Retire In Style Blog Too

I like to change the color of my hair.  My first gray hair appeared when I was around thirty.  I pulled them out while my children took piano lessons and I waited in the car.  Like most women at that age looking older did not make me happy.  I didn't want to be gray.  I wanted to be blond or red...just not gray!   I am 68 now and for almost 25 years I have been having perms and coloring my hair looking for the perfect look.  It has been a learning process and I would like to share what I have learned. LET ME COUNT THE WAYS ...There are many ways to color your hair.  Hair dressers have become very sophiticate and techniques are so much better than they were the first time I had a "color weave".  I am learning about things that I did not even know existed.  Did you know: You can bring you color up or down without a total hair dye job.  By adding highlight, twilights or lowlights you can change the appearance of you hair color in ...

This has been a very busy week for us.  Company, good food, friends and a drive to a 5 star resort twice in one day.  We love a full calendar. A FRIDAY OUTING.... On Friday we drove up to the premier Marriot Starr Pass Resort here in Tucson...twice  We had purchased the Tucson Coupons for the first annual Barbeque Cook Off at the resort on Groupon.  We chose the pre-cookoff party because me husband was playing golf on Saturday.  Before I say anything about this outing I want you to know that this is the first time this particular event had ever been held at this location.  The team at Marriot was doing a wonderful job but they had overlooked the online advertising specifics. We drove the first time out to the resort in the afternoon...we are barbeque cook-off newbies so we didn't quite understand the drill.  I had done a search...a very long search...online to see if I could get some information...like the time when the public would be welcome.  I...

Beautiful well used horse shoes! June...a cowgirl dressed in vintage denim jacket and creased skinny blue jeans. Hal and his beautiful hand crafted horse-shoe box...a gift. When people like Hal (Harold) and June come out to play we take note. They are the heart of our winter home and have our admiration and affection.  Hal is in his late eighties but he still plays golf several times a week.  His second hobby (if you don't count playing poker) is horse shoes.  Hal lives directly across the street from us.  He is a widower and his name along with his late wife's appears on a name plate on the front of his park model.  His lady friend doesn't seem to mind...they are very close but live in different parks.  I think he is a wonderful example for the rest of us. June is approaching 90.  (Advanced Style.com...you have nothing on us!)  She was very ill winter before last.  She had lost control of her diabetes.  She showed us what strength and a...

When Marcia and Leon were here the other night we decided to take them all the way downtown to original El Charro Cafe on Court Street.  The old restaurant located in the El Presidio area is the oldest Mexican restaurant in Tucson.  We have been visitors to this restaurant for all the years we have been coming to Tucson.  The area has gone through a lot of changes during those years but El Charro remains a gem in The Old Pueblo's crown. Food in the restaurant is more than your normal "Taco Town Mexican Plates and Pet Food Store"...much, much more.  The wonderful Sonoran food that it is famous for is a treat for out of town guests.  We sat outside on the patio under the stars.  We could look up above the roof and see the cage used to dry the beef for their carne seca dishes.  Everything in the restaurant and cantina had a sparkling clean refurbrished appearance and almost every table was full even on Tuesday evening.  I would give this restaurant 5...

Images from Style at Home Magazine.... Style at Home had this beautiful small kitchen in their email newsletter today.  I would love to have a kitchen with these colors.  That brings me to the question...do you put something this unusual in your house or do you just look at the picture and love it from afar?  For now I will have to just look. Full article at Style at Home . b

I am about to write about politics!!!  I know...I don't normally do that on this blog.  But what I have to say could be important to the aging population.  I want to talk about the ramifications of how this huge segment of society votes. I received an email from a representative of John Erickson, owner of Retirement Living TV, the other day.  The representative asked me to write a blog about Mr. Erickson's concern that politicians are ignoring the needs of our senior citizens.  I asked you to take a look at his point of view even though I am not really in tune with what he is saying.  I watched an interview with him Fox News carried.  As a result, I now feel that I need make it clear where I stand. First of all, I am not a Fox News fan.  You need to know that about me.  A young beautiful blond woman conducted the interview.  She was very good at eliciting the statements that would tout what Fox wanted Erickson to say without actually as...

Marcia and Leon The Cactus Wren forever making a nest! It's all about the nest....retiring in style that is!  Those of us that live the life style love to see others working toward the day when they too can enjoy all the things we love.  That is what we were privileged to do yesterday. My husband and I were treated to a visit from a fellow blogger; Marcia ( RV Poetry ) and her husband Leon.  It really is amazing how much we knew about each other even though this is the first time we had been in the same room/state/part of the world!  That is the way the blogging community works.  They live in Fort Lauderdale , FL. but have ties in Washington State where they recently sold a home. This was their maiden voyage in the small recreational vehicle.  They have been on the road for six weeks, visiting Washington to take care of business.  Now they are making their way back home and visiting other bloggers/friends along the way.  We were very lucky that ...

ARTICLE Here is an article written by Barbara Graham on Grandparents.com.  She asked the question, "Are boomer grandparents different than their parents?  Read the article and the comment I posted below.  Do you agree??? Here is the beginning paragraph: My mother loved my son and my brother's kids — just as her mother loved us — but neither woman seemed as gaga and blotto about their grandchildren as my friends and I are. My mother and my grandmother didn't seem to obsess and worry the way we do, either. (Complete Article:   http://www.grandparents.com/gp/content/expert-advice/new-grandparents/article/baby-boomer-grandparents-barbara-graham.html?refresh#comments#comment55217#ixzz13UxI2zrq COMMENT This is a wonderful and thoughtful article. We all have a different approach to family dynamics. I personally am a grandma that thinks that distance is a good thing for children and grandchildren. My husband and I spend half  of our year in Oregon near fami...

Image from Habitually Chic .  Photo of Todd Romano Showroom at the Fine Arts Building, Los Angeles I wrote last week about a table made with saw horses (Living in a Doll House) ....here is the upscale version of that table.  If you look at this closely you will see that it is put together with pipe fittings.  I think it is absolutely gorgeous.  The outdoor version from RE-Nest I found this one on Re-Nest .  They are using it outdoors as a dining table. Sara Rae Trover wrote the article about the many uses of sawhorses.  She said: We've used saw horses for everything from tables to kitchen counters in the past and they've always served us very well. But with Fall in full swing and the days growing shorter, it's a good time to remember to make the most of the daylight and warmth you have and get outside. Try this quick idea to make an outdoor dining area that can be disassembled for the winter months. Anna White table! On a website called Anna White you...

How pointy are you? You would think that once you have retired and settled on a second home in a warm climate, you would have it all solved.  Perfect weather, hobbies, and a plan that can be replicated year after yet.  Still, I find people are discontented and always looking for something just a little better/bigger/greener.  Isn't that interesting? Does it ever end?  Do we ever really, really grow up?  I am beginning to wonder.  As I have said so many times before...just because we get older does not mean we become sweet, cute or settled!  In fact all the sharp and pointy things about our personality become more so.  It is just a fact of life. Do You Like Dark Chocolate? I have some good news for you...it is really true.  Dark chocolate will lower blood pressure!  I saw it on the web so it must be so.  To be right honest with you I don't even care if it is a lie.  I like dark chocolate...a lot.  The Aussies are advised to...

Quote of the Day:  I guarantee that if you throw out all your "clutter" in your twenties, you'll spend your middle-age years trying to buy it all back in second-hand stores.   Lisa Hunter on Apartment Therapy This really is the paradox of getting old...you still love to visit antique stores but when you do, all the stuff you see is junk  wonderful items you got rid of 30 years ago!  I think that Lisa is probably right.  Getting rid of the cluttering does carry certain risks.  My thinking has alway been that someone else can store the junk   wonderful items I give away until I am ready to buy it back.  It is a win win. I just thought you would get a laugh out of this! b

Wine bottle with a spout.  Image via Wikipedia  I  love kitchen tools...micro planes, food processors, beautiful chopping boards, a wonderful whisk, a wooden spoon and even a great pair of orange salad servers are in my collection.  I did not break the bank collecting these.  Antique stores have some very useful kitchen tools that have survived the test of time. Here in Arizona I have one beautiful knife I use for chopping plus a great pairing knife.  I have a very small kitchen but I have beautiful small kitchen tools. The trick is finding a place for everything.  I have a few hints for those of you that live in a small space. These can help with your kitchen storage and function...even in an apartment.   STORAGE Don't keep anything you do not use.   Box it up and store it in the garage if you must but, if after say a year, you have not used it,  give it away.  If you don't have a garage give the extra stuff away now. You never wil...

Writing a blog is not an original idea and certainly not a new one. Journal writing has been common since man first took up the pen. But in this day and age anyone can have a free blog. Templates and artwork is readily available.   MARK TWAIN...THE ORIGINAL BLOGGER The Mark Twain bio will be released in the middle of November and I can hardly wait to get my hands on it. He had been dead for 100 years. It seems that Mark Twain had a tender heart and promised his family and friends that he would not publish the book for 100 year. Telling the truth was not hard for him but hurting people was. So, according to the Christian Science Monitor:  "Mark Twain completed his autobiography – which he called "a complete and purposed jumble" – more than a century ago. But he told his publishers that they would not be able to publish it till 100 years after his death – which happens to be this year." One hundred years is a long time but people like me are very interested in what he...

What do you do? people have often asked.  Soon after we retired our friends began to think about retirement themselves. They had lots of questions. What do you do? was the most frequently asked question.To begin with we answered simply We would always answer, Well we do w hatever we want! But then it became very clear that on most days we were too busy to do what we wanted...at least not all the time! The big cactus is gone!!! We just arrived here in Arizona on Friday. We have a small park model in Tucson...the Doll House! We live in a Rincon Country West RV Resort ( retirement community ).   It is just perfect for the two of us and we love it.  But, when we get back, there are things that must be done to make it home again. This year we lost a HUGE Saguaro in the front of our park model.  It destroyed most of the plants in that flower bed and left a very large hole behind. We love our flowers. We have a corner lot so we can sit out in the morning sun each day all ...

Rattlesnakes lurk under shrubs and in the shed.  That is a simple fact of life here in the Southern Arizona.  My husband and I were raised in a small town in the eastern part of Oregon.  The little community was situated in a small valley surrounded by sagebrush covered hills that held the heat in the summer and shaded the valley from most of the suns warmth in the winter.  It was a rattlesnake kind of place.  So when a rattler comes crawling across the road on a hot October evening, we don't run for cover and call the police...we don't like them and I would chop them into a million pieces if I had my way.  But we just take care of it and we are very careful .  My husband is not for killing them and will return them to the desert where they belong.  It scares me but he does it without much thought. Many of our neighbors from the mid-west have never seen a rattler and so they have a hard time wrapping their minds around the fact that my husba...

N ote:  If you are interested in anything mentioned below just copy the information into the google search box at the side of the blog and it will take you to a list of websites with that information. I loved this image from Apartment Therapy DC . The article called Pong's Punch of Color Pad  they tell about the 568 square foot studio apartment that Pong calls home.  You really should take a look at it.   It is the perfect example of what you can do with a little imagination and not much money.  The picture frame painted the same color as the flowers and table made with two sawhorse and a door or what ever you have are the perfect restrained accent for this room.  This is very cool! FYI Sawhorses in the world of carpentry are made of two metal brackets with slots for two by fours.  You would need 4 brackets (two sawhorses) and 2x4s cut to the desired length.  Each sawhorse would require 4 legs and one 2x4 piece for the spine of the sawhorse....

World Mark, Palm Springs, Ca At a website called Vacation Palm Springs.com , all things mid century modern are on their minds.  It seems that Palm Springs is the mecca for lovers of the style both in architecture and interior design.  During an event in February called Moderism Week, lovers of the era come to see what is going on in the mid centruy modern scene around Palm Springs. We are in Palm Springs for a couple of nights on our way to our little home in Tucson.  My husband indulges me every time we travel this route even though it means a 2-3 hour trip through Los Angeles traffic.  We are owners in a World Mark Resort ( Worldmark by Wyndham )  so we take advantage of our bonus time and book a room for around $60 a night in the condo resort.  The resort is beautifully appointed (5 Star) and this ownership is one of the few good deals left in this type of vacation timeshare...or at least I think so.  I say that because it is still not...