These Days...

Hello Friends! I miss not being able to check in often, and I want you to know I appreciate those of you who are still dropping by.

I last wrote to you on Christmas Eve. I'm sure you can tell by my post I was so down in the dumps without Wild Bill there with me. 

The next morning I found Bill's jacket, which he'd left hanging on the back of the guest room door the last time we had visited. I put his jacket on, along with the best face I could muster, and tried to be brave while the family opened Christmas presents.

Crafts-type magnifying light

I'm one of those people who doesn't like to receive gifts so usually I just get special ones "made with care" from the little ones who love to give something they've made or picked out. 

Another Crafts-type Magnifying Light

Well, this year that wasn't the case. First thing Christmas morning two of "The Daughters" plopped a big package in my lap and insisted I open it right away! Even before the grandkids got to open theirs...

I tried to put it aside...tried to convince them I just wanted to enjoy the little ones opening their gifts as we do it "one person at a time" and I didn't want to kill their joy...

Surprisingly, my usually understanding Middle Daughter just insisted Grammy needed to open her gift first!

So half-heartedly I opened the darn thing up. And there in my lap was the most inappropriate gift in the world! 

The shock took my breath away. And then...well...tears rolled down my cheeks as I laughed and laughed.

Youngest Daughter laughed with me too -- as she knew exactly how right that totally wrong gift was for me -- while Middle Daughter was unabashedly perplexed!

Middle Daughter had heard me say a while back I wanted to buy a lighted magnifying glass for doing crafts. She's NOT a crafts type person. So she found me what she thought was a perfect pair of magnifying glasses with a light. 

When the two daughters wrapped gifts down in the basement the night before, Middle Daughter showed Youngest Daughter the glasses. Youngest Daughter hinted that the glasses might not be exactly what I was looking for...but Middle Daughter was so sure they were exactly what I wanted and she wrapped them right up!

Friends, they were NOT what I had dreamed of, but they were exactly what I needed! Right then and there it was like Wild Bill was right in the room with us.

You see, they were nothing like what I had in mind, but they were exactly what Wild Bill would've bought for me thinking they were excellent!

Bill had the most awful, futurist wrap-around sunglasses when I first dated him back in 1995. I just could not convince him the 1970's called and wanted their sunglasses back! It took years before he gave them up.

Middle Daughter was so apologetic for getting me what she thought was the wrong gift and wanted to return them right away. I told her not in a million years would I ever give them up! 

And right there on Christmas morning-- a newly-widowed, old grandma sat with her ridiculous magnifying glasses and found the joy of Christmas once again.

Thanks for dropping by!

P.S.  Everyone else wanted to wear them too...even Middle Daughter once she understood I believed it was Grampy (whispering in her ear from the other side) that had led her so far astray. 

Downsizing For Fall

Unpacking the fall decor is almost as much fun as shopping for new stuff.  While pulling out pumpkins and sunflowers, I found this Fall banner that was a gift from Carol at Art and Sand a few years ago.

Even though it's fall, I'm still working on spring cleaning. While unpacking the fall decor I've had stored, I'm weeding out the excess. This means everything comes down out of storage, but only half of it will go back up.

That's because the one thing I really took to heart from Marie Kondo's book, The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying-Up, is to reduce, reduce, reduce! 

I used to be fascinated with storage solutions. Yep, I just knew the perfect box was out there and I was going to find it! 

Ms Kondo's book helped me understand that life is easier with less stuff to store.

Since thrift shops try to sell items from the current season, I'm trying to make the hard decisions now and then box the donations up and take them right down. 

Truthfully, this is as much for me as them. Otherwise I might change my mind and hang on to that box.

Thanks for dropping by!

On Decisions, Dilemmas And Cliches

How do you make decisions? Are you able to do it quickly or do you struggle?

I once read when you are faced with a decision of your life path, you should only ask "yes" or "no" questions. 

Meaning that if you turn to the option of making a "Pro's" and "Con's" list, you can really get yourself side-tracked.

I know this isn't a "life path" decision, but to sell -- or not to sell --these counter stools has been taking up a lot of my mental energy.

In fact, I was shocked to find that I've been struggling with this stool decision for 3 years! 

In July 2013, when Restoration Hardware shipped these stools to us and they were not what I expected, I did a post. In that post here, I had only unpacked one of the stools and was wanting to ship them back. Well...I should have. Instead I pro'd and con'd myself into keeping them.

Lesson learned here is follow your first instincts. The stools are not comfortable and the feet caps are too shiny. The seats are stained black, not stained wood like the picture in the catalog or on-line makes them look. 

Forgive me, but here's yet another cliche I've know for a long time, but have ignored:  You Have To Make The Right Decision Or Make The Decision Right.

Before I read Marie Kondo's book, The Life Changing Magic Of Tidying Up, I would've just hid them in the garage. But instead I'm finally making the decision right by facing up to the fact these stools will never work for us.

Three stools going on Craigslist today! And then I'm getting over being mad at myself for buying them in the first place. No pro's or con's about it.

Thanks for dropping by!

Laughing Through Tears

I'm taking a moment here to remember when I had to say good-bye to a very dear old friend a few months ago...and then to laugh at myself just a little. 

Oprah used to call it "The Ugly Cry". The one where your eyes, nose...really your whole face...turn beet red. That's why I'm posting this picture in black and white instead of color. I really don't want you to see my red eyes and red nose in color. Wild Bill was kind enough to take these three pictures while I paused to commemorate a passing a few months ago.

Here's my old friend...a 1993 version of the World's Biggest, Oldest (and Continuously-Used) Combination Radio, 10-CD and Cassette Tape Player Boom Box. "He" was a big expenditure back then for a single mom, and my youngest daughter (a savvy 13 year old then) had to talk me into venturing into the new world of CD's as I clung to my cassette tapes! I sure got my money's worth with this one...

Man, I miss that big guy!  "He" shared my love for T. Graham Brown's Bumper-To-Bumper CD ("we" had three copies of it, just in case one wore out) and he (unlike some of the other family members) never objected to playing it over and over for me. 

Through the years, all the greats hung out with us...T-Graham, Roy Orbison, Billy Ray, Willy...they all sounded better on this old guy. 

Trying to entice me away from my beloved boom box, Wild Bill bought me two or three new ones over the last 20 years that we've been married, along with a few I-Pods and such. But I just couldn't give my first love up. Those other CD players? They were too flashy with strobe lights that kept me awake - or they held too few CD's - so up in the closet they went.

I continued to stick with my good friend. That is, until a few months ago, when my CD's started warbling when this old guy was playing them. I knew it was time, but still I left him on the kitchen counter for two days, occasionally trying yet another time to see if the warbling problem had cleared up. Finally, Wild Bill joined me in a brief and tearful (on my part, not Bill's...he was doing the happy dance in his mind I'm sure) little ceremony as I said a final farewell.

Wild Bill snapped these three pictures during my tearful good-bye, then we quickly left before the garbage truck came to do the pickup. I just couldn't watch. Those other CD players are still up in the closet waiting. I'm in mourning after all. 

I hope this post convinces you to let go of a few old things that might be clogging up your life too. Just bite the bullet and do it. 

Thanks for dropping by!

The 70's Called...

You say hoarder, I say Pack Rat. Yes, I tend to hold on to some things from days gone by. Here's my Levi's cut-offs from 1972. Are you old enough to remember the late Hippie days?

I grew up just North of San Francisco in a small town called Sonoma, which is in wine country. 

I lived in San Francisco the year after the "Summer of Love", but I was never a part of the Hippie culture there. Far from it! I worked "For The Man" at Bank of America, right downtown on the corner of Powell and Market, where the cable cars turned around.

My high school friend, Fayola (rhymes with crayola...don't judge) and I made $400 each at good ole B of A back then. We shared a furnished one bedroom apartment in the Noe Valley area, which cost us $400 a month. Yes, over half our monthly income each before taxes! That would scare the crap out of me now, but we weren't even fazed back then. San Francisco in 1968 was full of possibilities.

I joined the Air Force in May of 1969 looking for job opportunities. Yikes! That's almost 50 years ago. Anyway, a few years later in '72 I found myself reporting in to an AF base in Biloxi Mississippi for instructor training school. I had time on my hands so I started embroidering my Levi's cut-offs. I put my initials "S" and "J" on each pocket and the ever-so-popular-back-then daisy. 

 Do girls still wear guys jeans today? Somehow I don't think so, but that was all the rage back in my day. In fact, I don't think they even made Levis for girls until quite some time later. Guy's jeans are just what you wore back then.

I looked up the value of men's vintage 501's Levis jeans just out of curiosity last night. As usual, I was late to the party. 

 To be of significant value, among other things the old jeans need to have a large letter "E" as in "LEVI", not "Levi" like mine have. That change was made around 1970 as far as I could tell.

True to form, I didn't finish the embroidery project on the front. I think I'd planned on running the vine across to the last two flowers, but something (or someone) else must have gotten in the way.

If you're good with a needle, please don't critique my handiwork. This was the first project I probably ever did. Can you imagine how hard it is to sew through jeans?

Thanks for dropping by!

The Happiness Of Letting Go

Since reading Marie Kondo's book, The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up, I've donated a lot of things I no longer wanted. I wrote about Ms Kondo's book here and I can't recommend it enough without driving you crazy.

Although I was able to donate things I no longer wanted, I started hitting a wall when it came to things I really loved. I tended to want to store them away for that "someday" we're always thinking will come. 

That's what I started to do with two teacups. I started to pack them away in a closet for "someday".

I had a dainty pink floral teacup with a saucer that was a pretty good match. Then my mother-in-law moved to a smaller apartment in her retirement community and  -- in one of the "no room for these" boxes -- was a pretty green floral teacup and saucer. I loved them, but I was downsizing possessions, remember?

Luckily, I remembered that Henny Penny Lane mentioned she was looking to collect teacups, but hadn't found any yet. Perfect!

It brought me and my mother-in-law joy to send the two teacups to Miss Henny Penny. You can read Miss Henny Penny's post here about receiving them. I have to confess, with her permission I borrowed the pictures from her blog as I hadn't taken any pictures before I sent them.

Now Henny Penny has the start of a collection she really wanted to start. It brings her joy. And the gift of letting go brought me joy, just as Marie Kondo said it would.

I would love to read your experience of letting go. If you've posted about it, please share it by leaving a link to your post in the comment section below.

Thanks for dropping by!



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Make-It-Pretty-Monday

Glad To Be Home

Hi Everyone! The plane didn't crash on the way to California or on the way back as you can see. Here's a shaky picture of the Golden Gate Bridge out the window of the airporter as we crossed the bridge.

On my flight out, the plane backed away from the terminal then stopped and back to the terminal we went. The pilot said "mechanical trouble" was the cause. 

Forty minutes later the mechanics left and we were on our way again...Do you think I ever relaxed the whole way from Dallas to San Francisco after that? ...NO WAY!!!

Without internet for the last 2 weeks, I've missed being able to visit all your blogs. I was visiting my 86-year-old mother to help her get around town and give her moral support while the only relative who lives close by her was in the hospital with a serious condition. We took some time daily to clean out closets and cupboards and to donate lots of stuff. 

Mary's Pizza Shack

Most days, we ate our favorite soup-and-salad combo at Mary's Pizza Shack (our favorite late-lunch eating place) and enjoyed being a couple of Golden Girls together for 10 days. 

Mary's Pizza Shack is a small California chain now, but we remember many nights at the original little "shack" Mary started right in our little town back in 1959. The original little shack is gone now, this location took its place in the late 70's. 

You can see the very old tree the patio was built around in the photo below. It is a spectacular tree and every kid in our small town has probably climbed on it at one time or another. There's a sign now asking that no one climb on it due to its age.

In case you're wondering, my two sisters and I have all asked mom, over and over, to come live with one of us or to at least let us move her to one of our towns so one of us would be close by. So far, no dice, but we're hoping she'll change her mind soon.

Hope all of you in the path of the snowstorm in the East/Southeast are ready to batten down the hatches and let it pass by. We're all praying it passes quickly and leaves you with only a beautiful snowfall to admire. I can tell you California got plenty of rain recently, it rained every single day I was there.

Thanks for dropping by!