Paper Feather

I find great enjoyment from cutting up old magazines to be used in future collages.  I look for colors, textures, images, art, paintings, faces, people, patterns, words, phrases, products, anything.  Used magazines are a free medium.  A collage artists gold!   Today I found an image of a bronze feather sculpture, and once I carefully cut it out, it's silhouette looked exactly like a real feather.  Impressive, I know!  I tried to get inspired and put it together with other images, but nothing really grabbed me, so eventually I began to put things away and resigned to trying later.

I stacked my magazine cuttings into a pile, smaller pieces on top.  As I stood to relocate the paper pieces into a box, some of the smaller pieces almost flew off.  When I turned around the image of the feather took flight and gently swayed back and forth as it made its way to the floor, just like a real feather!

Jalama Burgers For The Win

The Helicopter Squadron from Vandenberg Airforce Base has 'flown out' for Jalama Burgers. Oh, they just hop in the ol' helicopter and fly down the hill to the Jalama Beach Store, drop down the rope ladder so a couple of airmen can climb down, run across the stream, and pick up the burger order. No problem!

I'm not making this up, I've seen it happen! It shouldn't have been such a surprise though, our family has driven 3 hours for the same burger! It's THAT good!

Eating a Jalama Burger has always been so much more than a meal for our family, it's mostly about the entire experience of planning the trip. If we're planning a full on camping trip, we can spend months preparing - mentally and practically. Day trips are typically more spontaneous but we still spend 2 to 3 days preparing. It's a dog friendly place, so of course we plan on bringing along Scout and his basic needs (water bowl & what we call 'little scouties' - trash bags). We like to leave early in the morning, make one regular stop along the way, and after arriving we like to walk along the beach to really work up our appetites. Then it's time to place our orders!

This last Monday was no different than any other day trip we'd taken to Jalama Beach, other than the tide was the highest I'd ever seen it, and as we entered the Store and approached the counter, the proprietor smiled and said "You're Patti", and looking at Shannon said "and you must be Shannon". He had been expecting us!

About two years ago Shannon was sitting at the computer and decided to create a Facebook Group Site called: Jalama Burger Fans - it had a fairly slow beginning, but when our neighbor down the street joined the group it really took off - you see, he grew up very close to this beloved campground, and actually went to school with the store owner. The group site is not quite two years old and we've got 537 fans and counting - and we know there are more fans out there!!

A few weeks ago Shannon posted on the group wall that she was craving a Jalama Burger, a couple of days later she discovered that Mike Eittreim, the Store Owner, had posted an invitation for her to come and make her own!! You should have seen the three of us trying to figure out the soonest possible time we could go and coordinate our trip in between weather systems! We laughed at ourselves, but hey... they're really GREAT burgers!!

Mike was very nice and made good on his offer to let Shannon make her own burger (and she made ours as well!) I took a bunch of pictures while the two "burger masters" showed Shannon the ropes. She enjoyed herself a little bit too much - hmmm maybe a summer job?? Oh yeah!! She did a masterful job because they tasted just as wonderful as ever!

It was a once in a lifetime experience - THANKS MIKE! and we want to give a shout out to Mike's mother, Kathleen Eittreim, she is the inventor of the Jalama Burger - KATHLEEN, GOD BLESS YOU!!

New Bikes

So instead of spending the money on a weekend in Vegas - my husband and I opted to buy each other new bikes to celebrate our 20 year wedding anniversary. This is a good thing. We used to ride together when we were first married, but then someone stole his bike and he ended up using mine to commute and well, we just never got our "ride" back. We bought Electra Townies - they're really very nice bikes. God willing, we can ride together for the next 20 years or longer! Happy Anniversary!

laughing

It was not planned, but I have collected 4 videos of my granddaughter laughing throughout her first year of life: one at 3 mo., one at 6 mo., one at 9 mo., and one at a year old. I watch these about once a month - and I laugh every time! What is it about laughter that is so contagious? Especially when its a child laughing? I can't get enough of it! Here's a link to her video's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSEp7V6LpfU

I wonder what makes an infant laugh... why is it that one particular day they seem to find a particular antic hysterical and the next day they will yawn at the same thing? I guess it doesn't really matter why, just matters that they laugh!!

Time with God

I think the idea of long periods of time set aside to do nothing will always be, for me, just an idea. I often think about how nice it would be to spend an hour or more somewhere quiet, or if not quiet, then somewhere where no one can interupt me. At this particular moment I am actually home alone with the dog, very rare, and here I sit contemplating how nice this is and how any moment now it will end. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the busyness of my life - I love all of it, I just wish I could carve out an hour a day to just go be alone with God somewhere.

Sometimes my quiet time with God is in the kitchen while I'm washing dishes. This actually happens a lot. My husband likes to listen to music all the time and especially when he's in the kitchen, but I prefer no music, no radio, no kids, just the sound of the dish water. I really don't feel like washing the dishes is much of a chore - I find that it's a task I can do without thinking and because of that my mind can go somewhere else. It's the same thing in the shower... I get some of the best ideas while I'm in the shower - so wierd, wish I had a waterproof notepad sometimes.

This afternoon I came home and intended to paint for a couple of hours. I went to my room/studio, turned on a book-on-tape and laid down for a moment to listen to the book. My mistake was leaving my front door open. I rolled over and stared out my door towards the orange tree and rosemary bushes... they needed trimming. Yes, you know it - I got up and got the pruning shears out and went to town. Once I get started it's hard to find a stopping point. I worked until it was too dark to see, and now I'll need to finish this tomorrow afternoon.

I came in to cool off and voila - quiet time blogging. I guess I need to be satisfied with what I get - it's really all very good!!

Clean Cars and Clutter

Did you ever notice how your car always runs better when it's clean? Why is that? And how much better you feel and sleep when you've really cleaned your bedroom super thoroughly? I'm really trying to eliminate the clutter in my life - and in the process I'm finding that it has a direct effect on me mentally and spiritually. Next time I'm considering buying that whatchamacallit that I can't live without - I will try to remember how many of them end up in tomorrows garage sales!

A Day at the Beach

Yesterday I helped drive a group of my daughter's friends to the beach. We were there from about 11:00a.m. to 4:30p.m.

The weather was perfect! I spent the time visiting with the other mom that drove and the day just whipped by. My sun-worhsipping days are over, but I enjoy so much just being near the ocean and it was very comfortable being in jeans and a long sleeved shirt - had to put my hoodie on once or twice when the clouds covered the sun.

My daughter and her friends spent the time swimming, eating, talking, and 'getting a tan'! And to my endless amazement they still got sun-burned! There was a pile of sunscreen bottles on their site, but each of them managed to miss a leg here or an arm there - and several backs were overlooked completely!  Ouch!