Today SOUL was born, the Sisters Of Unyielding Love. The three sisters are Carey, Samantha, and me. Our first meeting is in late June and we have some wondrous times ahead. I love the 3-nun logo, the play on a religious order, and the branding elements, especially the bright colors. I am having so much fun conceptualizing this along with the graphic design. Love it!
Read MoreAbout once a month I have to shake the dead leaves out of the cascading vinca vines in the kitchen flower box Keith made for me on the second story interior window. This photo shows about 1/3 of the debris. It’s a fun ordeal, though. Indoor gardening takes on a whole new meaning when you have to rake the floor.
Read MoreMollie gave me one of her Hungry Root food service meals to try. Today Keith and I made their exceedingly delicious chicken tacos. The price is a stumbling block but there is a great assortment of healthy meals on their site that we can reproduce. That’s one thing I miss about Covid. I had meal plans, and a perpetually stocked pantry and made all our meals. Now, I don’t even want to think about food. So maybe Hungry Root will inspire me to rally the effort needed to master my food once again!
Read MoreLilly stopped by with two of her friends, Ria and Andrea, for popsicles. Lilly had a visit with The Rat, or should I say a fight. It was worthy of Saturday Night Live! They’re both such fast talkers and fabulous at argumentation, there was no clear winner. It looked like so much fun for her friends that I got out the puppy and lion puppets so animal alter egos could be cut loose. They want me to buy more orange popsicles and Bomb Pops for next time they stop over. It’s gonna be a busy summer. This is how I dreamed life would be. Keith and I feel so lucky.
Read MoreOh, what a joy this month’s entries were. I think the voters agreed with me because we just couldn’t seem to agree on a clear winner. After the votes were tallied we had FIVE record-breaking winners! We also had a couple bonus photos that would have been contenders but weren’t eligible because of that darn “one photo entry per photographer” rule. Someone should challenge this with the contest official. I hear she takes bribes. For just a few cookies, she’ll invent a fake identity for a long lost relative whose name you can use to sneak in another entry. Just sayin’ — cookies!
Read MoreIn a world filled with flavor enthusiasts and culinary adventurers, there is one extraordinary cheese lover who has remained devoted to her passion for almost two decades. Her name is Ada, the founder of The Curd Collective (formerly known as Ada’s Cheese Club). She is celebrating her 25th birthday this year, and, in a twist of fate, has decided to reopen membership exclusively to her beloved family. As we embark on Ada's remarkable cheese journey, we invite you to indulge in the enchanting world of cheese, filled with delightful flavors, mouthwatering recipes, and whimsical cheese crafts. I should know. I’m her Granny. And this is Ada’s Cheese Club!
Read MoreTo celebrate National Cheese Day, I made Ada, our resident Cheese-ologist, an extravagant e-card in the form of a fully branded website for her childhood cheese club, updated for the exclusive family membersship plan. I know it’s a little cheesy, but it looks grate.
Read MoreThere is only one person I know who would celebrate National Cheese Day: my little Ada. It is one of the special qualities that makes her so dear. I got to practice with my new graphic design program and make her a little card to celebrate.
Read MoreHe said, “hey, I put some new shoes on
And everybody's smiling, it's so inviting
Oh, short on money but long on time
Slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine
And I'm running late and I don't need an excuse
'Cause I'm wearing my brand new shoes.”
I spent the day in Oshkosh with Maggie and Mollie for the last milestone on this long journey. I wrote her this poem.
Read MoreIt is truly the end of an era. For almost fifty years, Keith and I have nurtured children and grandchildren who attended this sweet school in our backyard. With no great-grandchildren likely to attend there, this joy has come to a close. For Lilly, it is a bittersweet day too. From the start of 4-K to the end of fifth grade this day, Waters School has been a touchstone. Here is the cover of her yearbook. As she waited after school to get picked up by her dad, she paged through the yearbook showing me all the signatures and good wishes she had collected. Yearbooks. What a fabulous idea. Good-bye, Waters School - and thank you.
Read MoreA good cross-section of poem topics this month, I think. I wasted a morning designing the look of it, but the turquoise and orange was awful and the images of poppies looked like they were made from crumpled paper. So I scrapped that and went for pink and cherry. I like this so much better. Lots of writing this week. I love it!
Read MoreAs Mollie embraces her budding short curls, her eyelash sprouts get some help from friend Angie. I was able to put the finishing touches on my Slender Stalk newsletter to make my Publication Day while she got the star treatment. Afterwards, we went next store to the delightful Knuth Brewery where we had great sammies and even greater carrot cake (my favorite). Mollie treated because I volunteered for chauffeuring. An absolutely lovely time in Ripon!
Read MorePicture this: Just like today, it’s May 29th, but over one hundred years ago, waaaaaay back in 1919. A genius by the name of Albert Einstein, with his wild hair and mischievous eyes, shook the world with a scientific theory that changed everything we thought we knew about space, time, and gravity. Click on the photo to read more.
Read MoreI set out this Memorial Day morning to write a Memorial Day greeting to my family, but veered off into a pent up rant fueled by the current war in Ukraine. Here’s how my “thank you for your service” turned out. Click on the photo to read more.
Read MoreOur tummies and our souls are thankful for a delicious afternoon of fine food and loving evening of fine friends. Best part: an unfortunate employee of the Festival Deli dropped my $32.00 taco tray all over their floor. I had to browse around the store while they made me another one which they didn’t charge me for. Even my bad luck is lucky!
Read MoreWe spent a lovely day with the Kiser Klan from West Virginnie where we celebrated fathers and fabulous cars. Keith is an honorary brother and sure felt like it today. It was wonderful to feel the connection and love among these very special people. The Father’s Day Car Show at Lakeside Park was an annual tradition with these folks for decades, until the Optimists moved it from the gorgeous wooded park on the shores of Lake Winnebago, to a barren parking lot at the fairgrounds. It is forever more boycotted - and the boys have their own mutual admiration society. Linda pulled out all the stops on the food too. Live entertainment from this musically gifted gene pool. A joy filled day!
Read MoreHow did we not see this movie in 1985? It is fantastic! When I started telling my sister Carey about this hidden gem, she said she’d seen it three times and loves it still. We all know Spielberg is a genius, but this was clearly a labor of love for him. I was struck by the fact that it was released almost twenty years before Harry Potter and how much influence this movie had on the movie designers. It is a guilty pleasure for sure and was a lovely departure from Rathbone and Cumberbatch, both of whom I adore. On other detective news, we were too loaded with yard work to work on our cold case and I still have a Sherlock-inspired art project up my sleeve. This will wrap up a very delightful week for us.
Read MoreI finally found a place worthy of our souvenir from the Kaminsky’s epic trip to the Bahamas. The 1955 Chevy reproduction was hand-fashioned from a coca-cola can. It hit two birds with one stone: the chevy for Keith and the coke for me. They represent each of our most cherished talisman. Mollie bemoaned that they didn’t offer a Diet Coke can. It doesn’t really matter a whit. My diet is pretend anyway.
Read MoreAs we continue our celebration of Sherlock Holmes week, we started in on solving a famous Cold Case: The Murder of Jamie Banks. I figured we needed Detective ID’s to put us in the right head space, and maybe get free donuts. The FDLPD would not issue them to us, so I made them.
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