Another Round of Wedding Planning

We met with the florist.

Not just any florist...

Susan is a friend from our home school days who is an amazing

artist with flowers.

She delights in giving floral design as a gift to the young couples she has

come to know over the years.

How different from my trip to a florist before our wedding.

In that case it was about fifteen minutes and I got the basics.

Being creative never crossed my mind.

Sitting with Susan was special.

Chelsea had brought photos from Pinterest.

I know, really!

There are so many ideas on that site.

 It is no wonder I was woefully 

unprepared for my own floral consultation.

No Pinterest back in the day.

Chelsea shared her ideas and Susan's mind began to work.

You could see it.

And it was delightful.

The end result is amazing.

I cannot wait to see it all put together!!

Let's just say that it involves baskets, buckets, jars, roses, hydrangea,

 astilbe, pearls, candles and babies breath.

So romantic.

So intriguing.

Intriguing, unless you are Chadd.

Who later admitted to being somewhat bored by the entire process.

Ha!

But how cool that he wanted to be involved in the discussion.

And he had good input that will be implemented.

Also happening yesterday...

the wedding dress.

It came in while we were on vacation so we went to look at it.

Oh my goodness.

It is still just perfect.

There are some adjustments to be made so we left it there and will 

go back in February or March for a final fitting.

We are so grateful for a longer engagement that allows us to 

 enjoy the process in a leisurely way.

And we realize now that God knew 

that there was going to be a big bump in the road 

along the way.

While we don't need gobs of time to

 prepare the details we do need time 

for Chadd to heal up.

It goes without saying that your prayers

continue to be much appreciated.

Chadd is doing way better than any of us 

could have anticipated but he still has a ways to go.

The pain is persistent.

It is so fun that our friends at Creekside Cottage are also 

wedding planning.

Theirs will be a beautiful December wedding.

We are so excited and pleased for Emma and Vinnie!

What a fun time of life.

We had dinner with Chelsea, Chadd, Michael and Emily last evening.

Hearing them speak intelligently about things that matter blessed my heart.

And hearing them still enjoy the silly stuff made me happy.

Who knew that we would end up 

with such well balanced

young adults?

Praise God!!

Making Memories with Chelsea

We have never had a daughter get married before.

And we are making up the rules as we go.

The dress has been ordered.

The makeup and veil were ordered just this evening.

Details such as cake and reception decor and food are all in process.

But we have always had much fun with this girl on vacations.

She LOVES them.

Travel is definitely in her blood.

And so we determined that there should be one more road trip

before the big day comes in May.

And while we were willing to bring other family members along

it just worked out to be the three of us.

Mom, Dad and Chelsea.

This was taken at Bushkill Falls where I walked part of the way

down to the falls with them and then the two of them crossed on over and 

came up and around the other side.

(Boy, oh boy, do I need a haircut!)

But anyway, you get the idea....

We are sharing thoughts about the future, 

ideas about the wedding

but mostly just enjoying the dynamic of parents and daughter

before we "give" her to Chadd.

We truly believe that they will form their own family and home.

While we will continue to have a wonderful relationship

it must be different.

This is celebration of the twenty years past and looking forward

to the many, many to come.

We have come to the Pocono Mountains.

Not too far from home...in case there is an urgent need to return.

But far enough that we've not explored this area yet and so are having

a very good time figuring it out.

Yesterday we explored East Stroudsburg and Bushkill Falls.

Today we did a little Outlet shopping, went to see Crescent Lake, 

Camelback Mountain and The Delaware Water Gap.

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain a lot.

We'll try to stay dry.

We will have to see what that means to our activity list.

Could be movies, games, more shopping.

Whatever the case we will enjoy it.

Here are a few of my favorite photos so far....

Unedited because I can't use too much more of my phone data.

Before we left home Warren made this applesauce for us to bring along.

He had never made applesauce before and we are all amazed at how very good it is.

Chelsea and I talked him through it though...so he can't take all the credit.... this time.

This leaves him room to do it again, right?

I love the glass bowls they have here at our time share unit.

With the sun streaming in the large windows it made for a pretty picture, I thought.

Color on the mountain across from my observation point of the Bushkill Falls.

The largest fall at Bushkill Falls.

Chelsea was just looking so pretty.

Tranquil waters at Bushkill Falls.

I let Chelsea take this photo of me at Camelback Mountain.  It and another one showed 

how ridiculously huge my jeans are....especially the one I'm not showing you.

So....I remedied that by doing a little shopping on the way back.

The new jeans are three sizes smaller than these ones.  Haha.

The sales lady was about worn out bringing me the wrong sized jeans in 

different lengths and finally told me that I think I'm bigger than I am.

She brought the smaller jeans...and whew!  They fit!

Me and My girl!

Coning back down the mountain.

Gorgeous!

Delaware Water Gap

These have been just samples of the photos I've had fun taking

with my phone....since I forgot our camera. 

But it has been fun all the same.

Perhaps after I edit I'll do another post with better photos....

just depends on how crazy life is once we get home.

I'm up to my ears in candle stuff right now.

Good stuff.

See ya soon....

in the meanwhile we are about to make more

memories and I don't want to miss it.

Catching up a Little

 Looking through my cell phone photos there aren't that many of interest.

I did take a picture of Chelsea's makeup so that I could buy the right one

at Rite Aid on my last visit.  

Snapped a pic of Jonathan one night as he was leaving for work

and looked pretty cute.

But if I shared that he might not be thrilled with me...so...

But there are a few from a Saturday visit to Longwood Gardens with 

Deanna, Bonnie and Georgia.

What a pretty day and probably the last for many of the plants

we saw since we had a hard frost and even some snow and hail

over the weekend.

As many of you know we have had a membership to this beautiful 

set of gardens for years.

It is something we never tire of as it is an ever changing landscape

with each season.

The staff and volunteers work relentlessly to come up with new

ways to display each area of the gardens.

Our afternoon started with lunch at the nearby Longwood Family Restaurant.

It was delicious!

And it was a great opportunity to chatter about many things.

We are pretty good at that.

It had been a while since Deanna and Bonnie had been to Longwood Gardens 

and it was fun to see them enjoy it again.

These ornamental cabbages may have been my favorites for this trip.

They are so ruffled and graceful all the while looking orderly.

Georgia thought she would likely want to eat them if they were in her garden. 

The color in this area was stunning.

I should have had my real camera to capture it properly.

But you can get an idea.

Progress continues on the new lawn and fountain area.

It was amazing to see how much they got done in the last

month or so.

 Deanna has more photos at Creekside Cottage.

There is even one of me over there that I don't hate.

Amazing!

Chelsea and Chloe have both been struggling with colds lately.

Chelsea for the past couple of weeks.

Chloe for the past couple of days.

I want them both to get better....like NOW.

Tonight is a pumpkin party here at our house for many of Chelsea's coworkers.

It is going to be cold and we have a pile of fallen branches and wood

all ready to be lit up to help the party goers keep warm.

Chelsea and Chadd have been planning and preparing for this for over a month.

I think it just might be fun.

When Chelsea hosted a birthday/pumpkin carving party last year it was before they began

dating but the photo taken gave a hint that they were friends.

Chadd is in the gray jacket and hoodie and Chelsea is in the charcoal grey coat beside the birthday girl in red.

And now we are preparing for a May 1st, 2016 wedding.

Who would have thought it?

Chadd got the great news this week that he no longer needs formal physical therapy.

Yay!

He is going to get a therapy session each day soon when he gets back to work.

We are believing that this will happen in the next week or two.

You could pray with us about those details and his continuing pain.

I need to get busy here.

I'll be off to Leola and Lititz today and then back here to make 

60 baby shower favors that I want to ship out tomorrow.

In that happy time of the year where there is always something to be done.

Have a very blessed day.

Clip Art Addiction!!

Hello, my name is Becky.

I love clip art.

Until recently I made do with photos I had taken for my candle labels.

Then I got too busy to go out and take photos.

It occurred to me to check Etsy for shops that would allow me

to use their art on my candles.

There are some...but not all allow it so I have to shop carefully.

This is one set I found recently in Australia.

Urbanwillow

I used the following bicycle on Orange Clove Candles

this Fall.

I love them so much!!

Options of clip art  are nearly endless

 and I am thankful 

that they aren't usually 

bank breakers.

Creating fun and beautiful options 

by sharing in the talents 

of other artisans.  

It is a delightfully symbiotic relationship.
NOTE:  Please do not use these images without purchasing them.
Thanks!