Thanks for you and miniature harvest

On our american Thanksgiving holiday we gather around our dinner tables with family and good friends. It is one of the times where we stop and reflect on all the wonderful bounty that we have been given. We prepare and eat foods we might not normally eat the rest of the year, often to the point of gluttony.

Back when we had no high tech types of communication the gathering of family and neighbors allowed us to share ideas, form stronger friendships, solve world problems, to basically connect as human beings. Its funny but it is hard for me to remember back when there were no cell phones and no internet. Perhaps I just don't want to. I love being able to have these new connections to information and of course the people. We may not all write the best, using proper grammar and sentance structure but we know what each other means and we offer each other our talents and friendships. This is our dinner table and contrary to what some experts believe we do really connect as humans and for that I am very thankful.

I have so many reasons to feel blessed and wanted to send my warmest thanks to you, for following this blog, offering your friendships and for taking me places and showing me art that I may not otherwise ever be able to experience.

Its Veteren's Day, here's how you can help and a Marine Tribute "On My Watch Tonight"

On this Veteren's Day I'd like to say thank you to all of those, including my father, husband and nephews that have served, continue to serve and will serve in their militaries. The sacrifices and dedication that you, your parents, spouses and children continue to provided makes me proud beyond measure.

I am fortunate that my career is in support of all of the very fine Marines and their families serving in the United States Marine Corps today. It is easy to get caught up in our day to day lives but please keep in mind that our deployment cycles are taking a toll. We continue to suffer losses in combat, suicide continues to rise, operational stress is prevalent and the toll on our families is high so if you can support them in anyway please do so. It really does mean a lot to them.

Here are a few things you can do

**Embrace a couple of service members into your home for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. They love to be part of a family, playing with kids and dogs, talking to mom and dad or just watching tv in a livingroom. Contact your local base, recruiting station, wounded warrior or other unit. If you need direction for your area please contact me.

**Give to a charity that provides for our service members currently deployed overseas. Here is one http://america4rmarines.org They just now putting together Christmas Stocking for thousands of our deployed Marines.

**Give or organize a blood donorship. http://www.militaryblood.dod.mil/ This way all blood donated goes in direct support of military members.

**Adopt a unit. Gather your community resources, VFW, churches, schools, womens groups etc. Send care packages and letter to our troops. It does not have to be alocal unit. They truely LOVE IT!

The video below is by Mike Corrado, he is a United States Marine, family man and super nice guy.

Surijo Castle, Okinawa Japan. What a lovely place to spend some time.

 These are miniature replicas on display.

These dancers were brought in especially for the Family ReadinessTeams. The costumes were vert beautiful as were the dancers.



Recent Travels and Welcome

Time has flown and I did not realize how long it has been since my last post.

First, I'd like to send a warm welcome to all of the new followers of A Miniature Place. I'm very glad you decided to spend some time here with me and I look forward to checking out your spaces as well.  

My first trip to the mainland took me aproximately 11600 miles and three weeks to complete. A mixture of business and pleasure, I found out that I will be a grandmother for the first time this spring. After coming home for three days it was off to Okinawa, Japan. Arrived home this morning and I must say thank goodness for a long weekend to rest. It was my first trip to Japan. We did not have much time to explore due to our work schedule but I did get a chance to visit a special place that I will tell you about in a later post.

I'm finding some of the same frustrations. My time is limited and very precious to me so I get thoroughly annoyed when I want to browse a particular category, lets say furniture and behold, I find plants, babies, blankets, magazines, signs, vases, and well you get the idea. Maybe I am just cranky but I do think I have a point otherwise there would be no CATEGORIES! Its not like these items don't fit someplace else. I go out of my way not to buy from vendors that push their items this way. This really is too bad for the vendors that do not take advantage. Where are those Etsy police?
Well, let me now apologize for subjecting you to my rant and please know that the picture should not suggest that I am really to that point, I just thought it was cute. OK, me and my purse are off now, to the nice websites that catergorize their items correctly and don't waste my time ......

So the conversation went like this…..

Me: Honey, I just read about this guy who gave himself the 100 Thing Challenge

Him: Oh what’s that?

Me: Well, you challenge yourself to live with just 100 personal items.

Him: Chuckle, chuckle. Well do you think you could do it?

Me: Hmmm, sure, if my miniature items and supplies did not count.

Him: chuckle, chuckle……

Me: Well, you'll just have to count your own fork and plate.

Me to myself: If more people get on board with this there will be some really great yard sales out there.

Seriously though, I love the idea of living small and can see great benefit but really, I’m just not quite ready. Chuckle, chuckle.

Could you do it?

Don’t forget to sign up for my giveaway mentioned in the previous post!

Tabitha Corsica

Tabitha!  Thank you so much for your good wishes. Your blog was the first one I saw this morning and I was able to spring into action. Many had a early warning but they did not sound the tsunami warnings until 6 am.

My husband made it to the grocery store before the real craziness started.  We are very close to the coastline but not in the evacuation zone. For now we are staying home but are all packed up just in case. Thank you again Tabitha!