Trying out new areas to me in the neighborhood. And yes, I see different styles of houses.
Probably the oldest, a Spanish style home, very large, which leads me to think this was built before the neighborhood was divided into small lots. This area used to have hunting lodges for people who lived over the hill in the city.
That is the length of the lot, I think it’s more than two lot lengths.
The stucco, the Spanish tile, it is most certainly older than anything else around.
Mid Century, I’m still not a fan, but I also realize that these will disappear soon and become mcMansions.
I find the side of this house extremely boring, yup, mid-century.
It does look better from this angle. So that block wall is the garage. Honestly, I prefer the garages that are built into the mcMansions.
I know, I’ve shown this crazy painted farm house before. I love the bright colors.
English cottage style. So much better than the mid-century.
Look how inviting this side gate is. Not mad that they have left it open.
Then I came across this old Apartment building. I can’t tell you if it is Asian Style. Most of it is hidden by large trees But if the address numbers are any indication, then it is.
The exploring never ends. My daughter in law tells me that I have an eye for things that most people never see. She is right, I am very observant. Especially when I walk around with my camera.
I had a party, one of my conservative get togethers. Where people from a variety of backgrounds get to socialize and share their opinions without a lefty thought police coming after us. There were Jews, Gays, Artists, College professor, a partner in a top notch law firm, blue collar workers… enjoying a beautiful evening in the garden with TACOS.
The only picture I took was of Leo, Elba and their daughter who did an amazing job catering the event. Anyone in the LA area who wants a great taco bar at a great price. go to Taco El Botanas, Leo, Elba and their daughter were great. One of the best things aside from the tacos was shaved ice! Well, really the best thing was that I didn’t do much work at all.
One of the guests is the woman who designed the wall paper that started my dining room redo. She loved the room, and how well her wall paper works here. So that was fun, showing off the designer in the room.
Henry brought his one of his gorgeous floral arrangements. Yes, he was aware of the new color scheme. Yes, that is a Babylon Bee mug, I’m a huge fan of theirs. Although it is my husband Joel who drinks from this mug.
So now, it’s playing with my macro lens and some close ups of these flowers.
These purple flowers were easy to capture.
The echinacea, a little harder, in a few days, when the flowers die, I will see if I can root this guy in a pot.
love these sprays of flowers
The artistic image that is so close you can’t really see the flowers.
I’m blessed to have good friends, to be able to throw a fun party and to receive such beautiful flowers
There was a real life craft fair in Pasadena this past weekend! Put on by Jackalope. I have enjoyed their shows in the past and did so this time as well.
Look! Canopies up in the park.
People walking around, enjoying themselves. And shopping, yes people were shopping.
Here is a vendor with her unique little skirt. I say unique, simply because I’m seeing a theme here, with a decorative band and pockets. There were a number of booths selling clothes. Since I sew myself, I passed.
There were plenty of ceramic artists, and yes, I did like their work, but I ended up buying other things. I like how bright and colorful this is.
As was this booth. There were plenty of people selling soaps and body lotions. Well, I get my soaps from my friend in Connecticut, she raises goats and uses their milk for her soap. As I age, my skin in getting sensitive, I swear by her soap. It makes a difference. Goatboy Soaps, highly recommend. I buy a lot of bars at once.
I think these were called dots. either floor mats for babies, or simply as cuddly blankets.
I tried not to take too many pictures, they vendors don’t like it, although they were fine with Jackalope putting up their booth pictures online – since that is how you advertise a show.
So what did I buy?? This gorgeous necklace from Amy Rivka of Arivka. Go take a look at her website. A gemologist who uses fine gold fill wire to crochet the bezels around these stones. The top stone is an American Tourmoline from Arizona and the giraffe turquoise is from The Bishop area of CA. We yakked away, she does beautiful work and her workmanship is exquisite. So that was first purchase.
I should have taken a picture of her booth! anyway, follow the link.
I bought a handmade steel knife, made from old steel tools. The handle is from a Napa valley oak wine barrel. very nice, only issue is it’s steel, I have to clean it right away. But it is sharp and handmade. The man who made was off wandering, his wife makes really interesting link Jewelry from metal links.
So yes, a very successful craft fair.
Then On Sunday I had some women over for a cross-stitching get-together. This is why I’m still on FB, I no longer post on my own wall, haven’t done so in years. I do join groups, and I joined the Southern CA stitchers. I put out the word that I’d like to get together and I have a lovely home to do so. There are 7 of us on the list, two couldn’t make it, but 5 of us had a wonderful afternoon. We are planning our next meeting at a restaurant. No I didn’t take pictures of us stitching.
One woman, Kendra, brought some magazines and patterns, so I’m now building a pattern library.
Or not, I am very capable of getting rid of these if I don’t want them. Right now they are sitting around. No I don’t make ornaments, but who knows what can be done with small patterns.
And now LA county is going hard-core again, masks inside, the craziness never stops. I just hope this causes a few more people to vote to recall Newsom. Sure you can say it’s the LA county health dept, but our dictator governor who is passing all kinds of laws unrelated to health, could step in and say no. But he didn’t. And there is no science behind this. Of course there is no science behind any of the lockdowns.
By the time I’m writing this, we are home. The joy hasn’t faded.
The sky was that blue as was the sea. The grandkids are adorable.
The whole family is amazing.
We were supposed to sail, it started raining so hard!
Here is a better view, the rain was a better bird deterrent than the hawks…
The sun came out quickly and yes, we did go sailing.
Club Med puts up these #s’. Lucky for us someone was there and took all of our pictures.
Slightly closer.
You get the idea.
During the night I think the teenagers came out and had fun and switched out the numbers. It was probably back to it’s official order the next day;
Westley enjoying a very chocolate dessert. The food was excellent, a lot of fresh food. veggies, fruits, fish and meat. As well as freshly baked breads and rolls. I must say, I am glad to get home to my own cooking. Vacation food is lovely, I thoroughly enjoyed it, as did the kids.
Here we are, Mercado 28, no, I didn’t buy this lady, just fun to take a picture with her.
Vacations are so necessary, it truly recharged the batteries.
I didn’t bring my nice camera and I have no regrets. Basically I was taking snapshots, not in depth photography.
There was local fauna – the iguanas were all over the place.
Enjoying the sun in the morning and shade mid day. My son and DIL saw a crocodile in the lagoon. It was at night, no, they didn’t get a picture.
A dead crab on the rocks. Oh, we did go to Xcaret, I didn’t bring my phone, so no pictures. Had an amazing time in the underground river. They now have a very nice aquarium as well as a shark show. It was fun seeing other people pay to pet a shark, something you’d never see in the states. But no pictures, just memories.
Two ladies showed up daily with their Harris Hawks, to scare off the bird. While they were there the birds fled – to return as soon as they left. One of the hawks had a mishap with the ceiling fan. He learned very quickly to avoid that!
Cam found this fan coral in the water at the beach. When it broke off it took some of the regular coral with it. He didn’t break this, we were not on the reef.
Artistic view of resort through the coral. We later saw many other pieces of fan coral, but not as impressive as this. Left it there, someone else may have taken it, I wasn’t going to bring it home.
The shoreline is very rocky. They have worked hard to scrape the rocks and put down sand, but here on the spit, it is natural.
A blow hole bubbling up.
More of the same blowhole.
It was so humid!! Not used to that humidity! but it does make for very green lush surroundings.
These flowers would last maybe two days, new ones were always growing.
Yup, I was offline for a week, actually flew to Mexico on vacation with one son and his family.
Airports are packed again, service isn’t great, its’ like they are doing us a favor. Oh well, customer service has been on the decline everywhere. But the flight went without a hitch.
Yes, we all wore our masks. The crew really enjoyed telling people to adjust their masks. They won’t give up this control anytime soon, even though the hepa filters on airplanes are doing an amazing job.
Arriving in Cancun, my son immediately turned his long pants into shorts. I got rid of those type of pants years ago. He still have a pair.
As soon as we got to Club Med, Westley started making friends.
The view the next morning. A little slice of paradise.
Westley going up the trapeze.
Ready to go!
… and he’s off. He didn’t do this daily, but did get better by weeks end. Cam did it twice, but I didn’t get the picture.
He enjoyed the trampoline.
Two very happy boys. Club Med really does an amazing job for families. We have been to Ixtapa and now Cancun. Very fun times.
Working away, I am doing a one thread project. Each day I work with one thread, when it runs out, I move on, until the next day. Although, we are going on vacation, and I think I’ll be bringing this project with me.
I found this pattern online, it was free, not that it matter, I like it enough to have bought it.
Using a lilac colored linen and some over dyed thread.
I’m only using one (well, two, cuz its’ double) thread a day. I am not taking a picture a day, that would be beyond boring.
This is where I am after a week and a half.
Been doing a lot of work on Tom Foolery, the advantage here is that because it is such a haphazard sampler, mistakes simply don’t matter.
I think this was the halfway point. I am doing this one over two on Weeks Dye works 36 linen. This linen is very soft, I’m not crazy about it. As in, now I won’t buy it again. I’m finding that 36 is that in between size, so I do one over two or two over two? Here I’m doing one over two, and its’ fine. funny thing, Adams right leg ended up two over two, and I actually took it out. It really didn’t look good.
62%, I am also playing around somewhat with the colors. Honestly, I think this little girl was given a box full of leftover thread, so when she ran out of one green, she’s pick up another, same is true with the pinks.
Am I loving this? No, I think I like things more regulated. Maybe that is why I loved the Quaker Sampler. I’m glad I’m making this, but as I look for more antique reproduction Sampler, I go with a more regimented one.
Big excitement this week. Our immediate next door is a rental house. The owner takes care of absolutely nothing. So these huge trees have never been trimmed. A large branch fell and ripped out the whole electric power to the house across the street. The firemen showed up right away. They are literally cutting the live wire.
Then DWP showed up quickly as well. Nice that we do get city services here. Lately it’s been feeling like all the money goes to anyone but the tax payers.
The cut live wires! Yikes
Cherry picker going up to replace the wire there is the house it is going to across the street. Unfortunately, these people are also renters with a bad landlord. Its been five days and everyday an electrician is there, the whole power structure of the home was damaged.
We went to one of those large indoor play areas. the kids had a blast, even the toddler had to be where her brother and big cousins are – not in the baby area
They built up quite a house, and promptly destroyed it.
Just a few images from the play – all I can say is they had a blast and I got tired.
West loves his little cousin.
How cute the four of them are, holding hands as they walk into the restaurant.
Waiting patiently for a table.
That same afternoon we all went swimming.
Eyal got his Paw Patrol shirt, not sure now excited he is, I see that I am also reflected in the image.
Yes, she also got a dress… BTW, because of how fabric is printed, they didn’t include a bright pink, they used plenty of screen to print. So because of that, there is no Skye among the pups!
My grandson wanted to take the slack line to the park. We did, but had to wait for his dad to set it up. And btw, in the future, dad will have to set it up.
He went first, did alright.
I love this image! one one the line, the other behind on the tree. Still using the safety line, at some point he will have to practice without it.
There is a lot of wobbling going on here, I didn’t take video.
I am actually wobbling back and forth here. A year with no yoga, my core is shot and one really needs a strong core to balance.
Hey, look at me! I let go with one hand! That is huge!
Trying to walk, but really relying way too much on the safety line.
ONE STEP FORWARD!
Of course, my son did best of all, one hand off.
Two off! and walking!!
Other kids came around and tried, it was fun for everyone. I hope they do it some more.
I am really enjoying my new lens, it is fixed distance, so I can’t zoom in, until I am home on my computer editing. The images are so sharp, that I am not finding this a problem. Not to say I won’t still use the original lens.
The details here. the yellow literally looks painted on!
It was fun to point out to people that this is the lowly artichoke. allowed to flower. Yup, the purple is the choke.
Loving this cone flower.
I can never get enough roses.
Or magnolia flowers on the tree.
Matilija poppy. I planted one of these? Will it ever bloom?
The humble lantana. Why does the unopen flower look like Covid to me???
Little trumpets, I’m blanking on the name and I don’t feel like looking it up.
Floral arrangements in pots, something I don’t do very well.
This dog doesn’t always carry flowers.
A super close up of one of the floral arrangements on the tables.
Some ceramic ornaments.
So yes, there were plenty details to see here. Btw, it just occurred to me that outdoor designers got to showcase some of their work in all those outdoor rooms. Also, just because I love flowers so much, doesn’t mean that people don’t simply want expanses of lawns and shrubs.
