Penny Cooper would love to meet you.

I continue to feel buffered from the shock waves the school shooter sent rippling through the city by the counter-effect of the young man handing me a carnation on the day of the shooting.

His counter-act to the blast--his choice to go buy flowers and walk around handing them out--opened a protective pod in the air, 
like the seed-pod of light you see around holy figures in art... 
Its power continues to surprise me,  like a magic spell you didn't expect to take.
"Wow, that . . . WORKED?!"

Here, a metal mandorla around a marble Buddha--I like the view from the back, like a carapace:

Via Sotheby's: "A marble figure of Buddha with champlevé enamel mandorla and stand, Qing dynasty, 18th / 19th century"
_______________________

Side bar: What is champlevé?

The MMA says, "A decorative technique that fuses a powdered glassy material ["frit"] into a recess in a metal surface through the application of heat.
Enameling describes the technique of using heat to fuse frit (powdered glass) to the surface of a metal object. 
In champlevé enameling, a recess is etched, cast, or carved into the body of the metal substrate to be filled with frit."

__________________

Meanwhile, I was wondering why I haven't had much comfort offered--not to overlook many lovely messages!––and then I remembered:
I'm not on social media.
I'm sure people are reaching out to one another there, with huge outpourings of comfort and shared grief (as well as outrage, judgment, etc., which I'd just as soon miss out on.)

I feel out of it, because--I am out of it! 
And then I remember the personal act of one stranger on the day. 
For me, that outweighs all that online energy I am missing.

I have to laugh though: I feel ignored.
But I walked away.
So it's okay, but I'm still adapting to the change.

What I want is, I want to tend more to the touchable presence of people in my life. (Touchable can include paper, but I mean, other-than whatever the substance is in screens.)
 I've been low-energy there. It's okay: I've been resting.

Now I wonder, again, HOW TO DO THAT?

I've invited several neighbors to the Labor Day bonfire. 
One donated some fire logs from her garage! Which is good because the sticks from the girlettes' raft will burn up in five minutes.
 
I also sent invites to several people I haven't seen since before Covid.
One has moved out of state! A couple others are busy, but one accepted, saying the invitation had made his day.

Ms ChocolateHouse priority-mailed some of her handmade marshmallows to roast at the bonfire!
The girlettes have voted her a special Medal of Honor.
And bink drove me to get apple cider (hard and soft) and popcorn for the event.

Anyway, I think it's good to feel invited to participate, even if you can't or don't want to attend, so I also sent invitations to people far away.

And I invite you!
Really--come on over!
PENNY COOPER WOULD LOVE TO MEET YOU!

The girlettes cast a protective pod around my life too. Not on purpose, like the man with the flowers, but just by existing.

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In other realms...
Blue Willow, Blue Onion

The store got a donation of vintage blue willow dishes, and a new coworker priced the pieces between 69¢ and $1.99 each.
Sixty-nine cents?

I searched the online at picclick dot com, which gives average selling prices on ebay and amazon. They average more like $10 to $30.

I texted her the link. "We should price these $4.99," I said. "Remember, if they don't sell, in three weeks they go on sale, half-price; and the week after that, a dollar."

I repriced them the next day. (The new coworker wasn't in, and didn't seem interested. In fact, like many older ladies at the store (who grew up without much money), she prefers shiny new things. 
So, I have to watch myself, not to come across as snobby.

But I tell ya, good design and good materials shine forth. 
For our sake, they deserve time and attention. 
I mean, we can be nourished by them in a way that we won't be by Ikea plates that show scratches and wear within months. 
These plates have lasted maybe a hundred years!

I realize that if a thrift worker doesn't recognize that there's a difference between the antique ceramic and modern plastic versions of this ever-popular pattern, many customers won't either. 
(Not that thrift workers are well informed. Many know nothing about the cultural history of objects.)

So I set up a display and water-colored a quick sign: 

Antique Blue Willow, 
Made in England since 1780...
Inspired by Chinese design

And then a customer who was admiring them taught me something! 
I love this.
"Oh, look," she said. "The tea cups are blue onion."

I knew naught of Blue Onion. I had thought those were pomegranates around the rim. Looking it up, I read that, in fact, the German designers of this pattern might have mistaken pomegranates for onions. 
So, ha! The original shines through.
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Side-by-Sides

I'm only in BOOK's 5 hours/week, and housewares 15, so I don't get to faff around there as much. But last week I set up a coupla good (?) side-by-sides:

Someone had set this TEEN CREED mug on the "L, M, N" book shelves--odd--shortly before I came out with a new load of fiction to display, including...

                       "Choose only a date ^
                        Who would make a good mate."

BELOW: Windy days!

BELOW: I found a pencil sketch tucked into Moby Dick:

Book Girl Amina (Book's also does Toys) is so dear--she altered this "Three Wise Men" box:

CROP ART

I put this donated crop/seed art hen & chick (or is that a rooster?) up above the sink in housewares work area.

Crop art, once a folk-craft viewed with all the respect given to puffy-paint flowers hand-painted on sweatshirts, is having a moment--the art museum here is hosting an exhibit. 
new.artsmia.org/exhibition/minnesota-folk-art-showcase

This year's entries to the State Fair included a portrait of the slain Hortmans (including Gilbert Hortman, the dog, also shot to death on June 14).
When I think about how we offer comfort and experience shock and grief, I think... I think we are somewhat, like, deadened?
 Muffled?

I FEEL THAT MYSELF.

It comes so fast and thick, and we see so much internationally on our screens, when violence breaks out locally, does it feel sort of... "more of the same"?
This Is the World We Live in Now.

How to bring love and light, and not be dimmed???
Ideas?

For me, it takes some dialing up of Intention.
I'm so glad I'd already started making the yarn God's/Love/Dolls eyes to give away. bink took this photo of me making a yarn eye on vacation, at a park above the Mississippi River.

Wrapping yarn around sticks helps me--
it is a kind of Intercessory Prayer.

BELOW: some God's eyes on the fence along the store alley. 
About half of the twenty or so I've put up have been taken.
 I want people to take them--that's the idea--but I also would love to cover the fence in them. I can't make them fast enough, and I'm not patient enough to hold onto them until I have 100.
It's okay.

Shine on!