the 2017 vision blog

First up.. this! (Posted by FB Friend Stacy last night.) Love it!

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So to that end, the "be healthier" challenges:

• Cut out the sweets I've become addicted to this holiday season (after I finish eating my cookie tin... hey, I'm trying to be realistic here ;)
• Drink more water 
• Go back to the "wake up early and work out on the Wii Fit" routine that helped me so much six years ago. To accomplish that I will need to..
• Go to bed earlier than current midnight-ish.

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I want to do at least one new thing a week. 

• I started today by -- for the first time in 8 years at my house -- walking to Lake Balboa park from my house and walking the entire perimeter of the lake for the first time ever. It was a gorgeous day after all the rain yesterday and I felt so refreshed. I realized I need to spend more time at that lake -- it's so close and very peaceful (when not near the playground ;). Perhaps I will take my beach chair and books there on Saturday afternoons...

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Speaking of books, here's my reading pile for the year.. a little less ambitious than last year (it's actually just what I didn't even start last year). So hopefully I will finish it (although that Nora Ephron book is thick!)

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The hope behind the choices in that book pile is to inspire me to write more. To that end, I am toying with the idea of starting a trendy bullet journal... it's a way to write and be crafty and organized all at the same time. We shall see... I have a hard enough time remembering to write in my normal journal. But this Buzzfeed article makes it look more fun than the official site does :)

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Speaking of crafty, I think I have finally saved enough wine corks the last year to make a small version of this, which I saved off Drew Barrymore's instragram around Valentine's Day last year. I think it's pretty (and it's all recycled!). And it represents Love ... I'd like more of that in my life in 2017 too. :)

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I hope to remember this each day...

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And... the holdovers from last year:

Two weeks split between here....

... and here

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For a certain twosome who love complaining about my crappy front door, I will get a new one, sort of like this...

With that front door, I hope to kickstart other items on my home improvement list too.... anyone know a good handyman? 

the 2016 vision blog

My light reading pile for the year (collected over the last two years). What should I start with?*

*After I finally finish The Interestings... which I've been half reading for 16 months. Oy. 

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A return to this view... which will help me get through the pile above :)

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Two weeks split between here....

... and here

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For a certain twosome who love complaining about my crappy front door, I will get a new one, sort of like this...

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And this....

oh christmas tree... the around the world edition

Day 2 of my ornament collection is all about my ornaments from all over the world, courtesy of my or my friends' travels. Enjoy!

The Venetian mask was a gift from my friend Cwennen's trip to Italy last year, while the Happy Christmas ornament came from my friend Daryl's weeks of working in London last year. 

This beautiful painted ornament is from my visit to the Accademia Museum in Florence, Italy,
home of Michelangelo's David.

Near Ghiradelli Square at the San Francisco Wharf, close to the cable car turn-about, there is a little couple that makes these cute, hand-painted ornaments. These are from my first two trips to San Fran.

A ceramic, spinning windmill from Solvang.

My friend Katharine brought me this cuckoo clock
after she finally made it to Vienna.

From my 2nd trip to - and 1st trip to the very top of -
Multnomah Falls @ The Columbia River Gorge

This delicate carved ornament is from my parents'
Alaskan cruise a few years ago.

Sanddollar from Cannon Beach, OR (aka where they
filmed "The Goonies")

Seashell Angel from Catalina

             

Hawaiian Rudolph, from Trip #2 to the Big Island.

A whimsical penguin, from a 4th of July family reunion in Ouray, Colorado ... in ...wait for it... 2004 :)

products i love: marks and spencer scottish shortbread petticoat tails

My friend Daryl works for the British government here in LA and had to travel to London back in September for work. He was taking requests for souvenirs so I told him to try and find me something from the London Summer Olympics. 

When he returned, he brought me two cute collectible pins featuring the Games' mascots Wenlock and Mandeville. That would have been enough. But then he handed me a shopping bag containing what has turned into two months of streched-out, carefully-rationed edible heaven.

This is the totally adorable Marks and Spencer London Olympics souvenir biscuit tin that was inside the bag...

And these are the amazingly wonderful Scottish shortbread petticoat tails that were stacked inside of it...

I'd never had "petticoat tails" before, but upon one taste, they became my favorite cookie in the world. 

They remind me of a thinner (and therefore better for you, right? ;) version of the old Girl Scout Shortbread cookies they had back when I was a Brownie. (These weren't just a plain "Trefoil" shortbread cookie like they sell now. These were the amazing, now-discontinued "Scot-Teas" that had sprinkled sugar on top, which I used to lick off before devouring the remaining cookie. ;)

These petticoat tails also have a light sprinkling of sugar on top. And taste oh-so-delicious with hot tea. The tin had about 10 of the cookie sheets (pictured above) inside of it, which can be broken up into six individual wafers, which I've been seriously rationing since October because when they are all gone, I'm going to be very, very sad. 

Of course, thanks to the internet I could order more (although the cute collectible tin is now only available on eBay). But that just wouldn't seem as special. 

So from now on, if anyone is going to London, you now know what you can get me as a special treat. My sweet tooth and I will love you forever :)