If you allow me to go back a couple months to February, I want to tell you all about another Sisters on the Fly adventure I went on in the mountains of Tennessee. The very first Sister I met way back in 2010 was Peggy Richmond down at the Country Living Fair in Stone Mountain, GA. Peggy welcomed me, offered me something to drink, invited me to see her vintage trailer, and we have been Sister Friends ever since! She is currently the Wrangler for TN and if she plans a gathering, you do your best to attend. |
Meadow Creek is a rustic facility with a big lodge, cafe, stables, and beautiful scenery. There are 6 rooms with king beds, a common area with a big dining table, gas fireplace, and kitchen. Peggy couldn't have picked a better place to house our fun. Thanks for picking up your Artists Postcard and have a terrific Sunday!
Here are two photo albums: downtown Elloree and one last bunch of Santee Snapshops . . . enjoy! Well thanks again for taking time to pick up your Postcard from Santee. Tomorrow I'll take you back to February and another trip with Sisters on the Fly. Have a terrific weekend!
Describing Sisters on the Fly comes easy . . . adventurous women, laughing women, women who will dress up in a heartbeat, women who put on their big girl panties and do something they never dreamed they would do in ten lifetimes, women who love to decorate, women who love to cook while camping, women with baggage and loss in their lives, women who love a challenge, and women who have more fun than anyone! Since 2010, this is what I have come to expect when hanging out with my Sistahs. There were 75+ gathered this past weekend for "Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude" hosted by 5 terrific gals from South Carolina. When you let Peggy Randall, Christine DeLong, Jennifer Megliore, Paula Hunter, and Tammy Mathison plan a gathering, rest assured that it will be a weekend to remember! These Sisters handled a not-so friendly park ranger with calm, herded cats for a group photo, put together a welcome bag full of goodies, coordinated 3 breakfasts and 3 potluck suppers with ease, organized a basketmaking demonstration, luncheon at the Teapot Museum, and a Saturday morning boutique with style, and made every single one of us feel special. Cheers to our Hostesses!!
Here are some snapshots from our weekend and what happy campers look like . . . Some of you might know the story of my friendship with my Lowcountry, South Carolina buddy, Linda Harrell. We actually met in Waynesville, NC over the counter full of Native American flutes. We struck up a conversation that day almost 20 years ago and it's been going strong ever since. In March of 2007, we both purchased our first camper. Hers is a spiffy little yellow T@B and you know about my Splash. Now the incredible part of this is that her SunshineT@B is #2486 and Splash is #2487 . . . that means they led and followed each other down the assembly line! This past weekend down at Santee State Park, we were able to camp with each other once again. Spending four days with Linda and catching up on family, fluting, and camping was beyond special for me. Back in 2007 when Linda first stared camping, she took a pine needle basketmaking class up at the John C. Campbell Folk School. To say she has perfected her craft is an understatement. She is a juried artist at the South Carolina Artisan Center, an award-winning basketmaker, blogger, and artist! Friday morning at our Sisters on the Fly gathering, Linda shared her pine needle baskets with us. She told us about the history of the baskets, how she began her artistic journey, answered questions, and let us touch and see her baskets up close! Needless to say, we were impressed!
It's hard to believe I haven't sent out any Postcards since November! I have no excuses, but I do apologize to those of you who look forward to their delivery. So let me rectify the situation and get one in the mail to you today. This past weekend I checked another South Carolina State Park off my list with a trip to Santee with the always wild and crazy Sisters on the Fly. The occasion was a gathering called "Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude". Normally held closer to the coast, this party was moved inland this year to a new location. With Splash behind us, Splish the Canyon and I made the trip in just a tad over four hours. It was a beautiful day to travel and I enjoyed seeing new landscapes in Orangeburg County. Located in between Santee and Elloree, SC, the 2,500-acre park sits squarely on Lake Marion in an area of SC called the Midlands. Splash and I set up camp in the Cypress View Campground upon our arrival. The other campground in the park is called Lakeshore and it was quite a distance away from us. With a more rustic feel and sites closer together, I'm glad we were where we were. None of the sites in Cypress View sit right on the water, but most have water views. With 2,500 acres, you can imagine how spread out things are. Luckily the bathhouse was mere steps away, LOL, as were our hostesses' campsites. 30 cabins, 2 boat ramps, 10+ miles of biking and hiking trails, the biggest lake in SC at 110,000 acres, a terrific general store, Visitor Center, and 6 picnic shelters, this park has everything a camper could ever want! When camping on South Carolina lakes, I always look forward to sunrises and sunsets over the water. Unfortunately, our campground location didn't lend itself to spectacular views. But I was still able to capture a couple nice morning and evening shots. Would I return? Probably so if I could get a similar campsite and if Becky and the pups were with me.
Thanks for dropping by to pick up your Postcard! Until tomorrow when there will be another ready for delivery, y'all enjoy your day! Our friendship with Beth Fedorko began on a Saturday in Williamsburg during Grand Illumination one December. Becky and I would head straight to Trinkle Hall on the campus of William & Mary for a Christmas craft show. In a small booth in the center section of the great hall, we met Beth for the first time. Her creations immediately caught our eye because they contained vintage pieces of Christmas memorabilia that we recognized and loved from our childhoods. Her booth was crammed full of holiday fun and also crammed full of people! I don't remember what Becky and I bought on that day, but we have been avid collectors of Beth's work ever since. She stopped doing the William & Mary show several years ago, but opened an online store called Dime Store Chic. And our collection continued to grow. For a few years now, Becky and I have wanted to travel up to Chantilly, VA to the Northern Virginia Vintage Christmas Show where Beth is one of the vendors. This year it finally happened! Becky, Sue, and I were in line before the doors opened and we knew exactly where Beth's booth was located. Our game plan was to high tail it there first. Needless to say, lots of other collectors and fans had the same idea! Not only does Beth construct Christmas pieces, she features all the seasons with her artistic flair ~ fall, Halloween, winter, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, and the 4th of July. Her online store makes it easy to view and purchase things year round. If you find Beth's creations as irresistible as Becky and I do, then follow Dime Store Chic on Facebook. Or go to her online store HERE. I have tried my hand at making a few pieces and Beth is definitely my inspiration.
Thanks for dropping by today for a little Christmas cheer Postcard, vintage-style. See ya back here tomorrow! A couple weekends ago, Becky and I drove up to Chantilly, VA for a weekend of fun with Rich and Sue. The primary reason for our trip was to go to the Northern Virginia Vintage Christmas Show at the Dulles Expo Center. But with every trip like this, a lot more fun happens. So I'm finally getting around to sending you some Postcards from that weekend. First up . . . the National Postal Museum. Since neither Rich nor Sue had ever been before and because it's one of my favorite Smithsonian museums, that's were we headed on our cold and windy Saturday morning. We parked across the street at Union Station. I always love strolling through Union Station and watching people come and go. Maybe someone was watching us too as we paused in the central hall. Becky and I zipped through security, but Sue set off every alarm they had, LOL. Once inside, we immediately noticed a brand new gallery to our left, the William H Gross Stamp Gallery. The last time we were there, offices occupied those spaces. Seven individual galleries explore America's postal history from colonial times to the present. Visitors learn how mail has been transported and the wondrous diversity of postage stamps. I collected stamps during my childhood so I loved the new exhibition spaces! In the museum you will see Amelia Earhart's flight suit, the handcuffs used to apprehend the Unabomber, Owney the Dog (stuffed mascot of the Railway Mail Service), the famous Inverted Jenny postage stamp, a kid's corner where you can design your own stamp, and much much more.
Happy post-Thanksgiving and I gotta scoot because it's time for LRU's football playoff game. Thanks for dropping by to pick up your Postcard and GO BEARS!! Yesterday I walked over to the camp store to pick up a couple of postcards and a sticker I had seen earlier. This pretty much describes our days here at Myrtle Beach State Park because we have definitely been chillin'. Sue told me this afternoon that she and Rich have really enjoyed being here because they have been kicking back too. Our Wednesday here was filled with everything that I love . . . a slow start to our day, junkin' with Sue and Bec, lunch at Hamburger Joe's, relaxing with my Beach Peeps, and cooking for our 6:00 potluck supper. Another campfire rounded out our chill pill Wednesday on the Coastal Caravan V. Thanks for picking up your Postcard from the coast. See ya tomorrow!
A big ole hi hello from James Island where it is an absolutely gorgeous Saturday morning on the CCV! I've got places to go and things to do this morning, so I gotta get this Postcard written and sent post haste. Yesterday the Beach Boys & Girls were out and about all over the Low Country. Our morning was spent trying to find a replacement contact lens for Becky who was missing vision in her right eye. Success at Walmart in West Ashley! Lunch followed at Boxcar Betty's for some de-lish fried chicken sandwiches (the only thing on the menu). Ice cream treats at Ye Old Fashioned Ice Cream on the return trip. A quick stop at Crosby's Seafood on Folly Beach Road netted us a couple pounds fresh local shrimp for supper. We had a Beach Boys & Girls potluck supper at 6:00 at the Luke/Zadoff beach house. The bugs were out and biting, so some of us gathered in the Rec Building for games and cards. I was the big winner at the Oh Hell table. That's the condensed version of our Friday on James Island with the Beach Boys & Girls. Now I gotta scoot to get this Saturday started!!
When I was out strolling yesterday morning and getting some snapshots, a lady on a bicycle stopped and asked me if Daisy was my trailer. I said no but I had one similar to it. Then she asked the question: "Is this a coincidence or was this planned?" When we travel in a caravan and camp as a group, we get lots looks, interest, and questions. Hers was a good one! I explained what our Coastal Caravan was all about and she rode off satisfied. What also not a coincidence is all the fun we have, the different ways we decorate, the pets we travel with, the myriad of interests we have in terms of sight-seeing, how we love to eat, and our love for one another. Here's what I'm talking about . . . Now for the love part of the equation. This week we are missing one of our own. Mary Moren has been a part of our Coastal Caravan family for three years and should be parked in site #10 in her brand new Ollie. But she lost her battle with cancer on September 16th and we miss her beyond words. Last night we held a celebration of life for her around the campfire. I bought fabric with hummingbirds on it (Mary loved hummingbirds) and we all made prayer bundles to put in the campfire. Inside that prayer bundle was a personal message that each of us wrote to Mary. We dropped them into the campfire and watched as the smoke carried our messages to her. My dear friend Kathie played the Native American flute in my place. Lois brought sparklers and our tears quickly turned to laughter as Mary's celebration continued. Our camping friend will always be with us as we gather together with this family of Beach Peeps that we love so much. Is this a coincidence, this love, these friends? No. It is intentional and we would have it no other way. It's also no coincidence that this photo showed up in my Facebook Memories today!!
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