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Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot believe I will begin my 4th year of recording and sharing my personal minutiae, thoughts, ponderings and such with you.

Well, before we get started on this brand spanking new 2009, let me share with you that those exclamations marks are truly for decoration sake. I'm actually quite the meloncholic kid on the eve of the new year. I must have my last piece of fruit cake, watch The Apartment (ummm some years I have actually watched the movie more than once, back to back. Can I share that with you?), and start a crochet project.

Rituals.

It's not that I'm getting older, I've been this way every new year's eve since I was at least nine years old. I have a cassette tape filled with my sad, nostalgic, melancholic musings back on NYE 1980. It's funny now but back then, I was so serious. I filled an entire tape with lists of what I'd miss, predictions for the new dacade, an interview with my seven year old brother and his thoughts on the upcoming decade (babble), my thoughts on old silver screen stars that died in the 70's, and taped conversations from the adult get together.

Man, that's one trippy tape.

However, I will feel completely different in the morning. My whole attitude will change. Happens every year. I'll wake up ready and willing and happy to start the year fresh and new.

Wishing you all happy and successful plans!

This will only take a minute because I need to get back to my holiday cheer:

My mom and I ventured into The Domain {echo...The Domain} and went into the Shabby Chic store. We found where to go when we need: tiny little crowns, chandeliers, overstuffed, egg shelled colored couches, old looking knick knacks galore, candles, oh yes, beat up tin candle holders and knick knacks, by the bucket full, knick knacks that look all beaten up, scratched and damaged.

Back in the late 80's I used to watch a show called Style with Elsa Klensch, like, religiously. One day it sort of went away and Rachel Ashwell appeared with her decorating show. It looked okay but I didn't have a house, I was in school and I wasn't thinking of nesting so the whole interior decorating thing turned me off, I was 19 or so. Ashwell would go to flea markets with her camera crew and tell you what odd trinket to buy and how to put it to use as a knick knack in your home. I figured it was really brainless, and wondered why my important, thirty minute Style show had been removed.

This Shabby Chic thing never went away. I still don't get it. Why decorate your home in such a way to make you feel like the ceiling is going to cave in on you and the walls purge their paint job. I love vintage but shabby makes me feel crummy. I feel like I need to sand, strip and re-paint. It does not inspire anything remotely relaxing, it makes me feel like I have a ton of work to do and that I've hit rock bottom. I can't stand the peeling, white paint look, the carefully placed clutter or all the baskets where drawers should be. There is a pastel color scheme, like living with Easter eggs. I've never visited a shabbily chiqued out home and I hope I'm not being too offensive, just not for me.

I can't see this sort of thing in a mcmansion. I see this stuff in the old dilapidated shed/garage found behind older homes. But why would anyone want to do that? In an older home this decorating style just seems silly. Seems to me putting old looking, falling apart stuff in an older home makes it look older and showcases the flaws and wear. But, come to think of it, I did live in a rental once: 3707 Red River to be exact. It was practically a shack, and, yes, this sort of stuff would have looked good there. So there you go. I just had a mild epiphany. Still, the place looked like it was about to fall at any moment and surrounding myself with Shabby Chicness would have added to the anxiety but I'm saying I see the venue for such a style.

We went to El Paso Imports to look around and the furniture is from Romania and India (I asked), it's beaten up furniture so they take some funky paint to it, add some funky lil knobs and handles, do that faux antique finish and sell you this piece for a few hundred. After looking at that stuff with bad paint jobs, I thought, if I did this to a bureau I'd throw it out, I wouldn't try to sell it. Yet, they sell tons enough. What do I know? Just think it's all sort of silly but my mom and I had a fun time deconstructing it.

See you next year!

Feliz Navidad!

I'm finally off and able to enjoy baking,making,reading,laughing,sleeping,knitting,lounging,socializing, watching and just relaxing. Today I received a Christmas gift from Mr Gage: To die for vintage Italian made sunglasses from the late 60's. Something he had lying around. Thank you Robert!

Austin 1962

Speaking of Route 66, my husband and I got the 2nd season and watched an episode filmed in Austin. It was so cool to see 12th Street, the hospital, Maharis and Milner were all over that part of town. We wondered who was in the crowd of extras that gathered around Buz who had succumbed to hysterical blindness in the episode called: Even Stones have Eyes.

You can read an interview that mentions Maharis and this episode here.

The Saints and pigeons along Route 66

I have come to love the show Route 66. It was filmed along the real Route 66 and for four years Tod and Buz went up and down in their lil Corvette to Nelson Riddle, taking odd jobs, saving atomic age damsels in distress and becoming involved in all sorts of lives and drama.

Chicago, Illinois,Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. I am partial to the latter half of the route. I really dig the desert and the how the whole Route 66 mystique plays into it. I like to do the show over in my mind, except this time it's me and my cool friend Parisa driving up and down the highway. She is hip to all that empty space and how it makes a person feel. She knows what to make of dirt and sky. Dreamy. There are Saints to discover, hidden and forgotten corners of the map to visit, a billion things to talk about because Parisa is a person of many interests and filled with oodles of information, and then there are pigeons to save. The ride would be a silver and chromed 1965 Shelby Cobra and Morrissey created the soundtrack.

Thoughts of Parisa always inspire adventure and vice-versa. She can do domestic with ease and loads of grace as well. She sews in the company of the cutest little midnight tuxedo kitty by her side. She works with lavender and vintage fabrics and Dark Shadows plays on. There is this thing that Parisa does and it seems so natural and so much a part of her and that is to assemble. She creates wonderful collages. Even a casual snapshot has a composition to it that is so Parisa. I have wondered what life is like through Parisa's Picasso tainted eyes. She is truly gifted with beauty (never a bad photo and always with an air of glamour and mystery), her mind and soul capture beauty and she is able to articulate and express it seemingly effortlessly. Life is not always beautiful but she takes the bits and pieces that are or are not and creates small masterpieces that result in millions of tiny little thoughts, thousands upon thousands of mini inspirations and inner chatting with the Divine. Real artist are like this.

Merry Christmas Parisa, it's about generosity and I'm celebrating a generous spirit and that is you.

Accomplishment

I completed a project and it's only midnight. Christmas cards. Pictured is the prototype.
I made them from the old card catalog cards Kat, Claude and I swiped when the last one in use in the office was disposed of last year. It was a big geekouttotitlestypedonheavyweightpaperstock party. I remember us squealing with delight finding titles to our favorite books. We all parted with big plastic bags that were filled to capacity and sort of giving out due to the weight from the amount of cards. We picked out each one, reading two at a time, trading fast, gabbing and grabbing. When we finished and stood up, backs wrecked from an hour and half or more of stooping over cards and ransacking drawers, it was only then that I think we realized how gone we had been. I wish I could have saved every single card but ...uh, I didn't want to go from almost pack rat to down right hoarder. However, now that I found a use for them, I do wish I had more. I purchased a fancy paper puncher and it just sort of came together. Unplannedlike.

Inside I typed Peace On Earth with my Underwood.
Glad I put it to use.
It's been awhile.
Do I sound pretentious?


Good.

Check out these awesome links:
The Virtual Museum of Cataloging and Acquisitions Artifacts
Library History Buff
Catalog Card Generator

Don't worry about us chickens

I became responsible for my tiny flock in April of this past year. I opened up an old Breyers ice cream container filled with hay and out pooped, new to the world, six lil guys all with their own personalities. Not knowing who was a hen or a roo I gave them all unisex names. After months of guesswork and finally a crow: I am left with Ducky:named because the first thing she did was jump into her water dish, loved it and remained, Fuzztop (obvious) and Peewee named because she was the youngest at only one hour old when I got her.

Now, that they are full grown and prolific layers despite everything I read about Bantam Silkies. I still worry about them but not nearly as much. Having a raccoon visit their pad really creeped me out. The holes and trenchesthis thing dug. I'm convinced he used our shovel. It was only recently that I learned chickens can really take the cold in ways I didn't know. Here I was with the heat lamp but mine actually enjoy the freezing temps. I found them yesterday enjoying the cold wind. Okay then. As long as they don't get wet, they can take really low temperatures.

What is funny is seeing how huge Ducky is. That's my fault. When she was five weeks old she came down with a cold. I didn't know it was a cold though and thought she was dying. I stayed up with her for a few nights, into the wee hours, trying to nurse her back to health. As a result, she sort of "flourished". Her extra poundage helps keep PeeWee warm. PeeWee has never broken the habit of trying to crawl under a wing. She is constantly looking for a "wing" to crawl under. Fuzztop isthe more independent hen and refuses to be carried and wants to perch on your hand instead. She'll ruffle her feathers and try to fly and make a huge commotion unless you allow her to stand on your arm or hand while you escort her..

They seem to be enjoying their first winter. For Christmas they are getting a new and improved pad. One with a pvc roof, critter proof floors and better insulated. Josh at www.mobilechickencoops.com makes the best chicken coops ever!

Happiness is our chiminea.

Oh please, Mr Snow Miser,

make it freeze up tomorrow morning, ice, sleet, some snow, whatever it takes to stop traffic and to call off work (at least until 3pm) so all of us state workers can stay home and wrap gifts, bake cookies, catch up on the Rankin and Bass and just sleep in. And uh, can all this get started at 4am, that way the 5am and 6am'ers aren't stuck en route to work?

Pass me the eggnog and I'll give you the minutiae

Proud to say that for as much as I adore eggnog and constantly think of it this season, I've still yet to sip any. I was offered some last night and I even replied," YEAH,SURE!!!!!". However, something happened and my aunt completely forgot about it while we watched Christmas in Connecticut and I never received my rumless cup of. I was good, I didn't bring it up again. I'd like to reward myself with a nice 6oz serving of Promiseland eggnog with dark rum topped with a generous tablespoon of nutmeg. Yum!

Wm and I are really on this El Patio dinner/Frisco for breakfast kick. Comfort food, does indeed comfort. What I love about El Patio is how everything tastes like you time traveled back to 1967 and stopped for Mexican food at some cafe along the side of a highway:90, Route 66 maybe... I don't drink coffee but my husband tells me their coffee is great. I dig the pralines and sherbert. We are really loving the new Frisco location. If you want the best service ever for breakfast, park yourself at the bar. Careful though, you can get talked into anything up there.

I've been drinking tons of hot apple cider. The eggnog sub. Found that Archer Farms makes a great organic mulling spice in several flavors. You can have really Christmas tasting, hot, spiced apple cider without spending a lot of time slicing and simmering and it's all natural, like 100%. Plus it makes your whole house smell like the Christmas Song.

We have discovered Beany and Cecil cartoons. Can't get enough of them now.

The VW Vinyl Killer: heard of it? Mine needs a home. Taken out of the box three times, really well cared for. Nice lil novelty item to amuse your friends with at holiday parties. Happy to have found a forever home for the many sealed, blank reel-to-reel tapes I had. Yes, the variety of odds and ends I once possessed is extraordinary. Isn't it always though? Let's dig through your boxes.

No, I cannot be found on any social network sites.

Shhhhhhhhh I found out that for Christmas I will receive the book: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I have been wanting to read this book since I was a kid after hearing Bugs Bunny cartoons refer to it quite a bit, at least twice. At the time I found it too thick of a pictureless book. I forgot all about it until I picked up a 1944 needlework magazine and found a full page ad for it. So I filed it away with the other mental notes. I ran across it at Target of all places. Turns out the novel found new life in 2005. It's about time I read it so I placed it on my Xmas list. Time to clean out the mental note file as well, it's unorganized and spilling over. Nice thing to do in January.

I found some cute vintage Christmas decor. I swore I wasn't going to look for it. I swore if I found it I wouldn't buy it. I swore I had enough. Oh well. This year there seemed to be less of it, like much less of it so I used that excuse to rationalize my newest purchases.

My Christmas cards are all created and awaiting their send off. This year I opted for something rather serious instead of the usual kitschy/ funny photo or the sparkly, die cut, vintage styled ho-ho-ho kind. I made them using cards from the old UT card catalog. I was looking at Christmas cards the other day and though they were all perfectly lovely, none of them fit my mood this holiday season. We had an awesome election,there is no place left to go but up! However, our new president is going to have to clean up a massive mess.
It's all about Peace on Earth.

I'm officially out of stock. Sold just about all my Tiki Monkey items. Time to start again.

Fantasyland

That was the name of Joskes' 4th floor after Thanksgiving until New Years. My brother and I were taken there for Christmas a few times in the 70's. We waited in line to speak to Santa who sat in a castle. The entire floor seemed decked out. I could be wrong, it could have been a small corner of the floor but it made a huge impression. I remember the fake blankets of snow and heavy, red, velvet fabric draping Christmas displays that held giant talking bears and other stuffed animals. There was a train that went around the displays. I also remember once begging to be taken to the 4th floor when it wasn't the Christmas season. It was completely unimpressive. A few shelves of toys, windows, not much. It was not a Fantasyland year round.> Whoever was involved in putting the display together worked hard and magically to turn that room into a Christmas wonderland. It was really something.

Joskes was really something. Every trip to San Antonio was spent with several hours at Joskes. We'd shop and have lunch then shop have a snack and then leave. I remember trying yogurt for the first time at the Fountain Room. It was lemon flavored and served in a waffle cone. Completely new to me. I remember thinking: When I grow up I want to get married in Joskes. There seemed to be so much elegance. I can't remember what was ever bought there and why we were there for so long. I remember mirrors, dressing rooms, being given popcorn in a small bag and told to sit and hold my brother's hand. There seemed to be so many escalators and floors and rooms. There were more people in the windowless, bargain basement filled with big square tables, than anywhere else, or so it seemed.

The 1970's still held bits and pieces of that booming, post-war American culture. Joskes held on to it as long as they could. Whatever was bought at Joskes in the early 70's was boxed in an [almost] Tiffany blue colored box and tied with a string. There was even tissue! My grandmother still has some faded blue Joskes boxes in her closet.

My Favorite Christmas

Albums:
10.Christmas Album by Herp Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
9. The Ventures' Christmas Album
8. Merry Xmas From the Space-Age Bachelor Pad
7. Mambo Santa Mambo: Christmas From the Latin Lounge
6. Christmas With The Rat Pack
5. A Merry Christmas with Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
4. Most Fabulous Christmas Album Ever
3. A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector
2. Elvis Presley, "Elvis' Christmas Album"
1. The Vince Guaraldi Trio, "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

Movies:
1. It's a Wonderful Life tied with A Christmas Story
2. Christmas in Connecticut
3. The Apartment

Songs:
1. The Christmas Waltz
2. Silent Night
3. The Bells of Christmas [ Greensleeves] - Sinatra

Merry Chickmas?

On Fruitcake

For years our Grandpa Randy would give our family a Collin Street Bakery De-Luxe Fruitcake. I loved it. I still do. It's moist, lots of pecans and it's kitschy (per professional bakers who say anything containing glazed cherries is kitschy). Now that Grandpa Randy is gone, the De-Luxe is a big tradition. I look forward to ordering a tin of fruitcake every year. I cut small slices and eat it as a snack after lunch all season. Incidentally, I also have a gym membership. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to devour it as I do. Sharing: no one has ever accepted a serving. Most people just don't like fruitcake. Most have never tried it but base their decision on the old cliche.

I have tried other fruitcakes and found them to be either dry, [more] chemical saturated [than I'm used to]. Some have this...hmm... whatever that currant aftertaste is... or are so sweet they make my teeth ache. I love homemade and my mom did that a few years. But I always go back to the De-Luxe. The minute I put the first slice in my mouth I can see Grandpa Randy sporting his Sunday best standing in the doorway with a bag of gifts in one hand and the fruitcake tin in the other. I can hear The Christmas Waltz by Peggy Lee and smell stuffed mushrooms baking. The house was warm and the as the door closed it sent a puff of cold air felt on my ankles. It's weird how the mind takes a picture, glad that it does. I must have been ten or eleven.

Whether you like fruitcake or not this is a a tres interesting blog to browse at Christmastime if you are in the market for a fruitcake or want to know more about it without actually partaking in more than just a distant, casual interest. To be honest, I love just looking at fruitcakes. They look more like Christmas to me than any other food or dessert out there. They just sparkle. I'm no food snob.

It doesn't matter what you like at Christmas, they have gourmet eggnogs,fruitcakes and stollen made with top shelf , organic ingredients that make you feel good when you gobble it all down. But it really doesn't matter, this is the season of silver garland, kitschy elves and plastic nativity scenes with smudgy faces poorly painted on the Holy Family, it's all good.

Here we goooooooooooooo

Christmas specials on tv, a stack of Christmas CDs in the car, it's hard to stay still, different memories, plans, projects, scenes, recipes,lists pop in and out of my mind all day long. I can take Christmas music all day long. Yes, I am one of THOSE people. While at work I'm plugged into it.
So much to do. Can't wait for the tree to arrive to decorate it! St Nicholas Day is on the 6th! So much to bake.