My wish for you for Christmas and New years

I stumbled on a story about a women crying at the airport as her daughter was leaving.  The woman and daughter made a statement to each other "I wish you enough."  When asked what they meant, she described this wish below.  It's beautiful and says everything I would like to say to you who follow my blog.

I WISH YOU
"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye."

I want to make a plaque with this saying and hang it at my door, so all who leave will be able to see it.

Time for Thankfulness

Oh my friends,
I must share this was one of the best Thanksgiving feasts I've had in years.  Our friends came over along with my husbands father.  We had shared the cost of a pre-cooked meal and added in our favorites  to it.
I was so busy re-warming food, and putting it out, I forgot to take any pictures of the people or the table setting.
First formal meal in our new home. A lovely relaxed Thanksgiving dinner with no dysfunctional family happenings.  No one arrive wasted or drunk, no arguments, no fighting. Our only disruption was the little dog we were house sitting. She stayed in her kennel while we were eating, and behaved quite well.
We had some Bordeaux wine my husband brought back from his recent travels to France, as well as some Sparkling wine we picked up at Trevari this summer.  Another bottle of wine and some espresso and pie ended our relaxed meal.  It  was so nice to take our time eating, and enjoying the meal, without the stress of a big crowd.  I love my family and our get togethers are interesting for sure, but also stressful for whoever is hosting.  This was simple and lovely and easy to clean up. With leftovers for all who wanted them.
Delightful!
ThankYou to my friends who will always be my family! (even if our kids don't get married and make us inlaws) ; )

Thanksgiving nears

Well it is indeed the night before Thanksgiving. Unlike Christmas or a birthday it doesn't have the wonder and excitement that those days hold.  However, I look forward this year to enjoying the company of friends, as our family is off doing other things.  My brothers and their families live in California, along with numerous cousins and the few remaining aunt and uncles on my dad sides.  My favorite aunt is off in Hawaii, I wish that the funds were available, I would be on a plane last week to be there and share the holiday.  Once my daughter finishes school, I will be taking far more trips to visit family.

I keep seeing where people are posting that they have set their tables and are ready for the big day tomorrow.
I'm still unpacking boxes to locate my china.  Haha.  I don't have enough storage space. arg  I found a lovely little pillow someone posted on their blog.  choose joy

It says Choose JOY!  Love it!  It can be so hard sometimes to concentrate on the things that irritate us, like kids who don't call home, or places I would like to be at or do.  But rather than focus on that, choosing Joy to focus on, what makes you happy, even if you don't have those things.

  I'm hoping that my daughter enjoys her turkey sandwich at school tomorrow.  London doesn't have Thanksgiving. On the other hand she has the joy of going to school in England, following her own dreams.

I'm hoping that all my other family enjoy their day, what ever they may be doing.  Although family can be a nuisance sometimes, its nice to know you have some.   I always kind of wished I lived in a giant clan inside a castle. That's until you get there, and think what was I thinking.

Seeing a new side

I love my husband, and I know after 30+ years his quirks and moods.  What I love is that most people do not.  To our friends and most people he does not work with, he presents as a gentle rather soft spoken soul. He is congenial and has a humor often compared to British humor.  He also enjoys what I would call humor of things like South Park and Futurama.

This is a man who brews beer for the joy of the end product, recreating tastes he remembers from England.  He does what is expected of him because he is conscientious and responsible for his family. He is a loving and gentle father, who has a daughter who wants nothing but praise from her daddy.









So imagine the surprise of our friends as we set around a table sharing dinner and tasting wines as a night fun, when the conversation began to be heated at his end of the table.
 Suddenly he was slamming the table to get the attention of those he was conversing with, to get their attention and make his point, that he wanted to be heard! Several times he was banging the table, as wine classes shook and plates jumped.  I know this man, I've seen this a few times over the years, but its rarely shared out side of the work place.  I know this man can be strong and create a sense of dread at work.  He's often sent to straighten out problems, he co-chairs a world committee  for FAA requirements. He is not a push over, although, some may think so.  I loved that he shared that side of himself to our friends.  These are friends we've had ranging from 30 to recent years.  It was amazing to see their responses.

I don't really remember the wines we had that night except that none of them really tickled my taste buds.  Perhaps it was the fact that we thought we should do wines that were under 15 dollars, so instead of going for our standard wines we've become accustomed to, such as 14 hands, cupcake, manage a trois, we all went out looking for something more exotic and the deal! You know the" I got it for under 15 but really its a more expensive wine on sale type."   I won't remember the wines of the night, but I will remember the night.  I'll rate this wine as Mr G, vintage '58, with humor, strength, gentle, loving, and surprising!  A variety worth having in your in cabinet!

a sewing feeling coming on

Ok its October, its nearing Halloween in fact.  I have not formally set up my craft/sewing room, But i do have access to my sewing machine.

I'm having that urge to sew something, fabulous and delicious.   I was browsing some patterns through Vogue and found this lovely.  I like the style of the color blocking and that it really accents the waist.  It's sleeveless which seems to be my favorite kind of dress.  It's not that I have attractive arms, its that I can wear a light sweater or jacket as needed.  I always feel constricted in tailored long sleeve garments.  ugh. but this does make me want to buy the pattern and try it out. This is Vogue V1329.  I'm craving a new coat as well but can't decide whether I want to try making one or go through the purchase process.  Because its complicated and I can't find the fabrics I would prefer, I will probably go purchase one.  My last anorak coat I bought was 20 years ago.  I didn't realize so much time passed.  I wear it a lot  in winter, and it had a lovely fleece lining, with lightweight  filling, but its definitely looking its 20 years these days.  I purchased it right after my daughter was born. I bought it a size big so I could wrap her inside of it with me, when she was in a sling.
Its now like 3 sizes to big, but in some ways that makes it uber comfortable.

So before I can take this on, I must first attack my friends footstool. It will be a pretty easy project, and needs a new cover made for it. But that's incentive to move on to something else.

Are you ready for Halloween?  I kinda am.  I want to put out my decorations tomorrow which is late for me, but hey its before the day its self right?  Also the majority of my decorations fall under the category of FALL decorations not only Halloween so they will carry me through Thanksgiving.  So this weekend, has 2 goals, hang my art which has been in boxes since moving, and seasonal decorations.

Wine, wine and more wine

OH MY!
We went over to Prosser for a crush last weekend at Airfield. There was a wine makers dinner, and we were with 2 other couples.  The food in all honesty was so so.  Seems like anytime you're in a large group its going to be that way, some of it cold, some not so good,  but hey they served wine with EVERY course.
Our friend who had a vegan meal was probably way better off. her food was always hot, and they wanted to make sure she like it. Not the case with the regular Joe meal. Next time I'm ordering vegetarian.  Of course that just got us started so we headed back to our hotel and shared a couple more bottles.
The following day, my hubs and I went swimming for a bit, while the others participated in a 5k run.
We then all went back to the winery, and had lunch, with Wine of course!  We sat with the owner of the winery for a bit and talked about his involvement in  the winery and how much work went on during the harvest season.  He told us they had 20,000 pounds of grapes for the crush to be foot stomped.  we probably did about 100 pounds, sorry we weren't in the mood for stomping as much as we were for drinking.  With more wine on board, we stomped a bit between the 6 of us, and then hosed off and headed into Prosser to shop.  Its a small town but they have some unique and well priced antique shops. I only bought a small piece of green depression glass this time.  I had my eye out for a much bigger piece like another side board, but naught was to come to my attention. Delicious dinner was had by all at Tuscany a little Italian restaurant. Followed by a trip over to Monkey business, a toy and liquor store.  Talk about a weird mix of things. We stocked up on some vodka as we were tired of wine. Went back to the hotel and partied in the common area/breakfast room.  Feeling like college students again,( Our kids are all grown and living on their own mostly- with plenty of help from the parents of course) we were able to let our hair down, kick off our shoes and party down!
Yep til the next morning, it all catches up to you. Gotta love that wine!!
Pictures are a few and will post soon.

I want to scream from the rooftops!

Oh I do love my offspring, but I want to scream from the rooftops.......Get over yourself and get a job!!!!!
why can't  she understand when we said YOU have to help yourself this year That we really meant it?
Her new digs are more expensive and she is still settling old bills from the previous house.  I know she applied for jobs, but she doesn't understand the concept of follow up.  That a week or a few days after you should stop by and say "Hi, I'm really interested in that position, and hope I can interview"  Argh I love my child, but wish upon wishes that she would take that step of actually realizing that its time for her to help her self.  She will soon be 21 and besides dancing has only held 1 summer job.
By her age, I had supported myself for three years, gotten into college, and did what I could with absolutely no parental support.  In fact it was pretty much, oh you graduated from high school- your out of here, 2 weeks after I graduated. My husbands family was more generous, but they still expected him to hold a job either for them or someone else. He worked from a young age, so what the hell?  Yes I'm ranting. and I will stop now. The unfortunate part is that she won't read this and has no idea how disappointing it is to see her lack of interest in supporting herself at all. In her mind its ok that her parents work more, to make her life be the dream.