Posted by missjunebug on January 3, 2012
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missjunebug loves color. Her little hacienda is a living ode to color that would make Pablo Neruda proud. She and Mr.JB just finished having their kitchen painted with a lovely Dorset Gold and Claret Red. Thanks Dos Amigos! missjunebug is still in the process of putting her kitchen back together, but the glowing, colorful result was well worth the temporary inconvenience.
Speaking of a colorful result, Pantone the color gurus to the world have declared Tangerine Tango the 2012 Color of the Year. Cool that! missjunebug loves, loves, loves all things orange: Texas Longhorns, citrus, J. Crew sweaters, pumpkins, poppies, monarch butterflies, carrots, the sun, Orange Julius, birds of paradise, candy corn middles, sunsets, sunrises, K-Orange soda, Cheez-Its, and autumn leaves.
What’s so great about orange? In a word: ENERGY. The color selectors at Pantone are hopeful Tangerine Tango will recharge and motivate and move us forward in 2012. Good idea, Pantone Peeps! missjunebug thinks we could all use that right about now, considering the doldrums we’ve been languishing in for the last few years. The magnetic red-orange of Tangerine Tango will no doubt shake things up in the fashion and style world and missjunebug is happy to get on board with that. Here’s what one of the color gurus, whose name (Leatrice!) is as colorful as Tangerine Tango is red-orange, had to say about Pantone’s 2012 Color of the Year:
“Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”
Well said, Leatrice!
With such a color leading our way through 2012, it just has to be a great year!
missjunebug says, “Get your Tangerine Tango on!” and Happy 2012!
Posted by missjunebug on December 17, 2011
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missjunebug is not much of a fan of that Julie Andrews song from the treacly Sound of Music--was that really Best Picture??–my! how tastes have changed. Anyway she still likes the idea behind the song: enumerating favorite things can be fun and useful. So here are a few of missjunebug’s current favorite things this time of year:
The Somis Nut House–the most awesome place to buy holiday candy, fruit, and nuts in Ventura County, SoCal. Located in an unassuming building reminiscent of a big shed, you’ll find an array of candy favorites vintage and new as well as nuts amped up with spices, sugars, and smoke. She even found a spicy little mix called Samurai whose name speaks for itself! There are the usual sweet suspects: cherry sours, licorice, a virtual gummy zoo of shapes, malted milk balls on steroids, English toffee that’s pricey but so worth it, and many other chocolatey and foil-wrapped Christmas favs. And nuts and dried fruits galore. Mr.JB’s fav? Dried Kiwi fruit! Pale green disks of sugary sweet fruity goodness that look perfect as the centerpiece of a Christmas gift box. Where is this delightful house of delicacies? 4475 East Los Angeles Avenue Somis, CA 93066-9616 Call them at (805) 386-1211 or check out their website at www.somisnuthouse.com. You and your sweet tooth will be thanking Somis Nut House (and missjunebug) the rest of the holiday season!
Pandora Radio set to Christmas Jazz. If you are a little tired of Jingle Bells barked by dogs or the Vienna Boys Choir somber Latinate songs of the season or the mellifluous but slightly depressing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” crooned by various old school musical masters like Bing and Tony or updated by Michael B. then try the instrumental and upbeat Christmas Jazz stream playing right now on Pandora. missjunebug recommends it as the best possible music to decorate a Christmas tree or bake cookies to. For a slightly edgier mix try setting your Pandora to Mannheim Steamroller. That will definitely get your Christmas groove on.
Spritz Cookies! What would Christmas be without these little pressed wonders so sparkly and buttery! missjunebug knows you remember she already gave you the recipe for those cookies in a previous blog post. If you don’t believe her just search her very accommodating site for it under Semi-Healthy Mega-Delicious Recipes! And make some! If you can’t find the time to do that and you still crave sugar cookies, try to make it to Royal Bakery in Ventura for some delicious Christmas sugar cookies that are so worth the drive! Green trees! Red stockings! Black and white cows! Okay, so the cow cookies are not particularly seasonal, but they are delicious!
A fresh-cut Christmas Tree from the Men of the Elks Lodge or other such helping organization! These dedicated white-haired gentlemen provide funding for so many worthy charitable enterprises in local communities, you’ll feel practically holy buying a tree from them! And the piney fragrance is worth every penny! So bite the bullet, dole out the cash, and inhale the green freshness of that very noble Nobel Fir!
A Kiva Gift Card to help support small business entrepreneurs throughout the world. This is the quintessential gift that keeps on giving. As soon as the global entrepreneur pays back the loan, guess what? You can re-lend it again! And again! missjunebug has helped finance a Kenyan moto man so that he could buy some new tires for his burgeoning motorcycle taxi transportation service, a Rwandan woman who needed to procure beauty products for her salon, and another Rwandan woman supplying her clothing business with some fresh fashions! It’s never been more interesting to provide a hand up, not a hand out! Check out this super worthy enterprise at www.kiva.com!
Now missjunebug has an important question for you: What are your favorite things of the season? Shopping? Eating? Watching Christmasy movies–(actually, missjunebug should have included this one, too). Figure it out! Get busy doing them! And do as Julia says,”I simply remember my favorite things and then I don’t feel so bad.”
Happy Holidays!
Posted by missjunebug on December 7, 2011
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missjunebug has been thinking a lot lately about the little tidbits of information she picks up that are really helpful and sometimes even inspiring. A few weeks ago she was reminded of something super useful and informative by, of all people, her pastor! Thanks, Pastor J. for re-introducing missjunebug to that most awesome of websites: TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. She had let that site fall off her radar for too long. While her time was well spent watching the talk by Karen Armstrong on the Twelve Steps to Compassion (a most worthwhile read) that she presented as a winner of the TED prize, missjunebug has had fun just rediscovering the wonderful talks available throughout the site. Today she listened to one entitled The Magnificence of Spider Silk. And believe missjunebug when she says spider silk is truly awesome. You can find out for yourself at TED talks! There are so many great talks to choose from, missjunebug guarantees you will never be without access to fascinating info you can use and muse about.
Another nifty set of notions missjunebug gleaned this week from the Hoda and Kathy Lee hour of the Today show. mjb checks in on this fun hour from time to time and the other day it was pretty worthwhile for the 10 Secrets of Happy Women presented by a couple of gals from Prevention Magazine. In brief here’s missjunebug’s interpretation of them:
Don’t rain on your own parade. Instead, wallow in happiness like those pigs in…well…you know.
Avoid glass half empty thinking even if you think you’re hard-wired to be missdarkside. Try missbrightside instead. You may have to work at it but it’s worth it to raise your happiness quotient.
Give yourself some attagirls (or attaboys!) for the accomplishments you’ve…accomplished.
Relive and repeat the happy stuff to create a happiness that continues to echo…echo…echo. missjunebug thinks this may especially apply to travel. Sometimes the best part of a trip is reminiscing about it after you get back.
How about comparing yourself downward? By way of this the two Prevention ladies told this two sentence story. An uprooted tree lands on your shiny new car! AT least you’re not IN the car. This may just be a variation on the Glass Half Full philosophy but missjunebug likes the idea of making the best of a pesky situation.
And missjunebug’s personal fav: Get absorbed in the FLOW, that most profound of mind states that manifest when you are truly absorbed in an activity you love doing. Kind of like how missjunebug feels right now writing this little post. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyiha had it all going on when he came up with this research. Check out his book Flow if you don’t believe missjunebug.
Okay, so maybe missjunebug didn’t get all 10 of the secrets but she has a few of her own:
Read poetry. As G. Keillor says, “Poetry is church.” Amen to that.
Walk in the early morning like Mr.JB does. As H.D. Thoreau says, “An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”
Have a little treat everyday. As missjunebug says, “Even Weight Watchers allows this!”
Say a prayer before you sleep. And rest easy as God holds you in the palm of His hand.
Amen to that, too!
Posted by missjunebug on November 16, 2011
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missjunebug has been thinking about writing things down lately. She’s started her usual lists for this time of year–Thanksgiving pie ingredients, Christmas presents for her side of the family and Mr.JB’s side of the family, seasonal chores to do–you get the idea. She’s been especially taken by a program on her fab little MacPro called Things that keeps her on task and productive. It contains EVERYTHING a person needs to succeed in, to borrow a phrase from David Allen, getting things done!
If you know D.A. you’ll readily see the way in which Things meshes perfectly with the Getting Things Done precepts. And it’s fun!
If you find yourself in search of some order in your goal setting and a way of tracking your progress, missjunebug assures you that you can’t go wrong with Things. She wants to give a shout out to ElderJB who got her started using Things! Thanks, ElderJB! Good on you!
Of course, you can always set your default to The Paper List when your computer isn’t handy! It’s small, simple, portable, and check-off-able! missjunebug is a big proponent of all things Occam’s Razor -y!
Another fun internet site to set your sights on for list making is www.43things.com. You can make your own goal list or be inspired by others! Think of this as good preparation for those New Year’s Resolutions which are just a blink away!
Posted by missjunebug on November 9, 2011
A Plethora of Petite Pumpkins Christmas Style! Photo by mjb2011
missjunebug wasn’t quite ready to part with her petite pumpkins after Halloween so she decided to bust out her Liquitex Acrylic Paints and have some fun. She’s done this little transformation for a few years for a bunch of good reasons. Here are some of them:
1. Those little pumpkins are just too cute to throw out! missjunebug likes the idea of repurposing her decorations whenever possible.
2. This painting project is so easy! It just takes a couple of hours depending upon how intricate you want to get with your designs.
3. missjunebug loves instant gratification and these little pumpkin gems just glow once painted with shimmery gold, bronze, silver, red, and green. But feel free to create your own color palette if you try this fun project.
4. It’s impossible to mess this project up! Any design works! Any color works! And the clean up is super easy. Swirl your brushes in some water and voila! You are done!
Place these petite pumpkins around the house for a colorful burst of holiday spirit or gather them all together for a lovely centerpiece. Get your holiday arts and craft groove on! You will be delighted with the results!
Posted by missjunebug on November 5, 2011
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missjunebug knows you know the rest. She was running a few errands today, a Saturday, something she almost never does since she has the leisure to shop during the week when 90% of the world is working give or take a per cent or two. And what does she find at her local mall? A FULL sign on level one of the parking garage. No way! She circled up to level two where she usually parks where there were only 56 spaces available out of hundreds. No way!
Way.
Lucky for missjunebug she found an open one! Now Level Two was down to 55 spaces!
missjunebug was on a mission! She was buying a birthday gift card for a friend and a wedding present for a lovely niece, but the people she was bumping into had already polished off the Halloween candy and dashed right to the Christmas stocking. And stocking up they were! Perhaps this is a good sign for the economic doldrums the country’s been navigating through for three years give or take a year. (Check out Margin Call with Kevin Spacey if you need a refresh about how we ended up in those econodoldrums.)
But missjunebug digresses.
Back to the madcap shopping going on at her mall: she was hardly in the mood for it. Why? She’d just watched Skipping Christmas the day before. Yes, you read that right. She watched her first Christmas movie on the 4th day of November while she was baking cookies for a church event–one unrelated to holiday cheer.
missjunebug is just not ready for the seasonal whimsy quite yet! And if you are at all familiar with John Grisham‘s little homage to Christmas…spoiler alert…believe missjunebug when she says in the filmed version despite what the title promises, the Kranks played by Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis most definitely do not skip Christmas.
Not that missjunebug would really want to. She’d just like to ask for a delay of game! At least tonight she can fall back an hour on the clock postponing the frenzied inevitable.
Posted by missjunebug on October 30, 2011
Simple pumpkins not so simple any more: Red, orange greenish, white and warty! Photo by mjb2011
missjunebug had some fun this weekend taking a few Halloween pictures that capture the spooky vibe of the season. Try not to get too scared. She’ll provide you with the Cornish benediction to cure all scariness that manifests this time of year:
From ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties,
and things that go bump in the night,
good Lord, deliver us!
Happy Halloween!
Fine seasonal signage! Hey, Pumpkin Head Man! Photo by mjb2011
Smiley pumpkin with a spooky pitchfork! Creepy plus!! Photo by mjb2011
What's scarier? The Hairy Skeleton or the Steroidal Strawberry? Photo by mjb2011
Posted by missjunebug on October 20, 2011
Most Beautiful Flowers Ever! Thanks, Margaret!!!! Photo by mjb2011
What was the first thing missjunebug did on her BIG 6-0 B-Day? Checked her Facebook page, natch. As much as she complains about the invasive nature of media, technology, i-this, and i-that devices (of which she owns all the them–thanks to Secular Prophet S.J. (may you R.I.P.), she couldn’t wait to see who offered up to her Birthday Greetings from around the country. She loved reading every last one of them! From elementary school friends she hasn’t seen in decades to church friends to close friends, to dear family flung far and wide, it was a thoroughly delightful way to start her 6-0 B-day. Whatever did she do before Facebook? Thanks, Zuck Dawg for this amazing, invasive, confounding, delightful tool of communication without which missjunebug’s life would be socially impoverished fo sho. And thanks to all my fbfriends for fond birthday greetings. And, hey, missjunebug even got some email greetings, text-mail, phone calls, and cards IN THE MAIL!!! with sweet wishes, too. Special thanks to those who took the time to write in cursive (dying art!) their greetings. Life is good. Life is good, indeed.
As for sixty? It sucks.
missjunebug kids.
As one of her dear fb/church friends said: “This year 6 wins, 0 losses.” missjunebug loves this idea so much so that she’s figured out what those future wins should be:
missjunebugWin#1: Continued Good Health with the C-word a distant memory.
missjunebugWin#2: Living in the Now, just like Eckhart said. No past. No future. Now. Now. Now.
missjunebugWin#3: Loving neighbor/other as self, just like J.C. said. He is missjunebug’s homeboy.
missjunebug’s Win#4: Cherish family and friends forever, just like Facebook says: Stay connected, but missjunebug suggests,”Do it in person!”
missjunebug’s Win#5: Cash in those airline miles and resort points and travel often and open-minded. missjunebug’s dear Mr.JB and she head for Central Asia and Australia in 2012. STANS, here they come for the Transit of Venus! And Aussies, fire up the barbie and the Total Solar Eclipse! Fun times to come in the big 6-0!
missjunebug’s Win #6: Continue to write her little bug heart out on missjunebug.com for fun, for learning, for legacy! She hopes you’ll continue to check in with her from time to time!
Posted by missjunebug on October 2, 2011
This Little Sticker Takes You on a Walk Through Three Chinese Dynasties! Photo by mjb2011
missjunebug should probably be booted from blogging for that post title, but oh well. She has a few observations and recommendations that don’t really deserve more than a passing mention so she’s lumping them all together in a pretty disorganized media miscellany. So here goes:
She finds it pretty cool that Ken Burn’s new PBS documentary Prohibition is airing in close proximity to the new season for HBO‘s acclaimed series Boardwalk Empire. Sometimes the stars and planets align perfectly to provide delight. Most poignant scene in B.E‘s first episode? The Great War’s veteran and partner to upstart Jimmy Darmody tucked away in his room meticulously cutting out pictures of happy families from magazines and carefully glueing them into his scrapbook of Impossible Dreams for a Normal Life (missjunebug’s title!). Not likely to happen with half a face. Heartwrench!
Speaking of heartwrench: AplusK plus Mrs.Kutcher no more? To quote Project Runway’s Nina Garcia, “It’s just so sad!” But missjunebug will take AplusK’s advice and not assume anything! She hopes for the best for both. And she’d like to remind the gossips and the media stalkers of this powerful celebrity duo of the wise Jewish proverb: “What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t invent with your tongue.”
missjunebug’s fav cooking series on HGTV worth a look: Chopped! hosted by one of the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy guys. The money part of the show? The competition is completed in just one hour! No need to watch week after week to see who wins. missjunebug knows you know how many talent/reality HGTV shows use the tune-in-forever-to-figure-out-who-wins format. Annoying x 10. The chefs in Chopped! have wack ingredients for three menu items: appetizer, entree, and dessert. And voila! A loser is mercilessly chopped round by round until there’s one chef standing. All within one hour! Brilliant!
New series actor not to be missed? Zooey Deschanel on New Girl. What a quirky, lovable character she plays! missjunebug suspects she is not working against type in playing the zany Jess. The beauty part to missjunebug is that she’s playing a teacher who is not too cool for school like that red meanie Sue Sylvester! Jess’s just right! And so is Z. Deschanel.
Best movie bet: Moneyball with Brad Pitt. missjunebug is a football fan from way, way back; baseball? not so much. But Moneyball is about thinking outside the box or the baseline, not baseball per se. It also doesn’t hurt to see it at the local Muvico with her p.i.c. in luxe seats while eating free popcorn and drinking a Pilsner glass full of Stella. Oh. my. yes. Time well spent. missjunebug’s SAG vote for best male performance in a film in 2011 will mos def go to Mr. Pitt.
One last popular goings-on: The new exhibit at missjunebug’s and Mr.JB’s fav museum: The Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. The curators here must have a direct line to Beijing and Xian because they’ve done it again putting together a rad collection of Chinese artifacts in their new show Warriors, Tombs, and Temples. missjunebug has one word for it: AWESOME. Find out all you need to know about W,T & T at www.bowers.org. Take a walk through Chinese history wending your way from the cruel Qin to the civilizing Han through the talented Tang dynasty. The audio tour is erudite but accessible; the artifacts, from the Xian terracotta warriors to the containers for the Buddha’s finger bone are fierce! Don’t miss this!
One last thing: Before Ocktoberfest ends, have a pretzel! Drink a beer! Eat a brat! missjunebug had the good fortune to enjoy homemade pretzels made by her inspired Mr.JB who just returned from Munich where he imbibed with the rest of the Ocktoberfesters! So get your Pretzel On!
Pretzel Perfection! At Least Taste Wise! Thanks, Mr.JB! Photo by mjb2011
Posted by missjunebug on September 17, 2011
A moonscape? Planet X? No! It's the Schrimpf-Davis Seep Field near the Salton Sea. Photo by mjb2011
missjunebug has a secret obsession with the Salton Sea. And that was even before she saw the Val Kilmer film of the same name! She toured this salty, below sea-level inland sea with Mr.JB, ElderJB, and TinyJB many years ago and recently returned to do a solo drive around its entirety. She’ll save that experience for another post another day.
What she did find about half way around was really stunning: the Davis-Schrimpf Seep Field.
The Davis-Schrimpf seep field is located off Highway 111 near Calipatria, California off Davis Road, a glorified dirt road that cuts through local farm fields. As with all things Salton Sea, the Davis-Schrimpf seep field is well below sea level and super surreal. What missjunebug found was lots of mudpots bubbling up carbon dioxide gas from deep down below the surface of the earth. On the surface what you’ll see if you visit this cool seep is nifty nodules rising up. These gryphons as they’re called by geo students in the know are variously textured with mudflows and salty remains of the magma cook-off going on about a kilometer below. The smell reminds missjunebug of her family’s experience in Lassen National Volcanic Park many years ago. But the bubbling at Davis-Schrimpf isn’t hot like Bumpass Hell, just gurgly and blurpy, salty and muddy. And very, very cool if you enjoy all things geologic.
Walk carefully around the gryphons and watch your step. There are lots of pockets that are soft and several deep gurgling pits that are not feet friendly. Treat the area with respect and take plenty of pics. This is a rare geologic treat!
Next time you are within striking distance of the Salton Sea, set your GPS for the Davis Schrimpf seep field and prepare to be amazed. And if you don’t plan a road trip anytime soon, at least check out the Kilmer film Salton Sea. It’s equally surreal!
Otherworldly Seep Field! Photo by mjb2011
A Salty Jigsaw Puzzle! Photo by mjb2011
Mud Flow Gray and Gooey! Photo by mjb2011
A Last Look at the Seep Field. Photo by mjb2011
