Aretha Franklin – Curious as a Cathy https://curiousasacathy.com Enjoying life through music, doodles, & pix Tue, 11 Feb 2025 11:18:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 65600115 Fall Foliage Flashback https://curiousasacathy.com/fall-foliage-flashback/ https://curiousasacathy.com/fall-foliage-flashback/#comments Wed, 27 Oct 2021 10:00:00 +0000 https://curiousasacathy.com/?p=53047

In the above and below photos, I captured in 2014 while on a daycation along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The first photo is of Price Lake from a different angle than usual and in the below picture we were at the Heintooga campground just off the parkway near Cherokee.  I love how the clouds are setting between the mountains in the valley.  I remember the morning I snapped this picture it was particularly chilly. 

I don’t know what the mountains will look like as we go into our staycation.  The foliage forecasts says that the peak in our area is at the end of the month through early November.  In the past I’ve seen some pretty colors in November but I’m a bit skeptical that forecasters got it correct this year.  We’ll see but it doesn’t really matter.  I know we’ll have a nice time enjoying God’s country even if all the trees are naked. 

The original photo was taken late summer. I used Pixelmator edit my image with a fall vibe and then I used Brushstrokes to give it that painting-like effect

You’re invited to join Wild Wednesdays, the linky party where just about anything goes to self-promote your blog or favorite post.  No rules apply, other than keeping it family oriented.  Everyone is welcome to join! 



This linky list is now closed.
The flowers and pumpkin aren’t a flashback but present day. I added these for a fall welcome at our doorstep. Not exactly but close enough. They are actually sitting beside the steps leading up to the porch.

I’m semi-off radar in Blogosphere this week but for those who enjoy participating with others in the Wordless Wednesday community, please visit my bloggy pals SandeeNatasha,  Marie, & Wordless Wednesday!   Tomorrow, my TAD post is scheduled for those interested.  I’m in the midst of preparing for our staycation and I’m limiting my involvement in Blogosphere.  I shall leave you with today’s WSC song picks.  Have a wild and wonderful day! X💋X💋, Cathy

WSC playlist 1. Bad Bad Leroy Brown, ~Jim Croce 2. Disco Duck ~Rick Dees 3. Freeway of Love (In a Pink Cadillac) ~Aretha Franklin
This week’s themes are song titles that mention a boy’s name, an animal, and your favorite color. Special thanks to our hostess, Mary at JingleJangleJungle. This is the last WSC for 2021.




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The Little Mermaid Art Sketches, Hodgepodge, and WSC https://curiousasacathy.com/the-little-mermaid-art-sketches-hodgepodge-and-wsc/ https://curiousasacathy.com/the-little-mermaid-art-sketches-hodgepodge-and-wsc/#comments Wed, 29 Sep 2021 10:00:00 +0000 https://curiousasacathy.com/?p=52250 Howdy-hi, folks!  It’s mid-week again and it’s the last Wednesday in the month.  The days disappear quickly on a person so fast in fact that’s it’s taken more than two years to bring my Little Mermaid Art Sketch illustrations to life in living color.  I’m nearly through the alphabet.  Today, I’m sharing the letters U and V, both ironically are of the same character which I purposely did because it felt like it was the right thing to do when I planned my illustrations in 2019. 🙂

Ursula (original pencil sketch) the sea witch re-illustrated using my Procreate drawing app.
Another Procreate redesign of the sea witch in disguise as Vanessa (original pencil sketch). You may notice a few facial corrections on both faces. That’s the beauty of digital art in that I can redo a portion of my work to make it better.

Last week, I ask y’all how you felt about the linky party.  Only two people responded.   The second person who asked got me to thinking. Yeah, that’s a dangerous thing for me to do, but I wondered if you know that my mid-week link up is open to anyone who either wants more blog traffic or to share just to be sharing.  There’s not commitment here and you don’t even have to visit anyone you don’t want to.  This is just a list of people, announcing today’s post or an older one they would like others to see.  That all being said, you’re invited to add your link below.  😉 



This linky list is now closed.

After this week, I’m undecided if I’ll keep the linky party going.   Participation is super low.  Remembering to create and add it to my weekly post does take energy to keep up.  I don’t want you to feel any pressure, I just want to know how to use my time the best.  Do you like the linky or do you prefer to leave a direct link in comments for others? 

I’m linking with these Wordless Wednesday Communities… Sandee, NatashaMarie, & Wordless Wednesday!

Visit Joyce to join this week’s Q&A

This week Joyce isn’t cranking out her usual hodgepodge questions because she has other things to do like entertain some little punkins.  I don’t blame her as I’d be happy doing the same thing.  However, I won’t let this stop me from answering an old set of hodgepodge questions.  Hey I was out all summer so I have plenty of resources from which to borrow at times like this. 

I did a little poking around in Joyce’s archives lifting this set used for the weekly date on September 23, 2020 in which I didn’t participate.  I have a whole lot of catching up to do!

1. It’s fall y’all. What’s something you love about this season and also something you don’t?   The thing I love the most about fall is the color changes.  The cooler weather is a nice perk but what I don’t like is when I soon realize that fall is giving way to winter.  I don’t like the bone cold temperatures.

2. When you think of the colors of fall, which one is your favorite? Is there somewhere you could easily day trip to see the leaves in all their glory? Will you?  I don’t really have a favorite fall color.  They all seem to work beautifully together but if I had to pick then I think I tend admire sunburst orange leaves.  To see the fall foliage, we are an easy drive from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and western North Carolina section of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We frequently take daycations on DH’s off-Fridays to the mountains.  Our chances are favorable that we’ll find our way to one or both locations within the coming weeks to enjoy autumn’s splendor.
 
3. What’s one thing you’ve let ‘fall’ to the wayside during this season of staying home and staying away? Exercise.  Partly because my routine was broken but mostly due to back issues that have gone from bad to worse. Hopefully, this condition is closer to being diagnosed so I’ll know what to do to fix it.

4. If you’re wearing a sweater is it most likely a cardigan, crew neck, v-neck, or zip up hoodie? At the moment, I’m not wearing long sleeves.  The temperatures this morning (Tuesday) was 60º and it’s expected to continue this pattern the rest of the week.  Next week’s forecast is calling for slightly cooler temps to return.  We’re really a long way off from needing to wear heavy clothing regularly.

5. What’s your secret to dealing with change? Change that is out of my hands/control, I know the only to keep my head above the emotions of it all is to turn it over to God allowing Him to bring peace to my mind.  Sometimes, I recognize this immediately and find calm quickly while other times it takes me a bit before I see that I can’t change what God has under control.

6.  Insert your own random thought here.  Today’s randomness involves a memory.  I find as the years go by pieces of the past slip through my mind like old photographs and I wonder… Is that all my life is meant to be? Will anyone ever know that I was here?  Don’t my kids want to know anything about when I was little?  Doing the same things over each day, I come to feel like I walk in the shadows of others or myself from another time.  It’s frightening to think that maybe the memories I have might one day be replaced with voidness and confusion.  I guess we all share those concerns to an extent, a fear each of us can relate to.  Here’s a peek into my past.
 

Monday, one of my 4M dance partners, Alana, shared Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made For Walkin'”.  It’s funny I put up the same song and it’s possible my memory was jogged when I created the post but I didn’t think to include it in my post.   Anyway, Alana’s music pick brought to mind a long ago memory.  Do you feel like your childhood is made up of snapshots?  That’s how I perceive it.  I can’t recall everything about the moments or why some cling more prominently than others but that’s the way my memories are stored.  Anyhow, back to the song that caused me to reminisce.  Thankfully, I have actually have a photograph of that memory.  Who knows, maybe this is why I think of my childhood as snapshots because that’s where most of my memory jogging comes from.   

Here’s the picture.  I’m the little blonde haired girl wearing the white boots.  The only people I know are my cousin, Beverly to my right.  Next to her stands a handsome elderly man with a little boy.  That’s my maternal great grandpa, Sam Payne, and my cousin Sean.  The things I remember about this scene is, we’re on the river bank at a baptism.  Obviously the weather was chilly because we’re all wearing coats and the trees are all naked which makes me think it’s late fall.  The most important thing about the memory from this picture is I’m wearing my brand new go-go boots.  Well, that’s what I thought they were but it seems every time I wore those little white boots I thought of or hummed or sung out loud, “These Boots Are Made For Walkin'” whether I actually did I can’t say with complete certainty but I can tell you this much, every time I look at this picture Nancy Sinatra’s song is first thing that comes to mind and I really loved those boots! They made me feel special.  

When I scanned the photo, I cropped too tightly cutting off the processing date stamp but I suspect judging by my size, I was probably about three years old which means this was taken in 1964. I’m older than Beverly by several months yet she’s taller than me. I was a little one.

There you have it a tiny flash back to my childhood.  It’s not a particularly special moment but to have kept it all this time then it had to be special to me.  Perhaps I’ll get motivated to pull such memories under one collective body as in a book form to pass to my children and grand daughter.  One day, their curiosity might peek and whether I’m around or not they at least will have something tangible so that they can glimpse into my past.

Thanks for including me in your day.  I will end things with on musical note with my WSC picks.  I’ll return tomorrow for TAD with Rain with more artwork and I hope you’ll join me.  That’s it for now.   Have a wild and wonderful day! X💋X💋, Cathy

This week’s prompts are: A Song with Please in the Title, A Protest Song, & A Song with Fall in the Title. Visit Mary at JingleJangleJungle to join the WSC party!
WSC 9/29/21 playlist 1. Please Come to Boston ~Dave Loggins 2. Respect ~Aretha Franklin 3. Why Do Fools Fall In Love ~Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers




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10 Rock n’ Roll songs from the 60s https://curiousasacathy.com/10-rock-n-roll-songs-from-the-60s/ https://curiousasacathy.com/10-rock-n-roll-songs-from-the-60s/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2021 10:05:00 +0000 https://curiousasacathy.com/?p=48832 Good day! I hope life is treating you well and that you had a fun, relaxing weekend. Earlier this morning, I shared my mid-month BoTB.  If you missed it then I hope you’ll take a moment to cast your ballot for your favorite artist. 

Our lovely Marie wants us to build a playlist of old rock n’ roll songs to share on the Monday’s Music Moves Me dance floor.   If you ask kids today, they’ll say music from the 80s are the oldies.  I collected my picks from 100 greatest songs of the 1960s to compose my 10 Rock n’ Roll Songs playlist for no other wise than what jumped out at me.

 

playlist songs: 1. White Room ~Cream 2. California Dreamin’ ~The Mamas & The Papas 3. [I Can’t Get No] Satisfaction ~ The Rolling Stones 4. The House of the Rising Sun ~The Animals 5. Dancing in the Street ~Martha Reeves & the Vandellas 6. She’s Not There ~The Zombies 7. Whipping Post ~The Allman Brothers Band 8. White Rabbit ~Jefferson Airplane 9. Respect ~Aretha Franklin 10. Good Vibrations ~The Beach Boys

 

I love it when people build YouTube playlists.  All I have to do is hit play for a continual stream of music to enjoy for a half an hour or more while I tend to other things and so I invite you to hit play now to enjoy mine.

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This month’s honorary co-hostess is Marie from XmasDolly

❤🎵❤🎵❤🎵❤🎵❤🎵❤🎵

This is a mewsic linky party. Every other week we have a suggested mewsic theme (see side menu) to build your song set around and all participants share YouTube or Vimeo videos for our mewsic enthusiasts.  Failure to meet this basic guideline puts your URL in danger of being removed or labeled – NO MUSIC.


What decade do you think of music as the “Oldies”?  I hope you’ll share some rock n’ roll from your favorite decade with us on the dance floor.  We love boogie!   I’ll return on Wednesday for some mid-week fun.  Have an awwwesome week!  X💋X💋, Cathy

Awww Mondays hosted by Sandee from Comedy Plus.

 

 

 

 

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I Am Woman https://curiousasacathy.com/i-am-woman/ Mon, 07 Oct 2013 04:00:00 +0000 http://curiousasacathy.com/i-am-woman/
Helen Reddy “I Am Woman”

Welcome to week #161

RoryBore suggested this week’s music theme. She has thrown us an interesting choice to boogie with “Guys & Dolls“. Clueless? Let us hear tunes that have a man, woman, girl, or boy in the title, as in When a Man Loves a Woman.  Got it? Good! It’s time hit the dance floor on Monday’s Music Moves Me!

Our lovely hostesses, XmasDolly, would like to thank you for joining the party and as always JAmericanSpice, Stacy Uncorked, Just the stuff ya know & myself are happy that you came. Now, it’s time to get our groove on with you so remember to link up and shake your bootie with the fellow rockin’ blogger buds below!

 
 
 
Dance party rules:  Grab XmasDolly 4M button here,  display it on your blog, and then add your favorite weekly music theme YouTube videos for everyone to enjoy. We aren’t music snobs if you have tunes to share that don’t fit in with our theme then there’s no problem! As long as you have music to share, then you’re cool coz all we want to do is dance with you! 
 
 

My inspired music selections are for every woman who is proud of her womanhood.

Shania Twain “Man! I Feel Like A Woman”
Aretha Franklin “You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman
Roy Orbison “Oh, Pretty Woman”

Did you have a good time on the dance floor? I did. Remember, to be considered for honorary co-host each month, then be sure to add your URL to the link up. Next stop… your place!  What music moves you?

 

Be sure to come back next week to dance with the 4M crew, and if you can’t get enough music, then join me for Saturday Songsuasion!

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