Sight

Today's photo prompt is "Sight". I spent most of my day on the road with a few shopping stops to stretch my legs during the 4 hour drive home from Jayme's. The only photo I took today was with my cell phone on the drive home when I saw someone already hauling home a Christmas tree! I thought November 3rd was a little early to be selecting a tree but I guess if you want a perfect one then it might be for you. It was a "sight" to see for me :)

Lessons learned...

Saturday, I was up at still up at my daughter Jayme's house visiting and I was having my second large cup of coffee because I was TIRED.  We were talking and I told her the photo prompt of the the day was "lessons learned" and she told me to go take a photo of my iPad because I had stayed up reading till 2:30 am and didn't fall asleep until almost 3 am and my "lesson learned" was I would be tired if I stayed up that late :)    I love to read but I get so involved in a book if it is good that it is sometimes hard to put down.  Friday night's book was "What Alice Forgot" the third  of Liane Moriarty's five books, I have finished the first 3 and look forward to the last two.

So Jayme was right - I learned my lesson!  But that didn't stop me from enjoying a busy and full day.  So full as a matter of fact the only photos I took in the entire day were on my cell phone of 2 pairs of purple shoes I want to buy my little Princesses to go with their Christmas dresses.  A second lesson might be "a princess can never have too many shoes"….just wish they were still 87 cents!

Surprises...

November is a quieter month for me and I'm going to try the daily photo challenge once again even if it ends up being a photo from my phone which I always have with me. This month's challenge also emphasizes gratitude which is a lot easier for me to elaborate on the subject title.

Today's subject was Surprises. I'm spending a few days up north with Brooklyn and we are having lots of one on one Brooklyn and Grandma time. She is a very vocal little girl and her vocabulary for someone just turning two is amazing, I'm not just being a proud grandma either - people comment to J & S all the time on her vocal skills for her age. To say that this little girl is full of surprises is an understatement to me. Today she told me a long story about a little boy that came over to play and he pushed another little friend, so his mommy had to have a talk with him and he had to go to timeout in her room. When I ask her if she needs to go potty, she tells me "No, I'm fine, I'm really fine". A new favorite is to tease her mommy with a line from a movie…"MOM, the Meatloaf!" and then she giggles and giggles. Finally, the biggest surprise to me is her aptitude with the iPad and her mommy's phone. She just whizzes through games and sings many songs with the apps and I sometimes struggle with new computer skills :)

So surprised and proud of this little two year old!

I'm equally proud and constantly surprised by the new things my darling little 15 month old, Bailey! She walks backward and does the moonwalk. She has no fear so needs to be watched closely. She is learning to talk and learns new words daily, even if she can't say the exact word, all the syllables are present.

My trick or treaters trying on their costumes together earlier in October…

Grandma added a bow to Brooklyn's penquin to make it a little more feminine like Bailey's leopard.

I'm so filled with gratitude for these two little angels and can't wait to experience our expanded family in 2014!

Happy Halloween!

still here...

Yup, I'm still alive but boy did I fall off that photo a day in October wagon! Autumn is my favorite season and I've been too busy enjoying it (without a camera) to stick to my blogging every day with a photo challenge. I'm going to cry "uncle" on this month but stubborn as I am I will try again in November when it's too cold to be outside and I have more time to sit with the computer.

That said I've spent the month enjoying the season's changing colors and temps with a few weekends away and lots of time at home doing cleanup and other autumn chores. I've also spent a fair amount of time inside sewing and crafting. Five little girls each got 2 new ruffle skirts & matching t-shirts and Brooklyn got a few party decorations as well as a birthday shirt & flag. I'll share photos of Brooklyn's party (which was held a week early) this Saturday on her actual birthday. October's cooler temps and many rainy days have inspired me to turn on the oven and make more "comfort" style meals as well as baking too.

Of course, any and all free time I can manage seeing these two Princesses usually tops my list :)

Last weekend's party girl - we got a few smiles but she was sick with a fever for her party so I hope she has a better day for her birthday this weekend.

Seasonal Colors...

The trees around my home are not yet showing today's photo prompt of Seasonal Colors so I went looking around my yard for other spots of seasonal color.  First up is a branch on one of the sumacs...

and some wild Virginia Creeper vine that winds around some of the trees.

The hydrangeas that were white earlier in the season have all turned soft shades of green and pink...

and did you spot the bee?



Fall mums are blooming and the annual infestation of asian beetles has started...

I always love seeing the yellow mums reflecting in the pond and currently several dozen frogs are living in the pond. Two of them are in this photo...

Chinese lanterns spread by runners and took over my old garden in the middle of the yard. That garden was taken out quite a few years ago and this spring I hauled in several 5 gallon pails of dirt off our company's black dirt pile to fill in some holes in the garden and wouldn't you know it some Chinese lanterns popped up from that dirt! Of course, these were in the most snake infested area of my garden so I was too scared to work in that area digging them out and as a result I have some beautiful fall color.

Pinks and purples are not usually thought of as an autumn color but in my garden they are two of the most gorgeous. Pink asters...

and purple ones.

Purple also makes an appearance in the flowering kale...

Last but not least is our view across the road which has changed from green to golden browns...

Hats Off...

If anything this October photo challenge I am embarking on will surely get me back to blogging on a regular schedule! While there most likely will not be a blog post everyday there will definitely be a prompted photo (or two or three, maybe ten) and I will post them as able. Today's prompt is Hats Off - and I took it literally and decided to take photos of my vintage hats and of course I couldn't take just one :)

Are you of my generation? I remember growing up when you didn't think of wearing anything to church but a dress, you had your Sunday best shoes, coat & dresses that were saved just for church. At Easter, you got a new summer dress (sewn by mom) and purchased white gloves and at Christmas, another new winter dress (again sewn) debuted at the SS Christmas program and Dad bought us Christmas corsages (not fresh floral, but shiny artificial ones with baubles and greenery). As girls we didn't wear hats but I remember mom pinning hers on every Sunday right before we left. By the 1970's the hats, gloves and corsages were gone and by the twenty-ten's we sometimes see jeans and shorts appearing in the pews. I still love hats even though I've never worn these in public but have pulled them out for garden tea parties.

If only I had an occasion to wear a magenta pink feathered velvet hat...big sigh...

or maybe the blue floral pill box...

or a soft white chiffon rosette number.

I think these next ones are the oldest ones I have - definitely a 1940's shape...

and then the pill boxes became popular, thanks to Jackie-O...

I think the royal blue one above and this black one - we could actually pull off wearing as a fascinator as the British do.

Some of the old labels are even kind of cool.

This last one I'm actually storing for Jayme, it is one of her Grandma Mary's hats & gloves found in the attic when the family cleaned out their home after Grandpa passed away. Very pretty and elegant in peach...

I have one more photo to share that has nothing to do with the prompt of the day but instead my favorite subject to take photos of...the grand girls!  They were so cute in their matching outfits!

Ready, Set, GO!

I love a good bargain and consider myself lucky to find these 2 matching Princess cars with new batteries on an online auction for less than the price of one replacement battery. Brooklyn spent a couple days at Grandpa & Grandma's house this week and really enjoyed driving them around, especially when her cousin, Bailey, came to visit.

I also want to thank everyone who responded to my online survey as well the phone calls & "in person" requests to keep the blog going. The results tallied as follows:
Should I continue blogging?
Yes, continue to come and share the garden of life and life in the garden: 43
Yes, but only share photography and not my family: 3

If I continue to blog would you like to see the blog expand into different directions?
Yes, please share all of your interests and pursuits (garden, crafts, recipes, decorating, traveling, photography, digital scrapbooking and of course family): 40
Yes, please combine your old food blog and continue to share recipes and table settings: 3
No, stay as is: 2

If I continue to blog how often would you like to see me blog?
I'll take what I can get - if you post it I will come: 38
Once a week: 3
Three times a week or more: 3

With those encouraging results from all of you,  I hope to get back to blogging on a regular basis and have been brainstorming some ideas on what I want to share.  I've been so busy this summer that other than taking photos of my family, I haven't hardly picked up a camera.  Crazy right?  Especially for a gal that took 100s of photos a week just of birds :)  To get me back into the photography/blogging mode I am going to participate in the October 365 Photo Challenge List.  I've already printed out the list of 31 prompts and look forward to seeing how I manage to interpret some of them especially number 18. Patient.

For today, I leave you with some more photos of the little princesses playing with their new cars at Grandma's house.

should I stay or should I go?

I hope anyone reading this is having a wonderful September! Please help me out by completing the survey at the end of this post.

wordless Wednesday...