Fun Facts About the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

 

Morgan horse; photo by Molly Goossens on Flickr (noncommercial use permitted with attribution / share alike).

In 1970, the Morgan Horse was named the official state horse of Massachusetts. 

School teacher and singing master, Justin Morgan of West Springfield, Massachusetts owned a bay stallion named Figure (1789 - 1821) , but as was custom at the time became known by his owner's name.

 "Justin Morgan worked as a farm horse, hauled freight, won pulling bees against bigger, heavier horses, won races over racehorses, and was still considered stylish enough at age twenty-eight to be used as the mount for President James Monroe in a Vermont parade in 1817" 

The Morgan horse became the first American breed and all Morgan horses today can trace their genealogy back to Justin Morgan. The breed is prized for its gentleness, beauty, smooth gait, and versatility.

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Shopping fun at the Dollar Store and Ocean State Job Lots (Both discount stores)

2. Found some cute Christmas mugs at Target

3. Play day with Teague

4. Quill helped with the decorations.

5. We took a trip to the cemetery to drop off the wreath, ran errands, and went out to lunch

How was your week?

Happy Mail

A large envelope arrived decorated with fun stickers and a flourish from Kathy Milici, the instructor for the Holiday Flourishes class.

My name festively flourished on a cherry red envelope

sealed with a holiday sticker

The card: a rubber gingerbread figurine rests on red oval paper with hand painted white dots. The ends of the ovals are flourished in green gouache with a red crystal to add some bling and to look like an ornament.

Inside a recipe, chocolate and a sachet of Gingerbread Joy tea which I'm trying to save as a treat for Christmas Eve.

Thank you, Kathy, for your generosity as a teacher.

Whatcha Doin?

 

It's time to put up my favorite Christmas decoration. The Christmas Pageant. Everyone is welcome. This will be a down-sized version as we will be having company this weekend and need the dining room table.

Whatcha doin?

T Stands for Illuminated Initials with Middle Schoolers

Another call from WAM  to teach middle schoolers (4th grade, 9 - 10 yrs old) illuminated initials this month. It is my subject so I raised my hand. We'll start with my ticket to the T party, my water bottle.

Before class, I hastily drew some examples to illustrate the steps to creating an illuminated initial. The project was to make a bookmark. We talked about letters having decorations or telling a story. And all this time of drawing Ink on the letter C, I just realized I have a new monogram, but I digress.

The kids were having a field trip day and had spent the morning in the Medieval galleries looking at the art and trying on piece of armor.

They were energetic, enthusiastic, listened to directions, and asked questions. I had brought in the House Blessing to show how real gold was used. They were very excited about the gold and disappointed to learn they had to pretend the gold and silver markers were real gold and silver.

"How come we can't use real gold?"

I thought of answering like Ms. Trumball from Matilda, "It's too good for children", but settled with "It's too expensive."

There were a dozen kids in the class and some of them gave me permission to show their work.

Some of their designs were very detailed

This little dude was all about the bling

This little dude decided to make 3 D letters and he asked for help to make the vine. I showed him on scrap paper how to make the vine go under, around, and over the letter. He did a great job.

This little dudette worked on both sides of her bookmark.

One class down and four more classes to go next week.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Thoughts on Blogging

 

I'm steal borrowing a blog topic my friend, Andy Fish, posted on his blog the other day. The discussion involved how maintaining a blog can sometimes be a chore and may take one away from other (creative) endeavors.

I began blogging back in 2006 and started my blog on Yahoo's platform. It was simple to use and there were some fun emoji things to use. The downside was it was only open to those you made contact with on Yahoo. Then a year later, Yahoo decided it wasn't keeping the blogging platform. An author friend told me she had a blog on Blogger so I moved to Blogger.

At about the same time, Andy was teaching a class at WAM on how to blog. Even though I had been blogging for a while, I signed up. I wanted to see if I was doing it right, and if there were any tips/tricks Andy had to offer. Andy's a savvy guy and a bit like my E.F. Hutton. That means when Andy talks, I listen. (Not all the time 😉)

I must have been on the right track. A year or so later, Andy was teaching another class at WAM, and was on his deathbed with a sinus infection when he had to call in sick to cancel the class. He was asked if there was anyone that could sub for him. He gasped out my name before passing out, and I was called to sub his class. It was the first night of class so the students would be setting up their blogs, and we went through the ins and outs of the features (which used to work the way they were supposed to back then.)

Since the class was geared towards artists, Andy pointed out that  Blogger was a free platform to get your work "out there" and a good start before shelling out money for a web page and domain name.

That's how I initially began, too, but I didn't want to limit myself to just showing my work and talking about calligraphy. I thought readers would become bored.

My blog turned into a sort of diary. I didn't worry about pleasing an audience, but focused on what interested me. If people read my blog, I'm happy, and if they leave a comment, I'm thrilled. 

In Andy's class, he stressed if you wanted people to visit, you needed to provide them with fresh content. You didn't have to blog every day of the week, but whatever fit your schedule. If you could only blog once a week, then each week, you had to put something up. 

I started out blogging a few days a week. Then week days and gradually I built up to blogging 7 days a week. Once I started hitting the 30 or 31 day count, I didn't want to spoil my record. Is it a chore? Sometimes, but after all these years evolving the blog and thinking about Andy's post from last week, I realized blogging is a creative outlet for me. 

Everything I do becomes potential blog fodder. I like to write and to find an image (my own or copyright free clipart) to illustrate my post. I find it helpful to have a theme for most days. I have an erasable calendar where I can fill in the calendar with topics I want to write about and since the calendar is erasable, I can easily move topics around. I like to schedule blog posts ahead of time so spend Sundays, break time, or procrastinating preparing a post.

I also like the connections and friendships I've made through blogging. I enjoy having "conversations" with those that stop by to read and comment. I also try to reciprocate and comment on other blogs.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Another beautiful sunrise.

Inside lettuce is doing well. The aluminum foil wall keeps the kitties from eating the lettuce.

Blossom on the little tomato plant

Christmas decorating in full swing. A new location for the Christmas tree and a fence to try to cat proof.  The Ghost of Christmas Past gives his best nostalgic smile as he auditions for the role of tree topper.

If I don't get to the wreath this year, there's one on the Welcome sign.

And one on the Hobbit door.

Quill investigates what's going on outside. His tail looks like it's a candle

I'm looking for some greenery for the rails, Santa hats for the skeletons, and maybe a sprig of holly for their heart.

How does your garden grow?