Funky Pink Pastels

Zazzle suggests telling a story about each design collection. Most of my designs have stories that would be more than a couple sentences long. So I'm reposting here the story behind my Funky Pink Pastels Collection.

Looking for Inspiration

It's a new year! I've spent some time the last few days looking for inspiration -- trying to figure out just what it is that I want to do. Before I retired I had ideas for all kinds of wonderful projects. Well, it's been nearly three years and I haven't really completed one project -- except maybe some household things that needed attention.

Travel | Italy

My Zazzle Travel | Italy Collection was one of my planned goals for this year. Little did I realize I would be reliving my wonderful Italian adventures

as Italy is under siege from Covid-19. Nor did I expect to be confined to home indefinitely as Covid-19 ravages the US.

Sorting through photos from six different trips has been a poignant journey. Such happy times that now sadden me. Will I ever be able to return? I worry about the interesting, friendly, happy people I met while I was there. I have no family connections, no history, but Italy spoke to me.

UPDATE - Duck

The Canada geese have arrived and Duck is thrilled.  It's been a long lonely winter. Only a few water birds have come around. Most of the winter Duck has been floating around on the pond alone. Now her friends are back and she is just a few steps or paddles behind. 

Duck is one of the many joys of my morning walks. I first introduced Duck a couple years ago in the following post. So glad she is still in the neighborhood.

Travel | Florida

Glamping camping in Florida State Parks is a new adventure. I've never camped so there is no way at age 70 I'm going to start camping. However, a friend bought a cute little Camp-Inn teardrop -- a queen-size bed, air conditioning (a must in Florida), and a lovely outside galley for cooking.

Cactus Moon Collection

Cactus Moon Collection

Cactus Moon Collection

Introducing my new Zazzle design -- Cactus Moon.  

Last fall I enjoyed a wonderful camping trip to the Southwest -- Arizona and New Mexico. The trip included Santa Fe and Alburquerque. Then on to Window Rock, and Hubbell's Trading Post (a must-see if you have any interest in Navajo weaving). We hiked Canyon de Chelly to see the White House ruins and enjoyed the Grand Canyon overlooks and Grand Canyon village.  It snowed on us on the way to Flagstaff where we stopped for pizza and mapped- out our route for the next couple days on the road. Sedona, what a fun place!

Evening Stroll

Dusk, a beautiful time for a stroll. And the perfect place for a stroll is along the Via Appia Antica, Rome Italy. As day flowed into dusk, the ancient walls and ruins, the umbrella pines, and the cobblestones conjured up images of days gone by.

Leaves of Autumn

It's almost mid-December and here in Florida, the leaves are just beginning to fall. The golden Maple fall as soon as there's a cool rain and little wind. However, the leaves from the Live Oak tree fall as new ones take their place, a process that will continue into late February. 

Just back from Mexico,

Cosmos

Several years ago, I wanted some color in my slow-growing and mostly green bed of lilies and iris. I decided on pretty, bright orange cosmos. The ones I remembered grew easily and were about twenty-four inches tall. I bought a couple seed packets and spread them generously around the bulbs in my flower garden. And they grew, and they grew some more and more! I had plants six feet tall. What a glorious sight when they all began to bloom. Thus, the basis for the branding of my design sites. They just seem to work well for banners, site headers favicons, and sales materials. I've also used these photos for my Zazzle Cosmos Charm | Bath and Beauty and Kitchen Collections. The orange makes me smile! I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!

To blog or not to blog?

First web site in 1996

I’ve had a website since 1996 so it is hard to give it up. But I did – sorta. When I first started the website, it was innovative and worked well for me because I was in the DIY industry. I used it as a portfolio to promote my design work to vendors and picked up newsletter followers who were interested in the work I was doing for publications.

Around 2003, life got in the way –