BIG NEWS!!

Are you tired of the cold?  Tired of the ice?  Frustrated with the snow.

Wishing you could go to a garage sale....Well here is your chance 

Coming on February 22nd & 23rd, many shops on The Vintage Village  will be hosting a huge on-line yard sale

 

Keep the  days open  and get ready to browse. 

Changes in Sneezes and times

Pretty handkerchief from Vanity Flair Vintage

http://thevintagevillage.com/photo/hanky-vintage-1950-s-sheer-flocked-b-monogram-valentine-s-day?context=latest

 

As I sit here coughing and sneezing with what has become the annual New Year cold there was a knock at the door.  The UPS man stood there with a package in hand.   I was a bit surprised as I had not ordered anything.  Looking at the address label I found it was from my sister-in-law, Ann.  Thinking it was a very late Christmas gift I opened it.  Inside I found an envelope with a note and a couple of “things to treasure from a time gone by”. We had lost my mother-in-law before Christmas and Ann was breaking up the house.    In it were four embossed and embroidered handkerchiefs.  They were perfectly   ironed and folded.  Her request was to share them with the four little girl grandchildren as a bit of great grandma.  Perfume wafted up from the envelope as I held them.  I got to thinking about what she wrote.  With the tissue boxes and take Kleenex   packages that my grandchildren knew as a part of their life those handkerchiefs probably would seem pretty strange to them.  The other part of those hankies that would be foreign to them would be the time Mama   had spent ironing them.  Mama loved to iron and took it very seriously.  She ironed everything from sheets and pillowcases   to underwear for her family of seven kids and husband.  It was serious business   and I can remember my bewilderment when I learned she even ironed Papa’s underwear which my mom did not do.  Things have sure changed since then and I don’t know that either of my daughter-in –laws has an iron.  Guess maybe we will have to have a little lesson on ironing for the little girls later.  The perfume tried to fill my nostrils.  Ladies never left their house without perfume.  I remember my first bottle of cologne and later at graduation a bottle of special perfume. Definitely another time and a different  normal for me.  Memories are filling my mind and I will have to share them with the girls.  Maybe I need to give them each a new hankie of their  very own as well.    



                As I watch the contributions one man gave the world some thoughts come to me.

 

One small soccer ball and one simple gesture from a man  changed a country.

Imagine what could happen if each of us thought of ONE move to make

 

In the US wearing a team jersey is an act of pride

In South Africa that action spoke of reconciliation.

It became the first step of acceptance of the hated.

 

One act of allowing the world to hear of his son's' HIV

changed every  "HIV leper" into someone worth knowing and  gave HOPE to a whole country.

Just a few sentences changed so many

What could we do in our life that would do the same?.

 

One man spent 27 years, 9850 days in  jail and  still found a way to meet the challenge of   loving  his enemy.

He spent another 23 years, 8395 days meeting one person at a time, changing attitudes and teaching acceptance with love.

Imagine what could happen if each of us met 365 people in a year and met them with love and acceptance.

What a change that would be to our world and there's.

 

Nelson Mandela was no angel, he had flaws just like all of us.

His gift was his ability to move on, to live the law of love and illustrate it to all of us.

One handshake at a time, one soccer game jersey,  or one carefully worded sentence at a time.

Imagine what the rest of us could do if we followed his example.     

 

   

                                    Thanksgiving time....or was it?

Thanksgiving is over?  How was it?  Did you eat   bargains   or turkey?  Did you enjoy the day with the kids playing games or watching football or having a lively conversation? Or were you chasing the sales during the day or evening?

Now, don’t get me wrong I love a bargain.  I will participate in Black Friday and get up in the wee hours. I can chase the sales just like everyone else but this year I privately decided to boycott the Thursday sales. 

I spent several days before the big sales shopping for something to wear to an event and I overheard wives and mothers trying to figure out how to have their Thanksgiving   family gathering.  Each had one or more of   their children or spouses having to work or leave early to sleep so they could be up in the wee hours to sell. 

In so many ways the world is chiseling away at family time, the enjoyment of our holidays and one on one conversation.  Marketing has become part of our family and now they are planning how we have our holiday. People say they see what is happening, resent it but have no way to stop it.  I believe we can only fight these intrusions by letting businesses   know with one email, letter or phone call at a time.  Companies only listen when people complain or when the number crunchers see their idea does not work.  So I am speaking out my feelings.  I want to take my   Thanksgiving Day back and any other holiday they decide to   change for my family by letting them know I am not happy. I may be one small voice but after all Dr. Seuss did make all of us hear” Horton’s   Who”? Won’t you join me?   

 

 

NO, not that!

 

We are all in trouble.  The rules are about to change.  The battle of man verses machine is about to   change.  We are losing, I am sad to say.  To make it worse we can’t even protest.  It is so scary.

Remember   when you were going on vacation and the fight was on for the window seat in the car?  Remember when as a kid   no one wanted to take the garbage out and   you all decided   with a game who will take the stinky bag out.    Having a 9 year old granddaughter who has to make the big decision of does she want mac n’ cheese or ravioli for lunch reminds me of my childhood.  She pulls out the often used decision maker, “ennie, meanie, miney, moe”   and ravioli is the big winner.  The song is a bit different and to be honest much less racist that I grew up with but for children everywhere it still works.

But now with sadness I must tell you that soon the world of decision making for all will change.  Science has done it.  They have taken a bit of our childhood and are in the process of ruining it.  It has been announced that they have made a machine shaped like a hand that can play “rock, paper, scissors” with you and it wins 99% of the time.  It reacts to the movement of your muscles and can tell what you are going to show.  How dare they ruin everything!  Will the child in the back seat pull out their handheld scissor hand and win the seat by the window every time.  I think we need to protest!  I think I will start a petition   against the ruining of this long time game. We can’t let science and machines ruin this time honored game.   Let’s keep the child in rock, paper, scissors.  Let’s keep the “ hands” in the rock and the scissor.  We need sanity.  Won’t you help fight this atrocity!

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2487401/Rise-rock-paper-scissors-machines-Japanese-robots-reflexes-fast-beaten---technically-cheating.html

A pretty for a Fall table

 

Just right for your fall table this retro condiment table delights the eye.  Just the right colors for Fall.  Use fall colored cloth napkins and charger plates in many colors.  What a table that would make! 

See it at Carmel Collectibles

   http://www.rubylane.com/item/357173-41A72/Retro-orange-black-U-S

Falling leaves

Peaches and cream, minks, laughter and cake are memories I hold dear.  I love fall.  I  loved it even as a child.  I remember running in the leaves before raking the red, orange yellow and brown of the front yard. The tree lined street we lived on arched over the cars as they drove down our street.  Later as a teen the city had to take away the beauty because of a massive attack of Dutch elm disease.  I remember standing at our front cape cod window watching them tumble down with tears streaming down my cheeks.  We were lucky, for we had an oak that stood tall in our front yard and a maple next door.  As a child I remember staking out the neighbors pear tree in the fall in the backyard.  I watched for a pear to drop to the ground and made my dart to capture it before the birds got to it.  I never saw Mrs. S peeking around the curtain watching me.  Years later she laughingly reminisced of catching me and delighting in watching my siblings and I steal her fruit.  Years later I fell in love and he and I walked the streets of town and went to the neighborhood parks to kiss under the maples and oaks.  We kissed under the trees  the buds of the flowering crabs in the Spring, trees green in the Summer, and later under the reds of Fall.  So when we married, of course, it was an  October  day  with autumn in full beauty.  Orange and red were not colors acceptable for my wedding so I chose peaches and cream for the roses that were so beautiful in the Fall.  Our day was not the normal weather of  the season.  We had sun, rain, wind, sleet and snow on our day.  Some told us it was an omen of happiness to come saying we could weather any storm.  We honeymooned seeing the colors of the season in Wisconsin.  We kissed under the same reds, golds and yellows again  that year and  for 39 years. I watched my husband and my blond haired  granddaughter rake the golden leaves in the front yard from my living room window as they frolicked jumping in those beautiful leaves. My love of leaves has come full circle.  I do so love Fall and its fluttering leaves reminding me of the cycle of life.