Simply Charming

Saturday was Charm Swap day! Take a look at my new treasures...and how beautifully they are presented.

This twice-annual event is one of my all time favorite days. Thanks to all my swap buddies for your little gems and your continued friendship!

A dream come true...

One of my favorite blogs is The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee. Oodles of kitten cuteness on a daily basis. I happened along her blog a couple years ago from Linda Morrison's blog, Luluz. They had me at 'Itty".

'Professional Crafter' Laurie Cinotto is a kitten foster mom for The Humane Society of Tacoma and Pierce County and I really admire her work with animals along with her darling paper flower work.

(book coming soon!)

Well, our paths have crossed in the junking and blogging world and today

I had the honor of joining her, Linda and all the cats for lunch. And what to you take a

'Professional Crafter' and kitties for a hostess gift?

Hostess gifts for kitties and Laurie

The kitties received a vintage, pink floral container of organic wheat grass (a huge hit!) and I made little bouquet of button flowers for Laurie.

Charlene Butterbean (IBKC grand-dame) greeted me at the door; made sure I was

worthy to meet the kitties; received her well-deserved gift and accoulades and retired to her upstairs suite for the rest of the visit. I was in kitten heaven watching

the Fabulous Furman Five play, eat, sleep and run around.

Truly entertaining.

Oliver, Curtis, Teddy, Edith and Roland Furman

My attempt at kitten photography was dismal at best.

Please check out Laurie's blog for truly beautiful kitten photos.

Teddy and Edith

Oliver attacking my necklace!

I don't know how Laurie does it, but my fuzzy attempts at photos are

kinda appropriate considering how fuzzy these babies are!

Spending the day with these two very talented and delightful women along with

some bonafide Itty Bitty Kitties was truly a dream come true.

Thank you!

Basil: My favorite summer herb

Basil.
So delicious added at the last minute to sauteed zucchini or sprinkled over a quick salad of tomatoes, mozzarella and olive oil. I put my freshly cut basil in a glass of water on my kitchen window sill and change the water out every few days. If it roots, I count my lucky stars because that means it will last a really long time. I just harvest the lower leaves for my dish d'jour.
Nothing says summer like basil...grab a bouquet for your window sill today.

Cuckoo

My friend, Cindy Pestka, recently participated in 30 Paintings in 30 Days at Avanti Art and Design in Greenwood. It was a great show and the art was spectacular. I purchased this little gem. I love her.

I picked her up on Saturday on my way to West Seattle to visit Cindy...and so the fun begins...

My description of the day's events would be nothing compared to Cindy's...please visit her blog, Artgirl Island for the hilarious and TRUE and ACCURATE recount of some of our adventures on Saturday.

It was Cuckoo!

Abundance

Great word. I love it. I try to live it.

A subtle change. A great phrase. That would be my husband's doing.

Great guy. I love him. I try to live with him!

Lazy Days of Summer? --- I don't think so!

Two of my pals, Caroline and Joanne, both work at schools, so they have the summers 'off'. Well, they were bound and determined to cram a lot of fun into this summer break and we planned a day together as a last hurrah before back to school. Tuesday, we started the day at Joanne's so I could meet her 4 lovely black and white cats.

Those boys were stunners but kinda shy.

And I also got to peek into her 2...yes 2! craft rooms. Christmas is a very prevalent theme and was a delight to behold.

Then we hit the road to have lunch at Five, a delicious bistro in Edmonds, located in the old Salvage Studio space on Edmonds Way. We all dream about their Caesar Salad and want to make this our official hang out! You can see more photos of the lovely decor in this previous SS post.

Here we are after lunch...full and happy.

Our delightful server Naomi and her partner in crime, Bridget.

Since we had some time to spare before our last stop of the day we dropped into the Everett Goodwill Outlet. Joanne 'won' since she only spent $6, but I was very happy to make it out of there for under $20. I found some excellent treasures to repurpose into even better treasures for the upcoming Ruffles and Rust show.

The final destination was Black Door Studio in Everett. Julia Jacques is an artist who opened this studio and has created a wonderful community of artists.

Jill, looking Pretty in Pink

 She was hosting a fundraiser for her friend Jill of "Team Kindred Spirits" who is walking in the Susan G. Komen 3-day Event! We were happy to make a donation and make a few crafts and eat a few cookies!

 Very fun day and absolutely nothing lazy about it.

Whirlwind Weekend

My sweetie, Doug

We had a delightful weekend in Edmonds and beyond! First up was Junk-o-Rama at Bountiful Home.

I was so happy to meet Sandra and Todd of Pink Marmalade. I loved their stuff. The signs are fresh and nostalgic!

Joan, the famed Weed Lady!

Then we had lunch at the Taste of Edmonds. Loved the duck sliders from Epulo! Plus, my brother-in-law works there part-time. Gotta support the family!

And we decided to cool off with the car air conditioning and head to Bothell for the grand opening of The Weathered Rose in Country Village. Darling shop that also sells New York Cupcakes.

Hope you had a terrific weekend, too!

It's an Edmonds kind of weekend!

Saturday in Edmonds will be Fun Fun Fun!

Junk-o-Rama and Taste of Edmonds...junk and food!

What's cookin', good lookin'?

I love a plan.
Not that I won't drop everything and go meet a friend for lunch if they call me. I am not that crazy about a plan. But I love knowing what is for dinner each evening. It takes away some of my daily stress, last minute running around and saves us money. So I make a weekly dinner menu. It is like my diamond in the rough and isn't set in stone...but it is a good guide.
The basics are easy to fill in. We have Meatless Mondays, Fish on Friday and Sunday Dinner. We try to have a Supper Salad one night and a homemade soup for our standing Wednesday night dinner with our buddy, Bruce. I usually try to make extra food a couple of evenings so we can have a Leftover Night. And then a night that I fill in with something I have been craving lately, like Italian food or something like that.
I have simple little chalkboard on my fridge and I just write down the general idea/theme. Easy peasy.
It really helps me narrow down our choices because we love food around here and fortunately, I love to cook.

Facelift

House painting time. I just returned from a week trip to visit my Mom in Eastern Washington. Our goal was to totally finish the front of her darling Cape Cod. We did it!

As usual it was 95+ degrees. It's a family joke that we can only paint something in or around her house if it is during a sweltering heatwave.

But the new blue shutters and blue and red detail around the doorway have provided a much needed facelift to this darling house and lifted our spirits at the same time. You see, my step-dad died in April of a brain aneurysm just a week after he retired. We are shocked and a little (no, a lot) at a loss. He was a part of us for 40 years and he and my Mom were still so much in love and had so many plans.

Mom and Rod at our Salvage Studio book signing party, October 2008

So, we are painting, crying, sorting and laughing together. The usual. Only different.

I know Rod would love the new paint job. And I know he would hate that he wasn't there to work along beside us.

That was a close one!

I love a ferry ride. I find it very invigorating. This really got my heart started.

While heading to Kingston we crossed paths with this little ship.

See how close we were? Hardly rocked at all in the wake of this ship.

This was my money shot! Mt. Rainier in the distance.

We were never in any danger, it just was so darn fun to be so close to something so big...this shot was with my zoom on because I wanted to catch the name of the ship. The Richard G. Matthiesen is a government owned tanker.

You just never know what will happen on an adventure at sea!