Growing up in L.A. - "Sunday Favorites"

It's the Sixth "Sunday Favorites" over at Chari's Happy To Design, so when you are through here see the other favorite past posts of all my blogging friends by clicking here. I hope everyone is having a fabulously blessed Sunday!

Here I am with my husband Richard, as a newlywed in the '70's , sitting with my mother, sister, and sister in-law, in front of the fountain I walked past everyday on my way to school. This fountain is still there , at the intersection of Wilshire Blvd. and Santa Monica Blvd. in Beverly Hills.

After my parents divorced my mother, sister Nonie, & I moved to L.A. where we found the beach a wonderful place to forget about our troubles. I remember my mother bundeling Nonie and I up in the early hours and whisking us off to the beach to watch the sunrise. Some of my happiest memories were spent at the beach.

My sister Nonie, my mother & I pose for a picture in front of the first apartment we lived in after moving to L.A.

This was Christmas in that first apartment when I must have been about five and Nonie was about seven. My mother must have been only two years older than my oldest daughter is now (that would be 35). She was a knockout, that's for sure.

Another happy day at Muscle Beach in Santa Monica. Aren't we just too cute for words?

This apartment is in Beverly Hills on Young Drive where I spent my high school years. It was the second apartment we lived in on Young Drive. My mother loved living on Young Drive because I don't think she ever believed that she would get old.



Here I am sitting on the steps of an apartment we lived in on Orange Grove in Hollywood. The last time I lived in this apartment I was nine years old. It had a cool fire escape that Nonie and I liked sitting out on while looking at the people passing by.

A Mother's Day Tribute

.

Several years ago my daughter wrote a Mother's Day tribute for an online magazine and then gave me a copy of what she wrote for my Mother's Day gift. I have carried that tattered copy around with me for years. Here is what she wrote:

The same now-yellowed newspaper clipping has been taped to my grandmother's refrigerator for the past 15 years. My mom was out with my baby sister in a stroller when a photographer was on assignment to scout a sweet centerpiece scene for Mother's Day.
Young mother and baby out for a walk in the spring sun? Perfect.

I love looking through old photo albums at my grandmother's house. I love looking at my mother with her long, straight hippie hair, and my aunt, her sister--the one who played jokes on my mom from the time they were little.

Like when she hid in the bathtub behind the curtain and their cousins locked my mom out and flushed the toilet. "She's going down the drain!" they taunted. And my mother, just three years old, burst into tears. She was away from her mother for the week, her father had just left and now, in this strange house with these strange boy cousins, her sister had been flushed down the toilet.

I used to tell my friends that my mother almost strangled a boy who tried to kiss me after school in the parking lot in second grade. Actually,I ws trying to kiss him and he was struggling to keep me away by putting his hands around my throat. My mother, seeing this, leapt from the car where she had been waiting, grabbd the kid by the collar and proceeded to demonstrate on him exactly what she wouldn't allow him to do to her daughter. I thought that was the best story. The time my mom strangled my boyfriend.

I never wrote thank you notes to my mother. Mothers make you write thank you notes to your grandmother and your aunts and the kind neighbor who always remembers your birthday. But there's no one to make sure you write Mom one, too. Mothers know you love them, and that they gave you exactly what you wanted, so we assume the thank you is understood. And those are just the wrapped presents.

But then comes a moment when you realize there are so many thank yous that you forgot to say--that you couldn't possibly catch up. So many gestures big and small that you could write a note every day and always have more to say. Just the things she did for my wedding day alone outnumber the days left in this year.

A few weeks ago, I came home from vacation to find a formerly bare and ugly dirt patch in front of our house filled with Easter lilies, hydrangeas, begonias, azaleas, daisies and other sweet-scented colorful blessings I couldn't name, but thought beautiful. I knew immediately who the spring angel was. I called up Mom to thank her.

"Do you like it? she asked. "Did you notice right away?" She was as excited for me to have come home and found the surprise birthday gift as I was.

The best gift my mother gave me growing up wasn't the parties, the clothes, or the trips to take me my forgotten lunch bag. It was a sense of myself as a woman who wanted to be both strong and tender, independent and able to connect, angry at injustice and at peace with myself. It was the knowledge that I could be anything I wanted to be, including a wife and mother-if I wanted to, because they were good things to be.

And the knowledge that if I failed at any of those possibilities, she would not hold it against me, but would always be there to come home to, brush off the dirt and tears, and try again.

Happy Mother's Day! Thanks for everything! Love always, Amanda

Blue Monday May 18th

A very dear friend of mine gave me this covered dish this week because she thought I would love it, and I do. I thought it would be perfect for blue Monday. Smiling Sally is hosting another Blue Monday so scurry on over and see everyone's Monday blues, just click here for more info. Happy Blue Monday everyone! I'm off to work.

A Bridal Shower

This past weekend my friend Jan and I went to a shower, for another friend's daughter, who is getting married in August. It was a lovely lucheon given by the one of the bride's friends. My friend Jan and I are pictured above. Jan is the one with the orange top.

The centerpiece on the table was one of the prettiest I've seen. These orchids were set inside another planter overflowing with beautiful greenery.

I was so sad that I hadn't charged my camera up before I went. What was I thinking? My friend Jan graciously shared her photos with me. I wish I had a photo of all the wonderful food, but at least, I have a picture of this terrific tower of cupcakes. They were devine, by the way.

If I had taken my own camera I would have sneaked around and taken pictures of the entire house, it was soooo beautiful! At least I got a photo of this amazing stove in the kitchen. I also got photos, from my friend, of the dramatic powder room seen below.

It was a great party and the bride received lots of lovely gifts. Next time I'll do better and make sure my camera is charged for the wedding.

Mary's Cottage Refuge

After two weeks of training for my job at Pottery Barn I was totally exhausted. Thankfully, my friend Mary, who I have been friends with since before my first daughter was born, invited me for coffee Saturday morning. Mary's house is a haven for the weary, for sure. When I first met Mary thirty four years ago, I thought she was elegant, refined and the most talented homemaker, with an eye for beauty. That hasn't changed, she is all that and more. Mary never seems to age. She is an old soul with a young spirit. Mary and I understand each other, like old friends do. We have more than a friendship, we have a spiritual connection. When we haven't spoken for a long time, it is never awkward when we do. In fact, we are often thinking of each other at the very same time. When I have Mary on my mind and call her she usually says, "I was just thinking about you" , and the same goes for me. I've known Mary for such a long time that I can just be myself when we are together and Saturday was no exception. When I was with Mary Saturday I asked (well, maybe I told her, if truth be known) that I brought my camera and I wanted to get pictures of her home, which I have come to associate with comfort.

Below is a picture of Mary's front window and the entry into her comfort haven.


The picture below is what you see on your left when you enter her door.

I wish I had taken a full view of her living room, but I was focusing on the details. Instead of having the normal living room filled with sofas and overstuffed chairs, Mary decided to have an antique round table with wicker chairs and a settee with beautiful decorative pillows.

I didn't get a good picture of her dining room, which Mary made into a reading nook with two very comfortable overstuffed chairs and this lovely secretary which sits opposite of her reading nook. She hung a drapery rod over the doorway to her kitchen and hung and swagged the drapery panel you see to the right of the secretary above.

In Mary's bedroom she painted three of the walls the most fabulous shade of green and one wall the most stunning shade of orchid.

The real beauty of Mary's home is in the details, take for instance, this delightful pillow with the flower basket embroidered with ribbon, that sits a top her bed.

The little bedside table below is meaningful to me, because I gave Mary this lamp, that once belonged to my mother, who passed away in May, two years ago. It is so befitting of Mary's style. I know my mother would be so pleased that is now belongs to my dear friend.

Mary's bedroom is very large and accommodates a very grand armoire with room to spare.

I'm just sorry that some of my pictures are blurred, but you get the idea.

Below you can see Mary's highboy with that beautiful green on the walls as the backdrop.

I just love Mary's window treatment. There are little lavender crystal on the swag over the window that give the room an ethereal feel.

Mary's house is a ranch style house, probably built in the forties, but Mary has turned it into an English cottage. She was lucky enough to have the room to add a master bath, which you see below. I love the beadboard and the black and white tile, roomy enough to have a stool to sit on when you get out of the shower.

I love the etched mirrors and the little flower vase, in between, that hangs over the vanity.

The photo below is the family room which is directly behind the kitchen. It is a warm and inviting room, which adds a feeling of spaciousness to Mary's home.

In the picture above, notice the dining table in the right hand corner of the photo. I didn't get a good full on photo, but this room also hosts their dining area.

This darling little corner hutch is in the dining area and sits beside a pass through into the kitchen.

This beautiful antique piece sits beside the sliding glass door, in Mary's family room, that leads into Mary's garden. The swing below is what you see when you look out the sliding glass door from the family room.

Here's a view into Mary's kitchen which is painted a Martha Stewart vintage green.

Off the family room is the most luxurious guest bath. The photos really don't do it justice, because this rooms simply glows!

I love this kitchen. Mary has a lovely work space with a vintage feel. It's unfortunate that my photos don't do this room justice.

I love the pulls on the drawers and the green crystal knobs.

This cabinet hangs above the desk over the pass through, in the kitchen. This is the perfect place to display Mary's collection of depression glass and lovely china.

I hope you've enjoyed this tour of my dear friends home and refuge.

I also give a special thanks to my dear friends Nancy and Dee Anne for making my weekend such a pleasure!