My Lovely Little Pink Suitcase :)

Hi All :)

I hope your week is off to a great start :)
Although I can't believe it is Wednesday already and the last day of July at that; where does the time go?!?!

I think I had the idea for this blog post about a year ago but as you will see I had to take a trip, by plane, to actually bring the story to fruition :)

The story starts a few years ago when I was in an airport and I saw a Woman walking along with 2 suitcases gliding along beside her in one hand and her handbag in the other. "How does she do that?" I thought; it wasn't like they were little suitcases they were "check - able" size suitcases - I noticed that the man accompanying her, was also maneuvering 2 suitcases, with ease, in one hand. These suitcases were vertical and not like the rest of us, dragging our "Two Wheelers" behind us. I had to find out where they got these "magical" cases from and I wanted one :)

And so, one day when I was in the Portland Airport saying "Goodbye" once again, to one of my children (you will have to excuse me for not remembering which one or when it was, because they come and go so much, I sometimes think the Airport is my second home, lol :)

Anyway, I digress, as we were walking along thru the shopping area in the Airport, I glance up and I saw one of the "Magical" suitcases on the shop floor of Brookstone. 

I have been into a Brookstone Store before but usually following a male who was goo-goo eyed over the electronic devices available :) I had never really taken much notice of anything else in the store, it seemed a gadgety store that didn't really cater to me, until I saw My Lovely Little Pink Suitcase :)

Pink is my Fav. colour (just in case you haven't noticed, lol :)

The only problem was they didn't make the Pink "Magical" suitcase in a size bigger than a "carry on" and even though I try to pack lightly when I travel, you know you don't get much in a "carry on" (and don't get me started about people and their "carry ons" because that is a WHOLE other Blog Post, not so lol :(

I stood in the store and ummed and ahhed; it was a rather expensive  suitcase but oh so cute :) I kept taking it for walks around the shop and it was so easy to maneuver, it really felt like "Magic" :)

The assistant assured me that within 2 years I could return it, no questions asked if it got scratches on it or anything ever happened to it they would switch it out, so I went ahead and bought it :)

Here is my lovely Pink Suitcase :)

Some of my Fav. places to visit :)

She has a wheel at every corner that swivels in any direction I need; they create a fluid motion for very easy movement :)

 I have always been a fan of the old fashioned shipping trunks with all their stickers on from far off lands and so I put stickers on my suitcase from places that are close to my heart (I guess once I did this I knew I would not be returning the suitcase, so I was placing a lot of faith in it hold up :)

I used it a few times on overnight trips locally but it didn't get an outing to the Airport until we took our Son to Ohio in 2009 for him to start college :)

We arrived at the Toledo Airport pretty late, around 11pm or 11.30pm and I was pretty exhausted. My Hubby went off to find someone to get our rental car from; the place was deserted and then it was back to pick up our luggage and that is when I saw my lovely Pink Suitcase all scuffed up :(

I have to say, I was really sad, silly really, it is only a suitcase after all, but it is MY suitcase, it stands out in a crowd, it is easy to spot on the luggage carousel, it has all my stickers that I have collected from my trips. I know I was tired and I was a little stressed but it really got to me :(

So, when I got home, I decided to scrub my lovely suitcase and sure enough all the black scuff marks and messy stuff came right off and apart from a few scratches that were hardly visible it was my Lovely Pink Suitcase again :)

And so, for the past 4 years, several times a year, me and my Lovely Pink Suitcase go off to the airport, knowing full well what will happen but also knowing once we are home again she will be looking almost as good as new :) 

I Hope you enjoyed the story of My Lovely Little Pink Suitcase :)

Have a wonderful Day :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

My New Pillow Shop On Etsy :)

Hi All :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful day :)

I just wanted to let you all know I have opened another shop on Etsy :) 

(yep, this girl is a sucker for punishment, lol :) 

It is called; THE PILLOW HAVEN :)

I have been putting my photography onto Throw Pillow Covers and the reaction has been fantastic, people tell me they LOVE them :)

So, that encouraged me to open another Etsy shop so I could have the pillows displayed all in one place :)

Here are a few, I hope you like them :)

COOL BLUE

LOVELY PINK PEONY

GLOWING RED MAPLE LEAVES

BRIGHT SUNFLOWER

Let me know what you think :) 

Have a wonderful Evening :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

DETROIT!!! ( PT. 2 :)

Hi All :)

I Hope you are having a lovely week :)

So, our life is in a constant state of change right now, people coming and going, graduating college, starting new careers, new jobs to enhance careers and moving to other cities, so I feel as if I have been doing laundry all week (well, actually I have, lol :)

So, as I say "Goodbye" again to one of my Sons I thought it would be a perfect time to share with you Pt.2 of the photos I shot in Detroit. Knowing that change is inevitable, we must embrace it and change with it or we crumble and fall :(

Click on Photo to see larger images :)

These 1st 11 photos are of the magnificent Michigan Central Station, you can read about it HERE

These next photos are of some lovely brick buildings with the late afternoon sun glowing on them, they truly were/are beautiful, still standing against the odds :)

I guess because of growing up in England I have a strong connection to buildings made from bricks and mortar :) 

You can see they have already put in new windows and doors, I think these are going to be condos, this is about a mile from Downtown, so great urban living. We also noticed some blocks of vibrant restaurants on the way to Downtown, so this is a definite sign of optimism and "re - gentrification :) 

Just before we turned back towards Downtown we saw this beautiful Sunset and it really seemed to offer hope, I feel that Detroit will return like a Phoenix from the ashes and I look forward to be able to take photos of that in the future :)

If you get the opportunity to check out DETROPIA it is an amazing film. I watched it on Independent Lens on P.B.S. it is really an eye opening Documentary about what has and is happening in Detroit.

I Hope you enjoyed these photos; seeing the beauty in the decay and the optimism for rebuilding is very exciting to me :)

Have a lovely Tuesday :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

DETROIT!!! ( Pt.1 :)

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Hi All :)

I hope you are all having a Wonderful Tuesday :)

WOW!!! What can I say about DETROIT! :)

It is a city with great heritage but it also symbolizes the demise of the American Dream - with manufacturing jobs moving rapidly to Asia, the City has lost a huge percentage of its population and with that comes the the decline of its neighborhoods :(

On a recent road trip I was able to get a really quick glimpse at some of the building that have fallen into disuse and take photos of the beauty that still remains in these neglected building :)

They all have a story, they all have a history, they all have a truth, they all had a life. 

There are many people who are working hard to recreate a strong Detroit :)
 But we need to know that this could happen in any American City where the local population depends on manufacturing jobs :)

So, with less than  an hour of daylight and not knowing the city at all; I, (well, my Hubby, actually, lol!!!) drove around very quickly before we lost light to take as many shots of the beautiful buildings that are in disrepair but also the ones that people are trying hard to "re - gentrify" too! :)

Of Course, I have so many I wanted to share that I will split them between 2 postings :)  

Here we go, I hope you enjoy these :)

I had to share this photo, as there is so much happening and also, it is the only photo I got of the GM building. (Tall cylindrical building with blue lights) I had lost light and energy by the time we got downtown. :(

These 3 shots of this church spire, just gave me hope and against the sunset looked so pretty :)

I have always been a fan of graffiti; I know it is controversial but from an Artists' perspective, it is freedom of expression  :)  

I wanted to share this photo as it represents so much of what I saw, houses burned, guttered or in piles on site, but then a flower is blooming in the garden or (as in this shot) someone has recently planted a blossom tree, there is real hope :)

The Setting Sun bouncing off this empty building covered in graffiti, to me I saw pure Art :) 

I apologise for the blurriness of the next few photos but like I said, we were rapidly running out of time and there were so many buildings I wanted to capture; all these were taken as we were driving by photographed thru the car windows. 

This building was reflecting the Sunset and I couldn't capture it to its full potential but I added it because it is an abandoned building, although it looks stunning but this space in the foreground is an abandoned lot where some people have dumped trash and others have planted a small veggie garden and I am not sure you will be able to see it but I think there are a group of small dark animals close to the tree bottom left of photo, when I zoomed in I saw little dog faces, it freaked me out a bit I must say.

Whizzing by

Some stand strong while surrounded everywhere with piles of rumble, if we didn't know better, in places it looks like a war torn City :(

This photo I called "Detroit Fading" 

This is the only photo, so far, that I have put in my photography shop on Etsy :)

to me it says everything about what I saw, beauty in the decay. 

I will share the other photos of Detroit another day :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.