She Sells Seashells

Thank you all so much for all your blog love and good wishes!!! You all really know how to make a person's day. Miss B is still home, hacking away, but the rest of us are up and out. I still get the achey thing in the afternoon, but that could just be my weird immune system.

Let's get back to the beach, shall we?

The promise of summer....

Warm sand on your toes,

beauty all around.

The healing power of the water,

quietness,

strength,

life and balance.

I could spend hours looking at shells.

Well, I have, actually!

There is nothing quite like it. Walking in the sand with your head down, the sun warm on your back. Your eye catches something and bending down, you catch the shell in your hand before the water takes it back. Covered in sand, you wait for the water to return and wash it off, letting the water go through your hands and the beauty of the shell shines back at you.

Sometimes you gently put it back, to let it go back into it's purpose of becoming a home or a part of the huge eco system to which it belongs.

Other times, you keep it as a treasure. A memory of a sun-kissed day full of laughter, waves, sand and happiness everywhere. Mmmmmm....can you smell the Coppertone?

Have a great day and thanks again for all your care!

Life

We interrupt this broadcast about the beach and it's healing qualities due to a strong dose of 

LIFE.

It seems my sweet daughter has brought home not only all her worldly belongings, but the plague as well. She is barking like a seal, my husband has lost his voice and sleeps sitting up in the chair in the family room. Brenna has succumbed and is busy gagging and choking her way through a stuffy nose. I seem to do fine until the afternoon and then I begin to ache and feel like my fingers will fall off. 

On top of it all, we woke up Sunday morning thinking we had moved to Kansas.

Hail. On a beach towel. That was left by the pool on a much nicer day. Like two days ago!

Add to that thunder, lightening, and rain all day...

and you have some very, very confused Southern Californians!!!

I think Brenna and I will go put our heads down for a couple of days.

Some Of My Favorite Things

Crazy days are ahead. The last weeks of school are always nutty, and not much art work is getting accomplished, so I thought I would share my most favorite place and what I love about it.

Laguna Beach.

Take a look here to read a short history about this magical place.

Let's begin with waves. 

Oh, I do love ocean waves!

They are constant,

surprising,

Powerful,

a force to be reckoned with.

I can go to sleep to the sound of the waves, and wake up and listen to tell if the tide is in or out.

The sound gives me a sense of protection, but at the same time I have the utmost respect for them.

I have been rolled, pounded by and have had my knees scraped raw by them.

Ahh, but I have held the hands of my girls as we jumped over the froth

and I have plunked my chair down at the water's edge to sit with them as they played for hours digging, building, catching sand crabs. I have girls that would roll and roll in the end of a wave, waiting to see where they end up and realizing that a bathing suit full of sand isn't the worst thing in the world. Or we would stand hand in hand, letting the waves come and go, watching our feet disappear going deeper and deeper into the wet sand and then pulling out and realizing how deep they really went!

I have taught them to dive under an incoming wave, to roll with a "floater", and to love the feel of your skin after swimming and drying in the sun. We have tried boogie boards, Doug has tried a surf board and done a mile swim in open water, we have snorkeled, and will try stand up paddling soon.

One of the best parts of being a mom has been sharing my love of the ocean with my girls and seeing them love it as much as I do.

I'll leave you with this thought:

"Sit in reverie, and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind." ~ Longfellow

More to follow!

She's Baaaaack!

I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cabdriver. Then they would really be educated.”

Al McGuire quotes Well, I can't say my girl will be a cabdriver this summer, but she is definitely on the job hunt!!! We spent a wacky weekend packing her up and bringing her home from her first year of college. Yup. All that worrying and wondering and being so sad to see her go has been swallowed up in a blink of an eye. The next thing we knew, we were shoving a microwave in the car and heading home. Personally, I have never experienced doing this. I have no frame of reference for packing up my life into a car twice a year, leaving friends old and new, and wondering where I have landed, and wanting to really be back where I came from. (Even if it is a small, cramped place and I have to wear shower shoes every day.)  It is a frenetic time, one that was not well organized, but I think all in all, we did o.k. So, I didn't have matching storage boxes like the other moms did. But we got the top UP on the convertable!! And while my husband and I both forgot to bring the bike rack, he is a master at taking things apart and making them fit. (And putting them back together!) A master. Did I mention the time frame? We had to have our sweet girl checked out by 10:30 Saturday morning. Lauren had done quite a bit when I got there on Friday, and we boxed everything up by Friday evening. But then she told me if the room wasn't emptied, cleaned, wiped down and vacuumed AND everything out  of the hallway by 10:30, we would be fined. You have got to be kidding me. Fined. After paying tuition. So, Saturday morning we arrived at 9:20 to finish up. Uh,yeah. Our original goal was 8:30 but due to unforseen circumstances.....Hey. I didn't even wash my hair. It was just life! We found ourselves thinking that not everything would fit into the two cars we had driven down. That meant we were throwing the contents of my daughter's room into a dear friend's room (who happens to be an R.A and didn't have to leave until Sunday) and THEN moving it all into the two cars. We got it all accomplished by 10:30, but I think I will go buy some of those matching storage containers now...

Art Fair "Do's and Don'ts"

Last weekend was my second time participating in the San Juan Capistrano Art Fair. Business was slower than molasses, so I took the opportunity to take a bunch of pictures while sitting with nothing to do. I kept an account of my thoughts while taking the pictures and came up with a rather helpful "Do and Don't" list.

See what you think:

When you get to the Fair waay early, DO walk around and take pictures of the Mission. The morning light was beautiful and even though it wasn't open, I could see over the walls pretty well.

Do take yummy snacks and books and magazines to discuss with your friend.

Do put on a thick skin. It helps during the time people say, "Honey, don't you want to get that domino necklace for your mom?" And Honey replies, "Naaaaaah."

Don't expect heavy foot traffic the day before Mother's day, like we did. It just wasn't there.

Here is a good one. Don't, by any means drop the "F" bomb on the person waiting outside the bathroom at Starbucks just because she tried the door handle to see if the bathroom was occupied. Especially if you are wearing a name tag that has "San Juan Capistrano Art Fair" on it. And your name.

Because we will find you.

When we find you, we will report you to the director of the Fair. 

Just be glad we didn't buy any of your soap and wash your mouth out with it.

I thought my mother would appreciate this one. Do take a picture of how you can make your walker more festive and share those decorating ideas with someone who has one. Who needs a boring walker, anyway?

While noticing a mother and daughter interacting, do not gawk when the mother tells the daughter she is too young to wear black while the daughter is admiring children's hair bows. Especially when the mother is wearing mostly black. I know it's hard , but do not stare, it's not polite.

This next idea I thought would be especially helpful to all of you.

When you have only made $20.00 in 4 or 5 hours, it might be a good thing to rethink what you are selling. Do think about selling Italian Ices. Everyone seems to like those.

When a customer comes joyously running up to the booth next to yours and announces, "I found the BANK!!!!", do NOT be jealous. Green just isn't a pretty color on some people. Remember the thick skin? It really comes in handy.

The word "bargain" didn't seem to help, either. As in, "the price of the collage is $55.00, but I'm willing to bargain." I will say it helped in the sense that this time the woman didn't put it down and turn tail and run.

When the local musician is playing, and you can't hear your customers because their music is too loud, I'm thinking it would be a good idea to pull the plug on their equipment. WAIT!! I meant Do NOT pull the plug on their equipment. That wouldn't be nice, and you need to play nice.

I do think it's o.k. to have fun people watching. 

This gal was adorable in these sandals (?).

So was this one:

I'm not sure how old you have to be to join the Red Hat Society, but I do hear when you join, you are old enough to wear purple and spit.

Plus you get to make your own hat. How much fun would that be??!

Wendy and I were trying to figure out what sport this gal played. I voted for beach volleyball.

And don't forget our furry friends need lots of shade!

Well, friends, feel free to take any part of this list and make copies of it for your next art fair experience.

My hope is that it will get you through your day with lots of laughter and a great outlook on life!

Much love,