Gone To The Beach

Monday, January 18, 2010

How I Spent My Xmas Money

I Love gift cards!

I am always thrilled to get that litle plastic treat, my ticket to choosing something special, just for me. My favorite thing to do is to use the card or cards to stock up on winter reading. I can buy the big glossy books my library will never own or bestsellers that won't be on the non-reserved shelves til August.

Pure indulgence? Cabin fever Rx? Blizzard protection? All of the above!

With this year's Visa gift card I was able to shop at BJ's (like Price Club or Costco, big container store, great books--ALL the newest releases and bestsellers, very discount!) and Home Goods, which sometimes stocks off-price editions of the latest decorating books.

My 2010 List, so far, because yes! I still have dollars left to use!

The new Joe Pike novel from Robert Crais: One Minute Rule. Any Crais book is a treat and if it features Joe Pike the entertainment is doubled. http://www.robertcrais.com/ for excerpts/ first 2 or 3 chapters. RC is very generous with his previews....

Two glossy decorating books from my two favorite designers:

Mary Emmerling's Beach Cottages: At Home by the Sea by Mary Ellisor Emmerling April 2008 http://www.myrelics.com/2008/03/at-home-with-mary-emmerling.html

Shabby Chic Interiors: My Rooms, Treasures, and Trinkets by Rachel Ashwell and Amy Neunsinger (Hardcover - Sep 2009) http://www.shabbychic.com/http://www.rachelashwellshabbychic.blogspot.com/

And while I was New Year's cleaning, undecking the halls and so on, I pulled out three old favorites and added them to my winter book stack:

Reminiscences: Grandma Minnie's Doll Clothes and Quilts, by Sandy McCray. Charming antique china head dolls in authentically reproduced dresses made with sprigged calicos and muslin. Double pink; turkey red, Lancaster blue; indigo;

chrome yellow, rose madder...don't you love the names of the old fabrics!

Needleworks, by Kindred Spirits. Antique make-do pincushions & needlework keepers.

At Home with White from Victoria magazine, text by Jeanine Larmoth. Inspiring, though I ca never stay 100% neutral, the blues of the beach always creep in.

How will I spend the last of my gift card, you wonder? While I was searching Amazon to see if these books were still available, I found some other verrrry interesting books about decorating with an all-white palette:
At Home With White ~ Atlanta Bartlett (Author), Karena Callen (Author), Polly Wreford (Photographer)
&
Living with White~ Gail Abbott (Author), Mark Scott (Photographer)
Or perhaps I will go all colorful and seek inspiration and order the newest Kaffe Fassett quilting book.

Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Romance: 20 Designs from Rowan for Patchwork and Quilting (Oct 6, 2009) by Kaffe Fassett. http://www.kaffeefassett.com/

His stunning colors and design sense are a joy always and harbingers of hot weather ahead....remember, it is always summer, here at The Beach!

brrrr...

ps:all photos/ artwork are by me, my own version of tinkets, treasures and trash!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year!

Be Kind....

What a wonderfully simple task for us all...to be kind.

My friend has begun studying reiki healing. I looked it up, on Wikipedia (where else!) so that I could talk intelligently about it with her and share her interest if not her experience.

My friend wants to learn how to treat or "heal" her dogs, who are still beautiful and so loving but have perhaps begun to feel their age. If my own beloved doggy was still with me, I would want to learn too; I would have done anything in my power to ease his final weeks. Perhaps reiki could have helped him when all my outpourings of love and grief were not enough, will never be enough.

This is an excerpt from Wiki, I am hoping it is fairly correct! If not, the thoughts still are wise and good, I am thinking.

"Usui...summarized a set of ethical principles, which later became known as Reiki Principles Many Reiki teachers and practitioners aim to abide by these five principles, one translation of which is:

'The secret method of inviting good fortune.

The marvelous medicine for all sickness

Just for today:

*Do not be angry

*Do not worry

*Be grateful

*Work with integrity

*Be kind to others and to yourself.

Every morning and every night...
speak these words out loud in your heart.'"

I am never a believer or a follower or an acolyte---anyone who knows me at all will know this. But just as I find constant inspiration in the beach and dunes and winds and ocean, in the sunsets and full moon and starlight of each season---I am touched by these words of a long-ago Japanese healer.

I will remember the words. And try to listen.

Peace and Joy.....

sunny days last forever...

Happy New Year!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Angels

Angels Too Close....

My mother believed in angels....or or so she said. She started to believe in her last years of life---a time when she was looking for something to explain her life and future. Mostly she meant here-on-earth human angels---her son who called her daily, without fail, from 2000 miles away; the person who helped her grocery shop; the guys who fixed her roof or cleaned out her garage; the best friend who visited weekly and gave her a manicure and companionship.

angels by other artists, from my collection

And amusingly, after my father died, my mother, in jest, told me that perhaps my dad's pet seagull Gully---Gulliver! My dad named all his wildlife friends---who sat on the garage roof waiting for Bob, was actually a harbinger of my dad's presence, still watching over her and their home.