Fruit, Mom and more

It's been really good being here to help my sister and spend time with mom. We've been cleaning and dusting and going through things, while mom knits. Yes, MOM KNITS!! It's amazing to see her still able to do it. We found this family portrait and, though hard to take a photo of it through the glass, I'm happy to have it turn out so clearly. This is Mom with her family. She is the eldest of the girls. Today, Mom did her physical therapy. My sister worked with her and even got her outside for a little walk down the driveway. The lemons came from my sister's tree. Several were really strange looking, I mean really strange! Here's one example.


The other night, my nieces and I played with Scrabble tiles, a game of their own devising, which I called Babble. We laughed a lot while making up words, definitions or acronyms, all hilarious. You had to be there!

Little me!

W3LL PEOPLE

My niece is a make up artist. You can see her work here. When she came to hang out with my mom (her grandma) and me last night, she showed me the new line of cosmetics that she is representing: W3LL PEOPLE. The company is new but is already reviewed on the Cosmetic Safety Data base and the ratings are terrific. Check it out for yourself here. As regular readers of my blog know, I've been posting about products and giving links regarding the safety of products that we use on our skin, or other items, like plastic bottles. I have been concerned about this for awhile but my concerns were heightened after our young cousin was diagnosed with breast cancer. The products of this company are without the biggest offenders in cosmetics and skin care products. What are they? Pthalates, Parabens, and petrochemicals. They also do not test on animals according to their literature though that isn't shown on the data base. They do have titanium dioxide in small amounts because they want to provide UVA/UVB protection. I loved the colors and the feeling of the products. My niece did a little demo for me. I would have loved to have had her do make-up on my face, but by the time we did this it was really late. We, also had fun setting up the products to photograph them. (disclosure: I do not represent this company; they haven't asked me to review their company; and, they haven't given me any gifts!)

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.