It's A Wonderful Life: Edition Double the Fun

Kate was home this weekend for two parties and it was double the fun. Can I just say that I am humbled by the love? My friends, her friends, family...pretty sure I'll NEVER be able to express enough appreciation.  

I Get Another One

Last week when Worth and Ashley were here on a house hunting and car buying mission, we enjoyed family fun at the Tifts.  Ellie was obsessed with throwing pine cones in the pond....

Excellent!

Congratulations to E.W., who received his first Circle of Excellence award today!

Bluestocking Retreat 2011

Still Gone

Miss Scarlett

Just like the last time, we miss you.  This time, though, you've been gone longer than ten days.  In fact, it's been fifty.  Guess it's really good-bye this time, Miss Scarlett, our little cashmere kitty.  :(

Afternoon with Ellie

Ellie and her folks are here...househunting in their new town south of us. Worked out wonderfully because we got to spend time with all this sweetness!  Can't wait until she and her new sister are close enough to do this more often.

Wordless Wednesday: On the Way Home

Okay...technically not wordless... but OH MY at God's creation!

The only difference may be the color of the carpet.

The Westminster Dog Show is going on this week and some of the pictures seemed a bit familiar.  Two very different types of events...or are they?  Both involve:

• intense preparation
• velvet ropes to separate the VIPs from the ordinaries
• handlers and stylists
• hours spent on getting just the right look
• admiring fans
• preening and posing for the cameras
• winners and losers (and those who are happy to be nominated!)

      Academy Awards               Westminster Dog Show

Possibly the only difference?  One event features red carpet; the other, green.

Mama's Mama

I never knew my maternal grandmother, Susan Inez Shaw Minick (although my cousin and I do share her name).  My own mother barely knew her; she was three when my grandmother passed away in 1928, seven weeks after giving birth to her tenth child.  I have some reminders of her though (including a lock of her hair!), and think of her quite often.  

Susie Inez Shaw Minick           Olin Watson Minick

I've been told that this was her dough bowl, in which she made biscuits for her large family on a daily basis.  Notice the copper patch; apparently my grandfather made the repair when the wood became worn.  Imagine making so many biscuits that you wear a hole through wood!

copper patch in dough bowl

If the patch weren't proof enough of this dough bowl's overuse, examine the texture of the wood.

dough bowl close-up

I've used this bowl on my table and to hold fruit on the counter, but I think it deserves a rest, don't you?  For now, it's in a quiet corner of the kitchen, gleaming softly, and serving as a reminder of hard work.

kitchen corner

Click HERE if you'd like to see more dough bowls and where they're from and how they're being used.

birthday girl

Happy birthday to the most precious daughter-in-law ever...an answer to prayer.