PRODUCTIVITY

Yesterday I was so inspired by the Note to Self nonsense, that I completed a number of tasks, NONE of which was on any of the notes to self! Today is going the same way, only less productive so far. I was determined to make the round tablecloth out of this beautiful fabric I got from a Drapery Company via Freecycle. The round table unadorned was getting pretty old....Voila! Isn't it pretty? The fabric doesn't have that sheen in real life. It's kind of a beige/natural color. Lots of measuring 10 times and cutting once with this project, and the hem is just serged. Yea!
Then I was cutting out the front of a box of Fruit Loops because I have this idea that I am going to frame colorful cereal box covers for Peter's room. Well, no time like the present, there was a frame in the back hall next to the back door with some 4th grade artwork that had slipped from it's matted position. It seemed like the Fruit Loops was the right color and size. Eh Voila Again! It's so happy looking, and makes me smile as I go out the door. I managed to read the paper and do my nails which haven't been polished in ages. A long time ago my favorite nail color was Cocoa Pearl by Revlon. I've been looking to duplicate it for years since it was discontinued, and I think this Limited Edition Revlon color called Femme Petale does the trick. So pretty. That's three coats plus base and top, looks like I'm going to do 4 coats next time. 3 nails are already marred with today's tasks and my constant hand washing.

I made some healthy Black Bean/Tomato/Onion/Corn salad with Brown Rice/Wild Rice in the Green and Red bowls. Sorry no picture. Needed something sweet and made a Bougatsa. I've been wanting to make this since having it on Crete. It's Galatoubouriko without the syrup and turned out sort of plain and delicious. The Bougatsa place is right behind this fountain in Iraklion which is the largest city on Crete. The bougatsa I made was per Vefa's instruction, which has the taste but not the form. The form is to put the filling into the filo and wrap it up like an oblong envelope. I'll do that next week and show it. It seems like just last year I googled Bougatsa and there was nothing. Now there are a many references and there's even a Wiki! All this makes me hungry. I'm going to have a piece right now.

NOTE TO SELF....

My friend Linda has been saying "note to self" lately as part of her conversation, and it got me to thinking, and starting to do the same, but the truth is, I have to STOP writing notes to self. This is a big problem area for me, probably a "soft addiction" which I will report on as soon as I read the book about soft addictions that Michelle gave me. I wonder if going off topic is a soft addiction? Anyway, this note to self thing is out of hand....let's take a note to self tour of my home....
We'll start right here at my desk, in front of the keyboard...yes, that same desk that I so agonizingly cleared off a few months ago. All that's been on it has been this small note pile, which has now grown to this:
the latest note is the one that reminds me that it would be fun to blog about Note To Self. At least I'm doing it! So that note can now go to the recycle box under my desk. Yea!
There is a nice note to self location on my nightstand. This is where the notes with good things from HGTV and Oprah and quotes from books end up. There is also a little notebook in which to record these notes so that they don't get out of hand ala scraps of paper everywhere. Na (a greek word that means "here is") so na the nightstand:

The place where I sometimes place notes for things that I know I have to do that day but am afraid that I'll forget to do, is on the dresser in our master bathroom. This has evolved into yet another group of lists of things that I WANT to do as well as those I must do. There's a tick sheet for my contact lenses that I often forget to mark, which means sometime after I've been wearing the contacts for two weeks, I'll get headaches. After a couple of days of headaches I realize that it's time for a new pair of contacts, and, better than Excedrin, the headaches disappear! Here's that note to self location: Isn't the green stripe fabric under the glass on the dresser so pretty? Thanks to the most clever Design Coach ever, my decorator, Catherine for that idea. Click on her name for a link to her website. I don't think my notes to self are part of her decorating schemes, but you can bet she'll have a million ideas about how to tame them!
Those are all the upstairs notes. Head downstairs, (oh, I forgot to take a picture of the floor at the top of the stairs...often, there will be a note or two there), and into the kitchen which has two note to self areas. My desk: Which doesn't look like this anymore since yesterday I spent the day dealing with all this stuff. And the end of the counter, which I forgot to photograph, but which, like the dresser in the bathroom has the current notes, including little handwritten days of the week notes for every day of a busy week. Again so that I don't forget appointments or other activities that take me out of the house.
Then there is the Living Room, where I have notes mostly in a lined notebook with notes from HGTV shows (are you sensing a theme here?), the Friday afternoon scrapbook show that I tape and watch called Scrapbook Memories, the Friday sewing show that I tape on watch called Martha's Sewing Room, and any library books about decorating, jewelry making, crocheting, sewing or wireworking that I read while watching Bill Maher or other shows that don't require full attention. (I could never read these books during Lost, Desperate, Grey's, Survivor, Hills etc.) Will I ever actually use these ideas/notes or do any of these projects? Only time will tell.
Today I am making a round tablecloth to go on a table in the sunroom for the summer; I'm also working on the dining room table. So for those who wonder, just what is she always talking about that dining room table? How bad could it be? Why can't she have us over? I've seen her house and there is NOTHING on the dining room table except a runner and centerpiece and maybe a couple of candleholders, and a few notes in the corner of the table (a former note to self location)....Well, here's the dirty evidence....It's a big room, a big table, and a HUGE mess. To add insult to injury, the buffet in the dining room is also covered in things about which I cannot make a decision. (to get rid of or find a permanent place to save it in)It doesn't look so bad except it's been there for at least a month. The piles shift and change. That Better Homes and Gardens is from a house sale, and it's circa 1981. I don't even know where I was in 1981. Oh, yes I do, it was the best of times and the worst of times. The best of times was the two months spent travelling around Europe. The best. The worst was all the rest. Finishing law school, flunking bar exam, substitute teaching and coaching debate and forensics (that wasn't so bad really, just kind of lame against the law school backdrop) and figuring out how to get out of Dearborn Hts. No mother, it wasn't THAT BAD. But it wasn't a big ball of fun, either. I haven't even looked at the BH&G, but one of my friends did. We offer all kinds of entertainment at the dining room table. Right now you could read a few books about jewelry making, learn how to loom knit (oblong loom and on point library book ready to go...yarn not), actually string some beads and make something, sew a vintage beaded purse lining (finish sewing it really - I've started it), read a garden book (not motivated this year for some reason, but enjoying taking garden pictures), take pictures of jewelry in homemade light tent box and figure out how to get whiter background. Experiment with taking jewery photos on electric light box, make wire jewelry with new Thing-A-Ma-Jig or Fiskars Mandrel, or, clear all this off the table somewhere (probably on top of the books and piles on the buffet) and get out all the scrapbook stuff....pictures, albums, supplies, frames, and roll in the scrapbook dresser which holds all the rest of the supplies. Today I Freecycled Katherine Graham's Pulitzer Prize Winner memoir. Three people wanted it! It was on my nightstand. I couldn't read it. She wrote about every minute of her life. And she lived a long one. Every minute. This woman would have been a great Twitterer. And I recycled the note about blogging about Note To Self.
What do I do all day? You Tell Me.

FALL ON YOUR KNEES * WISHFUL DRINKING

Fall on Your Knees - I absolutely lost myself in this novel by Ann-Marie MacDonald. It's about a family, an island in Nova Scotia, cultures, the turn of the century, the depression, secrets and sisters. I wouldn't know where to begin, but each character, no matter how brief their appearance in the novel, is developed into someone you will know fully, whether you like them or not. And the story itself holds out mysteries until the final pages which just might bring you to tears. This book was so wonderful, that at the end, I went back and read the beginning again.

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher is based on her autobiographical one woman show. I love her humor, and only knew that she'd also written Postcards From The Edge. It turns out that she is the author of 3 more books, all of which I currently have on hold at the library. This is not your mother's Princess Leia. This woman is wise and funny and irreverent and open. No secrets here.

FRIEND GROUPS * THE READER

Friend Groups are wonderful, kinetic and whatever else you put into and get out of them. In my case, some of them have group names, like the Bead Group and The Posse. There is also my group from High School, and a loose group from College. They aren't loose, really, (at least any more) (I mean I really don't know, I don't think they are), It's just that I tend to see them individually, whereas, in the other groups, we mainly get together in some form of the group. And now, there's a new group. My neighbor Kelly suggested that a group of neighbors and moms get together to see a movie every month, and sure enough we've done this 3 or 4 times, and it's been great. I'm hosting next month, and I think we have a movie we're supposed to see, but I've forgotten what it was! Last Thursday night 4 of us gathered at Kristen's house and saw

The Reader - of course it was a great movie. It was nominated in a zillion categories, the book was compelling, and anyone who saw it recommended it. The reason I hadn't yet seen it was because I although I liked the book and couldn't put it down, I remembered that there was something about it. After processing for a few days, I realize that it's about the limited nature of the character Hannah. She is central to this story about post war Germany, and generally the main character to a story is someone we get to know and to figure out as we read and watch. Most of the time, this person is also heroic in some way. In this case, Hannah is so disappointing. We put it all on her shoulders for this story, and she lets us down, both in the book and in the movie. You can only take away that she did all she knew. She did her best. She didn't know to do any different. In her mind, she had no choice. She was follower and survivor. A small person who had a big impact. So here was a story about a person who frustrates us and makes us angry, and we can't do anything about it, because we only know the story after we find out what Hannah did. There isn't anything we can change.

THE YELLOW BOWL

On Monday I was putting away some bowls, and as I set the Green, Red and Blue nesting bowls into the largest yellow bowl, the yellow bowl just broke. Into pieces. And it was gone. I am so sad, but there's nothing to be done about it. I've had it for over 20 years. It was part of a set of 4 bowls that my mom found at a garage sale for me. I grew up with these bowls. My mom has a set, my aunt has a set, and my grandmother had a set. My mom always served our dinner salad in this bowl. Iceberg lettuce, a little onion, cucumbers, tomotoes, feta, and lots of mild greek olive oil. In those days, we weren't slaves to the extra-virgin thing. You just bought the greek olive oil in the large tin and poured it on. My yellow bowl was mostly used for cookie batter. The picture above is alas, not my bowl, but it was in just as lovely condition. I never put it in the dishwasher or used any abrasives on it. Just a gently washing with pamolive and a soft sponge. This morning it's being Freecycled to a summer art program where it will become part of some mosaic projects. It gives and gives and gives.


I use the green bowl for smaller batches of cookie batter and salad for 2. The red bowl is ideal for popcorn, salad for just me, mixing egg salad, or storing leftovers. My dad always used the red bowl to make tuna fish salad. The blue bowl is the smallest. I use it for leftovers, egg salad for one, or any little stirring job.

A few years ago I found a green bowl with a few red and blue bowls at a garage sale in a local mansion, and bought them all. 25, 50 and 75 cents per bowl. I gave my mom an extra red, and kept the rest. I use them all the time. If you come across a beautifully kept, maybe little used Yellow Bowl, or even the whole set, keep me in mind. This is what you can get me. (Peter, Steve, are you reading?)

AUSTENLAND * GARDENING

Austenland by Shannon Hale - A very sweet story about unlucky-in-love Jane, who inherits a three week trip to Pembroke Park, a British estate where women live out their Austeninian fantasies, dressing and interacting as if they were living in a Jane Austen novel. Chick Lit for Austen lovers, but you don't have to have read Jane Austen to enjoy this one. The voice is modern. The intense Mr. Darcy has never been my ideal, but it turns out that brooding insolence is something that many women find attractive. Why? I don't get it. I like the idea of someone quiet and smart, but intense and brooding? No way. Give me a guy with a great smile any day. It takes way too much effort to coax a smile out of Mr. Darcy. Although he does have a great house!

On Sunday afternoon my son had to comlete his first assignment for photography class, which was to shoot a role of black and white film. I couldn't resist getting outside to the garden with my digital camera to see what was what. If nothing else, I could give him some feedback as to how the pictures would look when developed. My efforts were mostly unappreciated, but I had a great little time.

Here's Peter, taking a picture of a small stone on the fence:

This is our Fountain. I love the cracks and moss, but would love it even more as a Koi pond. Maybe someday. I've nursed this geranium plant through 3 or 4 winters. It cascades nicely, don't you think?
Garden chair. My grandmother had two of these chairs under the tree in her backyard in Detroit when I was a little girl. I think they were red, but they might have been green. They would be pushed against the tree every night so that the seats wouldn't get dirty or wet. These chairs, the Lilies of the Valley and the Phlox are my favorite things in the garden. There are no Plox yet, but the Lilies of the Valley are just about to burst. They used to be on the side of my grandmother's house. When we moved into our first house, (that somehow had the look of my grandmother's house - go figure) there they were on the side of the garage. We have them here too. Every May they revisit us and just a whiff of their lovely scent brings back so many memories.

THE POSSE

When Peter started kindergarten, I didn't know any local moms because we had gone to a Greek preschool in a neighboring town. Little did I know that I would soon meet a new group of friends, and that this group would eventually grow and be called The Posse. We were the regular group of moms outside the school doors in the afternoon. Soon we were going to the beach with our families on Wednesday nights, and we gathered in a few more moms. Then, around 4th grade, we discovered that a dad who also waited outside the school gates was referring to us as "The Posse". (Prior to this, the only posse I'd been acquainted with was the one in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the book, which was the screenplay of the movie, and which I had because my uncle owned some movie theatres in the east and we'd get movie stuff in those days, and I was an avid reader and read everything that was already in the house and that came into the house. Still do). I thought that a Posse had to be on horseback and after someone clever, but I guess it can be a bunch of chatty moms at a schoolyard gate! Alright, alright, here's a link: Posse

Now we mostly gather for Moms' Nights at each others' homes, at the beach, and even on our boat. Although we are very different from each other we still share the common bond of middle school children. These are women who would have your back when the chips are down. We talk and laugh and drink and share. We share a connection that will last our lifetimes, and each of us contributes to the connection in her own unique way. Last night's spirited discussion of Facebook/iPods/Cell Phones/Computers and TVs in kids' rooms gave everyone plenty to think about. It ran the gamut from not allowed at all to complete freedom for all of it. Guess who the freedom mom is!

START LATE, FINISH RICH

Start Late, Finish Rich A No-Fail Plan for Achieving Financial Freedom at Any Age by David Bach - I read it this morning, and if you decide to read it, you can probably get rich simply by following the advice in Chapters 2,3 and 22. This is a great common sense approach to personal finances. It's never too late. Help. I'm craving great fiction!

BOOKS & CHAT

Venice for Lovers by Louis Begley and Anka Muhlstein - This couple spends two weeks every year in Venice, working as writers and eating at a few restaurants. There are three parts to it. In part one, the wife writes about their simple life and three of the favorite restaurants. Part 2 is fictional: a short story by the husband. Part 3 is a long winded paper about writers who have written about Venice. Read only if you adore Venice and can't get enough. I only read it because I couldn't get into a book called White Tiger about India, and needed something small and transitional.

The Not So Big Life by Sarah Susanka is a non fiction self help book about the author's experience in achieving a life where she made "room for what really matters". It's long. The best parts are the quotes by Rumi. One of these days I need to go straight to Rumi.

Help! I need a great story to read.