Thrift shopping with the girls

Nancy and I had such fun last Thursday thrift shopping and having lunch with Mary Anne and Paula.

They really know the best shops in the Temecula area. What bargains!!!

 Mary Anne on the hunt.

A dance studio that had gone out of business next door to the thrift shop...

We chuckled at the irony of their signage.

 Show and tell when we got home.
Mary Anne found a cute blouse.

Nancy unloads her purchases while Paula and Mary Anne ooh and ahh.

Everybody admires Nancy's cache of cookie cutters. Mary Anne downs the last of her latte.

The perfect end to a wonderful day.

Zendala # 91

Thanks to The Bright Owl for the template

Bird foster mom

I had the privilege of taking care of Paula and John Mannings' newly adopted parakeet for the weekend.

It was a lost bird rescued from Marci and Tom's yard. Paula and Marci captured it with a butterfly net.

The Mannings were scheduled for a motor home trip so I stepped in to care for the bird.

I could tell Paula and John (well, especially Paula) had already gotten attached to the bird.

Paula bought it a pretty blue cage. John added some dowels.

The Mannings are back from their trip. The bird is back in its' new home and seems to be settling in quite well. Paula has been back to the pet store and now the bird has lots of new playthings. It's been determined that it's probably a girl. She has a new name..."Happy".

I think it's perfect!

Also this weekend Nancy and I went to Balboa Park with Debbie. We went to the wonderful Mingei Museum and among other things saw an exhibit of chairs, called Please Be Seated...very interesting!

My favorite- the iconic Eames chair.

Another exhibit was called Function And Fantasy. The art of two brothers, Steven and William Ladd, featuring craft, fashion, and design.

We also saw this amazing couple outside of the museum," Tribal Baroque". We had seen them sing and dance once before. They are very unusual, to say the least, and I really enjoyed them.

They meshed perfectly with the art of Function and Fantasy at the Mingei.

We topped off the afternoon with a delicious dinner at Debbie's. She made the best, and most exotic, macaroni and cheese. She's a wonderful cook. What a great day!

Then home to my waiting bird. I had left the radio on for it so I hope it wasn't too lonesome.

Zentangles

Travel Fashions

My neighbor, Don, shows off his travel destinations ...and his sense of humor!

A visit to Los Angeles and the L.A. Art Show with Suzanne McNeill

Suzanne was here for her annual visit to the Craft and Hobby Show.

We usually get together with her after the show. This time we went to L.A. for the L.A. Art Show. What a treat! We did so much more than just the show.

We started out with lunch at Phillipe's, famous for french dip sandwiches.
It's a saw-dust on the floor- sit with your neighbors kind of place.
 

I had a pickled egg, which they're also known for.

It made a nice pink stain on the plate which I couldn't resist "tangling".

It's right across the street from Olvera Street. Suzanne had never been there so we we took a quick tour.

We stayed in downtown L.A. at the Sheraton Hotel. We wandered through some of the lobbies of the beautiful old buildings.

Another L.A. street scene-

Before the Art show we went to the Natural History Museum to see the Silk Road exhibit which was very interesting and then to a lecture that night on the Tea Horse Road. We had just been talking about Lisa See who writes wonderful books about China. And there she was sitting a few rows in front of us.

We also saw the exhibits that the museum is famous for. This is just a small sample of the wonderful  dioramas.

Then on to the L.A. Art Show at the Convention Center.

There was so much art we got sensory overload. Some of them were by very famous artists like this one by Andy Warhol.

Here's another by Andy. It's not a painting. It's just a printed piece from a Campbells' Soup ad.

He's scribbled in some writing on it and the gallery was selling it for several thousand dollars.

And I mean several. I forget how much but I think it was about 20-30,000.

Don't we look like part of the painting? 

Penny Raile, Nancy, me, and Suzanne. 

Penny met us at the show. She lives in a great loft in the Arts Section of L.A. which we visited the last time we were in L.A. with Suzanne. (It made me jealous. I'd love to live in a loft in L.A.)

Robert Sommers from The Blue Heron Gallery in Fallbrook had a booth with a lot of wonderful paintings. Here he is charming some customers. It looks like they've got their wallets out.

Robert was kind enough to get us tickets to the show. (Thanks, Robert!)

Nancy and Suzanne with a very Zentangled- looking piece of sculpture.

The next day we were leaving our hotel which adjoins a mall with Macy's. There had been a Guatemalan exhibit at the show and these guys must have been staying at our hotel. We saw them going up the escalator. We knew by their costumes they were from Chichicastenango. They were so surprised that we knew that and that we had been there. 

We had such a great time and packed so much into 2 1/2 days.
It's always so much fun to be with Suzanne.

A visit to the new downtown San Diego Library

A little too modern for my taste.

This is more like it!

It's right near Petco Park.

A sushi place across the street, with an unfortunate symbol. 

 Didn't make me want to eat there.

The library was wonderful and we had a great time.

Our holiday visitors at Wavecrest, Del Mar

Lori, Barbara (Lori's mother), and Steve came for a pizza dinner.

It was really enjoyable even with a couple of kind of funny mishaps.

First of all the pizza wasn't very good and was cold when it was delivered. So we put it in the oven (in the box) to warm it up. Somehow the oven was on broil! Flames were shooting out of the box when we opened the oven. Yikes!! Steve put the fire out-- our hero!

The fire left a truly miraculous depiction of angel wings on the pizza box.

Lori always brings a bottle of my favorite Bailey's Irish Cream.

This is what it looks like if you don't shake it up before pouring.

 Not so much of a mishap, but for some reason it sure made us laugh. We were just in the mood for laughing. And we laughed the whole rest of the fun evening.

Christmas Present- Del Mar 2013

My last post was Christmas Past.

Here's the present-

A winter day in Del Mar. Sorry Easterners!

Always lots of picture-taking.

And bathing beauties:

And dogs ( mostly white ones):

There are seagulls to be fed (with left-over Christmas croissants):

Every year there's a sand-snowman:

And a wedding

A memorial (?)

Our Christmas centerpiece...and only Christmas tree- a rosemary plant.

Nancy decorated it with part of her huge collection of Hallmark ornaments- the tiniest ones.

Nancy and Bob relax after Christmas dinner.

The end of a nice Christmas Day:

The Old Lady and the Sea

(and another beautiful sunset)