Best of 2009: Blog Find of the Year

December 7 Blog find of the year.

That gem of a blog I can't believe I didn't know about until this year is Confessions of a Pioneer Woman written by Ree Drummond.  I was truly in love at first click!  I was smitten and have visited almost daily since reading about it in February.


I stumbled across Ree's blog when I followed a link from Heather Armstrong's blog, Dooce, listing the 25 Best Blogs of 2009.  Heather was # 21, Ree #22.  It's really amazing to see how many people visit these two women's sites on a daily basis.  According to adbrite.com, over 20,000 plus view Dooce and I'm sure Ree has just as many visitors.  The Pioneer Woman is so full of interesting and useful posts, all really well organized, that you can literally spend all day browsing around.  You can learn more about how to use Photoshop, how to bake a pineapple upside down cake, facts on cattle ranching, details on the wild horses they support on their land and how she manages to homeschool her four children, or punks as she lovingly refers to them as.  It's easy to see why she's so popular.

Ree is absolutley hysterical, a great writer with wit and charm.  You can just feel the love from her through the computer screen!  She's like the best friend you wish you had known all your life.  She's got readers from all over the United States and likely many more abroad.    I wouldn't label her as the typical mommy blogger, if there is such a person anymore these days.  Giving someone that label is really pretty silly.  Everyone knows that a woman who has children and is writing on the internet is not always writing only about kids and parenting.  People are much deeper than that and by giving them that one, singular label you are discounting all the other things that person is elaborating on.  Sure she blogs about her children, her animals, her husband and family but the reader gets the feeling that there is a true richness in her life deep within each of those elements.

When I visit her blog I feel like I'm coming home to an old friend.  


She's also recently finished renovation of the original house on the ranch that she now uses when guests come to visit.  She did a stunning job.  Exactly the ranch house you'd love to plop yourself down in and just stare out the windows.  I love reading about the guests that visit her.  She's always got an entertaining way of telling her readers about the city folk interacting with nature and farm animals.


Her latest venture is a nationwide book tour to promote her new cookbook.  Lately she's been posting gorgeous pictures of her giddy fans waiting in line to get her autograph in their new books.  She's also been writing about the hotel rooms she's been staying in and the different adventures that happen along the way.  To me it all seems so effortless, the way she writes and her life in general.  I know this is not entirely true but it's refreshing to visit a blog that is not full of whining and complaining about life.  She is very tongue-in-cheek but at the same time, she spills out exactly what she wants to say.    You've got to start reading her!  She will make you want to get out of bed in the morning, to see what hysterical event she's gotten herself into. 

I can't say enough about how much I enjoy reading her stories!


She's got to have a small team of helpers in the background, helping out with servers, uploading photos, writing new posts, etc.  It's hard to imagine that she gets it all done on her own but maybe she does!  I can barely get one blog post up each day!  She's definitely got it down to an art.  All these visitors translate into clicks which translates into plenty of revenue from advertising.  It's thrilling for me to think about the fact that less than 10 years ago, nobody would have believed that a person could make a living off their blog.  I know I'm a long way aways but these two women give me inspiration to keep on blogging and to hone in on my own special skills.

Blanche 

This is Day 7 of Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 Challenge 

Best of 2009 I missed a few days!

December 3 Article. What's an article that you read that blew you away? That you shared with all your friends. That you Delicious'd and reference throughout the year.
ummm. nope!  I did read a lot on-line but didn't keep track of one specific thing.  I have been interested in a lot of natural birth blogs, though.. for some reason - and I'm not even pregnant!

December 4 Book. What book - fiction or non - touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies? (+ giveaway) 
Well I haven't read too much this year so I can't comment!  Do blogs count?  Guy and I are both constantly re-visiting Eckhart Tolle's two books, The Power of Now and A New Earth.

December 5 Night out. Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night? 
Guy and I spend lots of special nights together!  Three months ago, before we packed up our lives and took a plane to Israel, we spent a lovely evening outside our trailer, with a big fire burning bright into the sky.  It was a beautiful moment. 


December 6 Workshop or conference. Was there a conference or workshop you attended that was especially beneficial? Where was it? What did you learn?
Another dull answer from me!  I did go to a few Hudson Valley Etsy meetings, does that count?!

Maybe the Best of 2010 will be more interesting?  We did live in the boonies in 2009 and both worked from home so not so many exciting/interesting events happened.  Well, if you compare it to the life of some people I suppose.  But we didn't have any problems with living a quiet, peaceful life.  We're still trying to make that happen here in Israel.  I guess some people live their lives with constant events to look forward to.  We try to enjoy the present moment as much as we can.  Which is probably why we don't have anything to show for our year.   Not sad - not bad - just the way it is. 

Best Restaurant Moment of 2009

December 2 Restaurant moment. Share the best restaurant experience you had this year. Who was there? What made it amazing? What taste stands out in your mind?

Angela's Restaurant in Catskill, NY - but of course!  The decor and the Friday evening keyboard player are not much to talk about but the all you can eat pasta for $8.95?? You can't beat that!  And it was made authentic Italian style, not from a can of tomato sauce.  They used spices and cared about how much each customer liked it.  Every Friday the pasta's were made fresh!

We brought everyone we could to that restaurant and on days we knew were were going there, would starve ourselves for the whole day.

One visit to the restaurant stands out in my mind: the time we took our good friend Alix along with Guy's sister visiting us from Israel and her friend that had just been on a 8 month journey together through South America.

What was your best trip in 2009?

December 1 Trip. What was your best trip in 2009?

I'm participating in Gwen Bell's great idea: The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge!

Well, I think the answer to this question would appear to be our recent move from upstate New York to Guy's hometown in Israel.  But the more I ponder it, this is more than a trip.  It's a move.  So I don't think I'll count it.  Instead, I will share with you my solo trip one weekend during the summer from our humble abode in Cairo, NY down to Manhattan, out to New Jersey and back again.

Here goes.

I was invited to a family get together down in New Jersey.  Was it someone's birthday?  I can't remember.  Maybe it was the fourth of July?  No, there were no fireworks.  No sparklers.  I know there was a dunking tank at the party but I don't think it was being held for any specific reason.  Oh yes!  Now I remember: my cousin Kasey's high school graduation party! 

So off I drive from Cairo to the train station in Poughkeepsie to take the train into Manhattan.  I get to the city and make my way to the Guggenheim a little while before the party is set to start out in New Jersey.  In the 6 years that I lived in New York state (half of those years were in NYC), I always told myself to go to more museums.  But of course when you live somewhere you don't often take advantage of the special places around you.  I think the Guggenheim is the only museum I visited in those 6 years!  (No - thats not true.  I also went to the Museum of Natural History with Guy's sister the month before we came back here to Israel). 

A snapshot I took from my FlipVideo

Well what a place it is!  I got there early in the morning so while there was a long line of people waiting to buy tickets to get in, I don't think it was as bad as it could have been.  I guess I have kind of a positive look at waiting in lines anyways.  It's fun to listen in on all the foreign languages being spoken and to watch the young kids squirm in their strollers.  Can you imagine visiting the Guggenheim as a toddler?  I don't think you'd find much of interest other than the cool spiral shape of the inside and the outside.   Certainly not the crazy paintings of Kandinsky.   Now that I'm looking back on some of the video I took that day (I didn't bring a camera), I realize what a fantastic building this is!  Check out the ceiling from the inside:

Guggenheim Museum ceiling

Also while standing in line you get to take in the vast expanse of the building.  It truly is interesting.  I love it that their are people out there (mostly designers and architects I suppose) that are willing to spend the time, money and resources on such a crazy looking building.  Hallelujah for people with vision and creativity!

Guggenheim from the outside

So I take the audio tour of the museum and learn a lot about Frank Lloyd Wright since they had a special exhibition of his house plans and photos of finished houses he designed.  Very interesting.  I'm so glad that I finally went!  Here's some more video from outside the Museum.  After the Guggenheim, I make my way down 5th Avenue, on my way to the Port Authority so I can hop on the train to Aberdeen, NJ.   As I'm walking I hear a bunch of street performers, singing I'll Be There by Michael Jackson.  Since he had just died the previous week, there was lots of MJ music playing all over the city.   I sat on the steps of the Met and listened to them sing.  So sweet.  I found myself singing along.  How can you not sing along to that song?  This video is on youtube!

They were very talented and had a bass with them!

I eventually hop on a bus for the rest of the trip down to the train station.  I'm not used to walking in the city anymore!  The train arrives and I find a seat across from an old married couple.  They are returning home to NJ after spending a weekend in Manhattan.  The husband is retired but the wife still works, for Orthodox Jews mind you!  She says they treat her very well and she feels like family, although she is not Jewish.  I'm glad to hear that.  She tells me that she's over 65 but she enjoys her job and the office so she has decided to stay on for another few years.  They tel me that they had a great trip on the Staten Island ferry.  They were very excited because they felt like they had cracked the code on a well kept secret.  The husband told me how he had taken his kids many times on the Circle Line tours around Manhattan which cost plenty of money.  Meanwhile they both took a ride over the weekend on the S.I. ferry for free and got just as good a tour of the tip of the city.  They were a really happy and positive couple.  It was inspiring to see them out and about, enjoying their later years.  And still very happy to be with one another.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art front steps

I arrive to my stop and say goodbye to my temporary friends.  I always seem to befriend these senior citizens.  Must be from my childhood in Florida!  My brother in law and cousin pick me up at the station and we head over to the house to enjoy the party.  My brother Niall was visiting from Austin, TX so it was nice to give him a hug and chat with him in person for the first time in over a year.   My two sisters, their husbands and children were also there along with a big group of cousins and aunts and uncles. 

My three nephews performing a Kings of Leon song!

My nephews are really into their guitars so they gave us a nice couple of songs then of course all of us who'd had a few drinks did a few sing-alongs.  A big, happy Irish family!  Where can you go wrong?!   My littlest niece, Riley, also had a couple of songs to share with us.  One was about popcorn popping on the apricot tree and another one was a graduation song she had made up by herself!  It was adorable.  I think she has a future in show business.

Riley singing her songs with Uncle Niall

We spend the night and the next morning I go back to Queens with my sister Denise and her family.  From there I take the train into Manhattan in order to take the train back up to Poughkeepsie.  I step outside of Grand Central Station and go for a bit of a walk, just to take in the city one more time.  Little did I know it would be one of my last major outings there before our spontaneous move to Israel!

East 42nd Street

As I was walking down 42nd street, I heard lots of music blaring from somewhere in the distance.  I spotted a rainbow flag and suddenly remembered it was the weekend for the Gay Pride parade!  I make my way to 5th avenue and take it all in.  It was the week after Michael Jackson passed away so ALL the music seemed to be from him.  I got chills when I heard it.  The scene was fabulous.  People dancing and singing and laughing and just having a great time.  Remembering the King of Pop and embracing their own sexuality.  Nothing like being in the middle of a big, boisterous crowd when MJ is playing full blast!

Gay Pride parade moving past the NY Public Library on 5th Avenue

It was a great end to a great weekend!  I'm so glad I decided to go.  I got to see the city and a lot of family.  Here's a video from the Gay Pride parade which I posted on youtube a few months ago and another one from the scene outside the Guggenheim which I just uploaded today. 

NYC Scene on parade day

I'm so glad I saw Gwen Bell's tweet suggesting we write about the BEST things that happened in 2009!  Check back tomorrow for more stories from me.

Franky is a Star!

Little ol turquoise froggy bead Franky was beautiful enough to be featured on the wonderful website, Found Handmade.  There are so many gorgeous goodies out there for the frog lovers of the world.  Thanks to our friends over there for choosing Franky for the spotlight.  Have a look at the lovely grouping of handmade frog inspired creations they chose:

People often ask Guy why he likes to make frog beads so much.  He taught himself how to make glass beads by studying Corina Tettinger's fantastic guide to glass beadmaking, Passing the Flame . On his journey through mastering each unique technique, the one which continuously stumped him was that of her adorable frog beads.  She is truly the master at glass frog bead making!  He passed through the majority of her tutorials with fun and ease and practiced  them for hundreds of hours over the years but the frog beads alluded him for ages.  And when I say ages, I mean almost 3 years before he started making frog beads that he was really happy with!  He's very particular about the way the feet and hands come together, the thickness of the stringer he uses to make these features, the googley eyes,  the shape of the body, the way the body of the frog slumps over the bead, the way the joints of each limb connect to each other...

 

 For the amount of frogs that we have sold, we've more than likely given away roughly the same amount!  Which is not such a terrible thing.  Giving beads to people is a lot of fun and they are typically very well received.  We have left a trail of glass beads all over Texas, New York and Israel thanks to Guy and his generosity (or quest for perfection, depending on how you look at it).  As a matter of fact, he thinks some of his frogs are so bad that they are not even worthy of being donated!  He holds onto them as a lesson to himself.  I'm pretty sure we left those defective froggies somewhere back in America, though.  The way he learns from his mistaken frogs is by making a better one next time and the next time after that and the next time after that.

 

It's funny how beadmaking goes: sometimes you can be in the middle of making a bead and something goes wrong (a number of things can go wrong!) and you say to yourself, 'should I keep going or put down the mandrel and try again?'.  Guy always seems to keep working on the bead.  Sometimes he spends time correcting little mistakes he's made only to make the bead worse and sometimes he succeeds and it's a winner.

 

Kind of like life you could say!  I guess the point is to keep on trucking.  Eventually you will get things right.  And when he gets these gorgeous little creatures the way he wants them, they are truly a beauty to behold!  

It makes me think of me acquiring this new language, Hebrew.  If I don't try to speak with people, try to say what I want to say, then I won't get very far with it.  All kinds of things go wrong when I try to speak the language but depending on who I am speaking with, things can sometimes get better (as in they understand me) or get worse (as in they give up and just speak English with me).  I'm enjoying the process and not getting too frustrated along the way.  Maybe I should be?  Guy learns a lot from his frustrations, that's for sure, as he does on a daily basis with his bead making!

 

I'm learning lots of new things everyday: new words, phrases, slang, greetings, etc.  I'm not remembering everything I hear but I think the language is slowly seeping into my brain.  Just as the art of making glass frog beads has slowly seeped into Guy's brain.  And who knows what will result from all this learning going on in our lives?

Good night from the moshav,

Blanche 

Working with Legend

No matter what horse farm he steps on, Guy always finds one particular horse that catches his eye.  In the case of his newest farm, he spotted Legend pretty quickly.

Legend is full Quarter horse stallion and is only 4 years old.  He's still got a lot of learning ahead of him.  He doesn't have very much respect for humans yet, instead he likes to walk right over them!  Since last week was Guy's first time working with Legend, he took things slowly and worked with him in the arena for awhile, putting into practice techniques he learned from watching Dennis Reis and Clinton Anderson on RFD TV (back in The States - we don't have it here in Israel).

Their are all kinds of exercises Guy can do with him there to help him learn to respect humans and their personal space.  That is a big thing for a horse to learn.  I don't think they are aware of the fact that by their sheer size and mass that they can kill you.  So they need to be taught to keep their big ol bodies to themselves and to work with the human body. 

One thing that Guy really loves about this horse is that he's got a lot of white in his eyes compared to most horses.  It's a feature that our dog Chillum has, too, and I think it makes them look more human or something!  People always commnet on Chillum's eyes, that they are kind of haunting.

Also, when Guy is working with Legend, I often hear him say to him that he is quite the 'sarcan' ('actor' in Hebrew) and that he's got a goofy personilty.  Young horses are fun to be around because of their playfulness and lack of knowledge.  I guess kind of like the little kids that were visiting us for the weekend - they are still in a pure state of conciousness!  They haven't learned many behaviors, much less bad ones.  So it's refreshing, in a way, to be around a being that is clueless!  Guy really loves the challenge of working with these young studs and goes home with a huge smile on his face.

Guy took his time working with Legend from the ground before he went ahead and got on his back.  This is important because his wife is standing nearby and she doesn't want to witness him getting thrown off this beautiful creature.  Once he decided that the ground work was enough, he carefully hopped up on Legend and started trotting around the arena.  There was a flock of white pigeons hanging out with us.  They got startled away once Legend started to kick into turbo gear.

 

This horse, like most other animals, really wants to please.  He wants to work hard for you and give you a thrilling ride.  Like any other youngsters, though, he needs to learn how to do that.  He's got great potential and Guy is excited about working with him.  It didn't take them long to fall for each other.

I really enjoy times like this, when I get to watch my partner do his thing.  He's brilliant.  I love him with all my heart.  The end!

 

You can see some of the videos I took from this session over on our YouTube page.  Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great weekend! 

Oz

This is Oz.

Poor guy has a fly on his ear.  He's usually got flies following him.  He's kind of smelly.  He lives next door.  I don't think his family has too much time for him these days.  But not to worry, he's taken care of and still has his manly equipment!  Lucky him (Dino told me to say that).  He's free and roams all over the street all day long.  His favorite past time is ... well, I'll let you guess.

 

Here he is barking at me.  Begging. Pleading.  Hoping that I'll do what he wants me to do.  But I've come out onto the mirpeset (front porch) to photograph Guy's new beads.  Not to entertain Oz and his obsession.

He doesn't give up easily.  After all, he sits outside on the front lawn and days go by before he might see a suitable partner in his obsessive game of ....

Lemon Fetch.  Yes, that's mister Oz's obsession: collecting any fallen lemons, and chewing them up while he waits for someone to throw the darn things.  Then he fetches it, comes back, sits next to you and laughs inside as he holds onto the lemon.  You think the taste would make any normal dog spit out this bitter fruit immediately.  But no, not Oz.  He's not a normal dog.

I try to ignore him, really, I do.  I am afterall holding onto a big camera with a big flash and a dish full of precious beads that Guy worked on for many hours.  To risk dropping all of this in order to play lemon fetch with this crazy, big black dog?  Sure!  Why not?  How many times has a gorgeous black Labrador asked you to play fetch with him? 

Who could resist that schnaaaawz?

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Feeding Animals .. again!

No matter where we have moved over the years, Guy always manages to find a gig feeding animals.  Usually horses.  And he has not disappointed us over here in Israel.   A friend called a few weeks ago asking him if he wanted some work feeding horses.  Guy said yes.  This job was right up his alley.

Here he is the other morning.  Bright and early.  I usually don't get up so early but I decided I should help him out a bit, even though he says he doesn't need my help.  It was nice for me to see the sun rise.  When it was hotter here, I got up earlier so I could beat the heat and get the dogs walked early on in the day.  Now that it's winter time, it's nice to stay in bed, warm and cozy under the covers.

We were greeted by these happy fellers.  They are always happy to see the dude who has come to dump grain and hay in their buckets.  The little kitty lives there with his mama and another sibling.  They are pretty shy of people and so far have not let me pet them.  I'm allergic anyways so it's better for me that way!

 

A big white rooster also lives there.  I didn't manage to get a photo of him. Next time!

The owner of one of the horses stopped in to give his sick horse a shot of something.  It was funny to watch them.  I snuck this picture of them, him and his friend, on their way to work apparently because both of their shirts said Avis - as in car rentals.  He looked very gangster-like with the cigarette hanging out of his mouth while he was filling up the syringe.

Instructions hang from each stall's door, informing us what each creature gets.  In this case: one cup of oil along with his one pitcher full of grain, and an extra 1/2 cup of aspeset which is basically condensed tablets of rich alfalfa hay.  See, I'm learning Hebrew everyday!

 

Guy hauls big bunches of hay in the wheelbarrow to each horses stall.  In America, the hay usually split up into smaller flakes but here the hay comes in huge, square bales that you simply tear apart.  It's very dusty so I have to take an allergy pill before I go near the farm!

 

So up he gets, each morning, practically at the crack of dawn to go and feed these gorgeous beasts.  I think he's enjoying it.  It's not a bad gig.  Time on your own with the animals that you love deeply, nobody telling you what to do or how to do and it and having a generally good feeling about what you are doing.  There are worse jobs one could have, no?