Chock Full of Nuts

It seems like everything I read these days has some kind of lesson about taking time to enjoy the little things and having an appreciation for the beauty that is put before us every day. I will admit I have a habit of racing from one task to the next without enjoying the journey. I’m trying to do better. Lately, I have made a real effort to enjoy the sunsets I see each night when I’m running. Why, I even counted the chips in that big cookie I ate this afternoon. It’s not easy for me. I’m a diehard multi-tasker. However, as my friend Randall says, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then.

On the weekdays Teen Angel works until closing time at the bakery downtown, I have about thirty minutes to fill between the time I get off work and the time I need to pick her up. My job is literally about a minute and a half from the bakery, so it’s a short drive. It’s a great time to take a few pictures but not a long time, so I usually end up scouring the same two block area around the bakery for photos. I’ve been doing this for weeks, so it has become a challenge to find new stuff to photograph there. However, just about the time I think I’ve picked that area clean, I stumble onto something else. This exercise forces me to explore details and things that seem average but really aren’t. It also teaches me to see with new eyes things I’ve been looking at and looking over for years. I’m discovering that beauty and art are everywhere. It’s certainly in nature and in architecture, and occasionally it’s deliberately placed there by the skilled hands of someone who had a vision, waiting for someone like me to stumble into it.

Yesterday, I tripped over this:

Handmade tiles which cover the front of a restaurant that closed a few years ago. I’m not sure what the artist’s inspiration was, but I like the results. I’ve walked by this building dozens of times, but yesterday was the first time I really NOTICED it. Hundreds of colorful tiles, each one a little different and each one a burst of rainbow. Each one beckoning me to marvel at their color and to enjoy the journey I called Tuesday. Acorn anyone?

Fun Monday-Walls

This week's assignment is interesting. Our host, Jan, wants to know about our walls. Here are the instructions:

We all have walls of some sort. What I want to hear about and see, if you're going to show off your amazing photo skills, is what is on your walls, what color are your walls, what is special about them, what is your favorite or least favorite, is it inside or outside.

This one took a lot of thought because I don't have one wall that I just love more than any other. I like my walls. I just don't have one that stands out above the others. I try to make my home very comfortable, insulated from the stress outside, in order to be at peace when I'm at home. After surveying all the corners of my house, I finally decided that the thing I like most about my walls is the stuff that I hang on them, so that's what I'm going to show you. Let's take a quick tour of the stuff that the Hula-gen's surround themselves with. This picture hangs in my dining room near the french doors that lead to the deck.

It's in a sunny spot where we watch the birds and squirrels romp and the flowers in the yard bloom. This picture feels appropriate for this spot because the woman is gazing outdoors, which is what I do all the time in that very spot. In our bedroom is a print marking the 125th anniversary of the Great Steamboat Race which is an annual race between the Delta Queen and the Mississippi Queen steamboats.

This is a Norman Rockwell print, and I love Norman. In our hallway are three special photos. I like how the black and white tones jump from the beige walls. I'm all about clean lines. The first photo is of Teen Angel.It was taken last year on a vacation, and it's my favorite picture of her. She looks so natural and grown up in this picture. This picture is of my nephew and my brother-in-law. Both have passed away, so we wanted a special print of them hanging where we could see them every day. This was taken on a big family trip to Myrtle Beach one year. It was one of our best vacations ever, and this picture of Chance and David makes us smile and think about beach combing, swimming and lemon shake-ups. This picture is Hubby's favorite photo of me. He likes it on the walls. It was taken when I was in college and did some modeling for a photographer. That seems so long ago. Some days I think about having curls again. Then I come to my senses. This caricature of Teen Angel was my Father's Day present to Hubby several years ago.
It was done by a friend of mine who was a TV meteorologist by day and an artist by night. He captured Teen Angel's toddler spirit perfectly, and I would just crawl up in the fetal position and cry if I every lost this picture in a fire or some other disaster. Oh, and here's the last one. This one is just cute. It hangs on a bathroom wall, right over the potty and you can see why.

It's a print we found in an antique shop several years ago and made us laugh all the way home. I still laugh at it sometimes when I look at it.

There you go. A sample of Hula art. Now trot on over to Jan's and see who else is playing along today, and stop by here again this week for instructions for next's week's Fun Monday because I'm hosting then. Ha! Are you ready?