Pink Saturday

These hydrangeas are from last summer. We moved into this ho.me in July of 2007 and the hydrangeas that were here didn't bloom at all. I told Dr. Love while standing next to them in the fall that if they didn't bloom in '08 I was going to pull them out. Wouldn't you know, they had big, beautiful, gorgeous pi.nk blossoms! This year, only one had blooms and they were puny. Shall I threaten them again? Or just rip 'em out?!

Beverly at How Sweet The Sound continues to host Pi.nk Saturday for all of us pi.nk-lovers. Every week she contacts the over 150 bloggers who participate and complies a list of links to add to her own Pi.nk Saturday post. Head on over to her blog to find links to the rest of us. And leave her a little appreciation comment too.

I tried to visit some new folks this time and one of the blogs I found is Kat Collects. I like this gal very much! She lives in Washington state (which I love), has a son in the milit.ary along with a 14 year old daughter and has an eye for vintage, flowers, arch.itecture and various other interests that match mine :). Go visit her and tell her I sent you!

Leslie

Look Mom, He Followed Me Home!!

One of my favorite websites is Awkward Family Photos. I surf there every few days and almost always at least one of the photos cracks me up. Like this one.

A Shirt Story

Back when Dr. Love and I were preparing for marriage, one of the things we discussed was our budget. We both were working full-time and one of the things we included in the budget was the cost of taking his dress shirts to be done at the cleaners. We had an agreement that I would never have to iron his shirts.

After a year or so of marital bliss we decided that I would (could!) quit working and we worked on our budget again. Needless to say, one of the things that would have to get slashed was the cost of our dry cleaning. To me, ironing became a small price to pay for getting to stay home! So I purchased a nice iron and a wonderful over-sized ironing board.

That was five years ago. Thus begins my shirt saga. Now, Dr. Love has many shirts and for this I am eternally grateful. Because for some reason I can't keep up with the ironing! Is there enough time in the week? Yes. Do I enjoy having 10-15 shirts staring at me from the bottom of his hamper? No. Sometimes they get washed & hang for weeks in the laundry room all forlorn until I finally get around to pressing them. Sometimes the very last shirt is taken off the hangar from the closet one morning and the next morning I am hurriedly ironing a shirt from the laundry room toput on his back that day!

To add to this ironing chaos, my son now attends a school with a dress code. He must wear a collared shirt (tucked in and belted) every day. He's allowed to wear polo shirts except on chapel days when he must wear a tie. Does he wear polos? No. He prefers dress shirts. And I lobbied and willingly signed him up for this! The bright spot in this particular part of the shirt saga is that I am teaching him to iron for himself (something hubby can very well do but what kind of wife would I be if I allowed that?!). I've started small: he irons one of his shirts each time I'm ironing them. He's been warned that we'll be working up to his doing his own ironing. Ironically, he's worn a polo shirt every day this week!

It is with great pleasure that I direct your attention to the picture at the top of this post as there's a good end to my story: this morning I knocked out six shirts and,except for the shirt that Dr. Love is currently wearing at work, for the first time EVER I'm caught up!!!!! And lest you get the idea from the picture that I'm analytical, I arranged them by color to make you laugh.

Here's the cliffhanger: Will I work hard to stay caught up OR will I take eight weeks off? Tune in..............

Tuesday Ramblings

I just read a great post by Brenda at Cozy Little House about home decorating entitled "What Does Our Home Say About Us?" and it started me thinking.

I'm drawn to old stuff. Not antique furniture, just old junk. But my house is filled with the things that I love (my apologies to Randy Travis). Old things that once belonged to my Mother; vintage finds given to me by friends who "just knew" that I would appreciate that particular bric-a-brac; pretty things that I find interesting... A friend once told me that my decorating style is "interesting." Sadly, I took that as a personal criticism and every so often I bring that back up and chew on it again. But really, what's bad about being interesting?!

More important to me than what my home reflects about me is what does my life reflect about me? I say that I love God more than anything & anyone : does that show in my day-to-day life? Can Dr. Love, Miss B & Charlie get a glimpse of Him? What about the people who live on my street or those I run into at the grocery store, library, Goodwill? Sometimes I get so caught up with "being" the right person or "doing" the right things that He is nowhere to be found! Please forgive me Lord Jesus for my selfishness, renew my heart one more time and help me to live my life for You!

On another note, here's a slideshow of my sun room. I think Dr. Love & I have finally gotten those pesky old tins to stay perched above the windows. A little fishing line, a few self-stick velcro coins.... Most of the tins once contained Mrs. Steven's candy. Her company was in business in Chicago from the early 1900's through the early 1960's as far as I can tell. The glass fishing weights are from our family vacation is Seattle a few years ago; they've been in a bowl on my coffee table and were finally hung this weekend. The leaves windchime is one that Dr. Love picked up many many years ago when he was traveling internationally for his job. He had never unwrapped it and I was pleased to find & hang it for him to enjoy! The sweet little gourd birdhouse was made by and given to me as a birthday gift this year by a friend. All of my plants have to be out of Mudgie's reach...she is a real plant afficianado and every time she manages to taste one she gets sick on my carpeting! The last picture is of Henry-she is more skittish than Mudgie is so I don't have a chance to snap a picture of her face very often.
If you'd like, you can play "I Spy" as you watch....find some dust, a toy gun, a pair of flip-flops, some nail polish, an ant trap and a paint color sample.

Grace & Peace,
Leslie

Pink Saturday

Beverly at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/ always hosts Pink Saturday for us. Click the link to go to her blog and find a list of this week's participants. Great job Beverly and Thank you!


I have three pictures for this week's edition. This first one is my new family room window treatment. The fabric was $4/yd at Wal-Mart and a kind friend sent me some muslin that she picked up thrifting so I used that for the lining. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I have big plans for that room....new paint on the walls and some slipcovers for that blue love seat & ottoman and the matching couch.

This next picture is the cake at the wedding reception I attended last Saturday. I like how the couple's first initials are shown in the frosting and I think the K (which is the first initial of their last name) as a topper is very elegant.

Lastly, I met this sweet baby boy tonight for the first time...he's about 40 hours old! I'll have to come up with a blog name for him as I'll get to have him every day to play with when his Mommy goes back to work in November.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Leslie

Gift Exchange!

I am participating in my very first gift exchange and while I'm a little nervous about it, I'm also excited! I've been seeing these swaps/exchanges every so often while surfing my favorite blogs and each time I wonder how to be a part of one. So I'm thrilled to be "in" on the ground floor. To learn more about this particular exchange just click the button on my sidebar! I'm looking forward to putting some goodies together and meeting my receiver. Thank you Alexis of My Mama Made It for hosting this exchange!

Leslie

Pink Saturday

This can't be me...I would NEVER wear shoes that clunky! Although I did purchase yet another pair of pink shoes yesterday: a fabulous pair of Carlos Santana faux-alligator leather with kitten heels and extremely pointed toes in the palest of pink. Oh, and I found them at Goodwill! (never worn!)

My baby girl entered high school on Thursday. She can't be that old, can she?! Just yesterday I sent her off to kindergarten! On Wednesday, before a stint at the mall, I took her to meet up with Dr. Love for a special lunch. We talked about how her life is changing--gaining new priviledges and the responsibilities that go along with them; we talked about how we love and support her, etc... And then, are you ready for this? (I wasn't!) Then, she brought up that dreaded word....DATING! And I sat there thinking to myself "maybe God could call her to a life of singleness." Except, well, I DO want some grandbabies someday.


Anyway, Happy Pink Saturday! Please visit Beverly at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/ for a list of 150+ Pink Saturday posts. While I can't visit every blog that posts for PS, I try to visit all the first-timers and then choose some at random each week. Make sure you leave Beverly a sweet comment...she works very hard to moderate Pink Saturday for us! Thank you Beverly!

Bridal Shower Gifts

Last Saturday I attended a bridal shower for my best friend's daughter who is getting married next week. My friend and I have been "besties" since kindergarten.....40 years! For a shower gift, I made some seasonal table runners & potholders and then added a cookbook that I think is phenomenal for a new cook. When I was going through my mother's wedding things, I found an unused, still in cellophane, shower gift card. Instead of using the original (shown in the picture), I copied it and cut it with deckled scissors to attach to my package.
Enjoy!

Christmas

Patriotic

Spring/Summer

Fall (no potholders, that's the back folded over)

My friend and I (sitting), the bride in white, my daughter in red