Daffodils and Chocolate Eggs To You!

Hope it's a lovely day sweet friends!

Happy

Belated Valentines Day!

I'm not a big fan of Valentines Day. I'm sorry... I just thinks it's gotten too "spend-y and stress-y".

However, if you are {a fan},
I do hope you had a nice day yesterday. I insisted "he" didn't buy me anything this year, and I think it was hard for him not to. Instead I asked him to take me to eat at a favorite restaurant, sushi! and so we did, and it was YUMMY!

I pretty much worked all day yesterday and today :(
I'm exausted, really. I have all the new things for the shoppe cleaned up and ready to post. I hope to share them in my next post.

Well... I'm signing off for now. BBQ'd lemon-chicken in the kitchen with my name on it :)

OH!
Happy Presidents Day. Good ole Abe...

New Year Greetings

Happy New Years Sweet Readers!

It's been really quiet around here lately.
You know how it is... Christmas is over, family has left. The excitement is gone, the decorations are coming down....sigh. I always get like this, during this time, every year.
I'm just a little blue today :'(

It's been especially quiet in my shoppe.
I am trying to enjoy it, though, a little depressing at times. But I know it's just that time of year. Some say it's a blessing in disguise.
Though it's been really slow in my shoppe, it has given me time to really enjoy this Holiday Season. I, like this lady, am enjoying the calmness of it all, & I'm going to give it my all in 2010. I'm excited for the new year, a fresh start, fresh ideas & a camera in hand.... and it will begin with lots of new treasures for my shoppe {{Boxes full I tell ya}}!!
Goodbye 2009, thank you for everything you've done for me.

I do hope everyone stays safe tonight, enjoy yourselves and see ya next year!

hugs,
michelle

PS- My New Years goals:
1. Read at least one book a month.
2. Floss twice a day.
3. Save $$$ each week.

I W.I.S.H...

...each and everyone of you the very, very best this wonderful Holiday
and for the new year!

This Christmas card is for you:

love,
michelle

A tiny CHRISTMAS TRAGEDY

Long story short. Our live Christmas Tree died!
R.I.P.

Sad, sad, sad.
Lessons learned that even though you water your tree everyday, a blazing fire in the stove will dry out your tree!

We got to decorate two trees this year! Phew. All is well in the end, packages are wrapped and under the tree...stockings are hung on the chimney with care.....



....not a creature was stirring...not even a mouse.

I hope your all enjoying the season. Disappointing at times..... with the hustle and bustle, and traffic and madness. So many forget what it's all about.
It's nice to just sit back, watch the twinkling lights on the tree and think how wonderful 2009 has been to us.
I'm looking forward to what the new year brings. Lots of thoughts and new ideas for my shoppe. I have many new treasures, but they will have to wait until after the first week in January.

~Merry.Cozy.Happy.Christmas~
To you.

see ya soon.
xxoo

Christmas Corners

So....
our Christmas decorating has been up for a couple weeks now. I've had this terrible flu-bug and it's kept me from sharing the corners of our Christmas here. We don't go all-out with decorating, we mainly have our tree and little things here and there.
This year we got a real Christmas tree.... we usually set up our flocked-with-snow-artificial-tree, but we just wanted something different this year. I've been collecting Department 56's Krinkles collection for years now and have enough Krinkle ornaments to cover our entire flocked tree. Though I love them.... we kept them tucked away in their boxes.
This year we dug out all of our "vintage" Christmas ornaments. We just wanted a change and it's a nice change too.

It's a smaller tree, only about 5 feet and sitting upon a pedestal. Keeping the fur-babies from eating it!

This little stuffed star is our new ornament this year. Right above his head is one of my most-treasured... a mercury glass Santa. He's very, very, old and so sweet!

I know this looks like real popcorn, but it's just plastic. Isn't it great?

Our nativity scene!

Christmas wouldn't be complete without Charlie and his little tree!

Jelly Jars With A Pretty Table

I sit here as I type, quite tired really!

Such a big, long weekend.
But it's been nice. Lots of cooking, cleaning, eating, and even more cleaning. I think the worst part of the Holidays is the clean-up!
I know everyone says it, but I truly consumed enough food for four people {lol}

Oh! and we went to see the Christmas Carol in 3-D. Have you seen it yet? It's amazing, if you haven't. If you have the choice, see it in 3-D!!! The Graphics are out of this world. It was much like a ride.


I think we cooked one of the BEST dinners to date. Everything was so, so good!
The table, I thought, very pretty.

Our Christmas tree is up!

It smells so good.

Have a good rest of the weekend, here, as we creep our way into December.

Peace and Plenty

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!
To any whom visit this teeny, tiny blog.

Bless you and yours on this Thankful Day!

Six reasons I have to be thankful for:

1. Our Cozy HOME.

2. My Beautiful FAMILY.

3. The Crazy FUR/FEATHERED-Babies.

4. Our Well BEING.

5. My Sweet Blogging FRIENDS.

6. Etsy.


love to you,
michelle.f

Against My Will...

...I will be watching New Moon, this evening.



My boss is treating all of us to a movie, then dinner and drinks. Of course the movie chosen was this new Twilight movie. Trust me it wasn't unanimous! { heck... I haven't even seen the first one}!! lol
Mind you, I'm not really into a teenager craze movies. Should I be worried? HELP!

It means alot to her to have us all together, so I have to be there ;)

On a different note:

I have so much to do this week. What with Thanksgiving and all. I'm hosting it at my house this year.

I really wanted to pick up a fresh Christmas tree a little earlier than usual, for my family. Have things a little more festive, as some of them may not be here for Christmas. But wouldn't ya know it, not a fresh tree to be found this weekend:
Target, Nada!
A few street corners, Nada!
Home Depot, Nada!
I always thought they sold Christmas trees WAY sooner than the arrival of Thanksgiving? No? I usually set up my pretty flocked artificial tree, so it shows you how much I know about this :D

I have some neat new treasures ready to be posted in the shoppe, that's another thing I am working on this week. So if things go as I'd like, I'll have at least some of them listed.

I hope the beginning of this short week is treating you well!
See you soon.

This Is Halloween! This Is Halloween!

Halloween! Halloween!

I'll be having a relaxing night of pizza, scary movies and trick-or-treaters. Nothing big.

Wishing You a Safe and Fun Halloween Night Charming Readers!

Today...

is...





:D


"The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age". - Lucille ball

A Forgotten Camera

but not a forgotten day.

I had an incredible day yesterday.

Though I cannot share in pictures.....I shall share in a very short story :)

I was SO close to not being able to go to Renegade in SF....as my hubbers was called in last minute to work...leaving me to drive myself to SF? I do not drive in the city...I wont drive in the city....let alone by myself!

Two words:

BART
and
a TAXI!
Well...that's four words...

but I made it...hooray!

Of course my first stop was to find the "uber" cool and unique Emily and her Black Apple booth.
......
she was so sweet, very smiley and kinda shy. I thought so, anyways.
AND....
of course even prettier in person! Emily & Josiah had some amazing new treasures.... :D

Wonderful adventure!
I was exhausted in my return home. 100% worth it though.
So many wonderful artists, everyone very nice. I'm looking forward to next years!

I have so much packing to do with recent orders.... I'd better get to it!
Lots more treasures to be added to my shoppe,
I hope you'll check in now and then and see what's new!

Now to unplug myself from the computer for a little while ;)

~michelle

I Left My Heart In San Fransisco

Yes, it's true!
Spent the whole day in San Fran. last Saturday!
Great day!

Planetarium, Thrift-Shopping, Iced-Coffee and lotsa walking.

Funny little thing actually...... at one point during our trip, I was thirsty and started to find a coffee shop VIA GPS, she guided us to make the next left. We proceeded and snapped up the first parking spot we found....sat there a minute or so and I look to the right and what are we parked in front of?

This little bakery:

"Miette"

I gasped... looked at the hubby and smiled. He's like WHAT?
I had just thought about this little french bakery earlier in the day....thought how funny it would be for us to accidentally stumbled upon it. Go figure...huh?
Funny how things happen. BUT there is not a happy ending to this little adventure....
it was July 4Th and a tiny note hung on its door:

CLOSED!

I sniffled a little, looked back at Mr. Friend in the car and gave him a pout lip :(

BUT..... it's OK. Now I know where it is and I'm sure I could find it again!

We'll be heading back to the city for this:

YIPPEE!!!

I'm SO excited!
I get to nerd out at an "almost" Etsy convention!

Anyone else going?

Before...

the day is over, I wanted to wish all the
Mama's
Mother's
Mom's
Nana's
Grandma's
Grandmother's
Mum's
or
Me-Maws? ;)
:

Hoping it was nice and peaceful for you!

xo

My Vows

Yes, my friends it is Earth Day therefore I shall join in and share my vows with my blogging friends. I do try to do my part in sparing the air and what not. But Im not one of the crazy earthy "GO GREEN" peoples either.
Please don't take that the wrong way cause I really do care.

1. I wish I drove a hybrid (good intentions count?) ;)
2. I do recycle my water bottles.
3. I don't leave the water running while brushing my teeth.
4. My A/C in the cottage is always set 78 (saving energy)?
5. I have my new little coffee-cozy from a sweet blogging friend-littlebyrd,
this way I'm not throwing out all of those cardboard sleeves everyday, thanks Rebekah!
6. I even bring my own coffee-cup to the Bux, when I think about it :)
7. I have some wonderful grocery store reusable bags from Whole Foods that I use all the time while food shopping.
8. We've installed a drip system for the garden!

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
Just a tiny list of the things that me feel good, doing my teeny-tiny part.

Was listening on the radio, a survey studied that if you do not sing in the shower you will save like 100 dollars a year, saving water.....bahahahah. Thought that was funny!
No more singing in the showers people!!!!
Bahahahah.....

~Happy Earth Day Lovely Readers~

Forty

Years old today!!
Gosh, I've known this guy for more than half of his life...

Happy Birthday Stephen!

I know you can't believe your 40, but your lucky because as they say. Men grow better looking with age. And women?
What was it that they say happens to women with age ;)

No seriously....what happens to us?
I forget....
lol

Chocolate/Brains

Hello friends,
I hope you have a nice day!
We're off to picnic with family. Hoping it'll be a pretty day.


To.Much.ChocolateCandy.In.This.House!
We're really going to work on not devouring it all at once.... spread it out over the next couple weeks instead of the next couple days-(hopefully), do our best to discourage the onset of diabetes.
*lol*



xo,
michelle

You Tricky Guys

Well.... Happy April 1st!
Goodness.....April already?
Where, oh where does the time go?

I love April.
But my goodness what ever happened to January? ;)


This is Luca and Meteo.
Two mischievous, tricky Jesters that live with us.
Meteo (little guy) is our newest addition. We picked him up a few months ago at T.J. Max actually. I was very surprised to find him there.



Luca..the big guy actually belongs to my husband. We've had him for many years. I don't know maybe 8 or 9 years ago visiting Disneyland one Christmas, my husband had his eye on a giant Jester that hangs in a giant wreath as your entering New Orleans Square. So with a little research and what not, Mr. Friend found this guy online one day and he had to come live with us. He's very similar to his buddy that lives in Disneyland.

Same artist!

HA!!
I just found a snapshot of the Jester that my husband took @ Disneyland. (below)
Disneyland 2001

Our Luca's at least five feet tall! And as you can tell he takes up a whole chair all on his own.
He's pretty much a piece of furniture.
:)

He "really" freaks people out when they come over.

But freaky or not... he's part of the family & we like him!

If you're enough lucky to be Irish,

...you’re lucky enough!



"Happy St. Patty's Day Story*Book Readers!"


I am in the spirit, as far as the Irish are concerned.
The yummy smells of my slow cooking Corned Beef & Cabbage, and potatoes. Well.... I am like 1/3 Irish! ;) I followed a recipe on-line that called for beer and mustard and brown sugar, I'm usually not a huge fan of this dish, but maybe this recipe will change my mind!

and
.
.
.
.

I'm really not in any mood to be pinched today ;)
SOOOooo.... this took care of that!
*lol*

Naughty little leprechaun looking up my skirt!

Blouse~Anthro
Green-Cardigan~Target
Watch-Necklace~Vintage
Jacket~Anthro
Skirt~Vintage Old Navy
Over-The-Knee Socks~Target
Wooden Pin~Etsy
Green Pumps~Chie Mihara







So, I'll leave ya today with a St. Patrick's Day Quote!

"St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time - a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic." ~Adrienne Cook

In Which All Is Filled With Love..

Give or take some extra hugs and kisses and cuddles today! Ok?

I know, I've never been a huge fan of Valentines day, I don't know why really. Don't get me wrong, I am all for romance & love*lol*. I just thinks it's gotten too "spend-y and stress-y". I do have some wonderful memories though, especially as a child. Those Valentines Day parties in school are the most memorable of all. I just loved, loved making my V-Day mailbox for my desk. Paper doilies, construction paper and glitter ::sigh::, Good Times! My parents made V-Day a big deal. I was spoiled rotten. My mother always made it so special every year. I really looked forward to it. It's just the little things that make me happy for today. Writing little Valentines to friends and family, little V-Day candies, baking, and eating(of course).
I did have a lovely day with my sweet-pea. Breakfast in bed, spooning with a kitten or two, opening a most thoughtful present from my Valentine, Indian Food for dinner, than snuggling with my new present( the above warm, cozy, combed wool throw blanket) with a good book and my favorite cup-o-tea.


Sounds perfect? Well, it was, for me ;). I hope your day was perfect in your own way! Bye for now...
Big xo's