Ganna Walska’s Garden

September 27, 2012 by mymateriallife

Have you heard of the book, The Secret Language of Birthdays?  Just last week I was telling my friend Camille that this book said that people born on my birthday are all about the search for beauty.  I explained that this was the reason I wanted to celebrate the monumental birthday I had coming up on the weekend with a visit to Lotusland, an incredible garden in Montecito near Santa Barbara that I’d seen in magazines.  I suppose the biggest […]

Categories: People, Places • Tags: gardens, lotusland, madame ganna walska, the secret language of birthdays

More Mary Blair

August 26, 2012 by mymateriallife

Aren’t these wonderful?  They are 16 x 20″ prints that I ordered at a Disney Art On Demand kiosk located in the Off The Page shop in the Hollywood area of Disney’s California Adventure earlier this month.  They arrived last week.  I’m not even sure where they’ll go, but I just couldn’t resist them – not after discovering Mary Blair last year.  I was hoping I could refer you to a website where you could order your own, but I […]

Categories: Kid Stuff, Paper, People, Places • Tags: disney art on demand, mary blair, mary blair plate set, walt disney family museum

Pictures of Celia

May 13, 2012 by mymateriallife

       It’s easy to idealize people who are no longer here.  I’m sure I do that with my mother.  Of course we all have our flaws.  I really do think she was too lenient with my brothers.  And though I enjoyed hearing Uncle Bob tell people that Celia could make new friends in the washroom on the day of her memorial service, I typically found her interest in making conversation with just about any stranger, anywhere, well – embarassing.  I have grown […]

Categories: People • Tags: celia

Grandpa’s Whiskey Sour

September 24, 2011 by mymateriallife

My paternal grandfather was born on September 23, 1897.  His name was Art and so was my dad’s.  He lived in Chicago and I lived in California, so I never got to know him very well (he died in 1977), but I always kind of liked that we shared the same birthday.  There are a few things about him that stick out in my mind:  he was a housepainter, he used to call people “kid”, and he was well-known for […]

Categories: Beverages, Celebrations, People • Tags: whiskey sour recipe

Mom’s Fashionable Family

September 6, 2011 by mymateriallife

You can learn a lot about people from old photographs.  The two little girls on either side of this threesome are my mom’s sisters Marie and Kay.  I don’t know who the one in the middle is, but she doesn’t have a bow on her head so I don’t think she’s a sibling.  One thing I can tell by looking at pictures of Mom’s family is that they dressed well.  Mom had three sisters and two brothers.  I never met […]

Categories: Clothing & Accessories, People • Tags: celia, personal style

Alexander Girard? No, Mary Blair

July 23, 2011 by mymateriallife

We just returned from Southern California where we spent almost three days at Disneyland.  One night while we were waiting for a light show to begin I was looking at the facade of the It’s A Small World ride and thinking about how much I’ve always loved it when I realized that it surely must be an Alexander Girard design.  I decided to research its history when we returned home.  Then on my way out of the park I noticed […]

Categories: Architecture, People, Places • Tags: alexander girard, disneyland, it's a small world, mary blair, walt disney family museum

Gerda Isenberg’s Garden

May 13, 2011 by mymateriallife

        Last weekend we made our second visit to the Yerba Buena Nursery in Woodside off of Skyline Boulevard.  It really is a bit of a trip, but so worth it.  Over the last couple of years I’ve been learning about California’s native plants and trying to figure out how to incorporate them with our existing camellias, azaleas, and other plants we haven’t killed yet.  I’ve known about this nursery for a while, but never made it up there until […]

Categories: People, Places • Tags: california native plant society, california native plants for the garden, gerda isenberg, yerba buena nursery

love is…

February 14, 2011 by mymateriallife

I found this book last year around Valentine’s Day, and I just had to buy it because it reminds me of my mom.   She used to love these little comics and would post them on bulletin boards in our house in Southern California in the 70s.  It’s a very sweet book with an introduction by the cartoonist’s son, Stefano Casali.  His mother, Kim, made little drawings as love notes for his father, Roberto, and not long after Roberto showed […]

Categories: Other Holidays, People • Tags: celia, kim casali, love is

A Simple Formula

September 15, 2010 by mymateriallife

It occurred to me while I was at yard duty last week that what the first graders need is a simple conflict resolution model that us adults can help them work through to resolve the innumerable squabbles that come up on the play yard (he took my acorns, they won’t let me play Star Wars, etc.).  Then on Saturday, I received a card from my cousin Kathy that included a simple, three-step process (a simple formula she called it) for […]

Categories: People • Tags: ancestors, conflict resolution, uncle bob