Colors, Patterns, Shapes

Color! For some reason, lately, I've been looking for color. Now, my house is not drab. I have an orange kitchen -- dreamsicle orange a neighbor calls it. I was putting my art books away and picked up one of my favorite books on Korea. I gave a tour last month and am just getting around to putting books away from refreshing my memory (needs a lot of refreshing). Doing any tour in the Arts of Korea Gallery reminds me of the night the gallery officially opened.

Opening Night
Just look at the color.
The beautiful ladies in their traditional dress (hangul).

So, before I put the book (above) away -
I want to share some photos from Korean Patterns with you.

This is a coffee table book.
Korean Patterns is a look at traditional patterns and their use
in clothing, food and shelter.
All the photographs were taken by Jae-sik Suh.
Enjoy!
Color, Pattern and Shape!

Simple Woman's Daybook

Today we were given the choice of the regular
Simple Woman's Daybook
or

20 Of My Favorite Things.

Here's 20 of My Favorite Things!

1. Color- green -- all greens -- remind me of Mother Earth

2. Dessert- I love cherries ... cherry anything!

3. Smell- honeysuckle

4. Flower- Iris

5. Animal- kitties!

6. Month - October

7. Beverage- tea

8. Pair of shoes- tennis and a pair of SAS sandals

9. Snack- I try real hard not to snack -- anything salty or a piece of
cranberry walnut bread

10.Song- Almost anything by HEART, soundtrack from Les Mis

11. Book- War and Peace

12. Fruit- if it’s not cherries, it better be strawberries!

13. Hairstyle- I’d love to wear my hair in a pony tail,
but it isn’t long enough and long hair makes me look shorter!

14. Piece of clothing- I really don’t have one .. a favorite, that is!

15. Store to clothes shop- Lands End, Stein Mart.
No more board meetings or faculty shindigs.
I don’t have to shop for clothes anymore, so I don’t!

16. Season-Autumn

17. Hobby- Too many hobbies ... knit, crochet, counted cross stitch, mixed-media, reading

18. Thing to collect- too many collections, too.
Dragons, chickens, books

19. Movie- Still thinking! Not a movie goer.

20. Restaurant - Benjy's

To read more Daybook posts or learn how to participate, visit The Simple Woman’s Daybook.

Sunday Morning

Normally, we do not so much look at things as overlook them ...

~Zen Quote by Alan Watts

Camera Critters 56

Today I'm going to introduce you to Toby.
Toby, the Red Panda, is one of the newest additions to the Houston Zoo.
We hope, someday, there will be a Mrs. Toby!
Toby is living in a newly redecorated area that once housed Koalas.
The Koalas have returned to California.
Toby is very active and doesn't pose.
I got this photo *on the fly*!

Houston “got cute” on March 28, 2009 when The World’s Cutest Animal made his long awaited debut at the Houston Zoo. He’s Toby, the red panda. Toby’s new indoor home near the Houston Zoo’s award-winning Natural Encounters Building includes natural log climbing features, natural substrate floor, a small pool and a water fall, skylights and air conditioning.

Over the years, the red panda has undergone an identity crisis of sorts, existing in the shadow of the better known giant panda. Red pandas are exquisite and fascinating mammals with their own unique set of behaviors and characteristics. Best known for their striking red coats and white to reddish-brown facial mask, red pandas are superb climbers. When not searching for food on the ground, red pandas will spend most of their time in the trees.

Red pandas live only in temperate forests in the Himalayan foothills from western Nepal through northern Burma (Myanmar) and in the mountains of southwestern China at altitudes between 5,000 and 13,000 feet. Temperatures remain fairly cool and constant in their native habitat, supporting the mix of forests trees and bamboo on which red pandas depend. Red pandas live solitary lives, only coming together to reproduce during the very brief breeding season.

The red panda’s diet is very unusual among mammals. Only the red panda, giant panda, two types of rodents, and one species of lemur from Madagascar can survive on a strict bamboo diet. The red panda’s adaptation to a bamboo diet has helped shape their behavior, spending up to half the day in search of tender new bamboo leaves. (Information from the Houston Zoo)

You can see more of Toby on YouTube:

Potpourri

Happy Friday everyone!

Today I have a journal page, cross stitch and a short review of a cozy mystery.

The journal page "Life is a Garden" was fun to do.
I cut and pasted, and cut and pasted, and cut and pasted, and .....
I stamped some, too - but didn't like it and tried to cover it over.
All in all, I like Ms. Flora in her garden.

Isn't this cute? Now I have to get it framed.
I have cross-stitch urge.
Good thing.
I have a huge tote bag full of counted cross stitch that needs to be done!

Lastly, I finished The Silver Needle Murder: A Tea Shop Mystery by Laura Childs. This was number nine in this cozy mystery series set in Charleston, South Carolina. I sometimes wonder why I have continued to read this series. The mystery is usually an easy one to figure out or one that comes to a completion in a moment and makes no sense. I decided I continue to read them because I like the setting and the characters. Theodosia Browning and the staff of the Indigo Tea Shop are "the cats pajamas" (thank you granny). Theodosia has a dog named Earl Grey who occasionally is in the spotlight; Drayton is a master tea blender; Haley the young baker extraordinaire; Delaine Dish owns the Cotton Duck Boutique; Detective Tidwell and Charleston is, well, Charleston!

In The Silver Needle Murder the Charleston Film Festival brings a busy week of catering jobs to the Indigo Tea Shop. The first job is for the opening night gala at the historic and newly renovated, Belvedere Theatre. The festival starts off with a bang when famous director Jordan Cole is shot on his way to the podium and the entire audience witnesses his death silhouetted across the scrim.

Theodosia is asked to stand in as a judge when two of them quit. She agrees and gets pulled into the investigation of the murder.

As in all good cozy mysteries, Theo finds out who done it by accident. She's in the wrong place at the right time. But the conclusion was a little abrupt and not well concluded. There are some nice recipes at the end and some suggestions for tea parties.

So, will I read another in the series? Yes! I love the characters and all the talk about one of my favorite subjects, TEA. I want to hear what new blend Drayton has come up with and what Haley's menu for the day is. Yum!

If you like cozy mysteries, these would be good summer reads (especially if you like TEA). Most of them are available in paperback at your local used book store.

Happy Friday!