Paint It White

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If you’ve been following for a while, you know how excited I get about Pantone’s Color of the Year. With the excption of 2019’s Living Coral, the past five years have been a bit of a disappointment… but, at least they were colors. This year’s Color is called Cloud Dancer, a pretty spectacular name for white, if you ask me.

Maybe it’s a response to all of the cottage-core color-drenching that’s going on in Pinterest and Reels.
Maybe it’s acknowledging that this year could use a coat of white primer and a do-over. Perhaps a kinder, gentler start.

In its description Pantone called it a “billowy, balanced white, chosen as a calming antidote to a noisy world.” They got that part right. They even state that white “symbolizes new beginnings.”
In that vein, numerologically speaking, our upcoming year (2+0+2+6,) adds up to 10, which equals a 1. Also symbolizing a new beginning. I’ve got my fingers crossed.

I’ve been feeling well enough to bake lately. Sadly, my oven (my new oven) chose now to have a meltdown. I made a batch of gluten-free orange and pistachio biscotti, a twice-baked cookie of sorts, perfect for dunking in your coffee or tea. It’s a new recipe to me that was surprisingly easy to mix and shape. I popped it into the oven and set a timer for 20 minutes.
Walking back into the kitchen 16 minutes later, smoke was curling out of the oven vent. The thermostat had gone on the fritz and the oven was registering above 500 degrees!


I’m glad we were smart enough to buy an extended warranty. Oh, how I long for a gas oven.

I am waiting for the Whirlpool repairman to come again this afternoon with another part. And, in the meantime, I learned a new Italian word: bruciato. It means burned.

I posted my biscotti pic on Facebook (I know, it’s where the old people hang-out, but I am old) and a friend said it looked like a crocodile.
It kinda does, doesn’t it?
And a sister said it looked like Mom’s meatloaf! Poor Mom.
I’m guessing that because she didn’t like meat, but felt obliged to cook it, it was always overcooked. Her heart definitely wasn’t in it.

I hurried to defend her, saying she cooked well. But, maybe not, because I always joke that I learned to cook in self-defense. I can say with certainty that she was a great baker. Cream-puffs extraordinaire! Gooey pineapple upside-down cake! Feather-weight angel-food cake! I guess she’s where I get my love of baking. I’ll give that biscotti another try and take photos when I do.

This is one of the Papa Noël statues my sweetie has collected over the years. He and his daughter were trying to figure out how old it is, but didn’t know exactly, at least thirty years or more. I’ve always loved this one – it is so abundant with his lush beard and all of his Teddy bears.

To all of my Jewish friends – I hope your Hanukkah was festive.

To all of you who celebrate it, I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

And to everyone, an abundant and Happy New Year! I’m grateful for you all.

XO Donna

Good Things

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Oh, gosh, I’ve been thinking of changing the name of my blog… or something.

The renewal for both my domain name (Sexy Past 60) and for WordPress – they host my blog – have come due and I seriously thought about not renewing either of them. I’m way past 60. And not feeling very sexy, and I haven’t written anything in months. Why not drop them and save the worry, and a couple hundred dollars?
Upon discussion with my sweetie, he convinced me to keep it another year and see what happens. I might feel like writing again soon. Inspiration could strike…

To use a British expression, I feel that I’ve “been made redundant.” I no longer need to give advice on hair, makeup, or clothing styles because it can easily be found anywhere these days with a quick computer search. There’s even technology where you can try-on a haircut, makeup, and even clothing before you buy them. Online, of course. But really, that is only part of the reason I haven’t been writing.

The truth is, I haven’t been writing because I’ve had a spectacularly lousy last couple of months.

Define lousy, you say. I had 4 emergency room visits to two different hospitals, another “stroke-like” event which turned out not to be a stroke, and a 5-day hospital stay… all in one month.
I’m on a first name basis with a couple of E.R. docs and nurses now. I’ve been CT’d, MRI’d, radio-activated, stress-tested and spinal tapped.

And that was before I went to MD Anderson Cancer in Houston for a week.


In my book, Sick and Tired & Sexy… Living Beautifully with Chronic Illness, I focused on the auto-immune illnesses I live with, since so many other women have them, too. What was helping me would probably help them also.

I didn’t include the rare bone-marrow disorder I’ve had since 1998. My body produces way too many platelets – the opposite of Leukemia. I’ve been on meds that have kept it well-controlled forever. It was just something humming in the background which would occasionally remind me of its presence with an astonishingly psychedelic migraine.

Suddenly, it was not under control and causing me a lot of seemingly unrelated problems.

By going to MD Anderson, I have an updated diagnosis, and a brand new treatment plan going forward. It’s a week, today, since I started a new drug, Jakafi, and other than feeling a bit dizzy, I’m doing very well. Better living through modern chemistry, indeed!

Two other good things that have made my life much better have been mail-order subscription services.

The first is with Brodo, which means “broth” in Italian. It’s delicious bone-broth which is low-sodium and high-flavor. It has as much protein as an egg in each one-cup serving. And look at the cute cups they sent me as a gift with my second order!
I struggle to get enough protein since I dislike eggs in the morning, and I can’t eat dairy products. A cup of steamy broth and a gluten-free goodie works just fine for me. I order both individual serving packs in my fave flavor (Tuscan Sun) and a few bigger (3-cup) packages to use a base for other meals. It’s been a game-changer for me to have them in my pantry.

* I am not receiving compensation of any kind for sharing these great products. They’ve become staples, and I am just passing along the deliciousness.

The other subscription is to Wildgrain – a bakery service where I can order gluten-free sourdough breads, delicious “Everything” bagels (my favorites) below, and other goodies that make my wheat-free, dairy-free, low-sodium life much easier. With cold weather on its way, I’m all set. Soup!

Doesn’t that bagel look delish? It’s a bit less chewy than a wheat flour bagel, but it’s certainly a tasty substitute. I’ve even found a non-dairy cream cheese by Kite Hill that has a creamy texture and a tangy flavor. I’m thrilled!

And I have more good things to look forward to: Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos are both this week. They are my favorite holidays! I need to pick up some pumpkins today and put them in the yard with my black cat cut-outs. We love to decorate, even though we don’t have trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood, sadly.

The other good thing is my birthday, next week. I usually don’t make a fuss over it, but this year I’m going to. I’m going to be 74… and I’m very grateful to be here to celebrate it!

I’m going to buy myself some new baking pans and cookie sheets at Sur la Table. (Since I’m still studying French, I now know that means “on the table.”) Which I where I’m going to park a small decadent chocolate cake that I’m making for myself.

Pictures in the next post, promise.

Wishing you all good things, thanks for being here!
XO. Donna