Merry, Merry, Take a Cherry

“When I sound the fairy call, 
gather here in silent meeting,

Chin to knee on the orchard wall, 
cooled with dew and cherries eating.

Merry, merry, take a cherry, 
mine are sounder, mine are rounder,

Mine are sweeter for the eater, 
when the dews fall, and you'll be fairies all.”

- Emily Dickinson

Today is Rednesday, so I figured I would share a favorite piece of art.  My husband made this for me for valentines day, last year.  Isn't he a sweetie?  He found the cherry cloth at a fabric store, and he stretched it over a huge (4.5' x 3') box canvas.  He got the letters and circle from a craft store and painted them red, himself.  I ended up adding the roses with a gossamer trail, to soften the piece just a little, making it just perfect for my taste.  He hung it above our family room fireplace.  I love it, and everytime I see it, I am reminded that I am loved, too.  It is a very simple piece of art, but its size makes it quite striking.  

And, completely unrelated ~ but there is an awful lot of red in this video, the fabulous Barbe Saint John posted this video on her facebook account today, and I dare you to watch it without bursting out laughing at least once.

If you would like to find more red goodness, check out It's a Very Cherry World and check out all the participants, or blog about your own red love, and join in the fun!

Band of Characters!

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck

Life...

Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life. -Sophocles

Alrighty, bear with me.  Friday freebies is on hiatus for a few more weeks.  Today, the family and I are leaving for a quick weekend away.  We are just going to San Francisco to do the touristy thing.  We are staying at a nice hotel, going to a show, going to a fancy lunch, etc. etc.  We just want to be together.  I am really looking forward to it.

Late next week, my son and I leave for Michigan to visit more family, for a couple of weeks.

Summer is upon us and if it were up to me I'd spend every moment with my wonderful kids and hubby.  I love them all so much.  The picture above is of me and my beautiful step daughter, Abigail.  She looks just like her dad, except she is beautiful and he is a goofball.  What can I say?

I hope you are all out there enjoying the sun and enjoying your families.  This is the life, and it is what true wealth is all about.  I hope you all feel as rich as me!

Happy Father's Day!

"A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty." -- Unknown

Behold

"...I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in..."  - Revelation 3:20

The College Obsession theme this week is door.

Click on the banner above to visit Collage Obsession and see more obsessed artists.

Happy Monday!

The Sweetest Sound..

The sweetest sounds to mortals given

Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.

~William Goldsmith Brown

 

Happy Mother's Day, all!

Holding Tight

 

I love you Jenna Marlene Fischer! 

I hold you always, in my hands and my heart.

Ok, so it's Wednesday, and that means it is time for another Wednesday Web Wonder.  Yesterday, Kathryn Antyr - the heart and art behind True North Arts let me know about her Fabulous Friendship Festival:

And of course, I couldn't even begin to discuss my friends - without starting with Jenna.  I am SO  blessed to have had her in my life for 30 years (!).  Last year Jenna coddled me (literally) through all of my petty health issues, while battling breast cancer herself.  But that's just Jenna was there when my son was born.  I managed to miss the birth of her daughter Heather, by minutes.  Jenna was my maid of honor - I lost the address to the lovely house where she held her wedding and was late, late, late...  (Can you imagine having a friend like me? Sheesh.)  And yet, Jenna has never held a grudge, never held my personality against me, and always loved me - exemplifying the term 'unconditional'.

Jenna is beautiful, silly, brilliant, an incredible mother, loving wife, sister, and daughter, and an inspirational friend on every level.

Although, obviously, I could manage to be a better friend, and am inspired to be a better person - because of Jenna - I can tell you this, I couldn't love her any more than I already do.  My heart overfloweth.  (PS, happy birthday wonderful one!)

SO, back to our Wednesday Web Wonder:

Be sure and check out the fabulous True North Arts blog!

It is full of delicious art, wonderful projects, and endless inspiration.   And YOU too can participate in their Fabulous Friendship Festival.

Do any of YOU have a Web Wonder of your own to share? Leave a comment/link for me here, and I'll feature your favorite (and give you a plug too!) on another Wednesday Web Wonder feature, in the not too far off future!

Believe

Believe

in yourself,

in love,

in trust,

in magic,

in angels,

in happy endings,

in God,

in promises,

in miracles,

in people,

in fairy tales,

in following your heart,

in peace,

in true happiness,

in never growing up,

in following your passions,

in making your dreams come true,

in helping people,

in making the world a better place,

in changing for the better

♥

(found on facebook)

 

Today, while blog hopping I happened upon Whimsical Notions.  I do not know the blog author, but it is a lovely blog and it was fun to read through her recent posts.  Well, except of course, the most recent post - where the author explains that she is going through a heartbreak that so many of us have been through.  My heart goes out to this fellow blogger, as my life was never so upside down and upsetting as in the days and months surrounding my divorce.  Of  course, I am remarried now and can attest to the fact that life goes on - but knowing this doesn't lesson heartbreak in the moment. 

I hope that like me, you might take a few  moments out to pray for the author of Whimsical Notions, during the difficult itme she going through, and I equally hope that the knowledge that prayers are coming to her from far and wide - will bring her some comfort.

 

In any case, what brought about this blog post was the wonderful poem above, that I copied from the Whimsical Notions January 28, 2010 entry.  It appears it was copied from a source on Facebook.  I just thought that this was the most beautiful poem.  Very simple, directly to the point. 

Never give  up.  Always believe.  Despite our misgivings, our great mistakes, our debt and even denial - all is made well, and worthwhile - if we don't give up.  If we just believe.

 

What a beautiful Easter message - don't you think?  And so, there too - I hope you will join me, in believing.  There is an old saying - but it is a saying for a  reason - it has more than a ring of truth to it:
 

Miracles Happen - To Those Who  Believe.

   

Whether  you are Christian or Jewish or Buddhist or other, does  not the Easter message offer something for us all? Love is here, love remains.  Love can not be sealed away or stopped or thwarted.  Push it down and the result will be the same.  Why not believe in the miracle? 

 

Love Will Always Rise

 

Happy Easter All.

Say Anything

GIRL at party:"Did you really come here with Lloyd Dobler? How did that happen?"

DIANE: "He made me laugh."

 

Ahhhh, Say Anything.  It was on last night on the Encore Channel, and of course - I had to sit down and watch the whole thing.  I love that movie.  I mean I really love it.  Why?  Well, it is an iconic movie about teen love and teen angst.  It's not like I am among a minority here.  It's also my generation.  The movie came out when I was nineteen years old.  A time when the idea of an adorable and obsessed suitor was romantic.  A time when I relished the thought that someone out there might be willing to do anything - to say anything - for my love.

Have you seen the movie recently?  The casting was genius.  Ione Skye is so beautiful.  Whatever happened to Ione Skye?  And I love that 'Frazier's' dad is so young in this movie.  Did you notice that Frazier's ex-wife is in the movie too?  (Lillith!)  Where is Kelsey Grammar, I ask you?  Oh, and we can not forget Lili Taylor.  I adore Lili Taylor. She is too cute and quirky for words.  And others that were just starting their career - playing bit parts.   Jeremy Piven and Eric Stolz.  Of course, we can't forget that Joan Cusack played - fittingly - the sister of John Cusack's character.

What else was there to love about this movie?  It's perfect that Lloyd Dobler is a misfit.  John Cusack encompasses the underdog leading man role perfectly.  I think they did a good job humanizing the characters.  I believed in them.  That first scene when Lloyd and Diane are kissing in the back of the car.  Lloyd is shaking.  He's shaking!  And when Diane's father goes to jail.  There is no sugar coating.  I love the lines:  Lloyd - "How are you doing?"  Diane's father - "How am I doing?  I'm incarcerated!"  Of course, in the end, it is the 'love conquers all' message that rises above.  Doesn't everyone want to believe that?  Didn't we all wish (at one time) that we could hold up a boom box blasting some apropros song, and win back the one who has just rejected us?  Oh, if only it were that simple.

What happens as we get older?  We become jaded.  I hate that word, and I hate the fact that it actually applies to so many situations in life.  But its true.  As the years go by we start to recognize that many of our youthful romanticisms border on stalking.  Ha!  And this too - we have to let go of our original concept of 'love conquers all' - and grieve the notion.  Hopefully, with time, a much more complex and wholistic concept of 'love conquering all' will replace the original one.  But this more complex version is just that - complicated.  Difficult to believe in during painful times.  The truth so much more profound but no where near as romantic as our first version.

Ah well.  Here again is why - still to this day - I love the movie Say Anything.  It is sweet and happily nostalgic to revisit that time in life when I believed that something outside of myself might sweep me off my feet and save me - doing all the hard work of personal redemption, on my behalf.  Oh - to be saved from having to do that work on my own.

In truth, I've learned the hard way, that the only true redemption comes when I am in there fighting the good fight, for myself.  Learning to love myself without a Lloyd Dobler in tow, has been the hardest thing I've ever had to do.  I am so completely full of deficits and mistakes.  Still, there are those moments when I can feel sweet forgiving grace bubble up from deep within.  As for those moments - if I were to say something - say anything - I would say this:  Indeed.  Love conquers all.