It Feels Like Fall When. . .

It feels a lot like Fall when the pumpkins are floating in the pool at Swim School, and the kids get to use them as floats! And. . . Riley's favorite, Pa's Pumpkin Patch, which is just a bit down PCH from Swim School, opens tomorrow! Life is good when you are three years old!

White Wednesday

My "White Wednesday" post is running late like I have been this week. Seems like there is never enough "time" these days. This "White Wednesday", I'm in my home office, which is a random collection of things I love. When I'm working and writing, it's nice to be surrounded by my favorite things, like the old tin architectural piece above. When I look at this old cabinet that is filled with vintage Hawaiana, my mind can wander back to the beaches in Maui, a quick escape for days my brain is on overload!Vintage buoys, an old white stool, shells, and old locker drawers, and a globe; just a few more of my favorite things.A vintage architectural piece above an old Coca-Cola advertising sign, is on the wall across from my desk. Something I enjoy looking at from time to time. A favorite birthday present from my son earlier this year is also across from my desk. Here's my "office staff" that make it totally impossible at times to get any work done! They battle over which one of them can get right next to me!My office is eclectic, as is my home, filled with not only things I love, but those in my life I love as well! For some great photos of other "White Wednesdays", go visit Kathleen she is our gracious "White Wednesday" hostess!

"RuFie"

A while back, Ruthie had sent Riley a garden book. Riley is always picking it up and looking at it, she loves the book. And she always says, "this is RuFie's book she sent me"! I love the way she says "RuFie"! Ruthe's daughter, Susan, sold the house and is moving back to Ohio. She too has been through a lot, and it is time for everyone to look forward to better days. Bryce went over last week and got "my rose", that Ruthie had given me. I'm working in my garden preparing it for my Fall plants and Ruthie's rose. Believe me, it will look better than it does in this picture very soon!I could have gone to the estate sale at the house before everyone else. But as I said in a previous post, I couldn't go into a "house" that use to be a "home" filled with so many memories. And my fondest memories were those of our Country Roads "Operation Sell" meetings. They will always hold a place in my heart! I was working at Country Roads last week, and I saw those little kids rain boots above, they were in Darcy's space. I fell in love immediately, and they vaguely looked familiar. So I bought them and brought them home with me. What I found out from Darcy was that she got them at Susan's estate sale. It's funny how your heart sometimes remembers more things than your brain! Once Darcy told me that, I could remember those little boots sitting on Ruthie's kitchen table as a center piece at our Operation Sell meetings. She would put fresh cut flowers in them and it made a beautiful display on the table! My house is full of many, many things. Actually, too many things. But a lot of my "things" are those that were chosen by my heart, things that have special meaning to me. I can't wait until "RuFie's" rose begins to bloom again and I can cut the roses and put them in these little boots! Thank you for the memories "RuFie"!

All The Way From Philly!

Yesterday at "the store" (my family always refers to Country Roads as "the store") I met the nicest family. They told me that they had flown in from Philly just to come to Country Roads and to visit Disneyland. I was so touched. Pictured from left to right, and I hope I am correct is: Mary Ann Betz, Danielle Betz, Nicole Betz-Foti, and little Angelina Foti! Danielle was telling me how much she likes my blog and was so excited to come out and shop at Country Roads! When I hear customers say things like that, I'm still amazed and very flattered!Danielle was also very excited that Rachel Ashwell is coming to the store in November and wishing so badly she could get back out here for her Rachel's book signing. I told her I would get Rachel to sign a book for her, after all she came ALL the way from the East coast!! She loves the blog and had such kind words to say yesterday. I will remember this nice family for a very long time, thank you! When I sit at my computer and write these blogs, to be honest, I don't think many people read them. But when I have a family fly here from Philly, I'm extremely touched. The picture of everyone was taken in Christie Repasy's space. They bought a couple of her prints. I called Christie and she is going to be in her studio today. So, they are headed down to Laguna Beach to not only meet Christie, but to pick out frames for their prints. What a wonderful family. Their smiles made my day!

My Country Roads Family "Doin" Warrenton!

Thanks to Gloria, I too get to "do" Warrenton through pictures. The picture above is my very favorite as you see from left to right; Gloria, Tim, and Debbie. The reason it is my favorite is because there Debbie is, who I have gotten to know through the blogging world, with two of my good friends. It really is a small world after all. Thanks Debbie for posing with my buddies!


Here's Tim smiling with a treasure he's found. And I can tell you as he is smiling for the camera, his brain is racing as he thinks what he is going to make out of this.


Our Country Roads "girls"! From left to right are Lisa, Gloria, Jeannie, Pat, and Margaret. And of course the one's having a great time with "wine in hand" are Lisa and Margaret. You go girls!!

"Come on Lisa, just say cheezzze one more time so Gloria can take the picture"!!

Here's my "fancy girls", all dressed up and having the time of their lives. What you can't "hear" in this picture is all the giggling that I know is going on! They are just too cute when they get together!


This is a picture of "Tim & the Girls"! Margaret is trying to fool us by hiding wine in a water bottle! See, even I can tell and I'm only looking at a picture!I'm not sure who this beautiful display belongs to. Gloria forgot to tell me. But what amazes me is this awesome display is set up in a tent! Maybe I should post it in my store for a handful of my dealers that don't understand the importance of "display"! When Gloria returns home, I'll have more pictures of the awesome displays she took on her camera. I'm hoping that Gloria makes it to the Blog Party tonight so I can see some more pictures of my Texas girlfriends. Have fun everyone!!

The Morning Newspaper

I'm still one of those people who like the newspaper. I get two, one is a paper from Long Beach that I've read since I was a kid, The Press Telegram. The other one is the O.C. Register. I get that one because Country Roads is in Orange County. I don't always have time to read the papers in the morning, but I do enjoy them. For me, I like to read them because I can "choose" what I want to read, rather than watch the news on TV which is often times too much for me. On my 10 second walk to get my papers in the morning (yes it's quick when you live on a postage stamp sized lot)it's that time of year when the spiders are spinning their awesome webs. I'm always amazed to watch them, and see the finished product. Talk about art, seriously. Often times though, I walk into one, and then go into the crazy person mode of swinging my arms around to get it off of me and clear the path so I can get my newspapers. Thankfully, and I do MEAN "thankfully" this morning I didn't hit a spider web that had a spider attached! The picture above is the "little" guy that was busy at work! I was kind of surprised at the size, since our garden spiders aren't usually very big. I can't kill bugs, I just don't have it in me. I guess its because I see the beauty in much of what they do, like the spider webs they spend hours and days working on. Sometimes I think if we all just take a moment or two to notice the importance of those little, simple things in life, some of our daily burdens wouldn't be quite so heavy. My ten second walk for my morning papers did just that for me today!

The Week in a Blink!

Where the time went to this week, I have no idea. All I can say is the week flew by and I'm feeling it today. I don't know if I'm the only one, but there are times I can't even remember what month we are in! This year has gone by so quickly!Cottage White was in yesterday fixing up their new area of the store. John and his wife (sorry, I forgot her name) have done an awesome job. John's wife was apologizing to me yesterday because her displays didn't look the way she wanted, but she kept running out of time. There's that word again, "time", that we are all trying to find more of these days! But believe me, her displays look great!Lori Hannah "officially" joined out Country Roads family this month. And because of my lack of "time", I was late in sharing some of her awesome works of art!Lori is a very talented artist, and here are some of the bracelets she designs. It seems like I've known Lori forever, that is how quickly "time" passes! It's nice to have her be a part of our Country Roads family!I finally made "time" yesterday after work to get to see Riley. I've missed her so very much. It has only been for a few days but I'm use to seeing her almost daily! I brought over another birthday present for her. I ordered it awhile back, but apparently the shippers have been having "time" issues as well!American Girl has a new line of dolls out for the little girls to play with. I think they are called the "Itty Bitty" dolls, or something like that. I could sit all day and watch Riley play with her dolls. She is at the fun age of pretending, and it melts my heart to watch her. Riley is so loving and caring, I'm proud of her.Gloria emailed me a picture from Warrenton this morning. She said its been raining yesterdayn. I've known Gloria for a really long time, and no matter how early in the day, no matter what the weather is, Gloria always is put together in regards to make-up and hair!! Looks like T&T (Tim & Ted) are having a great time with the other "T's" in this photo!! Check back for some pictures from all my friends in Texas. I guess pictures are the next best thing to being there! And since this week flew by in a blink of MY eye, I best getback to work before I lose anymor time!

Living My Life Through Pictures!

This has been a tough week for me. Many of my friends are in Texas shopping till they drop, and me, I'm working a bit more than I normally do. Katie has been sick so I'm covering for her at the store. If you see my friends above, Tim & Lisa and Ted & Gloria, be sure to tell them to send me some more pictures! Tim is pretty easy to spot, "the hair" is the first clue it's Tim headed your way. Also, I currently don't have any pictures, but if you see three "older" nicely dressed women out shopping while laughing hysterically, they are also part of my Country Roads family!!I haven't seen my little Riley since Saturday!! That is unheard of for me and I'm planning a visit today after I leave work today. Which by the way is going to be EARLY!! Katie has been sending me pictures of Riley, like above in her tutu and pink flamingo slippers I got her at the zoo!Riley is becoming quite handy using a power drill as well this week. See how much I miss when I don't see my little girl?The one little baby I DO get to see though is Morgan. She was lying next to me in bed last night while I was working on my computer. I love the little "flower power" pj's with peace signs! Hopefully I'll have some more photos of all my friends and Country Roads family in Texas! Malisa promised me she would take pictures at the blog party for me, and as soon as Gloria finds out where it's at she said she would snap some pix's as well! Next Spring, I don't want to be "living my life through pictures", I want to be in Texas!!

White Wednesday

On this "White Wednesday" we are back at my store, Country Roads. What many people that have never had a chance to visit us, might not know, the interior of Country Roads is constructed out of old wood, doors, and other architectural elements. And all of this is put together to make vignettes and facades throughout the store. I love nothing more than the "whites" from old chippy wood and architectural pieces. Here are a few photos to show you what I'm talking about.





I'm in my 17th year of business and there are times I forget how much I love all the vignettes and facades that are made from the old, white chippy wood, all the novelty siding and other architectural elements. Then I look at pictures like these and it reminds me how much in love I truly am! Take some time and go visit Kathleen and wander down the list and see all the great photos that have been posted for "White Wednesday"! Thanks Kathleen, I appreciate your efforts.

Awesome Antiques!

I do blogs for a few of my dealers at Country Roads. It helps promote not only their individual businesses, but the store overall. And with the health care system the way it is (no I'm not going to get into THAT) the blogs also pay for my health insurance!! Ginny has unbelieveable antiques! And most of her stuff is my very favorite, country primitive. I bought that big cupboard from her not too long ago, and I bought the funeral sign last year. These are only a few of the things I've bought from Ginny over the years. For Ginny's blog post yesterday, I did a slideshow. I thought I would share it with you so you too could see all the wonderful treasures this girl has!! And of course, it you "see" something you can't live without, you can always give the store a call and we can ship it! Enjoy these pictures of some awesome antiques!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Monday Morning Memories

This is a picture of my mom when she was 15 and her mom, my grandmother. I've been trying for the past year or so to pull all my parents pictures together since they passed away. My dad's photos are great, he wrote on the backs of almost all of. He went as far as even writing little stories on some. But my mom, nothing! We didn't even find the old photo album of her growing up in Texas until after she passed away. Her childhood was not easy. It was tough for her growing up, her family didn't have much but neither did a lot of people where she lived. I just stumbled across the picture above and below. I figured out, because of what my mom was wearing, it was the day of her dad's funeral. I'd seen her in that outfit in a few old photos of her dads funeral I had found before. These pictures were big enough to have written just a few words, but nothing. My entire life, the only story I heard about my mom and her folks was from my dad, the world famous Mr. Moore! My mom never said much. It was a weird generation, or at least in my family. My folks never talked about personal stuff or my mom's family. The story I heard was that my grandmother had died of cancer when my mom was 15 years old, her her dad killed himself three years later. It wasn't until recently that my sister told me it was the other way around. It was right before my mom passed away, her dementia was bad, but finally after ALL this time she began to talk to my sister about what really happened a day before she died. My grandparents, Hobson Durham and Madge Dulane Durham are buried in Temple, Texas. We took a vacation once when I was little to Missouri to see my dad's family. I so wish he would have stopped in Texas on the way. It is hard for me to understand why they never talked about stuff like that and pretended like nothing ever happened. Those stories are such a part of my family and at least I'm slowly able to piece them together now. A few years ago, my oldest daughter, Brande, was traveling and stopped in Temple. She say her great-grandparents graves, and stopped by the library. She was lucky to have stumbled into a local historian while there. With the information Brande had about my mom's family, he was able to tell Brande where the restaurant was that her great-grandmother had worked at, and where her great-grandparents house use to be, things like that. It's tough when someone has passed away, like my mom, and taken so many untold stories with her. That's one of the things that attracts me to blogging, the stories. There is something left of us, even if its about old cats and flip flops. God, I had nothing to say this week-end, I confess!!

I Just Can't Give 'Em Up!

We were "slammed" at the store yesterday, with "slammed" meaning very busy! This morning my feet are still tired. I debated wearing some "real" shoes, but it's hard to give up those comfy Locals flip flops!I'm a real example of "California Casual" gone bad! Seriously. I love to wear my Locals flip flops. You can only buy them in Hawaii, and they are cheap too. They run around $3.99 to $4.99, depending where you get them. I have them in all colors to match my California Causal work attire which is basically shorts & aloha blouses. I'm lucky that I'm self employed and can wear what I want any day of the week! Thanks to George for making us understand these past years that all of us really didn't need to take a vacation, I started to worry over my flip flops. I mean I haven't been to Maui in several years, but thankfully my sister would go on vacation every year in May and bring my home a new selection of flip flops!! This year when I asked her when she was going on vacation and she told me she was going to Alaska, I was stunned!For my birthday this past June, she presented me with a bag full of brand new Local flip flops! Do birthdays get any better? I didn't think they sold these in Alaska so I wasn't sure how she got them. Apparently, her girlfriends sister went and brought a bag full home for me! And then not too long after that, one of my sweet dealers, Robin, was vacationing in Kauai, and asked if I wanted her to bring me some Locals home. How sweet is that? I glanced at these this morning, my Vans Prison Issued tennis shoes. They are very comfortable, I have them in many colors, and I should be wearing them rather than flip flops! As we all know, flip flops are the worse "shoes" for your feet. And I've had stitches in one foot, and broke an ankle a few years back, AND work on my feet all day, so I shouldn't even OWN flip flops! But you know, I just can't give 'em up!You won't find "heels" in my closet, or actually many other fancy shoes. I do have the Uggs above when our Southern California weather tragically drops below 60 degrees! But outside of that, because I DO live here, there are many times during the year I can still wear my favorite "shoes"! You know, the Locals that go oh so well with my California Casual look gone bad!!