Garden Party 

my new rug 

another view of the painting 

My new painting...and slipcovers. I need some ideas of what to paint the wall. The painting is of a vineyard...there is green (olive), rust, yellow/gold, and red. The slipcovers are an olive green faux suede. pillows are red, gold, green paisley. What do you guys think? Gold walls?  

A Happy Cambria Flower...I'd be happy living there too.....! 

Monday...Monday....

I have had a headache for nearly a week. Maybe it's allergies since everything is in bloom here now. I am getting really tired of it though.

Today i took Leslie shopping for a bathing suit and we found 3 one piece suits out of the 359 bikinis. Luckily she liked ONE of the one piece suits. It's cute....black and pink and I even bought a little pink bathing skirt to go with it. If i wore bathing suits...I would have bought it for myself.

I did splurge and bought myself some flip flops in 4 different colors at Target. Simple Pleasures.

Happy Easter!!! 

Maui Orchid 

Camellias from my back yard

Quote of the Day: On Blessings

"In very large measure each of us holds the key to the blessings of the Almighty upon us. If we wish the blessing, we must pay the price."
Gordon B. Hinckley

We went to the beach!!! It was a much needed break after my week of Doctor appointments. 

breathe in the salt sea air!!! 

a Sign of Good Luck  

Britten...I thought of you when I took this picture. In fact, as I walked away from this garden I told Royce, "Britten would go crazy here." 

You can see Britten, it wasn't a real house...but a miniature set on a birdbath base. I want to make one...right away. This could be a fun Enrichment Night Project....yeah right! haha..... 

Look who I saw in Cambria....? 

The new house Royce and I bought today in Cambria......a nice Hobbit Hole for a couple of aging, but cute, Hobbits. 

This is my life condensed into 16 little boxes

There's something to be said for NOT living to the age of 125. Not kidding. This is a sweet Brazilian woman who has out lived 2 husbands and all of her 7 children. Amazing huh? 

Garnets and Pearls 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!!

Happy Birthday! What did you do for your birthday today?
How old are you???? 21? hahaha.....i know you're not 21...but you're not far off, right?
Amazing to think of being that young............makes my head spin.
I hope your day was fantastic.

Sean wearing daddy's silly reading glasses. 

Sarah...why weren't you in this picture?? 

Left to right...My mom, my grandma, my aunt - it almost makes me feel like doing Christmas all over again. So cute...very shabby chic. 

Sean laughing at the ducks 

Sean and the ducks 

An Aging Woman's Prayer

Lord, Thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older, and will some day be old.Keep me from getting talkative, and particularly from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and every occasion. Release me from craving to try to straighten out everybody's affairs. Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details - give me wings to get to the point. I ask for grace enough to listen to the tales of others' pain. Help me endure them with patience; but seal my lips on my own aches and pains - they are increasing, and my love of rehearsing them becomes sweeter as the years go by. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally it is possible that I may be mistaken. Keep me reasonably sweet; I do not want to be a saint - some of them are so hard to live with - but a sour old woman is one of the crowning works of the devil. Make me thoughtful but not moody; helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom it seems a pity not to use it all, but Thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.

Lavendar Field 

IRISH PROVERBS

*A change of work is as good as a rest.

*Trouble hates nothing as much as a smile.

*May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live.

*A good retreat is better than a bad stand.

*Time is a great story teller.

*The work praises the man.

*There is light at the end of the tunnel.

*Continual cheerfulness is a sign of wisdom.

*You will never plough a field if you only turn it over in your mind.

*A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book.

*Better be safe than sorry.

*What the child sees, the child does. What the child does, the child is.

*There is no fireside like your own fireside.

*There is no luck except where there is discipline.

*Don't postpone a good deed.

*Making the beginning is one third of the work.

*Castles were built a stone at a time.

*A cabin with plenty of food is better than a hungry castle.

*A quiet tongue shows a wise head.

Very C-O-O-L picture I found on the internet yesterday..... 

These lines from Longfellow suggest some self-searching:
For Time will teach thee soon the truth, There are no birds in last year’s nest!
Often we regret and brood about past decisions – what we should or shouldn’t have done. Or we think of what we should now be doing and are not doing, of what we would like to learn, and it makes us uneasy.
We regret misunderstandings – words we wish we hadn’t said, words we wish we had said, mistakes we have made, people we have offended, opportunities gone by, errors and carelessness that could have been avoided, places we might have gone, things we might have been.
The past has its place and is valuable for lessons learned. The present also has its place, and what we cannot change should not now needlessly keep us from looking and moving forward. Nothing lost or left behind should keep us from now becoming what we can become, from learning what we now can learn.
There are new decisions every day, every hour, and reasons to improve and to repent. Whatever we are, wherever we’ve been, each day we have some opportunity to determine direction.
Each day we need to win, or keep – and certainly to deserve – the love of loved ones; each day to be more patient, more pleasant, more understanding. If there have been loved ones neglected, unreconciled differences, unspoken gratitude, unacknowledged debts, we ought to do now what we should do. If there has been within something that has soured us, we well would turn now to sweetening ourselves, for we hurt ourselves as well as others when we live below the level of our possibilities.
Whatever the past or its meaning, or its length, or its losses, or its lessons learned or left unlearned, we go on from where we are – wherever we are – and become what we can become; with work, repentance, improvement; with faith in the future.
“For Time will teach thee soon the truth, There are no birds in last year’s nest!”

ON PERSISTANCE...

"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased."

-Heber J. Grant