Friday, April 29, 2011

A little TUT for PINK Saturday

Happy PINK Saturday everyone!
First, I want to say THANK YOU for your comments on Thursday's post and my loss of my beloved Chipper. Your thoughts and prayers touched my heart and though I cried sobbed as I read each of your comments, they meant the world to me!

Today I am guest hosting at Aimee Asher and have written a little TUT. I'll give you a little hint: it's PINK, so sweet and involves little peat pots and vintage images! Actually, there are three projects included in the TUT.

Please feel free to leave comments here or at Aimee Asher

And don't forget to stop by and say HI to Beverly 
at How Sweet The Sound, our host for PINK Saturday each week!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

My heart is breaking, Prayers, again! Update...

My heart is breaking! My old boy Chipper has taken a turn for the worse and I will be taking him in this morning to have him put to sleep. I know it is the right thing to do, I don't want him to suffer but it is just so darn hard. If you could say a little prayer for our family. My girls grew up with him and he was hubby's companion on all of his long walks. He has been the best dog EVER! He's lived a good, long life 16+ years. I will write more about him next week but I just can't bring myself to do it right now. Here's a picture of him from this past Christmas, holding one of his gifts. 
Well done my faithful companion, well done. 

Update: Well it is done. We took him this morning. Hubby could not stay in the room while they put him to sleep but I felt it was something I needed to do. I made the right decision as I know he passed peacefully, painlessly and quickly. Before the vet began, Chipper lifted his head and gave my nose a little lick, I swear it was his good bye kiss. I stroked his head, he closed his eyes, the Vet said to him "Chipper, you've been a good boy and I know you are tired buddy and ready to go to heaven." And with that he drew his last breath and was gone in seconds. I'm going to miss him so much and all of his antics.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter!

 Alleluia!
The Lord is risen!
He is risen indeed,
Alleluia!
Peace and Blessings this JOYous Easter Day!
Please visit Charlotte and Ginger at Spiritual Sundays for more inspiring posts!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Easter Tag Swap!

Hi everyone, Happy Easter!
I participated in the Easter Tag Swap 
Hosted by Sandy at 521 Lake Street
It was a lot of fun and I met a new bloggy sister too! My swap partner was Ros, from Ros Wistful. Would you look at all the wonderful treats she sent my way!

The tag she made is absolutely gorgeous.
Look at the layers and layers of detail! 
 Then there was this tag wrapped with lots of extra scrumptious trim and these sweet ME cupcake wrappers.
 Ros also sent a stack of really cool vintage ephemera! Love these old pages!
Thank you Ros for everything, it's been fun getting to know you and thank you Sandy for hosting this fun swap! I'd say you did pretty darn good for your first time! 
I also wanted to share a picture of this sweet creation!
I was blessed to be the winner of Viv's give-away and she sent me this precious little chick!

Isn't she a cutie! Can you believe she makes these!

And a few more pics to share! First, let me say a HUGE thank you to everyone who said a prayer for Little Hippy. She is recuperating amazingly fast and today I took her to have her stitches removed and finally remove the Cone of Shame (a little "UP" humor, har, har). Here's a pic of her when I brought her home from her surgery.

She has to stay on her leash when we go for walks for a few more days and we will be finished with all of her Meds by then too. We are still waiting on the pathology reports but saying my prayers for good news soon. Oh, one little unexpected side effect, she is having another false pregnancy, hopefully her last! Here she is getting ready to nurse one of her pups. 

It's a rubber chicken but don't try and tell her that!, LOL! 
 I wish each of you a happy, safe Easter filled with more blessings than your home can hold! xxoo Nan

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Scripture in Pictures Sunday

 You may click on the picture to bring up a larger, sharper image,
then right click and save.
Please visit Charlotte and Ginger at Spiritual Sundays for more inspiring posts!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Urgent Prayer Request! UPDATE!!!!

 Two weeks ago I took Little Hippy our Jack Russell into the Vet because she was acting funny. They determined she had a bad urinary tract infection and put her on an antibiotic. After 2 days on the Rx she was almost back to normal and by the time she finished it, she was doing great. Well Monday morning she was acting strange again so DH took her in this morning and they discovered a mass in her abdomen. He called me and told me they were taking her in for emergency surgery. I drove to the Vet so I could see her before they take her in. They are thinking it is one of two things, an infection in her uterus or cancer. If it's cancer and bad, she probably won't come out of the surgery. I am so scared and heartbroken.  She is the sweetest little thing. If you could say a little prayer for her (and us). 

UPDATE! Little Hippy just came out of surgery and is doing really well. They removed her uterus which was full of infection but NO Cancer!!!!! However, they also removed one of her mammary glands and are sending it off to pathology. It will take 3-5 days to get the results back. Thank you for all your prayers! They will keep her overnight and I can bring her home sometime tomorrow. In case you are wondering why she was never spayed, well... she has a really good blood line and we were going to breed her. Before we could find a suitable male, she was injured chasing a squirrel and was paralyzed. She had surgery on her spine and 6 months later she was walking again but we realized we could never breed her. We wanted to give her time to recover and heal before we put her under the knife again and we just kept putting it off.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Summer Cottage LOVE!

Happy REDnesday everyone!
I am in LOVE with this new publication, Summer Cottage!
 Have you seen it on your newsstands yet? The only place I have been able to find it so far, is Publix's grocery stores. It is published by Hoffman Media, the same people who publish Southern Lady. It was a little pricey at $10.99 but I can see it is one magazine I will keep and devour every little detail over and over. 
 Look at that sweet little RED table and 
the gorgeous RED vase on the shelf above!
It's so nice to see a magazine show rooms filled with color instead of the usual "All White Parisian" cottage look. Don't get me wrong, I swoon over those rooms too but they are not for me. First, I don't know how anyone keeps white furniture, white rugs etc. etc clean! And second, I just have to have color. I love my Reds, Yellows, Turquoises and Pinks too much. 
Oh be still my heart! Would you look at those punches of RED and all those luscious colors!
Another shot of the same house.

Look at this sweet cottage. 
Who wouldn't want to come home to this, so sweet! And notice the orange box in the corner, the magazine is filled with lots of 
"Style Ideas" just like this! 

Love this Blue and Yellow kitchen! 

This might be my favorite house in the magazine.
Cabin + Cottage = Love at first sight!
If you love pretty cottage decorating this magazine is a must have!
Please visit Sue at It's a Very Cherry World for more great RED inspiration! 
XXOO Nan

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Scripture in Pictures Sunday

  You may click on the picture to bring up a larger, sharper image, 
then right click and save.
    
Thank you Carolyn at Adrift on the Lake for providing me with the inspiration for today's post. Carolyn is a fairly new blogger who lives on a lake in Iowa. AND be still my heart, she owns a Havanese! What's a Havanese you ask? Just the cutest breed of dog on this Earth! I have wanted one for years but Mr. Bubble (giggle) says no more dogs, so I'm living my puppy dreams through Carolyn, LOL. Please stop by and say hello!
   I would also like to ask for prayers for a very sweet bloggy sister, Joyce at Scrap for Joy, she has not been feeling well and is scheduled for surgery tomorrow.
Thank you Charlotte and Ginger for hosting Spiritual Sundays every week!

Friday, April 8, 2011

My PINK Easter Tree

Happy PINK Saturday Everyone!
Today I want to share my PINK Easter tree. 
When my oldest daughter was just a baby, I decided to start an Easter tree for her. Back then I took some bare tree  branches and spray painted them white and stuck them in a clay pot. I found lots of cute Easter ornaments to decorate the tree with and they are still put on the tree each year.
When dd #2 came along, I started buying two of each ornament and the collection of little Easter ornaments grew quickly! 
A few years ago I purchased this little PINK tree and decided it was time to replace the well worn branch tree. Here are a few more of the sweet little Easter ornaments.
 A couple of sweet little bunnies!
A little Bird tweeting away!

This Bunny Family stands watch over the foyer, beside the PINK Easter tree.
And next week I will show you how I made the cute frou frou Tutu tree skirt. 
Please stop by How Sweet The Sound and say HI to Beverly, our host each week for PINK Saturday! Have a great weekend! xxoo Nan
 

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Z is for ZOOpendous!

Z is for

   I love to visit zoos! Seriously, where else can you get some great exercise while walking around taking in beautiful flora and fauna and the chance to observe some of God's most amazing creatures up close and personal? Today I want to share my two most favorite zoos which are half a world apart, the amazing zoo in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and the equally impressive Columbus Zoo in Columbus, Ohio.
 Back in 2001, Mr Bubble (giggle) was working in The Netherlands and the girls and I were lucky enough to go over for the entire month of July. He worked during the day, so he would drop us off at the local train station where we could hop on a train to Rotterdam or Amsterdam and be back by dinner. The Rotterdam Zoo is within walking distance from the train station so it was definitely a must see on our list. It is a very clean and well maintained zoo with lots of places to sit and relax in the shade. 
 There were also some very unusual animals that I have never seen before, like this guy!

I don't remember what this guy was called but I distinctly remember that it was quite ferocious. He was down in a pit habitat along with a female and a baby. There were warning signs all around as to how dangerous this animal was. 
There were lots of great places to take pictures. 
 Here are my girls acting silly. 
I can't believe how young they look!
The animals were kept in large open areas and appeared to be well cared for. 
The big cats had a really cool habitat that had the feel of an ancient ruin. This is a huge zoo and took us an entire day to cover the whole thing. If you are ever in The Netherlands, this is a must see stop! 
   This past summer we took our girls to the Columbus Zoo. The last time I was at this zoo, I was about 12 years old and it was nothing like I remember. Jack Hanna is the Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and I was blown away with what he has done to and for this zoo. 
Again, this is a very large zoo and it took us an entire day to see everything!
 Most the animals were kept in large, open spaces and it was very easy to see the animals. The spaces were very clean and it did not have that typical "zoo smell".

And here are my girls once again, so grown up!

If you would like more information on either of 
these zoos, here are their websites:
The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
I'll be linking this to Alphabe Thursday for the letter Z at Jenny Matlocks.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Scripture in Pictures Sunday

 You may click on the picture to bring up a larger, sharper image,
then right click and save if you like.

A big Thank You to Kerrie who did some research last week and discovered the translation of the verse I was looking for, comes from the Revised Common Lectionary. AND, she provided this link for more info! 
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/109399_79330_ENG_HTM.htm
Please visit Ginger and Charlotte at Spiritual Sundays for more inspiring posts!