Under a Blue Moon

First the problem with no comments on yesterday’s post (which is really lonely, let me tell you…), then I’m in the middle of updating my printer drivers and my pc crashes right in the middle of creating a new post.  I can’t print, I can’t post, not feeling the love.

Intel must be in retrograde or something like that.  And someone has crankyitis. 

Oh – and my soon to be replaced camera got wind of the whole enterprise and decided to stay at my Dad’s and pout.  So I am camera-less at the moment.  The image above was taken with a friend’s old camera.

Cleansing breath.  Okay.  So I have been tasked with making numbered tags for the tea party.  A tag will go on each lovingly wrapped tea cup and a corresponding number will go in the butler’s bowler hat for each guest to draw.  Yes, they have a butler at the Villa.  When he isn’t busy making wine.

These are my proto-types.  I was thinking of going for an Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter teaparty theme – but just couldn’t get it to work for me.  So I went for Victorian ladies instead.  I’m kind of pleased.  When I do the actual tags I’ll print the images on photo paper so the color will be sharper.

It’s a good think I don’t have my camera because I’d be tempted to take a picture of the disaster my kitchen is right now – stamp pad, glitter and scraps of paper every where. 

Deliciously summery Flickr Favorites.   Makes me long for a trashy novel, a beach chair and the smell of coconut oil.

I am going to buy a new camera.  My boss gave me a $500 Best Buy gift card and I am going to buy myself a Canon Powershot S3 IS.  I think it will be the step up I need and I won’t outgrow it too soon.  Hopefully I’ll get it this weekend and I can subject you all to a ton of practice shots. 

I’m bemused by the comments I get sometimes, complimenting me on the photos on this blog.  Seriously – I take about a bobillion pictures, maybe two are decent and I doctor them up in the most primitive photo editor (where I basically can crop, resize and point to a section of the picture that is supposed to be white to get the colors adjusted a bit.  That’s IT).   

My current camera I bought on a business trip to Toronto because I wanted to take pictures of the snow.  I went to Canada’s version of Best Buy and bought an Olympus FE-100.  It takes better pictures outdoors and actually, my macro shots taken in outdoor light are perfectly decent.  I rarely have to monkey around with them.  But it doesn’t like low-light indoor conditions (which I have in abundance) and that’s what and where I want to photograph the most. 

So hang tight – I’m going to be fumbling about for a bit and I’m taking you along on the ride.

So back to the pictures up there.  Gorgeous, no?  I didn’t take a single one.  I think my favorite is the last one in the second row.  I love those tea cups.

Speaking of tea cups – I need to go to the antique store and find a lovely one.  My niece is throwing a birthday tea party for herself and instead of gifts she wants everyone to bring a tea cup – they’ll all be assigned a number and then each guest will draw a number and take home that tea cup.  I think this is just the sweetest idea for a birthday party. 

Hopefully I’ll have my new camera so I can photograph the entire event.

1. ballerinas & bunnies cupcakes, 2. Holiday Motel, 3. baking goodies!!, 4. posy, 5. Aqua & Pink, 6. Pink Chair, 7. A field of flowers…, 8. tea set, 9. tea for two, 10. is this not the cutest sewing machine ever?, 11. Vintage baking gal 4×4 Art Squared, 12. St. Maarten, 13. Turquoise and rose alabster, 14. Dirty Pink, 15. blue creamer, 16. Teacup On Doiley 2

Mail arrived!  Woohooo.

I ordered the most fabulous bracelet from an artist on Etsy.  First of all I have to say that everything I have ever ordered off of Esty has been wonderful.  I love all the beautiful artistry all in one place.  One little word of advice – it took me like five MONTHS to figure out that you are supposed to leave feedback.  Doh!  (Sorry about that Jill – I did leave it eventually….)

Anyway – back to the bracelet.  I’m not sure how I found Wendy Baker’s etsy shop – I think I just searched on charm bracelets and her talents came up.  I think I was just as captivated by her description as I was the bracelet itself.   

I ordered it and it shipped the very same day – how is that for lightening fast customer service?   

I can’t even do it justice by describing it – it’s just lush with vintage charms, beads and sparkly things.  A definite conversation starter, I can tell.  I may have to plan my wardrobe around it.

Wendy also has her own website, Wendy Baker Design, along with her Etsy shop – if you want to see some of her current and past work. 

I wish I was talented.

I love getting mail.  I even love the waiting for the mail.  The anticipation when you have ordered something or you know something is on its way to you.   I am anxiously awaiting an item I ordered late last week.  I can hardly wait.

I have a definite appreciation for the instant gratification of email but there is nothing like getting a hand written letter.  Or taking the time to hand write one yourself.   Back in my early 20’s my best friend and I would write to each other, sometimes several times a week.  The letters were the written version of a chatty phone call – full of details of how we were spending our day, the men in our lives, the diets we were constantly on.  Quite often they were spotted with suntan oil, or written on mismatched scraps of paper. 

I have saved every one of those letters and so has she.  There are hundreds of them.  It’s fun to go back and read one or two of them and remember how we spent our idle youth.  I mean who has the time, now a days, to spend hours each week, lazing about in the sun, writing letters.

Even when I was very young I had a thing for the mail.  Or the mailman, actually.  My next-door neighbor Naomi, a sophisticated seven to my callow six, and I would skip along the sidewalk following our neighborhood mailman along his route.  We would chat with him and beg for a ride in his mail truck (he never said yes – said it was against the U. S. Postal Service rules). 

Naomi got the notion that in order to really get his attention we needed to streak him.  This was even before the streaking craze in the 70’s.  Our plan was to disrobe in the bushes that separated our houses and when he got to my house we were going to bolt out of the bushes and run across the property to the other side.

Well when the day came Naomi chickened out and would only take off her top.  I’m thinking in for a penny, in for a pound and took off all my clothes.  The mailman drove up to my house and when he got out of his truck I ran, stark naked across the driveway and ran smack into my mother who had chosen that particular day to go out and greet the mailman. 

I am not sure who was more shocked, the mailman (who we had for another 12 years and whom I could never quite look in the eye again) or my mother.  I don’t even remember if I got in trouble or not – so flabbergasting was the act. 

I know Naomi didn’t get in trouble – she never left the safety of the bushes and quickly put her shirt back on when she saw how quickly things were unraveling in my front yard.

(photos courtesy of istockphoto)

These are a few of my favorite posts.  From some of my favorite blogs.  I’m constantly amazed and humbled by the multitude of talented people out there, whether their strength is the written word, the moment captured on film or the artful combination of both – these posts have resonated with me – for one reason or another and I wanted to share.  Believe me it was hard to pare it down to such a short list.

These are individual posts – although you would be well advised to check out their entire offerings on their respective blogs.  These particular posts are just especially lovely and moved me.

French Kitchen in America – Mimi’s posts are a wonderful melange of recipes, reminiscing about her French grandmothers, lovely stories about learning to cook from her father and just good old Wisconsin joie de vie when it comes to cooking, living and loving.  Personally I think she should just hole herself up in her pantry with her laptop and knock out a memoir about growing up in a French kitchen – but then we would all be deprived of the simple, amazing recipes she shares on an almost daily basis.   I have a feeling if I ever had the privilege of meeting Mimi in person it would be like I’ve known her forever.  She was also one of the first people that discovered my blog and her encouragement will always be dear to me.

This particular post is about a trip to France and the simple joy at the end of the day.  I can smell the lilacs and taste the wine.

The Winemaker’s Wife – Oh to be young, gorgeous and hopelessly in love.  And to possess a kind heart that wants everyone to experience love, life and really good chocolate.  Oh okay, I may be a little bit biased because she’s my niece and all (and she came over last week and washed my hair for me – how sweet and lovely is that?).  She’s also a VERY adventuresome eater.  She lists cow tongue as one of her favorite things to eat!!  She – who would only eat white things as a child! 

Still who wouldn’t be moved by this simple wish she had for a dear friend. 

Oh we expect great things from the Winemaker’s Wife.  I’m also counting on her taking care of me in my dotage….

Bailiwick Designs – I’ve posted about Jill before (and my love for her lavender heart) but this particular post is just so sweet.  It is a lovely tribute to her father and a single, simple act that was just so kind and so loving.  We would all do well to make a little room in our lives, make a welcoming gesture like this.  Just a little reminder we humans aren’t the only ones inhabiting this planet.   

One thing that always comes through in Jill’s posts is how important family is – especially one’s parents.

Jill is also madly talented with her camera and her sewing machine.

And finally ~

Hello my name is Heather – Heather has a lovely blog (and incredible photography) but this particular post I just found especially touching.  Her husband is a photographer and on one of his "jobs" the bride’s gown tore – anyone that has been a bride, in a wedding, attended a wedding, knows how stressful the details of the day can be and the need for everything to turn out perfectly.  I just love this picture and how it represents that everyone, generally, wishes for just a good outcome – no agenda, no ‘it’s not my job’ – just let me help you out because I can. 

And while you are checking out Heather’s blog go find her post on her studio.  Oi. I lust after that studio.

So just a few of the many lovely posts I’ve been inspired by.  I am certain they are not the last.