It's Finally Here and in the Ground!

For Valentines Day I purchased a memorial brick for my daughter to be set into the ground at Angel Stadium. I received a letter last week that it had been set in cement and where it was located. Tiffany and Shaun went over today to look for it and once they found it snapped a pic. The brick is on Tiff's left in front of her fingers. We were really excited to find out where it was ... smack, dab in the middle of the main entrance in front of home plate. Couldn't have picked a better spot if we tried. See that big grin?? She is one happy girl!

 

Let the Party Begin!

I love birthdays! Especially mine, even if it involves getting another year older. Yesterday my daughter Tiffany decided it was time to get the party started ... even though it's about 10 days early!! I was all for it. She scheduled pedicures for us at the most fabulous nail spa. This place is amazing and is boasted to be the #1 nail spa in Orange County. With 100's of these places in the OC this is a BIG deal!

Here we are all nestled into our spa chairs soaking our feet in some hot water with blue stuff in it that smelled really good! Yes, those are Micky D's coffee cups you see!

 

Ahhh, a toast of champagne to me, yep they serve champagne and other beverages. These pics are looking blurry and I know why, I'm sitting in a massage chair and my whole body was vibrating, including my cell phone!

And a little plate of yummy treats. I already ate the little coconut cookie/crackers. They are my favorites! Champagne, iced coffee and treats, oh life just doesn't get any better then this.

All done, aren't they bootiful???

Here is a stunning close up of my Americana toes!

 

I am a very lucky mom, My son and the grandkidlets will be down next Sunday just in time to spend my birthday with me! So excited. 

Tomorrow Joe and I head to Las Vegas to spend the week with Tiffany. She works ... we play ...

A walk down memory lane ...

My 30 plus year old daughter and her boyfriend Shaun have passes to Disneyland. Meaning they can go often at no additional cost. She lives just a couple of mile from the park so the two of them do go OFTEN! They are two very big kids.

Their goal for this year is to ride every ride in both parks and seek out the hidden Mickey's. Most recently Tiffany posted a picture of herself on the Dumbo ride that brought tears to my eyes.

 "Mimie is here with me in spirit ALWAYS" This is the message  and picture she posted on Facebook.

While I was raising my children my mom was always with us. She went on vacations, amusement parks, emergency rooms, dance recitals, soccer games etc. The kids depended on her as much as I did. I have a treasured picture of Tiffany riding this very same ride and Mimie is sitting in the Dumbo with her. I doubt if she has ridden Dumbo since she was small so when she and Shaun rode it again she wanted to take a picture with her Mimie in the ride with her in spirit.

 
 This is Tiffany at 4 1/2 years old, the same day she rode Dumbo with her Mimie. Her little brother Dustin is in the stroller, wow ... his mother really dresses him funny, poor little guy. The other little girl??? No clue, Tiffany has always chatted with everyone so this is probably a new friend for the day!
As the years fly by I find it almost bittersweet when looking at old pictures. I ask myself that age old question, "where has time gone?" The kids are all grown, I have wrinkles to confirm I'm getting old and Mimie is a fond memory. My wish is I too will be someday a fond memory to my children and grandchildren. 

Spring Cleaning ....

Yes, yes I know, today is the official first day of summer. However, here in So. California we are enjoying mild spring temperatures and it put me in the mood to do some spring cleaning! I began my day dead heading the front planter  flowers, it needed it so bad! Then, before I knew it I was upstairs dismantling my Americana display shelves. I do this once a year whether it needs it or not .... hehe. That means taking down a lot of collectible figurines, baskets, antique tins etc. This time I took my time (all day) and re-did the look of the entire cabinet. What a job, I still have things all over the place without home.

This is our upstairs linen closet ... I don't own that many linens so I decided this would make a great space for the Americana overflow!!

My child's wagon full of babies and other little friends. The sock monkey in the back was one of the last things my mom made for me before she passed. She worked at the church craft club making various items for kids at Christmas. I loved the sock monkey's so she made me my very own Uncle Sam monkey. Next to Sam is a VERY old (60 ish) Chucko the clown.  A long time friend was cleaning out things in order to make a move and was tossing him away, he had belonged to one of her boys. I rescued him for 10 cents and he's been mine for a good 20 years!

I added some glass jars to house my many ABC blocks, Americana foods and my newly painted watermelons.

Another new addition are quilts ... they are taking over the house and I needed to find some more housing for them. The bottom one is a bow-tie quilt made by my grandma many, many years ago. The next one is a gift from my dear friend Paula, on top of that is a Coverlet throw quilt and on top is an Americana Snowball Quilt.

These are the three shelves to the far right. Lady Liberty graces the top shelf, this is the tallest shelf and these collectibles are TALL! Next are a few of my Americana Longaberger Baskets and on the lower shelf you can find my Uncle Sam's! Along with George and Martha Washington!

Center - A memorial to my dad and his WWII experience. The flag on top was draped on his casket at his funeral 30 plus years ago. The bugle he blew while in the Army is at it's left and his battle ribbons grace the center.

A close up of the girls! 10 Lady Liberty's and 2 Uncle Sam's, very good odds!!

And finally, the far left three shelves. Another Longaberger Americana Basket sits on top, misc.,  items fill in the middle followed by a few items from my tin collectibles. 

 

 I can not tell you how good it feels to know all these things are nice and clean for yet another year ... woo hoo.

Still "tweaking" the table scape ... I think I like the wheel barrel standing up better with all the goodies inside. How about you? I also added some geraniums and moved my 48 star flag up to the front. The crazy crows are still there as well, at least for today ....

 

 

Red, White and Blue - We're Here for You!!!

Just in time to help celebrate the 4th of July!! All baskets are available in the Red, White and Blue stain. If you are interested in any of these products please contact me at baskets4anita@aol.com

Latest house guest!

Good Morning! In the past few years my husbands son, Joey comes to stay with us in the summer while he teaches summer school at Cal State Fullerton. This year we have an additional guest ... yep, meet Stinky. How he got this nick name I'll leave up to your imagination!

He reminds me of a Mule Deer! Very long legs and tall ears. He is in the back ivy on a hot pursuit of lizards. He stands very still and stays focused without moving - like a cat! I needed him to catch those pesky mice a month ago.

 

Here he is circling the swimming pool several times. His goal??? A drink if water. He has a fresh bowl of water but this looks like so much more interesting. What does he finally do? He goes to the steps and walks into the pool for drinks of water! I was rolling with laughter.

 

Why did Mr. Stinky come this year? Very sadly he is unwell. He has a form of cancer and according to the vet he has a few months left and is on medications to ease the pain. The way he trots around the yard you would never guess he has an illness.

 

Betsy ... she's not quite sure what this is. As with him, Stinky is a racing dog and he thinks Betsy is the prey! Oh lord, it's been interesting at our house! Pray for Stinky easy passing as pain free as possible.

Sewing 101 ...

This is how it all begins. You tag along with someone with a passion for fabrics. You stand around, shifting from foot to foot trying not to look too board. All around you are myriads of fabric colors and patterns, then suddenly you see something that you love, you want it, you ask yourself "can I possibly do this?" That was my friend Tanya a few days ago in Temecula. She was bit by the quilt bug!!

So today was sewing lesson 101 and she did an awesome job.

Lesson #1, cutting with a rotary cutter ... always tricky, always fun.

 

 Lesson #2 Pinning on the boarders and sewing ... a straight line!

 Lesson #3 - Ironing, steam or no steam the million dollar question.

All done! Now we're hitting the road to visit Susie, the long arm quilter! She is one happy girl and ready to make another one. I think a new quilter is born.