Small things

There are big events in this world.

Terrible storms devastating so very many.

WARS, horrible, horrible wars.

Glorious weddings with all the fanfare.
Tsunami survivors still searching for the lost.

When there are too many large events in the world,

I seek the small things in life for comfort.

Staying small and focusing on the simple, eases my

mind and quiets my fears. 

Performing simple tasks with grateful intention,

be it changing the linens, weeding the garden,

 or hand washing the dishes, these

simple tasks are given my full attention.

It allows me moments to capture the beauty

of a small thing gorging on the nectar of the 

first blossoms of my pink silk tree.

Project Genesis is in 2 days.

Please join us.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.  ~Anne Frank

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It's not.  ~Dr. Seuss

Joining Chania again today for her Friday photo challenge.

3 B's

Joining Chania today for photo challenge:
EASTER

Please have a safe and wonderful day
 with those you love.


Z

NIGHTSTAND

Playing along with Chania's Friday photo challenge today - dresser.

Nothing on the dresser, my night stand will "stand in".

Quite diverse reading this week, I just noticed.

Top one is vintage copy of Last of the Mohicans.

Cannot re-read without image of Daniel Day Lewis

 running through my mind.

sigh

Sarah, how many times did you see it ?  lol (don't hit!)

My most favorite earrings. 

All are made by either my friends Sarah or Heather.

They never make it to my jewelry drawers.

They are worn too frequently to be put away.

AS for my own challenge this week, I lost 

2 days this week to other responsibilities 

so I will resume today my quest to get

 everything out of my kitchen.

Just like everyone else, I am stumped by a few.

Those four large shutters were 

in my living room for years.

When I edited them out they ended up 

stored up on the garage ceiling,

not in my way, just a nagging presence. 

Loved too much to sell, they hung around

 because for many years I believed I would 

move from this home and use them in a new one.

Now, who knows, uncertainty abounds.

I am prepared to put them back up there,

and fail in this week's self imposed challenge.

But that's OK.

Dad always reminded me that we learn 

far more from our mistakes than our successes.

Hope you all have a glorious weekend!

z

A DOOR

Yep, that would be my favorite door.

Why, you may ask am I showing you a door?

Chania's  photo challenge for this week was...DOOR

This baby has just the right shade of cream 

and crackle and chips and sadly,

 right this minute resides in the garage. HORRORS!

When I rearranged this area in the family room,  

it lost it's home and has as yet to find a new one.

When friends see it propped up unceremoniously in the garage I always hear,

"if you are going to get rid of that door..."

Sorry gals, this wooden gem is going to come 

back into the house one of these days...

along with the two sets of shutters 

you guys all covet also.

mean, evil Suzan lol

maybe in the newly altered bath hmmm?

LIBERTY

Gone seven years now. 

She died of a brain aneurysm 

right in front of Hannah and I in the back yard.

It was one of the worst experiences I have ever had, 

and when Hannah and I talk of her we tear up

something fierce. 

I have loved all my pets and I have had many.

A few were adored.

Libbey was one of them.

She was 95 pounds of pure love and playfulness,

and loved the kids and I beyond measure.

We will miss her always.

Joining Chania for the Friday challenge Pets

Wonderful weekends to you all :D

Z

Apples and Birdies

Joining Chania's photo challenge today.

Please go visit - hurry : D 

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Me.....always heading in a different direction.

Beth and I have been playing birdie tag.

Have a fabulous weekend all.

Suzan

Shadows and in the Shadows

The shadows in this shade

made my heart flutter.

She carries a very deep shadow on my heart.

Textures are tucked into the shadows of a cabinet.

Sitting in the shadows, at home for

awhile and not so far away.

The shadows are carved into this box.

My constant shadows.

Every time I type here, they sit there

in the shadows beneath my desk.

I can run my bare feet over their soft fur and

"fluff" their ears.

The snorts, the snores, and the dog biscuit

"odoriferous" results keep me company.

Please join Chania at Razmataz

for this week's photo challenge Shadow.

Suzan

Architecture

Architecture to me always means vintage,

though that is an inaccurate assessment of the word.

Unable to live in a home with what I consider

to have real architecture, I hauled part of a

rooftop from a vintage home into my living room.

What can I say it makes me happy?

Many of my vintage cabinets and tables have

other people's names on them.

No, I did not borrow from them, nor are they waiting for my demise,

(at least I hope not), they are waiting for their

chance to own the piece, if and when I decide to sell.

Some pieces have as many as four names.

About this piece, I have had dozens of people say to me

" If you ever decide to get rid of that..."

But folks, I have to tell you, even if I decide to sell off everything,

which I threaten to do now and again and some day it may be necessary,

this piece will never be in the estate sale or the focus of an auctioneer's gavel.

If I have to strap it to the roof of my car and it finally

settles into a teensy studio apartment, it is staying with this gal.

It's not just architecture, it is character.

You cannot buy good character, and you

should never barter with it either.

You either have it or you don't.

Getting an early jump on Friday's Architecture Challenge

at Razmataz hosted by Chania.

Suzan

Create Change - The World Will Thank You
Project Genesis November 1st

Please join us.

Don't be caught without your PG post...It is coming up fast.

The last Project Genesis had visitors from 48 states

and from over 26 countries. Maybe your new

best blog friend is one of them?

RED Letter Day

RED

Favorite beads - Nettie's shoe

Please join Chania @ Razmataz

for this week's photo challenge RED.

Create Change - The World Will Thank You
Project Genesis November 1st

Please join us.

Solo Dining

The trick to solo dining is to treat yourself.
Even though this is OJ, coffee and granola, the non healthy kind,
"Pecan Sticky Bun", you must elevate
the experience if you wish to dine and not scarf it all down.

The beautiful Italian dishes Vietri are my new favorites,
long admired at a friends house. Recently she offered to swap these
for working hours on my part and I jumped at the chance, knowing I
could never afford them otherwise. I staged her home for sale,
and I now own these sage, saffron and cream beauties.
( The house sold in three days.)

This morning I decided that a nice relaxing breakfast using my
beautiful new dishes was just what I needed to chase away a disturbing
dream from the night before. The kind of dream that finds you
weeping as you come up from it's depths. The kind that knocks the wind
out of your sails, the first few hours you're awake.

Damn straight I deserved a pretty breakfast.

That's the thing about food. Not only life sustaining,
but nurturing as well. Yes, I have "nurtured" myself into
another size, but my alternate choices were unappealing.
"Give me pecan sticky bun instead!" she cries. "I will go on
to face another day, and kick those bad dreams to the hills."

I'm thinking if grilled cheese and cereal can look delicious
in these, maybe some beautiful pasta tonight would be
a good idea. I hope your dining this weekend nurtures you
and feeds your soul.

Suzan

Please join Chania at Razmataz for another
Friday photo challenge.

Junk Drawer

If you lived in a house with shelves like this:

(yep, those spices are in alphabetical order)

you would probably expect to see a junk drawer,

like this..

...and yep, that is my junk drawer.

Now why would that be an issue? Well, the photo challenge

at Razmataz this Friday is Junk Drawer.

The challenge is an excellent exercise, perhaps meant to examine

our personalities or the quirkiness of our possessions.

What can I say? I'm tidy.

Not obsessive, not overly clean, TIDY....

and prepared, as you can see by the articles in said JD.

A wind up emergency radio and flashlight,

small tools easily assessable even though garage full

of tools is a mere five steps away, phone chargers etc.

I actually considered, for about a minute, "faking" a drawer, how

weird is that? That I would try to look messy? Now THAT

shows something in my personality, any arm chair

psychologists want to weigh in?

Oddly enough, I am not overly tidy in every area

of my life or my home. I hate filing away paid bills and forms

and at times they pile up for months before they are perfectly

put into their expertly labeled folders.

My clothes are hung by type, length of sleeve and by color.

I have at least 10 hours of ironing in a basket on the closet floor.

The pile has been there an equal amount of months.

so, if we are still examining the psyche behind my junk drawer?

I appear to have a split personality.

or

I'm just nuts.

I Am No Longer Young

I am 70 in my years.

I can no longer see out of my one eye.

My hearing is unreliable.

My breath is not always pleasant and I

grouch and growl at misunderstood sounds.

My nose is crusty and miserable with allergies.

I can no longer easily get in and out of a car, nor arise

from my spot on the sofa without a grunt or a groan.

I have turned grey and I am covered in spots and warts that

make me avoid looking into mirrors, for I no longer recognize myself.

I am snappish at times because my bones ache and I

have little tolerance for loud rambunctious children.

I enjoy my naps and my dreams of youth.

My memories of my family are happy ones.

I was rescued just as I was being trampled by larger

companions. I was quite ill and assumed I

would never find a loving home.

My family loved me on sight, nursed me to health

and I have been fed and sheltered ever since.

I enjoy a much younger companion named Howie.

I think I would be called a "cougar".

I am no longer young, but I am proud and honest and loyal.

Age is a blessing and a curse..

and a bitch like me..

Bitch [BI ch]

noun

1. a female dog

Please join Razmataz for this week's photo challenge - age

Justice

Create Change - The World Will Thank You
Project Genesis October 1st

Closer

closer

bring or come to an end [trans]

the garden is coming to an end

petals drop, dry and shrivel

fall is close

Please join Razmataz

for other viewpoints on Closer

a little sidebar here:

this post is # 300

timing perfectly with a milestone in Followers

so next week a surprise!

if I survive the sale....

Suzan

A Different Reflection

Those who know me intimately, realize I view things slightly

different than the way most people do. I am also known to

ponder an idea or problem upside down, inside out and

sideways until I feel that I have a clear vision of how to proceed,

or that I am aware of all potential versions and possibilities.

When confronted with issues I am commonly the participant to play

devils advocate to the problem and try to walk in the other guys shoes;

(dearest Pam can attest- I think she rolls her eyes now when I say,

"playing devils advocate").

Sorry, I digress, but it does apply, hang in there with me.

So.......Chania's photo challenge this week was reflections, and on many

of my sleepless nights this past week I imagined mirrors and gentle waters,

flowing curtains, and ethereal images of angels......

Not my darling daughter's boob, er breast.

While editing some of my not so grand ideas, I scrolled past these

shots I snapped as she was leaving the house one afternoon.

A recently purchased t shirt provided her an added bonus...

A boob alert, a warning of impending breast-dom which DD and I

found hilarious.

Whenever light of any intensity hit her chest region,

a vivid, sparkling display of dancing ( bouncing?) fairy lights

proceeded her every step.

SO....

While technically appropriate with a theme of reflection,

( they do reflect the hell out of it don't they?)

it is not the lovely image you will find with the other

participants. Please visit all the other gals linking to

Razmataz whose minds aren't as twisted as mine.

I would blame the lack of sleep but I know close friends

would betray me in the comment section alerting you to the fact

that lack of sleep has nothing to do with my sense of humor...

***********

If mine were still as "perky", I would have snapped up a

couple t's for me to wear everywhere, just to see the look on people

faces as I approached. C'mon can't you see it?

Fairy lights in the produce section, standing on-line at the post office,

6am Starbucks run.....

maybe it IS the lack of sleep....

Suzan