some highlights

So as you know, I flew East for one of my best friend's wedding. It was a Be-A-U-tiful wedding.

Virginia has been having a drought and they had been calling for rain all week. Saturday morning, the day of the wedding, it DOWN POURED and then right as we were all leaving for the church the sun came out. I think it made everything all the more pretty.

Leaves had fallen, and they came down in shades of bright green and yellow - the wedding colors. Perfect, yes?

A sneak peak at the Bride and her beautiful little sister. All our dresses were that kelly green, but they were all different. I've heard whisperings about seeing a picture of me. Non have serviced yet (thank the gods) and I actually didn't take many pictures as I was one of the bridesmaids. However, my husband would say I looked like a watermelon. No lie, I kinda did.

Look at how lush and green everything is after the morning rain!

They make a cute couple! He is a really good guy and has my stamp of approval.

And while I didn't get many pictures due to my bridesmaidy duties. This is my absolute favorite shot, and I think it still would be even if I had snapped of 100s of photos.

And now the three college roommates are all married. What a fabulous ride, what fabulous friendships.

Then I drove down a couple hours to the town I grew up in to visit my Mommy Dearest after she met me at the Virginia Fine Arts Museum in Richmond (which is totally renovated and fabulous, showing off more of their collection then ever... I HIGHLY suggest a visit if you are in the area).

Her neighborhood is kinda magical. I love all the trees and water. All the animal life. Some of the land is national reserve - so the trees are a plenty. Then she has the river that you can see out her kitchen window and a pond that you can see out any window on the back side of the house. There are deer making friends all day and night. Beavers and even on rare occasions otters who decided to play in the pond... I guess the otters come from the river. Mommy has a mimosa tree in her back yard that is FILLED to the brim with happy butterflies. It looks like the whole tree is flapping its wings.

Seriously - it makes you believe in fairies.

Mommy lives in a wonder world - and I love love love visiting her home (and her of course!). Plus even her home is amazing, and I think I might have to share some of her talented ideas with you, for some of the crafty readers who enjoy such things.

Here is a sneak peak:

Since I am a night owl and was also on the wrong time schedule, when everyone went to bed, I stayed up and copied some family recipes I hadn't written down before.
This was a lot of fun, because my mom just keeps all these hand written recipes in a folder. They are very well loved and over used and have been around for decades. Some are written by my grandmother - who died more then 25 years ago. Some were typed by my father when he had gotten sick of her last folder of hand written recipes - he had to have done that at least 26 years ago or so. There are recipes written in the hands of aunts, great aunts, my Nana Nancy (my adopted grandmother who started off as my babysitter), and family friends. While I plan to type up all these recipes... I would never ever get rid of this fabulous folder of history.

So look forward to some more pictures, I'm sure. Some tips from my Mommy's creative house. And some yummy recipes that I will soon be sharing!

So good to be back. Now I'm off to the mountains for the weekend to run art therapy at a camp!

So I'll return post weekend!