Blogger isn't working for me

Everything is back to normal now. I'll be posting later today or tomorrow. Got a fish fry hubs is dragging me to today! I love fish but can't eat anything fried or coated with anything during this diet. I'll probably eat baked salmon and cry at all the fish I'll not be able to eat. :-(

I'm not able to see any of my old posts on blogger and have had a hard time logging in for 2 days now. So, I'm still here, just can't do anything! Sorry. I'll be back when I figure out what's wrong. Anyone else having this problem? Connie

A Wonderful Week in Southern Caifornia

It's Sunday and we've had an exhaustive, wonderful weekend in San Diego. Let me tell you about it.

My son and daughter-in-law treated us to the weekend in San Diego. He and his family live near San Bernadino so it was a 2 hour drive down. When we lived here many years ago, the Pacific Coast Highway was the only way to get there. Now, there are freeways everywhere! We had a blast.

Saturday, we, our son, his wife and 3 boys—drove down and went to USMC Recruit Depot and to the post exchange for shopping. Son and his wife wouldn't let me or hubby spend a cent. Hubby and I were gifted with a free room, USMC merchandise from the post exchange (where only the high-end clothing, shoes, perfumes, cosmetics and purses are sold), designer perfumes, dinners, lunches, breakfasts, a day at the Hilton spa in downtown San Diego and massage (which was exquisite), the facial (which was exquisite) and some very pricey cosmetics at the Hilton Spa. The facial made me feel 10 years younger. My daughter-in-law is over 50 and has an amazingly beautiful, wrinkle-free face. I absolutely loved being pampered for a couple of hours. I'll remember the experience for a long time. I had to stop picking things up and admiring them or they'd pick it up and put it in the basket to purchase for us! I did spy a pair of Coach loafers and wouldn't let them see them so I could pay for them myself. They're darling, but I was getting too spoiled. It would be easy to get used to this life! :-) I even made our son raise the screens on his Mercedes to pretend we wouldn't be mobbed by any "celebrity seekers." LOL It was really a fun time. But truly, I miss my Idaho! I'm just a simple woman but I'm incredibly happy where I live now with my sweetheart.

I think the past 10 days we've cooked 2 meals at home. The rest we ate at restaurants the whole 10  days. What a treat to not have any of us tired out from cooking!! If I mentioned a restaurant, we went to that restaurant: Outback, Chilis, Olive Garden, Pacific Fish Co., whatever I wanted to eat, I got! The spa experience was as if we were being treated like royalty. Fantastic people being incredibly caring to us. We enjoyed the whole experience.  Both my kids are fantastic to us.

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I think this is an absolutely charming dining room. I especially love the chairs.

This one also.

Isn't this an amazing chandelier? I couldn't duplicate it if I wanted to.

Charming vignette in a garden.

A darling tiny screen house in a garden. Doesn't look too big but sure adds a lot of pizzazz to the yard.

This looks like a stone home in another country but I love the red roof with the light yellow front.

What a cute window treatment and chandelier for a vintage kitchen.

A beautiful tin tub of dried flowers, ribbon and tulle surrounding it.

Beautiful bedding and roses on top.

You know I'll always show you gorgeous bouquets of roses. Well, here are some.

I have some Christmas balls just like these.

One way to decorate an old galvanized bucket. This  homeowner outdid herself on this one!

An antique lace shop. I'll bet it would be fun shopping here.

And living in this old house is someone's dream I'm sure. ;-)

What a colorful living room. I'm not fond of orange but this is cute!

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Still in California

I now have over 11,300 images on my Pinterest with well over 8,700 followers so you know the images are beautiful. I can post them on there faster than on this blog, so go visit and follow if you'd like. You'll not be disappointed at all the images on there. Promise.
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We're in Southern California and will be for several more days. But yesterday we went to the local mall to have sized the watches that were given to us by our son for our 50th wedding anniversary two years ago. We couldn't find any jeweler near us that was qualified to do it! It has to be done by a certified Movada representative, including replacing the battery. If there isn't one available in our area, we'll have to send them out for even a battery change. The woman at the jewelry store said they are very good watches. Little did we know our son would spend so much money on watches for us! But he's a very good son to us and we're blessed to have him. We have incredibly caring children who treat us well.

Anyway, while at the store, I saw a beautiful ring and to make a long story very short, hubby bought it for me. It's an opal center surrounded with tiny diamonds and very gorgeous. Not having a light box for photography, this is the best I could do in the house and I'm not venturing out in this 100° to photograph anything! And I have to admit it looks beautiful on these ol' spotted hands. This is it:

We're heading for this season very soon. I love winter!!!

Simply more pix of the coming season.

I rarely ever see a decorated bottle I don't like and want to emulate. I love decorating and exhibiting them in my house.

While this looks like an upholstery and fabric store, this chair cover is adorable. I'd love to have them but too lazy to figure out how to make them. ;-)

I love white in my house but I truly could not live without color, especially pink. I'll always have color in my home.

These are similar to pizzelles, an Italian cookie I make, but not the shape of most pizzelles. I made some recently and my old pizzelle iron wasn't heating properly so had to go to Bed, Bath and Beyond to find one but still had to order it. It'll be there when I return home soon. My whole family loves pizzelles. This batch had coconut flavoring in them. Next time I'll use vanilla. The traditional recipe has anise, licorice flavoring, in them but I cannot stand the smell or taste of licorice so I use other flavors instead. Very simple to make. I read where one woman makes about 6,000 to 7,000 pizzelles during the Christmas holiday season for her friends. I think I'd start selling them if I had to make that many! That's a LOT and a very long amount of time to make them. They turn out crisp and keep for a very long time also.

See what you can do to an old candelabra that you were, perhaps, going to throw out. Marvelous!

One of my favorite fruits, but this year I've not been able to have any kind of fruit on this diet. Nothing, nada, and I'm drolling over this photo!

I love sweets, any kind. Pastries are probably my favorite. I love pies the best and then donuts and then...well, just anything sweet. LOL

Cherries lookin' good.

I'm not a quilter and have absolutely no desire to be. I don't decorate with the quilts I do have, but this is a very pretty vignette for this homeowner and her pink walls.

A gorgeous little tea set that just happens to coordinate with the chair.

I'll always love the pink and yellow in flowers.

A vintage vignette with a rustic urn similar to one on my front porch. I took blue-green paint and verdigris-ed them and they look beautiful.

Beautiful rose pillows.

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Counseling

Reminder about Pinterest:
There are over 11,200 photos in my Pinterest with over 8,600 followers so you know how gorgeous the images must be. Simply "eye candy" for you to see. If you want, hop on over to view them and become a follower if you like. It's entirely your choice of course, but I love seeing others enjoy them. I can put them on Pinterest much faster than showing them here.
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I had a woman one time as a counselor. It was through our Church and I was getting severely depressed as the result of a woman in our ward who just about drove me over the edge. She stalked me. Let me explain something first.

I was a really happy person and always have been. I almost always had a smile on my face. But as a lot of parents with teenagers, we sought out counseling with a man up in the Berkeley hills not far from us in California. He was fantastic and got us through the teenage years. We or the kids were in counseling about 3-4 times a week. It absolutely helped me enormously. I learned to cope and got a new perspective on dealing with issues and it definitely helped my kids. Hubby was my "balance" for all this.

Then we moved to Idaho in the early 90s and joined the LDS Church.

A woman who lived in our very small town drove me nuts. She always thought I was "something special" because of what I did in California. Truly, I wasn't and didn't act as though I was "something special."

It came to a head several years later and I told her to leave me alone. She was always wanting to be around me as she was a simple farm girl from Idaho and always wanted to be a "powerful" woman. That's enough of that though, so just let me say that she stalked me. And I once said to hubby and a few friends something I'll never say again: I don't understand how some people can/can't _____ fill in the blank here. I was then given that "trial" so to speak. I never, ever say those words in connection to anyone again because I can be assured of getting that "trial" and walking in their shoes. While it strengthens us, it isn't a pleasant experience.

Fast forward several years after being in Idaho. The woman in that ward drove me over the edge to seeking counseling again. I had a wonderful woman counselor in Boise and after a while we became friends. She then told me she couldn't act effectively in both. So I had to choose. I thought I was much better at handling things then and chose to become friends instead of having her counseling me. That worked out well. But I appreciate her honesty and her friendship. When we moved from that small town here in Idaho to a bigger one we lost touch, but I've thought of her over the years now and then and truly valued the honesty and friendship we had. I believe strongly in counseling for balance in life. She helped me learn much about myself and I've never, ever been embarrassed to tell others how much counseling has helped in my life and marriage. Plus I now try to put myself in other people's circumstances and try my best not to judge them. This isn't easy sometimes, but I don't want the trial of something I say about how I can't understand. I made the terrible mistake of saying, "I don't understand how women can be beaten down emotionally by a man and not get out of the horrible relationship." I understand it now. Trust me on this one. I never thought I—as a very strong, confident, happy women—could be beaten down by someone. I now understand a bit better how women can be subjugated by a man, only in my case it was a woman. I now have nothing to do with her. It's my choice and it's sad because I  actually did love her as a child of God. I'll sometimes think of her and the love God showed me to her.

Once I did service for her one day by going over to her house and sanding cupboards on saw horses in her garage in the dead of summer once to humble myself to her. I was dripping sweat and her hubby came out to see what was going on as their garage door was open and I simply arrived and started sanding the cupboard doors. He offered me a drink of water and I almost cried from that Christ-like attitude of his. I consider that one of the nicest things anyone had ever done: offer me a glass of water when I was absolutely parched in that 100° weather that day. I did all I could and left with a great appreciation for her but I still didn't want to be her "friend" because I knew it would cause me greater stress. She tried but I knew my limitations. I don't know much about her life now and I chose not to know. But this week got me to thinking back on this issue and I almost said to hubby the other day: I don't understand how.... and then shut my mouth to the rest of the thought. I'm not that stupid now! ;-)
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One of the most beautiful dining rooms I've ever seen.

A cheery vase of roses and peonies.

I could do without the vines on the top but otherwise I love the chandelier and dining room table and chairs.

This is a custom sink. I've seen some really gorgeous ones lately and will be showing more of what's available besides the standard white ones 99% of homeowners have in their baths and kitchens.

A lovely store in another country. Just makes you want to drop right in and shop around. Love the tin buckets they display.

This is a room designed by Charles Faudree, one of my favorite designers.

Lovely linens. See, you can have unique and easy-to-make cases for your pillows.

With the temperature here in Southern California in the high 90s today, I'm thinking this would be a wonderful drink to have. I'm fixing fettucine alfredo for my son's family tonight. He's cooking some rib-eye steaks to go along with it.

I love this room!! I could live in it. Love the furniture, lamps, rugs and the pillows.

You can tell immediately this is Greece with its white walls and gorgeous blue colors.

Another gorgeous vase of roses.

Little eggs handmade with some gorgeous fabrics and papers by some creative homeowner.

A gorgeous wreath made entirely of roses.

A cute vignette of pretty bottles filled with lotions and surrounded with orchids.

A cute little jar filled with pink marshmallows and a pretty jewel on the front.

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Donuts and Pastries

Since I'm depriving myself of my favorite things in the world at this time, I thought it would be an appropriate post since I can at least look at them and drool. I truly have not eaten any sweets in about 5-6 weeks now. I'm not really feeling a strong desire as the diet is first and foremost on my mind. 

My favorite things are pastries in the sweets department. I absolutely love coconut cream pie, apple pie, chocolate silk pie, chocolate covered donuts, cinnamon-sugar donuts, coconut donuts, cinnamon buns, pecan buns and glazed donuts. I could live on them, actually. But I'm being noble and good at the moment. I'll see tomorrow how much weight I've lost so far.

When I was pregnant with my daughter many years ago, we lived in Oceanside, California, in a small motel studio apartment for a month. I sat there watching television and walking to the local Von's store for donuts. I'd get a coconut, chocolate, and a cinnamon donut and walk back to the motel and eat them all. Next day, same thing. I was so bored until we finally got our USMC base housing but I've always loved those 3 donuts above all else. The love is still there but I don't indulge very often anymore at my age. ;-) Enjoy the visuals, girls!

Yummmmm......

Double yummmmm....

These look yummy also.

I think coconut ones are my favorite.

I've had cinnamon rolls made by a woman that were so sweet and gooey they actually gave me terrible heartburn and had to stop eating her rolls.

Apple and cherry pastries are high on my list.

The best glazed donuts I've ever eaten at Krispy Kreme, but only the glazed. The others are horrid by my standards and I won't buy them, just the glazed.

Yummmm...

Another yummmm....

I could also go for these in a big way.

And these little cookie bites.

I saw this on Google and thought how moist it looked, kind of caramel looking but I'd sure love to taste it.

The donut shop that did this one sure knows how to top chocolate on it!

These cinnamon rolls look great also

And these little mini-pastries look like they'd be wonderful.

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