This is how I’m packaging my cards. However, my folded cards have not arrived yet. This is my first trial run that turned out with the photo on the front and blank on the back. I hope to have my first folded cards in a day or two. Then if I’m happy with them, I’ll order more including Mrs., Poppa Quail and Roadrunner.
I’ve been working on a website, ordered business cards and each day I find a little something I want to change or improve.
Then it dawned on my that I will be visiting my son this week and he has skills and talent to review and improve my projects. How great is that? I asked him for help and he said he’d love to. Also, while we are in the Bay Area, he and his wife are treating me to a day in the North Bay — to visit Sonoma and a quaint town I’ve never been to before.
Another treat is staying at my favorite hotel and taking the kids to Chez Panisse.
I’ve made the executive decision to continue working on this card project, but it’s not going live until our summer vacations are over. I won’t be here to get delivery of cards or do fulfillment if I happen to get any orders. So, I’ll keep working on getting things just right.
My mom’s birthday is in a few days and I really miss her. She passed away on New Year’s Day of 2023. This is the post I wrote about her and how it hurt to lose her:
My New Year started off with a phone call from my brother that our mom was found in her bed unresponsive. She lived in assisted living and I wasn’t able to visit her during COVID shutdowns. Thankfully, I visited her at the end of 2022.
Within two hours she passed away after being taken by ambulance to the hospital. This was totally unexpected. She tested positive for COVID five days earlier but was asymptomatic.
I’m going through shock, denial, disbelief and grief all at once.
I wrote this children’s story about her years ago. I sent it to children’s book publishers and actually got an offer from a small publisher. I turned down the offer because I didn’t think it was big enough! I’ve never had another offer in my life to have a book published.
Here’s the story:
A DIFFERENT KIND OF MOTHER
I have a different kind of mother. She’s not like other mothers on our street. She looks like other mothers. But it’s what she does that’s different.
She sings all the time. She sings songs by men named Wagner and Wolf. But she calls them “VAHgner” and “VOUlf.”
When my friends come over they ask “What is that?” We listen. “La la la la la la la la laaaa.”
I shrug my shoulders and say, “That’s my mom.”
My friends laugh. Their mothers never sing unless it’s to the radio.
My mom sings all the time. She sings operas while she drives, cooks, shops, gardens, reads and cleans. I think she sings in her dreams.
My mother never buys a loaf of bread. She bakes it every week and slices it with a big knife. Sometimes she lets me punch down the dough after it rises.
When I take my lunch to school, my sandwich sits crooked and looks like it’s ready to fall. My mother packs me carrot sticks, a hard boiled egg, an orange and an apple. There’s too much food and not one chip or pretzel like the other kids get. I like to order hot lunch.
My mother thinks hunting through the woods for mushrooms is fun. She took classes to learn about mushrooms so she knows which are good to eat and which ones are poisonous. I hate it when she asks my friends to go picking with her. But they love to go tramping through the dense green forest, climbing over fallen logs covered with moss. She points out the faerie rings where the mushrooms grow.
My mother grows vegetables in her garden, she won’t buy them at the store. But does she grow peas and carrots like the other mothers on our street? No. She’s proud of her eggplant, asparagus, spaghetti squash and rhubarb.
When my friends come over to play, my mother asks them to weed the garden.
“Nobody wants to weed. We want to play,” I tell her.
Then I turn around and the kids are lined up on both sides of her, pulling weeds as she tells them about the vitamins in vegetables.
My mother doesn’t read ordinary books by popular authors. She likes to read e.e. cummings with letters scattered over the page. I don’t know what the poems say. But my mother gathers up the letters and makes sense out of them.
Digging for clams up to her elbows in mud is how my mother catches dinner. She knows about razor clams that we dig in the surf and butter clams, littlenecks and cockles we find in the gritty gravel. She calls the ones we break with our shovels “clums.”
She picks oysters off the beach, shucks the top shell off and eats them raw right then and there. She eats the roe out of sea urchins and says, “It tastes like caviar!”
She’s the friendliest person on the street. She bakes wild blackberry pies for elderly neighbors and talks tomatoes with anyone who will listen.
She invites the neighborhood kids in, even if I don’t want her to. She doesn’t care when kids build a fort in our backyard or makes tents in the living room with old sheets. She lets us draw chalk pictures on the driveway and dig for China in the backyard.
At night when she tucks me in, I listen to her sing a lullaby with her beautiful voice.
When she kisses me good night, I love that my mother is a different kind of mother.
It’s time to turn in my final project for photography class. I’ve been taking photos of sea glass that I’ve shared along the way HERE and HERE.
Sea glass has both Meaning and Memory for me (FYI, that’s the theme of this semester’s final project.) My memories are from summers at the beach which were my favorite days of being a mom. As for meaning, one is that change always happens. For example, the purpose and original form of bottles change through time. Bottles turn into beautiful glass pieces tumbled in the sea. We also change — but it doesn’t mean that we no longer have purpose or beauty.
I took photos for the past few months of sea glass. Outside by the pool at different times of day. On glass tables by the pool, inside in jars, glasses and on glass with light coming from different directions.
For this project, I looked through photo albums and found pictures from our summers at the beach. Every year, I took photos of our kids and used them for Christmas cards. I scanned old photos and improved them using Adobe Camera Raw. The quality of the old photos taken with film are fuzzy compared to the new photos using a DSLR. But they have memory and meaning as well.
Here are the photos for my final project:
The Palm Springs gang on a beach day.
In the original photo, the hand looked like it was boiled bright red. A little Adobe Camera Raw and it’s more natural looking.
One of my favorite sea glass photos.
All that’s needed for entertainment is sand, the ocean and big stick.
Two more sea glass photos I took by our pool in the morning light.
I never heard the end of making my kids sit on this rocky outcropping. They asked me, “Why did you make us sit on an ashtray?” I didn’t know that this was a favorite place to smoke for locals. It was covered with cigarette butts!
Our daughter with a fist full of sea glass.
College age kids.
The final sea glass photo taken on a glass table with a light underneath.
These are photos from my recent trip to Berkeley and Oakland, California. I was helping my daughter, post her shoulder surgery.
This is the Cheeseboard pizza from Thursday. Cremini mushroom and Kale with a side of their famous cilantro pepper sauce to dip the crust. As an added bonus, they top your slice with a sliver! Cheeseboard Collective is an institution in Berkeley.
Here’s the background info from Cheeseboard’s website:
About Our Pizza
Cheese Board Pizza started with a simple, fun idea during one of our shifts
We’d grab some extra sourdough baguette dough, pick our favorite cheeses from the counter, and toss on veggies from the market next door to make pizzas just for us. Then, in 1985, we decided to share the fun and started serving a single type of vegetarian pizza to customers after hours on Friday nights. Each night, we’d make one fresh, unique pizza with veggies, specialty cheeses from the Cheese Board, and a thin, sourdough crust.
Today, that same recipe is still our go-to. The Pizzeria, now located just two doors south of the Cheese Shop and Bakery, is open for lunch and dinner four days a week. We’ve also added salads, roasted garlic, cookies, soft serve ice cream, sodas, beer, and wine. Live music is part of the scene at both lunch and dinner, adding to the vibrant atmosphere. Even though the line for pizza often stretches down the block, it moves quickly, with music keeping things lively along the way.
Here’s a rose I saw on my walk from my Berkeley Airbnb and Cheeseboard.
Beautiful Bougainvillea I spotted on a walk in Oakland with my son and daughter-in-law.
I’m not sure what these berries are. I just thought it made a unique shot on my walk to Cheeseboard for a slice.
Berkeley is a beautiful town when you open your eyes and notice the little things like flowers.
The tree-lined streets made for nice walks when I returned to my Airbnb after taking care of my daughter at my son’s apartment.
This was my cozy Airbnb — a separate room with it’s own entrance at the back of a home. I stayed here five years ago when my son had shoulder surgery. It has a bathroom, bedroom and a kitchenette.
Now for everything Cheeseboard:
My last three evenings, I walked from the Airbnb to Cheeseboard for a slice of pizza (and a sliver) before it got dark. It was my daughter’s idea. She told me to go home early so I could have Cheeseboard, which is a treat I enjoy when I visit my kids. Prior to my Cheeseboard walks, I was getting home after dark, exhausted and savoring a cup of chowder I had bought the day I arrived. I wrote about Cheeseboard years ago: How long would you wait for pizza? Hint: It’s Cheese Board.
I’d walk around Shattuck Avenue for about 30 minutes then get in line at Cheeseboard and walk home with my salad and slice. Yes, I’d get in line because there is always a line. There is also a cheese shop two doors down owned by Cheeseboard where I’d buy a few treats for the kids to bring the next day, like their favorite cheese, crackers, chips and homemade tomatillo salsa.
About Cheeseboard: They make one flavor of pizza per day and one salad. No special orders except Gluten and/or Vegan free. The pizza’s randomly change according to fresh produce and they locally source cheese. There is never meat on a Cheeseboard pizza.
I had this one and will say it was really, really good. I liked the Cremini/Kale better, though.
The pizza I had on my last night in Berkeley.
This is the line going into Cheeseboard. The open door near the front of the photo goes into their cheese and bakery shop.
The line wound around the corner and down the street.
If you go to Berkeley, I highly recommend a slice of pizza at Cheeseboard.
What’s your favorite pizza or a pizza spot?
What do you think of my Berkeley photos?
If you’ve never been there, did you think it would be so beautiful?
“There goes the neighborhood.” Mrs. leaves the birdseed block when a neighbor takes over.
While I’m up in the San Francisco area taking care of my children, I didn’t bring my camera or lenses. I did have some photos downloaded to my laptop of Red and Mrs. that I didn’t get a chance to look at before I left home.
I have taken a few photos with my iphone at my favorite grocery store called Berkeley Bowl, which was built in a former bowling alley, hence the name. I’ve written about Berkeley Bowl before HERE.
Here are a few views from Berkeley Bowl this week. Look at this variety of pumpkins at the entrance to the grocery store!
Sweet potatoes anyone?
Pomagranites, melons, apples and more.
More backyard bird buddies:
I was pleasantly surprised with how crisp and clear my photos of Red, Mrs. and a Mourning Dove turned out. I took these the day before I left to take care of my daughter.
Mrs. and her new pal Papa Quail. He doesn’t want to leave her side!
What a handsome guy! I worry that when I’m out of town, my Red and Mrs. will leave. My husband has assured me that he’s making sure they are well fed. They should be in my backyard when I come home.
A Mourning Dove fluffs up his feathers after a rain.
Happy Friday everyone! What plans do you have for the weekend? What’s your weather like?
My son at age four and half at our riverfront property in Washington State that my grandfather bought for a few dollars during the Great Depression.
I am facing a chore I’ve put off for years. I have stacks of photo albums with many of the same photos and duplicates from my high school years through raising kids — before digital photos became a thing. We had a photo developer a few blocks from our house in Palm Springs called Double Photo. Yes, you got two photos for the price of one for every roll of film you brought in. I’d walk to the store, pushing a double stroller with kids plus rolls of film treating them like treasure. Hence my abundance of photos and closet full of photo albums. I’d mail the double photos to Mom, but after she passed, they were all returned to me.
I’m finally addressing the elephant in my closet by tackling one album a day. I take out the photos I want to keep and put them in a photo box. The album with remaining photos gets tossed.
Here are a few photos I found this week that bring back memories:
Here I am at our property with both kids, my daughter aged 18 months, throwing a punch?
My son before little sis was born, bathing in the kitchen sink.
Baby Kat at our park for the Fireman’s annual egg hunt.
My son eating steamer clams we dug together in Washington at my mom’s house. Funny, he’s allergic to all seafood now.
My husband and I took a rewards trip to Hong Kong thanks to the company he worked for. This is the parking lot of the Peninsula Hotel. I couldn’t believe their fleet of cars. Or the flowers for a wedding.
Wow! I’ve never seen a wedding with so many flowers before. I guess it goes along with the cars.
Then in typical China fashion, this was a side of pork at a local open air market. Such a contrast between the haves and have nots.
A picture of me in Hong Kong. We were all turned around time wise and I tripped on the curb outside our hotel — my first steps outside — and sprained my ankle. We have lots of photos of me sitting on that trip wearing an ace bandage. Kind of foreshadowed our trip to the lake in Eastern Arizona last month!
What do you do with photos from the past vs. digital photos?
I took this photo to catch the morning light on our money plant.
Wednesday was a ribbon-cutting ceremony and reception for a kitchen we helped fund at the Phoenix Dream Center. The Phoenix Dream Center I’ve mentioned before. In it’s former life, it was an Embassy Suites Hotel. Now it’s a residential facility for sex-trafficked women.
Although it’s not in a good area of Phoenix, it offers a chance at recovery and a renewal for many teens and women. The kitchen my women’s group bought appliances for is a respite and educational center for women who choose to keep their babies. It was a space that previously was used for storage, then a break room for staff.
A couple who own a construction company, transformed the space into a living area with a large screen TV where babies and toddlers can relax and play while moms cook for them. There’s a large dining room table in the room adjacent to the kitchen where moms and kids can share meals. Like one staff member told us, “The heart of the home is the kitchen.” It’s a place for assembly and fellowship.
The construction couple designed the plans and used their employees to complete the rebuild. The owner said they hired an AC guy who was a graduate of the Phoenix Dream Center and now owns a HVAC company. They said they often use current people in the recovery program as apprentices to teach them skills to help ensure their future.
Their vision was to have a place where women residents could learn basics of cooking. They explained that many of the women were trafficked at a young age. They never learned things like following recipes, measurements, menu planning, etc. Things we all take for granted. After they learn basic skills, the center will bring in guest chefs.
Wow. I was impressed on how beautiful the room turned out. It’s more than a kitchen, it’s a place for mothers and babies to hang out together, learn and feel safe.
The construction couple gave us a tour of the Children’s Learning Center, which will be finished by the end of the month. It’s a daycare center for infants up to preschool. They have rooms for each age from one to preschool age. They stressed the only way to break the cycle of sex trafficking and victimhood is through education. The three-year-olds will begin to learn to read. The four-year-olds will read aloud to caregivers. The five- and six-year-olds are in preschool and will be prepared to enter public school at the same level as their peers.
Meanwhile, the children’s learning center is a safe place for up to 95 children. While moms continue with therapy, training and education at the Phoenix Dream Center, the moms have a safe place to leave their children — right in the heart of the center. We were told that when moms graduate the program, they can use the center for free daycare. Most women starting out on a new life do not have the means for daycare.
The Phoenix Dream Center is protected by Homeland Security plus local Sheriffs and Police. We learned that a 13-year-old girl can earn their trafficker $300,000 a year. If he has three girls, he’s making big money. They often want to get their “property” back after they’ve been rescued by law enforcement. That’s why there is full-time security, plus high tech DHS equipment — and more they didn’t discuss with us.
Not only am I impressed with the mission of the Phoenix Dream Center and how it changes lives, the couple I met who are donating their time, money and expertise to bring these plans to fruition, truly got me teary eyed.
Here are a few photos from the kitchen we helped support. Next, we’re buying refrigerators for the Children’s Learning Center along with computers for their pre-school.
