July 19 2023 - Good Habits

 

Remember Stephen Covey with the 7 habits of highly effective people?  That was in 1989 and it was standard business training at the time.  I don’t remember the 7 habits now.  At the time, it was tremendously popular.  I remember doing a lot of exercises in the training sessions. Wikipedia says that he coined the phrase abundance mentality - that there are enough resources and successes to share with others.   From a Forbes article come these 10 quotes - all remarkable: 1)      The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. 2)      The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. 3)      Live out of your imagination, not your history. 4)      Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships. 5)      Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important. 6)      I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. 7)      You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically, to say “no” to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger “yes” burning inside. The enemy of the “best” is often the “good." 8)      I teach people how to treat me by what I will allow. 9)      Love is a verb. Love – the feeling – is the fruit of love the verb or our loving actions. So love her. 10)   Live, love, laugh, leave a legacy. While he is no longer with us, his son, Sean, carries on his legacy and has written a few books - a version of the 7 habits for teens.  And  the 6 most important decisions you will ever make.  That’s an interesting legacy to build on. Proves the power of quote 10.

This was my favourite design class at the lily show - floral purses.   So on we go to the picture of the day - a collage of images from the Design competition in the Lily Show.   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

July 27 2021 - Inside Hillary Clinton's mansion where she lives with her partner

 

What a bizarre headline.  It looks like the algorithm did a search on popular celebrities and filled in the name to the standard headline.  It always has a mansion and a partner. On the other hand, the Cintons do have a mansion. Location of Whitehaven in Washington, D.C. Whitehaven is a Clinton family-owned mansion in Washington, D.C. used by Hillary Clinton when she is in residence in the capital. (The primary Clinton home is in Chappaqua, New York.) Built in 1951, the Georgian-style house is located near Washington's Embassy Row. And there are lots of headlines about their homes: "A look at Hillary and Bill Clinton's homes" HERE. This is a NY Times article, so may be inaccessible to you. There are lots of homes, and the price they paid for each one is identified.   It turns out their house purchasing is very popular in the headlines. Of course, she was running for president when many of these articles appeared.  And they have owned a lot of houses, and do own a number of properties that are fascinating.  Perhaps the articles are ironic, given the ultimate home for any American is the White House.   Too bad she didn't become President, it would have made for great decorating news. These pictures were created from the Lily Plates that Brian had me taken pictures of.  They went through the Flexifly plugin with the Mandelbrot output.  To me they look like something the White House would use as China.

Oct 28 2020 Halloween Colours - A Retail Decision?

 

What makes for Halloween's black and orange theme colours?  It seems obvious:  pumpkins and fall colours, along with the darkest night of the dead and ghosts arising ancient ritual.  There's a website to answer this question:  Isle of Halloween.  I took a look and it doesn't say much more.  I guess the commercialization of Halloween cemented the colour combination.  The Irish are credited with bringing Halloween traditions to the US in 1840. Postcards and die-cut paper decorations started in the 1900s and costumes appeared in stores in the 1930s and my generation remembers candies available in the stores in the 1950s.   What the Daily Mail calls a 'department store invention' seems to be the standard development of all of our purchasing holidays.   The marker for Halloween is Anoka, Minnesota, known as the Halloween Capital of the  World since 1920. It is the first city in America to officially hold a Halloween celebration, in an effort to divert kids from pulling pranks like tipping outhouses and letting cows loose to run around on Main Street. The town organized a parade and spent the weeks prior planning and making costumes. Treats of popcorn, peanuts and candy to any children who participated in the parade, followed by a huge bonfire in the town square. The event grew over time and has been held every year since 1920.  So here we are in the COVID year, finding out that Halloween turns out to be the most popular celebrated holiday of the year. More of the leaves images today.  The scanner is immense fun and very restrictive in space.  It demands simplicity in design.

Sep 6 2020 - That Character Named Q

 

Remember the character 'Q'?  He was in Star Trek.  Earlier was Ian Fleming's fictional character in the James Bond films - Q - stands for Quartermaster.  Like M, it is a job title. M doesn't stand for anything. Q was played by Desmond Llewelyn, and there are a number of commercials that feature some variation on the character 'Q'.  Jump now to recent past, to October 2017, when Q emerged on the internet message board 4chan with a post asserting that Hillary Clinton's arrest was imminent.  There were more than 4,000 posts from Q, who claimed to be a government insider.  Reminiscent of Ian Fleming spy novels, Q used a 'trip code' that allowed followers to distinguish his posts from those of other anonymous users - those anonymous others were known as 'anons'.  And only 3 years later, here we are: QAnon is now a major media 'ecosystem'.  Our public attention was drawn to it just last month when the #SaveTheChildren campaign got hijacked into the QAnon 'narrative'.  The predictions for the future are in the  News headlines this weekend says: "QAnon began in the internet's darkest corners.  Now it's set to enter Congress."   I have looked through images of QAnon supporters - and see a consistent expression on the faces.  There are big smirks and big smiles that remind me of high school rebels with their accompanying obnoxious and offensive behaviour and a sense of being superior.  There's a sense of "Just try to stop me".  And what should they be stopped from?  According to the FBI, it is domestic terror and violence in the making.   On the bright side of summer, here's a recent print I created.  I have figured out how to sample my images and use  sections as patterns - they fill the centres of the circle-dots and the background vertical stripes.

Read past POTD's at my Blog: http://blog.marilyncornwell.com Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Shells and Shells

In Florida, shells are everywhere - in the asphalt, the cement.  Of course, they are on the beach.  Here are a few encrusted in brick and cement where we go for a walk.  This is the inland waterway side - one can see it is calmer and has piers for boats.  The ocean side is a torrent of waves and tides, so is clear beach as far as one can see.

TBG Garden Tour June 25th

I can report that the June 25th TBG fundraiser garden tour was outstanding. It was hosted by Frank Kershaw and sponsored by the Toronto Botanical Gardens.  My friend, Sue and I got on the big bus and were happily transported from garden to garden.  Frank had hand-chosen the gardens for variety and breadth of landscape design, plantings, plantsmanship and general style.  There were private gardens that have not been accessible to the public or part of other garden events.  There was so much to take in that day.  One of the highlights was the one-of-a-kind collection at the end.  A marvel of knowledge and skill!  

We started in the west end of Toronto in my neighbourhood and made our way through towards the Old Mill, where we had lunch.  The afternoon was spent in the central/east part of the city, with a return top TBG at the end of the day.  TBG's gardens are a delight to see right now as well.

Garden Days

The Open Gardens Toronto 2009 (opengardenstoronto.com) is a program in Toronto that opens private gardens to the public over the months of May, June and July and then again in September and October.  It raises funds for the Canadian Women's Foundation (CWF), and is modeled on the National Gardens Scheme in Britain which raises money for worthwhile causes by opening private gardens to the public.  This year there are 24 gardens grouped in different areas of the city.  Very happily, there are many in the west end where I live.  

I'll be highlighting the gardens over the next while, and will start with a photo of one of the gardens on the June 17th tour - Shari Ezyk's.  I hope you enjoy this serene view of her back shade garden.