Ginny Diezel Studios

It’s spooky, it’s scary, it’s downright thrilling!  These are my Halloween pieces which will be up for auction at The LEAP Foundation’s fundraiser this Saturday in Los Angeles at the House of Blues.  My past several posts have been about the foundation, its efforts, and the fundraiser, so check back through and find out all about this wonderful organization and its good works.  If you are in the Los Angeles area, you know what you can do – you can ATTEND!  If you are not in Los Angeles, you can DONATE!  Yeah!

It’s true!  More Easter pieces to show you!  This is the collection which will be auctioned off at The LEAP Foundation’s fundraiser on February 28th.  My previous posts will give you more information about this important event.  There are links to the event, as well as to the Foundation, and to Camp Max Straus.  If you are in the Los Angeles area, you will really enjoy attending!  After all, it IS at the House of Blues!!!!!!!! Yeah!

If you have followed my last two posts, you know about The LEAP Foundation, and the upcoming fundraiser to be held February 28th!  Just in case you haven’t read my recent blog entries, take a moment to get up to speed about this great event!  My previous two entries will tell you all about it!

I had posted the wip bunnies which will be in a silent auction, and now, I am happy to write, they are completed, and on their way to California!  Take a look!  They will be part of an Easter collection, which will be included in a larger holiday package to be auctioned for charity.  I will be posting pictures in the next few days so that you can see everything which will be available.  If you are in the Los Angeles area,  I urge you to attend this fun event!  There will be food, fun, music, and auctions – all to benefit The Leap Foundation, whose philanthropic endeavors help community efforts as well as female entrepreneurs in developing nations around the globe.    Now, for the unveiling…….

Enjoy!  If you would like to have a piece for yourself, please drop me an email at the following address:  ginny@ginnydiezelstudios.com and I will be happy to make one for you!  A portion of all sales which result from my postings of the auction pieces will go to The LEAP Foundation!  This is a great opportunity: they will receive the auction proceeds AND additional contributions through orders placed through me!  This is a win-win scenario!  Be checking my blog for the next ten days to see what other pieces of mine will be available!

If you read my previous blog entry, you will find out about The LEAP Foundation, and my connection to it.  I am donating holiday pieces – Easter, Halloween, and Christmas, to be auctioned off to benefit the philanthropic efforts of the Foundation.  Here’s a little peek at some of the bunnies going west to Los Angeles this week!  Be sure to read about LEAP, follow the links, and think about what you can do in your own communities!  And, of course, if you are in the Los Angeles area, by all means, go to the fundraiser on Saturday, February 28th at the House of Blues!

For you regular followers of my blog, you know that my son is now engaged to a wonderful woman, whom we adore – Joan Kelley Bierman!  I wrote about their engagement at Christmastime, and posted a picture of my favorite couple in the wholewide world!

Joan is a part of a wonderful organization, The Leap Foundation, a membership of professional women, whose defined mission is one of service to the community through philanthropic ventures.  This is a true example of the ability of individuals to make a difference, and particularly to have an impact when joining together.   Their upcoming fundraiser is Saturday, February 28, 2009, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit The Foundation for Camp Max Straus.  The Camp’s goal is to serve the underserved children in the Los Angeles area, and to date, more than 43,000 children have benefitted from positive summer experiences.  The fundraiser will be The City of Refuge Gospel Brunch, featuring the internationally known  City of Refuge Sanctuary Choir.  This is a not to be missed event, so if you are in the Los Angeles area and want to go to the House of Blues to enjoy wonderful music and to help others, click on the links and get more information.

One of the most important outcomes of the work which LEAP does is the micro lending to female entrepreneurs in developing areas around the globe, so that these women may take charge of their lives, and the futures of their families and communities.  If you cannot attend the Gospel Brunch, you can always make a donation.  You don’t have to live in Los Angeles, or even in California.  Follow this link to make a donation.  It really is true:  giving comes back to you in countless ways.  You have helped others, thereby helping the community of man.

Have you ever wondered about what you might have been aware of in utero, what might have carried over into your early childhood and beyond?  When I was pregnant with my wonderful son, Matthew, I used to talk to him every day, and of course, i didn’t know whether I was having a girl or a boy.  He is 37, and in those days of 1971, we didn’t have the ultrasounds to give us clues!  Regardless of that missing information, which really WAS neat, I talked to the baby, sang to the baby, even read to the baby.  This evening, I stumbled across this article online, and it is well worth the read!  It seems that the human infant can distinguish far more than perhaps most of us give credit for.  Enjoy this article about the infant’s ability to go with a music flow!  And…. sing, read, and talk to your children every day.  My mother did.  I did with my son.  Even when babies don’t understand the vocabulary, they understand the warmth of your voice, the beauty in your smile, the feelings of your love.  I have fond memories of my mother talking with Matthew when he was barely one month old.  There was always something gently musical about Mom’s voice, and Matthew sensed it and squealed every single time she talked to him.  It was a wonderful sight to behold, and one which I cherish, particularly now that Mom is no longer with us.  A parent’s involvement in the life of a child, or a grandparent’s involvement for that matter – there’s nothing more significant in my opinion!

Well, no, not really.  But this is a post about this phrase!  As you regular readers know, my son lives in Los Angeles where he is a film editor.  He recently wrapped work on the film adaptation of the novel The Time Traveler’s Wife, which will be released in theaters later this year.  Last August into September, while on hiatus during re-shoots, Matthew, his boss Thom Noble, and Robert the director did the pilot for a new tv show which has its premiere tonight on the Fox network.  Check your local listings, as they say!  In the East and in the West, it airs at 9 pm, and is an interesting twist on solving crimes.  Observation of your body language is the name of this game!  Follow this link to get a little more info, and tune in tonight.  Look for Matt Diezel in the credits, which are at the end of the show and usually so small that only a ten-year-old or Superman can read them.  Anyway, he worked on it, and I saw the piece without commercials when we spent Christmas together!  Pretty cool stuff!  Enjoy!

Yes, oh yes!  If you look at my previous post from a few days ago, you will see that handsome couple, my son, Matthew, and his beautiful Joan.  They met while filming the second Scooby Doo film, and have been together ever since.  It’s been five years!

Joan just finished working on The Day the Earth Stood Still, and on December 13, they went to Hawaii for a much-needed vacation.  Matthew just finished working on The Time Traveler’s Wife, so when they left for the islands, it was unique for both of them to have finished projects at the same time.

Four years ago, when we visited for Christmas, i brought my mother’s rings.  She had passed away in August of that year, and wanted Matthew to have her rings for Joan.  She had met her two weeks before she died when they came to Virginia Beach.  Mom and I knew this was the one for Joan, so on the morning of her passing, the hospice nurse gently removed the rings from Mom’s left hand, and I brought them here for Matthew and Joan.  He tucked them away, and kept them a secret…..  They have a home in west LA, and have been blissfully happy, and although marriage was discussed many times, there never had been a formal commitment.

On bended knee, on a hiking trail in Hawaii, Matthew asked Joan to marry him, and placed my mother’s ring on her finger.  It was a lovely star sapphire in a white gold setting.  Joan said yes, and we are all thrilled!  Joan’s family has adopted Matthew as their own, and he has a terrific  life with them.  In some ways, it is as if he had been born into their family – they absolutely adore him, and he adores them, and we do as well.  It is truly the best of all possible worlds.

When Matthew came to LA twelve years ago, I never doubted his ability to find work in the film  industry, and I never doubted that he would be successful.  My main concern was that in the hustle and bustle of the big city, the atmosphere of film and fame, he might not find what I thought would be essential – a loving relationship to sustain him.  He has found that and so much more in Joan Kelley Bierman, and in her wonderful, large, full of life family.  This will always be the best Christmas gift I will ever have.

Take another look at this couple!  You are looking at two who have an extraordinary relationship – quite rare by any standards.  They can teach us all about what real love is!

Woo Hoo!  Tomorrow, Harry and I leave for Los Angeles, and a wonderful Christmas with our son, Matthew, and the beautiful woman in his life, Joan.  Matthew and Joan live in Los Angeles, and both work in the movie industry.   Joan just completed work on The Day the Earth Stood Still, so when you go to see it, stay for the credits.  Look for post production supervisor and the name Joan Kelley Bierman!  That’s our Joanie!  Matthew is working on The Time Traveler’s Wife, due out next year.  If you have seen either of the Scooby Doo films, Mission Impossible ll, The Lake House, The Out-of-Towners, Paulie, and the second Lord of the rings film, among other films, look for Matt Diezel in the credits…..  They are our Hollywood couple – they just roll their eyes when I laugh and tell them that.   Both are down-to-earth, very unassuming, lovely people.  Am I crazy about them, or what?   I wrote about them once before, but just in case you missed it, here’s a picture of them.  They are a handsome couple, aren’t they?  He’s 6’5″, and finally has stopped growing!

We will be in Los Angeles for a week, and I hope to blog while I am there, but in case I cannot figure out how to do that long distance, I want to wish all of you a joyous holiday season, filled with great memories.  I wish you happiness and peace and the good health to enjoy it, now and in the new year!

xoxo Ginny

As I write this tonight, I am still in a state of shock about our election!  Good shock!  Great shock!  And let me tell you why…….

I am a daughter of the South.   I remember the segregated water fountains, rest rooms, the whites only signs, the angry voices of those who would keep things as they were, and never look forward.  My mother was the sweetest soul on earth, and through her quiet strength, I learned to revere the essence of what is inside each man and woman, and not what is on the outside.

I was a junior in high school in 1960, in Alexandria, Virginia, when my high school was integrated.  There were 1200 students that year, and only one was an African American.  He was one year behind me, so I did not have classes with him, but occasionally I saw him in the halls and wondered at his fortitude.

When I graduated from college, I taught French in Fairfax County, (suburban Washington, D.C.) in an intermediate school – seventh and eighth graders, in the building which had been the all-black high school until Fairfax was fully integrated, and my principal, Taylor Williams, had been the principal of that high school.  He was a prince of a man, so wise and so insightful.  He had become part of the change that was on the move so many years ago.

Fast forward to my son’s second grade in elementary school, here in Virginia Beach, Virginia.   He came home on the first day of school that September, and told me that Mrs. Garvin was “the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, Mommy – except for you!”  When I asked him to describe her, he said she had dark brown eyes, and hair just like mine – which was quite curly at the time.  It wasn’t until Back to School night that I met Mrs. Garvin, and discovered that she was African American.  I was so proud of Matthew that it never occurred to him to describe her in terms of her race, but rather how beautiful she was!

And now, tonight, we have just elected our first African American president!!!!!!!!!  I am simply overwhelmed that I have lived to see this, and more importantly, that our nation has seen fit and has the courage to take this step.  Regardless of what anyone believes about political policies, think about this momentous occasion!  Think what this says about Americans as a people to move to this point in our history!  I think this says to us and to the world that we CAN get things right, that we can finally look past the exterior to that content of character which Martin Luther King, Jr. so eloquently described.  Perhaps this can be a signal for all of us to try to work for the betterment of all citizens, and not a select few of our peers.  Imagine if we devote time to cooperating, instead of name calling; to helping others instead of trying to outdo others; to recognizing that what is within each one of us is so much more important than how we appear on the outside!  What a wonderful world this would be………..