I’m Just Saying

My Rambling Report On The Color Green + My Art Project For Zazzy’s Challenge

/ Ally Bean / 240 Comments

My Rambling Report On The Color Green

a spunky hosta growing among the stones underneath the deck

Well paint me green and call me a cucumber!

Someone on social media said the above and I got laughing.

Then I realized that I’ve been inexplicably drawn to the color green lately, seeing the color everywhere I turn. It’s summer here so it’s outside my window, but I’ve also found myself drawn to it inside the house.

Bought some drapes, white background with a vertical vine pattern in a color called Pine.

Bought some oval place mats in a color called Thyme.

Bought some bath mats in a color called Celadon.

[Even looked at, but didn’t buy, nail polish in a shade called Happily Evergreen After.]

Yep, I’m in my green phase now.

image via @grantdraws on IG

So what does the color green mean?

• According to Sensational COLOR green is “the most common color in the natural world, and it’s second only to blue as the most common favorite color.”

While green can be associated with money & envy, what I’m enjoying about green is its calming influence that symbolically represents freshness and progress.

• According to the Crayola Crayons wikipedia page, there are 22 Standard shades of green and many Speciality shades. Most of the crayons have basic predictable names but a few have unusual names such as: Inchworm, Asparagus, Fern, & Shamrock. My conclusion is that green means variety.

• An article from The Cleveland Clinic about chakras explains that there are 7 “places in your body where energy — in yoga terms, prana — congregates or is concentrated.”  

The chakra associated with green is your heart chakra that’s located, somewhat predictably, in the center of your chest. Keeping your heart chakra open is important if you’re to maintain balance.

made me laugh so here it is

“It ain’t easy being green.” 

Kermit nailed it when he shared his burden of being green, like leaves, in his mellow soulful song “Bein’ Green” [HERE].

Is there anyone among us who doesn’t understand that blending in with other ordinary things, instead of standing out like splashy sparkles in the water, can be frustrating?

Of course he goes on to say that green can be cool and friendly-like which is where I’ll end this scintillating, marginally informative, blog post brought to you by the Universe nudging me to notice the color green.

And who can argue with that‽

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My Art Project For Zazzy

Zazzy of the blog zazamataz has challenged us, her bloggy friends, to create some art. In her post [HERE] she shares a video in which an artist shows you how to use water color paints, a roll of painter’s tape, and a black Sharpie to manifest art.

The video, like Zazzy, is encouraging so I decided to see what I could do, adapting as I went along.

First I bought some watercolor paints at the grocery store, forgetting to buy a few extra paint brushes. Then I found notebook paper in my desk drawer, discovered a roll of masking tape in the kitchen junk drawer, decided to use Q-tips in place of paintbrushes, and substituted a pencil, then an ink pen, in place of the Sharpie I didn’t have.

In other words I used what I could find around here.

Below is my masterpiece.

• ❇️ •

Questions of the Day

Do you like the color green? Where do you see green in your life? Do you see it literally and/or do you use the word figuratively?

Do you *MOO* when you see a cow thereby announcing its existence? If not, what’s wrong with you?

Considering I’m not an artist by training or inclination, how do you like my artwork? Are you willing to try to create some art, just to see what happens when you try?

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The One About The Stink Bug Hunter & His Preferred Tools Of The Trade

/ Ally Bean / 286 Comments

Photo via Washington Post

Our May temperatures have been warmer than normal, enticing brown marmorated stink bugs to emerge earlier than usual from their winter digs. While they cause no structural damage to buildings, they are a nuisance.

Kind of creepy to see in my opinion.

We rarely find them inside the house [unlike the roller shade situation earlier this year], but notice them when we sit on our screened-in porch.

One of us [not me] has decided to wage war against them, like the semi-retired suburbanite that he is. While Indiana Jones had his hat & a whip, Zen-Den has his fly swatter & toilet paper.

The fly swatter he uses to slap stink bugs off the screens or walls;  the toilet paper he uses to pick them up and squish them before he flushes them down the toilet. He is on a mission, carrying these items with him whenever he steps onto the porch.

The Stink Bug Hunter’s preferred weapons.

Thus equipped with the items seen in the photo immediately above Zen-Den has become a menace to stink bugs. He stalks them while we sit, ostensibly to relax, on the screened-in porch.

He is ever vigilant.

Hence I’ve learned to put my preferred beverage into a Tervis with a lid so that stink bugs, pursued by my sweet baboo the Stink Bug Hunter don’t land in my drink.

As they are wont to do.

And further, as a long-time married person who sees humor in many things, I’m entertained, enthralled even, by the tenacity of a man who has decided to attempt to reign victorious over stink bugs.

As if that’s going to happen. 🙄

• • •

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

What kind of insect do you dislike the most? When confronted with them do you jump into action like Zen-Den to kill said insect?

Are you, like me, a fan of sitting outside with a beverage at hand? If so, factoring in the time of day, what is your preferred beverage? Do you need to have a lid to put on top of it?

What’s new with you? Got any tales to tell about your life in the merry month of May?

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Goofing Off On A Friday Afternoon, I Ponder A Pretty Sign

/ Ally Bean / 214 Comments

Lean in closely, my gentle readers, while I tell you a secret: sometimes I hesitate to tell you what we’ve been up to.

The thing is, and isn’t there always one, I wouldn’t want you to be jealous of our exciting suburban lives. That would never do. I’m not here to gloat over anything, I’m here to share the nitty gritty flapdoodle and twaddle of our daily lives.

Considering we’re all friends here, I’m sure that once you learn what Z-D and I did last Friday afternoon, you’ll understand how we roll. You’ll get a clue into our psyches and how we make our own fun.

You see, after traipsing around Ikea for an hour or more, buying an $8 dish drainer for the kitchen sink, we were high on the joy that comes from a successful shopping adventure. So as we were driving home, on a whim, for a change of pace, we decided to stop at a large unique garden decor center to see what was going on there.

And to get in a few more steps.

Unlike the modern indoor international Ikea vibe, this old-fashioned outdoor locally-owned garden decor center is funky. It sits on acres of land with an old farmhouse at the front of the property and seemingly endless merchandise behind it.

In fact at this time of year everywhere you look there are displays of pots and fountains and stepping stones and birdbaths and gazing globes and pond supplies.

When we pulled into the parking lot we parked in front of the sign you see in the large photo at the top of this post. This sign directs you, the customer, to go one way or the other way around the house.

Unlike Ikea there aren’t multiple ways to walk through this place. Here you must decide between two options about which way you’ll go.

That is, you can meander along the Scenic Route that wraps around the front of the property where there is inspiration, like fountains and ponds, paths and statuary, but nothing for sale.

OR

You can go the opposite way that leads directly to the Main Entrance [ironically behind the house] where you find what you need, pay for it, then have it loaded into your vehicle.

I’m not going to tell you which path we chose, but I’m going to say that my heart skipped a beat & I did a little happy dance when I realized that the sign in the parking lot was a “blogging question of the day” found in the wild!

And considering I had nothing planned to write about this week, how fortuitous is that? 😊

Questions of the Day

• When’s the last time you decided to spontaneously go somewhere for no other reason than you were driving or walking by?

• If you shop in brick and mortar big box stores, do you visit with a specific purpose, OR do you go for reconnaissance, OR do you go there to walk & window shop, OR for some other reason?

• If you shop in locally-owned businesses near you, what’s your favorite one? And why?

• Thinking in an introspective way about what makes you tick: do you usually prefer to meander [scenic route] or to be direct [main entrance]?

~ ~ 🤔 ~ ~ 

Discussing The Impact Of An Audience + Sharing My Summer Blogging Schedule

/ Ally Bean / 184 Comments

The Impact Of An Audience

a jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing

AFTER I READ WHAT I read, I couldn’t stop thinking about the advice that many people found inspirational. Considering I had worked in a world where “know your audience” was the mantra, what I read seemed off-base.

Yet being open-minded I got thinking about it. Oddly enough it seemed like good advice and bad advice in one paradoxical statement. So in an attempt to get to the heart of what this advice meant I talked with a few friends about it.

We couldn’t agree about what to make of it.

So what, you might be asking yourself, did I read that lead to pondering and *perhaps* profundity? I read this brief article entitled: Amanda, There Is No Audience.

The title IS the simple advice that may or may not make sense to you depending on your personality and/or your idea of community. You might like or not like the advice depending on the context and/or who is saying it to you.

There are variables.

As best I can figure, and I’m sure you will tell me if I am wrong, the advice is saying that in order to not second-guess yourself, which is a positive thing, you have to not care about what other people think about you and your choices.

There’s a truth to that.

Don’t give your power away to just anyone or anything.

But how you use your own power seems to divide people in a philosophical way that reveals how you think about the people around you and any influence they may, or may not, have on you.

Anyhoo the issue, simplified, comes down to how the advice resonates with you:

• Do you, like Amanda, find this advice inspiring because by denying you have an audience you’re free from judgment and this allows you to do what you want to do unhindered? You are alone.

OR

• Do you find this advice unrealistic because to think no one is watching you is delusional, but in spite of that by ignoring what the audience suggests you are productive? You are indifferent.

Thoughts, anyone?

My Summer Blogging Schedule 

image via pagesbyleanne

LIGHT is my guiding word this year.

Thus in order to allow more light into my life, The Spectacled Bean will be on SPRING/SUMMER HOURS until further notice.

I’ll post here every couple of weeks, reply to comments, and check-in with you on your blogs every so often because I try to keep up with you, my bloggy friends.

Take it easy, everyone. Let the light shine on you.

Do good. Play nice. Be happy.

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