Author: laura bruno lilly (Page 37 of 41)

Meanwhile, back at the barn…

August 11, 2014 / laura bruno lilly

Barn buddies: Joanne & Skipper & Me

I figured you guys needed a horse photo fix, so here’s one of us taken the end of May just minutes before tacking up the horses for the 2nd Annual Bethlehem Therapeutic Riding Stables Horse Show. My, don’t we look fresh and perky? It’s a far cry from how we all look and feel now during the dog days of this endless South Carolina summer.

I love doing horse therapy. Today I spent another Southern morning amongst sweaty horses and humans. All of us out and about focused on the task at hand. Humans enabling horses to enable Wounded Warriors who in turn enable us all to thank God for this gift of life. Truly, it is a privilege to be part of such a place.

I came home after four and a half hours of such enabling, drenched. Soaked to the bone with non-secretive sweat patches emerging over 90% of my clothing. Not quite a wet T-shirt display, but daringly close to one! Continue reading

Sparkles like a flash of lightening came (poem)

August 6, 2014 / laura bruno lilly

Sparkles on our front porch stairs

Sparkles like a flash of lightening came
Bounding down from nowhere deep
In the darkest time of night.
Such speed for one so small and soft
Sparkles like a flash of lightening came.

Pressing up against her newfound prize
Thunderous tunes purr rumbling
Split second communiqués.
Joyous in triumphant conquest
Sparkles like a flash of lightening came.

Fresh and bright next morning
Caresses shared with tummy filled
‘Come on let’s play.’
Sparkles like a flash of lightening came.

One Year Later: On the technical aspects of blogging

August 3, 2014 / laura bruno lilly

(Hard to believe, but I am coming up on the first anniversary of the launch of this website/blog the end of this month.)

This blogging gig has proven to awaken my inner geek, requiring her to be on-call 24/7. In that respect, I can be quite grumpy and reluctant as regards the technical aspects of blogging. So time consuming! However I am greatly appreciative for the huge learning curves thrown my way that need to be fielded because they require an active attitude of ‘lifelong learning.’

For instance, the issue of updates and backing up data and the website in general has been an on-going concern. This being a self-hosted WordPress site, most of what needs to be addressed on a regular basis is done by myself rather than WordPress. The choice to be self-hosted was a deliberate decision as it offers a greater freedom in use of customizing WP templates and purposes. Learn-as-you-go works for awhile, but after awhile, much of what is labeled, ‘maintenance’ is far from being routine.
Case in point: a few months ago I took the bull by the horns looking for new options for backups in order to address the compounding update issues that cannot continue to stay ‘on hold.’ I realized my original ‘UpdraftPlus’ plugin wasn’t pulling its weight, so I went on a Google research rampage in search of a more suitable solution. Several hours later, I found an-in-your-face-obvious-option I hadn’t noticed at first sight, right on the cPanel of my website host service. A simple button named -you guessed it- Backups.
While I now have a better back-up plan, the updates are still continuing to accumulate. The next step is for me to learn how to implement a ‘clone website.’ That way, I can do updates and see how they change the overall site while not interfering with the live site. The fun part of establishing a clone site is that it will enable me to do all sorts of experimental things while not interfering with the live site. That is indeed a geeky creative desire on my part, I know. We’ll see. Continue reading

WIP: Coffee Beans Means Love to Me

July 30, 2014 / laura bruno lilly

Note: the title of this post refers to the name of my current quilt WIP
As mentioned in a prior post, I’m a quilter from way back when. For the most part, I prefer to work with what is at hand, supplementing materials as needed during each individual project. As a result, my projects display differing degrees of scrappiness appropriate to their ultimate use. Whether utilitarian or artistic, literal quilt blankets or wall hangings, craft or fiber art projects, the underlying theme is always one of creating pieces from what I have on hand. Very much in keeping with the fundamental value of making do with what one has, then augmenting as the need arises.
While living on the compound in the desert outside Las Cruces, NM, I worked retail at the JoAnnFabrics in town. Just being in the store each working day was creative eye candy to my soul. I couldn’t make quilts due to our living circumstances, but those creative juices had free roaming privileges within my mind. Continue reading

Peace Post – John Lennon

July 23, 2014 / laura bruno lilly

John Lennon in Lafayette, Colorado

“You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will be as one.” John Lennon

Creative Confluence

July 15, 2014 / laura bruno lilly

Confluence.

I love how that word rolls about in the mouth; how it feels like its verbal definition.

Confluence.

Defined as a coming or flowing together, meeting or gathering at one point.

Most often used in reference to the joining of different rivers forming a larger waterway, it offers up a powerful image describing the perpetual movement of life. Regardless of point of origin, the joining up of these liquid forces produces newborn paths, vision and vitality.

The confluence of the Mississippi River & Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois. (© Nathan Benn/Ottochrome/Corbis)

Confluence itself is sort of ‘messy.’ Look at the bottom tip of Illinois where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers come together. During our first year on-the-road between-homes, we often traveled the bridges over these two rivers around Cairo, IL. Continue reading

Bengal Tiger Inspiration

July 9, 2014 / laura bruno lilly

Bengal Tiger Nashville Zoo, Amiee Stubbs Photography 2012

That gaze is arresting; so peaceful yet focused and in the moment. What a glorious creation; breathed forth into existence by the imagination of my Lord.
Reaching out to me from the image; that gaze. The earthy balance of body, pattern and color palette; eye – candy ‘au naturale.’ It fills me.
The glow of the glimmering candles cast orange upon my workspace. Against a grey backdrop day, I am surrounded by supportive stuff; bits of inspiration, all within view of that gaze.

Bacterial Necrosis

June 30, 2014 / laura bruno lilly

from- Swimming with Swans: vignettes of our three year journey between homes
November 2011 (Fountain Hills, AZ)

During my daily walks along local paths in town and in the surrounding desert area, I’ve noticed Saguaro Cacti with large dark brown “bite” patches along their base up to and including places way high above my head. At first I thought perhaps they were indeed, bites from local fauna that somehow didn’t get hurt eating the spiky spines along with the juicy flesh. Think: deer bites on Aspen tree trunks. But it didn’t seem to fit with the height limit of most animals. So, I got to thinking maybe it was some sort of naturally occurring disease that helps to maintain eco-balance such as the Pine Beetles in the Colorado forests.
I did a bit of Google research and discovered Continue reading

The Rusty Quilter

June 22, 2014 / laura bruno lilly

Detail of rows 1 & 2 of my quilt WIP

“Hello, my name is Laura and I am a rusty quilter who’s picking up the needle again.”
Geesh, that sounds kind of illegal. No matter, quilting is and has been a very important part of my life since well, forever. Put another way, when the country was re-discovering quilt-art in the 1960’s and 70’s, I was among those who tried my hand at it…and kept my hand in it ever afterwards.
Basic to those early projects was a deep desire to stay true to my own set of ‘quilt values.’ Specifically: recycling used clothing and jeans into quilts and wearables, both utilitarian and artistic. One of my first quilt-based projects used old jeans pockets as squares to make a lounge pillow for my younger brother.
Yes, the times they were a-changin’.* Continue reading

You Are My Only One (these 36 years) And I Still Believe In We

June 17, 2014 / laura bruno lilly

My hubby Terry’s twin (?)

Those baby blues. That attitude.
My future husband, my lover, my BE-ONE…and oh yes, he looks just like James Taylor.
What’s not to like?
Most of our family and friends know the story of how we met. Truncated version: Terry as best friend of my then fiancé convinces said fiancé to dump me and the rest is history. While it certainly was God’s plan for us to be married, it might not have been exactly His way of getting us together.
Over these past years we have celebrated June 17^th in various ways. Our first anniversary we did the ‘eat the frozen wedding cake top’ thing in our little square cinder block married student housing house. Living on love in the midst of typical newlywed poverty those first years proved to produce a firm foundation to our new union; along with three children!
Our tenth anniversary we threw a huge backyard party celebrating the fact that we had made it together that long. Sadly, many we knew who married the same year as we did, were no longer together. This was also the year in which we followed the dream and took a leap of faith in starting our own business. Continue reading