divas d'este new etsy shop

Divas d'Este have a new etsy shop, Urban Renewal Designs, featuring vintage/antiques/junque, unusual jewelry, found objects, old postcard images, and the like. I am a big fan of the Divas' themed image cd's because not only are the images diverse and interesting, the cd's have saved me immense amounts of time otherwise spent on searching for images.

Most of the images in my January journaling posts have come from the Divas' collection. If you would like to know which cd a particular image comes from post a comment and I will track it down.

De, one of the Divas, is a designer and crazy quilter. When she is not adding to the company's collections she makes beautiful handbags.

(Image at left is from the Divas' Girls collection.)

kathleen

I think my BFF Kathleen is hilariously funny. She has been cracking me up for 41 years. (For example, she once remarked that someone we knew had "a keen perception of the obvious".) Most of the funny things she says are of the you-had-to-be-there variety, the kind of thing that has you gasping for air and hoping you don't pee in your pants. "So then I said to the guy" is one of those things. It doesn't bear explaining because it will never be as funny to anyone else as it is to us.

The same goes for the camping trip we took a long time ago in her 240Z crammed with a big smelly Army tent which we put up while standing in the mud on a creek bank in our nightgowns. It was dark. It was hot. There we were, laughing like hyenas as we struggled with the tent, when a boat came down the creek. A boat with some guys who shined a light on us. I swear they started rowing faster when they got a good look at us.

Then there was the more recent champagne-fueled nighttime swim in her pool when we got locked out of her house. It took some time for her husband to get a ladder, climb up to the second story and break in. We were laughing like maniacs the entire time and it is a miracle that the neighbors didn't call the police.

Do you have a BFF who makes you laugh your head off?

japan on my mind

tears of the geisha
fall like snow on Sendai town
after tsunami

red gates of Shinto
shrines are swept away in the
raging surging flood

hearts are torn with pain
for loss of loved ones as the
earth trembles and shakes

prayers for japan

Join with me
in offering prayers
for the people of Japan.

mothers' fears

My son is in Chile, and from all accounts, is having the time of his life. He has been working on an organic farm, making new friends, and learning Spanish. He sends me a short email message every few days, not so much to communicate about his trip, but to reassure me that he is alive and well perched on the Ring of Fire. He is nonchalant about the earthquakes that occur almost daily, saying that anything less than 5 on the Richter scale is a "tremor". Today he told me that he is traveling to Valdivia where the strongest earthquake on record (9.5!) shook the town to bits in 1960. It occurred to me that my feelings about this are somewhat akin to those of mothers of soldiers. I am in no way comparing my son's trip to Chile to the experiences of soldiers facing enemies on front lines in the middle East. I am talking about my feelings about his being far away, with potential danger near, and my being powerless to help him if he needs it. My son is in a relatively safe situation, unlike our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. My level of fear for him is quite uncomfortable. I would imagine that for the mothers of young soldiers the fear can be unbearable at times. I think of a friend whose son is in Iraq for a second tour. That has got to be hard. Yet we do what mothers have always done. Pray for them and put one foot in front of the other until they come home.

bluebonnet

bluebirds

bluebeard

blue note

(the) blues

blue skies

(devil with the) blue (dress on)

blue curacao

bluetick (hound)

(ol') blue eyes

(my love is) blue

blue sage

herb garden

This is a list of herbs that I want to plant this year, and I have some redbud tree seeds if anyone is interested in trading. I also have some beautiful blue morning glory seeds that the hummingbirds love.