Monday, November 09, 2009
boo "lunch" - part 3
It was time for our Lunch, so we went to the table and Will removed the plates so he could 'dish' up our wonderful lunch......I didn't take any pictures of our actual Lunch, but I can tell you we had a Vegetable Quiche and a lovely salad of Bib Lettuce, Pears, Gorgonzola Cheese and Caramelized Walnuts.....Plus, my very favorite bread---Croissants!
You can see them in that little basket....And that empty plate? That is in front of Betty. I think she really liked her lunch....!
I love that we never run out of things to say to one another....There is always interesting conversation and we never seem to bore one another for a moment....
I think it is pretty amazing! We've all known each other for so long, you would think we would have shared everything there is to share....but, the truth is, there are always new and interesting things to share.....
For me, these lunches are so very meaningful. I get to see these great women---these 'Gal Pals'---and we all get to share the continuing 'friendship' each of us values so much. Since my life has changed so very much these last five years....getting together for these celebrations, whether they be Birthdays or in this case Halloween, is even more meaningful to me, and quite honestly, I think it is very meaningful for everyone. The opportunity to be together in a fun social way, seems to be important to all the ladies......Now...it's time for the Gift Bags....!
There was a lot of stuff in these bags, including some Halloween Pencils...An abundance of candy of all sorts....and the two little stuffed animals which you saw close-up in the second installment of this "boo lunch" series.......
There was an adorable Halloween Cup.....!
And there were lots of other goodies, too......
This is a kind of Halloween Pumpkin Head that lights up and you can either hold it in your hand or wear it around your neck, or both! It flashes on and off and I thought it was such a cute item, as well as being very practical, if one were going to go out 'trick or treating'....All the Ladies loved them.....!
They loved these Halloween Rubber Duckies and the wonderful Pumpkin shaped Halloween Bubble Blowers....Below, a closer look at the top of that Pumpkin Bubble holder.......
He's kind of a ghoulish Frankenstein-looking kind of guy...lol! And some other goodies were in the Gift Bag, too......
There was a sweet little Halloween Yo Yo---A Mini Yo Yo, at that...And a darling Flashlight Key chain---I always try to put something practical in these bags....and an adorable Halloween Lollipop!
I LOVE the swirly Halloween colors, don't you? And in case you didn't get a really good look----close-up----of those darling soft stuffed Halloween Animals....
Here is the Kitty Cat. I love how they made his fur stand up in fright....! He is a black cat but with some colorful accents....And they did the same thing with the little Ghostie person......
A closer look at this sweet ghost's fur, below.....
I think it is kind of cute that they gave him fur! These were a big hit! And then there was a very scary Halloween Skeleton.....
We had a lot of fun with him....He is rather pliable and has some somewhat movable parts.....We put him in one of the cups...
I love that he looks like he is stepping into the cup, or is he stepping out? Hmmmmm. And Seemah placed him in a strategic place......
And below, a close-up of him in the cup...he kind of looks like he is singing.....lol!
And as you can see below, his arms move......
And then...each lady got a pair of Halloween Glasses....and here they are below....!
These glasses came in three colors....As you can see above, Betty's were white with a little Ghost face in the middle....And below, Lee's were orange with a Pumpkin face in the center......
And then there is Bridget......
And then Seemah.....She looked pretty Spooky, didn't she?
And actually, Dianne looked pretty scary, too......
And we did have a special Halloween dessert...A cake, decorated in Halloween colors......It wasn't as elaborate as usual---and I was surprised they didn't put 'Happy Halloween' on top. But, it was, as usual, scrumptious and very rich. Chocolate, of course........Is there another flavor?? LOL!
And here is one last closer look at the group in our costumes.....
Above....Seemah and Bridget. Below....Seemah, Bridget and me.....!
And below, Dianne and Lee.......
And next, we have me and Betty and Dianne......
And next......Betty, Dianne and Lee.......
And last, but not least.....Me and Betty........
And that was our Halloween Ladies "Boo" Lunch.....And by the way, it was 90 year old Betty's idea that we all 'dress up' in costumes.....As I have said before, she is the youngest-at-heart of all of us!More To Come...........
links to this post
| posted by OldOldLady Of The Hills at 12:03 AM
Thursday, November 05, 2009
halloween boo "lunch" - 2
Continuing on with our fun afternoon......Before we went to the table for our yummy lunch, we had some appetizers while Will was working away in the Kitchen getting our yummy lunch ready....Below is Seemah enjoying Chicken With Peanut Sauce on a Skewer.....these goodies were very tasty........
Thank God for Will. I couldn't do these Lunches without him. We talk over the menu and he makes it all happen! And Thank God for Lucy, too....Lucy is my wonderful 'Housekeeper' and she helps me with the setting of the table, etc., etc. So I couldn't do these lunches without her, either. I am deeply grateful to both of them, let me tell you!
Here's Betty above, having a slice of Brown Bread with Cream Cheese and some Smoked Salmon on top....Very Very tasty.....
And above, dear Bridget eating one of those Chicken Goodies....The combination of the Chicken and the Peanut Sauce is just perfection, believe me....!
Here's Dianne, in between bites of something....lol!
This is a typical pose that we all see in 2009. Someone on a Cell Phone. Even someone in a 'Paint-By-Numbers' Costume...lol. In all fairness to Lee, she is one very busy busy lady. She was out of town working, about four days before our lunch and was leaving on the Monday after Halloween to fly up to San Francisco for another job.....But there was a lot of 'cell phoning' that day......Anyway, I wanted everyone to see the table before we sat down to eat, so we all went into the Dining Room area.....
Oh, how everyone loved those little Pumpkins and the Gift Bags and the Flowers, too. Lee and Seemah began taking pictures with their Cell Phones......
The light was going the wrong way so some of these pictures are a weird color....But above, you can see both Lee and Seemah discussing how to take video with their phones....They figured it out!
Actually the light in the picture above is kind of perfect for Halloween.....I wasn't sure what they were 'taking' with their phone cameras at the moment I took this picture, but in another moment, it became quite clear what it was they were both videoing.......
This next group of pictures is very interesting to me....Above, we see Bridget and I think I was telling her to do some kind of Witchy things with her Stocking-Gloves. Lee and Seemah are taking pictures and video; Dianne is walking down the hall towards Betty, who is sitting on the bench looking for her Cell Phone......lol.....
A lot going on in this picture above....Bridget is doing her Witchy thingy....Lee and Seemah are Videoing and Betty is down the Hallway finding her Cell Phone....
Above....a closer look. And then, below, my favorite picture of this whole set........
The light was so perfect on Betty because she was sitting where the light from the living room windows hit her square-on. If she had been sitting four or five inches over, the light would have been really bad....! And I love that we can see Bridget in Seemah's phone...that is a nice big screen on her phone, isn't it?
Now Seemah is over on the other side of Bridget who is still doing very Witchy things for Lee.....I love the color of Seemah's phone---nice and bright and easy to find, I imagine......
Lee was concentrating on her videoing of Bridget......And it was right after that, that I took this little Video below....What I love most about this Video is me "directing"....lol! I don't know why, but it makes me laugh! I love the way they all are so 'into' the Halloween Mode.....Seemah and Bridget are really having fun with it....! Bridget is actually kind of scary, she's so good! I also love Seemah's surprise as Bridget comes at her.....Very very funny! As I said, I LOVE these women and the fact that each of them gave themselves over to this fun day 110%!!!!
Seemah was so enjoying what she saw on her phone. I love that Morris Broderson Watercolor right next to Seemah---kind of appropriate for Halloween, isn't it? One more picture below as a tease for Part 3.........
Well, these guys are so cute! I have to show you just one more picture. The picture above is before 'the drinks', and below, it's after one too many.......lol......Especially Mr. Pumpkin....!
More To Come........
links to this post
| posted by OldOldLady Of The Hills at 12:07 AM
Monday, November 02, 2009
the boo "ladies" lunch!
Here we all are....in our "costumes". Explanations will be forthcoming...But first, I want to share the table with you....It really looked very pretty and I was particularly pleased with the 'special' bags for Halloween.......
And here they are above, these very special Halloween Gift Bags, which I had filled with all sorts of silly Halloween goodies. But the most wonderful 'gifts' were these beautiful hand-made Pumpkins....
These were lovingly made by the incredibly generous and talented Debi....I saw one on DesLily's Blog and just fell in love with it and Debi kindly made me more than enough for my dear 'ladies who lunch'......Isn't he just the dearest thing you have ever seen?
The ladies absolutely adored him and they too, 'fell in love' with them and were thrilled that they each could take theirs home with them!
The Flowers were absolutely gorgeous....Van outdid himself with this Halloween arrangement....The colors were so rich and lush.....!
And now.....let me show you the costumes and each persons wonderful creativity.....Some more creative than others, of course. My costume was the least creative of all of them....My excuse? I cannot go anywhere....(lol)......
A Blue Wig and some Halloween glasses! Pretty lame. I know. But....it was the best I could do through Mail Order.....! And now, in order of appearance----Below is the wonderful Betty Garrett.....
And a closer look at dear Betty's costume, below........
I love her wig and that cute nose, too.....And her wonderful Dr. Denton's with the little bears....adorable! Years ago Betty gave me a pair of these but Sweetie took them over and they are on the floor of his favorite-hiding-place-closet......Next, we have Lee Meriwether....
Lee had said that her costume was very 'labor-intensive'....and it certainly was.....She came as a "Paint By Numbers Canvas". Anyone remember those? Well, here is a closer look below at Lee.....
As you can see....she had put the outline of flowers on herself.....and inside each flower and stem, were numbers.....These numbers tell you what color to fill in......
And in this case...the number for the inside of the flower was 12 and the number for the stem of the flower was 1.....In the real Paint-By-Numbers boxes, all the colors were numbered, too of course.....Lee even put all these things on her face and eye, as well.....Here below, a close-up of her face......
I love that she made herself a black canvas which meant she had to use black make-up and black gloves and a black skull cap....very very clever.....! Then, Bridget Hanley arrived....Now, she had to go someplace else after leaving our Lunch, so, this is what she did.....
She found these Witches Gloves.....lol! I love that they are like The Witch Stockings.....very inventive....Here below is a closer look at the hands.....
Don't you just love those nails....! And because Bridget has a great sense of humor she gave us this very special pose, below.........
We had this discussion about where the striped stockings for Witches began....and we all decided it must have been with "The Wizard Of Oz"...The picture was made in 1939 and that is the first time I remember seeing striped stockings on a Witch.....And we all thought it was so very very clever to make Striped Witches Gloves......Next came Dianne Travis.....
Dianne asked us who we thought she was...I said Michael Jackson, because that was the first thought that I had. Well, I was very very wrong! She came as Ellen DeGeneres.....lol...I think the mask confused me.
I thought it was wonderful when Bridget, with her Witch Gloves, was helping Dianne with her tie.....
Actually, she did kind of look like Ellen....her outfit was perfect and even her hair had a kind of 'Ellen' feel to it.....I tell you, I love these ladies.....I mean, we are all of a certain age, you know? But the great spirit that lives in each one of them---that child-like wonder that exists in each of these ladies is so very endearing and truly wonderful.......I mean look who then showed up......
It's dear Seemah Wilder.....! Yes, it is!
She looked fabulous! And almost unrecognizable....! I thought about her driving all the way from Pacific Palisades---a good 45 minutes to an hour or more, depending on traffic----dressed in her make-up and costume....I love it!
I mean....what if she had been stopped or God Forbid, had had an accident.....it would not have been too swift, you know what I mean? But I don't even think she gave it a second or first thought....!
This picture above has more of the essence of the Seemah we know and love......There is a lot more to this Halloween Lunch, so come back for Part Two, in a few days......More To Come..........
links to this post
| posted by OldOldLady Of The Hills at 12:29 AM
Friday, October 30, 2009
boo, two!
I love these 'Ghosties'....! They seem not really scary at all, yet they certainly set the Halloween mood....! Above, there were some of these floating Ghosts blowing in the wind. It was late afternoon and the sun was going the wrong way which gave them a slight eeriness that I liked a lot!
And the combination of a few gravestones and ghosts really sets the tone of Halloween to me.....Personally, of all the displays that I saw in my little outings there in Beverly Hills this one is still my favorite. Between the Ghost Fence and The Scarecrows and these wonderful floating Ghosts and some headstones....This is Halloween, to me.
Something about the light that afternoon and the bit of wind that seemed ever present, really made these Ghosts look like they were moving and somewhat 'alive'.
This one above is kind of spooky but not in a very scary way....At least, not to me.....the essence of 'scary' is there, but so is the humor, you know?
This one above, looks like he or she, is Dancing.....I love this one. I'm grateful to the wind for creating all that movement. It is what makes them look kind of 'alive' to me.
I love the light in these pictures....it gives all these floating ghosts a rather ethereal feeling, doesn't it?
Another dancing ghost above! I wish I had some music to go with this...I still haven't learned how to do that. This post really cries out for some kind of ethereal ghost-like themes.....
I love that you can see a little bit of the house in this picture above.....It really sits waaaaay back from the street and in truth, the ghosts are floating in a somewhat open area....so this picture is deceiving.....
This picture above was taken on a different day----earlier in the day, and it was a gorgeous day, I might add....and you can see the house a bit better---it is a stone house and really quite beautiful from what you can see of it from the street, which really isn't a whole lot.....And it does look like these ghosts are right next to the house, but in actuality...they aren't.
These two Ghosts above, seem to be having a dancing conversation....lol....And you can see a tiny bit of one of those Scarecrows there at the lower right of the picture......
Here above, a look at the original picture before I cropped it down to just the two ghosts....You can see the Scarecrow and over on the far right, another Ghost. And you can see we have a tree or two here in Los Angeles that does turn color in the fall.......
On that second very Beautiful Day, here are some of the gravestones and way in the back you can see a few of the floating Ghosties.....The sky was probably not actually that blue, but it was a very very blue sky that day....A glorious Southern California day with just the right temperature.......
And above, there is 'Mr. Blue' and a couple of those sweet Ghosties and that sky in this picture is closer to how it actually looked on that glorious day....
I kind of love this picture because you get a sense of the bigness of this front yard from a certain angle and you can see the floating Ghosts and some of the Scarecrows too......Do click on all these pictures so you can see them much bigger.....Below, a closer look at these guys above.
And one more eerie looking picture below.....I love the scarecrow in silhouette and the dear Ghosts floating as if in space......
And so, as we close in on Halloween, I hope you all have a wonderful fun time......I'm having this "Ladies Who Lunch" in honor of Halloween and I will be taking pictures, of course. I will post them as soon as I can, but, as you know, these things take time......Here below, one last picture of this house on Sunset, just to remind you of the overall look of this front yard from the Sunset Boulevard side....which was from afar......
Happy Halloween to one and all......Try not to eat too much chocolate....lol.....More To Come.................
links to this post
| posted by OldOldLady Of The Hills at 1:12 AM
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
boo!
There is a house on Sunset Blvd---fairly soon after you enter Beverly Hills---that for as long as I can remember has decorated their big corner property for every Holiday there is. The house is now owned by other people, but these 'new' people have kept up the tradition, though if memory serves, the decorating may not be quite as elaborate.....Still, I love that they have honored what the previous long time owners had been doing for years and years and years....
In this picture above is the view of the display as seen from our moving car on Sunset Blvd. as you are going east, and just before you turn onto Mountain, as is the picture below, too......For Halloween, the three main things that fill this whole front lawn are the hanging Ghost's, some Gravestones, and a lot of stuffed-with-hay Scarecrows......
Plus, this rather fun sweet wooden fence of Ghosts that are holding hands, and looking very cute I might add, as a fourth element that pretty much surrounds the part of the property where the decorations can be seen. The house sits way back from the street and is quite huge.......In the first and second pictures above, you can see the hanging ghosts from far away as well as some of the Gravestones, and in the the third picture just above these words, you can see quite a few of those rather colorful Scarecrows.....As I said, the property goes around the corner, so there is a big expanse with lots of trees and a huge lawn, too, as is seen in the very first picture......
This view above is from Mountain and is where the Ghost fence begins as we are looking towards Sunset Blvd. as it goes West......There is a stop sign at the corner of Sunset and Mountain which you can see in the picture above....You can also see a few of those stuffed Scarecrows......
And here above, the opposite view, looking up Mountain. I just love, love, love that Ghost Fence. I think it is so very clever and really really whimsical, too. Below, a closer look at some of those Scarecrow Figures.....
I loved that there were quite a few of the Scarecrows near these lovely flowers....These were all on the Mountain side of the house.....
And below....a closer look at more of these fun Scarecrows.....
Mr. Blue! All patches and stuffing....and below, a closer look at his mate over there on the right.....
And here below are some other Scarecrows.....All, very imaginative.....At least, I think they are.....
Above, a mother and child? Or maybe a father and child--just sitting there on the grass.....thinking. Or is it a couple contemplating life....
Well....whatever he is thinking, it doesn't appear that he is having any very happy thoughts...lol.
Here's another little grouping standing in the bushes close to the edge of this property....There must have been 25 of these Scarecrow characters all together......
Above, a little 'Smokey The Bear' Scarecrow? Well, I know he doesn't look exactly like him but that's who came to mind when I saw this picture......
Here's a little family.....with another person standing over on the side...Let's have a closer look at them......
They look like a pretty happy group, don't they?
Now this guy above......well, I don't know what to say about him....lol....I was thinking about the time it takes to put up this huge display.....I'm not sure when they start but it has to take quite a lot of time, unless they have a crew that helps them with it all.....
And all the thought that goes into putting this together and placing all these Scarecrows.....Very Very impressive!
I love this guy leaning against the tree.....A lot of thought went into the the placement of this darling fellow, don't you think?
I love this guy way up there in the tree over on the right.....Let's take a closer look at him.....He is really cute!
Next time, we'll see the Ghost's and the Gravestones......And guess what, Halloween is just around the corner now.......More To Come..........
links to this post
| posted by OldOldLady Of The Hills at 12:07 AM
x4
