Kids Marvel at Typewriter
In this age of devices and flat screen tv, the kids marvel at my friend V’s typewriter. She said remembers how she used to type her college term papers on it in the early 70′s.
Michael (7) was fascinated with Tin-Tin and inspired by the typewriter he saw in the movie. He asked if I could bring one out to Ohio. V had given this to Laura when L was in high school. I had it in the hall closet. Michael typed the name of each member of the family and the others were mesmerized.
Puppeteer, Prometheus, Pizza and Pencils
Somewhere I read that alliteration should be avoided.
A rule somewhere. For writing or blogging but I can’t find the source with the rule about not using it, so here is the puppeteer on a break.
The kid on the scooter is looking at the puppeteer as if to ask what time is the next show? Central Park.
Prometheus at Rockefeller Center , Bringing Man the Gift of Fire.
A slice of Pizza on Bleecker Street and Seventh Avenue
And my friend R alerted me – March 30th is National Pencil Day. The date the patent for the pencil with the eraser on the end was granted in the year 1858.
Thank you Hymen Lipman!
I gathered up what pencils I could find and added the new box of Cedar Pointes I had in my computer bag. I love to write in pencil on a yellow legal pad. I’ve never liked mechanical pencils although I know some who swear by them. On March 30th we’re to write with a pencil but that will make blogging a challenge.
Five facts about pencils excerpted from this site
- A single wooden pencil can write 45,000 words
- A single wooden pencil or draw a line that is 35 miles long.
- Pencils can write under water.
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- John Steinbeck was an obsessive pencil user and is said to have used as many as 60 pencils a day. His novel East of Eden took more than 300 pencils to write.
- Henry David Thoreau penciled Walden Pond. After all, his father was a pencil manufacturer
- The last time I blogged about pencils was two years ago New Years when Anna sharpened every pencil in the house
Listen to Garrison Keillor Read Liane Ellison Norman’s Poem Today
Saturday morning I went to a wonderful poetry reading at Calvary Episcopal Church on Shady Avenue (in Pittsburgh). It was a grand crowd of friends, fellow poets and family. Jan Beatty gave a marvelous introduction and then Liane read poems from her book. They had to get extra chairs! Afterwards there was lots of hot coffee and croissants, raspberries and blueberries and other delicious pastries. Her grandson helped sell the books and make change.
Liane Ellison Norman’s new poetry book is Breathing the West: Great Basin Poems.
On Monday December 3rd, one of her poems will be read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. How cool is that?
Here’s the link so you can listen to the reading of Tree by Liane Ellison Norman.
Poet Liane Ellison Norman and her husband Bob
Born on the Fourth of July, 1952, Brooklyn New York
But I really grew up in New Jersey. New York always sounded better to me and I have held onto that fact all these years. Joisey, the Garden State, just didn’t seem as cool.
Yes, it is my sixtieth birthday today. YIKES! We were supposed to drive to Roanoke VA but power outages from the bad storm last Friday knocked that plan out! You’ve seen a lot of my life these past three years on the blog. The art room adventures, some knitting, my pleasure in the eating and making of food, my family, the city, my travels, and as Arlene says, the ordinary- making it interesting!
I have been talking about turning sixty since I turned fifty-nine last year. Go figure.
My friend Mary Ann told me someone asked her if she was afraid to turn sixty and she told me her response was, “I’m afraid to NOT turn sixty” Many are denied the chance.
If you are born on the Fourth of July you receive a lot of red, white and blue presents. One has to post a little red white and blue on the Fourth of July so here are the two free marzipan macarons you receive when you buy the dozen at Jean-Marc in Millvale*
And here is my mom holding me. My cousin Paul sent me this photo last year at Christmas and it is the only baby photo I really have of myself. Looks like I was bottle fed. How about that wallpaper?
And then there is this prize winner of my wonderful haircut and chubby cheeks, I think I was three, This picture is stuck in one of those “magnetic” photo albums- meaning nasty glue that ruins your photo and you can’t remove it- EVER.
And here is what I looked like last week in the heat at the Pirates Game in Pittsburgh with my three year old granddaughter Maura. A nice woman filling the ketchup dispenser came over and asked it I wanted her to take it of us. She enjoyed seeing Maura enjoy her cone and I had photographed her eating it (of course). I don’t get in many photos which is just as well at this point. But when I think about what makes me happy in my life, my family is at the top of the list. I am fortunate indeed.
Here is a picture a first grader drew of me last year which I photographed on my phone. I am so glad I documented this artwork cause on the rough days and the long days of teaching art in the city, I can read her inscription at the bottom.
Ms. Hendricks is my hero.
It doesn’t get any better than that!
And I found this next photo in New York City when I visited my sister a couple months ago. Once I was visiting a family friend, Naomi, in a home and she said told me how she would think of all she was grateful for in her life and when she focused on a theme of gratitude she just couldn’t feel bad about anything. I remember her words and she died shortly after the visit. It is easy to forget to be grateful. Once I read about thinking three things you are grateful for each day, right before you go to sleep and I try to remember.
I am grateful to my family, friends, fellow bloggers and followers and wonderful commenters who have encouraged me in my photography, blogging and writing.
Today is a very happy birthday! I am surrounded by my family who love me.
Thanks everyone. (And Happy Birthday Suzanne who shares the date!)
*Here is a shot of Millvale,PA taken the day I bought the macarons!
Overbought on the Floral Tape- DIY Flower Pens
One roll would suffice. It was on the list of supplies for this crafty kitsch!
Last week in Pittsburgh, granddaughter Anna saw a pot of flower pens that Aunt Lala made years ago. They are corny but cute and definitely appealed to an 8+ year old.
The old pens still wrote after all those years!!
Anna was fascinated with the pens in the pot and asked if we could make them when I came to Ohio. After a fun trip to the Crafts store for the supplies and brief instructions from Laura, we set up shop. Didn’t even use a full roll of floral tape.
There are rolls and rolls left. We made a pot for her mom, her other grandma, for Aunt Lala, for Anna’s desk and a new one for me which I might take to school again for our sign-in counter. Laura made some for me to take to school years ago, too.
If you seriously want to make them for any reason I found instructions just now online here at show
After making them with Anna and looking up instructions, I see people create them as favors and as pens for wedding guest books and such.
You can see her peeking through the finished pots of pens.
So do we buy more fake posies, pens and pots and glass pebbles and make more flower pens? I’ve a ton of floral tape!
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