Final Challenge Update!

I apologize for being so late in positing this...it was a heck of a weekend :-)

So, the cutie picked the name out of the person who will write the dedication for "OohRah!" and receive a copy of the ebook when it's released. The winner is Jenster!

Numero Uno!

How cool is that!?!

Thank you all for participating in the Comment for a Cure Challenge - throughout October [Breast Cancer Awareness Month] I'll be hosting a couple more contests in celebration and to keep it on your mind.

Challenge Update!

There's a week left in the Comment for a Cure challenge, so if you haven't left a comment on Tilly Greene's Hot Thoughts Blog - DO! It's a quick and easy way to support something that touches so many peoples lives.

I've just handed out the 4th CD of "Coming Together: For a Cure" and have more to giveaway. There's also the chance to have my December book - "OohRah!" - released with your dedication. The sexiest Marine, Dale Smythe, meets Tasha Ruskya at a Race for a Cure and he looks fabulous in PINK!

Thursday 13 - #18!

For me, birthdays mean books, and with a couple of birthday this month, including my own, here are those I'm eyeing up.

For Me :-)
1.
Mythology [Ologies] by Lady Hestia Evans

2.
600 Black Spots: A Pop-up for Children of All Ages by David Carter

3.
How Many by Ron Van Der Meer

4.
Costume Jewelry for Haute Couture by Patrick Segal

5.
Greeks on the Black Sea: Ancient Art from the Hermitage by Anna Trofimova

6.
Antiquity Recovered: The Legacy of Pompeii and Herculaneum by Victoria C. Gardner Coates

7.
The Getty Villa by Marion True, Jorge Silvetti, and Salvatore Settis


For the Little Man
8.
Very Hairy Bear by Alice Schertle and Matt Phelan

9.
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems

10.
T is for Terrible by Peter McCarty


For the Young Lady
11.
The Nixie's Song [Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles Book 1] by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

12.
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

13.
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White


And, don't forget to check out my challenge to blog for a cure...click here, comment and maybe win!

Thursday 13 - #17!

Recently I read a book called "Museum of the Missing" by Simon Houpt. It discussed the history of art theft. Yup, very interesting and so I thought I'd showcase 13 pieces that have been reported as stolen and are still missing.

1.

Henri Matisse - Luxembourg Gardens
Missing since February 24, 2006
Chacara do Ceu Museum, Rio de Janerio, Brazel
Est. current value: unknown


2.

Henry Moore - Reclining Figure
Missing since December 15, 2005
Henry Moore Foundation, Much Hadham, Herfordshire, England
Est. current value: $5.2 million
This sculpture is 11 foot in length and weight 2 tons. Thieves were seen on closed circuit tv, driving up in a Mini Cooper [oh good lord] and a stolen flatbed truck fitted with a crane. The fear is that it's been melted down by a scrap metal dealer.


3.

Unknown - The Lion of Nimrud
Missing since April 2003
Iraq National Museum, Baghdad, Iraq
Est. current value: priceless
One of 14,000 objects looted immediately following the US invasion of Baghdad. To date, about 5000 pieces have been located.


4.

Vincent Van Gogh - View of the Sea at Scheveningen
Missing since December 7, 2002
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Est. current value: $30 million [with aother piece "Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen" stolen at the same time]
Van Gogh painted this in situ during stormy weather near the Hague and bits of sand remain in paint.


5.

Maxfield Parrish - Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Mansion Murals [Panels 3a and 3b]
Missing since July 28, 2002
Edenhurst Gallery, West Hollywood, California
Est. current value: $2 million each


6.

Howard Pyle - The Battle of Bunker Hill
Missing since August 2001
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware
Est. current value: $250,000
This is one of the more upsetting scenarios here. In August 2001, the museum was planning to show this piece and found it missing. Staff thought this piece [a part of the permanent collection] was being store in the basement. They are not entirely sure when it was taken.


7.

Claude Monet - Beach in Pourville
Missing since September 19, 2000
Polish National Museum, Poznan, Poland
Est. current value: $7 million
Thieves cut the painting from the frame and replaced it with a badly printed copy on cardboard. They are not sure when the piece was stolen, they reported it once they noticed the forgery.


8.

Thomas Sully - Portrait of Frances Keeling Valntine Allan
Missing since February 2000
Valentine Museum, Richmond, Virginia
Est. current value: unknown
This is Edgar Allan Poe's stepmother.


9.

Jean-Baptiste Oudry - The White Duck
Missing since September 30, 1992
Houghton Hall, Norfolk, England
Est. current value: $8.8 million


10.

Rembrandt - Storm on the Sea of Galilee
Missing since March 18, 1990
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts
Est. current value: priceless
The world is missing out on not being able to view the only surviving seascape by this artist.


11.

Johannes Vermeer - The Concert
Missing since March 18, 1990
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts
Est. current value: priceless
After the theft of 11 paintings seventeen years ago, the museum keeps the empty frames on the wall. Very sad.


12.

Lucian Freud - Portrait of Francis Bacon
Missing since May 27, 1988
Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
Est. current value: $1.5 million


13.

Andrew Wyeth - Moon Madness
Missing since mid-1980's
Private Owner in the Philippines
Est. current value: $3 million
Disturbing because it's not an institution or business involved, but a person. In the 1980's Wyeth's office tried without success to make contact with the private collector/owner in order to include it in the artist's catalog. The office communicated through a lawyer and no contact was made, although there was a great deal of political upheaval at the time. The paintings whereabouts reamains unknown.


Sometimes the artwork is stolen to order, other times to trade for drugs, one time it was a fan who couldn't help himself [over 200 pieces taken] - unfortunately his mother threw them in the river to hide his crime [grrr!], and other times the thefts were undertaken in a bid to take a cultural statement away from a nation.

What piece of art would you feel heart broken to never see because it was stolen?

And, don't forget to check out my challenge to blog for a cure...click here, comment and maybe win!

A challenge accepted!

First, how about a little history.

Alessia Brio of Phaze, is the editor of a series of books called Coming Together which are based in various causes and is unique in that all the net proceeds go to a set charity. Susan G. Koman for the Cure has been designated the recipient of the proceeds from the recently released Coming Together: For the Cure.

On Wednesday August 22 author Alison Kent blogged about breast cancer and promised to buy 1 copy of Coming Together: For the Cure [now available] for every 10 comments left [max. 25 copies]. The deadline to accomplish this has been set for October 1. It's been three days and she has over 200 comments. So, with all this good nature swirling around blogland, Alessia Brio set a challenge down and I accepted. Author-bloggers who host a similar contest will have a recipe added to the 2008 Coming Together: In the Kitchen, which will benefit Action Against Hunger.

I'm keeping it simple: for every 10 comments left, I'll purchase a copy of Coming Together: For the Cure and will give away them away to commentors here. This will be open for a month [September 21] and will max out at 10 copies. And, one commentor will receive a copy of my December ebook OohRah! and will also have it dedicated to them or whomever they wish...ummm, have I mentioned yet that US Marine Dale Smythe and Tasha Ruskya meet during a fundraising run for breast cancer? Yup, and he looks lovely in pink :-)

So, get busy, leave a comment about yourself, family, friends, whomever or however breast cancer has affected you, or what you or someone close to you does so it doesn't!

UPDATE: Jessica Russell, Samantha Sommersby, Kathryn Lively, Victoria Blisse and Tammi Flora have all accepted Alessia Brio's challenge...visit them, make a comment, it's a totally painless way to help!

UPDATE: The first 3 CD winners have been contact - congratulations...but I have 7 more to give away. And, don't forget, one person will be chosen from all the commenters to have OohRah! dedicated to them, or someone of their picking, and a copy of the December release. So keep commenting :-)

Think Pink!