My Shoe Crush - Brian Atwood

Brian Atwood is the whole package......charming, handsome and talented and he designs the most amazing women's shoes. I absolutely love his designs. They are feminine and sexy but most of them are like walking on stilts........you can sure spot shoes designed by men. If they had to wear what they designed.......shoes would look a lot different........LOL

An explanation for my absence from blogging?!?!?!??!

It appears that Life happens and the days fly by when they are filled with lots of new and interesting stuff.  In the last few months I have gotten a new Apple MacBookPro which I absolutely love now and I wonder why I did not change sooner.  But in the first month it was more of a LOVE - HATE relationship trying to learn new technology and the ways of APPLE.  Then to make it even more interesting I also got a new iPhone (after using a Blackberry for years) since Verizon finally got the iPhone and suddenly I was in technology H_ _ _ feel free to fill in the blanks.  After 25 years or more of using a PC it was quite the change and learning all the new programs has been very interesting, especially my new advanced photo software Aperture.  My sweet husband bought One to One for me so that I can go to the Apple Store and get training which has been so amazingly helpful and so I have been spending countless hours learning, here, there and of course at the Apple store.  I am still enjoying my Friday 3 1/2 hour class at Kendall and have been working on a new jewelry collection.......The Matte Collection.......all the pieces are a matte finish......I need to take some pictures and my next post should be a preview of the collection.

Happy EASTER all!

A cruel joke from Mother Nature!

Hailing from sunny Florida I have often wondered where I went wrong that I ended up in this place called Michigan.......Oh yeah I think it's called a husband.  So I woke up on 4.18.2011 walked into my den and looked outside and what to my surprise did I find?  Mother Nature had played a cruel trick on me and there was snow.......actually 3 inches during the night and then 2 more in the morning and by the time it was done we had gotten 5 inches.......that's just not right this time of year and I was not happy.  My poor little daffodils were hanging their little heads and were unhappy as well.  I don't know where Spring is hiding this year but it ain't here.......

New Gift Wrapping!

Since I like to change things every now and then to keep them fresh and interesting I decided to go from brown boxes with either lime green ribbon or orange ribbon to something a bit more subdued and elegant.  I found some beautiful aqua ribbon that had fleur-de-lis all over it and some aqua and brown 2 sided ribbon with a stitched edge to which I add a smaller brown ribbon.  I made some little accent tags with fleur-de-lis and voila........new packaging.

Family time in Northern California

I love California.......so much to do so little time.  So we were in California for a whole week at Thanksgiving visiting my dear Sister-in-law Joanie and her husband Jeff.  They are such wonderful hosts and we had such a great time.  We made Thanksgiving dinner together and it was yummy.

Went to Napa to some wine tastings and a great Gallery where I bought a print.

We ate lunch at Dean & Deluca's under the olive trees and bought some food items......it was fun to see the real place after receiving the mail order catalog for years.

The guys went to a Raiders game Jeff's favorite team.....his garage is floor to ceiling Raiders stuff.....this picture is not very good of the guys........so don't tell that I posted it.

We went to Columbia, California which is an old gold mining town sadly the cold weather had followed us to California from Michigan so we could not pan for gold.......too bad because I know we left that huge gold nugget we were going to find behind........darn the weather.  Columbia is also where numerous Western movies have been filmed High Noon being one of them with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly.

We did lots of other fun stuff like eat at great restaurants......Thai and Mexican, shop at an amazing Design Center where we bought a new Christmas tree and lots of other fun Christmas decorations.  I bought some of the most beautiful ribbons I have ever seen..........but the fun ended way to soon and we had to head back home.  We have lots of fond memories of our visit.......looking forward to visiting again soon........Thank you Joanie and Jeff.

To bad we don't get any snow around here......LOL

So I think I would like to stop all this snow and ask Spring to please come back.  I would like nothing better then not to have to climb up and over 10 foot walls of snow.  We take a daily walk through the woods at the end of our street which back up to a shopping center parking lot.  The other day after the big blizzard we came to the end of the trail and found a 10 foot wall of snow blocking it.  My inclination was to turn back and go back home through the woods................but Hogan my little English Cocker had other plans and before I knew it he had scaled the wall of snow and was on the other side so what's a girl to do but climb the wall of snow to find him on the other side running along behind the shopping center.  He loves his walks and looks forward to them no matter what the weather.  Me on the other hand I have to start talking myself into the walk at least an hour before we go.......so do you kind of get the picture.......Florida girl living in the snow country..........it is sheer torture for me and if it were up to me I would just join all the smart animals and hibernate for the winter.  But alas that is not an option so I must suffer and hope to whine enough that Mark will eventually move me away to a warmer climate or let me go to my home in Florida for the winter.  Sorry for the long break between postings I promise not to let as much time go by in the future.

Some winter hilarity for you dog lovers!

A friend of mine posted this on her Facebook account and when I saw it I just could not stop laughing.  It is sooooo cute ENJOY!!!

How cute is this!

So one of the pumpkins on my front porch was getting a bit mushy at the top so I descided to roll it into the woods with the hope that the deer might like it and look who found it........looks like those pumpkin seeds I'm missing out on are making someone else really happy. 

Desert Storm Bracelet!

It must be the cold damp weather we are having that is making me think of the desert and making me actually name a bracelet "Desert Storm" but nevertheless that seems to be the name the bracelet ended up with.  The piece of Montana Agate that is the center of the bracelet does look like a storm in the desert where you see things flying around on the horizon.  The beauty of this bracelet is that the centerpiece is removable and can be exchanged with others thereby making one bracelet be many.  At the moment I am planning many more center pieces which will be available for purchase after the first of the year as will be many different size bracelet parts. 

Desert Storm Bracelet with Gem centerpiece removed.

The Windy City

Wow how time flies.....it has been 2 weeks since my last blog entry.  We were just in Chicago last week......I do love that city.  We got to stay at the new Trump International Hotel and Towers it was a great hotel and wonderful service.  The drive down gave us a taste of what is to come weatherwise.....rain, hail and then sleet....we also saw a horrible accident involving many cars thank goodness not us. 

Trump is the small tower in the middle of this picture LOL!

Our room was beautiful......

The first night we got to eat dinner at Smith and Wollensky.......great seafood and awesome steak.......upscale business attire.

The next night we got to eat at Dika's in downtown Chicago (I guess there is more then one) as you would suspect the place is loaded with memoribilia of Mike Ditka and the Bears and he is always there greeting patrons it was really fun and great food.

Of course there was a little shopping by little ole me while Mark was in meetings and I bought a few things.  While shopping at Nordstrom's I ran into a good friend and her daughter from home which was fun....it is a small world when you can go to another city and state and run into friends.  It's great to have a world class city like Chicago so close by.