Thursday, June 30, 2011

Vacation News and Pics!


I was up before six am and ready to go by nine, but, hubby was still working, so we had a late start.
These are my hydrangeas in bloom. I love the deep purple color. :)


Whenever we travel, I'm always on the look out for trees and nature and birds.
This is a mimosa tree, I think the flowers are so cool, they remind me of Horton Hears a Who. :)


and another one!

My goal was to gain five pounds over the weekend. I got close! We were going into the land of bisquits and gravy, don't cha know. ;)

On the way down, we ate at a Cracker Barrel. My father always ate at them when he traveled around the country. I didn't get to go with him to one before he passed away, so we took this opportunity to see what it was like.

I had chicken and dumplings, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn and of course, bisquits!
I'm not sure about the dumplings. They tasted like a big wet noodle to me. I think I prefer Chinese dumplings. :)


This is a crepe myrtle. Love the tree and the name. They come in this almost lavender pinky shade, white and what my neighbor (a southern belle) called watermelon.


The watermelon is my favorite shade. The tree grows with multiple trunks so it almost forms a bouquet. Very pretty and they bloom for most of the summer.

Our first stop was to see Anita of MiniPotteryByAnita


I knew she was a chatty cathy from chatting with her over the internet and on the phone. Hubby said I kept up with her very well. She has such a girlish charm about her, her in her bare feet inside her real life pottery shop. We all went out to eat at a family restaurant and had big juicy burgers and hot fried potato chips with ranch dressing- an immediate hit with hubby and I. We're going to try to make them at home. :)

Then, hubby and I did some shopping.... more about that next time. :)


We met up with Richard of MinibyDesign and his lovely wife Gail. She graciously kept hubby in conversation while Richard and I yammered on about minis. (sheepish grin) I had no idea how the time had passed so quickly! I had hoped we could all go out to dinner, but hubby was tired, he did most of the driving during this adventure. I left Richard with my yellow house.


He's going to wire it for me. That means, I have to venture back down that way again. Hooray! :)
I'll have more about Richard and his projects in a future posting.

We were in Peach Territory!
This is a water tower, isn't it funny? :)


Next we met up with Jody of PeachBlossomHill and her lovely family. We just had the best time socializing with her and her husband and her children. The children were the best, so polite and gracious and funny! We did a lot of laughing. :)

Jody said, if we could give her an hour, she'd make us a typical Southern Dinner. I think hubby wanted to get going, but, I whined and we got to stay. ;)  It was so worth it! 

They all set to work in the kitchen working quickly and efficiently. The each seemed to have a station. Her son made the bisquits, her daughter made the country fried steak, her hubby was busy chopping onions. I don't think it took them an hour!

It was so good! I could so live in the south. We had country fried steak (a personal favorite) gravy, bisquits (I had mine with fig preserves) rice and there were onions and limas for the veggies. I skipped the veggies so I could have seconds. Hubby said they were good though. I know, I'm a little piggy! ;)


They gave us these South Carolina peaches to take with us to Georgia. I believe they are all still debating which state produces the best peach. ;)

Later, I realized we never talked minis. At all! lol But, we did have a wonderful walk about their farm and I took lots of pictures. More later. :)

Our final destination and the reason for the whole trip, my girlfriend Linda's daughter was getting married and I got to make her veil. :)

Belinda and Dan

Getting ready for the wedding, Belinda and my girlfriend Linda. :)


Too funny, purple flowered dresses were a big hit! ;)

It was all about the Harley. It set the tone for the colors of the dresses, the decor, the cakes, the flowers. Really cute. :)

Of course, I have to tell you about the food. I hope you didn't start out reading this post when you were hungry. ;)

There was fried chicken, chicken strips, pulled pork with bbq, baked beans, cole slaw, macaroni and cheese, macaroni salad.... I know there was more! lol There was a lot of food!

It was my first Southern Wedding and the first time I was in a Primitive Baptist Church. It was just plain white in side and nothing else. But, I guess that helps you to focus on what is at hand. It was a lovely wedding ceremony. :)

Towards the end of the reception, the sky darkened to almost black. The trees began to sway all over the place. A storm was coming.... and the couple had to whisk off before they were caught in the down pour!

We had the most wonderful time visiting with Linda and her entire family. What a very special time we had. Oh, and the babies, there were lots of little babies and wee ones. :) 

Heaven! :)


and back home we came.....

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Road Trip!

The excitement continues on! ;)

Last month, amidst all the other activities, I made a bridal veil for the daughter of a gal I went to school with. Many many moons ago, I had a custom bridal veils and headpieces business, back when the hair was big and the bridal veils were bigger. ;)

Well, a lot has changed in the bridal world since then, I found out to my dismay. :( It was virtually impossible to find suitable trimming. But, I remembered a hint I got from Casey of Casey's Minis. Take an existing trim and trim it down. That advice was meant for miniatures, but it proved to be my saving grace for the trim issue for the bridal veil. I found a trim kinda like rhinestones, but it was three across, I trimmed it down to a single row and voila! I had it. :)

Next time, I will have pictures of the bride in her veil, no early peeks before the wedding, which is this weekend!!!

On our way down to the wedding, we are stopping along the way to meet three mini peeps and I am so excited! 

We're going to stop by and see Anita, she has a shop on etsy
I got these wonderful stacking mixing bowls from her. I love how they look like fiesta ware.

 I bought a snake from her and sent it to Sans! 
I felt for sure an Indian tribal house would have a snake charmer some where in it. ;)


Richard from MinibyDesign, shop and blog.
I got this modern dining room set from him, isn't it cool?
We've also collaborated on pieces together in the past.


I upholstered this deco couch for him in red, white and silver. It's striking.
He's also going to help me out with wiring one of my dollhouses. Yippeeeee!!!!!
and
Jody of PeachBlossomHill, shop and blog.
She makes wonderful upholstered couches and chaises. Seems I don't have anything by Jody, I'll have to fix that of course! :)

We are all members of TeamMIDS on etsy, Miniatures In Dollhouse Scale. We've all been chatting online for quite some time now.

So, the excitement continues on for a bit longer! :)

I'm so looking forward to meeting my mini friends, attending my girlfriends daughter's wedding and being off with just my hubby. :)

Daughter has graduated, seen on the right with a gal pal.

I also took all my kids to the photographers for pics for my hubby for Father's Day. They came out grand, and as soon as I can figure out how to share them with you all, I will.

Life should return to our normally scheduled programming soon! ;)

As always, every pink word is a click-able link, have fun! :)



Thursday, June 9, 2011

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming! ;)

The past month and half a been a whirl wind!
I hardly know where to begin.

 (if you leave, don't forget to come back)
I received my swap items from Cecilia
all the way from Mexico.
Look how precious!
Nesting baskets and nesting bowls, look at the tiny painted pigs!
I love them! :)

And, how cool is this? A handmade table cloth in one of my favorite colors from Cecilia's own personal line. So sweet of her to make this for me. :)

Thank you so much, Cecilia! :)

I also heard from Jaana. :)

Jaana gave to Sonya. Aren't they just lovely? :)

I've hired a business and life coach to help me expand and/or take my business to the next level. It's a twelve week program where she works with me one on one. It's like taking a college course, lots of information and lots of reading and hopefully, learning a bit along the way. ;)  I'm directly in the middle of it, as of today.

My middle daughter went to her senior prom. :)

Another reason it's been a whirl wind around here.....

... were the many awards ceremonies we attended along with Grace. She has received more awards, honors and recognition than anyone I know. She's been a straight A student, in the top of her class and has excelled at pretty much everything she has tried. The majority of her awards were for academics, art (she's a painter) and television production. In the fall, she will be attending Tyler School of Art, at Temple University in Phila. where she will be studying Visual Arts so she can paint and do tv production. Immensely proud of her. :)

My  oldest did not come home for the summer as she has a research position at Penn State. Very proud of her for garnering that position. It will continue in the fall when school picks back up as well, that will be her third year at Penn State studying meteorology.

So, next year, we'll be down to the boy and he will be a senior and the year will breeze by I am sure!

On a sad note, my aunt passed away on Grace's prom day. She's on the left with my Mom Mom.
It's an old picture, but, I love it. She was a pretty lady and will be missed.

oh, there's more... it will have to wait until next time though! :)