"All these things I should keep to myself
But I feel somehow strangely compelled...."

- Neil Finn, Sinner

There were purple ribbons tied to every vertical post along this street. I was trying to figure out what they symbolized; turns out it's a a bunch of different things.

Ribbons
Seal Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
1 May 2009

YayfinallyoncurrentmonthI'mnot?dammit

I haven't bought any jewelry for awhile so I treated myself to a pair of earrings (on sale) from The Rainforest Site. One of my few nods to femininity is I have a weakness for dangly earrings.

Eye of Shiva
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
23 April 2009

My family has had these since I was a child. They were always my favorites, like pink soap bubbles with snow on them, and I loved finding them as we opened the ornament boxes every year. It used to be a set of three or four, but gradually over the years, they succumbed to dropping, kittens, and other hazards. This one survived my kids' babyhood, but not something falling from an upper shelf onto the box of ornaments. Bye-bye, pink soap bubble. *sniff*

Putting away the decorations
Huntington Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
07 January 2009

I ordered a set of these raku pottery ornaments from theanimalrescuesite.com thinking I could give them as gifts, but when they arrived two of the set were snapped off at the neck. Their customer service rep was very gracious and said they would send out a replacement immediately, this is the pick I sent in as proof. Don't think they'll arrive in time though. I liked these because they could also be worn as brooches.

Ornaments
Huntington Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
20 December 2008

My friend asked me to help out with the Orange County District flower show. The design section was all Holiday-themed table settings, so Happy Holidays.

Happy Chanukkah!
Sherman Library and Gardens
Newport Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
22 November 2008

( ...and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Father's Day! )

Above the steam table at our favorite nearby Chinese Mom-n-Pop takeout. It seems to be a contest as to how many coins patrons can stack up on Hotei's head. And I had never seen one of those lucky cats that had so many kittens and a big red fish before, so I had to look up what it meant. We like this place - the lady behind the steam table always remembers us and her eyes get big at how much the kids have grown (even though we only come in once a month or so). While the rest of my family always orders something that's already on the table, I like mu-shu, which is not. So she yells my order to her husband in the back, and he yells back at her; I don't understand what they're saying but I suspect he's swearing at having to cook something. And they go back and forth for a bit like that. Avalon usually asks something about the decorations; once she got a lesson on the Asian zodiac and found out she is a serpent child (her brothers are a tiger and a rabbit).

Hong Kong Bowl
Huntington Beach CA
Kyocera Switchback phone camera
09 October 2008

( angle )

A coworker visited family (that he'd never met before) in Vietnam - and brought us all back these bracelets. And our scientific aide is practicing his cooking and brought us all flan.

Gifts
Los Alamitos CA
Sharp VE-CG30
29 August 2008

Squeeee!

Lampwork Nudibranchs.

I think they're even pendants...

a_hollow_year on my friends page posted of pic of how her hair looked with these gorgeous hairsticks a friend had made; while I don't have any gorgeous hairsticks (or her gorgeous red hairs, only a random few are red) at the moment, I was inspired to do something similar. I've worn this barette almost every day for probably a good ten years, as it's the only one I've ever had that didn't fall apart after wearing it more than a couple of times. Took me about six tries to get the exposure and the aim right - and I didn't realize my gray has made it all the way to my bun (I usually just wear a pony tail, but I twist it up like this when I get hot).

Los Alamitos CA
Sharp VE-CG30
18 April 2008

Taking down the tree...

My friend at work needed to return some clothes for her baby that were the wrong size, so we ran down to Gymboree at the mall during lunch. I found a pair of capris for Avalon for $10 instead of the original $32. Man, I don't pay that much for pants for me! Especially when she's going to grow out of them in a few months.

Avalon won two big plastic rings at school and gave me one. I always thought I inherited my dad's stubby mechanic's hands, instead of my mom's slender piano playing fingers. My brother got those. ;)

John is convinced that we could put our kids in a stainless steel lined room, with no doors, windows or furniture, give them two steel ball bearings, and within 5 minutes, they'll break one and lose the other.

Last week was our ninth anniversary. I was so proud of myself that I had actually thought ahead and got him a present that was perfect. I chose this because of it's symbolism of a relationship:

Maori Twist pendant

He had it for less than a week and apparently Gareth grabbed it off his nightstand, was swinging it around, and managed to smash it. I hope that's not symbolic, too.

I wanted to replace it but as you can see from that link, it's sold out there, and anyplace else I look they're made of bone or jade, and three to four times the price. I liked the look of the carnelian. I think it suited him better.

Grrr. I'm hoping they get them back in stock.