Frivolous Friday...Happy Anniversary

Hello lovely readers,

Today for my "Frivolous Friday" post I am giving a special shout out to my younger sister and her husband on their four year anniversary.

Photo Credit: Kristina Gaines

I love their story: They were friends for years and she even had quite a crush on him for a bit. I remember that she liked him more when she found out he wanted to missions in Africa, which was something she wants to do. Eventually they started dating and I felt he was instantly welcomed into as a part of our family and every time I see them together he always appears to be supporting her. I think they are an awesome couple.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

Dwelling in the Past

Hello Lovely Readers,

I love to dwell in historical fiction in most everything in my reading, the TV shows and movies I watch, and my own personal writing. I am personally still a romantic about history and probably idealize it too much even though I studied history I know it is not clean cut and glamorous as I wished it was. One time I hear a quote "we study the past to know how we got here" (sorry paraphrasing so might be a misquote) and I think it is accurate. I like studying the past to know the struggles, the battles and the times of glory and hope people went through to get where we are now. Even though the stories I read are set in the past, if the book is written well, I feel I can relate to them and I wonder what I would do if I was in that circumstance?-- I know you can do this with really any genre of literature but there is something about historical fiction in that pulls me in.

I think I owe my love to early 20th century upon seeing Biltmore.

For my own writing there is a comfort in knowing the outcome. For example: In my story I am currently writing it is about WWI and I know what happens and I know who is going to win the War. But then there is this weird comfort in not controlling the outcome. I know what is going to happen in the grand scheme of things and I just put my characters in those events and seeing what happens to them and how they are changed by their circumstances.

My love of WWI might be owed to Downton Abbey

As I stated I am currently working on a story that will go through WWI. And while I studied early 20th century history in school I know vague details about WWI. I have read various novels, biographies and other non-fiction books and I sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of information I am learning. I felt so overwhelmed I thought "maybe I should put this story aside while I research." But then I thought "I am never going to know enough to be completely accurate." This is true of all historians... we take the sources we have and as best we can we put a narrative. However, the thing about history is that unless we build a time machine we will never get the full story, which give historians and writers some freedom. So when I saw this post on Pinterest I was highly intrigued:

{pic}

And I felt it was okay for me not to know everything about WWI, that doesn't mean I can't attempt to write a fabulous story. So I will keep pressing on through my first draft. If I find out anything interesting I will keep you updated.

I am not a photographer

Hello lovely readers,
As I posted last week I took some time off to visit some family and meet my newest nephew and I planned to take lots of photos but I came back with only a handful of photos... so I have come to the conclusion I am not a photographer. So sorry there are not many photos of my trip but here is a glimpse of my time back home.

The main reason I took this trip was to meet my newest nephew... even though it was mid-June in Houston. This is my first time holding him.

This is my niece and I doing arts and crafts together... really drawing dresses.

I could do this for hours with her.

  

On our road trip making a stop at Buc-ee's.

Only in Texas do you see a gas station as big as most grocery stores.

We did get in a visit to the zoo but I can not even take credit for this photo as my dad took it.

Niece and sister are the only ones looking at camera. I am looking at my nephew.

Oh yeah and that is a lion in the background.

See not many photos... but at least I got some great time being Aunt Blaire which is the best memories I can have. Hope you have a good Monday. 

Words of hope...Not so Frivolous Friday

Hello lovely Readers,

I am sorry I don't have a "Frivolous Friday" post for you with things going on in Charleston, SC and other things happening "Frivolous Friday" was kind of trivial. Then I remembered "Frivolous Friday" was meant to post whatever what I wanted. Here are some lovely words of inspiration and messages of hope: