Laura Bruno Lilly

The road ends, but the journey continues...

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Everything's Coming Up…Daisies?

September 24, 2014 /

Contrary to popular belief, I am a snapdragon.

Come join me in a Daisy Dance

Let the Daisy Dance begin…


I never thought of myself in flower terms before, but even if I had, I’m not sure I would have associated a snapdragon with my personality before taking this little quiz.  Interestingly, I took it 8 times in a row and came up as a snapdragon each time.

But hey, I love giant purple irises, deep red orange poppies, daisies and…

Milkweed

Fractal Milkweed & beetle

Fractal Milkweed & beetle


Milkweed is one of my favorite plants. Such beauty in several stages of its life cycle: The fragrance of emerging flowers is intoxicating, the flowers themselves a gorgeous purple, and the resultant seed pods other-worldly. My family knows that I want milkweed to be planted on my grave when the time comes.  🙂
These past few months I have been preparing blog entries for a serious series I hope to launch before the end of the year; perhaps even before the November craziness that is NaNoWriMo!  Coming across this little flower quiz, I realized it could be used as a sort of relief for you (my readers) once I begin the process of posting those entries.  As a point of reference and contact with the little flower quiz as a  ‘respite’ (just a click away), a snapdragon badge will be displayed in the sidebar through out the duration of that series of posts.
I am still in a quandary as to what to name this forthcoming serious series.  Until that gets figured out, I will wait on presenting it.
In the meantime, take the little quiz and declare your flower identity in the comments section of this post!

I am a snapdragon.  How about you?snapdragons

Look What I Found!

September 17, 2014 /

Unfinished Mother-Daughter Quilt Top Center

Look what I found!


Roaming about the unpacked boxes in my studio space, I came across this unfinished, but not forgotten WIP.  Carefully set aside to be finished at a later date, this Mother-Daughter Quilt Project was started when my middle daughter was in High School.  We worked on it through her first two years of college getting the entire quilt top center finished, with only the borders and binding left to sew.  It got put on hold as our business of over 17 years was going through bankruptcy and major changes were shaping the course of our lives. Once we packed up stuff to go into storage a few years later, it was definitely a WIP that I figured would never get done.
Borders, Backing & Thread: Ready to Go!

Borders, Backing & Thread: Ready to Go!


What’s so cool is that in its recent re-discovery, I know that now is the time to finish it.
Moreover, packed alongside the rolled-up quilt top were the materials needed to complete the project; all cut and ready to go.
My Michelle’s favorite color is no longer pink.  She has grown up, become a confident, professional woman and married a fine young man.  But our Mother-Daughter Quilt still speaks of the ties that bind: times past, present and future; the good times and the bad; what it means to love and be loved; forever and always…Amen.

My Love Affair with Cilantro

September 12, 2014 /

CilantrobannerIt’s been said that there are two types of people in this world: those that love cilantro and those that hate it.  This division of stances on the merits of cilantro has in fact been debated for centuries. The 16th century herbalist John Gerard described it as a ‘very stinking herbe.’  While the Chinese continue to refer to it as the ‘fragrant plant.’
I think the title of this blog post shows which side of the debate I stand on…however I will concede that those who ‘hate’ cilantro might have a biological basis for disliking its taste. Continue reading

One Year Later: Why Blog? Why Now?

August 24, 2014 /

In commemoration of my upcoming one-year blogging anniversary, I’m referencing Why Blog? Why Now? using it as a foil for reviewing the year-to-date.  As the introductory post written on 8/30/13, it serves as a starting point for re-assessing goals stated therein: whether they were met and/or if they’ve changed.  I guess you could say this is a sort-of evaluation post, re-examining the purpose of the blog along with how to proceed into its second year.

Why Blog? Why Now?

The obvious answer to this is of course, ‘Why not?’
Comment:  And thus began my official entry into the blogosphere… Continue reading

Ecco là – Coffee Beans – è Finito!

August 18, 2014 /

Thought I’d spice this up a bit with some of my good ole Italian…besides, a picture is worth a thousand words, so if there’s any question of what that title means, just take a gander at this:

Coffee Beans Means Love to Me, back & quilt label

Partial view of quilt back with label signed and dated


Yep, Coffee Beans Means Love to Me is no longer a WIP, but a completed project.
Last seen on the table ready to be basted a few posts ago, I experimented with using large quilter safety pins.  In general, I liked the way they held the 3-layered sandwich together while I machine quilted.  However, the holes they left in the fabric after being removed left me wondering why I didn’t just do it the way I’ve always done it.
Basting together pieces of (he)art

Basting together pieces of (he)art*


Live and learn.
Perfectionist that I am, I feared I’d wrecked the whole thing.  Then I remembered: part of our between homes experience was embracing the ‘strange life path’ He had for us.  So what’s a few microscopic pin pricks?
Still living.  Still learning.
 
Finishing Coffee Beans has been freeing.  A sort-of final transition stage where our between homes past has been pieced together into something beautiful to be seen in the ‘now’ as a reminder while we proceed into the ‘next’…
GEDSC DIGITAL CAMERA

The road between homes has ended for now, but the creative journey has not.


*creative confluence: Coffee Beans Means Love to Me (2014), my NaNo Novel, ‘The Woman Who Didn’t Belong’ (2013), my hand scored original arrangement of ‘Mo Giolla Mear’ written while I was ‘Swimming with Swans’ in IN (2010), favorite guitar strings and an old photo of me with an anonymous horse in Montana during Spring Break (circa 1977).
 

Meanwhile, back at the barn…

August 11, 2014 /
Barn buddies: Joanne & Skipper & Me

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 /
Sparkles like a flash of lightening came

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 /

(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.’  Laughter-1I 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

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