Monday, February 28, 2011

Out with the cold, in with the woo...


its still snowing here, off and on from day to day, but its beginning to seem like the frozen grip of our icy seasonal temperatures is finally starting to ease and the mounds of snow are now melting...thankfully.  i love where i live, partly because i can enjoy the transformation that occurs with each change of season, but winter is the only one that cannot seem to pass quickly enough for me or my spirit!


i am heartened that spring is just a mere twenty days away...but it also helps to find little ways to help alleviate the spring fever that sets in right about this time each year.  for instance, i splurge a little more often (if i can get away with it) on fresh flowers or plants to place about the house.  this weekend, my wegman's had the most beautifully colored bunches of fresh Stock (Matthiolo incana) flowers.  i chose the pale blushy pink ones that you see above, and gathered them up with some delicate baby's breath.  they've been placed on the coffee table in the family room, and you can smell their romantic fragrance every time you walk into the room...(sigh).  it really does help to lift one's mood, to bend over and place your nose amongst such delicately perfumed blooms.  i mean, how can you not help but smile?

you know what else helps even the most horrible cases of spring fever?  getting out of town!  and this lucky girl gets to go here in just a few short weeks:



san franciso is one of my favorite cities to be in...its just so groovy and laidback, and it totally appeals to the hippy in me (obviously).  so come late april, i'll be back there, touring Napa wineries, riding trolley cars, strolling the haight, climbing mt. tamalpais, and chilling at the wave organ.  there are a ton of 'need to see' places on my san francisco wish list, but i'm really looking for the unique, out of the way, only the locals and 'those in the know would know about' places...are there tiny little shops full of dresdens and millinery someplace nearby?  quiet little boutiques brimming with crafting treasures tucked into those hills?  perhaps a forgotten little antique place full of old photos and books near chinatown? 

i'm looking for input folks!  if you love san francisco as much as i, i would love to hear your favorite places to see, eat, shop, enjoy...leave me a comment below and help a girl out!  and, try to remember that all winters end, no matter how cold and icy!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

a little show and tell...


just about died that hubby surprised me with dita von teese's 'Burlesque: On The Art Of The Teese' and that my mom and dad actually bought me these cotton candy pin up pumps for my birthday last weekend!



just check out those velvet bows and the tiny ruffle!  i cannot wait to wear these with my pin up pencil skirt...as soon as the snow and mud go away, that is!



and my little bro showered me with a mushroom-inspired gift of these mercury glass mushrooms and one of my favorite films, 'Know Your Mushrooms'.  i am certain that my family finds both of my obsessions -- mercury glass and mushrooms -- to be a bit eccentric, but i couldn't be happier that they indulge me anyway.



i also got this nicol sayre halloween witch to add to my growing halloween collection...



and found these treasures while antiquing this past week at some of my favorite treasure-hunting spots...i fell in love with that picture of a family in a meadow as soon as i saw it.  the back has a handwritten note that says 'in memory of a very good lunch, aug 12th, 1903'.   i'm always happy to give a new home to these antiquated artifacts, loving them now and safeguarding them for future generations to appreciate.  maybe one day after i'm gone, when my belongings have been snatched up by an estate sale or thrift shop, these old things will be picked up by someone else who shares my passion for preservation...i hope they appreciate them as much as i do.