Shopping in San Francisco

A picture of San Francisco Chinatown between the rain drops. The background photo on my desktop is a photo similar to this one.

I'm in California for a little trip and so I went shopping in San Francisco. San Francisco is one of my favorite places. It was a beautiful rainy day on President's Day (Monday, February 16th) in San Francisco. My friend April and I got a little wet. It didn't bother me one bit. April was such a sport. We walked all over Chinatown. I was looking for a clock with the Chinese numbers on the face. I couldn't find one so I will probably make my own.

I was also looking for a movie I haven't been able to get on Netfilx or Blockbuster. The movie is "Unforgettable Regret." It has my favorite Hong Kong actress Sammi Cheng http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammi_Cheng (she is also a big pop star.) My usual DVD/CD store had closed down in Chinatown so I had to find a new one. The girls working in the new shop hadn't heard of the movie. I tried explaining as much as I could about the movie. Times like this I wish I knew how to speak Chinese. Of course they probably speak Cantonese and I'm learning Mandarin. Anyway, after 30 minutes of looking for the movie with some pop music blaring that I wasn't that fond of I told April we should probably go....and then there it was... one little copy of the movie hidden behind some other movies. Of course the girls were "Oh, that movie!" The girls were great though and after I found the movie they were so chatty but of course I could only understand half of what they said. I'll probably watch the movie sometime this week. Sammi is known as the Lucille Ball of Hong Kong cinema. This is not one of her comedies but I'm sure I will love it. There are many actors I really like in the movie.

Poster of the Cherry Blossom Festival. I wish I could get the poster for my friend Kris. She loves Hello Kitty.


One of the biggest highlights of yesterday was bento shopping in Japan town of San Francisco. I went nuts inside of Ichiban Kan store. I found all the information about shopping on the Lunch-in-box website http://lunchinabox.net/. This was posted on the website as the $1.50 type store of Japan town and indeed most everything was around $1.50. I got a shopping bag filled with accessories for bento boxes and a few bento boxes. It was so much fun. I can't wait to go shopping there again. I must have been in the store at least an hour. I'll share my shopping loot with you on another post.




Until Next Time. . . . .



Kathleen

Flowers in the Guest Bedroom

This is my flower wall in the guest bedroom. Pictures I've collected at various garage sales or thrift stores and one I painted myself - well sort of...

This picture was a paint by number that I painted a couple of years ago. I really liked doing it and I'm not sure why I haven't painted another one. I drew all the time as a kid. That is why I love Charles Schulz so much. I drew mostly animals. I got this picture to ease me back into art. So I guess that means it is time for another picture.

This picture I picked up at a garage sale somewhere. I think it is painted in acrylics.

This is a print I found at a thrift store. I repainted the frame as I didn't like the dark frame it was set into.

The top picture is a painting I found at a thrift store. I took an old frame and painted it white. I really like the green color on the back ground. The bottom picture is a card which I placed on top of a piece of lace.

Just a few pictures to remind myself that our surroundings can make a difference in our outlook sometimes but more about that later. . . . .

Until Next Time. . . . .

Kathleen

A French Look for the Laundry Room

I use to have the laundry room decorated with beach items but I've taken all that stuff to Bandon. I decided to put a bit of France in there instead. The pictures at the top are from photos I took while in Paris. The ticket stubs are from the Metro, Eiffel Tower etc. I took scrabble tiles and hot glued them to thumb tacks to spell out the words. The rhinestone Eiffel Tower I found at a thrift store for $1.99 and the other little pin I got in Paris at one of those cheap little tourist places. It has the word Paris written above the hanging little Eiffel Tower.

A small collection of Eiffel Towers hangs above the utility sink. The star fish is a left over element from the beach theme. It will eventually make its way to the coast. Well not much yet but it is a start.

The month of February I have chosen to focus on the "Physical" things in my life. For me this not only means to start thinking of my physical body but to look at my physical surroundings as well. I would like to create surroundings which give me great joy.

It seems the older I get the less I am able to accomplish. I no longer have the drive to get only 3 hours of sleep to complete a craft or art project. I have to be honest with myself and realize even though I do not have TV - I watch far too many movies which gets in the way of many of my projects. When I lived in California I watched TV only 3 nights a week. We got Direct TV when we moved to Oregon and I discovered HGTV and BBC America and well - I was a hooked. Even though I unplugged from the main stream TV -I have replaced that time with watching at least 1 DVD most nights. "Hello, my name is Kathleen and I'm addicted to Chinese movies." Seriously it just isn't Chinese movies that I watch. I just watch too many movies. I've told myself that I'm doing research (remember I started the Sonoma County Film Society - I want to be a screenwriter.) So here is the deal - I've got to get myself down to 3 nights a week again. This will give me time to exercise, do a yoga session, meditate, complete my many unfinished decorating projects, write poetry or complete one of those 6 screenplays I have rotting away in the closet. So here I go focusing on the month of "Physical" aspects.

Until Next Time. . . .

Kathleen

Oscar Snuggling with Damian's Foot

This is my "little" 19-1/2 lb baby Oscar snuggling with Damian's foot. I can't believe the little guy has gotten so big. When the shelter found him they told me he was just a little kitty that barely weighed 1 lb. He must eat all day while we are at work because he doesn't seem to eat as much as Lucy does. Lucy is always concerned about how much food is in the food dish. She does seem to be a little pickier than Oscar is though about food. She will rarely eat any table scraps and she isn't crazy about canned cat food. Who ever heard of a cat that doesn't like canned cat food. Oscar doesn't eat much but he does get a little bit each night with some medication he has to take.

Until Next Time. . . .
Kathleen

Short Bread

I always get many request for my version of Scottish short bread. I make it at Christmas time and give it out as gifts along with home made marshmallows and hot chocolate. One reason I like to make short bread is because of my molds. I usually make it in the winter time.

This is the first mold I ever purchased and I got it from a thrift store years ago. I think I paid $3.99 for it.

Then came this mold and I also purchased this one from the thrift store but I think I paid $4.99 for this one.

This little heart mold I found at Christmas time. I also have a small Santa Clause mold and two Snowmen molds. They are packed away now with all the Christmas stuff.

Kathleen's Scottish Short Bread

2 cubes of butter soften

1/4 cup of sugar

2 cups of flour

Cream sugar and butter with mixer in a medium size bowl. Add flour one cup at a time. Mix until cookie dough texture. Shouldn't take long. I put dough into the mold and smooth out until even. You could form dough into a balls and slightly flatten onto a cookie sheet if you don't have a mold. With this much butter there is no need to grease the pan. Bake at 350 degrees in oven - the mold bakes for 25 minutes but the individual cookies would need to cook until golden around 15 minutes. When I bake in a cookie mold I turn the mold upside down on a plate immediately after cooking. It should release from the mold easily. The first couple of times I left the cookie in the mold and had a difficult time getting it out.

Until Next Time. . . . .

Kathleen

Shepard's Pie

I couldn't manage to get onto my site last week. The early part of the week was spent nursing a massive headache that kept me home from work for two days. I wanted to finish up some postings regarding my month of getting my meals down. So I'm going to add postings now to round out the month and come back to this later in February for an update.

This was dinner from last Sunday (how sad that I waited so long to post.) My niece Brittnee and her boyfriend Angelo. My Shepard's and Chicken Pot Pie are their favorites. I think it is really the Herbs de Provence that I put in the mix that is the secret ingredient they really love.

My plate which really doesn't look that great but it was really good. You will just have to take my word for it. I baked bread in my bread machine. I use my bread machine at least once a week for the pizza dough for "Friday Night Pizza." I just love the smell of the bread baking but then I don't know many people who don't like that smell.

The small pie on the left I made with ground chicken and the larger pie on the right has hamburger meat in it. For winter I like to make this every other week.

This this the ground beef pie.

The Chicken Shepard's Pie before the mash potatoes.

After I topped with the potatoes but before I put it into the oven. The recipe below goes into a 13"x9" pan like this one. I find the icing spatula works best for spreading the mash potatoes.

Kathleen's take on Shepard's Pie

1 lb of ground beef

1/2 large onion

1 cup of frozen green peas

1 cup of chopped fresh carrots

2 small cans of cream of mushroom soup

4 tablespoons of Herbs de Provence

Salt & Pepper to your taste

Mash potatoes to cover

Brown ground beef with the onion. Drain off any fat after browning. Add 2 tablespoons of Herbs de Provence and salt and pepper to taste. Put mixture into a 13"x9" pan. Meanwhile - put carrots into pot of water and boil until slightly tender but not soft - then turn off heat under pot and add peas to the pot and let it stand for 5-10 mins. Drain carrots and peas and put into your 13" x 9" pan. Add the remaining Herbs de Provence and the two cans of soup making sure that it is well mixed. Top with mash potatoes and bake in oven on 350 degrees for about 45 mins. I often use left over mash potatoes to cover my pies. I think it would be about 4 or 5 large potatoes.

Enjoy - okay so I sort of suck at writing down recipes because although I have a zillion cookbooks I usually cook by smell and sight. I use the cookbook to get the basic recipe and then I always seem to change it.

Until Next Time . . . . .

Kathleen