Trash to Treasure

I am in the process of helping my friend “redesign” her office and kitchen…I am in heaven! She has requested my services and it is such a compliment to have someone be so appreciative and amazed at what I so take for granted, because I love repurposing, recreating, redesigning… We purchased an awesome piece of solid wood furniture (I think it was originally a section of an entertainment center; the TV cabinet) from an Estate Sale we happened upon a week ago. I am currently repurposing it into a breakfast bar which will provide extra counter space and storage which she very much needs as she is a very successful Pampered Chef Senior Director and Consultant. She wants to transform her “oak” office into a light and inviting space. Oh do I have ideas!! I have collected some great finds from her “trash pile” that are perfect to be recycled into shelves and storage. She has picked out some elements from my home that she would like to have incorporated in her redesign. WOW, that is the ultimate compliment in my book; I can’t wait to get started in her office. I have recruited Doug to construct her gallery shelves for the hallway, she love ours (my idea, his brawn; what a team!!) I see a trip or two to the swap meet soon for accessories; oh do I have a bounce in my step!!

These pictures are a sampling of my redesigns from my home, I will post pictures once I am done with her projects; rain, rain go away… I know, I know, we need it; however, it hampers paint drying, sanding outdoors, swap meets, etc. Hmm, that sounds a bit selfish; but once I start a project I get on a roll!!

…more to come soon!

Rain, Rain and More Rain

This week has convinced me I certainly am not a “pioneer” woman, nor do I want to be one, and it is only Wednesday! I like hot coffee, lights, heat, etc. I love electricity. Monday was a holiday for me and I was so excited to spend the day on my computer catching up and finishing some projects I had started and sure enough the power went out at about 11:30 am! I had just got out of the shower and thought at least my timing was pretty good, so I got dressed, made some lunch and figured it should be coming back on soon surely, the sun was now out! Well, not so. Since the sun was out I ventured out in my “beautiful and trendy (not)” rubber boots and cut my roses back and trimmed the geraniums/trailing geraniums that thought Spring had arrived a week or two ago. Normally we have beautiful weather this time of year with rain here and there, not the torrential downpours we have been experiencing! The ground was saturated as was everything else and I didn’t intend to do as much as I ended up doing. So needless to say I was not wearing gloves and I got stung by a bee! Who would of thought…I don’t know which one of us was more surprised; me or the bee…except I survived our encounter! I thought surely by now the power had to be restored; but still no power. The sun was about gone by this time so I got the flashlights and candles ready and thought this is not fun anymore! Doug headed home about 6:00ish and called to see if we had power yet as he, of course, was wondering if he was going to have dinner!

Just after his phone call the power came back on; what a relief! We are getting hit by some pretty bad storms with thunder; lightning and gusty winds so we may have more power outages this week! I can’t wait for our beautiful, awesome and wonderful weather to return, I am such a fair weather gal! I will be so appreciative from now on and not complain when it’s only a foggy day…it beats rain any day in my book! So I guess the moral of my story is; when I wish that I would have absolutely nothing to do I really want that “nothing” to be on my terms with electricity.

Reenergized and Refocused

Christmas and New Years are officially over; everything is put away. Our son (and grand dogs) left to go back to Montana yesterday and his wife has gone back to her parents home while she finishes her next rotation and internship before heading back in February. The house is big and quiet, we are officially empty nesters again; something we should be good at after nine years but somehow having Jeff, Jennifer, Miley and Roy home for 3 ½ weeks filled a void that I wasn’t aware of. When Jeff and the dogs left yesterday morning that familiar tug at my heart took over as it did when they moved to Montana and we said good bye, saying good bye after a surprise visit to celebrate Jeff ‘s 28th birthday, saying good bye after their visit home last May. The good news is Jennifer graduates in August and it sounds like they want to come back home to live (Jeff surfed just about every day he was home); but who knows they may stay in Montana or move somewhere else! So time for me to get refocused and reorganized!

My sister and I are excited to expand our business, …Simply Stated, this year. We have some great leads to design and illustrate custom cards for some awesome businesses. If this is something you are interested in please contact us. What better way to start the New Year than to send cards to those you are near and dear to and/or to brand your business! Personal contact always puts a smile on the face of the receiver as it makes them feel warm and fuzzy knowing that you took time just for them which in turn will make you smile, and feel warm and fuzzy, and it just may well boost your business! We also have lines of cards that are priced so affordable that you can keep them on hand and send them/give them out in a moment's notice!

...I am doing the happy dance today as 2009 is in the books, QuickBooks that is! I took yesterday off and spent the day engrossed in it and I am the victor!! I am registered in a Financial Management class, yes I am officially a student again, starting on Wednesday the 20th, wish me luck as I haven't been in the classroom for some time now. I am looking forward to this adventure since the last accounting class I took was about 35 years ago.

Good Bye 2009; Welcome 2010

Another year gone by, as I reflect on 2009 I am relieved as it was not the kindest year! With a new year comes hope for a prosperous new year, out with the old; in with the new; a rebirth of sorts, etc. As December approaches each year I am so excited to decorate for Christmas and love getting into the Christmas spirit. I so look forward to watching (one of these years I will watch them all!) my vast collection of Christmas movies, baking, our annual Christmas Cocktail Party, spending time with our family and friends and the “magical” emotion that stirs me every time I hear a bell “jingle.” As I was undecorating this past weekend (telling myself, as I do every year, next Christmas I am going scale it down) I felt an emptiness that comes every year as I pack it all up. I reminisce and relish in the memories of past Christmas’ when our sons were young to now celebrating with grandchildren; the thought of Christmas' to come always warms my heart. As I packed the crates and Doug made many trips up the attic ladder our house began to look like our home again. We have accumulated a lot of stuff over the years and I do admit it; I am a shopaholic and love Christmas!! I have crates that I don’t even dare open to see what is inside anymore! Oh the temptation; I am ready for our sons and daughter-in-laws to come “shopping” for some of the boys’ Christmas treasures to add to their collections.

As I look forward to 2010 I have a bounce in my step and a zest for making this one of the best years yet! Here are a few photos of the Owen home decorated for Christmas this past year, I guess I am having a hard time letting go of this one, it is full of wonderful memories; I didn’t want it to end! I took a break from Facebook over the holidays and enjoyed spending quality time with my family and friends, I hope to get back to writing and sharing on my blog every week as I have discovered I love it!! This is my New Year's resolution!

Happy New Year and may 2010 be an awesome year for us all!

The Christmas Letter

Thought I would take pictures this past weekend to post…well, somehow the weekend was gone in a blink of an eye; again! Not quite finished Christmas shopping, but I managed to get in 2 Christmas movies; Holiday Inn and Four Christmases; it just doesn’t seem like Christmas if I don’t get my fill of Christmas movies, I now have upwards of 35 movies in my collection to date!! I would love to have the time to watch them all in the month of December; Doug is a great sport, except on Sundays (football)! I wrapped a few gifts, have misplaced one that I purchased for my granddaughter this past fall; Doug was even scratching his head wondering what happened to it. Too much time wasted trying to find it; I was sure it was in my “store;” my stash of gifts! We are actually wondering if we didn’t already give it to her! I, hopefully, will finish decorating the tree tonight and then on to baking cookies. I think I just may get everything done before Christmas with a day or two to spare!!

I will take some pictures of my favorite Christmas decorated rooms, I love, love, love to decorate and I just can’t stop myself once the decorations come down from the attic. Each year I tell myself I won’t go all out and sure enough I do!

Last week I got our Christmas cards and “Christmas letter” out in the mail. I have heard the “Christmas letter” referred to as the “Christmas brag letter” on many occasions, especially on radio shows! I love to get these letters from friends and family and hear what’s been going on in their families. However, we do receive one of these letters that makes you want to gag when you are done reading it, I didn’t know that one family could be so blessed with such perfect children, such wonderful careers, traveling throughout the world, saving starving children, just to name of few of their 2-3 page letter of accomplishments for the current year. I like to keep mine to 1 page and just a brief update to those we don’t keep in contact with on a regular basis. Since I broached this subject I feel it is only fair to include a copy of my letter this year! What are your thoughts on the “Christmas letter?”

December 2009

Merry Christmas!

Another year gone by, hopefully you have all survived it; let’s hope that 2010 truly is the year of recovery as we keep hearing it will be! What we once thought was our retirement plan has certainly changed, we see many more years of work ahead of us now! Doug’s company has been very slow and now that he is out of the shop and is the Assistant Service Manager/Service Writer we have certainly felt it. I have 5 furlough days with mid ear cuts coming in January/February, unsure what impact that will have! We keep saying at least we have jobs, although Doug has never worked so many hours for so little return. My sister and I started a business this past summer; …Simply Stated. We design and illustrate greeting cards! It is something we have talked about for many years and finally decided it was now or never! Our Christmas cards are a sample of our Personally YOUrs one-of-a-kind cards designed and illustrated just for us! Doug sold his Harley this past Spring and we acquired this 1997 Chicago Schwinn Twinn from friends whose daughter was going to take it to the dump and they thought I would like it for yard art! It was a faded orange (pink!) when we got it; I fell in love with it and we decided we could actually ride it since it was in such great shape! Doug got it all tuned up, new tires, new chain, etc. Being the loving wife that I am I ordered black leather embossed flame seats with red trim and handle bar grips with red streamers and suggested we paint it black! I figured Doug would get harassed less from the guys and would actually ride it with me! He’d much rather take the ’55 out for a spin but he does humor me once in a while with a bike ride.

Brad and Jody are doing well; it is amazing to watch their family grow! Layla turned 2 on November 2nd, Jake graduated from high school this past June, and he is attending Cuesta College. It is great having grandkids, Layla calls us Grammy and Poppy; she melts our hearts over and over again!

Jeff and Jennifer are still living in Billings, MT; Jennifer graduates in August 2010. They are unsure if they’ll move back right away; they are beginning to like it more and more and Jeff has a great job! They'll be home for Christmas this year!

We celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary this past August. Yikes, where did all those years go; we are still those teenagers who fell in love! Doug does have the most beautiful shiny gray hair though (George Clooney eat your heart out); I hope to be so lucky – I love my hair stylist!
We hope this letter finds you in great health, great spirits and great company this Christmas season. May you reflect upon the true meaning of Christmas and spread Christmas cheer to all and have a very Happy New Year!

Sue and Doug

'Tis the Season of Craft & Gift Boutiques

These past two weekends have been so busy! We were invited to Hilmar Cheese Co. to debut our cards designed exclusively for them at their Taste of the Holidays event the previous weekend and this past weekend we were at the Holiday Craft & Gift Boutique at the Edwards Barn in Nipomo...Whew! We are going to be at the Central Coast Craft Fair and Boutique this Friday and Saturday at the Veterans Memorial Building in San Luis Obispo! It dawned on me this morning that I also have to plan and prepare Thanksgiving dinner in between all this! I would also like to get my house "Christmasized" by the 1st of December. I like to think that I am overly organized and I can juggle many things at one time (I think I can still do this!), so this week will be a good test to see if I've still got it.

Since I may be losing my daytime job come July, I work for a community college in a categorical funded program, I am grateful that my sister and my greeting card business is really starting to take off! When we decided to go forward with our dream we both said, well we have less years in front of us than behind us, statistics prove this, that it's now or never! And of course that we both work in education and may not have jobs that much longer, pray for education in CA; heaven knows we need it. I have come to the conclusion that I have become more confident in myself as I get older, I understand now why someone in their 80's goes skydiving! I am off this week, furlough days, and we are meeting with local wineries and getting ready for the upcoming weekend. We had a great show at the Edwards Barn and are looking forward to this weekend! This will be our last show for this year so come see us if you can! We are taking orders through this weekend for Personally YOUrs Christmas cards, one-of-a-kind original and unique cards featuring YOU and YOUr loved ones!

I may not be ready to go skydiving just yet, but I do know that I can't say anymore that I would never do that! It is definitely true that I become more daring with each year that passes, for this year I think starting a business will be enough of a challenge. Watch out 2010 here I come! I plan on stepping out of my box and creating big time!

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope that you are able to spend it with those you love and cherish.

Game Night

As hard as times are right now I have come to the realization that some of the simplest things in life can make you so happy and fill a void that you may have not even known existed. This past Saturday evening Bill and Cheryl (our daughter-in-law Jennifer's parents) came over for dinner and game night; we played Rummikub until 11:00! Anymore that is a late night for us, we usually are in bed by 10:00 at the latest! We used to get together at least once a month and go out for dinner because we were all so busy and always on the go, something we don't do so often anymore. I hope one of the things I take and keep from this "recession" is that we have slowed down and are taking time to smell the coffee. We were reminiscing that when we were first married we got to together with friends and had dinner and game night because we didn't have any play money, well here we are again. So when we say we miss the good old days we can recapture and recreate some of those memories! We just need to refocus and enjoy the simple things that are right in front of us and make lemonade out of our lemons. We all had so much fun; we can't wait until we meet for our rematch; not to brag but I was victorious!

Since one of my biggest passions is junking, especially repurposing and recreating with it, I have given this craft a whole new meaning! We recreated a time in our lives that was priceless and very memorable and best of all it was free, my favorite kind of "find."

We are very well aware of how difficult times are and what we used to think our retirement life would be like seems to be an eternity away for us now, but for a moment it was great to have my biggest concern be; I need a yellow twelve.