My Tahoe Retreat

I was in Tahoe for a wonderful retreat May 12.  The day we arrived the weather was gorgeous and warm.  The day we were to leave we were greeted by this!  Now, I'm from Southern California where an extreme weather shift looks like this: 70 degrees today, 66 degrees tomorrow.  Everyone will feel compelled to remark on how chilly it will be tomorrow.  The above scene is just ridiculous.  I read blogs by you midwesterners and your 70 one day and snow the next weather but this was in CALIFORNIA for goodness sake!

Here is what it looked like out the window on our harrowing drive to the Sacramento airport:

And this out the front window:

And this is why I am planning to stay in Southern California where I can count on the weather to be a non-event.

The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event.  

You go to bed in one kind of a world and 

wake up in another quite different, 

and if this is not enchantment 

then where is it to be found?

                                         ~J.B. Priestley

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San Francisco

I spent a wonderful weekend in San Francisco with a very dear friend of mine.  We met on the first day of high school when we were made Biology Lab partners.  It was a perfect match on many levels.  I have always thought that I got the better end of the deal but I try to keep that a secret from her.

In my moderately small town there was one middle school and one high school and then, there was my school - a private Catholic K-8 school.  There were 25 or 30 kids in my eighth grade class so I was entering High School knowing few people.  Julie was my gateway into another group of friends.  She introduced me to her friends and high school was no longer a big scary place.  It is because of her that I had a great time in high school.I have been grateful ever since.  So, when she called me a few months ago, desperate for a getaway I eagerly agreed.  She lives in Arizona now and I live in Southern California so we try to meet places several times a year since we both LOVE to travel.

Here are the highlights of our weekend:

Julie and I strolled past a store near Union Square that had ALL of its windows lined with antique, hand-crank sewing machines.  SERIOUSLY, there were over 100 beautiful machines of all make and models.

I went inside to get a closer look and a young clerk told us that the company,  All Saints, Co. Clothing Store,  employs someone whose sole responsibility is to travel around and find more machines for their stores.  He said there are stores with many more machines than this one.

Here is a view from the outside.  The bottom floor windows are lined with machines, the second floor is lined and there was a third floor that I couldn't capture.  The kicker is that there is a second side to the store because it goes all the way through the block to the next street!!  Those windows are also stuffed with machines.

I wonder if they need a second machine-finder.

We took a lovely walking tour of the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District near the Golden Gate Bridge.  Of course, I've seen the Palace in lots of movies set in San Fran (think Vertigo, various Monk episodes) but it is very impressive in person.

On Sunday we picked up Julie's daughter and headed out to the Alameda Antique Flea Market.  Elise lives near these beautiful Painted Lady houses.   SIGH, we don't have anything that cute across the street from where I live.


We saw lots and lots of FAB-U-LOUS things.  Thanks goodness I was restricted to carry-on luggage or I would have brought home SO MANY things.

I saw lots of quilts and a lot of toy sewing machines.  I especially liked this one with its hot red carrying case.

Look at this gorgeous pineapple-like quilt.  It is all silks but it was just falling apart.

There were lots of gems just out in the sun on hangers.  I wanted to rescue them all from sun damage but I resisted.


We ended the afternoon sipping the absolute best Bloody Mary's in the world at DeLucci's in Little Italy.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend.

"Your friend is the [wo]man who knows all about you, 

and still likes you."
                                               - Elbert Hubard  

 You all have a wonderful week

Fun in the mail

I received a wonderful gift from my new blog-friend Impera Magna.  Our packages to each other must have crossed somewhere in Texas because we both received them the same day.  I sent her a priority mail envelope stuffed with some of the scrap strips I've been whining bragging about lately and she sent me a jar of HOMEMADE peach jam and a darling mug rug (is that one word or two?).  I think I got the better end of the exchange.  What do you think?  Doesn't this look like the most delicious and prettily displayed snack ever!!

Thanks, Impera Magna.

Your royal subject,