Fool's Journey

Somewhere over the rainbow this little gal is going. She didn't bring a little dog along, she brought her bunnie buddy, only he is having fun of his own. Wouldn't it be nice is everybody's Fool's Journey had only a rainbow path. Her optimisim believes this is what is ahead for her.

She seemed to have made her journey off the rainbow and back onto land. What is going on with the mask? Her bunny friend has disappeared and she found out her true friend was her bluebird. Maybe when you are being a Fool you find out who your true friends really are.

This little lady is back. Looks like her crazy bunny friend once again took the plunge before she did. What lies behind the door? She is about to find out.

This fairy fool seems to be a bit hesitant about starting her journey. She cant seem to step off her ledge. And yet there is beautiful music to be played. Her bunny friend is doesnt seem to understand her fear but realizes this is her journey.

I guess the Fool is long gone. Best Wishes.

She is my favorite Fool. Her life is a series of notes. Each key played a different note for her. She has left that to try her path of cards. It is a long long path that seems to go on for eternity. Will this unlock her new Fool's path? She will have to take the journey to find out.

Christmas Puppies

This is Sophie at two and a half months old. How could I resist.

I decided my house was just to empty without the pitter patter of little feet. I could go on grieving for my sweet Ginger forever. Finding Papillon puppies can be a huge challenge. My daughter located someone in her state that had two females a few days a part. I really was only interested in getting one but then I started thinking about how lonely it would be for the one pup and eventually getting another and going through the puppy stage all over again and ended up with two. Mind you I have never had two of anything at the same time. For Pete's sake I only had one child. I have to say I was a bit scared to do this.

This is Pippy. Named after Pippy Longstocking. Her ears weren't up yet. Was not sure they were going to go up. Then she would be a Phalene instead of a Papillon. Just a matter of ears up or down. Her litter mate sister also did not have her ears up as well. I almost did not get her because of this but her breeder kept telling me how sweet she was and how loving she was. Okay sucker I caved. Well all I have to say is these two pups must have switched personalities on the car ride home because this little gal is spunky, feisty, bouncy and a clown!! That face actually grows on you. She is ten days older but smaller than Sophie. She however does not know this.

Well about a week ago one of Pippy's ears went up. I wanted her ears up, my mom wanted her ears to stay down. So we both got half a wish. One up, one down. Every time I looked at her I burst out laughing. She looked completely silly. Three days later the second ear went up. Well for about three hours. She looked like a bat!! Those are some honking big ears. Then the next day the ear was back down where it has been for several days until this morning when it decided to poke back up. In the last couple of weeks she has become every ones favorite. I should not say that because you should never pick a favorite with your kids. I still however am crazy about them both. Sophie is completely opposite of Pippy. She is more tender hearted, does not warm up easily to people. She reminds me of an old soul.

Pippy loves loves our older Papillon Cecily. Anytime she can be near her she will be. Cecily on the other hand does not even remotely like either of these two pups and wishes everyday they would just disappear. Cecily will actually hide in the corner with her face to the wall as to not look at either one of these pups. She always has been a bit of a grump. Just likes to be left alone. As you can see, Cecily in no way is enjoying sharing her bed with Pippy.

They are such a joy and make us laugh everyday.

Christmas Eve on the French Quarter

What is the French Quarter if there isn't a carriage going by?

This guy was amazing! He never moved. How difficult would that be to stand frozen for hours at a time?

These blue shutters against the brick was so beautiful. Check out how quiet the Quarter was on Christmas Eve.

I could have listened to this group all afternoon. The female singer had a great voice.

I love this sign. These voodoo shops are so interesting to wonder through. The smells of herbs and potions. Gris Gris, magic stones and some very interesting statues. The Palm/Tarot readers are in the back behind the beaded curtain.

Another great name.

I think I could just wonder the Quarter for days taking photos of signs.

Holidays in New Orleans

Tea Menu

Candy Land Entrance to Tea at The Ritz

The Ritz Lobby

The Ritz decorations in the lobby.

The Ritz Bathroom

It has been many years since I left my home for the holidays and celebrated elsewhere. This year we went to New Orleans to spend Christmas with my daughter. Christmas Eve was spent having Tea at The Ritz in downtown New Orleans. That was such a fun way to spend the afternoon with my daughter and mother. The champagne flowing and the tea delicious. The service was impecable. We had finger foods, wonderful scones and lots of fancy little pastries. The Ritz was decortated beautifully and elegant.

After all that delicious food the three of us wondered out to the French Quarter to walk off some of that champagne and pastry. There was not a lot of people on the Quarter Christmas Eve and it was so enjoyable!! The weather couldn't have been more perfect for an afternoon stroll. There was great entertainment in the streets as usual, we drooled peering in the jewelry shop windows and wondered in and out of some fabulous shops. One of my favorite shops was called Fleur de Paris. A custom millinery shop along with some pretty darn fabulous couture and vintage clothing. Beautiful hats packed this adorable shop. I could have stayed for hours looking at these gorgeous hats but we had to move on. We stepped into one hotel on the Quarter that was like walking into a Magical Winter Wonderland. But alas our time ran out and we had to leave, but not without a few purchases.

I so enjoyed the beautiful homes being carefully restored throughout the city. The architecture there is candy to the eyes. The gingerbread, rod iron and great color schemes of homes makes this such a unique city. My daughter loves this city. It took me a while to figure out why but I understand it now. The people were friendly the weather was great, the food delicious.

My daughter also took me to a great Karaoke bar where if you are brave enough, you sing to a live band called The Molly Ringwalds (gotta love that). No cover charge for the great laughs. It has been a long time since I have had tears of laughter running down my cheeks. We went to the horse races at the fair grounds (also no cover charge). All in all there was so much more to do but time goes so quickly. I still didn't get my street car ride to one of those amazing cemeteries. Next time.

Little Ginger

Everyone should have that one special dog in their life. That amazing little four legged furry child that does no wrong in your eyes. Makes you laugh, keeps you on your toes and has the joy for waking up everyday and making a new friend. My little four legged replacement child was Ginger. She was all of that and more. Ginger never met a person or child she didn't like and before that person walked away they knew they met a friend for life. She had friends everywhere. From the ladies at the vets office to the drive through windows, everyone loved her.

You never had to guess how she was feeling. Ginger had no problems telling you. When hungry she would stare you straight in the eyes and give you a head bob. If that didn't work or you were trying to ignore her she would give you one of those nasty hair raising bitch barks. And if that didn't work she would do this crazy butt wiggle, back up and buck like a horse. She knew that would always get a laugh out of us and she would win. She would throw her head back and howl if I asked her where the kitty kitty or piggy piggy was. That never got old.

If you were leaving the house, Ginger always felt she should go. Once she realized that wasn't going to happen she would grab you around the ankles with her two front legs and and growl "How dare you leave me". In her world she was human and had the right to go everywhere. Car rides were heaven in her mind. Regardless if it was to the end of the driveway or across country.

Ginger even had this funny way to pee. She would balance up on her two front legs and walk as to not get  her back feet wet. Her favorite daily thing to do would be to stretch flat out as long as she could, lay really still with a dog cookie at the tip of her nose, trying to get the other dog to come after it so the race would be on. And if that didn't work she would walk up to her dog friend and poke it right in her face.

If there was negative side, she could be a bit needy. Okay a lot needy. She liked sleeping on your head or laying up on your chest to sleep. When she was a pup she would sit on my shoulder like a parrot when we were in the car.

Ginger never grasped the whole obedience training thing. I gave up after three different training session attempts. In her world she didn't really need to know how to sit or stay. It really never mattered anyway because she knew her boundaries and how far she could push them.

In the middle of the night if she had to go out she would bounce her little wet cold nose on mine to wake me up. Now mind you she had a doggy door but it was more fun to wake me up.

She brought life and humor to the house. Loving, needy and bratty. I miss her every day. I wouldn't change a single minute even though I feel cheated only having her seven short years. When they say only the good die young I wonder if that goes for dogs too.

She was buried in a handmade quilted blanket in one of her favorite places in the backyard. Over her grave hangs a big bouncy colorful butterfly chime for my little butterfly dog. Hopefully where ever she is, she is happy and teasing other dogs with her cookie. They say you can find your beloved dogs over the rainbow bridge. She was our rainbow. She brought all of the rainbow colors to our house and to anyone lucky enough to meet her.

Past Christmas's

For the past few years we decorate the Xmas tree in New Orleans Mardi Gras Style. This tree went up in my moms house. Since my daughter went to College and now lives there it was a way of bringing a bit of her home to ours for her yearly Xmas visits. She collected all the beads during the parades and would give them to me for our tree. I love how easy it is to drape beaded necklaces on the branches. So much easier than draping garland. We were lucky to finally find wonderful Fleur De Lis ornaments at Hobby Lobby after years of looking for them. This year we are going to New Orleans for Xmas so the ornaments were packed up and passed on to my daughter. We will not be decorating this year. I am looking forward to spending the holidays in a different location.

It is snowing today. Our first snow of the fall. It feels more like winter now. It made me think about the first couple years of my house. I actually had garland and bows. I don't bother to do this anymore. Sadly I don't bother putting up a tree either. My house is to small and why bother for one person. I do put up the tree at my moms with the exception of this year.

Morning Walks

On my morning walk, I decided to go up around the square to see if there were any pretty Christmas Windows. I came across these two windows in one of the antique stores. I was pretty impressed since usually they are just filled with miss matched junk. Possibly a new employee who has a bit of window dressing experience. Whatever the reason, I really enjoyed the window display.

This window display was my favorite. I really liked the Tea Merchant sign hanging up.

As I came around the corner off the square this is the beautiful sunrise. I love early mornings. I seem to be the only one awake and it is as if those displays of beauty are just for me to see. The colors of the sky are the reason I take my camera in the mornings now. I cant tell you how many beautiful sunrises I missed photographing because I had no camera. Doesn't this sky look like it is on fire?

This was the view right next to the sky of fire. Such a contrast. As the mornings get colder I will be walking a bit less. I have my limits to freezing my face off. I am looking forward to walking some morning when we are having a light snow. (As long as I don't slip and fall on my bum. I am simply to old for that any more. I don't bounce well and it hurts!!)

Fall Clouds

I have been enjoying the fall sky in my early morning walks. One of these days when I figure out how to use my Photoshop program I hope to use them as backgrounds in future prints.

Fall in Central Park

Fall color in Central Park. The sky particularly beautiful this morning. I get a bit frustrated because it is so hard to really capture the colors of the clouds.

My little town has one of the lovely Carnegie Library's built with money donated from Andrew Carnegie. It has recently been restored and added on to. Across the street from the library is Central Park. The park has many beautiful trees, a fountain and large gazebo. It hosts many weddings and events through out the year. At the front of the park stands a bronze of Marlin Perkins. He was the man who hosted "Wild Kingdom" many years ago. When I was a child I would watch his adventures every Sunday night just before the Wonderful World of Disney would come on. Marlin Perkins birth place home is only a couple blocks from the park (and currently for sale).

Fall Color

The fall color was exceptionally beautiful this year. On my morning walks, I could not resist snapping the beauty I see. I walk very early and it is usually still dark but with time change the end of my walk when the sun starts coming up and the light hits the courthouse in a certain way. I love when the clouds turn pink and the sky is the color of turquoise. It is hard not to marvel and be full of gratitude. Sometimes I feel like the sky has painted itself just for me to see.

For the Love of Chocolate

My chocolate tool was adjustable so you can make different widths of chocolate wraps. This tool was made with food safe stainless steel.

You use a piece of acetate on the bottom, then put your stencil on top of the acetate, adjust your tool and just glide it down the stencil. It needs to set up before applying the second layer of chocolae over it. After both chocolates are added it needs to set up for a bit but it still needs to be pliable enough to be wrapped around your cake. Once the wrap is on I would put in the refrig to get it fully set up before removing the acetate. For this demo I actually used Chocolate Bark from the grocery store instead of real tempered chocolate. Tempered chocolate will come out look beautiful and shiney.

I love chocolate. I love cake. When I lived in Calif. there was this amazing bakery that used to do these chocolate wraps around there cakes. Well smoothing chocolate with a spatula might be easy for some but not for me. So one day I saw a chocolate pastry chef use this really great tool and I decided I could make my own only a smaller, better and much cheaper. So I played with the concept, drew up some plans of what I wanted and took the plans to a manufacturer and had 50 made. Yeah a lot of work just because I wanted one of these tools for myself. But it made smoothing chocolate for these wraps pretty darn quick. I then started playing around with the tool and found out I could stencil with white chocolate and go over it with dark chocolate. I took the tool to some cake shows and demoed and ended up selling them out. I was pretty darn happy about that. All for the love of playing with chocolate.

Passion Flowers & More

These flowers are so amazing. I am not sure what variety of Passion Flower Vine this is but the color is a bit different then the Passion Vines I have had in the past. I probably have over 200 buds on this plant right now. It seems to have liked the miracle grow and rain. At the moment it is taking over my kitchen window and porch floor.

I bought this plant while on vacation in Florida and planted it. I think it likes it's new spot. It is slowly taking over everything. It is considered an annual so it will die back this winter. In the past the passion flower vines have some how reseeded so I am hoping it will come back next year.

This is a new clematis I planted. It has hundreds on tiny little yellow lantern type flowers. Once the flowers are done I get the little fluffy after piece.

Autumn Sunset Roses are once again blooming. I love the messiness of this rose. Although I love the perfect Tea Roses I also just love the garden type rose as well.