ADVENT IS THE SEASON TO PREPARE
My mother’s post and a peek at some nativities from around the world.
Preparing for the celebration, shopping for gifts, stressing to make sure everything is ready should not take precedence over our spiritual preparation. Getting ready to celebrate our savior’s birth should be our priority and we must never forget our guest of honor.
One of my favorite Advent rituals is the Advent wreath.
This year we were able to see an exhibit of Nativities from around the world at the Franciscan Monastery.
I was surprised to see one from Cuba.
We are blessed to live so close to The National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It is a wonderful place at this time of the year. We attended the Blessing of the Bambinelli and had the Baby Jesus from my 46 year old Nativity blessed.
Pictures from the Shrine as they get ready for Christmas:
I’M NOT A PUPPY ANY MORE
I love Juan Diego but I am still more of a cat person…I will get back to you when he isn’t so nippy!
It has been over 30 years since I had a puppy. We have had plenty of cats and more than a few bunnies, but circumstances were not favorable for acquiring a puppy. As a matter of fact, they are are still not favorable, but as destiny would have it we now have an amazingly lovable and charming Chihuahua.
In January I received an e-mail from my friend Nona who lives in Georgia telling me that she would be getting a Chihuahua puppy. He was born on New Year’s Eve and she would be getting him around Valentine’s Day. She wanted me to help her name him and asked me for the name of a Spanish saint. I thought the perfect name would be Juan Diego. Juan Diego, of Our Lady of Guadalupe fame, was recently canonized. So I actually picked his name.
A few weeks later I got another e-mail…
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ON THE DEATH OF FIDEL CASTRO
I very seldom write in my blog any more. Perhaps as I get older I feel more irrelevant each day. Perhaps what I consider the wisdom of experience others see as the rantings of an old woman.
Once in a while something happens that compels me to express what is in my heart. The death of Fidel Castro awakens emotions long suppressed. At this point in history it may change nothing, but it certainly brings to the surface the pain and suffering he inflicted on my country, my family, and my life.
He lived a long life, became extremely wealthy and enjoyed luxury and fame while the people of his country lived in misery and poverty. Do I celebrate his death? Not exactly because it does not erase the damage of the last 57 years. But it does provide a certain relief and a new hope for my country of…
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NAUGHTY OR NICE? —- LAST CHANCE!
Enjoy the fun and magic of the season!!!!
Source: NAUGHTY OR NICE? —- LAST CHANCE!
Happy feast day St. Francis!!
St. Francis of Assisi is one of the best men ever and was and is kind to creatures great and small.
The pictures are from Aspen Hill Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland. When we went it was overgrown but very charming. Anyone who has loved anyone or any creature knows that such a place is a place of deep sadness, joy and remembrance of things lost and things waiting to be regained again. Restored in a better place and the perfect time forever and ever. Today we remember a man who can keep them entertained and petted proper until we meet them again.
Click and dance!
To just see him as an animal protector and friend is easy but he was a mighty mystic and rejected the secular allure of worldly riches and respect. He wasn’t handsome by all reports but his beauty is unparalleled and his ambition pure, great…
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Special Gift Ideas for Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is coming and it is often hard to think of the perfect gift for your mother and other special women in your life. Why not consider getting a truly special gift from a seller on Etsy? There is practically a limitless supply of handmade and vintage gift ideas just waiting to be discovered, and my shop is just one of the many options. My Etsy shop Señorita Whiskers offers handmade jewelry and vintage items which would make lovely gifts for the beloved women in your life.
Here are just a few samples (click on the pictures and it will take you to the Etsy listing):
Sweet light blue shell and faceted crystal necklace available
Shell and hematite heart necklace to show how much she is loved
Perhaps something a little earthier like this Jasper and glass bead necklace
Maybe these amber crystal earrings would be just the thing!
Perhaps this vintage Swarovski brooch would be just the gift you are looking for…
Whether you are looking for a hand crafted piece or something vintage Señorita Whiskers has a gift sure to please.
Happy Halloween Made for TV Flashback 1985’s “The Midnight Hour”
Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays-I couldn’t wait to dress up. I was always happy to get into my costume which really didn’t change as I got older but only got more elaborate. One of the things I loved most was getting to see all the Halloween specials on TV which were more plentiful, or at least seemed so, when I was a kid and it just seemed that more networks got into the spirit.
One of the examples of the old network spirit was a made for TV movie from 1985 entitled “The Midnight Hour”. I remember seeing this movie on ABC and being instantly smitten. I simply loved it, and as a matter of fact it made such an impression on me that, being a young girl, I wrote about it in my diary. Well, that was quite a long time ago, and it still holds its magic for me. A good friend sent me a copy several years ago, just before the prices went through the roof-they have come back down to earth since then.
“The Midnight Hour” is a sweet and simple romantic ghost story that takes place in a small town, Pitchford Cove, on Halloween night. There are zombies, werewolves, witches and vampires but there is also love and an inexplicable song and dance number as well. I know it sounds crazy and campy and yes it is both of those things; but each time I watch this movie I relive all those feelings I had the first time I saw it and I remember what it was like to be thirteen again and to see this movie for the first time. This particular made for TV offering still holds the magic of childhood for me as I know it does for many others as well, there is just something special about it.
Phil Grenville dressed up for the big party at Melissa’s
A few party goers
The two central characters of the story that we follow on Halloween night are Phil Grenville (played by Lee Montgomery) and Sandy Matthews (Jonna Lee). Phil is a descendent of a town founder/witch hunter and Sandy is out of her element and trying to tend to some unfinished business and the two are brought together under unusual circumstances. Phil and Sandy will soon experience a night that neither will ever forget and a bond that transcends time.
Phil and Sandy cruise the town
Along for the ride is Shari Belefonte, LeVar Burton, Deedee Pfeiffer and Peter DeLuise rounding out the group of character Phil’s teenage friends. Belefonte, as the descendent of the town’s witch, delivers the movie’s one song and dance scene with “Get Dead”, there is more than a little ham in that Halloween musical number and throughout, but it only adds to the fun. Veteran actors Kevin McCarthy and Dick Van Patten also put in appearances as the fathers of two of the characters. The soundtrack is also filled with 80’s music as well as older classics, that help give the movie a nice sense of two separate times colliding.
I guess you had to be there…
Shari Belefonte getting ready to strike as Melissa Cavender
Dick Van Patten camping it up as Phil’s dentist father Martin Grenville
I still love this movie all these years later, and it is great fun when you want to watch something that is low on gore but high on fun and is sweet yet bittersweet at the same time. The Midnight Hour, as well as its cast, will always have a special place in my heart.
Thinking of Sandy
The Not so Mysterious Case of the Missing Dress
I know moving is never easy but it is even harder when you are not prepared and completely disorganized. That was pretty much the situation with the kind of move I went through in the relocation from Florida to Maryland. Oh those rueful thoughts of “if only I could go back I would do that differently” and “I should have done that” and “where did I put such and such”, the list could go on and on. When you take all of the hindsight and couple it with the fact that you are still unable to unpack months and months later you have a really sad situation.
My move was insane, I was more unprepared than I had imagined once it came time for the movers to arrive. I believe I traveled to hell and back that night before and after the movers came. I believe I am still traumatized and may even have gaps in my memory due to the fact that my brain is trying to protect me, yes, it was that bad. The move that was so bad that I have announced that I plan on NEVER moving again…ever! I know, “never say never”, but for certain I am never moving so much myself again. Oh the humanity!
All these memories came flooding back a few weeks ago as I was unable to find a few items that I had seen the previous week when opening a few boxes at my house. I was going through boxes just to remember what I had and to look for a few things. I came across several old and new friends that I can’t wait to find a place for once my house is ready. I made a mental note to take a dress that still had the tags the following week when I returned to peruse some more boxes.
When I returned to revisit the boxes I had opened I couldn’t find the dress anywhere-I was in a panic. I looked through all the opened clothes boxes three times. I decided to leave and return another day to look again. When I left my house I remembered three other distinct pieces of clothing that I didn’t remember seeing during the re-visitation.
My sister joked that someone had gotten in and taken the box. I knew no one would come to take a box of my used clothes…but I didn’t rule out the possibility of a mischievous ghost. Yes, I was that panic stricken and desperate. My sister and mom had asked if I could have seen the clothes I was missing in any other box. I haughtily informed them that I only put clothes in the boxes marked “clothes”. So I was left wondering and fretting as to where that box could have gone to.
This picture was running through my mind.
We returned to the house and again, I looked through the boxes and still found nothing. My sister even went to the attic to make sure no playful spook had decided to play a trick and put the box up there. I finally decided to look in one of my big miscellaneous boxes, I removed the two throw pillows that were the first items, and then saw the mysterious disappearing clothes deeper in the box. I had to confess to my mother and sister that I had indeed found them in a box marked “miscellaneous” and admitted I hadn’t been as meticulous as I had thought regarding the packing of all my clothes apparently. Serves me right for being so smug about the way I marked my boxes.
So, when I finally do get to unpack who knows what I will find in each box, how many things I will ask myself “why oh why, did I bring this?” I am sure I will be asking that question more often than I will care to admit. I am glad I did find the items for my own piece of mind and glad that we didn’t have an unseen trickster but I do not confess the same gladness at realizing the one thing I thought I was organized about in the move I wasn’t. Unpacking should be quite an adventure when the time comes.
Renewed Hope Through Old Memories
Have you ever woken up one day and wondered “How the heck did I get here?” I am sure most of us have and some of us have had more than one of these days, I know that I have. These “what the heck” days seem to be coming more frequently which I suppose is only to be expected as we grow older and see time pass us by with so many things left undone and unresolved-though I still have those periods where time seems to drag and nothing seems to move forward.
Easter Bunny Sisters-I got to dress myself-ugh!!!!
Well, this had originally turned out as a pretty depressing post; but then my sister and I went on a delightful trip down memory lane to an Easter thirty one years ago and much of the heaviness in my heart lifted and a rewrite was in order. It is amazing how much comfort and joy that happy childhood memories can bring-the memory of how it felt to believe anything and everything was possible and worries were on the backburner.
What was this memory? Something pretty basic, it was remembering what we got for Easter in 1982. I was given the Rio album by Duran Duran and my sister was given Lexicon of Love by ABC. That was one of the most joyful Easters we ever had as kids. We spent the day listening to the records over and over, never tiring of them. I still do the same thing when I get a new CD I like I will listen to it over and over for months and months, it is nice to know that some things never change and that we have some personality traits firmly set early on, it gives a nice sense of permanency or lunacy, I prefer to think the former.
New format but old memories
I remember that wonderful Easter morning when the Easter Bunny brought my sister and me the gift of early 80’s music those were the days. We had so much fun listening and committing the lyrics to memory and some of them have still stuck to this day.
A little bit of Easter cheer on my temporary desk
These albums were gifts then and they were a gift to me today as I have been listening to them and reliving those happy feelings and memories. Now that the years have passed and I am older, I have to completely concede that my sister definitely chose the better album of the two-though I still love Rio, ABC’s album is better musically but both are priceless for the wonderful feelings they renew.
Easter is about rebirth and renewal, and this old music and these old memories have put the joy of hope in my heart that I have not felt in quite a while and a smile on my face and a spring in my step. A small and odd Easter miracle, but a miracle just the same so I will take it!
Hoping you have a little Cha-Cha in your step this Easter season 🙂
I believe each day is a good day for a gift, but we do have Easter and Mother’s Day approaching. This post is just to highlight some handmade goodies in my Etsy store Señorita Whiskers all $10 or less. So if you are looking for something special and you are budget minded, or just need a little something as a pick me up for yourself please check out these affordable finds available by Señorita Whiskers!
Click on the images and it will take you to its Etsy listing.
These light and sweet earrings evoke Spring:
Fun and Bright Earrings
It’s always nice to have a little Yeti heart hanging around to put a smile on your face:
A Fun and Happy Yeti Heart Pin
Lovely pale pink frosted heart drop earrings:
Lovely Hearts for Your Lonesome Lobes
This little deluxe Vampy heart is too sweet to be scary:
Sweet Deluxe Vampy Heart
Blue grinning skull earrings just want to hang around with you:
Blue Skull Dangles
A light and pretty bracelet for your naked wrist:
Sweet and Lovely Millefiori Bracelet
senoritacraftywhiskers 