Alice Underwood

The Big Move Part 2 will it ever end?

2011-11-27T22:20:00.001-05:00

Whew, What a move it was and still is. Four truck loads moved, thanks to my neighbor and friend John May of Two Men and a Truck fame. His men probably carried two or three tons of mostly paper, shelving, desks and a huge paper cutter up to the new warehouse and office space also known as the Intergalactic Headquarters for Rose Street Design Co. This is, of course, above Daffodils Fine Stationery and Gifts on Clay Ave.

I moved stuff, I tossed stuff, I found stuff, I donated stuff. It's amazing how much you can accumulate when you 1. Are somewhat of a pack rat and 2. Stay in one place for 20 years so you don't have to throw stuff out. I gave truck loads of paper to Providence Montessori School and to the Fayette County Schools. I threw stuff in the trash and then later pulled it back out (ok not a lot but there were a couple of things...). I found a photograph taken in NY city with my good friend Matt Lauer. He had hair back then. I found copies of all of my old calendars which was fun to see.
But I really didn't find much else of any importance. I found out that I need to purge a lot more often.

I have always read that a move is one of the most stressful things you can do in a life time. The reason, as it turns out, is that on top of managing the logistics of arranging for and dealing with moving a seemingly endless amount of things there is the challenge of keeping up with daily chores. Simple as that sounds- suddenly nothing is where it normally is. You can no longer automatically open a drawer and pull out a deposit slip or an envelope or a stapler or anything. Everything, and I mean everything, has to be seriously thought about. One can't just sit down and pay bills, one has to THINK about all the parts of paying bills. And where all of those parts may be scattered. Multiply that times all of the little chores and it gets stressful.

This may all sound like I'm complaining but really things are good. I moved in and hit the ground running. Business has been good and keeps me hopping. Between overseeing Daffodils (retail operation), Rose Street Design (wholesale) and the website (both) I haven't had a lot of time to get organized. I still step over boxes, although not as many as there were at first, on the way to my desk upstairs. Sometimes I feel like a football playing running through a bunch of old tires in a training exercise. I still can't put my hands on some things that I know are in boxes upstairs somewhere.I will eventually get completely unpacked and moved in.

For the most part I am settled in and getting to know the clientele. And I love being there. I love not having to drive down Main Street each morning and run the Vine Street 500 each afternoon. Three tenths of a mile is a WONDERFUL commute. The longest part of my commute is the stoplight at Main Street. If I catch the green light I shave 2 minutes off the 4 minute commute which then becomes a 2 minute commute.

So now Christmas is upon us. Black Monday is tomorrow!!! I will write more soon about that.

yours till Niagara falls,
yours till the chocolate chips,
As always,
Alice

The big move part 1

2011-05-19T06:09:00.002-04:00

Rose Street Design Co. and our flagship retail store Daffodils Fine Stationery & Gift have moved. As of April 4th 2011 (4-4-11) we are now settling in at 109 Clay Avenue in Lexington, KY
I LOVE the new location. It suits me better. It is 3/10 of a mile , really and truly a hop, skip and a jump from my house. My dog Sisi loves it and even though she doesn't normally go to work with me it's nice to know that she approves.
Sales are better. It seems to be on more people's radar at this location.
I like my neighbors, Carl Meyer, my friends Mary Lee and Mark at the lamp store, Peggy and the girls at Peggy's, the Twirl girls, Bruce at Linens Ltd and all the others, some of whom I look forward to meeting.
I also love my neighbors and the location on Leestown Road where Curtis Grace, event planner and vintage collector is moving.
Come by and see us.

Art Class

2011-01-07T22:40:00.002-05:00

I am taking an oil painting class with Bill Fletcher. That is to say that he is my instructor. He is a wonderful painter and and a wonderful teacher. I've taken oil painting from only one other instructor and the class really didn't even compare to Bill's class.
The first class I painted only with black and white and it seemed difficult but when the painting was finished I liked it and I really learned about the values of the painting. It was actually a little easier than painting with color because all I had to think about was the darkness and lightness of the paint.
I started the 6 week session after the first class. Then I missed a class because I wimped out against the driving cold rain and the unfortunate fact that a UK game was going on right across the street from the location of our class and that is always a zoo.
So I made 4 out of 6 sessions and then we broke for Christmas.
I have painted at home several times over Christmas and it was a lot of fun but I really need to paint each day. I think that all the painting I have done for my calendars each year made a big difference in my confidence with this class. I already know that sometimes you just have to take the plunge. I know that you really can't hate a painting until it's finished because often it's not all bad. I learned more than that but will have to discuss later.

Christmas parties

2010-11-23T22:33:00.002-05:00

Well, its the time of year for Christmas parties and boy have we been busy. I have printed invites for country club dances for 12 year olds, cocktail parties and sing alongs. Promises to be a very good year for parties. A pretty invitation and one that it very simple yet festive has 3 little pears at the top. I also have one that is overprinted on a large golden pear and it is just lovely. I really need to get those on the website.
The wedding business has been brisk too. Brides plan ahead and it is so much fun to work with them. I always advise ordering proofs. There is simply no reason to not know exactly what your invitation will look like.

Who is having that party? Invitation Advice by Alice Underwood

2010-10-09T10:34:00.010-04:00

Once I actually had a customer who refused to put her name on her invitation. It looked so nice that she didn't want to "ruin it" by adding another word, not even her name. One of my employees had laid it out and when I looked over it I immediately asked about adding her name. "No thank you." she said firmly. "I like it exactly the way it is and I do not need my name on it."
I could tell by the tone in her voice that she had no intention of changing it.
"That's fine let's print", I agreed. Sometimes you just can't argue. She was the paying customer and did not want any further suggestions.
She ended up calling back and re-ordering the same invitation only this time with her name added.
Evidently someone saw it and asked who was having the party.
So don't make that mistake. The invitation below available at Rose Street Design has all the important info!

Atlanta Market

2010-08-15T18:11:00.005-04:00

The Atlanta Trade show this July went off without a hitch. I had a beautiful new booth that showed off my new Rose Street Design 2011 Photo Calendar and 2011 Jewel Case Calendar.

Sock monkeys and Bow ties

2010-03-26T01:19:00.007-04:00

Need a date for Keeneland race meet or the Kentucky Derby? Need a new bow tie for either? Looking for a bunny for Easter?
Order one from Daffodils. The monkeys and bunnys are about 15.00 and the bow ties are on special at 30.00 (instead of 45.00) until the end of April. They are adorable, very well made bow ties. The sock monkeys and sock bunnys are bright and colorful and springy.

Rose Street Design Kentucky Derby invites & Derby Hats

2010-03-23T08:25:00.001-04:00

Derby is upon us as it is the 1st Saturday in May which this year is May 1st. Rose Street Design has some great party invitations and we have been printing up a storm. Some people print their own and just come in and buy the blanks.

Article about Daffodils in the Lexington Newspaper

2010-03-22T19:37:00.004-04:00

A great article was written about my store Daffodils Fine Stationery and Gifts and published on the Lexington Herald Leader. The link is
http://www.kentucky.com/2010/03/22/1192348/outside-the-cube-daffodils-is.html
Take a look!
We have all kinds of cute hats and purses in stock right now. Call for details and prices.

Caddys

2010-03-21T23:45:00.003-04:00

This is a photo of some recent desk caddys just before the order was packed and shipped to a store in Texas. Graduation gifts. Spring is here and graduation is on the way. We have been selling a lot of caddys with ribbon and paper in team and or school colors. No names being printed, teams are all licensed anyway just the team colors. If you are interested please contact us as we have a lot of solid cloro ribbon choices that are not shown on the site. We have had requests lately for a lot of orange and pink combos lately(not a team color combo). My store is in Lexington and we sell the UK blue or royal blue caddys on a regular basis especially since University of Kentucky is such a powerhouse in basketball and just tremendous this year. Go CATS!!!!

where are the people who buy from Rose Street Design

2009-12-13T10:55:00.005-05:00

I have enjoyed talking to the people who buy from me each year at Rose Street Design Co.. The 2010 Rose Street Design Photo calendars, also known as "The Red Box Calendar" or "those big calendars you can put your pictures in" or "that photo calendar I get each year" are the big sellers.
The little 2010 Jewel Case Calendar also sell well along with the refills for the Jewel Case Calendar. A "jewel case" is what the plastic book-like case that CD's come in is called.
So here are some of the places where Rose Street Design customers live:
Framingham, MA
Celina, OH
Memphis, TN
Albany, NY
St. Louis, MO
Lawrenceville, NJ
Staten Island, NY
Lookout Mountain, GA
Pine Bluff, AR

Houston, TX
Bethesda, MD
Wheatley, AR
Aurora, OH
Hermosa Beach, CA
Casper, WY
Portland, OR
New York, NY

The Baby's First Year

2009-12-05T05:00:00.001-05:00

The Baby's First Year Photo Calendar is the perfect gift for any new parents or grandparents. Good for a shower gift, baby gift, Christmas gift. We are all so busy and it is just a perfect and easy way to keep a "baby book". What could be easier than hanging it on the wall and jot things down as they happen. It is in sight so it will stay "in mind'. Fill in the months and the days. Example- the baby is born in April, like me, so on Baby's First Month, you write in "April" and then look at another calendar, the Alice Underwood Rose Street Design Photo Calendar for one, to fill in the days of the month and viola- a custom calendar ready to go. The are die cut slots on each page to hold photos. So very cute. I did the artwork in soft colors that lend themselves to either a baby boy or baby girl.
It is packaged in a pretty yellow gift box so it is a ready-to-go gift that will show what a thoughtful person you really are.
To see the baby calendar go to
http://rosestreet.com/babycal.aspx

Customer stories- 2009

2009-12-04T05:30:00.001-05:00

"Rose Street Design, may I help you?" I answered last week. I have sung out that phrase that way at my office/warehouse for a long time. I wonder how many times.

I once began keeping track of how many loads of laundry I did but then I realized how frightening it would be to know that I actually did 962,578 loads of laundry in my lifetime and what would my friends and family think when they realized I had kept track and then I then worried that somehow that information would end up in my obituary- "She was a member of the Lexington chapter of DAR, was active in the arts community, donated to the Humane Society and area schools and over the course of her life did 962,578 loads of laundry. She was much loved by the May Tag repairman and was honored by the makers of Tide and ALL.". Needless to say I stopped the tick marks on the basement walls each time I tossed a load in the washer. But I digress.

So if I answered the phone once a day each day for the last 24 years I will have answered 8,760 times using that exact phrase. It could possibly be many more times as even though Internet sales are picking up the phone is still jumping around on my desk all day, saying "answer me, answer me, I demand to be answered, I will not be ignored, besides people have all these nice things to say and don't you want to hear all the lovely compliments? And they may want to order calendars and and and"
So of course I answer the phone because it persists and there are customers to talk to.

Telephone appeased, I heard the familiar, "I would like to order some photo calendars."
"Oh yes I can help you with that" I say. After I took the order and verified information, my customer declared, in a strong blend of confident, loud and knowing tones, "I have ordered this calendar from you since 1990!". "Hmmm, I see. That's quite a long time" said I. "Yes it is " proclaimed my dear, longtime, much appreciated customer. "Well (I said) thank you so much for your business and please enjoy the calendars". I just couldn't tell her that I had only been making the photo calendars since 1995, a full five years after she said she began buying them. Not only that, but her loyalty surpassed all possibility and I really liked the way she knew what she knew. I bet she can tell some really good, very convincing stories.

Re branding, Icons, and the Garden Club

2009-12-04T05:00:00.003-05:00

What advertising icons do you remember? The Jolly Green Giant, the Geico gecko, the Pillsbury Dough Boy, Martha Stewart, Mrs. Buttersworth, Mr. Clean, Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines who, by the way, is from Kentucky and whose great niece is a friend and is in my garden club. In fact we co-founded our garden club because we wanted to be in one and no one asked to join theirs. That sounds a little pitiful but it wasn't really. We didn't want to waste time hinting around to our friends in other garden clubs so we cut to the chase and grew our own. Gardeners are like that.

The Great Digresser worketh. Back to icons.

Anyway, I was once in NY in the Jacob Javits Convention Center attending the National Stationery Show and I met a Japanese marketing guru who was fascinated with the Alice Underwood Rose Street Design Photo Calendar which at that time did not have the XL name it has now.

He said I that a person could go anywhere and buy any old calendar but you could only buy one Alice Underwood Rose Street Design Photo Calendar and I needed to market is as such. Put my face on it. Put my name on it. Be the calendar. I have always remembered his lovely, kind, wise, helpful advice but never acted on it. It just seemed to be shameless self promotion. I have now gotten over myself and realized what he was saying. People like to identify. We like to connect. It is easier and more fun to connect with Alice Underwood than Acme Calendar Company or Rose Street Design.

So there you go, call me the Pillsbury Dough Boy, the Jolly Green Giant, the Mrs. Buttersworth of Photo Calendars.

Julie & Julia, the Super Bowl calendar malfunction,Blogs. Is anybody out there?

2009-12-03T05:00:00.002-05:00

If you haven't seen the movie Julie & Julia go see it. It is a feast for the senses and I loved it. It is NOT a chick flick, I repeat, not a chick flit. There are blood and guts, sex, foul language and fowl cooking, funny lines and when you exit the theatre you will need to eat something delicious. Lucky for me I had yummy Thanksgiving leftovers to feast on. It's just a good entertaining movie.

The reason I bring it up here is because in the movie Julie writes a blog about her cooking adventures and at one point says, "Is anyone out there?"

It makes me think about the huge world of cyber space and how we all connect or miss each other or whatever. If you write a blog they will come. Maybe, maybe not.

If a blog is written and no one reads it does it exist? Well yes because someone wrote it, namely me and I like to write, so it's fun whether anyone reads it or not.

Another issue in the movie is the great unknown of publishing. Julia Child writes a cookbook and is ready to give up on having it published. What a force we would have missed had she accepted the rejections. Each year as I prepare to publish my Alice Underwood Rose Street Design Photo Calendars I think not about the force I am in the world but what if I have missed some typo and now have 31 days in February or put Labor Day in June. OMGosh!

I used to put the Super Bowl on the Alice Underwood Rose Street Design Photo Calendar until the year that the football powers that be proceeded to change the date of the Super Bowl. A customer used my calendar to plan his Super Bowl party, which was evidently of epic size. The invitations were sent, the error noticed and the invites were re-sent all to great expense. I was blamed entirely even though the calendar is published a year in advance. It was a calendar malfunction, don't you know.

Since that incident the only holidays I include are those that will not be changed. The only dicey dates on the calendar at this time are the dates for daylight savings which I am NOT a fan of. In fact I think I may leave those off this year. Maybe they will stop doing that.

I don't think anyone can change Easter or the equinoxes and full moons. If they do nobody will care if my calendar has it wrong anyway, there will be way bigger issues to deal with. Maybe my Alice Underwood Rose Street Design Photo Calendar will then become a highly valued collectors item like the postage stamp with the upside down airplane on it which is now worth a lot of money.

Or, maybe not.

Photo calendars design

2009-12-02T05:10:00.004-05:00

As I work on the 2011 Alice Underwood Rose Street Design Photo Calendar I have a lots of ideas for calendar pages.

I wonder what you, dear customer, think of the past calendar pages. I only want the constructive comments, ideas and compliments.
And my compliments to you are that you have the best taste of ANY customer anywhere, you are the smartest, most talented, kindest, sweetest customer in the world. You also have perfect posture and make a mean marinara sauce.

In the past, I have put names of the naughty and nice, the good and the bad, the friends and the family on the December page. Did you like that? .

Sometimes I hid little symbols that meant something only to me in some of the months. Did anyone notice any odd little drawing of a birthday gift on a month and wonder what it was for?

Do you like the fact that I try to tie in a school reference to the month of September each year even if it is just a school of fish or would you rather see fall leaves or football? For people who were born in October are you sick to death of Halloween designs with gobs of orange and copious jack o lanterns? Would you like something else for a change, even a change of color schemes (hmmm, like maybe pink and pale blue pumpkins)?

I tried a radical departure one year and ended up with camels and zebras on some months and it did not go over well.

And then there are the quotes, I love quotes.

So, if anyone has a favorite quote or two, or has a nice-ish or constructive comment about the calendar designs please send them in to me, Alice Underwood, at info@rosestreet.com or post a comment on the blog.

Thank you dear reader.

Customer stories- where are they from?

2009-12-01T05:15:00.004-05:00

I have customers who order my Alice Underwood's Rose Street Design Photo Calendar from all over the United States. I would love to hear from you.
To list a few places,
Ridgeland, MS
Hixson, TN
Suffolk, VA
San Francisco, CA
Montgomery, AL
Cary, NC
Crofton, MD
Excelsior, MN
Richboro, PA
Union city, TN
Laramie,WY
New York , NY
Holdrege, Nebraska
Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Dracut, MA
Benson, AZ
Thank you, thank you , thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Customer stories- they lost their jobs...

2009-11-29T05:37:00.005-05:00

A customer from California called the other day to order 2 calendars. As I took her order we chatted and she told me that both she and her husband had lost their jobs and that they had a son in college. Things were tough. She said they had cut back on spending but that she felt like the calendars were a justifiable expense as they were part of her family history. She told me that she had bought the photo calendars for a number of years, put photos of the family in the calendars and that she wanted to keep the tradition going. She seemed very calm and even happy so it seems she and her family were managing ok.
This really touched me and I felt quite honored that she chose my calendar as one of the things to buy this year. I so want her to know how grateful I am and how much her purchase meant to me.
Thank you dear customers

What my customers are saying

2009-10-27T20:52:00.004-04:00

This is the time of year when people order photo calendars and it is so interesting and gratifying to hear what my customers are saying.

Today a customer named Susan called and ordered 12 calendars. She orders my calendars each year and has been since I began making the photo calendars in 1995. She said that she puts one together for all of her family groups and she features photos of the members who are celebrating the most that month, either birthdays or anniversaries. She writes everyone's birthday in the appropriate date so no one will forget another's birthday.

She told me that her family loves receiving their calendar each year and that she enjoys putting them together.

I really love hearing her story and I thank her for telling me.

2010 Photo Calendar

2009-06-21T20:06:00.002-04:00

Hello Blog Followers,
The artwork for the 2010 Rose Street Design Photo Calendar is finished. The photo calendar body (the days, grid, holidays, quotes, full moons etc.) is being put together and then it will be ready to go to print. Soon a new Rose Street Design Photo Calendar will be introduced to the world. Well, introduced to at least to a few avid fans and interested followers including my mother. You will see tomatoes that look amazingly like sand dollars. You will see Mums in November and dogs in Jan. Just you wait, I'll surprise you.
The artwork has been finished for a while now but it is always a great thing to be able to say that the Rose Street Design Photo Calendar has been put to bed. I think back on some of the months, like a blue paisley with red cherries for July. I really like how that turned out even though it isn't as patriotic as I usually like July to be. For all our faults and mess ups , I am so glad I am an American aren't you? I wonder sometimes what the rest of the world thinks about us. Something new and sensational,(I did not say good, I said sensational) is always popping up, from YouTube to Craigslist to Bernie Madoff to Pirates of the Caribbean to The Da Vinci Code, Rose Street Design Photo Calendar and on and on.
Almost immediately it will be time to begin the art work for the 2011 Rose Street Design Photo Calendar calendar. I have begun writing down some ideas I have but if you would like to suggest something please let me know. 2011 sounds so futuristic. Who knows what will be going on at that time. The economy should be looking up, employment back to normal and we will be in the middle of another presidential race. We may have acheived world peace. There may be a cure for cancer and AIDS, there may be no more hunger in this world. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
Anyway, I plan to keep up with the informational and theurapeutic blogging so I can keep you posted. Any (constructive and complimentary) comments are welcome.
Yours, Alice

All of us at Rose Street Design

2009-03-27T20:33:00.009-04:00

Great people work at Rose Street Design Co. ! I thought it might be nice to introduce you to a few.
We have Martie our operations manager who makes everyone toe the line and keeps order in the most benevolent way. She is very neat and organized and she even thought her desk looked messy in this photo. Hey, she was in the middle of 15 different things and getting things done! You can be assured that my desk won't be in any of these pictures although it stays MUCH better since my business angel came to help me in 2007.

Then we have Jon who does all of the printing at Rose Street Design, lays out our graphics, puts together our emails we send to you and lots of other projects. If you aren't getting the emails please sign up on www.rosestreet.com.

Naitore is next. As you can see by the photo, she works in the store. By store I am referring to Daffodils Fine Stationery & Gifts, our Rose Street Design test lab store on the premises. Naitore keeps Daffodils sparkling with fresh, pretty displays, flowers and signage.
She and Martie work with brides choosing wedding invitations, expectant mothers deciding on birth announcements, groups of birthday and cocktail party throwers and more.

Anne is a new Rose Street Design employee and did she ever pick her job up at lightening speed. I am so pleased to have her on board helping with the website!
Then there is me, the big boss, head honcho, the chick in charge! I have a pro photo that is all touched up to look like I wrote a book and then I have this one. Yep, it's me Alice . So now you have met some of us at Rose Street Design Co. . When you call us to order you can put a face with a name.

the Economy, a great article

2009-02-27T06:16:00.000-05:00

MONETIZE THIS!
A BETTER WAY TO FUND THE STIMULUS PACKAGE

Ellen Brown, February 22, 2009
www.webofdebt.com/articles/monetizethis.php

“Diseases desperate grown are by desperate appliances relieved, or not at all.”

– Shakespeare, “Hamlet”

Moody’s credit rating agency is warning that the U.S. government’s AAA credit rating is at risk, because it has taken on so much debt that there are few creditors left to underwrite it. Foreigners have bought as much as two-thirds of U.S. debt in recent years, but they could be doing much less purchasing of U.S. Treasury securities in the future, not so much out of a desire to chastise America as simply because they won’t have the funds to do it. Oil prices have fallen off a cliff and the U.S. purchase of foreign exports has dried up, slashing the surpluses that those countries previously recycled back into U.S. Treasuries. And domestic buyers of securities, to the extent that they can be found, will no doubt demand substantially higher returns than the rock-bottom interest rates at which Treasuries are available now.¹

Who, then, is left to buy the government’s debt and fund President Obama’s $900 billion stimulus package? The taxpayers are obviously tapped out, so the money will have to be borrowed; but borrowed from whom? The pool of available lenders is shrinking fast. Morever, servicing the federal debt through private lenders imposes a crippling interest burden on the U.S. Treasury. The interest tab was $412 billion in fiscal year 2008, or about one-third of the federal government’s total income from personal income taxes ($1,220 billion in 2008). The taxpayers not only cannot afford the $900 billion; they cannot afford to increase their interest payments. But what is the alternative?

How about turning to the lender of last resort, the Federal Reserve itself? The advantage for the government of borrowing from its own central bank is that this money is virtually free. This is because the Federal Reserve rebates any interest it receives to the Treasury after deducting its costs, and the federal debt is never actually paid off but is just rolled over from year to year. Interest-free loans that are never paid off are basically free money. In 2008, 85% of the interest collected by the Federal Reserve (or “Fed”) was returned to the Treasury. The average interest rate on Treasury securities today is only about 3%; 15% of 3% is less than ½% – such a negligible interest as to make the money nearly free.

The Fed does not have to worry about interest, because it does not actually have to acquire the money before lending it, and it knows the government will not default. The Fed originates the money it lends, either on a printing press or with accounting entries. It can purchase Treasury debt simply by writing credits into the “reserve account” of the seller’s bank, which then credits the seller’s account. The Fed’s ability to write numbers into an account is obviously unlimited; but it has normally restricted its purchase of government securities to only so much as is necessary to provide the liquidity needed for banks to cash and clear checks. Funding the government’s budget shortfall has usually been left to private lenders; but those loans are drying up, and servicing them is proving expensive. Both this interest burden and the need to continually attract new lenders could be avoided by tapping into the government’s credit line at its own central bank.

But wouldn’t that be dangerously inflationary? Not in today’s economic climate, as will be shown. And if the notion of funding the government through its own central bank seems too radical and unprecedented to be entertained, consider the radical moves the Fed has already been taking in the last year. Without so much as a by-your-leave from Congress, the Fed just “monetized” $1.2 trillion in private debt, turning commercial loans into money. If private banks and private corporations now have multi-billion dollar credit lines with the Federal Reserve, then Congress should have one too. In fact Congress, which gave the Fed its charter to create the national money supply, should have been the first in line.

If the Fed Can “Monetize” Private Debt, It Can Monetize Public Debt.

The Fed has been a hotbed of radical, experimental activity in the past year. Ben Gisin is a former banker who has long been tracking the Fed’s statistical releases. He says he has never seen anything like it. Assets have been magically appearing on the Fed’s balance sheet, and they are not coming from any traditional source.²

In May 2007, the Fed reported assets of about $850 billion, and 92% of them were the usual federal securities (government I.O.U.s). A year later, the Fed’s stash of federal securities had dropped to $500 billion, but its total assets remained substantially unchanged. The federal securities had just been swapped for other forms of debt. In January of 2009, however, the Fed reported assets of $2.1 trillion, an increase of $1.2 trillion from a year earlier.³ Where did this new money come from? The Fed’s liabilities also went up by $1.2 trillion, indicating that it was creating “credit” simply by double-entry bookkeeping. Loans were being created by entering them as assets on one side of the Fed’s books and as corresponding liabilities on the other.

Creating money by double-entry bookkeeping is not actually unique to the central bank. It is how all commercial banks come up with the money they lend, as many authorities have attested. In a revealing booklet called Modern Money Mechanics, the Chicago Federal Reserve explained how banks expand the money supply (or create money) using double-entry bookkeeping. The booklet stated:

“Of course, [banks] do not really pay out loans from the money they receive as deposits. If they did this, no additional money would be created. What they do when they make loans is to accept promissory notes in exchange for credits to the borrowers’ transaction accounts. Loans (assets) and deposits (liabilities) both rise [by the same amount].”⁴

Congressman Jerry Voorhis, writing in 1973, explained how monetary expansion is built on the 10% reserve requirement imposed by the Fed:

“[F]or every $1 or $1.50 which people – or the government – deposit in a bank, the banking system can create out of thin air and by the stroke of a pen some $10 of checkbook money or demand deposits. It can lend all that $10 into circulation at interest just so long as it has the $1 or a little more in reserve to back it up.”⁵

That means that if the Federal Reserve were operating like a commercial bank, it could take its $500 billion in U.S. securities and fan them into $5 trillion in loans; and that appears to be exactly what it has been doing. What is extraordinary is that the money is being used to make commercial loans. If the Fed can come up with $1.2 trillion to “monetize” private promissory notes, argues Ben Gisin, there is no reason it could not come up with $900 billion to monetize Obama’s stimulus package. In fact, Congress could mandate its captive central bank to buy the bonds needed to fund the stimulus package.

The Advantage of Borrowing from the Federal Reserve

For the government, the difference between borrowing credit created with accounting entries from a private bank and borrowing the same sort of credit from the Federal Reserve is that borrowing from the Fed is nearly interest-free. That is true today, but it has not always been true. Congressman Wright Patman, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee, wrote in a 1964 treatise called A Primer on Money:

“The Federal Reserve Banks create money out of thin air to buy Government Bonds from the U.S. Treasury . . . [creating] out of nothing a . . . debt which the American people are obliged to pay with interest.”

Patman was outraged at the inequity of this practice and boldly agitated for Congress to nationalize the privately-owned Federal Reserve, a move that would have allowed the government to issue the national money supply directly. Needless to say, however, this proposal met with strong opposition. Nationalization did not happen, but the Fed did have to compromise. According to Jerry Voorhis:

“As a direct result of logical and relentless agitation by members of Congress, led by Congressman Wright Patman as well as by other competent monetary experts, the Federal Reserve began to pay to the U.S. Treasury a considerable part of its earnings from interest on government securities. This was done without public notice and few people, even today, know that it is being done. It was done, quite obviously, as acknowledgment that the Federal Reserve Banks were acting on the one hand as a national bank of issue, creating the nation’s money, but on the other hand charging the nation interest on its own credit – which no true national bank of issue could conceivably, or with any show of justice, dare to do.”

Voorhis went on, “But this is only part of the story. And the less discouraging part, at that. For where the commercial banks are concerned, there is no such repayment of the people’s money.” Commercial banks, he explained, do not rebate the interest, although they also “‘buy’ the bonds with newly created demand deposit entries on their books – nothing more.”⁶

Voorhis noted that the Constitution provides, “Congress shall have the power to coin money [and] regulate the value thereof.” Whether “to coin money” means “to issue money” has been debated; but as President Andrew Jackson observed, if anyone was given the power to issue money, it was Congress, not a private banking elite. For a full century before the American Revolution, the colonists funded a period of unprecedented prosperity and productive enterprise with paper money issued directly by their own local governments or government-owned banks. According to Benjamin Franklin, it was chiefly to get that power back after King George halted the practice that the colonists fought the Revolution.⁷ They won the war but lost the money-creating power to a private banking cartel. We the people now have an opportunity to get that innovative funding system back, and we can do it without having to convince a faction-ridden Congress that they need to do anything so controversial as nationalizing the Federal Reserve or even passing new legislation. All that is required is a shift in emphasis, a shift the Federal Reserve has been making lately itself. The Fed routinely turns government bonds into dollars in order to expand the amount of currency in circulation; it has now begun doing that with corporate debt; and Fed officials are talking about doing it with long-term federal securities. According to a January 28, 2009 Associated Press report:

“With its key lending rate to banks already near zero, the Fed pledged anew to use ‘all available tools’ to revive the economy. Specifically, the Fed said it is ‘prepared’ to buy longer-term Treasury securities if the circumstances warrant such action.”⁸

Traditionally, government debt has been “monetized” by the Fed only to provide the bank reserves necessary to cover check cashing and clearing. This tool is now being recommended “to revive the economy.” Obama’s stimulus package is also intended to revive the economy. Combine the two and you have a package that stimulates the economy without adding to the impossible burden of an exponentially-increasing debt.

But Wouldn’t That Be Inflationary?

The usual objection to funding the government with credits drawn on its own central bank is that the result would be inflationary. However, the scenario most feared today is actually deflation – a lack of available dollars to fuel the economy. Asset values have collapsed, and savings have collapsed along with them. People with only half as much money in their brokerage accounts have less to spend; people whose houses have plummeted in value cannot take out consumer loans against equity as was done in the boom years. Funding a “stimulus” package with existing money that is merely recycled through the banking system as loans will not stimulate the economy but will only add to the problem, by adding to the collective burden to service debt. Money that should have gone into more productive endeavors will wind up going into interest payments. To bolster demand and stimulate production, recovery requires an infusion of new dollars – dollars that can be used to pay wages and salaries, which can then be used to buy goods and services.

In any case, adding new money to the money supply will not inflate prices if the money is used in the production of new goods and services. Price inflation results only when “demand” (dollars) exceeds “supply” (goods and services). If the new dollars are used to create new goods and services, demand and supply will rise together and prices will remain stable. If the goods being produced are income-generating assets – railroads, bridges, alternative energy sources, low-cost housing, medical services – so much the better. The projects can be “monetized” in the same way that banks monetize mortgages – by entering them as assets on one side of their books and as liabilities on the other. The funds received from the central bank can then be repaid to the central bank from the income the assets produce, extinguishing the debt and avoiding inflation. Ideally, the projects would actually turn a profit, generating income for the government and reducing the tax burden on the public.

The bottom line is that we cannot borrow our way out of debt. Only new money will stimulate a debt-ridden economy – money that is interest-free and does not have to be paid back. The direct road to that result would have been to nationalize the Federal Reserve and return the power to create money to Congress; but as Wright Patman found, that solution is controversial and could be a difficult piece of legislation to get passed. In the meantime, the same result can be achieved by tapping into the government’s nearly-interest-free credit line at the Federal Reserve. Nearly-interest-free loans of accounting-entry money that never has to be paid back are a source of debt-free liquidity that can be used to fund projects that put people back to work, without increasing the interest burden on the government or the tax burden on the public.

Ellen Brown developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. In Web of Debt, her latest book, she turns those skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve and “the money trust.” She shows how this private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back. Her earlier books focused on the pharmaceutical cartel that gets its power from “the money trust.” Her eleven books include Forbidden Medicine, Nature’s Pharmacy (co-authored with Dr. Lynne Walker), and The Key to Ultimate Health (co-authored with Dr. Richard Hansen). Her websites are www.webofdebt.com and www.ellenbrown.com.

Aaron Task, “Another $3T of U.S. Debt: Don't Count on Foreigners to Pay for Our Bailouts” (citing John Ryding, chief economist of RDQ Economics), Finance.Yahoo.com (February 13, 2009).
Benjamin Gisin, Michael Krajovic, “Rescuing the Physical Economy,” Conscious Economics (January 2009).
Federal Reserve Board, “Annual Report 2007,” “Statistical Tables, “No. 9: Statement of Condition of Federal Reserve Banks,” & “No. 10: Income and Expenses of the Federal Reserve Banks,” www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/rptcongress/default.htm; “Current Release,” www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41.
Modern Money Mechanics: A Workbook on Bank Reserves and Deposit Expansion (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Public Information Service, 1992, available at http://www.rayservers.com/images/ModernMoneyMechanics.pdf), page 6.
J. Voorhis, The Strange Case of Richard Milhous Nixon (1973), excerpted at http://www.sonic.net/~doretk/ArchiveARCHIVE/ECONOMICSPOLITICS/FEDERAL%20RESERVE/Jerry%20VoorhisFedReserve.html.
Jerry Voorhis, op. cit.
Quoted by Congressman Charles Binderup in a 1941 speech, “How America Created Its Own Money in 1750: How Benjamin Franklin Made New England Prosperous,” reprinted in Unrobing the Ghosts of Wall Street, http://reactor-core.org/america-created-money.html.
Jeannine Aversa, “Fed Ready to Provide Fresh Aid to Revive Economy,” Associated Press (January 28, 2009).

Alice's get well and stay well smoothie

2009-02-25T16:27:00.002-05:00

Here is the recipe for Alice Underwood's guaranteed to keep you healthy smoothie.
In a blender put the following:
1 pack of Emergen-C powder- any flavor. I get this at a healthy grocery store or food co-op.
1 teaspoon or so whey protein powder- healthy grocery store or food co-op
1 Tablespoon of Sambucol liquid which will do away with viruses ( this is vital if you have mono or are any any way ill. Sambucol lozenges are also available)healthy grocery store or food co-op
1 handful fresh spinach leaves
Organic carrots- 2 large or 10-12 mini carrots
1 cup each frozen blueberries and frozen strawberries
1 banana
1 cup Kefir -any flavor- Kefir is extremely good for us because it contains probiotics which is the good bacteria, without which we would begin to fall apart. It is like liquid yogurt and is delicious. I use plain -available at Kroger in the health food section
1 cup orange juice

Blend until smooth, will make two big, sweet, delicious, cold smoothies. The frozen fruit gives the cold milkshake effect and gives the smoothie the fruit flavor.

Obviously you can add any other fruit or veggie you want. I have added
-broccoli sprouts(very healthy) which give the smoothie a slightly nutty flavor
-kale - added no noticeable flavor believe it or not- I used fresh kale
-prunes
-apples
-pears
-oranges
-tangerines
-tomatoes
-pineapples
Some additional notes-

1. I am going to try V-8 juice, sweet potatoes(baked, no skin), pumpkin, not sweetened.

2.Bananas freeze beautifully, peel them first of course. Better to freeze than throw away too ripe bananas

3. This recipe is great for someone who is sick as it is chock full of good healthy food.

4. Zinc lozenges are also good for someone ill with a virus as zinc kills viruses. At our house we use Zicam at the first sign of sickness.

5. Remember that when a person changes their diet they sometimes experience some stomach discomfort. This too will pass and you will be much happier with the way you feel when you are getting all of your fruits and veggies and probiotics.

6. Enjoy and healthy eating!

Photo Calendar 2010

2009-02-02T15:59:00.003-05:00

The Rose Street Design Photo Calendar is in the works and should be on line within 2 weeks. I am really excited about the art work for the Rose Street Design Photo Calendar because it is all new and colorful and different. Quite often the artwork seems to evolve into unplanned designs in unplanned directions and it is so much fun to see the end results. So far there are months with tomatoes and sand dollars and the others I won't mention as they aren't completely finished.
My sales reps call the Rose Street Design Photo Calendar "the red box calendar". It is the Original Red Box Calendar and I am proud of that. I have manufactured the Rose Street Design Photo Calendar since 1995 and I have many customers who have bought one each year.
The Rose Street Design Photo Calendar was mentioned on my friend's Bruce Springsteen blog, which by the way, is a very popular site. The link is Bruce Springsteen Information Center at Wordpress
Take a look, it's great for all fans of the Boss.

Glass blowing Centre College

2008-11-28T08:33:00.014-05:00

I experienced a creative event like no other I have experienced and it was unexpected. I went to Centre College in Danville Ky to see an Italian glass blower, Lino Tagliapietra who was in Ky for a few days to instruct. Centre has an amazing glass program headed up by the renown Stephen Rolfe Powell.

So I walked into what they call the art barn to Bruce Springsteen's We Shall Overcome CD cranked up to the perfect loudness. I was on the second floor catwalk looking down on a 8-10 person choreographed dance that was the creation and birth of a large exquisitely multi colored, patterned glass vase. The 2000 degree ovens were roaring and you could see the fire and feel the energy. There was another oven full of molten glass, more heat and light and energy. The music was rollicking and I loved this music. The steps that are taken, the footwork that is performed putting the glass into the oven to heat briefly, opening and closing the oven doors, taking the glass back to Lino and Stephen, this happening 14 or 15 times, keeping the glass rolling because it is a thick hot liquid, the combination of almost military preciseness, the years of experience, the will or who-knows-what-the glass will-do-ness of the molten glass itself, the age-old blackened wooden shaping tools, the younger students holding blackened wooden heat shields for the master glass artist, more students manning the oven doors,and another one with protective coat and mitts who takes the piece when it is finally finished to cool for a day or two, is all an amazing performance. We all clapped and cheered when it was completed. I struck up a conversation with a fireman from Danville who was watching and who told me that he stops in occasionally to see whats going on. He said they always had some kind of "weird" music that he liked and the process was so interesting. He said that sometimes they would work and work and then the piece would break at the end when it was being snapped off the blowing pole (my guess is that there is a technical term for that crucial tool). But anyway it was fascinating and I am enamoured and want to go back. There is a movie-see the link http://www.centre.edu/web/news/2008/powell_film.html for information- about Stephen Powell being released Dec 3rd 2008, try to see it.

Patti' blog

2008-11-12T21:05:00.004-05:00

Check out Patti's blog - it's fun and wonderfully creative . http://pattiedmon.blogspot.com/
I have been playing with my webcam and all the effects and got this "glow "photo. Weird but interesting. Things have been busy at work. I am getting my calendar ready to send to my beach girlfriends, It should be interesting, I'll post a picture or two on my blog. The Photo Calendars have been selling very well. Go to www.rosestreet.com to take a look.

My Halloween in Lexington, Kentucky

2008-11-03T13:26:00.000-05:00

Halloween is over and what a fun holiday it is! I watched the zombies in Lexington parade down main street while dancing to Micheal Jackson's Thriller. The costumes were amazing...but wait, maybe they were real zombies.

At any rate there were zombies all over the sidewalks, in the trash cans and reeling their way up and down the sidewalks before the parade/dance began.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show played at midnight at the Kentucky Theatre. I didn't go but when I dropped my daughter and her friends off at 11:45 there were hundreds of people in line.

The next night there were parties to go to and Halloween was celebrated fully. Here we are- a gypsy, a harlot (trying to hide his mustache), a Dallas gal, and a deviled egg (that's me!). There were some wonderful costumes and I thought the mummy and the sailor turned out great.

Concrete angels

2008-10-27T23:30:00.004-04:00

Well I had another great weekend, had a lot of fun and got a lot done. Among other things I was serenaded by the Purdue Men's Glee Club and bought a concrete angel. Ain't life grand?
Concrete statues are so much fun, especially the angels and dogs but aren't those nearly the same things? It's just fun to walk around and see all the varieties of concrete from a life sized concrete hippo to a 3 feet tall concrete Andy Griffith. You heard me, Andy Griffith. It's great.

Young Marines- Captain Reginald Underwood

2008-10-22T10:31:00.000-04:00

The Captain Reginald Underwood chapter of the Young Marines is in Lexington, Ky. The photo to the left is at the last graduation which I attended. I don't know the young graduate's name but the gentleman giving out the graduation certificates is a Marine himself and the mayor of Winchester, KY. He was a wonderful speaker and I think he should always speak at the graduations. This chapter is named after my younger brother Reg who was a jet pilot in the Persian Gulf war. His plane was shot down and he was killed, leaving behind a young wife and a 5 month old baby daughter he had never seen and a lot of other people who loved him. So this chapter brings great honor to his name and the graduations make me cry but the youngsters enjoy their meetings and their parents are always appreciative of what they learn, so all in all it's a good thing. I dedicated one of my photo calendars to my brother Reg and last year his daughter, my niece and godchild Anne edited the quotes for the photo calendar. She is very smart and quite an artist, if only I could get her to design for me! The following is copied from the Young Marines website:

About the Young Marines

The Young Marines is a youth education and service program
for boys and girls, ages 8 through completion of high school.
The Young Marines promotes the mental, moral, and physical
development of its members. The program focuses on character
building, leadership, and promotes a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.
The Young Marines is the focal point for the U.S. Marine Corps'
youth Drug Demand Reduction efforts. Learn more.

The link to the website is:

http://www.youngmarines.com/

Chicago adventures

2008-10-21T22:20:00.002-04:00

This past weekend I went to Chicago to visit a good friend. I love Chicago. It's big and exciting and full of things to do and see. It's busy like New York but different, tinted by it's Midwestern location and lakeside feel. The beautiful Lake Michigan that looks like the ocean is so lovely and calming. We stayed at The Drake and before dinner we had drinks at the top of the Hancock Building. Our table was near the window with an exquisite view of the lake and the city and all the lights. The sky was crystal clear and I can only imagine what the full moon added to the view the week before.

I usually see wedding parties while I'm in Chicago. This weekend I spotted the sweetest young bride and all of her sage silk-clad attendants with her handsome groom and groomsmen standing in the median of Michigan Avenue having their wedding photos taken. What a treat to see, a gift. My friend and I ate a wonderful lunch at Bistro 110 on Pearson just across from the historic Water Tower. After lunch I hit Saks, picked out some Kiehl's lotion and found out the "Friends and family sale" was going on. Yay!

Then I popped into the Ralph Lauren Michigan Avenue store to see my friends Laura and Tommy Whittaker's table that they built for Ralph and friends. There it was on the 4th floor in the home section. You can see that it was set beautifully but they should have let Laura work her magic on it. She's a better designer than probably anyone at R. Lauren and I am not exaggerating here. If you want to check out the Whittaker's work go to http://www.manymoonsdesign.com . They were also commissioned to build tables for the Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Dallas Ralph Lauren stores.
Then we went to Gibson's to tuck in to a perfectly cooked steak and a bottle of good wine.

The next day we went for a boat ride and soaked up the warm sunshine and beautiful fall foliage. Ah what a delicious weekend. I am so thankful for my time in Chicago.

Rosemary Beach

2008-10-19T23:09:00.003-04:00

Rosemary Beach, FL beckoned and I answered. What a lovely short week I had there last week. The weather was that perfect fall beach weather, warm enough to beach it during the day and cool enough for a sweater at night. I went with friends , some new and some old and we all got along great. Everybody ran with the same set of beach behavior rules which are" the rules are- there are no rules". I walked in the ocean and ate the best quesadillas at my home away from home and seafood at Nick's and I laughed until I cried and cried until I laughed. To round out our group we even had a sweet little snuggly dog with us . It was wonderful, one of those vacations that is so relaxing and unpressured that it seemed that time slowed down in a good way, giving me time to relax and unwind. Try Rosemary Beach sometime. Oh and my new Rosemary Beach friends will get a photo calendar with photos of our trip. They may even get a desk caddy with their names on them from www.rosestreet.com . Oh I just saw the Rosemary Beach, Rose Street connection. There are no coincidences.
Remember - "You become what you think about", Earl Nightingale. Roses to you!

Patti and her Angel

2008-10-08T11:57:00.000-04:00

My friend and neighbor, artist Patti Edmonds has a wonderful site that you should all visit.
http://pattiedmon.blogspot.com/

On her site Patti has a darling little angel that I know a great story about. The story goes like this- Once upon a time a little angel lived on a neighbors front porch. As I walked my dog each evening I saw that angel and it reminded me of the angel living by in my back yard. My angel was blowing a kiss and the two just seemed to go together. So much so that I decided I needed to give my angel to the neighbor. Now I didn't know the people who lived there and I felt a little odd about asking them if they wanted another angel so I decided to take my angel under the cover of night to their front porch. Late one warm summer night my daughter Allie, my niece Anne and I took our dog SiSi out for a walk. We were carrying a large object wrapped in a plastic bag. When we strolled past the neighbor angels house I quickly placed the unwrapped angel on the neighbors front porch and holding in our laughter we made our way home.

Well the little angel stayed on my neighbors front porch with her new friend and each day I saw her. One day the neighbor was in the front lawn watering his grass and I commented on how cute the angels were. He said,"Well thanks, one of them just showed up on our porch a few weeks ago." "Is that so?" I asked. He never knew that it was me who delivered the angel to him.

Then Patti read my blog at www.rosestreet.com and commented and left her address and when I visited it I saw our little angel. Now I need to ask her about how she came to have photos of the traveling angel on her blog.

Late summer

2008-09-20T08:46:00.000-04:00

Late summer. The Chinese recognize 5 seasons, or so I was told by my acupuncturist. The Chinese felt that late summer was a distinct enough time of year to have it's own name or label. Now I look at this time of year in different way, instead of mourning the passing of summer and mentally moving forward to winter and the holidays I see late summer as it's own wonderful beauty.

The air has a different feel, nature has a little hum, the squirrels are busy, the crickets are loud, the leaves are beginning to rattle a little and the tomatoes are plentiful still. Football and tailgating are upon us and I can hear UK's marching band practicing from my front porch. The weather is warm mostly but cool at nights. The full moon rose over the football game last week and was a spectacular gift to those of us lucky enough to have seats in the Southwest end of the stadium.
Not only that, but we won our game. Go Cats!

But one of the best things about late summer are the pumpkins. Pumpkins are beautiful and delicious and I am lucky enough to have ONE BIG-ish PUMPKIN growing in my back yard. It is a volunteer which is one of the benefits of not indulging in a lot of weeding. Manicured landscaping is a joy to behold but you wouldn't believe the plants that appear in my garden beds. I see this stuff and can't bear to dispatch it until I know what it is. There are plants like milkweed and wild mustard that I dig up with a vengeance but the teensy, delicious Hawaiian grape tomatoes, Plume Poppies with their outstanding foliage, a few of the exotic morning glories, and a daisy baby's breath are welcome. At least for now, we'll see how they behave.

Daffodils Fine Stationery & Gifts

2008-08-16T21:28:00.001-04:00

Daffodils Fine Stationery and Gifts is my little stationery and gift shop that serves as a showroom for Rose Street Design. I have the best customers in the world. A worried customer called me at the other day with a question . What to do when you've just sent 300 wedding invitations and the venue has changed? Well you must send a notice to each invited guest informing that the location has changed and that you hope to see them at the wedding.

I thought about advising her to send it only to the people who had responded that they would be attending, but then there are those who change their mind and decide to come to the wedding after all. Maybe that would be a good way to narrow the list, just switch the location and don't tell some of the guests.

Just kidding of course. It turned out the wedding had gotten larger than they had anticipated and the wedding was originally to be held in a friend's historic and beautiful home. As the wedding grew in size there was some concern that it was out-growing the house. As luck would have it a church was available 3 weeks before the wedding. So the notices were sent and all was well.

Thinks like that can happen at any time and can always be dealt with. Not to worry.

Summer Berrys

2008-08-14T22:24:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I had the pleasure of going out in the to the loveliest cabin with the best company a person could ever expect have. The cabin is owned by a friend whose mother is an interior decorator but in my opinion she is an artist in the truest sense of the word. This log cabin is decorated with beautiful Kentucky antiques mixed with mid century modern furniture and the effect if outstanding. True genius. I took a few photos and as I looked through the lense I realized what an amazing eye she had for composition. Each photo was perfectly composed no matter where I aimed my camera. Not only that but the feeling in the house was relaxed and comfortable and spacious.

We had a magical weekend, stayed up until 2:00 am looking at the stars, looking for and seeing shooting stars which is still such a thrill. I could even see the Milky Way. I live in a downtown neighborhood, which I love, but there is too much light pollution to see many stars at all.

It is an inspiring house and my new and old friends are wonderful.

High Holy Week The early days-2

2008-07-28T15:57:00.000-04:00

More on the girl friends trip to the beach. After one of our trips I decided to put together a calendar and add photos of all of us to each month and send it out as a Christmas gift. I had lots of help editing photos of all of us. The ones who didn't make it that year ended up looking like Sumo wrestlers while the rest of us looked like bathing suit models from Sports Illustrated. It has become a tradition and is a fun way to use my photo calendars, something anyone can do.

The tiara for the QUEEN is another tradition that Paula started in Hilton Head. I missed that trip but evidently Ruthie sacrificed beach time to fetch drinks from the house and won the crown. Kind of like Queen Elizabeth don't you know. Now we all vie for the title with things like gifts for each other, mugs with beach photos, hats, and so on. The best/worst was Debbie photo of herself for each of us. She was a little puzzled when she didn't win the crown with that effort.

High Holy Week The early days-I

2008-07-28T00:00:00.000-04:00

Each summer I go to a beach for a week with my college girlfriends . We have been making this wonderful, relaxing life affirming trek since all but one of us had 3 year olds. Those toddlers are now all grown up. It has become one of the most important things that I do for myself and most of us feel that way.

All of us aren't always able to make the trip, the group is eight friends strong and the fewest who ever went was two. There are usually 6 or 7 of us. Only one has been every trip and that is Linda who instigated (thankfully) this whole thing in the house we shared on Kentucky Street in Bowling Green, KY where we were all graduating from Western KY U.

"Well we will all be leaving and we will lose touch with each other." she said one day. "NO WAY, that won't happen" I remember several of us insisted. "Sure we will", Linda argued. "That's what happens". We made a pact then and there to make an effort to get together at least once a year.

At first we saw each other at our weddings and then to see new babies and then when the oldest of the children were 3 we began going to the beach. We have been to Topsail, NC, Edisto, SC, Santa Rosa, Fl, St. Augustine, FL, St. George, FL, Sullivans Island, SC, Kiawah, SC and back again.

We love the beach, playing lots of cards- Spades, swimming, watching the wildlife, walking, talking, playing tennis, eating, drinking and catching up.
We are all Kentucky women but now come in from Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago and Kentucky. One of the best parts of the trip is the ride to the beach in the car. We usually have a large vehicle that we can all ride in. It's like magic when 8 women, beach chairs, luggage and the tiara all fit into an SUV. We need to video tape packing and put it on Youtube.

We all talk all the way and it gets pretty funny, with zingers flying. I will tell the story of the pageant contest for the Tiara and the calendar in the next post or so.
Peace, love and rock and roll.
Alice

2008-07-20T22:03:00.000-04:00

Last night I went, along with some of my Garden Club friends to the fund raiser for the Woodford County Humane Society. It was held on a beautiful Central Kentucky horse farm in some of the barns. These barns are not like any barns most people have ever seen. The stalls are lined with beautiful mahogany paneling and ceramic tiles and they each have a ceilings fan. The stone walkway to the barns is lined with fountains and there are fountains in the 10 acre lake which the barns overlook.

Local decorators completely transform the stalls into dining areas, each with a different theme, from Nautical to Bollywood. Jon Carloftis the talented rooftop gardener and author filled his stall with plants and beautiful furniture. Dinner was served, items were auctioned and money was raised to care for our sweet and wonderful animals.

I donated, through my little stationery store Daffodils Fine Stationery and Gifts, a basket of Rose Street Design dog and horse notecards and stationery for the silent auction and I am very pleased to say that it brought 250.00.

The link for the Woodford Humane Society is

http://www.woodfordhumanesociety.org/default.htm

As you can see the - full moon helped us as we dismantled the beautiful table that our Garden Club president Linda Roach single handedly decorated.
It was a beautiful evening and a fun evening and when we left a big fat golden moon was rising

2008-06-25T17:20:00.000-04:00

Hi All,
This is my first post on my first blog and I am ready to write. I designed the original Rose Street Design photo calendar 13 years ago and I have done the artwork for each year's calendar since.

My customers are so sweet and complimentary. I get calls and emails each year telling me that they -
- "love the calendar", and

- "the only thing my husband wants each year is your calendar. He hangs it in his office" (I would love to see his office) and

- "I have done 2 of your calendars each year since 1995, one for each of my boys so they will have a record of their lives".

One of my favorite comments that I get several of each year is
- " Uh oh. I decided to give my mother/mother-in-law something different this year and it did not go over well, I need to order calendars, do you have any left?" (of course we do)

These are the type comments that keep me going. After years of doing calendars it is still so wonderful to know that my little (well it is really kind of on the big side) calendar is appreciated.

I love feedback and welcome suggestions although I can't always act on them. So goodbye for now.
Alice Underwood