It's Girly Time

Ali and Lynne.

 It's not very often that I have the chance to get together with my girlfriends. Most of my time is spent at home with our three male dogs, one male cat, my husband and son. The other girl in the house besides me is my 16 year old kitty (Lucy) who sleeps in my closet most of the time. Needless to say, I LOVE spending time with my girlfriends. It brings me back to myself and reminds me how much I LOVE being a girl.

This time we got together for the day and did a little vintage shopping at one of our favorite places, Ahab Bowen Vintage, in Dallas. Having first discovered this place in the 80's, I was sweetly surprised that it is still the same - no, it's better! Reasonably priced, clean, and fun: that's how I would describe their collection of vintage clothing, shoes and accessories. My favorite room is in the back - the men's section. Hats, coats, suits, ties and shoes! I never walk away without a treasure or two.  This time I walked in with some treasures:  Lynne, Ali and Nikki.  Love love LOVE those girls!!

Every girl needs something sparkley.



I want them aaallll!



One fantastic pair after another!



Different discounts for different tag colors = FUN!

 

The perfect hat for Ali.



Hello!

I'm so happy they are still around!

Scat

The neon beckoned us down the long alley and
into an elevator that took us down to heaven.

  This weekend, a dear friend of mine came to visit and we decided to stay up past our bedtimes, but we didn't want to be the oldest people in the room.  Just our luck, we stumbled upon the coolest place I've been to in AGES.  I'd heard about Scat Lounge in downtown Fort Worth, and was curious to see if it lived up to it's image.  After all, it has a tough act to follow.  In high school, my fellow band buddies and I would sneak our way into a tiny jazz club in Dallas called the 6051 Club on Forrest Lane, because it made us feel like grown-ups but mostly because the music was so fantastic.  I don't remember the names of any of the musicians we saw, but there were many.  Scat reminds me of this place.  The clientele is low key, great music is the focus and the drinks are de-lish.  My friend, Lynne, and I spent the night gabbing, and trying to nail a good shot of Joel Cross, the performer that night.  You can see her shots here and here.  I think I learned something that night, dirty martini's and all.  I need to stay up past my bedtime more often.

Some Perspective Today

After Years

Today, from a distance, I saw you

walking away, and without a sound

the glittering face of a glacier

slid into the sea. An ancient oak

fell in the Cumberlands, holding only

a handful of leaves, and an old woman

scattering corn to her chickens looked up

for an instant. At the other side

of the galaxy, a star thirty-five times

the size of our own sun exploded

and vanished, leaving a small green spot

on the astronomer's retina

as he stood in the great open dome

of my heart with no one to tell.

Ted Kooser, from his book of poetry called "Delights & Shadows" which won the Pulitzer Prize. He is the 13th Poet Laureate of the United States.

Happy Tuesday.

Mom's Ice Cream

This is my mother, circa 1976, as she was photographed by one of the great loves in her life, Ivan White. He was a Navy pilot, artist and photographer and they were crazy about each other. After they married, we moved to Saudi Arabia for three years while he worked for Saudia Airlines.

Today would have been her 68th birthday. She passed away from a rare blood disease about 5 years ago. Since her death, for some crazy reason, I've felt closer to her than ever. Perhaps this is because I've been slowly going through her recipe box, attempting to remake some of the things she made for me and my brother and sister as we were growing up. I have some very happy memories that took place over a plate or bowl of my mother's wonderful cooking.

One of her best recipes is her Homemade Ice Cream recipe. She made this for us when we lived in Saudi Arabia (as noted on the back of the recipe card). We three kids had to hand crank that dang ice cream maker for what seemed like HOURS. We HAD hours to crank that thing because there wasn't any television on the compounds back then.

I love making this for my kiddo. He goes bananas for it, too! I can feel his grandmother around us when we dig into a big bowl of creamy yumminess. And today, I make it with an electric ice cream maker (yay). It isn't as tiring, but the wait just about kills my son!

In honor of my mother's birthday and what a fabulous cook she was, I'm sharing her recipe with you. Its really easy to make: if I can do it, anyone can do it.

If you want a little something in your vanilla ice cream, add it to the maker about half way through the mixing time. This time we added M&M's.

Enjoy!

Mom's Homemade Ice Cream (1 gallon)

1 quart milk

4 eggs

3-4 cups sugar

1 T. cornstarch

dash of salt

1 pint whipping cream

1 pint half & half

2 T. vanilla

In a large pan scald 1 qt. milk. Place in bowl 4 eggs, whip slightly. In another bowl combine 3 - 4 cups sugar, 1 T. cornstarch and salt. Add to egg mixture, slowly, stirring.

Pour scalded milk over egg mixture, slowly, stirring.

Put all back in pan and cook and stir until sticks to spoon. Let cool.

Add to cooled mixture 1 pint whipping cream, 1 pint half & half and 2 T. vanilla.

Follow the instructions for your ice cream maker and enjoy! :D

Oooo Baby Baby

You're looking at the first of the photos I've taken with my new Lensbaby. We've all been sick with the flu around here, so learning how to use this doohicky properly will have to wait. It looks like I'm in for some FUN though!

Be well.

The Wedding Reception

The reception for my brother and his new bride was wonderful. I managed to finish the cake toppers and get them painted by the time the cake was delivered. Isn't that cake cute??? It was made by Creme de la Creme in Fort Worth, TX, who also made my sister-in-law's wedding cake. Deeeelish!


The grooms cake was made and decorated by my son (with some help from Daddy). He saw Mommy making the birds out of Sculpey for the wedding cake and decided he'd make some cake toppers too! There are four ducks swimming in a lake, with a "guy" and a horse looking on. I think Herb really liked it. Beautiful!

The paper Calla Lillies were the favors the guests took home. I made these flowers from beautiful hand made seeded paper from RecycledIdeas.etsy.com. Holly, from RecycledIdeas, went out of her way to make this gorgeous paper and get it to me quickly so I could finish all of these in time, and I really appreciate that.

I got the idea for these flowers from a great book I got from the library called Fast, Fun & Easy Fabric Flowers by Karen Flamme. The book includes detailed instructions on how to make lots of different flowers from fabric, though I decided to make these from paper. The flowers can be enjoyed as they are, or the paper can be removed and easily germinated to grow wildflowers. Holly sent me easy to understand directions which I included with each flower. Fun!

Lotus on a Caddo Lake Honeymoon

I just have to share these beautiful photos my brother and his new bride took on their honeymoon at Caddo Lake State Park in East Texas this past weekend. Aren't they amazing?

Congratulations, Herb and Katrina. I'm so happy for you two I could just burst.

Holiday Wishes

The mountains were so beautiful this Christmas. Lots of snow, lots of animals, two trips to Taos and my favorite bookstore. Here are some photos.

This is the house.

Deer came up to see us.

This is my favorite seat in the house. I could sit here all day.

A New Year's Day walk in the fresh snow.

My cutie and I rest in the snow. He always leaves a big impression. (sorry)

My favorite bookstore. Moby Dickens in Taos, NM. I never walk out empty handed because I always find something interesting there. They have a GREAT art section. And Ruby is a sweet bookstore kitty.

And my snowangel.

So now the Christmas decorations are down, my cup is filled with inspiration and I'm ready to make some things. Where to start????

The Line-Up

Some 'paper dolls' or rather 'paper action figures' that my family and I made during a full day of cutting and pasting. They hang over our kitchen table. Someday they might all get wings and become ornaments on our Christmas tree...