Jan 28 2015

Wednesday Whimsy – Snow Days

Sending lots of good thoughts to everyone currently snowed in or otherwise challenged by the snowstorm on the East Coast (including my relatives in Maine!). I grew up in upstate New York, so I remember big storms and being snowed in. We’d lose our mailbox after the first big storm of the year because the snowplow would push it under a big drift. We wouldn’t see it again till Spring thaw. If we wanted mail, we had to stand in the road around 11AM and try to catch Fred the mailman as he drove by on his rounds. Because, as we all know, snow didn’t stop him.

I like this Shakespeare quote (partly because he uses the word “kindle”, which of course nowadays brings something else to mind, thanks Amazon): “As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words.”

This is a good one too: “The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?” J. B. Priestley

Interesting pair of sled dogs the child in the card above has!

I have a feeling this next quote represents more closely how many people in the East may be regarding the event: “A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.” Carl Reiner

“We build statues out of snow, and weep to see them melt.” Walter Scott. Well, ok, I built snowmen and snowwomen but I don’t believe I ever cried when they melted, did you?

And we’ll finish with this: “Advice is like snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper in sinks into the mind.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Jan 21 2015

Parrots for Wednesday Whimsy

I picked this subject for today’s whimsy for no other reason than I enjoyed the Victorian trade cards I found when I went searching in my collection for Wednesday inspiration. The Victorians seemed to utilize the colorful bird in their advertising for all sorts of products.

Here’s a great quote from American humorist Will Rogers:

“Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.”

I’ve never owned a parrot but I once knew a guy who had inherited a parrot from his greatgrandmother, as I recall. The parrot was really old at the time I “met” it at a party, and had lived through the San Francisco Quake of 1906. Whichever maternal relative my acquaintance had inherited the parrot from, had been engaged as a young woman to a seafaring man, who brought her the parrot and – you guessed it! – the parrot swore like a sailor. I heard that for myself. Apparently the lady was quite genteel and this fiancee thought it was hilarious to have the parrot uttering obscenities in her living room. (No idea if she actually married the guy but she sure kept the parrot LOL.)

My only other up close experience with parrots would be the animatronic ones in the Disneyland Tiki Room.

Here’s what Mark Twain thought on the topic: “She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot.”

Not specifically about parrots, but I like this quote:

“When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all.” E. O. Wilson

Here’s author Eric Jerome Dickey: “It’s impossible to explain creativity. It’s like asking a bird, ‘How do you fly?’ You just do.”

I like this one too: “The soul has illusions as the bird has wings: it is supported by them.” Victor Hugo

I think the trade card below was my favorite of all the ones I found…

Jan 7 2015

One Hundred Years Hence 1880s Steam Style

I’ve been saving this little group of late Victorian era trade cards to share with you for the new year – they certainly had a lot of faith in steam power!

There was a whole group of these cards up on eBay last year (like the pair above) but I only captured two of them – spirited bidding went beyond my hard limit on the others. I’ll fill out today’s Wednesday Whimsy post with a couple of cards from the same general time, where baking soda was the propulsion! But first a French post card with a charming air taxi of the future (no idea what vintage the postcard may be)…

Dec 31 2014

Wednesday Whimsy New Year’s Eve

Been saving a few Victorian trade cards for this post…I hope whatever you’re doing for New Year’s Eve, whether it be an evening at home with the family, or a night out dancing, you’re going to have fun!

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.” Alfred Lord Tennyson

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” Benjamin Franklin

“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” Oprah Winfrey

“And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.” Rainer Maria Rilke

“All of us every single year, we’re a different person. I don’t think we’re the same person all our lives.” Steven Spielberg

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.” Tom Peters

This card just seems very New Years Eve-ish to me….

And I love the dramatic representation of time in this one!

Best wishes for a wonderful 2015 and may all your dreams come true!

Dec 24 2014

Wednesday Whimsy Disney Ornaments Hats and Shoes

We do have a more conventional Christmas tree in the living room of course, but I also keep
this “tree” full of my Disney mouse hat and character shoe theme ornaments. I started collecting them a few years during a trip to Disneyland and now each time I go back, I pick up a few more. (You can also find them on eBay.) There are usually some new ones for the new movies – this year I added two Frozen shoes. I find these ornaments enchanting and fun – whoever designs them does a great job.

I also added a Mulan shoe that I WISH came in real lady sizes. I’d love to have dragons on my feet! I think….

Finding Nemo was my grandson’s favorite movie when he was little and we watched it over and over, and then some. Luckily I enjoyed it too! And then along came Cars – Mater the Tow truck is my grandson’s favorite character and my brother’s. I think I’m partial to R2D2 myself.

But my heart truly belongs to the princesses! Rapunzel, Aurora, Jasmine….and of course, Belle, who loves books so much! But the Rapunzel character shoe is my absolute favorite. I’ll need a bigger tree after next year’s trip to Disneyland! Happy Holidays to everyone!

Dec 17 2014

Disneyland in the Rain for Wednesday Whimsy

We had that huge, severe rainstorm here in Southern California last week and a minor ripple was my plan to go to Disneyland. (Which was nothing compared to mudslides, a tornado, etc., that many people had to deal with.) My best friend and I go annually right around this time of year and in all the time we’ve done that, it’s only rained twice. Rainy days have a magical effect on Disneyland – many fewer people! I have four layers on in the photo to the left – it was freezing in the morning! The photo at the top is my new pair of mouse ears, complete with peacock feather…

We went a bit later than usual, to miss the freeway jam ups. For the first hour it was raining pretty steadily but then the magic of Disney kicked in and we had blue skies in Anaheim. There were quite a few people but nothing like the normal December day so we were able to walk right up to rides, even Star Tours and Indiana Jones. The sidewalks weren’t crowded and we were able to get a good spot on the curb to watch the parade when it began, instead of sitting for an hour.

I tried to take some different Disneyland photos this trip. There are a lot
of unexpected details in the park, which are fun to uncover. Here’s a view from the second floor of the Jungle Cruise landing area. And then the view looking left, toward the Aladdin pavilion (or whatever it’s exact title is).

My friend has a low tolerance for “It’s A Small World” so we only ride that once. It was SO pretty with all the lights!

Dec 10 2014

Winter Fun for Wednesday Whimsy

I used to love walking the in the snow, having snowball fights, building snow forts…of course I lived in upstate New York at the time! One of my favorite sub genres of romance is the Christmas Regency. I love those big house parties where the governess and the Duke waltz and go sledding and fall in love.

And a little girl who missed all the fun – such a wistful face.

Here’s an intrepid couple who decided to go snowshoeing! And someone who voted for skating…although she seems a bit dubious at the moment. I hope your winter is going well so far (even though winter itself hasn’t officially arrived yet, surely there’s enough snow in some places!)

Maya Angelou: Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, ‘I’m going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that’s tough. I am going to snow anyway.’

Dec 3 2014

Love the Rain Wednesday Whimsy

I’m totally enjoying the rain in Southern California this week! There’s nothing I like better than curling up with a good book (reread Nalini Singh’s Caressed by Ice, seem to be on a binge of working my way through the Psy-Changeling series again, start to finish…) and my two cats and just savoring the cool Fall weather, accompanied by the sound of rainfall.

We need the rain out here of course, although I feel sorry for the areas that are getting too much too fast and which may have mudflows to contend with. In my little corner of the world, it’s raining gently and soaking in.

I had to leave work in the midst of the worst of it today, to go off to the dentist. My first umbrella gave out while I was walking to my car. No problem, thought I – there’s another umbrella in the car. (Sometimes I am over-prepared for all eventualities LOL.) Got through the dentist ok – I love my dentist and his staff, but I hate the cleaning process, gives me a migraine usually. And today was the first time it’s been done since I had my health issue in September and had to go onto blood thinners. so we were all a bit tense but no problems and I earned my sticker-for-good-behavior…then off to the grocery store, where my second umbrella of the day failed and I got drenched. So I bought the only umbrella they had left, which was very lime green, and that got me home.

“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.” John Ruskin, Rnglish art critic of the Victorian era (which seems so appropriate since I use 1880’s trade cards for illustrations currently)

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” Dolly Parton

“Save a boyfriend for a rainy day – and another, in case it doesn’t rain.” Mae West I guess I saved my book boyfriend, Psy Arrow Judd Lauren, for today!

“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.” Roger Miller Well, I LOVE walking in the rain myself….

We might get heavy rain with thunder at 3AM tonight. I hope so – we never get a really good thunderstorm out here, not like I grew up with in the South, so I enjoy the novelty when it does happen. The cats, however, do not.

Then there was this post I ran across on io9 – ironic timing – “Yes You Can Buy The Scent of Rain in a Desert”

And of course, the ultimate in rain-related:

Nov 19 2014

Cooking Up A Storm for Wednesday Whimsy

Since next week is the American Thanksgiving holiday, which revolves around a feast and therefore lots of cooking and baking, I pulled some Victorian era trade cards that went with that theme for Wednesday Whimsy.

Of course first one has to buy the groceries.

I love this quote from Wolfgang Puck: “Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors – it’s how you combine them that sets you apart.”

And oh boy can I relate to this from Gail Simmons: “Patience was not something that came naturally to me, but in cooking it is the quintessential skill.” I’m not patient by nature at ALL but you can’t rush a turkey or a pie…

“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” Harriet Van Horne

“Cooking with kids is not just about ingredients, recipes, and cooking. It’s about harnessing imagination, empowerment, and creativity.” Guy Fieri. So true! And my adult children are going to cook the entire Thanksgiving feast this year, which will be interesting to say the least. Hard for me to keep out of the mix!

There’s a curmudgeon in every crowd (although I miss Andy Rooney who said the next quote): “I don’t like food that’s too carefully arranged; it makes me think that the chef is spending too much time arranging and not enough time cooking. If I wanted a picture I’d buy a painting.”

“I’m just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression.” Maya Angelou.

“Cooking and gardening involve so many disciplines: math, chemistry, reading, history.” David Chang. Hmmm, not sure I want to think about cooking SO seriously, although he does have a point!

Trying to represent all viewpoints here:

“I go out to the kitchen to feed the dog, but that’s about as much cooking as I do.” Betty White

“What my mother believed about cooking is that if you worked hard and prospered, someone else would do it for you.” Nora Ephron

I beg to differ with this next person! “Stuffing is evil. Stuffing adds mass, so it slows the cooking. That’s evil because the longer the bird cooks, the drier it will be.” Alton Brown. Stuffing is THE best part at our house! We have learned to cook it in a separate pan though.

“My grandmother was a typical farm-family mother. She would regularly prepare dinner for thirty people, and that meant something was always cooking in the kitchen. All of my grandmother’s recipes went back to her grandmother.” Willard Scott. Neither of my grandmothers was a “farm-family”, but my Irish gramma surely had some wonderful recipes!

“If you’re not the one cooking, stay out of the way and compliment the chef.” Michael Strahan.

“…cooking is the expression of the land where you are and the culture of that place.” Wolfgang Puck

“I find cooking very sensual. I love getting in there with my hands instead of utensils. With all of the textures and everything, it’s very erotic. Also the time it takes to prepare, and the anticipation and the buildup, you know. Then finally, you get to eat.” Jacqueline Obradors

And then at the end, of course someone has to do the dishes!

Nov 12 2014

Seashells and Mermaids Wednesday Whimsy

This week I’m showcasing some Victorian trade cards with shells and an oceanic theme…
“One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few.” Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“A beach is not only a sweep of sand, but shells of sea creatures, the sea glass, the seaweed, the incongruous objects washed up by the ocean.” Henry Grunwald

“I was all in gold sequins for Million Dollar Mermaid, 50 feet in the air.” Esther Williams (Clark Gable was the first person to call her a mermaid.)

“I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
— T.S. Eliot

I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin’s back,
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song;
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid’s music.
– William Shakespeare

Who would be

A mermaid fair,
Singing alone,
Combing her hair
Under the sea,
In a golden curl
With a comb of pearl,
On a throne?
I would be a mermaid fair;
I would sing to myself the whole of the day;
With a comb of pearl I would comb my hair;
And still as I comb I would sing and say,
“Who is it loves me? who loves not me?”
– Lord Alfred Tennyson, The Mermaid