Light Hearted Tuesday

I have dubbed Tuesday a day for me to be light hearted. I have kept special cards for years. These cards, for one reason or another, have resounded within me.

This Tuesday's card seems so familiar, yet nothing comes up for me. I received it many years ago ( maybe 5 years ago) and I put it in my kitchen. I have looked at it and puzzled it familiarity. Nothing has come up but I still enjoy it.

I hope that the enjoyment is shared.

My new creative endeavor is almost complete. I can hardly wait for it to be done. Then I can be free to start another project.

Heat Wave Wipe Out

This is the Babies first heat wave. I do not use air conditioning. I do not like it. So, the Babies have get used to God's natural heat. They are finding moving around a little slow. I just had to record their movement or lack of movement.
They are in the way, as you can see. These rugs are runners. They are pathways to other parts of the house. I move around them, they slowly open their eyes and mew at me. The little sweet Babies.
The heat should be less tomorrow but we will still have the fires up to the north and to the south. The fires are far away but the smoke is with us.

My Saturday Morning

I usually walk Frida early in the morning. She likes to walk as soon as I am willing to take her. Her muscles are building up. When Simon was still with us, I would split the walk in half, giving each their fair share. But since I now walk just Frida, she needed to stretch her muscles more. And I did too. One never knows how the break in between the both, to take leaches off and put them back on again, acted as a rest. We now have added to our walk. Frida so looks forward to it and I have found that I do too.
When I walked out the door this morning, this is what greeted me. This is a Canas and is a plant best suited to warmer climates like Los Angeles. I received this plant as a gift and this is the second flowering. I really enjoy the color and the brightness it offers.
On our walk, we go through homes, businesses and a mix of both on the same street. But this place seems to combine both in one place. I enjoy seeing how people personalize their buildings. I would say that these people must use the fenced-in area as a outdoor living space. It looks quite nice from the street. the color combination and angles.
Frida and I enjoyed our walk. Both of us are adapting to the absence of our sweet Simon.

This Tickles My Funny Bone

My Aunt sent this (you can enlarge by double clicking) to me a few years ago. My Aunt is 1/2 Italian. Her grandparents on her father's side were from Palma Italy. they immigrated when my aunt's father was 6 weeks old. They lived in North Beach, San Francisco, California. So, there is no insult intended by the postcard.
I thought that this postcard was so funny that I kept it. I found it just today tucked away in a drawer. After I received it, it took my a couple of days to digest how really funny it was designed to be. If you look carefully, every one's eyes are a little "funny" from all the drink. The man in the middle seems to have weak knee syndrome from drinking to much and he is holding an axe. The man on the far right is holding a rifle that is broken open (I don't know the correct expression for when a person doesn't intend to shoot and the open the rifle so accidents do not occur), the woman on the far left is actually holding the camera cable but it looks like a cigarette, and the other woman doesn't look like she can move. Every time I look at this card, I laugh.
I have photos of my Grandmother and my Aunt's Mother pretending to be "layed out" in the parlor with Lilies on their chests. I have to remember that the camera was still a unique item for the average citizens to own. So like children, they played with it and experimented. I think that people took their amusements differently from "us". But they had as much fun as we do.
In this way, I can also enjoy their amusement and that makes me feel connected to the past.

Homely Heart Warmers

Homely def: 1. Characteristic of the home or home life 2. Of a simple or unpretentious nature.
That is what I am showing today. These simple items give me great happiness. This top photo is my Hawaiian Bougainvillea.

This is Fat Willie Dixon. Mr Willie was named after a Blues singer. I do enjoy the Blues and this man was good, so is Willie. He looks like a fighter but he has an allergy to fleas and he like to really scratch. One flea will make him carry on fearfully. I have to put Advantage on him about every three weeks in summer. He is the sweetest of all my cats.

I took a slip of this Red Geranium from a bus stop. It is huge now and thankfully it is in a container. It is very dominant but I love red and it blossoms almost continually.

These are small pleasures but I find when I start to count my small pleasures, I have quite a long list.

The Chinese Way According to Annie

My sister loved paper and Chinese Medicine. I don't really know which one was predominant for her. If I had to guess, I would say paper. Paper would have been a metaphor for the thoughts of the world, private prayers, love letters, grocery lists and the holy words of the world's Bibles. She would really enjoy the sight of a blank page. She would take a page and decorate it and color it till it was something a person would keep and treasure. She made this book or scroll in the Chinese fashion for me. It also tells of the beliefs the Chinese have for good health.

"What is important about the day? What must get done? What is important about the future?

The four Chinese medicines."

"Sleep, rest.....exercise"

"Attitude.....Diet"

This is the book unfolded.

It is something that I want to keep and treasure. I keep it folded because, as much as I want it displayed, I feel it might fade. Lovely, lovely treasure.

The Burden

Early this morning, Penelope and I had a conversation. Penelope was telling me about this great burden that she has to carry. The burden that she feels is beauty. She said " I know that I am very beautiful. And that people always expect that I should always be perfect. And Pat, that is very hard. You see Chester running around having fun. Well, dirt doesn't show on him. Remember the time that I went in the fireplace and got soot on me? Yes, I know how upset you were. You even told me that I spoiled my beauty. And you tried to bathe me. It is hard carrying around all this beauty".
Well, at this point, I agreed with her and told her that she was loved by me and Chester. I was sorry that she was so down, and I gave her a kiss.
Then I took Frida out for a walk. Frida doesn't think about beauty!

Madonna with Rose

First of all, let me say that Patrice O'Farrell Hinz did the painting. She had it stashed away in a folder and I fell in love with it. Because of my attraction to it, she generously made of gift of it.

The painting is very special to me and I wanted to participate in the honoring of the painter as well as the subject matter in the making of the frame. I gave it a lot of thought on how I wanted to frame it. I felt that it should have a place for a votive candle and that was my starting point.

The wood is all Walnut. I love the smell, feel and the warmth of Walnut. When it is cut the fragrance is so lovely.

I also wanted a slight Oriental feeling to the setting as well as religious feeling to the frame.

And this is how it came out. I find that sometimes things have their own pace and design and this was a case were the frame seemed to make itself.

Painting: Patrice O'Farrell Hinz, 9 x 15 1/2", oil on wood

Frame: Patrice Sieler

The Box Challenge

I decided, about 13 years ago, that I needed to be more skilled in woodworking. I had, tucked away in my "keepsake" shoe box, this Christmas card that my dear friend, Tom Welch, had sent to me from the Holy Land. It possessed pressed wild flowers from the Holy Land. My dear friend had died from a freak accident, so the card was very special to me. I had kept it for many years but I decided to use it for my first box project.

This is the only box that I put a lining in and painted in gold paint. I wanted it to be special to me always.

I have made more boxes and I used pressed flowers that I made. My favorite flower was my antique green Rose and the box was Redwood. The green Rose is very unusual and because of its rarity, I always had to explain it. The reception was not especially warm for the green Rose, so I used other flowers.

This is the only box I kept. That year, for Christmas, I made boxes for everyone and they all had pressed flowers in the glass top.

I have not made any since. I guess I got it all out of my system.

The Joy of Turquoise

I have a fascination with Turquoise. I first became really aware of it when I looked at photographs of Egypt. I was quite young, maybe ten. At that point, I related that we in America had Turquoise as well. And then when I started working for my uncle, Patrick Dennis Sieler, I got to see the variety that was Turquoise.

This necklace is American and the darker beads are Chinese Turquoise. The large circle is Chinese Turquoise and the coin is Chinese and obviously well used. Hopefully there is a lot of Chinese luck coming with the coin.

The clasp has tiny fresh water Pearls on the ends.

The Dog Trial

This was a Dog Trial in the literal sense as well as the figurative sense. I belong to a small dog club. They schedule a yearly trial every August. This year's trial was August 8 and that is today. I did not want to participate but since there is such a small membership, I had to help. Last night I dreamt about how difficult it would be for me and how I found a way out of it. Wish fulfilment and cowardly. These people are my friends and they needed me to be there.

I had to work at the Rally table and I did the paper work. In Rally, where the dogs do a lot of different things all in one pass (such as sit, stay, down, jump over a "jump") the scoring is complex. The judge does the grading but I had to tally, put the time down, and also put down the losses. It was the first time doing it and it was a good distraction.

The above photo is someone preparing to go into the ring. This woman and her dog won second place.

The Parsons Terrier, the top photo, won first place and this dog won by only 5 seconds. It was pretty impressive. Aside from being the cutest dog that I saw today.

This shot is of people training and "going through the moves" one last time before they went into the ring.

That is how I spent my Saturday and Sweet Frida wanted to come with me but she stayed home.

My Hero, My Friend

Today I lost one of my dearest friends and constant companions. Simon. I called him Super Simon because he always went the extra mile. He is not in Dog Heaven, he is in Heaven. If there is such a thing as Karma, because of his life here with me, he was promoted to the real place. He protected me, was concerned that wherever I went that I wouldn't be as careful as he would want me to be! If anyone came, I would know. And there wasn't anyone he wouldn't bark at. He would bark, and I would say, "Oh it is Patrice or Jordan or Barbara." Then he would know that it was O.K. He would be friendly and say hello, but always, always came back to be with me. His eyes would follow me and make sure I was fine.

How does one get over losing a friend that cared so much?

I guess I will have to find out.

(Above Photo's- That's Simon by my side, and Frida laying down for a belly scratch.)

Whew !!! Finally !!!

Well, this small purse has only taken a total of three weekends. Parts of it took longer. The beading of the Turquoise, Tourmalines and Moonstones obviously took time but was really quite pleasurable. I could see the form grow beneath my hands.

It is funny how the concept comes whole into my brain and yet the execution of the idea takes days.

I find that each purse that I design and then sew is one step on top of the other. So what I learned three or four purses ago shows up in the current purse. I have yet to make the same purse over again. That way, it is always fresh for me but the down side is that it is always a challenge.

This is small evening bag. It is for elegant times and calls for an elegant dress or pants.

It is made of raw silk. The green is iridescent, slightly changing to a chartreuse yellow. The ling is dark green Velvet. It has the capacity to be put on a chain strap. I have not found exactly what I want to use.

The front side is the opposite of the back side (actually there is no front and no back, just sides). Both sides are adorned with equal amount of gems.

It measures 7 1/2" wide and 7 " height.

As an aside, I would like to mention the challenges of taking photos when a person has wild cats (kittens). I had a package of Trader Joe's Almondina cookies out and while I was taking to photos, I could hear one of them knock the package onto the floor and try to open it. I did not want to stop what I was doing, so I kept working. But, yes, the little dears got the package open and were enjoying a cookie. If I had known ahead of time, I could have prepared tea.