And she'd be right.  My only excuse is that there aren't more hours in a day.   Since I also work out there in the "real world", I'm finding it a real challenge to keep up with three websites (there's the Etsy shop, which must be my main focus at this point in the venture, the Facebook page, where I highlight some of the items in the shop, and this site, which is a little bit of everything.  So I'll beg your forbearance as Tattooed Sister's grows.   But do browse, because I'm updating today!

Of the Blues Fest and Tattooed Sister's 'debut' on the Fest scene, Sylvia would have said "that was fun!!"

Mom always told us "I'll be sitting on your shoulder."  And indeed she was - right there among the stars.   Our Sylvia's presence was felt throughout the weekend, and her approval and pleasure were evident.  

Sylvia would grow just about anything.   If she saw a broken off piece of plant while out shopping, she picked it up, put it in her purse or pocket, brought it home and stuck it in water till it got roots.  Then voila!  Another houseplant... like she needed another. If it had a seed pod, she'd pinch it off and try to grow it from seed. We always said Mom could plant a nickel and grow a money tree. Sister is still trying...no luck with the nickel but she did successfully grow a peach tree from a seed, and insists she shall eat peaches from it one day.  

Sylvia always had a suggestion for quick and easy ways to take care of all the myriad little things around the home.  "All you have to do is... " and truly, it would be a quick and easy idea - if you didn't already need more hours in the day.  "A little silver polish would clean that right up."  Generally it would be something that had fallen way to the bottom of my priority list, but should I ever have time to tackle that particular thing, it'd be the first thing I'd try. But now and then there'd be a real 'no-brainer', like using knee high stockings to catch the washer lint (cut in half that way you'd get four out of a pair) instead of spending more money on other things that do the same thing but don't last as long.   

Mom had a creative streak and could wallpaper a bathroom with contact paper in an afternoon and you'd never guess it was contact paper. She could make a Barbie raincoat out of a shower cap (it survives still) or use a pill cup and a tiny perfume bottle to make lamp for a dollhouse.  One year we gave her one for a gift, and she created a peg-and-groove hardwood floor in it with a ruler, a small nail head and hammer and a tin of shoe polish and a rag.  Someday when Sister has a shop with walls and a door that dollhouse will be on display, along with the tiny things she made to go inside it.   Of that, Sylvia would smile and say "Let's play!"

Sylvia would pull weeds in a garden that wasn't hers.  And so does Sister, without shame or remorse.  Never mind that there are more than ten gardens at her own little house that provide more weeds than she can possibly keep up with.  When Sister is out and about and comes upon a nice flower bed, if there's a big honkin' weed right there she's gonna pull it. Just like that. She just returned from that trip to Colorado, where her hostess's beautiful garden had a rose bush that had a whole mess of dead limbs that needed to be pruned. The hostess was away, and Sister took the liberty (and the pleasure) of going in and cutting all the dead stuff out, leaving the bed looking that much prettier.  She figured her hostess wouldn't mind.  That's the expectation, anyway. 

Big item on Sister's bucket list: Be the Phantom Planter.  You know how you go past a house and there's nothing planted near it and you think, "geez, plant something, will you?"  It's just so naked looking and the lack of landscaping makes a house look unloved (in Sister's rarely humble opinion).   The temptation to go in there when they're not home and prettify it and leave, totally anonymously, is so delicious.    Someday.... well, a girl can dream, can't she? 

So yeah, Sister didn't get a chance to update in time for WWS... Wednesday.  Having juggled a record number of plates over the past week she just couldn't make it happen. (For those of you too young to remember the Ed Sullivan Show, there used to be a guy who balanced spinning plates on sticks of various lengths.  It was pretty amazing.)  

Sylvia would say "It's not critical.  You can't do everything in a day.  Don't waste time worrying about it.  Tomorrow's another day. You need to relax a little."  

She's right.  If no one is bleeding and the house isn't on fire, chances are it's 'small stuff'.  There's not a day that goes by when I don't hear something that reminds me how small any of my own 'problems' are by comparison to those of so many others... or how minor the things we worry about really are.  

If a thing that isn't a matter of life or death doesn't happen exactly on schedule or as planned, well, it doesn't.  One needs to have some degree of flexibility and the capacity to "go with the flow" or one will be consistently full of angst.   Life's too short for that. Focus on the important stuff - family, friends, having the basics in life and being content with whatever extra you get beyond that.   Give more than you take.  That's what Sylvia would tell you, anyway.  Sister is just the messenger. 

One of the "big ones" for Sylvia, the one we all learned pretty quick(ly), was the correct usage of "I" versus "me".   And despite the fact that we all learned it well, there are the occasional times when we all get it wrong.  We only get it wrong for a second though, because lo these many years later we still hear Mom's voice in our ear saying "It's Cathy and I, dear." or, if you'd said "Cathy and I..." chances are she would say "It's Cathy and me, dear."  You know how that goes.  

This week Sylvia reminds us that in figuring out whether to use "I" or "me", you drop out the other person and then say the sentence about only yourself.  Here's an example

        Incorrect: "Cathy and me are going to the store."

        How do you know that?  Drop Cathy out of the sentence.           Now, you wouldn't say "Me am going to the store.", right?           You'd say "I am going to the store." So,

        Correct: "Cathy and I are going to the store."

        Easy, right?  You've got this!

Below are some funny grammar tips.  Laugh a little!  And remember, spelling and grammar aren't everyone's strong point, so don't sweat the small stuff.  (P.S. most of the stuff we sweat in life is small stuff.)  But Sylvia would tell you that knowing at least the basics of proper use of our English language does still matter, and in the case of Grandma above, really can serve you well or completely screw up your intended meaning.   Grammar questions?  We'll do our best.  Ask Sylvia.  

You'll probably find that many of Mom's points of view and sometimes snarky responses have been passed along to Sister.  In fact, it's true what they say: before you know it, you've grown up and turned into your mother.   Sister is cool with being a little chunk of Sylvia here on earth although she frequently doesn't quite pull it off in as ladylike a fashion as Sylvia.  Still, there is that spunky, outgoing and sometimes fierce streak that keeps Mom's presence alive.  All of Sylvia's kids hear her commentary, albeit in-their-ear, on a regular basis.

Today we ask What Would Sylvia Do?

Sylvia would help a stranger whenever she felt it was the right thing to do (and she felt that was the right thing to do just about all of the time).  One day we were having our usual evening chat - she was 92 or so at the time and still living in her own apartment and driving short distances.   Anyway, she happened to mention that on her way home from the grocery store she stopped and offered a ride to a man with a cane or crutch who was schlepping up the hill with his groceries in the rain.  After giving her the same lecture she’d have given me about picking up strangers in these times, I smiled indulgently – It was, admittedly, a good sized hill, and glowed inside.  Integrity – just plain “doing the right” thing, was what it was all about with Sylvia (and with Dad as well).   I don’t remember her specifically telling us things like that – she modeled them.  And yeah, she could be the Mistress of Snark sometimes (a moniker I suspect I have inherited).  But that’s a story for another day. 

Sylvia never let a person leave her house hungry or thirsty.  They may have been that way when they got there but the never left that way if she had anything to say about it.  If a repair or delivery person or anyone working in her house, she always offered them something cold or hot to drink, and if it was anywhere near the noon hour she always offered to make some lunch.  Nothing fancy, just whatever she had around to make – a sandwich, a bowl of soup, one of her always-on-hand-homemade cookies or cake. I have since learned that many people don't do this - maybe not even most people, but Sylvia always did. Tru dat!

One more "WWSD" for the day and then Sister must "go make the donuts" – hey, four dogs eat a lot of donuts.   So, you're in a crowd and there is a person there who likely feels uncomfortable because of some obvious, or not-so-obvious reason.  WWSD?  Sylvia would go up to that person and say hello, and treat them as if there were no apparent difference between them and everyone else in the room.  She would introduce herself and ask their name and take the conversation from there.  She would make them feel a part of things.  (And then she would feed them.)