Mail Call!

All of you know how much I love Mail Call.

Today the postman brought a gift from a blogging friend, Maria-Thérèse,

a very talented young lady who was celebrating her Blogoversary by having a give-a-way.

I love carousels and this arrived in my post today.

I can't begin to tell you how beautiful it is.

Scanning doesn't do Maria-Thérèse Andersson's work justice at all.

Be sure you visit with her.
She has turned her Abandoned Amusement Park series into a calendar!
Wonderful!

***

Next is a piece of mail art I made.

Mixed-media, paint, paper, stamps, tag, glue stick and loads of fun.

I'm keeping the original and I made lots of copies to use as mailing labels.

Be on the lookout!

Wishing you well and a JOY filled day!

Mosaic Monday: The Wedding

Last week I shared the venue for the wedding, the lovely River Oaks Forum Civics Building and Garden.

Today it's wedding time!

It was a very happy morning, although hot!

I've talked about Vivian before. She is a friend and was a colleague of mine at the museum before she decided to study Chinese for a year in Beijing.

First was the Hindu wedding ceremony followed by the Chinese Tea ceremony.

The Hindu marriage symbolizes the physical and especially the spiritual union of man and woman. The Hindu marriage is considered a commitment between man and wife to share one's life and to care for the other.

Ganesh, the elephant headed Hindu god is always present for every puja (ceremony).

The most important item in a Hindu marriage in India is a nuptial cord of necklace called Thali. The Thali is a small pendant attached to a necklace chain. During the wedding ceremony the groom places this on the bride's neck. This is the climax of the wedding ceremony. Ladies would never remove it from their neck while their husband is alive.

The bride was beautiful in her sari of white and gold.

Parents and family elders are shown great respect in both Indian and Chinese cultures and this is reflected in their wedding customs. In the Hindu marriage ceremony, the bride and groom bow down to their parents and elders and touch their feet as a sign of respect. Likewise, the traditional Chinese tea ceremony involves the bride and groom serving tea to their parents as a show of respect from the new couple.

After the wedding and picture taking, the couple changed into their red Chinese clothes for the luncheon. We could have Chinese or Indian food. There was a lot of two fisted, two plate eating going on ... some of both, please!

Live long and prosper.

Mosaic Monday is hosted by the lovely Mary.

Each mosaic is different. Each is a story to tell.

Be sure you visit!

Wishing all of you well.

Joy!

Take My Breath Away!

The generosity of the blogging community is well known.

Sometimes, it takes my breath away.

I received a wonderful gift from Karen this week -- a beautiful journal.

It was a complete surprise.

Dear Karen, I don't know what to say except "Thank You!"

I always wanted one of your journals and now I have one.

Mr. Dragon and I looked at every page, each tag, every water color, the beautiful ribbons.

And we both were in awe of such a beautiful gift.

I'll treasure it always.

I borrowed these images from Karen's blog, A Scrapbook of Inspiration.

She posted about this lovely journal as she was finishing. Please, go visit.

See her beautiful blog and her beautiful work.

Thank you, Karen ... a thousand times over.

Thank you for being my friend.

Mail Call is wonderful, isn't it?!!!!

Postcard Friendship Friday

Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted each week by the lovely Beth.

Each week you can see a variety of postcards from the old to the new, the comic to the serious, a true variety. Be sure to visit!

Did you know that today was Wiggle Your Toes Day?

Beth did and posted an appropriate postcard in celebration!

This postcard is from a book of postcards called Gal Pals: Women's friendship and association.
This is another of the Pomegranate Postcard Artbooks.

No wiggling toes, but I love the old shoes and the idea that these good ladies are barefoot.

Church members at a Sunday baptism near Mechanicsville, Maryland, c.1942
Photograph by Marjory Collins
Print and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

"From schoolgirls on monkey bars to grandmas at a fair, from best-friends forever to confidantes at work, this book of postcards presents thirty vintage portraits of everyday women and girls in the company of one another. Women everywhere will recognize their moms, their sisters, their friends, and themselves in these evocative images captured by a variety of photographers, including such renowned masters as Marion Post Wolcott, Dorothea Lange, and Russell Lee - a visual celebration of the pleasures, complexities, and abiding comforts of female friendship."

This collection of 30 vintage images is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

Happy PFF!

Joy to You!

Mail Call

Do you see what arrived in the mail?

From Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist -- The Mystery of Lewis Carroll.

It will go with Mr. Dragon's new old copy of the Annotated Alice!

And, perhaps we'll have a cup of tea made in the white rabbit tea pot!

Good Morning!

Mail Call!

You all know how much I LOVE Mail Call -- especially when there are surprises.

This week has really been a lot of fun.

The first to arrive was this lovely piece of Mail Art from my friend, Sharon, at WildflowerHouse. It was a complete surprise, almost too pretty to open, but I did and this is what was inside.

This wonderful bookmark. Sharon is very talented. She's an artist in many media and her needlework is just gorgeous.

The back of the bookmark with this quote by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"I feel we are all islands in a common sea."

Sharon knows my love of books and that I'll treasure and put this bookmark to good use.

I promise!

***

Next to arrive -- this beautiful necklace.

I won Kate's (Shibori Girl) Mad Hatter Give-a-way and what a lucky girl I am.

I wore it all day yesterday and just love it.

The flower pendant is made from individual slices of petal and leaf polymer clay canes. The brass chain is embellished with pretty Alice-blue Swarovski crystals. The chain is 18" long.

Polymer clay is Kate's new obsession and boy, am I glad it is!

Be sure to drop by and visit these two very talented ladies, fellow bloggers and friends of mine. You'll be glad to make their acquaintance!

Say Hello from Me!

Have a wonderful day.

Joy to You!

Happy Easter

"Of course there are such things as angels only sometimes they don't have wings and we call them friends."

Shout Out!

When I first started blogging, once a week I'd post a Blog of The Week. It was loads of fun visiting new to me bloggers to find special ones to introduce to you. But, I was spending all my time out in cyberspace and not enough time in real life, so I slowly let the blog of the week drop. I also decided that every blog I follow and all that follow me are the REAL blogs of the week!

So, what am I doing today? I'm giving a shout out to someone I met in 2009 during the One World One Heart blogathon. Kate, at Shibori Girl, and I have become blogging buddies. We share a lot of things in common: we both love to cook, we both love animals, we both love art, she makes gorgeous jewelry, I wear jewelry -- you get the idea.

This is what Kate says about herself: " I started this journey as a shibori artist, making beautiful patterns on fabric. Many years (and injuries later) I find myself making beautiful patterns with beads, or cooking ingredients."

Kate recently started working with polymer clay and OH MY! You just have to see. This girl is flying high!

But first, when I say Kate is an artist -- she really is!
Look at these drawings.

Wonderful, yes?!!!

A couple of Kate's beaded necklaces.

This special bead was made using the tubular right angel weave method.
Once the structure was made, she added layers of czech beads, Swarovski crystals,
and seed beads. In addition, little silver-lined seed beads add sparkle.

The bead is strung onto a hand-dyed shibori ribbon with sterling silver end caps
and silver toned clasp.

And, last but not least, here is the cuff Kate made with polymer clay.

Gorgeous!

Please visit Kate's Blog Shibori Girl, introduce yourself and have a look around. Kate has two Etsy shops: one where she destashes (is that a word?) her beads, and one where you can buy her fabulous jewelry.

All of the photos belong to Kate and were used here with her permission.

My World

Visit My World to see more of our world or to participate yourself!

Today I'm taking you to The Path of Tea.

You can see all the teapots in the window.
They were everywhere inside.

This is the sniffing bar.
133 organic teas to pick from.

You pick the tea cup you wish to drink from.

Here's Mr. Dragon with his red velvet cupcake.
We need to go back to more pictures of the TEA!
We had such a good time, we forgot all about the camera!

They had wonderful goodies to pick from.
Here's my cupcake.
Several bars and cookies were made with tea.
We picked a green tea called Jasmine Dragon Pearl.

The girls had a black tea flavored with Lychee.

What made this tea drinking special were our two guests.
The one on the left is the curator for Asian Art at the museum.
The one on the right used to be her assistant, Vivian.
Vivian may look familiar to those of you who have followed me for awhile.
Vivian went temple trekking with us before she went to China to study.
Now she's off to Michigan to work on her Ph.D.
This was a farewell and good luck tea.

Click here to view all participants of My World Tuesday.

The Te of Tea

I had a wonderful surprise at the end of January. Vivian was in town. You might remember that she is a young colleague and friend of mine who went to study Chinese in Beijing. We temple treked together on more than one occasion. She called one morning with a surprise. We had been invited to a video taping of a puja at a local Hindu temple. The video will be used in the new Arts of India gallery at the museum.

This Hindu temple is very different from the one we visited during the summer.
This is the gateway into the courtyard.
Immaculate, beautiful and flowers everywhere.
Gorgeous in its' simplicity.

This is the outside of the temple.
The windows had been covered with paper to make the taping easier.
The water was beautiful and was on all sides of the temple.
The puja was for Shiva and was amazing.
The sound of the chanting by the priest, the ringing of the bell, the lighted candles --
WOW!

After the taping it was off to the Te of Tea for some tea and lunch.

The tea shop is in the Montrose part of Houston.
A wonderful, interesting area with different shops hidden around every corner.

The day was very special.
I got to spend it with two people I consider friends.
Two very lovely ladies who I respect very much.
Christine is on the left and is the curator for Asian art.
Vivian on the right. She is back in Beijing. We miss you Vivian!