Bianca Painted Stuffed!

And as with her gift last year, I could not be more charmed.  She handed it to me Saturday night covered in crushed and crumpled wrapping paper, and my brother explained, "She's had this made and wrapped since ohhhhhhhh, October maybe!?"  :)  Sweet Bee.  ♥  I will treasure her and her artwork all my days. 

Well, Color Me Charmed

The bus I took home from work late last night was decorated to the hilt for the holidays.  The fare-box was wrapped like a brick fireplace, there were wrapped packages and other decorations secured to the storage spaces in front of the driver and behind the driver, the windows were coated in spray snow, and sparkling tinsel garlands and ball ornaments were hanging the entire length of the bus.  O' that I could have asked the driver to stop the bus just for more picture-taking!  In almost thirteen years of using public transportation here, this was the single most charming trip I've yet had.  I told the driver her bus was wonderful, and she just laughed, so I don't know that this was her doing.  I assume she has a more whimsical coworker.  :)  As with the kites in Ocean City this summer, I love seeing that there are people out there who do things like this just to bring some joy to the lives of complete strangers.  Bless all the magic-making elves!

♥

I Noticed This Morning

Stuffed has a perfectly-shaped cat head on his back.  ♥  This adds to the wonders that are Stuffed's "design," which include that he also sports a heart on his front leg,

a black-white-black-white-black stripe design from head to tail,

and angel wings under the cat head.

The cat head shape is more obvious now that he's lost weight with age, I see.  It was there before but wrapped around his sides some.  Dear sweet old Stuffed.  If I lived to be 300, I could never love another animal more.  'Sweet and artistically-made little soul.  ♥

Yippee Did (or Mom Learns to Text)

Mom's youngest sister texted me this summer to let me know that my parents had arrived safely in New York for a family reunion, but also that Mom wanted me to know she and Dad now had a cell phone--"just for emergencies"--so not to worry as much about their drive home a few days later.  My parents had never had a cell phone.  My parents have never tried an answering machine.  My parents have never used computers.  Before I could even think of a response, my phone pinged with another text from my aunt.  "Your dad says you're probably shocked."  Ha!  Yesssssss.  :)  

As predicted, though, it really was "just for emergencies," and since there--thankfully--wasn't one on their trip back, Mom and Dad still hadn't done more with their phone even by the end of October than charge it every few days.  When I came home at Halloween, though, I decided to change that--because if they weren't comfortable using it, they wouldn't remember how to do anything with it even during--and especially during--an actual emergency.  While Dad watched a ball game, Mom and I snuggled under a blanket on the couch with both our phones and I taught her how to text me.  Ping! as her first message came through to me, misspelled due to her tremors.  What she had been trying to write, I don't remember, but it came through as "Yippee did!"  I wrote back as we laughed, and although she was sitting beside me watching me write back to her, she still cried out, "OOH!  Neat!"  when she heard her phone chime with her new text from me.  :)  After we'd written back and forth a few times, giggling all the way, and with stubbornly uninterested Dad shaking his head in the background--although I haven't given up on him yet, oh no, never--I texted my younger brother and asked him to text Mom.  He not only wrote her, but also passed along new baby pictures, and that was all it took.  :)  Mom was hooked.  Mom had texted him, her youngest sister, and her oldest brother by the time she went to bed that night, she texted me the above picture of her and Aunt Laurie with sweet Vickie soon after, and a few days after I'd returned here, she texted to tell me that she had called Aunt Laurie to talk her into getting a cell phone so that we could all keep in touch that way.  :)  ♥  Soon enough, then, Aunt Laurie was sending me a Thanksgiving morning greeting, and I was sharing pictures with her of my newly-redone wall and curtains here.  Aunt Laurie texted back with a photo of her sweet green kitchen. 

A week ago, she followed up with a photo of her Christmas tree.  ♥

Mom followed suit and sent us both photos of her own tree.  ♥

And now we're all in regular contact this way, texting almost every day.  I think you know how sweet this is for all of us, and how proud I am of my mom.  Aunt Laurie had emailed before and has had a digital camera for years, so it wasn't quite the leap for her as it was for Mom.  To know that they can keep in touch this way with each other, with Vickie, with me, with their grandchildren, etc. is all just so GREAT.  :)  It is truly never too late to learn.  As I pointed out to Mom while she was learning, I was still learning to drive in my late thirties, so I would never be the one to mock someone for trying to learn, let alone struggling to learn, something.  I love watching people learn something, I love the moment when it "clicks"--when Mom opened her phone to see that just-taken picture of her two youngest nieces and suddenly "got" it and wanted more, more, more--and I find it sweet and inspiring to know that the morning of October 30th, Mom had no interest in this or ability to do this, and a few days later, she was--in her own self-deprecating--words "a texting marvel."  :)  And with that, I will sign off and wait for Mom's next message.  ♥

The Holiday Bed

Mike washed the bedding with his laundry Sunday night and surprised me by replacing our everyday pillowcases with our Christmas ones a couple weeks early.  I usually wait until Christmas Eve to put them on, but seeing these in bed has been surprisingly sweet this week. I'll add the sheets one of these days.  Yes, why not enjoy them all month.  ♥  I've mentioned before my dream of setting up my dining room--I don't HAVE a dining room, so this is very much a dream, you see--with an assortment of mismatched tables and chairs for holiday family dinners. . .a kids table with seasonal decorations and activities to keep little ones busy, a table for two in a window, a round table with overstuffed armchairs around it, etc., and I've always had the same dream of hosting family overnight around holidays.  'Different bedding in every room,

seasonal pillowcases and sheets no matter the season,

extra touches of throw pillows and stuffed toys that add a little fun and whimsy to guests' quarters,

 no matter the occasion or holiday--

--no matter the guests' ages, since we're never too old for sweetness and silliness, and methinks we need those things as we get older at least as much as we did when we were kids, if not even more-so--

and that make them stop and think, "Ah!  That's right!  It's [Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Beach Week, Valentine's Day, whatever]!"  

And just to make them feel special.  ♥  That's no small thing. 

We have no extra bedroom here, nor even a couch, so this remains a "someday" dream, but I so enjoy daydreaming about these sweet little spaces I have yet to own.  Mom and Dad's guest room at Christmas would sport its share of red gingham, I'm sure, and likely some pillows of their children and grandchildren made from old Christmas photos.  'Their own tiny Christmas tree beside the bed.  (Mike laughs because Mom still does this for me every Christmas when I come home.  ♥)  Wherever all the kids would camp out, in beds and sleeping bags and chairs pushed together, a stocking filled with little treats would greet each of them in their spot in the morning. . . .Star pillows and star-patterned sheets for New Year's Eve sleepovers, gardening and bird-watching magazines fanned out on Aunt Laurie and Uncle Warren's bed during a springtime visit. . . .For various reasons, these visits and gatherings are unlikely to happen, but a dream is a precious thing, so I dream on and enjoy each one--and thank Mr. Mike for the taste of it we get here in reality in our own little apartment with each other.  ♥

Sweet Stuffed

He has no idea how adorable he is.  ♥

That which you create in beauty. . .lives on for all time to come ~ Denis Waitley

As in previous summers, the neighbor's fire escape garden brings joy this August.  The colors and jumble of baskets, pots,vines, and flags are even more riotous in person, and I love peeking out the window at them. ♥

And Baby's Arrived ♥

wrote my brother, who now has a family of four  ♥

The Love of Little Cottages

Between my grandfather's death and my grandmother's sorting through her own things these past two years, I've somehow come into possession of what seems to be the only remaining photo of my maternal great-grandparents' house in New York.  A little Aunt Laurie is the girl standing in the front here.  It is a cottage!  Be still my heart!  ♥  When Mom saw my reaction as I thumbed through the pile of old pictures this was in, she said, "Well, I've told you about it before.  You knew they lived in a little house"--with an implied "???" at the end of her words.  And yes, I had, but there are little houses and there are cottages.  It's like her grandparents lived in a backyard playhouse.  How sweet is this!  ♥  We all come by our love of little homes honestly in this family, then.  :)  

Artwork by Bianca

The flu struck the week before Thanksgiving and never really went away.  'Am still sick but can almost say I've managed to pull off another Christmas.  This is niece Bianca's Saturday depiction of the two of us beside the Christmas tree.  (My hair!  Our eyes!)  Rarely have I been more charmed by something (or someone).  :)  ♥  Happy holidays to you all, and catch you in the new year. 

Cat-Fur Heart, Anyone? :)

'To be taken as a sign, methinks.  ♥ 

The Highlight of My Walk

This sweet face brightened the end of my last walk.  If (s?)he continues gracing the window this fall, I'll be delighted.  The wagging tail and lively eyes that followed my steps the other night were my favorite things about what was, hopefully, one of the last ultra-humid walks of summer 2018. 

♥

Hello from Two-Face

♥

Behold the Clever Cat

Dear Stuffed.  ♥  

Nap, Interrupted

The Best-Laid Plans

Stubborn Val couldn't wait for help moving the shelves Friday night and ended up trying only to pull a muscle in her left shoulder.  See Val scream!  See Val unable to dress herself or pull up her hair or sleep on her favorite side!  See Val have to change her work-schedule!  See Val buy Tylenol and ice-packs and pain-relief cream!  See Val have to wait to assemble her bookshelves!  And now, see Val unable to do Halloween baking and settle for a slice of store-bought pumpkin roll!  But look, Val!  There is a heart!  See the heart!  Learn and rest, Val!  Learn and rest!  ♥

The Neighbor's Garden

O' to have even this much space for a garden!  I will try to feel more appreciation than envy.  The neighbor has brightened the fire escape next door, for sure. Beautiful.  ♥

~ I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains. ~ Anne Frank

on the bathroom windowsill today ♥

Thirty-Four Seconds in the May Garden

In between moments with my sweet family this past week, I got to visit my beloved pink and white flowers too.  ♥  Ahhh, spring! 

And by the time I get home again next month, my roses should all be in bloom.  We're back, Baby!  ;)  Love, love, love.  ♥ 

An Old Cat and a New Robe

'How we're spelling comfort here today.  ♥