HISTORICAL ADVENTURE...

 Thursday morning... we're leaving on a jet plane!!

NOPE!!! not JPE & I...

but, the two girls in RED!

I'm traveling with mom (who celebrated her ?? birthday, May 3rd)

& Katie (who turned 9 on Cinco de Mayo)...

Sadly, we are leaving the "gal in the purple & gray plaid" behind...

She needs to take care of Derek & Matthew!

Oh, you're asking where we are GOING?

Ummm... ALL "history-lovers" need to visit 

the Smithsonian Museums & Washington DC...

psst! we get to visit SLE & MB & Sea-Bass too! we're staying in Arlington, VA --- only five Metro stops from Washington DC.

We'll be posting our adventures!

so, check back tomorrow!

SOMEONE IS WATCHING...

Tuesday evening, JPE & I looked out the upstairs bathroom window

& this is what we saw!

"SOMEONE" was laying in the grass, peeking into the rose garden!!!

trying to figure out how to get inside the wire fence

to nibble on the green, tender, new foliage??

blurry! I know...

no time to focus properly! I wanted to capture a picture before our "SOMEONE" decided to leave!

it was comical - I stood on the kitchen counter to shoot

the first two pictures through the kitchen window!

With a keen sense of hearing,

"SOMEONE" slipped behind the brush in the greenbelt behind our condo. Can you see "SOMEONE" watching us?

We'll be watching to see if our new rose buds get nibbled to little stubs...

P52 {WEEK 20}

SLO County Writing Celebration 5.20.13

Celebrating & recognizing

first-twelfth grade authors!

Last evening, our office (San Luis Obispo Co Office of Education) hosted an awards ceremony to recognize 126 selected authors for this year's academic writing event. ArtsObispo, our local arts council, assisted with the expenses of the event & designed the programs, plus an anthology of winning entries. 

As much as I LOVED formatting, creating and editing this ANNUAL PUBLICATION, it was a great relief to have someone else produce an anthology! Kristi (support staff for this project) & I would spend at least 4-5 weeks putting the SLOCOE publication together. With budget cuts to education, those days are gone, so having agency support was crucial to keep this academic venue preserved.

POETRY OUTLOUD flags

ArtsObispo also coordinates the local Poetry Out Loud Competition (for high schoolers), a national poetry recitation competition sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. 

One event completed, another to go! Tomorrow evening, our local ADL (Anti-Defamation League) advisory board will recognize all the schools & after-school programs who participated in three student-identified projects.

Other than painting & putting our condo back together, I haven't had my camera out...

master bedroom & this bathroom were both painted last weekend... 

Ecru... a nice color to tone down the previous "sage green" tones in these rooms.

the "Creole Cottage" color really warmed up the guest bedroom...

still need to bring in books, hang pictures, etc...

but, the bed is made! 

OKAY Mom... book your visit for June!

I'm participating in Tamar's P52 Project... posting pictures from the previous week (similar to Scavenger Hunt Sunday)... You can see the other participants HERE!

Tomorrow, I'll share details about my next camera adventure! See you Wednesday!

SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY 5.19.13

SHS 5.19.13 

Welcome to SHS - A LOT of painting has taken place in the past NINE days! We've completed painting the hallway, living room, dining room, guest bedroom, master bedroom & master (it's tiny!!) bathroom... and been going to work! Whew!

All my photos this week have been pulled from my photo archive of PERU. I don't believe I've posted any of these yet, so I consider them newly "scavenged" since I had to sift through 2000+ photos to find a match for this week's words: THREE, HAND(S), FENCE, CUDDLY & SIGNS. 

ASHLEY & RAMBLING & PHOTOS is still hosting SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY, so stop by to see the other "hunters"...

THREE blue slides --- seen at a park in Lima, Peru. Set along the ocean, this park in MiraFlores, is located in the "higher economic" area of Lima.

The HANDS of an 18 year old weaver!  near Cusco, Peru. I posted a bit about her HERE --- we purchased a table runner from her.

I couldn't decide which HANDS photo to post! so, I'm posting two!! Lucio, our tour guide in the Amazon River (Peru) showed us a seed pod that can be cracked open & the seeds smashed to produce a brilliant red color that women use on their cheeks & lips.

Laundry hanging on a FENCE...  People in the community of Indiana, (Amazon River) Peru do not think of FENCES as boundaries or divisions between two pieces of property... this FENCE was built in the middle of a public road, across from the public elementary school.

Two little girls (sisters?) CUDDLING with each other. They lived in an "emerging town" on the edge of Lima. The town was a series of dwellings with compacted dirt floors, some with running water, doors & windows. Our tour group purchased soup from a public kitchen that provides food for the community.

SIGNS in Peru... we bought the "tastiest" empanadas (meat & potato pies) at the Horno Tipico on the road to Pisca, Peru. The middle SIGN lists the various drinks available for purchase in the local bar (Indiana, Amazon River, Peru)... we tasted Inka Kola (a syrupy, fruity yellow drink). In Cusco, Peru, we saw this costumed man holding a SIGN reminding people to "use the crosswalks"... our tour guide reminded us that Peruvian drivers do NOT stop for pedestrians!!

Well, that's SHS for now! As always at the end of the school year, it's a time of awards, celebrations & recognition ceremonies. I'm co-hosting two this week (Monday & Wednesday evening)... AND, I've put my paintbrush away until the end of the month. Check back Tuesday & I'll tell you why!!