The Lengths....

I am in the midst of a very, very busy week.

And yet, when I received a custom request from a friend

I had to take it on.

Not just to whip it out and drop it off.

But to make something very, very special.

You see a baby had come too soon.

He didn't make it.

This family member was looking for a candle

that had special information and a particular 

flower on the label.

The information is easy.

The flower, a blue glad, not so much.

After doing some searches for clip art

and not finding any that did the job I was frustrated.

Chelsea asked if she could run to Longwood Gardens

yesterday afternoon and I suggested I go along and 

see if they happened to have any blue glads.

We contacted our faithful sidekicks, 

the grandmas, 

and they joined us.

Imagine my excitement as we came up the brick walk and 

I saw purple glads ....

then in the distance orange ones.

I became very hopeful that they would have some 

of the elusive blue variety.

Alas, no.

However, an employee was pulling out some white ones 

and we asked if we could use one for photos.

She agreed.

Georgia held it for me and I snapped away.

Along the way there was another grouping of white glads.

This is where I captured the perfect shot.

The ones that would become blue.

So, eventually we made our way home and I began

working on the photos.

The white glad.....

Now blue, thanks to Picmonkey.

I'm still learning all that can be done with this program.

In this case I used the eye color boost portion of the 

program to paint the flowers.

I was so happy to see that it shaded without wiping 

out the detailing on the flowers which would 

have been unacceptable.

Now, this tiny life will be honored as his 

great auntie wishes.

Technology is so cool when it works!

If you ask me what I love about my job...

it is this!

Bringing comfort.

Sending love to family and friends.

I have prayed over candles as they left my 

home headed to someone's family member who

needed to reconnect.

It is about the people, people!

That's what I love........

On a Sunny Day at Hospitality Lane

 Georgia's kitty, Beau, is so handsome!

 I had to see what I could find at the butterfly bush.  Its like its own little ecosystem.

 After scaring one beauty away I found this guy.  Score!

 These two are great friends.

They chase each other.

Meeting up with nose taps.

She's just too cool for words.  

Have a happy day.

While it is overcast here today I think we can enjoy it anyway.

Perhaps a trip to the gardens this afternoon after the work is done.

We'll see.

Chelsea is doing her laundry and baking banana bread

while I have two candle events this week to prepare for

so I need to make up candles for those and 

fill three orders before we can play.

So.....I'd best get off here and get to work!

August Note Card Party

Red, White and Black 

****

Not my typical choices.

I'm more of a pastel and romantic girl.

However, in an effort to come up with a theme

these are what I found.

Enjoy......

A rose my daughter bought me for her birthday.....Had to blog about that one.

A water lily captured after dark at Longwood Gardens.

During a recent trip to the Adirondacks of New York the red popped unexpectedly along the river bank.

A bit rough and wild this shasta daisy caught my eye in our front flower bed.

Thanks, Vee, for hosting this monthly party.

It is so inspiring to see what everyone comes up with.

Have a great day!

Fun Visitors....Happy Times

I take my blogging friendships seriously.

To me you are not just a jumble of letters and words.

You have personality.

Some of you are funny.

Others tend to the dramatic.

But, in my mind, if I follow you and read your blog

regularly you are one of my friends.

Mrs. Rabe and I got to meet one of our bloggy friends 

from New York last year.

Diane is a real sister in the Lord.

You can tell.

She has the love of Jesus shining 

in her eyes.

I love to read her blog

Tomato Soup Cake.

She really should write a book.

I've told her this before.

It is not news.

Recently Diane let us know that she,

her daughter Millen, and another Mom and daughter 

would be headed our way for a Wiggles concert.

Could we possibly get together?

You had to ask?

Could they possibly come to our church on Sunday morning?

Definitely!!

So, plans were made.

Georgia got her guest rooms ready.

(I am soooo appreciative of this. 

Our house is stuffed to the gills.)

And we prepared for some great time to visit.

Now, the timing ended up being a bit squeezed

because this was the Sunday afternoon of the great skydive.

The second one.

But, not being faint of heart Diane, Millen, Diana and Arianna 

came along and joined in the festivities.

We were delighted.

Then it was back to our house for steak on the grill.

I felt badly because it took forever to get 

everything pulled together 

but finally we ate.

I figure everything tastes better when you are starving, right?

Diane, Millen and I decided to finish Sunday evening

by watching the documentary Monumental.

It is soooo good.  

If you haven't seen it yet

you really should!

I had a surprise for everyone on Monday morning.

They all knew we were going to have breakfast on the deck

and that Deanna would be joining us...

but they didn't know that I was going to get up

early and set a pretty table with matching china and goblets.

You see, Mom had done her skydive kind of in her Dad's honor.

It was something he would have loved doing.

The china used to be her mother's.

So, I knew that would be special for her.

I know Diane loves vintage china and dishes 

and all things beautiful.

Oh, yes she does!

So....I had a wonderful time getting it all out

and setting it up.

Seeing their reaction to such a feminine table 

after having just had a cookout on it the night before 

made my day.

I went out and made a hydrangea and russian sage bouquet 

for the center of the table.

So pretty.

So delicate.

Our menu was:

Peach Baked Oatmeal (Georgia)

Bacon and Egg Casserole

Orange cinnamon buns

Fresh Peaches (Georgia)

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Cantaloupe

Lemonade with Frozen Red Raspberries

Coffee

Tea

 Deanna got a couple of photos of the table.

You can get the idea.

Just ignore the tin foil covering the fruit, please.

But the best part was the conversation and enjoyment 

of each other.

Sweet fellowship.

Indeed.

Some photos of us after breakfast:

Millen, Diane, Arianna, Deanna, Moi

I think they might be laughing that I missed the memo on the color of the day....seriously!!

Millen and Arianna show off their Wiggles Moves.......

Millen can light up a room with that smile.....just look at it!

I really like this next photo of Deanna.

Doesn't she look pretty?

I wonder what she is thinking, though?

Probably wishing I hadn't missed that memo!

Yep!  That was probably it.

Check out her necklace....

From her shop,

Fab Fashion.

www.fabfashionpa.com

Ladies, it was soooo nice to share this weekend with you.

Thanks to the Moms for providing entertainment (Mom) and 

guest accommodations (Georgia).

We make a pretty great team.

((((smile))))

Mom had to run off as we prepared to take these photos

and Georgia must have been helping Chelsea snap pictures.

I'm not sure because I was in a happy fog.

Next year we'll have to include them in the photo torture

that seems to be necessary when bloggers meet.

My Darling Mother Did It!

She jumped out of a plane.

With a parachute and a guy attached.

He was the jump master.

The day was a hundred times better than the 

last time she was scheduled to jump.

This time it was in the mid eighties

and the humidity was much

lower.

Thankfully.

Not everything about the flight was 

enjoyable.

While Mom really enjoyed the view

she was quite upset in the stomach

when they got back to the ground.

I hear this is fairly common and was probably made

worse by the fact that it was late afternoon

and she hadn't eaten anything since breakfast.

Or, could have just been the fact that when the 

time came to leave the plane Mom's hand

got all rebellious on her and 

refused to let go of the plane.

Remember the guy who was 

attached to her?

He pried her hand from the plane.

She was jumping.

And that was that.

The landing was not picture perfect but

since no one got hurt it was just fine.

We'll take it.

These were taken before the dive.

This is Mom's jumpmaster.

He was a very nice man

who must have nerves of steel.

Sure, he looks nice...and all...until you don't let go of the plane. :-)

For some reason Mom wanted her photo taken with her grandchildren.

Not her daughter....????

 Thumbs up!

All thumbs up!!

 So excited!

Gotta love the bonnet.

 This is the plane....

 Five people go up...

Five people come down.....

One in the plane.

Shelly was the other jumper in Mom's plane.

She had also planned to jump on our original 

day but wasn't able to either.

I have to tell you that while Mom's experience did not 

leave her wanting to do it again

Shelly felt very differently.

She was radiant when we met up in the training 

trailer for post flight stuff.

I see more jumps in Shelly's future.

And they are off.

A small crowd had gathered waiting anxiously until the representative from 

the parachute club came to escort us to the landing zone.

We heard the plane and began looking for it.

Of course it was in a spot where looking at it 

also gave you a direct view of the sun.

After a bit someone observed 

the humor of this view and asked if 

we were all worshiping.

Pretty soon we heard the tell tale stop of the plane's engine.

That is the sign that four of the five on board were leaving the plane and

 would be appearing shortly.

This was what we saw......

 A queasy but relieved Mom.

I'm proud to be her daughter.

Now, hopefully, she'll limit her adventures to mission

trips where she "just" eats scary stuff and uses

unusual transportation.... on the ground.

Of course, In El Salvador they had armed guards...

and not for the fun of it.

Good thing we know that God is in control and won't let 

Mom go to Heaven until it is her time to go.

She seems to have a very adventurous spirit.

Bet her guardian angel is exhausted!!

LOL

Our friends, 

Emma and Joseph each enjoyed their second dives on this day, as well.

I happened to have company from out of town who were 

sweet enough to come out to the airfield with us.  They had 

been so patient and so 

we didn't stay for Emma and Joseph's jump.

That out of town company?

A bloggy friend from New York and some of her family and friends.

I'm dying to tell you all about it but this post 

is already long enough. 

It will just have to wait and make for another post.

Now it is feeling quite late after this very busy weekend

and start to this new week.

Hope you have enjoyed this adventure vicariously.

It was enough for me.

I still have no desire to Skydive.