18 years ago....

I married my husband, David. It's hard to believe it's been 18 years!! Time truly flies!!

 

The first and last time I had my nails done!!

So to celebrate this year, I told my husband I had a whole weekend planned of 'fun' things to do! He raised his eyebrow and listened patiently..... and then agreed! LOVE HIM! :D  So, Friday night we went to the movies to see The Avengers.. can you say FUN!??!? We are both total comic nerds and are just loving all the great movies Marvel is putting out right now. FINALLY the FX people have managed to bring to life all those great artistic works from the comic books we love!!  lol  So what a fun night we had! Ate a nice tasty meal at Ruby Tuesday and then ran up to the cinema and really were blown away by a great movie!! 

We had planned to attend a symphony yesterday but ended up just spending the day at home. But today we did follow through on my final plans! We took our two young pups and drove out to South Mountains State Park. It's about 45 minutes away and just gorgeous!

 

It was overcast this morning but turned out to be a lovely day. This is my attempt to not take the picture through a somewhat dirty windscreen! The trails at South Mountain are well maintained and just a joy to walk on. They do get quite strenuous!! The most popular trail is the one we hiked today. It follows the river up the mountain to the high falls.. a great treat once you've climbed All. Those. Stairs. 

 Some down stairs early on the trail.....

 Crossing the river.......

 UP stairs..... one of several flights before you reach the overlook at the falls

 The falls!! I can't remember how high the drop is... it's really a beautiful sight. We didn't stay here long , there were people there and another dog that our pups were too excited to meet, we wanted to keep peace, so after a little sniffing around we moved on ....

 UP even more stairs!!! There are 3 more looooooong flights to reach the top of the falls... then you get a nice gradual climb back down to the bottom...  I truly enjoyed my anniversary hike today!! My husband did too and we plan to take a hike each Monday now! We live in the Western North Carolina foothills.. we literally can hike a new trail every week and not hike the same place twice in a year at least!!

But now I am quite tired and need to get some shut-eye.. Oh, did I mention that after our 5.5 mile hike, I ended up doing our normal walk routine with my sister this evening? Tack on another 2.1 miles! LOL All in all, a really great day!

I said I needed sleep.... but as I sit here I see a little pile of beads calling my name..... we shall see........

 

Silent Sunday

Beading Babes Reveal!

I totally missed my Silent Sunday post... so here is Miss Cheyenne... the cause of that... she went through the fence on Saturday night around 10:30 pm... so I spent most of Sunday repairing a fence and treating wounds... nothing too major thank goodness!!!

Well we had two projects and extra time this month.... and I managed to get one project finished... I swear the Ravishing Rosettes pattern was hiding from me ... at least parts of it were!! Here is what I accomplished... I really like the pattern and the colors but I totally missed several steps!! I WILL be reworking this in the future though!

As you can see.. I'm missing one part altogether and it is curving in the complete wrong direction!! Ah well.. back to the beading board with it!
This is the Runway of Pearls bracelet that was our second project... I really liked the bracelet! But as I was adding the embellishment I noticed it was getting shorter.... and shorter... I ended up with it almost 2 inches too short!! So, I stared at it for a while.... and then came up with this idea... which my wonderful boss helped me wire up.. (wire and I don't get along too well right now)

This bracelet called for embellishing both sides but as it was shrinking as I went along, I ended up only embellishing the one side.. but it still turned out fairly well.. at least I think so!

I can't wait to see what the other Babes have worked up with this challenge!!!

Silent Sunday

Time Flies!!

So, I had a blog post ready to go on Monday but evidently I never finished it and posted it! It's been one of those weeks!
I don't know if I've mentioned it (hahaha! YES I HAVE)  but I seriously LOVE my job at Obsessions!  It's not even 'work'... well it IS.. especially when I'm having to pack up and account for a trunk show of GORGEOUS stones... see? Even the paperwork is fun!!
I am working on a few projects, mostly getting things ready to teach at the shop next month :) We are doing a 'Back to Basics' course over the next few months to teach some basic stitching and I have a few patterns to teach that go along with the initial stitching class. Should be great fun and introduce some new ideas to our students!!
The sun is shining a bit longer every day and I can't tell you how happy this makes me!!
LOVE this picture I found online:

I'm so excited to start working in the garden!! I layered cardboard scraps under my compost this winter and it honestly looks like I won't even be using the noisy, smelly, noisy, noisy, noisy tiller this year! Did I mention it's kind of noisy? The first few years I felt I HAD to use it, good old Carolina red clay takes some time to get to a workable stage... but I have really decent soil this year! Thank you to my chickens :D

They have really made such a difference in the garden plot! Great fertilizers and great job of keeping the soil nice and loose! I highly recommend them! :D  Although I do think they will not be quite so pleased when I have to keep them OUT of their favorite digging spots.

What are your garden plans this year? Going all out and doing a huge garden or just containers on the back porch? Trying any new veggies?

It's been a few days...

.. since I've posted here! I've just been outside as much as possible enjoying the lovely weather we have been having... and I've also been working! YAY ME!  I don't know if I've mentioned it yet... but I LOVE my job! I really do!! Just too much fun to call it work. :D

This will just be a quick post since it's getting late and I need some sleep!!   

We have had two days this week of gorgeous sun and 60* weather! I absolutely LOVE it!! I am so ready for Spring and to be done with Winter!! Even though we have had a mild winter this season, I'm tired of the dark and gloomy days and the cold. I don't like cold. 
I can't wait to start working in my garden again! I long for the sweet taste of fresh baby greens and watching the little sprouts poke through the dirt and be continually amazed how a tiny seed can make such delicious food!!!
This is an older picture, but I did see this little guy poking his head out of the roots of the maple tree by our driveway :) Daffodils always make me happy!

Well, I gotta crash for the night, so I'll leave you with a few pictures of my late, lamented bulb garden which the chickens decided would make a nicer dust bath....

Silent Sunday

I have decided that Sunday's will be my 'Silent Sunday' post. No 'talking' just a beautiful picture that moved me that particular Sunday. I hope you enjoy.