Mark and Katie

 
Yesterday I attended the bridal shower for my future daughter-in-law Katie Winter. The picture above is Katie and our son Mark. They are such a beautiful couple and we are really so happy for them!

I brought Mark's baby book and everyone enjoyed looking at it. I had not opened that book in probably 15 years or more and I had about as much fun as everyone else, looking at everything. I certainly logged and recorded just about everything that he did as a baby and toddler. I even amazed myself. But the births of Mark and Audrey were so very special to both of us and we enjoyed every moment that we had with them as they grew up.

But now it's on to other adventures as Mark is married and he and Katie start their lives together. God bless them both and we are all looking forward to much happiness for all of us in the years ahead!

Spring Break is Over

Just back from Los Osos and Morro Bay having spent a wonderful, incredible week enjoying the Central Coast. Farmer's Markets (Morro Bay and Los Osos), crocheting (finished an afghan and started another one), reading (I finished a Victorian mystery by Anne Perry (Bedford Square) and finished "Just Kids" by Patti Smith), gardening, cooking (love to make special meals while we are there). Salads every night, seafood, fish and chips at Giovanni's in Morro Bay, hamburgers at Sylvester's in Los Osos, sleeping until 9:00 (a real luxury), walks in the evening, a trip to Montana de Oro where we walked the dunes and saw some beautiful surf and just enjoying everything about it. The weather this time was heavenly - most days it was actually sunny and only one day of some rain in the morning. We did hit a hailstorm in San Luis Obispo though - I was worried about the baby Corvette, but it came through just fine.

Bummer though! I went to download my pictures and I thought that it was taking too much time on one photo, so I cancelled the operation. Well, not only did it cancel the operation, it wiped my memory card clean! So all I have left are a few pictures of our day in Morro Bay - sea otters and some very aggressive seagulls. My beautiful pictures of the raging surf at Spooner's Cove in Montana de Oro State Park have gone to computer heaven. Oh well - nothing I can do about it now. So here is one of the best pictures - the Rock at Morro Bay. This picture was taken from the Morro Bay State Campground. There is a beautiful little inlet there where I have taken some great pictures.

Back to work tomorrow...just 80 days left. I can do this!!!!!

I Love Historic Costume!

Well, here we go - one of my great loves and weaknesses! Historic costume - we call it "costume" but the people who wore these clothes looked at them just like we regard our clothes today - something that they wore everyday.

The LA County Museum of Art on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles just closed an absolutely wonderful exhibition of historical dress ranging from 1715 to 1911, called "Fashioning Fashion." Apart from the gorgeous clothes, the purpose of the exhibit was to show the evolution of various types of clothes construction, tailoring, cut and development of fashion. The most amazing thing about this exhibit is that this collection is just part of a 1000 piece collection purchased as a lot from a collector in Europe. The items were in pristine condition and it was utterly amazing to me HOW these clothes were preserved in such a perfect state. (Before the advent of archival preservation methods - surviving wars, revolutions, insects, mold and just the ravages of time to contend with). Absolutely amazing.

Of course, I discovered this exhibit very late and Dan and I attended it on its final day. I would heartily recommend it but it has closed. The only way that you can get a glimpse of these treasures is to purchase the exhibition catalog - available from Amazon here

I dragged Dan along and he was very patient and did find many of the items interesting in spite of the subject. The Baroque period panierres absolutely astonished him. He kept saying that he could not believe how anyone could manage to walk in those things.

I've posted a few of my favorites. The 1860 day dress in pale blue was a printed fabric - first the flowers were printed on the blue almost water-color base fabric and then there was a roller print applied with the butterfly motifs. Perfectly positioned to give the three dimensional illusion of the butterflies alighting on the flowers. Exquisite.

My second favorite was the 1820 pale beige evening gown with the silk corded appliques around the hem of the dress. The same satin cording also extended over the hands. What a dress!

Another of my favorites - the 1780 bright crewel dress all hand embroidered with the series of perky hunter green bows descending down the bodice front.

Without comment - the thigh-high lace-up black boots. Not too much new under the sun.....Enough said - from the turn of the last century. Look at that heel - could be on a boot today!

Don't want to leave out the men. My favorite - the 1810 "Jane Austen" gentleman's short coat with crepe de chine pants, walking stick and of course, the beaver top hat. Elegant beyond belief - a young man in this outfit would have cut quite a figure!

And of course the hand-made lace, the hand beading, the hand embroidering with gold and silver thread. One look at all this opulence and its easy to see why there was a revolution in France. A lace-maker's days were numbered - many went blind as young women, having made this intricate lace and embroidery from the time they were children.

I could go on and on and on...suffice it to say it was an incredible afternoon, topped off with a visit to the Petersen Automotive Museum across the street (Dan's museum) and dinner and the mariachi show at La Fonda down the street. It was a great afternoon!

Les Fleurs Spring Tea

Just got home from our annual fundraiser - the Les Fleurs Spring Tea. We are an auxiliary of the Assistance League of Pomona Valley. This is our annual major fundraiser to raise money for our philanthropies (Cubs for Kids and Assault Survivor Kits for Project Sister) and the funding support that we give to the League's Dental Center.

I always make an afghan which goes into the Silent Auction. I was so thrilled because this year the afghan made more money than ever! $90.00!!!! The highest that my afghans have ever made was $70.00. So I am more than thrilled. Above is a picture of the lovely lady who got the afghan. She said that she is going to give it to a friend of hers. Luck lady! Thank you SO much for your most generous donation!

It was fun to have Audrey join me for the tea. We sat with a friend of ours and her two granddaughters. They were so cute - one of them was our waitress and they also sold some very cute pens for the Susan Komen Foundation. I think that they raised quite a nice bit of money!

The food was delicious - four different kinds of sandwiches, fruit compote, scones with lemon curd, jam and cream. And a dessert tray of mints, pecan tassies and and lemon squares. And several different varieties of tea - of course!

Our bake sale made over $500.00! This too was better than we have ever done. I made lemon squares and half of them were gone before the tea - the ladies bought them. At the end, nothing was left. I bought some scones, biscotti and jam. That was enough - trying to cut back a bit. It was fun working with my friends, Audrey, Sue and Claudia on the bake sale.

The other picture above is the opportunity basket that several ladies and I put together for the tea. One of our Les Fleurs ladies won the basket. I loved helping find the items for the basket (with Claudia). I enjoy combing the stores for the goodies to put into it. We had the theme of "Scrapbooking Happiness."

All in all, a very successful day - with a great turnout - 75 people in spite of the rain (first day of Spring?).

 
Lovin' this picture of Dan and his friend Kenny Rickett. It was sent to us by Dan's childhood friend (and Kenny's sister) Teresa. She is going through some old photo albums and sent us some really great pictues. It was taken in 1967 or 1968 at Ensenada, Mexico. They were diving for abalone and lobsters. These were the days when you could get huge lobsters and abalone. Dan and I used to dive off Catalina and we would bring home 10-inch abalone and lots of them too. Dan would slice the abalone, dip it in a scrambled egg and saltine crumbs and fry it up. Wow - did that taste good! That and a salad and a glass of wine and you are set.

We were in Pismo Beach in January celebrating our wedding anniversary and went to dinner at a wonderful restaurant there- the Cracked Crab. I saw abalone on the appetizer menu and being very excited to see it, ordered it. What came was about a 3-4 inch shell with a tiny bit of abalone. It cost $14.00! Wow - was I disappointed - I guess that the huge abalones are long gone - we won't see those again.

There is an abalone farm further up the coast and the waitress said that their abalone comes from them. I guess it takes a very long time for the abalone to grow---maybe those we enjoyed in the 60's were decades old!

I love this picture of Dan and Kenny. They look so cute and YOUNG!

Our Kitties

Just enjoying our beautiful Southern California weather on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I did some house cleaning this afternoon--took 10 bags of clothes to Goodwill! (And more to come...). Trying to clean out and downsize a little bit in preparation for retirement.

Took our really old kitty Milo (the white one on the left) to the vet last week. The doctor thinks that he has some sort of upper respiratory infection, so we have to give him meds every day for 10 days. The really fun part are the drops up the nose. In reality, he is a very mellow cat and doesn't protest that too much. Kind of surprising...I don't enjoy nose drops...can't imagine a cat would!

Our other kitty Cleo (the tabby on the right) is quite a unique animal. She is about a year younger than Milo and they have lived together since they were kittens. You would think that by now they would get along. But no...they don't. Milo is very laid back but Cleo will hiss and spit at him if he gets anywhere near her. Usually Milo just takes it, but sometimes he gets sick of it and puts her in her place. Occasionally we'll come home and there will be cat hair on the carpet - telling me that there has been some sort of disagreement while we have been away.

Milo was a feral kitten and was rescued by a good friend of mine. We adopted him in 1995 when he was about 10 months old. My friend had hand-tamed him and he has been a very sweet kitty ever since. Mark found Cleo on thestreet - I guess someone had just dumped her. He brought her home and she has been with us ever since. That was in 1996. All in all, we do enjoy them. I call them my "elderly cats."

Anniversary Dinner

On our anniversary - February 16th we had dinner at Charlie's Italian Bistro in La Verne, CA, which is owned and operated by Tatiana Leiva and her family. It is such a warm and inviting place and I must say that I am a bit prejudiced because our beautiful daughter Audrey works there too! But really - the food is quite good - we have been going here for many years even before Tatiana bought the place.

Anyway, we walked in and there was a booth reserved for us with greetings from our beautiful Audrey. We settled in and I had the Chicken Marsala and Dan had the Clam Fettucini. We shared a bottle of delicious light Italian Pinot Gris and also a house salad. The dinner was topped off with a real treat - Charlie's tirimasu - complete with chocolate hearts.

Dinner by candlelight - served by our gorgeous daughter and celebrating 37 years of "marital bliss" as Dan would say and 40 years of our first meeting (on a blind date no less!). The evening was very special for all those reasons and many more.

And must include a picture of the "love of my life" my special husband Dan. (GOT to get him to smile more!!!!). He doesn't look too happy here, but trust me - he is!