A day in the pink.
Today was spent in the company of remarkable individuals of strength and character. The Phoenix affiliate of Susan G. Komen has asked me to become a Community Outreach Ambassador. In order to behold such a honor, I must train to learn what is required of such title.
Our little meeting room was filled with women of great conviction whom are fighting passionately to find a cure for breast cancer. Many of the women warriors are breast cancers survivors who had been told they’ve only months to live several years ago. Others fight on the behalf of loved ones lost or those struggling against their disease at this very moment.
The stories that were shared with me today provide an unshakable sense of perspective, appreciation, admiration and hope.
I am fortunate to say that my family is filled with remarkable women. My grandmother is one, that survives breast cancer and now councils others that battle this disease. My dear cousin Cheryl and Aunt Dottie have lost their mortal fight. However, their spirit lives on to fight by way of their children, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.
New Friends and Fieldtrips
Stripey socks
Yummy snacks
Hot air balloons
Tasty beer
Bumpy roads
Doe and deer
Dusty shops
Belly laughs
Good Red Wine
All the makings for great new friends and a fantastic field-trip.
Raw Materials.
I am a collector of raw materials.
Cardboard boxes, paper bags, old oak trunks and no less than a dozen antique suitcases each filled with stacks and stashes of raw materials. Authentic sea glass beads, German glass buttons and rolls of vintage embossed foil are just a few of my collections that fill my collection of containers.
Let me say that again to be clear, “I have begun to collect containers to contain my collections”.
Surely, there is a 12-Step program for magpies like me.
It’s not that I am a hoarder. One of those people who keep every newspapers and orphaned sock that happens to cross their lives. There is genuine intention behind every acquisition. Inspiration to create something great lies within every artifact that finds its way to me.
It’s not that I am without self control and am compelled to purchase every stitch and sparkle I come across. However on a recent outing, I did require a conscience effort not to collect a random selection of antique flower frogs that sat on dusty shelves unloved and unused.
That being said, I have noted a trend in my collections. Each stash begins as a selection of orphaned items. A box of vintage linens left to yellow in garage sale boxes. Wooded thread spools collected over years and stored in glass Ball jars. Somehow, this is all too reminiscent of the Christmas Island of Misfit Toys. I am sure given the opportunity I would adopt them too.
Boredom.
Finally a day of boredom.
Do you remember when you were a kid, maybe it was mid-summer, maybe mid-winter…No school, no play, no movies to see, no friends outside, just boredom. Mind numbing, head thumping boredom.
The Hub recalls digging a hole 4 foot wide by 6 foot deep due to boredom. As a girl, I cannot possibly understand the purpose of this. In turn, he cannot comprehend what would drive me to cut up my mother’s pillow cases, stuff them with socks and sew up some pretty-kitty pals of my own. On that note, neither could my mother.
The winter sniffles have visited our house and overstayed their welcome. My poor boy is bouncing off the walls, having been locked inside for nearly four days now. We have played with Christmas magic kits, built Lego creations and baked brownies. We’ve painted and colored, cooked and cleaned, watched movies and cuddled, conquered Star Wars video games and everything else imaginable a family can do inside four walls.
I can tell we are all feeling better, because just today the boredom has set in. While the boy has made his declaration of being bored-beyond-belief…I think the boredom is wonderful.
The daily rigor brought by the rest of the year does not allow for such a rarity. Pure, unadulterated boredom.
Books, Blogs and Making New Friends
My grandmother says we each write our own book, no one can write it for you. 
I spent this week learning about RSS feeds. One of my more recent goals has been to seek out , subscribe to , follow , comment and share beautiful blogs. With so many to choose from , where to begin is overwhelming.
I decided to choose three that I love and choose three from each of those blogrolls.
When I was small my grandmother gave me a book titled The Fairy Caravan. Grandma and I share a love of fairytales and I cherished it before reading the first page. I was an adult before I realized the author was Beatrix Potter and then I loved it even more.
The hardcover corners had been worn down to soft round points. The criss-crossing fibers in the cloth binding were bleached to an ivory tone against a patina finish of the original green. On the face was pasted a smooth sheet of yellow paper with a loosely colored pen and ink illustration of pigmy creatures and a circus cart. The pages were yellowed and thick with the texture of felt and a smell that is distinct to that of dusty beloved books.
As I found my way through the favorites sites of my favored sites, I indeed began to choose a book by its cover. Landing on the home page, each blog provides its own immediate tone and look and feel and smell and taste. Delicious photographs of wintery windows and summer fruit, colorful socks and new years’ resolutions invite you into the author’s intimate inspirations.
Haven given myself a decided timeframe to complete my task, choosing the first blogs to subscribe too have been picked by instinct rather than research. So far I am thrilled with my selections.
www.NectarandLight.com has introduced me to the world of Polaroid art photography. I will be retrieving my Polaroid camera from the depths of my pantry this weekend and soon be posting my own inspired instant films.
http://abbytrysagain.typepad.com won me over in title, then pictures, then content. I feel this author’s inspiration and excitement about creation and cannot wait to tell her so.
sparrowsalvage.blogspot.com shares my love of all treasures rusty and tattered. Although we have never been introduced, we share a nagging passion for field-walking , collecting bits of history turned up in soil and washed ashore.
Each one these authors is literally writing her book and sharing it with all the world. So often I find it intimidating to share my daily inspirations. For quite some time now, I have felt like the new kid at school. Shy and timid to join the kids on the playground. The funny thing is, this is so not like me in daily life where I am outgoing and able to chat with just about anyone new.
After reading as many backposts is possible, I have decided that it is time to join the party.
It is time to be fearless and share of myself in the same way these author’s do. If I am lucky, I will meet a world of like-minded artists and authors that admire my place in cyberspace as I do theirs. I have also decided that the DimeStorePretty site is long overdue for a make over.
If you have taken the time to read this entire blathering post, I thank you and am entirely flattered. Please do me the favor of response and share with me some of your favorite blogs?
Have you met other authors online and begun to develop new friendships this way?
I know that my site has a few followers am eternally grateful for your interest.
With time being such a precious commodity in life, I hope that you enjoy your visits to my little space and will stop by again soon and some time say hello.
Creating In Between
The tiny spaces in between my day have been filled scavenging other artists’ blogs for bits of inspiration. It is overwhelming some days to simply begin to consider all the amazing things I wish to create and all the time I lack to create them.
I have stuck to my guns and can honestly say that I create something new and interesting every day. All I have to do is look at my beautiful boy and be assured that creation of something great has taken place somewhere in the space of that day.
Pears & Pictures
My son got a new camera for Christmas and I hate to admit that it’s nicer than the one I typically use for blog photography.
Hope he doesn’t mind sharing.
Cheap Frills for a New Year
To Taste: A toast to end a prosperous 2010 and welcome a momentous 2011.
To See: Something man-made amazing .
To Listen: To my instincts.
To Learn: Another language.
To Make: Something artful everyday.
To Visit: Family and friends on opposing coasts.
To Try: Something unachievable.
Homecooked Holidays
At 11:59 this evening the winter holidays will all be over.
Thank goodness.
Once again silver and gold turmoil made it’s decent upon my house two weeks earlier than most. Hanukkah, while less publicized than it’s Christmas cousin, comes with all the same work.
Our home has hosted 4 major dinners since Thanksgiving.
Turkey, of course with all the trimmings.
Hanukkah tried my hand at, short-ribs, latkes and kugel, apple-pear sauce and roasted winter veggies. This year included parsnips for the first time – yummmm.
A visit from the hub’s family brought grandma Moppy and good southern comfort foods. Fried pork chops with gravy, mashed potatoes and roasted green beans.
The girls and I continued our annual tamale and bloody mary tradition. 300 red-chili tamales later I bet you can guess what we ate for Christmas Eve with the in-laws. Homemade tacos, beans, rice, chili-con-queso and yes tamales.
Christmas night inspired a new tradition. Like all good Jewish families, we ordered in Chinese. I could not eat another tamale or cook another meal.
Tonight we will end the year with great friends, a few martinis and whole lot of Scrabble. I’m told there will be PrimeRib. Honestly as long as I don’t have too cook it, I don’t care. Stick a fork in me, I’m done.
Handmade and Heartfelt
Somewhere between cooking and hosting, visiting and decorating, I managed to turn out a majority of handmade holiday gifts. I truly tried my best to either make our families offerings or buy from local independently owned shops.
For all the Grandmas… Scrapbooks filled with pictures of the kid playfully mounted to an assortment of his school projects. This was the second year for this type of gift and they love seeing him grow and his artwork progress with the year. It also relieves me of the guilt of discarding mini-masterpieces.
For my Mom… A three-dimensional wall collage of four generations of women. My Great Grandmother, Grandmother, Mother and Me. A camera strap for her prized SLR made from a pattern I purchased from OneSweetPattern.Etsy. Also a semi-collaged journal filled with hand-drawings and collected ephemera to inspire her to write.
Moppy and Mrs. Ibarra received appliquéd dishtowels, matching napkins and placements to match.
My Father-In-Law(s) got tamale baskets with homemade salsa.
Boxes of Mexican wedding cookies traveled from my oven to Texas as a thank you for friends.
And pj’s for all the kiddos. Pink fishy flannel and orange polka dots for the girl, firedogs, fighter planes and pirates for the boy.
Last, a trip to the pottery shop for a personally painted coffee-mug for Pop-Pop.
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