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Under a Blue Moon

Decor, cooking, organization, all the pretty things

Here and now

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The weather right now is just perfect.  The days (up in Granite Bay) are in the 70’s and the sun shines from the minute you get up until the shadows lengthen and fade.   In another month it will be in 90’s – just you watch.  And there goes my water bill. 

I have to walk down to the end our little lane to get our mail.  We have new neighbors that just bought a house on our street and it’s fun to walk past and see the progress they are making.  The house they bought was probably built in the 60’s or 70’s and, typical to our street, is a little hybrid cottage/ranch style home.  The couple that bought it are young and energetic.  A lot of clearing and painting so far.

P4030001_2 Our mailbox is at the very end of the row and it has a bullet hole in the door.  Rick frets about it during the rainy months but I kind of like it.  Adds a certain rustic charm to the mailbox, if you ask me. 

When I walked down here this afternoon I passed our neighbor who was coming back from getting her mail.  For the life of me I can never remember her name.  She is an older woman, probably in her late 70’s or early 80’s and she has a man’s name.  A really masculine man’s name – not like Bobbi or Chris – it’s Howard or Ralph or something like that.  She lives in a cottage on her son’s property and is really delightful.  She used to be a marine too.  Or an Air Force pilot or something like that.  If I could only remember her name I would strike up a conversation with her – I’m guessing she has some really interesting stories to tell.

These little moments, walking to get the mail or talking over the fence to our neighbors – this is what I’ll miss once we leave this place.  I yearn to be elsewhere, to have a garden that doesn’t need to watered four times a day during the Summer and where my nearest sister isn’t 200 miles away,  but the here and now has some lovely moments too.

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April 4, 2007 12:01 am Andrea Filed Under: Musings

Par Avion

Gift

And off it goes.  Marie ~  I was a day behind shipping this out but it’s on its way now!  I hope you enjoy it. 

I love wrapping presents.  Well, let me clarify I love the creative side, picking out wrapping, bows and other embellisments but I don’t like the actual part that involves folding precision corners and tape.  I was going for a Kimono type look but then slapped an Easter graphic on top which kind of took it in another direction. 

The labels on the shipping box came from Papaya! She has delicious cards, journals and prints.  I also got the white pen from her.  If you do scrapbooking and want a really opaque white pen this is the best I’ve ever found.  Truth be told I even borrowed the idea for the label placement and curlicues from her.  She is a creative genius. 

This was fun – I’ll have to do it every 100th post.

April 3, 2007 8:49 am Andrea Filed Under: Musings

Buttery, flaky, sweet….

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I’m about ready to commit a crime for an almond croissant.    Seriously.  I would jump someone if they walked by with one. 

Ignore the bunny picture for now.  It’s just there for looks.  And as a reminder of how I am eating lately.

So since Black Friday – when the scales fell from my eyes – I think I’ve lost about 4-5 lbs.  About 10 lbs. down from my heaviest (where when I saw the number on the bathroom scale I quickly looked away and decided there was something dreadfully amiss with the mechanics of said scale).  So all good progress. 

Food is rather boring though and I miss fat (the edible kind) just dreadfully.  So goes the longing for flaky, buttery baked goods.  Mmm.  Instead I chop up vegetables and put them on the prettiest plate I can find and make an event of the thing.

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Along with the pretty plate thing other tricks I employ are to make things as spicy as I can stand them and to eat as high a fiber content as possible without turning into a brood mare.  The spicy business is tricky because a lot of spicy foods (even low fat, low sugar ones) are generally very high in sodium and I woke up yesterday morning with elephant eye.  This is where your eyes swell up to alarming proportions while you are sleeping and then deflate, leaving you with baggy, wrinkly elephant eyes upon awakening. 

The plate laden with cucumber and radishes came from a lovely antique shop near me.  A smaller place but one of those ones where there are a number of vendors renting space.  There was a stack of eight of these plates (about the size of a small bread plate) and a price sticker on the top one that said $10.  I brought the stack to the front desk and asked if the $10 was for one plate or the stack.  The cashier had to call the vendor to confirm but it was for the whole stack.  I still feel like I got away with something.  I love to put them out when I serve hors d’oeuvres – they are the perfect size.

They don’t make radishes taste like an almond croissant, however.  Can’t have everything.

April 2, 2007 12:01 am Andrea Filed Under: Musings

April Fool

Presents

There was a bit of a treasure hunt around the Blue Moon household this morning.  Sorry for the quality of the pictures.  Evidently my hands aren’t totally steady first thing.

There is a little bit of a back story on the pepper grinder.  Last year on my birthday I told Rick I wanted a Peugeot pepper grinder – the small one like my parents have.  He stresses a bit about gift giving, never wanting to disappoint.  Well he searched and searched and searched and could not find the pepper grinder I was describing.  So instead he bought me a pink one that matches my pink KitchenAid mixer.   I admit not being able to keep the disappointment off my face when I unwrapped it but I have grown to really love the thing.  It sits next to my stove and has different settings for how fine you want your pepper ground.  Not very many people have a pink, Peugeot pepper grinder.

Turns out I meant Perfex not Peugeot.  Whoops ~ sorry about that.  Well this year, still wanting the smaller one for the table he bought it for me.  And it turns out he’s been reading my blog because I also got something I’ve been coveting for a really long time.

Thank you Love.

Silvery

April 1, 2007 8:37 am Andrea Filed Under: House

We have a winner!

Token

First of all thank you to everyone that entered their name in the drawing.  I cannot even begin to express how much I appreciate the kindness and good cheer I feel from you all.  I only wish I had a gift to send to each and everyone one of you!

I am anxiously waiting to hear back from Marie so I can package up and ship off her goodies!

Thank you again for participating and for putting up with my blatherings and pontifications. 

March 31, 2007 8:19 am Andrea Filed Under: Musings

Milkmaid

P3280001 Milkmaid has a much nicer sound to it than, say, goat girl.  Which is what I’ve been doing all week.  Since Rick is gone, and he’s the one that normally feeds them (that’s what he gets for being an early bird), it falls to me this week.  We supplement their grazing with grain so they get all the nutrients they need.  Only it makes them lazy and they start demanding, quite loudly, as soon as they suspect someone is up. 

This sweet little face is Antoinette.  I think she is my favorite but don’t tell the others.  She has become the most vocal but she’s also the most shy of the four.

Other than the early morning foray out to the goat pen I’ve been kind of housebound.  It’s gorgeous out and the garden beckons, only there is a temporary, seasonal danger lurking out there.  One that I am no match for.

The butterflies are back. 

I have an absolute phobia about moths and butterflies.  Butterflies are really just moths in drag.  I can’t explain it, really.  People look at me with a perplexed look on their face when they hear of this and say "You realize, of course, they can’t HURT you."   Yeah yeah – whatever.  They are still evil.

And the ones out now are BLACK!  The devil’s own butterflies.  I went out to get the mail today and two of them fluttered by me and I had to run back into the house.  It’s pathetic.  I have an actual physical reaction – my entire body gets icy cold and I get goosebumps all over.  Not to mention my brain seizes up and my eyes bug out of my head.  I’ve actually jumped out of a moving car when a moth flew up in my face.  That was 23 years ago and my friend is STILL mad at me about that.  Sheesh, it’s not like I was driving or anything.

I do have everyone trained – if a moth flies into the house everyone leaps to their feet to get rid of it and then pull me out from under the couch.  And no one who loves me will ever buy anything with a butterfly motif. 

All righty then.  Enough of that topic.

I did actually get out super early this morning and finally planted something in my hanging basket.  I have had a shepherd’s hook and an empty hanging basket for a year now and I finally trimmed the coco mat and planted some bacopa and I forget what the other plant is – does fabulously around here. 

Oh before I forget – Thank you for all the feedback on Photoshop and the offers of help.  I’m kind of glad I’m not the only one that is overwhelmed by it.  I think I’m going to try out the Elements version and see if it has all the features I need.

And…. last day to put your name in for the Blue Moon Giveaway – I have added a couple of surprise items.  I will draw a name at 9:00pm (West Coast time) on Friday.  Just leave a comment on this post and I’ll add you to the list.

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March 29, 2007 5:51 pm Andrea Filed Under: Garden

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