Whew. I’m just back from Vermont to visit my mother and help her with Mother’s Day in the flower shop. I drove up with my sister and within hours of arriving at my mother’s a manure truck rumbled down the street. For some reason my sister thought this was hilarious. She jabbed at me and pointed her chin in the direction of the approaching manure truck. I think she thinks I’m much more cosmopolitan than I am. Or more sensitive. Or more judgy.
One of those. Or all of those.
The 80′s CD we lip-synced and air-guitared to on the drive home was 10 times more impressive than a truck pulling a tank full of sh*t.
I think I just aged myself. Let me distract you with a word prompt. Yes, look at the shiny!
FRAGILE
(This prompt is off the giant box of fragile glassware that’s sitting next to me. Yes, that’s right – still unpacking.)
Pinterest seems a no-brainer and I can’t believe it took someone this long to think of it. We humans are such visual creatures, we love to discover new things, we love to belong, we love to assert our unique value, and we love to collect.
Here’s what I’ve been up to on Pinterest most recently (clicking images will bring you to the Pinterest post where proper credit is given to sources – including the ecard funny above):
Put on your party hats and ready your pens. The 100 Words challenge has returned to roost.
A few admin-ish things. LinkyTools, for all their paid subscription glory, is still less than perfect in its execution. I renewed the subscription but the automated system failed to detect the successful payment. I’ve followed all the proper channels and now I wait to hear. I suspect it won’t be more than a day or two before it’s up and running and you can either a) put a link to your posts in the comments, or b) hold onto your link until the LinkyTool is active. **Update: Brent of LinkyTools got right back to me and everything is good to go!
Remember, I won’t be making official selections this time around so please take care of each other with comment love, encouragement, and critiques where constructive.
I’ve spent the last several months treasure hunting at auctions, in wayside antique shops along back roads, and wherever else I can tuck my nose in for a peek. Finds like this is what the treasure hunter lives for.
First Edition Louisa May Alcott
I found this first edition Louisa May Alcott at a “pick sale” book auction. Some day I’ll tell you about THAT experience.
Full of that glorious old book smell.
Why don't they make books like this anymore?
"The Consultation--Trunks or 'Shawl Straps'" - Book Plate 1
"Let's see what it is;" and, lighting a candle, the fair Amazons looked boldly about.
I’ll be selling this first edition in an upcoming auction in order to support my Patricia Coomb’s habit. I intend to have a first edition of all 20 of the Dorrie the little witch series.
But of course, this week’s challenge must come from this book.
Thriftless
Driving this morning, I see him walking. Old man with a fisherman’s hat, walking slowly. Maybe it is because I am halfway to 70 that I wonder if I will love an old man someday. If I will find the stoop in his shoulders and the shuffle of his feet endearing. If I will kiss his thinned softened lips and still feel a little spark.
As it happens in imperceptible increments, will I notice him growing old with me? Or will we look at each other and see each other exactly as the day we met?
*From the Velvet Verbosity archives. This was originally posted May 25, 2006. This was the first “word portrait” I did.
- This Profile has Been Disabled
Today I realized a friend, not a close friend but a friend, has disappeared from Facebook. Her profile has been disabled. So I checked her blog and it was marked “on hiatus”.
It’s a strange time we live in, where so much of our interactions are online, and when someone disappears from that space it might as well be they packed their bags and left town in the night without so much as a note as to where they were going or when they’d be back.
I’m left wondering, is she ok? Is she just busy working and writing? Or is she curled up in the fetal position on her couch with all the shades drawn because life just swept in an overwhelming wave over her head? Or is she on the couch in some soft pajamas eating seasoned popcorn watching a marathon of her favorite British show, ignoring the internet because she just needed to unplug? Did she even announce this abrupt absence?
Which? I guess this is what I did to most of you. Left you wondering. And man, I feel like kind of a shit now. I left you all hanging even though I knew I was fine. Like the “lost child” who doesn’t feel lost – the boy who has found the best-fort-ever inside the coat rack at the department store who doesn’t see his frantic mother searching for him. The girl who is so engrossed in the life she finds along the tide line that she doesn’t realize how far she’s strayed from her family’s spot on the beach.
So yeah, even though I’ve already explained, and I know now how very very much I needed time away from the online world, this is to say I’m sorry if I left y’all hanging, even if it was just a little.
Speaking of…
Per the usual, life happens. I’m still on track to get an Etsy store up and running in the next week, and I plan to have LinkyTools back on by Friday so we can start playing the 100 Words game again. But the swans are still there. I have this grand idea that I’ll design a fabulous header, but I’ve not had the time to make something I’m happy with. I do that. I let the “perfect get in the way of the good” – or whatever that saying is that basically means if I can’t have my perfect vision, I’d rather have nothing.
I still have a lot to learn, obviously.
Also, raise your hand if you’ve been here long enough to remember that time I completely lost everything and had to start this blog from scratch. Well, I just found some old archives (I was thrilled!) and I’m going to re-post some of the posts that got lost. Vintage Velvet Verbosity!
