Hello All! Happy End of August!👏 Lots to tell you about! We had Joe’s Birthday Party last week! Was so much fun. Lots of pictures coming up!v I’m thinking this is really is more of a magazine than a blog . . . with all the back issues still alive and well, over there ➡️➡️➡️➡️➡️➡️➡️➡️ ↘️ in case you need them.♥️
Ready for MUSICA? Listen to the words to this! It’s good. By the same guy who sang that amazing Bella Luna song, Jason Mraz. 💖
and homemaking books, even in my autobiographical books ~ I can’t be separated from it ~ this forever celebration of home ~ and the days of our lives celebrated there ~ it’s given me such a happy life, all these little things add up ~ and I know I’m not alone with this passion, we (meaning us Girlfriends) have BONDED over it! And I’m so happy to tell you I have never grown out of it. I still love to see my countertops shine, love to have parties for our friends, and set the table with old dishes and candles and flowers and make it beautiful.
(among every other thing!), and writing about everything later in my diary. For me, it’s always been old houses, feeding birds, hanging things on the line, daily cups of tea, kitties, music that takes me to another time ~ homemaking is the MOST creative work … home, where everything is just the way we want it, giving us, at least in one place, the exact life we want. It’s my passion and always will be, even when I was 13, arranging ⬆️ birthday presents on my bed; or when I worked in a record department (that’s my bedroom ⬇️, in a house I shared with girlfriends, I made the pillows, my g. grandma made the quilt, old 
family pictures from Grandpa Willard, $40 dresser <bought on layaway> from nearby antique store), when I was a waitress, or when I was writing books … I always had that passion and money never stopped me, because my parents taught me, if I want something, I can make it myself or save for it. I see something new, get inspired, and add it to my repertoire! Isn’t that the way it works for you? All about the senses … so I figured it out: does it feel good, look good, smell good, sound good; does it make you happy, make you feel safe, fill your heart, fly you to the moon? … say yes to these questions and therein lies the secret to a happy life!
streaming wonderfulness we can find. The trays are made of acacia wood, so they are light and simple, they have handles, and fit on our laps most comfortably. Mine is the one at top, his is the one on the bottom. You can tell by the dishtowels. I keep these trays, all ready for us, under the coffee table and put dishtowels on them for mini tablecloths, and dish towels for napkins too . . . I just changed the linens and look how cute! So cute I had to show you! I’m a horrible person when I’m hungry, which is rare since all I do is eat. But Joe knows all the symptoms. I make that point-to-my-mouth move in that comic below (he gave me years back, it lives in my dinner party diary) . . . I point at my mouth, and pretty much no matter where we are, even if we’re on the freeway, his fear of what he perceives is madness in the woman he loves (she perceives it as normal), is so palpable he practically FLIES off the road to where the food is! One of the many things I love about him! 
So this is me, getting ready for Joe’s Birthday Party that happened last week ~ doing first-thing-first, deciding on the candles for the table. After the candles, I got out the tablecloths, then the plates, and so on and so forth . . . Because it was a dinner for 24, at a long table under the big albizia tree in our garden, our first big dinner party since we moved here. And we were both in the MOOD.🎵💃🏼🕺🎶 And I will jump to the spoiler with GLEE . . . we had such a good time. There was dancing and singing, cake and candles, laughing and hugging. That’s all it took. Old friends from 1971, and new friends from 3 months ago, ages 23, 50, 80, and everyone in between. Happy Birthday to Joe! I’ll show you more pics in a minute!
I’m putting this tip in my Christmas Book, but because that book’s not coming until next year, I’m going to tell you about this good thing now. Glass “Spooners,” like the one with the cute feet in front in the photo above, and this one below, were filled with spoons 
during the Victorian era and kept on dining tables as a sign of hospitality ~ today you can find them in antique stores, thrift stores, really all over . . . and instead of spoons, I discovered that they make the prettiest, most interesting candle holders for votives ~ some are even wide enough for pillars, and some make great vases too. This is actually a secret I’ve kept a long time, I wanted to get all I needed before I told anyone!🤣 You will see them at all prices because in lots of places people don’t know what to do with a spooner! The hunt is the best part, but if you are too busy for that, I did the hunt part for you and found a few pretty spooners, and some old glass sugars and creamers to put in our webstore. Because soon it will be fall, and chilly and cozy inside! Get ’em fast before they get hot-hot-hot!😂
“they’re on the way.” Okay we believe you. Hopefully they will get sick of hearing from us! I’m really sorry ~ thank you for your patience. We used to be able to fly our books over, but it has gotten monumentally expensive, and I’m not going to raise prices, so they just have to cruise over . . . I don’t blame the printer, they do a wonderful job, even flew the 5 books in this video over, directly to me for final approval! And I have to tell you, really, I sat down and read it (pretending I didn’t know me), and I think you are going to love it! I even loved it… and I never love it when I first see a new book! I hope this bodes well! Just know that the MINUTE they arrive, they will be shipped out to you…Kellee is waiting with lots of help to make that happen. If you haven’t ordered your copy yet, you can do it HERE… have faith, they are coming soon to a mailbox near YOU!💝
The Blotter is our biggest calendar . . . it can be hung on the wall, or used as a desk calendar, you can tear off the pages . . . I can’t find the picture of Jack laying on the blotter so you can see the size, but it’s 22″ by 17″ … big!🩷
Here’s some more from my new 2026 calendars, this one is from September . . . they’re all in at the Studio now, Wall, Blotter, Mini, and Purse . . . Go HERE to read more.🧡
Here’s Thanksgiving ~ November! I have so much fun doing calendars! I did my first one in 1993 and have covered every home subject there ever has been, from letter writing, to embroidery, to gardening, books, cozy beds for sleeping weather, and lots of recipes too, and I just signed a contract to do more for 2027!💞
Here’s March 2026!This is why I have to update my old books . . . there is so much new art, so many new stories since I started writing books in that little one bedroom house on Martha’s Vineyard back in the 1980s!!🥰
XOX
Here’s the new cover! The only problem is, I just found out they
can’t guarantee they’ll get books to us before Christmas. So I’ve decided to save it for NEXT Christmas! I think we can get it by JULY of next year. But that’s okay, I hope, because you’ll have the SUMMER BOOK to keep you warm this Christmas ~ and who doesn’t dream of Summer during the winter? Lots of benefits for doing it this way: Mainly TIME! Time to make the Christmas Book even better.🌟 Time to write Willards and do new calendars! And I get to go meet you and sign books at Independent bookstores this fall! Time for dead-heading roses! And it just gave me time to enjoy a flamboyant, true-love birthday celebration with my guy! Which I get to show YOU! It’s my favorite thing, balance in life, a win-win!💞🥳🎁🎉🎊🎈
Time to make parties for our friends, to celebrate birthdays, our friendships, and our new life here in California, appreciating what we’ve been given.💞
So when I was getting candles and dishes ready, Joe got himself a new birthday barbecue! ‘Cause you can’t cook for 24 in our two-butt kitchen while everyone is there! Here is a view of our little kitchen at Thanksgiving last year! Makes me excited for fall!
XOXO
Here’s our two-butt kitchen last year, getting ready for Thanksgiving! And it’s almost here again! Such an exciting time of year! I saw red leaves in our Cottonwood trees on my walk yesterday! Yellow too. Not known for fall color in our part of California! You have to look close! It’s 8 am this morning, the sun is out, yet it is only 58º! Fall is around the corner! 🍁🍃🍂
But I digress! We set up the fire pit the night before the party . . . it’s too cold to sit outside at night around here … and we LOVE it outside, so we have to make people comfortable so they don’t go home! These things are so wonderful, throw off a ton of heat and no smoke! Joe thinks we’re crazy California people heating up summer nights! But sitting under twinkle lights and stars with flickering candlelight and old friends is totally worth it!🕯️
XOXO
Joe and Alfredo arranged rented long tables, chairs, & heater towers under the tree ~ moved all our garden furniture around, set up a bar under the arbor. They hung lights in the Albizzia tree . . . and everyone brought food, Joe BBQed steaks. We started preparing a week before the party, and here we are, the night before, with the bones all set and ready! They next morning, we added the frou-frou, as in flowers, plates, and silverware!🌸
My girlfriend Terrie came early to help us set up! I brought the candles and dishes from the house to the deck, she took them from the deck to the table! This was a family affair! It took a village. My sister Shelly is in the kitchen (could not have done it without her! Without any of them!) and Terrie’s husband Tom was out deadheading the Julia Child roses! He wanted a job! And those roses were on my mind!💛 He’s my hero!😊
Here’s Tom, back from the roses, helping put out the water glasses! They came down from the Bay Area to join us!💞
Looking good. I was no help. I had to take pictures!🤣
Need a video? I have one!
XOXO
Terrie’s talking to me while making it perfect ~ she doesn’t know I’m videoing!! I wonder how many of those flowers we ate!🌸🌸🌸 This whole time Joe is over at the “bar” putting crushed ice into galvanized buckets and stuffing them with bottles of water, wine, soft drinks, beer, and juice from the fridge in the garage.👏
See Butch? He and his musica was a gift to Joe’s party from our very good old friend, Cliff, and his darling wife, Lynette!💝 Butch came early to set up . . . and was so GOOD, wait till you hear! He sang and played the theme music from our lives! And you see the dance floor right there in front of the bar! Sometimes we call it grass.
XOXO
Three amigas! Back from the extra fridge in the garage, Terrie has the ice cream, I have the peach cobbler, Diane has the water pitcher (Butch has the guitar! Tom has his camera!). The three of us have been girlfriends since 1972! Met in San Luis Obispo all those years ago. Never imagined THIS back then!! We were stopped by the music, gotta dance!💞
You’re going to feel like you were there!!
XOXO
There’s Alfredo and Cliff! You get the gist, just a really fun time! So good! So good! So good! This all went on for a while 🎵🎶🎵 . . . and finally . . .
We ate!
So DELICIOUS! Look at that! All comfort food!💝
We toasted, we speechified, we laughed, ate some more, toasted more, sang Happy Birthday, Joe made a wish and blew out his candles, we had ice cream and birthday cake, and enjoyed 
the gorgeous day. There were old friends and new friends, cousins of friends, children of friends, even my dentist and his wife and daughter were there, new friends.♥️ People who didn’t know each other met and talked and talked and talked. It was perfect. My darling man was the belle of the ball. And we all stayed nice and warm, lit the candles, and nobody went home early! Judy took a video of me toasting Joe and thanking everyone for coming … she has it in her phone and I forgot to get it, but she put it up on my Instagram page if you want to see it (I’m susanbranchauthor over there).♥️ (Don’t want you to miss anything!🤣)
Look what Sheri brought! Two Birthday Cakes AND coconut candy (like almond joy, without the almonds, and about 100 times better!) Coconut Cake and Lemon Cake. She made it all! Just delicious!💝
She is amazing! Isn’t it fun, we’ve been doing this blog together for so long, a lot of you know who a lot of these people are! Remember? Sheri worked for me for years, she’s my neighbor and friend. Judy was there too, but Kellee was booked up this day …she was missed!
Alfredo came . . . someone else we could not have done this without . . . actually I guess it’s EVERYONE!!
I always like to include characters from my books when I can, friends for life💝 … you saw Diana, and here’s more dearest old friends, Cliff and Elaine . . . Elaine drove out from Martha’s Vineyard to spend the month of August in her old stomping grounds.♥️
XOOX
Here we are, end of the night, just us in the quiet … the music still echoing, the ghosts of the party still milling about . . . We’re not taking those lights out of the tree. They go on with a flip of a switch in our laundry room and we’ve had them on every night since the party!
The next morning Terrie and Tom came over, Shelly was here, Joe made breakfast and we relived the entire party ~ always the funnest part! And opened Joe’s birthday presents!🎁
I found this in a nursery gift store near us (at Ron’s in Halcyon). It’s on a thick piece of board . . . I thought it was perfect for the darling love of my life, and he LIKED IT! YAY!💝
Parties are wonderful things. They leave you with a mown lawn, a clean house, left-over macaroni and cheese, at least four half-gallons of ice cream, plus twinkle lights, lots of flowers, a ton of photos, and wonderful memories!♥️
XOX
A couple days later, the party tablecloths are on the line, a lovely sight to see flying around the garden . . . Still living in the glow, but back to taking my walk, listening to my book (Maisie Dobbs series, book one, love it so much already!), trying to eat more healthily, planting lettuce, scratching cats, and hearing the sound of the bees in the albizzia tree.
If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, here are two things to try . . . their Egg Bites are SO delicious! I love all 3 varieties! One of them is just egg whites, one of them is eggs, spinach, and kale . . . one has bacon, they’re all good. Take 60 seconds in the micro-wave to heat up! Also, see that toast? That’s their Danish seed bread. Yummy! In my toaster (can anyone suggest a GOOD TOASTER that doesn’t take up the whole counter in my two-butt kitchen???) I have to put the bread down twice in this one to make it crisp, the way I like it. The peaches came from our tree. Free and excellent! This bag went to Sheri!
Well I hope that made up for my long absence. This ought to take you forever to read and look at all the videos. We can thank YouTube for making it easier to put up videos on a blog! I’ve never done more than one in a single post! It still takes forever, but not as long as it used to!!!
I feel like I’m forgetting something!🤣 Even after all that! Well, if I remember, I shall return! Exciting to know soon we’ll all be turning the page to wonderful September! 👏 Take good care of yourselves! Thanks for coming to visit! And remember,
LOVE YOU DEARLY!!! XOXO 
even though I loved winter, snow, the fire, the sweaters, & cozy dinners, I have to say March in New 🌷🌷🌷 England is the longest, greyest, coldest, never-ending month ~ sometimes I just wanted to slap it ~ April is almost as bad, but the anticipation is there anyway, waiting for it to warm up, for something to come out of the soil, camera ready to catch the smallest bud, calling friends to announce the first daffodil, thrilled on the first day we could open the windows, for the first outdoor dinner, everything-everything! So exciting! So this makes me wonder how you’re
all doing? I hear about weather attacking the country here and there, & I know some are feeling it! But look at it this way: It’s all just free anticipation. So much to look forward to. I love that word… And happy to say, it’s been my word here in California too! All winter! It makes life so exciting ~ I can’t wait to wake up 
each morning and look outside to see the day’s weather, wander through the garden looking for what’s new, gasp at beauty, settle in with my tea, my cat, my pen, my brush, to work on a new page for my (our) new Summer book … and every day something in the garden blooms that wasn’t there before ~ and I’m right here for it! Between my art and the garden, I feel so lucky. Winter is relatively easy here, chilly, sweater weather, but I get to be out every day, windows are always open, we sleep cold, delicious under the covers. I saw a King Snake the other day, my first, I kept, very respectfully, a mile away from him even though he is known to be harmless to people and eats gophers. He’s a shocking 3 feet long 😱, and the other day he undulated himself right out across the lawn while I was watering.🫣 Calmly, I did nothing. Black with white stripes. Unforgettable. I haven’t seen him since. But I am aware. Which is 
good. Honestly I like knowing he’s there, just please, I beg silently, do not come up in the toilet. Egrets graze in the back fields, they eat gophers too. I love all things that feast on these underground terrorists. It’s true country living! Sometimes I turn on the music first thing, loud, dance over to make tea, dance over to Jack (for forehead-touch/brain-exchange), dance to the shower, dance to the art table. Then I have to stop the musica or I’ll never get anything done!
And beautiful in New England, where my heart has been for so many years, no messing with that, but the new Summer Book benefits from having the land of perpetual summer as inspiration. (Or perpetual fall, I haven’t decided.) There are restaurants on the ocean here in California too! Probably never as pretty as this one! 
everything. Take time to notice, watch the grass grow, see the moon rise, hear the water gurgle into your tea cup, see the afternoon shadows, note the butterflies. Turn off everything, and give yourself some music. Listen. Smell the flowers. Turn your senses on. It’s all right there. One other secret, Give. Don’t hold anything back for later, give it all away now. And don’t forget you. Surprise yourself. Invite yourself to an outdoor restaurant for lunch. And take your best friend. Eat ANYTHING you want. I could go on all day. Nurseries are heaven, and filled with beauty. You never know where you’ll find that little spark that lights up your creative heart. Life, my darling darlings, is for the living.
first time . . . what do you think? I’m pretty sure they’re sold out now, I couldn’t find them, but 
hummingbirds. My garden is my small way to 
give back and hopefully make more, while enjoying every moment. My hedges are bird motels, the welcome sign is out. I can see butterflies flitting from where 🦋 I am sitting right now, that corner window on the right.⬆️ 
Time for me to go! I hope you enjoyed this update . . . sorry I was MIA last month, but you know, the book! Never worry! I will return for as long as I can, and this world we made together will always leave the sweetest little mark in the DNA of the universe. In short there’s simply not a more congenial spot
