just whistle!

Man, is my Sister funny. One of the best games we play when we call each other on the telephone is to try and outcuss each other. I win points for creativity now and then but - hands down - she wins the filthiest filthy mouth award. What I love about it is you would NEVER guess the truck driver mouth capabilities of this warm hearted, lovely, help-anyone-in-need woman. She taught first grade for twelve years and, together with her husband, is raising the loveliest family of three kids along with some damn great pets.

She is very beautiful but does not give herself the credit she deserves. I love you big Sis/best friend/great wife/excellent mother/potty mouth!

Happy weekend all - not sure if Andrea will be putting photobooth friday up today but check in on her beautiful blog anyway :)

Mix up one box of Trader Joe's Madagascar Vanilla Cake mix (with real vanilla beans) and bake.

Slather with Trader Joe's Chocolate Fudge Frosting* from a jar.

Eat.

Be pleased as punch that you found a box cake mix and a jar of frosting better than anything you ever made from scratch yourself.


Yum.

(1/08: edited to add that, sadly, TJ's discontinued the fudge frosting late last year :( - this seems to happen to my favorite things there TOO often. Still worth using the cake mix though! And try here for similar heart shaped pans)

I stayed out of the pop art challenge this month for the most part. I do not have an affinity for the style nor do I have photoshop (which is a real issue - anyone have any ideas about how to get a cheap copy of 7? I don't even need cs2...).

I do really love Hockney's collage work, though. So in honor of the last day of the pop art challenge I did a little layering work (by hand) of three pictures of me at 6, at 13 and now and then used the 'Hockneyizer' tool at flickr.

Fun!

But now I am really looking forward to getting back into the fray with July's challenge...

(p.s. sorry for the lack of Music Monday this week - took PickleBoy to his first sleepover camp yesterday - eek - and didn't have enough time!!)

(p.s.s. also sorry that I've had to add that annoying garbley password thing to comments but 'they' have found me and I am getting the comment spam big time. What the h*ll? I honestly don't understand how some people (or heads of companies) sleep at night...)

el morro, laguna beach, california, 2004

I mentioned this beach to you once before and promised to revisit this story.

Long, long ago when my paternal grandfather was just a boy his family would camp on this (then) deserted beach. In 1963, before I was born, my grandparents bought their first little beach trailer at this site. My Sister was born just after and then four years later I came along. Our mother was pregnant with us on this beach, we slept in playpens on this beach, we built drip castles on this beach, learned how to read the 'sets', ride boogie boards, have barbecues, fireworks, watch our dad play volleyball - it was sheer and pure heaven.

me at el morro, 1970 (three years old)

Three of my four grandparents lived out their final years in bigger versions of that first little trailer. In trailer homes up on the cliff above this beach watching whales migrate back and forth, pelicans scoop up their bounty, and sunsets just like this one until their respective times came. Each time we chartered sailboats and scattered their ashes in this very spot.

When I was in high school and my parents were readying for their permanent move to Northern California, they bought their own little beach trailer so that we would still have a 'home' here. My brother-in-law proposed to my Sister in this sand. I dragged music industry buddies down from L.A. for debaucherous weekends.

Then later our babies came and we brought them here. To eat fistfuls of sand and run screaming from the waves only to turn and barrel back to play tag with the waves all over again. To eat tuna sandwiches and let icy sodas straight from the cooler drip down their chins, write our names in the wet sand...

PickleBoy at el morro, 1997 (three years old)

We knew for a long time that it couldn't last forever. The lease that the park had with the State was due to run out. It did. We fought to keep our little slice of history. We lost and all of the homes have been torn out to make way for a public RV park and campground. No more permanent residents will be allowed. There are many sides to the story of the demise of El Morro. The best 'look at all angles' account I have read can be found here if you are interested in the details.

But for me the loss of this place constitutes a death in the family. I will mourn the loss of the one place where all of my happy childhood memories reside while simultaneously staying positive and thankful to have had this joy and the good memories of this magic place in my life at all.

I cannot bear to go back yet. To see the spot where our little beach home once stood. One day I will if only to sit on this sand again, watch another breathtaking sunset and remember. Remember the beauty until I can remember no more.

Until my own ashes drift to the silty bottom to rest in this...

my favorite place.

...all at the same time.

S'mores bars by PickleBoy.

and, yes, you can add good cook to the list of his many talents.

My all time most very favoritist color as previously noted.

Can you imagine the trouble ahead if this gorgeous, powerful boy right here in this very picture is only eleven years old?

Although I am thoroughly enjoying all of the stages and little changes of his growth into a man, I find myself full of melancholy and even a little angst at the prospect of the entire thing.

I was always annoyed as a child when 'grown ups' would say things to me such as "If I knew then what I know now"..."It all goes by too fast"..."Before you know it you'll be grown and gone"...

And now I hear those things fluttering and slapping around in my head like a wild bird caught in a cage - they even sneak out of my mouth at times much to my own chagrin.

So I am working on a new mantra that rings more true to me...

This is it, right now, this is the moment.
Live it.
(and I'm gonna.)

p.s. PickleBoy broke the 38 second mark in the 50 yard backstroke over the weekend for the first time in his swimming career! Congratulations, beautiful young man of mine. Every day, in turns, you make my heart sing and ache :)

.yellow.

Hula has suggested that the color continue this week.
I am in.

And in keeping with my more verbose hijinks of yore, Music Monday returns...

Artist of the Week
Jose Gonzalez

Album of the Week
Veneer

Song and Lyric of the Week
Heartbeats
“ten days of perfect tunes
the colors red and blue
we had a promise made
we were in love

To call for hands of above
to lean on
wouldn't be good enough
for me,
no.”

Music Story of the Week
Most of you have heard of Jose by now. The buzz is all over the internet and NPR and such. But, if I help even one more person to discover him, my mission for today will be accomplished. This lovely Swedish-born-though-of-Argentinean-descent artist is not what you may suspect from his moniker. He has created a sound that brings me back to my retro hazy-colored seventies childhood - but far better.

Some brilliant person chose the song Heartbeat to be the soundtrack for a Sony television campaign with the theme 'Colour - like no other' earlier this year. Do yourself the favor of clicking here to watch this commercial (shot in my city) and revel in the beauty of Jose but - even more stunning - the color...

I hope you all have a weekend full of happiness and prosperity.

This color week has been tremendously satisfying.
Thank you, port2port and littlebirds!

Go, fishy, GO!

Monterey Bay Aquarium, February 2005

"why don't you"

This photo made possible by my enabler friend Beth.

yum.

In the spirit of mixing things up a bit this week I am joining port2port and littlebirds in their challenge to present a different color each day. The colors have been predetermined and I am thrilled to partake. I do have such a love affair with color and have long admired these blogs and their aesthetics so I'm in.

So for white - my much loved and rumpled pure white bed with my very much loved FatBoy.

And because it is also Music Monday #8 you just know what I am going to say:
Go listen to the White Album.
:)

rawr.

mo photobooth lurv ova heeeeer.

...a one-legged woman in the buttkicking contest. But I do have enough time to ask you this:

And I honestly do not ask this in the 'whiny-do-you-love-me-reeeeally' kinda way but do you dear readers mind if I eek away from the knitting wednesdays on this here blog a bit?

See I have recently been in a bit of an internal creative battle. I just seem to be enjoying taking photos, a bit of embroidery, writing, a little dabble of painting, etcetera lately and am completely uninspired when it comes to my knitting.

I am certain that the bug will return someday (when the temperatures dip again?) but for now, is my knittin' thing inspiring any of you? You know there are so many STELLAR knitting blogs out there and it seems to me that I don't really have anything new to say.

Is it better to have Crafty Wednesday?
Or maybe even - god forbid - not categorize the day at all?
Hmmmm, just thinking out loud here.
Any comments would be much appreciated.

Halloween 2005

"I drank to drown my pain, but the damned pain learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good behavior." - Frida Kahlo

more 'pop art' self portraits here.

So for today's Music Monday I thought I'd put up this GREAT meme that I found on ashmonkey's site last week. PickleBoy and I went a little nutty trying it out with different bands but I found that my best choice was - no surprise - Patty Griffin (the subject of my very first music monday post)!

So here goes and please let me know if you do this yourself because it is funfun for meme and youyou.

__________________________

Band for a Lifetime:
Choose a band/artist and answer ONLY in titles of their songs. I picked Patty Griffin.

1. Are you male or female?
Mother of God

2. Describe yourself.
Rain

3. How do some people feel about you?
Time Will Do The Talking

4. How do you feel about yourself?
When It Don’t Come Easy

5. Describe your ex:
Peter Pan

6. Describe your current significant other:
Tomorrow Night

7. Describe where you want to be:
Top of the World

8. Describe how you live:
Love Throws a Line

9. Describe how you love:
Every Little Bit

10. What would you ask for if you had just one wish?
Mil Besos

11. Share a few words of wisdom:
Let Him Fly

12. Now say goodbye:
Goodbye

Taken at The Balboa Arcade, Balboa Peninsula, Newport Beach, California, Summer 2003.

PickleBoy and I went out to our sushi place last night for dinner. As usual, we sat at the sushi bar. We sat between two single men near my age and spoke to each of them intermittently. The one on the right was the very-friendly-heavily-tattooed-smells-like-gasoline-ponytail variety. The one on the left side was the very-friendly-lonely-sad-droopy-pasty-boy variety.

As I sat there it became apparent to me that each of these men were vying for my attention (innocently enough - nothing inappropriate). Then we left and as we walked to the car I turned to PB:

me: "What did you think of all of that?"
PB: "Well, they definitely both liked you."
me: "Yeah, but..."
PB: "But unfortunately one was too dirty and one was too clean."
me: ...pause..."HaHAHAAA!"...deep breath..."You are definitely your mother's son."
______________________________

You all have a beautiful weekend and, in the meantime, go visit our lady of the photobooth friday.

p.s. The camera has been busy, here are a few more shots.

the same peonies as before (they went from hot pink to apricot by the end!)

the mission district, san francisco

memorial day parade umbrella

a reminder to trust the universe while you drink your frosty cocktail (heh.)

Since I missed Knittin' Wednesday this week a crafty Thursday will have to suffice.

I made myself this little apron and here is how. As of late on the crafty blogs there has been a lot going on with the making of aprons (i.e. Tie One On). In addition, there has been much excitement about Japanese craft books. So, when I made my last trek to Kinokuniya Bookstore in San Francisco and found this: I got all excited and immediately purchased said book (called Sashiko Zakka, isbn# 4277341071)which has many great embroidery ideas beyond this one.

I had picked up some beautiful tea towels designed and screenprinted by locals at the botanical gardens on Kauai earlier this year and was loathe to sully them with the daily detritus that is inevitable in my kitchen. This little lovely just sat on the shelf until this inspiration came along.

I headed home and over to my friend Molly's store Ambatalia Fabrics. She has great taste, runs an organic and sustainable fabric store and has a plethora of vintage ribbons and buttons. I picked up this fabulous vintage ribbon and asked her 'pretty please' to sew the ribbon across the top of the towel with her machine (since I don't have one yet).

Back home to look online for the perfect bird to embroider. I found this little sweety on the NeedleCrafter website, printed it out, traced the design (I freestyled the 'flight path') with my iron-on transfer pencil, then ironed her on and got to embroidering. What an easy and gratifying little project! I am thrilled with the finished product. This is the first time I have embroidered anything and feel a new obsession coming on.

Please do email me if you have any questions and especially if you make one yourself - I would love to see it :)