Pink Birthday Reminiscences

Happy Pink Saturday!

Happy Birthday Friday!

I have always loved my birthday!

It's just far enough away from Christmas to feel special. I'm close to my dad and we celebrated in January. My brother & sister's birthdays are snuggled up against 4th of July, so the year was divided in half in the nicest way.

I grew up in Southern California so it was never a particularly cold day. It snowed on my 11th birthday! Not much, 1/2 an inch of so . . . I was in awe that this amazing thing happened on my birthday. It hadn't snowed in LA for 10 years! I planned to wear my party shoes to school and I didn't let a bit of snow dissuade me! I just had to be really careful on the playground not to slip and fall!

And as beautiful as the snow was, I remember being out in the front yard with my dad as he worried about the snow/frost killing the lawn. Like the rest of our neighbors we had dichondra, which is not a grass at all. Very pretty, but oh so delicate. Walking on it while it was frosty was sure to leave a tell-tale footprint. Y'know I still think anything but dichondra isn't really a lawn!

Irresistable pink cake with yellow roses.

Freshman year in college a dozen yellow roses were delivered to my dorm room. I may have been a hippie at a hippie college, but I was thrilled at this gift from my Nana. When Nana found out they were sent early she must have given them what-for cuz on the day of my birthday another dozen yellow roses were delivered to my dorm room! I wandered around handing out yellow roses all day!

Today is Suzanne & Nina's birthday. Suzanne I met the first day of college freshman year. Nina I met when we were in 3rd grade and moved in across the street from each other. I love almost-sharing my birthday with them.

This has been a fun week. I've eaten lunch out every day and not felt guilty. I talked to my mom and liked it! I talked to my best friend Kath -- every time I do it's so clear why we've been friends since high school! I started re-reading Eat, Pray, Love and it's just as good the second time! I discovered an L.L.Bean outlet store and bought a men's field coat and called my mom again to tell her about the gift she bought me!

Next week I may have to get serious. But this week was all about celebrating!

A Holiday from "shoulds"

I am going to be taking a holiday from blogging in January.

I know I have that button, "blogging without obligation," but really, it doesn't work! I still feel like I ought to blog more regularly.

A therapist I know has a business card with all the usual stuff on the front and on the back is this line
Don't Should On Me!

I'm taking blogging out of the should category. Recently I've felt I wasn't always me when I've posted and I'd like this space to be both pretty and real.


Usually I don't make New Year's Resolutions, but this year, while soaking up the sun in the desert, I thought I would get more organized, get rid of the excess stuff I have collected over the years,** blog more, stop leaving my studio and shop in such a mess, make more art. You know the list!


What seems do-able sitting on a bench in the sun doesn't always seem so easy under grey skies and with all the stuff at home that yells at me: 1000's of inches of wallpaper to strip, boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff to sort thru, laundry, papers to file.**

Something had to go. As much as I love blogging, I realized I needed to revamp 3 really important areas of my life, and the blog was one of them. The other two are getting the shop ready to re-open in March, and designing a studio I can really create in!

So I'm taking my creative life on as a full-time job, 9-5. I have no idea if I can do this. I would much rather sit down and read a book than do anything else. Shopping & going out for lunch are easy! Getting into the shop/studio is tough. Staying there all day is almost impossible. But if I don't do it now, I'll never do it. I have so many beautiful ideas. I know I have taste. It's the Nike slogan
Just do it!

Feel free to leave comments or send emails. I will respond to all of them. I'll also let you know when I'm back.

~Marilee


**While on our trip both my kids asked if I had seen the TV show Hoarders. My daughter was glad to discover hoarding is a "thing;" that other people have trouble with holding on to things. The kids said they didn't think I was that far gone, but perhaps I ought to watch it as a cautionary tale. They're right. I'm not a hoarder, but I do have too much stuff and it's tough to get rid of it.