PENSIEVE

Wanna know how I have FUN in the kitchen?

It's the little things in life that give me reason to smile.  When I'm washing my trillionth dish, whimsical rubber gloves almost makes me forget I'm workin'.

Almost ;).

Do you have a tip for making household chores fun?   One lucky commenter will receive a pair of "Fun in the Kitchen" gloves!

Live intentionally!

If you were doomed to live the same life over and over again for eternity, would you choose the life you are living now? The question is interesting enough, but I've always thought the point of asking it is really the unspoken, potentially devastating follow-up question. That is, if the answer is no,
then why are you living the life you are living now?
Stop making excuses and do something about it.

                                                              William Alexander, The $64 Tomato

See Patsy. See Patsy C.

She's wit and wisdom in a double dose of dynamite, and yes, she comes colorfully wrapped in a small package.

She's kind and compassionate, sweet but sassy, and I know she's a hospitable hostess--this, without ever having gone to her home. 

She's entertaining and enthusiastic, fun and friendly, and she manages to blend humility with a strong sense of self, understanding who she is in Christ; that it's Him who matters most when they meet her. 

She's not afraid to share her struggles, her fears, her victories--her life!--in a way that makes her approachable, relatable and downright lovable.

I "knew" Patsy Clairmont long before our paths crossed in the blogosphere and Twitterville; any author who finds the humor in faith quickly captures my attention.  After discovering her blog I had a crush; a few tweets & comments exchanged?  It evolved to puppy love; but after the generosity and kindness extended to me when I finally met her face to face?

I'm smitten.

She's aware of my involvement with Inspired Bliss and she went out of her way at the Women of Faith Conference to welcome me and make sure I wasn't left hanging.  She was a beautiful example of Jesus with skin on, accepting me, wooing me and loving me, when I hadn't done a thing in the world to "deserve" it.  She loved my dear friend, Erin, too, who joined me for the conference.

I wish I could tell you more detail about her sessions--she bravely conquered the subject of women and their emotions!--but you'd be much better served to check out her book "I Second That Emotion" (the graphic below will take you right to her Amazon page) where she'll help you understand the deception of emotions and help you navigate the murky waters beyond your own entanglements. 

On one hand I wish I had taken notes from the speakers, but on the other, I just wanted to absorb the atmosphere--one of hope and encouragement and exhortation and and worship.

Did I mention that Patsy has a whiz bang sense of style?  You can tell by a quick glance at the photos above, but I absolutely wanted to steal the shoes right off her feet Saturday!  Forget about Manolos or Jimmy Choos--I wanted her Geisha girl hi-tops!! 

If you haven't visited Patsy before now, please do yourself a favor and click on over.  Let her know a scary stalker her biggest fan sent you :).

A funny thing happened on the way to the women's Christian conference.

Friday and Saturday I had opportunity to attend the Women of Faith Conference in Atlanta.  There are so many WONDERFUL stories to tell from the roughly 36 hours I was there--and soon I will!--but for now, one of the oddest-but-funniest memories was catching an elevator ride with Cheech Marin, in town to perform a show with his old buddy, Chong.

More on that, later, too :).

(A shout-out to Patsy Clairmont, whom I cannot say enough good things about.  She is my new lovieBFF xo.)

Flights of fancy

Folding, creasing
Concentration "Get-it-right"
Determination Young boy's fun
Imagination Lofty goals
Anticipation Papered flight
Fascination Swirling, twirling
Pure elation Delight-filled joy
Compensation

Please link your entry for today's Friday's 40-word-or-less Photo Challenge in comments!  Haven't written one yet?  It's never too late in the Land of Pensieve!  Read the original post for all the details, then be sure to link yours here when it's ready.

 

"Free" & "Good Cause" are the BEST "Carrot Dangles"**

Cold Stone Creamery will NOT stop sending me email temptation for FREE ICE CREAM--

Thursday, September 25 from 5-8 p.m. (WAHOO--THIS AFTERNOON people!) they will be giving away 3-ounce servings of Jack & Emily's Creations (marshmallow ice cream mixed with Oreo cookies, chocolate chips and fudge or Nutter Butter ice cream mixed with yellow cake, Kit-Kats and white chocolate chips).  I have no idea who Jack and Emily are but I'm pretty sure they work for Weight Watchers and they're lookin' to sign up new clients. 

Somehow, this "World's Largest Ice Cream Social" is all tied to The "Make-a-Wish" organization, so you might say it's "Calories for a Good Cause", yes? 

Bless me, curse me, but get ye hither to a Cold Stone Creamery near you!  Your thighs might hate me but your tongue will be tickled pink.

Or s o m e t h i n g like that ;).

Seasonally challenged

I was wrong.  This month's Poetic License--a Fall-themed Cinquain--was neither simple nor easy for me. 

Using two of the three methods described in my previous post, I have two poems to share:

Fall
transitional, variant
changing, painting, cooling
Wardrobe confusion from brisk mornings and warm afternoons
Autumn

That was a more traditional offering; the poem below was inspired by my daughter's election as a representative of her class for homecoming court.

Homecoming

A young girl draped in sequined gown
Tonight, a princess, dream fulfilled
Kind, sweet spirit, grace, her crown
Fairytale, though fleeting, real
Inner beauty, unconcealed.

I can't wait to see how you were inspired by the theme and I sincerely HOPE the verse flowed easier for you than it did for me!  Feel free to link your posts anytime; as long as you comment to let me know, I'll receive an email that lets me know when to come knockin' on your door.

 

Paper, air & planes

Friday's 40-words-or-less Photo Challenge is back, and I can tell ya already, this photo prompt blesses my heart to the point of explosion.  To see my 11-year-old MIDDLE SCHOOLER delight in the most simple of toys?  Just paper and fuel propelled by imagination; when his paper airplanes soar, so does this mama's heart.

Please...join me with your musings stirred by this picture.  Does it remind you of childhood diversions?  Do you just see a lot of pretty colors?  Do you agree that simple pleasures are the best? 

Whatever your thoughts, please share them on Friday with a post of your own.  Literal and abstract interpretations of the photo are both welcome!  Click the badge for details, write a post over the next few days, then link it to Mr. Linky Friday morning.  Newcomers are always welcome, and if you're inclined, grab the badge and picture and invite your own readers.

Hope to see YOU then! :)

How to embed a Wordle on your blog

Funny that the names of God would almost cause me to lose my salvation; that is, if it was actually losable. 

For her posting yesterday at Inspired Bliss, Lisa (Put It On The List) needed a graphic to go along with her text; I thought the perfect thing would be a Wordle, so I created one using many of the different names for God found in scripture. 

If you aren't familiar with Wordle, you must click this link and have a look--it's a nifty little gizmo that creates word clouds from a submitted word bank or even by scanning a URL to extract words.  Color, font and style are at your discretion, and if you've got time to kill, you can murder the better part of an hour or two or three.

Here's the one I created:

 

My "issues" started when I realized I couldn't simply right-click the image and save to disk.  Straight from the Wordle FAQs page, "Wordle is a Java applet, and Java applets are not permitted to write anything to your disk. So, while the applet could generate a jpeg, it wouldn't be able to give it to you!"

If I'm not mistaken, I just heard the Soup Nazi bellow "NO SOUP FOR YOU!". 

It went on to explain you were welcome to take a screen shot, so I did.  FYI, Wordle does provide html to embed a thumbnail of your creation, but a hundred words on a postage stamp are pretty difficult to read. 

This is about the time my frustration began simmering.  A screen shot does you no good if you don't have the companion software to crop it! I did my darndest to jam Cinderella's step-sister's foot into the glass slipper, because I am certain (as was she) that I could make it work.

• I tried Paint, but I could never find the cropping tool.
• I tried uploading the screen shot to Word, and it just laughed at me.
• I even tried to import it to my joke of a photo editor, but since it wasn't a photo, it slammed the door in my face and laughed at me.

I offered a $1,000 bounty for anyone who could explain it to me, I also:

• searched blogs with the keywords "embed Wordles"
• culled Blogging Basics' archives
• downloaded Skitch only to realize it was for Mac users only (infidels!)
• tweeted a pathetic cry for help

...but when all was said and done, while I HAD figured out what to do, without the proper tools, it didn't matter.

Several kind people commented help on the bounty post, mostly telling me what I already knew (save Melissa, who offered quite the creative--albeit convoluted--solution, and given the time I devoted to this, I'm surprised it's not something I tried).

At the eleventh hour (not quite literally but mind-numbingly close), Daisy the Blissfully Domestic designer swooped in and saved my day; capturing the screen herself and photoshopping it for me.  She's my new hero. 

In summary, to embed a Wordle:

1. Capture a screen shot ("PrtSc" key, which on my pc is the "Fn" key with the "Ins" key).
2. Paste it into your editor (Control "v").
3. Crop it, save it, and voila!  You've got yourself a jpeg.

If you're like me though and don't have no stinkin' software to do the job for you, read Edublogger's VERY THOROUGH and much more professional post about embedding Wordles (includes links to online screen capture tools). 

Just goes to show you, while you can "build a house" without a "hammer", it's much easier with one...!

(p.s.  If you create a Wordle be sure to leave your link in comments, k?)

You've heard of Seinfeld's "puffy shirt"...

...meet Aunt Joan's puffy pants ~

July 2008, rural South Carolina.  A southern family reunion with our own cast of characters--Aunt Joan (straight in from Vegas!) at 70+ leads the charge, weighing in at 100 pounds, hair dyed Lucy red with a rat-tail down her back.  She's "something else" in the funnest sense of the words :).

Wordless Wednesday HQ
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