Monday, July 26, 2010

Favorite Words

Do you have a favorite word? One you just enjoy saying because you like the sound of it? I am reading "Eat, Pray, Love" and the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, is in Italy and learning to speak Italian. I just read a part where she heard the word "attraversiamo" and she said she wanted to say it over and over just because she loved the sound of the word. It means "Let's cross over", as in "Let's cross the street". My favorite word is "tintinnabulation". I love the way it rolls off the tongue. I wish I could use this word daily, but I do not have need to use it. It means "the ringing of bells". Not something you talk about often. I heard this word probably back in seventh grade in English class when I was reading Edgar Allan Poe. English was my favorite subject in school and my English teachers were all my favorites too. "Tintinnabulation" is from his poem called "The Bells".

I

Hear the sledges with the bells -
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.


II

Hear the mellow wedding bells -
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight! -
From the molten - golden notes,
And all in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle - dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
How it swells!
How it dwells
On the Future! - how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!


III

Hear the loud alarum bells -
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor
Now - now to sit, or never,
By the side of the pale - faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear, it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows;
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling,
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells -
Of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
In the clamor and the clanging of the bells!


IV

Hear the tolling of the bells -
Iron bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people - ah, the people -
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All alone,
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone -
They are neither man nor woman -
They are neither brute nor human -
They are Ghouls: -
And their king it is who tolls: -
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells: -
Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells: -
To the sobbing of the bells: -
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells -
To the tolling of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells, -
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Happy Birthday, Cavan!






























































Happy 32nd birthday, Cavan!! We all love and miss you!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

An Afternoon with Annie


Bob and I got to spend this afternoon with Annie! We hadn't seen her in at least nine years. When Bob and I bought the house on Monticello Avenue here in Dallas in 1996, Annie was living in the apartment over the garage. She called it her "treehouse". She asked if she could stay there and of course we said, "YES!" Annie was like another one of our kids and we loved having her as part of our family. Annie has a Master's degree in pottery making. She had beautiful pottery displayed all around her apartment and within a short time, I also had Annie's pottery displayed all around our house. One day we came home from work and there were pottery shards all over our driveway. Annie was throwing some of her pieces of low-standard pottery off of her balcony and smashing them. I was very upset. Not for the fact that she was littering our driveway with her pottery, but because she was breaking her BEAUTIFUL PIECES! I loved every piece of pottery Annie made, perfect or not! I rescued a few of her pieces of pottery that would have been smashed, as they didn't live up to her standard of pottery making. I collected the pieces of pottery in a bucket and I used some of those pieces to put around the outside of flower pots. While Annie was with us this afternoon, she talked me into possibly teaching some jewelry making classes in Burleson, where she will be teaching some pottery classes. If you are interested in seeing some of Annie's pottery, take a look at her website -- www.earthtoannie.com

Friday, July 16, 2010

Was this ME?


I was digging through some boxes today looking for something and I found this old photo of me. It says "Spring 1974" on the back of it. In the Spring of 1974, I had been married to my first husband, David, for four years and I was working as a receptionist for Playboy Magazine in Chicago. I saw a billboard about becoming a model and I decided I wanted to take the classes and learn about how to become a model. I took some very interesting classes on how to walk, sit and how to get in and out of a car properly. I had a class on how to apply make up and hair styling and what color of shoes to wear with what color of dress. I remember that you are supposed to wear shoes darker than the hem of your skirt and to NEVER wear WHITE SHOES, unless you had on an all white outfit. There were several girls in the classes, but I am sure none of them actually became models. Someone took our photos with our stats, such as height, weight, etc. on the photo and this is the photo taken of me -- Height - 5'5", Weight - 110 pounds. Sure wish I still had that body!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Happy, Happy Necklace

This necklace looks "Happy" to me. I made the pendant by using a plastic strawberry container, coloring on it with permanent colored markers and then baking the shapes in my toaster oven. This is how you make Shrinky Dinks without buying the plastic. Much more fun to eat the strawberries and then recycle the container! I made four shapes and layered them with glue. It is kind of hard to see that in my photo. I hung beaded danglies from the pendant and used a silver chain with the same colorful beads up the sides. If you would like to learn how to make the Shrinky Dinks, let me know.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Jewelry from the "Bones" TV Show





















I love the jewelry that the ladies wear on the TV show, "Bones". I found some photos of their jewelry on a website and I decided to try making one of these necklaces. Here is my rendition of one that Angela is wearing. I plan to make more necklaces like the ones worn on the TV show. I will add this one to my Etsy website for sale.

Monday, July 5, 2010

We decided to head East

Bob had today off work and we wanted to spend the day together doing something fun, exciting, and different. When we are home together, Bob is either on his computer or watching TV and I am beading. We wanted to do something other than our hobbies today. We Googled "day trips from Dallas" and decided to head down I-80 to East TX and see how far we got. We went through Terrell and Wills Point. Wills Point is the Blue Bird Capital of Texas. There was a Bluebird Cafe that looked interesting to have lunch in Wills Point, but we weren't quite ready at the time. Another time perhaps. Bob and I like to eat at the local places and not the chain restaurants. We continued down I-80 to Grand Saline. We found a local Mexican restaurant called Papadales where we had lunch. Very yummy! I wanted to see the salt flats, but Bob missed the turn off, so we continued down I-80 to Gladewater. It is the Antique Capital of East Texas! We stopped and walked down the main drag and went into some of the antique stores that were open today. Also in Gladewater, there still stands the Snavely #1 Oil Well. We were too hot and tired to continue any further east, so we decided to head back towards Dallas and see if we could find the Morton Salt mines. We did and I took a couple of photos, but we didn't ask for a tour. It was a fun and interesting day even though the temps were in the high 90's. You can see more of my photos at share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8EbMmLJq3aKLjw

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Bob & Linda's 4th of July













Bob and I decided to go to Royse City tonight to listen to the Claxton Welch band and have dinner at Fish Camp. Our friend Jarad Calkins plays in the Claxton Welch band and his wife Allegra, whom I worked with for five years at Project SEED, was also there with their son Bryce. We had never been to Royce City or the Fish Camp restaurant until tonight. We asked our friends Barry & Pat to go with us. We also asked our friends Kathryn & Max, but they didn't make it. Kathryn returned around noon today from a vacation in Puerto Rico, so I'm sure she had jet lag. It was a beautiful evening, so we sat at a picnic table outside and watched the kids fish in the pond. They mostly caught small fish, turtles and snakes. The music was very good and so was the food. We enjoyed the evening. We even saw a few fireworks driving back home.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Resident of the Month!!!



Guess who is Resident of the Month at The Mondrian? ME!!! Well, NeeNee & CheeChee's Beaded Things is being featured as Resident of the Month for July 2010. There is a fishbowl on the security desk in the lobby of The Mondrian where Bob and I live. The fishbowl is for residents to put their business cards in and one is drawn each month. That person or business is featured in The Mondrian newsletter. I didn't know about the plaque that is placed on the security desk in the lobby, so that was just an extra bonus! The security guard asked me if I was Linda Moody when Bob and I passed through the lobby this morning on our way out to take a walk. I hope I get some new business with this free advertising!