Author Archives: Ellen

You Give Me Happy Feet ~ An Award

How cute is this. Mary at The Work of the Poet gave me this little award and it really makes me happy just to look at it. The following is what she says about this award she created! Thank you Maryt. I appreciate you and your visits to my blog.

Every morning I wake up I notice that I dance into my office and sit down at my computer with the happy expectation that I will touch base with my dear Blogger Friends. It occurred to me to create this award for those friends, and it’s called the

“You Give Me Happy Feet” award 
  
When I think of you my feet begin to tappin’ and I pirouette across the floor in total delight that I will be talking/commenting to you in a little while. And of course my feet aren’t the on only parts of my body that are happy because of you.

My head is boppin’, my mouth is smilin,’ my hands are clappin’ – all because of you.

Disneyland Anaheim

 

On Wednesday I drove out to Anahiem to meet up with my daughter Katie, her boyfriend Ben, and some of my family. It’s been 10 years since I had been to Disneyland and boy was I in for a surprise.

My sister Kathy and I spent a lot of time sitting in the shade and watching people. I enjoy people watching at Disneyland…

Katie and Ben ~ Debbee, Kathy, and Melissa ~ Katie resting her poor aching feet (this was her and Ben’s 2nd full day at the Park), Melissa and Katie in their traditional Disney photo.

Some of the fun noisy rides we went on using the Fast Track Passes.

The music and entertainment at Disneyland really sets a great mood in the Park. Sometimes it even drowns out the poor exhausted babies and toddlers who are crying…

The colors in the lagoon where the Submarine Ride is were calling to me. I guess it’s called the Finding Nemo Ride now.

You gotta smile when you see the great colors on the tea-cups and lanterns. I so enjoy this Fantasyland setting!

Disneyland always has beautiful fresh flowers that match the seasons in all their planters. I loved these beautiful pinks and purples. They were already beginning to add pumpkins in Frontierland getting ready for Fall.

Don’t you just love this little guy? There are so many things to see at Disneyland.

We left the Park and headed to Downtown Disney to meet up with my sister Lana for Dinner at Naples. Our newlywed nephew and niece met us, too. Again Lana treated us all to dinner. They all went back to the park after dinner but my sister Kathy and I headed home. I made it back home at 9:45 and I was exhausted. I’m still dragging today. After I fed them a hearty breakfast, Ben and Katie headed to Magic Mountain today to tackle the roller coasters. Ahh, youth. This old gal on the other hand is just sitting around watching the Olympic Soccer games today hoping for a second wind soon.

Vintage Thingees Thursday ~ Bolo Ties

My husband’s father Rex had a few fun Bolo Ties that ended up coming to us.  These are my contribution for Vintage Thingees Thursday this week.

 

A bolo tie (sometimes bola tie) is a type of necktie consisting of a piece of cord or braided leather with decorative metal tips or aglets (aiguillettes) secured with an ornamental clasp or slide.

In the United States bolo ties are widely associated with Western wear, and are generally most common in the western areas of the country. Bolo tie slides and tips in silver have been part of Hopi, Navajo, and Zuni silversmithing traditions since the mid-20th century.

The bolo tie was made the official neckwear of Arizona in 1971. New Mexico passed a non-binding measure to designate the bolo as the state’s official neckwear in 1987. On March 13, 2007, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed into law that the bolo tie is now the state’s official tie.

In the United Kingdom, bolo ties are known as bootlace ties. They were popular with 1950s Teddy Boys, who wore them with drape suits.

Along with other 1950s fashions, bolo ties were revived as part of the Rockabilly look in the 1980s.

For more Vintage Thingees Thursday head over to Confessions of An Apron Queen.

 

Pioneer Women’s Pork Shoulder

After seeing Pioneer Womens’ Slow cooked Pork shoulder I had to try it…

Ingredients:

A 5-7 pound Pork Shoulder Roast
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1/4 cup brown sugar
3-4 peeled garlic cloves
1 onion quartered
1-2 Tablespoons salt
ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Blend all ingredients except the Pork shoulder (duh!) Rub this blended mush all over the Pork.

Place in Dutch Oven and cover every part of the Pork with the mush. Stuff into every nook and cranny. Add a couple cups of water and cook at 300 degrees for several hours turning once every hour. After 6-7 hours crank up the heat remove lid, turn roast fat side up for 15-20 minutes. Let rest 20 minutes before shredding. Serve with limes and tortillas.

I put this in the oven early on a Sunday morning. I left it in while we were at church so I didn’t turn it during those couple of hours. When we got home I cranked up the heat and let it cook for the last 20 minutes. We let it sit while we chopped up all the extras we decided to have with it. We shredded it and served it with tortillas and all these toppings. Yummy. We served 6 for the first go around and the rest of the meat lasted us for lunches and snacks for a few days.

I will make this again for sure!

ABC Wednesday ~ E is for

E is for Eagles

I’m back in Southern California and for the letter E I’m sharing these sculptures that are in Old Town Camarillo and at the Civic Center in Thousand Oaks, California. The Sculpture in the next few photos really shows the fierceness of an Eagle to me. Kind of scary…

For more ABC posts on the letter E visit the ABC Wednesday Blog.

I will be at Disneyland in Anaheim, California on Wednesday and hope to get around to visit more ABC’s on Thursday.

They Survived!

Two solid weeks without watering and these plants survived. Amazing. They are a little brown around the edges but I was expecting them to be completely withered up under the Southern California Sun!

I did bring a silk unwiltable plant for my front porch just in case all my other plants had died. I bought this at Goodwill in Washington for $5.95.

So how’s your Monday and week shaping up? I forgot that this week is going to be another busy one for me because my daughter is arriving today. I leave at 9:00 this morning to go pick her and her boyfriend up at Long Beach Airport. Tomorrow they are going to Disneyland and some of my family will be meeting up with them there, too. I’ve decided to finally meet up with the Disneyland crew, too. It will be a reapplying sunblock day for me. Have a great week everyone.