The 26-Hour Drive

We are off on an adventure in an expedition with 4 adults and 2 dogs.....did I say a 26-hour adventure? Yes, that's right, 26 hours! First day - 7 hours down and 19 more to go. We are in Albany, Oregon and are staying the night. Tomorrow we plan to drive another 10 and make it to Gilroy, California where my brother lives.....and I thought the drive today was long!

Do these two look impressed??

In The Mail

I have been busy creating these pretties for a valentine's tag swap that I am involved in. The lovely host of this swap is Karla Nathan at Karla's Cottage. I have had fun creating these tags and hope that the recipients will enjoy them too. They are in the mail today!

Aren't they just adorable.....

And so "vintage" looking....

And, another package is on it's way to my partner in the "My Vintage Heart Swap" Valentine's Day swap. This swap is being hosted by Dolly at From My Cherry Heart. I had so much fun finding all these treasures for you Rebecca! I hope you like them!

Can You Believe It??

This is the view from one of my kitchen windows.....I can't believe it!! Another snowfall....they are calling for a foot of snow!! Arghhh.......spring time where are you???

Piano Re-Do

I wasn't happy with the top of the piano display after taking everything down from Christmas. There was something missing....it needed symmetry.

Then, I remembered the old photos of my grandmother's and decided those would balance out the display and make it great instead of good. So, off to Michael's to find some antique looking frames that could display those photos in the way they needed to be.

I think this looks better than before and I am happy with it enough that it will stay for awhile....

Getting Packed...

I am getting things done ahead of time instead of waiting until the last moment (which is what I usually do). I have most of my luggage packed....yes, packed! Next Saturday we are off once again to Las Vegas for the annual Concrete Convention. We are driving - yuk!!! :( - and should get there sometime Sunday night. I'm sure it will be fun once we get there, but the 26+ hour drive is brutal!! And, when you are traveling with 2 yorkies who don't like car drives, it is challenging. Hopefully this trip will be less traumatic for them and they will get some sleep instead of constantly looking out the window. We will be staying until Friday so we will have plenty of time to take in some shows, eat, shop, eat some more, shop some more, and shop some more!! My favorite store is there - Macy's - and I can't wait to see what they have for spring. 

This year we are staying at Caesar's instead of the Imperial Palace (where we have stayed the past 3 years). The Imperial Palace is just so smokey smelling and the newer hotel/casinos as well as Caesar's do not smell like smoke. Caesar's is pretty central to everything and that is important since we do a lot of walking the strip while we are there.

I'm really looking forward to some decent weather while we are there too. I am so sick of the rain and snow that we've had here. The snow was pretty for awhile, but now it is just dirty looking and it is darn cold too! Hopefully we will be able to walk around Vegas during the day with just a light jacket on - this is what I am hoping for.

Last weekend my youngest daughter had their basketball tournament and they won all three games so they came out the champions! Here is a picture of the team and the trophy - my daughter is #22.

Shining Star

This afternoon I was reading up on some blogs that I follow and enjoyed Eddie's post for today: (http://www.eddieross.com/eddie_ross/2009/01/before-after-the-power-of-polish-1.html) It made me think of a piece of silver that I inherited from my grandmother. I once saw this particular piece featured in an article in Martha Stewart Living magazine - I can't recall the issue - but I felt very fortunate to have something so lovely that even Martha would feature it in her magazine! I love this piece and just wish I had more of an opportunity to use it. I suppose if I was from the Victoria era I would use this on my tea tray while I served tea and crumpets to my afternoon guests. These days there isn't that "formal" time of the day where one would set aside an hour or two to spend time with their closest friends and catch up on their lives and families. That, my dear is a bygone era which I an sad to say cannot be rekindled. Perhaps if I lived in England where they have "tea time" I would be able to use my silver sugar server. But, I live in Canada where the only time there is "tea time" is if you visited Victoria, BC and attended the "high tea" at The Empress Hotel. I'm sure that this would be a very formal re-inactment of what tea time used to be in the early 1900's.

So Eddie, here is my favorite piece waiting on the sidelines for a good polish! Maybe today.....maybe tomorrow.....maybe next month! If you look closely you can see bunny rabbits on the handles of the sugar jar!

Here's a close-up of the cute little birdie on the lid.....

And, while I was digging the sugar jar out of my hutch I fell upon these Valentine's Day cuties to display on my table for a centerpiece.

Ancestors

Today as I was rummaging through some old photos I came across these old ones from my maternal grandmother's stash. I really love the old victorian look to them - after all they were from the early 1900's!

This one is a portrait of her father and his siblings......

This one is of her father, mother, herself and brother....

I am making some jewelry with old photos sealed in resin and I think I just might use some of these images!

Ahhh.......

Today I spent 4 hours in a very special place......a place of tranquility......a place to escape the everyday.....a place where time stands still....a place I love! The spa! Last year for Christmas my husband had given me some gift certificates for our local spa here in Chilliwack (http://undinesretreat.com). And can you believe it has taken me over a year to use them? What was I thinking? I could have felt this way last January!

I had the "Bella" package which consisted of a relaxation massage, a signature facial, lunch, and then a spa pedicure. I was in heaven on earth!

Here is the waiting room....

Then this is one of the massage rooms where I faded into oblivion.....

And this was the wonderful facial I received.....

I would highly recommend visiting a spa at least once in your lifetime.....it is worth it!! I am still enjoying the afterglow of the morning by extending my "spa" feeling at home by not doing a single thing! :)

A Peek...

Today I spent the entire day - 10:00am to 3:30pm - in antique stores searching for treasures that will make my special art creations just that - SPECIAL! I found a lot of Christmas stuff at 50% off because people were wanting to clear out their booths of the season that has passed. Lucky me!

The lady in the store said she had never seen someone having so much fun finding all the stuff I found. And, she was right.....I was a girl who was giddy for an afternoon! I was in vintage heaven with all the stuff I found...

Here is a peek......

Lackluster

That is exactly what the house feels like now that all of the Christmas decorations have been taken down.....lackluster.....no more festive, "Christmasy" look that it held for so long. I've changed the vivid color of the photos to reflect how I feel...faded and lackluster. 

Now, the original skeleton of a room remains and I so long for that "cozy" feeling that Christmas brought. I could perhaps turn up the gas fireplace and sit a spell with a good book, a glass of wine, and some light music playing in the background....recalling the lazy days of the season that Christmas brought. Now, all I see before me is a home which needs to be organized, cleaned, and many small projects that need to be finished. That is exactly what January brings....it brings it's cold, snowy weather in to keep us housebound with nothing else to do than concentrate on the tasks at hand in the home. Nasty Mr. Winter....go away with you now! I've seen enough snow to last a lifetime and I am ready for spring already!

Our Italian Meal Making Experience

Another outing in my week long workshop adventure this past summer in Cortona, Italy was a visit to a hotel/restaurant up in the mountains from Cortona. This place was called...... 

A lady outside in the courtyard.....

Here are me and Milliande posing outside the hotel grounds before we went in.....

We were asked to help prepare our evenings meal and some of us helped at different times with different courses of the meal. Everything they used was fresh.....from the rosemary...

To the vegetables, garlic and eggs...

Look at this bounty......

Here is the chef preparing the dough for the spaghetti......

Here we are all helping roll out the spaghetti for pasta course......

More rolling.....

Here is Denise, one of our hosts, with fresh zucchini blossoms that will get dipped in batter and deep fried....yum!

From this.....

To this.....wonderful gnocchi and fresh tomato sauce.....

And the preparation for the flatbread......

Which we had with an amazing platter of......

This cheese.......

And the preparation of the dessert....a plum torte.....

And this grappa was part of the ingredients....

The vegetarians of the group.....Susan and Milliande eating parsley!

Ristorante "Portole"......an amazing night and meal.....

And friends to last a lifetime.....

Contemplating.....

Right now I am sitting in my Lazy Boy recliner contemplating......what you ask? Well, the fact that all my Christmas decorations need to be taken down is one major thing. Also the laundry that is oozing out of the laundry basket in my bedroom, that would be another. And, as I look around the house I can think of many other things to contemplate.

Next week I plan to get started on these:

• Paint my bedroom closet
  
• Paint the ceiling in kitchen where new lighting is
  
• Paint the wainscotting in the entryway
  
• Clean up my craft room
  
• Clean and organize the basement
  

1. this would involve going through boxes
2. this would also involve organizing all the Christmas stuff in boxes
3. this would also involve much energy on my part to get it done!

• Start crafting!! - I am excited for this because I have many ideas stirring in my brain!
  

I liked contemplating about it much better!