I don't know much about our cat, Alice Cooper's, life before we adopted her. What I know is that despite the fact she has ruined our carpets, begs incessantly for food, and is quite the diva, our life wouldn't be the same without her.
This month, Quarter Moon Imports is helping the Leon County Humane Society fulfill its mission of relieving animal suffering, preventing animal cruelty, eliminating overpopulation of animals, promoting humane education, and enhancing the human/animal bond. Here's how you can get involved:
On June 16: Bring pet food to the Pet Food Drop Off at Quarter Moon from 10am until 6:00 pm. Pet food will be donated to low income seniors to help them meet the expenses of keeping their loving pets in their homes!
Through June 21: Post a favorite photo of your pet to this page. The picture that gets the most "likes" will win a $50 gift card to Quarter Moon! If you don't post a picture, it's still cool to "like" your favorite - they're all so entertaining!
On June 21: Shop and Share at Quarter Moon (1641 N Monroe St, Tallahassee) all day on Thursday June 21st. Mention that you support LCHS and 10% of your purchase will go to LCHS! Enjoy a wine and cheese reception and “after hours” shopping from 6pm-8pm.
Every Day in June: Contribute $1 or more at the counter to the Paws for Pets Campaign to let the community know that you love the work of the LCHS! Your name gets printed on a cute paw!
Thank you, Quarter Moon Imports, for having great merchandise and pairing that with a tangible commitment to helping the people (and animals) of our community thrive!
Here are some randomly selected pictures from the pet photo contest:
You can find Alice Cooper, the animals pictured here, and 46 more candidates, via this link.
I really love running on the Miccosukee Greenway. The terrain varies from extremely "root-y," to grassy, to my favorite, crushed shell. There is a big grassy space that is probably roughly a mile around to circumnavigate. I often include it in my route.
Saturday, as I rounded a turn in my favorite grassy area, I noticed a spot that had been isolated by tape:
I thought perhaps a tree was down ... or there was a big hole in the ground ... or they had recently sprayed some toxic herbicide there or something. I did not expect this:
And (no lie) you could see all of the swarming insects buzzing around close to the tree line.
If you are one of my regular readers, you know how I love signs that make you scratch your head (well, they make me scratch my head at least!).
My thoughts about this sign:
a) Are the stinging pests supposed to stay away? It does say, "Stinging pests stay away!" As a grammar lover, I might suggest as an alternative: "Stay Away! Dangerous Stinging Pests Here!" b) Interesting that theoretically it's okay outside of the tape but not inside the tape (I guess maybe there's a nest in the tree or something) c) What's the deal with the phone number? Do the stinging pests have little tiny phones they are supposed to call with if they can't resist staying away? d) Of courseyou know I couldn't resist calling the number. The number leads to the Leon County Division of Parks and Recreation, which tells you if it is an after hours emergency to call the Leon County Sheriff's Office. That is assuming you haven't lost all oxygen to your brain from the anaphylactic shock you may be in by this point.*
*Important caveat. Although this post pokes a bit of fun at the Parks Division for the sign, I am a die-hard fan of the Greenway. As a runner, I never take for granted how well-maintained the greenway is, and how fortunate we are in Tallahassee to have miles and miles of safe and beautiful running areas. I frequently see the work crews out there keeping the bathrooms and other areas clean for our enjoyment. I am sure it is this care and commitment that led to the placement of the sign in the first place.
This is week six (the last week!) of the "Leap Into Spring" Photo Challenge.
We have a sago palm (technically, a cycas revoluta) in our front yard that has survived our hands-off approach to landscaping. Ours is doing its best to be king of the front flower bed.
It does not, however, appreciate my need for it to cooperate with my blogging schedule. Last fall there was a bird building a nest in it. I took picture after picture of the eggs, knowing that one day I would be able to do a cool post about the baby birds. I don't know if an animal took them or the mama bird got tired of me disturbing her nest in order to take pictures of the eggs, but that didn't work out so well.
A few weeks ago, the sago palm (which apparently is a boy sago) started the process of its male cone (seriously, this is the horticultural term) appearing.
The symmetry of this thing is really gorgeous; I could stare at it for hours.
I actually used it as a backdrop for one of my #StyleMeMay pictures.
This eye-stopping feature of our sago palm has changed rapidly, from short and round to long and thin (seriously, it's just a plant!). Here is this morning's version:
But, alas, any hopes I had of it bursting forth with fronds of springlike grandeur are just that: hopes, not realities.
Dear Kristi (Live and Love Out Loud), Alicia (Project Alicia), and Rebecca (Bumbles and Light), thanks for hosting this challenge.Any chance of a summer photo challenge with a "amazing palm foliage that finally showed up" theme?
Epilogue - um, never mind Kristi, Alicia, Rebecca. Boys will be boys I guess:
June 6, 2012
(I used this source to understand my male sago palm better. Thank you Lynn McKamey.)
Week Five of the "#StyleMeMarch" challenge from Hilary Rushford of the Bow Ties and Bettys Style Blog may have been abbreviated but it packed some fun challenges into four quick days!
Here's the entire month's plan:
On Wednesday, our directive was "two patterns." I combined an abstract floral with an art deco motif pendant:
This day proved that this one skirt in my closet is probably my most versatile piece. It starred in Parisian Day in Week One and Stripes or Dots Day in Week Two. Reversible can be good.
And here's the view of the whole outfit.
My coworkers Beth and Karen got in on the "two patterns" fun too, mixing textures, stripes, and florals:
For "whites or neutrals" day, I had a run planned before work. I usually run before work on Thursdays anyway, but this time I was participating in a Daily Mile "virtual challenge," a 3.1 mile run (wherever we were geographically) in memory of fellow DailyMiler Martin A. I chose a white shirt and a white headband.
Takng pictures backwards, one-handed, in the dark, doesn't yield the best angles but here I am heading out in memory of Martin A.
When it came time to get dressed for work, I had to chuck Plan A because the white dress was at the cleaners, so I chose a tan linen cropped blouse, brown pants, and a brown jacket. As neutral as I could get without a trip to the dry cleaner.
Friday was "color on your feet" day. I have had these shoes since my friend Mary Jane got married in 1999. They have held up so well; they may not be super-vivid colorful, but they're the best I can do! I love the tuck detail.
On that same day, I was looking ahead to my 10K run the following day. Springtime Tallahassee is one of our biggest runs here, and I decided to coordinate my toes with the race shirt. First nail decals I have purchased in a while! Oh! It's also important to note the name of the nail color: Spring Street (every color in the line had a New York name (sigh)).
Saturday, the grand finale, was "plays up my best feature" day. I have always liked having small dainty wrists. They may be small but they do a lot for me, like announce a favorite cause. (This bracelet supports the cause of Fanconi Anemia.) Read more about how the Kidz1stFund works to help kids with Fanconi Anemia by clicking on this link.
And then there are all the miles run where my wrists help me keep track of my time.
There's also the awesome watch my husband bought me for our 10th anniversary. Most valuable watch I have ever owned but it doesn't work right now so it is relegated to a drawer. But it still looks nice!
Is this the end of StyleMeMarch? Not quite. I'll be doing a wrap-up post soon to discuss a few lessons learned and to properly thank Hilary Rushford for being such a great fashion guide and enthusiastic supporter. For now, I will sign off.
After all, I need to figure out what to wear tomorrow!
Week Three of the "#StyleMeMarch" challenge from Hilary Rushford of the Bow Ties and Bettys Style Blog is behind me, "sexy" and all.
As a reminder, here's each day's theme:
Week three started last Wednesday with "one of my oldest pieces" day. No problem. There's plenty of old stuff in my closet! But I had the unusual combination of a field trip with my son and a business meeting that day. I bought this jacket at Macy's in New York City, in 1991.
Lunch in the Capitol Courtyard
(It's a miracle that my son was wearing a polo, but that's a subject for a different post!)
Then followed what I consider one of the toughest challenges of #StyleMeMarch: "sexy" day.
This dress may not scream "sexy," but I feel good in it, and we all know feeling good in something is one of the keys to feeling sexy, right?
With "sexy" out of the way (phew!), I faced the challenge of "top knot hair" day. Top knot? With this inch of hair?! Fortunately, I had a hair appointment with Bonnie at Polished Effects that day. Bonnie has been doing my hair for a really long time, probably about fifteen years, so she always gives me "top 'knot'ch" hair.
I scheduled the haircut and style to coincide with "top knot" hair day but also with a day when I was going to see my friend Fred, who I haven't seen in over thirty years. He and his wife Marsha were at Disney celebrating their wedding anniversary, so we had a gathering of people from high school to celebrate.
Happy anniversary, Fred and Marsha!
And of course the irony is that I was happy to have a good hair day when I was seeing people I had not seen since the days of big hair and acne, but they are the kind of friends who really don't care about the hair; it was a gift just to be together.
After "top knot hair" day, it was o'sequins or o'sparkle day for St. Patrick's. Since I was traveling and didn't have super-big plans, I was stumped a little. I originally went with these green earrings (bought at the City Market in Charleston), thinking we wouldn't be going anywhere that would be dressy at all:
But our dinner outing ended up necessitating a step up from my denim crop pants so I was able to slip into the sparkly green shirt I had packed.
On Sunday, I had a 4.5 hour drive ahead of me to return from Palm Coast to Tallahassee, so comfort was key. Good thing it was "cozy" day!
I bought these black pants last summer when Tenley were preparing to go to Guatemala and ended up wearing them home on the plane. Turns out they are good traveling pants. The shirt is made of a super soft cotton and carries great memories of my run last September on Roosevelt Island for Women for Women International.
This pillow in the room where I was sleeping would not be denied being featured for cozy day. Fluffy = Cozy.
On Monday, I wondered what to do for "black and white" day. Most of the options involved a lot of black with highlights of white, but I experimented with an off-white dress, the black belt from Week Two, and a black jacket. It turned out really nicely!!
Last but not least, today was "colored eye shadow" day. I kept thinking of a friend from my Fordham days (late 80's) always saying, "you were wearing blue eye shadow when you interviewed." I always argued that it was actually silver maybe that wasn't that much better!
I went with purple today (a departure from my usual neutrals), and followed all the little directions on the package - where to put the "allover lid," where to put the contour, the crease, and the highlight.
I was pretty pleased with the end result (and it wasn't 80's blue!):
Next up: "So 'my city'" day. Cue the Marching Chiefs for that one:
It's not too late to join! For a cool summary of #StyleMeMarch up till now, check out this blog.
And then take a peek in your closet with a fresh eye; you may be surprised what you'll find!
Within days of being told that my friends' twins had been born very early, with one weighing just under 3 pounds and the other just over, my church's St. Clare guild had created caps and booties for each child, and they had been blessed by the priest.
It doesn't matter that the members of the guild do not know the parents of these babies.
It matters that the babies are among the newest (and tiniest) of God's children, and they need to know from the start that the world will reach out to them with love and prayer.
Let the children come to me.....For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. ~ Mark 10:14 from NLT
When I was on a business trip last week, the first night was spent in a hotel in Orlando that is in between being a Crowne Plaza and a Doubletree. Meaning, for now it is in identity limbo. The room was fine (and my dinner was delicious) but there wasn't a feeling of brand pride among the staff (because there was no brand).
The second night, we were in a Hampton Inn in Gainesville. Adorning my bathroom was this "tissue art."
Little things matter, and we travelers notice.
Nice job, Hampton. You came out smelling like a rose.
If you walk into my home and ask for a charger, my first reaction will be to look for something with prongs, an item you can use to power up your cell phone. If you walk into my sister-in-law Mary's house, you may be asked:
Do you want one of the round basketweave chargers?
Or one of the square wooden ones?
My niece Jessica, Mary's daughter, designed the tables for our family gathering this Thanksgiving. Before we all get buried under tinsel and ornaments, I want to share with you the beautiful fruits of her labor.
Jessica's table was beautifully arranged.
Most importantly, it was done with love.
For that, especially, I am left [almost] wordless.
