In real life, we can all use more good news, happy thoughts, and stories to make us smile. That’s why I’m inviting fellow authors and readers to share something fun and bright here. If you have a feel-good item to share, please message me! I also love cute dog pictures, so send them my way as well.
Happiness is a new phone with a better camera! Watch for better photos coming soon!
It’s SO nice when other authors support each other! Huge thanks to author Alicia Dean for interviewing me on Some Other Way and other fun facts.
I love sipping herbal tea from one of my many dog mugs…
I walked into a store while Christmas shopping and discovered that Sven works there! He’s a bit shy but he does a very good job as the greeter. Now I want to go back just to visit Sven!
Author Barbara Robinson’s Christmas tree sounds a lot like ours–perfect in its own eclectic way!
Here’s a holiday smile from Barbara…”My Christmas tree doesn’t have color-coordinated, brand-named decorations, and it isn’t resplendent with the latest trends from Pinterest. It is decorated memories, each as beautiful and unique as the next. I have a few heirloom ornaments, handed down from a time when Christmas trees were thin little things cut from one’s own woodlot, and people found ways to decorate around the gaps and holes that an unsheared tree almost inevitably has. I have the cheap, little wooden decorations that my husband and I had the first year we were married – we were too poor then to buy anything fancy, but our little tree was lovely, and it reflected the hope and beauty of the season. My tree has the white porcelain ornaments that my daughter’s daycare sold one year as a fundraiser, and the little baked playdough snowman with off-center, colored sprinkles that my son made me his first year of school. It has an ornament from a shop in a seaside village that holds special memories, and a set of seashell ornaments that friends gifted us decades ago, before moving around the country as a military family. There is a beautiful, designer angel ornament that a former boss and mentor gave me many years ago, and a tree-topper angel that my mother-in-law crafted from gold beads, ribbons and lace, using her glue gun. Nothing matches, yet everything fits. Each year, my Christmas tree holds beauty and chaos and symmetry – the fabric of a life well-lived, shot through with memories of love and loss, and the laughter of Christmases past.”
Website: BJR Books – Romance that Enchants and Inspires https://www.barbararobinsonauthor.ca
This one’s from author Lee Ann Sontheimer…Meet Venus. She came with the name from the local no-kill adoption shelter and answers to it as well as to “Venie”, “Big Girl”, and “Sweet Girl.” She’s large, close to sixty pounds at just over a year old. She can be sweet, mischievous, and protective of her home as well as the entire street. She’s very intelligent and those big brown eyes are what first caught my attention when I saw her photo online. Venus will soon celebrate her first Christmas season outside the shelter, which should be very interesting! When I write, she likes to come lay near my feet or try to get underneath the desk. Maybe she, too, has stories to tell.
Link to my blog, Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy Rambling and Writing https://leeannsontheimer.blogspot.com/
Thank you fellow author Kimberly Baer for sharing this smile…
I was in my car, stopped at a red light, when I noticed a bouquet of half-spent helium balloons drifting at the side of the road, several feet above the ground. As a car cruised toward the busy intersection in front of me, the wind shifted, and those balloons were sucked through the driver’s open car window. They bobbed in front of his face, and I couldn’t help snickering as he frantically batted them into the back seat. Lesson learned: Never drive with your car windows down. You never know what might blow in your window!
This cute visitor made me smile even if he did snag my place on the loveseat!
Thank you, Shirley Goldberg, for sharing your happy shopping experience…
I live alone and go out of my way to assemble ingredients rather than cook, so when our community got a much-anticipated Trader Joe’s five minutes away, I took notice. I’ve always found shopping at TJ’s more fun than shuffling the aisles of our dreary and pricey local supermarket. However, the existing Trader Joe’s was a half hour from my house, and I seldom took the drive. In anticipation, I set the alarm to propel myself out the door at an indecent hour the next morning. For me, that’s eight thirty.
“Two-Buck” Chuck, baby arugula and my favorite tub of ginger snaps––it was all there, even if two bucks had turned into four-and-a-half bucks. I wasn’t complaining. I wandered the store reading labels, marveling at the reasonable prices and the salespeople’s willingness to answer questions and help me find culinary treasures. Like the pumpkin bread, jalapeno wraps and Trader Giotto’s 100% Italian Extra Virgin Oil. Looking forward to the next time. Sounds silly, but I’m not kidding.
Shirley writes humorous women’s romantic fiction with one paranormal romantic comedy in a series. Visit Shirley here: http://shirleygoldberg.com
Margot Johnson 