Today I am going to write about two very special people.  One I just recently met, the other I have known for a few years via the internet and met for the first time last year.  I know this may embarrass them a little, but when two people are so kind, warm and welcoming, the whole world needs to know it.

The two I am writing about are husband and wife, my friends, Jim & Linda. 

Linda and I met online in one of the Tasha Tudor online groups, being Kindred Spirits.  We had known each other for 5 + years and then met in person for the first time in Chicago at the airport last year.  We flew on to the east coast together and spent 5 hours on the tarmac and in the air, plenty of time to get acquainted.  We roomed together everywhere we stayed and just had a blast.  Both of us have a love of old things and thrift shopping, so we hit it off right away!  I had painted her Annabelle doll in exchange for a dress for mine.  I threw that offer out there to the list members and she grabbed it up right away.  That was a perfect trade on both our parts.  For my vacation this year Annabelle and I decided to go see Linda and her Annabelle!  Linda had told me there were so many things she wanted me to see out there.  Things worked out and I was able to go.

Annabelle of Oregon and Annabelle of Montana

Linda's driveway!  This is what welcomes you when you pull up.

First off, I want to say that Jim and Linda are the most positive,  kind and generous couple I've ever met.  They are both very quick to say nice, kind things to you and about you and not in a condescending way.  They are both very true and genuine.  In our travels I noticed that Linda was like that to everyone.  Having been a shop owner herself, she knows what it's like to be on the other side of the cash register.  She was always very pleasant to the waitresses and clerks, so much so that I finally told her she had to quit!  We knew the life history of everyone who waited on us, from lawsuits to triplets!  Kind to a fault, she is. 

Before I left home, Linda said she had some surprises in store.  I could only imagine!  My only request was to go to the famous "bins" she always talks about.  That, my friends, is an entire blog entry in itself.  You'll have to wait for that, but I will tell you that Jim had to work that day and couldn't go with us.  You could tell it on him that he really wanted to go.  They love to go to the bins together and he was obviously wanting to go along, root-hog and see my reaction to the place!  When we got home, we had to have show and tell and show Jim all of our finds.  Linda said it's always that way when he can't go.  He just wants to be a part of it all.  That was refreshing.

When I arrived, Linda told me we were going to go to Port Townsend and stay in a castle, her treat!  What a treat it was.  We had so much fun antiquing and thrifting all over Port Townsend.  I am still in total awe of Linda's generosity. 

Jim and Linda are a perfect fit.  He calls her his bride, even after 35 years of marriage.  They antique together, junk (or thrift shop) together and after all of these years, each knows what the other might be looking for.  They have a wonderful home full of treasures that Linda puts out seasonally.  She has done an awesome job of creating a warm and welcoming home.  I only wish I could be there to see her Thanksgiving collection too!  That's their biggest holiday and Linda certainly has a knack for putting it all together and displaying.  Jim tells me she has won awards for it and it shows.  You can certainly tell she was in retail. 

Linda's Sunday morning breakfast table.

I can tell you that this was nothing out of the ordinary for Linda.  Her table is always set with a beautiful cloth or two and has a centerpiece of some sort.  Cloth napkins and placemats are the norm.  Every day is special at her house.  Notice the jack-o-lantern plates!  She rotates it all with the seasons.  Those cute little custard-looking cups are the cutest things I've seen in a while.  They are shaped like an apple, stem and all, and originally for baking apples, vintage, of course!

I had such a wonderful time I just had to share.

I am putting 85 year old Leda Smith in my Inspiring People category.  She lives outside of Pittsburg, PA and made the news this last week for holding a would-be burglar at bay with a 22 caliber pistol while making HIM call the cops.  She kept him at bay until they got there.   I especially love her comments!

Go Leda!

Today is Cat's birthday.  I met Cat via the Tasha Tudor list and met her in person at the Kindred Spirits Gathering last year.  Cat is a very talented artist and her favorite subject is Corgis!  It's no wonder.  She raises them. 

In honor of Cat, I purchased a vintage Samsonite travel cosmetic case today.  Of course it was at a garage sale and I think I either paid a quarter or a dollar.  I've already forgotten.  Anyway, I almost passed it up, but I loved the deep blue color and it was in good shape.  I remembered what Cat had done with hers and it turned out beautiful.  Take a peek and you will see how inspiring this woman is.

Happy Birthday Cat!  I hope your family spoiled you today!

It is with great sadness that I write this post.  Almost one full year ago I traveled to Vermont and met up with some of my internet Kindred Spirits  We are all Tasha fans. A gathering was planned as well as a tour of her garden.  It was the trip of a lifetime for me and I made some forever friends on that trip.  We are bound by one common thread,  that is Tasha.  My friend, Linda, who was my roomie on the trip, called me today with the news.  She knew I'd be away from the computer this afternoon and she happened to be online with the message came to her.  I was sad, but at 92 she has had a good, long life.  We can't all live forever and the reality of her passing is something we discussed as a group.  We knew the time was not far off.  So now the day has come for Tasha to leave this earthly world.  How fitting for our beloved Tasha to pass under a full, strawberry moon. I shall connect the two always and forever more. Some of you may recall her last birthday was a full moon as well.
Though my heart is heavy with her leaving this earthly world, I am doing just as she suggested.  I am taking joy.  Joy in a life well-lived, joy in a very unique woman, joy in the simple things that Tasha brought to my life and more so, joy for all the friends I've made through discovering her and becoming a fan.  She has influenced so many lives.  Mine is but a drop in the ocean.

Bless you Tasha. God Speed.

I am going to go play dolls with Annabelle.

Blue is my favorite color, but the blue I am talking about isn't a color.  It's the feeling you get when you're down.  For some unknown reason I have had the blues over the past few days.  It just kind of hit me out of nowhere.  Maybe I've been doing too much thinking again.  Maybe it's the weather.  Maybe it's hormones.  Maybe it's a combination of it all. 

I have been thinking of my Grandma lately.  I don't really know why she's been on my mind, but lately she has been.  The Grandma I am writing of is my Dad's mother.  Her name was Juliana.  I named my daughter after her.  As a child, I don't know that I ever heard her name spoken out loud.  If it was, it was probably the German version, Yula, short for Julia.  At any rate, she died when I was about 10 years old and it broke my heart.  I was the daughter of her baby, so I've always felt I got shorted in the Grandma department!  She was a very inspiring woman though.  She wanted to teach me to crochet, but I wasn't ready to learn yet.  My first recollection of her was when I went back to North Dakota with my Aunts after my Grandma's husband died.  We were going back to gather her up and move her in with my Aunt back here in Montana.  She lived there for a while, then progressed to using a walker, then finally bed-ridden in the local nursing home.  To my knowledge she never complained.  She spoke a lot of German, so if she did complain, I never understood it!  :-)  I have a newspaper clipping of her in the nursing home crocheting.  Her hands were bent from the arthritis she suffered from, but she would still hold a crochet hook in her hand.  They featured her resilience!  Truly inspiring.  She never threw anything away and always had a supply of thread to make things with.  When she died, there was a little shoe box of odds and ends of thread all rolled into small balls.  I was given that box and still have it today.  I've never been able to use it for anything.  I just keep it as it was back then.  It's a reminder of my Grandma and her thriftiness.  I am still amazed at the memory of her smile each time we'd go visit.  If she was in pain, I never knew it. 

We mostly visited on Sundays and quite often would roll her in her bed down the hall to church.  The nursing home didn't have a piano so my dad refinished one my Aunt had given us and we donated it in my Grandma's name.  That piano is still there in that nursing home.  They always used to play the old hymns for the church services and to this day a lot of those songs will bring tears to my eyes. 

So even though I've been feeling blue, I have to think of my Grandma in that bed in the nursing home, crocheting away and watching Bonanza on TV.  It all brings a smile and makes me thankful I was born of the same stock.  I know she's up there smiling down at all my farming antics. 

I wrote that I had the first inspiring person in mind.  That person is someone I talk to every day and if I don't talk to her, my day does not feel complete.  She visits here on my blog often and ALWAYS when I tell her to!    It should come as no surprise to her that she's inspiring to me, because I have told her she is!  She is my friend, Sarah. 

For Sarah's 60th birthday she bought herself a chainsaw.  Now that's inspiration!  She goes and gets her own firewood.  She has a milk cow and wants a second one.  She also milks several goats.  I can't tell you how many hundreds of chickens she has because I can't keep track.  She sells eggs to the local health food store.  We have bought 2 of her steer calves to finish off and one is in the freezer.  She raises them on the extra milk.  I also bought my goats from her.  She makes soap with her goat's milk and her link is the first one at the top of my link list.  She puts in a puts up a huge garden every year.  She also raises and sells canaries.  Have I left anything out?  I am sure there's something!  Oh yea, bakes her own bread and has been a trapper for a good many years.

I met Sarah at a Women of the Dirt gathering.  She was quietly sitting in the corner and I went over to say hi.  I felt a connection with her right away and knew she was somebody I'd like and like to get to know better.  She promptly told me this type of thing wasn't for her and she wouldn't be coming back.  She doesn't do meetings!  I told her just the opposite.  She had so much to give and share and we needed her to come back so we could learn from her.  She has lived the homesteading life all her life.  She's not a wannabe, she just IS!  There's not a person alive who couldn't learn something from Sarah!  By the way, that was 2 years ago and she still comes to WOTD.  I often have to drive her, but that's another story.  She's afraid of snowflakes!

Sarah and I talk about a lot of things.  Sometimes it feels like we have known each other forever.  One of the most amazing things about Sarah is how open she is.  If she likes you or something you've done, she'll flat out tell you.  Same goes for the other too, so look out if you've done something she didn't like!    You always know where you stand with her..........well, except those times on the phone when she's thinking!  You know, those pregnant pauses, as they call them!  I just hate it when she gets quiet on me because I never know what's rolling around in that head of hers!

Sarah is not one of those people who will waste away in front of the boob tube.  She's always busy, from sun up to sun down.  No moss grows under her feet and that is a very admirable trait.  I only hope I can be half as active and AS FULL of gumption when I get to be her age.  I am so thankful to have Sarah as my friend.  She is an inspiration and a blessing. 

When Sarah and I are together or even on the phone, one of the things we do is laugh!  We can laugh at just about anything or nothing and do!  And laughter is the best medicine!