BLOGGING 101: Blog to the Rescue!

Friends, I know I haven't blogged here since March (yes, March!) and I have to say - I miss my blogging time. 

But when I received an e-mail this week from an old family friend, and my beautiful CAbi consultant, Rebecca Oostra, it hit me:   a BLOG (and a blog post) can come to the rescue when you least expect it!

First, let me share this with you all:

Recently I've done a lot of soul-searching and question-asking, as in ...

"why did I begin my (2) blogs in the first place?" 
"what did I hope to accomplish - personally or globally - with these blogs?"  
"did I enjoy putting blog posts together?" ...  

And I had the following answers:

"why did I begin my (2) blogs in the first place?" 
BECAUSE I wanted to stay in touch with friends & family, and in the case of the first blog (this one, DH2travelers), share snippets & images of trips we have taken or hope to take some day, etc.  And in the case of my second blog, http://iamprincessmagpie.blogspot.com my intent was to share my love of mixed media art - the artists, the techniques, the results - with others of like mind.    IN BOTH CASES, the blog became a vehicle for me to speak my mind - to share what I liked and believed and found meaningful & beautiful ... that was the driving force behind my venture into the world of blogging.


"what did I hope to accomplish - personally or globally - with these blogs?"
TO speak up - and out - about things that matter to me, or that I found helpful or amusing or soulful or meaningful or heartbreaking or amazing.  And in some cases, all of the above.   I also wanted to share beauty and good information with others - my passion for plein air art has been featured on DH2travelers many times, as has fashion and film, recipes and bits about our family. 

I had also hoped that I would meet and befriend people all over not just the US, but the world, "meeting" people who stumbled across my blog/s just as I had stumbled upon theirs in searches, link-trekking (I think I just coined a phrase there!), referrals from friends who blog and follow blogs, etc.

"did I enjoy putting blog posts together?" ...
Easy, this one:  a resounding and emphatic YES YES YES.   I loved the time I took to follow my own train of thought(s), to gather images or links to embellish the topic, and the putting it all together.   I would hear something on NPR (national public radio) and it would stir up an idea, and there I'd be, at the computer, linking not only to the NPR coverage of whatever it was, but adding a link to - where the book or music could be found, what I thought about it, etc.  {of course, things I found intriguing on NPR often cost me a bit of money, because I'd find myself pulling into Barnes & Noble to 'just pick that one up'.  ha!}

In the case of  Princess Magpie's blog, the answer was equally crystal clear:  YES!  I find mixed media art to be - intriguing, mysterious, simple and clean, busy and complicated, freeing, child-like and yet mature, and for me, mixed media art is an answer to my creative prayers.  God listened when I told Him that I missed - the creative process.   As a (then) retired interior designer, it was December 2008 when I began searching for "mixed media art classes in San Diego", and happened across an old acquaintance, Jane LaFazio.  Come January 2009, I was enrolled in my first (of eventually, four!) multi-week series with Jane and the rest is history!   (but all that's been covered in another blog post, over at http://iamprincessmagpie.blogspot.com/2010/08/everythings-coming-up-mixed-media.html)

AND NOW, to the impetus for today's post.  This is the note I received from Rebecca via e-mail this week:

"Hi Davi,


I sent Olivia off to the post office today with about 5 priority mailing envelopes with CAbi samples in them. She asked me if the postage was taken care of (which it is about 99% of the time, since I am sending something back to CAbi with a postage paid label). I said, "Yes" and off she went. I was a little distracted.


A couple of hours later I get a phone call: "Hi Rebecca. This is Sandy from the post office......." Well, Olivia dropped off the packages but never looked at them (okay, that is something I would do). Sandy must have been busy, otherwise she would have informed Olivia.


So, before the packages were picked up by the driver, Sandy noticed that none of my packages had postage. She didn't have my phone number.


She googled my name and found a 2 year old blog (by you); the one where you talked about cleaning out your closet). You added a link to my CAbi web site and Sandy went there and found my phone number.


THAT'S service!! To say the least.


Sandy and I laughed about it. I told her to keep me on speed dial.


Well, what do I say? Isn't that wonderful? Thank you for mentioning me. You are an angel.


REBECCA OOSTRA • CAbi Fashion Consultant "

{you can link directly to Rebecca's CAbi webpage by clicking  right here:   www.rebeccaoostra.cabionline.com }

Even CAbi has a blog, and I love getting their link in my e-mail:
 http://cabicanary.com/?m=2011&w=25

{and you can read the blog post from 2009 that led Sandy to Rebecca right here:  http://dh2travelers.blogspot.com/2009/03/simple-abundance-for-your-closet.html }

And that, my lovely friends, is another good reason to blog.  And when you blog, be sure to LABEL anyone and everyone that you've mentioned in that post, so that in querying someone's name or business, they have a chance to be discovered, like Rebecca was.  

In closing, I have to thank my dear friend, ANN DEAKERS 

 { http://www.adeakers.blogspot.com/ }, for encouraging & inspiring me to blog in the first place.  She told me it would be easy-peasy and she was right (but then, Ann's always right!).   Thank you, Ann.   I'm sure Rebecca thanks you, too :-) !!!
 
~  Davielle
 
And for anyone interested in blogging in a big, beautiful way, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of ARTFUL BLOGGING, published by Stampington ... http://www.stampington.com/artfulblogging/

Serendipitous Sunday

Let me start with two quotes about SERENDIPITY which I found today, when searching for the proper meaning of the word ...

"Serendipity. Look for something, find something else, and realize that what you've found is more suited to your needs than what you thought you were looking for." -- Lawrence Block

"Serendipity is when you find things you weren't looking for because finding what you are looking for is so damned difficult." -- Erin McKean, 2007

{artwork above is "Trust" by Kelly Rae Roberts}

So pardoning Erin's language, I have to say, I have been trying to find some childhood friends for about a year now, the children of my mother's dear friend Elizabeth, who was my Godmother once my auntie opted out {don't ask!} ... these were kids I hung around with A WHOLE LOT growing up, and with whom I have many wonderful memories.

If you know me at all, you know that I had a shall we say "difficult" childhood? These family friends made it all tolerable. I am not exaggerating. I so looked forward to each & every visit with them, at their home in San Diego or ours in Del Mar, and when I lost touch with them {decades ago, now}, it was a sad time for me.

So what does all THAT have to do with Serendipity?

Yesterday I went to my friend Vickie's CAbi {women's clothing} party, in her home. I know Vickie through CCI, and we play Bunco together as well as living just 5 minutes apart. Our CAbi representative, Rebecca, was delightful -- as is the line of clothing that she represents {and that's ANOTHER story!} -- and there were some random comments throughout the party about my mother having been a 'fashionista', and that I had some vintage clothes from her that Vickie admires; and there was a comment about me being an interior designer {albeit "retired"}, etc.

There was a LOT of talk about style, of course; it was, after all, a CLOTHING party.

Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely. {The word has been voted as one of the ten English words that were hardest to translate in June 2004 by a British translation company.}

For those of you that are good with languages: If you care to say this lovely word in French, it's sérendipicité or sérendipité but also heureux hasard, "fortunate chance". And in Italian, it's serendipità.

The word derives from Serendip, the old Persian name for Sri Lanka and was coined by Horace Walpole on 28 January 1754 {wow, that's an old word!} in a letter he wrote to his friend Horace Mann (not the same man as the famed American educator), an Englishman then living in Florence.

{IF YOU CARE what that letter said, check it out on WIKIPEDIA, where I got all this info on SERENDIPITY ...}

SO back to my story.

I woke up this morning to find an e-mail from Rebecca, our CAbi gal, asking if my mother's name was Edith. {and you ALL know the answer to that is a resounding "YES"}. Rebecca had thought my name, Davi, was unusual; but it wasn't until she saw it written out in full as Davielle that it started to click ...

She recalled this woman Edith had a daughter Davielle, and that her mother was friends with Edith and that they (Rebecca's family) used to visit them in Del Mar, and that they were also frequent visitors to their home in San Diego.

Voila! I had just heard from the daughter of my godmother, Elizabeth, whose children I had been trying to find {via the occasional random internet search - with no luck whatsoever} for almost a year now.

Okay, sorry for the long blog post. But can you even believe this SERENDIPITOUS small world story? I mean, there I was, at Vickie's, LOOKING FOR SOMETHING ELSE {as in, classic clothing pieces - I am my mother's daughter, after all - that won't go out of style and are of high quality with lots of style} and WHAT I FOUND ... was something far more precious than just that right piece for one's wardrobe.

I just know that Edith and Elizabeth are in Heaven tonight, smiling down on us, laughing at how we found each other despite my frustrated efforts to go it on my own.

The lesson for me? Sometimes - no, MOST times - one has only to TRUST in the angels and one will find their wishes being fulfilled. {today's art, by the way, is from artist Kelly Rae Roberts, who can be found at http://www.kellyraeroberts.blogspot.com/ }

I have had goosebumps all day.

-- Davi