An Evening With Oscar And The Girls

My friend, Shelby, who I've known since we were twelve! was throwing an Oscar Party and I was actually able to make it this year! Yayyy!

I dressed up kinda nice, wore my favorite silk scarf that I ever painted, and a pair of new heels.

New. Heels.

Stopped off at Harry Winston's for some bling. But wasn't able to get a bodyguard.

It seems they were all busy guarding the jewels the celebrities borrowed from them,

for Oscar night. Dangit. ;)

"Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close up."

- Gloria Swanson, "Sunset Boulevard"

After that, I headed out. It was a gorgeous, sunny, Southern California day.

I got lost. Of course. Drove around in circles for twenty minutes. Not a great idea when gas is $4.37 a gallon, and you're driving a van.

Hoooney, I'm hooome!

And here she is! My pal since our first day of Jr. High School! Through all of our moving around and living in different parts of the country, we've always kept in touch. Hey! Good friends are hard to come by! And besides, she knows all my secrets, so I can't piss her off!

Here's the rest of our gang from Jr. High.

Shari, Shelby, yours truly and Val. Still as crazy as ever! Love these gals!!

Here's where we watched the show. Such a great room and beautiful house.

Think I'll move in.

If you've been reading my blog, you know that this was my favorite spot in the entire house - the dessert table!! I made the raw, Strawberry, Chocolate Cheesecake. But I scarfed down the cookies! I was sorry later.

Took time to smell the roses. Sniff, sniff. Mmmmm.

These are the score-thingies. We were supposed to put a check by all we thought would win.

I can truly say, I suck at this game!!

Some of the gals had already claimed their seats and were ready to get started on their ballots. But first I made them pose for a picture. There's Dee on the left, then Shari, Helen, Carol and Beverly.

How about a couple more? Oops. Never mind. We lost Carol.

She's ready to kick some butt and win this thing!

Now they're all engrossed in picking the winners, before the show starts.

Think I'll go eat some more cookies. Which I did.

Look who stopped by!! Shelby's daughter, Erin and her adorable son, Logan, with the cool 'do'!

There he is, giving Grandma a hug. What a cutie-pie!!

And there's Val, helping to set up the food. Great looking table - and eats.

Love her sparkly vest.

It was a fun show this year!

Even though I love, Meryl Streep, I wanted the gal from, "The Help" to win. And I was hoping the funny gal from, "Bridesmaids" would win too. But it was not to be. This is why I never win the game!

And who picked the most winners? Eighteen!! (Compared to my four!)

SHARI!! I think she wins every year!! Here she is showing off her prize.

Good job, girl!!

Yayyy! It's time to eat! But lemme get a picture first.

And there's Shelby, the hostess with the mostest. That was some goood food everyone brought!

And here they are, doing the Angelina Jolie leg-pose. She's got nothin' these gals don't have!

Well... okay... there's that Brad guy.

From left to right; Beverly, Dee, Shari, Shelby, Carol, Colleen, Val and Helen.

It was my turn to get in the picture. Hey! Who turned off the light?!

"Cigars? Cigarettes?" Val. Such a jokester. :)

This is what I looked like when I left for home. In good spirits and able to think straight.

You'll see why I mention that, in a second.

Headin' home, paying attention to the speed-limit. So much so, that I missed my exit to I-5.

Of course I did.

This is what I looked like when I woke up on Monday morning.

I told you I'd be sorry that I ate all that good stuff!! I felt like a zombie. Couldn't finish a sentence.

Walked as if I was drunk. Had a stomach ache and a headache, heading for a migraine.

Some of you know that I have a ton of food sensitivities and can't eat anything processed.

Or sugary. That's why I became a raw foodist. But, I still cave when I'm around so much good stuff!!

And I always pay the price. I spent most of Monday in bed. Someday I'll learn!

Temptation. It is what it is.

And this was my breakfast. :( Definitely not "Breakfast Of Champions".

Note to self; If you wear these all afternoon and night...

You will need these the next day.

I've done this before too. Different shoes. Same feet.

I felt better on Tuesday and was able to have a healthy breakfast. A piece of my left-over, raw Cheesecake! Yeah, baby!! And hot water.

Leaving the glitz and glamour of the Oscars behind... it's back to reality.

Whatever the heck that is. :-)

Raw Food vs The Standard American Diet - S.A.D.

Celebrating Hot Water And Cool Cups - Part One

Celebrating Hot Water And Cool Cups - Part Two

There are SO many things to love!

I love "Followers" and comments too!

Thank you.

Signing off for now,

gabriele

Teenage Girls Live Here

And this is their toy box.

Here's this one. My fourteen year old granddaughter.

And that one. My eighteen year old granddaughter.

Of course I think they're beautiful, even without cosmetics.

Inside and out.

From top...

To bottom.

When they were little, people were always telling them how pretty they were.

I didn't want them to get too full of themselves, so I used to tell them, "It's more important to have a good heart, than to be pretty".

The next time I'd visit them, I'd quiz them by asking, "What's more important than being pretty? This one would always say,

"Having a good heart".

That one would say, with a wicked little smirk on her face,

"To have a good liver".

Oh, how I love my grandbrats!!!!

And this little guy too!

Who's old enough to remember buying Max Factor's, "Erace"?

Not to use as an under-eye concealer, but to wear under our lipstick!

A little strange looking, but hey, it was California in the 60s.

What make-up tricks did you have, back in the day, that you'd never revisit? ~

There are SO many things to love!

I love "Followers" and comments too!

Thank you.

Signing off for now,

gabriele

I Love Valentine's Day Chocolates - Day Or Night

I love chocolate. Love, love, love it!!

Even more so, since I learned how to make raw chocolate desserts! Mmmm.

These are the ingredients I used. It's not my recipe, so I can't give you the measurements here, but I'll give you the link to where I got it, at the end of this post. I'm cool that way.

Because of Valentine's Day, I thought I'd use my new toys.

I love new toys.

More fun stuff. I love fun stuff.

Now - to making the Chocolate Almond Butter Cups. (Be still my heart!)

The gal, (Jessica) used peanut butter, but I didn't have any and couldn't find any, so I used raw almond butter instead. I was kinda bummed, because "Reese's Peanut Butter Cups" were my favorite candy, when I ate non-raw goodies. Ohhh, I can taste them now!

Sorry... got lost for a second there.

Okay, the first thing I did was melt the coconut oil, by sticking the jar in a pot of hot water.

Then I added the Agave Nectar,

raw cacao powder, a pinch of sea salt and the Stevia. Then I whisked it. Whisked it good.

Next I poured the mixture into my brand new trays. Love them. So cute.

I was supposed to fill them 1/4 full, but that's trickier than it sounds. I think mine were 1/3 full. More chocolate for me. Yayyy!

I wanted some to look like the Reeses, so I put some of the mixture in these little gold-foil thingies. Then I stuck them all in the freezer for about ten minutes, so that the chocolate could harden.

After ten minutes in the freezer it was time to add the almond butter, but making sure to leave enough room to cover them with more chocolate.

Since I was giving most of these... some of these... okay... a few of these

as gifts, I wore gloves because I had to use my finger to get the almond butter off the spoon.

While filling the tray with the almond butter, I gave the chocolate mixture a few stirs, just to keep it smooth. Okay, last one.

Now it was time to add the remaining chocolate and pop them back in the freezer.

And there they are!! Of course, by then I'd tasted a couple, (okay... 4) so I know how great they are!

I was wondering why these little guys were so hard to keep straight. It wasn't until after I took the pictures that I realized they were rounded on the bottom, from that cool tray! Ha!

In my defense, most everything I post here about making raw food stuff, is a first time experience for me. So, not only is it exciting and fun, I get to laugh at myself too. :)

So, in closing -

Here's wishing you all a wonderful and happy Valentine's Day!!

"I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon."

- Author Unknown

"True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked."

- Erich Segal

"Love is much nicer to be in than an automobile accident, a tight girdle, a higher tax bracket,

or a holding pattern over Philadelphia."

- Judith Viorst

THE RECIPE:

For more information about creating these wonderful chocolates, and other great recipes, please check out this fabulous website:

"Delicious Obsessions" Love it!!!!

OK!! I have no idea why I'm getting those dots, or how to get rid of them!! I've tried and tried. Oh well, let's pretend they're tiny little chocolates. A sweet little decoration in honor of the day. Yeah right.

There are SO many things to love!

I love "Followers" and comments too! Dots, not so much.

Thank you.

Signing off for now,

gabriele