The Gifted Line

In the early 1980s I fell in love with another man. His name was John Grossman. His photo is below. He's an artist who, along with his wife, created The Gifted Line of ephemera. At that time he lived in Sausalito, California, which was just north of us above San Francisco and a lovely place to visit. Very artsy and expensive area. Beautiful however. He is now about 80 years old and resides in Tucson, Arizona.

This is some wrapping paper I purchased over 25 years ago. I have one whole roll left but cannot bring myself to use it. It is pretty here but seen in person it is absolutely stunning. More photos of it are below. Trying to capture it on camera is a bit difficult but I did my best.

This is a note pad he had. His note pads were gorgeous.

There are even accordion files with beautiful paper on them.

Ephemera.

Another photo of that paper.

Photo albums.

Another view.

As with Thomas Kinkade, he had plates with gorgeous ephemera on them.

Mr. Grossman.

Journals with lovely papers.

More note pads.

Plus the most gorgeous of ephemera I've ever seen.

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Laundry Rooms 4

I read recently about New York hospitals locking up the baby formula from new moms. What?! Both of my kids were raised on baby formula as I couldn't breast feed. What a crazy world it's turning into.
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I got an email from a blogger recently about the quote I had at the bottom of one of my blog posts asking if it was my quote or someone else's. I told her I paraphrased it somewhat but that is truly how I live my life: By creating beauty and order where you live and work, you will be controlling the private hours of your life. It is what I believe, how I live my life and my philosophy about life. Yes, I certainly do live my life beautifully and wish others would do the same. I cannot control some of my thoughts but I can control how long they stay in my head. I can definitely control how I live in my home and how I think about living.
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Whatever happened to watermelon plugs? I know some of you will remember them. When we would go to a grocery store or buy a watermelon at a roadside stand, the seller would cut a triangular plug into it so we could taste it. Not anymore. Ya take yer chances now. I always wondered what they did with those melons we didn't select to buy.
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We eat at Jack In The Box every Monday night. It's our salad night there. When we walk in they know exactly what to make. But recently we walked in and had to tell them we were having their Bonus Jacks at two for a dollar. Threw them all off! Funny to watch them. So the next week they looked up and asked if it was back to the usual—salads. It's pretty bad when the local JITB knows us so well they don't normally have to ask what we want.
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Hubs had to help with a funeral today. Setting up chairs and tables for the bereaved family to have a luncheon. It reminded me of some of the catch phrases to friends who've lost family members. The polite response should be: I'm sorry for your loss. You should never say Bummer; at least he's out of his misery; or I had a brother-in-law that had the same disease. Show some class, people.
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Small, elegant and red!

Love everything about this laundry. Containers, folding table, high stool to sit while folding clothes, enough storage space and trinkets to make it lovely and homey.

This vintage ironing board is so cute with its flowered cover.

Drying rack for towers and socks. Small wire basket to hold dry clothes.

Something simple like old clothes pins in a wire basket along with linen fabrics to cheer up a small space.

Got everything in a very small space here needed for wash day.

Cute storage area for sewing and washing. Lots of cabinets and light.

I like this one a lot.

And it does sparkle! Chandelier, gorgeous blue color and tiles reminiscent of french decor.

This one kind of reminds me of being in the garden with the green color and lattice doors on the upper cabinets.

Small closet just big enough for this homeowner's laundry room. NO wasted space for her.

Another laundry reminiscent of a garden with flowers, pretty paint the color of outdoors, pretty arches in the doorways and flowers on the bench and countertop.

I would love something like this. I need extra folding space other than the top of the washer and dryer. I could probably put a table top on let on the other side of my laundry room.

Eye candy for the laundry room.

Pretty fabrics stuffed into cigar boxes. Not a laundry item but I thought you'd like it.

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Linking up with Mosaic Monday
and WOW.

Rambling Again 8/21/2012

I want to tell you about a book I read recently called Three Against Hitler. It's a very good book loaned to me by a friend. It's thought provoking and will make you cry though. You can find it here on Amazon if interested.
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Hubby wanted salad the other night with tuna on top. I didn't want that much so told him to make a tuna sandwich for me instead. (Pain killers have dulled my appetite significantly, but heaven forbid I should lose any weight!) It was the most delicious tuna salad sandwich he's ever made me. I don't know why but it just tasted so dang good to me. Here's an example of a salad he made me a couple of weeks ago. It was delicious also. He does delicious salads. I crumbled up some toasted Asiago/garlic baguettes into it also. Yummmmm.

Ooooh, I also told him he's losing kitchen cooking privileges until he cleans up after himself. Seriously.
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For those of you lusting after yachts, I saw a photo of the biggest yacht just built for some mega-millionaire, probably in the middle east somewhere. It's like a cruise ship! Huge. Bigger than 2 football fields if I'm remembering correctly, which is somewhat in question as I had to get back on pain killers after 3 days without them. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that to fill their gas tanks would cost $100,000. Plus they can't dock at just any port. See, the rich do have their problems. No way would I want to spend that much on gasoline even if I was rich.
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I'm a bit frugal on some things but extravagant on other things. For instance, I won't buy any meat that isn't Angus to bring home to cook. I'm not a big meat eater and not particularly fond of meat but I do love steaks. I even like the Angus burgers at Jack-In-The-Box, which they do superior to any other chain fast food restaurant. Grilled onions just tops it off as the best. Once you taste it, you won't go back. It's the best!
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I saw a woman recently that had on a T-shirt that could have provided shelter for  a VietNam family of eight. I sincerely do take pity on her as she's as much loved by God as I am, maybe even more as I'm such a rebellious woman sometimes. Very sad for her, however. And I truly mean that.
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A quaint cottage with just some unusual features I thought you'd like to see.

Main Street, America, house.

A perfect sun room or enclosed porch to daydream.

My next lamp redo will look similar to this. Beautiful! (Update:Actually, I created this post and decided several days later to redo the lamp that looks almost like this one. You can see it here. It's in the very first photo. I redid my Page My Home recently to make it look better. I used a template to make sure all the photos were evenly spaced. I don't think Blogger has yet fixed it to where we can do it correctly without using a template.)

Here it is.

Pink eye candy.

More pinks to drool over.

Lace and roses. Can it get much better than this? ;-)

Lazy afternoon in the shade, a respite from the sun and heat.

Somewhere in the world. I wonder where. But life continues even if it is on the top of a tall, narrow building. Life will continue.

Love the curtains billowing in the breeze. Colorful pinks and serene blues and whites. Gorgeous.

Daydream living in this old French home.

Cute setting for an afternoon tête-à-tête.

Gorgeous floor lamp and table lamp.

I like what the homeowner did with this paper hanging lamp. Quite easily done and what a statement it makes.

I'd love to have a chalkboard with this rose decal on it. She has some of the most gorgeous roses paintings I've seen. Just stunning.

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Trip to Ethan Allen to Look at Sofas.

 Feeling a bit chipper a few days ago, I asked hubby to take me to our local Ethan Allen shop. He did. When I first walked in their store, the most stunningly gorgeous sofa was sitting right in front. It was the Chadwick (seen below in photos 7, 8 and 9) in a beautiful fabric. It took my breath away. I've asked the designer to take a photo of that setting so I could show it to you. 

This is my sofa now. It's 17 years old and I'm due for a new one. The pillows on it now aren't the regular pillows but since my surgery I've had them on because they're feathers and nice and soft for my head and feet to lay on. Corbett is its name but it's been discontinued years ago. This looks about like it did when new though. I take excellent care of my furnishings and have it treated with a stain repellent every five or so years. Clean and nice. Ready for my granddaughter's house when she finds one.

There are 5 sofas I'm looking at. I've narrowed it down to these sofas but I'm pretty sure it'll be the Marlowe one down a couple from here. I gave the designer my five favorites and told her to put the same fabric I looked at in the store on all five on their website where they can do it and send me the photos of each to compare. I doubt that this will be the final fabric. It actually shows darker here than when actually seen. I don't want something very dark. I'll make the final fabric selection next time we go in to the store. Here they are.
This is the Paris sofa.

Savoy sofa.
I liked this one also, but it's not going to be my final selection.

Marlowe.
This is my final selection. Longer than the old sofa, which was 92". This one is 99" and hubs wanted it bigger rather than smaller. You know men! ;-)

This is a tight back and it wasn't comfortable with my tight-muscled back. So it won't be my final selection either.
Montgomery sofa

Marlowe in another fabric. I want to see this fabric in person before I decided. Probably not what I'll select but I never know until I see the fabric in person and the colors in natural light. Very Pretty though.

This was the stunning sofa in the entry, but it was done in a fabric similar to the top three, but it was a gold/yellowish. It drew my breath away when I saw it. Stunningly gorgeous! It has nail trim and the back and arms are tufted with buttons. The back scrolls over a bit. That would make it stand out a bit far from our window behind it. But the greatest consideration is that it was stiffer than the cushioned sofas.

Chadwick sofa

Well, to my delight, the designer took this photo and emailed it to me after I'd completed this post. I didn't want to change the post so I just added these photos of it. This is the sofa in the entry of Ethan Allen the day I walked in.

I cannot tell you how beautiful it is in person. No photo ever does justice to the actual things we're photographing!

I also played around with the fabrics on the sofa I'm wanting—the Marlowe. This is pretty but I'm wanting something less floral. I'll know it when I find it.

This is a pretty paisley print on the sofa.

Also, I pulled up this one in pink stripe fabric just for fun. I'm not getting another pink stripe fabric for the living room. But I like it. I think it's darling, but not as formal as I want.

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I love this small outdoor patio with the darling birdhouse. I have no clue where it is but it's beautiful, especially with all the patio lights running along the fence.

A quaint pathway between 2 houses in a small village. Perhaps in the UK somewhere.

If only all entrances could be this welcoming with petunias, it would be a much nicer place to visit.

Lovin' these refurbished shoes!

Wishing I could have something like this in our backyard.

A beautiful bedroom for your little princess. The bed is in that Cinderella coach. I'm wondering if this is a decorator's showcase house room.

I like the way this homeowner decorated her lamp and hamper with the same beautiful roses fabric. Sweet!

The mirror reflects the actual home and what a sweet way to decorate a fence.

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Another tidbit from the blog post on U.S. Presidents I posted here.
Once while reprimanding his child for school grades, one Vice-President said, "What do you want to end up like—one of these?", while sweeping his arm to indicate the SS agents. So let's hear it for the SS agents! I think those guys are wonderful to protect a man for whom they had absolutely no respect. My brother-in-law is a retired FBI agent so I know what these people go through. They should be applauded for their heroism and non-judgmental attitude.
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Linking to WOW.