Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit an interesting crafts store that had Christmas ornaments featuring flowers. That will tell you where I got the idea for today’s Friday Flower Fiesta.
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Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America
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Very pretty, Russel.
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Now to hang them all on the tree.
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One would have to get a tree, and with a cat in the house, I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon………..LOL
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Oh right! I’d forgotten about that. Tinsel is especially bad for cats.
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Do they even make tinsel anymore? I haven’t seen it anywhere in a couple of decades now. In fact, I think the year I couldn’t find tinsel is the year I quit having Christmas trees.
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I don’t even know!!We’ve been using our weeping fig tree as a Christmas tree for the last 25 years and even before that, I stopped using tinsel because of our two cats that we had back then. They eventually died of old age and not “tinsel gut.” But even after that, I found tinsel messy and always a worry with any pets in the house. If they don’t make it any more it would be okay with me!
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Tinsel is messy. That’s why I was one of those who threw the tinsel out with the tree and bought new tinsel each year.
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One of the things I miss about living on the west coast is spending afternoons wandering around shops and finding incredibly interesting objects of other’s imagination. I also miss the juried art shows. We don’t have them in this part of the country – the disposable income doesn’t exist among the working people. It’s a shame because there’s an appreciation of the arts.
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Do any “working people” have disposable income right now?
My new job is ensuring that purchases from Amazon Prime Now get to their buyers in whatever 2-hour window the buyer chooses, between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. I have yet to see an Amazon Prime Now address in a “working people” neighborhood. All upper class 1%. That’s where the disposable income is, with that 1%.
Money spent on things that one cannot afford, and usually doing it via credit card (sporting events come immediately to mind), is not disposable income.
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Working people or what I normally think of as the middle class disappeared with the recession and in spite of what the Prez would like for us to think, the middle class has not recovered. We didn’t have the stock portfolio to lose in the first place so their was nothing to gain and profit from. Many of us are on the upper end of the baby boomer generation and are now retired and living on a ‘planned or fixed income.’
We are Amazon Prime and see it as more of a necessity vs a luxury. We use no credit cards for anything. We use Prime for movies, music, etc. along with purchases. Because I hate to shop and Tom is no longer able to run errands I buy many household items on prime and don’t have to pay shipping and always compare prices and buy in bulk. I’m used to bulk buying after living abroad for so many years.
It’s interesting that our town of 56,000 has both the very welthy living here and they commute the 24 miles to Little Rock to work. We have no industry. They live here because there’s basically zero crime and we have excellent schools and without the gangs. That group has lots of disposable income. Then there’s the group we fall in. We live what some would consider a more than comfortable life style but we don’t have a lot of the extras we had even 5 years ago. And then, of course, we have a few single working parents but that population has unfortunately been shoved to the small rural towns where there aren’t any services and no activities for teenagers.
Amazon Prime Now is not available in our area but I can’t imagine what I would need that fast.
I did re-budget so that I could use Chef Shuttle more often instead of cooking at home. I was throwing out so much food, it simply didn’t make sense to cook. I normally have enough coupons to get free delivery of the food so all I have to do is tip the driver and pay for whatever we order!
I still miss living on the coast.
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I think the only middle class that has not recovered is in the red states………..
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I’m not sure. Having moved so many times with my career [62 in all] I hear from many friends and individuals who worked with me. Ages range from early 40s to early 70s and cover coast to coast. Earnings range from $50,000 – mid-six figures annually. I haven’t heard from any that have declared they are flying high. Most are maintaing due to having careers in high demand that never took a slump. We are okay because we are in an area where housing never took a slump and prices kept going up while they were crashing everywhere else.
I’m gravely concerned about the 50 something population who at the height of their corporate careers were dumped and have had the life beaten out of them due to the job situation.
Happy photo shooting and hope your holidays are great.
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I think there are exceptions in every category. However, statistics show that in blue areas in blue states (California has a lot of red areas, typically rural areas), the middle class has recovered. We certainly have here in California, any my friends and family in blue areas such as Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Baton Rouge, New Orleans report that their middle classes are doing well, too. Most of us have completely recovered from both the real estate bust and the Great Recession. On the other hand, some of my middle class friends go to dejected during the bust/recession that they retired or moved out of the country. One died of natural causes, and one committed suicide.
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Gorgeous! I love the pearl and the little purple flower. You done good, RR! Happy holidays. 🙂
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