The oaks and ferns at Yellow Bluff

A few weeks back after a day of shopping Bobbie and I went to tour the United Way Holiday House that was put on by Cottage and Coastal living magazines.

The morning started out really ugly with Tornado warnings and rain but the sky cleared just in time for us to tour a beautiful new coastal community in Macintosh County, GA

The holiday house was really pretty as was all of the cottages but to me the best view of the day was standing right under these big oaks looking out into the water.

beautiful views from the bank at Yellow Bluff

Miss Priss waiting on Santa

Doesn't she look so sweet under there.
Not! This pretty little girl would take a hand off if you tried to move her..We had a wonderful Christmas it was filled with family, lots of food & summertime weather. We were in the 80's Christmas eve and Christmas day shorts and flip flops were our Christmas attire no decorated sweaters this year.. lol


Ok I have to show of my Christmas goodies the hubby gave me the Cuisinart food processor that I have been wanting and that tiny little ipod Shuffle which is kicking my butt trying to get the music on it.
My 9 year old niece had hers full within 8 hours of getting it. I'm going on 4 days and have one song on it ...
I know call the kid and let her do it or Miss Ohio maybe you and Duhe could fly down and handle this for me ..

I got the most wonderful presents that I will treasure forever from the best girlfriends a girl could ever ask for ..

A beautiful birdhouse & a sign
" the earth laughs in flowers"
which I plan to hang today. I have the perfect spot already picked out.

Thank you Ohio I love both. HB took his fan to work today ... lol

Gingerbread items to add to my collection from Jilly Bean and she didn't even know I had a collection .. hows that for girlfriend woowoo .. lol Did you bake your gingerbread?
I did it was yummy thank you Bff.

The book "Grow Organic" by Doug Oster & Jessica Walliser which is the companion to the bug book that Miss Lynn gave me for my birthday and Trader Joe goodies ..

If anyone from Trader Joes reads this Please oh Please come to Savannah we are waiting on you !!!!!

Sister Di the last picture is for you ... that is the tour itinerary which is signed by the lovely Miss Sheryl on the front and your man on the back .. and there is that so soft hoodie jacket..

Miss Beth also brought back some Natural Australian Honey, Organic chocolates by www.farmbynature.com that is fabulous and a few other goodies for me and she tells of a ship that is bringing wine from some of the winery's that they visited which ya'll know I can't wait to try.. Love ya bunches girlfriend thank you so much ... glad to have you home.

Speaking of wine there was a bottle of Blueberry from Bobbie consumed over the weekend as was a sinful almond pound cake from princess PB that will have me on the the treadmill till next Christmas !!

The best gift of all was seeing my daddy up walking, hearing my mom, her baby brother visiting from Texas and her older sister who has been ill tell all those old stories that we have heard a million times before and each of us know by heart. Hearing them this time was different though.

I guess knowing this could be the last time we may get to hear these three tell these stories together, too hear uncle Elmer's laugh, which is the best laugh ever..
or too hear aunt Mary add her own spin to the stories ... which gets momma's blood boiling .. ( if you can't tell it right Mary then stop telling it ! ) SISTERS .. lol So she quickly corrects aunt Mary and then we all giggle while aunt Mary starts cussing and fussing because she believes she is right. They weren't just the same old stories this time. This time I wanted to remember every word, every detail. I want to be the keeper of the old stories so I can share them in years to come, maybe I will tell my versions like aunt Mary and have my little sister quickly correct me or maybe I will be the one laughing so hard it hurts while my older brother tells his versions which he does a pretty good job of already or maybe I will be like mom and tell them they are both full of it ... that I know the truth .. lol Looking around the room I realized I was a very blessed girl there was the love of my life hamming it up with all the guys and winking at me when he caught me watching, my four glowing pregnant nieces all talking at the same time with their hubby's close by just waiting to do as they were told .. one hubby was so attentive the others started teasing him, he just smiled, he's so in love that nothing they said mattered ..

Then there was the nephew that had not been to sleep since he woke up on Wednesday morning by Thursday at dinner time it was all he could do to feed himself .. lol

Little Miss Abbigail saw everything with wide open eyes. I know she was thinking next year I will be on that floor ripping open all those pretty packages .. Miss Madison gave me lots of hugs and kisses while she told me how Santa had come down her chimney and left his boot print in some sparkling magic dust on the fireplace. All I could do was look at her mom my oldest niece with this silly smile on my face and remember a Christmas eve when she was a little girl and she would not settle down and go to sleep. Her parents had been trying but she wanted to stay up so I talked her into laying down with me and we both fell fast asleep till morning. Then there was the Christmas eve that my hubby and her daddy stayed up all night putting together a swing set and a doll house that every wooden shingle on the roof had to be glued down ... lol

Shelby was riding her new scooter fast and hard with every fall she would bounce back up and start all over.. She come over to help me bake cookies before Christmas and we had this awesome flour and powder sugar fight we also went shopping one day and she asked to go see Santa which is something she hasn't done since she got old enough to say no. While we were in line she hugged me really tight and said I'm so scared ... I held on cause she's getting to that age where hugs are not cool anymore.. After a few reassuring words she jumped on his lap and started talking non stop .. lol Then she called her mom and said .. I have proof I had my picture taken with Santa so I win !!! Here I was feeling all mushy and the kid used me to win a bet with her mom ... lol blessed girl I am !! My past and my future was all right there together.
Wonderful sweet memories mixed in with anticipation for whats to come.

Ok little long winded today this post was suppose to be a thank you to the girlfriends but turned into a little bit more ... Thank you girlfriends I treasure and love each of you!
I look forward to sharing whatever 2009 brings our way ....
Big hugs, Cherry

pretty new pink angel

Thanks to my girlfriend Bobbie I got pinked this Christmas ... lol

She gave me this beautiful pink angel and a bagful of pink lights so come on
Christmas 2009 I'm ready for ya !

Weekend's over !

I had a plan of attack laid out for this weekend to be oh so productive .. HA !

The plan was to get up Thursday morning pull out the tree and start decorating, from there move upstairs and start painting Christmas gifts, clean house and mix cookie doughs to put in the freezer I had 4 days to get this done no problem .. ha ha ha ..
Wednesday night I dreamed about pink Christmas lights .. lol
So Thursday morning I decided I have to have pink lights to mix in with my clear lights so no need to pull that tree out just yet, so upstairs I go ...

Wow it's a mess up here there is no way I can feel creative in this mess so I start cleaning, now it's time to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner with the in laws. Get home from dinner, not feeling creative just feeling really full so I piled up on the couch with hubby and a blanket to watch some tv with big plans for friday going through in my head ....

Friday morning I walked outside at 7:30 just to water a few plants next thing I know hubby is home from work and it's time to find food ... This planning crap isn't working .. lol

Saturday morning we headed to town I can't believe hubby hung in there with me I hit every store that I thought would carry lights but no pink lights, found purple but no pink
ok... I give up ..
We go home pull out the tree and oh #%&* I forgot I trashed all the lights last year.
I found a few boxes of lights that I must have bought after Christmas last year so I get started 500 lights later I'm out of lights and still have more than half a tree to go ??

Sunday ~ the in laws went to town and picked up 400 more .. 900 lights..
plenty.. right ... opps .. I ran out again... LOL
In between playing with the tree I did work on decorating the rest of the house and painting base coats on the gifts. Now here it is Monday and I have finished NOTHING !!!
Never even thought about the cookie doughs again.
Still thinking about those pink lights though but guess it will have to wait till next year. I stopped at a few more stores this afternoon with no luck : (picked up 350 more clear lights hope it's enough ...lol

Have a lovely evening ya'll

all the pretties are gone !

It has been record setting cold this week so all the pretties are gone.

Normally we don't see this type of cold till January my only hope is it did as much damage to the mosquitoes. They have been really bad this year.

The picture of the Turks Turban with the blueberry center is old. We won't be seeing those beautiful centers this year.
Oh well time to start dreaming about next spring .. lol
I wish each of you a wonderful weekend I'm off for another fun filled day with girlfriends .

Christmas in the South
a craft show that comes to town every year is here this weekend and today is our day to go see & taste all the goodies.
Happy Friday ya'll

fun friday downtown

Friday was the St. John's Holly Day's Bazaar they have a big White Elephant Sale with books, toys, and a jewelry room upstairs then downstairs is a huge room full of what some would call junk and others would call treasures my favorite finds was a white ceramic watering pitcher, a book called Cookies food writers favorites 1991 , then another book from Country living called Seasons that is filled with beautiful pictures of gardens.

There was also a couple of other books, sea shells & baskets
( which I drag home every time I hit a junk store or yard sale ) an old rolling pin, some lace panels.
( I also have a weakness for old kitchen gadgets, lace & linens )
After going through the junk room many times and two trips to the car because Miss April found many treasure that gal can pick up a piece of lint and see a craft project .. lol
We moved on to the courtyard to see what else we could find.

The church ladies make chutneys, jellies & jams which are all wonderful my favorite is an Orange cranberry chutney that I buy every year I have seen ladies get a little feisty over this stuff when it gets down to the last jars. I don't know how many jars where made this year but I can tell you it was not enough because it was all gone by the time I got around there which was less than an hour after they opened !! boohoo ..

I did get two jars of the scuppernong which is made from local grapes that is really tasty but I am going to miss that chutney with my turkey for Thanksgiving ...

The garden section was filled with many beautiful plants, local gardening books, tools, pretty pots and our favorite gloves Atlas ... they even potted up Paper Whites in clay pots a few weeks ago so they had some nice growth on them.

The church and it's grounds are so beautiful my girlfriend April & I love going every year they serve lunch which is always yummy while organist's play you just want to sit in the courtyard and take it all in for as long as you can.

Meet Miss Abbigail

This is my newest love bug my great niece Miss Abbigail ..

We haven't had any babies in our family for awhile but that is about to change big time !

I have one niece that is due in February with a girl, then another niece having twins, boy & girl and then my nephew and his wife are having a boy in March and I can't wait to get my hands on all of them .. lol

Busy weekend here did get to play in the yard some Sunday afternoon. I noticed yesterday that I have a salmon color poppy blooming. I have never had poppies before looking forward to seeing what other colors I might have ..

Miss Sylvia on the Cassia I wish I knew a trick but all I did was take a couple of cuttings of new growth and just stuck them in the dirt. Only one of them made it so guess it was just luck .. lol

Miss Di no real fragrance.

The sun is shining it's about 72 and I'm heading outside to play have a beautiful day ya'll
hugs, Cherry

My Cassia is blooming

I stated this Cassia tree last fall from a cutting and it has just started blooming for the first time.

looks like I will have to move it though because they can get pretty big, it can be grown into a shrub or a flowering tree it blooms Fall ~ Winter.

I love how bright it is you can't help but smile when you look at it ...

Happy friday ya'll

Turk's Turban this weekend

the color only gets better, those lime green centers will be a blueberry color before long ..

Turk's Turban in September

Turk's Turban, Sky Rocket (Clerodendrum indicum)

One of the plants got to around 15 ft tall. Pretty but the best is yet to come.

and how was your weekend ?

Ours was wonderful !

Banana nut muffins, a new tea from Beth, blood oranges (wait that's not a blood orange ) oh look Bethany that gal fooled us it looks and taste like a mini pink grapefruit .. good thing I like pink grapefruits.
Pretty new gloves and this great new bug book from my gal friend Lynn. This book is wonderful !
GOOD BUG BAD BUG by Jessica Walliser
www.theorganicgardeners.commy copy is even signed. Talk about feeling special. It has lots of great info, if you're looking for a Christmas gift for a gardening friend add this book to your list and the gloves, we all love the gloves.

Saturday morning started at 5:30 with me wanting some banana nut muffins so I started whipping them up only to realize I was missing a few ingredients. I couldn't find the baking soda & had no buttermilk, knowing there is baking soda in this house I start an all out search and find it in the bathroom.. hummmm do I use it.. well yes... I needed my muffins.
I used Soy milk for the buttermilk and it was after they started baking that I remembered the walnuts so I ended up with flat banana muffins that tasted like a cupcake...
Great! cupcakes & and mini pink grapefruit for breakfast not what I had in mind.. lol The new tea though is wonderful it is from The Mate' factor Thank you girlfriend .. Miss Beth has a brand new grand girl this morning she is Addison Marie she weighs less than 5 pounds. She decide she wanted to come into this world a little early so keeping her in our prayers, can't wait to meet the little princess..

I finally got everything planted from my trip to Rahn's with Miss Lois but then Beth and I went up again and came home with another load of goodies .. Now if the rain will just hold off so I can get out there and play this morning .. Oh and how about those pretty mailboxes this is the second time in about 6 weeks that our boxes have been smashed ... guess you can say we got tricked !! and then that horrible Georgia ~ Florida game .. damn Gators !!!
Isn't this Ajuga gorgeous it is BLACK SCALLOP I have avoided ajuga's for many years because they can take over a bed pretty quick but this one I had to have I planted them in a front bed and look forward to seeing it grown and spread in hopes this time next year the bed is covered.
And yes even though the Dawg's got whipped, the muffins where flat, the mailboxes were smashed and the new gloves now look like they are years old it was a wonderful weekend!!
Hope yours was too...

Come on over, treats for everyone !

Oh yeah it a trick ... all that chocolate and you can't get your hands on it !!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN YA'LL