More time at Mom's

In my mom's bedroom there are three framed prints that take me back to when I was a little girl. I was happy to see them again. These are the images that, along with my cousin Don's comic book heroes, I drew incessantly. I credit them with my ability to draw. ha ha ha. No, for real. I drew these ballerinas over and over again. Here is my younger sister's favorite one of the three. I spotted this little metal tray covering mom's tube of knitting needles. We all need some sunshine! Outside of Mom's door is this statue, left by the previous tenants and way too heavy to move. Cement! Last night, my sister and her husband had date night for the first time in ages. One of her daughter's came by and hung out with mom and me. She brought yummy Viet Namese food for dinner, which sadly, I didn't take photos of because, yes, I just started to eat it because it looked and smelled so delicious. Forget the camera, grab the chop sticks!

With Mom

Before I left home, I captured another shadow of my hat (I'm obsessed with these shadows!) Here is my luggage, packed and ready to go. I packed very lightly, knowing that it'd be warm at my destination, and it is...so no hat shadows from L.A. Here's mom in her usual place doing her usual thing. She is happy, cheerful, and says "thank you, dolly" whenever you do anything for her. How sweet is that?! She'll be 96 on the 19th! I'm a heck of a lucky gal to have mom with me so long, and hopefully giving me longevity and cheerfulness genes.

A dusting of snow, sun ahead....

Yesterday morning view of the back yard. A light dusting of snow, just enough, no more...it's all I need or want. It's very cold here, as in most of the U.S., and my down (and feather) coat is serving me well. The feather part is not appreciated. When I take my coat off, small white feathers are clinging to my black wool sweaters. I have to "pluck" myself. There is, however, sun ahead for me as in two days I fly off to sunny California to help my mother celebrate her 96th birthday. How sweet is that? I don't know how often I'll get to post while I'm there but hopefully my first post when I can do it, will be of a sunny sky. Fingers crossed.

The studio, the wall, and penmanship

Today, I decided to put my studio in order (again) and was having such fun, seriously, finding bits and pieces of things I wanted to put into collages, that I had to stop and make a postcard to send to Katerina in Thessaloniki! Then I put new stuff on my wall, my REAL wall, then I thought of Andy in the U.K., who is doing the same (This photo is for you, Andy.) A good day in the studio! I got a really nice gift from a friend....a pen set. It's a reproduction kind of thing. A cool box holding pens, one is glass, pen points, and ink. She must have known that I'd actually use it. I added some additional Speedball points that I had. My penmanship needs improvement, which will happen with this set as it requires that I slow down when I write. Okay, so here's to better penmanship in 2010.

First trip of 2010

We drove up to New Jersey the first weekend of the New Year to celebrate the little guy's 9th birthday. The weekend included ice cream cake, playing Scrabble, seeing a wonderful production of "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" in Red Bank (where they have this cute train station) and a deliciously smelling bakery (where I was able to capture another shadow of me in my fun hat)and removal of the old American flag (which will be disposed of properly by my neighbor, with help from his veteran's group.) The ice cream cake was yummy good and the Scrabble playing was a lot of fun. The board was designed like a baseball field, since that's one of little guy's favorite sports.

A beachy weekend

Thanks to our niece and nephew, we had a couple of days at the beach. They rented a house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and invited us for the weekend. The sea was amazing! We went to see Hatteras Light and learn how it was moved inland a decade ago, when it was in danger of being toppled by the sea. We found lots of intact shells, lots of birds, including pelicans who were waiting next to fishermen, who gave them treats. The sunsets were beautiful. We brought out Bananagrams set with and even the little guy got into the game, in his own way.

Happy

I made another chocolate and pecan pie, The recipe is here. We went to our friends' home last night and had delicious food, including the pie topped with whipped cream, a latte from the new machine, lots of laughter, especially when trying to play ping pong on the new p-p table, and some sets of Bananagrams, Here's what one "Bananas!" looked like.
I got a surprise gift in the mail yesterday, all the way from Lander, Wyoming. The soap smells sooo good and the earrings are handmade from glass. How perfect.
The snow is still on the ground, but it's no longer attractive. Rain is on it's way as well as above freezing temperatures, so hopefully, tomorrow the landscape will be back to what's more normal for our part of the U.S.A.