Gratitude and Giving

I am adding a new photo but leaving the charity info up for another few days.
Happy Tuesday. Dec 1st!!!


In this beginning of the season of giving and sharing , I hope we can all remember to be grateful for our lives and what we have and to remember that there are so many who go without. I have three charities I want to share and am providing links to them so if you feel so inclined you might give just a little to each one or even one and expand your heart chakra and make a family feel that there are people out there who care about them. First is the American Cancer Foundation and the team epe in hopes to find a cure for cancer which affects so many of us, our family our friends and a dear friend Laura Slocum who has ovarian cancer. Please click on her face on the right and you will go to where you can donate to the cause.

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Second is the Heifer Foundation, get involved, give hope in the form of a cow, sheep, goat, chickens, ducks, a beehive for as little as $20 teach your children that we are all in this together on planet earth and what better way than to send a family in need an animal that will help them to help themselves. My mother has always given my daughter a flock of chickens on her birthday instead of a toy or gift, this has been good, because it has given her a sense of belonging to the world that she has made a difference by having a family have something to help them survive instead of another video game or pair of jeans she doesn't need.
Her is a link to their site, please check it out and show your kids, no matter what age. My teen who is 17 is donating all her profits in her Colourshoppevintage store on Etsy to getting a CBC or as she calls it, a Cow before Christmas for the Heifer group. So far she has saved $100 and I am matching every penny she saves for it. If interested you can donate directly to her or to the foundation and specify you want it to go towards a cow and let us know and we will add to it. "The idea behind Heifer ... is similar to the notion that it's better to teach a man to fish so he can feed himself than to give him a fish that will feed him just once. One animal could eventually benefit an entire community."
Here is the link HEIFER international~pass on the gift
Another wonderful cause is

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Collateral Repair Project~ a group of women in Amman Jordan who have been helping the refugees of the Iraq war who came to Jordan when the bombing started years ago without work visas because they feared for their lives and their children, and considering how many died in Iraq this was probably something any of us would have done to protect our kids. I read about this woman who started the program and how she is trying to keep young girls from dancing in strip clubs because that was the only labor that was possible due to the fact that Jordan refused to give work visas to the parents, many middle class and also many professionals such as nurses and teachers, unable to work. SO these women joined forces to help the refugees there and its snowballed into them making and selling their crafts and the kids are now going to school after being unable to for years. If you read their stories and see their faces, you will not believe how much they appreciate the care. Its called Collateral Repair Project. In some way our country has created their situations because we bombed Iraq and many thousands were displaced due to that and none of us truly can imagine what the families have gone through, innocent kids and families caught up in the war. If interested please check their site. I recently gave a gift of $25 to my sister as a birthday gift and I know she knew it was a wonderful idea and was grateful.
here is the link Collateral Repair Project
I am grateful to be here in America and not a day goes by I don't imagine how hard it would be anywhere else.
Have a wonderful thanksgiving weekend with family and friends. Remember to give in this season of shopping and spending.

November is such a Wonderful Month~shop online

Bluemoon Rose's Shop on Etsy~Bridget Clancy
click her name to go to the shop to see this wonderful hat!




Sharon Clancy wonderful Jewelry
click here to go to her store


Krysta Alves store Poppylove
click here to go to her store


Rita Clancy's Colourshoppevintage store


My neice Amy Clancy's Swirly Hats Perfect for Christmas Gifts
click above to go to her store


I think we should all shop on Etsy and am going to promote my sisters, daughter and niece who all have shops on Etsy and, these are all items that would please anyone in your family. Click the link above the items to go to their stores.

I am getting excited as I am heading to Eugene Oregon to see my daughter and her children and my sister and nieces and their children for Thanksgiving. Its the first time I have ever traveled at This holiday and although I don't look forward to the long trip taking almost 11 hours and 3 stops I will be happy to be there and see everyone and I might as well get used to the rain as I am moving away from the sun and back to BLuegene after being gone for more than 20 years. I spend every summer there except the last one and now to move back will be so nice and be near all the kids and the university and the saturday market and museums and 2 hrs from Portland.. I will soak up as much sun here in Arizona as is possible before I go and come back and visit here often.
Enjoy Thanksgiving and remember to be grateful for what we have.

Blanche Ollie and her Christmas Doll

This is a retouched photo I did for Etsy. The little girl's name was Blanche Ollie. Her mother was the school teacher I listed a few days ago named Blanche Mae Mcquillan. She had one daughter, Blanche Ollie, named after her uncle Olander Young. She was a lovely child in every way and just by looking at the photos they took of her growing up getting married and having one child of her own she was well rounded, could shoot a rifle and also cook and became a teacher like her mom. ITs funny, her mom was an only daughter/child and so was she and her own child a single girl who also had one daughter a girl. How unusual is that. Just one girl for 4 generations. I love this photo of her because she really shows through her eyes how much she loves her doll. The original was 1by 1 inch. click the link to see it bigger in my store. I love the fur coat on her doll, so cute!

veterans day~ bow your head!

I think we should all bow our heads for a moment and be grateful for all the men and women who gave their lives for wars. I don't know how they did it. Life seems like such a fragile and short stint as it is and for them to go into a job knowing they might die, well...its almost unimaginable! So I bow my head in respect. I hate war and despise those who sit in Washington not getting their hands dirty while they send men and women to do the dirty work. But really they are not in the equation today. Its about those fallen who gave up living to die for others.
Lets hear it for them. Lets work to not lose any more!

Monday morning still dark out~nov 9th

This photo was made from foliage from my front yard area, well in front of my condo, which is my front yard. I am going out today to take more photos as I don't want the last days of fall and the beautiful colors that are out there to disappear before I get some memories. This is my last fall in Sedona and I am trying to relish every minute of it. It was still warm enough yesterday with a warm breeze blowing that we left the doors open all day. I took a very long walk with Blue and soaked in every ounce of sunshine I could get before coming home and working the rest of the day.
We hardly ever eat red meat but last night I was longing for a steak and so I cooked a nice NY, a small one and split it w Rita. Yellow finn roasted potatoes, broccoli and a pumkin cookie homemade from the health food store to split. I ate small portions of everything and felt great afterwards.
I keep thinking about how fortunate we all are here in America. We have had our trials and hurricanes and political divisions but really for the size of our country we are doing really well. I think we forget alot of the time that we have it so good. This month for me will be about being grateful and so far I think I am. I have a wonderful family, children, parents and friends. I wouldn't trade any of that for another life. I think because I read Ram Dass' book in the 70s"Be Here Now" I always keep a mantra in the back of my mind, he said everything that happens in life,"It's all just grist for the mill". I guess I love that as it incorporates grain and that is really what life is about, bread and surviving and loving your life. So my little mantra for you is to be grateful. It frees up so much of the fear we can always slip back into. Have a wonderful day and an awesome week!

Blanche Mae McQuillan School TEacher Colorado 1909

I really must share the story of a young woman from Salida Colorado. Her name was Blanche Mae McQuillan. she was born in Nebraska to a Railroad father and stay home farm mother. She went to Salida with her family by age 5 and never left. She traveled but never moved from Salida. She married a young man named Roy Young who was also from Nebraska moved to Salida. She was an only child, they had one child, but her husband was one of 12. She went to teacher's college in Colorado and then immediately took a job alone at a young age of about 19 or 20 working on a farm not far from her home in Salida on the Watters ranch. She had a log cabin school house and taught over 20 children, many who belonged to the Watters family and the hired hands' children. Every child was dressed to the tee despite living on a ranch. Clean and spic and span and she worked there a year living on the ranch. This photo of her could be when she first arrived. Some how there was always a camera around or people taking photos so that lucky for me I have 3 full albums of her family, well, it really is mostly of his extended family. Her sister in law Pearl Huston was the youngest of the 12 children of the Young family and she was also a school teacher out in Gunnison county. Women went to college and then into the wilds back then. This image is that of a strong woman who spent many years in her golden years, putting together a genealogy which is hand typed, that I aquired when I bought her albums. I am not sure what to do with it. The details go back to civil war era.
This is Blanche. She aged gracefully. Her husband worked for Texaco for awhile in Salida that is from a photo they included. If interested in following her story I will be listing the images of Blanche and her photo album family for the next few weeks on my eBay store which you can get to from clicking on the girls on the right who are swinging.
History is an amazing thing-let us not forget, those who came before us and how they paved our way.