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?

Today is “deadheading” day in the ole Daylily bed….I just can’t seem to stay on top of keeping my plants looking in tip-top shape…but I love them anyway. Part of the problem could be that there has only been one decent shower here in over a month and while we’ve been watering other areas of the yard and some of the less drought tolerant plants, citrus trees, herbs and tomatoes, I have kind of neglected the lilies. Poor things are probably screaming at me to water them. Must talk to them and apologize for that.

The worst part is trying to keep the dogs from running through the beds and breaking stems with buds and keeping the stray oak leaves and pine straw out of the mulch. I really like for my daylily bed to be perfect, but it takes a lot of effort. I transplanted these plants to this bed last year. We had only been in this house for not quite a year at that time and the previous owners had a large “patch” behind a fenced area that was serving as a daylily bed, but it was not well kept by the time we got here, was not visible from the sunroom and patio, and was just too much to maintain. So we thinned out, shared a lot, I mean a lot, of plants with friends and family, and moved many to a smaller bed. I am expecting it to take at least another year for them to really fill out the bed and it may even require some dividing.

But no matter all the hard work, I enjoy doing it and love, love, love the beautiful blooms, even if each one only lasts a day!

If anyone has helpful hints, please leave me a comment on easier ways to keep up my beds (short of hiring a gardener).

Next, time to make the pesto!

A new adventure

Hello all,

I'm new to this blogging thing and I'm still not really sure what it is I wish to accomplish from it other than sharing info that I hope someone else finds worthwhile, sometimes venting, and possibly finding a new outlet for creativity. You see, I am currently in a job that does not keep me busy enough, and try as I may to find productive things to do, there are still lots of hours spent thinking, surfing the internet and many wasted moments wishing I were doing something else. I am grateful to have a job at this time, but I truly hope it is just a stop gap on my way to more meaningful employment or a business of my own. Approximately 9 weeks ago, I took the exam to become a registered interior designer in my state. Now, I am not here to debate the need (or not) for licensing for interior designers, but my state requires it for commercial work and I am proud of myself for having taken that big step. The exam was hard, but awaiting the results is actually agonizing. Results are still about 4-5 weeks away, though I have heard they may come earlier. Let's hope so! It is because of this waiting period that I am nervously starting to upgrade my resume so that I may either start looking for another company that needs my services and will appreciate the value of licensing, or at least start soliciting for contract work with other firms.

So, while I am in the midst of this anticipated transition period, I thought that this would be an outlet for some of my energies. I will try to not complain, or whine, but will share thoughts that I hope feedback (and constructive criticism) may bring to me, if any of you are kind enough to comment. I've called this Color Me Citrus to help me remember to have a positive outlook and sunny disposition. That, and the fact that I like bright citrus colors and happen to be growing lemon, orange and grapefruit trees in my yard. I also will share other areas of my life as well.

Sometimes I will post some of my favorite recipes, random happenings, projects, maybe even a few craft ideas and the like.

Please be patient while I'm learning my way around the blogosphere, and I hope that you will visit me here often!

Diana