the good , the beautiful and the ugly...

sketch ac

The GOOD...

My Mum celebrates her birthday family style...

left to right top row: Jesse, Dakots, Becca, Steve, Veronica
bottom row: Aunt Mary, Chris, me, Mum Dad and Richy

and Veronica celebrates her birthday in a devilish manner...

My friend Tiffini Elektra X has finally posted her long awaited website...You have to visit...she has some lovely items. Tiffini is the spirited sprite that makes the bottlecap jewelry of my photographs that are available at the Pasticcio Bazaar on my website...I'm so happy to be able to turn you on to her fantastic items available at her own store. It's a good thing...

The BEAUTIFUL...


A gal pal visit to beautiful the 2007 pick of the Pasadena Showcase House of Design...the Boddy House at Descanso Gardens...This house is near and dear to me because I had two exhibits of my photography here in August of 2002 and 2003. The gardens are one of my favorite places on earth because they are so very beautiful, peaceful and enchanting.
Publisher E. Manchester Boddy bought the land where the gardens and house are today and called it Rancho del Descanso loosely translated as the Ranch of Rest. In the early 1950's Boddy closed his newspaper and delved into creating a botanical haven on his 160 acres. The 22 room mansion was completed in 1938 at a cost of approximately $140,000 and became the site of frequent and lavish parties.
The house has long been in need of a face lift, so I was thrilled to hear it was to be the showcase house this year. The designers did a lovely job capturing the mood of the house and highlighting the details.






















How lovely to wake up every morning to a cup of coffee overlooking the vast oak tree forest...walking every day through the paths lined with camillias, or wandering down to the Rosearium which covers 3 acres and holds over 3,000 types of roses... sigh...
Speaking of gardens...my potager garden has yielded a lovely strawberry...big enough for a Barbie doll to dip in chocolate and enjoy....still waiting for other sightings of edibles...
It's a beautiful thing...

the UGLY...
You might recall if you read my blog, that I had a tree branch go through the windshield of my car 5 weeks ago... Well...it has taken 5 weeks for me to get my car back...and yesterday when I picked it up I was delighted and grateful beyond belief...
Later that night I headed out to dinner with my buds and pulled up to the valet. I go inside and get a booth and 3 minutes later my friends come in and ask if I got my car back...
and I say...Yeah! Finally...!
and Carol says "I was afraid of that...the valet guy in the parking lot just backed your car into a pole..."
and I thought she was kidding...
"We watched the whole thing..." said Maureen...and sure enough it was true...my little car had been backed into a pole...and will have to go away again to get fixed...
Go figure...
It was just about then I was ready for a cosmopolitan in the glass I had seen earlier that day at the Gardens...