Good Things Happened: Bunny, good shopping and glorious

A cute Easter treat that looked so bright and shiny in my kitchen.  "Looked" is the key word.  I needed some chocolate this week and the ears went first.  :)  

I parked in front of this beautiful loading dock door at Builders Steel Supply in Lilburn, Georgia last Saturday, when I was attending the Spring open house at my favorite antique shop up the street.  Amazing door - I wonder where it came from?

I snagged these two wine glasses for $3.50 each at the open house.  My sister has a set that she bought in Germany years ago.  I always liked them, so wanted to take these home.  She says they are Roemer Glass, made to drink sweet wines from the Rhine region of Germany.

And finally a glorious sunrise as I stepped out of my car at 7:15am yesterday morning, as I got to work.  Such beauty in the midst of an industrial area got my day started out just right.

Thank you for visiting today.  I'll be around to yours in the next couple of days!

Good Things Happened: Zen Garden and along the way

The new job has me working in an area that used to be reception (they are running out of room, I think.)  These are my new office mates in the fish tank that is to my back.  I'm calling it working in The Zen Garden.  :)

I used to love to walk at Tanyard Creek Park near my office, but stopped walking there when I hurt my knee (since mostly recovered).  So since it's been two years since my last visit, I headed over there last Saturday morning, having another errand in that area.  The Lenten Roses beside the creek are in bloom, right on time.

There was so much activity in the park.  I encountered two photo shoots during my hour walk, one was a woman doing some sort of spoken word for the camera, and the other was the woman on the right, above, who was changing poses like a fashion model.  Cute.  :)  And I realized when I downloaded the photo, that I also captured a woman comforting a boy, there on the left.  So sweet.

From Mr C's sign:  ANOTHER DAY HAS PASSED AND I DIDN'T USE ALGEBRA.  Amen to that!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Good Things Happened: The Present, past and future

The owner of the printing company at which I've worked for 10 years has hobby printing presses in the basement of his home and loves to print items using the letterpress technique.  The lovely thought on the card pictured above was something he printed and has been propped on a file cabinet outside my cubicle for a couple of years.  I asked him if I could have it, when I was packing up my stuff on my last day there on Wednesday.  

A printing company down the street bought the "book of business" and four of us have moved with it, beginning yesterday.  (Yet another first day - oh my - but it was fine.)  I was a two-cubicle girl at the old place.  This was my account manager cube, all cleaned out.  I took the chair with me (with permission, of course.)

Bruce and Kathy opened the business in 1981.  He had already been in the printing business for 14 years.  They are retiring, but will spend the next couple of months finalizing the closing of the business, where 51,216 printing jobs were processed.  It's bittersweet, but we are all beginning a new chapter in our lives as we celebrate The Present.

Have a lovely weekend, y'all!

Blue morning, spooky and aglow

The moon has just been beautiful this week.  Here it is this morning, in the dawn's early light, in the Upper West Side.  It rained during the night, so everything smelled crisp and new on this blue morning.

Last night I stood at my front door and saw it peeking through.  It looks so spooky when changed to the black and white "NOIR" setting in my iPhone filters.

The Blood Moon eclipse had just started when I was leaving for work on Wednesday morning.  I took this grainy shot of it while waiting at a light during my commute - about 6:45am. 

And when I got to work, about 40 minutes later, the sky was all aglow.  I love the early morning!  If I can't sleep in, it might as well be beautiful. :)

I hope the weekend is good to you, my friends!

Early morning gift, another batch and pure bliss

The rain stopped just as I got to work, one early morning, a few days ago.  And this lovely rainbow appeared, like a gift.

At home, lovely vegetables waiting to be put in another batch of Alice Water's Ratatouille, which was so delicious and made my home smell so good, that I had to make another batch.  The avocados were just hanging out here waiting to be put on toast or in salad.  :)

And at the park, friend Janice's dog, Chili, enjoying a blissful roll in a puddle. 

Spring forward, lovely read and beauties

The sky never seems to disappoint at this little corner of the world in northwest Atlanta.  The week after daylight savings time sprang to be, I left for work in the darkness and arrived to work to these pink puffed beauties.

Leonora wrote about her latest good reads in a recent blog post.  I'm listening to this one during my commute.  I told a friend at work this morning that I'm smiling during the drive and not obsessing about traffic.  It's a  lovely story about a widower who finds a charm bracelet that belonged to his late wife and embarks on a journey to find out more about her past and even more about himself. 

It was a chilly morning last Saturday when friend Laura and I walked in the park and caught up with life.  She never questions why I stop to snap photos with my phone and encouraged me to get this close up of the buds of this flowering tree.  We dropped into the 20s (f) this week - so cold.  I hope these lovelies survived.

Spring is around the corner.  Sigh.

Traveling flowers, Live your life and Happy day

My 10-year Blogoversary was on February 19.  I almost let it get by me!  I've spent a little time going down memory lane looking back at old blog posts, so I chose a photo from 2007, another from midway in 2011, and a new one from February 2017 - a card from a special friend.

A photo I call "Traveling Flowers" from the first year of Good Things Happened in 2007.  My friend Ginny picked these flowers from her garden one day, when I was visiting her family, and presented them to me.  I was leaving for a few days at the house by the river in the mountains, so I tucked the vase in the cup holder of my car, and off we went.

From December 2011:  This barrel outside a recovery shelter for men reminded me of an important lesson I often forget for myself: "Live your Life" - enjoy it, be happy and love whatever it is you choose to do.

I wish just that for everyone.

Great Niece Kloie made this card for me, in the shape of a butterfly, on my birthday last month.  I adore that at age 7, she knows that there is always something to smile about.

Here's a quote I like, spotted this morning on the Mozilla Firefox home page:

"Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it. Don't wait for it. Just let it happen."— Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks

The best part of blogging has been meeting all of you!  Thank you for coming by - I appreciate your friendship.

Hanging out, the little things and looking up

I believe this might be a landscaping truck my car was sitting behind yesterday morning a little after 7am on the way to work.  If you click to enlarge, you can see that it has a monkey hanging on the back of it.  It made me smile, which is a good thing for the early morning like that.  :)

Later - a nice customer came into the printing company and we talked about liking "the little things" - the smell of coffee, drinking coffee, the rustle of the newspaper, reading the newspaper.

And later still, my friend Erica posted on facebook, "If you haven't already, take a minute and go outside and look up!  The sky is absolutely gorgeous tonight!  The sliver moon and planets are playing peek-a-boo in the clouds!  Simple pleasures!"  I didn't see her post until this morning, but it made me wish I had had a peek of that beauty.  I like that she did.

Have a lovely weekend, my friends!

In the mist, cheerful and colorful

Four unrelated good things this week - going from gray to colorful:

The skyline of midtown Atlanta was lovely and mystical looking, as viewed from the parking deck of Georgia Public Broadcasting on volunteer night.  We had needed rain so badly and it was welcome when it came.

More gloomy sky, but loved the cheery scarecrow wearing Santa's hat.  Madison, Georgia, last Saturday.

It took all week, but I got my little tree up.  It's sitting on a draped crate so that it will have more presence.  :)  I decorated it a little at a time and finally finished yesterday.  Richie Bear was purchased at Rich's department store, in the mid-1980s, when it was still open.  And the cardboard Santa to the right was given to me by my kindergarten teacher, way back when.  

Coworker Bobby salvaged peppers and green tomatoes from his garden last night, since the temperature was dropping into the 20s (fahrenheit).  It's cold here in the south today.  I chose two red peppers that he swears won't be hot.  :)  It was astounding to see these garden baskets on this wintry day.

I hope your weekend is full of good things!

Busy bee, sharing and fun holidays

- This bee was so busy on Saturday, going from flowering plant to flowering plant, I finally managed to snap his photo while he was in motion.  It's so delightful to see them around, when there has been so much in the news about them vanishing.

- Coworker Bobby brought in mountain apples to share at work on Monday.  They smell so good and are delicious.

- This is the fun holidays of the month calendar I produce these days - I hang them on the bulletin boards at work.  So it was fitting that Monday was Johnny Appleseed Day and we had apples.  Google tells me that Johnny Appleseed was an "American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ontario, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, as well as the northern counties of present-day West Virginia."

It's also National Chicken Month - I amused myself by finding cute chicken clip art.  :)

Humor in uniform, repurposed and let them eat cake

- You'd have to click to enlarge to see the City of Atlanta police vehicle pulled across the road ahead.  There was also a noisy hovering helicopter overhead.  The reason was a large sinkhole at 14th and State Street (in the intersection behind me.)  I didn't want to bother the workers by taking a photo of it.  :)  I was on my way to my volunteer work housed at nearby Georgia Public Broadcasting in the late afternoon yesterday and was detoured onto a side street to park. On the trip past this police car the first time, I asked the officer inside the car what was going on? (not wanting to walk on into a shoot out or anything):

          He:  Shark attack.

          Me:  What???

          He:  Shark attack.

          Me:  What??? (it had already been a long day)

          He:  Sinkhole.

 

- This bracelet was made by Juliet of the Crafty Green Poet blog.  She lives in Edinburgh, Scotland and frequently takes us along with her on nature walks.  I noticed her Etsy shop link and visited.  She creatively "repurposes" materials, making them into one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry.  That's the pretty bracelet I got, above.  Do visit Juliet's blog when you can - especially if you love Edinburgh as much as I do.

- This is what my coworkers and I are counting on.  :)  In a fit of boredom yesterday (we are slow this week at work), Joanne went across the street to the commercial bakery (which also sells by the slice) and brought back cake.  (Image spotted on facebook.)

Thursday treat, all done and the forecast

- Coworker Joanne brought these in to work yesterday as a treat.  They are from Sublime Doughnuts that I've heard so much about.  It took about five seconds to go off my diet.  :)  That one on the middle right - the "A-Town Mocha" (the A standing for Atlanta), was one of the best things I've ever eaten in my life!  So I had to blog about them.  There are two locations in Atlanta and one in Thailand (?), so if you are ever there, I recommend them. 

- My sister and niece are on their way to visit from Florida to celebrate Mother's Day weekend - an annual tradition now.  I hurried up and finished all my spring potting and re-potting and am finally pleased with how it looks.  It was 48 degrees outside on this cool Friday morning when I transferred the Mexican Heather to that pretty green pot I found at Ace Hardware this week. 

- Look at that weather forecast!  I texted this to my niece last weekend so she could see how cool it will be this weekend in Atlanta.  It's been very hot and humid in Florida already, so she is excited.

Have a lovely weekend, my friends!  Hugs to friends who are moms and celebrate this holiday!

Another sign of spring, life is good and the one with sticks

- Three Dragon Wing begonia plants massed together in one pot.  Another sign of spring - getting these shade-loving plants potted.  I got these (along with the fern hanging above it - out of view) at the plant sale last Saturday.  I snapped this as I was leaving for work yesterday and smiled at them in the afternoon when I finally got home.

 - Neighbor Rhonda called in the afternoon and said our street was blocked off at the end I usually drive in on, so I walked in the park near work to give it time to clear out.  Fortunately I had the stuff to walk in with me.  And I needed that head-clearing walk.  I haven't been in this park since last November - it was good to see it.  The lovely young magnolia tree is just blossoming out (click to enlarge) and some good songs volunteered on my iPod.  Life is good.

- Coworker and friend Bren's grandson will play one of The Three Little Pigs at a school play in May.  They are gathering items for the costume(s) and so I volunteered to order pig snouts.  This was the most fun I had all week!  Her sweet grandson gets to be the pig with the sticks.

Yay - it's Friday!  Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Graceful, new opportunity and right on schedule

- On a gloomy day outside, azalea blossoms from a coworker's garden graced the reception counter at the printing company.

- I always pick up two fortune cookies when I visit my favorite Chinese restaurant, Main Moon #10.  These two seemed to go together - maybe.  (click to enlarge.)

- The male goldfinches are molting and turning golden - right on schedule.  Click to enlarge.  OK - hard to see them there on the feeder, but trust me - there is definite golden-ness!  :)

Getting it down, what I'll miss about winter and morning sky

 - Why do I have six rubber bands around my water bottle?  Because of this article.  I need to drink six 20-oz bottles of water every day, so the article says to put six rubber bands on the bottle in the morning and take one off every time you complete a bottle.  I'm so forgetful that this seemed like a good idea to me.

- But I'm averaging three bottles per day.  And they also said to put the rubber bands around your wrist as you remove them from the bottle.  Too painful, that - I just put them aside.  I'm thinking three bottles per day is good.

 - So many people dislike winter, but I'm not one of them.  I enjoy the sky darkening in the early evening, which helps me wind down from my day.  Plus the fireplace, sweaters, fun patterned knee socks that I wear underneath pants and no one ever sees, eastern standard time and comfort food.  But spring is surely on the way and the pink blossom trees blooming around Atlanta right now are so pretty.  These are next to the drive-thru at Starbucks (last Saturday a.m.)

- And the sunrise sky was spectacular this morning.  They were talking about it on the local morning news, so I went outside to look and snapped this with my cellphone camera.  Just lovely.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend, my friends!

Gone too soon, so pretty and jelly bird eggs

- One of my favorite authors of all time, Pat Conroy, passed away last Friday.  Three of his books are displayed here on my bookshelf that features authors from the south.  The first book I ever read, written by him, was The Water is Wide, a memoir of the time he spent teaching children on Yamacraw Island, South Carolina.  I've ordered a used copy to add to this shelf - I loved it so much.  How I will miss his presence in the world.

- When I was leaving for church on Sunday, I got out of my car to snap a photo of neighbor Rhonda's pansies.  They have weathered all manner of cold weather and ice and still look so pretty.

- My late mother loved black jelly beans and I used to pick up a bag for her when I'd spot them.  They had them at Publix this week, so I picked up a couple of bags.  I kept one bag for my desk at work and shared the other bag with the printing plant manager, who likes them, too.