Memorial Day - Help from TAPS

TAPS saves lives.

If you know anyone who needs practical help & emotional support due to the loss of a family member or a friend (they do not have to be a relative) who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, please go to Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS). TAPS has a 24-hour hotline: 1-800-959-TAPS (8277). Do not hesitate to call on someone's behalf if they are unable to take the first step.

Among other worthy programs, TAPS runs good grief camps for children. We urge you to write down the TAPS main number in case you should come across someone in your daily travels who needs help--you just never know. TAPS has an extensive website, an on-line community which is very helpful & welcoming, & we encourage anyone who might feel isolated to join it.

TAPS also has volunteer opportunities; this might be the place where you find you'd like to help make a difference.

ciao-meow/GG Central

[Two of GG Central's favorite photographs: Soldier's Good-bye & Bobbie The Cat, c. 1939-1945, by Sam Hood, NSW State Library Archives, Australia]

Postal Break

GG Central is on break for a few more days. Meanwhile, you can send a note to bricolage (GG's editor's site). Wouldn't you love to have a mail box like one of these? Especially in such a herd? [by talented Olga, via Benevolent Postcard Society]

ciao-meow

PS: Don't forget to visit Darfur Peace & Development Organization. Thanks so much.

Sunday Update/23 May 2010: GG will be on break until Memorial Day (31 May 2010). Please do visit our friends & colleagues on this page. ciao!

Gigi & GG - Week's End

GG celebrated her blog-birthday by watching Gigi for the first time. As she falls asleep during most films, her editor does not know if she liked it (or not). But her ears moved up & down, front & back quite a lot as "Gigi!" is pronounced (& sung) more than any other word(s), except perhaps "Paris" or "I'm bored!" These are especially charming images from the film (& one drawing of pretty Leslie Caron as Gigi - by Cecil Beaton). As ever, GG would love a hat & is still agitating for one that will accommodate her ear-tips.

ciao-meow during an especially busy week...The Management

Giulia Geranium Turns Two!

Giulia seems unaware of this turning point because her to-do list consists of two items: causing trouble, being cute. However, her editor must search for photographs, beg for money for various causes, & generally make a pest of herself. Caught up short (again) this year, we turn to Hazel at The Clever Pup who created this marvellous multi-media geranium for GG's last birthday. We love it & are happy to show it today.

By the by, The Clever Pup has a terrific etsy shop, The Plum Plum (points if you can guess the name's provenance) with accompanying blog, here. We've purchased several things & are very pleased with them. Go for it--lovely work, excellent prices, made by an non-enslaved worker. What's not to like? (Really, if you think of a good reason, contact GG's editor on her blog.)

A donation to Darfur Peace & Development's Women's Center (the new baskets have arrived!) on behalf of Giulia's birthday would also be a fabulous tribute to the Royal Redhead.

ciao-mille-grazie-meow/GG Central

[image by Hazel Smith/all rights reserved/used with permission]

Alice in the Daisies

We've no idea if this is Alice in Wonderland but she is to us. Hope Monday is not too-blue. [image via we heart it]

Muguet in May

GG & her editor wish everyone a belated Happy May Day. One of our very favorite flowers is the lily-of-the-valley. If we must, if you insist, if we are tied to a railroad track as in the silent pictures & forced to choose our favorite, well then...it would be muguet. Here is a charming post from French-Word-A-Day 2006 May Day about the significance of muguet (& you can learn a song, too!). Shortly before GG's editor was born, her mum's friend was a bridesmaid for a very beautiful princess. The poetry-loving princess carried a bouquet of muguet & maybe that is why we love it so much.

ciao-flowery-meow/GGCM

[photograph via here via we heart it; botanical illustration, here; & another lovely Walter Crane illustration from Flora's Feast, A Masque of Flowers via the LIFE Archives]