The Snoopy Museum

These are photos I took in Santa Rosa (California) when I was down visiting in February. If you have followed my blog for anytime you know that I am a big fan of Snoopy and Charles Schulz. Good O'l Charlie Brown has a couple of tickets to get into the Museum.

I had intended to visit the Charles M. Schulz museum while down there but I waited until my last day to go. It was closed and I had plans lined up for the day and wasn't able to get into the building. Santa Rosa has various status around town in honor of Charles M. Schulz just like these two outside of the museum. I have been inside the museum before and next time I will make it a priority and go early in the trip so I have another chance to view all the wonderful things inside.

Even though I had a chance to talk to Charles Schulz, or Sparky as he was known by people who knew him, I always wanted to talk to him about drawing. The little conversation I had with him outside of a bookstore for twenty minutes one time mostly consisted of me telling him that he was my hero. His response was "Me? I've never done anything." So I listed off all the things he had done for me in my life. That was certainly a highlight memory in my book of life and I thank God often for providing me the opportunity. The museum offers cartoon workshop. Now that would be another dream come true for me.

Until Next Time. . . . .

Kathleen

My Bento Shopping Loot

So I never shared my bento shopping loot with you guys. I have made changes to the my bento supplies since then but I'd like to share all the things I purchased in San Francisco in February.

The pink and black boxes I've actually given to my nieces since I took this picture. The little green box I liked so well I purchased another green one and two pink and tan boxes as well. I'll share all that with you in another post. I'm discovering what I like in the bento world and shopping at Ichiban Kan (see the side bar for a link to their online store) made it affordable to try different size boxes.

The chop sticks were suppose to fit into the black bento box (under the lid) but for some reason they didn't. I gave them along with the black bento box to my niece Kelsey (who turned 14 yesterday btw.) The another utensil set I liked so well I ordered a tan and pink set. Again, I share all that later on another post.

On the left we have rice shapers which I use to make rice balls with. The items on the right are egg molds which are turn your hard boiled eggs (you have to purchase the small ones) into wonderful little shapes. Even my husband likes these and takes them to work. I've since added to the my egg molds and now I have a bunny, bear, car and fish.

The fish and car egg molds.

Food picks. The animals ones went over so well with my nieces Brittnee and Kelsey that I purchased them their own sets.

Silicon food cups for keeping the food separated in colorful reusable ways.

Sauce and spice containers. The little penguin and the monkey are also favorites of my nieces.

More little sauce containers. I use most of them for soy sauce but I've also used two of the flying pigs and two of the tomato head containers to store salt & pepper.

Seaweed punch to make a smilie face and also two bento bands to hold the boxes together.

Inside one of the malls in Japan Town close to the Ichiban Kan store.

Another shot inside the mall.

Well, I can't believe it has been almost two months since my trip. I really had such a good time. Often think of how much I miss living so close to San Francisco and of course I'm already planning my next trip in July.

Until Next Time. . . . .

Kathleen

My $2.00 Sail Boat

I went out to Bandon over the weekend and took my $2.00 sail boat I found at a garage sail. The weekend before the development I live in (Ashland) had a neighborhood garage sale. I sold a few items and made a bit of money myself and then I went walking around with my niece and her boyfriend to check out what the neighbors were selling. I scored this sail boat for $2.00. I'm been dreaming of adding one of these to the Bandon cottage. It was actually too big to fit where I imagined it would be on display. I'm going to add a shelf for this so it can be on display without hiding in the window.



I hope everyone had a good weekend and Mother's Day. I know I thought of many special women in my life today. I sure miss my Mom.



Until Next Time. . . .

Kathleen

Bandon Ottoman and I can't believe it has been so long!

I can't believe it has been so long since I've made a post. I've been busy... very busy with work but I'll get to more of that a little later in this post.

I recovered this ottoman recently for the Bandon cottage (Star Fish Cottage as I call it.) I haven't been to Bandon in months. I'm going this weekend as we will celebrate Damian's birthday out there. I can't wait. Lots to do but I plan to have a little fun too. I would like to either go to the animal park or go to Lighthouse. You know I haven't actually been up to the Lighthouse. I think it is time.


A before shot. It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world. It was down right awful looking but as you may remember those are my favorite things to work on. Lucy was a little upset because she was lying on top of the ottoman before I started working on it.

Why I've been away....

I've not made a post since returning from California for many reasons. I decided to take a break from the internet as I've been working long hours. As most companies around the US (World) we did a bit of downsizing and I've been taking on extra work and working very long hours. I can tend to be a bit of a workaholic so I need to watch that I don't over do it.



I've also been..well... a little down in the dumps (like many people.) I miss California. I came back to Oregon and have been dealing with allergies. It is like this every time I come back because I don't have allergies in Sonoma County. I have to take two medications everyday just to function here in Oregon. Sometimes I have to go up to four when they get real bad. There are all sorts of side effects from the medication but I don't even want to go there. I also miss family and friends from California. My niece and her boyfriend are moving back to California. It has been nice having family around. With my constant battle with allergies and family and friends being so far way - I've been thinking a lot about California.



Until Next Time. . . . .
Kathleen

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