Danke, Osterreich!

Announcements at the end...

From the newly designed South African flag (1994) 

to the Austrian flag - one of the oldest in the world (1191)

I'll cut to the chase with Austria.  They've been around a long time and made lots of contributions to our global community.  Sure they've given us items we enjoy such as Porsche's, Volkswagens, and the sewing machine.  But, my inquiries (albeit rather cursory) left me with one overarching impression. 

The Austrian culture is responsible for introducing us to great minds such as:

Sigmund Freud

Haydn

Schubert

Liszt

J.Strauss

Mahler

Bruckner

Mendel, who established the basis of modern genetics

Adler,who contributed to the foundations of modern psychology and our very own...

Arnold Schwarzenegger!

A name is missing from this list.  Take a shot at guessing whose name (without the aid of the internet).  We'll play jeopardy style.  

This famous Austrian...

At age 17 accepted a low paying job and then left it in search of a better position

Married his wife against the wishes of his family

Was the father of six kids, only two of which survived infancy.

Had one living sister

Had a good relationship with his mother and father

Produced an illegal copy of a piece of art from the Sistine Chapel

Eventually fell into debt and had to pawn valuables

Was fired from a position and literally "kicked in the @$$."

Lived a plush lifestyle that later led to financial stress

Had a declining career due to a struggling economy

Liked to play pool

Liked to dance

Had pets including a bird, a dog, and a horse

Died at age 35

Your turn to guess.  Who is...

Announcements:

• Happy 9th Anniversary to Me and Richard!
• Voting Patches:  As of today, Katie, Peggy, and Julie are the three people who have earned a Voting Patch.  To receive your patch, simply send me the cover of your local paper from Wednesday, November 5 and your word that you voted.
  
• Blog-a-thon: Checks from 9 of the 22 people who signed up to participate in the Blog-a-thon have been received.  Ideally I will be able to send Tera a money order, containing the full amount, by a week from this Monday (November 24).  My mailing address is: Claudia K. Beeny 4012 Harvestwood Court, Grapevine, TX 76051
  

Signing of bis morgen...

Dankie, Suid-Afrika...

The new South African flag, adopted in 1994, 

is the only flag to use six colors and is said to represent 

the new democratic South Africa. - Post Aparthied. 

 

Today we celebrate World Kindness Week by making a short stop in South Africa.  While there, we will pay thanks to this diverse nation for contributions to the world, from which we all benefit. 

Eleven official languages, five racial categories, three capital cities (Cape Town, Bloemfontein, and Pretoria), and a religious and cultural life as varied as its people.  That's a lot to be proud of.  Of course that was not always the case.  Many of us might unfortunately associate South Africa with our limited knowledge of apartheid - the horrific legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government (until the mid-90's).

To be proud of?  There is much.  To South Africa we are thankful for or... in the spirit of the week... To suid-afrika ons is dankbaar vir....

Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace prizewinners

Macadamia Nuts

The Palace of the Lost City, the largest theme resort hotel in the world.

Inventor of the Cat Scan

Diamonds!!!!

Gold

R62, the longest wine route in the world

The world's first heart transplant, and

The amazing cultural tradition of Zulu Beadwork.  I'll be brief, but if you appreciate creativity you will LOVE this!  

Zulu's are the largest South African ethnic group and have treated the rest of the world to their intricate and symbolic beading.  A short written work from edunetconnect.com explains,  

"Most if not all cultures have a kind of symbol system to show whether a person is married or single.  In the U.S. most common is the use of wedding and engagement rings.  Among traditional Mennonites, if a door is painted green, it means there is a daughter eligible for marriage.  The Zulu people developed a complex code using colored beads.

Young girls learned bead work and the meaning of the symbols and colors used from their older sisters.  The bead work was usually worn as a head or neck band.  Men depended on female relatives to explain the code.  They see whether a a woman is engaged, married, has children or unmarried sisters.  The patterns and colors can also tell what region comes from  and what her social standing is.

The one basic geometric shape used for this kind of bead work is the triangle and a maximum of seven colors.  The three corners of the triangle represent the family, mother, father, and child.  The point of the triangle is facing down is the symbol for an unmarried man or boy, while a triangle with the point facing up is the symbol for an unmarried woman or girl.  A married man is symbolized by two triangles joined at the point forming an hourglass shape.  A married woman is shown by two triangles joined at the base making a diamond shape.

The seven colors used are black, blue, yellow, green, pink, red, and white.  Each color has two meanings, one positive, one negative, except white.  White has only one meaning, purity and spiritual love.  When another color is used beside white, it takes its positive meaning."

Take a look at this...

Black: Marriage, rebirth or death, sadness

Blue: Faithfulness, request or hostility, dislike

Yellow: Wealth, garden or badness, thirst, withering

Green: contentment or discord, illness

Pink: Promise, high status or poverty, laziness

Red: Love, strong emotion or anger, heartache

White: Spiritual love, purity

When in South Africa, let's do like the Zulu's.  Today, how about telling us how you're feeling or what's on your mind using the Zulu's Bead Code?

Besig om te teken af tot more...

Grazie, Italia!

Ciao da Italia!  Oggi si celebra due giorni della settimana Mondiale della Gratitudine.  Grazie per I'talia per...

For the non-bilingual or those who don't have time to visit Google's translator, let me make it easy for you...

Hello from Italy!  Today we celebrate day two of World Gratitude Week.  

Thanks to Italy for...

The thermometer

The famous children's story, Pinocchio

Pizza

The piano

Cologne

The ice cream cone!!!!!

Eyeglasses

The espresso machine

The telephone

The typewriter

A national diet whose diet is comprised of pasta, bread, and wine

How about you?  Have any of you been to Italy and for which Italian inventions/contributions are you most grateful?  Do tell.

Richard and I spent our honeymoon in Italy, so maybe I can start.  To Italy I am grateful for the best margarita pizzas; the Vatican; beautiful handmade paper; museums, museums, and more museums; hot chocolate; great shopping, Murano glass, and the lush rolling hills of Tuscany.

The two things we could have done without.  First, Aqua Alta - the high tides that leave Venice flooded (yes, we happened to have been there for one of only a handful that occur each year).  And, second.  The narrow, cobblestone streets that rendered our feet useless at the end of each day!

A final proposal for the week.  What a shame it would be for us to spend the week showing gratitude for the contributions of these five countries and not have a single native know.  Consider adding to the fun of the week by finding someone from the day's featured country to make a post.  Pull it off and there will be something in it for you! 

As for Italy...  We've had five visitors over the past ten months.  They have hailed from Torino, Palermo, Augusta, and Rome. 

Firma fuori fino a domani...

World Kindness Kickoff

Today marks the beginning of World Kindness Week.

My plan is to spend the week exploring some of the countries where we have a Highlowaha followership.  Sixty three countries have tuned into Highlowaha over the past ten months and this week we will get to know five of them a little better. That's where your numbers from Friday come in.

Those of you who tuned in on Friday know I asked readers to give me a number 2-63 (1 is the U.S. - the country from where most our readers hail).  Each of the numbers corresponds to one of the 63 countries who have tuned in.  The winning numbers were...

21: Austria

23: Turkey

13: Italy

59: Paraguay

15: South Africa

Some of the other places we could have gone, but aren't (because their numbers were not drawn in the lottery?).  Read it and weep... Spain (#8), Switzerland (#37), Netherlands (#18), Canada (#3), and Romania (#54).  All in all, I think our faired well.  Our tour will be fun!

We leave tomorrow... once I get unpacked and recover from my own little tour to New York City.

In the meantime, a few things.  It just so happened, while driving through Manhattan yesterday, that I saw the following sign in a store window.  I thought it would be the PERFECT kick-off to World Kindness Week.

"How do you show your gratitude?"

So how about we start the week off by thinking about - and answering (if you'd be so kind) - the answer to this thoughtful question?

Then show up here on Tuesday, bags packed and ready to take a world tour of some of Highlowaha's hottest spots.  It'll be fun.

Until then...  signing off.

Oh, and the winner of the I Love New York shirt is...  Tera Johnson!

1 Hour Four Minutes to Spare!

One hour, four minutes.  That's how much long until the weekend is over (EST).  I am making this post, intent on making good on my I.O.U from yesterday morning!

I wish I had great news to report.  I wish I was "Scoop" reporting to you from the streets of New York City  - sharing all the latest , most cutting edge, artsy finds that you, "just must see." I wish I was reporting on fun fashions, the latest and greatest Broadway shows, and what's on the menus of all the restaurants you should see and be seen.

Then I woke up and there I was - me, Richard, and our three boys pushing and shoving our way through the crowded streets of Manhattan... on a rainy Saturday.  Yesterday was a creativity bust.  We saw rain, bumpers, pretty fall leaves, more rain, more bumpers, family members, pretty fall leaves, and more rain and bumpers.   We arrived in the city with just enough time to meet up with my brother in-law and niece, so they could pick up Ricky and head to the family farm in New Jersey (not ours, my brother in law's).  

The next hour and twenty-five minutes was driving 60 blocks cross town to Chelsea's Pier where our other cousin's were having a 5th birthday party.  In Texas, the "hot" birthday party for five year-olds is Pump It Up - an indoor facility jam packed with inflatable bounce houses.  Not in New York.  New York's version is a two-story, six square blocks of indoor recreational facilities.  The pier was fun to see, but if I have a "take-away," it's that birthday parties from on state to another don't vary all that much.

The day was saved by my and Richard's much anticipated dinner with Maureen and Chris.  The food was great, dessert was to die for, and the company was nothing short of perfect.  I wish you could all have been there, laughing and enjoying each others company the way we were.  It was the perfect end to our day. 

That was yesterday.

Today we woke up with high hopes.  The weather was markedly different, but the traffic in New York was just as bad.  We had a party to attend at 3:00, but we were bound and determined to walk around the city for a few hours before heading to the party (and I, of course, in search of anything that strikes me as creative).  After a one-hour Babies-r-Us experience (which I will tell you about someday),  we had three hours to kill.  We headed straight for Little Italy, because I have been on a year-long search for an authentic Little Italy Dominic the Donkey apron for my sister in-law.  Up and down the streets we went, searching high and low.  We returned to a place we visited last year with a store owner whose name was Julietta (think FULL-BLOWN Italian woman!).  She remembered us, but still didn't have the apron.  She sent us down the block and around the corner to Ernie Rossi.  Thing is... Ernie doesn't open until his store until 2:00.  Whatsamattayou, Ernie?  We don't have that kinda time!  We're outta here.

A quick stop at Ferrara's for some of their famous pastries and then back to the parking "deck" and to the party by 3:00.

Dinner with my parents. Laughing.  Talking.  Pleading with the boys to go to sleep.  I have a blog to write, don't you know?  Here I am. 

No strokes of creative genius.  No revelations.  No epiphanies.  Just a far-too-short, but fun, trip to New York to visit family and friends.

All the activity has left me tired, so I'm going to sign off before this weekend's post runs right into Monday's post.

Signing off until tomorrow...  

I.O.U.

We arrived in New York in the afternoon yesterday.  Lunch, a run for baby essentials, and a birthday visit with Aunt Duckie (my sister Ellen) constituted the better part of our day.  Of course I'm not going into the gory details of rooms being torn apart top to bottom, trips to the attic in search of special treats, or boys wandering around the house at all hours of the night soaking in the thrill of being in all new digs - with unlimited nooks and crannies worth exploring.

But, we're in New York.  I can't in my good conscience travel all the way to New York and have the most creative thing I report on be about the centerpiece at last night's dinner.

I'm requesting an I.O.U.  That is to say, I want some more time.  Here's what I am proposing. Rather than conform to the scheduled Saturday morning post, I will use Saturday to survey the city for some of the most creative things I see.  Then, I will make my post sometime on Sunday.

Leave a message letting me know you're out there and be in the running to win an "I Love N.Y." t-shirt.  For some added fun, consider typing in New York lingo.  If we can talk like pirates, surely we can talk like New Yawkers. 

That's it.  Signing off until later tomorrow...

Free For All Friday: Closet Makeover

T.G.I.F.  everyone.  

It feels good to return to the familiarity of our Free For All Friday routine - especially after what feels like a busy week. Polling, voting, celebrating, blogging, gossiping, and today... problem solving.  

For those of you new to the scene, we use Free For All Fridays to talk about, and brainstorm, whatever is on the mind of our readers.  Earlier this week I got a Free For All Friday request from one of our readers.  I'm excited, because it's a dilemma that's RIGHT up our alley.  Today we will talk organization.

Let me set the stage.

This reader is planning a renovation on a fairly large closet space, so that it will accommodate her craft supplies and work records.  Essentially, she hopes to turn it into an office nook.  She has supplied us with a before picture and with the essentials for what the space must provide.  It is our job to share with her our collective wisdom. 

Items she must accommodate in her nook include:

• wrapping paper
• ribbon
  
• gift sacks
  
• tissue paper
  
• greeting cards
  
• supplies to make greeting cards
  
• rubber stamps 
  
• ink pads
  
• Work related items such as files, bills, customer contact information, etc... 

Is this right up our alley or what?!?!?!?!

So, the question... If you had the luxury of renovating a space, specifically designed for your craft supplies and paperwork, what would you do?  What are some of the best, most creative storage solutions you have seen to accommodate such items?  Dream BIG.  She can take the best, most cost effective, suggestions and leave the re

st.

Before I share the picture... two more Free For All Friday points of business and then, I'll let her rip.  Normally we would be brainstorming a Secret Ingredient in preparation for next weekend's Super Bowl Snack Food Throw Down.  But, as gently pointed out last week by one of our competitors, I got ahead of myself and had you vote last week.  So the secret ingredient for next week is Peanuts.

The second item of business before I turn it over to Operation Organization is in preparation for next week's topic.  I need blog readers to identify five numbers between 2 and 63.  Everybody can post one and I'll draw five from all those suggested.

Now for the before picture of our reader's closet.

The back wall is 87" and both side wall are 49"

Some of my favorites...

• In Kentucky I had all of my spools of ribbon organized in gutters (like those attached to your roof).  I screwed the gutters to the wall and then placed the spools down in the gutters with a length of each color hanging down.  It was perfect.  They took up no counter or shelf space.  They were easily accessible, AND all the colors (I probably had upwards of 20+ colors) made my space look brighter.  Eventually, I'll get to doing it here too.
  
• Second.  I store my rolls of wrapping paper, packaging paper, and celophane in a big metal garbage can.  Ideally it would fit under the counter in my work space, but it doesn't.  Instead I keep it close at hand in the garage.  Mind you, my Christmas wrapping paper is stored separately in covered plastic containers, because I only pull them out once a year.
  
• Finally, my storage space has lots of Lazy Susan's built in and I love them.  It means that I don't have things tucked away deep in the back of a cabinet.  Everything is easy to access, simply by spinning the Lazy Susan.
  
• One thought... I would take the doors off and either try to get a pocket sliding door or come up with some other decorative solution.  The door frame in the middle seems like it will make everything more difficult to access.

How about all of you?  Share your most ingenious ideas or something great you've seen in a magazine, at a friend's house, or even in a store.  We'll all benefit from this!

Signing off until tomorrow, where I'll be reporting from New York and preparing to have dinner with our good friend, Maureen (maybe she'll wear her purple boots!).