Recent Posts

Sunday, November 30, 2008

The New York Snowman Returns...

The tree is up and is awaiting decorating. If you have been a "follower" of this blog for some time, then you already know the "Tale of the New York Snowman" ~ but for those of you who may have joined us more recently, I've decided to re-post (at the risk of "spilling the beans" on my true "non-creative" roots! LOL!). Of course, this year the New York Snowman journeys again...to a new home with the not-so "little girl" as she begins a new life on her own again.

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there was a little girl who was a "Bluebird" (the CampFire Girls version of "Brownies" for those Girl Scouts out there). One day, at a December Bluebird meeting, the little girl's troop leader announced that they would be making snowmen to decorate their Christmas trees. The little girl clapped her hands with delight as she loved to craft, even though through the years to come many art teachers would tell the little girl she was artistically-challenged.

As the little girl and her friends gathered around the large wooden work table, filled with a delightful assortment of colorful supplies, she could feel the excitement and energy of what must be the artistic muse filling the room. Dozens of hands reached across the table through scattered lace, sequins, styrofoam, and pipe cleaners, everyone laying claim to the perfect pieces for their own snowman sculpture. But, the little girl had a different idea has she quietly scooped up two lone gray styrofoam balls, pinned them together with paper clips, and began adding scraps of red and white lace and netting, pipe cleaners, and sequins to her creation. As she neared completion, the troop leader suddenly took notice and asked, "Why, dear, here, we still have some regular styrofoam balls left. Don't you want to use them?" "No, " replied the little girl, quietly, still gluing and positioning her lace, "this is the snowman I want to make." The troop leader continued, "But it's gray." "I know," answered the little girl, and simply smiled as she finished gluing the final piece of lace into place.

The little girl took her snowman home that night and hung it on the highest branch that she could reach of the family Christmas tree. Her mother smiled and told her it was a wonderful snowman, but it was her father that gave it the name that has lasted all these years. He took a very long look at the gray snowman and said, "Oh, I get it - it's a New York snowman!" And he laughed a very long time. The little girl didn't understand at the time why he was laughing, but she was glad that the snowman made her father happy.

Over the years, the New York Snowman always came to have a place of honor on the family Christmas tree, and yes, as the little girl grew there came a time that she did understand why her father laughed and gave the snowman its name. She laughed with him as she thought of pure white snow made dirty by the exhaust and travel of city traffic.

And then one year, her first year alone at Christmas and many, many miles away from family, the little girl received a package. Inside was a carefully wrapped bundle with a note in her father's handwriting ~ "It's time for him to go on your tree now." The New York Snowman had come home to the little girl.

The little girl has grown up, married, and has a growing family of her own now. Yet, every Christmas, one of the very first ornaments still placed on her tree, in a place of honor, with heartfelt memories of what it means to create with love, to share with family through the years, is the New York Snowman. May your holiday decorating be filled with love and sharing!

~Post Script #1....the "little girl" has just now noticed that New York Snowman is "Scarlet and Gray"! How fitting ~ GO BUCKS!

~Post Script #2...when the "little girl" made this "Scarlet and Gray" New York Snowman, she was living in Michigan ~ how ironic!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

First Snow

It's snowing! Our first one ~ and it's not a wimpy, spitting, oh, let me thing about it, maybe I'll just be a flurry snow....it's that beautiful puffy, floating - you're in the middle of a snow globe - snow...I could sit here curled up on the sofa and watch it all afternoon. Well, at least until halftime's over 8-) - GO BUCKS!


The "muse" was working overtime last night, and I've gotten a couple of the new items listed in the shop ~ still a couple more to list.


~ Scarlet and Gray Elegance Earrings

~ White Ice Earrings
.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Feeling Blue? This Will Make You Smile!

Here's one of the latest shop listings ~ "Feeling Blue? Necklace," a deep blue "chunky yet classic" look with nuggets of sodalite and rounds of lapis lazuli and sodalite...and sterling silver, naturally! Added "bonus" is in knowing that the gemstones sodalite and lapis lazuli are associated with the natural properties of inner peace, healing, and love ~ now that will bring a smile to your face!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

O, what a night!



Well, the "pundits" aren't quite ready to "call" it, but I will and yes, "O, what a night it is!" as we see the election of Barack Obama as our next President.

Hannah, who just returned from an election party held at school, has been following the entire election closely with me this year, and we do share pretty much the same viewpoints on most issues, including our readiness for change and delight with the election outcome. As I see her youth and enthusiasm, and reflect on the impact of the importance of this night to our country, I have "memory flashes" of other moments from my younger life ~ JFK's assassination (I was only 4 and could only fathom that my favorite cartoon show was being interrupted); the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy - I was older then and more aware of what we were losing, what was at stake, yet not quite not old enough to completely take it all in; and then late in the evening of June 5, 1976, our high school choir (some of us just having graduated from high school) found ourselves standing near the Lincoln Memorial (in D.C. for a choir competition) and gave a short impromtu concert for a small crowd, ending with "Abraham, Martin, and John" ("has anybody here seen my old friend Abraham? can you tell me where he's gone? Freed a lot people, but it seems the good die young...") - an older woman in the crowd came up to our director afterwards with tears in her eyes and said, "Thank you, do you realize that today is the 8th anniversary of RFK's death?" Of course, none of us had, but again, we were called to reflect on where we were standing and who had gone before us.

Tonight is one of those "life" moments for all of us - not just here in the states - but across the world. We are embracing and celebrating a change, a new world that clearly moves us forward in a direction, though perhaps uncharted, can only be seen as positive, exciting, and historically shifting for all. Take a breath, breathe in and out, and remember where you are this night. O, what a night.