Stocking Stuffers from Santa

pink polka dot stocking

All the lovely goodies Santa left in my stocking!

Smashbox cream eye liner palette

Pocket Pal (lip/cheek stain & clear gloss) by Benefit

Sees candy - especially the dark chocolate marzipan! Yum!

Pure Grace satin-finish body oil mist by Philosophy

Gold Rose Quartz Dangle Earrings

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Lollia Imagine Petite Perfumed Luminary

Twilight Bath Bomb from Lush

2013 Audrey Hepburn 2 Year Pocket Planner

What did Santa leave in your stocking?

Mailing our Christmas Letter to Santa

Yesterday we finally mailed out my daughter's Christmas letter to Santa.  We went to Macy's.  They had this great big red Santa mailbox with a Believe o Meter above it from the animated show , "Yes, Virginia".  As a coincidence, we just watched the show a couple of days ago!

As you can see, Sandra is missing her two front teeth.  So she has been singing, "All I want for Christmas are my two front teeth...".

Favorite Christmas Movies

"Christmas in Connecticut" (1945) is one of my favorite Christmas movies. 

Barbara Stanwyck stars as Elizabeth Lane, a famous food writer, for Smart Housekeeping Magazine.  She writes about being a wife and a mother on her farm in Connecticut.  Unfortunately, none of this is true.  She is single, living in an apartment in New York, and can't cook.  She gets all her recipes from her good friend Felix (S.Z. Sakall), who owns a restaurant.  No one but Felix and her editor knows the truth.  But everyone is soon going to find out...

When the publisher (Sydney Greenstreet) of Smart Housekeeping invites a Navy Vet (Dennis Morgan) to spend Christmas on Elizabeth Lane's farm in Conneticut, Elizabeth believes she will be fired when the truth comes out.

In steps Elizabeth's long-time suitor ( Reginald Gardiner), who just happens to have a farm in Connecticut.

With a farm...

... a very swank farm

a borrowed baby, and Felix to do the cooking, Elizabeth might just save her job.

When the sailor arrives, Elizabeth is prepared to give him a very "homey" Christmas, looking amazingly elegant all the while.

But she isn't prepared to fall in love with him.

And they live happily ever after.

Visiting Princess Di and taking tea on the Queen Mary

Over this past weekend, my uncle treated me and two of his friends to the Princess Di exhibit on the Queen Mary in Long Beach.  He also treated us to a Windsor Tea after.

Barbara, Sydney, and I out in front of the Queen Mary

Here we are again with my Uncle Harry

The exhibit was much larger than I thought it would be.  It was about the whole Windsor family starting with Queen Mary and ending with the new addition, Kate Middleton.

You can check it out here:

The Princess Di Exhibit

There were several dresses on display.  Here are two of my favorites:

Princess Di's blue floral dress designed by Catherine Walker.

Kate Middleton's engagement dress designed by Daniella Issa Helayel.

After the exhibit, we went next door for tea.

Such pretty and delectable tea sandwiches and the best scones I've ever had.

After the sandwiches, they brought out the most adorable desserts. 

We had a lovely day!

A Day of Art, Friendship and Good Food

This past weekend we celebrated my friend Janney's birthday.  We won't say which one.  I believe she's firmly sticking to the age 29!

It's so hard to get together with my friends so it was great to see them.  I don't know how our schedules have become so insane.

We decided to go the the Los Angeles Museum of Art to see the Caravaggio exhibit.  I've always been drawn to the way he uses shadow and light.  I remember from my art history classes reading how he had a sort of "swashbuckler" lifestyle, with sword fights and brawls in taverns.

We were a little disappointed to find there were only about 5 paintings by Caravaggio and the rest were done by students of his, or artists painting in his style.  My friend Kathi decided the exhibit should have been called The School of Caravaggio.

Carravaggio's Saint John The Baptist

Then we roamed around the museum to see a couple of other exhibits.

My friends Janney and Kathi peeking out from Chris Burden's Urban Light installation.

Another Chris Burden exhibit called Metropolis.  I have to bring my daughter to see this.  It is a large scale kinetic sculpture modeled after a fast paced modern city.  Once the cars, trains and street cars get going, it is so much fun to watch.

Metropolis II by Chris Burden - The Movie

Here I am under the big rock!  It's called Levitated Mass by Michael Heizer.  A 340 ton granite megalith.

After all this art we were hungry so we headed over to Versailles, a Cuban restaurant in L.A.

We were so famished, we attacked the food before I could snap a photo.  So the appetizer of stuffed plantains is pretty much gone in this photo.  They were so good!

Arroz con pollo.  Yum!  I'm making myself hungry writing this post.

Hope you are all having a great week!

Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland by debralynn5 featuring philosophy

Pie Birds

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

My friend Gayle sent me some photos of the pie she baked for this Thanksgiving.  Last year I gave her 2 pie birds that called out to me in the store.  Gayle and her husband Jim are always making wonderful pies so I just had to get them the birds.  I'm happy to see they were put to good use!

I found the birds at Sur la Table

The Copper Bee Eyeshadow

I love to play with eyeshadow.  I think it might have something to do with being an artist.  I get to paint my eyes everyday.  So when I found The Copper Bee Cosmetics on Etsy, I just had to order a sample kit!  I've been having a lot of fun mixing and matching the shadows they sent me.

I ordered:

Mokey

Pixie

Lioness

The Kiss

Malibu

They have so many great colors, I may have to order more!