Notes from A Cottage Industry

It's a small world after all.

It turns out that isn't just a catchy little song from a ride at Disneyland.

...

So, here's a fun little twist to our Maui girl-time vacation, with an emphasis on girl-time.

After the bonus vacation pit-stop at Stanford Hospital, we arrived in Maui on Saturday, got settled in at the hotel and spent the day sipping grown up drinks in the sun, while people watching and enjoying lots of girl-talk.

As we finished dinner, we discovered that we both had messages on our phones via text and Facebook from two additional high school girlfriends.  They were also on Maui, vacationing with family!(They had seen my blog posts about the vacation and trip to ER posted on Facebook, and realized we must all be there at the same time.)

Anyway.

It turned out they were dining just two blocks away from other restaurant where we were dining, and so we skedaddled right on over to say aloha. (I know! Crazy, incredibly small world, right?!) We also discovered our hotels were in walking distance of one another, so we decided to meet up to walk the path by the beach together in the morning.

We've had a fabulous time, catching up with one another each day here in paradise.

I know i have said this before, but I just have to say it one more time...God bless the world wide web.

Memorial Day, 2016

Weekly words to live by.

How NOT to start your vacation.

I should be writing you this from a lounge chair poolside at the hotel in Maui, but I am not.

We will be departing for the island tomorrow morning (Saturday) as we spent all of Thursday night enjoying the plush surroundings of Stanford Hospital's ER Room, which actually includes a huge triage tent, and boasts a very strong "M*A*S*H*" style resemblance during their major remodel.

I'll keep this short, and spare you the details, as much of what went on was not for the faint of heart, nor the squeamish, nor is it the kind of thing steak lovers want to hear happens. It turned out, after many long hours, tests, and x-rays, that I had some steak from dinner out with my Dad, stuck in my esophagus.

And it wasn't going to move down to my stomach on it's own.

After a not-so-pleasant procedure that is now thankfully a really foggy memory for me, the steak bites are gone and I am back in the business of getting ready to vacation.

Note to self: Cut your food bites small, and chew your food about 25 times before you swallow.

 

 

Let the vacation festivities begin!

Today's blog post is courtesy of the United States news media, that guy who was head of security with the TSA, and the fabulous Portland International Airport.

You know, the national news has been focusing on the hideous long lines for security and how folks are missing flights all over America (particularly Chicago it seems) and how it's affecting life for airline travelers in general. I'm heading out today (yay!!) on vacation, and I wanted to be sure I was at the airport early enough to avoid any of the unpleasantness the news had shared, even though I typically am given the TSA Pre-check approval and get to fast track through there. (I am guessing it is a combination of the fact that I fly fairly often, and only domestic flights, and I am rapidly approaching the 60 year mark, so it stands to reason that I have got to be considered a low risk to be a terrorist.)

Anyway.

My Rock n' Roll Buddy dropped me off a comfortable three and a half hours before flight time. (It may seem extreme, but from the news reports,and the fact that dropping me was on his direct path to his work, where he needs to be by 8:30, determined that my arriving at about 8:10 worked out for everyone involved.) When I checked my bag, and was given a fresh boarding pass by the skycap, and sure enough, it was the TSA Pre-check approved.

I waltzed through the airport, and since I was so early, I browsed through a few shops. (If you ever are in Portland, and at the airport in particular, you may want to arrive a half hour early to shop. We've got Powell's Books, and a pretty awesome shoe store.) I headed for the security check, and there it was.

The looming line I had heard so much about.

Only, this was the TSA Pre-check line. (Apparently the newest thing is to pay eighty-five bucks or so and get yourself pre-screened-for-five-years-in-advance, and very nearly everyone had done it.

Yikes.

Twice as long as the take-off-your-shoes-Target-necklace-earrings-and-worry-that-your-underwire-bra-might-set-things-off line.

It turned out that even though the TSA Pre-check line was so long, it moved fairly quickly, and I was waiting at my gate two hours and fifty five minutes before take off.

I had time for a sausage biscuit from the airport Mickey-D's.

And, I was able to write this post.

Where am I off to? You may have noticed a countdown calendar on my sidebar over there. I'm off to spend a few days with my oldest-dearest-bestest-friend-since-fifth-grade on the sunny island of Maui, (remember two summers ago when I went with her to Kauai?) with a bonus day prior to that visiting with my Dad and stepmom in the bay area.

I'll be posting while I'm vacationing, 'coz writing is one of the things I have missed so much these past few months, as life has been busier than ever, and I have ever so much to share!

Aloha!

 

Weekly words to live by.

Mama got some (more) new shoes.

Well, of course you can see why I had to have them.

...

Actually, I had my eye on them for quite some time, but they were spendy.

Then, out-of-the-blue, Pinterest alerted me that they had been reduced in price.

(Seriously reduced. Like, very-nearly-almost-half-off reduced.)

God bless Pinterest.

And so, seeing the newly reduced pricing, I rationalized just how versatile these classic black and white wedge sandals were. I could wear them to work, and out and about, and I would feel all kinds of sassy and fabulous in them, which would make my day awesome, and everyone else's day awesome too.

(Okay, I may have been pushing things there, but I was completely certain they would change my life.)

Even the packaging was sassy and fabulous. See?

 

And then, those shoes. What's not to love?

(Oh, I was imagining the possibilities, all right.)

*sigh*

Like I said. Life changing.

 

Multiple thrifted jackpots scored last weekend.

Oh, how I love it when that happens.

We went on a fun little RV roadtrip this past weekend, and I was lucky enough to get to make a pit stop at a Goodwill Thrift Store in Tillamook.

Then, on Sunday, I popped in at my local Goodwill (since I was out of town on Saturday, and missed the local yard sales) and was thrilled to land more treasures.

 

I finished off my weekend with the creme' de le creme' of the weekend; a vintage nine foot wooden folding ladder, discovered on Craigslist, right here in the 'Couve. (In mint condition, no less.)

Most of this will be going in my booth at Camas Antiques, but some of it will be staying at my home, as I am building stock as I get ready to launch (finally) the vintage rental business I have been wanting to do for...well, longer than I planned, way back when. (Remember my idea here? and here??) I am feeling like it is coming together,a nd at long last, I will be wrapping up the website to get things official.

(Be still my junk-lovin' heart!)

 

 

Weekly words to live by.

Art is where you find it.

...and in this instance, it was in the Ladies Room at the Brush Prairie Bar and Grill.

We stopped in for a burger after taking a car ride, enjoying the hotter than normal weather, and having taken one of the old classic cars to a botanical garden for an engagement photo shoot with a darling young couple.(But that's another blog post...)

While waiting for our order, I headed for the ladies room, and I was surprised to find this giant wall of art (five or six feet wide, maybe?) as I walked in.

(Well, you knew I would just have to get a picture of it, right?)

(Thankfully I was alone in there, although nothing would have stopped me from snapping a picture.)

The entire back wall of the restroom was covered in galvanized metal sheeting, and then the artwork was attached to it.

Too cool.

(And, in the Ladies Room, no less.)

I googled the place once I got home, and it turns out that this fabulous sentiment-turned-wall-art is not only a great one-liner, but the business's tag line.

Gotta love that.

 

Sometimes attention to detail can be a curse. (Or why some days I look ten years older than I really am.)

I love making little handmade things more than biscuits and gravy, but sometimes I can get so engulfed in what I am creating, that I lose track of time, and am not quite happy with what I am making until I have the colors just exactly right. Consequently, I will come up with ever so slightly changed fonts, or color-ways, and I am compelled to reprint a sample, only then to discover a typo, or the shade of blue I was after has taken a turn towards purple and I need to print again.

While this is going on, the little tiny wheels in my head are usually coming up with additional ideas that I am too excited to wait until an appropriate time tomorrow to try out, and I start a second project then as well. (Right about the time this occurs, I usually glance at the clock on my computer, only to discover it is already tomorrow, and I have to get up at 5:00 a.m. for work. (Inset an audible shriek here, followed by a fairly long sigh.)

At this point, I am far too excited about my projects to just stop and go to bed, so I go ahead and work until I feel like I can see, at least in some sort of vague way, a glimmer of how the finished product is going to look. Only then do I finally feel sleepy enough to call it a night.

I hugely regret all of this when my phone alarm goes off with that annoying tune at o'dark thirty, and I then proceed to startle myself when I lock eyeballs with that incredibly haggered looking woman in the bathroom mirror while brushing my teeth.

I vow to myself not do this again on a week night, but then I see my latest and greatest mess work-in-progress, still strewn all over my dining room table, and that inspired feeling returns. I remember that life is short. Sleep seems over rated (...in that moment, at any rate.) and I only live once, so if occasionally crafting into the night...er..early morning is wrong, I don't want to be right.

(Please. Tell me you've done this, or something similar, at least one time yourself.)

 

 

Chicken kabobs that are pretty danged good.

Just sayin'.

I found the recipe here.

I knew I wanted to make them.

I needed to make them.

I gathered the ingredients, and tackled this easy recipe a couple of weeks ago.

Oh. My. Ga.

Out of this ever-lovin' world. (Try making them yourself. You will glad you did, and so will everyone you serve them to.)

Impress your friends (and yourself) with easy-peasy-raspberry lemonade.

...and it's very nearly calorie free. (Five calories for an entire half gallon pitcher.)

You know I am as much about presentation as I am about flavor when it comes to entertaining, whether it's for big shindigs or intimate little noshes, and I always keep a stash of thrifted pilsner glasses in my freezer for an added treat. My latest obsession is Raspberry Lemonade Crystal Light. I like all of the lemonade flavors, but this one is my all time favorite. It comes in these little sleeves, and one sleeve makes a half gallon.

I make my pitcher of raspberry lemonade, and chill it in the fridge. Then, when I want to have some, or someone stops by, I add some frozen raspberries and a couple of lemon slices into the glass. (You can add ice cubes too, if the lemonade isn't chilled enough...)

So yummy.

So refreshing.

And so pretty.

Trust me, this little beverage makes everybody feel extra-special.

(....and that is what I'm after, even if it's just little old me.)

Yes, it's a blog post.

I've missed you! For every day I missed writing a blog post, I had the intention of writing two the next.

But, it didn't happen that way.

Life has been oh, so busy of late, and my grown up girl job has taken on a life of it's own lately. (Not making excuses, just stating the facts.)

The good news is that while I have missed a ridiculous number of blog posts, I have at least been taking photos of the busy-ness going on in my life, and I am going to share the fun highlights here!

First off, there was this- My absolute bestie at my grown up job got engaged a good while back. (remember?) And as the big day approaches, there are lots of showers and such in the works for her. I made her invites for one of her showers, and oh, my! It was so much fun!

Her colors are ivory, blush and gold, which is what I chose to go with on her invites. (Check out the cute wording on her invites, as well.)

In the meantime, my hairstylist got engaged and I knew that this called for her own bride's hanger, which I shared last time I ordered one....

She loved it, and I loved seeing how happy it made her!

Then, totally unrelated, a friend's daughter is engaged, and they needed some bridal shower cupcakes. I was happy to help, and came up with a few of them topped with little champagne glasses, with some bubbly spilling out...

That's just a sliver of what all I have been up to of late.  More to come tomorrow!

Weekly words to live by.

 

Here's to all the hard working Mom's out there, shaping the leaders of tomorrow. Happy Mother's Day!

 

 

Weekly words to live by.