Tagxedo Fun!

I made a Tagxedo for our church's Sunday School program we are just finishing up...Puppets in Space...
The puppets are traveling to other planets, and I put words from their travels in the Tagxedo. Then I decided to try out Zazzle, where they print those Tagxedos onto items for sale.  I had a mug printed for our pastor...and it came out beautifully!
I drew the space ship to use as the Tagxedo image, but there are lots to choose from on Tagxedo, of course. 

You should try it with a Tagxedo you like especially well. 

It makes a wonderful keepsake/gift.  The mug ends up costing just under $20 when you get the colored inside.  If you choose no coloring inside, it costs less.

I placed my order late on the 22nd and it arrived yesterday, the 30th, by UPS, very well packaged.  It is excellent quality and just beautiful!

No, I do not own stock in Tagxedo or Zazzle.  I just love how it came out and think you should know!

Hurricane Monday in Maine

Hurry, hurricane,
Pass on quickly through;
I'm sitting inside
With nothing to do.

The rain's in buckets,
The wind is howling,
The lights just flickered,
The cat is scowling.

When the morning comes
There'll be branches to clear,
Puddles to wade in,
And stories to hear -

Tales of the night spent
With Hurricane Sandy,
And how that hand bailer
Came in pretty handy.

©2012, Donna JT Smith

Hope everyone made it through the night okay.  Lot of power outages and flooding.  The full moon has made the tide pretty high. Surf was wild today.
I guess in the light of day, I'll be able to see if I can get off the island.  The water's pretty high in places, so it floods over the road off...only one way in and one way out, unless you have a boat.
I hope we don't have to move any trees before we can go somewhere either.  We only had our lights go on and off a few times during the day, so I'm thinking that trees may not be an issue in the morning.  We'll see, though.  It could have been much worse.
It's still pretty noisy out there with the wind howling.  But I love that sound.

Morning note:
Looks fine out there.  Gray and wet, but only a few branches to move out of the way before I head into town.  I think we weathered that quite nicely.
Prayers for my niece and her in-laws who lost all in DE though.  Flooding was pretty bad there.

A Poem for Today

Thanks for hosting Poetry Friday, Linda!

Sweet Days of October

My favorite time
Since I was a child
Were the days of October
Because they were wild.

Colors once hidden
Now spring to the fore
The leaves begin talking
And rustling for "more".

More coolness of days,
Less sun and more night,
More acorns for squirrels,
More chatter and flight;

In the clearest blue skies
The geese form a V
Flapping their wings
As southward they flee.

Trees once soft edged
Become sparse and thin
Baring their arms just
When coldness sets in.

Tree fingers stretch out
They shiver and creak,
The wind howls and sighs
As it brushes my cheek.

But that only makes
Days that much sweeter
As here on the edge of
Winter we teeter.

Donna JT Smith
© Oct. 26, 2012


Today is my birthday (the 26th)...I feel like I'm teetering on the edge of winter...and days are sweeter.

What Not to Wear...Maine Mannequin

Orthopedic boots with fake buckles & fake fur.

Big stitch gray and ivory hat and scarf.

I warned them.
This is the second time I've gone into Cabela's in Maine and seen perfect examples of what not to wear.  This time I took pictures.
I'm wondering if the person who dresses the mannequins in Cabela's is from away and thinks this is the way we dress here, so our mannequins should reflect our actual style, or if he/she is making fun of the way we dress here.  Or perhaps they are trying to make us feel good about the way we dress and are encouraging us in our fashion attempts.  I'm not sure.  Because we do dress this way here.  It's just not the fashionable way to dress.  But we know it.  We just choose to ignore fashion, siding with function and comfort most of the time.  Given the need, we could dress up... for the most part, anyway.
We choose to dress this way, but please, not our mannequins.  We like our mannequins well dressed, fashionable and trendy...the way life could be - even if we dress...the way life should be.

Lightweight broom skirt, cable knit belted cardigan, white tee shirt. Slightly patriotic theme going?  The hat does look a little like a battle helmet...

Deceptive Reflectives

Shades of
Browns and grays
Deflected by
Reflections
Where shades of
Reds and oranges
Flutter to the ground
Now covering
The unfluttering
Deceived
By unnatural
Reflection.


And here's the correct answer:

Andromeda Jazmon Sibley

"I would guess it's about birds knocking into windows that reflect the autumn leaves falling, and leaves falling on the fallen birds...? "

Yup.  Now read it again, and see if you can see....

Okay, this one went through so, so, so many revisions.  Wish I'd done it in Google Doc's and kept the history, just so I could easily see its morphing.  I think this is the best I can do with it.  But really, wow.  I'm so strangely impressed with its development.  I guess, actually my bravery in cutting whole lines and groups of words...cutting way back from what I started with, to leave the essence (I hope.)  I don't know if it will make sense to anyone else in its simplest form.  Can you tell me what it is about?
I really wanted to try to write something that people would understand but that wouldn't be as straightforward as using the actual words/things I was talking about in it.  When I read it, I can tell what I'm talking about, but can you?
I don't think I'm being too obtuse, but then again...how does someone know that about themselves.
If you're obtuse, wouldn't you be too obtuse to know it?