HELLO WORLD!

Frustrated with my Gallery of Pictures

Just want to let you know that I really have been updating new pictures on a regular basis but the wordpress is not working correctly.  It apparently has a few bugs and one of them is by not letting me “sort” my pictures in the order of my preference or write comments anymore.  Since I am not a computer geek I have no idea how to proceed to fix this.  But, at any rate, if you look past the first pictures you’ll see new ones being added in toward the middle of the first page.

Frustration does not have to be the death of me though!  I refuse to let it ruin my day!

Have a glorious day folks……we have yet another beautiful day in Pennsylvania and that says a lot.  I intend on putting a full day in my studio.  Much work to accomplish!!!

Blessings,

Anne

It is Sunday and I love Sundays

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It is cloudy and the temperature is comfortable.  I’ll be leaving for praise team practice soon and a morning at church.  During the summer I get to have a little extra time off from my Sunday mornings.  During the year I am the chancel choir director and the handbell director which means my Sunday mornings are taken up with me running around trying to find my music for the service.  (Of course I would do much better if I would de-clutter my life a bit more).  But now I’m much more relaxed.  I have no responsibility in the  music realm til September and I can just go to church and soak up the message that’s waiting for me.

May your Sunday be relaxed and your heart filled with God’s love and know that He loves you and everything that you are and are becoming.

Blessings,

Anne

Floral Preservation for Funerals

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It seems like it was just yesterday when I began preserving flowers along with designing dried florals into arrangements for the home or office.  The preservation began, over 12 years ago,  by saving a friends flowers from her moms’ funeral.  I used to watch with interest when people would come into my shop.  They loved looking at flowers that were hanging to dry over head.  (Yes, I used to hang flowers for my clients before the silica gel entered in on the scene.)  Anyway, customers literally loved looking at all the pretty flowers drying and would reach up and touch them.  I would explain about them all while they listened and then watch them quickly jerk their hands away and jump back if I mentioned that the flowers were from a funeral.  You would think they would get some kind of disease just “touching” the funeral flowers!  (more…)

Summertime and Birthdays!

My Emily Anne
My Emily Anne

 

This little girl is 29 years old today.  I don’t know what happened.  It makes no sense to me the way the years fly by like this and now the time brings only memories to my heart and mind.  This picture captures beautifully my daughter back in the day….a ball in one hand and the bottle always hanging out of her mouth.  She never held that bottle with her hands – it always dangled just like you see it in this picture.  And when she went to bed at night she still had it dangling out of her mouth like that while both hands were twirling her hair.  Ahhh, how I wish we had digital cameras back then – the stories I could have captured in pictures would have been by the 100’s I’m sure!!!

I didn’t want a girl!  Shameful to admit, I know, but the honest truth.  I wanted a house full of little boys.  Her dad and I had the name picked out just in case we had a girl.  You know, back then it was rare that anyone knew what they were having – you had to wait ’til it was time.  Anyway, we liked our girl name a lot……..and we got a girl……….so there you have it.  It took me about a week to get used to having a girl……….but once my heart took over I was never to be the same.  I can’t begin to tell you how much this child has filled my heart the last 29 years.

It seems that she must have been the perfect child by the way I’m speaking here.  She was!  She was perfect for me.  Just what I needed.  Emily was fiesty – quite the opposite of her wimpy/doormat of a mother.  I loved that about her.  She had her own personality that was NOTHING like mine and that was the best part.  She was a tom-boy through and through.  And no one got in Emily’s way – especially in our family………brother and step-brothers paid quite a price if they pissed her off!  We laugh about it now……..but it wasn’t too funny back then!

I can’t imagine having gone through this life without my Emily.  Not a day goes by that I don’t think about her and miss her terribly.  I’m in Pennsylvania – she’s in New Mexico – is there anything to like about that?  She’s a rock for me – yes she’s my child – but she’s my best friend in only the way mom’s and daughters become when they get older.  No gift could ever surpass this love/relationship between me and my daughter.  I have thanked God over and over and over again for giving me a girl.  He knew what was best for me all along and I have never looked back with regret!

My Emily is now a new mother.  She wanted a house full of boys too!  God has dealt her the same hand He dealt me.  Miss Cailyn Grace is now the life which envelops Emily’s heart (and mine too, once again!).  Emily,  may your heart be filled with all the joy you have given me the last 29 years.  I love you more than you will ever know.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY

 

My Emily Anne and new baby Cailyn Grace

My Emily Anne and new baby Cailyn Grace

I LOVE MY JOB!

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I am honored when I am brought flowers to preserve from a funeral.  I admit that I get caught up in the stories of the families of the loved one who has passed on.  I’m the type of person that will look at all your pictures even if I don’t know you.  I love pictures…………I don’t care who they belong to.  (more…)