GOOD. RANDOM. FUN. V.8 {2016}

 Asparagus, Parmesan Cheese Fritatta

cleaned out the fridge - GOOD for breakfast & dinner

RANDOM = Spring + Easter decorations
are beginning to appear in stores!

Wish I had purchased one of these felt bunnies

so I could try to make my own pattern!

creative FUN

(l) used PicMonkey to add a red hat & sunglasses to a pic of Lola

(r) took pic of a pillow that resembled Lola

(at Therapy, one of my favorite stores

in Mountain View)

 she's such a C.U.T.I.E. P.A.T.O.O.T.I.E.

Lola will be going home Tuesday...

we will M.I.S.S. her sweet little face! 

posting with Tamar @ Random-osity

GOOD. RANDOM. FUN. V.4 (2016)

Not just GOOD, but GREAT...
we had four days of rain
(off & on, but still much appreciated).

A RANDOM act...

JPE made turkey noodle soup with leftovers from last Thanksgiving... YUM!

Adorable decorations @ Lewis & Clark!!

Saturday, JPE & I went to Santa Barbara to "window shop"

(Ummm. I confess, actually, I spent a gift card)...

visited my favorite three stores - all located on State Street

Anthropologie, Paper Source and Lewis & Clark.

three FUN shops!

posting with Tamar at Random-osity

WE DO COOKIES!!

Our HOLIDAY TRADITION... 

When my daughters were in preschool, we started a tradition of baking cookies the Sunday before the last day of school. Over the years, it became known as "COOKIE SUNDAY" and involved lots of flour, butter, sugar and sprinkles. Now, if you know me, I love a "tidy" kitchen so having these ingredients in the hands of 3-5 year olds required patience! BUT, this tradition has continued into adulthood for my daughters... 

Of course, the favorite cookie cutters are those that yield LARGE cookies (boot, mitten, bell, tree) that can be decorated with green frosting & colored sugar sprinkles. See those little cutters? the mitten, snowflake & stars... those are usually handed out to the adults (they're small, so you don't feel like you are eating TOO many - in reality, you can't just eat ONE!).

As I mentioned.... we DO cookies.... Lots of them!

For the past 5 years, I've rolled & baked the cookies... Then, Christmas afternoon, we have a "decorating station" so everyone can put together a plate for themselves to take home. It gives everyone something to do when the meal is eaten, the gifts are open & holiday spirits are starting to fade.

I'm a bit of a control-freak (no comments from my
family, please), so there are some RULES... 

1. Decorate only the cookies on the wax-paper or 
paper plate in front of you.

2. NO licking your fingers or the end of the frosting
gun. 

3. Try NOT to smash your frosted cookie into the plate of sprinkles (don't forget, NO licking your fingers).

4. Place your decorated cookies on a plate &
clean-up your work area. I MUST say... this is the
most difficult to monitor... because EVERYONE wants to start shoving the cookies in their mouth!!

Family members ooohs! & aahhs! over everyone's creativity. There are lots of offers to decorate a cookie for someone else! Ummm... the power of the frosting gun & all that frosting & sprinkles! 

A plate of the finished product!

Creative artistry by Katie (at age 8)

A COLORFUL DAY!

simply beautiful... smells incredible...

SPICE MARKET exploring!

saffron is NOT yellow, but BRILLIANT red!

dissolved in water - saffron turns yellow!

Turks love their tea!

delicious apple tea for a drizzly, damp day of sightseeing!

open bins of tea!

Rick Steve's recommends you purchase fresh spices, teas, nuts and fruits

BUT have them vacuum packed

so you don't run the risk of

losing your purchases when you reenter the US

purchased soup spice for our winter soups

your MUST include a visit to the Spice Market

(if you get to Istanbul)

see you tomorrow!

GOOD. RANDOM. FUN. {WEEK 18}

celebrated Cinco de Mayo yesterday at work! I saw this GREAT IDEA for making crispy shells in the oven. The directions mentioned laying the tortilla {which had been sprayed with oil} over two rungs on your oven rack. I did that with the first batch. Second round, I tried a single rung. My GOOD intentions were "smoking hot"... I didn't notice one of the tortillas had slipped off the rack and was burning under the bottom rack. Oops! I'll go back to frying my "torts" in a pan... it may not be as healthy, but the shells will be much crisper...

RANDOM. Saturday evening, JPE & I attended a fundraiser for a local organization. This little bird was part of the table decoration {which was auctioned off at the end of the evening}. I didn't win the plant, but my table-mate knew how much I loved the bird, so she grabbed it for me. I hope we have good "karma" this week? the sugary {sorry for the blur} figure topped our de-lish cupcakes, along with a single yellow flower! Carrot cake {mine} & chocolate {JPE's}... YUMMY!

{FYI - the person who won the table decoration, won 4 of them...

so, I didn't feel all that bad for accepting this cute, black bird}

This is what R.E.T.I.R.E.M.E.N.T. looks like. JPE broke the seal on a new puzzle... 1000 pieces of FUN!!! We have always joked that he would begin working the B.I.G. puzzles when he retired. No excuses now! We have a closet-ful of 500 piece puzzles... any puzzle-lovers out there?

Linking my post to Tamar's website...

give her a visit... loads of GRF.

GOOD. RANDOM. FUN. {WEEK 16}

 Posting with Tamar at RANDOM-OSITY...

JPE made his Gorgonzola Sauce for our pasta Saturday night. AND, it was tasty Sunday night! Why is it that leftovers taste so great the second time around? Is it because you don't have to start a meal from scratch {my opinion}? or the flavors have blended together {JPE's opinion}. Anyway... it was taaaa....ssstttteee! Yummy GOOD.

On Thursday, we had tea at Kreuzberg's on Higuera in SLO. The tables on their front patio have such interesting graphics. We had this RANDOM guy - doesn't he look a little like someone from the Simpson's? 

If you follow my blog, you saw the bottom part of this sculpture last week. I love taking pictures of it! There are so many details, angles to capture, and cartoon-ish faces & bodies. Perhaps I'm drawn to this FUN sculpture because it reminds me of the characters who mime.

Well, if you ever visit San Luis Obispo, let me know & I'll share some of my favorite spots to take pictures.

MAN-IN-THE-KITCHEN!

Y-E-S-T-E-R-D-A-Y

a lady at Avila Valley Barn asked JPE,

"AH, WHERE DO YOU LIVE?"

{JPE was holding two flats of raspberries!}

T-O-D-A-Y

 our kitchen smells like 

sweet, yummy, juicy, red raspberry jam!

I'll bet a 1000 bucks that lady would LOVE to be standing
in our kitchen right now!

PHOTO-HEART CONNECTION: JULY 2013

7.2.13 @ Big Bear Cabin

How does this happen? months speed by & I miss participating in the photo "MEME's" that were the "food which nourished" the early days of this blog...

My last post for Kat's Photo-Heart Connection was six months ago! time does not stand still, waiting for the camera lens to focus on the details of daily living! Today, lacking the focus to do much more than a few loads of laundry, I edited some pictures... and these two photos tugged at my HEART.

If you follow my blog,

you may recognize this photo.

LYDIA {our granddaughter} turned double digits {10 years old} on July 2nd. For her birthday, she wanted nothing more than "TO DO NOTHING". While eating her birthday pancakes, she told JPE that she wanted to stay home {meaning, stick around the cabin} and that's what we did.

Lydia & I built this COZY tent from outdoor cushions, throws from indoors, towels, a sheet & the frame of the porch swing. With enough breeze to cause "white caps on the lake" she "hunkered down inside" playing games on her phone, texting her girlfriends pictures of her creation, and chatted through her tent walls to anyone who walked by. 

JPE was cleaning a fish {on the edge of the deck}, her mom worked online {inside}, and I had spread out magazines on the porch chaise, while sipping my second {possibly my third} cup of coffee. Utterly blissful!

Lydia will spend the final days of her summer with us, next week! Several days will be spent tent camping at Plaskett Creek campground, south of Big Sur... maybe riding our bikes on the Bob Jones Trail... definitely eating popcorn & catching a movie... & ALWAYS enjoying JPE's cooking. 

WE'RE LOOKING FORWARD TO

SIMPLY DOING NOTHING!!!

{and BUILDING MEMORIES}

WILL YOU WANT THIS BACK?

My BIL {brother-in-law, BD}
was getting rid of this adorable wire stand!

Of course, I couldn't pass up digging it out of his trash pile

{he kept the other one, I think}... 

Sorry... I don't have a before picture of the "rusty wire look"...

last Sunday, I spray painted it a color called "FOSSIL"
{used a Rustoleum product}...

but, it still needed some pizzazzz!

I decided to use this paint pen...

NOT cheap... just under $5.

ONE coat of paint!

Coat number TWO!

Still need to paint the center!

{use this paint pen outside - it MAY drip}

the "home" for this 

MAGAZINE RACK is our bedroom!

OKAY, BD or SD,

are you going to ask for this MAGAZINE RACK back, NOW?

sorry for the quality of light!

OH... I spray painted the lamp base last weekend too!

Gotta LOVE spray paint!!

Rustoleum-Hammered in Dark Bronze.

Looking for a footstool or poof
{LOVE this ONE! a color can't be requested; recycled fabrics are used}
& new fabric for the chair! 

The kitchen smells yummy!

JPE is "putting up" apricot jam (5 quarts)!

MOM, it's time for JPE's scones!

Hop the train!

We're headed to a retirement party for my

soon-to-be ex-Assistant Superintendent!

SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY 4.14.13

SHS 4.14.13

Last week got away from me!

I'm "on the road again"...

Spent Saturday & Sunday with ACE (Allie-bug) & Lola!

& snapped a few pictures for today's hunt.

This week's words:

GLOW, OLD, SHADOW, SPRING & SMILE.

GLOW

Don't understand how this happened? I know I wouldn't be able to duplicate this process if I tried. We were in a store looking at big screen televisions - I was taking photos of the pictures that were showing on the TV screen. Sort of a GLOW, don't you think?

OLD

This picture was mounted inside a store window! I wonder how many elementary school children could identify this OLD telephone?

SHADOW

Loved the repetition of the SHADOWS on this building. Sorry, I don't know where this building is located (this is another "photo" of a "photo on the TV screen" as I mentioned in the GLOW photo, above).

SPRING

SPRING means "bugs" --- this picture was taken in the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto.

SMILE

We went to Penzy's Spices... this SMILING pirate was on the wall just above the "coloring table" for children. Great way to keep children occupied while their parents wandered the store looking at spices. If you haven't heard of Penzy's - check it out HERE!

Well, if you've visited before, you know Ashley @ Rambling & Photos is the hostess for SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY. It's easy! check her blog for details.

Two of five words in the next hunt will be tough! Wish me luck in finding something... The words are: HAPPINESS, SPRING in BLACK & WHITE, FAMILY or FAITH, FUZZY, GATHERING or PROVIDE.

See you tomorrow - off to Sacramento!

(a week of grant reading!)