Everybody has a story ...

A Fearful Responsibility

... and the same is true of things.

Okay, I admit it, there's a bit of the animist in me, an outlook which can be a source of great joy.

More often than not, however, it's a darned inconvenience. For example, on the rare occasion when I have a few dollar bills to tuck away in my wallet, they must all face the same direction - lest they feel disheveled and unappreciated. And the shirts and jackets in my closet must all face east - so they can watch the sun rise. (Although exactly how a garment can expect to see the sun through my closet wall does tend to challenge the imagination.)

Which brings me, rather abruptly, to the point of this post. Browsing through my favorites on Etsy this evening, I began to wonder, not for the first time, what stories those lovely items could tell. So I decided to let them speak for themselves through a treasury. This treasury.

Ah, I think they're beginning to whisper. 

Shhhh! Can you hear them? 

What are they saying to each other?

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©2011 Rough Magic Creations.

For Mother's Day, Let's Go Shopping at the Treasury Mall!

With Mother's Day peeking over the horizon, now is the time for all good daughters and sons to shop for a very special gift for a very special lady!

To help get us started, I went browsing among the Etsy Treasuries ...

And up popped some real beauties!

Who could resist this enticing invitation? C'mon Ladies... Let's shop together, by my fellow Etsy Maine Team member ConstantGalore.

Ginnyhuber, my teammate over at Etsy Project Embrace, stirred up some Magic And Geometry with this stunning result!

joonE, one of Joe's teammates on the Vintage Etsy Society Street Team, calls this spectacular assortment mint me up, buttercup. 

This lovely bouquet of Violets in Bloom were gathered by stoutdg2, a fellow JET from the Jewelry on Etsy Team.

On Fire! by iKnitQuiltSew is appropriately named. Not only does it absolutely sizzle, its curator is a member of On Fire for Handmade!

And now, after gazing wistfully at all these beautiful treasuries, I decided to curate one of my own - including an item from each of these curators' shops along with items from other members of these fabulous Etsy teams. Shopping for a Special Lady - Your Mother!

Okay, gals and guys ...
On your mark ...
Get set ...
But wait!

Before you "Go!" please let me hear from you. What are your plans Mother's Day? Tell me in a comment!

Okay now ... SHOP!

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©2011 Rough Magic Creations.

Some Favorite Quotations

Rupert Brooke

"I have been told that when the late Sir Edward Marsh, composing his memoir of Rupert Brooke, wrote 'Rupert left Rugby in a blaze of glory,' the poet's mother, a lady of firm character, changed 'a blaze of glory' to 'July.'"
~ F. L. Lucas




"I am only an entertainer who has understood his time."
~ Pablo Picasso

"My desire and my hope is gain honor, fame, and money."
~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

For further consideration ~  

Rupert Brooke

Sir Edward Marsh

Rugby School

F. L. Lucas

What's your favorite quotation?

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©2011 Rough Magic Creations. 

Happy Easter

Although Joe and I are always happy to send our vintage books to wonderful new owners, there are a few special ones that will not be for sale ... in our lifetime at least.




To celebrate Easter, here's a peek into two of those special books. These are hymnals, old and well worn, which belonged to Joe's brother Bruce.

Joe and his siblings were raised as Quakers and with their mother attended the Friends Meeting House on Forest Avenue in Portland. I could go on and on about Bruce and Joe and the Society of Friends, but ...

Today is Easter Sunday, so I'll let these hymnals tell This Story.

Christ Arose! ~ Click Here to Listen

O For a Thousand Tongues ~ Click Here to Listen

You'll find more beautiful hymns at Hymnsite.com.

Wishing each of you a Joyous and Blessed Easter!

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©2011 Rough Magic Creations.

In celebration of Spring - a new Etsy treasury

Even up here in chilly Maine, we're seeing signs of spring ~ fat red-red robbins bob-bob-bobbin' along on the slowly greening lawn, little bushy-tailed red squirrels squabbling in the fir trees, tiny buds sprouting on the potentilla bushes, and bright shoots of daffodil, tulip, iris and lily leaves poking up through the (at last) thawed earth.

Today, to celebrate the exhultation this season of new awakening always brings with it, I made a pretty treasury on Etsy, featuring lovely items from members of two of my teams, the Etsy Maine Team and the Jewelry on Etsy Team.

To visit the treasury, click on the photo ^^^.

The featured shops ~
vandiva , designsbyrk, nJoyArt, quercusdesign,
fullyhooked, longwinterfarm, lindybythesea, UptonDesigns,
peacesofindigo, lindalayden, mabellecherie, blancheb,
bg2770art, JBowerEngraving, LoveMyCoasters, stoutdg2

I hope you'll enjoy exploring these beauties as much as I enjoyed finding them for my treasury - Spring Abound!

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©2011 Rough Magic Creations.

A Seance, Treasury Style

Let's hold a Seance and see who turns up!

Hmmm . . . on second thought, let's not.

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A Fish Tale Revisited

Flo

Missy

This April, while Spring hovers shyly on the brink of bursting into glorious, and much anticipated, bloom, Joe and I have taken advantage of this quiet time to do some reorganizing out in the workshop. 

We've moved furniture around,  emptied cabinets and drawers and tossed out an Everest of accumulated detritus. 

Out, I say! Out with the dried up paints, the useless scraps of paper, the old notebooks filled with scribblings for projects either long completed or abandoned as hopeless. 

Someday soon, we'll haul 40+/- pounds of scrap copper off to a nearby metal salvage company. "Cash for trash," I call that.

You're wondering where this is all leading and how on earth it relates to the "Fish Tale" promised in the post's title?

Ok, I'll get to the point. In the process of rediscovering some long laid-by things, we happened upon three of my drawings from the days when we kept tropical fish. Looking at them after all this time, we got to reminiscing about our very first "fin babies" and the blog post I wrote about them several years ago.

Taking a break from the task at hand (repurposing a groaning overloaded bookcase), I decided a reprise is in order.

This is the story, slightly abridged, of Flo and Missy, two little fish who, early on in our fishkeeping careers, forged a special friendship that both amazed us and touched our hearts.

Some of you may know that my hubby “Prospero Joe” and I were once the devoted servants of several varieties of freshwater tropical fish. Our first tank, a 20-gallon beauty, arrived in 2006, complete with eight young inhabitants - all of whom answered to the name of Finnigan.

The Finnigans

Among the Finnigans were a lovely silver angel fish and a strange specimen called a paradise gourami.  

Early on the gourami, whom we named Missy, fell ill, shivering and trembling near the bottom of the tank and falling victim to bullying by six feisty little tetras. 

Feisty Tetra

Despite our best efforts, nothing we tried helped at all. Missy would soon die. 

Then, seemingly out of nowhere and diving straight toward Missy, came the little angel. We expected her to join the tetras in the attack. But no. As we watched in astonishment, the angel took on the role of protector, constantly hovering about an inch above Missy and defending her from further assault. 

Whenever Missy struggled to the surface for the frequent gulp of air necessary to her species, the angel accompanied her; when Missy sank exhausted to the gravel, the angel drifted down to resume her vigil. For many days this silent ritual continued, Missy fighting bravely for her life, the angel guarding. We named the angel Flo, for Florence Nightingale.

I should mention here that the angel fish is a cichlid, not normally a sociable creature with any species but its own. The gourami is an anabantid, closely related to the infamous Siamese fighting fish (the betta) and known as a solitary and often aggressive tankmate. 

As far as Joe and I could tell, these two small creatures never met eye to eye, never touched so much as a fin, never communicated in any way their human observers could comprehend. 

And yet ... and yet ...

While the thwarted tetras took to minding their own business in other corners of the tank, Missy began to gain strength. Her shivering slowly abated, and she began to swim more freely, with Flo always keeping close by. 

Then one fine spring morning, Missy won her long and arduous battle. She sailed through the water, ate voraciously and declared herself recovered. And Flo, her mission accomplished, turned her thoughts to ... whatever angels turn their thoughts to.  

Both Missy and Flo are gone now, but their true story is one Joe and I will never forget. 

And it’s a story I want to share again with all of you. 

Because I’ve come to see that at certain times in our lives we are all Missy – ill, frightened, struggling for breath. And at other times, we are all Flo – protecting, defending, standing watch through the long dark night, wherever as there is a need for whatever it is we are called upon to do.

©2015 Rough Magic Creations

Olive You, Olive Me, Olive Everybody

Olive You, Olive Me, Olive Everybody

A new treasury in my favorite springtime color, olive green, and featuring lovely items by members of the Jewelry on Etsy Team, the Etsy Maine Team and Etsy Project Embrace.

With special thanks to LittleputLand for the inspiration!

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The Mother of the Bride

Mother of the Bride

Ah, the mother of the bride! What would the wedding be without this indefatigable and oft beleaguered lady?

As a special reward for her, I created this package of lovelies for her to enjoy on the auspicious occasion of her daughter's marriage.

Enjoy them, that is, before she drops from exhaustion and, let's hope, relief.

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a little poetry, a little shopping, a lot of happiness

ah penny, brown penny...

What could be a happier surprise than finding myself in Etsy treasuries curated by fellow members of Etsy Project Embrace?

April is National Poetry Month, and I'm thrilled to see my necklace among the beauties in ah penny, brown penny, i am looped in the loops of her hair......, deftly curated by Kristin of loveartworks. (And guess what! One of Joe's books is featured here too - right beside my necklace.)

Kristin drew inspiration for her gorgeous treasury from "Brown Penny" by William Butler Yeats, and she quotes:

I whispered, "I am too young,"
And then, "I am old enough;"
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.....

With Mother's Day coming up on May 8th, Melinda of CrabappleVintage created this charming and nostalgic treasury, Shopping with Mom.

Shopping with Mom

Illustrating Melinda's always lovely curation, her treasury brings with it happy memories of long ago shopping expeditions with my mother. I can imagine the two of us saying "ooooh" and "aaaah" over every one of Melinda's finds, and being included here adds an extra layer of joy for me. "Look Mother, my earrings!"

Thank you so much, Kristin and Melinda!

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There's a Unicorn in the Garden

There's a Unicorn in the Garden

For the Vintage Etsy Society Street Team "Garden" Treasury Challenge, Joe curated this whimsical treasury, There's a Unicorn in the Garden, a very loose interpretation of a story by James Thurber.

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Saying Thank You to Treasury Curators

Girls in the Garden

Yesterday I found my necklace in this gorgeous treasury, Girls in the Garden, curated by polkadotmagpie. These lovely sellers are all members of Etsy Project Embrace (TeamEPE), and gardening with these delightful gals is pure joy!

It's a Lilac Kind of Day

And today I learned a pair of my earrings are featured in the beautiful It's a Lilac Kind of Day by ArlenesBoutique. This wonderful treasury absolutely glows with the joy of Springtime and Easter!

Thank you, magpie and Arlene! I'm thrilled and honored to see my work included with all these magical things in these two glorious treasuries!

For more treasuries
By polkadotmagpie --> O
By ArlenesBoutique --> O

What's wrong with this handmade jewelry?

There's only one thing wrong with all these beautiful jewelry creations by members of the Jewelry on Etsy Team (a.k.a. JETTeam).
 

Got my Eye on YOU Bracelet by cooljewelrydesign

Calypso Rhythms Earrings by SatinDollCo

And what exactly might that one thing be?

Spring Fling Necklace by DivineBijoux

Is it the style?

Nope. These beauties are all stylish, classy, fashionable.




The materials? Nope. You can count on a JET to use the only the best.

Summer Holiday Bracelet by jemsbyjbandcompany

The colors?

Nope. Just look at these gorgeous palettes.


Is it the skill of the artisans?

Nope. Nope. Nope. And Nope. These jewelry designers are as highly skilled as they come.

Red Jade Briolette Earrings by fuchsiabloomstudio

The price? Nope. A JET is scrupulously fair.

Citrus Sensation Necklace by abacusbeadcreations

The quality of  workmanship?

Don't make me hurt you.






Okay, okay . . . so it's not the style, not the materials, not the colors, not anything else.

Red Fused Glass Ring by AdroitJewelers

Then what in the world is wrong with them? 

Tangerine Delight Bracelet by beadsme

. . . . .

They're not in my jewelry box, that's what.

Wooden Trinket Box by RoughMagicCreations

More items by JET members
JET Membership
JET Blog

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©2011 Rough Magic Creations. 

A Message from my Mother-in-Law

By the time I met her, my mother-in-law was no longer capable of recognizing even Joe, her youngest child. But through the almost impenetrable haze that enveloped her 95-year-old mind, she remembered one thing - Bessie Adelia Bailey Meserve Dennett was a lady.

No, she wasn't a member of any aristocracy or landed gentry. She was a farmer's daughter, the last surviving of the seven Bailey siblings who grew up in the Riverton area of Portland.

On our last visit, we found "Ma" sitting beside a sunny window, watching her favorite afternoon TV game show. When we came into the room, she greeted us with a smile and polite hello. Then, with a mighty effort at pretending to know us, she bade us take a seat and began a brief and (for us) painful conversation. At least twice she asked Joe what he did for a living, three times how many children we had. And then, having heard if not comprehended his answers, she said kindly but firmly, "Thank you for dropping by. It's always good to see you. But knowing you have a busy schedule and many errands to run, I won't take any more of your time." Thus ended our final "audience" with a grand and lovely lady.

Several years later, we received a wonderful surprise gift from our daughter in Topeka - a framed half sheet of paper with several lines typed many decades ago on an ancient Smith Corona. A final message from the mother my husband will always hold in the highest regard.

"How to Live a Hundred Years Happily"

"Quit looking for a knock in your human motor.
"Learn to like work.
"Learn to have a hobby.
"Learn to like people.
"Learn to be satisfied.
"Learn to accept adversity.
"Learn to say the cheerful, humorous thing.
"Learn to meet your problems with decision."

"The key is:  I'm going to keep my attitude and my thinking as pleasant and as cheerful as possible."

We have no idea where she found this list of goals, or whether she coined them herself, but she believed them and happily lived by them.

And she achieved them all.

All, that is, but one.

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April Fools Day in Maine ...

Topsy Turvy Earrings
from my Holiday Shop

... when the Mother Nature plays tricks on us all!

Since it's April Fool's Day here in Maine, and elsewhere as well I'm told, I thought it would be fun to share some good old Down East humor (not to say foolishness) by members of the Etsy Maine Team.



To set a lovely romantic tone, let's start with a sweet Victorian Mash-up Greeting Card by Jess LeClair Photography.

 

And be sure to say it with flowers from The Stapelia Company.

Flower Clowns Number Two

It just wouldn't be April in Maine without a couple of cute chicks hanging around. Let's see what Lofted Designs has to offer.

Novelty Rubber Chicken Earrings

All right minded Mainers will surely find inspiration in the heartwarming story of Sister Eunice and the Yeti Cubs. Read about them at P's and Q's.

With snow falling this chilly April day, there's not much opportunity for rolling in the grass. But, with a visit to Long Winter Farm, we can always dream.

 Grass Stain Perfume Oil

In fact, it's a perfect day for curling up with something soft and cuddly. You'll see this adorable little guy at Edible Complex.

Vintage Wooden Toy Viking 

In April we begin planning our gardens ... and dreaming of the delicious fresh vegetables we'll grow there. Like these scrumptious sprouts by Six Hours Photography.

But while you're anticipating these yummies, bear in mind that we Mainers hold to the strong work ethic in evidence at saintNICOLAStoo: "If you don't work, you don't eat."

 Wooden Easter Cart with Chicken

And so, with kind assistance from these Sundancers by Suzanne Drown Art & Design, we bid a hearty welcome to April, with happy thoughts of Spring!

Happy April to All!

Ayuh.

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