Happy Valentine's Day

Happy 2016

Rubel Castle, Glendora, California

Best wishes for all your holidays, and a Happy 2016. See you then!

Christmas Wish

May your days be merry and bright.

Wassail

Last night, the neighborhood carolers serenaded the block with songs of the season. It's a sweet tradition. Every year I like to receive the carolers and offer them something. This year it was hot chocolate—and it was cold enough out to justify it.

The kids sat on our curb to drink their chocolate. The parents visited.

Not world class photography, but I love this photo.

A Girl Friday for the Holidays

December is a good time to tell you about a new small business in the Dena: Girl Friday. I've mentioned them before because I visited their book club to talk about my novel, Camelot & Vine. But Girl Friday is much more than a book club. It's a Girl Friday, just like it says.

Here's the email I received from them yesterday:

The holidays are upon us and our elves are ready to go!

Top 10 Tasks Our Holiday Elves Enjoy:

1.  Getting your Christmas tree (it's fun!)
2.  Hanging holiday lights / decorating (so bright!)
3.  Gift shopping & wrapping (we love bows!)
4.  Baking goodies & treats (tasty!)
5.  Proving babysitters (parties are more fun without kids!)
6.  Cleaning your house (dirt is bad!)
7.  Holiday centerpieces & table-scapes (pretty pretty!)
8.  Creating care packages/gift baskets (gifts are good!)
9.  Shipping holiday cards & packages (long lines are no fun!)
10. Pet / house sitting while you are away (meow, woof etc!)

What do you need to make this holiday season a success? Our elves await you.

I don't know about you, but I need all these things. And I can attest to the baking and decorative talents of these women. They are so creative. And they're having a holiday party December 11th, where you can meet them and check out the goods. Click on the flyer to enlarge it for the details.

If you need the assistance of an elf or two, contact Cindi Knight, Girl Friday Personal Assistant Services, 626-221-5111.

I took the photo at Kidd's Jewelry Heist in South Pasadena, where I met the Girl Friday Book Club and where you want to do some shopping, now or any time.

Act As If

Act As If: Stumbling Through Hollywood with Headshot in Hand is now a book! Based on my long-running column for NowCasting.com, which is itself based on my 30-year acting career, this is the book for the actor in your life, aspiring or pro. Some blurbs: 

"…all graduating MFA students who want to make a living in 'The Biz' should be handed this book with their diploma, to give them a realistic view of the business they want to pursue. It's an honest, practical and remarkably uncynical look at the job of being an actor."

            Rick Hall, actor—Good Luck Charlie, 24, Curb Your Enthusiasm

"This book is a must for anyone thinking of taking Hollywood by storm. Petrea can point out common pitfalls while throwing in a dash of empowerment. It's your life, your career. Keep your eyes open and be sure to have this book on your nightstand."

            Liz Hanley (aka “Blanche”), Theatrical Agent, Bicoastal Talent

"I felt like I had a friend after reading this, someone who knows and expresses so eloquently the ups and downs and striving that an actor goes through on their artistic and career journey. It’s a delight, it’s fun, it’s comforting, and it’s real. Give it as a gift to yourself, or a fellow actor."

            Fran Montano, Artistic Director, The Actors Workout Studio

Act As If is officially in "soft launch." Everyone's already busy with the holidays, so I'll do an official launch (hard launch?) in the new year, with a contest and everything.

However! There will be a pre-launch on November 29th at Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeehouse, from 2-4 PM.

(This leaves room for a post-launch, a launch-launch, and a lunch-launch. Watch this space.)

Flintridge Bookstore is celebrating Small Business Saturday all day on the 29th, and you should come! It's a wonderful store with all the books you want, plus gorgeous gifts, AND coffee with treats. Easy to get to, at 1010 Foothill, and there's plenty of parking behind/under the store. Here's a chance to expand your literary horizons and check out Flintridge.

My Thanksgiving weekend is planned thusly:
Thanksgiving, which I will enjoy so quietly I'll be able to hear myself chew.
Black Friday, which I celebrate annually by hunkering down in the house with the curtains drawn.
Small Business Saturday, please see above.
(Apparently the western world still keeps Sundays open for church.)
Cyber Monday, when we're encouraged to shop online exactly like we do every other day, and when I will likely stay offline and write.
And Giving Tuesday—because after having spent the weekend acquiring, it's time to share what you have left, if anything, with the needy. I'll probably do that online.

Remember, books make great gifts!

Happy Halloween

Have fun out there.

Worthwhile

the Romanesque Room at the Castle Green

Maybe you remember our visit with Ron Hobbs of Castle Catering just over a year ago. He's organizing a special event, and he asks so politely for our participation "...if you are so inclined..." 

Here's Ron's email:

Again this year I am organizing a special Valentines Dinner for some very Special People. Forty to forty-five Soldiers and their spouses will enjoy an intimate dinner provided by Castle Catering and it’s Restaurant Partners at The Castle Green and The Romanesque Room.

I want to give you an opportunity to express your gratitude directly to one of our Heroes by delivering “your” message that you are proud of them and thank them in the form of a Valentines Day card.

If you are comfortable doing so, please help us get the word out by forwarding this email to your contact lists. As I ask this, I do not know if this request violates any kind of privacy issues for you….if it does, then don’t worry about forwarding. We are just trying to get as many Valentines Day Cards with a “message of thanks” as possible.

Here is what I am asking you to do if you are so inclined…

1)         Send a Valentines Card with a message of Thanks to:

                         “A Soldier and Spouse”
                          C/O Castle Catering   Suite 102
                          50 E. Green St .
                          Pasadena , CA .  91105
             
2)         Certainly NOT required….but if you would like to enclose a check for $5, $10 or $20….or whatever you would like, made payable to “The Wounded Warriors Project” the soldiers will see them and we will forward them all to the Wounded Warriors Project.

3)         Last, if you are OK to do so…..please forward this message to some of your contacts and give them the opportunity to also send a Valentines Day Card with a “Thank You” message.

That is it…..I hope you will participate.

Thank you so very much.

Ron

Ron Hobbs
Owner, Castle Catering
50 E. Green St. 
Pasadena, CA.  91105
(626) 792-4444
Fax  (626) 793-6769
ron@castlecatering.net
www.castlecatering.net

Zen Monday #277

 

An imperfect photo for your perfect Monday Zen.

Happy New Year, Good and Not Good

 

We tell ourselves it will be different in the new year. We will be different. 

I will be different.

Do you make resolutions? I do and I don't. I don't resolve to do things that are out of my hands (write a bestseller! become a supermodel!) I think about things I want to do better and plan my resolutions to fit.

For 2013:
I resolved to do more gardening and I did for a while, then I didn't (summer was hot here, y'all) then I did. I really enjoy it. So that was good.

I also resolved to finish the first draft of a new novel but the main character kept changing, so I've started two first drafts and tossed them both. That was not good. I did, however, finish and publish a novel, and sell it, and it's still selling, so maybe I can let myself off that hook a bit.

I decided to be more generous with myself. That had its ups and downs. I'm putting that on my 2014 list so it stays on my mind. That's good and not good.

I resolved to exercise more and I have done so. That goes on the 2014 list too, because I can always do better in that area. So far so good.

I don't know if I'll be much different in 2014. I'll be good and not good, as I always am. I know enough not to promise myself things I can't deliver (edit the New York Times!), and I know not to proclaim my resolutions publicly ("Hey Petrea, remember you said you were going to learn to play drums?").

But I might have a nice back yard by the end of the year.


May your 2014 bless you, and may you bring blessings to others. Happy New Year.

It's Everyone's Holiday

Blessed be.

Zen Monday #266

 

Zen Monday is the day you tell us what the photo's about, rather than me telling you. Please join us in the comments and have some fun.

Happy Eostre

To the pagans of Pasadena, if you love Easter Bunnies and eggs, I recommend the goddess of the week post from Finnegan Begin Again. We always get humor at Margaret's blog, and quite often we get goddesses. Finnegan's an expert.

To those of you who'll be attending church today, I hope the services bring you joy enough to share. And don't be thinking I've never been in a church. I have, as recently as last weekend, when I took this picture inside the Community Church at Holliston. This was the location for the lecture that kicked off the Pasadena Heritage Before the Bungalow home tour.

Though I know next to nothing about the services or beliefs held at the Community Church at Holliston (Yelp reviews here), I do know it's a remarkable church because it wasn't always at Holliston. Built in 1900 and one of Pasadena's oldest churches, the building was moved piece by piece in 1923 and rebuilt at its current location.

Memory does not serve me, and neither does the web. If you know where the church was moved from, let us hear from you.

Anyway, it's a roomy sanctuary and you've gotta love those windows, not to mention the Yelp reviews. If that doesn't work for you, there's always Eostre.

Effusive Valentine

I thought about using this picture for Zen Monday, but apparently that thought has crossed my mind before.

I decided not to make fun of this house, though, or these people. I think they just love their holidays. I don't know if I'd want to be their neighbor, but it's better than gang members hanging out on the front porch. (Always looking on the bright side, that's me.)

So, happy Valentine's Day to you. Some people hate this day. I did, when I was single. But I love you! Isn't that enough?

Yeah. I know.

Six, Day One

First things first! You should be able to see the Tournament of Roses Parade right here. We'll chat after the parade.

******

I hope you enjoyed the parade! I'll add links later as I find them.
Here's one already! Dive is watching the Parade in Norwich, England.

The first of the year is traditionally a theme day for City Daily Photo. In the past we've shared our "best photo of the year." We're skipping that today and will do a different theme later in the month. I'll do a little "best of" retrospective tomorrow.

For now, here's a favorite picture I haven't posted before. I took it in December of 2008, while Boz and I were gallivanting about in the Lower Arroyo near the Colorado Street Bridge. I began this blog on January 1, 2008, which means today marks five years of daily blogging.

I am nuts.

You get it down to a system, but it's still nuts.

Rewarding, but nuts.

Thank you for visiting and commenting, for your support and encouragement. I wish you the happiest new year. Make every day better than the last.

Rarin' to Go

I went out to get a picture of snow on the mountains. I was too late for the best of the stuff, and I got rain instead. It was cold out, though, so maybe that rain will be snow tomorrow. Always look on the bright side!

Down here in the flatlands there'll be sun, a parade, and a football game to kick off the new year. From my house I'll be able to see the Goodyear blimp floating over the Rose Bowl Stadium. (We saw a low-flying plane pulling a banner ad above the Arroyo Seco yesterday--some folks start early.)

2012 was a good year, yet I'm ready for 2013. Rarin' to go, actually, with my big fat plans. What are yours?

Christmas Wishes

Peace, serenity, tolerance, beauty, prosperity for all...just a wish list. Much like yours, I imagine. May Christmas day and every day hold all of these for you and yours.

Revival

I took this photo from my car Thursday, while sitting in traffic on south Fair Oaks Avenue.

Old Town Pasadena was stopped up like my Aunt Tildy used to get after eating too much of Uncle Rory's Christmas cake. ("I can't help myself," she'd say, "it's the sprinkles!")

I got stuck in the middle of Old Town, then found my way out, then drove around instead of through it, to get to south Fair Oaks for more of the same. Most of the time Pasadena's an easygoing place, but this time of year along with Christmas and New Year's, we have the Tournament of Roses Parade and Rose Bowl game, and everything is packed. It's fine, really. Really. It's fine.

So I got to sit in traffic and take this picture of the outdoor display area of Revival Antiques. It's a beautiful store, with gorgeous furniture, art and lamps inside. Outside, the unique pieces that can hold up to the weather wait to be visited. It might be chilly for us natives right now, but I'll bet at least our Wisconsin visitors will find the weather refreshing, and probably those from northern California, too. I just hope they don't mind the traffic.

Holiday Time

I've thought of all sorts of things to ask Santa for this Christmas, but I don't really need anything except more time. I'm one of those people who always wants to get more done. It seems there aren't enough hours in the day. 

I'm not going to get more time, though, and more time wouldn't help me anyway. My problem isn't time. It's my attitude toward time and how I use it. 

I could look at it this way: I will get more time if I take time. If I take time to smell the roses, as they say, or the pine needles, or the underbrush, or the cheese, I will have more time. Or at least I'll feel like I do.

Ack. There's a reason I never studied philosophy.

Santa, maybe you could just please bring me a tripod. Thanks.

Christmas Cheerubs

Guess who went with us when we walked Boz yesterday?

It was faster than a walk at times.

Santa should have such elves. And such reindeer!