Let the music spring in!!!

Having committed Mondays to blogging, naturally my boss begged me yesterday to swap & take next Saturday off. So for now I've taken a few minutes to add my much desired playlist because frankly my life is music.

Music has always been the companion I always counted on: my best friend. Ear buds in I'm never alone. While all forms live in my collection I always turn to classical for purity of reflection & frankly despite the Baby Mozart fad so many wonderful pieces are ignored, so I'm intending to highlight favorites from time to time.

Appalachian Spring is not the first piece everyone turns to for thoughts of the season of rebirth & while Vivaldi is a massive love of mine this ballet turned orchestral suite is a pleasure. Martha Graham commissioned this piece in 1944 & later Copeland revised it for full orchestra. Ironically whilst the ballet was set in spring the spring Copeland is referring to that of a water source.

Well I've turned into a PBS script haven't I??? As high brow as I'd like to pretend I still see Hailey twirling first to the flows & ebbs of this stream of notes. She's 3 years old & telling me its twirly music.

Twirl reccomended but not required. No wait. Every woman should twirl at least once a week. Now........................go!!!

Saveur wants to award Aran & I do too!!!!

While I'm still trying to wrap my head around why the exquisitely talented Aran's Cannelle et Vanille was not nominated for Best Baking & Desserts blog, I can tell you she is nominated in their photography category. This does not surprise me as I've been saying for a long time she should sell her gorgeous tempting images.

I ask of you to vote for her work & hopefully the editors at my favorite foodie magazine will realize next year... her creativity goes beyond the images. Frankly her recipes are exquisite to the tastebuds as well!!!!

Peace, doughnuts & sweetness to all.

True love...

Being the romantic I proudly label myself to be, I must confess that Valentines Day is not a favorite of mine. You may ask how can this be??? Well a tale of 1998 explains it all.

Valentines evening & I was dutifully at my post as Blockbuster manager. A couple came in already in an argument: it seems he got her nothing & she was beyond upset. Movie chosen & at checkout she engaged me...blah, blah blag..am I right??? Well..I asked her...

"Is he horrible to you???"

"No" came out & boy was she confused.

"Does he cheat? Beat you? Treat you without respect??? "

"No, no, no he's great."

"Then what do you need a card for on one day, when he reminds you all the time????"
Her face softened, he told me I was his new favorite person & together they went off to watch their movie with popcorn.

Valentines Day was created by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD to express love in a time of no Red Envelope, Hallmark, EHarmony, FTD: you name all the nonsense we obsess over, it simply did not exist. I've seen single girlfriends depressed on the 14th that they have no date, no flowers, no nick nacks instead of focusing on the love of friends & family. I've witnessed men running around like a chicken with their heads cut off in a drugstore on the 14th buying teddy bears & the card no one else wanted because they forgot & dread going home empty handed. A coworker once went to tears when he husband sent a great plant basket for her desk & not a dozen red roses, which for me is passe. All this drama. All for what????Expressing love, true love has nothing to do with all the disposable melamine, fluffy animals , sugar concocted offerings the retail world is trying to force down your psyche as a requirement not a testament. True love is giving of yourself to create a feeling of safety, contentment & peace in another for always not merely the 14th day of February. There's not a solitary material item that can express this: its a lifetime journey of humanity. This is true romance, true love.

Wishing you true love everyday.

Images courtesy of the genius Michelle Rago

Brava Tobi, Brava!!!!!

Life has certainly been running at a hectic pace as of late & the blogger in my soul as been feeling so much remorse for misbehaving, however I can only remind you that my work weeks are insane & the remnants of Valley Fever have me collapsed at nightfall. Slowly I'm less spent but for now.... I dream of a getaway.

Back in the real world....

I do have to shout to Tobi Fairley brava for achieving the cover of House Beautiful March cover accompanied by a 10 page feature to boot!!!! Tobi has been a favorite designer of mine even before I was graced with her name & wonderful face to her work. Southern charm defines her to a T. Did I mention Traditional Home named her one of Top 20 Young Designers??? Well deserved. Case closed.
Her green living room is an ultimate of mine. By the by the fabric is that of another genius Barclay Butera.

Could you not just die for this graphic homage to monochromatic !!! Eye candy...
Photos courtesy of Tobi Fairley

Tis the seaon to create your own reasons

As the holidays come into full madness I always discover myself watching from the outside but not for the obvious reason. You may or may not know but I've been in retail for 25 years. I've been ordering Holiday motif merchandise in July, figuring displays out in my mind in September, working like crazy from Halloween until January & poof my holidays have always been after everyone ceases shopping at the end of January. Christmas & Co have been my business & for that reason I see it quite differently.

I appreciate the gentle snowfall at midnight when I drive the empty streets home, lights twinkling, carols on the radio & the true peace of it all. I know my few gifts of thought always outweigh the mountains some think matter more. My perspective is the greatest gift of the season.

Worry not about perfect cookies. They last longer in the mouth than on the eyes. Forget about finding the perfect sweater for your best gal. Instead invite her out to lunch & shopping when the malls have quieted down. It will be a greater treasure. Allow yourself to be human. You'll forget, burn, miss & all the other wonderful traits that make you flesh & blood but promise me no tears.

I have seen it all fighting, crying, sadness: you name its occurred in front of my eyes. I've always reassured & yes sometimes they listen not just hear but more often than not they embrace the blue that the season of red & green can cause.

There are so many reasons to love the season: family, friends, treats & yes even gifts but if the year has been filled with illness, unemployment, economic issues, heck even just stuff I hope from one side of the counter to the other I hope you can find a reason to celebrate just being alive & loved. You see all that stuff you fight & worry over, we'll pull it out of a box again next October. Its really not that important. The love which is the reason, I believe, for the season, its always there.

P.S. Grant & Hailey are coming this Tuesday for 2 weeks. I get hugs, hand holding & kiddie kisses. Really who needs more.

Merry Christmas to you & those you love!!!!!

Ya give me fever...Valley Fever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sick as I've been I'm happy to pass on that I've been diagnosed with Valley Fever, a spore that lives in the AZ desert & yup...its in my lungs. Blood tests came back positive & now I'm just relaxing away. I did have pneumonia, often a symptom but the fever explains the enlarged nodes & while a follow up CT will be required this 99.9% explains the abnormal nodes & dismisses cancer. An anti fungal drug is only used in severe cases & knock on my wooden head I got it good but not that bad so rest, sleep, eat well & months of slowly getting better will do me just fine.

Thank you for all the love & support. Its made me feel so loved& we all know that's the best medicine.

I'm so looking forward to getting back to blogging in the next week or so. I have missed you all so very much.

By the way the images are my favorite flea market painting & then tole tray for my autumn transformation of the house. The tray was at the Ann Arbor Antiques market: last hours of a double weekend & tucked at the back of a display. Paid half price at $60.00 & the picture doesn't do it justice. It also big at 24"x20". All my years in the antiques world taught me many tricks of the price trade, which I'm thinking could make a good post. I can tell you that wherever I go Ann Arbor to Rose Bowl my compadres make me do the purchasing. The painting was from another fabulous Alicia at the Royal Oak Flea in tiny Royal Oak Michigan. Another photo that doesn't do it justice.

In my old home it hung over the fireplace mantle for the autumnal season. By the way I do have MVD: mantle vignette disease...dressing it for the season but think Martha or Eddie Ross. Natural resplendence I call it. With my closet full of decor my mother calls it nuts. Hey I was in high end home decor retail for 10 years & paid wholesale: NDI, I really miss you. :)

Happy weekend!!!!!

I haven't fallen off the Earth but I feel like it.

Flu, flu, work, work, flu then to the hospital...double pnemonia. Yup thats my life the last 6 weeks. I"m in my second week of recovery & to make matters even worse on my CT scan my lung lymph nodes were enlarged beyond what illness should give me so naturally the resident gives me a list of reasons that includes cancer but thats the only one I heard. The odds are small but frankly any odds just aint delightful or delovely. I'll have to be re scanned & if I dont get ship shape sooner well then everything will just be pushed up but forgive me if I'm not in a blogging mood. I'll be back soon. I just need to veg, rest & find my usual kickin ass character again.

I hope everyone is having a fabulous Halloween week & enjoying the bounty of Autumn that I miss so very much. See the leaves, wear a sweater & pick an apple for me. I threw an amazing picking party eons ago back in a friends orchards in Michigan. Think picnic tables covered with vintage plaid blankets, baskets, vintage enamelware and a killer tablescapeof pumpkins, apples & straw/ Why oh why could 1994 not be a digital year??

Love to all.