Welcome to my 100th post!!! 

(came back to edit this to include this adorable little howler–make sure you watch to the 30 sec mark)

I’m so excited I just couldn’t wait til morning to launch it!!!

With long and deep meditation over what how I wanted to celebrate this momentous occasion, I decided to go with….get ready for it…..deep breath….brace yourself….wait for it…wait for it….ready now….???

MY FAVORITE THINGS!!!

Now that you’ve had your aerobic workout of the day, jumping and screaming, I’m going to share with you the 12  15 16 Days of My Favorite Things or at least some of them.  This took me down a walk along memory lane of my photo albums and boy did I find some good ones, (and some I just can’t share here).  😀

So, please, gather your breath back and sit back with your favorite beverage and enjoy the show.

Let’s start with a Welcome Cocktail.  This is some kind of champagne, St Germaine wonderfulness from a champagne bar in Las Vegas.  Champagne shaken with some magical something served in a martini glass. This actually combines several of my favorite things so deserves the Number One Spot.

As long as we’re drinking, we better have a snack to nibble on as well.  This is the tuna tartare from Olives Restaurant, also in Las Vegas.  OMG this is the most “to die for” appetizer I’ve ever eaten.  It’s $18 and worth every penny.  I had it on my birthday one year.  🙂

In a celebratory mood, I love these holiday trees that I’ve made off and on for  years.  This color palette is my favorite–platinum.  I love making these and having them in my home, giving them as gifts, etc.  I once made one for my cousin for her wedding gift and used heirloom costume jewelry from our Grandmas in it.

As long as we’re in a Christmas spirit, I designed this little holiday gem–and made many of them a couple of years ago and sold them in my etsy shop.  I called it a “cuppa hot chocolate” and it’s a BATH BOMB made from cocoa, powdered milk and a creamy meringue topping scented in vanilla all that melts in your bath for a hot chocolate bath experience.  It has a little candy cane handle.  I LOVED making these and am proud of the whole design.  I couldn’t believe Oprah herself didn’t pick them up for her holiday episode.  😉  I also love that Wedgewood china that is on that I inherited from my Grandma.

I love throwing fancy dinner parties.  This one was a Valentine’s Day dinner for six with 8 courses combining the book Like Water for Chocolate and a cookbook from a Sedona restaurant called  Elote.  I also love the china here which was my parents’.  I am not a super “china” person but I love love love what my mother picked out.  It’s totally my style.  I love being able to use it.

I love everything about my huge soaking bathtub. I remodeled the whole bathroom area and did all the tile work myself including this “platinum and diamonds” mosaic step.  Here is a pic of it in progress.  I step on it every day and remember how fun it was designing and crafting it.  You can see where I left single tile spaces open and filled them with mother of pearl and platinum metallic tiles.

Let’s enjoy a little video interlude now shall we?  I love love love and so relate to this video.  It’s self explanatory so I will just let you enjoy it too.

I love my bed.  I love and adore my bed so much.  I call it a Princess and the Pea bed as it has so many layers of egg crates, fiber beds, feather beds, it goes on and on.  It’s always white on white and my sleigh bed is like a huge cradle.  I LOVE MY BED.

I LOVE sea kayaking.  I’ll never forget this experience in Monterrey Bay at sunset when I started “whoop whoop whoop ing” to a bunch of sea lions that literally swam to me from yards away like dogs being called, calling back, swimming under and around my kayak.  It was mesmerizing.  The rest of the group paddled away and I stayed for a long time interacting with these creatures.  Magical.  I’ll never ever forget it.

I love serendipity.  My father sent me this stuffed seal after this sea lion encounter having no idea I’d experienced this..with the little handwritten note.  I also love whimsy, as does my Dad!  I still have the note on my frig.

I can’t believe after making this post, I ran in to this video on youtube, which is now another of my favorite things.

I love making these crazy yule logs at Christmas.  One year we just kept making and making them in different flavor combinations. We had so many we couldn’t give them away!  They look so fancy but are super easy…it’s kind of a tradition now.

I love collecting hand embroidered things, especially pillow cases.  I love laying my head down on them thinking about the person who took all that time to stitch those designs.  I thank them for their artistry and remember a person I’ve never met.  These are two of mine.

I love this artist Gavin Hugh Troy.  I have several of his pieces and never considered myself a “collector” of art but I just kept running in to his paintings in various places and buying them.  Then visited his studio in Tucson, met him, and learned his story of losing his sister also.  Kindred souls.  This one is now hanging in Sedona.

I love love love these Barefoot Contessa Jam Thumbprint cookies.  They are so easy to make and seriously one of the best cookies you’ll ever eat.  Here’s the recipe:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/jam-thumbprint-cookies-recipe/index.html  I made these with apricot and cherry jams.

Here’s a glass of milk to go with your cookies.

Now that we’ve had our bedtime snack,  I’m going to end with a song.  I know I’ve shared this one before and I was thinking of the song I wanted to share with you all and just kept coming back to this.  I’ve watched this video at least 100 times.   And I dedicate it to all you out there reading and sharing along with me because no matter if you’re just out there lurking in far away places or commenting here or sending me emails or just popping in from time to time, you all give me something.

Thank you for sharing my little part of the world, all the ups and downs, tears and laughter for all of these 100 posts.  Here’s hoping I last 100 more or even more than that.  This is my meditation, my sanctuary, my place of belonging.  I love you all out there.  Thank you so much for being a part of my life.