A Short Short Story...

 

 

 

"Immersed"

 

The End

A Week in San Francisco...

... My BFFs gave me a week in the Nob Hill section of San Francisco for my birthday! They actually got the trip for free on a fluke, so I consider this trip a gift from God as well as from them!  God is great & so are they! I felt very blessed. We stayed at the Powell Place. It was beautiful, like our own little apartment but with all the perks of a fine hotel. Close to the top of the highest hills in the city, at the corner of Powell & California.  We got lots of exercise walking up & down the hills.
Our place was larger than imagined & nicer than expected. It had a bedroom, bath, spacious living room/ dining room & kitchen. It was at the back of the building (house) with a view of a garden (well treetops actually) just outside a big picture window. It was quiet with the exception of the ding ding ding -bell from the cable car that stopped at the top of of Powell Street.  The weather was so lovely & the trees just swayed the breeze into our place, along with the smell of steak, garlic & muffled laughter at night from nearby restaurants.  The staff there was so nice too. Here are a few of my favorite photos I took of "The City" while I was there... tomorrow I'll take you to Chinatown!

 

 

 

The Tadich Grill 

 

 

 

Powell at night

 

 

*****

The horrible plane crash in SF today came to my attention after my initial post. Heartfelt sympathies  go out to all those on board, & to the families of those that were lost.  It was a blessing from God that so many survived.  Another reminder to live everyday to the fullest.

Price of Pumpkins...

...We took our little pumpkin to "Daw Naws" (McDonald's) and to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday. $18 for 3 pumpkins! What?! Am I out of touch with reality? Do pumpkins normally cost that much? Well, having all the fun in the maze & around the patch was priceless, but I'm definitely transforming these pumpkins into pies in a week or so!

I hurt my Achilles tendon last weekend so I have been trying to stay off of it as much as possible. Yesterday walking around in the Pumpkin Patch's sandy gravel made it worse. I stayed off of it last night and made 2 little ponchos while sitting there with hubby & baseball game, using up all my bits & pieces. They are were suppose to be 12 month size but they turned out to be 2T or 3T. JJ screamed bloody murder when I tried them on him. Like he instinctively knew they were for a girl! Is that possible at 2 years old? He cried, they fit him, I cried. haha I plan to make more tonight. I am going to buy more yarn, make it smaller, maybe all the same color, and alter the pattern & maybe add a pretty lacy bottom edge. I'm going to send these to my other little niece, I'm sure these will be cute with a little pairs of jeans or jean skirt besides the blue & green will be so cute with her dark hair. I studied the picture they provided today, it shows only 8 rows with a border unlike the pattern. No worries though, these work up so fast and are fun to make plus I used my bits & pieces, so both of my nieces may end up with lots of them! I've got a huge space bag full of bits & pieces! I'll post a picture of the pattern I make.

A Big Shout Out & Thank You goes to Vital Temptation Designs for featuring my art in her great Etsy Treasury. Click on her name to visit her shop full of scrumptious crochet & needlework!

Friday In The Backyard

My yard is full of "Miner's Lettuce". (This plant is the inspiration for my wonky flowers.)

I Love Sticks... Hum....

Feels & Smells Like Christmas!

I bought an extra turkey at Thanksgiving and took him out to defrost the other day. I figured I would cook him up so I wouldn't have to do much cooking over this busy weekend. I was feeling lousy was was heading off to bed when I had a brainstorm. I would just let him cook in the crock pot while I slept. Lazy. I've never cooked a turkey in the crock pot but thought that was a brilliant idea. Not! As I was washing him my husband kept telling me he wasn't going to fit in the pot. I insisted he would. HA! I tried everything to get him to fit. I finally had to cut him up. Ugh. I felt like Jeffrey Daumier. I hate cutting up a big raw turkey. He still didn't fit! So I kept the back part out for soup stock. I felt so silly I actually took pictures! haha

When we woke up this morning it smelled like Christmas and during the night it snowed so it felt like Christmas! This may not seem exciting to you but it really is for us. It's the big thing on the news today! I live just below the snowline so it has only snowed here about 3 times in the last 15 years. It was so pretty. It's melting now. I wish I had made a snowman earlier when I had the chance.

How was the turkey? The turkey was so dry he had to be raised in Arizona. haha I shredded the breasts, put the breast meat back in the crock pot and smothered it with bbq sauce, mustard & vinegar. We'll just have to have pulled bbq turkey sandwiches with it. Better than tossing it away. It's smelling like the South in here now and I'm getting homesick! With the rest of the turkey I think I will make some more Turkey Tiki Masala like I did after Thanksgiving. That was so good I took a picture of it and posted it.

I ended up staying up late. I needed a kitchen angel last night. I had sketched this one out to maybe paint in the future. I have a notebook full of sketches of things to do! Maybe I'll get her done.

I listed 2 ACEO Trees this morning in my Etsy shop.

My Baby & Bling

Happy Birthday to my oldest baby Joe! I love you!

On Mondays I am watching my little JJ, my oldest baby's baby and 1st grandson. He is growing up so fast. I think he's so cute it's hard not to kiss him constantly. I am gettin' it while the gettin' is good though while he can't say quit kissing me Gramma! haha I don't have many toys over here and he is now holding things and starting to play a little. So I had to make this "redneck" baby rattle. Or maybe I should say "alternative toy". haha It's a plastic chicken bouillon jar with a few dried garbanzo beans in it! He loves that thing! Go figure!

We did our 1st art project together. I painted his feet with red paint and stamped his feet on canvas paper. I let him hold the paint brush long enough to make some strokes on the paper too and stamped Happy Birthday Daddy on it. I put it in a nice mat & frame. My son said it chocked him up when he opened it. Awwww Sorry I didn't take a picture of it but did take a few shots of my little JJ, my angel.

I would like to thank Casa De Boneca for giving me a blog award! More bling for my blog! I have to nominate people to pass it out so I will have to think about who that will be and will get that posted soon. The rules are in spanish so I have written to Boneca for translation so I can post the correct rules.

Today I am working on more bookmarks. I am having a lot of fun making them. I am using my artwork on them and scriptures. I plan to start some more kitty cat paintings as well. I haven't done any of those for a while and I'm just in the mood. Etsy and Ebay are very slow at the moment, but out of the two, regardless of the high fees, I may have to list more things on Ebay. At least on Ebay I know how much I may have coming in on a given week if things sell. If I wasn't trying to sell my own art, I would be gobbling up lots of great art right now, and at great prices - more gettin' while the gettin' s good!