suziebeezieland

the craft room(which is now mostly a guest room,with some crafts)

The former craft room has had a few iterations since I painted it (here + here), but I've settled down and think this is how it's going to be. :)

I'm kind of going for "granny chic". I decided this when it was finished and I was looking at it. Nothing like a coherent plan. Ha.

I need to get new pillows on the bed because these two are quite old and very smooshed. When you lay on them, your head just goes right down to the mattress, anyway.

And a little rag rug next to the bed, for cold tootsies in the morning.  (Except it will always have a dog or cat sleeping on it. That's what happens.)

I love these little bath rugs at Garnet Hill, which also work well next to a bed. Except that Claire has one next to her bed, and Violet chewed on the sweet little scalloped crocheted border, which then unraveled the next time it was washed. I was so mad at that puppy. 

And a couple hooks or pegs on the wall for guests to hang their clothes on, because the closet is filled up with craft and office supplies.

The big pine cupboards need a huge cleaning out. I have several little organizing projects I'm looking forward to tackling when school starts. I have to do it when Claire isn't here, because she wants to keep everything she has ever owned. Hoarder. :D (She would also really like me to keep and, ideally, display all the art she has ever created. At an average of three pieces of art a day ... and she's eight ... let's see ... that's about 8,760 pieces of art. Our refrigerator would tip over.) 

I was thinking about simple curtains, too, to close over the roller blinds as needed. It is blindingly sunny in this room. Maybe these ones here, in the fabric below? What do you think? Too much yellow? Too flowerly? I have a weakness for calico.

Or maybe these? I have a weakness for gingham. :) Too much yellow, huh? But I am so tempted to just do too much yellow, on purpose. An excess of sunny. Can you even have too much yellow? I do not think so.

Feel free to express your strong opinion about curtains in this room. I'm a-listenin'. 

Oh, baby toes. I wish I could have Claire at all her different ages. 

the green chair

Earlier this summer we bought a new green chair for our living room from our Danielle, who works at a nice furniture store in town.

It was really fun to do business with a friend. :)

I like it because it's my favorite color, and because it's casual, but kind of fancier casual than we are used to. For instance, nobody is allowed to sit in it and eat pizza. 

And here it is with the Wizards of Waverly Place. It goes with anything. :D

wheeeee!!!!!!!!

Claire made a zipline for her doll. :)

who cares?

Justin Taylor had this on his blog this morning. So good.

Perception vs. reality:

“Look to the right and see:
there is none who takes notice of me;
no refuge remains to me;
no one cares for my soul.”

(Psalm 142:4)

“Humble yourselves . . . under the mighty hand of God,
casting all your anxieties on him,
because he cares for you.”

(1 Peter 5:6-7)

clocker's corner

Summer is winding down. Sniff.

Claire, Tash and I had a very pleasant breakfast this morning over at Clocker's Corner at Santa Anita. It's cheap (free if you don't buy food), it's beautiful, it's awesome, and it's a pretty cool way to start the day, if you like horsies, coffee, and the beautiful San Gabriel Mountains.

Who doesn't like horsies and coffee and the beautiful San Gabriel Mountains? 

They open at 4:30 a.m. But we went at 8:00. :) 

 

the new guy

Claire and her dad and grandpa (Bob's dad) went to a Galaxy game on Saturday night and got to see the newest player, Robbie Keane, play his first Galaxy game and make his first Galaxy goal. The Galaxy beat the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0. Hooray!

Robbie is Irish (and the current captain of the Republic of Ireland International Team), and came to the Galaxy from Tottenham Hotspur. He's really good -- Ireland's highest goalscorer ever, and the tenth leading all-time scorer in Premier League history -- so we're all pretty excited to have him. 

Bob said he's going to be a really fun addition. Robbie had just set foot in L.A. for the first time ever 52 hours earlier, and kablooey, a goal, right off the plane, with jet lag. I'm looking forward to seeing him play.

The Galaxy is now the team to beat. :)

(Needless to say, I didn't take these next three photos. They're from the news.)

the tournament house

Yesterday Bob and I had a nice opportunity to attend a fundraiser for the Catalina Island Conservancy. It was held at Tournament House in Pasadena, which was one of the Wrigley family's mansions. (I think I've mentioned the Wrigleys before.) They presented it to the City of Pasadena when Mrs. Wrigley died in 1958 on the condition that it would become the headquarters for the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association, which it is.

I didn't get any good photos because I just had my phone and was trying not to be too obnoxious as the docent spoke, but every now and again I just kind of waved it in front of something I was interested in, in what I hoped was a nonchalant manner. :)

Here is the front door. That door knocker is actually carved into the wood.

Look at how thick the door is below. That is four inches of solid mahogany! It weighs hundreds of pounds, but you can push it open with one finger, because it is balanced so well on its hinges.

In our house, the doors are also all solid wood, and warped from 72 years of wild spikes and dips in the humidity and temperatures inside. You have to give any door a good slam in our house to get it to even partially close, which I'm sure has led the neighbors to believe that Bob and I fight all the time. ("We're not fighting!" I want to shout. "I just don't want the cat to come in the bathroom and drink water out of the faucet while I'm in here!") 

Ada Wrigley chose some beautiful silver foil wallpaper (decorated with intricate painting) for one room, because she liked the reminder from the foil that their fortune had come from chewing gum. :)

The house was originally built for a tycoon named George Stimson. He sold it to the Wrigleys in 1914. Stimson's son was the architect, and created very fancy ceilings.

This one looks like Lego. 

Several of the ceilings had lovely decorative painting. 

This little bathroom is known as the Eisenhower bathroom, because Dwight D. Eisenhower got stuck in it in 1964 (he was no longer president) and couldn't get out. Nobody could hear him calling because a band was playing and the walls are very, very thick. The Secret Service was convinced somebody had nabbed him, but eventually they found him.

This is going to happen to me one day, because as I mentioned, our doors stick. But I will not have any Secret Service to rescue me, and I will end up spending the day cleaning the bathroom, talking to the cat, and alphabetizing the medicine cabinet until Bob gets home.

This door in the living room was made of Circassian walnut. 

And here is the Baccarat crystal chandelier in the living room. It came from Argentina.

Upstairs is full of neat Tournament of Roses memorabilia.

Bill Cosby, Art Linkletter, and Mr. Rogers were all Rose Parade Grand Marshalls in 2003.

But usually there is only one grand marshall. Here is one of my favorites:

Shirley Temple was the grand marshall once when she was little.

And then again when she was big.

Here are some former Rose Parade Queens, back in the day when photo coloring was popular.

And here is this year's Queen and her court, inside the Queen's Conference Room.

Here is the bathroom inside the Queen and Court room where they get ready before the parade or other photo ops. :)

And here is a Bohlin saddle. Edward H. Bohlin made saddles for Roy Rogers and other riders in the Tournament of Roses parades. His "P.K. Wrigley" model saddle sold for $5,750 (with all its matching tack) in 1941 when it was new. The average cost of a new car at that time was $925.

One of Roy Rogers' Bohlin parade saddles sold at auction for $463,800 last year. Our docent told us that other Bohlin saddles sold at auction have gone for close to one million dollars.

The rose garden outside was in full bloom, and lovely.

And here's a nice California-y view of the front lawn and Orange Grove Boulevard, which the house faces, to finish this post off. :)

fernando winner

Congratulations to commenter number four, Jennie, for winning the Fernando Ortega CD! Jennie, I will give it to you when you come for book club! So funny!

free printable storage labels

There are some really cute free printable storage labels over at Better Homes and Gardens.

{all photos in this post are from bhg.com}

fernando ortega CD giveaway

Fernando Ortega has a new CD out! :) He is my favorite and my best, so I am excited about this. 

If you would like to win a copy of Come Down O Love Divine, sign up here in comments before midnight Pacific Daylight Time on Wednesday, August 17. I will draw one name on Thursday to receive the album. 

ps I am happy to ship overseas, so go ahead and sign up if you would like to, even if you live hither or yon. :)

my favorite decorating words

{i made this at www.wordle.net}

bug pots

 
Have you made bug pots before? I think my sister told me about them when Claire was in preschool, and we made one then. I smile when I look at it. Claire's fingerprints were so tiny then. :)

We remembered how fun it was, so Claire and a friend made some more yesterday.

You need new terra cotta pots (unglazed), Patio Paint (or your regional equivalent), and a marker that will work on pots that go outside. (We found all three of these things together at Michael's.)

You can buy individual containers of Patio Paint, or a little sampler of many colors, like this.

The kids just dip their thumb (or finger, if you like skinnier bugs) in a color, then press it onto the pot to make the bug's body. For bugs that clearly show the child's fingerprint or thumbprint (the lines and ridges of the print, which make it more personal), have them press their paint-covered thumb onto a bit of paper towel to remove some of the paint before they press it to the pot. (If they go straight from paint to pot, you will get solid oval bugs without the fingerprint itself.)

When the bugs have dried, the kids can embellish them with the marker. (The paint and marker are permanent, so wear a smock or old t-shirt.)

You need to let the whole thing cure for about 72 hours before you stick a plant in it or get it wet.

Claire's pot from preschool has lasted outside for almost four years without aging. (The pot itself has weathered, but the paint and marker have not.)

the hermione t-shirt

Claire, whose summer reading regimine has included the first two (working on three) Harry Potter books (she's happily somewhere in the middle of The Prisoner of Azkaban even as I write), among others, designed this t-shirt inside her head last week, and told me about it.

So we went to Jo-Ann (fabric and crafts store) and found the light pink t-shirt, the flocked black iron-on letters, and the iron-on glam heart, and voila! :)

ps I accidentally ironed the "N" in Hermione on upside-down. Rather than "a mistake," I like to think of that as "a mother's loving touch". Ha.

twitter

Twitter could be called "Fritter," because it's yet another way to remove large chunks of time from your life without actually having anything to show for it. But like most technology, it's a tool that can be used for good or for evil. :) I gave Twitter a half-hearted attempt several months ago, then gave it all up as a great waste of time.

I've since revisited the idea, and have found that taking the time to think very carefully about who to follow has made all the difference for me. It's kind of like choosing friends ... head for the folks who are going to lift you up and help make you a better person. :)

Twitter is now a brief but worthwhile part of my day. Below are just four of my favorite Twitter feeds. 

@ScottyWardSmith 
(A very wise man. It would be worth having a Twitter account just to get his thoughts, methinks.)

@StyleatHome 
(Canadian magazine, but their Tweets feel personal rather than corporate. They link to cute Instagram photos sometimes, and other fun stuff.)

@CountryLiving 
(I've been liking their "Recipe of the Day".)

@stephenaltrogge
(He's hilarious.) 

number poster

I saw this poster at Ikea yesterday for $12 and I grabbed it, because I really like it. It has my favorite yellow-y greens, with pops of red, and all those lovely numbers. I've been wanting to replace the old "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster in the hallway, and this seemed like a good choice. It was too big for the existing frame, but I thought I could cut it down.

Which I did. Claire does not care for it cut down, because she thinks the numbers are now "too squashed," and the four has "slipped down into the frame."

She is probably right, but I still like it. :)

And it matches the knobs on the cabinets. :)

pixie cut

happy trails

Today Claire and I met Bob for a sandwich at a little place in Pasadena called Happy Trails. It's primarily a catering business, but they open up and serve lunch for a couple hours. 

You go inside and order from a little menu (it changes each week) (I had the garlic roast beef sandwich, because it said "garlic" and "beef"), and you help yourself to water, tea, or lemonade from pitchers on the counter if that's what you want to drink. If you want soda, they hand you a can.  

You sit out in the garden to eat. (There aren't any seats inside ... it is a tiny building that looks to have once been the garage for the house next door to it, which is now another business.)

To get to the garden, you go back out through the front door, the way you came in, and walk down the side of the building to the back.

There is also self-serve water, tea, and lemonade out back, as well as napkins and plastic utensils. The napkins are in a little basket, and a rock is holding them down so they don't blow away. It is as if you are in someone's backyard for a picnic. Somebody brings your sandwich to you on a paper plate. 

It's genius, because it's such a simple (and delicious) operation. 

Because really, what more do you want from lunch than a really good sandwich while you are sitting outside under a gigantic camphor tree in pretty weather, with people you like, and the option to go get some more lemonade whenever you feel like it?