Hey. Having a kind of frustrating day. I really want to be working on my mystery deadline, but I am having printer issues. I have to keep walking away from it because I am so annoyed! I just want  to run a dang cleaning utility and it seems to  be impossible. I  am trying to uninstall and reinstall the driver and ... welll. grr. You don't need to hear me complain about this. It will get figured out, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, it is too hot ( even for me) to garden today and designing and gardening are the only things I really feel like doing. So I went out for a bit to try and relax and at least get some Trader Joe's shopping done.

As I was walking up to the store, I saw a a stiking older  mature woman. I sense that she is older than she looks. Classy, elegant woman.  She was wearing crisp black capris, crisp fitted white oxford.  Great black patent leather shoes with a peep toe and a stacked heel- really cool and hip shoes, but still classic. She looked like she had just gotten her hair styled- but a loose flippy mid-length effortless type of style. And a sweet calm face. And the best accessory of all: a genuine smile.

We caught each other's eye, smiling,  and I just wanted to say "Who are you? !"  We were  walking toward each other and she said to me, "I love your hairstyle!" I wish I had said more, but I simply said thank you .  >sigh<

Back to shopping. They were out of my favorite thing: frozen dark sweet cherries. Which I  eat everyday with Greek yogurt.  YUM.  I asked one of the worker guys and he said they are going to be replacing them with frozen Bing cherries.  Permanently replacing them. I hope I love those Bing cherries, man.

I feel like a good girl when I shop at Trader Joe's because I usually remember to bring my reusable bags. 

I finished up at Trader Joe's and decided to swing by the mall and run into Barnes and Noble, but only if a parking space readily presented itself. And it did!  It was so close to the entrance I actually was afraid to park there, thinking it must be a handicapped spot or something. But it wasn't- I checked.  So I ran in  to grab some magazines. I decided I was just going to buy a whole bunch of them - whatever I wanted.  I got about 5 or six. Yum, I love magazines. Freaking love them. I'll tell you more about them later.

I went to the music section and just felt like buying something I had never heard of. I like to do that from time to time. I saw this one  by Eilen Jewell and listened to about 15 seconds of it and decided to get it.

I love  new music. I mean finding music that's new to me. In this case, it's both.  This just came out in July. I am listening to it right now and I really like it!  I have been really into old-timey americana roots music lately.  This fits the bill.  You can listen to some tracks and read reviews here.

I love going onto amazon and looking up someone that I like, and then following the links to "explore similar items."  That's one of the ways I find new music. Another way is going to the library and picking a cd based on the title or album artwork! Believe it or not, that is how I found The Be Good Tanyas and Antony and the Johnsons!

The other cd I bought today is  Dub Qawwali - the devotional Sufi vocals of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan layered with reggae and electronica! Many years ago I got Star Rise (in another fit of  random cd purchasing) and I love it -  so I figure I will love this too. 

journal- home, originally uploaded by yummygoods.

are my roots showing?

home #1, originally uploaded by yummygoods.

One thing to know about me is that I am always longing for home. I don't mean  my family or my hometown ( I actually still live in my hometown) or anything from my past. I mean a feeling of home. Of family and comfort and belonging.  I have had glimpses of it before,  mostly borrowing it from other people. Someday I am going to  have that feeling for myself. I hope.

I don't mean to sound all sad all of a sudden! This longing is always there underneath and in between and layered on top of whatever is going on in my life. No matter what. 

Mostly, I just wanted to post this painting because I thought it would look awesome with my new pink page borders. For real, yo.

vintage tin, originally uploaded by yummygoods.

That's me today.
I am even gardening in a cute skirt! Just came in for a little break from the heat. I am weeding some beds and moving around some perennials.
I am always dividing things. I mean constantly. I mean I will divide something right when I bring it home from the nursery. Sure, it takes a while for things to fill in, but it's worth it for the satisfaction of getting 3 plants out of one! I also try to grow perennials from seed, but I am terrible about watering. As in, I don't really water at all. Poor seedlings.

Isn't this illustration on the tin so so cute? I love it. Got this at a yard sale for ...I don't know, probably 50cents? A buck at most. I haven't been to any yard sales lately. Maybe next weekend.

Ok, back to the dirt!

Been working on the look of the site. I never did get used to that other header. I am sure I will change this one too, but at least I like it better. I experimented with the page border color and I really like the cozy feeling it creates.

It is so tough to decide on an "image."  I have so many different interests and styles. It's nearly impossible to boil it down to one logo or color story- and in truth, I don't really want to! I feel like I should, though. We'll see how it goes.  One foot in front of the other.

journal- 100%, originally uploaded by yummygoods.

" You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." by Wayne Gretzky.

I took a shot recently, and I am so glad I did. You'll be hearing the news pretty soon. I promise.

carved horse, originally uploaded by yummygoods.

sorry for the blurry photo, but i freaking love this horse. My Grandpa Nick (pictured in the previous post) was a woodcarver and a poet. He carved this horse for me when I was little.
Most of his carvings were of horses, but very realistic carvings- not like this at all. I love this one because it is so goofy and sweet. From the front, you can see his toothy grin and chipped ear. I am suprised that after all these years his eyeballs are still attached!

This is my favorite possession. 

gramma jo, originally uploaded by yummygoods.

On the left is my dad sitting with his mother and father. I'm on the right in my ten dollar Salvation Army prom dress. The lace in the previous posts was made by father's father's mother. That doesn't sound right at all but it's the fourth way I've tried to write it- so I'm calling it a day.

lace hem, originally uploaded by yummygoods.

Beautiful dainty underskirt made by my great-grandmother! Lace and all!

lace 1, originally uploaded by yummygoods.

When I went to visit my new cousin Liz, she showed me this incredible  lace-work  that my great-grandmother used to do. I can't imagine making something this delicate. How long it must have taken!

peeking, originally uploaded by yummygoods.

i thought i would start showing you some pages from my visual journals.

It suprises me that I am a little shy about showing pictures of myself.
I like this one. It is a tiny sticker from a photobooth.

I love love love photobooths.

Stunning tile wall piece by Madelyn Macedo.

She is amazing . Truly one of the most talented, wise, kind-hearted and radically generous people I know. I will be sharing the rest of my Maddy/Providence photos soon.

So, maybe you  have noticed that my last few posts have been short and sweet. And more frequent.  And they are more frequent , I think, because  they are short and sweet.  You see, I get kind of intimidated about writing a big long post or telling a story or whatever. I am much more comfortable ( for now)  with the diminutive missive. Like my fancy words? I thought you might.   I think it is safe to say that you can expect a bit more blogging now that I have accepted my limitations! 

Oh, and you may find that the photos have nothing to do with the posts, just like this beauty:

Remember my crazy yard sale luck a while back? Well when I was photographing my scores, I just put these metal pieces on the (weedy) walkway to snap a pic, and i didn't even realize they formed this sunflower shape until I was looking at it on my computer later on! Yeah, nothing gets past me.
Ok, I guess the photo now does  relate to the post - since I couldn't just leave it orphaned there without an explanation.

More petit-four style blogging to come. Hey, if it's good enough for designsponge, it's good enough for me.

I still have more to share from my visit with madelyn, but I just wanted to show you this amazing dianthus. I took this shot a couple of months ago when I visited my new cousin Liz. I say she's my new cousin, because she's new to me - not new to the world, as in freshly-born. I have more pictures from my visit with her to show you, too! I love visiting.

Back to the dianthus- can you believe the color? I didn't even mess with this photo to get it to look that way. I love how it pops next to that perovskia. Yum.  

but now you know for sure. I am a geek. I even have the plastic-bead bracelet to prove it.

When I was in Providence, I went to the Providence Open Market  and found this awesome stretchy beaded bracelet that went so perfectly with my geek bracelet.

For 8 bucks, how could I resist?

Would you just look at the gorgeous perfection of this fabric! 

It's a cute little dress that is way too tiny tiny tiny for me me me. I got it from Madelyn's pile-o-stuff that is always replenished just in time for my visits.  I am just coo coo about the colors and the design and even the texture of the  fabric.  This pixie-sized frock will be repurposed into something, just not sure what yet.  I get flutters just looking at it.

The background of this photo shows one of the many unfinished rooms in our 150-year-old house! Whenever someone asks how the house is coming, my answer is always the same:
"Slowly but slowly!"