This is a mosaic of my laundry room.
I've updated my tutorial on the new blogger interface
here. This one is about blogger wanting you to upgrade for more storage space and telling you that some photos and/or posts will be deleted because you're using too much space. You really need to read this tutorial. Go to the bottom of the tutorial for a bit of advice on what other options you have.
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As I've stated before, my hubby is a retired Marine. We've lived in the Western part of the U.S. most of our lives and I can't imagine living anywhere else. When he had to go overseas twice in our years in the Marine Corps, it separated us for a whole year. He was on unaccompanied tours, which means that our kids and I had to stay stateside. Since he was in nuclear weapons, he wasn't allowed into Vietnam or any war zones for which we were grateful. But it was very difficult being without a hubby for a whole year and only communicating by letters and through short wave radio contact. By that I mean,
I'd go through a local ham radio operator via a phone connection here in the U.S. and hubs would go through a ham radio operator where
he was. That way of communicating left us with no privacy; the ham radio operators heard everything we had to say and we'd both have to say "Over" when we were through talking so the other person could talk. So you cell phone users have no clue how it used to be. Very inconvenient to talk personally about situations at home if need be. "Love you. Over" doesn't quite convey its message! Personal things took weeks to resolve if a situation at home had to be addressed through letters. Yes, letters. There was no instantaneous email at that time. And with 2 kids there was
always something.
Anyway, the first time he went to Asia, I stayed with my parents in San Jose. The second time he went overseas I decided to go back east to Pennsylvania to be near his family so they could become better acquainted with their grandchildren. Our kids were their first grandchildren. Hubs has 7 sisters and 1 brother. Hubs is the second oldest. With all those kids you'd think they'd have scads of grandkids. Not true. There are only 15 and that's kind of small for such a large family.
Anyway, we settled into the town next to them, just about 15-20 minutes apart but I didn't see them but 3 or 4 times that year. It was a small town, at that time probably 11,000 people and today the population is at about 13,000 people so it's not had a lot of growth in 40+ years. It was difficult for me because it was a place where people were born, lived and died in that same town, sometimes never leaving its local boundaries. We were newcomers, Californians and well-traveled besides. You had to be just a few certain ethnicities or you didn't fit in, very different from California where there is such a glut of just about any ethnicity you can find. My kids struggled. And if not for one of their teachers being an ex-Army man I doubt they would have survived. He went out of the way to help them fit in. I don't remember his name but he was very kind to them—the new, strange Californian arrivals. We were viewed very differently, especially when we talked.
Now, Californians for the most part don't have a regional accent. But that part of the country has a very, very specific accent. It's a tri-state accent I can pick out of a crowd anywhere. I can tell if you're from that part of the country. A sort of SE Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey tri-state area accent. Very distinguishable for us from the Western part of the U.S. Hubs sounds nothing like his brother or his sisters! I have no clue how he didn't develop that accent but he hasn't. The only things he pronounces funny—to me anyway—is
saw and
water. Saw sounds like
sol and water sounds like
wooder. I've kidded him about it for 51 years!
This is getting kind of long and I have another story to tell concerning this but I'll leave it for another time, but I shall reference this in that blog so you can read both if you miss this one.
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An easy-to-make outdoor shower. I think I’ll try to get Love Bunny to make one in our backyard just for fun.
A cute quaint stucco cottage with a couple of pretty espaliers against the front entrance.
Beautiful shades of blue, especially that bowl on the table.
Smile. Just some pretty papers in a pretty pink bucket to delight your little peepers.
What a bedroom this would be to have!
Looks to be a beautiful residence in a large city. I love that they fly the American flag. I thought the other flag might be a Texas flag, but it isn’t. Probably their “heritage” country flag.
Go ahead and sigh; I know you’re loving this home.
This almost looks like a beach house but I have no idea where it is. Pretty though.
What a beautiful entrance to both houses this is. I’d take the lower one though because I hate climbing steps now. But I’d sure love to have those others for my neighbors though. ☺
Beautiful pool and spa.
This looks to be in another country. Notice they didn’t go buy an expensive umbrella; they just tied up a tablecloth or sheet to each other’s houses to shield them from the sun in their common area. Peaceful co-existence.
A pretty little garden with roses to greet you at the entrance, tipping their little heads with delight as they drink in the sunshine. Grand performance!
A sweet vintage cabinet someone adapted to their bathroom needs.
Now, I want you to notice the tiny dimensions of this bathroom. A typical bathroom in a typical sub-division house hallway. BUT with a tile floor adding the biggest pizzazz I’ve ever seen to it! Stunning!
Another example of tile adding pizzazz to a bathroom.
