Marking two hundred ...

Can hardly believe it.  This is my 200th blog post.

Will you join me in a giveaway to celebrate?

Not too fancy ... just a couple of small tokens

to let you know how much I appreciate your visits here.

I probably wouldn't have kept at it this so long if it hadn't been for

all of you stopping by to read and take the time to leave kind comments & such.

Your good suggestions, commiseration, pieces of advice, gentle observations, helpful tips

 ... oh, and the humor! the camaraderie!  the friendships from afar ... well, it's been grand.

Every bit of it

and I've loved it all.

So let's keep going on together for a while longer

since it appears [rolling eyes upward] I have not yet run out of things to say ...

nor have I run out of pictures to share ... 

[Autumn has arrived and the leafage has embarked on 

its miraculous dance tour again!]

Anyhoo, let's get down to it, shall we?

Here's how it shall go:  I've decided we should have 

TWO

giveaway items

(it is the  two  hundredth post after all) ...

One person will receive a small stash of cloth  scraps  in the color combo of

their choice, ripped & torn from my collection of lovelies in the cupboard,

mainly from old clothing and assorted textile items;

A second person will receive a small stash of  beads  in the color combo of

their choice, chosen especially for them from my [embarrassingly] good-sized

hoard  HOARD  collection of beads.

Simply leave a comment below with one word,

"scraps"  OR   "beads"

(no, no, you cannot have both, stop twitching)

and come this Saturday night, one name will be chosen out of each hat.

The recipients will be announced Sunday, sometime after morning coffee ~

that means sometime before noon.

Are you in?  All are welcome, 

even those who have never left a comment before.

If you are not signed in to Blogger, feel free to use the email link in the sidebar.

Deadline to enter:  Saturday, October 26th, 10pm, Pacific Time USA

I'll ship anywhere in the world

because we're all in this together.

And for that, I give you my deepest thanks.

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Dog writing ...

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Pockets of paradise

Of Goodness


How good
that the clouds travel, as they do,
like the long dresses of the angels
of our imagination,


or gather in storm masses, then break
with their gifts of replenishment,
and how good
that the trees shelter the patient birds


in their thick leaves,
and how good that in the field
the next morning
red bird frolics again, his throat full of song,


and how good
that the dark ponds, refreshed, 
are holding the white cups of the lilies
so that each is an eye that can look upward,


and how good that the blue-winged teal
comes paddling among them, as cheerful as ever,


and so on, and so on.....


~ Mary Oliver ~

When I am outside, it is far easier to see (feel) the big picture than when I am sitting here in my chair, sometimes worrying over what isn't helped by worrying.  You'd think I'd learn after all these years to stop wasting time on useless habits.  All it takes is changing my perception - and sticking to it.  But how to hold on to that?  I think our deepest frustrations arise when reality doesn't mesh with our deepest desires.  How to let go of that?   

The other day, my dear friend wrote to me, "you have to find pockets of paradise."  I have not been able to get this out of my head.  How perfectly true.  More than that...how attainable.  I started to think about where my "pockets" might be and once I started to pay attention, they were not hard to find.

Here is an amazement --- once I was twenty years old and in
every motion of my body there was a delicious ease,
and in every motion of the green earth there was
a hint of paradise,
and now I am sixty years old, and it is the same.


~ Mary Oliver ~

Paradise....an illusive wish-I-were-somewhere-else place....a place of outstanding natural beauty that serves as a buffer to the out-there-over-there world....somewhere one has landed due to much good luck and the fortunate movement of the stars?  Ha.  It's what I make of it.  Nothing more.  No matter where I am.

: : :

I found a very heartfelt interview with poet Mary Oliver over here.  It's from March of 2011, then age 75.

She reveals some astounding truths about herself

and offers a few glimpses into why she is braver now...

: : :


Still learning & working with textures in PSE...for the cloud photo, I used two
from Distressed Jewell and for the bracelet, one again from DJ and another from Tim_in_Ohio.

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