Some Stuff

Tintype I took of Marianne at the beach.

Have you watched Master of None on Netflix? I really liked it and the song choices for the show are always awesome. One of the last episodes had my favorite Cure song at the end. You can listen to it here. I hadn't heard it forever and have been singing it in my head ever since.

I've been listening to books online while busy at home. Right now I'm listening to Emma which I've somehow never read. I've always been curious, if you listen to a book does that count as reading it? Haha! Please share your opinion.

Lent began yesterday and I always greet it with equal parts joy and dread. Friday's are vegetarian days and I'm looking for some good recipes. If you can suggest something or a good veggie website I'd be very grateful.

Qwixx is our new favorite board game. It's fun, fast and if you like games I guarantee you'll love it!

I want to visit some sand dunes this year. I'm thinking the dunes in Death Valley would be a good place to go. I've always wanted to go to Death Valley so I'd be killing two birds with one stone on that trip! P.s. I'd never kill a bird. I need to find a different way to say that :)

The day David Bowie died I made this tintype titled Ode To Blackstar. Have you listened to his farewell album? Or watched the videos? If you have you'll understand.

Have you seen these fan photos of John Lennon? I'm not huge John Lennon lover but I found these to be pretty cool.

Look how neat this window bird house is!

If you've come across any fun things lately feel free to share them in the comments!

♥ anne

Year's End

Hi there! It's been a while! December, Christmas, birthdays, New Year...they've all come and gone. We had a nice holiday break filled with food, drinks, music, friends, family and the typical stress that goes along with such occasions. The highlight of the month was getting to see my sister out of the convent. Unfortunately it was due to our Dad being extremely sick (he's doing much better now) but it was SO good to hug her and be with her for a whole day! So, without further ado I give you our December in photos.

I made a few bottles of infused mugwort oil for gifts.

Ruben played a solo show and it was so great! I'm so proud of him and his music! This was such a fun night. That's my mom with me there. She's not only a wonderful mother but she's also super fun to hang with!

Ruben's birthday is two days after Christmas and this year I made him a lemon meringue pie. I've never made one before and I was very pleased with how yummy it was!

Why are we smiling so big? Well let me tell ya! I had just watched a barn owl soaring over the field and I was on cloud nine! I'm always on the lookout for owls, scanning the trees, looking for their outline so watching one hunt not only made me squeal with joy but it left this smile on my face. Haha! It doesn't take much people!





On Saturday we went out to Calico with friends to explore. It was a great day and very cold!

Our oldest son recently visited my cousin up in Portland and went to Powell's and came home with these wonderful books for us (and him). He knows us well and I might add that he has great taste in music!

There you have it. Bits of the last month in pictures. I hope this new year is off to a good start for you! Thanks for reading along here and I hope 2016 treats us all well :)

♥ anne

California Home Book

Today I got this great home decor book from the library for $.25! Check out some of these great homes. If you'd like to see all the photos head over to my Pinterest board here.

♥ anne

Bookshelves

This post needs lots of exclamations points!!!! because we finally have shelves! Most of our books have been in boxes in the garage for many years because we've had nowhere to put them but not anymore!

Now they have a beautiful new home thanks to $40 and my husband. I couldn't be more pleased with the end result and this new addition to our home was just what I needed to inspire me to get the rest of the house in order.

And now that we have the space, I won't feel guilty about bringing more books into the house.

I know there are a couple more boxes in the garage so I'll be adding more books to the shelves in the next few days but this is how it looks as of now.

Why didn't we do this years ago?

One of my goals for the new year is to read more and I think I'm going to be way more successful than last year. I started Sweet Thursday the other night so I'm off to a good start! What books are you reading?

♥ anne

Watching Reading Listening

It's time for another edition of Watching Reading Listening! Aren't you stoked? I bet you are.

W A T C H I N G
Ruben and I watched Muscle Shoals the other night and it is SO GOOD! Seriously. If you have Netflix on your tv you can watch it and you should tonight!


R E A D I N G
My sister sent me The Strange Case Of Dr. Terry and Mr. Chimes before Lent and I've been slowly reading it since. I say slowly because sitting down and enjoying a book isn't something that I get to do often. Anyway, she told me that one of the Sisters had read an article about this punk band drummer returning to the church and that he had written a book. She soon found out that the author was the original drummer of The Clash! Seeing as how she listened to them before entering the convent and knowing that me and Ruben were big fans she thought I'd like to read it. It's been really good so far and I look forward to finding out what lead him to be becoming a chiropractor and returning to the Catholic faith.


L I S T E N I N G

Living in southern California you might assume that we'd have awesome radio stations. Well we don't. They are the most generic, boring and repetitive stations around! Last year I discovered a small local station, 101.5 KOCI,  that is located in my very own city and it's really good! I made a playlist of songs I've heard on it and I've been listening to it at home and adding to it over time. I thought someone might else might enjoy it so I'm sharing it here :)



Care to share what you've been watching, reading and listening to?

♥ anne

TOMTEN Finger Puppet

We've been reading The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren quite a bit lately. The other night Shane pulled out the finger puppets I made about two years ago, he was having fun putting on a puppet show and I thought little Tomten would make a perfect addition to our puppet collection. So, this morning I stitched this guy up! Everyone is already enjoying him :)

If you've never heard about this wee creature you can read about him here and Milla also did a post on him which you can read here.

♥ anne

watching / reading / listening

W A T C H I N G-
We've watched some fun documentaries in the last couple of weeks that I wanted to share with you. First up is Room 237 about Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining. People have formulating some interesting theories about this film and they are shared in this documentary.

The other night I watched Following Sean, which (as Wikipedia says) "is a 2005 documentary film directed by Ralph Arlyck, and a follow-up to his 1969 student short "Sean," which features four-year-old Sean's thoughts on marijuana, police presence, freewheeling lifestyles. The film's notoriety landed a screening in the White House and a variety of predictions regarding the outcome of Sean's life - whether he could grow up to embody the hippy philosophy, or whether he would turn out a drug dealer or stock broker." You can watch the trailer here.

Last night we watched I Ain't in It For My Health about Levon Helm. If you're a fan of Levon or The Band it's worth a watch.

Last up is A Brilliant Life In Darkness. This short documentary is fascinating! It's about a man who went blind and then deaf as a child and what he went on to accomplish as an adult. Watch it.


R E A D I N G-
I finished Into The Wild a couple weeks ago and liked it quite a bit. I thought it was going to be solely about Chris McCandless but was pleasantly surprised at the many other stories Jon Krakauer told about himself and other similar people of the past.

I am reading a couple other books as well but haven't finished them yet. I'm a S L O W reader.

L I S T E N I N G-
The new Mazzy Star album, Seasons of Your Day. None of the "after a couple listens I'll like it" with this one. It was great the first time around!

The Deep Dark Woods new album, Jubilee. I loved it and heard hints of The Band on Red, Red Rose and Neil Young and Crazy Horse on Miles and Miles... which is never a bad thing in my book! They really are an amazing band. I love all their albums and I hope to see them live at some point.

I also listened to Lightning Bolt, the new Pearl Jam album yesterday and was happy to hear Sleeping by Myself (which is on Eddie Vedder's solo album Ukulele Songs) done with the whole band. I play that song on the uke and Ruben sings it :) If you haven't heard it, take a listen.

The album is good,  I especially enjoyed the slower songs. 


That's it. I'd love to hear what you are watching, reading and listening to. Please share!


♥ anne

jennifer's walk

little did i know that when i picked this book up from the free recycle bin at the library that it would end up becoming an absolute favorite and quite a little treasure! Jennifer's Walk by Anne Carriere is a true gem. jennifer and teddy set out on a walk all by themselves. jennifer assures teddy that as long as they can see their house, they won't get lost. they pass the garden and the big spider web in the in the old stone wall. they run through the black-eyed susans and pass a curious woodchuck. they feed old arabelle the horse and run with the lambs making sure not to touch the purple thistles. they pass the old barn and go over the brook to jennifer's favorite place, "a cool little wood, where the trees grew in rows and the ground was soft with pine needles that looked pink in the sun and smelled very sweet." they sit quietly for some time taking it all in before the head back to mama.

Arthur Getz's illustrations are pure magic! shane and marianne especially love the picture that maps out jennifer's path. 
unfortunately, it seems this book is quite rare. there are only 3 copies on amazon and the cheapest one is $95!!!! this makes me sad because i feel every child should have a copy of this wonderful book. so, all you thrift mama's out there keep your eyes peeled for this one! it doesn't disappoint!

♥ anne

vintage scores

yesterday everyone seemed to have a case of cabin fever. so, we got out and took a short walk or in shane's case a short run. it was warm and breezy and beautiful. just what the doctor ordered!



i have been on the hunt for months for a low table to go out on our patio and yesterday i found one that is perfect!

i really couldn't have hoped to find a better one! look at her! isn't she cute?! i still need some pillows for our pallet seating area but i'm thinking the patio is pretty near finished. it's almost ready for a little party with friends don't you think?

ok, there's more...and this could be dangerous for me. our local library has a used book store which has not only a large 25 cent section BUT a recycling section as well where all the books are FREE! check out what i picked up yesterday.


the expressionism book is really cool. i plan on framing a couple of the fold out prints. and love is an attitude is pretty darn awesome! it was printed in 1970 and has great photos and poems which i'll share in an upcoming post.

i am also going to be updating my etsy shop this week with some really great pieces so make sure to check them out! 

♥anne