Sweet Dreams

Sometimes during the day, I'll get sleepy and take a nap.  The girls have more energy than me, and don't take pleasure in them as I do.  When I moved to Southern California, I find myself taking less naps, because there's always so much to do here, so much to see; and those girls keep me on the go.  I just smile and tell them when they are my age, they will surely look forward to naptime too.

Every now and then, in the middle of the day, I will still shut my eyes for awhile.  If you're like me and take a nap, I hope your dreams are filled with pleasant surroundings.

What about you?  Do you take a nap during your busy day?

                          ~Sheri

Welcome Fall

Winter is an etching,
Spring a watercolor,
Summer an oil painting,
and Autumn a mosaic of them all.
~Stanley Horowitz

Today is the first day of Autumn, and here are a few pictures that I hope will get you into the season.

We hope ya'll have a fun Fall weekend.

~Sheri

Fall Fashion Fun

One of my favorite things about Fall is shopping for the new seasonal fashions!

When we were little, my mom used to take Jess and I out for a fun-filled day of back-to-school shopping.

We'd wake up bright and early so we could be at the mall by the time it opened. While we waited for each store to roll up its gate, we'd sit at the mall bakery snacking on warm blueberry and cream cheese filled croissants and cold milk sipped through fun colored straws.

After a long day of shopping, we'd emerge from the mall with bags stuffed full of new Fall finds and have a late afternoon lunch at the park. These are some of my and Jess's favorite childhood memories.

So every fall before I begin the new semester, I try and treat myself to a few nice pieces. Here's what I got this year...

I just loved the detail on the neckline of this dress! 

These shoes are perfect for teaching...super cute, but not too high so I can walk around campus comfortably.

Argyle is so very Fall!

I loved the fun (and familiar) black and white design of this dress!

Earrings are my favorite accessories! The more dangly the better, as far as I'm concerned. 

This is one of my favorite sweaters. It's just perfect for those chilly late-Fall semester mornings.

I just got this new perfume at Disneyland when Jess and I went this weekend (lots of fun pictures to be posted soon!). It smells so light and feminine with hints of jasmine and orange blossom, and it's called "Dance," which I thought was fitting for the way teachers "dance" from subject to subject throughout the school year.

I hope you enjoyed our Fall fashion post! I want to end with a pretty painting my mom found a few years ago. Jess and I just loved it, and we all felt connected to a different fashionable woman in the portrait. Here "we" are! ( ;

Happy Fall Fashion!

~ Nel

A Mad Tea Party

Do you ever feel as if you are in the midst of a MAD TEA PARTY? 

Sometimes the demands of work, school, kids, traffic, entertaining, money, chores, and errands jumble our heads as if we were the flamingos the Queen used for croquet mallets in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland !  

 "Off with her head!"
~The Queen of Hearts

When life pulls us in each and every direction, we can't help but crave some peace and rest.  

 "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

~The White Queen

Don't get me wrong, I think a mad tea party would most definitely be an exciting event to attend... but lately I find myself craving a quiet little tea party with only one person on the invite list.  

 "Who in the world am I?  Ah, that's the great puzzle!"

~Alice

I just finished reading a biography on Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. 

Lewis Carroll's real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.  As a teacher, clergyman, poet, author, mathematician, and photographer, he was truly a fascinating man of the Victorian period.  The biography is called The Mystery of Lewis Carroll by Jenny Woolf in case you would like to check it out.  It was an interesting and educational read, and I definitely recommend the book.  

In recent years, I have become more interested in Alice and its author, perhaps because I feel I can relate to the unexplained chaos of Wonderland.  

"We're all mad here." 

~Cheshire Cat

Tonight, I have the house all to myself... I think I will heat up the kettle, and make myself a warm cup of chai tea ;-)

If you are interested in hosting your own MAD TEA PARTY, there is a great article in the Halloween edition of Better Homes and Gardens magazine that gives loads of clever and quirky ideas.

"Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!" 

~White Rabbit

~Jess

A Truly Special Bird

The Hummingbird is loved by the flowers and plants, for as it sucks the nectar from the flower, the plant reproduces and more of its kind are created.

The Hummingbird is the only creature that can stop dead while traveling at full speed.  It can hover, or can go forward, backward, up or down.  They never seem to stop.  Unlike other birds, they never glide, and if they are in air, their wings are in motion.

Hummingbird must fly free in search of beauty, spreading joy and love to all it touches.

Jess found this candle for me at Pier 1 Imports.

When I moved from Northern California to Southern California, I observed something wonderful.  As soon as I got to our house, I noticed the tree that was in our front yard.  This tree has flowers on the branches, and as I looked up, there was a Hummingbird greeting me at my new home.

You mean so much to us - and today we want to say...

                                                                                                             ~Sheri

Fall

Fall - my favorite season of all!  Some of my favorite things about Fall are the leaves changing, pumpkin farms, pumpkin pie, and the beginning of the holidays.  I brought out my Fall decorations a week ago and have been putting them here and there.  Here are a few of my favs.

I just bought these at a store in Jess' town, and I thought they were so glittery and pretty.

My Fall Fairie always makes me smile.

My sister-in-law gave me and my sister these little glass pumpkins, and I love them.

This ornament I put out for Fall, and again on my tree at Christmas.



I usually have candy in these angels, but right now I have rocks in there in the colors of Fall.

Have you decorated for Fall yet?

                                                    ~Sheri