Under a Blue Moon

Wednesday blathering

Happy Wednesday. I don't have much to report on today so you'll just get some general blathering.

I have had a very low-key week. It still feels so odd not to have a set schedule. I'm still making my to do lists for the day but the number of items on it is really puny. Today I'm actually getting out of the house. I'm meeting my old team for a hike in the morning (seeing as how we are all currently unemployed…) and then in the afternoon I have a meeting scheduled with a career counselor. It's all part of the severance package – four months of career counseling.

I had a phone interview with a recruiter today which went well. It's for a consulting firm and she will be sending on my resume to the hiring team and hopefully they'll like what I have to offer and want to interview me. If I get past the phone interview stage then they'll fly me to New Jersey for an in person interview.

Interviewing – Yikes! I am terrible about selling myself. It just does not come naturally to me. Plus they are going to want to see some of my previous work (I'm a training developer, if I haven't mentioned it before) but because all of the training I did for my previous employer is proprietary I can't show them that. So I'm going to have to come up with a portfolio that I can share.

Abrupt topic switch.

It's probably time for me to really focus on my Halloween costume. I have this great idea but I need one component to it which I haven't been able to find just yet. Admittedly I haven't looked all that hard but I think that's what I'll work on this week. It would be nice to get that dialed in because the Halloween party is 11 days away!

The weather here in my corner of the universe has been spectacularly nice. It was 80 degrees and clear blue skies here yesterday. Today promises to be more of the same. The roses are still going nuts. Although the blooms are smaller and the stems are shorter.

I'll keep enjoying them while I can.

Rose Gold Pumpkins

This is a super quick and easy project if you want to go a little extra with your fall decor. Me? Extra?

I went to the craft store with the intention of getting gold leaf to cover a couple of small pumpkins. But when I got there they only had yellow gold, which looked a bit bright, or silver and it was expensive. And they didn't have the adhesive you need to use to adhere the gold leaf. I wasn't about to be put off by a couple of set backs so I looked at the metallic wax pastes they have and found a rose gold one.

I just threw in that picture because I love this little Halloween vignette in my office.

The metallic wax paste I used is by Craft Smart. It cost $8 for the jar but I used a 40% off coupon. I barely made a dent in it covering two small pumpkins. I think you could easily do a large pumpkin with one jar.

This is literally where I do projects. Just sitting at my desk. My desk usually isn't this tidy, however (full disclosure…).

I used a soft brush to apply and once it was dry (about 30 minutes) I buffed it with a soft cloth. That is it. The brush cleaned up nicely with soap and water.

What I especially like about the rose gold is that when Halloween is over and all the spooky decorations are put away I can still leave the pumpkins up until it's time for Christmas decor.

Friday Favorites

shabby chic vignette/living room ◊ A Jar full ◊ Untitled ◊ lace and transferware dish

Look who's coming back! FAO Schwarz is going to reopen some stores. And just in time for Christmas! I loved pouring over the catalog with the boys when they were young
This is seriously best smelling apple candle. It smells like a freshly cut apple and nothing else. No cinnamon, no caramel – just a juicy, fresh apple
Isn't this a pretty pink pitcher? And the price isn't bad, considering the source
Oops – we've been saying it wrong all this time. Good luck trying to break that habit

Happy Friday! I got back home yesterday and as lovely as Rancho Palos Verdes is it sure is nice to be home. My friend did really well and is truly an inspiration to me. She does not for one second feel sorry for herself. Her attitude is so positive and I know that will see her through. The chemo and anti-nausea medication makes her super drowsy but she would nap and then get up and have decent energy to run errands or go out to lunch.

I'm just happy I was able to provide some support to her and not completely ruin her car while doing it.

I'm thinking Rick and I will take a nice long drive on Saturday. After not seeing him most of the week it will be nice to have some us time.

I hope you all have a splendid weekend!

SoCal

This is my view for the next few days. Well it's my view if I walk out of my friend Barbara's apartment building and walk about 20 steps. Isn't it gorgeous? I haven't been in Southern California in about five years and back then I was more in the downtown area. Where Barbara lives is the edge of no where (as she calls it). It's actually just west of Long Beach.

I got up early this morning and took a walk and these were my gorgeous views.

I love being near the ocean. I hope that at some point we can move closer to the coast. All those lovely negative ions coming off the ocean really do make you feel calm and peaceful. And everyone's gardens are green and lush. Bougainvillea every where you turn.

Barbara had her chemo treatment yesterday and slept for about 15 hours. She was up for running an errand after breakfast and now is napping. We spent the morning reminiscing about our misspent youth. My job is really to drive her places if she wants – in her stick shift car!! I haven't driven a stick shift since the 80's. She might need a new clutch when I leave. I am also making sure she is getting enough water. The chemo leaves a metallic taste in her mouth and makes water unappealing but it's very important that she flushes out her kidneys so I'm taking my responsibilities seriously and making sure she gets enough.

This straight up looks like I'm in Hawaii.

I hope everyone is having a good week.

Halloween Gallery Wall

I do hope you will all indulge me here. I love Halloween and our annual Halloween party. Such frivolous fun.

We always have the party at my dad's house and Kate, her daughters Maddi and Lizz and I are the ones on hand to decorate. My son Evan is usually here when we need him to climb up on a ladder and do something treacherous.

This year I wanted to do a gallery wall of spooky images.

Cue craft time music!

So this craft involved dollar store frames, vinegar, water and Krylon Looking Glass spray paint. I bought mine at Michael's with a 40% off coupon but I'm sure you can find it at your local craft or hardware store.

I went to my local dollar store hoping to find 8×10 black frames but what I did find were garish gold certificate frames in a 8 1/2 x 11 size that i though I could work with so I snapped up nine of them.

I also found nine different images I wanted to use in my frames. I wanted a Gothic, spooky look so I googled 30's silent screen stars (their over the top makeup up ends up looking kind of spooky…) and found the images I wanted to include in my gallery wall. I just printed them off on regular old printer paper. I did try to make then the same tone – not quite black and white.

I sprayed the frames flat black using up various cans of matte black spray paint we had on hand.

The cool, mirrored effect comes from using Kryon Looking Glass paint.

The trick is to mix to a 50/50 water and vinegar solution and spray it on the glass before spraying the paint.

Pretend you can see the vinegar/water droplets on the invisible sheets of glass. Also ignore the outlines of the frames from when I sprayed them black.

After spraying with the vinegar/water solution go over the glass with the looking glass spray paint in thin coats. I blotted each layer with a wad of crumpled paper towels to lift some of the paint, concentrating on the center so there would be less of mirrored effect there.

I would say I did about three coats, alternating the vinegar/water spray and the paint. I let it dry for about an hour and then assessed. I didn't think the image was coming though as much as I liked so I sprayed a little more vinegar/water mix and then blotted firmly with paper towels until I got the effect I was going for.

I'll tell you – paint is so forgiving so just experiment until you get the effect you want.

I wanted mirrored frames with the ghostly presence of others showing though. I think I managed it with this technique!

Friday Favorites

Christmas cabinet ◊ Finally weekend ◊ form collection ◊ Brown Transferware bowl

Pretty, neutral Halloween decor. I've always loved Harlow James' soothing, relaxed decorating style
I think I've shared TheresaGromski's Instagram feed before. Here's a look at her gorgeous home on Rock My Style
Well I thought this was interesting. Natural air odor eliminators for both the fridge and for the house. I've ordered both and will let you know how we get on
A beautiful duet with Andrea Bocellli and his son Matteo. The look on Andrea's face at :22 seconds in…

It is Friday, right? With not working I don't have anything to anchor my days and I'm forever stopping and asking myself what day it actually is. I wish I could just relax and enjoy the time off but it's hard not knowing if it will be for a month, two months, longer…

I have spent the last two weeks since my last official day working looking for and applying for jobs online. I have had a few recruiters reach out (one guy super persistently for a job in Arizona) and I had a great informal interview for a position that wouldn't start until January which would be ideal. I could take a few months off and then start work in the new year. The person I spoke with liked me and thought I would be perfect for the job but she isn't the hiring manager. She did refer me though so let's hope it goes somewhere.

Next week I am actually heading down to LA for most of the week. I have a friend, gosh I've known her since the 7th grade, who is undergoing chemo for breast cancer and I am going to take her to her appointment and then stay with her for a few days afterwards until she feels okay to be on her own. Her family and most of her friends are in Northern California so we are taking turns helping her out. Her name is Barbara if you would be so kind as to throw some healing, healthy energy her way.

Oh! I'm also doing a garage sale with my mother in law on Saturday. I've been super organized for the last year or so and have been setting aside a "garage sale" pile and have been pricing and tagging the items. So I just need to show up early at her house on Saturday and set up. Any leftovers are going to the a local charity shop in her town.

I hope you have a splendid weekend!

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