Birthday Memories!

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Thank you for the birthday greetings I received from you all who stopped by to share the lurve and I have to say it has been a really nice week! It was not only my birthday but also my turn to host Afternoon Tea with my regular group of ladies of whom I rotate with and I also invited my best friend Erin who won't be able to join me this week for yet another party time this week. I know it just keeps going and going and going. Heck, I say that your birthday isn't REALLY over until you spend the last gift card, so you can really stretch these things out.

For my tea party I thought we'd do something a little different. Instead of the dinning room, I moved the party to the family room to watch one of my favorite Jane Austen novels adapted into a movie ~ PERSUASION.

I lurve this version the best because it stays truest to the book and of course the excellent casting...

For my little giftie, I made these EASY Pumpkin Spice Cookies to share. Minimum 2 ingredients, that's right - only 2 - but you can add 2 more if you want nuts or white chocolate chips.

These are soft, moist cookies so I DO NOT recommend storing them in an airtight container otherwise they will get mushy. To keep them from doing that I stored them in brown paper bags that I hole punched to allow air to flow through the bags as you'll see in the pictures below.

I added a little scented packet for embellishment...

And placed them on the table ready to hand out as the ladies left the party.

I nearly forgot to take pictures again...

Here is Erin and I... I was fixing the color of the original photo and accidently made it black and white... and liked it so much that I kept it that way.

During our movie, my sister Melody's Grand-daughter, Audrina came over to visit and got passed around for all the love!

Even my bloggyland friends who commented on my birthday post joined us for cake and presents! tee hee ... Do you see yourself?

For dessert, I made a Pumpkin Spice cake using this recipe. The only change I made was not using white chocolate chips as the frosting - I chose Cream Cheese Frosting instead. This was a keeper, EVERYONE loved it and again it is another easy recipe.

My sister Melody even wrapped my presents in Regency Era trimmings!

Cookware from my Mom, I lurve kitchen stuff!

Victoria got me this great book... 101 Things You Don't Know About Jane Austen! Can you see my excitement?!

Ann drove up to Northern California recently and spent the day at Apple Hill. It is a community of apple farmers who open their farms every weekend September through November selling everything you can think of with apples and crafters also join in selling their creative things. Ann brought me back some Pumpkin butter and Apple Cinnamon Sauce.

My Mother-in-Law brought me back from her trip to Greece this LOVELY handcrafted with crystal beads pitcher cover. Here I am demonstrating how it works over a glass.

She also brought me back this BEAUTIFUL painted card table cover for Christmas. I started to crop this picture until I saw the expression on my sisters face.... Hmm - perhaps she's jealous because she didn't get one? ha ha Melody - why were you making that face? ha ha

Yahoo, Erin got me a gift card to Michael's Crafts store! I lurve going there. Everytime I walk in there it makes me believe I'm more creative than I really am! ha ha

Now here I have saved the best for last! On the evening my birthday, my children surprised me with a song they had written themselves using instruments! This was a light-bulb moment for me because it suddenly made sense why I've heard faint bits of music in their bedrooms for the past few weeks.

My Boy came up with his own Drum Set of items that made different sounds. His sticks are Ping Pong paddles. ha ha Soooooo cute!

Homemade cards! My Girls says... "Your the best Mom ever! Even though your 41, your still quite some fun!"

Even Samson came and got all comfortable in my lap, he lets me hold his hands/paws. He is 7 months old now, starting to look like a teenager. He's so loveable! He's even getting trained to the word ~ TREATS! I'll ask him if he wants a TREAT and he races to the cupboard, sliding on the kitchen floor to make the turn where we keep them. ha ha

Another great birthday memory!

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Friday Humor!

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I thought this was funny... ha ha ha ha ha!

By the way, my birthday was just lovely! Gifties, phone calls, e-cards from my beautiful blogging friends, even my children made up a birthday song complete with instruments! I'll post more pictures after the weekend is over of my birthday fun!

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Happy Birthday to.... me!

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Thank you for visiting me today,

won't you join me in singing..

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Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday dear meeeee!

Happy Birthday toooo me!

Update: Oh my stars Reckless, Thank you for the FUN post and a trip down memory lane! I can't stop laughing at the many things you remembered! You're the best.

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Questionnaire...

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I SAW THIS LITTLE QUESTIONNAIRE THE OTHER DAY …

1. What is your favorite thing to snack on while your blogging?
~I’m usually drinking coffee but right now a cream scone with lemon curd sounds good.

2. What is one thing you wouldn't want to live without?
~My non-spiritual, unemotional answer is a car.

3. Beach, Mountains, or Farm? Where would you live if you had a choice?
~Beach – Carmel, Monterey or Pacific Grove area along the California coast.

4. What's your least favorite chore/household duty?
~ ALL OF IT!

5. Who do people say you remind them of?
~An old soul… never a celebrity, always… an old soul.

6. Prefer parties and socializing or staying home with the family?
~I like to socialize but I hate being gone too many nights in one week.

7. What's your all time favorite movie?
~Somewhere in Time (1980) with Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeves

8. Do you sleep in your make-up or remove it like a good little girl every night?
~I wear Bare Minerals so that makes me a sleeper.

9. Do you have a hidden talent or a deep desire to learn something that you've never had a chance to learn? What is it?
~I’d like to learn how to do calligraphy better.

10. What's one strange thing you're really good at?
~I usually don't have to read directions... I can usually figure something out by looking at it; household items, computers, tools, gadgets, etc.

11. What first attracted you to your spouse?
~He reminded me of Tom Cruise after he got a haircut and shaved.

12. What is something you love to smell?
~Dinner in my crock pot!

13. Tell something about you that you know irritates people.
~I can be bad about returning calls and sending note cards.

14. When you have extra money, what's the first thing you think to do with it?
~Go shopping!

15. Are you a silent laugher or a loud laugher? What makes you laugh the hardest?
~A loud laughter. Watching reruns of Drew Carey’s “Whose Line is it?” and Carol Burnett shows.

16. Where is your favorite place to shop?
~A craft and stationary store.

17. What's one thing you'd do more often if you had more time?
~Watch an entire movie from start to finish – in one sitting.

18. Are you a big spender or frugal?
~Frugal – use lots of coupons.

19. Who is your favorite character of all time?
~Nancy Drew

20. Would you want to be famous?
~I think being truly famous would be much more of a burden than a blessing. But being a little famous would probably give you a lot of the perks without the pain of being a spectacle everywhere you go

WHAT ARE SOME OR ALL OF YOUR ANSWERS?

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A new favorite!

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My Netflix recently suggested I watch this movie...~ Babette's Feast ~ a foreign film at that! I regularly watch movies with the English Subtitles turned on because that's what I do in the morning... I watch about 15 minutes of the morning news and then turn on a movie for the rest of my vanity time at the mirror. Because of my mane, the hair dryer is on for a long time, thus the reason I lurve closed caption ~ I can read the lines. It also came in handy many years ago when I was nursing my babies and had the television on for light at o'dark-thirty in the morning but wanted no sound.

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So I rented it... and watched it first entirely almost reading the words so I could understand the dialogue. The second time was to watch the body language. The third time was for the pure enjoyment of it because now I was able to mesh the two together! This is a GREAT film! After I did some research, I found it won an Oscar and wholeheartedly agree that it deserved it. Many beautiful things about this film... is its story... the costumes... the sets... the casting... and finally the amazing way they were able to film the food scenes.
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I was trying to put my thoughts into words while searching for the pictures to post this and found this writer who put my thoughts into words beautifully. Please go here to read his review of the movie and then put it in your queue to rent it!

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After watching this movie, I NEEDED to create and bake something (as you will too) so I made an Apple Crisp! Mmmmmm ~ Delicious!
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Seasons end

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It's become a tradition that we go to a local park on their last day of the season to be open before they close for the winter. This was a great day because the weather was still slightly warm and hardly anyone was there!
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We set up in front of the Catfish and Crawdad pond...

Of course I brought something to read....

We even saw some relatives come walking in...

And some friends too...

The fishing was S.....L.....O....W,

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So the kids got out their stick poles with string and started catching Crawdad's instead. It turned out to be a banner day because there is one Crawdad in particular that we named "King Kong" because he's a big one and never wants to be caught. The kids always talk about him but I had yet to see him...

Until today because they got him! The kids were hooping and hollaring with excitement! And Oh my he is HUGE and deserved the name we gave him.

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They remind me of lobsters. ha ha
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In between all the slow times of fishing, we rode some of the rides...

The have a huge castle you can rent for parties too. I've never been in it but I hear it's pretty fun with slides that come down from the second story, etc.

Well the patience finally paid off because the fish starting biting about an hour before we were set to leave.

We got a 1 lb Catfish! You can keep them but we throw them back in as the water is G-R-O-S-S! Wouldn't want any keepers from this pond. ha ha

Well it was a fun day here and we're glad we kept with tradition! See ya next year!

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