Celebrations and a giveaway winner...

 I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Ours was lovely as we combined Thanksgiving with celebrating our Amanda's birthday 

since she was home from the city for a few days.

Amanda always enjoys coming home, and one of the highlights is that she gets to spend time with her sweet Tiger, who is now over 20 years old!

This is a photo of them sleeping together back in September of 1993. 

Aren't they adorable?

And to this day, Tiger sleeps on Amanda's bed.

We've built her something of a "Tiger cave" that she can snuggle into to stay warm....

... or lay in front of if she wants a bit of fresh air. She's such a sweet little girl.

And speaking keeping warm, I snapped this photo last week of our first 'mini snow' - Brrrrrr! I feel cold just looking at this photo. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get through the next four months, but c'est la vie! That's New England!

And now it's time to announce the winner of the giveaway for any 16" x 20" or smaller 

art print from my Etsy shop....

Hubby did the picking and he pulled Carla from Here in Texas!

I'll be in touch with you, Carla, to work out the details for your print choice & address.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and be sure to stop back because I'm going to be having another giveaway for a fabulous 1995 edition of The Night Before Christmas with amazing illustrations by Christian Birmingham. As many of you know, I have an extensive collection of "Night Before Christmas" books. When I spotted this book while out thrifting, I knew one of you would enjoy it as I already have it in my collection and it is gorgeous!

Till then, stay safe & warm!

This week I'm joining Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday.

Donna

A Rainy Day in Portsmouth, NH

The day after our 'snowstorm,' there were some heavy coastal rains.

Of course that's the day Amanda and I had plans to drive up to

Three Graces Gallery in Portsmouth, N.H. to pick up her remaining artwork.

(this particular photo was taken by me in 2009 during another rainy day in Portsmouth!)

 

Sadly, this beautiful gallery where Amanda has exhibited her artwork for the past several years will be closing at the end of December. Kim, the gallery owner, has decided to spend more time working on her own art. And since she was at the gallery just about every day, that didn't leave a lot of time for her to pursue her own passions. So although we're very happy for her, our trips to Portsmouth just won't be the same without stopping in at The Three Graces. (Good luck, Kim!!)

 

Normally we wander around Portsmouth (even on rainy days like this), but on this particular day we were in a bit of a hurry, so after loading up Amanda's art we left the van in front of the gallery and just ran across the street to Fat Belly's to grab a quick bite.

 

 Someone told us we didn't have to put money in the meter because it was still the holiday season.

 

I still wanted to keep my eyes on the van 'just-in-case' we were misinformed and a meter reader or tow truck happened along! So how lucky were we to get the one table right by the window, with a clear view of the van!

 

I love tables with a view, and even in the pouring rain, Portsmouth is a fun place to people-watch. We saw people with umbrellas, people with dogs, people hurrying along, and people taking their time and enjoying a lovely, rainy afternoon (probably saying prayers of thanks that it wasn't snow or sleet! I know I was!)

 

The meals were delicious! Amanda ordered a grilled cheese with lobster...

 

.. and I ordered a veggie burger with a side salad. Delicious!!

 

All in all, a fantastic way to spend time with one of my two favorite girls in the whole wide world!

 

I hope you're all enjoying this week between Christmas and New Year's.

 

Donna

When Children Grow Up...

Some of you might remember when I posted about our Swingset Deck project here,

complete with [hideous] before & [much better] after photos.

Our two girls, now in their 20's, outgrew their swing set many years ago...

But because of memories like these, and me being the overly sentimental fool that I am,
I couldn't bear to part with their old wood swing set...

... so it became the inspiration and framework for a backyard sitting area where
climbing hydrangea and clematis will be crossing the monkey bars rather than two little girls.

The story isn't too different for the Gnome Home  
(so called because of its current lone inhabitant).

Once upon a time, long before Mr. Gnome
called this place home...

... two wonderful, silly little girls inhabited this magical place,
built by their daddy just for them.

 They spent countless hours laughing and giggling
in this magical little place...

... so magical that they were even able to entice our old Mr. O'Malley
to climb the ladder stairs and join in on the fun!

But children have a way of growing up (much too fast) and
leaving swing sets, tree houses, and all their sweet memories behind...

And no matter how much we'd like childhood to hang on
for just a wee bit longer...

...it's not part of nature's plan.

And so these days, it is little bunnies who frolic by the base of the tree house...

...and a family of birds who wind their way from the birdbath to the ladder steps
to pay Mr. Gnome a visit.

But sometimes when it's very quiet, while I'm out watering flowers or filling bird baths,
just sometimes an enchanted breeze will gently blow through the treehouse...

... and stir up memories so real that I swear I can still hear
two little girls laughing and giggling from inside.

Wishing you all the loveliest memories in your own enchanted gardens.

Donna

This week I'm joining

Tracie's Cottage Garden Party at Fishtail Cottage

and  Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home.

Happy B-day, honey!

We took advantage of everyone being home for the holiday weekend to celebrate Amanda's birthday...


...which meant it was Amanda's day to wear the CELEBRATE birthday crown, and CELEBRATE we did!


Since Amanda is an artist, I thought I'd get a little "artsy" with some of the photos I took that night (I think this was a "pastel chalk" conversion or some such thing... it seemed like a good idea at the time!! ha ha). She requested mock meat tacos for dinner since she's a vegetarian, and this year, rather than black forest cake, she requested a strawberry cake with vanilla 'funfetti' frosting.


I love this photo of Amanda peeking through the Christmas chandelier of tinsel wreaths, sparkly birds and stars. The little dining area, which had already been decorated for Christmas, looked very festive for her birthday celebration. (And yes, we did end up having Thanksgiving dinner under the Christmas chandelier! That was a first!)


Court found a perfect card for her! I'm sure Amanda will end up displaying it above her painting desk, along with all of her other neat postcards, photos, and cards.

So happy birthday, honey! It was so wonderful having you and Courtney home this weekend (even if it did go by way too fast!!!) ... I love you and I hope that all your birthday wishes come true!!!!

Love and hugs,
Mumsy


P.S. I've tried to personally respond to everyone who left a comment on Spotty's post, but in some cases I couldn't find a blog or e-mail in order to do so... For everyone who left such kind words, you have no idea how comforting your comments and e-mails were. It's clear that you are all animal lovers. So many of you shared the pain of your own losses, and my heart goes out to each and every one of you.... Again, thank you all so much...

Let them eat cake!

Court came home from college this weekend to celebrate her birthday and St. Patrick's Day...

(click any photos to enlarge)

Because she was born on March 18th, we've always celebrated the two together....


I bought this crown last year and I think it is going to be worn by everyone for their official birthday portraits from this point on... My dad and hubby got fair warning that when their birthdays roll around they, too, will be donning the "Celebrate" crown!


Courtney requests carrot cake each year for her birthday, and since I am not known for my baking (or cooking) skills, my cakes are just 'doctored up' box mixes...

So far, so good... I remember when Courtney was about nine years old, she invited several school friends to her birthday party. Everything went great until the cake was served and one of the girls asked what kind it was... I wish I had a picture of all those little faces when Court proudly annunced it was carrot cake! No one would even try it!

This year's cake turned out sooooo good! I added raisins and walnuts to the mix (Court nixed the coconut and crushed pineapple I had planned to add)... This cake is probably the reason I had my first gain (1.2 lbs.) on the scale this week since starting my diet. (If I'd only stopped with one piece instead of helping myself to leftover cake all weekend long!!)

Court with her cake (right after blowing out the candles). Notice her bandaged hand/fingers? Over spring break she flew to New Orleans to visit a friend at Tulane University. During a bike ride to get snow cones, she ended up skidding on gravel and going over the handlebars. Thank God her only injuries were bruises, skinned knees & palms, and a couple of broken fingers. (Not that the broken fingers are a good thing, but when I think how much worse it could have been I'm grateful... very grateful)...

The official birthday portrait of the princess with her prince... (Court is also sporting dark locks as of last month. She doesn't change her hair color as much as she did a few years ago. Back then, I never knew what color she'd surprise us with!)

My two silly girls, once again hamming it up for the camera in their hats (Christmas deja vu). Amanda is actually wearing a peacock feathered headband which is very hard to see in this photo. So other than it being too short, it was a great weekend!

And I'd also like to thank everyone who left such heartfelt comments about our little Gizzy Girl... You are all so kind - and such wonderful animal lovers!!!

Wishing you all a beautiful week!

Donna

Puppy love and happy endings...

If I had to use one word to describe this photo it would be bliss (just look at both of those little faces!) It was taken Christmas morning, 1990, just minutes after Amanda woke to find that Santa had left a "real, live dog" for her (those were the exact words at the top of her Christmas list).


Sooshi was a 2-year old Shih-Tzu and her first puppy love. And even though he crossed the Rainbow Bridge in January of 2000, he is always in our hearts.

This morning I had a sense of deja-vu when I snapped the following photo...


Amanda had been driving through the Main Street of our downtown when she spotted this little guy...


...running down the street all by himself.

By the time she found a place to pull over, the doggy was way down Main Street, chasing a man who was walking his dog. Amanda caught up to them and asked the man if the little one tagging along was also his. He said, "No," so she scooped up the little guy and brought him home.

Dirty snow mounds are melting a mile a minute with the warmer weather, and little riverlets of water and sand are running everywhere, so this little guy was a sandy, soaking wet bundle of fur...

We were able to contact his owner through his tags; they were devestated that he'd gotten loose, and very grateful that Amanda had taken the time to stop and rescue him from such a busy street... I shudder to think what might have happened if he'd darted out between parked cars into the busy downtown traffic.

So here's to puppy love and my sweetie who took the time to make sure this tale had a happy ending!

I jazzed up this picture using Picnik, a photo editing website that my Courtney turned me on to! Try it - I think you'll have fun with it!

Donna