More Love

Every Valentine’s Day for the last 46 years my sweet hubby has always given me a lovely bouquet of flowers. He has never once forgotten. But today he didn’t give me flowers.  Why? 






Because he surprised me with Sherrie’s Berries. They are wonderful tasty chocolate covered strawberries. How sweet! It reminded us of when we were in Las Vegas. We were waiting to go on a gondola ride at the Venetian and bought a chocolate covered Godiva strawberry while we were waiting. These berries brought back those romantic feelings. Isn’t it nice to know that after all these years..(I’ve been with him since I was 16) that we are still as deeply in love now as ever before? Awww..

I love…al fresco dining!

 

happy Valentine’s Day

I love you..yes, you.  My reader. I love that you are taking time from your busy day to peek at mine. I love that you visit more than once to see what I am doing. I love your comments and hope you will comment often. I love to see that I have had visitors from far off places. Even though I do this blog just for me I love that you love it too. Happy Love Day!

LOVE

 Have you ever had a fantasy? This is mine. I love this Vespa. My fantasy is being thin and riding around in the summer with this beautiful blue green scooter zipping here and there. I can picture myself with my book bag, wind blowing in my hair as I ride to coffee with my friends in the morning or do some chores in the late afternoon. I would take a picnic lunch and my camera and go off for the day. I would be carefree and smiling. Wouldn’t it be wonderful?

Aren’t I cute?

Need I say more?

A WINTER WALK

We are back to our usual wintery weather. The snow is so beautiful and still falling gently. The bird feeder is getting a lot of activity and that suicide cardinal who flies into the front window has been tapping all morning. Sadie and I went for a peaceful walk in the Willow Dale Cemetery near our home. Sadie was delighted to get a chance to be outside and run on her leash.













It was so quiet there. I decided to take my small camera to see if I could get some good shots of the snow. We came across the ducks feeding in the little inlet of the pond.
It was great to be outside with the snow falling down. What a great walk!

Photos + Photoshop

Happy Friday one and all. I have discovered how much I like taking pictures. I’m starting to pay more attention to composition and learning to capture a scene. And I’ve always loved quotes so combining the two has been fun for me. I played around with the above picture. Here are more results.

Squash soup

I love squash soup but have never attempted to make it on my own. I found this recipe on Susan Branch’s blog so it must be fantastic. One of these days I’m going to give it a go.

Tree of wisdom

We love a little nature in our homes and these branches in a french styled tin bucket add that little flavor to the sunroom.

On the tree are little tags with sayings. I love little quotes and what better way to incorporate them into my daily living than to have them prominent on these branches.

Have you always felt that you were marching differently than the others around you? I have. Not everyone is like me, but that is a good thing.


This is one of my very favorite quotes. I even have a silver watch with this engraved on it.
It is good to surround yourself with positive thoughts.

Whiling away the hours

Oh my! It’s one thirty and I have spent a few hours in front of this computer. Do you find that you get so involved on the web that before you know it time has passed you by? That is what happens when I do my class that I am taking over the internet. The lesson today was rather difficult and required watching two videos and following step by step to learn a new technique. I’m not saying I’m old, but it required several stoppings and startings to make sure that I was doing it just right. Learning new things is not always easy, but I’m enamored with Kim Klaussen’s classes. I’m learning things I never thought possible. Here are the results of playing today.
   

Visitors

Thank you faithful readers. I am so happy you visit and read my little blog. But did you know that today I had visitors from France, Brazil, and Poland too? How they find me I don’t know but isn’t it nice to know that someone in France looked my way?
  Today my hubby and I went on a trek to Erie, PA (about an hour and a half away) just to have lunch at the Olive Garden. (Well, I did get in a little shopping too. I had to check out the new Hobby Lobby). We had a wonderful lunch and spent all day up there. (Sorry Sadie for leaving you too long by yourself). I dashed through my favorite stores...Coldwater Creek, Charming Charlie’s, The Christmas Shoppe, and Kohl’s. There is never enough time.
  The weather was cold, but no snow until we got within 20 minutes of home. There must have been snow today because both the ground and the road were snow covered. Here’s a picture of the sun setting that I took over Willow Bay.

Of course I couldn’t resist this bird sign..gives me great confidence that spring will be coming soon.

Ooh la la

Today’s table has a little touch of France.

This table runner is from Hobby Lobby, one of my favorite stores. When I travel I always try to find one and now I am happy to say there is one in Erie that I can visit.

 
At Christmas time I found these little French ornaments of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph and made this little centerpiece with moss, stones, and twigs.



These little mercury birds from Target were perfect for here.

I also found these pine cones at Hobby Lobby and loved them so much they have found a permanent place in my sunroom.



The tableware consists of a silver charger, black square plate and Paris plate (also from Hobby Lobby). A woven black and silver placement is from Burlington Coat Factory. The silverware is from my country days and has curved knife handles and long tined forks.

 
A little mercury glass votive holder sits by the place setting. I love the napkin rings which were made from old spoons.

I left a velvet brown and olive green bow up on the candlelier from Christmas time.
These little French chairs are from the garden but brought indoors to give extra seating at the table.

I hope you all enjoyed our little trip to France and will visit Between Naps on the Porch (on my sidebar)  and see all the lovely tablescapes today.