Even In The Rain

Even though there has been crazy amounts of rain the last few weeks, my roses found a way to withstand the wind and water to produce this:

I so wish this post could be a scratch n' sniff - these roses have the most fantastic scent! If I could bottle it and sell it as perfume I would indeed be a millionaire. It is out of this world.

And the gorgeous color just makes me swoon every time. It's called Sterling Silver.

When I was 9 years old, a neighbor on my grandparents block had one of these roses and every year it bloomed I would tell my grandma that when I grew up I wanted a sterling silver rose for my first home.

When hubby and I got marrried 7 years ago, she and I went to pick out the first plant for my garden - a Sterling Silver rose. It was my house warming gift from her... and now that she is no longer with us, it is my daily reminder of the special bond she and I had. How much she loved me. How special she was to remember a wish from my little 9 year old heart.

Sweet memories!

What special memories are you contemplating today?

All photos taken by yours truly.

Memory Board

Poor hubbster. He's sicker than sick with a nasty head cold and his whole body hurts. And today was supposed to be our first big day off together in a long time. Phoey.We had all sorts of plans that we needed to cancel last minute - but I have a feeling he might power through the yuckiness for one quick run to the goodwill :)

Quiet moments before the craziness of a day.

In order to let him sleep a bit longer today, I got up extra early (for a Saturday) and snuck out to the living room to craft for a bit. That way the sound of the shower won't rudely awaken him for a while longer. I know, I know... how sweet am I? {no need to mention that I really wanted to craft too} {{grin}}

This morning seemed to be a great time to rearrange the magnetic memory board that hangs in the entryway. Since Valentines day is quickly approaching, what better theme than love and memories. I started with a blank slate. (yes, it looks like it's just a wall inside the frame, but there is actualy a  fabric board mounted behind the frame.)

These were the cute magnets I had to work with. The "N" was from a gorgeous resort and spa in Washington. Every time I see it I am reminded of the wonderful time we spent there on the waterfront.

After rounding up all the fun photos and doo-dads to work with, I just began placing layers of scrapbook paper, photos, sayings, etc till I liked it.

The words "Memories, Love & Kisses" -

printed on plain printer paper and freehand cut into mini banners.

“If you live to be one-hundred years old,

I want to live to be one-hundred minus one day.

That way I never have to live a day without you.”

~ Winnie the Pooh

Metal quote from dollar store - pack of four words:

"Smile, Santa, Laugh, & Faith"

Tissue paper flower made for me by a sweet girl in my church.

Total cost of project - $0

Total Satisfaction - acheived!

And then after that I had a cookie - for breakfast. Yep, so far this Saturday is turning out to be pretty good.

Are you crafting some great way to display a memory? or are you and your family out making memories on another family adventure?
Feel free to share in the coments below -I'd love to know what fun plans you have up your sleeve for today!

The Dreaded Blank Wall

So while this may only seem like a decorating post, I am adding it to Chatting at the Sky's Tuesdays Unwrapped. And here's why: my design dilemma of filling an empty wall turned into a walk down memory lane, reliving the 14 magical days spent on vacation with my amazing family. Today, I am unwrapping memories and then wrapping my wall in them! Head on over to see what other people are unwrapping today.

Every home has one... the dreaded blank wall that no matter what you do you just can't seem to find the right design element that will fit the room's scale and decor. Here's my dreaded wall:

It's one of the walls in my bedroom. And to make maters worse, it's the first thing we see when we wake up in the morning. The only decoration on that wall is this iron work vase. I absolutely LOVE it. It matches the old world, tropical theme is our master bedroom, plus it holds the dried buds from two of the bouquets by dear hubby gave me. Their colors of the buds are a lot more vibrant in person - I tried to fiddle around with the camera settings to capture it better, but am still feeling a little woozy from the bronchitis and called it quits after a few minutes.

But you can kind of see it and get the idea, right? So here is the reason that I never placed anything else on the wall to accompany it: I was waiting for that one perfect painting or wall hanging. Every other wall in the room is just right. I love the way the pictures and sconces look around the rest of our room. But as this was the last wall to tackle, I realized that I needed to put something on it that would balance out the room a bit and tie in the different old world, jungle and palm tree prints.

So I waited for that perfect piece...for six years.

And yesterday (after watching too many hours of HGTV, one of the nice parts of being sick), I decided: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

I am ready to take the plunge and place some art on that wall. There are only two requirements:

1. It must be inexpensive. That way I can swap it out if at some point we grow tired of it, or if it simply does not tie in with the rest of the room.

2. It needs to be BIG in scale, but not necessarily in actual photo size. Keep reading, I'll explain.

For too long, I have held out for one BIG piece. But today I decided to take 4 or 6 prints from our last two Mexico vacations, enlarge them to at least 5x7 (maybe 8x10), and frame them with a chunky, textured mat. That way each photo is still a medium size, but the visual impact of grouping them together will say BIG! And that is what I need to fill up my last little empty bedroom wall.

(the turtle is a lot clearer in photoshop)

So I'm posting some of the potential candidates for these new art pieces. All of the photos you see on this post are from our last two trips, and I'm asking you for some help in picking out your favorites.


Not only will I be completing a project that I have put off for too many years, but I will be preserving a few more memories in a practical, beautiful way.

So take a look and let me know in the comments which two,

or four,

or six,

or eight I should use.

And what size do you think they should be?

5x7

8x10

mixture of both?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and solutions for this master bedroom dilemma. Thanks for stopping by... and check back soon to see the unveiling.

And don't forget to head on over to Tuesdays Unwrapped.

Unwrapped

This Tuesday was another "Tuesday Unwrapped" at Chatting at the Sky.

The question asked was, "What moments are you unwrapping on this Tuesday?" Although I am a bit late, I still wanted to share this {sweet} moment captured a few years ago on a family trip to Leavenworth, WA. I ran across these pics and they just brought so much joy to my heart.



Yes, that is my pup taking a good hard look at that tootsie pop! I saw her pondering the age old question:

"HOW MANY LICKS DOES IT TAKE TO GET TO THE CENTER OF A TOOTSIE POP?"

As she took a few licks, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be great to get a shot of her right as she licked the tootsie pop?" So I started snapping a few shots... OK fine, a LOT of shots trying to get that perfect lick. After a few minutes of clicking, I looked through the photos... low and behold I spotted this gem:

Yes indeed, the coveted action shot was mine! I absolutely LOVE that photo of my pup. And after several ( and I do mean several) shots, my perseverance was rewarded.

Oh happy day!

What moments are you celebrating/remembering today? Please share in the comments and then head on over to Chatting at the Sky for some more wonderful life moments.