Beautiful starfish surrounded by shells against our turquoise walls. Happy November!
Captain and I just finished a cosmopolitan (not that kind) Euro-style lunch of homemade pickled hardboiled eggs, freshly baked brownies, and espresso with a twist of lemon and steam-frothed nonfat milk. Now he’s napping on the sofa with college football — Stanford vs Cal — on TV. My son sent resumes in to both of those universities, so we’re rooting for them equally right now. Whoever wins will be the one who hires him! Ha ha. We took a short break from the bathroom remodeling; it’s almost finished except for last minute touchups. Oh, and the seashells that will adorn as much wall, shelf, and counter space as possible. The theme is Coastal Caribbean (I just made that up) with the same fern green and aqua walls as our bedroom, bamboo-y flooring, and those ever-present seashells. There won’t be any pictures taken until it’s complete with new bath accessories; rug, towels, drawer pulls, etc. I ordered ceramic shell knobs from Amazon.
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I’ve been dreaming of new locations to hang, glue, display shells, rocks, and huge chunks of brain coral plucked from somewhere in the South Pacific. Here’s a cool photo of what they all look like from She Walks Softly. 
As I was cleaning out a bowl of rocks, I found this incredible heart-shaped one. I put it on display because it is just so perfect, isn’t it?
It’s time to begin preparations for another marathon of mom shuttling, cooking, baking, and honing my special stain removal skill set.
El Capitan is due back next Thursday, my son (Angel Boy, AB in future) flies in the next day, DIL comes in for one day on Sunday, and AB flies back out on Monday because he has a class to teach on Tuesday. Have I mentioned that he’s a Professor at Yale? I am trying to take the mom pride thing down a notch; however, in my defense, that’s kind of impossible. As a Jewish mom, it’s in my DNA. I’m loud and proud! Sorry, Angel Boy, that’s just the mom you have. Deal with it!
Maybe between the two of their Ph.d.s, DIL and AB can teach me how to work Facebook. It has become my adversary, no, my nemesis, which I WILL master if it is the last thing I do.
Nietzsche said, “Man is something that shall be overcome…” Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Replace man with Facebook (and iPhoto) and you get the picture. I resisted FB and Twitter as long as possible, but I have officially capitulated and need to catch up fast.
The box sits on one of my seashell tables, soon to be on Etsy!
I finished my new project; I collected some of my favorite polished rocks and seashells and an unusual piece of driftwood with a hole in the center (from the Bering Sea), and glued them on the top of a wooden box the captain made for me a few months ago. He crafted a frame of rope work and I left the edges raw and threaded faux pearls through some of them in a random fashion to look like a tassel. I really love it. What do you think?
The driftwood is from an area we call Old Man’s (yes, the apostrophe is properly placed) in Carlsbad. I think it is just a term we coined because that’s where all the old men longboarders go surfing. I mean really old men who should never ever ever EVER go without a shirt or rash guard, if you get my meaning. If I ever in my wildest dreams desire to see wrinkly old skin that has lost all elasticity and collagen along with saggy, deflated breasts, I’ll look in the mirror, thank you very much! (When DIL sends me the pic she took of a guy who was a Neptune look-a-like, I’ll post it. That pic will be worth the proverbial thousand words. Nuff said on that subject.)
The sage is from my garden. I’m not quite sure where the sand dollar came from or the other shell. I wish there was some way to label each and every treasure I acquire, because there is no way to recall time or place! We have a California native garden with several kinds of sage, ceanothus, lemonade berry, manzanita, rosy buckwheat, and coyote bush. The vase is from Anthropologie. 
From a San Diego beach
From the Bering Sea
Our entry…it took forever to embellish that mirror!
One of my son’s best friends from high school is an artist. We like to support any creative endeavor; here’s one of his pieces and a link to his website: http://snyderartdesign.com/
Lovely and delicious Zucchini Cupcakes with garden strawberries on a plate from Anthropologie.
I don’t have a pic of the Zucchini Pie because it got eaten so fast and I forgot to take it before.
Zucchini Pie
3 cups grated zucchini
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup all purpose flour or ½ whole wheat
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 tbs fresh basil
cayenne to taste
3 beaten eggs
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
½ cup cheddar or jalepeno cheese
Mix onions, zucchini, eggs, oil, cheeses, spices, mix flour and baking powder, fold into wet mixture. Spoon into oiled 9×9 square pan and bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 40-50 minutes. Delicious hot or cold.
Beautiful driftwood from Carlsbad beach I found while I was watching the kids surf.
Horseshoe crabs from Cape Cod we mounted on driftwood from a trip to visit my son last year.
