Back with a Celebration

I've been inspired lately.
Inspired by my daughter.

Inspired by my friends

And lured back to share by A Fanciful Twist!

Making time for reading ~ for once

I've been slowly reading this book, not for lack of interest but for my lack of my dedication to reading. But that's going to be a thing of the past. I haven't been denying myself the luxury of new books, like I should be. The piles stacking up along the already stuffed bookshelves prove that. And although I had a book already chosen after I finished this first book in the new year, I went out for more! {But that will soon follow ~ I'm making time for that now!}

"The Sharper the Knife the Less You Cry" was a beautiful way to express what happens when you just do it - when you're done with wondering - when you follow your dreams.

I loved how the author incorporated just a taste of Paris through her daily life in the city and with the delicious recipes after each chapter. While most recipes were just lovely to read through what ingredients are needed and with how they are to be cooked, some I am definitely going to include in my weekly menus {I'm sure my Family will welcome the change!}

I came across this title in a bookswap in goodreads, and now I'm off to do one of my New Year's Resolutions ~ make time for another ol' favorite; mailing a thank you note to the person who sent this book to me!

A Gift for Reema

I shared this idea with Breana while she was wrapping Reema's Birthday gift. I thought something besides a card should accompany a necklace that she took time to make for her friend. Long ago in another world & time in my life, my friends & I use to send letters - beautifully chosen, thoughtfully written & lovingly sent letters/cards...do you remember those? Ah, I have a bundle from one particular friend tucked away in an antique train case. I dream of savoring each sentence & reminiscing of another time, but not just yet. That time, albiet almost 30 years ago [I said *almost*], still is very clear in my mind. I'm waiting for that day when someone in the house stumbles upon the leather train case and begs me to share them - begs. And that moment, after closing my eyes & squinting as if needing to consider sharing, I will caress the pages once more.

Until then, I told Breana of how my sister, Tisha, & I would come up with clever & fun ideas to send a letter. My favorite was the balloon. You temporarily blow up the balloon, write using a felt-tip pen [ballpoint pens require a harder writing surface which may result to popping the balloon while writing], and thoroughly dry before deflating.

Once deflated your writing then becomes minature and quite dainty. The letters look bubbled and as if were placed on top of the surface. Breana's balloon was more of a card so once deflated was sufficient enough in size to read as is. It was adorable.

If you write a longer letter the balloon will need to blown up in order for it to be read! Consider not sharing anything too private because the round surface is hard to cover while reading. That's shared from experience!

Hmmm, now I can read Breana's balloon-card from here and I'm reminded of something we have left unfinished for Reema...

Postcards from my past

Quite some time ago I pulled my collection of postcards out from a box in my Parents' garage to a basket in my house. The basket was on a bottom shelf so one would have to be looking with intent to find them. The other day I decided to move the lot to a crystal vase and display them on top of a table for all to see and look through. Once I started to cram the postcards into the vase I realized that I needed to down-size.

Out of the 359 postcards {oh my!} these were in my 'discard' pile:

I can only guess that we either stayed at these motels on a family road trip or when accompanying my Dad on business trips.

This one struck me as funny.

Laramie, Wyoming.

From what I saw on other postcards, those are my initials so the postcard is definitely...mine.

I should ask my Parents.


Did I swim in these pools?

Update on Woodland Hills:

I googled this Holiday Inn and it looks exactly the same! When I further examined the postcard a window is circled so we had to have stayed there. Maybe during our trip to Universal Studios? So is this one a keeper? Does it have less value because the memories are lost and gone? Is there a difference between a postcard that was in storage for over 30 years and a postcard that has been discarded into the recycling bin?

Twilight

"Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer.