More Blessings

Today while driving to the dog park, my check engine light came on in my car.

Uh-oh.

I hate potential car problems. I went through a lot of them in college, and they always scare me. Even though I have AAA plus, and know how to call for a tow truck, there's something in me that I have to get over with regard to car repairs.

I called the service place. They can get me in Monday. Said it's ok to drive as long as it doesn't start blinking. I'm tense with thinking about cost of replacement parts etc. It's prolly a faulty Oxygen sensor or somesuch.

Then this evening, I get a call for a last minute belly henna. She wants to meet tomorrow. Hurray! Money for repairs!

Tonight had a FABulous dinner with B. Triggerfish, fresh crisp green beans and red pepper, Georgia mussels, okra dipped in cornmeal batter and fried, all atop mashed potatoes. I'd never had triggerfish before. It was a wonderfully meaty white fish. Dessert was a "chocolate peanut butter bar" with "bittersweet chocolate sorbet". I didn't know chocolate sorbet was possible, but dayam it was good.

Then I get home tonight and I get an email from the tea lady I ordered the 2 cups from. Guess what she found at an estate sale today. YES! An Alton!!

Henna and the Tea Cup

This is the Asha Savla design I did on myself earlier today. Right now that hand is wrapped like a mummy in TP to hold in warmth. I will only keep it on a few hours, as I'm planning to go out to dinner tonight. I'm pleased with the way it came out. I like the organic style that's "different" from most of what I've seen out there.

I came home Tuesday to a clean apartment and a broken tea cup, and a note from the cleaning crew about reimbursement. Unfortunately, there can never truly be a replacement, even if I can locate a duplicate. When I was 10 or 11, my grandmother let me choose one of her tea cups to call my own. She had traveled abroad, and always brought back a tea cup. She had many but one in particular caught my eye. It was black with pale pink/lavender colored roses.


I remember feeling very grown up when I used it, and special as it sat on many shelves throughout the years.

This was the tea cup that was broken.

I expected to feel more upset about it than I did. I was sad, but not devastated. I think I was able to realize that even though this item I treasured was no longer in its perfect state, it did not diminish my memories of my grandmother.

The incident has also led me to research the pattern. It's Royal Albert Bone China, "Merrie England Series". The cup also said "Alton" with the other information on the bottoms of cup and saucer.

At the Royal Albert site, I found this. The series included 6 slightly different designs, each with its own name. The series is discontinued. So finding an Alton will be a long shot. And yes, the cleaning service is reimbursing me for a replacement.

I did however find 2 sisters of my original, the Chatsworth and Trentham. I've ordered them and still have hope of finding another Alton.

All of this leads me to wonder why Grandma chose the Alton, and not the others? Or had she any of the others? I don't remember, and would have to ask mom if she remembered after going through her items many years ago.

Mostly I'm grateful to know a bit of history about where that tea cup came from.

Overall today I'm feeling good. Dinner tonight with B and Mr Japan, a date tomorrow with Mr. Massage for a movie and lunch. Sci-fi Friday that night with B.

I'm out of school for the summer, my classroom is packed, and I spent the morning with Rose at the dog park sipping coffee and munching a donut.

Life is good.

Thank You

Thank you to the men and women that have served our country.

Thank you to those that sacrificed family and home that mine might be safe.

Thank you to those that sacrificed their lives, that mine might be lived in freedom.

Thank you.

Last Day

Today is the last day of school for the kiddos. I go back Tues and Wed of next week as well.

I haven't art journaled lately, and I think I can feel the difference when I don't. My spirit feels different, lighter, happier when I art journal.

An old flame is trying to rekindle something with me. But I'm resistant to it.

My new friend from Japan is very interesting. It seems as though each day I learn something new about him. In some ways I'm very comfortable around him. In other ways I feel like he's looking too much to me to provide him with future happiness. That can be a lot of pressure.

Regardless, the message I got through the sermon at church on Sunday was to be open to abundance. Be open to possibilities.

I am trying to be aware of the thoughts of my ego, and realize them for what they are. I am trying to not think too much, and just experience.

Wednesday Catch-up

This is the henna I did on Monday evening. This lovely lady made me a wonderful dinner of eggplant marinara with rice noodles, with a warm compote of pears, golden raisins, and vanilla for dessert. Then over tea we listened to kirtan on her iPod as I did the design.

Monday was the school field day. A lot of fun for all involved, although I got too much sun. At this appointment my arms felt like they were on fire, so while she was cooking dinner I doodled a design on my arm in henna to see if it would help it cool down. It did.

Tuesday was the school picnic day. It looked like it might rain, so I took the students out early. It was a little chilly in the morning, but by lunchtime the sun had come out. I even went inside to get my parasol for extra protection. Oddly enough, I don't have any idea where a good, non-expired bottle of sunscreen would be in my apartment. I'll have to go get one at the store before traveling to the beach in June.

Today my friend from Japan will come to do origami with the students. I've been getting to know him better slowly, bit by bit, and as I learn more, I like him more. He's in Atlanta for the month of June, and then returns to Japan.

I went to bed early last night, although I had a hard time sleeping worrying about the tornado storms that came through last night. I've been awake since 2:30 this morning, although I stayed in bed till after 3:30.

Three more days! I know they will go so fast, and in a way I'm sad that this year's group will be over. One of the girls especially will I miss, as she's moving to Alpharetta. My mind is filled with paperwork, cleanup, and misc. end of year planning.

Lots to Say, Little Time to Write it

So I'm sitting here knowing that I don't have as much time as I would like to write in my "online journal" this morning.

Where do I begin?

Batik. My henna batik sign did not come out the way I'd envisioned. Part of it was that the green dye turned out BRIGHT green, instead of dark green. The other is that portions of my waxing turned out too thin. I'm not sure why this is, only that I'll have to avoid thin lines in the future. It just doesn't hold the color well.

This is what my tent looked like at the festival:


It wasn't until my friend B (who brought me hot chocolate on the chilly morning!) made a comment about the color of the green that I realized how correct he was. He described it as "St. Patrick's Day Green" and that he felt I should be offering beer at my table.

So I took the banner down.

I was worried about the lack of customers, and then tried to not be worried about it. So much effort and mental energy at things that I had no control over, and then at trying to stop my thoughts. Have I mentioned I'm in my head too much of the time?

Then I saw this:



A real actual butterfly perched atop the butterfly and lotus sheet (nope, didn't make it). This butterfly was just sitting there as confidently as anything, regardless of the wind that made the sheet sway. I walked up to it several times, just to marvel in its peaceful beauty. It wasn't scared or threatened by this big human coming to peer at it. It just Was.

And so I learned to just Be.

As the day wore on, the wind picked up, whipping most of the cloths and hanging designs around. Sometime around 3 or 4pm, we decided to just keep the things down that the wind pulled down.

As far as customers, it was actually a slow day. Between 10 and 2 I had a grand total of 1 customer. I'm not sure why. Everyone at the fair, who had done this one before, said they'd made about a third of what they'd made the previous year. Folks just weren't spending money like they had before. Maybe it's the rising cost of gas and food, maybe it was because graduation is near and there's other things to spend money on. By the end of the day, I'd covered my booth fee. So yay!

Here are some pics. The designs are by Deborah Brommer, except for the lotus, which is mine.

New Henna

This is the design I did on my hand last night. I'm not normally left-handed, so it took me a lil extra time. With the festival on Saturday, I want to have nice henna showing :) The style is called "gulf style" and these are elements based on an Asha Savla design. I just decided to be organic and let the elements flow. I didn't draw it out beforehand, just added as I went along. Overall, I'm pretty pleased.


Monday we had our last Henna Club meeting at school. The girls brought food, and I henna'd everyone. This is a photo of the henna I did on the mom that always attended. The gold is gilding paste.

I've started a new batik, one to use as a signage banner for my tent.


And to top it all off, yesterday morning I finished both my assignments due this week for my gifted certification class. YAY!