floridabtls.org

Benefit Charities

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 01:17:03 +0000

I love to shop at stores that benefit charities, whether online or in person. This gives me the great satisfaction of feeling that my money is accomplishing more than one purpose at a time. One of my favorites is the Habitat for Humanity online shop – I have gotten HFH apparel, desk items, and gifts there. Another favorite is the Southwest Indian Foundation, which has a great catalog as well as a super web site. This charity supports Native American outreach in New Mexico. And a third shop I really like is called Ten Thousand Villages, a fair trade marketer and retailer that seeks to assist people in developing countries around the world. While I prefer going to their shop in Boston, I see they also now have online shopping.

Botanical wonders

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:02:22 +0000

It’s always astonished me that Spanish moss – that dreary, droopy stuff that festoons old Southern landscapes — is related to pineapples. But it’s true. They’re both bromeliads, an ancient group of plants that includes a number of epiphytic species that don’t need to be rooted in soil to thrive. What these two very different-seeming plants do have in common is an exterior armor of overlapping plates. In the pineapple, it’s obvious. The skin is segmented with regularly incised scales. On the moss, it’s more subtle, but with a hand lens, it’s plain. Each silvery tendril of Spanish moss is covered with a mosaic of interlocking scales, like a butterfly’s wing.

A beach home in the woods

admin — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 08:00:58 +0000

The house I live in wasn’t always here. Originally, it was a vacation cottage on a barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico. Sturdily constructed of cypress and Southern yellow pine, when its owners found it in the path of development, instead of demolishing it, they jacked it up, put it on a flatbed truck and moved it inland about 30 miles. We bought it a few years ago, charmed by its shotgun shack-style simplicity and its beadboard walls. Of course, being old, resinous wood, it could go up like a torch someday, plus, as old as it is, it’s leaky as a sieve. But love overlooks flaws.

Venice Beach House by Lewin Wertheimer Contemporist (apartmenttherapy.com)

Loose and loungy

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:57:22 +0000

The day is young, yet, so I’m wearing pajamas still. On top is a periwinkle blue tank-style shirt. It’s sleeveless, with Indian-influenced, machine-embroidered designs an the hem with a matching strip of applique applied to the V-neck. The bottoms are elastic-waist, floral print capri-length pants. The colors include the same pale purply blue as the top, as well as black and white accents — the twining vines, leaves and so on. I got these pajamas at least a year ago, before I’d lost a lot of weight — about 50 pounds — so they’re very loose, but when you’re asleep, that hardly matters.

Plan for Fire Safety

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 06:33:33 +0000

Fires are very dangerous and can happen almost anywhere, which is why it is important to know about fire safety and have a plan in case one breaks out where you live or work. First of all, know where large fire extinguishers are. If you do not have any in your home, buy one and place in the kitchen since fires more often break out in the kitchen. Put in smoke detectors which will alarm in case of fire. Instruct your children as to what they should do in the case of fire and how to exit your home without touching door knobs which will be hot, and without inhaling too much smoke.

If I could just figure out how …

admin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 06:55:12 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

Not having to worry about money would be sublime, I think. With no financial obligations, I’d get up every day, curry my mare, saddle her and ride hard for a few hours before breakfast. When I returned home, I’d feed her and the rest of the animals, then have a fresh fruit and tea breakfast myself. After digging around in the garden for a few hours, I’d swim for 45 minutes or so before settling in front of my easel or sitting down in front of my piano and fooling around for a bit. Once the kids were home from school — no, wait, if I had no financial obligations, my kids wouldn’t GO to school. I’d educate them here, myself.

Without it, I’d be lost

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 05:53:33 +0000

I have a shiny little Mac that slips into my leather briefcase like a pistol into a holster. I like the soft clickety sound of its keys; I like its sleek shell; I like its blue-white back-lit keyboard. The operating system and commands feel right to me. Working it isn’t a struggle. In fact, it’s a pleasure. I even like the way it smells — kind of new car mixed with ozone. But what I really love is that it’s the essential tool of my trade — the hardware that enables me to wrestle with the universe as I feed my family.

Founded on fun

admin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:50:02 +0000

Mostly, I remember all the laughter. Sure, there were dark times, but my parents saw to it that there were a lot of laughs in the house I grew up in. Whether it was my mother drawing Christmas pictures on the naked pink belly of the family cockapoo, Cinder (washable markers, of course) or my father announcing that his favorite gum was Feenamint, things were always pretty light in our odd little house. We were often inappropriate — unabashedly so — but sometimes, that’s what kept us going, I’m pretty sure. Still does. My last birthday, my mom sent me a glossy card with a photo of a toucan on the front. Inside, it read, “See that beak? Know what you can do?”

Christmas Gift Ideas: This Christmas Something Unique for All … (mothersdaygiftguide.com)

Safety measures to prevent loss of life and property from fire

admin — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:35:36 +0000

Fire is often unexpected. However if you keep a fire extinguisher in your home it will save loss of life and properties. Keeping a fire extinguisher alone is not enough but adequate measures should be taken then and there to keep the fire extinguisher in working condition. Beside the fire extinguisher the following steps may also save you from the unexpected fire. Installing smoke detectors and discount fire blankets in your home will enable you to get warning when there is an abnormal smoking and fires. It is better to memorize the emergency telephone numbers of fire service stations or paste the emergency telephone numbers where your eye contact is frequent. Don’t get trapped inside the home while calling the emergency number, it is better to come out and call from outside your home. Set up adequate easy exit ways in your home in case of fire. Keep the children and pets away from matches and lighters. It is better to double check all electrical installations are in off mode when going out.

A subtle pleasure

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 03:47:23 +0000

I like to watch silent films, D.W. Griffith epics, especially. To watch the actors and actresses overdoing their roles is an anachronistic treat. Plus, I love the rickety fonts of the old title cards. Black and white motion pictures seem to me to have a depth and dimensionality that somehow is lost in lushly colored contemporary films. Maybe it’s the simplicity, the limitation in palette to shades of gray, but I’ve always been someone who appreciates nuance over spectacle. The grappling with social issues — and here, I’m thinking of films like “Intolerance” and “Birth of a Nation” — make for interesting historical reference points, especially when it’s all one can do to keep from getting dragged to “Twilight.”