My pal Jennifer brought her son down to Longwood for his 2nd birthday today and was nice enough to invite me. The last time I saw both of them was in Ocean City, MD back in June, 2010. N. was about 8 months and he’s just as sweet and laid back as he was as an itty bitty. He was a bit shy with me at first and warmed up to me later. Longwood has a beautiful train display featuring Thomas the blue-faced engine in his own garden. I don’t think N. could believe the big layout for the trains. He really enjoyed that part, put when he got to the water fountains, he was in heaven! He got to check out several fountains and had to be changed. A true water lover. We had lunch also. I have been wanting their mushroom soup since the weren’t up at the Mushroom Festival last month. It was good. N. wasn’t too hungry, he wanted to ‘drive’ his stroller around which I remember Sean doing way back when.
The pumpkin here weighed about 840 lbs and N. said it was ‘heavy’. He was correct.
Here’s a neat parasol display:

and my little buddy playing:


Such a pretty display:

Good day!!
Category Archives: pals
Quaintness
I don’t remember ever being near the beach at this time of the year, so we got to see pumpkins, mums and other autumnal decor. This is the steps of the Poor Richard Inn where we stayed back in 1999.

Gingerbread trim is so pretty!

The landscaping was gorgeous. Love the Mandevilla on this unique lamppost. This home was built in the 1880s!

You know I love gazing balls.

These are clever decorations. As mentioned below, this is the door to The Virgina Hotel where my maternal grandparents honeymooned in 1921.


Cute elf butterfly catcher

The arcade where we played games in the summer of 1967

The sky was rather ominious!

Cute tour trolley. Missed the horse drawn carriages.

‘The Empress’ what an amazing ‘private home’! I couldn’t get it all in one photo!
The Empress was built with the purpose of opening as a bed and breakfast. And yes, it is as neat and mysterious inside as one would expect– not that we’ve seen it first hand (the owner is out of the country) but we’ve chatted with a couple of people who have been inside and have had a look at the original blueprints. It has eight guest rooms, each themed after a queen – hence the name, “The Empress.” Each guest room has its own luxurious bathroom, also themed with regard to European tiles and decor. At the ground level, blueprints show a spacious parlor with a fireplace, an adjacent living room, also with fireplace, a dining room and big gourmet kitchen.
From: Capemay.com

The garden of ‘The Empress’
I have to say I was so exhausted from having about 7 hours of sleep in 2 days. I had tossed and turned the night before going to the beach and that night, even though we turned the lights off at 12:30, the air conditioning, light peeking in through the slants in the blinds and my mom being noisy (when she takes out her hearing aides, she doesn’t know how loud she is). We had a little trouble finding Cape May (feel dumb-a few towns over) as the GPS wasn’t working that great.
Here are a few scenes from Ocean City, NJ

Not too many 5&10s around! It was a cute store with lots of marked down merchandise that mom enjoyed going through.

Neat window of a consignment shop

Not too bad of a beach day

Where we met the gang for breakfast…mom bought ‘a baker’s dozen’ of their famous cinnamon donuts and they didn’t last long-only had two in three days. The car smelled so good.

If I won the lottery!!

My pal Heather and me. Many of the ladies came down together and hung out together, just like high school. I hung out mostly with Heather (she was solo) and Sue and her hubby.
And last but not least, our photo booth shots-so crazy!

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Red as a rose and other things




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Today I had lunch with my high school pal Heather. We get together now and then which is nice. I so enjoy talking to ladies my own age instead of just men or my mom. Goes to show that many of my good friends are around my age. I have friends in their late 30s and I tell them I’m kinda like an auntie, but we share many of the same interests. : )
Sean went along for the ride, dropped me off and Heather and I went in PF Chang’s for lunch. Afterwards, Sean and I strolled along in some high priced stores (I check out the sales or sale rooms-but got nothing today). We then went over to Home Goods and I got some new towels, tea and a few little things. That fancy shamancy gardening place had a sale-actually what the sale price is should be their real prices-lol. I got some hot pink phlox in a big pot. When I got home I noticed it had powdery mildew on it. I know that is common with phlox, but should I wipe it off? I let Sean pick it out while I waited at the register, so I didn’t see it until I got home-not a good move. I think the gardening is continuing all summer here. I am really pleased with how my gardens are coming along. I would like to mulch the veggie garden as it looks really dry.
No big plans for the 4th-my oldest brother is turning 57! Wow! ; )
Somewhere over the Rainbow…
Blue, blue, blue Wednesday

Even though this isn’t summery oriented, here is a blue Christmas tree…

I was working outside for a few hours with the weed whacker late this morning until the spool wouldn’t stay in place anymore. I was almost finished what I wanted to do too. Did the front sidewalk, the back patio edge and pond. Then the pond looked nasty, so I drained that out a lot and a tiny frog popped up! There use to be a big one in there. Guess he moved out and let ‘Elvis’ move in. So I got out the half moon edger and did almost around the entire pond. Things look better when they are edged-so nice and neat. I worked the ground enough for planting some flowers and I added three in the pond garden. I came in took a shower and tried to relax again outside (did I mention how nice the weather is today?) until I saw pots needed watering, so I did some of that and planted polka dot plants and another unusual plant in the fairy garden. Whew! I’m bushed!
Tuesday blushes Pink
Yellow for Monday
Kari over at Artsy Mama is sharing different colors for each day, so I’ll follow her lead and go through Flickr for some sun shiney yellow today!

Welcome Roamy to SE Pennsylvania-mushroomland!
Roamy arrived from Canada, nodded his cap and disappeared out in my yard for the longest time. I knew exactly where he was-with the gnomes and fairies. This ‘special’ group resides in the town (outskirts) next to Kennett Square, ‘The Mushroom Capital of the World’ where there is a Mushroom festival every September-the 26th year is this year! There are lots of ‘magical’ mushrooms in our garden! Roamy is posing here on one.
Look at this interesting group!


Roamy in particularly liked this guy as he looked so ‘cool’ with his shades and cocktail. Said he loves Jimmy Buffet-no kidding! : )
Roamy knows I love gardening and he said he wants to be a florist-so he stopped and smelled the Sweet Bay Magnolia:

Checked out some petunias:

And wondered if he could take some of these viney things with him so he could pretend to be Jack in the Beanstalk:

He visited a girl and bunnies in the herb patch:

After his tour of our yard, he was swooped up and taken on a weekend trip to Baltimore, Maryland.

He had lots of fun and saw interesting sites:
First we took him to the 27th floor of Baltimore’s World Trade Center. He was a bit scared until Mr. C. showed him the wonderful Baltimore sites!

He look bigger than the cars way below:


And look at the snazzy Oriole jersey and hat!
We here are big Phillies fans (just to let you know).
He saw the sign for the Flag house, but we didn’t go in as it was closed.

We went to the Baltimore Aquarium but Roamy hide in my camera bag as he didn’t want to be fish food!

Our last stop was Ft. McHenry where the battle of 1814 to ward off the British inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem “The Star Spangled Banner’ when he saw the flag still flying overhead. See the cannons behind him, there were lots of them!

So Roamy would have been happy to stay here in PA with all my special pals:

Even the inside ones!

Always remember to…
Roamy will be moving on to Sherry next….
Surprise!
Big Bee Zentangle ATC
Some shares!
I’ve been sorting scrapbook paper tonight-4 yrs of collecting it means I have my work cut out for me. I am doing ‘floral’/nature in one box right now. I have to say I really love most of these papers. I have a box with holiday paper too, but I know there’s more in another box which isn’t made for scrapbook paper and I need to rescue it.
On the above card, someone sent me the Easter card and I embellished it abit. The paper napkin background was also a gift.
Then I made this using ‘steampunk’ rubber stamps and made the ‘Eye see you’ card:

The copy of the eye doctor ad made the card!
Then I did a few cards with a few of the fabulous collage pieces and papers Carole over at Pea’s Corner just sent me:
1st a 4″ x 4″ collage. This makes 169 out of 365 for me now.

and this ATC:

And finally my ‘Fat Tuesday’ Gumbo dinner:
I used Sweet Italian sausage instead of the salami type. It’s all gone now!

I made out well at the dentist despite the rough, rainy weather. We have some water in the basement ‘man cave’ bathroom-it comes up through the floor. It’s near my Christmas stuff that I haven’t really finished stacking nicely. I wasn’t in the mood to cook, but made spaghetti with shrimp (yep again) and black olives. I would recommend getting the frozen shrimp (thanks Woman’s World magazine for the idea). Also had spinach salad and tossed in some 3 bean salad I bought at the meat market where I got the sausage. The guys were happy! : )



























