I just had a lovely relaxing weekend, a great kind to have.  I went to SC with Myra, leaving after work on Thursday night. Friday I had a some business to discuss with Christy, then on to Anderson for some solo shopping time. Hobby Lobby was my target and I must’ve been around the store seven times, well, must’ve been only 6 since the walls didn’t fall down.

The first thing I spotted as I went into the store was the silk flowers. Having moved into a new house, decor was on the brain. I found some beautiful red peony-looking flowers for $6 per flower. I gingerly stuck one in the cart, hoping something just as pretty would be available elsewhere, without having to cash in my retirement fund.

Aha, I found a beautiful garland using the same flower, as well as other matching red flowers to the tune of $60. That certainly was much better but it had 13 flowers which was still cheaper than buying a bunch of single flowers. I had hopes of better things to come looked desperately for sale fliers. None to be found there, but several aisles over were the bouquet bunches. Aisles and aisles of tacky looking flowers, all half-price. Figures. All the ugly ones are on sale. Until I looked closer. There, amid the colorful sprays of flowers most tacky were the very ones I was looking for. Fifty percent off, what a beautiful sign. Seven flowers for $10. Needless to say I felt quite smug! Did I mention the ceramic containers/vases were half-price as well?

Late lunch at Panera Bread and a little more shopping before heading back to my brother Phil’s place. As I was walking up the path I notice some small flowers clustered here and there. So I dropped everything I was carrying

Yeah, well pretty literally. More like laid down what I was carrying and 
snapped some shots of

 

 

 Crocuses

We are too far south to have them and I think it may the first time I saw real live ones. The ones in the books looked more like tulip-size so I was surprised at how small they really are.

 

These next pictures are for my brother Phil.

Aha! Alien spies! I knew they’ve been watching us!

 

 What is that odd clicking noise?

 
I think I’ve about got it pin-pointed.

 
It must be that alien with that odd black thing.

Yup! I was right. But what is she doing with that lousy lens on her camera?
 She should upgrade to at least a 24-70mm 2.8.

 

 
Maybe if we stare at her long enough she’ll leave.

 
Staring her down doesn’t seem to be working.

 

I have astigmatism in my left eye. I’ll try my right one.

She is an alien spy. And what is she doing with that lens. She definitely needs to upgrade.

 

Other highlights of the weekend:

 – Going out to eat Friday and Saturday nights, chatting with Phil.
 – Enjoying a beautiful luncheon for a surprise b.d. party for my cousin Neta.
 – Relaxing on Judy’s front porch in the beautiful sunshine and friendly conversation.
 – Hearing HBS chorale Sunday AM and seeing friends I rarely see at Whispering Pines.
 – Lunch at Titus and Ellens, chatting with them and the cousins.

 

 

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!!

 

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah, I just remembered……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s LEAP YEAR!

 

 

 

Random V-Day thought from me: why do people spend money on big, tacky, stuffed animals?  Guess I’m not sentimental enough.

 I heard that Darlene and Mrs. Sandra were checking my site for pictures of the house and no new ones were to be found so I took some last night. Lois thinks the pictures look cozier than the house actually does. We still are sparcely furnished in most rooms but the uncluttered look is great in a different way. I shall think of it as uncluttered instead of unfurnished.

And then I had the nerve to edit them yet to, to make them appear even more cozy that what they should. One of the ironies of photography is that when you see a grand scene you can’t really capture it’s full beauty, but then you can take an ordinary or even semi-ugly scene and make it nicer by the same restrictiveness that cameras offer.

This one begs for a good book and a cup of hot tea.

 
The Painting, which was purchased by Lois at a below-bargain price, and around which our
colors in the L/R and Kitchen were selected.

 The infamous orange dining room. The color still isn’t exactly accurate. Guess you’ll have to come
see  it for yourself. The table and chairs are being lent to us by Eric and Linda ’til they need it.
Jeff and Andrea lent us 2 recliner/rockers for the living room as well.

The kitchen which we also love. There isn’t much space above the cabinets to display things.
We have 10 ft. ceilings and the cabinet makers made these extra tall. Now we have lots of storage space
but not much space for displaying things on the top. Any suggestions for what to do with that space?

 Lois’ bedroom

Her bathroom (for which she wants b&w prints)

My bedroom (a little wide-angle distortion going on there)

 
My bathroom (note the tile from the shower reflected in the right mirror
and my nifty shoe shelves in the closet.

The living room in all its uncozy, uncluttered (except for the VCR unceremoniously
dumped in the center), unedited glory. Oh, and Lois reading a book. Can’t forget the accessories.

 

Darlene and Mrs. Sandra, you don’t have to have a xanga account to leave a comment!!

 

EDIT:  Ewwww! I’m looking at this on another computer and the colors look terrible!!! One of my monitors is way off. Wonder which one it is??

I have lots of photos, I’m discovering as I finish moving my stuff to my new house. Sometime between now and 2010 I must go through and organize them. Sigh. It looks like a big job. In the mean time, let me share some from my family’s Christmas in 2000. Note the stunning quality. I found 2 floppy disks with pictures from that Chrismtas. Yeah, the 1.44 MB floppy disk. Only 8 years ago and these was considered a semi-decent scan by Kodak. They were considering screen quality only but still, horrific quality. My DSLR takes pictures that are 3 to 4 MB each.

The whole crew.

Checking out Grandma’s new gazebo.

Dennis and Austin observing Chip’s rocket.

The infamous rides to Happy Acres store in the wagon.

Phil had a balloon/message project for the kiddos.

After the trip to Happy Acres with their stash of sugary things.

 Probably nobody but my family will appreciate these but I think they’re hysterical.  

And still we toil on. Step by slow (so it feels) step we get closer to the moving in stage. And yet we bump it off at least one more week. Maybe next weekend.

The hardwood floor is nearly finished and as I watched Chip labor intensely to lay it I asked Lois, “So, can we take the credit for ‘laying the floor’? and she said that would be a stretch. We did help though so that counts for something. The lady at the store where we bought it said if “we” do a good enough job she will let us do hers. 🙂

We are very delighted with the wood we got. I didn’t get a picture of the completed project as it was nearly midnight when we left Wed. night. I was too bleary eyed to see much.

Oh and it is COLD here. Laugh if you want but it got down into the teens last night. Keep laughing. We are on the edge of the tropical zone. And for 2 days straight the highs were in the 30s. With the sun shining full blast.

I won’t even attempt to write everything that took place since I last posted.

— Last weekend we enjoyed having two cousins move into the area and their mom and other siblings came along to help them move. Fun weekend! Took Annette’s senior pictures. This is the first ime I’ve ever lived in the same area as any first cousins. I’m excited about it!!

— Took some engagement pictures last week!!!! Congrats Ken & Carmel!

— Went to the Greyhound bus station in Atlanta to pick up Lena’s sister and aunt.

— Went to the hospital to see 2 new babies!!

— How could I forget…… I FINISHED THE 2007 CALENDARS!!! I think I’ve mentioned before that I like to procrastinate….. well, I got these done time to take them along to the NEW YEARS EVE PARTY!! (Yeah, I’m yelling. Feels kinda good.)

— Ordered a calendar using pics I’ve taken in the last year. I kind of threw them together so the layouts are not consistent from page to page. I will grit my teeth and ignore that for now. It was late so my titles are chintzy too. I’ll have to start earlier for next year. Know of anyone interested in a calendar with images from Impressions by Marylou? Here are the sheets:

Since I’m sure you’ll never get tired of seeing house pictures (ha ha) here are a few more:

 
Mama wiping out the fridge

 
Lois, our blind installer and all around (cordless) drill sargent. She put in all our door knobs too.

 
Chip and Michael figuring out the first board cuts.

Putting down glue for the floor. Nice cheap labor we had!!!

New Years Eve Party

Joe, the master oyster roaster

I ate one. It barely tasted like oysters. I’m not sure it that’s good or bad.

Well, that’s all for now. Hasta la vista. (I’m not exactly sure that means. My Spanish is sketchy to say the least and some of the things I know how to say I have no idea what I’m saying. I’m just repeating what I hear my sister say. Dangerous, I know.)

 

Update:  It was the 2008 calendars I made for the church. Those actually had pictures of church people and that’s partly what took so long to put them together. There were other procrastinators involved.