Happy Trails

Without a doubt, our stay at the El Capitan was the highlight of our recent hotel adventures along Hwy. 10.  We love the historic properties, and this one opened in 1930, sitting at the gateway to Carlsbad Caverns, the Guadalupe Mountains and Big Bend National Park.

    If you're ever anywhere near Van Horn, Texas

 plan to stop in and take a peek 

or better yet, stay over

  

The accommodations were pleasant and comfortable
(room photos from their website)

The staff was friendly and helpful

  and the lobby was a treat

Through the wooden archway was another sitting area

that led to the dining room, where we had dinner.

 The food was excellent and inexpensive, and the server was sweet.

(sorry I didn't take pictures ~ I had slowed cooked pot roast)

Our table looked out onto the courtyard

Here's the courtyard the next morning

~  and my favorite photo ~

 All in all ~ it was a lovely night's lodging.

If you're interested, link to their website
for more hotel info and photos

Counting My Blessings

xo Susy

I'm goin' down the road to Vintage Inspiration Friday

and Pink Saturday

and playing with PicMonkey (:

Texas Notes

Well y'all ~ it's time for my first Note Card Party, and I have my party dress on and I'm ready to two-step.

The rules are: select four previously published pix you think would make great note cards, and link up.  I can do that!

On a recent road trip to a reunion, we enjoyed genuine Texas hospitality and BBQ on a ranch near Johnson City.  While the guys were swapping war stories, I wandered off and took pictures.

  Here are four I think are worthy of another spin around the dance floor ~

 

Having owned a gift store in the past, and purchased many a note card, I wonder how card sales are these days ~ what with the popularity of email and social media.  I have hand-written thank you cards on my desk right now, waiting to be addressed.  Sometimes an email TY is just not enough.

 
Back to Texas; our appetite was not confined to the ranch.  We stayed two nights in town, and ate dinner both times at the Silver K Cafe which boasted "rustic elegance" and "hill country cuisine".  We weren't disappointed on either count.  Their "supper" menu included honey pecan fried chicken, and smoked blackberry pork chops.  My husband is still talking about the homemade cinnamon ice cream.

[We tried not to eat our way through the trip, but there were some things too good to pass up.]


If you'd like to see some other Note Card Party presentations, hop on over to Vee's.

  Party dress not required.

Counting My Blessings,

xo Susy

Mother

I had a mother that sewed for me.

For as long as I can remember she made my clothes.

For many years after I was grown and married, I longed to go to the fabric stores in early fall to pick out material and patterns for new school clothes.

It was part of the rhythm of my life.

She made clothes for my dolls when I was little, and fancy party dresses for my ballroom dance classes.

Every day of  the last week of high school, I came home to find a new dress laying on my bed.  If I admired a blouse in Seventeen magazine, she'd make it for me, without a pattern. And just like Scarlett, she once made a dress for me out of the drapes curtains! 

When she was just 22 years old, she left Oklahoma, along with her best friend, and headed to California.  They aimed at Hollywood, like so many starry-eyed young women do, but not to be in the movies; they wanted to make clothes for the stars. They landed jobs with the Designer to the Starlets, Howard Greer.  She fitted and sewed for the likes of Susan Hayward and Rita Hayworth.   

In Los Angeles, they met and married their husbands, and raised their families ~ and they remained best friends all their lives.

She was quite beautiful, in my eyes; a refined lady.  She was proud of her English heritage, and her father who was a preacher.  Her family came first above everything else, and we knew it ~ a legacy that few too many enjoy.


A special keepsake that my sis made for me, is a
 piece of vintage ribbon that has our mother's picture on it and a small gathering of buttons from her button boxes.

I spent hours of my childhood dumping the buttons out on her bed and  playing with them while she sewed.  Nothing could be more fitting or significant.

It hangs on my dresser mirror, where I see it every day.

She remains the single greatest influence in my life; and the one

 that lavished on me unconditional love.

Wishing you all a very happy Mother's Day.

Counting My Blessings,

xo Susy

I'm celebrating at Spiritual Sundays
Vintage Inspiration Friday
Show and Tell Friday