Positive Thoughts for a New Year

I bet a lot of people are entering this New Year with trepidation. It certainly sounds scary if you listen to the news. I hope the new President is brave, if it were me I might have been tempted to say “You know, I change my mind, it’s not really the job I signed on for now.” But leaders don’t do that.

We had a particularly hard holiday season in our family this year as we lost our beloved Uncle Jim. The only bright spot there was the recognition that I am better for having known such a loving and caring man. And his wife and children are all so wonderful. I wish them peace.

So along with holiday parties we had funerals and wakes. That is the roller coaster of life. Our close knit family probably had too much time spent with some and not enough time spent with others. It is always interesting when we get together – this year proved to be no different. I love each and every person in my big family.

At the beginning of 2009 I learned that sometimes when you love someone you just have to let them go. I learned that sometimes fighting to hold on to someone is not always the right thing to do. It felt like I had been reaching down the edge of a tall cliff just barley catching hold of this long loved person’s hand and it just became too hard to hold on any longer. Letting go and watching them fall never entered my mind, it was my natural reflex to stretch out my hand and try to pull them up. I learned that it may be presumptuous to think that everyone wants to be caught and hoisted up. There is some guilt with letting go. But I have learned that sometimes it is freeing to both people when you let go.

So, where are the positive thoughts you may ask?

Through the highs and lows of the coming year

I wish each of you health, happiness and love.

I wish each of you the inspiration to find a way to give of your self in a way that is unique to you.

I wish each of you abundance and the recognition of your abundance and so I wish you all gratitude.

I wish you all peace and the ability to find peace of mind no matter the circumstance.

I wish you creativity in the face of adversity and the joy of that flowing expression.

I wish you calm quiet reflection and the strength to greet the lessons that will be learned.

I wish you the bravery to create a life that is rich, full and overflowing with the stuff that makes you wish your days would never end.

Here is to 2009, may it be a great year!

Christmas Party at the Hotel Del Coronado

This year we were invited to a fabulous holiday dinner at the Hotel Del in Coronado. What fun! If you have never been and you are in the San Diego area - you must go to the Hotel Del on Coronado Island. It is a historic place and the shopping is very fun, the restaurants are great too. The town is so quaint it makes a great vacation place. We go there at least once a year but the holiday dinner was special.

The Del is always beautiful - but at holiday time it is to die for!

The Grand Ballroom where our dinner was. It over looked the ice skating rink outside below - where else can you walk on the beach and then ice skate?

The Christmas tree in the lobby is gorgeous! The lobby is beautiful too all that dark, rich wood.

Here we are all dolled up and ready to go - looks like a prom photo! Matt looks sooo handsome - don't cha think?

We had a wonderful time, the music was great, the food was wonderful too.

Happy Holidays!

Lift and Separate

Ahhh, the promise of a new bra! I can not understand how we can send men to the Moon, see pictures direct from the planet Mars but we can not have a comfortable bra?

It is no secret that as a woman approaches a certain age the features of a good bra are not only comfort but technology nothing short of hydraulics are required as well. You might then also want to include attractiveness into the required features list too. For the lingerie must be more than utilitarian for me but not so far into the fashion realm so as to miss its intended purpose – Lift and Separate.

Most readers here may not remember the tag line “I dreamed I won a race in my Maidenform bra.” The word “race” was often substituted for some other miraculous fete you could accomplish while wearing said bra. The expectations from a new bra are always so great. Indeed it may be too much to ask or expect a good fit, function and looks. Sort of like the new administration in Washington DC – the expectation is just so high! As that old tag line comes to mind I realize this want of functionality and fashion has always been desired – just seldom delivered upon.

Through the years I have imagined becoming queen of my own country, a country where no bras or shoes would ever be allowed. They would be viewed as contraband and grounds for deportation. Hmm, we may end up being a country of muumuu wearing people in need of regular pedicures, but we would be living a comfortable life I am sure of it.

So I scurried home the other day with my lingerie purchases the usual black, white and beige bras – but something else slipped in the bag this time. A rare moment of excitement and risk – I bought a red bra! I have often thought I should have a leopard bra, after all it is beige and black so that is sort of basic – but red, how exciting is that? Well, it is for me. It makes me think of how Mammy felt when she wore the red taffeta petticoat that Rhett Butler brought her from Paris, slightly scandalous!

A New Dawn

I usually do not get political here. I try not to offend people. I try to stay neutral. I sell my little wares and make occasional comments on the changes in my life and family that I experience.

But I would be totally out of my mind if I did not recognize the significance of this week and the historical impact that we have brought about! I went from blog to blog checking on my friends to see if they were courageous enough to mention the election of the first black man to the presidency of the United States. Some mentioned it and some said nothing. After sitting it out, I sort of felt like I had been hiding in a corner. That is not me.

No matter whom you voted for, no matter how fearful you may be of change, “Change Has Come to America.” I see it as a new and wonderful day. I see this as a bright change for the positive. I think it is a defining moment for the United States to take a huge step forward in a truly progressive way. We have stepped into the global arena ready to get down to work and back to what makes this place wonderful.

This was a divisive election. People squared off, neighbors pitted against neighbors on my street. E-mail ambushes from both sides were a daily occurrence. I woke up on Wednesday exhausted by everything. As I mentioned to one friend I am more interested in what makes us similar and what we have in common as a people than what makes us different and makes us think of separating ourselves from other people or cultures.

So I have spoken up here and said my piece. I still don’t expect to get too political here in the future. But it was important for me to write about what I see as a great new dawn. (This photo is from sarah peter1 on flickr)

A Smashing Time Was Had By All...

Nina carved this pumpkin

Side table in the livingroom

Nina and her pals - Nina is the one in the glasses

Nina with her creepy uncle - seriously I had to keep him away from the young ladies he was just too creepy!

Nina made this head on a platter - cool

The Mad Scientist's Den

I made this tiny grave yard.

Me striking a pose just as the party was getting underway. We had fun!

Is there something I am forgetting?

The house looks great, we have our costumes and the food is piling up on the counter tops. I am just contemplating last minute details for the Halloween party Nina will throw on Friday.

This year the living room is a mad scientist’s den, the formal dining room is a fortune teller’s parlor, half of the front yard is a grave yard and half is a pumpkin patch and the court yard entry is a witch’s lair. Is there anything we could be forgetting?
Oh! the menu – black pasta with vodka sauce, fettuccini made with orange roasted pepper pasta, green ghoulish salad, eyeball bruschetta, graveyard cake and pumpkin pie.

If I can find some meat pies it would be lovely as Nina is Mrs. Lovett from Sweeny Todd this year!

Hot...

Ok I know I am supposed to be selling wonderful gifts or at least talking about wonderful gifts but lately I have been preoccupied. Watched To Kill a Mockingbird last weekend and boy was he HOT!