Blueberry picking and the changing times

I have different news sources emailing me articles all the time. I enjoy seeing what’s going on in the cyber and real world which often feel very different to me. Even with my blog and website I find it hard to organize the two worlds in my mind.

I believe something is getting lost somewhere in the middle and this headline from Digg kind of brought it to a head for me.

Don't Waste A Vacation

picturelife.com

What's the point of taking a vacation if you can't show it off? With Picturelife you'll

 know that your photos are forever safe and secure. You just worry about taking drool-worthy pictures, they'll do the rest.

This is an ad for the website above but it got me thinking. Is life now all about the photo opp or do we share on the web to make people jealous of our lives?

The stand where you pay is on the honor system 

 I recently took a very nice family from out of town to a blueberry farm that I've gone to for years with my boys. They were excited to see it.  Pictures were taken right as we entered the field in all kinds of wonderful poses. A few blueberries were picked and then they were off to the next part of the plan. 

 Blueberry bushes

 I thought about it as one of the girls was still with me in the field and we picked and talked for awhile. She was very young but she picked and talked just like my boys used to do. It was a sweet calm time for maybe 20 minutes until we had to join the others.

Blueberry bushes 

 My boys, my Mom and I used to go late in the day to these same blueberry fields when the air was a bit cooler and the sun was low in the sky.  We’d pick for hours until we could no longer see the berries. When we left we’d have enough berries for several pies, bowls to eat and some to freeze.

Blueberry bushes

More important than our blueberry haul was the time we spent talking and laughing about so many different subjects. We have picked berries every year since my boys were in Kindergarten. We never missed a year sometimes going two or three times a season. 

Blueberry Field

Now that they are both in college and away from home it’s not very easy to get to the field but sometimes everyone is home during blueberry season and we still go out to the fields because to all of us it’s a treasured time. And the funny thing is there are no photos of us out in the fields but in my mind and theirs the precious evenings will always make us smile and have been one of the wonderful links that have bonded us together in life.

Welcome Back a Fun Flash Dance

I'm so glad advertisers are putting their money into things like this. Their helping the staving artist and making people smile money well spent. I don't mind sharing it because it will make you smile too.

I would love to come off of a long flight and walk into this.

A Fun Summer Party Idea: Dancing the Night Away

Dance Party: A Fun Party I Hope You’ll Try

This summer my husband hasn't felt like entertaining but I have so I decided to try a party idea I had been kicking around in my head, a dance party with only women.

I got my son who is a DJ and had him play 70's and 80's dance music. You could easily do this with an Ipod or a CD player and probably your phone.

Then I invited my friends and told them to invite their friends.

A Women's Dance Party

I made it a potluck with the rules being:

The food had to be bought at a store or restaurant and had to stay in its original container.

Also optional, you could bring something to drink.

All I had to supply was a clean house (I suppose the clean house is optional),

music, paper plates, paper cups, napkins, utensils and some beer and ice.

I started the party at 6:30 and had the music run from 7:30 to 9:30. I had the music just loud enough so we could still talk and still feel the music for dancing.

Dancing the night away

 I had the dance party on a Thursday so I wouldn't disrupt anyone’s weekend plans with their families.

I invited all my women neighbors to the party by hanging a note on their door and let my men neighbors know about the music so they knew when it would start and end.

The party turned out to be one of my best parties ever.  We all just let loose and danced funny and fun dances ate and talked. Most of us danced for the entire two hours.

I haven’t laughed so much in a long time. By the responses I got afterwards we all felt such a sense of playful joy as though we were kids again.

A Fun Party Idea

       Everyone wants to do it again so it is on my calendar for next year.

Wearable Art: Alexander Mc Queen Fall Fashion Show 2013/2014

I looked through the fall fashion shows and found this one. I thought this show would be fun to share because it’s complete eye candy. You would have to be very rich and a little eccentric to wear any of these dresses; it’s a walking art exhibit. I hope you enjoy it.

Making Lavender Potpourri’s

Making Lavender Potpourri’s 

Supplies you’ll need:

 A scrap of  fabric

Bowl or plate to trace around about 5 ½” across

Needle and thread

Lavender about a ¼ cup for each potpourri

Decorating items : I used ribbon and flowers..

Step one

1) Trace a circle on the back side of your scrap fabric

Step two

2) Now knot thread and stitch a long running stitch a ¼” from the edge leaving the thread and needle attached.

Step 3

3) Place the lavender on the inside in middle of the stitching.

Step Four

4) Then pull the needle so the thread gathers the fabric around the lavender.

Step Five

5) Now stitch the gathered opening closed by stitching several stitches through the gathered fabric in different directions and knot.

Step Six

6) At this point you can either sew on your decorations or use a hot glue gun.

Finished Potpourri

Musee D' Orsay Paris

Fall is in the air and Paris is on my mind. Every fall when I was a young fashion designer I would travel to Paris in order to check out the latest fashions. It would still be warm, the outdoor cafes would be people filled with people sitting for hours savoring a cup of coffee. The streets would smell of crushed autumn and hot pastries.

 

A wonderful Paris Tradition

The store windows hosted the latest fall fashions. I would shop all day, sneaking pictures, sketching designs, and buying many garments only to cut them up so we would not have to pay duty on them. They lost their wear ability for a good cause each garment could inspire a full line of clothing when I got back to New York.

 

Painting of a Pastry Shop by LaVera

 Sometimes if I got a lot done I would be able to squeeze in a Museum. One of my favorites was the Musee d’Orsay. This Museum is in an old train station and has a wonderful collection of Impressionist paintings. I found a way to share it with you.  

If you click on the photo below you can do a virtual tour of it by Google Art Project. Make sure you see all the floors they're all great.

Click above photo to go on a Virtual tour of the Musee d'Orsay.

Flower Bouquet Cakes!

In the windows of Urban Fare in Vancouver BC Canada I saw these floral bouquets made to look like cakes. I'm in love with them. I want to do a tea using a few of them. So when I figure out how to make them I will do a blog to show you in the meantime here they are. If you end up making them first please send me pictures through my email contact@teawithlavera.com . Thanks.

A Cake Made of Flowers A Cake Bouquets?

A Cake Made of Flowers Wonderful

A Cake Bouquets

Another Funny Fashion: Chopines Then and Now

Developed in the 15th and 16th century the chopines were popular in Europe and especially popular with Venetian women. The shoes were made in order to keep women and men from stepping in mud, water and waste that lay in the streets.  

They started out as a practical idea but over time got higher and higher and became a statues symbol. Noble women began to wear them up to eighteen inches high and needed servants to support them. Chopines became a fashion statement during the Renaissance, with cobblers creating increasingly taller styles and adding more elaborate designs. Many of the shoes were decorated with leather, brocade, velvet, and jewels.

In the late 15th century writer Alfonso Martínez de Toledo’s lamented that there was hardly enough cork in Spain to satisfy women’s demands for chopines and that by his estimation chopines had risen as high as an elbow.                                     

                             Here are some modern chopines that recently graced the worlds runways.

Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen

Guo Pei

 Guo Pei

Guo Pei

To see and learn more about chopines click on the links below. 

  

                                        http://www.batashoemuseum.ca/exhibitions/on_a_pedestal/

                                                   http://pinterest.com/amberavenscroft/chopines/