Happy Labor Day!

"The end of labor is to gain leisure." ~Aristotle

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September. The holiday originated in 1882 as the Central Labor Union (of New York City) sought to create "a day off for the working citizens". Congress made Labor Day a federal holiday in 1894. All fifty states have made Labor Day a state holiday. Traditionally, Labor Day is celebrated by most Americans as the symbolic end of the summer.

Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in the United States since the 1880s. The form for the celebration of Labor Day was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday—a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and [spirit] of the trade and labor organizations," followed by a festival for the workers and their families. This became the pattern for Labor Day celebrations. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civil significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

Today, Labor Day is often regarded as a day of rest and, compared to the May 1 Labour Day celebrations in most countries, parades, speeches or political demonstrations are more low-key.
Forms of celebration include picnics, barbecues, fireworks displays, water sports, and public art events. Families with school-age children take it as the last chance to travel before the end of summer. Some teenagers and young adults view it as the last weekend for parties before returning to school.

Since 1966, the annual telethon of the Muscular Dystrophy Association has been held on Labor Day weekend. The telethon, hosted by Jerry Lewis, raises tens of millions of dollars each year to fund research and patient support programs for the various diseases grouped as muscular dystrophy. Labor Day weekend also marked the annual running of the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. The race was run at any time during the weekend from 1950-2002. In 2004, NASCAR began racing on Labor Day weekend at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Chicago's Taste of Polonia, the city's largest Polish-themed festival celebration of Polish cultural heritage, traditions, and customs on the grounds of the Copernicus Foundation in Jefferson Park. Bringing in crowds well over 30,000 each year.

And, finally, a bit of Labor Day humor--for all the parents out there, here's a quote just for you:

"Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken."

- Bill Dodds, American humorist


Have a safe and happy Labor Day Weekend!


This description (mainly borrowed from Wikipedia) of Labor Day applies to the holiday as it is observed in the United States but many countries observe Labour Day on a variety of dates throughout the year, and have their own traditions for celebrating.

copyright pfeiffer photos 2008 - all rights reserved

Inspiration Tuesday

"Hi, my name is Tina and I'm a Disney fan."

Yes, it is true, I like Disney. More specifically, I admire Walt Disney and his creations, Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

I never visited Disneyland as a child; my first experience was that of a 27-year-old adult. The world of Disney opened my heart and eyes much like a child's. A feeling of safety, of joy and of wonder is a good experience of any lifetime. The video included at the end of this post is one of my favorites on YouTube. I love it because it's a such a great collage of video clips from another ordinary persons adventures at Disneyland. Notice I said adventures? That's what it's about when we visit Disneyland...it's not just another amusement park, it's a place for wonder and adventures for everyone!

Chris and I have no children and because of this our family does not understand why we would choose Disneyland as a favorite vacation destination. Many adults think that Disneyland is just a place for kids to have fun. Because it is an amusement park, the singular attraction must be the thrill rides. Disneyland is about so much more than the rides and is definitely not just for kids. From the moment you walk onto Main Street, USA, you are believer. Deny it all you want, but take a ride on the Disneyland Railroad to Tomorrowland and you'll be whirling around on the Astro Orbiter faster than a 5-year-old can say "Mickey Mouse"!

Admittedly, arguments have been made against Disney's mass-marketing and commercialism but for those who look past the corporate mechanics, Disney is about more than media, consumer products or theme parks with rides. It is about entertainment, and teaching by entertaining is an effective way to bring knowledge.

Some would say that a vacation to Disney equals a very high price tag. As an almost all-inclusive destination, however, the Disney experience provides a lot of bang for the buck. Where else can you go that has so much to do--theme parks, shopping, dining, adult nightlife, interactive theatres, history, world cultures (EPCOT), technical innovations, world-class architecture, Broadway quality stage shows, elaborate parades, top-notch fireworks and laser displays, award-winning golf courses, water parks, and Cirque du Soleil, La Nouba--all in one place?

Once upon a time, drawing a tiny mouse, an idealist believed that he could change the world so he bought an orange grove and built his dreams. Disneyland and Walt Disney World embody altruism, idealism and capitalism at it's best--the very epitome of the definition of Americanism. It is a source of joy and imagination. At Disney, the bad is forgotten and good seems to conquer evil. Wide-eyed excitement is seen in the faces of children and adults from all walks of life. You can see that they seek the same thing as you--fantasy, adventure and a magical experience to take them away from their everyday lives, if only for a few hours or days.

Different cultures become one as we forget the troubles of the real world all around us. It is a place where people of all ages visit to have fun in a world that is sometimes much too serious. Serious is good, but so is fun and a balance of both is the best. Walt Disney built a place that helps us to laugh, to think, to dream, and to do--not just in Anaheim, but wherever we are--no matter what race, religion, gender or age you might be.

Disneyland's cultural impact on society has been woven into our daily lives, from learning to use your imagination to innovative technologies that could improve society. The greatest influence of the parks that Walt built have been in his positive view of the future. Disney managed to find ways to appeal to kids and to the kid in all of us. He used money to create magnificent parks and ground-breaking films that have generated millions of careers and made people's lives richer. Walt summed it up best in his dedication speech on opening day, July 15, 1955:

"To all who come to this happy place, welcome! Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts which have created America with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world."

Color photos displayed in this post by Chris & Tina of Pfeiffer Photos copyright 2008. Black and white photo of Walt Disney is copyright protected and used by permission.

Pfeiffer Photos - Adorn your walls today!

All of our photos are available in multiple sizes and as blank (all occasion) note cards. Buy any four (4) of our 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 images and save $4. Shipping is free to addresses within the USA 48. International customers and special request orders are welcome!

Danielle Miller Jewelry: dynamic motion = pure joy

Browsing in the Etsy forums tonight I found a blog, which lead me to a Trunkt portfolio and eventually the Etsy shop of Danielle Miller Jewelry (see photos below). Simple, unfettered, peaceful lines and all those lovely circles. Yes, there are a number of jewelry super stores at the ritzy malls in our town, but I'm putting Danielle Miller Jewelry on my wish list for Christmas this year. Visit her blog to view photos and read about how she crafts her fine wares!

© Danielle Miller

All images and designs are the intellectual property of Danielle Miller. All rights reserved.

Pfeiffer Photos visits toon town...and softspoken on Etsy.com

Yet another online application to play with...create yourself as a toon! These work well for avatars or I was thinking: enlarge, print and adhere to 10" x 10" canvases as fun wall art!

Chris & Tina aka Pfeiffer Photos - as toons!

Make yourself into a toon by visiting Face Your Manga.

Found this fun program on the equally (or more so) fun blog of softspoken. Her blog and Etsy shop are SO worth a look...enjoy!



Photos displayed in this post were taken by and representations of items available in the Etsy shop of softspoken.

Inspiration Sunday

Beginning this week my mission is to find at least one person, place, thing or moment in my week that inspires me and pay my respects each Sunday in the blog. This being the first week of inspiration, I have chosen my husband's grandmother, Eline Goss...we call her "Grammy". Yesterday Grammy celebrated her 90th birthday, and that is an inspiration in and of itself!

Mrs. Eline Goss aka "Grammy", Christmas 2006

A more gracious woman I have yet to meet than Mrs. Eline Goss. A true southern belle, born in 1918 and raised on a dairy farm in South Carolina, she met and married her true love, John, in 1940. They lived and loved for over 50 years, raised their family and made many, many friends. John and Eline were world travelers and visited too many countries to count via plane, train and steam freighter over the years. Every time we visit with her we ask her to tell us the stories of all these places and she just laughs and gives us her best recollections.

John and Eline at the dedication of Goss Stadium, Oregon State University, 1998

Eline is a woman with wisdom and a generosity of spirit. When she asks me how I've been and what I've been doing, I know she really does want to hear my answers. She takes time, she listens, we don't feel rushed through our visits. We eat dessert. We have that second cup of coffee. Nobody checks their watch, we just enjoy each other's company. I can't say how truly refreshing this is in our day and age of this "everyone for him/herself", multitasking, double-booking, high octane, espresso coffee, drive-thru eating, one-stop shopping, ultra-fast data transmitting, Internet, TiVo, "Chatting", Instant Messages, Email, Blogging, MySpace, and Text Messaging world we all know.

Eline has two children, five grandchildren and 3.5 great-grandchildren as of this writing. She introduces me to her friends as her fourth granddaughter. Having only one set of grandparents (of which one has passed, the other is estranged), makes this adopted Grammy all the more dear to my heart.

Tina, Chris & Grammy at our wedding reception, December 2006

Ninety years is an inspiration more than worthy of any blog post, and I am honored to be able to make it the subject of mine.

(Grammy and great-grand kids, Aimee and Haley, 2008)

Happy Birthday, Grammy, we love you lots!

Photos displayed in this post are by Chris and Tina Pfeiffer, The Oregonian, and our wedding photos are by Nicole Wickens Photography, 2006.

Fun with Wordle

It seems there is no end to the fun applications for blogs and social networking. Here is one I found courtesy of Inspired by Hand, called Wordle. Type or paste in a handful of words and, presto-changeo, Wordle makes them into your very own magical word art. You can change the font, play with the colors, save to your very own Wordle gallery for all the world to admire. It's like a virtual blender for you to create delicious vocabulary smoothies. Yum! 

A Silver Lining

The Irvington Artist Market (IAM) was not all that we had hoped it would be. We did not make the sales we had hoped for due to low attendance of the event. We're chalking this one up to limited advertising by the event organizer (it was their first time out), cloudy weather in Portland and the long-established Bite of Oregon event happening downtown on the same weekend.

We have learned that shows and markets are a live-and-learn kind of experience and each time we attend we learn what works...and what doesn't work. We were pleasantly surprised by the variety of the other artists and crafters who participated at the market and impressed with the quality of their work. I am including a list of the names and contact info for those vendors we connected with at the end of this post in case you're in the mood for eye-candy and maybe some handmade shopping!

Our booth did look fabulous thanks to a few yards of Ikea's Lena fabric I had stashed away months ago for another project. Our photo album idea worked out nicely and caught the interest of a shopper who asked for our business card. Judy has plans to open a small gift shop in the uber-hip Mississippi Avenue district here in Portland this fall. She loved our photos of local city dwellers and architecture and is interested in opening a wholesale account to sell postcards of our work which gave us a silver lining for a cloudy day.

B.Hive Designs - handmade clothing for baby, kids, men, women...in shops and on Etsy.

Stubborn - modern jewelry handmade with stainless steel, aluminum, silver and opaque resins.

Molly Muriel - homemade natural soaps and vegan soy candles in found glass.

tiny forge design - handmade silver jewelry (also on Etsy!).

Meme Cosmetics - 100% handmade, 100% natural cosmetics.

Dave Sage Designs - handmade furniture using reclaimed and salvage woods.

Octavine Illustration - another Etsy artist offering journals, paintings, notecards & more.

Refashioned by Lisa - New fashions and bags made from reclaimed clothing and fabrics.

The photos included in the latter part of this post were used by permission and are the property of the individuals that create these fine art and craft items.  

Weekend at the beach

We've hit a spell of misty rain in Portland going into the weekend and our outdoor plants are loving it. As a native Oregonian, I honestly like the rain. Yes, I grow weary of it when it comes for weeks on end in the winter but I always remind myself that the rain is what makes our state so green and livable.

(Arcadia Beach by Tina, Pfeiffer Photos 2008)

This weekend we are headed for the Oregon Coast to help celebrate our good friends 25Th wedding anniversary. They've rented two condos facing the bay in Garibaldi and have family flying in from Illinois, San Diego and parts unknown. Chris and I are staying in the lovely little beach town of Manzanita just a few minutes up the highway. Sun, sand, surf, friends, family, food, music and fun are all on the menu...good times!

(Tide pools by Chris, Pfeiffer Photos 2008)

In thinking of just the right gift for this special milestone, we decided that we would give our time and talent and document the weekend with our cameras in hand. Our goal is to find the candid moments and create a photo journalistic style memory. Post-festivities the photos, with the aid of my trusty Macbook, will become a custom photo book and DVD. I've been toying with the idea of offering custom photo book and DVD creation services through our Etsy shop and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this idea so your comments are very welcome!

(Beach at Devil's Churn by Chris, Pfeiffer Photos 2008)

All photos displayed in this post are available as prints and handmade note cards. Please visit our Etsy shop or contact us HERE for more info or to purchase...thanks!

copyright pfeiffer photos 2008 - all rights reserved.