This woman knows how to party!

Saturday was my mom’s 86th birthday.  But I have to tell you, the partying started weeks ago and hasn’t ended yet!  I think Wednesday will be the last party–and that makes nine!  I figure that’s one for every decade she’s been alive, so it’s the perfect number.

On Friday my sister and I hosted 19 ladies for a high tea for Mom.  It was lots of fun.  Both Sally and I love to have tea parties.  For this one she was in charge of the invitations, place cards, name tags and menu printing.  Not to mention she’s great help in the kitchen!

My friend and neighbor, Melinda, made the centerpieces.  Aren’t they wonderful.  She is incredibly talented!  Thank you, Melinda.

We had two tables to accommodate everyone.  One is the dining room table and the other is a great drop leaf table made for us by Wayne Ivy.  It’s five feet round when the leaves are up, but when they’re down, it’s only 14″ wide!  I have some wonderful vintage china and it’s so nice to have an excuse to use it.

Here are they ladies.  Look how Ardell managed to get in the photos of both sides of her table!

We did the tea in four courses.  The first was the Tomato Basil soup–meant to be sipped from the tiny cup–what fun!

That was followed by a Lemon Sorbet Intermezzo (great word, huh?) in a teeny, tiny tea cup.

Then we had tea sandwiches, fresh fruit and scones.  The sandwiches were chicken salad with hazelnuts and dried cranberries, cucumber and cream cheese and egg salad.  The scone was heart shaped (a favorite of my mom’s) and had currants and was served with Devon cream and lavender jelly.  

We followed that with the dessert plate.  It had a decadent honey nut bar, lemon bars (another mom favorite), profiteroles with chocolate ice cream and a strawberry.  

A good time was had by all! Happy Birthday, Mom.  Let’s do it again next year!

Oh, and speaking of next year–or 12 years, in this case–this is what my brother wrote on the back of Mom’s card!  Too bad he got the date wrong.  Her birthday is the 28th!  But, he’s forgiven, I’m sure.  He’s the only son–and March 30th is his wife’s birthday!

No, I don’t mean “Help Poppy win fabric.”  

I mean if you help Poppy, YOU can win fabric!

    This is Poppy on the day she arrived at her new home here in Long Beach.  As you can see, I’m as excited as Poppy is to have a new home.  But, now Poppy needs your help.  She wants to be on National Television!  And she should be.  She’s a natural born star.  I mean, look at her–she’s so shiny!  

    You know how you say about people that even though they may not be beautiful on the outside, they’re beautiful on the inside.  Well, Poppy IS beautiful on the outside, but her insides need some help.  I don’t mean her her big heart.  I mean her interior decor.  I’m sure when she rolled off the assembly line in 1973 she was hip and fashionable, but after more than three and a half decades, she needs some updating.  

    Now I was going to do this myself–with Bob’s help, of course.  But, one day while watching my favorite HGTV program, Color Splash with David Bromstad, I had an idea.  Perhaps David would like to make over Poppy!  So, I wrote him a letter.  You can see it here.  Well, it went to his production company, not him.  But, guess what?  They emailed me back and said, and I quote, “So you want to be on Color Splash?  We’d LOVE that!”  So, emails have gone back and forth, we even sent some amateur video.  The production company loves the idea, David loves the idea, but HGTV isn’t sure.  So, I think we need to convince them!  Can you help?

    Will you go to HGTV and tell them that you’d like to see David make over an Airstream?  It’s really easy.  Here’s the link  Just choose Comment and Color Splash and tell them you think David should make over an Airstream!   It’s going to take lots and lots of emails, so I’m counting on each one of you.  And there’s even a little added incentive…….

    After you go to the HGTV website, go to Poppy’s web site.  Leave me a comment saying that you contacted HGTV on Poppy’s behalf, and I’ll enter you in a drawing for this great bundle of fabric.  It’s a fat quarter of each of the 33 fabrics from my friend Glenna Hailey’s line called Rise and Shine and it’s a wonderful group of fabrics.  So please, do it before March 31.  Help get Poppy on TV!   

The best gifts are unexpected!

It’s amazing how people touch your life.  When I had the store, I hosted about 8 retreats a year, with about 20 people attending each retreat.  That’s a lot of fun and a lot of friends.  Last fall there were a few ladies from Central Oregon at one of the retreats.  They were lots of fun, but, hey!, they were quilters.  What do you expect!?!  Among them was a sweetie named Peggy from Wamic, Oregon.  Now I like to think that I know my Northwest geography, but I wasn’t familiar with Wamic.  I was told, however, that it’s near Maupin.  So, that cleared things up.  I was also told that it makes Long Beach look like a big city!

Last week, I received a small, plain-brown-wrapper package in the mail.  It was from Wamic.  It was from Peggy!  Well, I tore right into it, and, lo and behold, out fell two beautiful, handmade gifts.  One is a pincushion and the other a tiny wallet.  I LOVE them both!  And, they’re made with my Daisy-A-Day fabric line!

Now, I don’t think Peggy had any way of knowing that I’ve been coveting this shape pincushion for a long time.  I’ve bought a couple of magazines with patterns for this style pincushion in them, and even an $8.99 pattern for a pincushion like this.  Surely, I thought, I could make one.  But it looks HARD!  I’m not real good at stuffing things.  So, I haven’t tried.  But here, courtesy of Peggy and the US mail, I now have one!  Oh, I shall treasure it!

And the tine wallet is a real charmer.  It’s got lots of room for credit cards and cash.  It, too, is made with Daisy-A-Day fabric.  It’s going right into my purse, and I know I’m going to love using it.  And every time I pull it out, I’m going to think of Peggy–and Wamic–and how the best gifts are a total, unexpected surprise.  Thank you, Peggy.

Footnote:  I knew I liked Peggy when I first met her at retreat, but I like her even more now.  No, not just because of the special gifts, but because of this note that was included with them.  “Sorry–I thought I mailed this in November.  Found it in my studio.  Does that tell you anything?”  Yup.  It tells me that Peggy and I have a lot in common!

A bright spot amid chaos!

During the chaos of the first day of our Blowout Sale, look what arrived.  These two boxes of the most beautiful, most delicious treats you could imagine!  Before I describe my stunned response, I must back up.

You meet the nicest people blogging!  Don’t you all find that true?  Blogging lets you reach out and make new friends and new connections.  When I was barely started with this blog, I got a lovely email from Jodi at Simply This, That and the Other.  She wanted to know if she could profile me on her blog!  Me?  Why, of course!  It was wonderful.  She helped get me out into blogland.  We’ve exchanges a few emails since then, and you know how sometimes things just “click” with someone.  That’s the way it was! 

When I announced my final Blow Out Sale, I had an email from Jodi saying she had a conflict and couldn’t make a trip to Long Beach that weekend, but she wanted to send me something.  Oooooh, how intriguing!  I’ll keep my eye on the mailbox, I thought.

Well, back to the sweet treats.  I opened the door to the shop on Friday and it was instant pandemonium!  I had my head down, fingers clacking away on the cash register, when a stranger steps up with these two beautifully wrapped boxes and says, “These are from Jodi.”  I imagine I had that deer-in-the-headlights look.  I so hope I remembered my manners and said, “Thank you!”  She faded into the crowd and I went back to doing my sums.  

Some time later,  this mystery woman returned.  Turned out it was Sheri, and her friend Regena (who braved a trip over that very high Astoria bridge despite her fear of heights!).  I leaned out for a quick photo with them.  

None of us took a breath–or a food break–until we closed the doors at 4:00.  And, oh, then did those sweets hit the spot!  BUT, before I let anyone have a bite, I had the presence of mind to snap a couple of photos.  

I had to put Bob in his place, as he thought he should have the first one!

These cupcakes, cookies and candies were every bit as tasty as they were beautiful.  And Jodi was so generous.  There were enough to share with all my helpers.  I just hate it when I have to hoard food all for myself!  

Thank you, Jodi.