Mom is 100 today!

 
Today is my Mother's 100th birthday. 

Estelle has outlived her husband and all of her sisters.
She always said that she wanted to live to be 100 and she made it.

She was 18 in the photo upper left, and there she is with her parents and sisters. She was the oldest of the girls.

Here's Mom in 2008, she was seeing me off at the Van Nuys bus terminal where I was taking the bus to LAX to catch a flight home.  She's changed a bit from her 18 year old portrait but still smiling!








And here's mom in 2010, knitting scarves. She knit sooo many that we could hardly keep her in yarn. 

She knit, she sewed clothing, she was a voracious reader.

Here's one of my favorite childhood memories - I may have mentioned this before. We walked to the Legler branch of the Chicago library, which was only a little over a mile from our apartment, but to me, as a child it was so far away. To keep my attention on our goal,  my mother would say "we're going to get free books, isn't that wonderful?" And on the way back, with me carrying a couple of books under my arm, more in my sister's carriage, she'd say "Aren't we lucky, we've got free books to read?" Later, I'd walk by myself or with friends, always thinking how lucky I was to be able to have free books to read. And guess what? I'm a voracious reader, something that I've passed along to my own children. Thanks, Mom.

 

The weather, the cards, the cat, & me.

 What a difference a day makes! Here's what the little lake looked like on Wednesday when I cut through the park after my Spanish class. Gray day, with a few birds heading my way thinking I had something for them. So chilly.

But just warm enough for SNOW. We awoke to find a dusting of snow. It continued to snow light little flakes that melted quickly. I'm glad I got this photo from the bedroom window. So pretty, but I"m glad it didn't pile up and immobilize the city.

I'm happy to be knitting again and have filled my yarn drawer with the best supplies. Since my favorite yarn shop is gone, I've ordered through the internet. This yarn came from England in a pink mailing bag & a net gift bag. Sweet! The source is LoveKnitting.

This week, I've been practicing the zigzag/chevron stitch. Tomorrow, I'll have the maestra check it out in class to see how I'm doing with it.

I'm continuing to make Mail Art. I've just started to number them in order of making them. Simply #1, #2, etc.

 The pressure is off to make one a day, but I'm making 2 some days, 4 another day, zero another day. It's just so fun and, the practice has been established.

Remember: Creativity is a Practice.

I was busy working in the studio when the story stopped suddenly. I turned and saw the culprit! Bizoo!
He ejected the disk - Neil Gaiman reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane. What? He didn't like it.

Birds on the lake, postcards, and knitting.

 I took the route through the park the other afternoon. The sky was beautiful, the sun was shining. When I got to fountain lake, there were lots of gulls on it and while I watched they lifted off into the air and circled several times.











There were a handful of us watching, transfixed, in a magic moment. Then, the birds were gone and we all moved again. It was beautiful.

 I stopped into the shop to get food for Bizoo and stopped to see who was looking at me. What a cutie!  I wanted to take him home. I liked his cute "hands" and his awareness of my presence. 

I'm going to a knitting group on Sunday mornings because I want to learn to make fancy stitches, to challenge my brain. I've learned how to knit cables! Yay, I'm happy about that.

Now I'm trying to do a chevron stitch, not having a good time with it. Can't wait for Sunday to get help. I'll show you the results when I get some.

I'm having a lot of fun altering vintage postcards with these vintage children. I'm not doing a 365 project so I'm free to skip days and to make several in one day, which I've done.  Here are two of the 5 I've made so far. I'm calling one "Fiddler in the Lake" and the other "Music to soothe a little bear." 
I'm pondering numbering them, keeping track of who I send to, or not. I don't want to feel like I'm doing a 365. Any thoughts on this for me?

Kindness

"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness or abilities that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."
This quote is attributed to William Penn. Yes, THAT William Penn, the one who founded Pennsylvania.

 When I was a child, my mother would often quote this, in an abbreviated verson. Where she got it, I don't know, but I doubt she knew it was from William Penn. She truly believed it. I would hear her say kind things to people. Little did she know the seeds she was planting in me.

In fact, I didn't even think about it until I was thinking of what to write for this post - as part of Mary England's Kindness day.

Mom will be 100 in 10 days. She doesn't know this, nor would she even know me at this point, but because of her I'm a kinder person. And that would make her happy.

Be kind. It costs nothing. You only pass this way once.

Note: for those of you who believe in reincarnation, you get to be kind many times over, I guess.

Thoughts?

 

Yahrzeit for my father.

Fourteen years ago today, my father died. I remember him with words he shared with me, which I'll share with you: Choose to be happy.

What a guy!

Fish's Eddy and my Real Wall

 We went to Fish's Eddy when we were last in NYC. Today being a gloomy gray rainy day, color seemed to be needed.

Aren't these tiny bowls adorable? So colorful and cute. Why didn't I buy a bunch of them?

Here's my Real Wall, as opposed to my Facebook Wall.
I replaced the in-coming Mail Art on display in my studio with new work. 16 artists from a bunch of countries are here. Let's see: Greece, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the U.S. 

Here's a herd of cow pitchers from Fish's Eddy. Don't you think it would have been fun for me to have a little herd of them?

Oh, and these cute little pitchers in fun colors. Why didn't I get half a dozen of these?

And the piece de resistance - & I did resist - Rooster egg cups. Love these. I've never used an egg cup in my life. But don't you think I could have used them for something? They're sooo cute.

If you're in NYC, go to Fish's Eddy and buy yourself something cute!

365! I did it. Done!

#364

#365

 To me: Congratulations!











My kitties in the landscape will not end with this project. I have many more vintage postcards and several more kitties to go.








Voila! My last card of this 365 Mail Art project. I thought a lot about what I'd end with and since I discovered that I had a two or three more Tiny Town blanks, this felt like the perfect way to end the project.
On the reverse: Mme Brunau brought Simone to Tiny town on the last day of the year, to quietly wish the residents a bonne année. The residents responded, "merci." 

And again, here are the words of my offspring - the motto of their business, The Alternative Speakers Bureau.
Say this to yourselves and believe it.
Do something, make something, and share with me.

I'll be continuing to make Mail Art, and other stuff! See you in the new year.