Phone Messages That Can Turn You Nuts!

My granddaughter and I are more alike than my daughter and I are. Our messages on the phone are very short. Mine: "This is 555-5555, leave a message", repeated fast. Mandy's is "This is Axxxxx and Ixxxx. Leave a message." Short, fast and sweet. Hubs and our daughter go slow and give them who they are and on and on and on and on. Hubs also sounds like he's in a tiled bathroom. Daughter tells them if they're a solicitor, don't even bother leaving a message because it won't be returned. I have no patience with sales, soliciting or people I really don't want to talk to.


I also leave a quick message on a phone message machine. Hi, it's Connie, call me. That's it. I don't like wasting time if the person isn't home and a long message is just ridiculous to leave on a phone. Hubs has an acquaintance who leaves 5-7 minute messages. Unbelievable. A message doesn't have to be long.
*
 
While I love the color, I doubt I'd paint my house this color but I'd definitely paint a shed out back pink.

Lovely and relaxing front yard.

Cute way to have eye candy in your kitchen and store your cupcake liners.

WANT!! Or should say I want my porch to look like this...

or this.

Back patio could look like this.

Lay down and take an afternoon nap in this tranquil setting.

Tents can be beautiful in pink, too!

Don't you just love these little caravans they use in Europe? Our RVs are beautiful but they don't have the sweet ambiance these have.

One of my favorite because of the pink and yellow—my favorite color combination.

~*~
Photos courtesy of tumblr, pinterest and google images.

Connie Talk 5/21/2012

When we moved to Idaho, it was a bit of a culture shock. City vs. small town. We even had friends who'd ship in S.F. sourdough bread to us in big boxes because it wasn't available here yet. I have to admit I wasn't ready for it. So several years later, we moved to a larger town with a much larger population. I'm. Glad. We. Did!

It took a lot of getting used to. For instance, a woman once was talking about a vig net. I had no clue what she was talking about until she pointed out the word. She meant vignette, pronounced vinyet. But I graciously corrected her, telling her the word was french.

Then there is the word bathe, pronounced with a long A like bayth, and bath. The people who were new to us would say, "I'm going to bath the baby." I'd never heard that before. It's always been bathe (with a long a). In our speech it was always bathe the baby and taking a bath (like bathroom). Took some getting used to, but I wouldn't correct a person unless I knew them well and was alone with them to prevent them from becoming embarrassed.

Okay, San Francisco area is a lot different from rural Idaho and sometimes we'd see people who were too tacky for even a monster truck rally. Come to think of it, it's the norm today in most parts of the world. I'd rarely shopped at KMart up to that point in my life and the first year in that small town we Christmas-shopped at, yep, you got it right, KMart, because it was the only big store in the area. I was almost embarrassed to tell my kids. I'd never in my life been in a WalMart until one came to another town close to that small town and we'd go there instead of KMart. I began to love WM then and still do. I don't buy clothes there but I do buy just about everything in the way of food except for their meat. I don't like their meat at all. I like angus beef and buy it almost exclusively. I don't buy WM brand items as a rule as I'm very picky about our food. But I can buy the name brands much cheaper than any store around here.
*


I love doing silk embroidery. I don't do it very much anymore but this little embroidery is beautiful.

I like this idea. I'd do it in pink and white if I did it though.

What a quick, easy, clever and cheap idea for a patio sofa. Cute!

Just goes to show you that rustic can also be romantic. I love this.

This is also a favorite room of mine. Pink always wins with me, along with a gorgeous window.

By now you should know I pretty much only post photos of room I love. Not always, but mostly. This is one I love. It's simply elegant to me.

Leather chairs, wood floors, french doors, ambiance, beautiful surroundings and furniture will always draw my attention.

I wouldn't even share this little sofa with Love Bunny. It would be mine!

You could make these for your bar stools. Darling.

An area I would love to duplicate if Love Bunny wasn't so cheap!

Beautiful pink French chairs.

*

I'm not the richest person in the richest city in the richest country on the face of the globe in the history of mankind. But tomorrow is another day. I am, however, richly blessed. ;-)

~*~

Photos courtesy of tumblr and pinterest.

Sailing on the San Francisco Bay

I’m not fond of sports at all. When we had a television and watched television, we—or I should say hubs—watched football once a week. I could never understand the game and was always asking questions. But it really didn't interest me. He isn’t into sports either although he pumps iron and walks the treadmill three times a week. (Remember, he’s a retired Marine and keeps in shape.) But I just am not into watching any kind of sport. Except sailing. I could watch it if we had a television. I absolutely love sailing.

When hubs and I lived in California, I belonged to a yacht club where I took sailing lessons. It was the thrill of a lifetime. I'm only qualified to captain a 25' boat though. But it got me hooked on sailing. We don't have a sailboat, never did, just rented them when I wanted to sail.

Two days stand out vividly in my mind however.

I wanted to take a friend of mine sailing once and she agreed. It was just the two of us and she wasn't a sailor but as I kept to an estuary in the San Francisco Bay I felt safe. The winds in SF are treacherous, let me tell you. You'd be warned to wear a coat even in July or August there.

Anyway, my friend was red-headed and fair. I warned her that day to put on sunscreen but she said she knew her limit so I didn't nag. But I know the water.

We sailed up the estuary and I had things under control until we decided to stop at a marina restaurant for lunch. The wind caught me and we were coming in too fast so I shouted a warning to some men on the dock and they helped me a bit. We laughed and I was humbled, but not enough that I was too proud to ask for help.

Also, needless to say, she suffered a severe sunburn that day. As I said, I warned her the sun and its reflection was worse on the water.

The other day that I'll never forget is when I took hubs, my daughter and my granddaughter out for a sail. Again, sticking to the estuary because of my precious cargo, we planned on sailing up the estuary for a lunch at a marina restaurant. Since my granddaughter was only about 3 years old, I wanted to put a rope around her just in case she went over the side and I wasn't able to come around in time. She absolutely wore a lifesaver. But when we tried to tie the rope around her she had a fit. No way was she going to let us put it around her. I let it pass but told hubs and daughter to watch her very, very carefully and they did. Neither one of them—hubs or daughter—had ever sailed so I was very nervous but I showed them what to do when I gave certain orders to them and to do exactly as I said. They did it well. It's amazing we're all alive today! I enjoyed it but I could tell Love Bunny was very nervous since I was a pretty new sailor.

We don't own a boat and there isn't much water near us to sail anyway. But I thought I'd share a few boats that I think are gorgeous.

If I could sail on this I'd be in heaven.

I love that sail in red and white stripes.

I was never this adventurous in sailing however. Actually, I'm not fond of being in the ocean. I may tell the story why in another blog post.

I. Absolutely. Love. This. Room!

Isn't this settee adorable? Squeeeeal.

This looks like it's an entry to a side or back yard.

See what you can do with an old globe you have stuck back somewhere? Make it into an adorable lamp for a study or a boy's room.

This is a room by one of my favorite decorators, Charles Faudree. I've seen his decor in books, magazines and on line and he's very much a French decor decorator.

Time for eye candy here. Pretty papers stacked in a pretty pink bucket.

I wish these were still available. Aren't they adorable? I'd love to know where to buy them if they are. I think they're very glamorous and remind me of the 1940s and 1950s when things were much more glamorous than today. It all went down hill with the 1960s and the hippie movement. Sad.

A cute little private area to have a secluded lunch.

I don't care for orange but this is more a cantaloupe color. Very pretty.

A sweet tiny dollhouse or cottage.

More eye candy for you to enjoy.

Now, while this is adorable, I can't see it in many homes though.

My kinds of draperies, if they were in pink of course.

Can you believe this sofa? Wild, but beautiful.

 I like this room but I'm not sure I'd be comfortable in all this luxury. I'm really a simple gal.

~*~
Photos courtesy of pinterest and tumblr.

Organized Closets and Pretty Rooms

Update on the new toilet:
It works wonderfully! It stays so clean I haven't had to clean it. Still looks like no one has used it at all. Sparkling! I wonder if I'll ever have to clean it. Hmmmm.
*

Love Bunny and I had a pretty big closet in our house in California as we had a second story addition put on several years after we bought it. There were several homes in our neighborhood that had second stories but we went with a very innovative contractor when we decided to do ours.

All of the additions we had seen in the neighborhood had gone through a part of their dining room or through the garage by adding a flight of stairs. Thus, this took some space from their dining room or two-car garage and it looked horrible as it didn't look particularly integrated into the house. We needed all the space we could get in our garage because we park our cars in the garage. Always have and always will. That's what garages are for—cars. I have known and know people today who have never been able to park their cars in the garage because they use it for storage. Hubs and I don't adhere to that philosophy. If you have that much stuff, then you need to have a garage sale, give it to thrift stores or throw it out!

Anyway, our second story contained a huge train room about 16' x 14' and a master bedroom and bath for us. We had a closet that was about 14' x 8' and loved it. (At this point in my life, I was a clothes horse and was spending about $8,000-$10,000 a year on clothes in 1980s dollars, and Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstroms were my favorite stores.) Our previous master bedroom downstairs had been remodeled 10' out the front with a beautiful three-sided bay window so it was large also. That became a family room for us. But when the remodel on that bedroom was done a few years before the second story addition, we remodeled the master bath and the closet was extended about 10' out also. We had California Closets come in and put in all custom shelving in that closet. But when we did the second story, we decided to do it ourselves as the previous closet had cost us $1,400 in 1980s money! We did it for about two or three hundred in the bigger closet upstairs.What our contractor designed and did for us was take out our heater on the first floor, use that for the stairs, adding a landing to the top where we went left to the train room and right to our master bedroom. The heater was then relocated upstairs in a space on the train room. It was over the bottom of the stairs. It turned out exquisitely because the contractor measured intricately, consulted us on it and made it happen. I was delighted as it looked like it had never been a remodel. It just looked like it was built that way originally. That remodel was the talk of the neighborhood. Every night we'd see people out the window looking in trying to figure out what was going on and even asking to come in and view it. I'm so glad we picked that man to do the remodel.

Our closet looked nothing like this one though. While I think it's lovely, ours was even better.
Cute!

I know without a doubt that hubs and I could not fit in this narrow kitchen together, but it sure is cute. Must be a small cottage.

Pretty in blues.

Another stunning wall color in green.

Pretty eye candy for you. I just absolutely love candy for my eyes.

Cozy little space.

This reminds me of Mexico and sitting out on our patio at Los Tules in Puerto Vallarta.

Definitely my kind of patio or porch.

Isn't this towel sweet?

Wouldn't you love to have lunch in this quaint tea room? Oooooh, I would.

Easy, easy thing to do with extra frames you have around the house. I plan on making some this week actually.

*

Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off. And very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

~*~
Photos courtesy of tumblr, pinterest and google images.