I Think the Party is Over ....

Well, with a heavy heart I have to admit to myself that my birthday month is over. Oh sigh, so sad. Yesterday I took a little road trip to Temecula with some quilting buddies for our birthdays. They are both August babies so we combined all 3 birthdays into one big party. It was such a great, fun day.

This trip we had Penny as our designated driver. She's ready to go so I had better get in the car! Our first stop of the morning was Starbucks, oh yum!

The next stop, Stars N' Scraps Quilt Shop in Corona. This little shop is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to buy fabrics and other quilting goods. We are both holding one of our gifts from Debbie ... gift certificates, fabric, threads and ....

 

Lunch time at Rosa's Cafe. My favorite spot in Temecula for lunch. Home made tortilla's to die for!!

Presents are waiting for us ....

Debbie's gift from Penny. A beautiful tray with a quilted insert.

So pretty isn't it??

Another stop at the Quilter's Coop. Here is a picture of my gift to Penny. Papa's Birds from Civil War Legacy's.

This is funny I know, taking a picture in a bathroom but you have to admit it is really cute! This bathroom belongs to the Temecula Quilt Co.

And the other side of the room. Just so cute, you don't want to leave!!

Our final stop was the Farmers Wife in Old Town Temecula. It is not a quilt shop (can you believe it!) Really awesome gift shop and I can't believe I forgot to take a picture. 

Thank you girls for a wonderful day, friendships make the world go round and round!

Wednesdays Special Longaberger Offers

It's hard to believe but football season is just around the corner. I live close to Fullerton High School and every morning I see the young men headed towards to football field, helmets and gear in hand for practice. For me, this is the first indicator that fall is just weeks away and school will be starting any time now.

 

If you have a favorite pro, college, high school or maybe eve Pop Warner football team that you cheer for here is a great opportunity to purchase two cute bowls in your team colors for only $20.00! Or maybe cheese and salami is your favorite snack!! We have a fun cutting board that screams FOOTBALL!! 

If you would like any of these products simply email me at baskets4anita@aol.com

Stitcheries Completed!!

After anxiously waiting for my stitchery's to come back from the framers I'm happy to report it was well worth the wait. If you don't remember, I purchased a couple of hand stitched pieces from an estate sale. I added glass to one and had the other framed. Here they are completed ....

This is the cross stitched piece done by Lois Foster, Penny's mom. I added a piece of glass to protect the work from getting soiled. I plan to hang this in my sitting room area of the bedroom.

 

This piece was done in the late 1800's and it is awesome! It looks so much better in person. I will take another picture once it's hung, hopefully it will come out better. I am so surprised the blue color in the thread has held up so well for so many years.

 

Hoot ... Hoot ...

Yesterday was one of those days that starts out with not much going on and then blooms into an awesome day! My friend Tanya came out to Fullerton and we headed south to Tai Pan Trading to see what was new. Not much new but I had a 25% off coupon for everything purchased so it was a good day!

My treasure of the TPT adventure was an Owl ... yep a nice big owl. I wanted one last year but just never quite found what I wanted. This guy is so cool. He was originally all white but with the help of a little black and brown paint I achieved the look I was going for.

Here he is, almost done. It's hard to tell but I'm still working on the books he's standing on.

Another angle, his eyes need to be finished as well.

Ta Da he's finished, well almost. He needs a coat of sealer to protect him from future cleaning fluids!! I'm all excited for Fall's arrival, he will be awesome for Halloween.

 

 

 

 

After we finished at TPT we were ready to roll. With a stop at the Brick Basement Antique Shop (Tanya got a cool Radio Flyer wagon) and I picked up a very nice pewter plate and a few other goodies. We continued on to Magnolia's ... oh wow, what a mess this place was. I won't go into details but ... oh my will have to sum it up. However, I do have to admit I found the

 following treasure from my hunt into the deep corner of the shop.

This is a solid brass lamp finial. I loved the Eagle sitting on top of the ball and decided it needed to come home with me. I currently don't have a lamp to attach it to but I hope to some day soon! For $5.00 how can I go wrong!!

This very cute oak chair came from the estate sale. It was actually Penny's sewing chair. My plan is to use it at my vanity, I have a bent, wobbly stool that I don't feel to safe sitting on. My other treasure is Abraham Lincoln's Rules of Conduct. I asked my friend Debbie for this for my birthday. I love it and as soon as my house guests leave I plan to hang it in the Presidential Suite bedroom. 

 

Have a great weekend friends!

Longaberger Is Bringing their Pottery Home!

There is a lot of exciting news here at The BEE! I am reaching out today to tell you personally about the biggest news of all: We're coming home!
This morning I announced to BEE attendees that I have made the decision to begin the transition to a completely American-made company again. This transition won't happen overnight. It will happen over the next several years. We've created a team to begin this process and to determine if we can make pottery ourselves, here on our own manufacturing campus in Ohio.
Our baskets have always been American-made — in fact, the majority of our entire product line is American-made. As many of you remember, we used to get our pottery from U.S. sources until 2005, after our primary pottery vendor moved manufacturing overseas and we had to begin importing pottery.
As we transition over the next few years, it's essential that we continue to serve our customers with all of the wonderful products in our current WishList®. The fastest way for us to make the transition to American-sourced products is to have strong sales from our current line — such as the incredible new Flameware that we just introduced here at the Bee!
I've listened to what you and your customers have been saying. Today's announcement shows that we at Longaberger are willing to stand up and help lead the effort to restore the American Dream and create American jobs!

Click here for a press release on this announcement

Out and About in the OC ...

It's been a very busy week here in Orange County! Tuesday my daughter Tiffany and I went to an Angels baseball game - woo hoo. However, we lost to Kansas City 4 to 1, such a bummer. While the rest of the country is sweltering in 100 plus degree heat we were COLD at the game. Burrr, the wind was blowing and for July it was just plain cold.

She has got to be one of their #1 fans, how perfect was this sign to place above her head.

 

Here is a great picture of both of us, don't you agree. This is what happens at the end of the night after a long day ... we just get a little loopy. Tiff is showing her dentist his great dental work!! It was also Albert Pulos Free hat night so we were with 35,000 twins!

And I ask you, what is better then a rally monkey to get you fired up at the Angels games????

 

Maybe a pair of ridiculous flip flops!

 

 ________________________________________________

I was up bright and early on Wednesday to head for the Orange Quilt Bee to quilt with the ladies! I never seem to get a whole lot accomplished but I really have a great time! 

Penny and Emily! Emily is busy piecing blocks, this is going to gorgeous once its finished!

Surprise! Caught taking phone calls. Can you believe fall is just around the corner?? How do I know?? There is a Halloween quilt on the wall!

Oh no, no. No pictures ...

OK, I won once again! Look at Penny over on the right sneaking out the door. I just love this shop, the owners are so sweet and friendly. If you're in Orange County you should stop in and check the shop out.

And away we go. Headed for home and following Penny out of the lot.

 

Mice, nests and loss ....

This afternoon the Orkin man came to do his spraying to get rid of the crickets, spiders and other misc. bugs. While he was here I mentioned the re-occurrence of mice and asked what is the next move. I actually have him stumped, he has never had a customer experience the re-arrival of mice after they have been eradicated! Lucky me, I get to be his first. So now the big critter man will be out the re-inspect the house. Oh joy.

Later I went out to the back yard and realized my bird nest was all torn up. I went over the give it a closer look and to my surprise the little blue speckled egg in GONE! Yes, it's gone! I know exactly who stole it too. It was Stinky, the dog. I am so bummed. I was so excited to pass it on the my grandson since I knew he shares my love for this from nature. I had the nest high where I thought it would be safe but I guess not. Stinky leaves next Monday to return home to Virginia and I won't be sorry to see him go .....

A Little Gift

After writing my story about the poopy bird nest I received a surprise gift from my friend Penny. Penny lives in a beautiful neighborhood that is rather unique to Southern California. She has a "green belt" running through her back yard, as a matter of fact her entire tract has this feature. Consequently her yard is full of birds, squirrels, frogs and other critters. While trimming a tree she found this little treasure from nature ....

A beautiful, clean nest with one tiny blue speckled egg residing inside. The nest is poop free and made of pine needles on the outer layer and a very fine hair like material where the egg is sitting. It's rather sad, once Penny found the nest she watched it for a couple of days but a bird never returned to it. The tiny speckled blue egg had been abandoned. Where did mama bird go? Was she dinner for a feral cat that roams the back yard? Did she die, or maybe she just opted out of motherhood. Anyway you look at it their is a motherless egg sitting in a nest for the rest of us to ponder over.

 

 The bright side of all of this is my 7 year old grandson will be so excited when he sees it. He loves things of nature and will treasure this nest as much as I do.

Super Special Summer Savings!

Don't miss out on the Longaberger Summer Special being offered July 25 thru the 29th. This is a great chance to purchase the items that you may have missed earlier this summer!!

Another B-day Party!!

It's already been a year since I lost my job of twenty two years. Wow, time does go by so quickly. The girls I worked with and I have remained close and in regular contact. We decided to get together and celebrate our birthday's at Downtown Disney!! The other gals have August birthdays so this work out very well.

We began our day at the Rain Forrest Cafe'. Really a fun place and they had the air conditioner on cold!!

Very Mayan ruinish don't you think! 

 

Here we are ... left is Linda, me and Joan. The 3 of us worked together for a really long time and got along so well. It has been hard to move on without them ...

Ya gotta love the seating!

And our waiter, isn't he just too cute! He didn't want his picture taken but I did it anyway.

 After lunch we decided to walk off our meal. We cruised through the shopping area and ducked into every store to cool off. Yikes it was REALLY hot here today.

Here is Woody at the Lego store. He is made entirely of Lego's and so is everything in the entire picture (except Joan and Linda hehe). So amazing!

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, that is my friend Amy and I up there!!

A little fun with hats ... My daughter's birthday is two weeks from tomorrow and she is a huge baseball fan. I ask you .... what could be better then Mickey Mouse Baseball ears?? She will LOVE this!

Joan's husband Frank has a birthday tomorrow ... she was shopping for a hat. The hat she has on is at the smallest size and look how big it is! She has a little bitty head.

 And finally. I posted earlier today about the mice returning. I have taken a new approach to the whole ordeal.

If I can't beat um I might as well join um. I loved this silly hat, these mouse ears have a tail! Watch out mice, I'm coming in!!

 

They're BAAAAKKK!

Ugh, Just when I thought it was all over and safe to put the traps away they have re-emerged. Who are THEY you ask, THEY are the MICE. I am so mad!!! Over my birthday weekend my son mentioned he saw mice do do in the bathroom where I feed Miss Betsy Ross. Umm, well it is the bathroom, where do you want the mice to go do do?? Not funny I said to myself. So I put down a trap and poof, caught a mouse. Dang it. Move the dog food and set more traps. Next catch ... the living room. I had set some traps along the wall line from the kitchen to the stair case (where they like to hide.)

While sitting here this morning in my quiet space I began to hear that all to familiar noise. That noise of scurrying around in the cupboards. I got up and moved the traps closer to the sound and left the room. While I was upstairs getting ready to go out into the world I heard Joe's son telling him there was a mouse in the trap ... I new I recognized that sound. Mouse count is now 20 total. It is so gross I could cry. However, crying won't do any good, all I can do is keep patching entry holes, keep food out of their reach and set traps. 

Will they ever be gone? Has anyone out their in blog land ever had a problem like this before??? I am desperate for advice,

A Glimpse of the Gifts!!

In the past couple of days I've been very busy arraigning my new birthday gifts! I just love doing this .... making space for loved new treasures.  I have taken a few pictures to share with you and show you where their new homes are.

Here is my new child size Crystal Wash Board! I LOVE this little jewel! This was a gift from my friend Tanya. I should probably hang it with my other wash boards in the laundry room but I can't look at it out there very often!

Now this is another great find and I'm a very lucky girl. This is a child's Bissell Sweeper and it is in awesome condition. This had to come from the 30's era and again this was a gift from Tanya, she was just to good to me!

Mom  and baby together!

My Barn Quilt Block from Paula, I love this and think it looks perfect on the fence outside my living room window.

A new addition to my front flower garden is Ms. Bee. She was a birthday gift from Vicky. Too cute.

 

Ants on parade. The lead ant waving the flag is from Boulder City , Nevada, the next in line was another birthday gift from my friend Ronna, and followed by a coupler of smaller siblings. They are made from rocks and welded metal.

A new home for my prayer chair I got from Lois'

And finally ... Ta Da my new Longaberger Uncle Sam basket hat. You just have to love it. Such a creative little basket isn't it??

 

Guess Who I Found!!

I was out yesterday morning doing my doo doo patrol and look who I found??

It's Herbert!! (yep, I named him) I found him in the grass next to the planter! So I picked him up and brought him in the house to ask my husband Joe what do I do with him? I'm frantic ... he can't fly. Should I put him back in his nest??? Yes, he says, put him in the nest. So I do. The I do the smart thing ... I look up baby sparrows on the internet. In big giant letters it say "IF YOU CARE LEAVE THEM THERE!" Meaning, leave the nestlings on they ground, they need to learn to jump to get strong enough to fly! Yikes, back outside I go with my little red chair to get Herbert out of the nest and back in the grass. Can you just visualize all of this going on?? Yes, it really was quite comical. As I moved the nest a bit to get Herbert out he flew to the ground! Yes, he did, he FLEW! I was so proud of him. As late as last evening he was still hopping around in the grass near the finch bird feeder. However, this morning I went out searching for him and so far there is no sign of him.

 

Do you think he'll come back for a visit? Will he bring a girlie bird next year to build a nest here? Afterall it is a perfect location. Safe from predators, fresh water, food and a wonderful family lives here that is willing to nurture his babies to almost death!

It's my birthday month and I am loving every single bit of it!! Yesterday I co-hosted a Longaberger party at my home with my customer Marie. We had 11 ladies here and I presented a cooking demonstration using Longaberger pottery and food. First up was an amazing whole chicken cooked in our 8 in 1 pottery piece in the microwave! 

Exactly 30 minutes later we had this beautiful bird and was he ever yummy. I used the drippings to make a very delicious gravy that was poured over the chicken. Next I made roasted russet potatoes using olive oil and Longaberger Parmesan Garlic seasoning blend. These cooked for 12 minutes in the microwave and they were so tender!!

 

 

Forefront is the potatoes, the blue casserole is the chicken and Longaberger Beer Bread on the platter! Pam was my awesome assistant, I couldn't do it without her!!

 

 For dessert we had Apple Dumpling Bites. Oh wow, so good ... made me ready a tad bit for fall.

Ready to pop in the microwave ...

 10 minutes later, all done and oh so good!

In addition to the dumplings we also enjoyed birthday cake.

Isn't this just beautiful?? My customer Vicky and I both share July birthdays and this basket weave flag cake was so perfect. It's chocolate with raspberry Bavarian cream filling. Oh, and zero calories ... hehe.

 

Raspberries filled with white chocolate and Longaberger Peach and fresh mango salsa with Liberty chips were served for appetizers.

Present time!

Vicky and I each received a Disney character playing Angels baseball. I received Mickey up to bat and Vicky has Goofy pitching. As you gals know I am an Angels fan and Vicky is a Goofy fan. These little figurines are to darn cute!!

See the little vintage red chair?? It was one of my birthday gifts from Tanya, OMG it is just so cute and makes such a great addition to my American Summer Tablescape.

And finally the whole darn gang!! Jewel is on the far left, she is my 92 year old customer who never misses a party or event. Such a trooper! Her daughter Janice is visiting from North Carolina. Eileen had already gone home so except for her we're all in the picture! Thanks ladies for an awesome day.