Isn’t she adorable!!

This is the sweetest angel I have.  I love the tree and the present she is holding.

My precious angels.

Oh, to have a beach house like this in Wilmington! 

Blessings!

It’s really a dream to ride in.  It has heated seats, just in time for winter.  It rides so much smoother than the Jeep.  I love it.

Buddy bought two gifts for his brother.  I told him that I would wrap the gifts for him.  I love wrapping gifts.  I would wrap professionally if there was a need for it. 

It’s been fun.  I only have 3 more presents to wrap then it’s a wrap!

Blessings!

I wasn’t up to too much decorating this year.  A wreath on the door and my mantel.  I always have a live wreath on the front door.  I embellish the wreath with magnolia leaves, pine cones, and other beauties of nature.

I “borrowed” the magnolia leaves from my neighbor’s tree.  They moved out and the tree was just standing there waiting to help me decorate.

My mantel is done with putz houses and old time looking decorations.  Nicole gave me some old angel hair.  You can’t buy this stuff anymore.  I love it because it softens the lights and makes the mantel look ethereal.  I love the bottle brush trees.  They remind me of my childhood.  

I love my reindeer.

This beautiful wreath was given to me by Buddy.  He bought it at Honeysuckle Hollow.  Everything in the wreath is vintage.  I just love it.

Enough decorating for me.  Next year it will be different.  I will pull everything out of the attic.

Blessings!

Buddy and I met again (after 40 plus years) in August of last year.  To celebrate our anniversary, we booked a room at a  Bed and Breakfast on the other side of Dillsboro.   I had been there before so I knew what it was like.  Time passes, and things change. They built another building on the top of the mountain with rooms with spectacular views.

Buddy and I heading out to our B&B.

The front of the B&B.  This is the original where I stayed before.

The drive up to the chalet.

This is the sign (a miniature house) at foot of their drive way.  It was so cute!There was a pond with fish on the grounds.

Water lilies in the pond.

Buddy with our hostess.

Our hostess made the best homemade breakfast ever!  This was some sort of casserole.  She made home made muffins.This is the new building at the top of the mountain.  Our room was the on the bottom right.

We had a fireplace over the tub.  So romantic!

The beautiful sterling bracelet Buddy gave me for our anniversary.  It is really beautiful.We drove on the Parkway coming home.  I don’t think either one of us had been on this part of the Parkway.  I thought after all these years, I had covered the complete Parkway in North Carolina.At the higher elevations you can see the trees dying.Closer picture of the trees dying.  North Carolina has a real problem with some beetle that is killing our trees.

At the end of August, we got to see my very favorite singer, Kate Campbell.  She was the singer Nicole and I went on tour with in Ireland. 

Kate is my hero.  She can sing like the angels.  Her music always moves me to tears.  With my impending visit to the hospital, Kate was able to give me moments of peace.  I had no idea what was awaiting me in Cleveland. When I arrived in Cleveland and met with Dr. Lindsey I had to have a Cat Scan.  The scan showed a possible blood clot.  He told me that he could not do the procedure with the clot present.  He sent me to Dr. Gillinov.  Dr. Gillinov told me that I would have to have open heart surgery.  Well, talk about throwing someone a curve ball!  I was totally overwhelmed.  I finally got my head around the news and went ahead with the operation.  I will not bore you with all the details and the amount of pain, but they did replace my mitral valve, repaired my tricuspid valve, fixed a hole in my heart and did the maze procedure to help in the stopping of the A-fib.  What was suppose to be an over night stay in the hospital, turned out to be three weeks. Afterwards, I had to drive for two days in the back of the car(can’t sit in the front in case the air bags deploy).  Nicole now knows that I am made of the hard stuff.  I think I can tell you every hole and bump from here to Cleveland.  All that aside, I am truly one lucky lady.  I really believe that they saved my life.  Dr. Gillinov, by the way, was the surgeon that operated on Robin Williams.

My progress is slow, but steady.  I have had a few set backs, but on the whole, I am doing better. I went to my first Book Arts Group meeting this past Saturday.  I haven’t been to a meeting since the early Spring.  I walked around the circle for the first time in 2 years.  Baby steps, but they’re still steps.  My very precious daughter took 5 weeks to help care for me.  We are both blessed to have wonderful Chuck in our lives to put up with all this illness.  Thank you, dearest Chuck, for sharing Nicole all those weeks.  Buddy is another one I will never be able to thank.  He stayed with me the entire time I was in Cleveland, and he took a week to take care of me after Nicole left.  Then I went to his house so he could care for me.  My very dear Amelia was very generous with her time to come up here and take a turn in taking care of me.  I am truly blessed.

Blessings!

Allison and I at the show

This is the table of all the winners.  I

Buddy and I at the show.

My girls in front of the fireplace.

My Hope.

Hope loved to sit under the tree.

Missing the cold and the snow.  Maybe in 4 months there will be more snow.   We can only hope.

Stay cool!

Blessings!

Our first stop was the Blackbird Restaurant.  I have posted pictures of this restaurant before.  Buddy had never been before so I thought it would be fun.  The weather was very hot and humid, so we did not eat out side.

Outside the Blackbird

You know it’s hot when you see me wear sleeveless.  I never wear sleeveless.  The flower I am holding in my hands is a gardenia from my own plant.  Buddy’s daughter, Kelly gave me the plant several months ago.  We almost lost it, but with re potting and lots of tender loving care, it has produced many flowers.

While we were eating, I put the flower in the vase on the table.

Close up of the beautiful and fragrant gardenia.  They are my favorite flower.

Buddy waiting for his meal.  We were so hungry, I didn’t take any pictures of our food.

After lunch we set out to see Buddy’s old neighborhood.  The first place we stop at was the Sunshine School where he went when he was very young.  It is no longer a school but a private home.  Don’t you just love the stone walls?

The old Sunshine School

Next we went to where his house use to stand.  They tore it down to make room for a parking lot for the church.  Very sad.  If you look way in the back, Buddy thinks that is the same big tree that was in his back yard.  I like to think that it is.

It’s the tree with the largest trunk.

This is the church that they built on his parents’ property.

This is one of the many stone buildings in Montreat.  I thought it was so pretty with all the stones and arch ways.

I had to get a picture of this store.  Buddy said that this store has been here forever.  It was there when he was a little boy.  They carry just about a little of everything.  Just like an old time general store.

It was really cute.

Guess who came to visit me last weekend and plopped down on my new couch?

Can you guess?

My Buddy!!!!

Blessing to you all!

Here is Gerlinda explaining our project for the afternoon.

Jan working very hard on her project.

Peggy watching Gerlinda working.

Sue and Peggy

After all her operations, and all her hospital stays, Dale looks wonderful.  She has surgery on Tuesday and we are all hoping things go well.

My Birthday was on July 25th.  Buddy surprised me with something I have wanted for a very long time.  I want a used one, however, now that I have a new one, I’m glad she’s new.  Her name is Bella Rose and she is a delight.  Below are several pictures of Bella Rose.

She has on a vintage shawl and several strands of my pearls.  I also put a large white flower with a jewel in the middle, on Bella.  I will have lots of fun dressing her!

Buddy also bought me two sets of beautiful Makasa glasses.  They are almost too pretty to use.  I don’t know what has happened to all my drinking glasses.  These will be lovely to drink from.

Nicole sent me a beautiful antique crochet table covering.  It, too, is gorgeous.  I will have to take a picture and post it.

Buddy took me out to eat at a Japanese restaurant.  What a delightful time.  Even though it was very hot, I got dressed up and I wore my mother’s crystals.  I love those crystals.  They sparkle like diamonds.  I always feel close to Mom when I wear them.

Buddy and I went shopping this weekend.  I need to buy some supplies for two book making classes I am taking in August.  I saw this wonderful storage box on sale for $20 reduced from $59.99.   Now, who could resist that?  Here is Buddy putting it together for me.

Isn’t he a sweetie?  I think so.

Now to see what it looks like put together.  I don’t have it filled, I have only put some ribbon spools in.  I will work on it later today.

I will hold a lot of my craft stuff.

Darling cup that Nicole gave me.

Cute little bunny next to my toothpick holder.

Just some of the hundreds of spools of ribbon that I have.  My weakness is beautiful ribbons and lace.  You should see some of the ribbon I bought at Tensil Trading.  I think I will take some pictures and post them next time.

Blessings!

I’m getting as bad as Nicole, with posting.  I have been busy in the hospital and all, so I am late in posting the 4th of July.  Buddy and I had a big party for our friends over at his house in Hendersonville. We set a really pretty table and the food was just wonderful!

The table before it was finished.  There was so much food that we couldn’t fit it all on this table.

Vera sitting in my favorite place on Buddy’s deck.  He made the swing himself.  I love swing in it.

Allison looked so pretty.  She has on my favorite outfit.  She didn’t get to swing, however, she did get to rock.

I just love this picture of Buddy.  He is getting ready to put some hamburgers on the grill.  We also had hot dogs.  Yummy!

A very blurry picture of Dot.  She is Nicky’s wife and Nicky is Buddy’s best friend.  She is one sweet lady.  I really enjoy being with Dot.

Larry (Buddy’s brother) with Allison and Vera.

Buddy’s daughter, Kelly, with her new husband, David.

This is a picture of Nicky.  To the right is Norma.  I really love this lady.  She is special.

Allison , Larry and Vera listening to Kelly telling one of her wonderful funny stories.  She kept us entertained while we were waiting for our food.  We had Hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon, deviled eggs, potato salad, coleslaw, corn on the cob, baked beans,fresh tomatoes and onions.  For dessert, Vera made a homemade blueberry pie, and Larry made homemade ice cream.  The two together were amazing.

Great food and great people.  We all had a wonderful time.  It’s so much fun getting together with people to celebrate, or just to get together.

Blessing!

Come on over and sit a spell!  It’s very comfortable.

Blessings