With less than 10 days to go in My Daily Giveaway, I am more determined to have a clutter-free home by the end of the year.
December 21, 2015
This year our winter solstice actually feels like winter here in Los Angeles. Today it was only about 60°F and at night it’s dropping to about 40°F. I’m actually getting a lot of use out of my many pairs of boots this winter, so I’m very glad I didn’t give all those away! What I gave away today did relate to the cold temperatures though.
December 20, 2015
Every Holiday season, one of my favorite events is Priscilla and Nelson’s Holiday Open House. I have known Priscilla and Nelson for well over a decade, from my days at Pacific Asia Museum. Priscilla used to be a museum Board member, is a passionate and well-researched lover of Asian art; she is also a docent at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Nelson worked for many years in financial management and, around about the time I met them, was serving in Washington DC as an Assistant Secretary of the US Air Force.
December 19, 2015
Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, kids didn’t have many toys. They didn’t have mountains of plastic action figures, hundreds of fluffy stuffed animals, piles of Legos and countless electronic gismos. They played with sticks and rocks and climbed trees and leapt across streams, building forts in the bushes and weaving grasses into toy dolls. The Force was strong in those younglings.
December 16, 2015
Coffee gatherings after school drop-off are especially fun when John joins our group. John is a regular, but he often disappears for a month or so at a time to shoot a tv show. When he comes back, the laughter level increases noticeably.
December 17, 2015
Deanie is one of the people I have enjoyed getting to know most this year. She is the events manager at the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden in Pasadena and coordinates all the wedding ceremonies, receptions and other events held at the garden with grace, intelligence, and a dry sense of humor.
December 16, 2015
When my friend and fabric artist Sumi was a child growing up in Osaka, Japan, she often spent the night at her grandmother’s house. Her Obā-san would bring out scraps of old kimono fabric and young Sumi enjoyed touching the silky cloth fragments and admiring their exquisite patterns. She soon learned from her grandmother how to sew and developed a love for this art form.
December 15, 2015
I missed taking our son Theo in to school this morning. I did start walking in with him but as we walked down the street, two neighbors yelled out to us that all Los Angeles Unified School District schools were on lockdown today.
December 14, 2015
Today, I attended a meeting at USC Pacific Asia Museum, where I worked for almost nine years, and with which have remained in touch to varying degrees over the nine years since I left. While I was there, I gave three books to three members of the museum’s staff. They are all colleagues who began working at the museum after I left, so I haven’t had the opportunity to work closely with them. Yet, their professionalism and warmth reassure me that this museum, which I still care deeply about, is in good hands.
December 13, 2014
My husband’s best buddy’s a man called JD,
A big guy from Texas, who’s sweet as can be.
He’s a government inspector during the day,
But his true passions lie along the creative way.
My Daily Giveaway 