Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Our First Floral Class

and it was a great success!

Here's some pics...

November Floral Class Pics

A special thanks to Chris Morrow for the pics and the video on CNN.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

A friend of ours sent this along to us yesterday and we thought we'd share it with you. We couldn't have said it any better, so click on read more and enjoy. We are all truly grateful for our family, friends, and clients. We have many angels watching over us and we'll be thinking of you all tomorrow.

Why does life throw challenges and crisis at us, like the financial crisis the world is dealing with today? Because that is the only way we will change…it is the only way we will rid ourselves of evil, bad habits, greed, ego and the wrong priorities. Its human nature wanting to stay the course…not to rock the boat, and usually the only way we will change is if we are forced into it by some outside influence…i.e. financial crisis, death, illness, catastrophe. We have to look at the challenges of today as an opportunity…as a way to reprioritize what is important.

What is happening with most people today is they are consumed by what has been taken away and not focused on being thankful for what we have and the opportunities of tomorrow. Step back for a moment…the reason things get taken away…the reason life throws us challenges and crisis is because it is the only way we will wake up and quit overlooking those things which are really most important in life…our family, our friends, our health, our spirituality, balance, etc. Challenge and crisis gets thrown at us because it is the only thing that will slap us in the face hard enough to get our attention. Think back in your life to a time of crisis…yes you may have lost something or someone…there may have been a scare in your life of some kind, but with that a door opened…a new person appeared when you looked in the mirror…usually a better person…a more thankful person…a more humble person…a more caring person…a person with better priorities.

In every crisis and in every challenge there is an opportunity…we just have to find it. But, until we let go of the pain and anger of what we have lost, and focus on all that we have which is really most important, the agony will not stop. And, once we do focus on what we have, life will be even better than it was before. This week and beyond, make a commitment EVERYDAY to give thanks and be grateful for everything and everyone you have in your life…quit being consumed by what you have lost, or the pain will not stop and we will not be able to move forward towards accomplishing greatness. If we can do this, not only will the pain stop, but life will be better and we will be more at peace than ever before.

Remember, life is about who we become and how we grow when faced with challenge, with crisis, with pain. It is what life is all about…it is when we grow…it is why we are here. Who are you becoming?

This week is Thanksgiving…be thankful and be grateful for all we have in our lives. The rest is just “stuff”. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Monday, November 24, 2008

Tip for Thanksgiving

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Thursday, November 20, 2008

New links at Blogs of Note

Check out Exquisite Corpse - an online journal of Letters and Life. Founded by Andre Codrescu - you may have heard him on NPR's All things Considered. And if you have a sweet tooth visit Cake.

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Monday, November 17, 2008

It's Hot! - Africa Hot

Raymond Chandler on the Santa Ana's:

"There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge."

Hat Tip: Roger L. Simon - PJM

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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The Genuine Article

The title speaks for itself.


(See YouTube link below)

Hat Tip: Amalthea

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Ode to an Onion

Hat Tip: Gretchen

Ode to the Onion
by Pablo Neruda

Onion,
luminous flask,
your beauty formed
petal by petal,
crystal scales expanded you
and in the secrecy of the dark earth
your belly grew round with dew.

Under the earth
the miracle
happened
and when your clumsy
green stem appeared,
and your leaves were born
like swords
in the garden,
the earth heaped up her power
showing your naked transparency,
and as the remote sea
in lifting the breasts of Aphrodite
duplicated the magnolia,
so did the earth
make you,
onion,
clear as a planet,
and destined
to shine,
constant constellation,
round rose of water,
upon
the table
of the poor.

Generously
you undo
your globe of freshness
in the fervent consummation
of the cooking pot,
and the crystal shred
in the flaming heat of the oil
is transformed into a curled golden feather.

Then, too, I will recall how fertile
is your influence on the love of the salad,
and it seem that the sky contributes
by giving you the shape of hailstones
to celebrate your chopped brightness
on the hemispheres of a tomato.
But within reach
of the hands of the common people,
sprinkled with oil,
dusted
with a bit of salt,
you kill the hunger
of the day-laborer on his hard path.

Star of the poor,
fairy godmother
wrapped
in delicate
paper, you rise from the ground
eternal, whole, pure
like an astral seed,
and when the kitchen knife
cuts you, there arises
the only tear
without sorrow.

You make us cry without hurting us.
I have praised everything that exists,
but to me, onion, you are
more beautiful than a bird
of dazzling feathers,
you are to my eyes
a heavenly globe, a platinum goblet,
an unmoving dance
of the snowy anemone

and the fragrance of the earth lives
in your crystalline nature.


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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

I'd rather be a blind girl...

...than live the rest of my life without hearing magic like this.

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Monday, November 10, 2008

Quote of the Week

La and I were enjoying a pleasant Sunday morning at the Piazza Natale in Little Italy when we overhead this gentleman say rather loudly into his cell phone:

"I was at church you prick!"

I guess he was talking to his brother. We almost fell out of our chairs laughing.

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Friday, November 7, 2008

Che Bella's New Web Site is Up!

Our new website is up today! Hooray! Many thanks to Amy at Persimmon Design for the overall look of the site, and Jane at Alternative Strategies for her outstanding web work.

Click on the title to check it out. We'd love to hear what you think.

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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

An Historic Day

Today we wake up to an historic day. The House of Love wishes to congratulate President-Elect Obama for his victory. Let us all wish him good luck, God's guidance and our support. He's going to need it.
The world was watching yesterday, so I thought I'd share with you some of the headlines.

The Telegraph

The Guardian

London Times

Le Figaro

International Herald Tribune

Der Spiegel

Corriere della Sera

Asia Times

The Australian

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Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Did You?

Having spent the last two hours in the rain waiting to cast our votes, we certainly hope you took the opportunity to make your voice heard, or are planning to get it done sometime today.

We've never seen an election where we had to wait in line, let alone two hours! But it was fun and exciting, saw a whole slew of neighbors, shivering, wet, cappucino or macchiato in hand (we after all live in Little Italy).

We'd love to hear your voting experience (not who you voted for), let us know your thoughts this historic day.

Ciao! and good on ya if you got to the polls.

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Monday, November 3, 2008

Get it?

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Saturday, November 1, 2008

Feel What I Feel, When I Feel, When I Feel, When I Feel, When I Feel It

If you enjoyed the poem on our newsletter - Everybody Loves the Sunshine, it makes more sense in this context. Click on Read More and Enjoy the sunshine.

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