5 Things Picnic Style

Dr. Tanya continues her #5Things prompt by asking about our preferred picnic items.

1. We have to begin with a lovely loaf of fresh bread, naturally.

2. That leads us down the path to mmm brie! So creamy and smooth. It’ll be delicious on our bread.

3. We’ll need an interesting salad…

4. What would a picnic be without an array of juicy, sweet fruits for dessert?

5. Finally, let’s not forget the company. No one wants to picnic alone!

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

My Beach Smile

As promised, my smile for this week is the day I spent at the beach with my family.

Look at my awesome sandcastle! It’s so great just to relax and play for a few hours without a thought of politics or other drama. The beach is perfect for this. 😍

My little granddaughter had a good time too, creating her own castle and adding to mine, or smushing it, as the case may be.

And to finish off Fandango’s Dog Days of August super fun prompt series (I didn’t miss any, yay!)… my plans for September include spending a lot more time with my precious grands. I also want to work on my novel, take care of my mental and physical health (good food! exercise! sleep!), read more books, etc.

Thanks for a fabulous month of prompts, Fandango! And thank you too, Trent, for nudging us to focus on the positive. 🥰

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Images from the fam jam.

Regarding Museums…

I love museums. I don’t much care what kind either because there’s generally something of interest ~ I’ve even been to the tiny International Surfing Museum in Huntington Beach (I don’t surf). Perhaps this is because I was born in New York and my parents took me to a lot of museums there when I was a kid. They bring me joy and are associated with (mostly) happy memories.

My favorite artist is probably Van Gogh. I love Starry Night, Twelve Sunflowers, Irises, Wheatfield, and Cafe Terrace at Night, among others. He used a lot of yellow and blue together, and I read in my aesthetics class that many people find this the most pleasant color combo. Even Vincent’s still-life fruits are eye candy to me. Lemons! His skies are alive with swirls and whorls and stars that are outsized in brilliance, giving me the feeling of how majestic and complex a night sky can be. Likewise, his fields and gardens are lush and waving, as if a breeze just passed by. And then there are the people (including himself) whose faces convey stark emotion, often bone-deep weariness. Or madness…

But it isn’t only art museums I enjoy ~ history and science ones are great too. I’m always up for a planetarium exhibit, just don’t ask me to remember any of it the next day. Some facts stick in my brain and some don’t. Loved the natural history museum back in NY when I was a kid (and also am a fan of Ben Stiller’s Night at the Museum movies). The Human Body Museum was creepy but interesting. Back when I was Las Vegas bound, I planned to visit the Mob Museum. Still want to someday.

Of course there’s always the book museum, aka library, that’s the best one of all. 😍

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Photos of Paula taken at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (top) and The Broad in Los Angeles (bottom)

With Apologies to Julie Andrews

My Favorite Foods

Pasta with seafood and butt’ry potatoes;
Pizza with mushrooms, grilled cheese and tomatoes;
Avos all ripened and berries of blue…
These are a few of my favorite foods.
Warm PB cookies and cupcakes with icing;
Nachos and mangoes and pie so enticing;
Brownies so fudgy you have to eat two…
These are a few of my favorite foods.
French toast with cinn’mon and syrup is yummy;
Burgers with pickles get into my tummy;
Ice cream with caramel and choc’late ooh ooh
These are a few of my favorite foods.
When the spam bites,
When the troll spews,
When I’m feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite foods,
And then I don’t feel so bad.

😋😋😋

~*~

Written for Fandango’s Dog Days 10.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Photo credited to The Sound of Music

Six Degrees 2 [blogcarnelli]

1. Today I’m taking the last entry from my previous post (“Folsom Prison Blues”) and using the theme of feeling stuck (a word in FBP’s lyrics). One of my favorite songs, “Hotel California,” also has a trapped theme. It’s by the Eagles. Initially the narrator feels welcome at the HC, but eventually realizes there is no escape. The song includes the line this could be heaven or this could be hell.

2. The 2019 movie Vivarium (starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots) also switches from the idea of something that seems great to the realization that it’s horrible. A young couple go to look at their possible dream home with an estate agent. He disappears and the couple is left stranded in a maze of horror. They are forced to raise a baby who may be some kind of demon from hell (or an alien).

3. Speaking of hellish homes, I present We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. What’s going on here? Is this creepy family dead or alive? I enjoyed this psychological horror story very much. I also love a story told by an unreliable narrator. The novel has two sisters as main characters.

4. One of my favorite romcoms, 27 Dresses, features two sisters dealing with their romances. They are first of all in love with the same man (for a while) and second must untangle themselves from various deceptions. It’s a funny and sweet film.

5. “Alice’s Restaurant” repeats the lyric 27 glossy photos with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one to be used as evidence against us. Those were pictures of the heap of trash that the narrator and a friend illegally added to on Thanksgiving. This is a war protest song by Arlo Guthrie about the Vietnam draft, among other things.

6. My Trashy Romance is a fun story about a trash collector who falls for a librarian. Initially, they hit it off, but she discovers something that upsets her, so she breaks up with him. But does he win her back? This witty novel is written by my real-life friend Terry Black.

Okay, that’s it for my second six degrees / blog Carnelli post and I will continue on at some future date…

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Photo credit ~ Kevin Bacon, the original six degrees dude, via Google

Double Trouble

I’m combining the prompts for Fandango’s Dog Days of August 7 and 8 today. Hope that is okay! Do not want to break any RULES.

Something I found was an in-person game group in 2012. Now, I’d been on Meetup and played Scrabble with a bunch of nice folks, plus there were some larger groups that played all the board games, but I never felt a strong connection (read: they were mostly young dudes). Besides connecting over game playing, I needed to be able to chat with peeps because I was lonely after my divorce and my breakup with TMWBMH. This new group consisted of many people closer to my age and a bunch of women too. Yay! Some of us became friends outside of the group and saw movies and had vegetarian restaurant nights, etc. Man, I miss seeing friends for real ~ Zoom just doesn’t cut it, ya know. It’s better than nothing, sure, but I hope it won’t be years before in-person events are safe again.

Going along with that theme is someone I admire: she’s a member of the above-mentioned game group. I really think she’s the coolest person. She’s super-smart first of all and funny too. Next, she’s athletic and musical ~ she has a gorgeous voice. Third, she works in science, which is what I wanted to do way back when but ended up not because too hard. Waaah. I like things to be easy. Well, except for puzzles; they can be difficult. Back to person I admire (let’s call her Pia)… Pia got divorced around the same time I did, but instead of having a series of disasters on dating sites, each one worse than the last, Pia dated for a bit and then found her soul mate on a site. It can happen! This inspired me to keep trying, but alas I am not Pia, so my disasters continued unabated. Anyway, I’ll be happy to see Pia and her hubby again (also a smart and funny person) when it’s okay to get together in person.

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Image credit ~ Pinterest

My Jewelry Box

Ashley did a fun post about her jewelry and I thought I’d do the same. I used to have a beautiful mini-cabinet for my jewelry, but it took up too much space. Plus, it didn’t hold everything anyway. I had a bunch of separate boxes for the stuff that wouldn’t fit. The Container Store had these super practical stacking boxes, so that’s what I use now…

I used to have more, especially gold items, but I sold some 10 years ago. Most of the time I wear silver now. I rarely wear the costume beads, but I keep my favorites, especially silly things to wear at holidays (these are in a separate bag). My daughters bought this cupcake necklace for me, so I do wear it…

My high school bestie Elizabeth gave this cool silver coin charm to me for my bday way back when…

My mom loved this set of fetish animals she got on a vacation, I forget where. A few pieces have chipped, so I am careful with it.

A friend gave me this from his trip to India.

I love turquoise and this is a favorite set I treated myself to…

I also love butterflies and kitties…

It’s hard to take pics of rings, but I do have my faves. One is a silver and turquoise ring my daughter bought for me in Israel. I also love a gold and opal ring that my mom used to wear. Not to forget my dad: I have his platinum wedding band with their wedding date engraved inside. I haven’t worn a watch for a long time, but one of these days I’ll spend a few bucks and get this one fixed.

Isn’t it pretty? I have small wrists, so it’s perfect for me. No, I don’t know who those initials refer to, but isn’t it cool to think about a love story from 1947? I assume the man came home from the war and saved up to buy his wife this lovely Christmas gift.

The top post is my pink pearl necklace. The parents of my second ex-husband bought it for me as an engagement present. I’ve always loved this necklace and still wear it occasionally. At the time, it cost $1800. Now, it’s worth $50 at most because there are easy ways to produce pink pearls and the market is flooded.

Here’s a gorgeous piece I bought off eBay, but it’s not that comfy to wear because it’s so heavy. But I just love the huge chunks of turquoise!

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

New Prompt ~ Six Degrees

I found the 6 Degrees idea at my friend Davida’s blog, but I’m going to tweak it a bit. She links to a prompt that asks us to describe 6 books, each connected to the previous one in some way (a word in the title, the same author, a theme, etc.). That reminded me of a super fun game I’ve played called Carnelli, which uses books and movies. Since I’m pretty flexible with rules, I’m going to allow songs and poems too ~ anything written, basically.

Blog Carnelli is what this is, my friends, and I hope you will join in. Take any one of my 6 items and start your own Six Degrees post (no time limit)… or take one from another player. Can you just begin your own from scratch? Sure, why not! We can use the tag #blogcarnelli to find each other.

If you’re wondering what is the deal with Kevin Bacon, click here. Okay? I’m gonna start! 🤩

1. Hollow Man. This is a 1980 movie starring Kevin Bacon as an arrogant creep of a scientist working on an invisibility serum for the military. There’s also a love triangle involved with Elisabeth Shue. The movie is violent and somewhat predictable, but hey Bacon.

2. Leaving Las Vegas. This is a 1995 movie starring Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue. The story centers on the relationship between an alcoholic man who has lost everything that mattered to him and a prostitute. Sad, but great.

3. The Glass Castle. This is a 2005 memoir by Jeannette Walls, where she chronicles her childhood with an alcoholic father. I found it utterly engrossing. There’s a movie version, but it’s not nearly as good as the book.

4. “Heart of Glass.” This is a 1978 new wave song by Blondie. It was written by group members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. Though the music is upbeat, the lyrics are focused on mistrust and heartbreak.

5. The Heart Goes Last. This is a 2015 novel by the wonderful Margaret Atwood. It’s a dystopian romp where you have to agree to be a part-time prisoner in order to have a modicum of security. Thought provoking!

6. “Folsom Prison Blues.” This is a 1955 song by Johnny Cash told from the point of view of a prisoner. The guy is lamenting his loss of freedom when he hears the train go rolling by. A classic! 🎶💖

So, there you have it. My first Six Degrees #blogcarnelli post. More will come along at random… looking forward to yours!

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Puzzle Time! [socs]

More procrastination tools for those who are “writing a novel.” 😂

Okay, so I have a new app called “Jigsaw Puzzle,” which admittedly is not a very creative name. But it’s super fun, and no they are not paying me to say so. I’ve been doing the free puzzles so far, but I may pay for some eventually. We’ll see. The free ones are great though! 🤩

I was skeptical at first… I mean, what? Who wants to do a puzzle on their phone? But it works well, surprisingly. Let me show you. First, we pick a puzzle and scatter it into 400 pieces (more on some devices).

Next, we change the background color to one that looks better with these particular pieces. And we tell it to show us edges only. See the bottom buttons? You change colors there, pull up the original for checking, etc.

We complete the frame and the rest of the pieces appear again like magic!

Now we sort our pieces. I start by sorting for color, usually a striking one that is in a small area. You can stick pieces in “trays” if you like. Sometimes that’s helpful to keep colors together and get them out of your way.

Progress! 😍

I want to illustrate what I do when the “easy” colors are gone and it’s time to hunt for shapes. I will say (left to right in the tray below)… normal green piece vertical, normal green piece horizontal, 4 outies, 4 innies, 2 right feet, 2 left feet, etc. Works for me!

And voila!

I’m getting really into these puzzles. Very relaxing and non-competitive. Plus, the cats can’t swipe the pieces onto the floor. 🐱🐱

And! The default setting is “grabby.” What I mean is that when you place a piece near its correct spot, the table grabs it. Coolest thing ever, especially when it happens randomly. But more importantly, it lets you know that a placement is right.

Yeah, yeah this wasn’t entirely stream of consciousness because I had the pics ready from the other day when I thought it might be fun to document my puzzling for a post. Like whatever… deal with it!

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Image credits ~ Jigsaw Puzzle

Algae Green

I made it through July without missing any days of City Sonnet’s photo challenge! Yay me! And thanks to CS for a very fun set of prompts.

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Image is mine.