute scrapbook page of my niece:
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Return to Grace

Not that I fell from grace recently.
At least as far as I know. :)
Just thought I'd share a few creations keeping grace in mind.

Quote Minibook
made this fun minibook at Scraplovers last week. Constantly striving and struggling to remind myself to keep grace in the forefront each day. Ever wonder what to do with those index prints? Use 'em in your mini-albums.

Beeswax Collage
Another creation inspired at Scraplovers. Used beeswax to add elements and dimension to this mixed media piece.

A Little Corner of my Home
Continuous reminders of grace.

Cards
Made these quite a few years ago. But being gracious remains a constant through the years.

Doodle
Inspired by Shiloh McCloud.

A few quotes

Believe it or not, both of these quotes are from a skincare company called Philosophy.
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Fall: Bring it!

I'm so ready for fall! The evenings are a little bit cooler, the air is a tiny bit crisper and every now and then there'll be a slight breeze. But we typically don't 'see' fall till mid-October or Thanksgiving. So I'll just have to accommodate my needs with these photos from a couple of years ago.
Sweet gum tree leaves on the front lawn.

SC at the apple ranch near our hideaway.
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struggling to figure it all out

so, this has been how i've felt the last couple of weeks.

In July I got a new macbook and we (Jimmy) finally transfered all of my PC stuff onto it about 2 weeks ago so I've been fully Mac'd since then.
The transition hasn't been as easy as I had hoped.
Things aren't as intuitive as I had hoped.
Viewing and editing my photos hasn't been as easy as I had hoped.
Therefore, blogging hasn't been as easy as I had hoped.
Part of my frustration is that supposedly, mac is much easier to use and more intuitive. Like my MIL, she got a mac for Christmas last year and seriously? within minutes she was like, this is freakin' awesome and was all click-click-click ba-da-bing ba-da-boom. Me? I'm like bog-bog-bog what the??
Jimmy's been kind to my ego by saying that since I was such a skilled user on the PC, my adjustment period will be longer because of my old habits. And now I have to learn. What? Learn, are you kidding me?

What I have been having fun with is a program called Photobooth that uses the camera in the computer and that's how i took that silly self-portrait. Which is about a week old - yesterday I chopped of my hair and got it colored (for the first time in 11 years). The jury's still out on if it's a good thing or not.
On a brighter note, I leave you with a pretty hydrangea from my MIL's garden.
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A common thing across two countries

Last week, (or was it the week before already?), the authorities of The Tree Trimming and Cutting Down Committee decided that one of the sweetgum trees on my street was no longer suitable for living. Of course, they didn't bother to tell any of the families who live within one house of the tree that they were planning this, so early one morning, we heard the noisy sound of chain saws. Didn't phase us though because we just thought it was the gardener with his leaf blower. Till the gardener was here for 2 hours. I finally peeked outside and thought "Huh. There's an awful lot of blue sky. I think they chopped down one of my trees." Yup, I'm observant. lol. BTW, the tree isn't really mine, firstly we rent, secondly, the trees are between our driveway and the neighbor's. But I've grown attached to it, despite the spikey balls it drops everywhere. It's beautiful in the fall - yellow, red, orange leaves. In California, ya gotta get whatever fall color you can whenever you can and embrace it. Anyhoo, once I saw them giving the poor tree the ax, I donned my spy camera and started snapping away.
An appendage being hauled to its violent fate.

At least its fate is mulch and will probably (hopefully) be used for something worthwhile.
After they left, I went to the street to see what was left. A sad little stump remained.
(BTW, just in case you can't quite read me, I'm being overly dramatic. The poor tree was probably diseased, I looked back at some of the photos I've taken and it was looking a bit dowdy. The powers that be don't usually go around cutting down trees willy nilly.)

The next day the Tree Dudes returned. The healthy sweetgum tree was due for a trimming in an effort to keep it healthy and hopefully to prevent it from the same fate as its partner.


Here's the solo tree, healthy and happy as can be.
I miss the shade from the other tree, but blue sky is good too.

Coincidentally, across the continent, in a different country, the same thing was happening at Rook's Nest. Check out her post on the trees being felled in her neighbourhood. I suppose it really isn't a coincidence that trees were being trimmed, after all tree trimming is a common thing. But it is pretty funny that it happened the same week, we both took photographic documentation of it and we read each others blog. But I admit that I was spurred and motivated by her post to actually blog about mine. Thanks Ex!

Well, she doesn't realize it, but she also gave me the bug for fresh jam. She's blogged about making cherry and strawberry jam recently. A couple of weeks ago, I had more peaches than I could eat before they went bad, so I made jam. Yum-o.
There's an explanation for my mish-mash of jars. All of them are from jams received from other friends who jam a lot so I thought it'd be nice to return the jars with some sweet goodness in kind.

A Total Eclipse of the Moon

At 2:30am, Jimmy and I went outside to check out the lunar eclipse. I decided that I had to try to take photos of it, but failed miserably on clarity. However, I did manage to take a few interesting photos before my sleepiness and frustration got the best of me.
I think this happened when I pressed the shutter button.

This one caught the stars rotating, too. You can see it better if you enlarge the photo.
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Hawk on the Block: Where'd he come from? And other randomness.

This may have been the longest I've gone without posting, aside from vacations. After our busy June and July, I suddenly found myself with copious amounts of time on my hands and very little to write about. I did get a lot of errands checked off my to-do list, visited friends, shuffled some papers for the business, did a ton of scrapbooking and pined for my nieces and nephews - I miss those kids.

We're celebrating a lot of birthdays this month. The third was my oldest sister-in-law's, then my oldest niece turned 23 on the ninth. Today would have been my dad's 103rd birthday. Tomorrow is my best friend's birthday. Tuesday is Jimmy's. Friday is his buddy's from high school. I'm probably missing someone.

The hawk in the photo was in our yard yesterday. We've never seen a bird of prey in our yard before. Wonder what he was after?

Exterminator

About the big spider near the light switch in our bedroom:


Jimmy turned off the light and I said:

M: Now I'm gonna touch him when I go to turn the light on.

J: That'll make him feel needed.

M: no, the fact that we're not killing him makes him feel needed. Not my touching him.

J: he likes your touch. it makes him feel warm and appreciated.

M: he's a spider. there's nothing warm about him.

J: But he's our natural exterminator. What do they call vegetables that they don't put any chemicals on?

M: Organic?

J: yes. he's our organic exterminator.

Stomach Ache Not Withstanding

It was a good day. At least a good mail day! :)

Contemplating whether or not to open present now or wait till Wednesday, my birthday! Whaddya think i should do??

Recreating a commercial, and a meme

Have you seen that paper towel commercial where the son is in the kitchen and he opens quart of orange soda and it sprays all over his mom and she yells at him and says "BILLY! What are you thinking?" then proceeds to have a water/soda fight with her son?

Well, this was my attempt to recreate that scenario: except my story isn't as fun as a water/soda fight with a family member. My story is just plain stupidity. Let's just say that I don't recommend mixing club soda with Crystal Light then shaking it in a cup with an insufficient lid.

Since I'm on the topic of what a Dumass I am (another commercial reference. You wouldn't think I had TiVo, would you?), I thought that now would be a good time to catch up on a meme I owe to Jodi who tagged me last week. I figure that whatever else you learn about me that you don't already know, along with the pink Crystal Light all over my kitchen, won't really be that surprising since I continue to prove time and again that I am a Dumass. Or at least prone to a good dosage of dumass-ness quite frequently.

Ok, so here goes. This time, I'm gonna follow the rules, which are:

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write their own blog with their 7 things as well as these rules. You need to tag 7 others and list their names on your blog. Remember to leave a comment for them letting them know they have been tagged and to read your blog.

1. I'm guilty of using exclamation points in excess. I can't help it. I like to do it in 3's!!! But will often think, oh, that's going to annoy someone, and will tone it back to just 1 or 2!! Also, I think about using air quotes a lot, but try to resist since I know it annoys people.

2. I'm extremely near sighted. My eye doctor says that she only has one other patient who has worse eyesight than me.

3. I rarely get motion sick.

4. Names of pets I've had: Mork, Pixie (of Pixie and Dixie cartoon), Getty, Lucy, Joanie and Chachi, Bill and Ted.

5. I got sucked into the Beanie Baby craze in the late 90s. I gave most of them away when we moved 4 years ago.

6. When going down stairs, I almost always have to lead with my right foot.

7. My currently overused words are "Freakin", "Curses" and "HI-larious". But I try to say them without the air quotes. ;)

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Now if Phin, Ragged, Lilli, Rook's Nest, Cate, Zann and Susan D would like to play, that'd be cool. If meme's aren't your game, then that's cool too. :)

BBQ Rules

Since it's all in good fun, I couldn't resist doing a layout with these BBQ Rules (click on pic to enlarge to read 'em) that Phin sent me the other day.
Love ya Sweety! You do make the best burgers and grilled veggies! It's all about timing to make 'em so delicious, right? :)

New Patio Furniture

We acquired the parentals old patio table and chairs this weekend. Love it! Now we have lots of room for friends to come over and eat. Hurray for bbq's! Hurray for spring, summer and fall! Hurray for friends!

We invited Phin for dinner our first evening with the table. Gotta admit that it got a little chilly sitting out there in the shade. But Jimmy made some yummy burgers and lots and lots of veggies.
All I have to do is sand and stain it and it'll look brand new. It's suppose to rain on Wednesday and possibly through Friday, so will probably wait till next week to start that project. Not gonna stop us from using it though, obviously. :)

Success.

Saturday home alone, events as planned. :)

I'm happy to report that the tv works. Hurray. I'm hesitant to admit that it was merely dead batteries. Yes, I am a loser. But to my defense, the remote acted like it was working - the screen was on and the transmission signal was going "whaa-laa-laa" because that's the noise it makes if you had extra sonaristic hearing. Which I do. So I recharged the suckers and the remote worked like new.

Well, I didn't spend any time watching the glowing tube on Friday because I went to Tracy with Doris for a class with Ali Edwards. We made these cute "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, Always" mini books.The enameled covers were made by putting a flower mask over the cover, covering it with embossing ink, removing the mask, pouring ultra thick embossing powder over the entire thing, then melting the powder with a heat gun till it glazes.

This is the inside of the book.
Lot's of fun!

I didn't get home till 11 so really didn't watch tv. My poor kitty wasn't feeling very well, so I spent the rest of my waking hours comforting her and making sure she was ok. I did wake up once in the middle of the night in a panic because she wasn't in the room with me (unusual) but I found her asleep on my desk. She's totally acting normal today so maybe she just ate a bad bug or something.

I decided to do a few errands before plopping in front of the 36" for the rest of the day. Went to Michaels to get some artwork framed.I spent over 1/2 hour there deciding on mat color and frame. The guy helping me was actually quite helpful. It's hit or miss sometimes at Michaels. It'll be done in about 3 weeks.

When I got home, there were packages for me! Ok, there was one for Jimmy, too, but he's not here, so no point getting excited about a box I can't open, right?The top package is a cool tshirt from my SIL in NY from Magnolia Bakery. It says "Cupcakes Make People Happy". Love it! I can't wait to visit her and get cupcakes from here. The 2nd package is from my girl Danielle and has some fun pamper-me stuff in it.

After opening my packages, I soaked some beans to make ham and bean soup then skillfully plopped on the couch for marathon Joan of Arcadia viewing.

Yikes.

My tv won't turn on.
I.don't.know.what.I'm.going.to.do.
My IT guy is gone till 11:30 Sunday night, and that tv is so complicated, i can't diagnose what's wrong with it.
And believe it or not, we're a one tv household. No crawling into bed and watching re-runs in there.
And did TiVo record Grey's Anatomy last night?

This is really gonna screw up my weekend plans of doing absolutely nothing except watch dvd's.

Well, hopefully Jimmy can talk me thru fixing it. And I'm not gonna be home till midnight tonight so really, it's only 2 days that I might have to go with tv. Two.Long.Days.

Pathetic, isn't it?

Hearts abound

Valentine's day is approaching and I thought it'd be fun to share some of the little lovely hearts that fill my house.

Thomas Mann techno-romantic silver hearts in a Provence bowl Phin gave me 2 1/2 years ago.

Polymer clay hearts I made using scraps left over from a caning class and a mokume gane class.

Just a few of my heart related rubber stamps.

Aluminium heart on my mailbox.

Stuff on my Desk

Ok, I bit the bullet and switched over to the new blogger. So far...nothing good to say.

Really, these photos are just for testing.

Suburban wildlife

Yesterday it warmed up to nearly 60 degrees! A beautiful day.

The birds were out playing and sunning. I took the opportunity to play with my new lens that I got for Christmas. So happy with this result. The new lens zooms to 300mm and has image stabilization so I don't need a tripod to be able to get a clear, crisp shot of this little hummer up in the tree.
I expect the hummers weren't so happy seeing this guy invading their territory.
This little birdy hangs out in the wisteria brumble. Is it too soon to be nesting? I don't see a partner. I need to put out some water for her. Jimmy insists there's a lot of water out there for the little birdy to fly to, but I'd feel better if I had a little bird bath or something. Otherwise, why would she be hankering for sugar water?
I don't know anything about birds.

Right Now

It's been raining and cold all day till now. Jimmy looked out the office window and noticed different hues of yellow so we stepped outside for a few moments. This is our sky.

5 days

Time is the craziest thing. I've been home for 5 days, the exact amount of time that I was on the road with my SIL. But those 5 days felt like a month. The past 5 days felt like a day and a half. Why is that?

It's odd to me because I feel like I've been running around with my head chopped off trying to get so many things done for the holidays. But when it comes down to it, I haven't accomplished much. However, looking back at those 5 days on the road, it felt like time was standing still, yet we drove all the way across the country and saw so many things.

In the past 5 days at home, all I've accomplished is getting rid of a cold, restocking the fridge & pantry, going to a Christmas party, going to a fantastic holiday tea party, buying a few more Christmas presents, writing and addressing all my Christmas cards and starting the yearly family calendar. I haven't even blogged much since I've been home because I'm scurrying around doing this and that.

I could really use a big glass of sweet tea right now.

Sunrise leaving Amarillo, TX.

There's a tree growing out of my head

I guess that happened after reading all the ballot measures. I did vote Green on a few things afterall.

Success!

This is the 2nd pie I've ever made and I'm very happy to report that I couldn't have asked for it to turn out better! The crust was flaky but not dry (like my first attempt about a month ago).

Had a good and quiet weekend. Truly nothing fantastical to blog about, just enjoying the peace, calm and hominess of fall, including baking a pecan pie. :-)

Not completely a slug

After reviewing my post about all the tv I've been watching, I have the compulsion to let you all know that I truly haven't been sitting in front of the evil box for the past 8 days. It was a pretty relaxing week and we're off to Las Vegas tomorrow, but I did get a few things done aside from brain pickling.

I made my first homemade pie (mixed berry) last Tuesday. Needs work, the crust was a little dry but at least it was flaky. Also made chicken and dumplings that night for dinner. It was cold and cloudy all day and fall certainly was in the air. Chicken and dumplings was nice, warm comfort food. I used lite Bisquick for the dumplings, so dinner was healthy...no added fat. We more than made up for it with the pie.

Had a complete physical. I'm the type of person who sticks her head in the sand when it comes to healthcare. Although I'm not looking forward to the results of the blood work (nervous about my cholesterol), hopefully it'll help kick me in the pants to make better food choices. I'm already trying to eat breakfast...yes, I know it's the most important meal of the day...but I've never been one to eat it regularly. Even just a slice of toast or OJ is torture to eat. Unless you're talking brunch with eggs and bacon and sausage and potatoes, then I can easily consume a whole plate full of cholesterol. I realize though, now that I'm in my mid to late 30's (!), health really is something you need to pay attention to. So I need to get my head out of the sand and just pay more attention.

Did some bookkeeping for the bizness. I've never talked about work on my blog. I've spilled open a lot except in area. Let's just say that Jimmy does the technical stuff, I do the grunt work but oh.so.very.important to keep the technical stuff running smoothly.

Went to Krung Thai for dinner with Phin then we went to a crop at our local scrapbook store from 7p-1a on Friday night. Completely lacking in creativity lately, I only did 1 scrapbook page in 6 hours. However, I did organize my totebag for about 2+ hours!!

Saturday, we went to our fav Mexican restaurant, La Morenita in Palo Alto, then to the Apple store to look at Macs. Just looking. Really. :-)

Woke up at 5:40am Sunday and met Phin in downtown San Jose before her race. She ran in the Inaugural San Jose Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon and I was there to cheer her on and take pictures. Even though I've only wogged a 5k once, I have so much more respect for runners. Those elite runners fly. The men's champion ran the 2nd fastest half on American soil. After her race, we had brunch at Stacks in Menlo Park. Feeling nostalgic for Hawaii, I tried their banana mac nut coconut pancakes, short stack. Definitely "broke da mouf", but not what my doctor had in mind when she recommended eating breakfast. But I ate less than half and brought the rest home to pick at later.

Went to dinner with Doris at Himawari in San Mateo. Delicious ramen house. (Phin, we need to find a ramen place near us). After dinner, we went to stamp club and learned how to make the awesome star book in my previous post. I've wanted to make one of these for years but never did so I was really looking forward to doing the project. We didn't have enough time to finish it during the meeting, so as soon as I came home, I had to finish it (while watching tv of course).

Got Jimmy's car smog checked and washed in prep for our trip to Vegas. We were suppose to leave today, but work and road closures delayed our journey by a day. Our original plans were to go to the cabin tonight then drive to Bishop tomorrow to visit Jimmy's cousin Andrew then drive to Vegas Thursday morning. But we've already had snow in the high country and the highway from the cabin to Bishop is already closed for the season. So instead, we'll drive though Bakersfield, Barstow and Baker en route to the Las Vegas Hockey Tournament, that starts Thursday night. (Melani: we'll be thinking of you and your man! It was so fun when you guys went with us!).

Hopefully, I'll be able to blog while we're there. In addition to the tournament and the artery clogging food we'll eat, we're going to Cirque du Soleil's newest show Love.

Waimea Canyon, dubbed by Mark Twain as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.
I tore/pulled a calf muscle about 1/2 a hour before I took this photo. Felt like a rubberband being stretched then snapping and I almost passed out from the pain. The next day we had a "condo" day. The ohana went to the beach, I RICE'd my injury: Rested, Iced, Compressed, Elevated. Still aches a bit, almost 2 weeks later, but I can almost walk without a noticable limp. I'm optimistic that within another week or 2, it'll feel totally normal.

home

It's good to be home and with my husband, but I wish we didn't live so far away from my cousin and her newest little one. The baby was so very precious and just giggled and giggled with me. Melted my heart and broke it at the same time.
I had an amazing time with them. Thanks, V! I love you.

Cat Not Included

The funny thing about purses...they're mysterious and oh so very personal. Or so we think. Unless she's your very best friend, you don't go rifling thru a gal's purse. But I was visiting Jodi101's blog and she shared her contents and...well...ya know how these things go...next thing I knew I emptied my purse on the floor (thus the curious cat) and shared the contents of mine. I thought I'd have to fight the urge to clean up or hide anything strange, but obviously I'm not that strange aside from the 3 packs of tart candies.

So, here's my bag. My coveted Fake Spade gifted to me from my ex-boss. Most of the time I'll fess up that it's fake, but if a stranger happens to say "nice purse" and I don't feel like going thru all the explanations so I'll just say "thanks". But like I said here, I don't discriminate against cheap/expensive purses. Love 'em all.

I really should set up a Flickr account so I could easily tag each item with notes. But I don't so inside my bag I have:
-40% off coupons for misc. craft stores
-Costco receipt, coupon for cheese, Macy's card (not in wallet), 2 pens
-hands-free cell phone thingy
-1 styrofoam peanut (how'd that get in there??)
-coins found at the bottom of my purse and empty change purse
-flowered notebook
-Cell phone and wallet
-business card for Chelokababi - Persian restaurant...delicious!!!
-lotion
-allergy pills
-3 packs of tart candies. The 2 rolls of Spree need to go into the glove compartment of my car. They're our usual "Car Candy" and for some reason, whenever you're feeling a wee bit drowsy at the wheel, chew on one of these and amazingly, you'll feel refreshed! Phin just gave me the package of mini shock-tarts on Friday.

BTW, this purse is bigger than it seems. I could probably fit the cat in there. I've fit my digital SLR in there a couple of times, books, magazines, bottles of water, sandwiches. My cousin referred to hers as "luggage". Another friend complained about back trouble after carrying hers for a few months. The trouble w/ big purses though is they fill up. And I can never find my cell phone because it's always under everything else.