WEEKEND POTPOURRI: CREATIVE EXPRESSION — FEB. 25

Fiona's Superheroes

Perusing my folder of Fiona’s art led to today’s gallery of potpourri…and the new header.

I adore the artistic creations of my children and grandchildren, and they all seem to have some talent.  Somehow it skipped right over me, lol; however, some say that I got the writing bug.  And I do love blog design, but my stuff is more quirky than anything else.

Creations of any kind can be intense and lots of fun.

Fiona’s cartoon characters have a message.  I like that her characters show empowerment.  Something we all hope to model for our children and grandchildren.

My eldest son is a photographer, and his sojourn in Europe for more than a decade has yielded some creative results, too.  His Craig Robinson Photography site shows some of what he has done.

Here are a few photos he captured while the Berlin Wall was under reconstruction.

I’ve featured that one, and some of these others on my various blogs and posts.

And here are a series of photos taken at an abandoned sanitarium just outside of Berlin in Beelitz.

What images best showcase your passions in life?  Do you share these with your children/grandchildren/friends?

GLITZ, GLAMOR, & PREDICTABILITY — A REVIEW

When Colette (Coco) Barrington was growing up, she was surrounded by the Hollywood lifestyle, with her father in the movie business and her mother a mega bestselling author. It is no surprise that her older sister Jane also grows up to join the movie game as a top producer.

But Coco wants nothing to do with that life. After graduating from Princeton, she begins law school at Stanford, but drops out and creates a dog walking business. A way to enjoy life on her terms. Unfortunately, her family disapproves, and even though her father is now dead, her mother and sister miss no opportunity to show how much they cannot understand her choices.

Jane is also a bit of a bully, treating Coco like a recalcitrant child, whom she somehow wrangles into house-sitting when she and her partner Liz go to New York. Their home in San Francisco is gorgeous, and should be a treat. But Coco is still frustrated by how her sister always manages to get her way, and is then stunned to meet an unexpected houseguest; someone she recognizes from the movies. Movie star Leslie Baxter is even more handsome in person, and before she knows it, Coco and he are involved in a passionate love affair.

From this point on, the story can conceivably only go in one direction. The two will meet obstacles along the way, have a few disagreements about the lifestyle, and may even part for a bit. But there will definitely be some kind of happy ending, since this is a romance novel. Even knowing this, I did enjoy the story, with the descriptions of beautiful settings, scenes, clothing, and jewels. The glitz and glamor that Steel can present to the readers is as predictable as the plot. Because I did like the lighter fare for a change, I’m giving One Day at a Time: A Novel3.5 stars.

---

THURSDAY POTPOURRI — ATTITUDE — JAN. 12

Must. Change. Attitude

 

I love thinking about attitude.  So much of life comes down to our attitude.  There isn’t a whole lot we do have control over, but our attitude is definitely one of those things.

The photo above was snapped from a print that’s on my living room wall, from Mary Engelbreit.  At the bottom of the print is the caption:  Must. Change. Attitude.

Whenever we are frustrated by what life throws at us, we sometimes look around to see what we can change in the external world.  Instead, we should be examining our interior life.  We should be changing how we look at those events around us.  We should be changing the only thing we can:  our reaction to events.  Our attitude.

Oh, yes, it’s easy to express what we should do.  Doing it might be quite another thing.  In fact, it will be.  Sometimes, when we’re trying really hard to change our perspective—our attitude—we might only be able to act “as if.”  Yes, act as if we believe in that new perspective we’re going for…act until the feeling and behavior follow.

One of the things I want to adjust in my attitude is what I can accomplish each day and each year.  My New Year’s resolutions this year try to reflect a realistic attitude.  Goals that are achievable.

What do you hope to achieve each day—or this year!—and how will you manage to change your attitude to a more realistic one?

 

 

 

 

THURSDAY POTPOURRI — CLUTTER — DEC. 8

MY CREATIVE HUB

 

 

 

Good morning, and welcome to my home full of vintage treasures, quirky finds, and…okay, I’ll admit it:  clutter.

One of my favorite shops awhile ago was called Country Clutter…and you guessed it; I bought a lot of stuff there.

When I lived in my big house in the foothills, it didn’t seem noticeably cluttered, although my daughter might have a different opinion about that.

Nowadays, I’ve downsized into a condo with two bedrooms, one of which is my office.  And there’s a lot of stuff there, mostly books and book-related things, including writing potpourri.  Also, some dolls and quirky things.  Like these:

 

On my desk is a spindle that I’ve had…well, forever.  I think I bought it for my office when I worked for the county…and now I use it for notes.  Little post-it notes, usually.

Today I studied it thoughtfully (wish I’d taken a “before” picture!), and realized that many of those tidbits were probably irrelevant.

So I started pulling the notes off the spindle, and I found, at the very bottom, snippets from 2009 when I started seriously blogging.  Little hints on how to do things, like copy links, etc.  Stuff I don’t need anymore.

There were also old phone numbers and addresses.

After I cleared off three times the amount of stuff you’re going to see in this “after” photo, I was left with books I’ve preordered, with the closest date on top.  Theoretically, I can then remove each post-it when the book arrives.  Easy, right?

I wonder how long that will last!

AFTER THE PURGE!

Some of you may have seen my post on the paper blizzard, in which I moaned about all the stacks I needed to shred.

Do you see a recurring theme here?

I’m about to read a book called Dirty Secret, about hoarding.  A cautionary tale, perhaps?

Does this kind of thing ever happen to you?  Do you roll along, doing what you do, and then look up to find…overwhelming stuff?  What do you do then?  What works for you?

 

HUMP DAY POTPOURRI — CELEBRATING LITTLE TREASURES — NOV. 23

 

Do you ever see something that takes you right back to memorable moments in time?  And when you go there, do all the associated images and nostalgic thoughts flood into your head?

That happened for me recently when I was perusing one of my favorite magazines of flea market treasures.

I saw these colorful tumblers that catapulted me backwards.

 

It was summertime, and I can recall my mom bringing the groceries in, and instead of the usual cottage cheese cartons, she had these colorful tumblers.  After we ate the cottage cheese, she washed the containers and used them as drinkware.

Over time, she collected a nice set of them in all colors.

Now, for this story to really be a vintage treasure tale, I would be able to tell you that I somehow acquired those tumblers from my childhood.  But no, that didn’t happen.  I have no idea where those original tumblers went—and believe me, I don’t think my mom ever threw anything away!—but somehow, they did disappear.

Perhaps she gave them away.  But that’s a story whose ending I will never know.

But when I saw these charming little tumblers, I decided to check out Amazon to see if they had any.  And voila!  There they were.

Of course, they’re new and not the actual vintage ones.  But they do look very cute in my country cupboard.  They arrived yesterday!

Originally, I wrote a little story about them at Story Corner.

Do you ever have any treasures from your childhood that suddenly crop up…maybe when you’re looking through stores with collectibles?  Okay, I know that the only ones who probably do find such things are oldies, like me.

Like finding my Desert Rose Franciscan dishes in an antique store.  Now I bought mine in the 1960s, and at that time, they’d been on the market for around twenty-five years.  But an antique store?

Way to go…knowing just how to make me feel old!  lol

It’s fun, though, and I love remembering the sentimental tales that surround these little treasures.  How about you?  Anything that rings a bell?

 

TUESDAY POTPOURRI — TEASERS — NOV. 1

Welcome to Tuesday Potpourri, in which we celebrate a variety of events.  Today’s is Teaser Tuesdays, hosted by Should Be Reading.

Here’s how it works:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.

I’m spotlighting one of this week’s reads called Wrecker, by Summer Wood.

Blurb:  After foster-parenting four young siblings a decade ago, Summer Wood tried to imagine a place where kids who are left alone or taken from their families would find the love and the family they deserve. For her, fiction was the tool to realize that world, and Wrecker, the central character in her second novel, is the abandoned child for whom life turns around in most unexpected ways. It’s June of 1965 when Wrecker enters the world. The war is raging in Vietnam, San Francisco is tripping toward flower power, and Lisa Fay, Wrecker’s birth mother, is knocked nearly sideways by life as a single parent in a city she can barely manage to navigate on her own. Three years later, she’s in prison, and Wrecker is left to bounce around in the system before he’s shipped off to live with distant relatives in the wilds of Humboldt County, California. When he arrives he’s scared and angry, exploding at the least thing, and quick to flee. Wrecker is the story of this boy and the motley group of isolated eccentrics who come together to raise him and become a family along the way.

***

Teaser:  Slowly a thought elbowed its way to the front of his brain.  He rubbed his nose and tasted salt and dirt and snot.

That familiar shape?  The one they had taken away?

That was his mother.  p. 71

***

That excerpt gives me the chills!  What is teasing you today?  Come on by and share….

TUESDAY POTPOURRI — BIRTHDAY THOUGHTS — OCT. 25

 

Welcome to another quirky post about a potpourri of things, beginning with thoughts on a birthday.

Yes, it’s my birthday, and I’m amazed at how many candles will be on my cake today—if I had a cake.  As I tell my friends, we’d start a forest fire with all those candles.  Instead, I’m going to a restaurant where they’ll present a special dessert and one candle.  Much kinder than the forest fire.

But what amazes me most about my birthday thoughts is how far back the memories go these days.  Childhood moments, while far away, sometimes seem like they just happened awhile ago, and while the memories come to me in snippets, or flashes…and sometimes in my dreams, they are vivid.  As if they’re playing out before me like a movie.

I see myself wearing a green sweater on my seventh birthday and watching as the school teacher drew a birthday cake on the blackboard in colored chalk.  That’s how she commemorated our birthdays.  Then everyone bursts into song.

Other birthday moments center around family congregating on a special afternoon with cake and coffee.  I inhale the coffee aroma, which seemed more special back then.

I see my grandmother’s face smiling at me.  Wonderfully loving:  I feel cherished.

My grandmother and aunt also had birthdays in October, so sometimes we all shared our parties.

I do love fall moments, and I’m sure that part of that comes from these birthday memories.

What do you remember about your birthday?  And what special connections and associations do you recall?

HUMP DAY POTPOURRI — OCT. 12

 

Good morning, and welcome to another Hump Day Potpourri…in which we blather on about whatever topics grab us.

Today I’ve been posting on various blogs, including updates on Creative Moments, excerpts on Snow Chronicles, and Waiting on Wednesday at Going out on a Limb.

I’m reading Beth Gutcheon’s Still Missing and feeling emotional all over again, even though I’ve read the book before…and seen the movie!

Then I watched the recorded episode of Parenthood, from last night.  Do any of you watch that show?

I find myself having rather emotional reactions to some of the characters.  Like Christine.  She is so disapproving of everyone, even her husband—or maybe especially her husband.  But then something happens halfway through the episode and she looks sympathetic.  Someone I could even like.

That won’t last, though, because she’ll be right back to acting superior to everyone again.

Or maybe that’s just my take on her.

And don’t even get me started on Crosby and Jasmine…those two could drive an episode all on their own.

Come on…speak up!  Anyone have thoughts?

It’s obviously a great show and cast of characters if the viewers react to them emotionally at least some of the time.  Otherwise we wouldn’t be connecting to them.

I still haven’t watched last night’s episode of Unforgettable.  Another show I love!

What are your favorites?  What specifically draws you in to your favorite and most watchable shows?

THURSDAY POTPOURRI — OCT. 6

I don’t often post here on a Thursday.  I’m not sure why…maybe it’s because Thursdays are sort of “off” days.  Mondays are like the beginning of the weekdays, while Wednesdays are that “hump” we must climb over.  And Fridays…well, TGIF.

So what can I say about Thursday?  For starters, there is always an event over at my Snow Sparks blog, where Theme Thursdays reign.

But other than that….what can I say?  Well, yesterday, it rained, so that was kind of a momentous day.  But still, not a Thursday.  Maybe since today is an aftermath of that, it feels like a day to post about weird things like the weather.  For example, it is usually still kind of hot in these parts during October, especially during the District Fair, which started yesterday.

As I watched the rain slipping down, I felt like curling up on my sofa and reading all day.  Or watching TV.  So I did.

Don’t you love days like that?  I don’t mind the rain; in fact, I kind of love it, unless it’s stormy, with thunder, lightning, and power outages.  I don’t like those events.

But this blog is kind of about rainy and snowy days: just check the URL.  Yes, another quirky thing about me and about this blog.  My name, of course, is Laurel-Rain Snow, hence the URL choice.

I once worked in an office—way back in the day!—in which several of the people working there had some kind of “weather” name.  There was even a newspaper article that came out about our office and those quirky names.  It was our claim to fame back then.

I’m thinking a lot about those days.  Maybe because I’m currently reading a book about young women “coming of age.”  The events described in Girls in White Dresses remind me of my own “coming of age” story.

Even though it was a hundred years ago!  Well, not quite, but sometimes it feels like that.  Which is why I’m almost surprised to totally relate to these young women and their experiences.

Does that make these events timeless?  What do you think?

What are you reading, and what about your current read connects with your emotions?  I’d love to hear your thoughts…about books, about the weather, about quirky things in general.

HUMP DAY POTPOURRI — WAITING ON WEDNESDAY — SEPT. 21

 

Good morning!  It’s hump day and time for our Waiting on Wednesday feature hosted by Jill, at Breaking the Spine.

 

Today I’m very excited about an upcoming release by one of my favorite authors.  To be released on November 1, 2011,  The Strangers on Montagu Street, by Karen White, brings us the delightful adventures of a psychic realtor.

Psychic realtor Melanie Middleton returns-only to be greeted by a house full of lost souls.

Psychic realtor Melanie Middleton is still restoring her Charleston house and doesn’t expect to have a new houseguest, a teen girl named Nola. But the girl didn’t come alone, and the spirits that accompanied Nola don’t seem willing to leave…

***

Wow!  Literally…and I can’t wait for this one, so I’ve preordered it, of course.

What exciting upcoming releases are you touting today?  Please share….