proud to be an American

Sweet Friends, With Memorial Day having just past & the 4th of July right around the corner, I wanted to start getting into the spirit of things here at home, on my blog & at my shop. I am one of those patriotic Americans that gets teary eyed sitting at a baseball field, looking & smelling the beyond green grass, on a lovely summer evening, singing the National Anthem. I mean...it's 'Field of Dreams', who doesn't right?

I get goosebumps walking through Washington DC, standing amid the history that this Nation was founded on. Staring up at the Lincoln & Jefferson Memorials, feeling so small among giants. Thinking back to the bravery of our colonial Father's, imagining that our new, little Nation could ever defeat a world dominating force like England...& yet we did.

A nation that was willing to war brother against brother to right the wrongs that had long gone unacknowledged about what the true meaning of "all men are created equal" infers. Having been fortunate enough to have stood in the battlefields of Gettysburg & in the exact place where Abraham Lincoln gave his amazing Gettysburg Address, I am in awe of this place I call home.

Being an American, I have the luxury to call home my California coastline to my Brother's Baltimore, MD harbor & all destinations in between. My home is big & beautiful & diverse. It has oceans & deserts, islands & redwoods, prairies & majestic mountains. It's so big it has places I've seen, places I wish to see & places I will sadly never get a chance to see.

So, here's some fun vintage images for you to create with and let's get out our red, white & blue & celebrate a nation that's not perfect, but is always trying to remedy that flaw & I will remind myself again of the wonderful words spoken in a Pennsylvania field in 1863. I think I'm going to town & buy a fresh new flag to fly today! Hugs Friends...

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Abraham Lincoln

sarducci's & san juan capistrano

Greeting Friends from Laguna Hills, California! Dad is doing soooo much better, it's hard to believe he was teetering on death 5 short weeks ago. We had a lovely outing yesterday to San Juan Capistrano where we enjoyed the sunshine, lunch in the courtyard of Sarducci's & a little stroll in the Old Town district of Los Rios Street on the other side of the train tracks. Isn't this photograph fabulous of the Capistrano Depot in 1895...I ADORE the dress!

This is the same building 115 years later, can you see the courtyard? That's where Dad & I sat & had our lunch next to the center fountain, while a couple of little, hot sparrows braved the crowd & took a leisurely bath. Watching these little birds that have been visiting the Mission every summer for centuries is such a joy, they always make me smile.
The Cliff Swallow is a migratory bird that spends its winters in Goya, Argentina, but makes the 6,000 mile trek north to our warmer climate in springtime. According to legend, the birds first took refuge at the Mission after an irate innkeeper began destroying their mud nests. The Mission's location near two rivers made it an ideal location for the swallows to nest, as there was a constant supply of the insects on which they feed, and the young birds were well-protected inside the ruins of the old stone church.

As one walks along the Los Rios Historic District of San Juan, you get a glimpse of Capistrano's past and the oldest residential street in California. The adobe houses were built here in 1794 by the builders & the ranch hands of the Mission. To walk this street is to recapture the tranquillity of the slower pace of life that existed before the turn of the century and before. It was not long ago that the streets were still dirt. Willow trees grow among eucalyptus and palm. Cactus and wildflowers grow beneath sprays of bougainvillea.

So friends, if you ever get a chance to visit beautiful Mission San Juan Capistrano, don't forget to go to the depot & wander over to the other side of the tracks. History & serenity await you there, along with the soft mellow sound of Mission bells. A day to remember for us both I think!

XOXO

200 Friends!!! WOW

OK...who's pulling the wool over my eyes??? {where did that phrase come from anyways???}

It seems like just a second ago, I did my Gala Award Ceremony Giveaway for 100 Friends & now I stop in to shout "Howdy" & I have my 200th Friend...how is this possible!!!

I am honored, I'm delighted, I'm humbled, I'm happy, I am astonished at how quickly I went from 100 to 200 friends & I am simply in love with BLOGGING!

The friendships I have made through blogging are some of the closest I've ever had in my life. There seems to be a commonality between bloggers that makes it so easy to connect. Maybe because we are all traveling down our different paths trying to find our own authenticity. Whether it be through art, crafting, photography, gardening, writing or junking...the 'journey is the thing.' And if along that journey we are lucky enough to find like minded souls who understand the importance of this & will allow us to follow them on their life's adventure, we have truly found BLISS!

THANK YOU so much my friends for making my life even better by having you all in it & I just can't wait to see where our journey's will take us next!!!

XOXO