On To Israel!!

Spring Shower for the Bride to Be
Catch of the Day - Centerpiece
Sweet Serenity
Pastabilities
Garden Party

Went to a Garden Party
Mimosa Madness
a Day by the Pool
Evening in Paris
Palmetto Paradise

Sassy Settings is over!!! Yeah, a lot of fun, but a lot of work. So tired today. I have to go the dr, then it's veg time for me!! Some Pics are above

Flowers

Rhododendron - the best year we've had in a long time!!
Up close - beautiful
Seating area down by the water!!
Looking up to the house from the dock

This year, our flowers just seem to be doing great!! Ken has spent a lot of time, tweaking all of them. Usually our Rhododendron gets lots of buds, never blooms. This year it is beautiful!!

Robin Love

I am still up to my elbows in table settings for Sassy Settings!! I basically have been procrastinating, thus making me freak out and work in a stressed fashion. It sort of is like starting your taxes on the 14 of April!! Why do we do this to ourselves, who knows!!! But as I am trying to come up with a list to jump start me - a female robin flew into one of the kitchen windows. She bounced off and flew directly to the tree right in front of her. She has scrunch down into her body, so I'm sure she has a headache. But the sweetest part of this whole story is the male robin came right over to her and sat with her for the longest time. He was trying to comfort and check on her. I thought they were just the cutest things together. She (20 minutes later) is still in the same place and the male is gone. Maybe he's gone to CVS to get her some Bayer or Tylenol.

Lili is officially a sophomore in college!! Wow, where did that first year go??? 18 days until Israel!!! Wow, and they are starting to bubble over there. Stay peaceful until we leave, please!! Well, it's never peaceful, but at least tolerate each other!! 5 days until I can go to the DR and figure out why my heart races and why I can't sleep, and why I'm fat as an oompa loompa!!!???

Table Setting

Well, I've re-vamped the whole table setting!! I was making dolls, that would act like part of a centerpiece around an elaborate candle abra. Well, the dolls weren't coming together at all. So, we (my stylist, Julie) started all over!! It's cute. Here's a rough draft!!

rough draft #1!

Rough draft #2

This is my little helper (besides the stylist Julie) He's laying on his daddy's legs. They spend a lot of time like this in the evenings reading. Both of them are too cute!! Ken claims that I talk to the animals too much, but these two, during their reading time, do a lot of talking!!! The discuss world affairs, politics and gardening!! We are sending kind thoughts to Martha, her dog Paw Paw died. Oh, so not looking forward to those days with this guy. He's so much a part of our family!!! He had us at hello!! And yes, he completes us!!

More on the Quilt

Some of you have asked about the quilt for the firemen. Here is a picture of it. The entire background is quilted in jagged angles to represent flames, the fire helmet has soot on it from my fireplace, the chin strap has the name of all the firemen who lost their lives, and it will protect the lives of the men in the future, the back is hand dyed in red, and hand embroidered the symbol of the fraternal order of firemen. I won second place at the State Fair and this was my first one ever entered!!

Mission Accomplished!

Well, while in Charleston, delivered my quilt to Fire station at the corner of Wentworth and Meeting! I delivered it to Billy Perez (very tall!) and they were very appreciative. Before I went to the station I made my pilgrimage to People, Places & Quilts (yummy place!) and they look at the quilt. They said I should have arranged for the Chief to meet me at the station and get a little fan fair. They said my quilt was awesome!! I felt so proud!! But I'm not into fan-fair unless of course it comes with a check. This event just was better done simply!!

Absolutely no fat jokes!! It's fluid!!!

This is a bell in a tiny garden next door to the station. There's been tons of flowers here ever since the fire.



Saturday was the anniversary of the shooting at Ft Sumter. There was a lot of Civil War events going on. Thus:

Where are the Yankees??

Look closely, plastic cups, automobiles, Oakley sunglasses, and Vera Bradley purses, no wonder we still haven't won!!!!

Charleston

Off to a funeral this morning and mid-day. then down to Charleston to see Lili. The azaleas are at their peaks, should be beautiful and the weather seems to be good too!! I'll take pics for my peeps!!! By the way peeps - my diet has been 2 days now, and you wouldn't believe the energy, I'm trying to do lots of protein, I got a ton of stuff done yesterday all at a leisurely pace and no stress - almost slept through the night without hot flashes nor tingly ants crawling on me!! We are actually going to take the girls (Brielle and Lili) in a carriage ride, it's not too hot yet so the horses don't stink tooo bad and with the flowers at full bloom - fun. They've never done it nor have we. Plus I'm delivering my firemen tribute quilt to the fire station that lost the men at the sofa factory fire last summer. I've just never been down there since (well one time but I had that psycho mother (a mother of one of Lili's friends) with me, so no fun stuff was done then) So I will cry I'm sure - but this was the purpose of that quilt to give it to them. Plus it won second place at the State Fair - my first entry ever!! I already have my plans for this year's fair!! I can't find those pictures of my quilt right now!! Ugh, so you will have to wait.

Diets!!

High protein, low carb, no fat (as much as possible) DIETS starting today!! We will have fish, chicken and some beef with lots of veggies and some fruits everyday - that's it. I've gotten so fat - that I'm seriously considering switching over my entire wardrobe to berkas. Only because I can't fit into anything else in my closet!! After 6 changes of clothes, I finally found something to wear to a meeting last night. The whole night I was miserable with my stomach hanging over my belt - my fat bra squeezing my boobs and causing back fat all over the place, not to mention the boobs were resting on the ever expanding stomach. Ugh!!!

Sassy Settings

Working on my table for Sassy Settings. My women's civic group has a spring fundraiser that is an auction of themed tablescapes!! Fun, Fun. I'm doing a Halloween Table, last year I did Breakfast at Tiffany's - or rather Birthday at Tiffany's - I think it was by far the most original.

I made my own Tiffany Boxes, painted them, stenciled Tiffany on them, added them to flower wire and put them in a crystal vase with white tulips. My table cloth was "the blue" with white satin ribbon down the center as if a box. I had "diamonds" scattered all over the table (from the flower dept again). I used silver wedding favor trays for the seating cards, then the napkins were the same "blue" with diamond rings that you would use for a wedding shower as the napkin rings. I made chair covers out of white satin. It was very good!!

This year I'm going with vintage Halloween, black and orange. My center piece is going to be an elaborate candle obra that is black with crystals and I'm making three muslin dolls about 18 inches high dressed in vintage Halloween costumes (like the fabric I'm using for an apron) The dolls stand around the candle obra. I'm still looking for orange place mats. It's been fun!! This year I'm ahead of schedule and it's all coming together smoothly, (I hope I don't screw up!)