Tuesday, January 20, 2009



Sparrow Salvage
One of my very favorite blogs.

Grace Madel McAfee Parry




Here is a drawing that Mrs. Parry did in junior high school around 1927. I luckily inherited it this week. She was an amazing woman. She was a teacher in a one room school in Eastern Texas. She was an equistrian. She traveled. She was ALWAYS positive and never had a disparaging word to say about anyone. She would turn a negative into a positive and so patient. She watched my two youngest children when I worked. She would make the kids the priority every day. She would play games with them all day long. One day when I was picking up Dylan (he was about 4) she told me that she and Dylan counted to 690 while he was on the potty. She would sit for however long it took for them to do whatever they needed or wanted to do. Even if she watched them all week long she would always tell me she would be glad to watch them so that Ron and I could go out on the weekends. And she meant it.

I looked through my previous postings & surprised I hadn't posted a picture of her. Since I have Mr. Parry below it's only fitting that I have Mrs. Parry too.

Bathroom






A constant work in progress. Still not quite happy with the results but it's getting there. The bones are done but I need more interesting filler. I couldn't make last weekends flea market in Clark County where the Barn boys and Cindy participated. The good news is that the flea market season is gearing up soon! I also see on BH website that the "Glitter Queen" (the lovely Linda and her gorgeous husband Ludmil of Willow Nest ) will be gracing us in August from Texas!!!

The Greatest Generation



Elfed Haydn Parry. My father-in-law passed away, January 4th, 2 days shy of his 90th birthday. He was a Welsh immigrant and proudly served in WWII. He was a member of the "Greatest Generation". A generation that believed that through hard work anyone's dream can come true. A generation that was proud to be an American. A generation that believed in morales and manners. A generation that only blamed themeselves not the government for making misguided choices. A generation that took responsibility and was responsible. A generation that believed in families and strong faith.

He served his country, owned a jewelry store in the Proctor district in Tacoma. Was a Grand Mason (not sure if that is the correct title) and also ran for Tacoma City counsel back in the early 70's. He was extremely opinionated and not very tactful. He didn't win. That may have been a good thing. Ha. He also had his own radio program on NPR called "Yesterday's Sunshine". He loved the music of the 20s. He had amassed a record collection of over 70,000. These were 78's. When the Canadian government found out about his collection & that he had hundred's of Henry Burr's 78's they traveled from Quebec to acquire them for their museum. Many of the records he had were the only ones left that they knew of in existence. Henry Burr is a big deal up in Canada. He was the most prolific recording artist in the early 1900s. Mr. Parry was extremely happy to have these records in their museum/archives.

We grieve for him but we also are very happy that he is now finally back with his Gracie who passed 4 years earlier & not a single day that passed since then that he didn't speak of her with tears in his eyes. They were married 8 days after meeting each other. They were together until her death for over 60 years. They are together again.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

OMG

I figured how to make a hyperlink below. Dang, life is good.

Ink and Peat



Last month on House Martin blog, home to "Ink and Peat" fab store in Portland, I had to have some of the lovely Christmas items pictured. I contacted Pam, the owner, and she was lovely and wonderful enough to send them to me! My present arrived today and I couldn't be happier.

These are pictures from her site. She does floral arranging as well as having a to die for shop. Please check her out at House Martin