S Is For Stars, Shawnee Indian Mission And Smokey The Bear

S is for Stars.

Do you know what these are?  Cast iron stars.  They are actually huge washers used in brick and masonry construction.   They were bolted to the end of tie rods that kept brick walls  connected to the joists.   Sometimes called "masonry stars" or "wall washers", they help prevent walls from bowing and also helped reinforce walls during an earthquake.

S is also for Shawnee Indian Mission, a state historic site, and as you look through these pictures you will see stars like these on the walls.  The Shawnee  Mission was a school where they brought  native children and tried to teach them "civilized" white people skills such as sewing and weaving.  We look back at that period of history with some sadness, and realize that those children should have been allowed to stay with their own families and be raised in their own culture.

Wood shed on the Mission property.

Salad makings in the Mission garden.

Strawberries in the garden.

A strong fence.

Prairie schooner.

And totally unrelated to the rest of the this post... S is for Smokey the Bear.    He taught me to take care of the trees and animals in the forest.   I bet you all remember  "Only YOU can prevent a forest fire".

(This photo was taken by my dad and may not be borrowed or pinned.)

My big sister and I with Smokey.

Hope you enjoy reading all about the letter S on Jenny Matlocks' Alphabe-Thursday.

Also linking to Vintage Thingie Thursday with The Colorado Lady.

Rental, Rummage, Rake, Round-up, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Roadtrip, Retrieve, Ranch, Roam, River, Rest, Recline, Refrigerator, Return, Real, Room, Remove, Raving

The past couple of weeks have been all about the letter R.

We drove north to move our college daughter out of her on-campus apartment into an off-campus rental house, which she will share with several of her friends.  We  rummaged through the boxes and mess and tried to help her get settled in.  Mr. Garden also raked and bagged a ton of grass clippings and leaves.   It is an adorable little house and I think the kids will enjoy living there.

 (Family photos may not be borrowed or pinned.)

We also had to round-up some furniture.  Daughter feels very strongly about the whole  reduce/reuse/recycle concept, so we searched for and found some second hand pieces.  It all cleaned up pretty well.

 (Family photos may not be borrowed or pinned.)

 (Family photos may not be borrowed or pinned.)

She spent several days unpacking after we left.

A week later we took another roadtrip.   This time we headed west to retrieve our son from university and move him back home for the summer.  

We passed several cattle ranches.

And just a few of these:

Wait... go back... taking pictures from a moving car is really hard.    

Can you tell what those little black dots in the grass are?  Bison!    

"Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam...."

Descending down into the river valley where the university  is.

Rested for a few minutes on these orange recliners after loading everything (including a refrigerator) into the car.

 (Family photos may not be borrowed or pinned.)

So, son has returned home and everything has been put away and looks great!  

Ha ha, NOT,  Let's get real!  There are piles of stuff everywhere around the house and it is a mess!

It's one thing if he wants his room to look like that.  But he needs to remove the pile from the downstairs living areas before his mother (that would be me) turns into a raving lunatic and threatens to throw it all away.    

It is pouring rain at the moment.  I think we might float away.  

I'm joining the fabulous Jenny Matlock for Alphabe-Thursday- letter R.  I hope you visit her blog and read all the other fun posts. 

Q Is For Queen Elizabeth II and Queijadinhos

It's Alphabe-Thursday at Jenny Matlock's!!  This is Q week.

I'm also linking to Vintage Thingie Thursday.  There are a lot of fun posts at both locations!!

Q is for Queen Elizabeth II.

(this photo is from the web)

When I was a young girl I lived in Canada.   I grew up singing "God Save The Queen" at school.  Coronation Day was also my birthday.  She was MY Queen.   I was too young to know about  borders between countries, or to understand that I was actually American and not Canadian.

I did figure it all out by about 4th grade.   But  I don't think I will ever stop thinking of her as my Queen.   How I wish I could really meet her.

I recently started searching for Queen Elizabeth memorabilia to collect.   At this time it is still a very small collection, but one that will grow.

A picture of the whole family- King George and his wife Elizabeth, with their girls, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. 

Another tin with pictures of then Princess Elizabeth and her father King George VI.

A pin dish to commemorate Queen Elizabeth's coronation.  

Q is also for Queijadinhos.  (pronounced kay-shaw-JEAN-yohs)
The direct translation is "little cheese".  They are a little Brazilian treat made with coconut, similar to a macaroon.  But they also have parmesan cheese in them, which is where the name comes from.   Our family moved from Canada to Brazil, and I spent a large number of my childhood/teen years there.  So these have been a family birthday and holiday favorite for many, many years and I want to share the recipe with you.

Queijadinhos

2 cups of coconut

1 egg

1 tablespoon flour

2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tablespoon butter.

Mix everything together.

Spoon into mini muffin tin, lined with paper liners.

Bake in 350 oven for about 10 minutes, until just barely tinged with a bit of color on top.

(They are delicious!!  They do stick to the paper liners a bit and  if you are like me, you will find yourself licking the paper liners out to get all those bits of yumminess.  Good thing the Queen is not watching!)

Added May 13: I have had several comments where people have expressed a concern about the cheese ingredient and needing to be "brave" to try these.  Folks, you do not need to be brave.  Do you like cheesecake?  Do you like cheese danish?  Then you will like these too.  There is just an extra rich flavor to these with that little bit of cheese in the recipe.    Please let me know if you do try them.  They really are delicious!

P is for Plaza Penguins Polka Performance

 P is for  Plaza Penguins Polka Performance.

Is that a polka?

 (Family photos may not be borrowed or pinned.)

Or the tango?

 (Family photos may not be borrowed or pinned.)

Texas two step?

 (Family photos may not be borrowed or pinned.)

My baby in blue.

As you know from some of my previous posts, a wee bit of nuttiness runs in our family!  These pictures were taken when my son was still in elementary school.  (6th grade I think.)  He is now at University and probably would be embarrassed to know that I showed these to everybody!

Court Of The Penguins, by sculptor Arthur Craft 
(this pic was borrowed from the web)

The Country Club Plaza, a beautiful shopping district designed to look like Seville, Spain.
(this pic was borrowed from the plaza web page.)

The Plaza lit up for the holidays.  

(this pic was borrowed from the Plaza website.)

I'm linking to the Letter P week of  Alphabe- Thursday at Jenny Matlock's
And
Midweek Blues at The Dusty Cellar.
Thank you  Jenny and Rebecca for hosting!

We Saw Loads Of Pretty Things!

So to continue the story of our trip to the antiques store...   My friend and I saw loads of pretty things.

This purple star quilt was gorgeous!
More quilts.

McCoy pottery anyone?

Look at all that aqua! 

Blue Spice jars.

Majolica.

Biscuit barrels and parrots!

Before I go any further let me just say that my friend and I have been best buddies for forever and a day-  since we were two years old.  And when we get together, we have a lot of fun.  Sometimes we call each other  made up names like "Gertie" and  "Hilda" and pretend we are from Sweden.   We laugh the whole day.    So you will not be surprised....

We saw this hat rack.

She tried on a lovely flowered hat.

A couple of booths down we found a lovely blue number.

In another booth she discovered a green and white hat and decided it matched my outfit!

And while looking at pretty teacups, we found yet another hat. 

Then we behaved ourselves for a little while.

Look at this cool purple Melmac!

And vintage kitchenware.

Beautiful Belleek!

Sweet little Christening gowns!

But then .......  

We found a tambourine!  Jingle jingle!

And believe it or not, in another booth, 

a second tambourine, this one with ribbons attached.  

Just perfect for a gypsy girl!

We saw cool lighting!

She loved a chandelier that had been converted from gas.

I preferred one with blue prisms as big as my hand!

And so the day went.  We laughed 'til we hurt.  The other shoppers probably thought we were nuts.  We didn't mind.   The shop owners might have.  Do you think they will let us come back?   Or will they post a sign on the front door that says  "No shenanigans!"

Aren't best friends wonderful?

Little Houses

My best friend and I  spent the afternoon browsing around an antiques store and look what we found-  Sweet little doll houses!    Aren't these all adorable?

I already have a cute little blue dollhouse, from when I was a girl (see picture below), but I might have to go back and get another one!

They also had some cute furniture.  I meant to take lots more pictures, but somehow this is the only photo of furniture I got.   I might have to go back and see if this one is still there.

And there was a wonderful little cottage rug.  Soooo cute!

And last but not least, they had little cottage teapots!  Someday, one of these will have to join my teapot collection. 

Be sure to check back later this week for more photos.  You will not believe the shenanigans we two girls got up to.  And that's all I'm going to say about that right now. 

I am joining Laurie for Favorite Things Saturday.   Be sure to stop by and see all the Saturday favorites!