Tag Archives: Love

Just Maui’d – 25 Years Before and After

Today we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.  Well actually we are still celebrating…..

Thank you Gail for sending us this picture from 1996.

We went back to the same beach today with a tripod in hand and snapped this:

Same beach – same time 25 years later

Much to My Surprise

I looked back to see when we last blogged. It was November 2019!

Holy $h!+ Batman has a lot changed since then.

Bill and I had just returned from  South America – altitude sickness, messed up travel plans because of Yellow Fever and being caught up in the riotous ousting of the Bolivian president for election fraud made up for a conundrum of a trip.  (Click on photos to enlarge).

No sooner did we return to our little slice of heaven in Charleston and our twin granddaughters were born. They were a month early – their mother extremely grateful for that. Talk about living tiny – they were busting at the seams!

Bill and I in a moment of joyous bliss (when we heard the impending news) lost our minds and committed to babysitting 3 days a week for a year while the girls’ parents figured out balancing life, work and two babies.

Ponder our situation. Staying put was going to be our challenge – not watching babies!

Two months into our routine Covid happened.  Kids kept their jobs and so did we.

Routines didn’t change except for the added use of Lysol wipes, hand sanitizer and wearing face masks. 

At first we relished in the eery quietness of our daily strolls around downtown Charleston.  The community came together –  storefronts signs and chalked sidewalks were messaged with words of unity. As time passed and the chalk marks faded, for lease signs flourished as Charleston shuttered business after business.

In September our home in Indian Wells, California sold. We masked up and headed West to empty the house and sell the treasure we had collected over the years.

My heart was heavy as each person carried away a momento from our moving sale. We passed on stories that perhaps they too could pass on.

Tiny living in Nevada and South Carolina meant there was no room to keep things. 

By about the fourth day of dealing with the massive lockdowns in California vs having come from a state that had opened most things up we were suddenly over our sadness of selling. We shortened our trip and got the hell out of Dodge. 

Adiós Gavin. 

We feel for you California. ❤️

It was bittersweet.  The end of one chapter and the beginning of another…

We drove a few personal items back to Nevada (enough to necessitate renting a Store-all). Visited with family and friends and headed back to job numero uno.

Babies cooed, rolled over, crawled and walked. Before we knew it our time was up.  What a difference a year makes.

Christmas 2019

Christmas 2020.

Bill wanted to leave the country and old scaredy-pants here asked for a compromise. So we flew to Nevada to shoot ducks and geese and to catch up with family and friends.

 

After a month we have flown to Hawaii. 

Feels like a different country but there’s American healthcare.

First stop – Maui to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary where we said “I will”.

(Prepping for our marriage vows  Bill asked me to ask him specific questions where he could answer “I do”.  

The hippy who married us apparently didn’t get the memo and asked us questions where the only appropriate response was “I will”!)

I will laugh at your jokes. I will let you do the dishes. I will love you for a life time and I will travel the world with you!

We pray that all is well in your life. PLEASE tell us about you in the remarks!

Photo of the Day 329

A pro deep frying turkeys today for a community dinner. Delicious.

North Charleston, South Carolina

November 24, 2016

#deepfried #turkey #quick #juicy #delicious #prosatwork #helpingservethanksgivingdinner #generouscommunity #loveoneanother #thankful #grateful #happythankgiving #photofrommyday2016 #photooftheday #iphoneography 

Photo of the Day 290

Raindrops keep falling on my head.

#documentlife #documentdublin #landscapes #picolgy #streetlight #streetphotography #streetart #sonya7rii #colors #cityscape #city #photofrommyday2016 #photooftheday #photography 

Dublin, Ireland

October 16, 2016

Burning Man 2016 Captured on Camera

This year was our 7th burn. Never the same. Magical – enriching with a whole lot of love going on.

Click on any photo to see full framed and in a slideshow format.

Enjoy!

If you see a photo of yourself and want a full sized copy – shoot me an email at paige@paigeshaw.com and I’ll be happy to share.

If you ever become disenchanted with the world go to Burning Man – it will restore your faith in goodness and love.

Photo(s) of the Day 235

Spent the day in my art room ramping it up for Burning Man 2016.  This year’s theme is Da Vinci’s Workshop – I must have been channeling him in some minuscule way…

My primary project was to reinvent a top that I crafted for 2012’s burn (bra, feathers and a broach) by adding fringe, gold glitter dots and chain. The skirt was 2012 project using leather, scraps of material, fringe and jewelry bling.

Before…Burning Man 2012

Camino de Santiago Portugues Day 11

Bill made it to 70 today! He said we were either going to have a celebration of life or a parrrtay! He is the first male in his family in generations to live this long. Something that can’t be topped since he is the last male Shaw.

Bill, feeling more alive than ever stepped out in front of all us. We struggled to keep up!

It was supposed to rain today but the skies parted and stayed clear as we walked through acres upon acres of vineyards and rose bushes galore! 27,279 steps and 11.55 miles later we rolled into Ponte de Lima – the oldest in Portugal.

Bill got to choose where we sleep tonight and it’s the Municipal Albergue. He wanted Chappy to have a real taste of Camino living. Chappy couldn’t be happier – he gets to sleep with 9 women at the same time.Tomorrow 1 inch of rain is predicted – 100% – all day! On a good day the path is muddy and the steepest climb of the whole Camino….  Here’s hoping for the best.

Corn dryer


From yesterday’s Corpus Christi Day



Washing laudry at the river

Poop patrol

Photo of the Day 147

A gathering place. Tonight – Bill’s birthday eve dinner in the kitchen of our Casa on the Camino. 

#billsgoingtobe70in4hours #surroundedbylove #breakingbread #caminobuddies 

Balugâes, Portugal

May 26, 2016

Camino de Santiago Portugues Day 10

It’s the first day that we started with blue skies! We relished in the day knowing that tomorrow and the following 2 days will bring rain. Saturday it is predicted to rain up to 2 inches!

Today we walked a quick 8.9 miles with about 20 other pilgrims. It’s like an accordion – you bunch up and expand – bunch up and expand.

We took our last “vacation” day yesterday to visit the town of Braga – rich in history and known to have the first cathedral in Portugal. Originally, we were supposed to celebrate Bill’s birthday on this vacation day but like the weather (literally and figuratively) plans  change….

We are now luxuriating at the magnificent Quinta da Cancela in Balugâes – built in 1736.  We have it all to ourselves – the owner is having dinner ordered in and we will begin to celebrate Bill’s impending 70th birthday – 4 hours and counting.

*** I changed the settings on this blog so you can now comment easily – no form to fill out. Please add your name if you want so I know who to respond to. XOXO

The market in Barcelos

Coke Zero in a glass bottle

Long Horned Cows

Roxanne stole my phito and took a photo

You decide.

Wild Calla Lillies

 

The entry to Quinta da Cancela

The surrounding of our casa

 

Playing a round of golf

 

Bill’s birthday eve dinner

A Space for Artfulness

In recent years the desire to have a dedicated “art” area has been intensifying.
It started with the notion of buying a large storage shed and plopping it on our parcel – only to find out it would not fit within the mandatory setbacks.
Next was a consultation with a contractor to have a little room built off the laundry room. “This roof line doesn’t meet that – the floor elevation doesn’t meet this.  We have to change the roofline, dig out a new subfloor”.  Dollars were mounting. The heck with that.
Penny pincher Paige gave up on the whole thing.
Last month we decided the clean out the garage – the walls seemed to be closing in.  It was time to give the kids all the childhood clutter we’ve been storing for years (why make them wait until we kick the bucket). We sorted through all the novelties we haven’t looked at in 10 years. Give away this, throw out that, save enough for the kids to reminisce about later on. Divide and conquer.
And then the lightbulb went off.
My new art room.
*click on photos to enlarge

* Our handy dandy handyman took down one of our shelves in a creative way – lowering the middle shelf to create a tabletop and then cutting off the remaining top selves.  He installed particle board over the tabletop to allow room for a cantilevered sitting area while notching out  room for my legs on the shelf below.  Pegboard now hides the torn sheetrock.
New paint gave the table and adjoining shelves a crisp clean look – Minwax Polycrylic Gloss  protects the work surfaces from chipping and scratching.  Walmart curtains hide the storage shelves and create a more finished effect. I painted the floor a checkerboard pattern to pull all the colors in and chose teal green to paint an old barstool and storage boxes to add a little pop.
Violà – or Walah for us Americans…..