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THE GARDEN MUSEUM from the U.K.
13 Saturday May 2023
Posted Art, Books, Classic Art volumes, Cookery, Gardening, Literary, Museum News, Sharing, Speakers, Special Events, Today's Update, Vintage Garden
in13 Saturday May 2023
Posted Art, Books, Classic Art volumes, Cookery, Gardening, Literary, Museum News, Sharing, Speakers, Special Events, Today's Update, Vintage Garden
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16 Sunday Apr 2023
Posted Art, Books, Classic Art volumes, ETSY, Sharing, Today's Update
in17 Friday Feb 2023
Posted Books, ETSY, Sharing, Sold Today, Today's Update, Vintage Smalls
inBook, New York Review Children’s Collection, OUNCE DICE TRICE by Alastar Reid, Drawings by Ben Shahn. Copyright 1958. This book is a collection of odd words and names to amuse and amaze. In this book you will find old words, new words and family words. This book may inspire you to start collecting or writing
— Read on www.etsy.com/listing/264696295/book-childrens-ounce-dice-trice
SOLD……$20.90
2/17/23
A local Alexandria, VA resident
Thx much
“Contessa”
27 Tuesday Dec 2022
Posted Books, Gardening, Reflections, Sharing, Today's Update
inOne of the suggestions was to read your own writings from some time ago. I surmise this gives you a perspective into your writing skills at that time and perhaps may even reassure you that your writing is actually pretty good. Affirmation perhaps.
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So… I followed the first instruction on my list of ways to avoid putting off beginning to write again, and stop procrastinating. Something has created a road block. Getting past that road block could be just a matter of taking a walk or a run. It’s one of the suggestions on my task list from yesterday. I myself chose an early morning walk at 29 degrees. It does get you going and well worth the chill you feel. An awakening for sure.
But I also decided to go back in time to my blog, and visited my very first post on June 30th of the year 2010. I’ve included the txt of my first post below. It was interesting…..because I had, by that time, owned my new shop, Contessa’s Garden and Gift for a couple years. I had only just acquired a new digital camera and was still using a “flip phone” and I was teaching myself how to master WordPress, an online yearly subscription tool, that I’ve now subscribed to for over 13 years. I was using a laptop at the time. WordPress opened up a whole new world for me in communicating my gardening and store ownership knowledge, to my customers using the internet. Within a couple years I was into the purchase of an Apple iPhone and so I ditched the digital camera for a camera right on my iPhone. It was a fantastic transition. And it changed my business from known, to very well known. And my writing skills from good to pretty darn good.
So it’s now almost 2023 and I’m going to take a whole day to read back to where my blog began. Check out my writing style and see where I can improve and learn some things about how my blog has evolved. In terms of “my writings.” I think it might prove to be an eventful exercise🦋.
One of the other tasks on the list from yesterday, was to read a book. I am reading a book right now and this is giving me an insight into the writing style of another author. It gives me a focus on what this writer is trying to communicate, and in the case of this particular book, it has exercises in teaching you new skills. To see how the author writes and what he is trying to convey is interesting. This reading will broaden my vocabulary, perhaps improve my spelling and grammar skills, perhaps teach me how to incorporate some humor into my writing and open my eyes to content that I have never read before. Of particular interest to me in the book is a technique in a chapter called Progressive Relaxation. The suggestion that if you are not truly in a relaxed mode your creative energy may not flow. For example, you sit down to write or create and you are just not able to spit it out or get the words on paper. It happens. Burn out, can sometimes paralyze creativity. So doing the exercises mentioned in this book might help, and focusing on some mind exercises to “relax” you, could very well be a great answer to turning your writing creativity around. Some deep breathing combined with some muscle tension exercises might create relaxation and bring a calmness into your heart and it might even lower your blood pressure, creating a sense of better, and a more whole relaxation. All good points and ways to combat, what I myself might call brain fatigue or brain fog.
So today to recap, I explored two items on the task list which could help me to get past my current roadblock that’s keeping me from creating new “writing,” and new ideas for content.
More exploration tomorrow. Tonight I am reading “past” blog postings and my book called; Fighting The Inside Dragons. New steps to explore in broadening my new writing career.
We will return tomorrow to reference my task list again. I look forward to sharing once again with you.
“Contessa”
30WednesdayJun 2010
Posted Garden Tips
inNOW is a great time to clean up your garden beds and your pot containers. Remove dead leaves and blossoms. Cut back your stems by half. Yes it will temporarily make you plants look bare, but nature is divine and she will replenish your blossoms and beautiful leaves within about two to three weeks time. Add fresh Miracle Grow Potting Soil by about one inch to your pot containers. Push garden dirt towards the roots of your garden flowers. They will love the attention and the protection they get from fresh, moist dirt around their stems.
Our intense heat in Virginia has been relentless and some flowers are looking a bit weary. Mid summer is a great time to plant a few new flowers with color. Try some marigolds, nasturtiums, morning-glory and sunflowers. The birds will love these new additions and in the fall you will love the fact that these lovely colorful blossoms are still “Hanging In.”
Another great addition for July is to add some Sweet Potato Vine and Coleus. They provide endless color and if you take clippings once your plants are established, you will be able to bring some in and place them in a vase with water. They will root in a matter of days and you can then create new plants to enjoy and even share with friends.
Lastly, water only in the early morning, or late evening, but do water daily.
16 Friday Dec 2022
Posted Books, Faith, HOPE, Professional Services, Reflections, Sharing, Special Events, Tonight’s Thought
inHello ContessasHome Friends….
After blogging for fourteen years, and writing about gardening, yoga, my store in Delray, daily reflections and my spiritual prayer times, I am led to pursue my newest “calling.” I want to write a book. I have gazillions of thoughts and ideas in my head about things to write about. I have decided to pursue a writing career. My blog is and will remain a continued communication tool, in order to be able to keep in touch with all of you…..my gardening friends.
I have been thinking about writing professionally for about two years. Today I visited the library to find a few books about how to start a career in writing. I will be doing some studying and some writing. I’m not sure where I’m going exactly…but it is all about getting started. Will it be a novel, or a series of short stories, a devotional, poetry or a collection of daily spiritual reflections. I do not know that yet. But “beginning” is where I will start. Creating characters possibly, making characters come to life, inventing a story and a writers style all come in to play. Being a writer will require some solitude, research, writing and rewriting and using the inner resources of my mind to gather all the material I’ve stored in my brain for these last fourteen years while I was blogging. My inner urge to write comes from my creator. I am no accident and neither is my inner urge to write. It’s all part of His plan for me. My best self so to speak. Diving deep into my mind to explore so many things I have learned about my life, my previous careers and just simply about learning. Life long learners are interesting folk. We have lived and grown and shared. This new adventure is a place I’ve not been before. But it’s been planted as a seed in my heart and so I will begin…..and I bring with me, for support and encouragement, my best friend, and the love of my earthly life and my soul mate. [JB/MP]
Tonight I’ve brought four books home with me from the Duncan Library in Delray. All very different. Each focusing on writing……and so now, for a week or so…. I will become a student of others research about writing. I will share with you as I go along in this new and scary, but exciting writing journey.
“Contessa”
22 Tuesday Nov 2022
Posted Advent Prayer, Advent Study, Books
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Advent for the year 2022 is celebrated/observed on Sunday, November 27th
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We have prepared for this season by finding a publication with daily scripture and prayer for the time of Advent and Christmas.
There are 28 readings in this devotional study for Advent (Part 1), and then in (Part 2) 12 readings that begin on Christmas Day. We have used a devotional of Henri Nouwen for Lenten Devotions and our response from other students of his writings was very encouraging. So we shall continue with this publication as our guide for this upcoming Advent and Christmas seasons. We trust you will follow with us through this 40-day study.
Our first reading will be posted this Sunday, Nov 27th.
• Wisdom from Henri Nouwen •
Words of Wisdom for Daily Living
05 Saturday Nov 2022
Posted Art, Blooms, Books, Gardening, Native Wildflowers, Professional Services, Reflections, Sharing, Special Events, Today's Update
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17 Sunday Jul 2022
Posted Books, Today's Update
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2030……recommended by my gardening client “the General,” and my pick, Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keeler. My new reads from now through August 1st
I’m needing a change of pace in my free time…. away from the topic of gardening. Very different titles, but both recommended. Looking forward to time with “my nose in a book.”
Sunday afternoon…….
”Contessa”
13 Friday May 2022
Posted Books, Reflections, Today's Update
inLifetime female friendship is the essence of this read. Elena and Lila rely on each other and survive a poor upbringing in Naples Italy. The author Elena Ferrante gives you a story of a neighborhood, a city, a country and a nation, during immense change, and how it affected their lives and their deep friendship. If you have had the experience of a lifetime female friendship and you have lost contact with them, you will remember your friend with great admiration and how you relied on each other, as you navigated the good and the tough times. Sometimes these kinds of friendships only happen once. A great read.
03 Thursday Feb 2022
Posted Art, Books, Classic Art volumes, ETSY, Today's Update
in≈ Comments Off on SOLD Today on ETSY……Volume
Picturing Nantucket reveals a complete spectrum of the islands artistic heritage. Complete with 125 color and 180 black and white reproduction photographs from the Nantucket Historical Associations extensive collection. If you treasure Nantucket Art, this book is an essential reference for your personal collection.
Pristine copy. Measures 10.5” x 12.5” x 1”
A beautiful coffee table book. 253 pages.
A true Art History of the Island.
THIS Sale just came through via our ETSY SITE. Our buyer lives in Chandler, TX. Selling Total is $46.
“CONTESSA” says……”it’s all good.”