Framed!

Frames were what I forgot to get on my shopping excursion the other day. Fortunately on another errand with Tom and Debby, I was able to pick up a couple. I needed them for prints I received from Laurel Storey. Longtime readers might remember Laurel from LiveJournal, which is where I likely became acquainted with her through ‘Nathan and Dan (all in Canada, and I suspect their original connection might have been BookCrossing). Later, I followed Laurel on her blog Alphabet Salad, where I think she stopped writing around 2017, but by then, we’d connected via her Instagram, where we still interact. I like keeping up with all the adventures she and her husband enjoy (trips, music, art, restaurants, Lego® kits, photography, desserts, cats!).

I’m not sure when Laurel began pursuing her interest in Zentangle (quick explanation: the Zentangle Method allows an artist to create images using structured patterns, called tangles, by combining dots, lines, simple curves, S-curves, and orbs). Laurel is now a certified Zentangle teacher, who teaches and exhibits her art at the Walkerville Artists Collective Gallery in Windsor, Ontario.


No surprise that Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings, including this one from 1888, are among my favorites of his work, since I not only appreciate his art, I’m also a fan of sunflowers. I was delighted to see a Zentangle piece created by Laurel that was inspired by the Van Gogh painting, and I ordered a print.

 


(Sorry for the reflections you can see in the glass.)

When I received my order, she’d generously included another print that I also framed.

Here’s a bonus photo from Laurel’s Instagram of the crosswalk outside the gallery this past August to celebrate Pride. Pride Month comes again in June, but another significant date coming up on October 11 is National Coming Out Day, so it’s a good time to share this. I’m always happy to join other allies like Laurel in support of LGBTQ+ equality.

©Laurel Storey, 2023

Here are the two prints hanging over one of the windows in the office at Houndstooth Hall.

Thank you, Laurel!

random or not

Today was a gorgeous day here after some rainy/rainy-cold ones. It allowed me to do physical work outside–a much needed antidote to too much horrible news and too many reprehensible behaviors displayed for the world to see via news and social media.

Today’s outside work means I have a nice collection of kindling for when we use the chiminea to sit on the patio and talk when it’s both clear and chilly.

1. I know that “influencers” carefully cultivate an image much like entertainment figures do. 2. I rarely stick with reading or following “oversharers.” 3. I share selectively. I only ever got on social media in the first place because anyone with something to sell (e.g., art, books, music) was told it was the best way to find an audience. I don’t have anything to sell (these days). I don’t feel compelled to influence anyone. I still like interacting with people here, but this has become mostly a way to keep up with my days–what I do, who I’ve seen, what I’m thinking about or remembering.

I’m sort of working on something that I’m adding to the blog–but I’m “time traveling” to do it, so it won’t show up on the first page. It’s something I want to keep up with for reasons of my own, and I don’t imagine it would mean anything to anyone else.

If you’re in the States and observe the holiday tomorrow, I hope it’s what you want it to be, whether restful, busy, social, or quiet. I’m thankful for the people and animals who fill my life with laughter, love, and thoughtfulness.

A touch of normalcy

My cleanup of the blog is complete, and now we (which means, mostly Tom, the tech savvy person at Houndstooth Hall) are working with a couple of companies’ technical support to resolve various issues before I take the site live again.

It’s a profound relief not to be going through hundreds of posts a day, trying to clean them up. Instead, I’ve given time to leisure activities I enjoy. I started this book yesterday. Lady of Bones is the 24th in Carolyn Haines’s Sarah Booth Delaney series, and I finished it today. Set in and around New Orleans, it’s got a bit of everything, and it was nice to catch up with the Zinnia crew again.

I’ve listened to some of my recently purchased CDs while cleaning house, cooking, and enjoying time with my dogs. Music, as the Beach Boys sing, is in my soul.

Also, I finally, finally have returned to the Neverending Saga. One of the things I discovered as I reread my entire blog was how long these characters were percolating in my brain again before I took the plunge and decided to revise and rewrite those old manuscripts in 2019. In every way, I realized that I’ve reached the phase of peace and resolution I wanted. I’m writing for me. It doesn’t matter that others have not and may not ever read what I’m writing. It doesn’t matter that people used what I’m writing to project their own challenges or miseries onto me or my work. I’ll tell the stories. I’ll tell them in ways that honor my characters and who they were created to be. That’s all I can do.

It’s nice to be with them again after more than three weeks of being denied that joy.

Here are a couple of characters who help me celebrate friendship. The dress on the left is one I made way back when, and on the right, from Mattel’s 1962 black and white floral Fashion Pak, are this blouse and skirt and included another skirt and a romper. The entire set is almost certainly from Lynne’s collection.

Mood: Monday


Name that mood.

Marion Patten, American
“Still Life with Tumbler, Wedgewood Pitcher and Fruit,” c. 1930
oil on canvas

For me, the mood the painting evokes is satisfaction. On October 17, 2011, I posted a photo of a sage green vase I’d found that reminded me of two similar blue vases I had when I was young. I thought they might have been free gifts with Avon products. Mark L suggested they looked like jasper (as in Wedgwood Jasperware), which I then searched and couldn’t find anything similar to what I own(ed). Wedgwood Jasperware can be expensive, and the white designs are raised on them. The white on my vase(s) is painted, and I knew what I had were not expensive, then or now.

Since I’m having to edit every post as part of the big blog attack clean-up (hello, still in 2011, eek), and reread that post, I searched again, once again trying, “avon,” “wedgwood,” and “jasperware.” While it’s not proof, both the blue and green vases are listed on eBay, Etsy, Poshmark, and Mercari with various descriptions that include those words, along with “replica.” So I think I was correct back in 2011 by thinking they were free gifts with Avon products circa the 1960s/1970s.


Images taken from the Internet.

Mood: Monday


Name that mood.

Thunder Storm On Narragansett Bay
Martin Johnson Heade, American
1868, oil on canvas

It’s not raining here, though we could use it. This painting has more to do with my current mood as I struggle to fix my blog. It’s taking up so much time and energy that I’d normally be using for writing. But when I try to focus on anything else, that just isn’t happening right now.

Button Sunday

Another full day of working to clean up the mess someone has made of this blog. One of my problems in working efficiently is that I started from the beginning: 2004. I’m a little over halfway through 2007 now. While editing the contents of each post to remove the bad text, it’s hard not to read the posts. My life was busy back then–writing, traveling, spending time with friends, expressing passionate opinions about the world–and I wrote it all down. The blog was also busy, with lots of comments on the posts and interactions between my friends and readers there. So I get distracted by reading and remembering it all. Most of it keeps me laughing, so I guess that’s a benefit?

I was also quite the photoshopper to entertain us all.

Site drama pt 2

Worked about ten hours today trying to clean corrupt verbiage out of posts. There are more than 7000 posts over a span of 18 years. The years 2004 to mid-2011 were migrated from LJ. The rest were posted to my website, which is where you are now.

Some of the corrupt verbiage is only visible when I edit. But some of it is visible to readers. It may contain links that I wouldn’t want my readers to accidentally click on. Worse, it’s very jarring to see certain kinds of “information” next to some of my photos. I’m not providing words or context because I don’t want anyone googling that crap to land on my blog. So… it has to be cleaned up.

When I’m not posting and interacting with commenters, I realize how much of a link to the world this blog is for me. I have more readers than commenters, but I do have readers. I can feel them missing from my daily life. I don’t like it at all.

Photo Friday, No. 810

Current Photo Friday theme: Broken

It’s hot as blazes in Houston. I’ve had to take my website private while I repair damage done to it by malicious jerks. Around 7000 corrupt posts covering 18 years. Terra cotta pottery isn’t the only thing broken around here. Technology and its villains have made me feel a bit broken, too.

Broken pottery can be used in the bottom of other plants to give them better drainage. With time and work, I’ll be useful again, too.

Site Drama pt 1

This site has some problems, and I don’t understand them because I’m the one with technical difficulties. It may be that I end up taking the blog private for a while until these problems can be fixed. I don’t want to lose my content. There are too many memories, too much effort, and way too many photos after 18 years for me to let it be ruined.

As I said to someone earlier today, writing is how I process things. I know not every reader is going to understand why I write the things I write–whether few words or many, and sometimes really only images. Maybe much of this seems frivolous or shallow–and visitors would like to see things of greater substance, or fewer things they have no interest in.

It may not seem like it, but there’s a discipline and a meaning to all of this (from my perspective).

I’m overwhelmed by too many things right now. Posting every day isn’t a burden, but trying to fix the damage being caused by attacks to the site is a lot, and I’m not sure I have the energy for it.

Hopefully, I’ll start getting help and answers tomorrow. Thanks for any time you’ve spent here and for reading and commenting.

Wednesday’s Child

Today, I was dumb and looked back at this date on the first few years of my blog, beginning with LiveJournal, which I started in 2004. I didn’t manage to get all the way to 2011, when I migrated over to this blog, before I had to stop.

Today is the date John Lennon was murdered in 1980. I posted a coloring page with some of his lyrics on Instagram and had to turn off comments because I was getting spoilers about the new Let It Be documentary. Of course I watched the original movie, but it’s been a very long time, and I’d like to see this one (which Tom and I plan to watch in segments this month, hopefully) without knowing any of the new material and having forgotten a lot of what I’ve seen before.

John Lennon was born on Wednesday, October 9, 1040; that date reminded me of a beautiful non-Beatles song I listened to again recently. “Wednesday’s Child.” I’ll link to it at the bottom of this post. It doesn’t matter how many years have passed. The year 1980 was a brutal one for me personally, and for it to end so miserably for Riley and me still leaves me raw when I think about it.

There are a lot of tough dates for me in December, and I think that’s why I finally began making a bigger deal of Christmas. The novel A Coventry Christmas starts with the main character saying, “I hate Christmas.” I once said that to my coworkers at a job, and one of the guys said, “I worry about you.” A few years later, when I was asked to write a Christmas romance, I said it again, only this time Timothy answered, “There’s your first line.” Writers… I love them, and those writers include Timothy J. Lambert, Riley Morris, and John Lennon.

Today, I added more ornaments to the tree from a bin we hadn’t opened yet. This one made me laugh when I found it. It had to go up.


The Bella and Edward ornament.


And this one. Tom was born on Christmas Day, and his uncle, who was a baker, put this on his first birthday cake. After we were married, Tom’s mother gave us a lot of special mementos like this for our holiday trees.


I’ll keep adding to the tree probably until it’s time for everything to be taken down. Because if yesterdays can make me melancholy, it’s up to me to make and appreciate better days now.

I’m Monday’s child. Riley was Tuesday’s child. John Lennon was Wednesday’s child.

Monday’s child is fair of face
Tuesday’s child is full of grace
Thursday’s child has far to go
Whoa, oh-oh-oh
Mm-mm-mm
Hmm, mm-mm-mm
Friday’s child is lovin’ and givin’
And Saturday’s child must work for a livin’
A child that’s born on the sabbath day
Whoa, oh-oh-oh
Is fair andw ise, happy and gay
Wednesday’s child is full of woe
Whoa, oh-oh-oh
Woe I know
I am Wednesday’s child

Written by Mark Lindsay, Keith Allison, and Jerry Allison

Rest in peace, Keith Allison.