Retire In Style Blog Too

Odeedoh on Apartment Therapy... My Room: Muller Gray Portland, Oregon She said her favorite word and color is grey !  After looking at the room she created for her latest child with paint and a dresser from Walmart, I want grey too.  What do you think...could a Grandmother be as happy in this room as a baby would? I'm not sure what the fluffy thing in the corner is but I want that too. b

Or better yet buy her Jockeys! This is the story I have heard over and over. Your Aunt Fiona does not like anything.  She will actually send the gift back...to you...demanding a different size/color/pattern.  Aunt Fiona has been driving you crazy for years.  Because she is an important person in your life or that of your family, you keep trying to get it right.  Better chocolate, red sweaters (she hates purple) or a pair of slippers that don't fly off/make her feet hot.  I understand that you have made an effort. I do feel for you.  So I have been looking around for a way to resolve this issue.  Today I discovered that my grandchildren have come up with the perfect solution. Each of the oldest grandchildren have friends of the opposite sex.  It just seem right that they exchange gifts but they have no idea WHAT to do.  A serious gift says more than they want.  A thoughtful gift can be misinterpreted.  Then there is the money to be ...

Image via Wikipedia Today was such a huge Christmas shopping day I don't even know where to begin.  Please keep in mind that I did reveal my son's present on yesterday's blog...he has been banned from looking at Facebook and I am in the dog house.  OOOOPs!!! So when I write today I will try not to let anymore gifts out of the bag. My husband went shopping for eyeglasses today.  He wanted to use his Groupon coupon..  He paid $50 for a $150 coupon at The Sight Shop.  This chain of shops are located here in the Portland Metro area.  This is the way it worked...he bought the coupon online at the Groupon website and printed the coupon.  He went into the shop, found what he wanted and they printed up his receipt.  When he handed them his coupon, the $150 was subtracted from the bill.  I love a coupon that actually works!  Signing up with Groupon is simple.   By going to the website, clicking on your city then entering your email ad...

Just a heads up...there is a keypad dock for your Apple ipad user...it is too cool. My son will begin on a masters program through Phoenix after the first of the year.  He will need to have a word program to prepare the work he needs.  We bought him an ipad dock with a keyboard that will allow him to use the ipad for the documents, sent them to a windows computer, copy into his work and go on with his program.  It might save a new computer purchase!  I just thought you would want to know. b

Missing a lawn ornament...I know where it might be! Tucson, Arizona Maddie on Skype in a screen shot... Koh Samui, Thailand Amelia via Skype with screen shot... Koh Samui Thailand. I am in Tucson AZ...my granddaughters are in Thailand but we are only a screen shot away.  (command-shift 3). Merry Christmas. b

The Perfect Gifts for Friends, Clientes, Wine Geeks A Wine Club Experience Have you ever belonged to a Wine Club ?  We did several years ago and it was wonderful experience.  If we were to do it now we would do things a lot differently.  Many of the wines were very young.  Now we would store those wines for a few years before we began tasting.  It was the mistake made by us because we were inexperienced. Still I would recommend it as a gift for your wine lover friend, family or even a cliente of your business.  Our favorite wine maker in the Willamette Valley is  Cana's Feast .  They have a club called the Cellar Club.  It is so popular that, in many cases, their wines are reserved for the club member's only.  We found that out when we stopped to buy a bottle of their Bordeaux Style wine to be drunk for our 50th wedding anniversary celebration.  We were politely told no ...but if we had been a member, the wine would have been made ...

Image via CrunchBase I noticed on Twitter today that someone had linked to a blog called Courting Destiny.  The post was simply delightful but it also contained a message that reflects Pia's thoughts on important issues.  The author, Pia Savage, is a native New Yorker and a well known blogger from the city.  Her Aunt Adele would like to meet Jon Stewart .  Here is her plea:   A Letter To Jon Steward. I am asking you to go to the blog, read and then retweet her message. b

Image by Always at Home via Flickr I don't suppose this will get much notice on Adsense.  After all HOMELESSNESS...what can we do?  Conservatives think that we should just donate or tithe to our church and they can take care of welfare etc.  But in the end we all know that what people should do and what they do are two different things.  I guess humans were not standing in line when the bundle of sticks was explained. In case you didn't stand in that line either here is a short explanation of how the bundle of sticks works: All the money you get is not yours.  You earn your money then you must pay taxes.  If you had been standing in line at the bundle of sticks seminar it would have been explained that even though you are paid money to work and taxes are withheld you don't even need what is left...it would be nice if you shared what you have. It's called philanthropy and even the least among us can be a philanthropist.   However, no one is going...

I know...you need help with stuff!  I would come over and help you if I had the time .  Even though I am retired and don't have an actual "job" I am really active almost every day.  A ren't you bored out of your skull?   What do you do all day? you ask.  I guess you need to see a glimpse of what a day in retirement can be like...if you choose. FAMILY : Today is December 16, 2010.  Thursday in this year.  We are getting very close to Christmas and all that it means to us.  Last night my daughter and I spent 2 hours on our iphones with the Face to Face function turned on shopping on our computers for family that lives in China.  We found a Pendleton Blanket on ebay and I ordered toys on Amazon for my granddaughters and a fancy wine bottle opener for their parents.  The gifts will arrive at their house in China on December 24.   In the world of this retiree that seems very strange.  To think that China used to be so far away!...

One of the great pleasures in my life is the thrill I get out finding something beautiful!  I don't need anything really but if I do want something it should be available in a beautiful red...or silver.  So Monday is the day I head out the door onto the Internet world to find a few beautiful things to share with you.  Guess what I found today...for under $15.00 ..... Yanko Design Mobile Tail Yanko Design has these very cool little Mobile Tails in several colors...perfect for iphone Facetime or speaker phone chats.  They would free up your hand while you talked on the phone.  The cost around $6.50. Canoe of  Portland, Oregon  has these gorgeous Book Darts in their online catalogue.  I use a bookmark all the time...generally an ad torn out of a magazine.  Look how beautiful these are! $10.00 Glass Salt Bowl from Canoe I own a set of very antique salt dishes that are small enough to put beside each plate at dinner.   Canoe has some ...

Image by Always at Home via Flickr (my flicker account) Near Los Alamos, NM Run your cursor over the image.   Not all wineries are created equal!  We can speak from experience.  My husband and I are the type of people that will become obsessed with a new hobby.  When we started golfing we golfed on every goat track golf course up and down the I-84 corridor in Oregon.  When we discovered wine vinegar we learned to make it and our friends were forced to take it.  The same goes for knives, bread, electric kitchen appliances.  So when we began tasting wine we went a little nuts! I recall a summer day when the family all formed a convoy and we set out to taste wine in the valley around Banks, Oregon .  Some was good and some was really not fit to be drunk...even by a drunk.  The stop that stands out in my mind is the winery that sold wine out of a farm shed.  The seller had to be beckoned in from his corn field and it turned out he was makin...

Image by Always at Home via Flickr Beauty in Chinese Meat Market What are boomer demanding?  Well, it turns out that function is not enough...in this age where our basic needs are met, we are demanding beauty and lots of it! I have know all my life that beautiful things actually have a  emotional impact on my mind and I could actually feel a physical response. Yesterday I found an article written by Patrick Roden PhD   on a website called Aging In Place.  The name of the article was " The Aesthetic of Aging in Place Design:  Turning Obstacles into Beauty "  He put his finger on what this blog is all about and as a result the words resonated with me like no others. I thought you might be interested in what he had to say. In his article Dr. Roden talked about that emotional impact I mentioned above... Author Virginia Postrel notes that aesthetics is the way we communicate through the senses. It is the art of creating reactions without words, through the l...

Arizona National Golf Course on a beautiful Oct. day. This is one of those days in Arizona that makes you want to sing.  The temperature was at around 71 degrees, no wind and the sun was just warm enough on your skin.  We played golf at Santa Rita Golf Course ($11 per round on Golf Now).  The golf course locate in Corona del Tucson is is a very good buy in the Tucson golfing world and is a very tough golf course.  But on a day like this the houses look beautiful, the mountains float on the horizon in a purple haze and the sun is just warm enough to keep the cool breeze from feeling chilly.  This is one of those day that you should just enjoy...but if you are a visitor, my advice would be to wait to buy real estate. Like Oregon or anywhere in the world I have always said "don't buy real estate on a sunny day.  If you are thinking that you want to live here, wait until it is cloudy, the wind blows and it is either 120 degrees or 41 degrees"  If you still...

It will be a lot darker when we have the party! I am having a party!  There will be 10 people.  I live in a very small park model with an Arizona room that is 8'x22'...not much square footage.  But I have made it work a lot of times.  Oh, did I mention that the Arizona room was paneled by the previous owner and then the roof leaked plus it got about 120 degrees in the summer.  The paneling buckled but we don't care.  The trick is to only have a party in the dark!!! My husband has tacked white twinkly lights all around the ceiling and when there was a lot extra I had him swag the extra to the middle of the room over the table and we hung a lampshade over the extra lights.  It looks very cool!!! I don't have any candle sticks down here so I spray painted two wine bottles silver, attached two sprigs off the clementine tree with a silver ornements.  The tree is made of green foil and I bought it at Target.  I painted the base silver and sprayed i...

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