Tag: Birthdays

unraveled wednesday | 12.18.19

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~a friend is a present you give yourself~

Is unwrapping the same as unraveling? Of course not, silly. Today, Pat, my longtime friend of 33 years and I met for a long overdue lunch and reconnection. We’d not seen one another for nearly three months! We had a lot of catching up to do…and we did. We also celebrated my birthday (Nov); the lovely journal – despite the light’s glare – a gift from Pat, is made by an artist who lives in Oregon. After lunch, we stopped at a delightful store that sells all sorts of art supplies… I needed to replenish ink for my LAMY pen. And we both had our creative juices stirred a bit by some gorgeous iridescent watercolor paints; for sure, we’re coming back in 2020, just around the corner!

After two days of rain, today was sunny, lovely and cold! Perfect for spending quality friend time. Tho’ I have not included any knitting or other fun craft update in this post nor nary a word about this past week’s reads, I encourage you to join Kat and others for Unraveled Wednesday… lotsa good books and fun knitting projects are shared there!

Cheers~

celebrating…

Published on by Honoré13 Comments

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~Atlantic Ocean view from restaurant,  4:20 pm, 15 Nov 2019 ~

 I had an absolutely delightful weekend celebrating my Fri, November 15 birthday with friends: some from far away and long ago; others, right here in the area:

  • Thursday, friends Kathy and Laura (both former work colleagues. Laura lives in FL; Kathy, DE. Laura was here Wednesday for an end-of-training session celebration in Columbia MD. I picked her up Thursday morning} and I drove to Bethany Beach , DE for a retreat in the off-season!

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~sunset, Bethany Beach, 15 November, 4:55 pm EST~

  • Friday, we walked the beach; collected shells and pictures of the ocean, sky, waves; ate; laughed; chatted; journaled; shared books and ideas and caught up with one another.  Friday was also Journal Club  and we joined in, sitting at the same table!  Afterwards we went to a fun restaurant for an early dinner, more laughing, sharing, reminiscing,… wash, rinse, repeat…
  • Saturday, we awoke to a roiling ocean. Sadly, our gathering was ending and we had to resume normal lives. After depositing Kathy at home, I dropped Laura off at the airport, drove home arriving  about 8 pm. Exhilarated and tired. Ready for my own bed…
  • Sunday, monthly Friendstitch gathering. More birthday celebration: good friends, good  food (pizza; champagne; salads; cookies and lemon tart cake) and fun… and on
  • Monday, she rested!

I am so grateful to my friends for this wonderful celebration and forever memories.

just life …

Published on by Honoré11 Comments

 

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… Robert Burns: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.” is a quote frequently featured on this blog over the nearly 10 years I’ve been blogging. The events in my life last week…and I don’t intend to be melodramatic, eclipse any previous examples I’ve shared to illustrate RBurns’ ode. I don’t know why I didn’t get around to last Wednesday’s post, just that I’d decided to gather Wed, Thurs and Fri bon mots into one post, slated to publish Friday.

All of that changed Thursday morning, approximately 9:15 am.  Norman had a 10 am appointment; I was dropping him off and planned to proceed to join my Thursday Stitching group. I’d put my stitching basket in the back seat of the car, tuned to go back into the house and the next thing I knew, I was flat on my face. Yep! I fell! Fortunately, I didn’t beak any bones or teeth but I did have to go to the dentist because tissue from my upper lip got stuck in between my two front teeth.

I am on the mend; bruised but not broken, thankfully. I’m not sure what caused my fall; I do recall feeling a little roughness in the curb’s concrete; perhaps the sole of my shoe got stuck momentarily. It’s all a mystery. Whatever, gravity won – always. The bruising is beginning to fade.

Today is my niece/namesake’s 51st birthday.  To celebrate, my niece decided to have a family PJ party Saturday with her mom (my sister), girls (my grand nieces),  the little boys and Hazel (Chris’ pup). I opted not to stay overnight. Everybody had a grand time; I’m not too sure how much sleep anyone got.  Happy Happy Mimi as her grandsons, Chris and Elias, call her.

Yesterday (Sunday)  it rained buckets and more buckets. Today has been a perfect Fall day; it has been cold enough to spur the leaves to begin changing colors. Finally!  I have a quiet week ahead and I’m looking forward to resuming my old +new = different rhythm/cadence‽ And the Wed and Fri blog post schedule.

Cheers~

 

just in case…

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Kayla reached a milestone: her 18th birthday on Jan 29. Due to lousy weather, the planned gathering at a restaurant of her choice was postponed. Sunday afternoon, friends and family – including little Chris (Elias and Mama Dolly were sick) finally gathered for Italian food, thankful that earlier predictions for snow, ice, freezing rain, etc did not materialize. That was then…

Today, as I pen this post, we are gearing up for another round of  icy rain and possibly snow. I went to the grocery store to get basics: bananas; eggs; soup n’ salad mixin’; another bag of ice melt… and just in case we’re snowbound: cashews and wine,

If predictions indeed do materialize, we’re ready!

Cheers~

a word or two…

Published on by Honoré14 Comments

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This photo is of my youngest grand niece, Kayla, circa age 4. Today, she celebrates her 18th birthday!  A family gathering  for dinner at Maggiano‘s was planned; she wanted to celebrate on the actual date. Hey, one only turns 18 once. Well, as luck would have it, today’s weather forecast is calling for rain, snow, cold – courtesy of the Polar Vortex –  to begin around PM rush hour traffic. So, she cancelled and will reschedule. Of course! We all  applaud her for her graciousness in handling her disappointment.  We are all disappointed. Looking at the variations of her name, its meaning and synonyms, I have to say her mother picked the best name for this young woman; she’s going far! Adulting is hard work and I think, know that she will meet the challenge with aplomb!

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Speaking of words: according to quora, the OED – Oxford English Dictionary – second edition contains 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. The number count varies due to a variety of factors… In my craft and sewing studios are wooden words that have been my guides and touchstones, my one little word/s, over the past nine years… This year’s word, in some ways, has been elusive; it sort of misses a bit of intrigue, verve.  I keep trying out (other) words and find myself coming back to one – habit: Design. Action. Practice.

There are some habits in my repertoire I want to grow, strengthen, refine, cultivate,  curate, and others I am determined to jettison. Watch this space…

Join(ing) Juliann and others on the last Tuesday of the month in sharing our experiences with our word/s. Have you chosen a one little word – OLW- for 2019?

Cheers~

today: celebrating Connie …

Published on by Honoré12 Comments

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Today is my sister’s birthday. The above photo is of her and her first grandchild and namesake, Constance, aka as Dolly.

Today my sister has 2 children – a son and a daughter; 7 grands and 3 great grands.

Today I find it very hard to compute, that this person with whom I grew up (I’m older) – has several generations of grandchildren. We shared holidays, adventures, books, playtime with friends, pets – my sister was a good one for adopting a “stray” dog and bringing it home with promises of “I’ll take care of it!” And my dad would nod agreement, knowing all the while that he’d take care of it!

Today, I wish my sister a big Happy Happy, many more birthdays to come and

Cheers~

 

friendstitchin’…

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A friend is a gift you give yourself ~

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Sunday was my monthly Friendstitchin’ meet-up. We have a new member, Michelle, who is a baker extraordinaire; she made each of us a small bag of oatmeal cookies – yum! and for dessert, chocolate bundt cake – double yum! In addition to the delicious sweets, hostess Theresa served mac-n-cheese with crabmeat – yum!; Pat made a delicious broccoli salad  – and we also had grapes, strawberries, raspberries and champagne. There was applique´stitching,  knitting and needlepointing going on.

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The photo above is Margaret’s needlepoint; eventually it’ll be a 3-dimensional slice of cake; you can see the mockup sitting on the canvas.

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We celebrated my birthday – my friend Pat created the above watercolor of a morning glory for me. I am delighted and plan to frame and hang in my stitching studio.

I am so grateful for my friends and our beloved Friendstitchin‘ gatherings.

Cheers~

3 on thursday|11.15.18 …

Published on by Honoré14 Comments

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We went to bed last night, fully expecting today’s “snow forecast” to be a flake or two and then, life as usual. As an old margerine/butter ad touted: “it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”  Yep, we have snow…and cold…and rain…and there are still 36 days til the Winter Solstice arrives!

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Today’s weather has been fit for neither man nor beast but out we went ~ for Norman had several medical appointments.  We arrived home,  grateful for warmth , being dry and not having to go out again!

Photo on 11-15-18 at 3.12 PM

…and I get a chance to play with my birthday* present: an Amazon Echo! Thanks Norman!

Hope the weather in your corner of the world is warmer and drier.

Cheers~

  • Yep – today is my birthday