Moving to Mississippi

Wow! It has been 3 years since I last posted...and so much has happened in my life since then.  And so much has changed in the blogging world, I don't know if I can catch up, but I'm gonna try!  I left blogging due to the sudden illness of a family member and I felt the need to pitch in to help care for them.  I just couldn't muster the endurance at that time to keep up my blog.  Then, life got in the way (or maybe I just let it take over) and I didn't get back to it.  But good things happened during this time too. So it's not all bad.  To make a loooonggg story short, my husband got a really good offer to go back to work for a previous employer and that move has brought us from Slidell, LA to Jackson, MS in a record breaking time -- so quickly that I had about 5 hours to find us an apartment before we had to finish packing up to be out of our house, which we sold in less than three weeks before, and make the move.  In all the haste and confusion, I had already quit my job and worked, with the help of some great family, to get us outta there and into here.  So we're in an apartment for 3 months, with 1 1/2 of those already gone and looking for a house to buy here.  It's been a challenge and I hope that we're close to a deal on the second one that we've offered on.  In between all of the looking and settling into the new area, I've been looking for a new job.  It's starting to appear that positions like my previous one are in short supply, so I'm branching out into other areas.  It is through this process that I have rediscovered blogging, and here are my hopes for the future of this lil' ole blog:
1.  To find my real voice - not the one that I think I need to put out there for boring reading, but that this is all for me.  That's how it started in the beginning, just to see if this was something I was capable of doing.  But at that time I was more worried about who might be reading, and I was filled with a lot of self-doubt, sort of like I am now.
2.  To get over that self-doubt, and hopefully inspire anyone else out there that may be reading this by relating the lessons I've learned and experiences I've had.
3.  To make new friends.  It seems that as we've gotten so caught up in the circumstances of life over the past three years, I've begun to feel isolated and lonely.  My husband and I have worked so much, and in separate cities, just being together over the weekends was not enough.  I'm so glad we are back under one roof; but being in a new town, we'll have to start making new friends all over again.
So, in the coming weeks and months, I know I'll be learning even more about what is available to me, to help make my own little corner of the blogosphere (does anyone even use that term anymore?) better, to reach out to others and share life, dreams, plans (if we do get the house we want, there will be a lot of work ahead), and maybe a few recipes, craft projects, and like many of the blogs that I've been following lately, plenty of DIY home projects. 

And if you are reading this, I thank you so very much, because just knowing that you've spent a little bit of your precious time with me makes me very happy and grateful!  And if you have comments or helpful hints, I'd love to hear them.

'Til next time,

Shoe Admiration

Hi everyone,
Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy every stop and shoe along the way.
My shoe obsession began at an early age with a pair of navy Bass Weejuns. It has only grown from there and this is just the tip of the iceburg...

My favorite new pair

My flip flops...the blue pair - coming apart, losing embellishments, but molded to my feet, absolutely the best for yard and housework!

the shoes I just wore to my brother's wedding...surprisingly comfortable, and very chic!
Cute, red, 'nuff said!

The comfies...slippers, sneakers, sandals!

Old stand-bys...

And last, but not least, my very comfortable new Josef Seibels...that my husband declares as "butt-ugly"! But I don't care because they are the most comfortable of all!

And a final thought about the joy of shoes...

When my mom passed away 9 years ago today, there was a lady who had just lost her home to fire. My mom was a size 5, and as it turns out so was this lady. The lady (I wish I could remember her name) had a hard time finding shoes, but apparently my mother didn't, because there were about 50 pairs that we loaded up and took to this lady who needed them, from a lady who no longer did. But to be able to pass that on to someone so ecstatically grateful was indeed a blessing...I hope that she is still wearing them well.

Don't forget to stop by Southern Lady blog who is hosting the Shoe Show. Happy shoe day to all!

Busy, Busy Week

Well, it's a very busy week at my house...work, cleaning and packing as we are getting ready to go to my brother's wedding this weekend. Since our mother passed away a few years ago and I am a few years older than he is, I get the honor of sitting in as surrogate "mother of the groom"! And I'm truly glad to do it. But making sure I have everything packed takes starting a few days early and making lists so that I don't forget anything. Suddenly a three day trip is turning into a two suitcase one. Most of the time I can pack pretty lightly, but special occasions call for extras...wish me luck that I remember everything.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

And on top of everything else, I'm getting ready for the Southern Lady shoe show on July 24. I can't wait; and I'm even thinking of getting my soon-to-be sister-in-law, her mom, my aunts, cousins and friends at the wedding in on it...Looking forward to seeing what we can come up with.

Serious Magazine Addiction

Hi! My name is Diana and I'm a magazine addict...

Not trying to make light of serious addictions, but my dear, sweet husband may argue that my addiction to magazines is quite the case study. To be fair (to myself), many publications that I receive are true trade publications that I get by free subscription for being employed in the design profession. Many others are offered at a professional rate (and I'm not one to turn down a bargain). But each month that passes finds me up to my derrierre in slick, glossy pages of decorating photos, images of beach houses and cottages, pictures of beautiful gardens and endless luscious recipes and food.

So several years ago, in an effort to hold on to the best of each publication, I started ripping out pages and painstakingly cutting out any inspirational images or any recipe that I thought sounded worth a try. Among them are flowers, seashells, jewelry, beautiful rooms, vegetables, and so on, and pasting them onto cardstock, creating my own version of scrapbooking. Nothing embellishes my pages, however, except for those sought-out special photos. They have become haphazard collages, sometimes grouped by theme or color. Sometimes they are categorized by room type, interior or exterior, etc. I have several pages devoted to doors alone! (Am I developing OCD?) I then put them in sheet protectors in a binder, to pull out and tack on my memo board when I need a spark of imagination.

And the recipes? In a binder, organized much like a cookbook, awaiting the day I find time to prepare them...and many I have prepared. I will share them here eventually.

The fact that this is a fairly time-consuming process that I go through each month does not deter me from continuing, but I have alllowed some subscriptions to lapse in an effort to try to manage my time a little more carefully. Maybe this will allow me to pursue some of the projects and cooking inspired by all of my clippings. However, I will NEVER give up my Coastal Living or Southern Living issues. Too much information that I don't want to miss.

Trying to be a responsible citizen (I'm no "treehugger"), I do recycle by sharing what is leftover with the assisted living center where my mother-in-law currently lives, as well as a clinic where my aunt works. If anyone has other recycling ideas, I would appreciate them.

So while my addiction will never be cured, maybe I can say I have it under control....sort of.

Woohoo!

My most wonderful news of the past week is that I finally got my test scores for passing my NCIDQ exam. This is a qualification exam that is required in my state to become a registered interior designer. Having gone back to school in my forties to finish my degree, then studying for and taking this test was an accomplishment for me. Now, learning that I actually passed all three parts the first time, I am really exciting in taking a new step forward in my career. What that means right now, I’m not sure, but I am hoping that I will find a way to turn some endeavors into a business of my own! Scary, but exciting, at the same time. If anyone has any advice on starting a new business, I’d love to hear about your experience!

Dog Days Already

Not sure about the rest of you, but here in South Louisiana yesterday, it was 100 degrees! On the day before the first day of summer...and I didn't even want to check to see what the humidity was. We're just hoping and praying that the Gulf stays cool; we don't need any evacuations this year.

While we are trying really hard to keep the lawn, fruit trees and plants alive, the rest of the time is being spent in A/C! A little rain would be nice, but I guess we all complain about the weather at one time or another. So I'll quit complaining, enjoy the cool indoors, and watch the birds splash in the bird bath.

Hope you have a pleasant summer!

Frozen Summer Treats

On a hot summer day in the south, THE preferred beverage of many is an ICEE. Now, we're not talking Slurpee or Slushy, or any other such frozen drink. They are not the same. There is a special fizziness/texture/precise "frozen-ness" of an ICEE that cannot be duplicated. Also that cannot be duplicated are the childhood memories that a sip of cola ICEE can bring back. As a child, I lived in the same small town as my grandmother, however, my cousins did not. But when they would come to visit in the summer, we all liked to walk to the store for candy and other treats. My grandmother would give us all a little money (and believe me--she didn't have much to give) for ICEEs.

As we got older of course, the walks to the store became less frequent and over the years, we had our own money for things we wanted. Recently, as some of my cousins and I remembered our summer treats and visits, one of my cousins recalled the first time she took her husband to visit my grandmother. At some point during the visit, my cousin's husband came to her with a couple of dollars and said, "Your grandmother just gave me this and said it was ICEE money. What's that?" We've all had a good laugh at that, and a great memory of our grandmother, when times were simpler and all you really needed was "ICEE money."

In South Louisiana, where I live now, the preferred summer treat is a "snoball", a type of shaved ice (not to be confused with Hawaii's "shave ice", which is another category of frozen treat all to itself), available with any flavor of sweet, sugary syrup you can image. And in any combination, sometimes with sweetened condensed milk add for "sinful" creaminess!

And then, of course, for the adults, frozen treats often mean a trip to the "drive-thru daiquiri" shop. Only in Louisiana, folks!

So what's your favorite frozen treat? Flavor? And best of all, memory?
Have you had your ICEE today?