Larry and I do not talk politics with our friends and family. That is because we do not want them talking politics with us.
We voted (early) today. God Bless America.
Love you…..
me
First Day Of Early Voting
Author: robin
Wonky
Last week, Larry told me that he had a wine that needed to be enjoyed and he suggested a Sunday dinner menu.
He told me what food he had in mind and it turned out wonderfully.
We watched a movie before dinner, then we watched the Cowboys Football game.
Our movie was……. The 1949 version of The Secret Garden with Margaret O’Brien. It was charming. I had never seen it before and I loved this version. This version is about the acting, not the film tricks. I loved it
The Cowboys won their game and for dessert we had a little cheesecake I made. It is Nutella with an Oreo crust and toasted almond topping. (because I could not find hazelnuts)
It was a beautiful warm day in Dallas. The AC kicked on and we enjoyed being together.
I am caught up on all of my projects, (I made a dress and coat!) and today I will be making a vintage-like corsage for the coat I just made. The photo shoot is coming up and I wanted a little something wonky for my vintage coat.
Before my daughters were born, I worked in a flower shop for many years. Corsages are second nature to a floral designer but I have not made one in many years….but this wonky one looks like fun.
Don’t you love the word WONKY?
Love you beeyond the moon and stars.
Me
Vintage
This week has gone by very fast. While the moments are happening, they feel slow, but in reality they are zooming past. I will be happy when it is this time next year.
Our Christmas photo shoot is coming up soon. I made a vintage coat and dress for the event. Yesterday I finished the coat! (I LOVE making coats) I must finish the red dress today, but that will not be difficult at all.
I have bought fabric for a few more garments. I cannot wait to start them, but I must finish the painting that I am working on first. The painting is huge and not half complete.
There are new faces on the back patio…..
I bought the pansies at the market yesterday. They are hanging in a grey basket and seem almost happy. We will have to wait and see. The color they add is wonderful already.
It is really Friday. I wish you a blessed weekend. Try not to watch to much TV. The content is awful and has the ability to give us anxiety. EXCEPT for movies that is.
Love you beyond the moon and stars.
Me
A Watercolor Evening
My Larry had been planning a picnic for last night. The plans had been in the “works” for a few weeks. He wanted to have a celebration of sorts. We did exactly that.
Yesterday all of my breast cancer tests came back clear. After being so anxious about it forever, I thought that I would be happier than I am. I am hugely relieved, of course. I am not happy though. It is probably because I am still so pissed off about last year, and I have not gotten over it.
Larry ordered food from one of our favorite restaurants and we headed to the Dallas Arboretum for dinner. The Arboretum was having music in the garden. In different gardens, there were different ARTists. We headed to the lake and settled in.
Our picnic dinner was from GAPCO PIZZA. (A Dallas tradition) We had a Caesar salad. veggie pizza, pizza poppers, garlic rolls and little chocolates. We drank Champagne and enjoyed a classical guitarist during dinner.
I kept thinking that Larry took a gamble, planning this amazing evening for us. What if my radiologist found something in my X rays again? Larry saw me frowning a few times and made me smile instead. Larry is kind of awesome like that. The night was lovely.
I had forgotten my good camera and only had my phone. Sorry about the photos.
It was a beautiful evening. People wore masks and social distanced. Twilight was my favorite because it made me feel like I was in a watercolor painting.
Larry’s celebration was perfection. I love him so much and I know that he is relieved today too.
Do you celebrate things too? How do you celebrate and do you include the people around you?
Love you beyond the moon and stars.
Me
Life is like a California Roll
I am honestly struggling this week. The days are beautiful so how on earth can anyone be blue you ask?
Life events (sometimes, better known as anniversaries) have a way of catching up with me. I react in an interesting shade of periwinkle and respond by throwing myself into projects of threads, maybe oil paints and then exercise comes last.
Tomorrow I will not be blogging but will be back the next day.
Tomorrow I have an appointment. It has been on my calendar for ONE YEAR and will have all the tests that a breast cancer person gets after 7 months in remission. It was one year ago, that I waltzed into the imaging office for my yearly mammogram. It was a bright October day, I was confident and was just getting my mammogram because it was October. It seemed virtually impossible that they would ever find anything on my X rays. I was a 7 year survivor. I was in the safe zone. It was then, about three days later when they called. There was a tumor. Time for a sonogram. A biopsy. Surgery. Treatment.
My friends, the ones who truly care about me, stuck with me for this second “Go Round”…I am honored by their friendship, love and care. I am so humbled . I do not have the words to thank them.
Pink ribbons have been in my life for 8 years. This year I am proclaiming that Life is like a Sushi roll.
Sushi
Shades of the earth wrapped in sweet grains
AND
Sweetly encourages us to move forward with a smile.
Sushi awakens our senses like fireworks after a party
AND
Reminds us, that joy comes in many forms.
~Robin~
This post is all over the place. Forgive me. I’m not sure if it is about, Friendship, Food or Cancer.
Love you beyond the moon and sushi.
Me
National Taco Day!
It was a beautiful day yesterday. Even though it is just Oct 5th, today, (Happy Birthday Kathy A!) it feels like the middle of October and Autumn is here, full force.
I am not a fan of October. October makes my anxiety worse. I want to stay at my work table and not move. I worry about everyone I love at the weirdest level. Four more weeks and it will be over. YAY. I am counting the days.
Because yesterday was National Taco Day and my husband is in the food/restaurant business….well, what else would we have for Sunday Dinner and a Movie?
We had talked about having TACOS all week and I was so ready for them.
We drank ginger ale instead of beer or wine. We had wine the night before and we were not feeling the beer thing.
I made brownies for dessert and made sundaes. Heath Bar sundaes.
And, although we did not have tortilla soup, we watched the movie, Tortilla Soup with dinner.
I love this movie. It is easy to watch, visually thrilling and of couse it is about FOOD…oh yes, it is about life too.
Happy Monday to you. I hope that you will have or are having or have had a good day….
Love you beyond the moon and stars.
Me
Some Days Are Just like That
Are you OK? Doing fine? Taking care of yourself and not listening to the news?
I whisper this to myself daily:
Please take care of yourself. Exercise and drink lots of water. Don’t have hurt feelings from insensitive people and be logical as you do what is best you.
It is early, Sunday morning. What on earth and I doing up at this unGodly hour? Stay tuned. I will share my reasons with you tomorrow.
Happy Sunday.
Love you beyond the moon.
Me
October Book Club
I loved Orphan Train. Written by Christina Baker Kline and published in 2013. It has 278 pages.
I was told about this book by a good friend, who had been adopted. It gave me insight to a certain life that I have no idea about. I adore that in a book. Don’t you?
Our October book for the month is, ORPHAN TRAIN by Christina Baker Kline.
The synopsis reads….
Orphan Train is a historical fiction novel about the relationship between seventeen year-old Molly Ayer and ninety-one year-old Vivian Daly who, as the result of spending time together and sharing their experiences, form a bond, learn from each other, and change in significant ways.
Molly is a troubled foster child in Maine who is about to “age out” of the system (that is, she’s becoming too old for the system to continue accommodating). She was put into the system after her father died in a car accident and her mother turned to drugs. Molly, of Penobscot Indian descent, lives with spiteful Dina and timid Ralph, Dina keeping her around in order to keep receiving the government payments she receives for foster parenting. One day, Molly steals a book. As punishment, she is sentenced to perform fifty hours of community service. Molly’s boyfriend Jack comes up with a plan for filling those hours: Jack’s mother, Terry, is the housekeeper for elderly Vivian, who lives in a large and lonely house and whose attic needs cleaning. Seeing the situation as an opportunity for relatively light work, Molly agrees to clean out and organize the attic.
As the story of Molly’s relationship with Vivian develops in the present day, its events are paralleled with / echoed by the story of Vivian’s experiences in Depression-era Minnesota. That story begins with Vivian’s Irish family coming to New York through Ellis Island. While struggling to make ends meet, a fire kills everyone else in the family, leaving Vivian an orphan. As a result, Vivian is sent on an “orphan train” in the hope that somewhere, she will find a family to take her in. While on the train with several other orphans in similar circumstances, she meets an older boy, Dutchy. They develop a friendship and promise to find each other in the future. Vivian is eventually placed with the cruel Mrs. Byrne, who runs a clothing shop where Vivian makes her way sewing clothes. This situation comes to an end with the stock market crash of 1929 in which Mrs. Byrne and her husband lose their wealth. Vivian is next placed with the poor, filthy, and despicable Grote family. Mrs. Grote is a shut-in who hardly gets out of bed, and Mr. Grote is a do-nothing. Vivian’s time with the Grotes ends when Mr. Grote attempts to rape her. Mrs. Grote blames Vivian for the incident and kicks her out into the cold. Rescued by her teacher, Miss Larsen, Vivian is placed first with the kindly Mrs. Murphy, and finally with Mr. and Mrs. Nielsen, who own a general store and who allow Vivian to introduce several new innovations.
Several years later, Vivian has a chance reunion with Dutchy. Shortly after they fall in love and get married, Dutchy is drafted into World War II where he dies on the Pacific Front. Vivian has Dutchy’s baby but is too emotionally devastated to care for it, so she gives it up for adoption, keeping the story and its accompanying shame secret throughout the subsequent decades of her life. Meanwhile, Vivian marries Dutchy’s best friend from the army, Jim Daly, and makes a comfortable life for herself.
This narrative unfolds at the same time as the present day story develops, describing how Molly goes through some difficulties of her own, but at the same time develops a connection with Vivian that gives her support, refuge, and comfort. When she is kicked out of her foster home by the cruel Dina, Molly is taken in by Vivian, who eventually allows Molly to interview her as part of her work on an American history assignment for school. Molly also introduces Vivian to the Internet and encourages her to seek out her long-lost daughter. At the end of the novel, Vivian has an in-person encounter with that daughter, Sarah Dunnell, now sixty-nine and a musician, just like Dutchy. That encounter, the narrative suggests, would never have taken place if Vivian and Molly, initially wary of other people in general and of each other in particular, had not let down their defenses and been vulnerable with themselves and each other.
I did not read Orphan Train for a book club. It was just for me and I recommend it.
I rate this book…..
Four Daisies.
Till next book,
Robin
October is Here
I am so glad that October is here. The nights are cool and the days are warm. Pumpkins are everywhere I look and Halloween plans are being made!
I picked out masks for Larry and myself last week. They are just hanging around and will be used for a number of events that we have been invited to. No costumes. Just masks. Excuse the pun.
Last week, Matilda brought us this sweet gourd. He cannot stand by himself, but we love him and think that he looks like Puff The Magic Dragon. I treasure him daily and he makes me think of Matilda.
When I was a small girl, Puff was an important part of my growing up. When Lauren and Jami were little, Larry would sing the song to them every night. When Larry and I go to the sea, we visit, Hanalei often. Puff is part of the amazing landscape of Hanalei. I cannot wait to return.
It is early, on this Thursday morning. Before the day is done, I must empty the large plant containers on the back patio….here is one last photo….
My favorite pink begonias lasted till October 1st. It must be a sign of good things to come.
Sending you much love today. Be happy.
Love you beyond the moon and stars.
Me
Good Bye September
Isn’t is amazing how fast the month of September went by? The weather has been beautiful and the days busy. I have a few important projects in progress that I hoped to have finished with before October. I guess I failed at that goal.
I do great in the mornings. The light in my studio is the best before noon and my eyes are rested in the AM. The worst part is that I seem to get distracted very easily. Is it my age or is it because what is happening in the world? (9-30-2020)
My mornings go by fast, but my afternoons drag by. I am still reading every day and exercising, but I think that My Larry and I are ready to go stir crazy if life does not get a bit more exciting.
October begins tomorrow! I am excited. Maybe things will change a bit and life will become near-normal for all of us.
Fingers crossed and spit into the wind.
Love you beyond the moon and stars.
Me