I took hundreds of photos on Saturday. My class canceled. I had many places I could choose from to do. However, my voice was tired after a night singing/socializing till the wee hours at Mac’s Bar. I decided to take myself on a solo adventure and rest the voice a bit.

It was Be a Tourist in Your Own Town day. I love this event, and it keeps getting better. This year Paramount Coffee opened their plant for tours, so I did that.

I also went to the new City Market building for the first time. (I loved it, in spite of my pre-visit reservations.)

I am still working on my pattern deadlines. The first is handled, but the second has a significantly impending due date with no wiggle space at all.

I’ve been knitting, taking photos and writing instructions. I’m alternating between PhotoShop, KnitVisualizer, Excel, Word and InDesign. I sure am using the capabilities of this lovely laptop to the max.

I continue to be grateful for my 6+ years as a software trainer. The things I learned during that time are still helping me every day. I can not imagine how frustrating this work might be to someone without as much experience as a professional geek as I have had.

Um… this is to say I have processed two uncharacteristic photos of the weekend at this point. I took photos of plants, one when I first got downtown and one when I was nearly done. I’m posting the last one taken as the first to look at. It is too pretty to wait upon.

That first photo is a garden near the corner of Michigan Avenue and Grand Avenue. It’s on the grounds of the Radisson Hotel, the only downtown hotel at this point.

I have NEVER seen Calla Lilies in this colorway before. I’ve seen white many times, and once saw some pale lemon yellow ones, solid colored. These look like they have been painted by hand. (I can envision them on a canvas by my friend, Barbara Hranilovich.) Gorgeous!

The second photo was taken somewhere between the Convention Center and the City Market, on/near the Riverwalk. This determined thistle plant rooted and grew sideways on its own. It’s a determined little plant, for sure. I’m guessing there is a poem in there somewhere. I’m content to let the poem be visual, though.

I’ll have more photos of my footie knitting soon, plus photos of Mac’s Bar and more Tourist day photos. For now, I’m giving you a feast for your eyes, two very different ways.

My mother, Liz Troldahl, is a fine woman. She had trouble learning to read as a child, and that experience turned her into an amazing reading teacher. I have heard more than one colleague exclaim “Liz can teach a ROCK to read!”

Helping one child overcome reading challenges, is enough to change the world in a real way. Mom taught before I was born, taught over 20 years in the Okemos School system in Michigan, and continues to volunteer both in Michigan and in Florida. Mom has truly impacted the lives of thousands of children, many of whom are now adults themselves.

This year, my mother was once more honored for her hard work, changing the lives of kids. She was again awarded the Volunteer of the Year Award at Southwest Elementary school in Polk County, Florida. Here is a peek of the article from the online version of the Polk County local paper, The Ledger.

Here is a photo of Mom with her family… me, Mom, my brother Eric Oscar, and Mom’s partner Fred. Either my husband Brian or Eric’s wife Diana took this photo (I think it was Diana). This was the day we celebrated Mom’s 75th birthday and my brother’s 49th birthday, if I have it right.

Mom has a “recumbent tricycle” on which she rides miles and miles. She rides to the mall, where she takes an exercise class a few times a week, then she rides her bike home. GO, MOM!

Frenzied? Give yourself a gift.

Take 8 minutes. Sit still with a cup of tea or coffee, and watch this video full screen. One glance at this man’s face and I knew I wanted to hear what he had to say. He just looks loving and peaceful to me.

This is not religious in nature. The message is his personal understanding. It is thoughtful and human, and loving.

Sit still and listen. It could change your day.

Living Here & Now

I got the most wonderful visual surprise on Saturday! I had to share it with you.

My friend Doug Berch was performing at Altu’s restaurant on Saturday night. I decided to be part of the audience and knit with any knitters who might come.

As I turned into the parking lot, I caught a quick glance of color in the background next door. I was intrigued.

The lot next door to Altu’s restaurant used to be a large party bar, starting back in the days when East Lansing was a “dry” town. Altu’s is the last building in East Lansing, and that bar next door was the first in Lansing (one could drink in Lansing in those days). It was a popular place for years, but in the last decade or so it had struggled and then closed for good.

Last year, the building was torn down. Now it’s a green space. It’s still a bit scrubby, but in the city we like green spaces of any sort!

And Saturday, there were six children, all in a sort of train, enjoying that space. The smallest child was in the front, and everyone behind was attached by putting their hands on the shoulders they could reach in front of them.

These kids were dressed so colorfully, that I saw them from Michigan Avenue before I pulled in. I stopped my car the moment I could, and took a distance shot (first photo). Then I waited, not that long, and took a few other photos when they came closer to me. (For the record, all parents were watching from nearby.)

I am thrilled with the second one here. Perfect, playful, in-the-moment joy.

It made my day. I hope it might make yours now, too.

Barbara Winter (Author of Making a Living without a Job… I wrote about her here) has inspired me again! I love quotations, and she has a full page of some of her own favorites, here on her blog:

http://joyfullyjobless.com/blog/2010/05/wise-words-from-favorite-writers/

Here are two that hit me particularly deeply:

All sorrow and trouble of this world is caused by unhappy people….The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert.

and

We must do what we conceive to be right and not bother our heads or burden our souls  with whether we’ll be successful. Because if we don’t do the right thing, we’ll do the wrong thing and we’ll be part of the disease and not part of the cure. ~ E. F. Schumacher

As you can see, Barbara’s book has inspired me, as well. I really wanted to share a quote from that very book here with you.

Unfortunately, I have put the book in a place where it does not belong, sometime after taking that photo. Must find it… meanwhile, I recommend a visit to Barbara’s blog.

The other day I got frustrated with a deep drawer in our kitchen. It holds kitchen towels, mostly, but it also holds some plastic bags for convenient use. That is, bags from stores, not zip bags.

Well, the drawer was so full I could not fit the towels in it. I decided to excavate. I don’t know how we fit all these bags in that drawer!

We are using re-usable grocery bags much more lately. Some of these have been in that drawer for over a year.

Only a few are in there now. The rest are in storage in an out-of-the-way location. Progress!

Change is one small step at a time. I like this one.

Wow. Diana found this one somehow… “The Ross Sisters” singing three-part girl harmony at the beginning… and then amazing acrobatic/contortionist/dancing. Wowie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNR74UCidBI&feature=player_embedded

Sometimes these old movie clips disappear from YouTube, but today it’s working great.

My life is in the process of changing. Right now I’m in the evaluation phase, which means lots of pondering, thinking, looking for options.

I’m doing what I can to stay away from worry. I am fond of saying “Worry is not action.” That is harder to live than it is to say to someone else, as you might imagine!

Tuesday I had a canceled night class. I had the opportunity to make choices a bit with my time. Now, my porch is my favorite place in Lansing on warm days. It was warm enough to go out there.

The winter had done a bit of a messy job on that porch, though. The floor was full of leaves, the ledges around the porch were decorated, so to speak, by the birds who hung out there for shelter. The three chairs and one table which stayed out on the porch, were dusty. The painted chairs had peeled a bit since fall.

I decided I wanted to work on the porch, but that it needed to encourage me rather than drag me down. Out came the broom and dustpan. Out came wet, soapy cloth and a dry cloth to follow it. It did not take all that long to make the porch welcoming again.

I put away the cleaning tools. I hung up my beloved hammock (purchased on a trip to Mexico almost 15 years ago). I got out a quilted pillow made for me by Brian’s sister, Jane. The wireless computer and cup of tea followed me, along with a box full of paperwork.

The sun filtered through the thin, green, spring leaves across the street. I got some work done and enjoyed my luck at being able to work in that place for several hours.

If I must ponder my future while doing some work, this is the best possible place to do it.

Mary-Heather (RainyDayGoods)  from Ravelry.com linked today to a list on that site, where folks were talking about their simple pleasures. My first thought, a small pleasure for me, was a hot wet washcloth on my face. Then when I posted I got so inspired by other happy thoughts that I did not even include that in my list.

I have posted here before about small things really being the essence of my happy life. I have had some big things before (perhaps the biggest was my 5-week trip to Africa with my friend Altu). However, banking on big things to make life OK, does not work well as a life strategy.

So today I’m going to share with you the list I posted on the Ravelry Thread (if you are a member of Ravelry, which is free, you can read the whole thread… highly recommended).

• Watching my beloved hubby light up when I walk in the room.
• Singing/performing on stage with beloved. It’s more fun than I dreamed when I was a kid.
• Having my 24-yr-old Goddaughter call me and ask for time together.
• Having my 6-yr-old “fairy-Goddaughter” accidentally call me Grandma.
• Hot tea, dark, black and “straight up.”
• Baking something from scratch, with ingredients I’m not allergic to (yesterday, chocolate cake ), and eating it still warm out of the oven.
• Real whipped cream, whipped with brown sugar rather than white.
• Buying produce at the neighborhood (city) market, from the people who grew that food.
• My front porch. Especially naps in the hammock on the porch (in the city, but nobody can see me there).
• Wool, alpaca, kid mohair, any combination of them.
• Two colors next to one another which create more “zing” than one alone. This can stop me in my tracks.
• Running into someone who has made one of my patterns. It still lifts my heart to see that.
• The first day of the year when I can open front/back doors, let the breeze flow through, and wear my favorite African clothing. Bye, bye winter!

What about you? What simple/small things make your heart sing?

Yours may not do it for me (or mine for you), but I think it would be wonderful to get a little inspiration going in the comments here. Or, by all means, run over to Ravelry and join the larger thread.

The photo I wanted to post with this column? Fresh, organic strawberries from the East Lansing Food Co-Op. They were so perfect they looked fake, and they tasted perfect, as well. I made some of that brown-sugar whipped cream to put on the berries. No fancy torte is as good as that combination!

Unfortunately, I’m having a few computer issues which I think are temporary. No photo today. Sorry.

I just found a photo of a card I wrote to a friend a year back. She was leaving her life in Michigan behind and starting over in a far away state.

I airbrushed out her name, but the essential message is there.

“Remember, change brings us closer to our true selves.”

I believed it then, and I still do. My divorce in 1991 was the worst/best thing I’ve ever gone through, but I discovered who I was in the process. I did not call myself an artist before that time.

Losing my father still grieves me. I was 14, he was 40, it’s still a crying shame 30+ years later. However, I learned so much from that… particularly, that people are the riches in our lives… not the stuff. It comes down to who you love, in the end.

And being put on total voice rest for 31 days, being silent and feeling invisible? It gave me empathy and compassion for others who endure those conditions permanently. I am still changed from that month, even though it was 15 years ago.

The failure of my JoyBug’s engine and subsequent choice to replace that engine, has changed my reality overnight. It’s another moment where it feels like life changed the channel on me when I blinked. For at least a year, I will be making conscious choices to rebuild the funds it took to do that.

However, I have been poorer than I am now before. I am happier and richer in friends and lifestyle than ever before. I have resources from which to work. I can do without some things I was enjoying as small luxuries.

I am self-employed. This means I can not be laid off. I may have less business in one place, but I have the freedom to figure out where else I can work. I will not get “rich” in a money sense, but I have never been hungry and do not expect that now. I already am abundantly rich in the things that matter to me.

I am grateful I was able to pull off a new computer and an iPod Touch last year. They will last longer than my austerity period, I believe.

The car’s engine had just short of 150,000 miles on it and now it’s under 80,000 miles, with a 6 month warranty. I had not experienced car payments since 2004.  In a way, we  just bought a “new” car for ourselves, but with the familiar comfort intact. (Comfort to me, anyway… Brian prefers a different sort of car, but only gets in one when we sing together or travel together to visit family.)

(The odometer turned over to 150,000 miles yesterday, in front of my friend’s house, on my street. Here she is at 150,000 miles, on a gorgeous, sunny, crisp spring day!)

I have been giving away clothing already, and I have a lovely stock of yarns from which to design new patterns. We eat relatively frugally already, and the quality of food in this house is premium.

So, I again will remind myself that “Change brings us closer to our true selves.” It has definitely been true for me before. This sort of discovery venture is a good place to be.

I’m a bit behind on this announcement. After all, Pantone made their announcement of the 2010 Color of the Year months ago. I got the word from Irene A (thanks for the link, Irene). Somehow it got buried in other news.

TURQUOISE is the color of the year for 2010. (At least it is according to Pantone, a company which defines trends in visual design realms.) Imagine that!

Now… Turquoise is at least my color of the last decade or two. In fact, in 1969 I was allowed to choose merely two colors of Red Heart yarn at the five and dime store all the way in East Lansing. (That was not all of 10 miles from our house.)

I was allowed two colors, and no amount of begging for more got me anywhere. It was painfully difficult to narrow it that far but I had no choice. I was about 11 years old.

That year my choices were: bright Turquoise and kelly Green. I’ve been on a roll with this color for a pretty long time. I even remember that year I had a pair of bell-bottom pants and a 3/4-sleeved mock turtleneck in matching turquoise fabrics, which I loved to wear together.

I worked for Casual Corner clothing store for 6 months back in 1987. I remember that year we had piles of muted pink and muted sage green sweaters to sell. Tons of them. It was holiday season and these poor men would wander in trying to find a gift. I asked them if they had seen her wear that color before. Whew.

But the jade-turquoise (greenish, deep, saturated) wool jersey dresses? They looked good on a LOT of people. I even sold one of those dresses to my mom, who wore it a long time.

I figured out then, that most people can pull off turquoise clothing, though they will prefer one “flavor” of it over another. (Pinks, you must get the exact right one or you may look ill.)

I look best in a hot, intense turquoise, and I prefer a greenish variation when I can find it. Someone else might look better in a softer, swimming-pool blue-turquoise. My mom favors a greenish medium-aqua in the summertime. A redheaded friend looks stunning in a deep teal. All of these colors, in my mind, are turquoise. They all are somewhere between a true blue and a true green.

Pantone’s color of the year is a soft, but not too gray, version of turquoise. It’s a little more blue than green, and about halfway between white and black (value around 5, maybe 6). Funny, but I’m sitting here typing this with a “coffee” mug next to me which I got at the Ann Arbor Art Museum. It is a little more green than the color of the year… but it says “Pantone (C) 3272 C” which amuses me.

For the record, the first photo in this column is me with Brian as The Fabulous Heftones. That dress was my wedding dress. It was a deep turquoise silk, evening dress by Liz Claiborne. I was not going to get married in a froofy, girly, lace dress. Brian said it didn’t matter to him what I wore, the point was to get married. I am still delighted I found that dress, right off the rack and ready to go. On sale. Perfect!

Here is a photo of me in about 1971, wearing a turquoise-paneled dress. Does anyone remember “bonded” fabric? Nasty stuff… built a bit like a thin/wide sandwich. There was a thin layer of knit (typically cotton) on the public side, with a very thin layer of foam-yes-foam in the middle, and the back layer was nylon tricot knit. Dry clean. Prone to sit-out and de-laminate. It did allow structure.

Bonded fabric was all I had (for dress-up dresses) for a while in the late 60s and early 70s. This dress was made of the stuff.

The middle photos? More turquoise… my theme color. First is a small mitered square project made with leftover sockyarns, from socks I’ve knit.  No yarn was purchased for the project. The second was my prototype which turned into the One-Day Neckwarmer, also from leftover stash yarns.

I’m incurable. I don’t mind. I think 2010 is my year, then?

Hi, friends. I’ve had an amazing jam-packed week. I’m just stopping in to tell you I’m still of this world.

Friday daytime, my car decided it wanted a new engine for its 12th birthday (it was due to turn over 150,000 miles that day). Stopped, and that was that. (The replacement engine is on its way.)

Friday night, we took the bus to perform in the Lil’ Darlin’s Vaudeville show. That was fun… both the bus ride and the show. And dinner afterward at Emil’s Italian Restaurant.

For the record, this longest-family-owned restaurant in Lansing has its kitchen open until midnight, at least on Fridays. A “busload” of us from the show came in at about 11:35 and they greeted us with open arms. It was a class-act welcome.

Since then, I’ve been fighting what I thought was allergies or a cold. I stayed home Sat/Sun. I did little on Monday.

Tuesday I felt well enough to get out and work, doing the Lansing Comfort Bear event at Schuler Books Eastwood. It was INCREDIBLE.

The press was there, TV6 and TV10 plus the Lansing State Journal. We had a great largish crowd of knitters. Two had not knit before, and Rae and Anna helped them while I tended to the larger percentage who were already knitters.

A couple of people finished the back of their bear that night. Loved it.

But now I am not just having allergy symptoms, I am truly sick. That kind of sick where you cough so much you can’t sleep. So your LynnH is trying to lay low.

I almost never get bored, but I am now. Wednesday and Thursday I’ve canceled everything. Friday I have no solid obligations, and may have to postpone a lunch with a friend, we will see.

In the big scheme of things… cars need repairs sometimes. People get sick sometimes. I got both the same week… maybe that is a faster way for me to get past the “hiccups.”

I’m knitting a little, when I am not having coughing fits. That part is good. But I’m already bored of playing Scrabble on the iPod Touch, and that means I’ve been still far too long. One day at a time.

For now, I’m not blogging enough. Please excuse the quiet. I will be back.

Look what a few seconds of inattention got me:

You can not see from this angle, that it is no longer a cylinder. It has a shape closer to an eye. I am SO bummed. I put it on top of the car… you can guess the rest.

Michael Graves, from Target. I’ve had it for YEARS. Best one for me, and for the limited size capacity of my 1998 New Beetle (holder below dash, height is impossible). Best ever.

Can’t find a replacement online, new or used. Target, eBay, Amazon, all come up short. They do not offer an equivalent, either. I want steel inside and outside, short, small base, dishwasher-proof. This one did it all. (The VW parts shop had a mug with a beetle imprinted on it, but it was too small for the front seat holders. Go figure.

Anyone have one just like this on the back of a kitchen shelf somewhere? I could pay or trade for it, and you would make me VERY happy.

Just the same, if this is the worst thing that happens to my life… I’m OK.

(Added later: Charlotte asked for measurements. Mine is 2.5 inches on the base (could be maybe up to 2.75inches). The height of this one was 6″ and it might go as much as 6.5″ but not much beyond. I’ve found 7″ ones that did not work. Thank you for asking!)

Tuesday I went to Old Town, Lansing. It was a beautiful day for walking. The sun shone, and it was the first day of the year which really made me think we might get summer after all.

I took a lot of photos, inside and out. The first one here is a view pointing east from the corner of Turner and Grand River. Can you see the tables on the sidewalk, serving customers of Pablo’s Panaderia? (If you have not been there, the food is fresh and excellent, with the best fresh-squeezed orange juice I’ve had since I was in Mexico.)

I did not take a photo of Mama Bear’s Conscious Cafe’ where I ate lunch that day. Chica has great food, and focuses on locally-grown products, organic and free trade items. Highly recommended (about a block and a half down Turner street on the east/left side of the street walking from Grand River.

Around another corner, on Washington Avenue, I stopped at Elderly Instruments. The blue flowers here were in their garden out front.

And inside Elderly’s historical brick building (former Odd Fellows‘ hall from around 1910 or so), I spotted a heating grate above my head. I had not seen it before. Tim told me that it actually does blow air, it is not a cold air duct. Gorgeous!

As I write this, it is Thursday and the third of three amazingly summer-like days in Lansing (with Friday expected to be even warmer).  The sun shines, the heat rises, the doors and windows open.

Kids go by on bikes, folks walk dogs and babies in strollers. Cars go by with stereo a bit louder than usual… and I do a happy dance. And another happy dance, and another…

Even in my own neighborhood, the Guitar Guy on the corner appears to be celebrating the weather. Tuesday on the way to old town, I spotted him playing a shiny guitar and what looked to be a small portable speaker on a shoulder strap as he played.

His winter guitar did not come out that day. This one seemed to have mother of pearl or something shining in the sun.

Notice that the corner he often occupies, is not a place where pedestrians pass by. However, it’s a place many pass on the way to and from work/downtown. He has been doing this for several years, so busking this way seems to work for him.

This can be a lovely, interesting town. Go, Lansing!