Finally!

Okay gals, I am so sorry I haven't acknowledged a couple of giveaways I have won in the past month. My Mama didn't raise me without manners so I have no excuse other then life got kind of busy. So I won these two beautiful handmade items(I love handmade). This first one is a beautiful flower paperweight that Sandy from I love to dream, live to create and hope to inspire made. She is such a talented artist and one of my blogging buddies who I have been following for a long time. I love seeing her work and her students work. Thanks Sandy it looks great on my desk. And the next item is from Jeanette from Net on the Net. I met Jeanette through Brenda's Photo Challenge and I won one of her handmade bookmarks. This photo is not doing it justice, it is so pretty and since reading has always been one of my passions it has come in handy. I read alot and didn't have a bookmark, I just used anything to mark my pages. I love them both and thank you very much.

I also just want to thank my bloggy friends for visiting me and just being good buddies. I had no idea when I started this blog what a positive thing it would be for me. I consider you guys friends even though we have never met in "real" life. I know that so many of you would be my prayer warriors if I asked you to be and I just appreciate your encouragement and friendship and someday I hope to meet you in the "real" world. Been thinking about this alot lately and just wanted you all to know it.

So I've been planting flowers and putting down mulch this week. The flowers don't look like much right now but will after I give them some Miracle Grow. And Maddie came over to help Gommy plant flowers last night, she mostly just dug in the dirt and would say "I help Gommy plant flowers". She suddenly stopped working in the yard and went in the house and started playing on my laptop. This was her face when I asked her if she was done helping Gommy for the evening! :-) I know this is such a busy and wonderful time of year(it's that way for me too) so I am still trying to "catch" up. Just wish I had more hours in a day! Have a good Thursday!

P.S. I still am not over my obsession with Picnik's collages. LOL I want to collage every picture I take. I must stop.........................

Happy Birthday Jim!

Jim and his sister Melissa. Loved that little sailor outfit!

Jim, my sweetie and little Cameron.
Happy Birthday to our sweet son Jim today! Hope you have the best day and can't wait to celebrate with you and Cameron on Thursday! Happy Birthday Jim!

Home!

We said goodbye to the beach yesterday morning and made our long drive home safely. We drove around 12 hours so I am pretty beat today. The two little girls did great and Maddie kept talking about going back to the beach the whole way home but she was so happy to see her Daddy.

I was determined to get a photo of the big bees that were hanging out on the tree outside our balcony. Anyone who knows me knows I am scared to death of bees of any kind. I know, I know if you leave bees alone they won't bother you but I don't believe it. LOL So it took tremendous courage on my part to get this close to them. I really wanted better shots of the bees but I guess I don't have the right type of lens for my new camera to get some good close ups.

Before we left we tried to get a photo of the girls to submit to our local township newspaper(they print photos of people on vacation holding the front page) but as you can see that didn't go very well. LOL But I am going to send it to them anyway and see if they print it.

And on the way home we just had to stop at a Cracker Barrel. Does anyone else like to stop there when they go on a road trip? It's a great place to let the kids wear off some energy and as you can see Maddie had fun playing checkers. So we made it home safe and sound but like I said I am just plain wiped out today. I am spending the day unpacking and doing laundry so I probably won't be around to visit everyone till early next week but I hope you are having a wonderful weekend! It's a beautiful weekend here in Ohio, it almost feels like Summer! And I didn't forget some awards I have been givien and my beautiful giveaways I won, I just want to do that post when I feel more like myself and not like a zombie! :-)

Quick Post!

Just a quick post to say we have been having a great time in South Carolina. We went to an area called Palmetto Bluff yesterday and really enjoyed it. If you are ever in this part of the country, take the time to visit this beautiful resort, there is a chapel on the grounds and one of the most beautiful inns I have ever seen and Maddie loved their three story treehouse. Yes, I said three stories, it looks like something from the Swiss Family Robinson movie. Last night we went over to Sea Pines(which is the biggest plantation on the island) and walked around and today we spent most of the day in Beaufort so we are all pretty worn out tonight. :-) We are leaving on Friday so I am not sure if I can join in on Brenda's Photo Challenge this time. I am so bummed because I don't think I have missed one yet but with going away I haven't had time to put anything together. Also I have won some giveaways(some really great handmade items, my favorite) and want to show you my goodies when I return. Tomorrow we are hanging out on the beach and packing so if I don't get back here or get to visit everyone, I hope you all have a great weekend and I will catch up with all my blogging buddies next week. Thanks for visiting me while we were here!

The Church of the Cross and going to the Pottery Shop

I took my girls to Bluffton last night to show them this old church called The Church of the Cross. It is such a beautiful old church and it sits in a wonderful setting on the May River. My two daughters and two granddaughters are in this photo. Don't you just love the old doors of this church?

Maddie & I went down to the beach this morning. She LOVES the beach and didn't want to leave.

This afternoon we went over to an area called Coligny here in Hilton Head. Maddie loved putting her head in the Frosty Frog cutout!


Sas as a Frosty Frog!

Gommy as a Frosty Frog!

Then we took Maddie to a pottery place and let her paint her own plate. She loved every minute of it and it was so much fun watching her make her beautiful creation.

Hope everyone is having a good start to the week!

Girls Having Fun!

We've been having lots of fun in Hilton Head. Maddie and Sydney think that Aunt Christina and Aunt Steph are here just for them to have fun! :-) I've been putting all my photos on these collages and they are clickable if you want to see them better. I think I am obsessed with making these collages on Picnik. We have one laptop here and four "gals" who want to use it so my time on it is limited but I will visit when I can. Have a wonderful week!

The Girl Party has Started!

We all made it safely to Hilton Head. My daughter Melissa and I along with my granddaughters Maddie and Sydney got in yesterday and Aunt Christina and Aunt Stephanie came in early this morning so it's time to get the girl party started. LOL Maddie was so excited to see the beach again so Aunt Steph and I took her while Sydney took her afternoon nap today. She loved the beach but not the grocery shopping as you can see in the photo. :-) I appreciate the prayers for safety and my back which is doing so much better now. We are heading out for some Mexican food(yummy) and maybe some Rita's gelato's(sorry June :-) but with a one year old and two year old we usually are tucked in early so I brought some good DVD's to watch. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Heading to Gommy's Beach!

Hey, did you guys know that I have a beach? Well, I didn't know it either but my granddaughter Maddie thinks that North Forest Beach on Hilton Head Island is really called Gommy's beach and that the condo you see in the photo of her above is Gommy's beach house(I didn't know I had a beach house either but I'll take it). Our family does have a rental condo on North Forest Beach and Maddie has been going to it since she was 4 months old and I am always there so I guess in a two year old's mind that means it's mine. LOL I am going to petition to the town of Hilton Head to change the name of North Forest Beach to Gommy's beach. It has a nice ring to it and I am sure they won't mind. :-)

So we are packing up today and leaving tomorrow for our girls trip to the island. It's all girls this time but don't worry I have a sweet brother-in-law who lives on the island and some good friends so if we need anything he will there. Kat has motivated me with her long bike rides to rent a bike this time. If you have ever been to Hilton Head it has wonderful bike trails and the best part, it's flat!!! Cincinnati is very hilly so it's a tough place to ride bikes sometimes. You can even ride your bike on the beach in Hilton Head because the sand is so compacted, so thanks Kat for the motivation, I am going to rent me one and ride it. Do you think they will have a pink one with a basket? LOL Also if you all can say a little prayer for us I would so appreciate it. We usually fly down to Hilton Head and that was only because my sweet son-in-law worked for Delta but things change and he has a great new job with more opportunity with one of the best hospitals in our city so we are driving this time. I will miss the flight benefits but am so happy for him and we used to drive all the time and it's not a bad drive at all. In fact it's very pretty through the mountains but there are two things, first I've never carry such precious cargo(my two granddaughters) and I just need prayers for safety and the second thing is that my back is acting up again. I have a bad back and most times it goes underground and only mildly bothers me but every once in awhile it roars and last night it decided to roar really loud(ouchy...). Don't even know what I did and it doesn't even matter, sometimes all it takes is moving in a jerky fashion to set it off. So prayers for a pain free drive would so be appreciated.

And this is the South Carolina flag. My sister Gail and I love all things that have to do with this flag(yeah we need a life, LOL). Do you know the history behind this flag? I didn't either until I did some research. This flag was designed in 1775 for the use of South Carolina troops. Col. William Moultrie chose a blue which matched the color of the troops uniforms and a crescent moon which reproduced the emblem worn on the front of their caps. The palmetto tree was added later to represent Moultrie's heroic defense of the palmetto-log fort on Sullivan's Island against the attack of the British fleet on June 28th, 1776. I love history and especially American history so I thought this was very interesting.

Anyway, my sister has a door mat with this flag on it and I am on a hunt to find one for myself and I am also looking for little garden flags of this to put in my garden and hers. We both love South Carolina and go there every year. That's about it for me, I am bringing my laptop so I will be blogging while we are there but I don't know how much I will get to visit everyone. And Donna, we are driving through Knoxville so if you want us to check on that silly rabbit Marty and if he's getting into trouble we will. LOL But we will wave to ya'll as we pass by. Happy Wednesday everyone!! Is it really Wednesday already? Where does the week go??

Easter ~ 2009

Good Monday morning! I hope everyone had a great Easter. We had a very nice one here in Cincinnati. It was sunny but a little chilly which isn't unusual for Easter in Cincinnati. My Dad took us all out for brunch at a local golf club and our family came back to our house for an Easter egg hunt and honeybaked turkey. A few members of our family were missing this year but all in all we had a wonderful day.

So I made this collage in Picnik(which took forever to upload)instead of putting a bunch of photos up. Starting at the top left and moving around the collage, the first photo is of two of my favorite guys, my sweetie and our son Jim, the second photo is my sister Gail and her son Andrew and of course the Easter bunny. Everytime that bunny came near Maddie or Sydney, they would both start to cry, so no photos of them with the bunny. LOL The third photo is of my Dad's table with my sister's in laws and the next photo is my niece Allison and Maddie. Going down the collage on the right is Papa giving Maddie pointers on Easter egg hunting(I kid you not, he really was giving her tips on what to do). LOL The next one is Maddie collecting the Easter eggs during the hunt. Maddie was nice enough to give Sydney an egg. And going around the collage on the bottom is Gommy(me) and Papa and Sydney, with Maddie and her Daddy in the background. And the next three are just a few more of the Easter egg hunt and the last photo is of Sydney all worn out from Easter! Okay, did you follow all of that? LOL

Anyway, hope you all had a wonderful Easter and have a great week! We are heading to Hilton Head later this week so I'll blog more about that later in the week. It's chilly and rainy("rainy days and mondays always get me down", that's a song for anyone who remembers it and it will now be in your head for the rest of the day) here today so it's a good day to catch up with lots of work around the house. Happy Monday!

HE IS RISEN!!

Oh yes HE has...............Happy Easter Blogging Buddies!

Brenda's Photo Challenge ~What's Your Favorite Color?~

Today's theme for Brenda's Photo Challenge is "What's your favorite color?" Donna is our hostess today. Anyone who knows me knows that my favorite color is "pink" hands down. LOL So here's a few old photos mixed in with a couple of new "pink" photos. The first is just for fun, yummy, all sugar, healthy, nutritious and good for you peeps. LOL I just couldn't resist adding them to the mix.

This is from the Flying Pig Marathon that is held in Cincinnati at the beginning of May each year. I thought these centerpieces were so cute!

This photo is of Maddie last Easter during the Easter egg hunt with a cute "pink" bow in her hair.

And this photo was just taken a few weeks ago at the Cincinnati Zoo, all the flowering trees are so gorgeous this time of year.

And this last photo is Coco the wonder dog(my sister June's pup) with Maddie and my niece Allison. Coco always has that cute little "pink" tongue hanging out. Thanks for being the hostess, Donna, it was fun! Go here and see who's all playing this time. Happy Saturday!

Good Friday and Easter

I know I show this every year around Easter but I just can't help it, it's so cute. The gorillas at the Cincinnati Zoo always get a basket of hard boiled eggs for Easter, they seem to enjoy what the Easter bunny leaves for them. :-)

Busy weekend planned, today I am off to meet my Dad for lunch at Red Lobster(hope they have the parmesan tilapia on the lunch menu) and then a date night tonight with my sweet hubby and church tomorrow night and then my Dad takes us all out for brunch on Easter Sunday and then an Easter egg hunt at our house for the grandbabies(Maddie may be the only one able to participate). Woo, I'm already tired just thinking about it. LOL But I want to take time to remember how special Easter is and what our Lord has done for us and this crown of thorns has such meaning. This is actually a crown of thorns that you can hang in your house, they sell it at the Family Christian Bookstores and you can get one here. I've had my eye on it for awhile.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend!

What I do when I can't sleep at night!

Okay, this is what I do when I can't sleep at night, which seems to be alot lately. I realize I could be taking these sleepless nights and cleaning out closets or doing laundry or counting sheep..... but this is much more fun. I've been playing around in Picnik! We talked about Picnik for one of Brenda's Photo Challenges (which is this Sat., see my sidebar to play)but this is really a fun and easy(easy & free being the key words) site. It doesn't have everything photoshop would have and I just use it to do fun things on. So here's a few things I did on Picnik. First I made the girls a new banner for their picture website, I think it turned out cute and you can see the finish product here.

And do you remember the photo I took of Cameron's eyes which we made black and white and only highlighted his eyes? Well, which one do you think are his real eyes? LOL Well, it's not the green or the vampire colored eyes either! But it is fun to play with the eye color!

And this feature has to be my very favorite one of all. I think it's called pencil sketch. So I took two of my favorite photos of Maddie and I at Hilton Head and turned them into a pencil drawing. Cool huh?

This top photo really looks like one of my Dad's photos from the 1960's. LOLThis last one was a 60's effect to the photo and I put the original just to show you the difference. See how much fun you can have when you can't sleep! Have a great Wednesday!