PRINTEMPS... SPRING... PRIMAVERA...

all pictures taken 3.20.16

HAPPY SPRING!!!

Do you think my neighbor will miss this??

ummm... love putting this bunny out!

has SPRING SPRUNG in your yard?

GARDEN BOUNTY...

the roses are prolific for this time of the year!

it was nice coming home from WORK today to such fragrant smells!

Thanks, JPE!

GOOD. RANDOM. FUN. {WEEK 15}

Lydia is spending a week of her Spring Break with us. As a almost 11 year old, she loves her technology... but, she indulged me by going to complete some errands in San Luis Obispo. Of course, we did some indulging for her! a bit of G.O.O.D. ice cream to give us energy to complete our tasks. 

JPE made Cincinnati Chili for dinner Sunday... Lydia & I determined leftovers (Monday lunch) were even better than our dinner feast. A R.A.N.D.O.M. fact: Lydia's mommy, popi (dad) and grandpa (JPE) were all born & raised in Cincinnati.

I'm having a blast playing with WATERLOGUE. JPE cut these yellow irises & so I was showing Natasha & Lydia how my watercolor lessons are progressing (really, they haven't been started yet --- but, watching a photo being changed to a watercolor gives you an idea how watercolorists paint). Oh, so much F.U.N. Do give it a try!

Sharing these pics with Tamar @ RANDOM-OSITY. 

Do give her blog a visit... loads of cute photos from other bloggers!

SOME DAYS...

picture taken this morning!

So, my family left for home yesterday afternoon!

Everyone arrived safely by truck & train!

Getting settled... unpacking... looking through

the mail & newspapers...

making lists of items needed from the market...

THEN... the rattling, rolling, shaking, and creaking began!

This morning's LA Times headlines read,

"5.1 earthquake: More than 100 aftershocks, scattered damage"

Most of my family lives a few miles from the

epicenter of the earthquake (Brea & La Habra).

Having been born & raised in California,

earthquakes are NOTHING NEW to us... 

but, they are unnerving &

the aftershocks leave you sitting on the edge of your seat,

wondering when the next one will R.O.C.K. your W.O.R.L.D.

My family is fine!

breakables have been moved to a safer location!

they have water, electricity & gas!

Life moves on!

JPE is mulching the garden...

& a crockpot of potato soup is cooking!

I need to finish this book by Monday! 

my work team is discussing

"the smartest kids in the world... and how they got that way" by amanda ripley.

A simple, thought-provoking read!

our educational system needs to be transformed...

we have become a country used to MAKING EXCUSES!

we have problems because of...

the Common Core.

schools teach to the test.

kids have too much homework.

summer is too long.

summer is too short.

teachers have too many inservice days.

parents don't care. students don't care.

teachers don't care.

we have too many poor students.

we don't offer the arts. 

they need more science. or history. or electives.

schools need more money.

their union makes it hard to get rid of bad teachers.

it's because of the second language students.

GOSH! I've heard all these comments...

and more.

I invite you to check out this book!

Love to hear your thoughts.

let's move away from EXCUSES!

WHAT'S RED, JUICY & SWEET?

it's STRAWBERRY time...

first basket of strawberries from Okui's

oh my goodness!

sweetness, juicy & addicting!

this is a watercolor of the same strawberries

NO, I haven't taken watercolor classes YET!

{on my bucket list for retirement}

My blog friend, Deanna @ Snippets from Springdale

had posted several watercolors of her photos
using a new i-Pad / i-Phone app called Waterlogue.

Oh my gosh! it's so much fun. 
you can watch a picture change from the photo to a watercolor.
Amazing!

worth the $2.99 price tag!!

{I wasn't compensated for this review of the strawberries nor the app}

SONG-OGRAPHY 3.16.14

pulled from my archives

GOSH... how L-U-C-K-Y is that? I have the perfect picture for this week's

SONG-OGRAPHY!

the song was sung by Kermit in one of the Muppet movies

{here are the lyrics}

Greetings, Kermit the Frog here
And today I'd like to tell you a little bit about the color green
Do you know what's green
Well I am for one thing
You see frogs are green, and I'm a frog
And that means that I'm green, you see

It's not that easy being green
Having to spend each day the color of the leaves
When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow, or gold
Or something much more colorful like that

It's not easy being green
It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
And people tend to pass you over
'Cause you're not standing out
Like flashy sparkles in the water
Or stars in the sky

But green's the color of spring
And green can be cool and friendly-like
And green can be big like a mountain
Or important like a river
Or tall like a tree

When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why
But why wonder why wonder
I am green, and it'll do fine
It's beautiful, and I think it's what I want to be   

So, when you think of the color GREEN,
what do you picture??
KERMIT? TREES?

posting with Kathy @ You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

'ROUND THE MAYPOLE?

Did you ever participate in a MAY-POLE DANCE?

or make a paper cone and fill it with flowers from your garden

& hang it on the neighbor's front door?

As an elementary student, I participated in both these activities as a way to commemorate the First of May or MAY DAY!

According to Wikipedia, there are numerous explanations about the background of MAY DAY... But, as a child, I believed it was a day to celebrate fairies... I don't remember why I thought that, perhaps because of something I read in a book?

Today was Day 3 of our condo renovation!

Sorry, I didn't take any pictures...  too busy sweeping the dust (or perhaps "stirring up the dust"). The ceilings were painted & the shower tile was installed...   tomorrow, downstairs crown molding + floor installation!

Hope to get some photos tomorrow!

BLANKET OF BLOSSOMS...

~ quote from Bishop Reginald Heber

Bishop Heber, an English clergyman,
served as the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta,

  until his sudden death at the age of 42.

Also a hymn-writer, several of his writings are still found
in 21st Century hymnals...

the one I'm most familiar with is

 Holy, Holy, Holy.

During our two-day visit to Nevada City, we observed
several photographers with their tripods set-up outside IKE'S ---
capturing the beauty of the cherry blossoms.  

Wednesday morning, while eating breakfast,
we watched a woman
spend 45-minutes taking photos from every angle.

this photo really doesn't capture the essence of the color,
nor the delicate-ness of the blossoms ---
carnation pink petals "d.r.i.f.t.e.d" 
from the tree onto the red-bricked patio. 

* S.I.G.H *

 snowy-beauty

SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY 3.24.13

SPRING BREAK!

yay! time to break out the camera...

Posting some new discoveries for SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY.

This week's words are: ASIAN, WAVY, DRAW, SOFT & TEXTURE.

ASIAN

We spent some time at the Japanese Tea Garden - an ASIAN influence was found at every turn in the pathway.

WAVY

Hayes Valley (a family-oriented neighborhood in San Francisco) is the home for this awesome sculpture with WAVY tendrils reaching to the sky. What you don't see is the children racing in & out of the bottom portion of this structure. It's almost like a house & has peek-holes for the kids to look out. 

DRAW

Check out this very cool hand-DRAWN lampshade. One-of-a-kind... seen looking in a pub window (San Francisco).

SOFT

Spring has arrived in California. Everything appears to be in full bloom. This was definitely SOFT to the touch!

TEXTURE

One more shot from the Japanese Tea Garden! We loved the TEXTURE of this sign describing the statue of Buddha.

Don't forget to check Ashley's blog RAMBLING & PHOTOS.

Oh, and next week's are: WATER, EMPTY, FRESH, WEATHERED & ORDINARY. Consider getting your camera out & posting your interpretations!

EVERYDAY MIRACLES...

the trees are "defuzzing"
 "Spring is sooner recognized by plants than by men."
  ~ Chinese Proverb

"balancing act"

"Lilies remind me of Easter"

"Mother Nature's perfectly spaced jewels"

"contrasting colors"

Puttering around on the patio this morning before leaving for WORK!

SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY 3.9.13

I'm sorry I missed last week's SHS... I loved the words!! I had even taken a couple of pictures to post. AND, I did receive some very nice messages (thanks, HONEY MOMMY) that told me they were missing me! I have to say, "bloggers are the nicest friends"...

I also have to tell my SHS blogger friends that I had to add word verification to my blog for a brief period of time. I had 300+ spam posts to a recent blog post. I'm clueless as to how spamming works, but it was disturbing that they continued to happen. My blog is read by family members, including my 9 year old granddaughter...  

Now, on to this week's words (some great ones!):

#5, WORD OF THE DAY, SHARING, WIGGLE, & COOKIES.

I'm hoping for a couple of new COOKIE recipes when I check over at RAMBLING & PHOTOS. AND, I'm very curious about everyone's WORD OF THE DAY. 

#5

Adding egg #5 to this decoration. Have you started decorating for Spring?

WORD OF THE DAY

Yesterday, the WORD OF THE DAY was "time" --- JPE resets the clocks to Daylight Savings Time on Friday (after work!) so he can get used to the "time" change. It works for him, but really throws me off --- I was constantly asking him what "time" it was.

WIGGLE

Lola WIGGLING in the grass. She's a WIGGLER! When she's happy, the back end of her body goes into action.

SHARING

SHARING a couple of photos taken at the Chapman House in Shell Beach. The house sits on a cliff overlooking the ocean... the afternoon sun was falling behind the Avila Beach hills. I get a "peaceful feeling" visiting the ocean.

COOKIES

The hunt for COOKIES had me believing I should think about making my famous cut-out sugar cookies. I have the pastel colored sprinkles, the carrot cookie cutter, milk, eggs but we decided to go to the movies instead.... we saw "The Quartet" a very sweet movie!

And, again, I want to apologize for adding "word verification" to my blogger friends who post comments. I plan to remove it when I notice the spam disappears!

Please keep coming back...