It's A Beautiful Day ....

My mom and dad came to California in November 1952 and never looked back. They both grew up in Southern Ohio living through harsh snowy, cold winters and sticky miserable humid summers. My dad spent 4 years in the Army and "mustered" out in So. California. He stayed in the state for several months before returning home to marry my mom. After explaining to her that he had no plans of returning to Ohio she agreed and was eager to leave her childhood home. And that they both did. They came to the sunshine state and never left.

After watching the US suffer through more then one polar vortex, piles of snow and icy highways I was grateful mom and dad made the decision they did all those years ago! 

My step son arrived Friday from Virgina to spend his spring break. The first thing he said was "it feels good to be warm, it's been a miserable winter in Virginia." Today, in 80 + degree weather and beautiful clear skies I drove east to present an Origami Owl jewelry bar. It's a beautiful day to be alive I told myself, glad I'm not in Virginia!

The first guest to arrive at the party was Romeo ... yep, that's right I said Romeo! Isn't he just adorable??

He was absolutely everywhere. A favorite spot was under the table cloth batting at my toes. But  like all good things it came to an end. His mommy locked him up in another room before he made a big mess! Got to love those snappy eyes!

 All set up and ready to go! We had a lovely day selecting charms, chains and lockets. Chatting and munching on farm fresh strawberries!

It's a Wonderful Day!

Again, I was up at early thirty and busy getting the final details done for my Longaberger Open House. I made a yummy strawberry salsa, chicken salad sandwiches, Lemon cookies and Kale/Quiona salad. Chased the vacuum cleaner around the house one more time and finished pricing my cash and carry just in time for the gals to arrive. 

So many of my favorite foods .... Garlic Hummus with multi-grain chips oh so delish!!

 Chicken Sandwiches on potato rolls ... so soft!

 

 My final walk through pricing the cash and carry ...

 

Quilts, Longaberger Sweaters, cross stitch prints and misc. liners ...

Christmas baskets, pottery, ornaments and a lot of Santa's!

Ho Ho Ho Santa basket fillers!

A little American collection ....

It was a wonderful day with wonderful friends and customers!

Longaberger and Spring .....

Day light savings is just a day away and Spring will shortly follow! With Spring comes the new Longaberger Spring/Summer 2014 Wish List! Woo Hoo! Tomorrow I will be welcoming my customers into my home to celebrate my Spring Open House and introduce Longaberger's new product line. The older I get it seems the longer it takes for me to get set up for these events! That being said I have spent the last two days getting ready! Holy Moly, with the cleaning, cooking, pricing and decorating this ole girl is pooped!

I love our new Easter Bunnies! This one is the large Hostess bunny. What is so awesome about this bunny is it comes apart in two pieces and will store flat! Now that's a smart bunny.

A basket full of Thank You gifts ...

The ants go marching one by one .....

Two pottery colors have returned ... Tomato Red and Eggplant!

Another ant stealing a cherry!

LOVE this basket for entertaining! It holds it all ... plates, napkins, plastic ware ... nice and tidy!

Tomorrow morning I'll be up bright and early to finish prepping the food, giving my house it's final spit and polish so it shines like to top of the Chrysler building!

Come join me for a wonderful afternoon!

Neither Rain, Nor Sleet or .......

Or howling winds can keep a quilter away from her destined retreat. California finally received the much anticipated and needed rain on the exact day I was to head south for a quilting retreat. I had loaded my car up the day before to avoid the hassle of doing it in the midst of a storm. By 9:30 am Friday morning I was ready to go and headed out into the pouring rain. In addition to all the rain we were also blessed with an abundant amount of wind. Between my home in Fullerton and the Tamcula retreat center I went through standing water on the freeways (always fun) mud sliding off the hills and onto to the roadway, four car accidents, with one large truck resting on top of a K-rail in the center of the freeway! This was just the travel fun, once I arrived at my destination I had to unpack my car in the pounding and blowing rain! After several trips in and out I was soaked to the core and looked like a drowned rat! Yes, quilters are NUTS!

I was just one of 19 crazy women battling the elements to get here. I staying in at meal time and this was a perfect time to get a picture of our work space.  Love coming to the Temecula Retreat Center, the rooms are large, the food was fabulous and the lodging is warm and cozy. What more does a girl need? Oh yes, good friends!

Here is the retreat co-oridinator Rita. Being that we are so close to Easter I felt it was important for Rita to have some bunny ears!

 

 

 Rita selected a quilt project for us to do as a group ...

a small scrappy table topper properly named "Simply Charming" Using only Charm Packs and some border pieces we each created these ....

These were the first four to be completed .... We were given the materials prior to arriving with cutting instructions and once we arrived we received the piecing directions. If you look closely you will notice they are each a little bit different. ....

Finally got mine together, that scrappy border caused me grief, but with the help of the team I was able to get the darned thing on!

Don't look to closely, I don't want you to see the flaws! My hubby Joe gave me this sweatshirt for Christmas ... "Keep Calm and Quilt On" Perfect sentiment for a rainy weekend don't you think?

 We were treated to a weekend of surprises after our meals. A cute box filled with an initial rubber stamp and a pewter charm ... a zippered bag holding a charm dangle to attach to our scissors (love this too) one afternoon we received a fizzy pick me up ...

Mine was Dang! A red creme soda, my husband will love this! Along with a box of vintage candies. Rita also made each of us a fabric name plate for the back of our finished quilt and what does every quilter need before she finishes up?? A lint roller!! Yep, we are always covered in threads both large and small! She made sure we didn't go home with any evidence on our clothes!

 Thank you Rita and Penny, the retreat was awesome and you are both amazing friends!

Bridal Shower #2!!

It was a glorious day in Newport Beach for a bridal shower. Tiffanys brides maids came together and hosted such a lovely afternoon showering the bride with food, Tiffatini's (so yummy) and gifts.

Tiffany's long time college friend Jean hosted to shower at her newly built home in Newport. Jean's profession as a property developer really shined as she shared with us her new home. The design is Classic Industrial Chic. Complete with one of a kind lighting fixtures throughout the house rough hewn hardwood flooring, soapstone counter tops open walls throughout allowing the outdoors to come in!

The living room ... the doors to the right open up exposing the living space to the front patio ...

Another shot from the living room through the open doors out to the courtyard in the center of the property. The patio cover above are bedrooms ...

This shot is from the courtyard patio looking in to the living room. The set of doors to the left also open just as the doors do that can be seen all the way through the living room ...

The home is laid out in a U shape with the court yard in the center of the U.

The bar is inside with a wall of double doors opening to the patio ... Fresh Tiffitini's and Lemonade were ready and waiting for our arrival ...

The kitchen ... this is a cooks dream! Double ovens, Viking 8 burner stove, beautiful farm style sink and covered in soap stone counter tops. The chandelier light covers are vintage electrical insulators. So cool!

FOOD!! So beautifully presented!

These cupcakes were divine ... fresh lemon and decadent chocolate, my favorites!

Colorful gifts .....

A happy bride ....

This pillow says it all ...

A negligee in her favorite color!

And of course a Tiffany blue gown .... So pretty!

 The final gift she opened was so cleaver. Erika, one of her "maids" filled a basket with bottles of wine to commemorate the couples firsts ... i.e., first Christmas, Reindeer wine with bright red panties tied to the bottle ... first Valentine's day, first baby was a bottle of sparkling cider with fuller brief panties - hehe. My favorite was first fight ...

A basketful of firsts ... So darn cute!

This was awesome .... a bottle of Angry Orchard Champagne with a black sexy garter belt wrapped around the bottle! Oh my, maybe to much for this mom's viewing!

Some of her bridesmaids ... Lindy came down from Sacramento for the big party.

Jean, the home owner and hostess with the mostess. You can't tell but she is 7 1/2 months pregnant!

Erika, the creator of the "Firsts" basket ...

Sara aka Petey came in from Hermosa Beach and of course the bride!




Eirka was in charge of the rehearsal bouquet!

Auntie Tanya and Me!! Enjoying a Strawberry Tiffitini!

It was such a wonderful day, thank you ladies for loving my daughter as you do!!

Everything is Awesome ...

Last weekend we celebrated our last and final Christmas for 2013 .... yes, yes I know it's 2014 but we just got together with my son and his family to celebrate the season.

They all arrived on Friday night so we gathered together Saturday afternoon. Here are a few pics ...

9 year old Austin and a crazy ski cap ...

Karlee has a new sparkly top ... She loves sparkles!

Mom Lacey with her Tarina Tarentino jeweled earrings and bracelet ....

The girls with their French Bull dog brush and compact ... We love our bull dogs!

This is my lovely foot modeling Alexia's new booties!

 Austin is an avid Lego fan, so he and his sister

Karlee and I headed off to see the "Lego Movie." It was awesome ... both children and adults will love what this movie has to say!

After the movie was over we headed to Toys R Us so Austin could pick out his Christmas gifts from grandma. Yep, you got it, he picked out some of the character's from the movie.

Meet the star of the movie - Emmit the master builder complete with his instruction manual ... so very important for every master builder!! All those peeps behind Emmit are a small group in the cast of characters this movie offers.

This happy fella is the pirate metal beard. Check out the skull and cross wrenches! They spare no expense to details. You need to see the movie to understand the story of this pitiful pirate!

And finally the Ice Cream truck aka rocket!

 Thank you for sharing my family Christmas! Now load up your car and go see an "AWESOME" Lego movie!