Meg Henning: holiday

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Friday's Fancies 4th of July edition

Did you enter my SkincareRx $20 giveaway? You have until July 11 to do so.Last night because I was still in the 4th of July mood and because we still have food from our bbq, we had a re-creation of our 4th of July menu, burgers, hot dogs, homemade baked beans, etc. So I told Sean it was theme night, American was the theme. So after dinner we had to watch a very American movie. Out of three movies I provided him, The American President, America's Sweetheart and Chuck Norris The President's Man, he went for Chuck Norris. I mean how more American can you get with Chuck Norris.To continue with the American-ness, a Friday's Fancies outfit for you 4th of July edition. I haven't done one of these for a bit and I wonder why because I missed creating an outfit to finish off the week with a bit of fashion or a throw out the budget type of outfit.To finish off this 4th of July celebration, here is a fun outfit I put together, of course I love a chambray top and a red bottom, speaking of I have a pair of red pants, why don't I own some red shorts yet?

Happy weekend everyone! I know Sean has planned a fun day of kayaking tomorrow and then one of my favorite summer activities starts on Sunday nights. Last year we made it a weekly tradition of riding our bikes to our city's local concerts in the park and stopping off and picking up dinner somewhere in between the 6 blocks we have to ride. So this Sunday night we will be ridin' then eatin' then rockin' out to classic rock.

Independence Day Re-cap

Right now as I am writing this, booms are going off everywhere around me. Boom, boom, boom! Yes I definitely live in a town where fireworks are legal. Then tomorrow because of the area where I live in L.A., right up to the foothill, all the smoke from the fireworks will settle right along the mountain, sigh... oh well the run must go on.

Speaking of running, yesterday, Sean and I started our 4th of July with a local 5K, and my running partner joined us for the run. Then right back home to prep for our afternoon bbq of hamburgers, hot dogs, deviled eggs(my secret ingredient is hickory smoked salt), homemade baked beans and a fruit salad. We had the addition of a broccoli salad, sangria, chips and guacamole thanks to some of our friends.

Just a few photos of our 4th of July.

Enjoy!

Food

More food

Happy 4th of July

Love this couple

Hello Kip!

A serious game of ladder ball (Sean made it!)

Kip wanting to join in

Hi husband!

A sign made for us using glo-sticks used as the exit of our wedding

Hope everyone had a great and safe 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day!

Sean and I are starting our day off with a 5K race and then having a bbq with friends later.

What are you doing for 4th of July?

I know it is a holiday and you want to spend some time with your family and friends enjoying delicious bbq, maybe watermelon (I know I certainly will, yum!), ice cream, but I am gonna ask you to do a favor. Read some of our Declaration of Independence! Get a copy of that sucker out, or find it online somewhere. Wherever you happen to find it, just read it because it should be the American thing to do.

Get to know more about our government, and learn more than whatever you were taught in your American government class. Or if you need to brush up on what our founding Fathers wrote. Once you do that then you are free to enjoy the rest of your holiday to your heart's content and please do because I certainly intend to and celebrate the freedom we are blessed with in this great country of ours!

I want to send a HUGE thank you to our troops to continue to fight for the freedoms this country was founded on. They and their families serve so selflessly, and this country can never thank them enough for what they do to allow the rest of this country to live in peace and freedom.

May Sponsors Feature (and Happy Mother's Day)

Happy Sunday and I wish all the mothers out there a wonderful Mother's Day, hope you are filled with love by your family because you are indeed special, exquisite and just wonderful. Happy Mother's Day to my mom, you have done so much for me and my siblings. You have filled us with love, with knowledge of God and His word and has passed out many important lessons on this earth, the most important who we should be living for each day, our heavenly Father. Thank you for what you have taught us, for praying for us each and every day and for loving us always.
Hi all!!I want to introduce you to the great sponsors for the month of May here on henning love. For sponsorship, I ask each blogger to provide the following information, a blurb about them, their blog and then to answer one question that changes each month. This month's question is what is your favorite type of flower (you know the saying April showers bring May flowers). First up is Allyson of Cupcakes and Candy Canes, doesn't her blog sound so sweet ;-)

Hi! I'm Allyson, and I blog over at Cupcakes and Candy Canes. I'm a future teacher, and I blog about finishing school, cooking, crafties, and wedding thoughts. I really love networking with other bloggers, and I am so excited to grow along with all of you.
Question - My favorite flowers are probably tulips - there is just something so clean-looking about them.
Next is Kara Styled with Life

Hey! My name is Kara, and I'm a 20- something just starting out in the blogging world! (I’m really loving it!) I was born in Idaho, have lived up and down the coast of California, but feel most at home in the Bay Area. It’s where I went to college, work, and most importantly where I spend time with my wonderful family and friends. I love fashion, interior design, bad reality TV, bright colors, neutrals, rom-coms, animals, Kristin Wiig and Keri Russell (just to name a few things!) I’ve come to a place in my life where I’m learning to love the little things and take in every moment. I am constantly reminded of how lucky of a girl I am. I find time for gratitude everyday.

Styled With Life is a “lifestyle blog” where I share my love of fashion, interior design and products I’ve come across. I also love to share tidbits of my life, work, family and friends. I’d love for you to stop by, and maybe even stay awhile! I look forward to meeting you!

In answer to the famous monthly question, I would say my favorite May flower is a Peony! Any color, any size! I love how their presence can take over a room, but their simply beauty can be so understated at the same time!

Followed by another great sponsor Andrea of Left Brain, Right Brain, Pug Brain.

Hey, I'm Andrea from Left brain, right brain, pug brain! I'm an aspiring fiction author, wife to an engineer and proud dog-momma to a cute, lazy, carrot-loving puggle. We just graduated from college and made the move from rural Missouri to Southern California. Our blog is all about real life: our adventures as California transplants, my musings about writing and a giant mishmash of me dabbling in fashion, photography, food and fitness. And I talk about ice cream. A lot.

Question:

Oh, geez, I don't know anything about flowers. I like lilies? Does that count?

Golden Week Through the Eyes of Amanda of Marshalls Abroad

I heard from my parents and they arrived safely in Tokyo and I hope they are having a great time. I received an email from them, which is how I know they arrived there. I wanted to share their email with you, it read exactly like this:

Got

Here

Safely. Heated toilets r the best

Boy, do I love my parents. And yes heated toilets definitely exist in Japan, they exist in homes, they exist in department stores and yes they are quite wonderful during the winter months to warm up your little bum :-)

In case you ever wanted to see an electric toilet, here it is.

Source: henryinjapan.com via Marissa on Pinterest

As I mentioned yesterday, Amanda of Marshalls Abroad would be sharing with you her experiences with Golden Week in Japan with some gorgeous photos.

So take it away Amanda and thank you for sharing with henning love readers about Golden Week!

Golden Week is a very special time of holidays in Japan.

Living on Okinawa, my husband and I quickly learned how much the islanders especially love celebrations. Many locals have this week off from work or school and festivals line neighborhood streets each day.

All over the island are carp streamers ~ the large carp represent fathers and the smaller carp children ~ in honor of Kodomo-No-Hi, which is Children's Day. It's an important celebration that takes place during Golden Week and one that we have had such a fun time partaking in living here.

According to an ancient legend {so many holidays here are based on those!} the golden carp that swam upstream braved rapids and waterfalls and had strength to leap over the Dragon Gate at the river's head. So, many believe that the carp represents the epitome of courage and they are flown as a wish for their children to grow up strong and successful. {Info thanks to Okinawa Living}

This week of holidays culminates on Okinawa this Saturday with the ever-colorful Dragon Boat races. (:

I love this country!

Thank you Amanda for sharing and thank you everyone for letting me talk about Japan and sharing more about this wonderful county and people with you.

Japan Golden Week

What did you do last night? I hope you evening was as great as mine because I went to happy hour with Katie and Sean. Then Sean and I did a date at home that consisted of a redbox rental and 4 cupcakes, 1 tiramisu flavored, 1 thin mint, 1 birthday cake (vanilla cake with chocolate frosting) and 1 banana nutella. Now tell me about yours!
Grab your passport because today I am talking about Japan and group of national holidays celebrated this week all clustered together known as Golden Week.
I have mentioned a few times here on the blog that I spent all four years of high school in Tokyo, was born in Okinawa, Japan and have many great memories of that wonderful country. I have also mentioned that I will try and sprinkle some Japanese culture or traditions throughout the blog.

I certainly wouldn't be able to give Japan's national holiday's any justice if I didn't spent the next few days talking about Japan's Golden Week. In Japan, there are three major vacation time or holidays, New Years, Golden Week and the O-bon season which is in August.

In Golden Week string of four national holidays this week, which are April 29 known as Showa Day, May 3 which is Constitution Day, May 4 which is Greenery Day and May 5 which is Children's Day.

To say these holidays in Japanese, Showa Day you say Showa no hi, hi is the word for day in Japan. Showa was the emperor who ruled Japan during World War II, you know the Emperor that surrended to the U.S. on a ship a few days after Nagasaki and Hiroshima were bombed. Showa was the father of the current Japanese emperor. April 29 was the birthday of Emperor Showa.

To say Constitution Day which is celebrated May 3, you say Kenpo kinebi. The Japanese Constitution which was written by the U.S. was signed on May 3.

May 4 is Green Day or Midori no hi, Green Day is celebrated because Emperor Showa loved nature and the outdoors.
Just an interesting fact until 2006, April 29 was known as Greenery Day in rememberance of Emperor Showa rather than celebrate his birthday. However, the Japanese government in 2006 added May 4 as a national holiday since the day fell between two national holidays already. So in 2006, April 29 officially became known as Showa no hi (Showa Day) and April 4 was midori no hi (Green Day)

May 5 is Children's Day or commonly known as Boy's Day and in Japanese you say kidomo no hi, kidomo means children.
You typically see the flying fish on this holiday, the fish flags are flown to represent the number of boys in each household and the length of the fish flag represents how old the boy is, the longer the flag, the older the boy is.

via

via
What else can you expect during Japan's Golden Week? Expect the trains and the highways to be extremely crowded as many Japanese use these series of holidays as an opportunity to travel, both domestically and internationally. Businesses are closed, some shops and restaurants are closed and the Japanese stock market is closed.

In order to help me share more about Golden Week, I have a few guest posts from bloggers who reside in Japan right now and they will give you their experience of Golden Week and their observations.
First post is up tomorrow, Amanda of Marshalls Abroad!

Daffodil Love

I know this post is a little bit late since Easter was over a week ago so please forgive me for posting these photos now. Each year for Easter, I buy a minimum of 30 daffodils, which is easy when you purchase them in bundles of 10 and the price is 3 bundles for $5.00. I love daffodils for Easter, they are so beautiful when they open up and they can stay that way for several days.

I just had to take a few photos of the daffodils, they were a pretty good model for my shoot. They didn't need any touch-ups, no make-up and wardrobe was minimal.

I decided to play around with the few features I have on my iPhoto.

Just a few fun facts about daffodils.

Daffodils symbolize friendship with over 50 species and are the first buds to bloom in the spring.
The garden Daffodil's ancestors come from the states around the Mediterranean Sea, such as Spain and Portugal and the Middle East, such as Turkey. The earliest record mentioned about Daffodils was around two or three hundred years B.C.
Grown extensively by the ancient Greeks and the Romans, Daffodils nevertheless became a forgotten flower until about 1600 and even in 1860, there were fewer than 350 cultivated hybrids.
Around 1629, a group of Englishmen took the Daffodil out of the weeds and put it into the garden. Daffodils were in favor again.
During the days of the American experience and the expansion west, Daffodils were well established as a "must have" in the garden.
Daffodils were brought to Britain by the Romans who thought that the sap from Daffodils had healing powers. Actually the sap contains crystals that can irritate the skin. via
In Australia, they have an annual Daffodil Day to help raise awareness about cancer.
The daffodil is also used as a symbol by Marie Curie Cancer Care in the UK. via

Just had to share some photos about one of my favorite flowers!
p.s. if you want more daffodils, check out my friend Kate's blog, Daffodil's Hope because she is awesome and clearly likes daffodils too!

Egg Shell Fun

Real quick if you could do this for me, you all would be amazing. One of my friend's Rachel is pregnant with twin boys at 33 weeks right now and on strict bed rest. Can you head over to her blog and provide her some encouragement and love please?? Thanks a million! Here is her blog The Swanson Life
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and had a great Easter celebration yesterday. Friday I took off because Sean had it off so it was nice just to be able to have an unexpected free day together. We went to our church's Good Friday service, went to Home Depot to pick up some items needed for a project we are currently working on, of course it will make its final appearance here on ya ol' blog. Dinner Friday night was Costco pizza, beer and movie watching, we rented Footloose, the newest version. Have any of you seen that movie? What are your thoughts?

Saturday we went to a food truck fest with over 40 food trucks. We got there at 2:30pm and they had stopped selling tickets because they were running out of food! Fortunately, I snagged a Groupon for two tickets, (thanks again Katie!) so we were able to get in but some friends we went with weren't so lucky. Literally as we were the front of the line, they said no more tickets were being sold. We snagged some food, sweet potato fries, octopus ceviche, a fried chicken with pasta salada and arancini.

Easter was great, Sean and I had a delicious breakfast of coffee, strawberries and my family's traditional Polish coffee cake, yum! Church was great, it was a wonderful message.

I did a small decor project with some eggshells and a carton I had been collecting.