My (Very Fleeting) Martha Stewart Moment

I really did have a Martha Stewart moment at Christmas. We had some friends over for a Christmas Eve afternoon tamale and sangria party, just before we all departed to spend some time at the Mesilla Plaza.

I had so much fun designing the table in blue and silver and white. I put together this centerpiece.

I found the perfect fabric and made napkins, using these very clear directions. There shouldn't be anything to making napkins, after all, but I liked the method shown for doing the corners. Even so, the best directions can't seem to help me make absolutely square napkins. Oh, well, I figured that our guests would be drinking sangria, and wouldn't be planning to examine the napkins too closely. 

I used pieces of sparkly blue garland and little glass balls to wrap the napkins. (Hey, how did that knife get knocked aside? Stay tuned).

The table looked very festive and my Christmas cacti all bloomed right on cue, making a nice backdrop. I forgot to take photos at the time, however, and thought I would re-create the table and take some pictures in this morning's nice sunshine, even though the cacti shed all their blossoms weeks ago.

Alas, I had forgotten just why we don't always live the well-decorated life. As soon as I got everything set up and climbed up onto my little step stool, little Skippy Kee came along to shift the silverware and to swat at the bits of garland.

I sorted her out with a fearsome banshee shriek, slid the table down to where the sun had moved, and climbed back up onto my step stool, camera in hand. 

This time it was Miss Cleo--a former recluse, just now finding a need to socialize--who decided to get into the picture. I gave up any pretensions regarding the Martha Stewart life, and decided just to show you a slice of reality, Zee-style. 

This is it. This is how we really live.

Biker Santas

Merry Christmas, dudes!

Yo!

And to all a good-night!

Dressing Up

Ready to go downtown in winter

While looking at old photos and reminiscing, I remembered an annual family tradition that started in the 1940s in San Francisco. We always went downtown on the street car, my mother and me (Dad was at work, as all men were in those post-war years), to see the Christmas decorations in the big department stores. We would go for evening drives later when my father got home from work to see decorated outdoor places like Maiden Lane, which I now find was originally an area of brothels(!) that had been converted to fancy shops that were decorated beautifully during the Christmas season.

I remember going up the escalator and all but gasping at the sparkling decorations in the Emporium* on Market Street. We always went to I. Magnin's, and Macy's, too. The transformation of the familiar stores was amazing and it seems to me that the decorations were far fancier than anything we see now.

Dressed up in spring

You know, we used to get pretty dressed up to "go downtown." For me, always a coat and matching hat, if possible (my mother made a lot of my outfits), and a little purse to hold my white gloves. My mother insisted on those gloves when we rode on the streetcar. For my mother, a dress, high heels (how did she do it?), matching purse, coat, hat, and gloves.

Fancy family dress

Beez and I recently received an invitation in the mail for a Christmas party, being held in a pretty fancy part of town, to honor volunteers of a local charitable organization. The invitation, in addition to giving other details, specifies "spiffy casual" dress. Whatever that might be, it points out how much things have changed over the decades. People get dressed up less often, and so do our public places, especially during holiday times.

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*I feel so historical. While looking for links to the stores and places I remember in downtown San Francisco, I found that many of them are gone and a part of history. I guess I am, too (a part of history, not gone).