Under a Blue Moon

Someone I know is celebrating a milestone birthday today.  She is off doing lord knows what in Las Vegas with her husband (you know the saying…). 

Happy Birthday Kate!  _0 is the new 29! (you couldn’t get me to divulge her actual age – I’m rather fond of my head staying firmly attached to my body). 

The picture above is one of my favorites of Kate – She was a very worldly and sophisticated 12 going on 25 year old and we were on our way from Istanbul to Greece?  Spain?  I can’t remember.  I just remember she was soaking up the sun in a white bikini and the boat was in danger of tipping over because all the boat crew some how needed to be on the same side of the boat where she was sunbathing. 

(Note:  Not visible but just to the left is my Dad, keeping a stern eye on things)

Enjoy your day, Kate!  I hope all your birthday wishes come true.

Edited to add:  And by the way Missy – we need a birthday menu or it’s….um…..what is the culinary equivalent to tube socks?

Things aren’t winding down yet but there is light at the end of the tunnel.  I have two help desks going live next week so I’m heading back to Colorado Springs on Monday.  Then the next phase goes live on September 27th – one desk in Colorado Springs and one in Costa Rica. 

But the bulk of my work should be complete by the second or third week in September.  Then I’m going to sleep for a week.

On Wednesday afternoon I decided to take an hour break and just go do something fun.  Or at the very least, distracting.  There is a shop in Sunnyvale, CA called Cranberry Mercantile that sells a hodge podge of things – home made crafts and the like.  They also have an entire corner of the store devoted to rubber stamps.  I wanted to get started on the Halloween invitations so that was my destination.

I had a coworker back in the 90’s that introduced me to rubber stamping.  When I thought of rubber stamping I thought of the cutsie ones that teachers would use when grading papers.  I had no idea of the vast and artistic world of stamping.   Her work is really amazing – beautiful collage works with different papers and embellishments. 

I was hooked.  My collection could never rival hers – she has thousands of stamps but I do have a decent assortment.  I just need to carve out some time to get back into it.

Of course it’s hard to be artsy with Halloween stamps but the cards above were still fun to put together.  They are my prototypes.  The skeleton has a silvery embossing on it which it why it looks kind of fuzzy.  I was inspired by a Halloween themed tag on Jill’s blog.

The store in Sunnyvale didn’t have a cat stamp so I went to another stamp store in Roseville called The Stamp Art Shoppe  that is really a lovely store.  I find that rubber stamps are generally relegated to a small corner of a scrap booking shop so it’s nice to find an entire store devoted to the art.

There was a class just about to start so the store was filled with women milling about picking up last minute supplies.  I love a store that has interesting completed projects on display and this one had plenty.  One that really caught my eye was a small shadow box.  It had an old apothecary type feel to it.  Really detailed.  Hmmmm – I feel a new hobby coming on.

Okay – now I have to get back to work and start packing.  Posting will still be sporadic but should start picking up soon.

I wasn’t posting for a while but THIS woman makes my life seem like a Sunday picnic.

I think I’ll keep my 80 hour work weeks….

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I am going to take a blogging break. I’m feeling very overwhelmed by responsibilities right now and there are certain things that just won’t budge so I have to trim where I can. It’s unfortunate that the things I really enjoy doing are going to get the proverbial axe, at least for a while.

I’ve been working 80 hour work weeks and there is no one to pick up the slack elsewhere in my life – Caring for my father has become more of my responsibility lately – a joyous responsibility but when I’m down with him I feel like I’m neglecting my home and spouse – and when I’m home I feel like I’m neglecting my father.   There is a scene in the movie Holiday where Kate Winslet’s character is helping her elderly neighbor back to his house after he has gotten lost on a walk – she notices that his housekeeper has left him a dinner tray in the living room with a cold sandwich on it for his dinner.  That scene absolutely breaks my heart every time I see it.

So I can’t see that part of my life budging.

My week is spent racing down to the Bay Area on Sunday, getting up at 4:00am to log into work on Monday – scrambling to go to the store in the late afternoon so I can get dinner on the table, rinse and repeat on Tuesday and Wednesday – race home Wednesday after dinner, after making sure the fridge is stocked and then most weekends spent logged into work while the person I married, who kind of anticipated that after being alone for half the week, would get some of my attention.

I can’t see that part of my life budging either.

Work is not going to let up until October – my coworkers are just as overworked as I am so there won’t be any relief. The thought of it makes me want to lay my head down and just weep.  However I have bills to pay, health insurance to keep up, four-oh-wunks to contribute to.

So no budging there either.

I had a very telling dream the other night.  I dreamt I was responsible for two tiny infants. I was inside the house and wanted to go out to the backyard where a pool-side party was taking place. I cracked open the sliding glass door and one of the babies scooted out faster than you can imagine and fell right into the pool.   I was wearing a long cashmere sweater and jeans and I jumped into the pool after the baby. Because of what I was wearing the water was dragging me under and I couldn’t find that baby – I kept swimming underwater which was full of debris and underwater plants. Every time I surfaced I would yell for help or for someone to call 911 and everyone would just smile at me and tell me I was doing a great job – keep it up. And then they would turn back and rejoin their conversations.   I’m feeling like that’s my life right now.

I realize that how I live my life is absolutely my choice.  And I could say – you know – this part needs to take a back seat for a while. But which part?   And when two of those areas begin demanding more of my time – what is a person to do?  Something has to give and right now it’s the fun bits.  The blogging, the crafting, the planning and shopping for dinners with loved ones.  That has to take a back seat for a while because it’s the only piece of my life at the moment that has any give.

I will be back and hopefully will be full of enthusiasm about the changing season, decorating for Halloween, lighting the first Autumn fire – and hopefully you all will come back when I do. 

The picture above?  It’s my talisman.  Someday my life WILL be picket fences, porch swings and lazy days watching the hollyhocks grow.

The Christmas magazines are already on the stands.  Way to rush things Paula.  I’m not even ready for the 4th of July. 

I don’t think it’s too soon to think about Halloween though.  I saw this two tiered black cake stand in the Gooseberry Patch catalog and I think it would look so cute with orange frosted mini-cupcakes.

We tend to drag out the same tired old decorations each year at our Annual Halloween Extravaganza – and this year I want to freshen things up.  Last year I bought this gorgeous black charger with rhinestones all around the edge that made a great tray for hors d’oeuvres. 

I’m conflicted about the Halloween party this year because a couple of people won’t be able to attend the weekend we normally would have the party.  So we either do it without them or do it another date.  Or just skip it this year.  You can’t do it after Halloween because it just feels wrong.  Maybe this year we could do it a week earlier – what to you think, my people?

My first inclination was to just skip it but then I saw the cake plates…..

And look at this chandelier from Victorian Trading Company  – this would be perfect hanging over the food table:

I better stop decorating and start thinking of a costume.