A RUMPLED SUNDAY

After coffee, Stephen gave Shop Girl a lesson on his fancy camera. I learned a new term, Aperture Priority. It’s good to learn new things, but even better to write them down...

 

As the skies cleared we thought a trip to the farmers market was in order. I love to look at all the food and colors and people with their dogs.

 

  

This lovely gentleman didn’t speak much English, but he obviously loved his elderly little lady in her pink blanket. When he granted us permission to take their photo, I thought to myself, this man has a huge heart. Those Chihuahuas are always shivering and when I use to dog sit Isabelle, another Chihuahua, I would keep her snuggled up and close to me too. For me, there is something very comforting about taking care of another of earth’s creatures.

If you need a goat cheese fix, it’s a great idea to stop by the Blue Barn Farm booth for samples and a chat. The owners, Tracie and Jamie are very engaging and friendly. Their farm is in beautiful Zillah. I really appreciate all the photos they have of the goats. They will tell you about the mother goats teaching the youngsters how to open the gates. The Nubian goats that they have are noisy and curious creatures. Plus, they have those floppy, velvety ears that I adore!!

 

Our last visit before inhaling giant rolls of asagio cheese and scallions from the local French bakery, was, Selah Ridge Lavender farm. The products that Adele makes in her very own kitchen are natural and pure. So pure, in fact, I use the body lotion on my face. The fragrance is delicate, the texture rich and I’m flat out addicted to her lavender soap.

 

Well, another Sunday frittered away. I don’t know where the time goes but it was a glorious fall day. I suppose it could have been more glorious had I ridden in a goat drawn pumpkin coach whilst snuggling a lavender scented Chihuahua.

But, I’ll stack my rumpled Sunday next to yours any day. See you at the next Farmers Market! Sweet Dreams from Shop Girl.

PS, You can purchase the Selah Ridge Lavender Farm products
that Adele grows and makes at the Memorial Hospital Gift Shop!

THE COLOR WHEEL

As we approach our Holiday Season in unseasonably warm weather we begin to muse what are own Christmas table, tree, and or decor will look like. Shop Girl, pauses to reflect...

Growing up for one half of my young life in a traditional, snowy landscape of Pennsylvania, then being transported in the shiny new company car to our new home in sunny California began a life of visual opposites. After my sister and I blinked away the ridiculous piercing sunlight reflecting off the relentless pounding of the ocean waves and the general shock faded, we donned our suits and ran across the street several times a day to jump on our inflatable rafts and ride insane waves (all unsupervised). Well, in truth there were a couple of life guards, but we only had eyes for the adventure. The ensuing wipe-outs, near drowning experiences left us exhilarated and begging for more.

Since summer never ended it wasn’t obvious to us that not only was the landscape different here but our Mother had plans for a new type of Christmas interior landscape as well. Exit the traditional green Christmas tree, enter a spiky metallic silver tree. It was scrawny, like Twiggy, and had a complementary space age electric color wheel, that slowly spun and like the lava lamp was probably meant to transport us to an episode of what...The Jetsons. My sister came unglued around this time and found all this new fangled California-mod nonsense, very unappealing and expressed her disappointment.

There was much tension around this time as I recall. There was a new job, a horrible commute, my older sister was becoming an opinionated teenager and my doting mother was becoming a California blond in a two piece. As we muddled through this new land of sun, blondes, tan skin and too much ocean I took more and more risks on the inflatable raft. It was freeing and kept my mind off 5^th grade math.

Both my sister and I were rescued several times that first summer. As adults traveling back to that beach to have another nostalgic look at those dangerous times, we both saw the sign that declared this beach was extremely dangerous and was for experienced swimmers only. Our old beach even had a new name. The sign read, “Surfers Beach”. We looked into each others adult eyes with that “no wonder” look and read on to the small print warnings of rip tides and other dangerous occurrences to avoid.

These were the innocent days and distant memories of colorful metallic Christmases and unsupervised swimming. It was a time of new innovations, ideas, risks and a lack of sun screen.

It was the early 1960’s...The smog was called haze, you hardly ever locked your doors and you walked your tender self along the beach to school 5 days a week a half mile each way.

Shop Girl has no intentions of owning a color wheel. For one thing, it is a collectible now and on line auctions want a pretty penny for a shiny iconic symbol of the Kennedy years.

Memorial Hospital Gift Shop is where I get to relive a Holiday with a traditional spin, based on my favorite memories, of Lassie, Shirley Temple movies and my favorite book, Little Women. Let's close our eyes and go back to simpler times and sweet memories where a family argument was about having another, smaller shiny silver tree nestled next to the original with another color wheel...I can still see the spinning colors lighting up the exasperated expression on my sisters' face.

It is never too early to shop for Christmas Gifts and we have a bounty of items to choose from which to choose. We don’t get too serious about decorating the store until Thanksgiving.

Shop local, shop for a cause and please, no special requests for a color wheel!!!