Pumpkin Cottage

Pumpkin Cottage
sit and visit a spell

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Jam Packed Day

Another jam packed day with the get-along.gang.  Years and years ago we would scour the Long Beach Veteran's Stadium every third Sunday of the month for treasures. It has been a long while since we visited. We hunted with Mark and Nicholas, my brother Joe, my mother and my sister.  Now we hunt with Jacob and Holly for hidden treasures.

From the swap meet, we visited the beach at Seal Beach and shopped at the Back Porch.  During our visit at Back Porch we found our new coffee table.  This is the end of our day.  Here's Jacob after his bath with what will be our coffee table.











Back Porch is beautifully staged.  I walked through twice before I noticed the perfect table to convert to our coffee table. The green trim is a perfect match for our color scheme.

The Seal Beach our favorite local beach.  

The treasures.

Fountains. 

The Loot.  A perfect day.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Happy Long Weekend

The Pumpkin Cottage garden is blooming and we are starting to harvest yummy goodness.  In Lucy's famous words "It's tasty, too."   Tart eating and baking apples.  These are just like the apples I remember from the old house at 424 Purisima.  The little tree was easy to climb and we loved the "sour" taste. 



Blackberries.  We picked and ate the ripe ones.  When Joe and I were kids we would walk through the dry creek bed and pick blackberries all the way through until we reached the beach, stop at Snow White (the local burger joint) for soft serve ice cream before heading home.  Food, the images, the taste and smell, take me right back to a more innocent time.  Long carefree summers where we felt safe and life stretched before us.  The reddest sweetest strawberries all from right here in our little yard. 

We are looking forward to a variety of tomatoes.  The tomatoes planted in the traditional method are doing better than the Topsy Turvy tomatoes but it may be the variety of tomato and not the planting method.  Next year we'll try the same varieties just to be fair. 



Here is a view of my garden.  Still need to do more deadheading as you can see in the back.  There has been a riot of color out there so far.  I attribute it to my mother's presence.  When I am out in the garden I talk to all my plant friends "amigas" and my mae (mother).  I talk to her in Portuguese so my mother might understand and the neighbors won't.  It just makes me feel better. 

Have a safe weekend.  Remember all of those that sacrificed so much for us to be free.  So many young men, mostly, buried all over the world.  My mother used to say that she loved America so much because she never went hungry.  God bless America and all that have fought and died for her and us.  Thank you. 

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Everything Happened on Saturday

This always happens but this Saturday was the worst...because I missed Jenny Doh at County Roads even though I visited the County Roads later the same day.  And we missed Mr. Charles Phoenix extraordinaire book signing in Long Beach and we were in Long Beach, too.  It takes a lot of effort to coordinate our weekends.  Let's face it I have been slacking. 

Here is what we did do do (remember the Friends episode?)

Long Beach.  See the Queen Mary in the background.  One of my greatest wishes it to take the QE2 across the pond to England.  





 Okay, I already bought the book....it is awesome, really.
Yo Yo quilt fantasy.


A little granny room vignette that Holly wanted to move into.


Lee always says the best gifts for me are dirt and wire...you can add hangers to that.  Don't you love it.  I think I may have to go back to get it. 

And cupcakes....


And the Glitterfest all in one day.

You can't believe the talent in this room.  I had to walk around the room a few times just to take it all in. 

Truly this really is one day with the Get-Along.  Thank you for visiting.  We are shooting for Halloween and Vine in September.

Sacramento Cupcakes

Yolanda this one is for you.  Y'all know that one of our road trips necessities is to visit a cupcake bakery.

In Sacramento,  visit  CupcakesCraving  and ...Babycakes
 
Check theses two cupcake destinations out and let me know.  Not cupcakes, necessarily, but looks yummy, too.

                                          The little wreath I copied from Cherryhill and made on Mother's Day. Lee liked   the wreath with fewer pots but I think more or less still charming.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

California State Fair

Who wants to hang out with the Get-Along-Gang? Lee doesn't know it yet but I am thinking we need to go to the  California State Fair.  It has been a long time since we have had street/fair food.  Sometimes we make funnel cake at home but it's not the same.  We purchased our kit from Gooseberry Patch (it's not available now) but I've seen the kit at our local Cost Plus. 

Here is a sneak peak at my fall 2010 book list. 



Wednesday, May 19, 2010

La Vie Claire magazine

This is a beautiful magazine and when I missed out on the winter issue that included Susan Branch it just could not be so.   Then I contacted the people at the magazine and I got the nicest response.  REALLY nice like when does that ever happen?  Here is the link in case you wanted to order the single Winter 2010 issue.  Worth every penny but then again magazines are my weakness.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Mama

My mom used to say that I could do anything I put my mind to.  She didn't mean it in a nice way because if I got my head around something and HAD to have it I was going to get it. 

It comes at a cost.  Here I am frustrated because I can not figure out my new statistics software.  I want to throw it across the room and drop out of grad school.  The conversation that goes through my head is, "What were you thinking at your age?"  "YOU have little guys and BIG kids."  "And a demanding job for goodness sake." 

But you know that I am not going to give up that I will pick up my gimpy body, dust myself off, seek the encouragement of spouse and children and go on.  Yep that is what I am going to do.  That is the conversation going on in my head as I wrap myself in a lap quilt that my mother made with all the hand stitching and the comfort of her embrace. 

Going to rest and start over tomorrow.