Renaissance Festival
These past few weeks have been incredibly hard for me personally. I've held myself hostage because a lot of issues I've suppressed. The funny thing about hard times is that you see who your real friends are. I am blessed to be surrounded by a number of people who have made me accountable to getting out there and still living. My dear friend, Janae, made plans for me to attend the Charlotte Renaissance Festival. First of all, I've never been to ANY festival like this at all. Second, my excitement was slightly muted by my current trials. Third, I had a helluva good time. We ate food. We saw a show. We had Chicken and Chips. We bought candles. I took pictures like a tourist. I remembered happiness for the first time in a very long time. I have gratitude for the friends that God has sent me. I am eternally thankful for these weekends. Here are a few pictures from that awesome day!
The Day my Family Eloped
This weekend we eloped; we being the whole entire family of me, Jordan, the kids, and the two fur kids. Our elopement was marked by flip-flops, sandy hair, shaggy sweaters, and two overly excited dogs. The Atlantic Ocean was our music and the menu was salt water and jelly fish.
A Holiday
by Ella Wheeler
The Wife
The house is like a garden,
The children are the flowers,
The gardener should come methinks...
The Husband
Impossible! You women do not know
The toil it takes to make a business grow.
I cannot join you until very late,
So hurry home, nor let the dinner wait.
Source: http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/a-holiday-by-ella-wheeler-wilcox#ixzz3lkPCVlEa
This weekend we eloped; we being the whole entire family of me, Jordan, the kids, and the two fur kids. Our elopement was marked by flip-flops, sandy hair, shaggy sweaters, and two overly excited dogs. The Atlantic Ocean was our music and the menu was salt water and jelly fish.
We secretly ran off to become one again.
Our family needed to run off. We literally were forgetting to look at each other.
We needed to have a reason to take a break from the social media, tablets, and cellphones (especially me).
Outside of work, we really don't travel as much as I would like us to travel. (Keywords: as much as I would like us to travel). If my partner had it his way, we would stay within the confines of our 75 mile radius. I, on the other hand, am a born rolling stone. I really MUST have the wind beneath my wings.
This weekend, my dreams were temporarily placated with a trip to the beach. We even brought our fur children with us who got to experience the Atlantic Ocean (and sand, and beach, and wind, and everything else) for the first times in their short little lives.
This was probably one of the shortest most entertaining days I've had in a long time. There's nothing more comforting and absolutely delicious than the looks on my dogs face when they entered the warm ocean for the first time.
xo
Enjoy
Ollie
Around the World in 8 Whole Hours
Once upon a time, I took a trip. The plan was to travel around the world and end up whenever my eyes opened.
That place ended up being Dodge City, Kansas...Wyatt Earp City. The year was 2012.
I doubt people dream of this place when their whisked away at night to dream land. But, this was it. This was the place of my dreams. The spot where my feet decided to plant for an hour or so. A place where the streets were paved with cobblestone, restaurants manned by the world, and abandoned beautiful buildings.
They were absolutely beautiful, the buildings, that is. They were red, blue, green and purple. ROY G. BIV must have fathered enumerable painters and muralists who chose the street names and colors. And, for a gal who liked the color red...oh red..oh how red abounded. I saw my life flash before me in a haze of understanding.
It made no sense...this town. It was literally in the middle of nowhere. It sat roughly 4 hours from Tulsa and 4 hours from the nearest city in Colorado (or maybe even the state line). There were shops and theaters and bars. The Italian restaurant was owned by a Hispanic Family. Yet, I saw no Mexican restaurants. The streets were all frontier. Cowboys lined door frames. Bulls grazed on leaves of stone. Auction blocks ran the town. Many streets had no names.
This was my kind of randomness. My town. It was me.
Maybe that's why I stopped randomly on my way to nowhere in my general tour around the world. Maybe I decided I needed a breath of fresh air. Ya..that was it. Fresh air.
Living Vicariously: The Travels of June Grayjoy/Prague
“I’m dying to tell someone about my trip!”
I wish I could say that as I was responsible for all the wonderful travels that grace the pages of Blue Arden photo. Unfortunately, I am not. However, I am blessed to have friends who travel the world who share their adventures with me and continue to inspire me. In the next few months, I will be visiting June to catch up on much needed friend time. Until then, she continues to send me appetizing pictures of her musings and misadventures (to entice me to move my ticket date up more).
Who is June?
June is my dearest (xoxo) friend I met while on one of many journeys around the US in my quest to learn everything about everything. June just so happens to be my artistic kindred spirit who is, too, in search of something great worth learning on this amazing Earth. She just so happens to be my one and only and first travel correspondent for Blue Arden ;)
Why Prague?
Why not?
What is there to see in Prague?
Lots and lots of frothy golden brew, the astronomical face clock (refer below to June pics), the art movement (contemporary art movement worth screaming for), medieval warrens and saints (actors dressed up as so of course), and much more. June, went to a symphony, museum, and toured one of the oldest cities in Europe!
This past weekend, June went to the beautiful and historic city of Prague (grrrr..shaking in my boots with jealousy). Follow her journey through these awesome pictures:
