drying lavendar

Every year I grow a big pot of lavendar on my patio. When I walk past it, I pinch off a piece just to hold to my nose and sniff. I have never done much else with it. This year I decided to cut it and dry it to make little lavendar scent pouches for dresser drawers.



I have loved the scent of lavendar ever since I was in junior high. Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton were very popular models and Yardley of London was a very popular cosmetic company. I went through many tubes of Sunrise and Sunset lipstick and bottle after bottle of Oh De London...a cologne whose primary scent was lavendar. My family still gives me lavendar soap, candles etc for gifts and I have never tired of this scent. At this time of my life, my grandma and aunt also introduced me to finer colognes. L'air de Temps, White Shoulders, Shalimar (which has always smelled sweet like candy to me). Colognes come and go and I have found others that I like a lot - Eternity and Covet among them, but I always come back to these.

2009 gingerbread house

Last Sunday B took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to put up the Christmas lights. He used to perform this feat by actually straddling the roof until he bought this longer ladder a few years back. I wait in the house ready to call 911 if I hear a crash.



Hansel and Gretel...stay away from my house.

ramsi p tick concert series

Nichols School Dining Hall

B and I purchased tickets for the 2009-2010 Ramsi P. Tick Concert Series - a series of four concerts. Ramsi, a Buffalo native, was passionate about the arts and committed himself to many projects including founding this concert series totally supported by the concert patrons.

We attended the first concert in the series last night in it's new venue, the auditorium at Nichols School. Nichols is a private high school located near Delaware Park in Buffalo.

The concert was the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra featuring the world renowned German oboeist, Albrecht Mayer. Orpheus is an orchestra that performs without a conductor and rotates musical leadership for each work they play. This very same concert is being performed this evening in Carnegie Hall in NYC. The performance was flawless. My favorite piece wasn't even on the program. Albrecht played an encore of a Bach piece in F sharp that was written for harpischord.



We were invited to a reception following the concert in the dining hall. The second B and I walked into the dining hall we looked at one another and said "This reminds me of Harry Potter".



Yes, Nichols Dining Hall looks just like I imagine Hogwarts Dining Hall to look - complete with Gryffindor flag.


This musician was one who assumed a leadership role in conducting. The facial expressions he used to conduct kept me entertained all evening.


another group of musicians


Albrecht Mayer


Albrecht and his friends posed for me. Not really, they posed for someone else but I took advantage of the photo op. I think the one dude thought he was posing for me.


Albrecht's pretty wife who he promised to take to Niagara Falls.

it's a boy

Expectant mom Sarah in wine colored top walks into the conference room

One of my co-workers, Sarah, is expecting a baby boy on December 27th. She is seriously hoping he makes his arrival before Christmas. On Friday evening after work we had a little baby shower for her in the conference room.


Creole Crab Corn Muffins

Since I was home all day I made a couple of hot appetizers for the party.


Cheesy Olive French Bread


our informal snack table


Caroline's mom makes her famous sugar cookies in the shape of baby carriages.

sammy in a basket

Me thinks my gray kitty is not feeling well again or the cold weather is getting to him. I haven't seen Sam outside of this basket for three days.

who hoo

A gift arrived in the mail for me last week from my niece, Becky, wrapped in this pretty paper combination with this cute hand made card.



The cuteness continued when I opened this little hand made box to reveal this bottle cap jewelry set featuring owls. Bracelet, necklace and earrings.


close up of Hootie


and this hand made Capri Sun juice pouch hand bag. Give her a hand for her handiwork.

waning fridays

The minutes are ticking away on one of my last Fridays off before tax season begins again. I plan so much for these Fridays and then wile away a good part my day. Maybe that is why I love them so much. A Facebook friend who was out of a job for several months posted this morning "Friday...now I remember why I loved you so much."
My sentiments exactly. The first day of January starts a whole 5 sometimes 6 day work week and to add insult to injury the hours change from 8:30-4:30 to 8:30-5:00. A shock to my system.

I started my day lazily drinking coffee in my kitchen and having this breakfast of flax oatmeal with maple sugar, pecans, soy milk and the pears that I canned last summer from my very own little pear tree.



I have so many plans for today. If I accomplish a quarter of them, I'll be happy. I had to start up a load of clothes again in my washer that I had already washed several days ago and then forgot to put in the dryer.

My list
-straighten house
-change bed sheets
-on-line Christmas shop
-set up blog posts
-write Thank You notes to people for all the nice birthday presents I received
-wrap baby shower gift
-go to Wegman's for things I forgot to buy last night
-make appetizer for baby shower
-don't forget to take the punch bowl for baby shower
-browse Dana Saylor's jewelry in my building
-attend baby shower in my office
-don't forget to call client who works part-time and is in her office today even though I am not officially
-meet Bill for concert at Nichols School
-go to bed without having to set an alarm