When Willow Calls......We Dance!

Ah, 'tis the one night of the year when my blogging takes a wondrous detour into the land of timeless temptations. What could be more perfect than entering a space that bows to no negative forces? No time, no age, no lack or want....no grief, no politics, no pending storms.....only a space that allows all dreams to come true for one day. For those of you curious about how such a place exists....you still have 24 hours to choose your fantasy attire and escort to join the revelry....at THE blogging event of the year: The Willow Manor Ball!

With each passing year the pre-ball choices become harder, yet more exciting. It always seems perfectly impossible to trump the previous year's gown, and each former date holds a special place in my heart....so what is a girl to do? Oh wait....this year...we have Pinterest! With this thought, I practically skipped to the PC to create my Willow Manor Ball Board!! This new way of organizing my fantasy shopping did NOT disappoint!

After my previous years of silver/moonlight blue and sapphire, I was ready to move towards the burning flames and chose red as my theme color this year. And then our dear host threw us the best possible curve ball she could muster: it was to be a masked ball! With my red dresses, shoes and jewelry pinned I was delighted with this new addition, yet firmly ready to ditch all my previous plans if I found a mask that could not be denied!

This is where delicate planning and extensive travel came to my rescue. One of my lifelong secret fantasies has been to attend Carnivale in Venice....complete with uber extravagant masks and costumes....which meant there was only one place to aim the private jet this year for final plans: Venezia of course!

In all of my excitement, and as I strolled the shops of Venice, I suddenly had this shadowy thought....my date will also need to wear a mask. But my date is none other than the charming and deliciously handsome Dennis Morgan....who wants to cover up that adorable mug on such an enchanted evening? So.....since the ball is so long....and since there are no rules.....I decided to select two different masks for our evening. One each for our grand entrance and early hours....and another each as the night wore long and exhilarating. So, with my selections made and my date busy purchasing flowers.....I jetted home to get ready!

For this evening, my gown of choice is this flame colored Versace gown that can't seem to make up its mind if it is red or burnt orange....chameleon gossamer layers that seem to gently dance along the smoothly fitted hips, almost as much as I will be doing along the dance floor!

Underneath this sheer layered confection of a gown is this pair of diamond and ruby heels.....with silk straps that twirl up my calves in a way that mimics the straps of my dress.

Of course, no ensemble would be complete without my jewelry......sigh.....and tonight, nothing would satisfy me but Liz's Taj-Mahal diamond. The combination of gold, diamonds and rubies is a perfect fit for not only my dress, but my chosen masks. Besides, this necklace was given to her on her 40th birthday.....which is fitting as this too is my 40th year....Liz has been gracious enough to give me charge of this precious jewel for one evening!

And for the mask reveal.....my entrance mask.....gold with feathers that match my dress perfectly....

But what about my delicious date? For his entrance mask, I wanted something that would contour and compliment his bone structure beautifully....not hiding that boyish grin and gorgeousness.....silver seems to go with his black tux perfectly....

Although, as soon as I had his silver mask delivered to him a few days before the ball, he exceeded all charm and thoughtfulness by choosing a car he knew would complete his debonair entrance, and set off the red of my dress in the most dramatic of fashions.....his 1959 Porche convertible....what color? Silver of course!

As I anxiously awaited the arrival of my date and fidgeted with my hair and handbag, I heard that purring of the engine as it approached and knew Cinderella's night was going to be perfect once again! As he got out of the car to open my side, he grinned and bowed gallantly....taking my breath away. Don't forget everyone, not only is Dennis Morgan simply gorgeous, charming and a genuinely nice person, but he can also sing.....and sing he did on our way to the manor...."Fly me to the Moon" as we drove under the stars with the light breeze dancing around us reminding us of the dancing that is soon to come....

Upon arrival, I had the hardest time deciding what to feast my eyes upon....the enchanting decor of the manor this year, or the adorable date on my arm.....I soon felt as though I were watching a tennis match! Not long after thanking our gracious and elegant host (how does she manage to be the belle of the ball every year while planning such a grand triumph?) and admiring the two men on her arm this year, I heard a soft chuckle in my ear as we had apparently made it close to the dance floor and my date was not about to hold off any longer! As I turned to take in the full impact of that adorable chuckle I felt myself whisked off into one direction and then twirled abruptly in many directions as we had made it to the center of the ball room! Dear Dennis then managed to whisk me off my feet literally for several hours.

Around the mid-point of our 24 hour revelry, the masks and elation were getting a bit to us and I decided to give our faces a bit of a break. Which meant switching out to the hand-held pieces of artistry I managed to pick up on my way back the airport. You see, not only was I concerned with comfort....but I did not want to go an entire ball without seeing that devilishly handsome face in all of its glory! Plus....with the masks aside at just the right moment.....perhaps out on a balcony...or in a quiet corner....I might be so fortunate as to receive a kiss from my 24 hour Prince Charming. A girl MUST prepare for all possibilities you know!

This year, I already feel a bit tipsy, but only from the dancing....as we all continue to enjoy the ball, I still have a lot on my enjoyment to-do list: sip lots of champagne, sample the delectable delicacies, and savor the savories.....let this night never end!

Pssst....there was one moment on the balcony, when he started whispering....
      "At last a soft and solemn breathing sound
Rose like a steam of rich distill'd Perfumes,
And stole upon the Air, that even Silence
Was took e're she was ware, and wish't she might
Deny her nature, and be never more
Still to be so displac't."
...........followed by.....can you guess?

Pinteresting Family History

As social networking fads go, I am usually a late bloomer. I wait until the hype has died down, and until I know it is a product that is going to stick around long enough for me to add it to my list of e-habits. When the hype about Pinterest started reaching a fever pitch, from first glance, I was unamused. I'm not getting married, I just re-decorated my new house, and I jumped off the crafty barge years ago.....so what would I use this for? I knew I was making a pre-judgement about it, and with the buzz, I decided to give it a shot. And sooooooo, I was hooked immediately. Here's why:

To my core, I am a hugely visual person. I have always loved photography and beautiful images - and collected them at an early age in the form of cuttings or souvenirs. Pinterest appealed to this nature since it is simply virtual scrapbooking. I collected images from around the internet into little albums of my subject choice - called "boards" in Pinterest. Once I started boards for the things I love, books, libraries, tea, gardening, history, etc., I found it to be a relaxing and visually stimulating game. And just FYI - this is supposed to be fun, not serious - so let's not over think this people! In short order, I was abandoning "Words With Friends" to see what neat outfits my friends had pinned, or what art work I could add to the mix. Sometimes, I even pinned photos from my blogs. Which is how an idea started to grow.

When I was a teenager, I made a real scrapbook. I can go back to that scrapbook today and view the images with a sense of nostalgia and happy or sad memories. Pinterest does the same thing. I can look at my boards and get a real sense of the things I love or enjoy. In essence, they are representations of me - in such colorful and vibrant expressions! As I looked at them and had some fun, I suddenly wished I had the same visual essence about my ancestors. After all, they loved scrapbooking too. Only a few still exist, but we have examples of the same thing in tangible form. If they could make the same visual choices, what would they pin? What would we learn about them?

Since I could not go back and ask them to pin things.....I started thinking about what images reminded me of them. Once I made a few boards in honor of a few grandparents that have passed, I soon discovered this had the potential to be a useful, teachable and shareable tool for family history. We are always searching for ways to draw in the interest of younger people, to share their heritage in engaging ways. This is a unique and fun way to do so. Let me show you a few boards, followed by what and why I pinned, plus what I learned through the pinning. I quickly discovered that the more I pinned, the more memories were coming to me, in flashes of color. Stories were being remembered, and I was happily remembering my loved ones in ways I had not done so in a long time.

Boards created: Grandpa Charles, Grandpa Roy, Grandma Freida, Great Grandma Nellie
Description for each: What I remember, and what reminds me of him/her.

Subject 1:
Grandpa Charles

What I pinned:
Cigars - I can remember him smoking these when I was little, but he stopped when I was about 10.
Benji - He and Grandma took us kids to see this Movie and then they bought a dog that looked just like Benji - and named him as such!
Military images - WWII, D-Day
France - He and the family were stationed there during the Korean War.
Delta Queen - He and Grandma took so many trips on this famous boat, I could not count them.
Trains - Both real and model. Grandpa worked for the Railroad for years - at Union Terminal (another pin) - plus he collected and showed model trains (sometimes all of us grandkids helped him with his model train shows).
Nickel - When it was his turn to baby sit, he would try to bribe us kids with a nickel to "be good"!

Subject 2:
Grandpa Roy

Cows - He was a dairy farmer in Kentucky.
Tobacco - Grew lots on the same farm.
Tractors and field images.
Old Westerns - Zane Grey Books or TV Westerns, or anything "out west" - he loved all of these!
Fireflies - He was always around when we were catching them, either on the front porch with a glass of iced tea (See Freida's pin board), or reminding us the next morning to "let those bugs go or they'll die in that jar!"
Virginia Beach - I remember him lifting me up in the air whenever a wave would hit us - I was only five, but I remember this vividly.
Amtrak - I remember the train ride from Cincinnati to Washington D.C. when I was 9 - He and I were seat buddies behind my Mom and Grandma Freida.
Border Collies - He always had these dogs on the farm - and I dearly loved each one!

Subject 3:
Grandma Freida

Iced Tea - She was making this ALL the time - and we LOVED it!
Corn on the cob - from picking it, to peeling it, to cooking it, to eating it....wonderful memories.
Books and the Bible - She was a big reader of the Bible and books in general.
Iron Skillets - For cornbread, of course.
Garter snake - She was talented at going after those things with a hoe! Got them every time!
Canning jars - She canned when I was young, and then moved to freezing when I was older, but either meant a lot of growing, picking and blanching.
Flowers, fruit - Had a large orchard, plus various flowers around the house.

Subject 4:
Great Grandma Nellie

Gone with the Wind Lamps, Moon & Star Glassware - She was a huge antique collector!
Kittens - Always hiding around her porch.
Cotton aprons - Always had one on when I visited.
Sugar cookies!
Hollyhocks and Hollyhock Dolls - She taught me how to make these.
Old school bus in the back, used for storage - but full of bumble bees in the summer!
Letters - She wrote letters all the time.
Family Tree - She was the gatherer of family history and photographs and let me play among them at a young age - letting me ask loads of questions. She was the one who inspired me to research the family and pass on our legacy.

After all of this, I realized that the more I looked at the images I pinned, the more they were drawing even more memories out of my psyche. I also drew some conclusions about the people I remembered. Grandma Freida was such a minimalist, and as I tried to go back through her house in memory, I was having a hard time picking out things she liked - because I do not have one memory of her buying something just because she liked it. She was always buying things for others and living life centered on what happened outside the house on the farm. This is in contrast to Grandpa Charles, who loved collecting things and taking enjoyment in frivolous novelties - two very different ways of life!

Oh! And don't forget, the beauty of Pinterest, is that the memories are not just yours. You can open up your boards to other family members to invite them to post their favorite images about the loved ones.....you will soon learn that though we have some similar memories, many of us have very different ones, which adds a dimension to the life that was. This is a great way to get families talking about memories. As they post an image, remind them to try and give a caption that explains what this image conjures for them. This can be done anytime of the year, or just after a loved one dies as a celebration, or just before a family reunion! The possibilities are endless - but the fun and lessons learned are far reaching!

A last note about copyright. There is some current stink swirling around about copyright and Pinterest. I will post a link to an article about it - but some people are upset that it pulls in images for sharing with thousands of people without proper credit given. My take on this - as long as you are pinning an image from the direct url source, the image becomes a visual url - clicking on it should take me to the original source. I cannot steal the low-rez image and reproduce for profit, I am sharing visual links with friends - which happens in multiple ways all over the internet. Some places, like Flickr, are starting to block their image content from being pinned - which is ridiculous since they are freely sharing the images with the world already by posting to Flickr - with the understanding that I am only visually enjoying them, not stealing them nor re-using them in an abusive way - I hope the rest of the world does not take this drastic and silly stance. I have purposely visited some of my favorite blogs to pin images knowing people will track back to the blog and give my favorite authors some more, and well deserved traffic. I also pin a few desired products complete with pricing - this is the evolving nature of social media - as long as we use this correctly (and pin from the original source), people are getting credit. But then, hey Pinterest - why not pull in the citation info with an image to include as a caption? Just a thought!

Article from PCWorld: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/250700/what_you_should_know_about_pinterest_and_copyright.html

Positively Splendid Article about proper Pinterest Etiquette:
http://www.positivelysplendid.com/2012/02/guide-to-proper-pintiquette-pinterest.html

At the moment, Pinterest is invite only, so if anyone needs an invite, just shoot me an e-mail. If you want to follow my boards as the memories evolve - I am Pastology on Pinterest.
Happy pinning!
C