Carlisa’s Neighborhood

Show us a painting or piece of art you have hanging on your wall. What room is it in?
Submitted by Strive2Be.

 A friend that I used to work with years ago gave me this really cool mask for my birthday one year. I know absolutely nothing about it --- is it good or bad --- does it actually come from somewhere where it has meaning or is it just a piece of art --- but I like it. I've never felt as if it brought me bad OR good luck or anything like that.

The mask itself is wood and the decorations on the front are some kind of metals. The close-up picture is to show you the detail on the little faces that go around the top of the mask. It's about 12" high in size.

Up until last week, it was hanging above the doorway in our kitchen. I put it up high enough that it wasn't really noticeable to Deniro because I didn't want him to be scared of it. That tactic worked for awhile but eventually he noticed it. He tried to ignore it but after a couple of weeks he kept telling me that it scared him and would I please take it down. So last week I finally gave in and took it down. I'll put it back up again soon though and hope he doesn't notice that it's back --- I like it and I want it where I can see it, not stored in a box in the closet.

How can you tell when your kittycatter is tired of you pointing your camera in their face all of the time and they want you to just go away and make the flashy-light thingy happen somewhere else so they can relax and watch tv in peace???

They go from this:

to this:

hee-hee...
&:o)

Sarah and me saw something on tv the other week, where a guy was wearing a bad tuxedo from the 70's --- you know the kind, with the powder blue shirt with the ruffle down the front & on the cuffs. I told her that when me & her father had gone to our high school Senior Prom, he had worn a pink tux. It had a white ruffled shirt, but the tux jacket was BRIGHT pink, with black accented areas. She had the nerve to giggle at that...so I dug out these pictures to show her.

The pictures are faded --- both the hot pinkness of the tux jacket and the loudness of my Flower Power dress were MUCH brighter 35 years ago. Also, that's our very first car and it was a BRIGHT pukey lime-green (puce?) color --- which was also a product of the 70's.

Here's 1973 coming at you full-force --- my later-to-be-husband and me on our way to our Senior Prom in June 1973:

What part of your childhood do you miss the most?
Submitted by Maretta.

I miss the security I had in my childhood.

My family was close & loving & supportive. Except for my aunt & uncle who lived in NJ, we all lived within 10 minutes drive from each other.

My family got together often. We were all involved in each other's lives and if anything happened, we were all there for each other.

When I was a child, my concerns were small. My mother & father were always there to love me unconditionally and provide for my every need and protect me from all harm. I had the freedom and opportunity to do whatever I wanted to. I was safe and well cared for, encouraged and loved.

I couldn't have asked for anything more.
&:o)

Here's a pic of me & my brothers and some of our cousins. This was probably taken in 1955. We were standing out in the front yard at my house.
The dark haired boy in the very center of the pic in the back row is my brother Dick, who has been gone 2 years now.
The blonde haired boy in the striped shirt is my brother Don, who lives in Ohio now.
That serious-faced little girly (with the curls exploding off of her noggin) riding the horsie --- hee-hee...that's me...

In response to this post by Lotus Girl ( my daughter ... <3 ) I have these pics of Gillian that I wanted to post.

These were taken this past May at that Spring Celebration day thingy in Chestnut Hill that I keep mentioning. Here is Gillian eating blue cotton candy (with her daddy and then her mommy holding her.)

 

&:o)

Because I promised Robbbiedobbbie that if she showed me her monkey, I would show her mine:

Here is some kind of monkey dish that I got at a thrift store (he's holding the bowl/dish on top of his monkey haed):

And here's a bottle of some kind of foreign wine (German???) that has a gold monkey hanging onto the bottle (also from my favorite thrift store):

Both of these guys are sitting up on top of my kitchen cabinets.

When I get a pic of the stuffed toy monkey haed that hangs right inside our apartment door, I'll post that, too.

&:o)

How exciting! After 2 years, you guys will finally be able to see stuff like this ---

Here are my very own toesies ( in my very favorite flip-flops ):

Here is Wembley very meticulously cleaning her toesies before she shows them to you:

And here are her little peenk jellybean toesie pads!!! ( with the little tufts of caterpillar hair that sticks out from between her little peenk jellybean toesie pads!!! ):

hee-hee!!
&:o)

There's a grade school in Chestnut Hill that has a really neat public playground. (John Story Jenks grade school.)  Deniro & Sarah love playing there. (Deniro had his birthday party there in May.)
On one of the walls of the school, there'a a big mosaic mural with all kinds of wild animals depicted on it. (it's probably 20-ish feet wide x 8 or 9 feet high?) I love Phillie's murals --- and I love mosaic. So this mural is the best of both worlds for me. Here's a section of it:

Last year, Chestnut Hill commissioned a bunch of artists to decorate a bunch of fiberglass animal statues, then they displayed the animals throughout the tourist/shopping street for a couple of months --- then they had an auction for the statues. ( it was called " Abzoolutely Chestnut Hill "...) One of the beautiful huge (expensive) houses in a neighborhood that I drive by alot bought one of the statues and they've had in their side yard ever since. We love driving by their house and seeing it there. Here is Julibant Elephant:

&:o)

Back in May my family & I went to a celebration thingy day in Chestnut Hill. They closed the street off to traffic and all the stores were open and had outside displays & booths --- there was food, drinks, live bands, stuff for kids...etc etc.

I had mentioned to jaypo that the SPCA had a couple of critters there for adoption, and the cat that was there reminded me of jaypo's Sophie --- 'cause her (heem?) was also black & white with the same little white mustachio that Miss Sophie has.

So here is the pic of Miss Sophie's short-haired Pennsylvania kittycousin:

And here is a close-up of teh mustachio:

( I hope some nice person ended up adopting teh kitty!)

You know that I'm just learning how to use my camera and how to take decent (hopefully) pictures. Alot of you guys have been very sweet & complimentary regarding my efforts --- and I appreciate the good advice & feedback that you've given me.

I had never thought about framing & composition that much before. To me, a good picture was one where I did NOT cut the tops of everyone's head off, that kind of stuff. I had never thought about framing the picture content before I snapped it --- or what made a good or interesting picture in the first place.

Then when I was messing around with my camera the other day, I ended up cropping a picture completely by mistake --- and it was kind of a lightbulb moment and made me go "whoa! look at that..." and I realized that within the picture that I thought was an ok picture there was an even BETTER picture than the one I had originally seen & taken.

Who knew.

So then I started messing with ALL the pictures I had taken --- whether I thought I was satisfied with the original pic or not. And I got a bunch of cropped pictures that made me so much happier than the originals.

That's all part of the learning process, right?

* * * Disclaimer coming up * * *
So --- if you've had enough of me & me learning to use my camera and take pictures, THIS is the point where you either want to just ignore my picture posts, or run screaming --- either one will not offend me ( not too much anyway...)

Here are some original pics and then the cropped pic. If you have any suggestions or advice, please tell me.

Original pic:

Cropped pic:

Original pic:

Cropped pic:

Original pic:

Cropped pic:

Original pic:

Cropped pic:

Original pic:

Cropped pic:

Original pic:

Cropped pic: