Special Order

Hello!  We had a lovely weekend I hope you did. On Friday when we met Cyrous' parents for dinner to sample some of the food that will be at the wedding. After the decision for the caterer was made, we made a date to go taste the actual dishes that we have decided on! It was very good, and we are excited for the guests to have a Persian feast! This will not be typical wedding food choices of chicken, beef or fish. Those items will be served but in Persian dishes, and they are tasty. I want that to be a surprise, so no photos of the food hahah.
Saturday we went on a jaunt into the city to get a battery for my watch. Why the city? Well, about 12 years ago, on my 41st birthday, my sweet husband gifted me a Cartier tank watch. It's one of my prize possessions and wonderful memories of living in France. In the twelve years I have owned the watch, this will only be the second battery I have had to put in it! The downside of owning such a beautiful watch, is that anything that you have to do to it is EXPENSIVE! I also have a casual watch that I wear to knock around in, and it too needed a battery. The cost of that battery was only 20 bucks. The Cartier watch........$65.00!!!! While I was waiting for them to put the battery in, there was a guy there wanting his metal watch strap replaced.....the cost....$2,000 Yikes!!!! I was thankful at that moment that my strap is alligator, BUT to replace that, it will be $365.00!!! I'm not happy about this, but the strap that I have now has seen better days, and does not showcase how pretty the watch is, so Happy Mother's day to me I suppose. I could have a new hand bag for that price :(    Oh well, hopefully it will last another 10 years!    We decided to stay in the city for dinner and a movie. We had such a nice time at a restaurant in the SF mall, that I thought would be generic and not great, but it turned out to be so good, and I would definitely go back. It is called My China, and it was opened by Martin Yan, of "Yan can Cook."  Wonderful flavors and very different than the normal Chinese restaurant that is prevalent around San Francisco.  If you follow me on Instagram, I posted a photo of one of the dishes.   We then saw "Age of Adeline."  It was a sweet movie with lots of eye candy, and it was suppose to be set in San Francisco. Given that this is our city, you always know when a movie is really filmed here or they use stock footage of the skyline and other famous shots of the city. The whole time something felt off about the scenes and when I got home and looked up the info on the film, sure enough it was mostly filmed in Vancouver. Vancouver is San Francisco's fraternal twin hahaha. It has hilly streets and similar architecture, but I know my city too well, and I just knew it wasn't San Francisco! Anyway, its a fun film and it was such a pleasant evening!
The mouse was a special order for Cyrous' mom and was fun to do but I can surely see why I don't want to make more for the shop. They are extremely time consuming, and if I charged for all the time it took me to make this, I don't think it would be a good price point. The one and only that I put in the shop, I way under priced! If anyone really loves these and wants to inquire about them, send me a message through Etsy and I might consider doing one as a special order.

Oh, and all the yard pictures....I sure hope you are not tired of them. Every time I go out there, I see new things or beautiful changes to some of the plants. Cyrous recently realized that there is a loquat tree in our back yard. That is the photo of the yellow fruit with the prehistoric looking leaves! What isn't in this yard!!! I sure wish the owner had planted some peach trees or pear trees hahah. Oh well, I'm very happy with what is out there, and I cannot wait for those candy like grapes to mature, as well as the figs!!  In the front yard there is a rhododendron bush with one red bloom. This plant I think does better in cooler climates like up north were I went to college, although it's healthy enough and is starting to bloom.  I cut some roses and and brought them in for a little color in the main room.

Off to do some sewing.......Catcha later!

My Blog Just Turned 8 Years Old!

My blog anniversary was on February 12th and it slipped my mind completely to do a post on that day! I can't believe I'm still at it hahah. So many blogs are slowing down or shutting down it seems. Most prefer Instagram or other formats, but here I am, still documenting my little corner of the world. I must admit thought, that I too have slowed down in posting and ideas for posts. This little blog is for me to look back on what I and my family have done each year, so I keep on going.

Did everyone have a fun Valentine's day? We had planned to take a drive out to Marin and check out a new store, that is a new venture of Steve Gordon, founder of Restoration Hardware.  Well, I suppose it isn't brand new, as I believe he opened in 2013. Mr. Gordon's  last stint was at Sundance Catalog, and I thought he was still there, until I saw someone on Facebook waxing nostalgic about Restoration Hardware, and we all launched into a discussion about the original store in Eureka Ca. It was said in a comment that his newest venture is a cool new store in Mill Valley Ca. called Giudeboat.  If you are a long time reader of my blog, you may have remembered the post on Restoration Hardware that I did, and how I  really don't like its latest incarnation. Steve Gordon's magic touch that gave life to RH, left with him and is now in this new place. Steve, always manages to get things right with retail. He has the ability to capture a lifestyle and turn it into a shop that you can't get enough of. He has such a great eye for finding quality and putting it all together to tell a story that you want to be a part of, if that makes any sense.  I must go out and explore his newest venture as soon as possible.

The yard is coming out of its short winter's nap and blossoms and leaves are starting to make their appearance. The quince tree is really going crazy with its beautiful velvet green leaves. The rose bushes are starting to awaken also. No wonder with all this sunny weather we are having. The front yard, has many beautiful camellia bushes, one with red and white streaked flowers, and the others plain white and red. Camellia flowers are so pretty, but so short lived. They seem to wither away and fall all too soon for my liking.  Check out all those Meyer lemons! Don't hate me for having a million of them!! A lot of them are just dropping to the ground,  I just can't keep up with all of them. I can't make any desserts out of them, since I gave up sweets for lent, I guess I have to keep incorporating them into my lunches and dinners.

After finishing the two piece outfit from my last post, I have now started on a baby linen top. Oh my the feel and drape of the linen is so wonderful that I'm using for it! I'm binding the edges with Liberty of London fabric, and it will close with that yummy silk satin ribbon that is pictured. I'm making little bloomers to go with it.

The last picture of Caitlin, well......that is NOT her dress,It's my 80's wedding dress. She tried to reenact my pose in the photo behind her hahaha. I can't even imagine her wearing this for real.! It was so lovely back in 1983 though :)   We are happy to say though that this past weekend Caitlin found her dress, at Marina Morrison in San Francisco.   It's a beautiful , and I can't wait for you all to see it, but you will have to wait until late October.  ;)  Now on to the flowers and cake and of course all the other millions of details that need to be done.

I'll try not to be a stranger on here, and post more goings on from my little corner of the world.
Happy 8th birthday to my little blog.

Oh December, You Are Lovely!

Today was spent cleaning up the place and enjoying the calm before the rush towards Christmas. I have Christmas music playing all day long on Pandora to get me in the mood, and to keep little Riki bird happy. He tends to go silent and looks a bit down if music isn't playing. So far he seems to like "Hipster Christmas" station, and especially loves Zooey Deschanel's voice hahah.
I went outside for a bit when it stopped raining to check out the progression of winter coming and changing the yard. I love taking photos of all the trees and yard, then seeing the change through photos. What was lush and dense in the summer, has now given way to a different color palate and stark branches. The grapevine is gnarly and void of any leaves, the persimmon tree is doing its thing that I love....natural Christmas ornaments out in the yard. Lots of birds chirping. Probably happy to finally see rain and singing for joy. In the morning I love seeing the humming birds drinking the nectar from the lemon tree blossoms near the window, and today I was lucky enough to see one perched high above on the naked branches. It came and went several times, and I was able to get him in flight, but just barely!
Monday we went to see my friend Christine in a Christmas music concert. Oh my goodness it was beautiful, and my friend is so talented with her violin! We loved the whole concert, and will certainly make a point of going next year as well.
Can't wait for the kids to be done with finals this week, because I'll have my little elf here to help with some last minute baking and merry making.
I had hoped today to look at some recipes for Christmas dinner, but I had to clean the oven after my pie mess :( Yuck! It took forever to clean, since I don't have a self cleaning oven. The oven cleaner didn't make too big of a dent, so I had to take out my trusty razor blade scraper. After an hour or so it was finally clean, but now I'm wiped out and just want to rest!
I need to wrap three more gifts and I'm done and ready for some fun. How about you?
I'll pop in again and maybe do a year retrospective. I haven't decided if I want to or not, but I know I'll do at least one more post before the new year.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

I've talked a lot about the back yard and all its bounty, so I decided to go out there and snap a few more picks of it as it is now in its golden beauty. While most are relishing in summer gardens, this yard seems to be at its best right now, and in the coming months. All the citrus bushes and trees on this property, of which there are many, all have fruit dangling off of them. Soon I might have to open up my own little citrus market! The pomegranate tree doesn't have  a lot of fruit unfortunately, I was spoiled with the tree that was at the other property, which after I went back to see not too long ago, was cut down :(  Anyway......at the other property we had a persimmon tree also, but a different variety. I love the ones that are above, because of the bright orange and how they look like ornaments hanging once the leaves drop. The other tree out back that I LOVE is the olive tree! Isn't it gorgeous in all its silver leafed beauty?! It's probably what is giving me allergies, but oh well. The yard really does have a Mediterranean/California feel to it.

I managed to make a fig tart last weekend with some of the figs and it was very tasty and not too sweet. The recipe is here. The figs baked into a wonderful jammy consistency and it went really well with tea.
Finally got my fabric yesterday for more capes! Isn't it the cutest?! I will be making one 2/3 size and one 4/5 size and get them in the shop soon. I see a lot of activity on my Etsy for the capes that  I have in the shop now, so I have a feeling they might be sold soon for the holidays! Yay! I love making them.
Hope everyone has a delightful labor day weekend. We rarely do anything and just hang out at home and hibernate.