DECORATING MANIA!!

This year we decided to use part of our time together to help each other decorate our houses and Shirley’s classrom.  For me, I had two bedrooms to convert after Caroline moved out of Taber House and after Shirley’s son, Drew, moved to Monterey (oh, so sad that he had to move to beautiful Monterey – LOL).  This is what we've been calling the pre-trip and I hope you have already read about our adventures at Opera in the Park and the first guest bedroom, Harrison Suite.

In case you haven’t figured it out, I name everything at Taber House…..closets, cabinets, garages and rooms!  I think I started this because we lived so many places as a pastor’s family that it was hard to know where the scissors, tape, music and china were stored!  Joanna and Caroline (my girls) think I need to print maps for guests (smile).   The downstairs set of hall cabinets with the music library and puzzles and games is called That’s Entertainment!  The upstairs set of hall cabinets with photographs and memorabilia is named Memory Lane.  AND, the sewing/quilting/craft room is named Three Thimbles.  That name is a little more elusive…..but it’s named after our Grandmother Harrison and our mom who were both professional seamstresses and me --- hence, three thimbles.  I used it as a business name in 1983-1984 when I had a sewing business for a short time until Joanna started to attack a custom made wedding gown with peanut butter on her hands.....then it was time to go back to work at the university.  After retirement I was able to re-activate the creative side of my brain (Thank God it hadn’t atrophied!) and Three Thimbles was born!  My good friend, Joyce, and I installed the Elfa shelving and the pegboard.

Sooo --- Rosemary and Thyme!  Shirley and I love, love, love the British series called Rosemary and Thyme.  If you haven’t seen it, it’s a mystery series with two women; one is a professional botanist and one loves to create gardens.  Caroline has been the Taber House gardener so it only seemed fitting to name her former bedroom, Rosemary and Thyme and decorate it in a classic English style with our Great-Grandmother Neff’s rocking chair, a matelassé bedspread and botanical prints on the walls.   Ok – that’s a great description of a relaxing guestroom EXCEPT  I decided that we need to hang eight botanical prints by one of Caroline’s favorite artists on the wall instead of using a headboard.  Can you say CRAZY WOMAN?  Shirley and I were measuring, tweaking, leveling, and saying bowling words as we discovered that the matching frames varied in sizes by minute amounts which threw the whole plan off.  But, I have to say the end result was beautiful.

I left the closet doors off with a small amount of hanging space for guest clothes and placed our Grandmother Harrison’s buffet in the closet.  The round, glass side tables have metal leaves and birds welded to the frame and the reading lamps are mounted to the walls – I have yet to find the perfect cord covers to finish them off!  The drapes have silver leaves and the Ikea terrarium has artificial succulents in it.  The room is finished off with a lamp with a bird on it and a large, round silver  mirror on one wall.  I love this bedroom because it has so much natural light – two large windows and three small windows mounted high in the room.    All of this was accomplishd by many trips to Ikea and Pier One and Home Depot --  and deliveries over the last several months from Overstock.com and JCPenny sale items.  There isn't a thing in the room that was less than 50% off EXCEPT the curtain rod.  Hey, how come curtain rods are NEVER on sale????  We learned a great new shortcut way to hang curtain rods and would be happy to come to your home and install your rods --- ok, that last part about coming to your home to install your curtain rods was a lie.  Shirley is yelling at me “Don’t volunteer to hang curtain rods OR pictures instead of a headboard!".

Whew!  Bedroom Two is done!!!!!!!!

Berkeley Rep and Opera in the Park

July 5th brought about a journey to Kensington, California first where we dropped off our suitcases and headed to Berkeley Rep for a personalized tour from Joanna. What a wonderful place to see the arts in full bloom! Thanks Joanna for letting us see where glorious theater is produced.

 

After lunch, and some more World Cup Soccer where Netherlands won in a shoot out, we headed to San Fransisco with blankets in tow for the Opera in the Park adventure.
The sisters held our place in line while the "kids" headed to explore the sights. Finally at 6:30 Drew, Caroline, and Joanna raced in first to secure our front row seats on the outfield. We placed our blankets down and proceeded to gather hot food before the opera began at 8:00 PM.

The Opera was La Traviata and was beautifully performed.  The sun went down and the wind picked up and we covered up with ALL the blankets we brought with us and then bought additional sweatshirts trying to stay warm. We made it through the first two acts and then scooped up our supplies and raced for the warm car.

The sisters proceeded to sleep at the Doubletree Inn while the rest of the group slept at Joanna's. 

Sunday morning we headed out to Cafe Leila's for a wonderful brunch.

 Then headed to the Kensington Farm and Art Market before heading back to Sacramento and Monterey.

 What an amazing cultural adventure we experienced thanks to planning by the California sister and her family!

July Fourth Sisters' Style

You can't have the Fourth of July without good food, laughter, and a new adventure when you are in California.  Drew arrived first on Thursday night with In and Out Burgers in hand and the cooking began.

The Sisters went shopping on July 3rd for the fixins to a traditional Fourth of July meal to include Drew grilling hamburgers, hot dogs, and corn on the cob, Kay's homemade coleslaw, Shirley's potato salad and deviled eggs, with chips and onion dip. Appetizers included Party Mix and Baked Cauliflower Bites with cheddar mustard sauce.



WELL there was one thing more!

 

A recipe from our past that NO ONE had ever made but wanted to try....Aunt Pat Harrison's Velveeta Fudge!  Kay's new kitchen island was filled with cooking supplies and the fun began as Drew and Shirley made Velveeta fudge for the first time and we added a new recipe Pumpkin Maple Oatmeal baked donuts. 

Drew ready to Grill!

 July fourth morning Caroline and Ryan arrived with Homemade Apple Pie in hand and fireworks for the evening's entertainment. Joanna arrived next with the arrangements for the second day of our adventure and then we all feasted on the food while watching a bit of the World Cup and Face Timing with Kendra and Baby Madison in Denver, too!

Baby Madison Drew Celebrating her first Fourth of July!

Watermelon Cake

Duncle, We are ready for the loud BOOM!

The evening took us to Ryan's family for Watermelon Cake (Pinterest provided this recipe) and fireworks! Ryan had the evening show orchestrated to perfection and the fireworks went off without incident providing many OOHS and AHHS by the crowd.

P.S. The Velveeta Fudge was surprisingly good but a bit salty due to the cheese and we all decided we liked the original Nestle Marshmallow Fudge better.

California Dreaming

I arrived in California on Sunday, June 29th and the fun began for the Sisters on Wheels. I had barely gotten out of the car before we realized we had DRESSBARN coupons that expired today! We unloaded enough things from my car and Kay jumped in for our first shopping trip. Of course you must know that this year our travel colors are Red,White, Blue and Seaside colors. This is because our travels will include the beaches of California and the patriotic month of July.

The first two days were spent talking and planning out the next trip by calling hotels and making reservations. We also took time out to get our toes and fingernails painted with good friend Joyce!

 

Kay had special plans for us to work on home decorating projects while I was here and the first one was in Harrison Suite at Taber House. She was redecorating this lovely bedroom/bathroom after my son Drew moved out to his own place in Monterey, California in May.  Changing this space to a Victorian Suite was created by adding new bedding, a beautiful valance that went up like a breeze, and decorative touches that Kay can envision and pull off with aplomb!
This took us to Wednesday July 2 and the next adventure was about to begin with our children Joanna, Caroline and Ryan, and Drew.

WHEW!....since last summer!

It's been an amazing year!  One of us fell in love and got engaged, one of us sang at the San Francisco Opera as well as the SF Symphony, one of us got a "son" when her nephew moved to California!

While I was gone on Sisters on Wheels 2013, Caroline's long-time friend, Ryan Digman, changed his status from friend to boyfriend with Caroline.  Shortly after I got home from the trip, my nephew Drew (Shirley's son) moved in to begin his job hunt in California!  I really enjoyed the first few weeks when he was retired with me and Baxter and Hildi particularly enjoyed his attention!  Of course he did turn them in to KU (University of Kansas) fans!

In September four of us (Drew, Caroline and Ryan and I) had the pleasure of going to hear Joanna in San Francisco Opera's production of Boito's Mephistopheles.

The year really started speeding up as we got close to the holidays.  Drew accepted a job on the Monterey coast and began living down there during the week and living at Taber House in Sacramento over the weekend.  In 'N Out hamburgers were regular treats on Thursday nights when he arrived!

In December, Ryan let me in on a secret that he was going to ask Caroline to marry him and he and I began a secret process to create a video, a diversionary holiday party with his mom and sister and friends on New Year's Eve, and his proposal held at the State Capitol!  I hosted an engagement dinner and then New Year's Eve Party after she said yes!  We are blessed to have Ryan join our family officially this fall.

The last few months have been super busy planning the wedding as well as my struggles with my darn gall bladder that included a couple of trips to the ER and one hospitalization!  That struggle culminated in removal of the gall bladder in May and recovery since then.  I don't miss it!

It didn't slow me down too much since I continued as treasurer at First United Methodist Church and did some major redecorating in the house including creation of a great sewing room in one of the bedrooms.  Joanna created her first costume in the new sewing room in early June.

Most of you know that I name things in my house so I now have Three Thimbles (the sewing room -- named for the three thimbles of my Grandmother Harrison, my mom and myself), Rosemary and Thyme (Caroline's former bedroom which is now a guest room), and the Harrison Suite at Taber House (the first floor guest room) ....there are lots of other places at the house which are named but you will just have to come visit to find out the names!

I'm really looking forward to Sisters on Wheels 2014 -- we plan to visit at least five states, visit long-time friends, quilt shops, Shirley's beautiful granddaughter, Madison Drew, and Dennis' dad and our parents.  Of course we will spend time with our awesome brothers as well as the other two Harrison sistas, our sisters-in-love Alanna and Julie.

Travel with us --- we'd love to have you along.

Hugs
Kay

P.S.  -- several of you said last year they weren't sure who wrote the various entries -- we have modified out signatures so that you can tell.  My signature is Kay/AK/MOB.  AK stands for Aunt Kay which is what many of my nieces and nephews call me and MOB stands for Mother of the Bride -- my newest title!

Since last summer.......

A lot can happen in a year and some years are busier than others! Since we last met on Sisters on Wheels several family changes have occured. I will share from my family and Kay will add about her family soon. You will soon see that they overlap in new fun ways.

In June of 2013 my daughter Kendra and her husband Josiah moved completely to Denver, Colorado where Josiah had been working since January. Then in September over Labor Day, they bought a home and my husband Paul and son Drew drove to Denver to help with the move. Drew and I left the heavy lifting to the rest and we headed to California where Drew moved in with my sister Kay and proceeded to look for a job in the chemistry field. After six weeks of searching, and spending retirement weeks with Kay, he found a job as a lab manager for a Biofuels company in Watsonville, California.

So things looked settled in about October and then we found out Kendra and Josiah were expecting a baby in June of 2014. So at Christmas time Paul and I drove to Denver then flew to California to see both of our children and celebrate the new year.

Every month of 2014 has included a trip to Denver for preparations for our first grandchild and then came the waiting time for her birth. She was due June 30 but decided that she wanted to be here earlier and arrived in a flourish on June 12 weighing 6 pounds and measuring 18 inches long. I spent 2 and 1/2 weeks helping out with Madison Drew and loving every minute before driving out to California with a carload of items for Drew's new apartment in Monterey, California.



In between times Paul and I sang at church and for the Symphony Chorus, worked at our respective jobs long hours, and oversaw as our house of 33 years got all new windows and siding!

Whew... I need a vacation with my sister!

Smoochies, Shirley

PS: When I write a post my signature will be Shirley/ ASH / Nana
ASH is what my nieces and nephews call me for Aunt Shirley and my newest title is Nana!

We're Back

It is time to start up the blog again because the Sisters are together and ready to travel! A lot has happened in the past year that we will share with you as well as our journeys for the next month so hop on board!