Denny Lyon Gifts: New Design: Too Happy Octopus

Too Happy Octopus Shower Curtain

Check out this happy octopus, a sci-fy thinker!

Denny Lyon Gifts: New Design: Too Happy Octopus:  From Denny:  It's summer and time to hit the beach!  Maybe if you are lucky enough to live in a place like Florida where the beach is year round, maybe not.  You can always bring the beach and the denizens of the ocean indoors with this fun design. 

This octopus is a real scify thinker and a happy guy sure to make you smile.  The design is on all manner of products at Cafe Press/DennyLyonGifts, from handbags and totes to t-shirts and bedding, posters too.  Take a look and enjoy browsing my Denny Lyon Gifts site.  All my profits go to two charities I really love:  St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank here in Louisiana (where they feed almost half of the state!)

Thanks for stopping by for a look and please be sure to pass the word on to your friends and relatives to help fund these charities!  Thank you!

Denny Lyon Gifts: New Design: Too Happy Octopus:  for more fun posts giving a shout out to newest designs!

Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  -  see what's new!  

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Visit Denny Lyon Gifts  @ CafePress.com  -  see what's new!  

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Poem: Hunting Our Home - with wonderful photos

*** The Paradox Dilemma: Whether we own our house or the house owns us! :)

From Denny: Lately, I've been watching too much HGTV House Hunters International that I think I'm beginning to "channel" it. :) Seriously though, it did get me thinking overview wise of humanity in general when it comes to building a home.

Then I went cruising through the Flickr database and had too much fun finding these awesome and unusual photos. Try plugging in a search over there for "houses" and you will pull up over 300,000 photos. After wading through over 2,000 photos these were the winners for you today.

The poem was sparked by the house hunting programs and then refined as I found some most curious house photos that revealed the owners' desires and intent for what they wanted to create in the world and for their lives. Then the poem was off and running! Enjoy the wonderful art photos.


Hunting Our Home





It’s our nature to make a home for ourselves
Dividing the inner space for comfort
Designing the outer armor for show
Cultivating a garden to complement and rest





We wonder about what the other guy has...
Where do they live?
How do they live?
Why did they choose what they did?






We travel the world exploring
Opening doors and entering novel rooms





Crowding into our heads fresh ways to see
Different places and distinctive faces


Look at all the extraordinary people
Their houses speak their owners’ intent





The wealthy build grand gleaming palaces
Strutting their status in society and imagined worth





The homes point the way desire travels





Sometimes wealth can seep corruption





And old houses reflect unintended decay





Perversion builds a home destroyed by atom bomb tests





Old status homes descend down to the haunted
Playgrounds for today’s Halloween children





Some remain abandoned for centuries obsolete





Others live abundantly well-loved in lush fields





Still others thrive most elegantly aloof





While some cling to live ruggedly remote





Others perform the dance of the cliffs most modern





While others melt grinning into their environment





A few joyfully proclaim themselves, unabashed
While others choose another intentional life





One chooses outward memorials to those now gone





While another chooses inward Hopi contemplation





Some chose to cultivate isolated serenity





Some visit simplicity in the warming sun





Some blend home with garden in delight






Some soar their intellect with imagination





We continue walking through this thing called Life





Always poking through the hedges to see more





Remembering our houses, our homes, our creations





Are truly, while growing and changing, are but fishers of men


Denny Lyon
Copyright 9 October 2009
All Rights Reserved


Thanks for visiting, everyone! Have a great weekend!

*** For more poems with great photos visit the companion page I built to my poetry blog where I have all kinds of links like to friends who write poetry and much more. Check out the links to my poetry under Dennys Poems and Libations Friday! segments and enjoy laughing at the funny quotes on the Cheeky Quote Day! segments too, it's called The Social Poets Fav Links, go here.

*** I built yet another companion page to The Social Poets blog to stash links to my favorite blogs and bloggers(and growing, if you have any suggested sites or blogs to add, please email me: Denny Lyon, warriorspearl@gmail.com). To visit The Social Poets Fav Bloggers, go here.

***

Photo Credits

Houses in Vlissingen (Holland) photo by Pingu1963 @ flickr

Rococo-style stone house in Guadalajara Mexico photo by Wonderlane @ flickr

Ornate green door photo by Señor Codo @ flickr

Inner room photo by wili_hybrid @ flickr

New Orleans French Quarter "Miltenberger House" house photo by David Paul Ohmer @ flickr

Dragon weather vane photo by James Jordan @ flickr

Twilight storm photo by James Jordan @ flickr

Rundown house photo by just_a_name_thingi e @ flickr

Atomic bomb test house (Nevada, USA) photo by itjournalist @ flickr

Haunted house on the hill photo by country_boy_shane @ flickr

Lonely Ireland house Photo by dingbat2005 @ flickr

Canola fields house photo by Paraflyer @ flickr

Yellow Brazil house Photo by tipiro @ flickr

Trail house photo by bwhistler @ flickr

Modern west coast cliff house photo by pnwra @ flickr

Stone house in Portugal photo by Jsome1 @ flickr

Striped house in Portugal photo by pedrosimoes @ flickr

The Cross House on Chesnut Street (Chicago, Illinois, USA) photo by Señor Codo @ flickr

Hopi house photo by Al_HikesAZ @ flickr

Little isolated house photo by Fr Antunes @ flickr

A house on the beach photo by fotografar @ flickr

Town House, Chinon Photo by *Susie* @ flickr

Little Red House on Pine Planet Photo by visulogik @ flickr

Live oaks walkway at Oak Alley Plantation photo by David Paul Ohmer @ flickr

Garden walk photo by oseillo @ flickr

White House photo by dcJohn @ flickr

Fisherman from Portugal photo by pedrosimoes @ flickr

Home: House Where Nobody Lives with Cool Poem

House Where Nobody Lives Photo by erix! @ flickr

From Denny: While researching for a recent poem I'm doing I ran across this photo and its wonderful poem. Enjoy!

From the photographer:

There's a house on my block
That's abandoned and cold
Folks moved out of it a
Long time ago
And they took all their things
And they never came back
Looks like it's haunted
With the windows all cracked
And everyone call it
The house, the house where
Nobody lives

Once it held laughter
Once it held dreams
Did they throw it away
Did they know what it means
Did someone's heart break
Or did someone do somebody wrong?

Well the paint was all cracked
It was peeled off of the wood
Papers were stacked on the porch
Where I stood
And the weeds had grown up
Just as high as the door
There were birds in the chimney
And an old chest of drawers
Looks like no one will ever
Come back to the
House were nobody lives

Once it held laughter
Once it held dreams
Did they throw it away
Did they know what it means
Did someone's heart break
Or did someone do someone wrong?
So if you find someone
Someone to have, someone to hold
Don't trade it for silver
Don't trade it for gold
I have all of life's treasures
And they are fine and they are good
They remind me that houses
Are just made of wood
What makes a house grand
Ain't the roof or the doors
If there's love in a house
It's a palace for sure
Without love...
It ain't nothin but a house
A house where nobody lives
Without love it ain't nothin
But a house, a house where
Nobody lives.


By Tom Waits
Mule Variations (1999)
House Where Nobody Lives

On the photographer's profile page of erix! who is a social worker:


Beauty may be hidden in shape
Truth may be hidden in words
Wisdom may be hidden in pictures
Love may be hidden in souls

Let us make things visible

Joke: Smart Dog Goes Meat Shopping

Smart Dog

A dog walks into a butcher shop with a purse strapped around his neck. He walks up to the meat case and calmly sits there until it's his turn to be helped. A man, who was already in the butcher shop, finished his purchase and noticed the dog. The butcher leaned over the counter and asked the dog what it wanted today. The dog put its paw on the glass case in front of the ground beef, and the butcher said, "How many pounds?"
The dog barked twice, so the butcher made a package of two pounds ground beef.

He then said, "Anything else?"

The dog pointed to the pork chops, and the butcher said, "How many?"

The dog barked four times, and the butcher made up a package of four pork chops.

The dog then walked around behind the counter, so the butcher could get at the purse. The butcher took out the appropriate amount of money and tied two packages of meat around the dog's neck. The man, who had been watching all of this, decided to follow the dog. It walked for several blocks and then walked up to a house and began to scratch at the door to be let in. As the owner opened the door, the man said to the owner, "That's a really smart dog you have there."

The owner said, "He's not really all that smart. This is the second time this week he forgot his key."


Ground beef, Dogbert, Pork chop, Butcher, Home, Food, Cooking, Meat, Pork, smart dog, jokes, dog, dog joke, Dogbert