ipe Daily Bliss: January 2010

Daily Bliss

Today's lovely moments are tomorrow’s beautiful memories

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

OT - Black Lucy

I thought I’d give this little meme a go …

  1. YOUR REAL NAME: Felicity M G D
  2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (first 3 letters of real name plus -izzle): Felizzle
  3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME (favorite color and favorite animal): Blue Dog
  4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle & street names):Maggie Coburn
  5. STAR WARS NAME (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of Mom's maiden name): Grafeduf
  6. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME (2nd fave colour, fave drink): Crimson Water.
  7. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME (Mother's middle name and father's middle: Mary Noel - I think my Witness Protection name is cool, but now that you all know it, I'll be forced to change it. Darn!
  8. YOUR GOTH NAME (black, and the name of one your pets): Black Lucy - the best!

Happiness & laughter to one and all,

Black Lucy

posted by Felicity | 6:02 am

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Australia Day

Thanks to Anne for reminding me of this beautiful Australian poem.

My Country

by Dorothea Mackellar

The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies
I know, but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!
The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze…

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

posted by Felicity | 6:20 am

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Friendship Happy Dance

Hello everyone. I'm home!

It's unbelieveably hot, I'm jetlagged and I'm suffering from 'what next?' syndrome, but hey it's good to be back home again (one could make up a song that goes like that, huh?).

The house is a mess! Obviously, no one has done any housework in Castle Bliss since about August 2009 when the Drama Queen who lives here took herself off to work at School for Nerds. I cannot believe the paper clutter and dog hair which have accumulated in cracks and under tables that I haven't noticed for the last 6 months. Sigh.

Also, our roof leaked again while we were away. We're had someone in to fix it once already (and it didn't leak when it flooded last year while we were away in May), but it obviously needs more attention.

Time to clean up. I put on my specs and took a serious look around on Tuesday ... and got distracted by the arrival of a month's worth of mail.

So what's the picture here all about? It's a happy dance that I've never declared even though I finished the project some time back in 2006. It was just a quick stitch that, despite its size, only took about 10 days to do. It lives in a drawer in the spare room because I'll never be able to afford to frame it.

I've dragged it out today in celebration of all it represents - friendship. I've spent the last 48 hours going through the mail I have received from cross stitchers around the world since I started this blog. Some of it I didn't know that I had because the flood from late November 2008 meant that the house went into 'hybernation' for a couple of months and The MOTH carefully packed it in a 'safe place' (you know the story). As I sorted through the current stash of Christmas friendship mail and stowed it for safe keeping, I found the other box of about 20 letters.

Thank you, people, for your letters and cards and gifts over the years. In life, it's not just what you do that counts, but with whom you do it. 2009 will go down as the year of stupendously hard work (studying, teaching, house repairs and dragging myself around after The MOTH and his cruel work schedules). It has all been worth it when I read your letters of friendship and encouragement. I teach part time so that I can spend more time with The MOTH when he's around. I stitch AND I blog even though blogging uses up valuable stitching time because of the friendships I've formed with people who do the same. Together we make the yearly travel around the Sun something worth doing as we 'talk' about our lives and our happenings. My long ago friend, Roz, taught me the value of friendships like ours and how they do good in both directions of the friendship. We also keep the family GP worrying about the big stuff while we work out the small stuff together. Thank you!

I'm slowly getting through the pile, rereading your letters and replying to each in turn. Be patient with me because I'm probably going to take some time to get through it all.

Happiness & laughter to one and all,

Felicity

posted by Felicity | 10:32 am | 6 comments

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

An Afternoon with Claire


Felicity & Claire
at Le Bonheur des Dames

One of the greatest joys about this trip to France has been the chance to catch up with friends. On Tuesday, the MOTH & I spent a wonderful afternoon with Claire. Words are going to fail my efforts to describe exactly how wonderful an afternoon we had, yet it was talk, talk, talk the whole time we were together.

After a long lunch at the local Italian ristoranti where we swapped life stories and gifts (Claire generously gave me Isabelle Vautier's book of hearts) & proudly showed off our Grand Marquoirs (Claire's daughter's marquoir inspired my choice of colour), we wrapped up warmly & headed over to Le Bonheur des Dames to explore a little and have a photo shoot, & then back to a Tabac to keep warm while we chatted some more.

I've always thought that Claire's blog was inspirational. Claire herself is charisma personified! She was truly one of the special people to meet in life, even if it was just for one (all too short) afternoon. My simple advice to readers is that if you get an opportunity to meet a fellow stitcher, take it. My experience with Claire has taught me that it's a well worthwhile thing to do.

Happiness & laughter to one and all,

Felicity

P.S. For photos of my last trip to Le Bonheur des Dames & examples of the beautiful kits available in the shop, click here.

posted by Felicity | 10:02 pm | 8 comments

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Susan Boyle sings with Elaine Paige

posted by Felicity | 3:24 am | 0 comments

Friday, January 01, 2010

Happy New Year



Love, happiness & laughter to one and all in 2010,

Felicity

posted by Felicity | 7:08 pm | 8 comments

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