LOVE CAN

grow beyond borders

turn rivalry into team work

let playmates become soul mates

make you believe you have the best deal in the whole wide world

take you places you never dreamed you'd go

 connect heaven

and earth

*LOVE*

imperfect as it is 

can begin

and before

you  know it

a lifetime

of togetherness

that began one day

can turn into years

before you blink your eye

*LOVE*

can do that

because

it really is the

biggest 

plan for can

that there ever was

OH LOOK

 neat...someone painted me a love note in the 

2014 COLOR OF THE YEAR

and forgot to put their wings back on

CUPID ALIVE AND WELL

CUPID

and his/her host of helpers

are alive

and well

at 822

February 14

is only the beginning

 of joy

smooching

target practice

reminiscing 

preparing

finding things pink and hearty

dreaming about love

and celebrating

* love *

of all kinds

oh dear heavens no it is not over...

CUPID LIVES HERE!

MY GRANDMOTHER'S ABUNDANCE

Each morning I try to begin the day aware and in deep thought of the abundance of my life

this morning...the outside temperatures are frigid and a light snow is falling...so I begin...

with my fluffy goose down comforter...and then my mind wanders

to my grandmother

Beatrice

I take a stroll through her home as if I am walking through her front door

she lived in the same house my entire life

and I promise you...she felt blessed...she told me so often

she would sing to me

"count your blessings count them one by one"

Her home was nice and she had nice things

but she had the same things forever

which makes it easy for me to remember

I inherited a few things from her

these chairs and this Duncan Phyfe table have been together side by side 

my entire life

No new Pottery Barn couches or pillows or baskets or dishes or the latest trendy trend

really nothing new at all...she had the same things 

with which she always seemed to be satisfied

I am somewhat sad that I felt the need to have her chairs recovered

because today

that old wonderful gold velvet would be so beautiful with this 1960 wallpaper I decided to save

As I mentally travel through her rooms I realize how important it is for me to remember

the way it looked

the way it smelled

and the way I still feel about it all today

it's easy...because it was simple and it was the same and I never want to forget

the two rose vases to the right belonged to her and her mother before her

I would imagine she thought they were the most beautiful things she'd ever seen

and to my knowledge...these are the two she had and she put her own garden grown flowers in them often

she made this iris collage when she was around 40 and I thought she was old

I painted this for her when I was 8

it hung in her den until I got it back

she was so proud of it...no expensive artwork for her

she only had one cookbook

pieces of paper that she wrote down ingredients and used forever

collected in a cloth binder that she stitched

her written word is so precious to me

Recently I came across her glasses

and now I use them as my readers every single day

no....I can't really see so good out of them

but it is very important to me to use them

because my hope is

I see what she saw through them, the way she saw through them

a life simply 

elegantly

lived 

PURA VIDA

LET ME TELL YA 'BOUT

and the

and the

and the 

and the 

and a thing called

MADE IN HEAVEN

do you believe?

do you believe in heaven?

do you believe that we are bound by love for all eternity?

Do you believe that eternity is before AND after death?

In this photo you will recognize

ELVIS

he is performing in Amarillo Texas in 1956

in the audience circled in red are 

(uncle) Gene

and 

Lue (soon to be aunt)

they had not yet met

but today they have 3 children, 5 grandchildren and 1 great

they have been married 50+ years

in the movie Made in Heaven two souls are in love

they come to earth and are given 30 years to find each other

they are born in the same hospital...and throughout the movie their paths come so close

almost meeting

until

time is almost up

~*~

but love

~prevails~

MADE IN HEAVEN

Their love is deep and joyful, but, unfortunately, flawed: It cannot last forever because McGillis is a spirit who has not yet done her tour of duty on earth, and must leave any day now to inhabit a human body and put in her time. Hutton is heartbroken, and Emmett offers a deal. Hutton can go back to earth, but neither he nor McGillis will remember one another, and it will be up to them to rediscover on earth the love they had in heaven.

MADE IN HEAVEN MOVIE CLIP

GROUND HOG DAY

Can it be true that Ground Hog Day has come and gone?

We are having 6 more weeks of winter...how about you?

this is a newspaper clipping of my mother when she was a flight attendant for Central Airlines

I think she was 22

I know so many of you are enduring REALLY harsh winter days

and it can be so extreme in the Texas Panhandle but this year

I must admit

I've rather enjoyed the winter and don't mind for it to linger

my weather app says we are at 3 degrees

factoring in the windchill...that means...-20

This bluster and my seeds bring out the lovely 

I am so lucky to work from home...let me share....

the view outside my window

blue jays love the raw peanuts and they frequent this spot

 this year...to my excitement..we have had a pack of stellar's jays

I couldn't ever get a great photo of them...can you see the woodpecker just beside him?

larger and darker than the blue jay

via google

between the clouds that come and go

the sun really illuminates the frost

the Mrs.

and her shiny red beau!

keeping me from my urgent emails!

even the common ones look lovely against the pink sky

oh look...another new kid on the block

a rufous towhee

the other window...view from the art loft

I'm waiting on my art kids to arrive

look down the street how frozen it is

this is where my computer is...

I cannot fathom how the squirrels are able to maneuver their antics

but they do

out the front window

and the view from my kitchen sink...

no wonder I like to have my hands in hot sudsy water

stay warm ya'll!

it will be over before you can shake a stick at it