Sweet Little Treasures

Thought I would share a few of the teeny sweet goodies I’ve picked up here and there in the last few months.

Acorny Bird
This little birdy came from Bazaar Del Mundo in Old Town.

He is cast in resin or ceramic or something – not the carved wood I usually prefer, but the hat!  I love his little acorn hat!  So sweet.  He makes me happy.

Hammered Heart
Continuing the bird theme, this two-sided hammered brass and decoupaged heart is also from Bazaar Del Mundo.  It was part of an after Christmas sale, but it’s really rather perfect for Valentine’s Day.

Cigar Box
I bought this cigar box at a Salvation Army thrift store.

When I first saw it, I picked it up and examined it for a long time.  There was nothing wrong with it and the price was right, but what would I do with it?  I put it back on the shelf.  Such a mistake.  When I spied it in someone else’s basket a few minutes later, I felt really disappointed.  😦

I even briefly stalked watched the other shopper browsing ahead of me and I thought about the Mary Randolph Carter book I recently received from my mom-in-law:

I had stopped to think about the cigar box.  Shopping fail.  Fortunately, the other guy changed his mind and plopped it onto a shelf near the registers.  I scooped it up and felt lucky for the second chance.  After the 50%-off-day discount, I paid a meager $0.75!  Ha!

That Book
And speaking of that book above, it’s great.  It’s really fun to learn about other people’s collections and obsessions.  The pictures are true eye candy and the writing is very engaging and thoughtful.  Over all, it’s a delight to read or just browse through.  It’s a large, thick, heavy, well constructed coffee table volume that I am eager to share, but will likely never give away.  I am enjoying it so much!  It’s a keeper.  Thank you, Jenifer!

Bundting Baby
I also added another fabulous large Nordic Ware specialty bundt pan to my collection.

These things are generally $20 to $40 in stores or online, so I always snap them up when I find them.  This one was pristine and only cost me about $5 at the local Goodwill bookstore.  It’s called the Fairytale Cottage Bundt Pan.  It holds 10 cups of batter.

I actually put this one to use right away with a cream cheese pound cake recipe.  The cake was good and it helped me to learn a few things about using the pan.  That said, I’m not as concerned with function, as I am with form, when I buy these bundt babies.  I just like the way they look and feel and I enjoy putting them on the wall or stacking them in my kitchen as decoration.  I have a lot of them…you know?  A lot of them.  🙂

Kokeshi Dolls
And last, but not least, here are pictures of something I’ve been hiding away for over a year.

I got this collection of kokeshi dolls from my sweet friend, Leighann.  As part of a spontaneous cross country move, Leighann and her family shed half their belongings a year and a half ago.

They uprooted their entire lives and trekked thousands of miles with two kids, two dogs and a u-haul in less time than it has taken me to display these kokeshis!  And really, I’m not done with this.  The wall will eventually be painted and the shelves rearranged with a few more items, but you get the idea.

The real reason I think of this as a recently discovered treasure, is the fact that those two little minis in front were a surprise to me this week.  They were stored inside the two mamas on the right and left and I didn’t even know!  Such a sweet discovery, from a sweet friend.  Thank you, Leighann!

♥

That’s all for now.

Happy Sunday!

♥

P.S. What little treasures have you added to your collections this season?

♥♥

 

Active Day

We went to a big park near our house today.  It was nice to see some trees and sky for a change.

Unfortunately, we have spent much of my son’s Spring break just walking around inside the house like poorly functioning zombies.

The boy has been waking up and throwing tantrums in the wee hours for the last several nights.  He screeches and kind of screams and he hits himself.  Loudly.  Repeatedly.  He turns on lights, he throws things, he slams his head into the mattress…over and over and over.  It’s disturbing.  And it’s routine.  His routine.  Our routine.  No one sleeps.  We all go crazy.

So yeah…trees, sky, clouds, grass…welcome sights today.

I wonder who JD is.

We parked really far from the playground area so we would be motivated to get in a good sweaty walk.

There was also a big hill that called to us several times.  My calves are crying a little bit right now.

The boy had a great time running and skipping and jumping, just like a boy should.

He was also determined to climb a tree.  Sadly, most of them were covered in red ants or were too slippery to tackle.  We settled for this one:

“V” for victory, I guess!  🙂

♥

What are you up to this week?

♥♥

 

 

 

Carlsbad Staycation

Our room at the Grand Pacific Palisades had a view of the ocean.

It was beautiful.

Unfortunately, the flower fields below were cleared for the season.

Instead of colorful blooms, all we saw was a lot of dirt and this big pile of manure.  Heh heh.

Our room was downwind, but it wasn’t that bad.

The view went a long way toward making up for the “aroma.”

The little boy didn’t seem to mind.

I don’t think the room is of great importance to him anyway.

He’s all about the water features and this place surpassed all of our expectations in that department!

The play area next to the family pool was great.

The pool itself was walk-in warm, really clean, and fairly large.

Because of its location right next to the water play area, I didn’t have to get out of the pool to keep an eye on my son.

The hotel also has a separate adults-only pool with a few lanes marked off for lap swimmers.

As a plus-sized mom with a splashy child, I appreciated being surrounded by families, and not by young fit singles or childless lovebirds.

Both pool areas have hot tubs too.

Despite some negative comments on Yelp, I gambled on this place and I was pleasantly surprised.

It doesn’t hurt that the service is excellent and that the restaurant on the property is a Karl Strauss Brewery.  🙂

I would definitely book a stay there again.

♥

After husband left us to go to work in the morning, the boy and I checked out and headed down the street to the Museum of Making Music.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of this place, but I am so glad we went!

The museum is very small and only takes a few minutes to walk through, but it houses a remarkable display of unique and old musical instruments.

It is clear that the exhibits are lovingly cared for and designed with curious kids in mind.

There are buttons to push and music to hear and each room includes at least one instrument meant for visitors to play.

My son enjoyed this immensely.

The last room of the museum is entirely hands-on.

Even I couldn’t resist playing Twinkle Twinkle on one of the harps.

The boy loved this drum thing.

The admission to the museum is only $8 for adults, $5 for older kids, and $0 for those under five.

I felt like it was easily worth that and if I’d remembered to do it before we left, I think I would have tossed a few more ones into the donation jar.

♥

Overall, this was a very pleasant little getaway.

♥

What have you been up to?

♥♥

Spring Break Phone Pix Dump

We actually did a lot over the two-week break.

The child had a bad case of the hives, got really sick, and also lost another tooth, but he rallied for the best parts of his vacation.
He had no trouble inhaling a basketful of candy on Easter morning.

🙂

The rest of our days went something like this…

lunch with Grandma
Inflatable World
Pump It Up
several different parks
a night at the downtown Marriott
egg hunts
and
I guess I’m too tired to remember anything else.
Enjoy the photos!

Oh, I almost forgot!
Husband got a new job.
(Insert great relief here.)
He started yesterday.
So far, so good!

Insert bad family photo here (complete with chinless child and bug-eyed mommy):

I love this next one of my husband.  He’s more than a little freaked out by heights, but that didn’t stop him from enjoying our 11th floor view of the bay and the bridge.

The pools were beautiful.  The smaller one was walk-in warm in the morning.

Next on the agenda?
Back to school this morning and then to the kid’s salon for a long overdue haircut!

What did you do?

♥♥

Holiday Brain Dump

Bad Mommy

I waited too long to get my son an advent calendar from Trader Joe’s, so now they’re sold out and I feel like a bad mom.

Well okay, I felt like a bad mom before I went to Trader Joe’s.

Today, I made my son cry.  And I made my mother cry.

Just for good measure, I asked my husband if there was anything shitty I could say to him too.  Wisely, he offered no suggestions.  😐

The little boy’s upset was related to homework.  Or rather, my upset was related to the homework (and to the accompanying note of parental reprimand from the teacher.)  The little boy’s upset was related to homework and to my reaction.  Big surprise.  Might I just say, AGAIN, that I am baffled by the papers that come home with my son?

Getting him interested in looking at them is a daily nightmare for the two of us.  He is tired when he steps off the school bus.  He wants a snack and then something mindless to amuse himself for the rest of the afternoon.  Homework is painful for my child and painful for me.  We both hate it.

But enough about that.  It’s an old, worn-out problem with no solution.  I work daily not to care what the teacher or anyone else thinks of how we handle it.  Or don’t handle it.

Moving on.

Bad Daughter

I made my mother cry because I reminded her that we weren’t the best of housemates when I returned from college feeling all independent and snappy two decades ago.

I had moved back into the house with her and my dad and she and I argued sometimes.  Who wouldn’t have?  Headstrong twenty-something suddenly sleeping in her old twin bed?  I was unpleasant.

Ultimately, mom and I came to a mutual understanding that I needed to find myself a real job and somewhere else to live.  It was an excellent idea, and I am the better for having done just that, but now mom is worried.  She hadn’t remembered the low points of that summer until I burst her rosy impression over a cheap plate of pancakes at Denny’s this morning.  Sorry, Mom!  😦

So, two for two.  My son cried.  My mom cried.

I cried too, but that came after I had filled my cart at Trader Joe’s and then discovered the item I had come for, the advent calendar, couldn’t be had.  I bought every seasonal chocolate product the store carries.

And yes, I waited until I was in the car to open the teary flood gates.

Okay, so changing the subject completely…

Husband Update

Husband is mending more each day.  He might even go back to work tomorrow – driving in his own car!  Yippee!  He is still uncomfortable at night and if you watch him for a few minutes you will notice how much he favors his right side, but he’s getting there.  The ribs, the collar bone…they are repairing themselves.

The Mission Inn Festival of Lights

We drove up to Riverside on Thursday to spend one quick night at The Mission Inn.  We sort of owed it to the boy (and ourselves) to do something spontaneous and fun to make up for the Palm Desert accident weekend.  The Mission Inn was the perfect answer.

The Festival of Lights is amazing.  There are animated characters, lighted horse carriage rides, giant nutcrackers, icicle lights, garlands, candles and falling snow too.  There are real reindeer and vendors with gingerbread, roasted nuts and miniature doughnuts available every night during the holidays.  There are Christmas carolers and a roving Santa in the restaurants.

The sleeping rooms are luxurious and full of charm.  The spa products in the bath are rich and fragrant and the windows actually open.  The beds are very comfortable and loaded with extra pillows.  The linens are crispy white and super fresh.  There are big fluffy bathrobes in the closet and the package we got came with a divinely citrus-scented aromatherapy candle.

The hotel itself is a work of art.  There is a rotunda with a spiral staircase.  There are gorgeous plazas and flowered balconies.  There are stained glass windows, catacombs and an amazing clock.  The hotel pool is walk-in warm and landscaped to feel private, even though it is surrounded by sleeping rooms.  Everything is beautiful.  Everything is humbling.  And we didn’t even see it all.  We saw a lot, but we missed far more.  Next time, I think we’ll take a guided tour just for the heck of it.

My favorite thing was the twenty-foot, ornately carved church pew sitting in the hall outside our room.  I told my husband that I would gladly tear up the inside of our house and completely rebuild our decor to accommodate that pew, if only they would let me have it.  Sigh.

One of the best things about the trip for me was the little gray striped cat who appeared at the pool when we went for a swim.  My own gray baby passed less than a week before.  It was comforting to see a similar little face so clearly interested in my activities.  When my son splashed near, this cat was just as reserved and removed as my Poupon, but when my son wandered away, the cat came a little closer and talked a little more insistently to me.  I wish I’d gone back down to visit with the cat once we were dry and dressed.  Maybe next time.

Before I change the subject yet again, I have to mention Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle’s, the store across the way from our room.  I went in once with my husband and son and immediately I knew that I’d have to return again without them.  When I did, I bought a painted metal bird and a weird little nativity set.

Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle’s is jam-packed with the most interesting little trinkets, wrapping paper, bath soaps, whimsical tins, garden treasures, dishes, tiny paintings, knick-knacks and Christmas ornaments ever!  The hours aren’t set in stone, but it seemed to me there was someone behind the register most of the day.  It will take you some time to see everything, so be prepared to browse for a while!

Happening Now

The little boy has liberated some empty magazine files from my bedroom and is constructing makeshift body armor with scotch tape.

The husband is playing computer games and I am dreaming of pajamas, ice cream and a better camera. 😦

The last remaining cat has finished eating dinner alone in the kitchen.

And tomorrow our routine starts all over again.

What are you up to?

♥

P.S.  That Santa plaque at the top of the post is something I picked up on clearance in Bazaar Del Mundo a few years ago.  It reminds me to tell you how emotional it was for me when Santa stopped by our dinner table at the Mission Inn Restaurant the other night.  It was the first time our ten-year-old had ever met him.  Because of the many challenges our son faces just getting through a “normal” day, we have never bothered with shopping mall Santas and their incredible lines.  We’ve never been to any event where Santa was a main attraction and even the occasional Santa in front of a store or at an amusement park has always been too removed or surrounded by other children for us to have a meaningful experience.  This time, Santa came to us and asked our son what he wanted for Christmas.  Our sweet little boy told Santa what we already knew…he just wants pencils.  🙂

♥♥

Thankful

The last few days have been kind of nuts.

My husband was in a cycling accident out in Palm Desert last Saturday morning.  He’s going to be fine, but he has two cracked ribs, a broken collar bone and a lung that is, to our great relief, re-inflating on its own after a partial collapse.

He’s upstairs in bed at the moment.  Until yesterday, he had to sleep sitting up.

On our first morning home after the accident, I watched as his head sort of bobbed back and forth, then ultimately smacked into the wall.  I thought the impact would wake him up, but he was exhausted.  He just started snoring, with his head tipped back like that.  I went out and got him one of those half-doughnut travel pillows a few hours later.  I don’t know if it really helps.

Last November, after we took this same trip to the desert, I told my husband that I wanted to do it again in November 2012.  I said I wanted to stay at the same hotel, have him enter the same bike event, take the boy up the mountain tram again…do everything the same…because I loved that trip!  LOVED it!

My husband’s response to me a year ago is really ringing in my head this week.  He said that there was no guarantee the trip would be the same.  He said that anything could happen to make it a totally different experience.   But I was relaxed and happy and I wanted to believe we could sustain those feeling by committing to the same activities a year later.  I was a bit annoyed with him for suggesting otherwise.  And he seemed annoyed with my naive optimism.

Well, here we are a year later, and it turns out husband was right.  It was a totally different experience and somehow, I knew it would be.

Instead of taking our son up the mountain to play in the snow, we dragged him with us to the Emergency Room to play on his iPad.  It was not quite the sparkling repeat my son and I had hoped for.  The little boy made it through four long hours at the hospital, and then he completely melted down.

I had to leave my husband alone in the waiting room while I took the boy outside to self-destruct.  He kicked and screamed and tore things to pieces in the backseat as I stood next to the passenger door, staring in frustration at the hospital entrance.  The entire van rocked with the force of his upset.

I could tell from the sound of my son’s whining voice that he was getting sick – from stress, from fatigue, from hunger for something more than vending machine snacks – from all of it.  That was the worst moment of the weekend for me – trapped in that tortured space between my broken husband and my sorely disappointed, autistic son.  I couldn’t help either one.

Sleep that night was difficult for us all.  I woke up every time husband made a sound or moved oddly, and husband woke up from pain at regular intervals.  His meds worked great.  Until they didn’t.  Those long minutes of waiting until time for the next dose were hard to watch and even harder to experience.  Husband was just really uncomfortable.  And the little boy woke a few times with his usual dry, sniffy nose and his newly sore throat.

When morning finally arrived, I took the boy for pancakes, so husband could get more rest.

On Saturday, the two of us had gone to the same IHOP, while husband was off for the bike ride.  I felt well rested that morning –  I was energized, refreshed, and excited for our weekend plans.  I had even put on mascara and earrings.

But Sunday, after that night of listening for husband’s breath sounds and worrying about the little boy and the change of plans, it was different.  I had on the same shirt, but it was wrinkled and so was my face.  No make-up.  Bags under my eyes.  Unwashed, barely brushed hair.  I thought about all those differences as I ate the very same pancake breakfast.

When we got back to the hotel, husband was a little more settled into the routine of injury.  He definitely wanted to go home a day early, but he managed to take a shower and concluded he could handle a brief stop at the Children’s Discovery Museum too.  Our son seemed relieved that there would be one fun thing before the long drive home.  All things considered, that little boy handled our broken promises very well.

The next few days are kind of a blur now.  The most depressing of them was also the best of them – three and half hours in another hospital to get a follow-up x-ray.  Ultimately, we were relieved to be told that husband’s lung was looking better, but the hours leading up to that were a swirl of confusion and disbelief.

Everyone there could agree my husband needed to be seen, but no one could decide how to handle the paperwork.  The paperwork!  Really?  I snapped at an E.R. nurse.

I regret that because I have friends who are nurses and I know how hard their jobs are, but I don’t regret expressing my annoyance at the lack of organization and efficiency in our mid-town hospital.  They should have thought about the patient first and the paperwork later.  It still makes me mad.

Now we are a week out from the accident and I do believe my husband is feeling a little bit better.  It is very clear that he won’t be driving anytime soon and that has presented us with a few logistical challenges, but we will figure it out.

Husband’s bruises are large and alarming.  He is still quite vulnerable from the cracked ribs and broken collar bone, and there is an overall lack of comfort that will likely continue for a while, but this could have been so much worse.  He could have died or been left with a traumatic brain injury or some other devastating permanent problem.

Save for a few gouged knuckles and other small scrapes, husband also came away with most of his skin intact.  That’s saying a lot for a cyclist.  Huge, bloody, asphalt-filled abrasions – road rash – are just another part of the sport.  But husband fell straight over and was injured by the impact of the fall more than anything else.  He was spared from too much skin grating slide and that’s no small blessing.

In a few days, some family members will come to our house for turkey and pumpkin pie.  Every adult in attendance has had some kind of accident or major surgery in the last several years (a few of them have had a lot of both), but they’re all going to walk in and sit and talk and think and eat and laugh at our table.  We are all so lucky.  And I am so thankful.

♥♥

Motivate Me

It’s hard to get started again.

My son presents us with ever evolving challenges.

I could write about that a lot, actually.

But it would mean exposing that a lot of our recent vacation to Lake Arrowhead kind of sucked.

Who wants to read that?

Just enjoy the pretty pictures.

My mind is cluttered.

Tomorrow I will walk.

My house is cluttered.

I have started to thin out my collections.

Over two hundred books are already gone.

Clothes, shoes, purses, baby blankets, crib pads, toys, kitchenware?  Tons of it boxed and ready to donate.

Magazines bagged and waiting for a friend.  (Look out, Leighann, you will need a moving truck to get them home.)

I am sorting and tossing.

I am thinking and scheming.

I want to turn my house upside down – organize, rearrange, make it over…and over some more.

And paint.

I have become obsessed with painting the inside of my front door.  Think purple, navy, or apple green.  Maybe even orange or fuchsia?  Something bold.  Something brave.

This place needs a pop of color.  A BIG pop of color.

Stay tuned.

I think I’m about to be seriously motivated.

Maybe I will write about something too.  😉

Happy Almost Tomorrow.

♥♥

Pasadena Shops, Rose Bowl Flea Market & South Pasadena

Husband pulled some solo parenting duty this weekend.  I escaped to Pasadena  to meet a friend.

I needed this little break so much.  Thank you, husband!

Pasadena Shops

I arrived late Saturday afternoon, checked into the Courtyard Marriott on Fair Oaks, then dashed down the street to hit a few of my favorite little shops.

I made it to Maude Woods with ten minutes to browse before they shut the door.  This shop is a little pricey, but it’s beautiful and serene and I thoroughly enjoyed the quick walk-through.  It’s an interesting mixture of home and garden and other little wacky things.  This was my first visit to the store and I didn’t really have time to find a treasure I couldn’t live without, so I moved on.

Next on the list was Mignon, thankfully open until 7:00 p.m!  I love this chocolate shop and I go to it every time I’m in Pasadena.  It’s an interesting departure from the See’s I am used to.  Mignon has a rich and fascinating family business history too.  Go to the Mignon website to check it out and then go to the shop to eat the chocolate!

Lula Mae was open the latest of the three, so I went there last.  It’s a teeny place with a ton of stuff.  I always wish I had a lot more time and a lot more money to spend in Lula Mae.  There’s a whole bunch of cuteness in there!

I bought a bag of sea salt caramels and a little glittery chickadee for my friend.  Yum.  Sweet.

I bought this amazing dyed silk ribbon for myself:

It looks great with orange paper too…

I love Lula Mae.  ♥  I want to go back there right now.

Rose Bowl Flea Market Finds & A Celebrity Sighting

On Sunday morning, I raced to the Rose Bowl to join my friend for a day of wandering and lunch.

This is what I bought:

an antique French butter mold

a small car with wind-up key

a little painted plaster duck (can’t get a good pic of this for some reason)

Friendly Hen print

another color plate of animal drawings (I have two others already framed from the same book)

and a small potted plant watering bird

On the way out of the Market, I spotted Joy Bryant, who plays Jasmine on Parenthood, one of my favorite shows.  She was just coming in with her friends.  She is even more beautiful in person than she is on t.v.

Happy shopping, Joy!

South Pasadena

After the Flea Market, we headed to Zinnia in South Pasadena.  Oh. My. Gosh. I. Love. This. Store. And. The. Giant. Pretty. Kitty. Who. Lives. There.

I bought a funny flat paper donkey, some beautiful yarn and a pile of teeny felt balls.  Love.

I also bought two jumbo sized fuzzy pipe cleaners for my son…I’m not sure why…they just made me think of him for some reason!  😀

We skipped across the street to Hodgson’s Antiques too.  There is so much to look at in this shop that I was overwhelmed.  I would love to return to Hodgson’s on a weekday and take my time looking.  It is full of unbelievable treasures, but my claustrophobia kicked in a bit when we were there.

We had lunch on the patio at Mike & Anne’s, where a shortage of sourdough proved lucky for me.  A delicious cinnamon walnut raisin bread was substituted and it absolutely made my grilled Swiss cheese, tomato and carmelized onion sandwich.  Garlicky mayonnaise and a pile of sweet potato fries were a great side dish.  The place was packed, so it’s surely a local favorite.

Unfortunately, my friend didn’t fare as well with the bread substitution.  Her pesto didn’t really go with cinnamon and raisins.  😦  That aside, we enjoyed an hour on the patio and had a nice conversation with our waiter about where to go for dessert.  He didn’t have a clue, but he was funny.  (Do you have a clue where to go in South Pasadena for an exquisite dessert?  Please let me know!)

We left and headed for Marz, Rue de Mimo, Camille Frances de Pedrini and the Dinosaur Farm toy store on Mission Street.  Marz was my favorite.  It’s a wacky gift shop that has a little bit of everything.  It is connected inside to Mimo and Camille, both of which have beautiful clothing and jewelry.  The Dinosaur Farm reminded me of Geppetto’s.  I enjoyed it a lot, but I didn’t really see anything I hadn’t seen before.

Somewhere in this very full schedule, we also went to Out of The Closet Thrift on Fair Oaks.  In the back of the store, I found an amusing, hideous animal drawing marked $10.  I picked it up in disbelief and promptly dropped it, shattering the glass to pieces.  The whole incident knocked me off my game, so it was probably good that the day was almost over.  I paid for the ugly painting and we left.

And that, my friends, was a wonderful, lovely weekend!

Thanks to beautiful Leighann for spending the day with me and for giving me a huge bolt of gorgeous upholstery fabric and this amazing Mr. Bunny chocolate mold:

Happy Monday!

What did you do this weekend?

♥♥

Snow Day & Slow Day

Weeks have passed since my last post, so there’s plenty to write…

but Thursday night, when I sat down to share highlights of our recent trip to the desert, all I could think about was the fact that my son was absolutely FREAKING out.

He’s sick again.  Or maybe still.

He missed a few days of school earlier in the month and then we traveled and exhausted him.  And rejuvenated him.  And exhausted him.

He played in the snow at the top of the mountain.

He swam for hours in a pool heated to bathwater temperature.

He painted a car at the Children’s Discovery Museum.

He ate every snack he wanted.

He enjoyed the trip.

We all really enjoyed the trip.  Even without mascara, sunglasses or a hairbrush.

But Thursday, the boy walked in from school and started falling apart.  By 4 o’clock, he had screamed and thrown things.  It went down hill from there.

I really believe the time change has messed him up.  He’s panicky about finishing things now.  It’s dark an hour after he gets home and I think it makes him nervous about his routine.

Nothing I did on Thursday seemed to calm him down.  I tried sweet and I tried stern.  I fed him and I gave him something to drink.  I tried distraction and positive reinforcement of his few good behaviors.  But what he most wanted, I couldn’t give him.

He wanted me to stand behind him and hold onto him while he endlessly repeated a complicated series of obsessive compulsive hand gestures, chants, head ticks, etc.  I wouldn’t do it and it made him mad.

When he asks for a plain old regular hug, it melts my heart and I’m totally in, but I won’t become part of his compulsive routine.  He can depend on me for a lot, but not for that.

I know that if I give in, he will expect it of me and of whomever else is with him.  He won’t be able to function without a human tool to manipulate as he sees fit.  Not everyone will understand, and as he ages and gets taller and stronger, his tantrums about it will be harder to manage.  No, I can’t give in.

Around 4:30, we had an appraiser over to measure and take photos of the house.  We’re refinancing and it’s required by law.  Just one more total violation of privacy rights in the course of a day.  Grrrrrrr.  But that’s another post.

The entire time the appraiser was here, my son was screaming at the top of his lungs.  The appraiser was not someone I trusted, so I couldn’t leave him to wander upstairs alone.  My son didn’t like that I left the room.  Despite the fact that he could see me on the landing above, he was furious and raging.

The dining chair my son “sat” in has become a squeaking, rickety mess because of his consistently ruthless shaking, slamming, scooting, and jumping.  Poor chair.  It’s loud now.  I feel like it’s crying for help.

I know my son is.  The problem with his cries is that I don’t know how to answer them sometimes.  I don’t always know what will change the evening for us.  I was exhausted by his behavior and the irritating sound of the chair’s complaints.  The two were deafening together.

I’m sure the appraiser thought we were both nuts.  I can hardly wait to see if the chaos of our home detracted from the value of our house.

Yesterday, I kept my son home from school.  It helped.  His obsessive compulsive episodes were frequent, but less intense than the day before.

We spent a lot of time at the table – cutting, pasting, taping, stapling.

I cut out pictures from ZooNews magazines and pasted them onto card stock.  This has become my favorite kind of Christmas ornament.

Here is my favorite from last year:

The boy made a turkey.

He wins.

I ♥ this turkey.

Happy Saturday!

♥

P.S.  One of my favorite things about the desert?   Brandini Toffee.  Oh my oh my oh my.

♥

P.P.S.  Nothing Bundt Cakes finally opened in Mission Valley.  The pumpkin cake sample sent me straight over the moon.  Must.  Have.  More.

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Antique Store & Flea Market Treasures

Thought I’d share a few pix of some things I picked up recently…

Beautiful, generous Leighann gave me several goodies when we met for the Rose Bowl Flea Market last month.

Here is a little spoon that I just adore:

Leighann also gave me a very amusing bunny by artist Debbee Thibault.  I love Ms. Bunny’s serious little face, her bright red dress and that heart dangling from her hand.  She goes well with my new beaded strawberries.

I bought the berries in my mom-in-law’s favorite little shop in downtown Brentwood.  They were fifty cents a piece.  I should have bought ten more.

I can’t say enough wonderful things about the shop.  It’s called The Vintage House.  They don’t have their own website (that I know of) so I joined yelp just to help put them on the internet map, so to speak.  Go here to see my review.

The Vintage House also had this sweet little rusty blue birdcage.  It cheers me to own this.  I am still looking for just the right spot to put it.

My small collection of blue and white figurines grew by two at the Flea Market.  The salt & pepper shaker pair on the right called out to me very loudly.

Despite the fact that I already had an almost identical little boy (on the left), I had to buy both of them.  You can’t break up a set, after all.  Right?

I don’t really know what I’m doing with this collection though.  I don’t think I want to grow it any larger.  I sort of like having just this one little corner of blue and white cuteness in the cabinet, but we’ll see… 🙂

At a thrift shop, also in Brentwood, I found a mason jar unlike most I’ve seen.  I stole mom-in-law’s idea of using it for measuring spoon storage on my counter.

I wish the picture were a little better.  The jar is marked on the sides with measurements too.  Very cute.

Last, and maybe least, I picked up this swirly candle sconce.

It’s made of light weight wood and measures almost eighteen inches long.

I was drawn to it because of my friend Erin and the similar sconce that she painted bright turquoise and listed in her etsy shop.  I love Erin’s unstoppable energy and am hoping to channel it myself to make something of my strange purchase!  I’ll post pix if I do!

That’s about it.

Happy Tuesday!

♥

P.S.  The boy is back to school tomorrow, so probably no post since I will be out exercising my freedom somewhere.  😀  Look out thrift stores, here I come!!

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