Author Archives: Ellen

ABC Wednesday ~ V is for…

V is for Ventura, California

 

On Father’s Day (June 15th) Dear and I took an early morning walk in Ventura, California. We walked along San Buenaventura State Beach to the Ventura Pier and back again. We are having the typical June morning marine layer along the coast in Southern California so the pictures are a bit gloomy.

 

We saw some fun creatures on our walk. A ground squirrel, A Pyrenees Mountain Dog, A Seal, and A Godwit.

 

We also saw some interesting vegetation.

 

This big bush with these interesting flowers caught our eye. The petals look crepe like. I just did a google search and found out this is a Crinkled White Peony…

For more ABC Wednesday posts click over to Mrs. Nesbitt’s.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Ruby Tuesday

 

These photos are from a couple of my walks in search of red. Not exactly sure why I put the snail in the middle. When Willow and I walk she steps on these garden nibblers and there’s a disturbing crunch!

For more Ruby Tuesday posts or to join in visit Maryt at Work of the Poet.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

To the Daisy ~ William Wordsworth

 

In youth from rock to rock I went,
From hill to hill in discontent
Of pleasure high and turbulent,
Most pleased when most uneasy;
But now my own delights I make, –
My thirst at every rill can slake,
And gladly Nature’s love partake
Of Thee, sweet Daisy!  ….

~ William Wordsworth

To read the whole poem you can click here.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Fun Monday ~ Walls

Jan from the Prytz Family is hosting Fun Monday on June 16th. She says… The subject is walls. We all have walls of some sort. What I want to hear about and see, if you’re going to show off your amazing photo skills, is what is on your walls, what color are your walls, what is special about them, what is your favorite or least favorite, is it inside or outside.

 

I am very fortunate to be married to a talented man who was a professional house painter in a former life. He has moved on to a new profession but his skills remain amazing in choosing and applying paint. I chose to show you the walls in our 1 bedroom condo in California. Our living room is a tan color. It was a can of Ralph Lauren oops paint from Home Depot ($5.00). My favorite print on the wall in the living room is our skyline/waterfront of Downtown Seattle. I really like the Blessed Tin Sign and the candle holder on the Norwegian Blue that the kitchen area is painted.

We really love checking the oops paint when we’re ready to paint. The Kitchen is another color that we found in the oops bin. Norwegian Blue for $5.00 a gallon.

Our bedroom and bathroom are a color called Mother Nature and we paid full price for it. No nice greens in the oops pile this time. This water color on the wall is done by Dear’s Aunt Carol.

 

It’s hard to get the photo to show the true color. The color reflected in the mirror is truer to the color.

 

This is part of an old dresser from my grandmother. We salvaged it and Dear added a shelf to the bottom of it and it is hanging in our dining area of the condo. The photograph reflected in the mirror is a self portrait of our daughter. She completed this for an art project in college.

Hope you enjoyed the little tour of my condo. Remember not to be afraid of painting your walls. You can always re-paint if the color is really bad or when you get tired of it :0)

For more Fun Monday Walls head over to Jan’s.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Amgen Summerfest 2008

 

The company my husband works for always puts on a nice summer party for their employees and families. This year they combined it with the company chili-cook-off competition and gave it a Hawaiin theme.

 

The decorations were lots of fun. Even the founders statues got decorated.

We picked up our wrist bands and we were ready to eat, drink, and be entertained.

 

The chili competition booths were all very creative and the chili was cooked by employees and hosted by them as well. We spotted several celebrities serving their chili. Elvis with the cool vanilla bean chili, Gilligan, Lovee and Thurston Howell the third. We also spotted Indiana Jones.

 

There were several stations with many choices of food and drink. The entertainment was great with Polynesian Dancers, Chinese Acrobats of Hebei, Fire Dance, and Denver and the Mile-High Orchestra. Thankfully the weather was nice and not too hot. We’ll never forget the summer fest of 2006 when it was well over 100 degrees.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Hymn for Father’s Day

Happy the Home When God is There

words by Henry Ware, Jr. (1794-1843)

Happy the home when God is there,
And love fills every breast;
When one their wish, and one their prayer,
And one their heav’nly rest.

Happy the home where Jesus’ Name
Is sweet to every ear;
Where children early speak His fame,
And parents hold Him dear.

Happy the home where prayer is heard,
And praise each day does rise;
Where parents love the sacred Word
And all its wisdom prize.

Lord, let us in our homes agree
This blessèd peace to gain;
Unite our hearts in love to Thee,
And love to all will reign.

The top photo is my Father praying at a family gathering. Happy Father’s Day Pop! My parents have always had a deep love and respect for God’s Word.

Happy Father’s Day Dear! Thank you for being a great Father to our children and a man of integrity who honors God’s Word.

The newest Father in our family, my brother Leonard. Happy 1st Father’s Day, Leonard. We love watching you as a Father to the Princess.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Happy Flag Day!

The American Flag
When freedom, from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night
And set the stars of glory there.
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
Then from his mansion in the sun
She called her eagle-bearer down
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of her chosen land.
Joseph Rodman Drake
I borrowed this from Tom across the pond. Thanks Tom for your tribute today to our flag! Tom hosts Sky Watch every week.

 

Inspired by three decades of state and local celebrations, Flag Day – the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 – was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30th, 1916. While Flag Day was celebrated in various communities for years after Wilson’s proclamation, it was not until August 3rd, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14th of each year as National Flag Day.

To read more about Flag Day click here.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Photo Hunters ~ Emotion

 

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy. These are the 4 Bagdanov Sisters. Not the best quality photo but it is full of emotion!

For more Photos on the Emotion theme head over to Tnchick’s.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

Pasta Salad ~ Take One

Dear and I are going to be helping cater a rehearsal dinner for 70 people so I decided to start experimenting with Pasta Salad.

The ingredients I chose this time are Farfalle pasta, persian cucumbers, grape tomatoes, fresh basil, red onion, Perlini (small little round fresh mozzarella balls, and Wish Bone Robusto Italian Dressing.

Here’s what the Perlini look like in their container. And here’s what they look like drained and ready to be mixed in with the rest of the chopped ingredients.

I boiled the Farfalle in generously salted water, then rinsed and cooled them off while I prepared the rest of the ingredients.

All the ingredients mixed together.

 

The salad in a pretty bowl.

 

We tried it last night for dinner and it’s a keeper. Anyone free tonight because there’s way too much for us to eat. That’s the problem with experiments…

Scroll on down for the Italian Wedding Cookie Recipe…

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.