Category Archives: birthdays

Nov21

Show & Tell plus some gifties

Posted on Friday, November 21, 2008 by Dianne

My Aurora Borealis pin collection, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

These are my vintage pins featuring Aurora Borealis rhinestones-which are my favorites. I found most of them on eBay over the last few years. I thought I’d show these as there may have been a Northern light phenomenon in the local area. A scientist from the Franklin Institute said that may be what has happened, but he’s going to look into it more. Here’s the story about it.

I received some lovely things in the mail too! Karin, my friend from Illinois sent the cute pampered card with the robe and slippers. She enclosed a gift card for Bath and Bodyworks inside.

Angela from NY sent a handmade card with lovely flowers. She made a miniature card to fit inside a pretty card box she made for me. She used one of the adorable flower fairies as the main design. She also sent the cute dolly that says ‘You are sew special’. Barbara from the Netherlands sent a sweet handmade scissor fob that she bought from Deborah Thorpe of Midsummer Night Designs (I think etsy.com)which she turned from a necklace to a fob. It has a sweet sampler on it. Donna, a flickr pal sent me an altered tin featuring a baby in a nest. Donna used vintage jewelry in her art, so that ties in with showing you my pins. : ) Thanks ladies, I love them all!

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I went to the dentist and got the filling replaced that was just replaced at the end of August-no charge-he even said he could have done a better job on it. It looks a ton better too. Also went and did most of my Thanksgiving dinner shopping and plum wore myself out! I had to only pay $6 for a $23-20 pound bird! I never cooked one that big before, but we like leftovers here!

Sean will be heading home Saturday night after the last football game of the season. We aren’t crazy about him driving at night, but he’ll have a pal with him.
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November snow captured by Brian out the window this morning. We only got an inch, but my mom got 4 inches and she’s only 23 miles away.

Nov19

My birthday dinner

Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 by Dianne

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Click link to enlarge and select ‘all sizes’ or look at the photostream with the individual snaps. I didn’t want to take up too much space here.
My birthday November 19th, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

It was so cold tonight! We are lucky such a nice restaurant is only about 5 miles away. We practically had the place to ourselves for a while, hence the photos. The waiter was nice enough to take our photo too. I didn’t see lobster tail on the interesting menu. I decided not to get the prime rib ‘special’. My oh my, was that an expensive dinner, plus it could have been a bit firmer, so I brought some home. Brian had flounder and salmon on a bed of spinach (he isn’t a big fan of the green stuff). I had some shredded zucchini on my salad. Bri had a Caesar salad. I had my favorite cocktail (like my second of the year)-an Apricot Sour. Try one sometime.

Bri bought me a yellow cake with fudge icing. Let’s just say I’m glad I had Rolaids and peppermint tea in the house-for both of us! Bri wasn’t really up to par today. He gave me a lovely pearl necklace-not the real round pearls, but it’s really pretty, I’ll model it soon.

This was also the 26th anniversary of our engagement. : )

Here’s a recipe for an Apricot Sour. One of my former bosses introduced me to it back in the early 1980s and I get one everytime I go to a fancy restaurant:
Apricot Sour Recipe
Ingredients
2 oz Apricot Brandy
1 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp Superfine Sugar
Pour the apricot brandy, lemon juice and sugar into a cocktail glass half-filled with ice cubes. Shake well, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange wedge and a maraschino cherry, and serve.

Nov19

Not quite the big 5-0

Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 by Dianne

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Dianne as a baby, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Another year already! I thought you’d enjoy seeing a child of the 60s. I was almost born in 1960. I didn’t know my maternal grandfather as he passed away when I was only 6-7 weeks old, which is my age in the very yellowed photo. That’s my Uncle Don holding me who I talk about now. He’s 85 and living alone (though his wife is in a nursing home). The large photo is me when I’m 1 day old. I do have my mouth open in the photo, not surprising as mom loves to tell everyone I was the loudest baby in the nursery. : )

The next few shots-I’m about 3 when we were living in Florida, my 7th birthday and brother #2’s 6th birthday (or was in 7th and 8th?-lol) and my 21st birthday with my mom. Those Polaroids tend to crack. The big onion was a cookie jar-dirt cheap at the pottery factory in Williamsburg, VA.

I can still name most of the kids: Stevie, Donnie, Dianne, Gary, Donnie B.,Valerie, Betsy (the little girl behind me, my BFF as the time), Laurie, Julie, Julie, Caroline (my cousin). The ones I don’t remember were the siblings of our friends.

We’re going out to dinner today. I have some gifts to open from mom and Brian. Mom always gives me too many things which frustrates my husband.

Many thanks to Barbara, Angela, Terri and Kay for your cards and/or gifts. I did thank you in an email too.

Update-About 7:38 the front door slammed shut and woke me up! I had mentioned wanting a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. Bri went to Dunkin Donuts (also getting ripped off on how much they were) and bought 4 bagels and 6 donuts. I did tell him he woke me up and that all nice measures should be followed all the way through. I do appreciate him going out in the bitter cold to make me happy.

Zoey-not sure if I’ll bring the camera in the restaurant as it may be a bit snooty. I do have a camera phone-well mine needs a new battery, but Bri has his too. We’ll see. : )

Heard my sister-in-law got Pink eye from my niece who was getting over it yesterday. Col fixed both my mom’s hair and my hair then. I have antibiotic drops I’ll use a few times today just as a precautionary measure.

Oct24

Happy 22nd Birthday Sean!

Posted on Friday, October 24, 2008 by Dianne

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Sean playing in the leaves, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Today Sean is home for his birthday. He’s a bit sick with a sinus cold, but he made the trip down to be with his dad and I, so that is a gift to us. I don’t know where 22 yrs went. I remember I got tired of my mom saying how time flies and kids grow up too fast and now I am saying it! My once little pumpkin baby is a responsible and caring young man now. And I call him my friend, which is important to me. The birthday card I got him mentions that, and I tear up when I read it, every time. I don’t know why, I guess I’m just glad he is and I hope he always will be.

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I shared my little ‘foodie’ figurines last week. This week I am sharing my ‘stitching’ figurines. They are on an antique hutch that belonged to my great aunt. I painted it pink.

Incidently, the little sampler behind the pig and cow was one of the first cross stitched pieces I made back in 1980. : )

The little stitcher’s John Deere piece reminded me that he was suppose to be some relative of ours as my maternal great grandmother’s maiden name was the same but pronounced ‘Deer-ree’. I looked up info about him and couldn’t see where he had a brother by the name of my gr-gr-uncle.

Sep23

Media shots

Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 by Dianne

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The photos are some scenes from my hometown. This is the Trader Joe’s I go to when visiting mom and is located in the old Infantry building. I have to say it’s pretty neat.

Trader Joe’s in the 11th Infantry Building, Media PA, originally uploaded by garyhymes.

I brought my mom home to stay here for a few days. She really loved her gifts from us and the canvas I made for her. She cried when she saw Sean’s portrait. Though we both had tummy issues, we did go out to dinner to The Olive Garden and then looked around a Border’s and then Michael’s craft store. I thought I was getting Sean a neat book on the earth ( his birthday is next) and when we got home, mom saw he had it on his bookshelf! Good eyes there mom. I’ll have to return it. We also visited my brother’s house and I showed my niece my Flickr photos on their computer, which she enjoyed.

Everybody’s Hometown, originally uploaded by hhsc/Greg.

They leave the lights up all year round-I believe they were up the last time I looked.

Sep23

Mom’s birthday gift-Portrait of a Lady

Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 by Dianne

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Mom’s birthday gift-Portrait of a Lady, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

To my mom Jeanne, this is your birthday card on an 18 x 20 recycled canvas!
I hope you see the special meaning in this collage, from the choice of flowers to the various images. It wasn’t that easy, but it also helped get my mind off my back.
Thanks for teaching me about music and creativity, things that have been a flagstone in my existence.
I pray for your eye to improve so you can see the beautiful colors of the world. I know you feel like the weight of the world is on your little shoulders, but it really isn’t when you have me.
Lots of love,
Dianne

Sep22

High Def Heaven-finally

Posted on Monday, September 22, 2008 by Dianne

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After waiting 3 times, 4 turned out to be the charm, though the tech showed up over an hour late. He was just a young guy, one you’d be a bit afraid to let in your house as he wasn’t dressed in a uniform (at least a shirt or hat), from the company. It’s like night and day with how clear the picture is. All the major channels are high def (if they said on ‘The Insider’ that their Emmy coverage was HD once, they said it 50 times-geez!) Since we have to keep this system for 2 yrs, we went ahead and added 50 more channels for only $10 more a month. Bri says he doesn’t watch much tv, but he is the king of channel surfing. Not too many channels are HD yet, but just wait.

I enjoyed all the glitz of the first hour of ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and then switched over to ‘Heroes’. It’s been forever since that’s been on. Some of it was rather nasty in HD, but I like the show, what can I say.
When the news came on, one of the top stories was this:

MEDIA Pa – Sarah Palin threatened to steal the show from running mate John McCain as she warmed up the crowd at their joint appearance at a rally on Monday in Pennsylvania.

“Sarah, Sarah, Sarah,” chanted the crowd as the Republican vice presidential candidate stepped on stage in the town of Media.

“I see a lot of hockey moms out there for McCain,” she said as the crowd roared its approval. She went on to introduce her family, calling husband Todd ”Alaska’s First Dude,” before pointing out their daughters Willow and Piper.

Palin quickly launched into criticisms of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, whom she said “likes to point the finger of blame but, tell me, has he ever lifted a finger to help?”

“In order to get others to say ‘Yes’ to change, has he ever told his own party ‘No?’” she asked. “When it comes to reform, he likes to say, ‘I will,’ but has he ever been able to say, ‘We did?’”

The two Republican candidates go their separate ways again on Tuesday, when McCain campaigns in Ohio and Michigan while Palin meets with several foreign leaders in New York.

Well isn’t that special? My hometown got quite interesting visitors. Media is the county seat. They’ve been mostly Republican, but for a while they had a Democratic mayor. Joe Leiberman was even there. This is such a hot story, the local news haven’t undated their websites about it. Thanks Reuters. My favorite Palin ever-Michael Palin from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. ; )

McCain Palin Rally – Media, PA, originally uploaded by H1GHTOWER.

Sean interned around the corner from the courthouse here.

And from a few days ago (my one brother is there somewhere):

PA Media 9-17-08 Joe Biden Visits, originally uploaded by Barack Obama.

Man, I love that Flickr for photos! : )

Tomorrow is my mom’s birthday and I am going down to take her to dinner. Bri has been complaining about a sore throat on one side and he found an ulcer under his tongue. He doesn’t feel that great in general. Mom wanted to come out for a few days, but we’ll see how Bri is.

Jul21

Gift for a friend

Posted on Monday, July 21, 2008 by Dianne

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The Bluebirds of Happiness was received:

I added beads and sewed it up in a heart shape. I stuffed it with a little

Brandywine bayberry bought at Longwood Gardens. I don’t have the package out, but I bought the fabric from Carol S. : )

Thanks for your comments. : )
My mouth is still sore, but much better.

Update-listed some cute, almost brand new high heel sandals and 4 quilting books (in a lot) on eBay today. The link is on the top right under Moonlitstitcher’s eBay page.

Jul3

Ruthie girl would have been 105 today!

Posted on Thursday, July 3, 2008 by Dianne

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This is my maternal grandmom Ruth. I lived with her for the first 24 years of my life (on the most part). The four grandkids lived with her and our mom until we moved out. The house is really both mom’s and ‘mom-mom’s’ house.

She helped me with many domestic things, like to add a pinch of baking soda and some sugar to spaghetti sauce to make it taste better and not be as acidity; to how to hold a crochet hook. She was the strong one in bad situations. She chased us with the yard stick for being naughty or saying bad words. Near the end, she was the one who cussed quite a bit. I guess she held it in all those years! ; ) She passed away on Father’s Day, June 16, 2000 with all of us around her, except for one grandson. She is missed every day.