Sweet Home Has Come to Roost

The first art swap I have participated in has now come full circle with the delivery of this wonderfully sweet and beautiful fairy jar from Beth Quinn {please see her blog/website listed in links}. Out in the "wild" and sitting on the beautiful cake stand that Amy gave me, this little fairy seems very happy with her new surroundings.

Thank you so much, Beth, for this beautiful, fabulous treasure!!!! How lucky I am!!!!

Riding life's roller coasters...

Today is a deep-thinking day for me for some reason. I "suffer" from clinical depression although I take medication. Between that and being peri-menopausal for too many years {just pause already} I do have my own inner roller coaster that I have to deal with. Then there are the exterior roller coasters that I can easily fall prey to if I'm not careful. Today was a good example.

First thing this morning, before leaving for church, I started what is a weekly routine of spending most of Sunday reading the Sunday Washington Post. On the front page was a story regarding a 50,000 year old tribe in Tanzania which is in jeopardy of vanishing due to a financial deal Tanzania is making with an Arab family to take over more of the tribe's Serengeti territory for recreational hunting purposes. A member of the UAE royal family had indicted that their 2,500 square miles of land was getting "too crowded" and that member had requested his own parcel! I mean absolutely no offense to The UAE, any Arabs, or to this royal family specifically, hunters in general, sure. An official called the Hadzabe tribe "backwards" and declared that the tribe would benefit from the many gracious offerings of help as compensation from The UAE. Of course the UAE is making very generous offers such as schools, etc. but it sadded me to the core at the thought of that ancient tribe being at the very least "modernized". And I also believe that all people should have a say in what is best for them themselves. Then I start my decent into the "what's the world coming to?" black hole that sometimes sends me to my bed in the early afternoon.

As I was finishing the story I glanced out of the french doors and saw the birds eating out of the feeder I have on our back deck. At that moment there was a couple, the fellow taking and feeding the lady. I watched this and shared it with my young son and off the roller coaster I stepped into a calm, clear world where things were making sense again...

Let them eat cheesecake...

I've had this on my fridge it was in the Post one Sunday a few months ago. Sorry the picture is grainy but I loved what was written. I'm kind of an "eat dessert first" girl, not that I do that literally {okay, sometimes}, but I don't believe in putting everything off. For some reason I felt like today was the day to share this...thank you, Tom Dooley, and so sorry I can't remember the words to the song about you...or is that Bill Bailey?