Wednesday, May 16, 2018

When the Girls Come Home

Adam and I were living our peaceful couple life, enjoying productive days and quiet evenings. You know ... the "empty nest." Also known as the sweet life, haha!

Then the girls came home!

Anna has been doing wedding shopping, wedding fun.
At Michael's looking at craft stuff for the wedding

Carrying a huge bag of rice ... hmmm ... What could that be for?

A delightful planning session with the pianist for the wedding, our dear friend Claudia.
 Anna took me out to eat for Mother's Day at a very yummy spot, Silo's in Oriental

 Here's another shot of me, Anna, and Tammy on our day at the beach. This was in the Royal James Cafe.
 Back to wedding thoughts. I found the guest book from my parents' wedding reception in 1955.
 So many names of people now gone from this Earth, so many dear friends. Here's the first page. The name at the top, Margaret Beck, was my great-grandmother, my mother's mother's mother.
 Tim Birthisel was my daddy's oldest, dearest friend. Juanita Doby was my great-aunt. Lois Robinson, my aunt, is still living, but this signature was given when she was a young wife and mother, so full of beauty and energy! Dixie Simpson was (I think?) her mother. 

Tucked inside the book I found a report card of my daddy's from his time at Ohio University, where he got his degree in Architecture on the GI Bill.
 Speaking of college students ...
 Julia is home. She survived her first crazy year at the university, and soon she'll travel to Boston for a 2-month internship at Harvard where her brother works. She's been excited for two days because she ended up (after much suffering and travail) with a 4.0 GPA this semester! She's on the Chancellor's List. I am beyond proud of this girl. She worked so hard, and made so many sacrifices, to accomplish that.

Julia and I painted a bit yesterday, like old times.
 We shared some watercolors. She hadn't watercolor painted in a long time.
 This little critter is a sugar glider. She painted him because her nickname among her friends is sugar glider.
 She started a small painting of Atlas. She's messing around with color saturation techniques (way over my head). We got distracted before she finished.
 I worked on the last picture in my Thanksgiving Mice book. Mrs. Mouse is drifting off to sleep while looking at the farm wife's earring dangling in front of the moon.
 The three tomato plants that I dug from the ground last fall, and overwintered on my front porch, and returned to the garden, have finally recovered.
 Saving the last morsel of beauty for last! At the thrift store on Monday (Granny Marigold, I always think of you when I show things like this!), I found a box of cups and saucers. They are Mikasa, a very fine brand.
They're lovely blue and white, so delicate! And a sweet, short cup. I had to have one or two cups, but the box held a dozen cups and a dozen saucers. The saucers are inexplicably ugly. However, the entire box was labeled $2.00, and it was half off! So for only a dollar, I could take it all home, decide how many cups to keep, and give the saucers (ugh) back :) 

I decided to keep all the cups, haha. I got rid of quite a few ugly mugs that don't hold a candle to these beauties. And I'll give a couple of the blue-and-whites to my mother when she comes in June. I have an inkling she'll love them too.

That's it from here. Who knew that two girls could wear us old people out so much? After the wedding, when all the hoopla is over, Adam and I are going to have a nice long break.

8 comments:

Granny Marigold said...

The Mikasa cups are so pretty; too bad the saucers were not. I'm always "trading up" my stuff whether it's mugs, clothes, whatever. I find it's inexpensive fun.

The guest book with signatures of dear ones now gone is such an absolute treasure!!

Congrats to Julia on her awesome marks!!!

Lisa Richards said...

Enjoy those girls while you have them around! :) That food looks SO GOOD!

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

I loved reading this exciting post! Wedding planning and crafting, you and Julia painting together, a great find at the thrift store and veggies from your gardens.

Congrats to Julia for making it through her first year of college and on her high grades. Way to go! May she have a wonderful summer at Harvard.

Enjoy more special moments together.

Love & hugs ~ FlowerLady

Carol Blackburn said...

Good day M.K., what a busy lady you've been. I bet it's all been wonderful though to spend time with your lovely daughters. Blessings!

Henny Penny said...

Not only are you all beautiful, you are so talented! Julia is an artist and so are you! My goodness!! Glad you had a good Mother's Day. Nothing better than going out to eat. I can sure relate to "the girls coming home". When Andee and Lynn are home there is constant talking and laughing. I love it!

Gumbo Lily said...

What fun to have your girls home. Cherish this short time with them because before you know it, they'll be gone all at once and it'll seem so quite and empty (even though it's not). Have fun planning!

GretchenJoanna said...

What a joy to paint alongside your daughter!

I love those mugs - must say I am curious about the ugly saucers. I find it hard to get rid of ugly or otherwise unwanted saucers and always keep a few around in the greenhouse to put under potted plants that for some reason need them only temporarily... From what I've seen, your thrift shops and Granny Marigold's have much better deals that we do here - we are probably too much in yuppie land or whatever it's called now.

Pom Pom said...

How lovely to find cups you really love at a bargain price! Woo hoo!
Julia really looks like your mama! I love her eyeliner. Huge applause for her! What a fine scholar she is!