Penelope's Musings

Trixie and Lulu and the Glitter Pick Road Trip

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Lynette

Greetings from Chattanooga Tennessee! My BFF Jeanne and I are here on a grand adventure…picking our way through the south. It’s my 50th birthday next week and I decided to spend it doing 2 of my very favorite things…treasure hunting and travelling! We are big fans of the tv show American Pickers and decided we needed to do a road trip of our own…but instead of digging through junkyards and spider-infested old barns we would hit every thrift shop and rummage shop and flea market we could find! We’d look for girlie things like china teacups and vintage linens and old books and lovely bits of vintage jewelry, all the while dolled up in big straw hats and bling jewelry……truly a Glitter Pick Road trip. We have nicknames for the trip…she’s Trixie and I am Lulu and we plan on stopping at every oddball roadside curiousity we can find. After a week we will load it onto a U-haul and drive it 2000 miles home…picking along the way. Stay tuned for our adventures…….

The Importance of any Event is Measured by Your Memory’s Loyalty to It

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Lynette

“My father told me once that the importance of any event was measured by your memory’s loyalty to it. When he said that, he was facing away from me at his work table, painting on a wing stripe. He seemed to always say important things over his shoulder, as though seeing his face would make the wisdom too personal, as though it might not make true sense if I associated it with a human expression. To my father, words of wisdom might best be heard in the dark.”

–Howard Norman, The Chauffeur

Posted in truth and courage quotes | Tagged father, loyalty, memory, quote | Leave a comment

Easter is Easy at Penelope’s!

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Lynette

It’s not too late to decorate for Easter and Penelope’s still has lots of fabulous vintage-inspired Easter decorations for your holiday table! A customer the other day told me that we have the best selection in town of fabulous Easter goodies for gifts and decor. We still have several Lori Mitchell bunnies…..

as well as charming chicks by new artist Jenene Mortimer….

We even have an Easter tree…complete with a vintage hat as a tree topper!

Penelope’s Hope Chest is open 11am to 5pm this Thursday, Friday and Saturday…..3 shopping days left until Easter Sunday!

Posted in Penelope the Shop | Tagged Easter, Holiday, Lori Mitchell, Penelope's, Penelope's Hope Chest, shop, vintage, vintage inspiration | Leave a comment

Pea Pod and Chicken Salad–recipe

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Lynette

This recipe has become one of our favorites to make for eating at our shows. We love it so much we usually make a double batch and eat it for lunch for days. This last show we were being more careful about eating low-fat so we substituted low fat mayo. Still tasted great, although it seemed to need more salt for seasoning.

1 cup spiral macaroni

2 cups fresh pea pods, trimmed and blanched

2 cups cooked chicken or turkey, cubed

1/2 cup sliced green onions

1 can sliced water chestnuts

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon sherry

1/4 cup roasted slivered almonds

Cook macaroni, drain and rinse. In a large bowl combine macaroni, pea pods, chicken or turkey, green onions, and water chestnuts. In a small bowl blend mayonnaise, soy sauce, pepper, ginger, and sherry. Pour over pea pod mixture. Mix well, cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours. Garnish with almonds.

We don’t use the sherry–use a little more soy sauce and ginger. We also use twice the macaroni called for. The almonds definitely add to the taste. Yummy, we think!

Posted in Recipes | Tagged chicken, easy recipe, Ginger, recipe, salad, show recipe | Leave a comment

We Lay Our Sleeping Lives

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Lynette

“She asked nothing from those she loved except to be able to trust them. Perhaps that is not nothing, perhaps it is a great deal. I don’t know, I can’t say. She only wanted to feel she could surrender herself, her heart and mind, into the loved person’s keeping and be safe there, not be betrayed…..they have the most power to hurt us, those we love. We lay our sleeping lives within their arms.”

–Ruth Rendell, The House of Stairs

Posted in Love and Marriage Quotes | Tagged love, quote, Ruth Rendell, trust | Leave a comment

The Magic of La Tour Eiffel

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Lynette

The Eiffel Tower is one of the great iconic symbols of the world…it is so hard to believe that city officials planned to tear it down in a few years, after it was built in 1889 for the World’s Fair. It is the true symbol of Paris. Everywhere you go in Paris there it is…off in the distance, or peeking over buildings.

Seeing it up close enhances the awe……it is so much bigger than it looks from afar! Standing next to it and underneith it you truly start to appreciate the incredible accomplishment over 120 years ago.

One of the most magical things about the Eiffel Tower is how romantic it is…

On my first trip to Paris a few years ago we arrived at 7am in the morning. I had struggled to sleep on the plane and had only managed an hour or two so I was very tired for our first day there. We dropped our luggage at the hotel and bought some pastry for breakfast, walked a few blocks down cobblestone streets to the Louvre. While we waited for it to open, we sat on a ornately carved stone bench and looked about us. I was still fuzzy from the flight and hoped the pastry would wake me up. As I looked around, all of a sudden I saw it…the Eiffel Tower, off in the distance. My eyes filled with tears. I knew I was in Paris.

Posted in travel adventures | Tagged Eiffel Tower, french pastry, Louvre, Paris, Romance, travel | Leave a comment

Shopping Rue Cler…..the very french way to eat in Paris

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Lynette

One of the things we learned our very first trip to Paris was that french people typically buy their food every day for that day’s meals. They have very small refrigerators since they don’t stockpile food the way we Americans tend to. It’s a very different shopping experience…buying just what you need for that day, and going to individual stores for each type of good you need. There are small supermarkets here and there, about the size of a Plaid Pantry, and many specialized stores. You buy your bread in a bread shop, your pastries in a pastry shop, your cheese in a cheese shop, and so forth. There are quite a few streets around Paris that have a whole row of these types of shops and the most famous is Rue Cler. Rick Steves is adamant in his travel book about visiting Rue Cler and experiencing a true local way to live so we tried it our first trip and really enjoyed the adventure. And adventure it is, as many of these shops carry food we have never seen before, and my high school french is helpless to translate the more exotic items. We like to grab baguettes, cheese, some fruit, some sliced meat, some pastries for dessert, and make a picnic, either at a park or in our hotel room.

The Butcher’s Shop…note the baked chickens for sale in the front. There are some very mysterious items in the back…not for the faint-hearted.

The chocolat shop…heaven awaits inside those doors.

The honey shop…many unusual flavors of honey, as well as beeswax candles, honey soap, and much more.

The cheese shop…with over 300 types of cheese for sale. It’s very intimidating but one must be brave and hope for the best. The sales lady was very friendly and patient as we slowly made our choices.

The fish shop…not much for our picnic here so we moved onto the fruit and vegetable shop.

You can scoop some nuts..I liked the whimsical packaging.

Or pursue this rather creepy white asparagus……

Or end your meal with these charming gooseberries! Bon appetit!

Posted in Shopping adventures, travel adventures | Tagged french food, Paris, Paris shopping, picnic in Paris, Rick Steves, Rue Cler, Shopping | 4 Comments

Paris—a tale of two cathedrals

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Lynette

Greetings from Paris…it’s our first day here and we chose to take it easy since the travel has exhausted us. We explored Montmartre and Notre Dame and it was interesting to contrast the two cathedrals, Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur. Notre Dame is many centuries old and Sacre Coeur is a wee youngster in this ancient landscape, at just 125 years old.

Notre Dame is somber and majestic, with gorgeous stained glass windows and a multitude of carvings. Sacre Coeur is beautiful and joyful, with beautiful intricate mosaics. A banner hangs from the front, proclaiming ” For 125 years, HERE day and night, somebody has been praying to the Lord.” I love the thought of the never-ending prayer in Sacre Coeur.

Notre Dame has incredibly cool gargoyles.

Sacre Coeur has the best view in Paris.

Of the two…..my choice goes to Sacre Coeur. As much as I appreciate the history and majesty of Notre Dame….Sacre Coeur has a lovely spirit that lifts my heart.

Posted in travel adventures | Tagged Basilique du Sacré-Cœur Paris, Montmartre, Notre Dame de Paris, Paris, Sacre Coeur, travel | Leave a comment

The Only People for Me are the Mad Ones

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Lynette

“Then they danced down the streets….and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “awwwww!”

–Jack Kerouac, On The Road

Posted in truth and courage quotes | Tagged Jack Kerouac, passion for life, quote | Leave a comment

Why I won’t watch Portlandia anymore

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Lynette

The Portlandia statue on the Portland Building...

Image via Wikipedia

I get it. I get that the world views us Portlanders as quirky bike-loving, greenies. A lot of us are…and there’s a lot of things to make fun of here in Portland. Portlandia is a parody of all the typical stereotypes Portland is known for. There’s the wacky mayor, the freak-show independent bookstore owners, the super-agressive biker. I watched the first episode and laughed and cringed in equal parts. Perhaps we are that earnest and..gasp…stuck in the 90s. However, as the series has progressed, each episode has gotten further off base and less funny. The last 2 episodes I watched were painful to watch. Painful because they were so NOT FUNNY. It was time to take Portlandia off the DVR. I don’t mind a good joke at our expense. Hell, I laugh at myself at least once a day. If the show kept being funny I would continue to watch it even though it only shows a small subculture in Portland. The show has gone further and further away from the true essence of Portland. Where’s the jokes about Voodoo Donuts and the food cart scene and the tattoo culture and ….gasp….all the rain in Portland? I can think of a hundred things that make Portland unique, and yet laugh-worthy. Where are they? So if you continue to watch Portlandia, keep in mind that you are seeing a couple of ideas about Portland…not always true…and certainly not always funny.

Update April 2012: I decided to go back and try a few of the newest episodes to see if I would change my mind. While I thought they did a much better job in recent episodes capturing the essence of the true Portland experience…I still didn’t find them very funny. Sometimes the concept was funny…execution not so much. Such is life. Not everyone seems to feel I have the right to an opinion about this, however. One guy out there left me a pretty scathing comment. Told me to get over myself. He seems like the type of guy who doesn’t like women to have opinions. Hey, if you are going to read a blog post that’s titled Why I won’t watch Portlandia anymore than you can pretty much expect what my post is going to say. If you worship Portlandia more power to you….let’s have an interesting discussion about it, instead of leaving negativity…under a false name, no less. That’s cowardly, in my book. And that’s….my update.