Allergy Alert - Worth It!

Every year a handful of Macy's around the country celebrate spring by decorating their stores with a bounty of flowers. I forgot all about it, but when walked into Macy's with the intent of returning a sweater I bought for the wedding but didn't end up using, I was greeted by so many flowers in so many colors. A nice surprise. Thankfully I had just gotten my allergy shots an hour earlier!

Wearing green and buying bling

A friend from our Purple Magma group threw a Stella and Dot party this afternoon. If you're not familiar with Stella and Dot, it's a home party direct sale company that sells gorgeous jewelry. Too bad I don't wear a lot of jewelry! But I still managed to pick up a couple of trinkets.Angie, Whitney (the hostess) and I, wearing our obligatory green for St. Pat's. Didn't want to get pinched! I refuse to be deterred by a blurry photo.

Just finished editing and uploading my video slideshow of yesterday's St. Patrick's Day Parade. It's a tad long, just under 4 minutes (I have youtube ADD - 2 minutes is usually my maximum attention span)...but I had a hard time cutting stuff out! Especially of those massive Irish Wolfhound dogs. Now that's a dog!! It's the tallest dog in the world, and if it could stand on it's hind legs, it could span over 7 feet tall! They're about 1/2 way in the video.

12.24: Santa's sleigh is warming up

Jimmy's sister stayed over last night after the ballet. The 3 of us were going to the Parentals for Christmas Eve dinner. So we had some time to kill this morning. Yesterday's storm cleared and today was a cold but beautiful sunny day. We had all of our Christmas shopping done, but we had a lot of fun window shopping and getting ideas for what to wear for our niece's wedding in March. Yes, the streets of Union Square were chaotic with last minute shoppers, but since we weren't under any pressure, it was a lot of fun being out enjoying the festivities instead of being stressed out by it.

12.18: Almost There

The Habitat office was closed this afternoon for their Holiday party so I had a surprise free day to catch up on those holiday errands. I found success for basketball niece at a trendy clothing store that must have been established in 1922 because that number or "22" were on all of their apparel. How convenient!!

Today in Union Square

I had to run some errands in Union Square today. It was a cool, cloudy day, but by the looks of the blossoms, spring was definitely in the air.

A canopy of flowers over park benches.

Pink blossoms.

Heart in San Francisco.
These hearts, decorated by local artists, appear throughout the city. Both of these were in Union Square.

Every spring, Macy's decorates their stores with "Towers of Flowers". This year's theme is Brasil and featured lots of tropical flowers. I wish I had my 'big' camera, but I did my best with the camera in my cell phone.




These 2 are just a sample of their amazing window displays.

The view from Macy's 6th Floor. I recently read an article about the legendary 6th Floor bathroom in Macy's at Union Square, so I had to check it out. It was unique and really felt like I stepped back in time to the 1950s. While I was on the 6th floor, I peered out the windows to enjoy their view of the skyline.


It appears that we're finally getting our 'winter' weather. More storms and winds are expected this weekend. It's hard to complain when our winter was so mild and filled with many sunny days, but I'm a spoiled California girl and still craving that sunshine on a spring day.

Family Incoming {December Daily 22}

Eric and Molly drove up and Dave flew in tonight. We won't see them on Christmas day so we had a late dinner with them at Oola then headed back to our apartment to eat up almost all of the delicious cookies Molly gave us. Yummy!

Is this a little nutty? All these packages came today from Amazon.com. I hate battling the crowds so I do 99% of my Christmas shopping online. I asked the doorman how many packages come from Amazon and he said at least 50%. Now I just need to wrap 'em up...

Union Square {December Daily 2}

Had about an hour to shop at Union Square this afternoon. Mostly window shopping and taking a few photographs at the Christmas Store in Macy's, but I did manage to find a present for the 14 and 16 year old nieces.

111,111 x 111,111 = 12345654321

Ok, that equation has been floating around facebook all day today. Couldn't resist putting it up here, too.

 But I had funner things to think about today than that.
Lunch in Livermore with gal pals Doris and June.

  We were having lunch and I glanced at the whiteboard to see what the specials were and it was surprising to see "Retzlaff Cabernet" on the wine list. Funny thing: there's a Retzlaff Winery in Livermore. No relation, in fact, I'm not even sure the vineyard is owned by a Retzlaff family anymore.

December doesn't take a sick day {December Daily 14}

To my dismay, I wasn't able to pause the holiday madness for a few days while this virus overtook my ability to think, move or breath.

I woke up today, feeling a wee bit better and realized Christmas is only 11 days away and 80% of my shopping still needed to be tackled. Thank goodness for cybershopping. I tackled most of it within a few hours and even felt well enough to venture out to Target and the grocery store.

I even had just enough energy to create this fun greeting for ya'll. Enjoy!

11/12 Gratitude: Success

small little successes today:

...bought 1st Christmas present.

...made a new lasagna recipe, it's awesome!! Best lasagna i've ever made.

...was not let into temptation. well...at least not with these...i plead the 5th on other delightful things.

Lasagna
(recipe originally from All Recipes)

Ingredients
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
3/4 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
12 lasagna noodles
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.
Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.
~~
My modifications: left out fennel and parsley, simply because I didn't have any. Used hot italian sausage instead of sweet.

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

The biggest challenge with cleaning out my closest yesterday was parting with shoes and purses that I've loved for so many years. I have no problem getting rid of clothes, but I have an attachment to my bags and shoes. The ones I got rid of, I brought them with me 7 years ago when we moved and if I'm lucky, I've used them once since. So it was time to part ways with these beloved materialistic goodies and bid them a fond fairwell.

My old lady bag. I didn't care what everyone else said, I loved this bag. It was my 1st bag that had a dedicated cell phone pocket, which was needed since it was a deep bag. I carried it a couple of years in the early 2000s and have held onto it all these years because it's a very user friendly bag.

This was the hardest of all the bags I got rid of to part with. My SIL gave this to me right after her wedding at Catalina Island in 2002. It matches everything and surprisingly fits everything you really need. No frivolous things obviously, but your cell phone, wallet, camera and a few other small necessities fit perfectly without being bulky. I used this bag a lot and still did every year for a few months. Ok...I'm pulling this out of the goodwill bag, it's going back into my closet. I'd rather get rid of one of my designer bags that i'm only keeping because they're designer.

Speaking of designer bags...sort of that is...this is my fake Burberry bag. I only carried this for maybe 2 weeks because I got so self conscious carrying a fake. If it were made a little better, like if the pattern matched on the seaming, I might not have minded as much. But it's so easy to tell a fake when there's a strong pattern. I remember the day vividly that I bought got suckered into buying it. I took the train to SF to meet my cousin for lunch. As we were walking downtown, "the bag man" was out on the street selling lots of imitations. There were a half dozen or dozen other women surrounding his small table. I got caught up in the frenzy and bought my fake. I was so proud of myself. I thought I'd be able to fool everyone with this fakey! Well, I couldn't fool myself and I'm certain that I couldn't fool anyone else who was a true designer bag carrier. Common now, those patterns are a dead giveaway! So, it's time to get rid of the fakey. Besides, said cousin got me a real one for one of my extra special birthday's so now I can proudly say I actually own a real Burberry.

This was my favorite bag in the mid to late 90s. Truthfully, I'm much more a Timberland/Eddie Bauer/REI girl than I am a Designer Bag girl. So this was my rugged, take with me everywhere, throw around and don't worry about it bag. In fact, this is the bag I left in a Barstow Del Taco during a stop from Vegas back home to the Bay Area, and shockingly got it back with all my belongings still inside. Thankfully, Jimmy's brother lived in Barstow at the time to get it back for me. Good bag.

Now. I hate hats. I look TERRIBLE in hats. I looked horrible in this hat. The only reason I kept this hat for 15 years is because of the memory behind it. Jimmy and I were on a roadtrip to Washington and Oregon in Feb 1995. Our car broke down while we were in Oregon and we had to rent a car for a week while they fixed it. A really bad snow storm hit while we were travelling and California girl didn't have any winter weather gear. It was cold enough to actually need a hat, so I bought this wool hat and it worked like a charm! I was very happy with my hat. Jimmy and I could much more happily enjoy the rest of our trip, not fearing that all my heat would escape from the top of my head. I only wore it on that trip, but it's been tagging along with me for the past 15 years. Goodbye ugly hat. You served me well when I needed you though.

Now onto shoes. How in the world did I amass such a big collection of fancy shoes when I'm totally a tennies and flip-flop type of gal? Oh yea, I love pretty shoes. And I've been to some weddings and funerals, a couple of cruises, and once upon a time I worked at CBS Network in Hollywood. So since I like pretty shoes, any reason to buy them, I'll grab it with gusto! But that means they'll usually only get worn once maybe twice.
Pretty shoes. I wore these to my BFF Monica's wedding. I was her matron of honor. I wore these a few more times after the wedding, but they're not exactly comfortable.

Cruise shoes. Bought these for a cruise and only wore them for the cruise. Buh-bye cruise shoes.

My beautiful pointy-toed boots. Oh how I love these boots and will do a fair bit of regret giving these completely impractical boots away.

Classic black pumps. Worn once. How can anyone get rid of a pair of classic black pumps? Surely, one day a time will come when I'll need a pair of classic black pumps. Well, it hasn't happened in 16 years so goodbye to the classic black pumps.

Fun, a little funky and super high shoes I wore more than a couple times, but not much more than that. I got these for my BIL's wedding in New York in 1998. I felt so very tall in them! Surprisingly, they're quite comfortable so I've kept them thinking they're still so wearable. Maybe, but wearing them once every 5 or 7 years isn't a good reason to keep them, so I bid you, my beautiful shoes, adieu.

Do you have a relationship with your closet? Do your clothes, bags and shoes bring back memories? Why is it so hard to part with these things?

SD18: I {heart} the Japanese Dollar Fifty Store

And you would, too! How can you not be charmed by these?
Surprised erasers: "Oh my! You made a mistake. Let me take care of that."

Angry erasers: "You idiot! You made a mistake and now I have to clean up your mess!"

"Where shall we go first? Let's make to the sea or make to the mountain...to her..."

"Many a little makes miracle."


"Let's become happy singing."

"Welcome to the country of the fruit. What do you see in this fruit? It is a train that carries your dream."

"I present you my mind for you."

But do you know what I {heart} more than the Japanese $1.50 store?

Afternoon tea (earl grey with a splash of milk), a scone and my kindle.
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SD14: little treasures

Just got back from dinner and a movie w/ Bee. She just finished her 1st year of grad school so we met 1/2 way to celebrate. Dinner at Monsoon Masala was meh but the naan was scrumptious. However, don't know if great naan can redeem mediocre main entrees. But we saw "Killers" after dinner and it was highly entertaining. We'd both heard mixed reviews so we went in with low expectations. I think if you go in not expecting anything, you're more easily amused. We both certainly laughed out loud a lot. And Ashton Kutcher was nice eye candy, too. Katherine Heigl is charming as she always is.

Nice lunchtime break with Christina, including a little shopping spree. hummm...wonder what I'll make with these goodies? She also helped me try a little free-motion quilting.

Here are a few of my favorite little trinkets near my crafting table:
Honey bee wax bear. A gift from Miss A. It smells really good, too.

Small dish of collected beach rocks, a few acorn shells and a soapstone heart.

Kneeling Native American women. Got 'em in Tucumcari, New Mexico.

Hello Kitty tchotchkes from Kristin.
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