Favorite Things: Calendar Updated and Improved to Accommodate National Margarita Day!

If you notice today’s date, February 22nd, on the Popular Mechanics calendar and compare it with the suggestion in the Parade Magazine, you might be like me and decide to make a substitution and celebrate National Margarita Day instead of changing your furnace filter. (I suppose I could do both!)

I was going to try one of the Margaritas on the Parade.com site but decided to stick with  the best Margarita recipe I have ever had.  It is from Martha Stewart’s Menus for Entertaining, and it is still delicious after all these years!

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Happy Margarita Day!

Destination Inspiration: Corning Museum of Glass

I’m not sure but I think I may be a genius.

(Well, that may be an overstatement but for a moment I allowed myself to think that. It may just be that I am topical! )

Let me explain.

We went to the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York this past weekend, and I experienced a moment when I was wonderstruck, astonished and, yes, reverential.

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Contemporary Art + Design Wing Entrance

 

My pictures couldn’t fully convey the experience. When I  turned the corner to enter the Contemporary Art +Design Wing,  it took my breath away. As Kristy Wenz described, “with its stark white walls and abundance of natural light, the glass art stuns and radiates.”

I was stunned. (Well said, Ms. Wenz.)

When I came home from our trip, this was waiting for me.

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And that’s when I wondered if I might just be a genius, because  I haven’t stopped telling people, including total strangers on our trip, to go to this museum and see it for themselves. Turns out, I wasn’t just giving them travel advice, I was enriching their lives. Go figure!

My visit reinforced how sometimes small things bring about grand feelings. The miracle of people throughout history taking liquid sand and using it to create beautiful, purposeful objects was inspiring and heartwarming.  Taking the time and effort to beautify everyday objects elevates us all.

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Ancient glasswork

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As I wandered through the exhibits, I wanted to go out and make things. I loved the patterns, colors, and the care that went into the pieces and the museum itself.

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Of course, I found a bench!

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Glass blowing

I plan to respond to the call and continue to be awed!