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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!

Rants

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.

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?

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

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.