I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween. We napped the afternoon away, then got ready to attend the fall festival at church. Daphne really enjoyed the games and the bouncy house. We planned on trick or treating through the neighborhood, but Daphne was too tired.

Here’s Daphne the Explorer!!

And can you see Backpack bulging with Daphne’s candy/loot?

Poppa had to help her with the hula hoops.

Daphne really liked her costume. She has a small Dora doll and kept pointing to Dora’s clothes, then her clothes after she realized they matched. But I will say that it was a very subtle costume. Several people didn’t realize she was dressed up. Lucky them. They obviously don’t have to watch hours of Dora each day.

At 4:00pm, I decided I needed something to pin on my shirt or put in my hair that was orange and black. I decided to use some Halloween fabric scraps to make a flower pin, and then just stitched that onto a headband I never wear. I have no idea why I’m half winking in this picture. I’m going to blame the sun.

Happy Halloween!!

Finally wearing the Janie & Jack outfit I bought for her in 2007.

It’s a rainy, blah day here in Houston. Perfect weather for staying inside and watching TV, reading, and planning this week’s menu. Here’s my stack of books for today:

First up, recipe search and menu planning. I have 5 pounds of apples and am looking for ideas, preferably savory. Thinking of trying this- Rosemary pork tenderloin with harvest apples. Do you have a good apple recipe to pass along?

- Frank Stitt’s Southern Table. Stitt is an award winning chef from Birmingham. This book is just gorgeous.
- Stop and Smell the Rosemary. Junior League of Houston cookbook. Supposedly contains the best tortilla soup recipe ever. I need to try it. Some of my favorite cookbooks are from Texas Jr. Leagues, like Austin’s Necessities and Temptations, which is out of print. But if you are ever visiting Austin, you can pick up a copy in the capitol building gift shop.
- Barefoot Contessa Family Style. I adore Ina Garten. She’s my favorite celebrity chef.
- And just for fun, Julia Child! I grew up watching a bunch of public television, including Julia Child’s show. This was a birthday present from my sister and I’m trying to figure out what I will make first. Nothing involving gelatin, bone marrow or tripe

And a few photography books:

- Photojojo! So many great projects in this book.
- Exposure and Lighting for Digitial Photographers Only. One of the many photography books we have around the house.

And a crafty book:

- Pop Goes Crochet. What a fun book! 36 crochet projects inspired by pop culture. The first project that caught my eye was a retro, felted purse inspired by Dita Von Teese. I love Dita’s sense of style and she is one of my favorite people to follow on Twitter. She’s always off on some fabulous adventure. I’m also thinking of making the Doris Day scarf in an olive green wool yarn I’ve had for ages. I just need to find my hooks.

And just for fun:

- A Sookie Stackhouse book, From Dead to Worse.

What are you reading?

A clip from one of my favorite old movies, Auntie Mame. And where I got the name for this blog.

If you’ve never seen Auntie Mame, it’s pretty great. Even my husband enjoyed it. And here’s the trailer:

What are your favorite old movies?

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a shoe person. Really, I’m not. I have the bare minimum… black strappy heels, black business appropriate shoes, white tennis shoes, a few different colors of flip flops, brown flats, and black and brown boots, and maybe two other pairs just for fun. That’s it.

Occasionally, I see a pair of shoes and think, ” I must have those!” and since that feeling is so rare, I usually try to indulge myself. Like this pair of shoes:

Sandi Henderson blogged about these shoes, and I immediately had to track down a pair. I had Chris drive me to a really dodgy area of Birmingham in search of a certain store, just to buy these. An area that one of my friends (who years ago lived in the projects) warned me about not driving through. That’s how bad I wanted these shoes. But they are pretty cute, right?

Now Sandi has blogged about another pair of cute shoes. She’s my shoe twin. Unfortunately, since these cost about 10 times more that the last pair of shoes, it will be a while before I can get them. But aren’t they to die for?

Any John Fluevog shoe fans out there?

So, a pair of Fluevog Fiorenzas and some Frye boots and I will be good for a few more years. Now I just have to justify spending $600 on two pairs of shoes. Yeah, that will never happen.

Just another example of my life since having a child… the two most exciting things that happened to me last weekend were, 1- I got to go shopping by myself, and 2- Daphne told me she had to poop and went to the potty and did all of her business. Yippee!!

I didn’t really intend on potty training her until she was a little closer to 2 1/2. But lately, she’s been telling me she needs to go, so we put her on the Dora potty seat. No, we aren’t hard core potty training yet. And half the time she says she needs to “go” it’s really just a way to buy a few extra minutes before bedtime (don’t think I haven’t figured that one out, Daphne!). But, it’s progress. Right?

In case you can’t see them live, YouTube will live stream this Sunday’s U2 concert at the Rose Bowl.

Good reads at Generation Meh (Your Poker Face Won’t Save You)
and The Happiness Project (Who’s in a Starring Role).

10 Tips for a Sharper Image by Amy Wenzel.

Bad Banana on Twitter. His tweets always make me laugh.

Apple Cider Donuts on Smitten Kitchen. Someone make these and tell me how they are. They look yummy!

Enjoy and happy reading!

I got a little behind in my retro week posts. Busy week- family time, OU-TX game, switching my laptop over to Windows 7 (can you hear the Final Countdown playing?), running errands. Since I didn’t want to leave the series hanging, here’s a few quick thoughts.

- Daphne watched her first, non-animated feature film today. Gremlins! My mom picked it up for $5 at Target and we thought Daphne might think Gizmo was pretty cute. And she did. What we didn’t remember was how violent the Gremlins were. Knives, guns, crossbows, chainsaws, flashing? I remember them being ornery, not evil. Daphne went back and forth between calling Gizmo cute and wanting to hold him, to being completely terrified of Stripe. Now she’ll probably have nightmares. Awesome. And while I’m talking about Gremlins, as I was looking through my parents DVDs I found our original copy of Gremlins. Back when you didn’t buy movies, you just got blank VHS tapes and recorded HBO. 2 or 3 movies to a tape in LP, and you had to write down the number where each started or it would take you forever to fast-forward and find it. I wonder if any of those tapes still work?

- Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang were pretty popular when I was in preschool/elementary school. I think my first lunchbox was a Peanuts, and I had a Snoopy school totebag. And of course, there was always the Snoopy Sno-cone machine. But have you gone back and watched any of the old Peanuts holiday specials recently? ZZZZZZZZZ! Wow, they are dull. I’m not sure I could get Daphne to sit through one. Do any of the networks still show It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown? I starred as Frieda in my Kindergarten or 1st grade production. I can still remember my one and only line… Lucy is going on about Halloween costumes or something and I had to say, ” I will, Lucy. But I suppose everyone will know me because of my naturally curly hair.” I don’t know why I wasn’t one of the kids in the pumpkin patch. I’m definitely not an actress and I had a short, stick straight, bob hairdo at the time. So, proclaiming that I had naturally curly hair was dumb. I think my mom actually came to school to curl my hair before the play. Anyway, if you are a big fan of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, ReproDepot carries the fabric.

We interrupt retro week for a quick U2 concert post. It had been a LONG time since I went to a big arena show, and this one was worth every penny of the $252 ticket fee. Our seats were great, the stage was impressive, Muse was amazing. And U2? They were exactly what you’d expect. Incredible showmen and artists. Here’s the review from Houston Press.

My husband had his Flip, while I took pictures. I really thought my old point & shoot had a digital, as well as optical zoom. I was wrong. I saw people next to me with cell phones that had better zoom. Argh. This is about as close as I could get:

I don’t feel as bad now that I’ve seen some concert video from people sitting at the top of the stadium. We were very lucky to get free tickets so close to the stage.

And here’s the rest of the photos:

Until the next tour…

I’ve been a U2 fan for more than 20 years and have never seen them live. That all changes tonight! Woohoo!! I’m so excited, I think I’m going to burst!!

So, in keeping with the retro theme this week, here’s the video for one of my favorite songs (sorry it won’t embed, you’ll have to click through). In fact, I bugged the hell out of my roommate and suitemate in college playing this single and at the time, their new Achtung Baby album over and over.

I love Bono. Love, love, love, love him. But the serious guitar swinging at the end of the video really makes me laugh now.

So, this is where we will be around 7pm. 6 rows up to the left of the stage. Yippee!