A Night at the Fair

I guess at this age a walk down memory lane happens almost every day, or at least a few times a week?   Please say yes.  It is not that I am old, just oldER.  I took a walk down memory lane last night in the form of a night at the 4H Fair.  I spent lots of time at the Flemington Fair many years ago, and I just loved it.   And now each year when we go to the 4H Fair (same fair different location) I look around at the kids and wonder if they realize how lucky they are.  They must, right?   I watched an open class sort of show, calves, chickens, sheep and goats, all together with young kids showing the animals.  It is so wonderful to see kids that enjoy working with the animals, are not afraid to get dirty and don't mind the smell of animals.  And that love camping at the fair.   Makes  me feel good about life!   I could walk around, and around, and around, soaking up the "fair vibes".   I went to the fair to meet up with friends.  I had trouble connecting by cell phone with them.  Yes, I know the 4H fair and cell phones do not really go together.   I wandered through the animal barns, watched the ladies spinning wool, petted a few baby goats and headed over to look at the quilts, handwork and rug hooking.  I figured I'd eventually find my friends and I did.  I did take a side trip into the Alpaca tent and exerted great restraint by not purchasing alpaca wool that I really did not need.   However, it occurred to me as I was looking for my friends that I might be wandering around the fair by myself, and that was OK.  I was never in 4H, but my friend Cindy was in 4H and I lived 4H vicariously thru her.   She was the Dairy Princess one year.   Naturally, we don't let her live that down!  I spent almost as much time as the fair each year as she did.   I like the simpler things in life, always have.  I guess that's why I liked the fair and still do.  

Tuesday's Quote

Turn your face towards the sun and the shadows fall behind.

Maori Proverb

Etsy Treasury

I am very excited.   ElementsbyJulie included Valhalla in an Etsy Treasury, Undiscovered Beauties.  Wahoo!  I've only been on Etsy since early this month, so this is very exciting.  No, it's not a sale, but it is a big kudos of approval for me!  No idea when I'll make my first sale.  That's ok.  I'm making contacts and meeting some interesting people.  And more people are noticing my site.  It's all about the traffic.  And creating traffic i've discovered is a challenge!   Thank you to Elements by Julie.

Music of Rain

The sound of rain is like music today.   It's been raining off and on since early morning and it's finally picked up to a real steady down pour.  The weather report is for rain all day, I only hope and pray that it really does rain all day. We need it so very bad. 

Lambertville, just up the river from us, set off a firework show every Friday night over the Deleware River.  I finally got to see them Friday night.  They were fantastic!   We sat on a rock right along the water and watched.  Great fun! 

Saturday Cindy brought me a fresh chicken.  Friend of hers raise chickens and recent started a grass fed beef herd.  I stuck the chicken in the freezer for a Sunday dinner in the fall. I have to get past the idea that I am eating someones pet.   I know it sounds silly.   It's way better than supermarket chicken (we won't mention names) because it totally natural.    I spent a good bit of time with Cindy looking at fabric for ideas for window treatments for their living room.  We looked at paint colors a few weeks ago.   I love color so I get totally lost in looking at fabric and my mind wanders to other ideas.  But we had fun.    Oh and since we were in Joanne's I had to buy some wool.   Not that I needed any, mind you.  But again, it's the color thing.  

That's what I've been doing instead of painting.  I have two paintings 80 percent complete, just staring at me.  I am almost certain of the next step for each but am afraid to take that step because I might ruin what I've done.    I need to find some courage pills, or maybe just a glass of wine will do!   And really, I don't think I'll ruin them, I'll just make more work for myself it thing go amiss.

Thanks for "listening".
 

It's like Christmas

Frosty Trees - Fabric Sample

Well, maybe not quite since it's still so darn hot!  Why is it like Christmas?  I'm waiting for an order!   But not just any order.  There is this really cool website www.spoonflower.com where you can download your artwork and see what it would look like as fabric.  So, I have FINALLY ordered some sample swatches and I'm waiting for it to be delivered.  I'm very excited.  I have lot of ideas of what I can do with the fabric.   Spoonflower can make the fabric in many different layouts. 

Lift Off

Lift Off - Mirror Image Fabric Sample

In the Holy Quiet of this Hour

Lord's Chapel, Watercolor by Colleen Conrad

In the midst of the whirling day, in the hectic rush to be doing,

In the frantic pace of life, pause here for a moment.

Catch your breath, relax your body.

Loosen your grip on life.

Consider that our lives are always unfinished business.

Imagine that the picture of our being is never complete.

Allow your life to be a work in progress.

Do not hurry to mold the masterpiece;

Do not rush to finish the picture;

Do not be impatient to complete the drawing.

From beckoning birth to dawning death, we are in process,

And always there is more to be done.

Do not let the incompleteness weigh on your spirit.

Do not despair that imperfection marks your every day.

Do not fear that we are still in the making.

Let us instead be grateful that the world is still to be created.

Let us give thanks that we can be more than we are.

Let us celebrate the power of the incomplete,

For life is always unfinished business.

Richard Gilbert

From the Skinner House Meditation Manual "In the Holy Quiet of this Hour"

The Tooth Fairy

Yesterday the DJs on the radio station I listen to were talking about how inflation has hit the tooth fairy.  It reminded me of my tooth fairy days.   I was not a bad kid. I pretty much stayed out of trouble.  But my parents told me that there was a good tooth fairy and a bad tooth fairy.  My father has no recollection of this and cannot understand why he would have ever done it.  I distinctly remember him calling the tooth fairy on the telephone to tell him/her that I had lost a tooth.  And then telling me he did not know who would come, the good tooth fairy or the bad tooth fairy.  What would you do after that phone call.  Would you put your tooth under YOUR pillow and go to sleep at night, alone, in the dark, wondering who was coming into you room to take something from underneath your pillow.   No way, Jose.  My  tooth went in a cup on top of the TV!  Nice a safe all the way at the other end of the house.   Yeah, I was not the bravest kid.  I met a little girl many years ago, with a pretty name, Leilani, who handle the tooth fairy thing in an entirely different way.  She didn't really believe, at 6 years old, that the tooth fairy existed.   She insisted on proof.  Her mom, being a creative person, sprinkled baking flour in the window sill in her daughter's bedroom and made little footprints in the flour.   The next morning when Leilani awoke she had a gift from the tooth fairy under her pillow and proof that there really was a tooth fair.  I just love that story.  

When I Paint My Masterpiece

Jerry Garcia has been gone for 15 years. It's been quite a few more years than that since I went to a Dead concert, but somethings leave a lasting memory.  We went to quite a few Grateful Dead concerts.   Lots of fun, lots of stories, lots of great memories in our travels up and down the east coast to see them. One of my favorite songs to hear live was When I Paint My Masterpiece, it gave me chills. I'm still working on my masterpiece, I might be a little closer, but I'll always be working towards it.  Enjoy!

Opportunities . . . what do you do with them?

I wonder what becomes of lost opportunities.
Perhaps our guardian angel gathers them up as we drop them,
and will give them back to us in the beautiful sometime
when we have grown wiser, and learned how to use them rightly.

Helen Keller

My new Website

I'm excited because the bulk of the work is done on my new WEBSITE and I published it for all to see!  I'll add new items and fix typos as necessary. I was stealing way 10 minutes every chance I had to work on it.   I did take a break from that and dishwasher shopping (I think we found a dishwasher, yeah!) to help a friend pick paint colors for her living room.   It was a nice change of pace and we had not seen each other in a while but when we get together it's like we see each other all the time.  It's so easy.  That's the nice thing about being friends with someone for 40 years.  Oh Cindy, has it really been that long.  We are not that old!

Read to me, Please!

I found a great website called LibriVox.  They provide free audio books from the public domain.  There are thousands of books available in mp3 format.  I've listened to a few snipets on my computer.   I don't have an ipod but this is making me think seriously about getting one.   I would love to have someone read Peter Pan to me again!

Courage

Courage doesn't always roar.
Sometimes courage is the little voice
at the end of the day that says,
“I'll try again tomorrow."

Mary Anne Radmacher-Hershey