C is for Constitution Over Cult

Welcome to my A to Z this year where I am covering the theme of democracy.This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

C is for Constitution over Cult

Constitution	Cult
We the People Freedom Rights Rule of Law Separation of powers	Great devotion to a person or idea. Worship Extreme Beliefs Psychological Manipulation Brainwashing

 

It is true that our constitution was written many years ago and has had to have a few revisions over time but the basic principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have always been at the core. We the People is a powerful phrase. It signifies that we work together as a collective and not just blindly following one person or ideal. We have a say in what those changes need to be and we vote to make them happen. 

If there is any question about whether a cult has now invaded the country, these words from Representative Troy Nehls shortly after Trump won reelection are pretty cult-like. He said, "If Donald Trump says jump 3-feet high and scratch your head, we should all jump 3-feet high and scratch our head." And have you heard any of the cabinet meetings? Every single one of the cabinet members continue to heap praise on #47 and tell him what wonderful things he is doing.

I don't know how many times I have heard "they drank the Kool-aid." Granted those who were closely involved in the Jonestown massacre probably don't appreciate being reminded of that tragedy but it is a common connection describing people who follow someone blindly. So many times the Republicans in office have bowed to his wishes when clearly "We the people" do not approve. It seems they have no mind of their own.

I don't think there will be too many pictures in this A to Z but I did come across something that I think perfectly fits here. I was on my way to visit my daughter who lives in the area around the Facebook/Meta buildings. This is one of the street signs:

I know which direction I'm going.  

If you want to see Speaker Hakeem Jeffries' speech which is where I got the idea for this year's challenge, you can see it here. Also make sure to visit some of the other participants in this alphabetical endeavor. See you tomorrow!

B is for Benevolence over Bigotry

This year for the A to Z I am writing about the differences between democracy and the other thing. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

B is for Benevolence over Bigotry.

Benevolence	Bigotry
Kindness Good Will Charity Compassion Volunteering Social Conscience Generosity	Narrow Mindedness Prejudice Injustice Intolerance Racism Homophobia Discrimination

Now I am not saying that ALL Democrats are benevolent.  And I am not saying that ALL Republicans are bigots. Let me make that clear. It just seems to me that the policies and laws that each party wants to make are so vastly different. 

Take the new budget. Why in heaven would you want to take away funding from cancer research or giving food to children just to give tax breaks to the wealthy and fund a larger military presence?

Does the color of one's skin or the fact that two men or women love each other change the fact that they are human beings? 

And as we can see from what has happened in the last year, the situation has gotten much worse. The "One Big Beautiful Bill" did pass and funding for things like cancer research, public broadcasting and the like is gone. The aid we give to other countries has been stopped as well. The problem is in doing that we have made our country less stable. 

Is it so hard to care about someone other than yourself? I just don't get it. 

The basis for this year's A to Z has been taken from the speech that Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, delivered on the opening of the 218th congress, which was the least productive congress in history up to that time. This congress may be worse!

And We're Off...Blogging from A to Z 2026 A is for American Values over Autocracy

I really wasn't sure if I was going to do the A to Z this year and I didn't do a theme reveal. I don't know if you remember but last year at this time I had to stop after the letter D to take care of my MIL. This year I don't have any big life things going on until next month when hubby and I go on our first cruise...(maybe I'll do an A to Z on that sometime!). I haven't been blogging much at all lately but I do still have all the info I gathered for last year so maybe I will give it a shot. If I make it past the letter D, I'll consider it a win. Here we go. 

My theme is Democracy and I am taking the basis from the speech given by House Representative Hakeem Jeffries when opening the 218th congress in 2023. I will admit that I have lost a little of my admiration for Rep. Jeffries as I think that he and Senator Schumer could/should do more to try to prevent the awful things that are happening to our country and at the same time, I realize that there isn't much they can do given that they are the minority, for now. 

As I begin, let me get this out of the way...I am a Democrat but MORE IMPORTANTLY, I am a firm believer in democracy and the rule of law. If there was a Republican who was doing something good for our country, stood for something closer to my beliefs than a Democrat running for the same office, I might vote for the Republican. So far I am not seeing any of that. With the exception of Liz Chaney and Adam Kinzinger who both chose country over party, I can't think of another Republican who was willing to turn his back on the dysfunctional group we have in control right now. Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn't count. Too little, too late in my opinion. 

That being said, this is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or cruising. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Here we go then. 

American Values	Autocracy
Community Independence Right to make our own choices Equality Rule of Law	Centralized power Strict control Unquestioning obedience Limited participation One person rule

It seems like common sense to me that a person would want to be able to make their own choices and live their life without having someone tell them what to do every step of the way or restricting access to things. Other than when raising a child, and even then most of the time it is a shared experience, I can't think of any reason for one person to have total control over someone else. Even with parenting there comes a point where the child should be able to make some of their own choices, as long as it will not hurt them or others. I can remember letting my daughter choose her own outfits for school even though a) they were not things that I felt would go together or b) she was without a jacket when I thought it was a little chilly. If it made her feel good to dress this way then she would be more apt to able to focus on learning.   

We should be able to question the people governing us and to express our opinions without fear of being retaliated against. We should have the ability to choose our leaders and hold them accountable when their decisions are detrimental to our country and safety. We should be able to read whatever books we want, practice religion or not and love who we want. 

Live and let live is my core value. It is not my business to tell you how to live your life and no one's business to tell me how to live mine. I believe we can be stronger as a community if we share our ideas and cooperate together. We may have different beliefs or ideas but mine are not necessarily better than yours and vice versa. Our uniqueness is what gives us strength when we work together.   

In the year since I wrote that, look how much closer we have gotten to the autocracy side of things and farther away from the American Values side! 

One down, 25 to go.  Happy April Fool's Day!

Oh My It's October

Did a fun thing with my daughter and her fiance recently. We have a really historic mansion with some gorgeous gardens about 20 minutes down the road from us and I have never been there before so when I saw an ad for an event they were having I thought it would be the perfect time to go check it out. You may have heard of the place. It's called Filoli Gardens and in 2023 President Biden took a walk around the gardens with Chinese President Xi.

A while ago I read that there was a troll exhibit in the garden and it looked intriguing. Then I read that they were having a Halloween event called Nightfall. Then I knew I had to go.

We got there just before the sun set and were greeted by the first troll, Ranja Redeye. There were TONS of carved pumpkins all in the field. Then we walked through a gate to get to the trail. There we met Sofus Lotus, the Listening Troll. That is my husband standing next to her. I think he's whispering in her ear, "How did I get trapped into this?" LOL. Truthfully, it was a little hard on him because there was a lot of walking on uneven ground which is not good for his back or legs. He made it through though. There was a group of scarecrows standing in a field. Reminded me of the movie "Children of the Corn." There were colored lights on the trees and as the night got darker it really started to come alive. There was a huge pumpkin decorated ring that you walk through to get to the main area. Once it got dark it almost looked like a ring of fire.

We came across a group of banana slugs. It looked so cool. There were a lot of other scenes too, including a forest of mushrooms all lit up. Those reminded me of the display in Golden Gate Park that I saw when I did the Illuminate SF A to Z. There was a spot to get a beverage and sit down for a spell by some fire pits if you wanted. It was there that we came across my Spirit Troll, Kamma Can, the Treasure Troll. She can see the potential in any little scrap to turn it into something beautiful! We ended up back at the main entrance and it was spectacular. It was a great evening and lots of folks were there with their kids dressed up for Halloween.

After I got home I looked up the trolls and it seems that we missed one because we only saw 5 and there are 6! I guess I will not see it because the trolls are going away on November 11 and I don't think we can get down there again before that. I know my hubby won't go because it took him a day or two to recover from this visit. Poor guy.

I know that Filoli (which stands for Fight, Love, Live) has a Christmas display as well so I think my daughter and I will check that one out because we didn't go into the mansion on this visit at all and it was decorated too. I was feeling bad for my husband so we stopped once we had made it back to the main area. 

Have you heard of Filoli Gardens? Which troll would be your spirit guide? Happy Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by. 

Oh My Gosh, It's October!

Hello fellow Ultimate Blogging Challengers. I feel a bit remiss because here we are almost in the middle of the month and I haven't mentioned my Etsy shop or my crafting work at all! Very poor in the marketing division. I'll have to speak with someone about that! (I AM the marketing division, along with every other division - LOL).

For about 10 or 11 years I have had an Etsy shop where I sell my handmade greeting cards, mini scrapbook albums and other paper crafts. In the last five years I have begun attending craft fairs, mostly around the holidays but I'm beginning to branch out to other times of the year as well. A lot of my creations are interactive and I find that they are best shown in person, although Etsy does now have a spot for videos of your items.

At any rate, one of the things I did recently was be a vendor at an outdoor evening event. It was at a local church and as part of their festival they were having a holiday night market. I have done outside events but none at night so I thought I'd give it a shot.  We just recently got a canopy so that outside events would be possible and I must say that we put it up really quickly. 

I knew that it might get a little windy, especially as night came on, but the days had been really warm so I wasn't too worried. Still, I didn't display everything as I usually do because most of my products are made of paper and I didn't want to have to chase everything if the wind came up. Which it did. Forcefully. I had weights around the legs of the canopy but it almost blew away. Thankfully my vendor neighbor helped secure it by sharing some of their weights. One of my items did fall off and unfortunately it was a glass frame which broke. 

Since it was going to get dark, I bought some twinkle lights to spread around the table. I really liked them and decided I was going to get more for the upcoming holiday craft fairs I have scheduled next month. 

 

Sadly, I didn't make any sales. I think it will be a while before I attempt that venue again. It is was definitely not worth setting it all up and sitting in the cold and wind for 5 hours. It was a three day event but I only could do Friday night. Perhaps if I had done the Saturday one it might have been more profitable. 

These are examples of the products I make. 

Here is a little tour of my studio. This was from a few years ago but it is basically the same, just more crowded with stuff! 

I also have a YouTube channel where I share some of the processes for making my items. That's another aspect of the business that I want to enhance. 

And that's about it for now. Hope you enjoyed the tour of the studio. After watching it again I can see how much has actually changed in the 5 years since I made it and I'll have to do an update. If you are looking for unique handmade greeting cards or need an album for a special occasion I'd love to work with you. Send me a message on the Etsy site! Happy Saturday!

Oh My Gosh It's October!

I took a little break from posting for a few days while I went away and had some quality time with my BFF. I may write about that later.  I'm back now and hoping to finish out this month with more posts in the Ultimate Blogging Challenge. 

Shortly after we returned from the Seattle trip we went to a concert at The Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA. This is one of our favorite venues because as a rule the tickets are reasonable and even though we like to sit up close, there really isn't a bad seat in the house. We are part of the "Loyalty Program" since we go to at least four shows a year there, although to be honest I'm not sure if that will continue because it is getting harder and harder to pick bands to see and the rewards of being a "loyalty" club member aren't that great unless you see upward of 11 different shows. That's a bit much for us. 

Anyway, tonight's show was .38 Special. We have seen them a few times and like their music a lot. They were doing a 50-Year Tour although not all the original band members still perform (what group after 50 years still has all the original members?). 

I am sad because as a scrapbooker I miss the paper tickets that I could use to embellish my pages. I try to remember to take a screenshot of my phone ticket but sometimes when I do they flash a bar across that says "Screenshots of tickets are not valid entry" or words to that effect. The opening act was a guy named David Lunig and he was actually pretty good. We have been to the Winery so many times that my hubby has made "friends" with one of the security staff. 

We did notice a little difference this time. The original singer, Donny Van Zant, is no longer able to tour with the band as he has ear issues and we could tell the difference. But they sang most of our favorite songs and we were still able to get up and dance. There was no one behind us so we weren't blocking anyone's view. 

The view of the seats from above after the show is always so pretty to me. 

I'll leave you with "Hold On Loosely" which is one of my personal faves. Not sure I'll make a daily post but definitely will be back with more! 

Oh My Gosh It's October!

And just like that our trip was almost over. It was time to board the train to come back to reality. 

One last look at the two stadiums. So for future reference, the stadiums are within walking distance of the train station so theoretically if you wanted to catch a Seahawks or Mariner's game you could just hop the train. You definitely need to plan ahead though since it takes 23 hours from the Bay Area!

The whole train experience is exciting in my opinion. Just being in the station and seeing all the different people is fascinating. I took pictures of the stops we were making so I could know where we were. You are kind of in your own little world once you get on board.

We were able to upgrade to a larger room for the way home. The bed was still not 100% comfortable but again, it was only for one night. At least we had our own bathroom and it even had a shower if we wanted to take one. We had a lot more leg room. 

We saw some different scenery on the way home since we were traveling this part in the daytime whereas we had come in during the nighttime. I could see the end of the train behind us when we went around the bend. The trees were starting their fall colors. Some of the stations were really unusual. 

Once again the food was delicious. The flowers on the table were fresh and the staff was so pleasant and helpful. There is a point going through the mountains where you lose service but I was able to catch some of the Giants game on my phone while my husband watched football on my laptop.   

All in all it was a really great trip. Something we hadn't been able to do in a LONG time. Now we are thinking of Catalina Island. I told my husband it is the "island of romance." I was surprised that he had never heard the song "26 Miles - Santa Catalina." 

If you are thinking about taking a train trip, do it. I have to 100% thank my friend Karen@MarvelousMouseTravels for helping us put this all together. She is great and so easy to work with. Highly recommend her for your vacation needs. 

I've been having fun blogging this experience. Make sure to check out the other folks who are doing the Ultimate Blogging Challenge. 

I am not sure if I will be able to connect here the next few days. I am going away for a scrapbooking getaway with my BFF. If I can, I will. If not, I'll catch up with you when I get back!