Peonies

The peonies were late to bloom this year, but they've been glorious.

I am enjoying them all around the house, sharing them with friends, and while sitting in the garden reading.

I love having plants that allow me to beautify our home, both inside and out.  Don't you?



ps - I am not receiving any comments in my email, so I will be responding to your comments in the comments!

Tea On Tuesday (Wednesday)

 I found a treasure when I was out shopping with Cheryl on Saturday.  In fact Tim spotted it and pointed it out to me.

It is the most lovely tea cup with strawberries and flowers, on the most delightful shaped cup!

I like to collect unique teacups and this one with its lovely shape and beautiful strawberries fills the unique category perfectly!




Joining Tuesday Cuppa Tea and Bernideen!


Also if you live in the EU could you let me know if the notice regarding cookies and data collection is showing on my blog?  Thanks!

A Visit With Friends!

I'm going to share some photos with you and see if you can guess who I got to visit with on Saturday!

If you guessed Cheryl from Thinking About Home, you'd be correct!

We had a great day!  Tim and I had a three hour drive to their home, and we do love a road trip together!

Cheryl and I planned a tour of The Pineapple House, (which two years after their move from the Farmhouse, I still hadn't seen!) and a catch up visit.  Then we went out for lunch and some shopping.  We've shopped together when they come to Lancaster, but I'd never gotten to go to some of their favorite places to shop in their home area.

We had a lovely lunch at a cafe, then went to a used bookstore and then an antique store.  I found books for myself and Sarah, and then I found a great teacup at the antique store!  I'm sharing that tomorrow.

The only issue we had was that it was hot and humid, and these kinds of stores often don't have great a/c.  I was dripping with sweat at the antique store. Not very ladylike, you know!  I cooled off eventually but my poor hair was never the same, ha ha!

We took this photo right before we left to head home, after dinner.

I'm so thankful for these wonderful friends!  Blogging has brought kindred spirits and many 'sisters' to my life.  I'm grateful.

Thank you Ron and Cheryl, for a great visit.  Thanks too, Kati and Bekah for being so sweet and welcoming.  I hope we see you soon!



ps - If you live in the EU would you let me know if you can see the notice about the privacy act?  Thanks!

Tasha Tudor Books

Yesterday, I took the kids (Kyle, the grands, and a friend) to the library.  Kyle found what he wanted, I found a few books to read, the girls played in the very nice playroom, while the boys played chess.

I always check out the library used bookstore.  Yesterday, I found treasure!  Four books about Tasha Tudor for $4.00 a book!

Funny thing is that one of the books I had checked out was Tasha's Garden.  Needless to say, I returned it since I now own my own copy!

Tasha was an interesting person.  She made the life she wanted, and said she considered her art as commercial art, since she made her living from it.  Her biggest love was her garden, home, and animals.  

Are you a fan of Tasha's art?  

Remembering Jewels

Yesterday, I found out that a dear friend that I met through blogging, had died.  Julie's blog was called, Eyes of Wonder.

 Jewels was a light for so many of us.  Encouraging a love for family, for the Lord, of having a heart to serve both.  She was a woman who could see beauty in the ordinary, and help you to see it, too.

Over the years, I have become friends with many of her kids on social media, and my heart is breaking for them and for Julie's husband George.

I'm praying for her family, that they will see God is with them in this hard, hard thing. 

I'm thankful to have 'known' Julie in even a small way.  She was inspirational and desired to share her deep heart for the Lord and her family with us all.  She's now with her beloved Savior, and I'm grateful that one day, I'll get to hug her and tell her thank you in person.

Garden: Peonies In Bloom

Here near the end of May, the peonies are finally in bloom!  I love growing things in my garden that bring beauty to my home!

How is your garden growing?

Home Keeping: Catching Up

Do you find that when you have something big going on, that other things fall to the wayside?

Yesterday, I had to go for groceries, and while I was gone, Kyle mowed and Sarah did a deeper cleaning in the bathrooms.  Today, I have to go to the laundry mat and wash 25 tablecloths, dry and fold them, and repack them into the plastic lidded tubs.  

Then we really should do some weedding in the cottage garden, and I need to finish painting the lower cupboards in the kitchen.  With our open floorplan, when the grands are here, I cannot do things like paint.  This is the only day this week that they will not be here, so the painting must get done.  If I can, I'll do the upper cabinets today, too.

We've finished school for the year, so I need to prepare all our paperwork and get next years information along with this years evaluations turned in to the school district.

Emma's due date is this Friday, and after she has the baby we'll be going south to help them move, and see our grandson!

It's begun to rain again, so maybe no weeding for today, we'll see how long it lasts.

Scenes From A Wedding

There was an amazing wedding on Saturday.  A beautiful bride and and a handsome groom committing themselves to one another.

Memorial candle in memory of grandparents who are no longer here....

The brides Grandma

The groom's sisters getting their hair done.

Beautiful sisters

A good portion of my job on wedding day, before the wedding, was to problem solve, curl the mother of the brides hair, and to wrangle bridesmaids, who were here, there, and everywhere.

Little things happen to mess up a wedding day timeline, such as some family running late, needing help with hair, and rain.  Lots of rain.  The rain changed the plan from photos at a park, but we did get a break in the rain and the photographer was able to take the bride and bridesmaids outside for some photos. I can't wait to see those. We actually started on time, too!

Photos finally finished, and the bride and her bridesmaids, hidden away.  After fixing a corsage (the main rose broke its stem on a corsage for a grandma.  I used small pins to put it together again, and then wrapped it tightly with floral tape! It held!), and encouraging people to take their seats, I popped into the nursery where the bridal party was waiting.  I found this.

 A sweet moment with the brides' mother praying, with the girls and the grooms' mother.  The photographer was elsewhere, so I snapped a few photos to capture the moment.

The out in the lobby, I found this.  

 The father of the bride praying with the groom (on the left) and the brother of the bride.  Sweet moments.



Pretty bridesmaids all in a row - and a sweet flower girl!

At the rehearsal the night before, I told them that the rehearsal would take longer than the wedding itself, and that was so true!  

Then it was on to the reception!  While the bridal party and families were getting their photos done, the guests were treated to appetizers.  Then the bridal party introductions, the first dance, and dinner.

The centerpieces were cylinders and jars with faux rose petals and floating candles.

The groom is a musician and wrote the song that he and his bride danced too, and her wrote the song for the mother/son dance.  The bride and her father danced to a tear inducing song.  Many sweet tears were shed during these dances.  

When all these things were done, the dancing began!

Everyone had a great time.

I have no photos of the bridal send off.  It was sweet, and there were bubbles for all!  I think the photos will be amazing.

Then clean up began.

The great thing about this group of people, whom I am blessed to know, is that everyone pitched in and everything was done in record time!

We came home and I put my feet up, at ice cream, and went to bed.

It was a blessing to help this young couple have a beautiful wedding, to help create memories that will last their lifetime.  What an absolute gift.

I wanted to show you what I did with the bit of flowers and greens left over from the wedding.

I'll get to enjoy this loveliness for a week at least!  It will be a beautiful reminder of this sweet day.

Wedding Flowers (sneak peek)

Yesterday was spent assembling wedding bouquets, boutonniers, and corsages.  Sigh...I LOVE flowers, but especially wedding flowers.

 I always keep all the little bits and pieces of flowers that get clipped off, or the stem breaks.  We use them for boutonniers and they work very well.

The bride, her mother, sister, and grandma came over to help.  We had a really good time together.

Maid of Honor bouquet

These flowers are for her tossing bouquet.

Bridal bouquet.

More photos to come.  Setting tables, decorating the sanctuary, rehearsal, dinner.  Then home this evening.

Tomorrow starts at 9:00 at the church, as the bridal party prepares for photos (bride and groom separately with their supporters as they don't want to see each other before the wedding), wedding, more photos, appetizers during the photo time, dinner and dancing.  Sending the newlyweds on their way, then cleaning it all up.

I'd appreciate your prayers for us all.  Emotions are high among the families, praying for joy on the day and energy to get it all done  would be great!

Are You Watching Little Women?

We watched the first episode yesterday on pbs.org.  I like it, but somethings were surprising.

Take Marmee, for instance.  She's brusk in her tone, a lot, and she tells the girls in one scene to that the girls had "five minutes to get out of the house, to school and work."  It sounded so much like what a modern mother would say.  I did like the scene where Jo and Marmee are talking about Jo's temper and Marmee confesses that she has learned to control her own temper, but hasn't mastered her temper.  Her behavior, in the scene where Meg has sprained her ankle at the party and John Brook and Laurie help Meg into the house, was so ungracious that she scared poor Laurie and Mr. Brook out of the house!

I like the cast, even if I don't like the way Marmee is written.  I am looking forward to watching the rest of the episodes as they come out.  

Little Women is one of my favorite books from my girlhood and I feel as if I want to read it again.  I grew up with no sisters, but I have four "Little Women" of my own, and the story is sweet to me.

Cheryl shared a link to a quiz you can take to see which character you are.  You can take the quiz here.  I took it and got Jo.  No surprise to me.  Sarah got Jo, also no surprise, and Rachel got Meg, though she thought she'd get Beth.  I think she is more Meg like than Beth, though she is introverted and reserved like Beth.

If you are watching Little Women, tell me what you think about it in the comments.  Also if you take the quiz, and I hope you will, tell me which character you are and whether you agree with it!

Remarkable Futures Scholarships

We got exciting news yesterday!  Rachel has been awarded an educational scholarship from Chick-fil-A!  As you can see seven other employees received them as well.  The other Chick-fil-A in our area is operated by the same couple and they had eight student scholarships at that restaurant, too!  Lindsay's sister in law, Laura, received one!

Chick-fil-A as a corporation has given out $14.5 million dollars worth of scholarships this year.  Since 1973 they have given $60.5 million dollars in scholarships!  They are very committed to their employees futures.  You can read about their Remarkable Futures Scholarships here.

Scenes From The Weekend

This weekend was busy but fun.

On Saturday, we planted the two David Austin roses I purchased last week, and the red quince I bought the week before.

While planting the quince, I noticed some Honeysuckle growing next to a Viburnum along the creek.  We clipped some to bring in.

I also clipped some of my Bridal Veil Spirea.

 Its fun that it is in bloom this week.  The wedding I am coordinating is this coming Saturday!  We've had heavy rains and thunderstorms so I am not sure the blooms on this plant will last long.  I'm glad I clipped some while I could!


We had everyone over for Mother's Day yesterday.  We bought steaks from Costco and marinated them for 24 hours.  We broiled them in the oven, and they were the best!  I found this helpful guide to cook times here, and a delicious marinade here.


We at a later lunch then, Kayleigh did a dip treatment on my nails.  The dip is very fine acrylic powder.  This did not increase the length of my nails, but since the color is acrylic, not polish, they will not chip or peal.  That is perfect for me with the wedding coming up.

They turned out really great and I'm looking forward to using this method in the years to come.  So handy having a nail tech in the family!

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!