Friday, December 26, 2008

My Elf on the Shelf



Nothing like getting a new toy for Christmas! Her name is Esmerelda. She's already raided Skipper's closet but hopefully she'll be getting her own wardrobe soon. My mother knit the sweater she's wearing way back when. I made the green dress a couple of years ago but it never really looked quite right on either Skipper or Francie. It looks perfect on Blythe.


The most fun I've had this Christmas, besides the family and food, etc, etc has been putting together a couple of cd's of old family photos. Here is one of my favourite from my mother's side which was taken at Seabrook Beach, NH in 1904.
Keep thinking warm, summery thoughts!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

An "Ugly Betty" Moment


So, I'm sure most of you are familiar with Ugly Betty and her struggles as an assistant to the editor-in-chief of "Mode Magazine". Things never seem to go right for Betty -- there's always a mix-up of some sort. Well, a couple of days ago, I received the Jan/Feb edition of "Victoria". I've been a fan of this magazine since waaaaaaaay back when it was first published. When I moved back from Toronto in '03, it broke my heart to have to leave all my back issues behind -- esp since I'm sure they got recycled. I did manage to save a couple of issues including my fave winter issue with the recipe for fidget pie. Anywho, back to the story at hand, I had a true "Ugly Betty" moment as I was reading the magazine and I stumbled on an article about Maymont. If you have read this blog with any regularity at all, you'll know that's one of my favourite things to photograph. So... here I am, looking at this lovely article and all of a sudden it hits me --- the photo on page 36 --- it's MINE!!! Yeppers. Indeedio. Click on the archives to the right here. The one for 2007. It's about the only thing I blogged about that year. The day it snowed in Richmond in April and I was lucky enough to take all those lovely pictures. My friend Virginia thought they were so wonderful she took them to her cousin who works at Maymont. He in turn showed them to the folks in the PR dept. They in turn sent them along to the folks at "Victoria". Unfortunately, my photo was miscredited -- a total computer snafu for which everyone has been most apologetic. In fact, I was very impressed with the speed and sincerity with which both Maymont and "Victoria" responded. In my book, they're both still the top! Just like "Ugly Betty", everything came out OK in the end and who knows, it might all lead to something new and exciting down the road!


If you don't have a subscription to "Victoria" (and you should, you know), this particular issue will hit the stands on 23Dec.


And stay tuned for next weeks exciting adventures.... well.... not really. Just work mostly and finishing up Christmas presents.