welcome christmas

a day in the city

On Saturday my brother, Steve, took my mom, my niece, and me to San Francisco to tour the Palace Hotel, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary.  It was an absolutely beautiful day in the city, crisp and clear.  The hotel is fabulous and we had a great tour filled with interesting stories about the history of this SF landmark.  The most beautiful room is a large dining area called the Garden Court that has a stained glass ceiling.

Isn't it amazing!?!?

After the tour, Steve took us to lunch. We had chicken salad sandwiches, cioppino, fruit,  famous Palace biscuits, tea, and chocolate mousse that was so rich we couldn't even finish it!

Click here to the recipe for the Palace Hotel's famous Green Goddess Dressing.

Perri, my niece.

After lunch we toured around the city, saw a photographic exhibit by James Cameron (amazing - not only beautiful photography of nature, but an interesting look at our impact on the environment), and walked through Union Square where people were ice skating and watching the Christmas tree get all set up.

She is quite the photographer!

Dear Santa.....

a beautiful old church

(photo from Palace Hotel website).

It was a delightful day!!  Thank you, Steve.

give thanks

new thanksgiving banners now available in my shop, Bleu Bird Nest and in my craft booth at Cranberry Hill Mercantile, Sunnyvale, CA.

happy halloween

I hope you have a safe and super fun halloween!

all set for trick-or-treaters...

halloween in california

xo

pumpkin babies

I have such good memories of halloween, both from my childhood and from spending it with my son.  This year is, I think, going to be a little hard because my son is now living on his own.  Even though I have a blast spending the holidays with hubby ( or any day, just hanging out!), I do miss having the kids around! I LOVE seeing all the trick-or-treaters when they come to the door.  so sweet.

i love this picture of my little guy when he was 2; he had so much fun that day!

One of our halloween traditions that my husband started with the kids was that they could get any pumpkin that they were able to carry out of the patch.  A few time he had to encourage my son to try his hardest to carry the pumpkin he wanted...

my stepson is looking on in the background, remembering when he was younger and trying so hard to carry a big pumpkin!

My husband's favorite halloween picture of me...this guy's gloved hands were making me really uncomfortable!

My niece, Mia, and my son, Michael, were born just a month apart and they spent lots of time together growing up.  This was one halloween when they went trick-or-treating together.  Mia was a princess (she was in love with all things disney) and Michael was one of the 7 dwarfs (he called his costume a "hi-ho", not a dwarf).

aren't they sweet!?!

Here are those gorgeous kids, all grown up now...

love them! they are both in their first year of college now.

cherish

Carefree is what we claim we wanna be
Free to live the life that we have found

Shame on you and shame on me

It's living when we're laying our lives down
***
People hear me when I say
No one knows the hour or day

Be prepared to live your way
When everything could change
***
Cherish every moment of your life
Don't let the days of good and bad just pass you by
And cherish every moment you're together
Cause you will never know
When your days are gone

(from a song by dana glover)

This past week my mom had a health scare (all is okay now) and my hubby was sick...just so thankful for my family and husband...and their health.  This song made me think this week about all there is to be thankful for and sometimes we take so much for granted when we get caught up in all we need to accomplish in a day.

I'm so thankful for my wonderful husband.

my beloved...love, love, love him

so, my craft booth is doing well!  Lots of Halloween goodies have been selling!

this morning I delivered some more harvest birds for my craft booth...

and some halloween hanging plaques...

This beautiful seam binding ribbon is now available in my etsy shop.

also available are these bird tags...

last weekend I dyed these tags with coffee, almond, and cloves...they smell amazing!!

I've dyed some more smaller tags with the same scent...I'll be adding them to my etsy store soon.

xo

harvest time

i love
this
time of year!

just added these fun halloween and harvest birds to my shop and craft booth...

i love the cream colored one...he can stay up all through Thanksgiving.

Happy October

I had so much fun today just creating.  After I got up I made a nice cup of tea and sat down at the sewing machine with a big roll of black crepe paper.  Oh my goodness, I LOVE the way it came out...all bunched up and crinkled.  I trimmed the edges with pinking shears.

I LOVE these black and white images I captured with my camera today...just so crisp and clean and vintage looking.  I love black and white decorations for Halloween, with just a touch of that burnt orange.

Later I made these little cat hanging decorations...

and some sweet little halloween pots with my handmade crepe paper, of course...

I'm so ready for fall and so happy October is here!  It was a beautiful, crisp california day.  The wind has blown the air until it is crystal clear.  So much to be thankful for.

xo

fabulous flea market finds

Today I went to the Paris Flea Market put on by the cutest shop called Cottage Green in downtown Los Altos, CA.  This little shop has so many treasures inside...it's always been one of my favorites.  There are beautiful bird baths and garden statuary out front and around the side yard; inside there are gorgeous glasses and pillows and vintage serving pieces...lots of fabulous artwork and figurines...just all with a fun vintage feel!

So, today they held their annual Paris Flea Market out back.  Scattered on tables under large tents were candlesticks, bowls, books...just a ton of good stuff.  They also had a food drive for a local non profit group based in Palo Alto.

I dropped off my donations and headed in for treasures...I found some great vintage wooden picture frames and vintage botanical prints.

I couldn't believe this great find...I have been looking for a little table just like this one to use as a make up table. Can you believe it was only $25!!

Inside I picked up this great yellow chicken for my kitchen...

and this picture easel with a sweet little bird.

Chickens and roosters and little birds are big in my house.

It was a fun morning in the beautiful California sunshine, but I pretended I was really in Paris for just a bit...

I am so excited about my little table! 

Attached to our bedroom is what I call our "dressing room"...I don't know what else to call it...it has our closets and a big antique armoire.  It needs painting and new baseboards and closet doors, and a lot of fixing up, and my plan was to get a little make up table for that room (in an attempt to keep our tiny master bathroom a little neater), and that would be my final inspiration to get to work on this room.  So this table just fit perfectly into my plan...the only problem is:

this is my husband's latest project...

...and the seats for this wonderful truck (which he says he bought for me) are sitting in the middle of my would-be romantic, relaxing dressing room right now.  Ahhh, husbands!
But now that I have my fabulous new make up table, I will be inspired to be sure he moves those seats to the temporary storage room created after my son moved out this summer...so that I can carry out the rest of my plans!   I'll be sure to share pictures when it's done!

xo