Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Big Red Valentine Hearts


Plato

"Every heart sings a song, incomplete until another heart whispers back."

William Shakespeare

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."

Vincent van Gogh

"Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence."


Frank P. Jones

"Love doesn't make the world go 'round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."

Robert Frost

"Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired."

🌹♥πŸ’‹πŸ’‹πŸ’‹πŸ’‹πŸ’‹πŸŒΉ

"People come and people go,
In and out of your life and so,
When one shines bright among the rest,
And is there when needed, you’re truly blessed.
That is how I see you, friend of mine,
And why I’m sending this Valentine."
By Karl Fuchs

Happy Valentine's Day Peeps! Spend it well. xoxo


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Sunday, December 31, 2023

Happy New Year 2024

Photo: Swarovski
In my dreams, I look like this fashion model on New Year's Eve -- the tan, the sparkles, the elegant shoulders, the star earrings, the mega chicness. What I really look like is the image below. Close enough, ah?:) Be kind! The photo of me below was snapped at Bloomingdales where I was invited to a designer launch of a new collection in October 2019 before the pandemic forced us to shelter at home for nearly 2 years. Thankfully, I attended several of Bloomindales' fashion events over the prior 12 months. During the shutdown, I reflected upon how such public events with hors d'oeuvres and drinks passed around on trays were no longer possible. How suddenly our lives had changed! Life is unpredictable.
The old saying: "Man plans, God laughs" is true. Our plans can only be an outline clarifying the direction we wish to go. How 2024 unfolds is anyone's guess. Will there be any surprises? Time will tell.
We'll ride the old year out and start the New Year optimistically with friends, champagne, a cheese platter, grainy bread and crackers, and whatever else we feel like whipping up. 
Some years I attend parties with friends, and other years I celebrate with family at home. I enjoy both ways of ringing in the new year, but after the ball drops I especially love the easy commute from couch to bed at home.  
The faux fur stole I'm wearing at the Bloomingdale event was a prop given to me by the photographer for the photo. It doesn't go with the dress or shoes but is fancy and perfect here to wish you a Happy New Year!πŸŽ‰πŸ₯³πŸ”΅
After a December 31st night of champagne, a January 1st morning of fine coffee and tea. Here's to 2024! Have fun. Everything in moderation my lovelies.🍷⌛⏰


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Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving Friends


This year I'm especially thankful for family and friends.

As a caregiver, I'm thankful my very senior mother is not bedridden but walks inside the home with a walker. She can walk to the bathroom; and for all the foods she'll no longer eat she's surprisingly healthy, strong, and doesn't require any prescription drugs to make any of her bodily functions work properly. I'm slightly in disbelief. How is this possible on such a limited diet? She is strong enough to be safely bathed in a shower chair, which is such a huge help to a caregiver. She gets a complete spa treatment of skin, hair, and nails twice a week from me. I am surprised at how fast her hair grows. A podiatrist told me that all elderly people have nail fungus, yet my mother's nails are white and strong with no nail fungus. They grow fast too, and we must cut them weekly. Her good health for her age is a blessing.

Moreover, I'm thankful for my hometown friends and neighbors who are what we tend to call good people for short. Each one is a godsend to know. They watch our backs and property and give us lots of joy with their camaraderie and kind hearts. I love spending time with them and keeping up with their families. Our bonds make life meaningful and interesting!

Additionally, I'm thankful for my Manhattan friends, one of whom moved this year to Atlanta Georgia. But we all keep in touch regularly by telephone. Luckily I see them occasionally when we're in the same place, and when out of town by phone and texting. With New York friends, spacing out in-person visits isn't uncommon even when both parties are in New York City as New Yorkers tend to lead very active lives.

This holiday season, we miss our dear friend, Sheila, who lost her battle with breast cancer in June 2023. Life is bittersweet and it makes you appreciate loved ones even more. 

I'm grateful I have hometown and New York friends who I'll know for the rest of our days. In both locations, they are good people with kind hearts whose companionship I cherish and thoroughly enjoy.

I'm also grateful for a few blogging and Facebook friends, who reach out from across the miles 🌍🌎🌏 to support me. I suppose generosity and kindness know no bounds. Readers and fellow bloggers, you touch my heart! I enjoy connecting and hearing your thoughts. A special thank you for becoming a kindred spirit!ζ—…


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Sunday, April 9, 2023

Happy Easter 2023

Photo: The altar of Westminister Abbey, London England 

Once again we celebrate hope, optimism, and human perseverance. 


A belief that ultimate good can overcome challenges, evil, and the limitations of life. Existence is layered and multifaceted. There will be trails, and yet everything has an opposite. Up - down, hot - cold, bad - good, despair - hope. Death - eternal life? It's a leap of faith.

We also celebrate all the goodness life has to offer both in nature and manmade ... from flowers (nature) and colored eggs (art!) to human kindness (generosity of spirit).

Photo: David Attenborough's Facebook post.

Every year there's a new cycle of life. Welcome to the world little lamb. My lovely Readers make the most of your time here on earth!

πŸ£πŸ‡πŸŒ·

A flashback photo of my mom and me on Easter Sunday. Dad was taking the picture. Unlike Christmas or Thanksgiving, it was the one holiday we sometimes treated ourselves to eating out and after our dinner hobnobbing around town.


Happy Easter from THE SAVVY SHOPPER!πŸ₯



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Saturday, December 31, 2022

Happy New Year 2023

Photo: Wine In Black

Well, another New Year to usher in! Wishing you a year of growth and opportunities with warm, fruitful, and enchanting encounters. Meanwhile, life is 100% better with sparkle in it ...
All the following photos and merchandise are courtesy of Macy's (unsponsored).


The Year

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 - 1919)

What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That’s not been said a thousand times?

The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.

We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.

We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.

We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that’s the burden of a year.




In life there is always another side. Everything has an opposite: good and bad, light and dark, pleasure and pain, savvy and naive, satisfying and exasperating, exhilarating and boring, up and down, etc, etc. We will encounter each one. As we move through the decades of our lives strive to remember there is always another side.

Forward kindness in 2023, and Happy New Year!πŸŽ‰


Saturday, December 24, 2022

Peace, Love & Joy!

The Adoration of the Shepherds, c.1650, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain - Images 1 and 2 by Bartolome Esteban Murillo
Some people get upset if the historical accuracy of Jesus' birth is questioned, but when the Gospels were written, the people they were written for had a different sensibility and way of reading texts than we do today. Gospel writers crafted their stories to make points about who they thought Jesus was [to paraphrase Matt Baker, Ph.D. in theology]. Modern scholars tell us that fact-for-fact-accuracy or historical record was secondary, which was accepted by the audience, who didn't expect factual reliability. This can rattle some contemporary believers who do.

Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1618 - 1682) was a Baroque Spanish painter. Orphaned at 11 years old, the artist became a ward of his older sister and brother-in-law, in a close-net family, and lived with them until he married in 1647. The painter, famous for his religious work, also painted everyday life giving us an insight into the 17th century. He was the father of 10 children. 

The Holy Family, c.1660-70, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

Murillo created warm images of Mary and Joseph playing with their happy baby, the man Catholics proclaim as fully human and fully Devine (a hypostatic union in the incarnation). The painter left us with depictions of the Holy Family as a close-net loving unit. St. Joseph is an appealing devoted father.😍

Here's a Victorian drawing of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and 5 of their 9 children surrounding their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle where the royal family celebrated Christmas. Prince Albert was also known to be a loving, involved father, adored by his children. The Prince Consort popularized Christmas trees in Great Britain, a tradition he brought from his native Germany. Unlike Prince Albert, Queen Victoria was not a natural parent, but she was a mother who loved her children and they loved her. She put a ton of time into raising them, and they grew into 9 decent adults. Let's look at one of the royal couple's homes ...

The 2022 Christmas trees are up at Osborne on the Isle of Wight which Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought as a private home in 1845 to get away with their brood from court life. Queen Victoria used Osborne House for 50 years to entertain family, foreign royals (many were also family), as well as, government ministers. After Prince Albert's early death in 1861, it became her favorite home. Her son, King Edward VII, wasn't as fond of it (as it was far from London) and after his mother's death, donated the Osborne estate to the British people. It is open to the public for tours, giving us a glimpse into the private lives of Queen Victoria and her family.

Another longtime Christmas tradition is (of course!) baking cookies. My family bakes the same cookies every year and I posted some of the recipes previously. Pictured above you see (in order): Pecan cookiesπŸ‘‡, Russian Tea Cakes, Coconut Macrarooms, and Scottish Short Bread. Other varieties of cookies are scattered throughout THE SAVVY SHOPPER. My mother always requests that I make Mini Pecan Tassies and she always makes butter cookies at Christmas and Easter. Golly, decorating cookies after pulling them from the oven is not my thing! Starting over is a hassle!! Eating is my next step (which now you know is the reason I bake Scottish Short Bread instead of butter/sugar cookies.:) 

(Here is our recipe for) Pecan Cookies 🐫

Ingredients:

20 ounces ground pecans
4 large egg yolks
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar (you decide how sweet)
a sprinkle of cinnamon

Optional: A little flour for your hands to help form the cookies.

Directions:

1) Using a fork mix the ingredients in a bowl.

2) Dip your hands in all-purpose flour to help form the cookies and drop in a parchment paper lined, or greased cookie sheet. If your cookie dough is too wet to handle, just add additional ground nuts (a tad more sugar for the addition) until you can handle the cookie dough.

3) Bake for 10 - 12 minutes in a preheated 350-degree F oven and remove to cool.

We always make pecan cookies and coconut macaroons at the same time since the former requires egg yolks while the latter, egg whites.

Photo: Macy's
My Dear Readers ... thank you for spending another year with me, and I welcome you who joined us recently. Here we're one global human family sharing our collective knowledge, humor, interests, tips, and holidays with acceptance of all cultures. I can't do it alone, so bring your uniqueness! Everybody is valued on THE SAVVY SHOPPER, and I love hearing from you!🌍🌎🌏 

Monday, December 5, 2022

Which Office Party Dress Will You Wear?

In December many companies host a holiday office party for their employees normally outside of the office at a nearby restaurant. The trouble is usually workers must come to the office in the morning for a full day of work before leaving to attend the holiday party, and, if you are like me, you try to find something somewhat festive to wear that day for the after-work holiday party.

I come to work a little dressier ... spiffing up a tad more than a regular workday but short of simmering in a full-length ball gown. Although colleagues get why I'm overdressed that day (as they're in the same jubilee boat), I try to wear attire that doesn't look too out of place at 10 am, and yet has a party dress vibe for the evening.
So do any of these 7 dresses fit the occasion? If so, choose your office party dress, one you will need to wear the entire day and evening:

1) SL Fashions - (Left top image) Ruched Sequin Sheath Dress - Black.

2) SL Fashions - (Right top image) Sequined 3/4 Sleeve Sheath Dress. - Red. Would you wear a little black dress or a holiday red dress?
3) Karl Lagerfeld Paris (Left image) - Pearl Knit Sweater Dress -Black

4) Marina - Beaded Sleeve Dress - (Middle image) - Black

5) Marina - (Right image) Cowl neck sheath dress - Navy
6) Eliza JWomen's Sequined Velvet 3/4-Sleeve Sheath Dress - Black slate

7) SL FashionsSequined Chiffon-Cape Dress - Black/Gold

Shorter party dresses can be called cocktail dresses. Which dress is your favorite and why? BTW: Unless it's 80+ degrees F outdoors, I'm wearing black opaque tights and closed-toe shoes!πŸŽ„


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