Blog Parties

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Favorite Things in My Town Link Party

Did someone say party? I love to party and Centsational Girl is hosting a "Favorite Things in My Town" link party. So you know I have to party along.

Problem is, I totally forgot about Kate's party. Plus you already know how I procrastinate stuff. So don't tell anyone, but I'm regifting my post so that I can party too.

I call this, the tale of 3 cities. Let me do some explaining. I live in southern California in the City of Menifee. When we first moved here 6 years ago & bought our house, the tax records show that we live in Romoland, CA. But our mailing address was Sun City, CA (and still is). But now this area officially became a city called Menifee on 10/01/08. So technically I can say that I live in 3 cities.

Now for some boring information on where I live:

The City of Menifee is located in southwestern Riverside County approximately 30 miles southeast of the City of Riverside. We are about 90 miles north of San Diego & about 90 miles east of Los Angeles. Within an hour or so I can be at the beach, the mountains or the desert.

The city of Menifee encompasses approximately 50 square miles with an overall population of approximately 60,000. But has the look and feel of a small town.

If you haven't fallen asleep already, it's time for the photo part of our tour. First we have a photo of one of the churches in our city. Along with a huge American flag that flies over the local KFC/Taco Bell. And a C-17 airplane. March Air Reserve Base is located about 15 miles north of us. So we get these airplanes flying over our city every day.

You can click on any photo to enlarge


Next I will take you to what used to be down town Sun City. Now to live down town you have to be 55 or older. Those of us under the age of 55 have to live on the outskirts of town.

Here is the price of gas 6/30/09 at the local Chevron station, $2.99 a gallon. Right now, gas at this same station is $3.78. And here is the local thrift store that I love to shop at. I love a thrift store where you can still find things for less than a buck. My favorite grocery store-Stater Brothers and finally the shopping area down town. Up until last November 2008 this was the only place we could shop locally. If we wanted to go to Walmart or a Home Depot, we had to drive about 15 minutes in any direction to find one.



More photos of down town Sun City. I love how the local seniors keep active at the local country club playing either shuffleboard or lawn bowling. Next we have a funny swan shaped boat sitting in someones driveway. Since this is a senior community, there must be some golf courses. I wish I could have gotten a photo of one of the many golf carts that drive around town.

If we move south & east of down town Sun City we are in the area that was originally Menifee. The high school is called Paloma Valley High School. This is where my son graduated back in 2009. We also have a Junior College in town. The original Mt San Jacinto College campus is in San Jacinto, CA near Hemet. But the 2nd campus is located here in Menifee. It is small, but cute. The 2 buildings shown are at the Jr College.
Do you like to shop? Well I do. And we finally have a local shopping center. It's called Countryside Marketplace. Opened up a couple of years ago. And the best part? It's only 2 miles from my house!!! I don't have to drive to another city to shop. I love this shopping center. It has a TJ Maxx, Michael's, Super Target, Kohl's & Lowe's. Now if only we could get a Walmart closer than 20 minutes away, I would be in heaven. Only a couple of more years and I will have a Walmart within 4 miles of my house. Can't wait.


And we finally have some good places to eat. And what is the number one place you want to eat if you come to California? Why In-N-Out of course. They have the best hamburgers. If you ever come to California, you must eat there. Another good place to eat is Red Robin restaurant. I love their fries!!! I just got back from eating my free birthday burger from Red Robin. I didn't like Chipotle which really surprised me since I love Mexican food. But I love Panda Express. Subway is always good too, but we already had a Subway in down town Sun City. I still haven't tried the Breakfast Club of Menifee but I hear it is really good.

We can't forget our local heroes, the hunky firemen and police. We got our own police once we officially became a city. And we do have a local hospital. But there are rumors that you don't want to go there in an emergency. You might end up sicker or worse yet, dead.

How about seeing some of the houses in our area. We have different types here depending on the area of town you live in & how old the house is. Here we have a new house in my area, a farm house & a typical California Ranch house in the countryside complete with horses (not pictured) and the typical 60's style house in down town Sun City. Did you notice no grass in the last house? Seniors don't like having to mow a lawn, so most of them have rocks instead of lawn. Which I guess is great now since we have a water shortage.

We do have a couple of apartment complexes in town & they are building a few more. I hope they don't build too many. The town I grew up in San Diego county was great until they built it up with apartments in the 70's & then everything went downhill. I don't want that to happen here. Next we have a typical California Mediterranean home, some manufactured homes and homes on the golf course. So you can see we have quite the variety of different style homes in our city.



And you can't visit southern California without seeing some palm trees.

Some more landscape photos. There are some man made lakes here in the city of Menifee. And there used to be orange groves everywhere. Now there is only a small area near the hospital. Lots of hills around us but not much grows there. So if we were to have a wild fire I'm not too worried as there isn't much to burn. And we do have some wild life. Saw this bunny tonight just up the street. And once we had a snake in our yard. We had a lovely sunset tonight.




And finally I will leave you with photos of my house. I have to warn you that our front yard needs lots of work. We have this huge willow tree that takes up most of our yard & hides the house. It grows so fast. Plus my son needs to mow the grass. We live in a Mediterranean style house. I wouldn't call it my dream home. I'd much rather live in a farm house or Victorian house. But not many of those here in southern California. So this one will do for now.

My back yard is much better. We spend all of our time back here. You can't live here without a pool as it gets hot, hot, hot in the summer. It's been in the triple digits for the past week. At least we don't get much humidity.

Well I hope that you enjoyed the tour of my current home town. If you ever get over this way, stop by & say "Hi". I'll even let you take a dip in my pool. Just bring your own towel.



Linking to:

Favorite Things in my Home Town @ Centsational Girl

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Summer or School?

Can you believe that August is halfway over? I sure can't. And school has already started in our neck of the woods. But I don't have to worry about school since my kids are all grown and my grandson is only four. But he is going to attend Preschool for the first time after Labor Day. So I will have to think about him attending school. But not for a few weeks.

Besides, what would you rather look at, or think about now? Summer or School?

I'm picking Summer, as thinking of school just gives me an upset stomach. And why does thinking of "school" give me a tummy ache? Probably as I hated school when I was a kid. Even to this day, when I pass by the "school supplies" at the store, my stomach gets all queasy on me. I hate it, a 50 something year old woman shouldn't still have such a reaction to school supplies.


Since I have chosen to think about Summer instead of the dreaded word "school". I thought I would finally get around to showing you my Summer china hutch. I've had it this way for about a month, but I've been too lazy to post about it.

I started a collection of blue canning jars last year or the year before. I only have 5 of them. I placed 3 of them on top of the hutch. At first I filled them with shells, but then I decided I liked the look of them empty.

On the right side I placed this framed print of children at the sea. Don't you just love this? I stole the image off the Internet. But don't tell the Internet police. The frame is a cheap plastic one I picked up from Dollar Tree a few years back. I painted it white & distressed it.

I think my favorite thing on my hutch is this fun bunting, banner, garland or what ever you want to call it. What do you call it?

Flash cards with beachy, summer words.

The flashcards are actually part of a scrap booking paper collection from October Afternoon from their Seaside collection .


I sure wish I was at the ocean today. It's about 100 degrees here in the Inland Empire in SoCal. But thankfully, nothing like those of you in the South and Midwest have had to bear this summer.

We've actually had a cooler than normal summer thus far. So I'm not really complaining. At least not too much. Plus we don't get a lot of humidity here.

I picked up a set of 4 of these "Shell gas" shells from an antique store in Arizona a couple of summer's ago. The pencil starfish came from Walmart about the same time. I didn't see any pencil starfish at Walmart this year.

Speaking of Walmart, I hate how they have downsized their fabric and craft department. It sucks! There, I said it. I don't go to Walmart much anymore because of it. Take that, Walmart!

But I do miss seeing all the interestingly dressed clientele that frequent there.

Sorry to get off on a tangent. I'll get back to my hutch. All of my white ironstone came from thrift stores. My cloches did too.

The blue glass candle holders came from Tai Pan Trading last summer. I'm itching to make a trip to the Tai Pan Trading store in Rancho Cucamonga. I feel for those of you who don't live in Utah or SoCal, as you are missing a fabulous store.

But then, pay back is a biotch since there isn't a Hobby Lobby store in SoCal. There is one in northern California, but it is hours away from me. Probably closer to drive to Phoenix to shop. And Phoenix is a 5-6 hour drive.

To the owners of Hobby Lobby,

You need to put a store in the Inland Empire in SoCal. We need one here, real bad. Like real, real, real bad.

Thanks in advance.

Your friend,

Kim aka: Starshine Chic.

My mind keeps getting off track.


It's got to be the heat.

How long can I leave my summer hutch like this? I'm thinking at least a couple of more weeks.

I'm feeling cooler just looking at this old photo of the beach.

I guess my Summer hutch is helping me feel more relaxed and cooler.

I Just keep thinking about the beach and it's cool 68 degree, maybe 70 degree if we are real lucky water. You guys or gals who live on the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf are real lucky with how warm your water is. I am so jealous.

But then, not so much when you get a hurricane. Then I'm glad our water here in the Pacific ocean is too cold for a hurricane. So we don't have that worry. Earthquakes are enough worry.

Thanks alot! Now you have me worrying about "The Big One", earthquake, that is. And when that happens, all my pretty glassware will break into millions of little pieces. And I will be soooooo sad.

At least I'm not thinking of school.

After taking all my photos of my Summer hutch, I decided my glass Mason jars needed some sprucing up. I decided to make a number tag for each and a map tag. I guess I could have put a number on each map tag. I may just do that and take off the plain ones.

But now I realized that numbers remind me of school. Dang it!!! I didn't want to think about school. Now I need to go and take a Pepto Bismo for my tummy ache. I think I'll take a nap too, so I can forget all about school.

Wake me up when Halloween decorating time gets here. Is it too early to think of Halloween?




Linking to:

VIP Party @ Designer Garden

Wow us Wednesdays @ Savvy Southern Style

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Tuesday Ten Round Up

This is going to be my first week joining Stephanie Lynn over at Under the Table and Dreaming for her Tuesday Ten weekly round up party.

It's a party where you can post about anything that you feel didn't warrant getting an entire post on it's own.

Keep in mind, that my post took me almost a month to put together. I live a pretty boring life. So not much to post about (as you will soon find out).

So here we go........

1) There is a street in my town called Starshine Dr. Too bad it isn't Starshine Chic Dr.


I was pretty jazzed about this. Hubby asked if we are now going to move to that street. I told him "no". I like where we live now. But who knows what the future may bring?

Do you have a street with your blog name in your town?

2) Had my first taste of Cold Stone Creamery this week. All I can say is that it won't be my last.


I had the "Founders Favorite". I think that was what it was called.

This is my cute niece Taylor who works at Cold Stone. That was the real reason I went there. Had to see where she is working now.

What is your favorite thing to get at Cold Stone?


3) Made s'mores for the first time this summer. My big boys enjoyed this as much as the younger boys from next door.

I think everyone had more fun burning their marshmallows then really making s'mores.


4) Our dolphin topiary finally got a summer haircut. Here is the before:


And here is the after. Much better.

And don't be looking too closely at my dead hanging baskets. We never did plant flowers in them this year. And now it is too hot to even try.


5) I finally have hydrangea flowers! I planted 2 hydrangea plants in my front yard a few years back. This is the first year I have blooms. I am so excited.

This photo is from last month when they first bloomed.


And this is the same flower this morning. I love the muted colors.

I only really got 4 complete blooms. So I didn't dare cut them off. But I may now to try and dry them out. But I'm so scared!!!!


6) Stumbled upon a car show with hubby by accident a few weeks back in the Walmart parking lot. You know men and cars. We had to take a looksy.

I had a car just like this as my first car. A 1971 Chev Camaro. Except mine didn't have the spoiler on the back and was blue which I later painted black and didn't have a racing stripe. Had white pin striping on the sides instead. Other than that, identical!

See? This is me back in the 70's with my Camaro. I wish I still had this car. And yes, I had Farrah Fawcett hair. Didn't everyone in the 70's?

My kitty's name was Kung Fu.

This is the Camaro that I really wanted. But they were harder to find and more expensive.


7) The police were in our hood again. Seems to be a weekly occurrence. This time they actually parked in front of our house. It seems a drunk driver took our corner a little too fast & crashed into the curb across the street. Luckily he didn't hit the blue truck or the black Mustang parked in the driveway. He hit the curb just between them. The drunk backed out & tried to drive off. Hubby was trying to stop him & kept yelling the guys license plate to me to write down. But because I had not eaten yet and the rush of adrenaline from getting up too fast to see what happened, I passed out and hit the deck. Luckily it wasn't really the deck I hit, but the grass. And I didn't really black out, just went dizzy & fell. Boy did my side hurt the next day.

The drunks truck stopped working just as he was in front of our house. That is why the cops are parked in front of my driveway.

They ended up arresting the drunk driver and towing his truck away.

I was trying to be sneaky while taking the photos. Our poor neighbors across the street. This is the 2nd time in a month that someone has taken the corner too fast & crashed. Last time the blue truck was hit on the bed by a hit and run driver who ended up getting caught. He was a 15 year old boy who didn't have his license. So the neighbor was real happy that none of their cars were hit this time. People just need to slow down when driving in residential neighborhoods.


8) What in the heck is this thing?

I found this cool rusty metal thingy at the thrift store a few weeks back for a quarter. But I have no idea what it is or what it was used for. Any ideas?


I'm using it as a pen holder on my end table for now.

Looks like it could have been a flag holder.


9) Found this antique door knob back plate at the thrift store on Saturday for 50 cents.

Hubby attached one of my antique glass knobs to it. Looks fabulous now.

Now if only I had an old door to attach it to. Sorry that my photo is a bit fuzzy. The battery to my point and shoot camera was dead. So I had to use my Canon DSLR that I have no idea how to use. Someday I'll learn how.


10) And finally we have reached number 10. Whew! I guess I could have made individual posts out of each of these for as much as I talk.

I was trying to take a nap and a dang fly kept bugging me. I find if I sleep with a fly swatter in my hand, the fly will leave me alone so I can rest. Give it a try. It really works. And it looks like I need a new fly swatter. The men in my household like to swat hard.


This photo was actually taken a few months back, hubby thought he would be funny taking this pic.

So there you have my Tuesday Ten Round Up. This was actually quite fun. I usually only post about decorating. So it was liberating to talk about something else for a change. I hope it didn't bore you too much.

I hope to post my Summer china hutch by the end of the week. Summer is going by much too quickly.



Linking to:

Tuesday Ten @ Under the Table and Dreaming