Chrysanthemums and Kaleidoscopes

Something nice happened to me last week that I want to share.  I was waiting in line to pay for my groceries at Trader Joe's and a man with two large potted chrysanthemums came up to the line and asked if he could go ahead of me to pay for them.  I said sure, go ahead and then had a chance to take a good look at the flowers.

One of the pots had an unusual striped petal mum and I asked where he found the pots of flowers.  He said they were on a rack outside and he just noticed them when he was on the way out with his groceries.  I asked the cashier if it would be OK for me to run out and get a pot of the striped mums and the man said he thought that this was the last pot of that type, so I said, never mind...

There was some problem with the register and making change and it ended up taking quite a while but I didn't really mind since I wasn't in a hurry to be anywhere.  When they finally had the money sorted out, the man said, let me pay you for one more and I'll pick it up on my way out.  Then he turned to me and handed me the pot with the striped flowers and said, "this is for you."  I was so surprised - I hadn't been upset at all by waiting and I tried to give him the money for the flowers but he said, "no, I want you to have them!"

It was just a random encounter on a rather normal day but it sure made me feel happy - probably because the gift was so unexpected and kind.   I have had this lovely pot of flowers in my kitchen and I am really enjoying them because they are very pretty and because they remind me that there are a lot of just plain nice people in the world! 

I know I said I'd share some more about snowflakes today but I was looking through my photos and started playing around with a couple of photos of the mums.  I took the image into my Creative Memories StoryBook Creator software.  NOTE - Creative Memories is no longer in business and this software is now sold by the developer Panstoria as Artisan 4 and available HERE (affiliate link).  I made some pages that I'll turn into background paper.  I find it very relaxing to manipulate images and create new designs - for cutting or for printing.  I wish I could use the Imagine to print out things that I design at 12 x 12...maybe someday this will be possible.

I started with this square image and here are a few of the variations I came up with...

The kaleidoscope effect is created by copying and pasting the same image and flipping it either horizontally or vertically to create a symmetrical pattern.  The variations are limitless when you start to add special effects and create tiles of patterns.

Now I am on the lookout for a situation where I can do something unexpected for a stranger and maybe make their day a little happier.  I hope something nice happens to each of you - just when you least expect it.  If everyone did one nice thing for a stranger each week it would make an amazing difference in the world.

I have started on a really big project and may be a bit preoccupied over the next few weeks - it is a busy time but I am hoping to finish by the end of the month. I can't tell you about it yet - but I will tell you that I most definitely am not coming out with my own line of high quality photopolymer stamps!

Subscribe to Capadia Designs