And finally, where have I been the last two months?

The answer to that is mainly West Coast... Oregon, Washington, California and Nevada again. Oh and Phoenix too, not that being there is unusual for me but I may as well add it to the list.

I've been a bum, thinking only of myself and no one else, running around playing with friends and ignoring everything at home. It's been a way to relax, distract and give myself a chance to think. I've loved it and I've felt guilty but overall it was wonderful. And thank you dear, devoted David for being so understanding, smooch. I am blessed and I know it.

I started out with a trip to Oregon to visit my friend Laurel. I've known her since my son and her daughter were in first grade together. They are now 23 so it's been a while. One thing about Tucson, no one seems to stay for long. In the 20 years we've lived here, I've had seven good friends move away and Laurel was one. But like any good friend, the minute you reconnect, the time and distance disappear and it's like you never parted.

Laurel has a home in Oregon and one in Nevada. I also visited her in January, once again thinking only of myself and having a fabulous time. She mothers me, listens to me, pampers me and comforts me. She's like my husband but a better cook and doesn't work like he does so we can run around and do whatever we like.

This trip it was thrift stores! Goodwill, Savers, Salvation Army, Deseret Industries, and many little private charity thrift stores. I shipped home 6 boxes of stuff, good stuff I might add. Everyone is getting thrift store for Christmas this year.There's your warning, no complaints, no whining! My sister got a thrift store, specially-chosen-for-her item as a housewarming present. It's so her, so retro, so Brady Bunch, so...mushroomy? OK, you decide:

These came from Carson City, Nevada and are now on her stove for all to admire ;-) As I said, they are so HER.

I've never been to the Oregon coast so we hopped up to Seaside Oregon for a day and since the ocean is my favorite atmosphere I was in heaven. Big, broad, windy, chilly beaches...

After a bit of time in Oregon we drove to Nevada,


and did our usual rearranging furniture, decorating projects and I painted mirrors and all kinds of things black. I was picking black paint off my hands for days. Here's a before photo of one thrift store mirror, wish I had the "after" photo:


The idea here was to paint different shapes and sizes of mirrors black to hang on her dining room wall.

We hung out for 10 days and drove back to Oregon, spent 3 days in Portland and I then flew to Seattle and met up with my husband so we could visit our daughter pictured below with hubby at the Japanese Gardens in Seattle:


It was wonderful to see Maggie and her boyfriend and meet his parents. We happened to be there during mid-terms but still had fun seeing her life, friends and college life in Seattle. One of the highlights of the trip was looking outside our hotel window exactly a month to the day my mother died and seeing a rainbow:

If you have followed some of my recent posts you'll realize that for me it was an important sign that my mother made it "home".

We were back in Arizona for a week and then went to Catalina Island for our 25th anniversary.

Another two weeks and Nick arrived home, tired and dirty after spending the night in the Atlanta airport but it is wonderful to have him home. We've missed both our kids this past year.

And in a week, Maggie will be home for a week.
And that's the update from here, in a house with air conditioning kaput and an over 100 degree day. If I don't move around too suddenly I can stay cool. The a/c man can't get here soon enough tomorrow...

Long Overdue Update!

Christmas came and went, children came and went, I went and came back and stitched a little in between. The last 6 weeks have been a storm of emotions, happiness and sadness, full house and empty nest. Today is quiet and I have time to update here.


I had a wonderful experience a couple days ago on the 2nd anniversary of a good friend's death. One birthday, she had given me a small pitcher from England and I began finding them when I traveled and shopped. One from Mexico, another from Poland, you get the idea. Then I stopped finding them even though I purposely would search for them. The 2nd anniversary date, I was in Nevada with a friend and we came upon a clearance rack at a store and the small white pitcher pictured above was on sale for $1. When I looked at it closer, what I thought were little stars on the belly of the pitcher turned out to be X's, as in cross stitch X's and important in my mind since needlework is a love we shared. It wasn't until I bought the pitcher that I realized it was the 2nd anniversary of her death. I've changed and learned through the years and something I would have considered a coincidence years ago, is no longer a coincidence in my mind. Rest in Peace Anne, I miss you.



I received this Engish Cottage Sampler by Chessie and Me for my birthday last year and immediately started working on it. I was so tired of only stitching my own designs and made relatively good progress until Thanksgiving and the Christmas holiday seasons began. I just pulled it out again today and think I'll continue stitching it ASAP, the colors are gorgeous.




As mentioned above, I was visiting a good friend near Lake Tahoe and what was supposed to be a week long trip turned into a month due to various factors including a snowstorm. She taught me how to force bulbs so yesterday I planted four Paperwhite bulbs and can't wait for the roots to start growing around the marbles in the bowl.

It turned out to be an excellent idea to stay a month as I feel much better emotionally and physically than I did after Christmas when it got quiet around here again, my kids went back to college and I was sick with pneumonia. Now I feel ready to tackle new projects and get my life back on track. My intuitive daughter told me the other day that we are going through the same problem at the moment. How is that? She said she has had to find a new identity at college as her old identity from high school is gone. She is no longer the Japanese speaking, viola playing, black belt girl. Well, yes, the Japanese is still there as that is her major but she is one of many now and the viola is stored in our hall closet and her black belt is languishing until she finds a group that she feels comfortable working out with. As for me, I've devoted over 20 years of my life to raising kids and suddenly they are gone so I'm rummaging around in my mind, shuffling through ideas and trying to forge a new identity beyond motherhood. I'm still a work in progress.



And now to the good part, this is Nick on Christmas Eve. We were so happy to have him home from Thanksgiving until right after the New Year. He's funny, gentle and artistic and we couldn't ask for a more unique, creative son.




My daughter, Maggie, brought home her boyfriend Noel from college. He stayed with us a week until we put him back on the plane to Seattle Christmas afternoon. Maggie stayed on another week until she too had to return to college. We loved finally meeting Noel, he was all we imagined and hope to get to know him even better in the future and maybe stay in one place for a bit. We hit all the local attractions plus spent 2 nights in Mexico, not to mention Christmas. It was a whirlwind but a fun ride nonetheless. BTW, that's our oldest cat Snowflake in the photo, looking appropriately catlike and cranky.

I'm stitching an ornament for the 2010 JCS Christmas issue plus one for their preview Christmas issue. I'll get back to work now.

Update before Christmas

I feel like the I'm the person in the sled in the above postcard. I'm careening down the hill towards Christmas and it's been a fun ride this year, I just hope my sled doesn't overturn. Busy is not even the word to describe the past month and the next few weeks ahead.

Our son, Nick arrived home from Savannah at the end of his fall quarter in time for Thanksgiving which we spent in Mexico with my husband's sister,her husband and my mother-in-law. Here's my husband, David, fishing on Thanksgiving Day:

Maggie wasn't with us this year and spent her first Thanksgiving away from home in Seattle.After that nice peaceful Thanksgiving we arrived home to do a dedicated purging of clutter,excess junk,clothes and assorted you-name-its that always seem to get put aside "in case we need it someday". Well someday arrived and we didn't need any of it and probably 30 bags later, Goodwill was happy with us. The garbage men weren't. I have to say that even though cleaning is not high on my priority list, the results make me realize how worthwhile it is. It's like a new lease on life.

Maggie will be home in a week with her boyfriend,Noel,for winter break. He is also a Japanese major, like her, and we think they make for a really cute couple and are excited to meet him. We are planning another 2 night trip to Mexico and all the usual Tucson tourist attractions such as San Xavier Mission and a whirlwind tour of Maggie's childhood places (should take 30 minutes tops), preschool, grade school, high school, dance studio? 19 years worth in record time.

I was asked to design a piece for Mother's Day for Just Cross Stitch and I'm almost done stitching it. I was having a designing block and it was just the inspiration I needed to get going again. Now I have ideas for a few more things but they'll have to wait until after New Year's since I am devoting the rest of the month to family and kids. Having my children gone has been one of the hardest episodes in my life but also one of the happiest to see them blossom and grow.

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope you have a blessed New Year. Oh, thought you might enjoy a photo of the state park near our home.

~Good luck Nick~

Just wanted to say good luck to my son who has gone to Savannah to finish up his BFA as a transfer student at Savannah College of Art and Design. We are so proud of him but will miss him very much. He thinks he'll like the humidity after years of the Arizona "dry heat" but I think the next picture makes me wonder about that assertion, he looks a tad bit miserable,lol.





On another note, how would you like to have an historic lighthouse in your backyard? This is the front of the house, you can see the base of the lighthouse through the trees.


And look what you see going around to the back of the house. Those trees are in their backyard. Unfortunately, it is not a lighthouse open to the public and is surrounded by a fence on US Coast Guard property. This is Amelia Island in Florida and we stayed there a couple days for a little getaway. It's a lovely little place with an historic downtown.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday

I'm a little late but we were in Mexico for Thanksgiving, I guess that's a bit ironic but I can say I'm thankful to be able to go there.



Ranger portrays how we all felt after a nice Thanksgiving feast. Looking at him makes me want to take a nap right now.


And no post about Mexico is complete without the requisite photo of sunset over the ocean.


And Happy Birthday today (18th!) to my dear daughter Maggie, shown here with her brother who hates this photo, sorry Nick!


And finally, the photo of the eating of the meal. We celebrated with my husband's sister and her husband and their dog Ranger. It was a lovely, relaxing time with some of our favorite people. I hope everyone will have wonderful memories of their own Thanksgiving.

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

Actually, not me! That's DD. This is such a fun site. You upload a full face photo and it will find celebrities with similar features using face recognition software.

Cookbook Project

I'm not really sure what came over me to start this project other than my mother has dementia and it seemed like a nice way to preserve her memories. So I decided to put together a cookbook with about 2 dozen of her favorite recipes. I wanted it to have a vintage 50's feel and scoured the internet for '50's cookbook graphics. I think I was successful with the graphics but it was harder to find proper paper and so I just winged it. I scanned and printed many of her handwritten recipes and reprinted many old photos of her. Each of the books is different, though they have some of the same photos and also different photos in each. I personalized a bit for each recipient.

I've never done any scrapbooking and I was exhausted by the time I finished putting these together this morning. But they are off in the mail tomorrow to my brothers and sister plus I get one too. Sorry, photos were taken rather quickly and not very well. If I'd had more energy left I would have done better!

Nick's Deviant Art

My son is a digital/graphics art student and complains now and then that no one visits his Deviant Art page. I tell him with millions on that site, not everyone is going to find his. So here is a little plug for others to please go have a look at his artwork. It's unique! http://fezguy.deviantart.com/

My favorite is Crazed Writer Quitril because every doodle on the wall he did by hand.

Maggie's Yokohama Adventure

My 17-year old daughter Maggie just returned from a homestay/high school exchange to Yokohama, Japan. Last year she was in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka and she compares Tokyo to New York City and Yokohama to San Francisco. Here she is with her class on her last day there:



And a close up:


A shot of the empty classroom. High school students stay in the same classroom and the teachers will rotate to them vs. the opposite with the American system.


Her good-bye message to her class, don't ask me what it says, I can only read 3 of the words!


With her little "brothers" from her host family:


In Yokohama's Chinatown, which is the largest Chinatown in Japan:


more with classmates:


She was able to buy a summer kimono and attend a festival. Here she is trying to catch goldfish which I guess was not easy to do:


Photo of how her obi is tied so we can hopefully replicate it at home:


Some things are universal:


One of the things she loves about Japan is how they love "cute". She said these pigs are fish paste and very tasty:


Another example of "cute" with an everyday object:


The Yokohama Costco, just as overwhelming in any country:


One difference is there is kanji on the cakes: