My Grandson the Chef

Hello Dear Friends,
The end of January is here and the weather here in CA is lovely, so decided to take you to the beach today, Manhattan Beach to be exact, let's enjoy lunch at Old Venice. This restaurant belongs to my daughter Julie and her son Andrew and daughter Natalie. Her husband Jimmy, Jimmy the Greek, as people called him was killed by a woman using her cell phone and not watching the road. Natalie is the manager and Julie, well she takes care of everything, she is a busy girl.

Here is a beautiful sunset at Manhattan Beach taken by my grandson Andrew, who is the chef at the restaurant.

And here he is, I am so proud of him taking over after his dad was killed. This photo appeared in the magazine Southbay in the culinary section.

This is the restaurant the way it looks now after rebuilding cause of a fire.


This is the article:
Old Venice, a family owned and operated restaurant featuring Greek and Italian food, has been in business in Manhattan Beach for more than 25 years. Owner/Chef Andrew Hantzaritez, who oversees a culinary team of eight, has been a resident of Redondo Beach his entire life. Andrew's parents, Jimmy and Julie Hantzarides, first opened the doors of Old Venice for business in 1984, the year Chef Andrew was born. He started cooking at the restaurant "as soon as I was old enough to stretch out a pizza" the chef says at about age 2.
The original restaurant was destroyed by fire in 2006 and despite the untimely death of Jimmy in 2008, his family rebuilt Old Venice in a manner that would honor his legacy. Jimmy was famous for his Greek hospitality and he is Chef Andrew's culinary role model. Here is Jimmy with his eternal smile.

Well dear ones this is the story about my daughter and her family. Jimmy's pictures are on the walls of the restaurant and a tile sign which says, Jimmy's Cucina. It has beautiful art work on some walls. If you are ever in CA drop in and enjoy Greek or Italian cuisine. Sandwiches and other items also available. Have a wonderful weekend.

Some of My Dolls

Hello Dear Friends, do not know where the time goes, really. It's been over a week that I posted, that is terrible.
Today I decided to show you some of my sweet dolls. My latest dolls are Folk Art Dolls designed by Nicole Sayre, You no doubt have heard of the Santos Dolls, I bought these dolls from the Santos website. Here is a little history about the dolls.

The Santos dolls take their name from the Spanish word for Saint, and are also known as Santos (French) and Santibelli (Italian). The Santos that started the genre of dolls we currently represent (primarily Spanish Colonial and Western European style), were originally started as copies of 17th century carvings by priests. Originally, Santos were created for use as in-home altars. They were needed in small villages that did not have a priest

This first one is my Valentine cage doll, she is the Angel of Love. Really like this one cause I collect hearts.

This one is my Christmas cage doll and so is the next one.





These two cuties I made years ago when I used to make cloth dolls. They are enjoying a cup of tea with their Hello Kittie tea set.


She is a reproduction #785 of Beverly, made in 1984. She is 13 1/2" tall and has glass eyes. Doll artist Bev Sylvia.


This lovely lady you might of seen recently when I posted my finds from GW. I really like her she is very happy here among many friends. Great price too, only $5.00...

She is also one of my favorite dolls, she sits on my dresser.


Again when I used to make cloth dolls I made these two and a cat doll, now I have a cat that looks like this one...so funny.

This sweetie is a lovely doll and sits on our bed on a daily basis.

Just purchased this chair a couple of days ago, knew she would be the one to sit on it.


When we went to see the play Cats for the first time, could not resist making these two cats to remind us of that amazing play. Have seen it 4 times now.

Will end this post with my oldest doll, have had her since I was a little girl.

Hope you have enjoyed some of my dolls, I think we are all little girls at heart and that part of us never grows up. Dolls remind us of our younger days, I am an only child and had so many dolls and each one was so special to me. Have a wonderful week dear ones.

My Birthday Friday 13

Hello to all my dear friends, well guess what this year my birthday fell on a Friday, not only a Friday but the 13th. No, it hasn't been bad luck for me, always good luck with this number. In fact met my husband on a Friday the 13th and we took out our marriage license on Friday 13. Everything good for me is always on the 13th.
Today our daughter wanted us to celebrate my birthday with a little trip up the coast a bit to the beautiful city of Ventura. Here are a few of the pictures I took.



We went shopping, what fun we had.

Had to take a pic of this darling display in one of the shops. Just an old bird cage with glass shelves and birdie items inside, isn't it just so cute?

Closer look.

We enjoyed lunch at this darling 50's restaurant.

The Mission.


Wow, this is where the priest heard confessions, you can see the little doors on both sides of this confessional booth.


Did you know that this is the only Mission that had wooden bells?

Hand carved many, many years ago.

Had to take a pic of this lonely little seagull at the beach.

So sad, no lifeguards on duty, due to all the cuts in CA.



Taken from the car, so long Ventura see you again soon...

We had a delightful day, weather was perfect with blue skies and we did buy some pretty things. They have a sweet Angel Shop the name is Things from Heaven and I bought a couple of endearing Angels.

Our Old House

Hello dear friends, here we are in our new year of 2012 and so far here in CA the weather has been perfect. Our days are in the 80's, I even have roses blooming before I can even trim them down. Since the weather has been so wonderful I have been outside gardening and the thought came to me as to who build our home. It has so many features that we just love, so the builder must of thought like we do. We live in an old Spanish style home, it was built in 1930 and we bought it from the original owner. We love our home and have made many memories here with our family. Here are only a few photos of things I like here.....Top photo, anyone for tea in my patio? This second one is a cute little squirrel that came to pay us a visit and just look at my cat on the next photo, how he is just watching every move she makes.



Here is a door in our patio which faces the front of the house. I like this area very much, it's great for shade plants.

This little window is one of several cute little windows on this house.

Oh how I like this side door.

Here is another small window. We even have a couple of round windows, which I didn't photograph.

Lemon tree in back yard and another way to get upstairs.

That's it for now, thanks so much for stopping by to visit this old house of mine.