Bring On Lemons

I remember thinking that I just needed a little more green paint. That was right before I felt the tingle at the base of my spine. It felt like someone was watching me as I painted. I turned to check my surroundings and nearly tripped over a very large man with gorgeous green eyes. He was attractive, but I was annoyed and gave him a look to tell him as much. He smiled and gave me a nod before walking away. I had been commissioned to paint a mermaid on a yacht. I had done that, and more…I created a topless mermaid with black hair, hazel eyes, full breasts, and a tail that reminded me of the ocean. She was a permanent resident of the vessel they called Obsession; the yacht was a 300 some foot Lurssen whose owners were paying me a handsome sum to paint her. I didn’t ask questions. After the first ten hour day working on her, I decided to give her a name. I called her Claire Aslin meaning bright future. Claire and I shared many moments together during the three weeks it took me to ge...

If you were a boat, the following could be said: When the waves are tossing you about and the turbulence is more than you can bear you return to port. Returning to the safety of the harbor where you find refuge and safety among others of your kind. Life isn’t entirely different than sailing. When a woman feels as if her very being is shattering – during childbirth – she calls out for her mother. Our natural instinct is to return home. Sometimes home is a town, a building, the loving arms of friends and family, and sometimes it is merely a smell or a memory. I place we long to be but can never find in the physical sense. I feel that way myself from time to time. I seek the camaraderie of a particular melody or the words of a poem. Today it was the lovely words written nearly one hundred years ago by poet Amy Lowell. I have a delightful text book from 1923 that describes Amy in the following way: No one has fought, in theory and in practice, the battles for the experimental a...

Some days it's easy to blog and other days it's hard to come up with a topic that anyone might be interested in. If you are interested in blogging or more and are struggling with subject matter, a writing prompt may help. I've had quite a bit of luck with online writing prompts from this website:  http://creativewritingprompts.com/# For example, today I clicked on a random number, and here's my prompt:   "Choose one of your physical features and write about how you can change or disguise that feature" I write every day, and this might be something that I write and don't publish, or something I publish on my private blog (more like a diary or journal that only I have access to). Depending on the prompt, how personal the story gets, etc...you can decide what to do with the story/blog or where to put it...but just getting started with a prompt or an idea gets those creative juices flowing. Now...I get to write about my nose. Believe it or not, if...

What a title, right? My children would tell me that cocky is a bad word, my mother might tell me that confident and cocky are the same thing, and I just like the cacophony of both words as they are smooshed together. Let's face it, like it or not, there's a fine line between confident and cocky. "I could have any man I wanted" (sounds cocky) "I deserve someone amazing to spend my life with" (sounds confident) "I can't believe she got that position, I am totally better than her at that" (cocky) "I'm happy for her, but I think I could have done just as well in that position" (confident) "I love having my picture taken" (jury is still out on this one) so on and so forth... And if you are either confident or cocky - or a bit of both, it seems like a much better position to be in than those individuals who are so busy kicking their own ass that they can't see how amazing they really are (but that's an...

So...at the Casavant house we sit around and talk about things. Tonight's conversation began while cleaning rhubarb and ended with an agreement to disagree. No, we weren't trying to figure out what came first, the chicken or the egg...we were talking about building your brand and whether or not a dairy farm needs a website. The Economic Development Corporation of Manitowoc County ( http://www.edcmc.org/ ) is offering a totally FREE $$$$ course on May 22nd and I signed up for it. Here's the scoop about the course: BUILD YOUR BRAND Agriculture Product Marketing Seminar **Wondering how to set your products apart? **Want a consistent image from logo to label? **Need a web and social media strategy? BRANDING - IT'S NOT JUST LOGO'S with Andrea New, CEO, Image Maker Who's Eligible: Farmers, ranchers, home gardeners, and agriculture-related businesses. How Much: FREE! When: May 22, 2012 3:00pm - 8:00pm Where: EDC Offices, 202 N 8th...