somber beauty

> I am drawn to cemeteries. Not in a morbid way. Not hoping to get frightened after dark. I find them to be quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. I could spend all day wandering, reading, and taking photographs.

> Some of the grave markers have wonderful typography. Some have ornate carvings, sculptures or benches. I love to find design treasures as I'm wandering, and I have a photo album of them. Some of the patterns and carvings have actually inspired some of my work.

> I've traveled with my sis and her husband more than anyone, and luckily, they enjoy wandering around in cemeteries too. We really enjoy the very old historic ones—they seem to have the most interesting character.

> I was actually looking through typographic design samples for a project, and ran across the image of the headstone shown here. I decided I'd pull up a couple other great samples from my wanderings to share with you.

> There's a huge, older cemetery about 10 miles from here that I'm dying to spend a day in—just waiting for a nice fall day. If you can't find me, I just might be there.

re(d)miniscing

> I have red hair. No, this is not a confession, just a fact for those who don't know me. When I was little, I knew my hair was red. So, if my hair was a color, why wasn't anyone else's? Adults got a kick out of my insistence that my sister was not blond, she had yellow hair. And I was even more insistent that my hair was not really "red", it was orange. It was certainly more orange than it was red. I knew my colors and I didn't understand that someone put a color-label on my shade of hair, and I wasn't allowed to change it, even if I was correct.

> My brother's family was in town over the weekend. He has red/orange hair and his wife is strawberry-blond. They have 4 kids...all with red/orange hair. I like that they're adding to the number of red-heads out there. As a kid, I always felt like I was the only one (I'm still quite sure that even in the large elementary school I went to in CA, I WAS the only one until my brother was old enough to go too).

> I've long-since given up trying to convince people to change the word for whatever color my hair is...but seeing those little heads of red/orange hair last night, well, there's a kinship besides just being their aunt, and I doubt any of you yellow or brown-headed people out there feel that way—I guess I'm just lucky.

a happy face

> Isn't it refreshing to be around someone who's always happy and rarely complains? I think so. My younger sister is a great example of this, and a comment she made on Facebook earlier today inspired my blog/post.

> I've been a collector of quotes for years. I have notebooks and stacks of clippings that I enjoy perusing. In my monthly email newsletter, muse, I include a quotation, designed so recipients can print it for use as a bookmark, postcard, etc. I realized a long time ago that my collection is almost exclusively made up of positive and optimistic thoughts, and I thought it would be nice to share them. I'm not naturally as "pollyanna" as my sis, but I try. I guess I'm hoping that by collecting and sharing the thoughts, they might stick!

> Besides making us all more pleasant to be around, here are 3 business reasons to put on a happy face...

1-Stress Reduction: You feel stressed when you perceive events or situations as stressful. Change your perception. Instead of problems, see issues as challenges from which your company and you can ultimately benefit.

2-Fewer Sick Days: Stress can have a serious negative impact on your health and productivity.

3-Better Customer Relations: Customers prefer to deal with a positive person. Sales professionals who think positively have much better sales performance (these and other tips found at www.positive-attitude-tips.com).

> One final thought, pulled from my "happy book" of course: "Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?"