The Day I Heard Mary Died

long after I got Jim’s call at the Krispy Kreme
long after Kalyani was there to catch my fall

I wrote a letter to Aunt Sue on my best stationery.

No sense having all those real-pressed-flower
fine cotton papers just hanging around in boxes
with no one getting any enjoyment out of them.

Aunt Sue has recently gone deaf
and I miss our phone calls.

She is Dad’s “baby” sister
for whom yours truly is named.

Dad also has one brother living,
Uncle Ken, on the adjacent farm
in the Canadian Maritimes

Aunt Sue lives near Toronto.

Uncle Wes, Uncle Wayne, Aunt Jean, Aunt Bess and Aunt Day have all passed on.

Used the last of my old humming bird stamps on her letter.

And that return address label.

 
I got the Smiley Face stickers as a surprise in a
Wonderful Package from this fine fine lady.
I’ll explain them in a post here one day.

So, one off my list, whooooohoooo. I’m on letters-writing fire now, people!!

This is Jo’s card I’m still writing on…

Pretty, eh?  On linen-laid cotton.

Raoul Dufy’s “The Baie des Anges at Nice” — 1926.

Remember Jo — my “panpal” since 1994?

Remember us at that pub in England in 1999?

And here we are with her daughter Pascell, the first time they came to Texas…

What year was that, Jo? 1997? ’98?

And Jo recently…

And after I was home from writing Aunt Sue’s letter that day I snapped this with my iPhone…

Mieshka had been with us 2 days.

There you have it for today.

With love, from Jannie Sue Muffin.

P.S. I see I actually had the date wrong on Aunt Sue’s letter. That Friday was really the 15th, not the 16th.

🙂

Baubles & Blessings

A tray of mirror-ball baubles graces our dining room table.

More baubles and such good gawd adorns the corner table.

Got some golden spirals too.

(All loot for 25 cents on the dollar at Michael’s.  Love those after-Christmas sales!)

And what’s all that glitz for?

Why, for the 30 centerpieces for the concert / gala school fundraiser.

This weekend I decorated 12 of the 30 pots.

Jim calls the centerpiece bases “lovely.”

Kelly calls them “weird.”

I call them “Freaking Done!!”

And I think they’re kinda cute, (if I do humbly say so.)

The 8″ flower pots I scored from garden center recycling bins, whooo-hooo.

Then stapled brown satin and stuff on them.

The general artistic plan is to stand a tree branch and several golden spirals in each pot, held in place with stones.

(Branches and stones FREE from nature!)

Then hang varied whimsy in the glittered-up be-sequinned branches.

And see what happens.

With tealights in votive holders on the tables, I think the whole effect will be quite adequate.

Tomorrow I’m heading out to the wild with my branch loppers!  Wish me luck.

Friends are coming over Saturday for bauble hanging.  TG for the posse!

A tray of mirror-ball baubles graces our dining room table.

18 more bases await my loving creation.

And all is well.

Posted with love by a blogger who is about to hit the hay.
xoxoxoxo

P.S.  If YOU have any suggestions for this first-time centerpiece creator, now’s your time to let loose!

THANKS!!

You might need sunglasses for this one

One day with my iPhone in mid-to-late spring

my daughter and I, full of zippity zing

did admire 2 mosaics in olde Austin town

in a park where leaves were gathered all ’round.

She who had died her own pants and socks

and me behind the lens in my lustrous locks,

did enjoy the day, and will go back there soon

for another Kelly-Mommy sweet afternoon.

All photos taken at the Austin Nature & Science Center in Zilker Park this past spring.

(These type of bright photos void where prohibited by law.)

posted by you-know-who

with extreme love.

xoxoxo

Little Loves (a poem)

Little resentments

will I release to

the leaves of the day.

Little loves will I

set free on the breezes

of beautiful intention.

(end of poem.)

[Edit: I switched the order of photos 1 and 2 on July 6, 2010 at 10:29 a.m. Texas Time because the first one freaked Lynn out and Dr. J. loves the second one!]   🙂

Kelly sure was inspired that November afternoon I took her to the Umlauf Sculpture Garden.

She was four.

We’d just come from the song contest awards (I’d won 2, whoo-hoo) and she was jazzed.

She’d run to and pose beside, in, on, around and under more than 30 pieces of art that day, singing out “Mommy, take my picture! Take my picture!!”

I’m glad she did.

And I’m glad I did.

She’s something else, that Kelly girl!

Now that I’ve maxed my photos to 790px wide, yep — 50px wider (couldn’t resist,) I feel very very extrahappy about sharing my favorites with you.

Official new English word — extrahappy!

Your input on my recent photo-size poll helped twist my rubber arm to the 790 pix.  😉  Thank you.

In other news… sooner than later I’ll explain the plan behind my new “Places I Like To Go…” links on my now 150px wide sidebar (down from 200 px!)

And post a video of me singing a new song I’m writing.

And have some kind of a giveaway.

All sound good?

P.S.  All photos in this post, unlike this photo the other day, are 100% unretouched.  Umlauf does keep things camera-ready!

xoxxoo

Even More Bigger

[Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, 2008. Niece Alyssa, daughter Kelly.]

Color me even crazier than usual — but today I tweaked this blog to upgrade my photos from 700 pixels wide to this all-new 740 wide!!

[My Canadian hometown, 2008. Kelly, Alyssa, nephew Austin.]

Okay, so My Amazing Camera is still a thing of the future, but what do you think of these 740 px wides??

I would be SO grateful if you could please let me know your most intimate thoughts pertaining to my new Ludicrously Wide photos.

[Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, 2008. Sister Rosie, Alyssa, Kelly.]

In the poll below, please check ALL that apply.

Thank you all so very very much a lot!!!!

And feel free to leave any additional input in a comment below.

xoxoxo