In Loving Memory of Tina Downey

My dear friend Tina passed away on August 23rd at age 49.  I can't believe I'm never going to talk to her ever again.  Judging by the outpouring of love on Facebook and the blogosphere, she touched so many lives and she will be greatly missed by her family and friends. 

Tina loved sunflowers.  Today's blogosphere tribute is to feature sunflowers that we've bought or planted. But since I can't keep plants alive and didn't get a chance to purchase an artificial plant, I am featuring the sunflowers I shot in Onset three days after she passed away.  I love you Tina and I will miss you forever.  

Happiest Day of My Life!

Well OK one of them anyway.  The happiest days of my life are all related to Russell anyway, so this is right up there!! 

The main reason we decided to get married this summer was that my stepson, Jeff & his fiancee', Casi, were coming east from Ohio to visit for a week.  We figured that would be a good time to schedule the ceremony.

Me & my gorgeous stepdaughter Valerie.

My husband and me.  I was beaming all damn day.  Still am.  My dress was purple velvet and I was broiling!

Marsha performed such a beautiful ceremony that she had Valerie & me in tears and Russell very emotional too.

My guests, Sam & Nick, Val, Casi & Jeff, then next to us are Mary, Myles & Marsha, Robin & Casey. Robin was the one who encouraged Russell to tell me how he felt about me when he first friended me on Facebook.  Although like she said, 'Well I told him to tell you he had a crush on you in high school.  We didn't expect you to leave your husband!'  

My god I love this  man!!!!  The love of my life.

All 3 kids and dad in the same place!!!!  Do you know how rare that is?!

Then we went to Asia at Mashpee Commons for a delish Chinese food lunch.

It was so warm and humid that all of us changed into shorts.

Nick & Sam.  She caught the bouquet.

Russell, Mary & Marsha....to stuffed to smile!

She cracks me up so much.  In fact she made a comment that wasn't so much funny but the way she said it and the look on her face and it caused me to spray my drink everywhere. I still start laughing when I think about it.  

My handsome stepsons and their beautiful significant others!

Myles & Marsha

Yep.  This pretty much sums up the day!!!

Dr. Wetz's Beautiful Garden

My bff Liz was down from VT one weekend.  I was still recovering from that awful cold so I was unable to do lunch with the girls, but Russell & I went over to her parents' house so that I could see her, they could meet Russell and so I could shoot her father's beautiful garden & a family photo.

Dr. Wetz has done a beautiful job with both the front and back yard.  The rhodies were in full bloom!

Liz's son gave this dog to his grandfather one year.  She calls it 'The Nightmare Before Christmas Dog'.

This is a small bush shaped like Eeyore, but he needs a bit of a trim!

"The Love Shack" as they call it!!!   Dr. Wetz built this.  

Such a lovely home.  The inside is beautiful as well.  I spent a lot of time here when I was a teenager.

Ferns.

And a great picture of my best friend since 3rd grade and her folks!!!

More Goodies!

One of the drain pipes needs to be fixed and this giant icicle formed.

I had a real off week, last week.  Felt like crap, couldn't get warm, crying real easily and which culminated with a killer headache from hell on Sunday....just one of the lovely hormonal byproducts of middle age.  Like a beacon of light, I got that package from Tracy with the sugar cookie mix and the very next day I got another box full of flat backed glass blobbies from Kim!

PLUS chewsticks for my fuzzies!

Of course Sagan demolished his in no time, then sat on the couch, with his eyes flicking back and forth between Pepper still munching her chewie, and me, with a dejected look on his face.  I couldn't stop cracking up. 

I looked down at Bean and she looked up at me like this, which only made me laugh harder.

Eventually she tired of hers as it was rather large and Sagan left it alone for awhile which surprised me, but he finally finished it off later in the day.

So the day I had my headache, the only thing I managed to do was sew beads to this little doily bowl I made a few weeks back by spraying starch on it and letting it dry over an inflated balloon.  It didn't make the bowl as stiff as I wanted and it began to collapse under the weight of the beads.  So after they were sewn on, I tried spraying more starch on it but that still didn't work, so I coated the back with mod podge and let it dry.

Then I got up on Friday, checked my email, and was excited to see that I won another giveaway, on the Krafty Max Originals blog/Facebook page!!  I won a bracelet but I haven't gotten it yet. 

And then I got this from Michelle!