Debbi and I: A Tale of Two Friends

Not too long ago a dear friend, well actually, my oldest friend whom I have known since I was three, contacted me and said that she would be in North Carolina this month. She wanted to know if it might be possible to get together for dinner, as she and her honey, whom I had never met, would be staying not far from here in Raleigh for one night.

I suggested that I cook dinner, and that they cancel their hotel reservations and stay here instead. She graciously accepted my invitation and on Sunday they arrived. To say that we had not seen each other for awhile would be a gross understatement, as it had been about 36 years. The last time we had seen each other we both lived in New York, and my daughter, now 38, was only about a year and a half old.

We kept in touch over the years. Holidays came and birthdays went. Careers were made and retirements took place. Divorces occurred, homes were purchased and sold, and a generation of children grew up and started their own families. More than half of our lives have passed since we last saw each other. I moved to Florida and then to North Carolina, where I remarried and then retired. Debbi retired to Arizona where she lives with her long-time love.

As they walked into our house, introductions were made and hugs given. The years vanished into thin air. Suddenly we were three years old again, and nothing had ever really changed at all. That's the way friendship is.

My fourth birthday...

...with Debbi helping me blow out the candles.

And no, that teapot is not growing out of my head. 

Mom was not the best photographer. 

I guess you can see where I get it from...

My fifth birthday....

When we were about seven.

I doubt that we were really shoveling snow...

Here we are in third or fourth grade.

By this time, Debbi had beautiful long hair.

I had funky pink glasses.

(The little blond girl in front, Maureen,

became my other best friend,

and both she and Debbi were in my wedding

party when I married my first husband.)

Debbi said we should hold hands for a photo,

just like in the old days. 

I said that the only difference now

was that we were getting old and 

we needed the assistance to stand still!

The guys must have thought we were nuts.

We are. 

I don't think that we changed all that much in sixty years,

do you?

We ate breakfast out the next morning, and then they had to leave to visit Debbi's sister on the coast before they started heading back to Arizona. I wish we could have had more time together. I hope that we see each other soon, and that this time it doesn't take 36 years.

By the way, you can see another story about Debbi and I in one of my previous posts, seen here.

Have a wonderful weekend!

The Anniversary of 9/11: Work or Fight?

Good morning friends. On this, the anniversary of 9/11, I just wanted to say hello and wish you well. I gave some thought as to what the tone of this post would be, and felt that I couldn't say it much better than I did last year, so I have repeated that post at the bottom of this page in case you didn't see it the first time.

In light of the goings on in Syria, and President Obama's speech last night, I am going to break with my tradition of trying to keep the tone of this blog light-hearted and without voicing my opinions on matters over which I have little control (and believe me, I DO have my opinions, as my husband and children would tell you!).

The vintage photo above was likely taken during World War I in an era when our men went off to war, and we ladies stayed home to "hold down the fort", so to speak. You may need to enlarge that photo to see the detail, but the sign says "Work or Fight. We Work". I found myself wondering if the women in that picture, and other women of that era, were more forward-thinking than having had been credited for. If you saw a modern version of that picture, say, perhaps, a group of women in modern attire riding in a 2013 convertible Mustang, and holding the same sign, would they possibly be saying "Work or fight? We would rather work towards a peaceful resolution. We would rather let the United Nations assess all alternatives before running the risk of again sending our military off to fight in yet another foreign land. We would rather do what it takes to avert the possibility of another 9/11, or worse." What do you think they were saying? What are we saying now? Just some thoughts on this day.

Anyway, here is the post that I did one year ago. Thanks for stopping by, friends.

Hello friends.

I thought that this day should not be about pretty gardens, home decor, or creativity, but rather a day of reflection and thanks. We all remember where we were on that awful day 11 years ago. I remember that I was at work,  and we were all called into the conference room to watch something on TV. It seemed that a jet had accidentally crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers up in NY.  I was living and working in Florida at the time, but had grown up in New York not far from Manhattan, so I couldn't believe what had happened. I thought it must have been something like when the Empire State Building was hit by a plane many years before. We watched in horror as a second jet hit the other tower, thinking briefly that it was yet another accident, and what were the odds of that? As the truth unfolded, we accomplished little that day and worked at our jobs through a fog of shock.

Years before the events of 9/11, my Dad had worked in the City, watched those towers being built, and had worked in one of them for a period of time. I could not help but identify with those that on that morning watched their spouses going off to work and their children heading out for school, never realizing that this would be the last they would ever see them again. To this day, like so many of others, I cannot think of that time without a catch in my throat, a tear in my eye, and a loss of breath. It is the same feeling that I get when I am reminded of the Kennedy assassination, and the little boy that saluted his father as his casket went by.

I was, and still am, thankful for first responders, unsung heroes, American flags that fly everywhere, and living in a great nation that comes together when the need arises.

I hope that you and yours have peaceful day.

Sue

The death of a friend...

This week I was saddened to learn from my daughter of the passing of an old friend.

We lived in the same apartment building years ago.

I hadn't seen him since before I left Florida.

As with many friendships, people move on, they move away, and life changes.

Our children still keep in touch, and my daughter will be at his funeral this week.

I'm glad for that.

Two weeks ago I saw this beautiful butterfly on my Tiger Lily.

I ran inside to grab my camera.

 I barely snapped this one picture before the butterfly flew away.

I guess it doesn't matter that I only managed to get part of the butterfly in the picture.

After all, sometimes life is fleeting in itself.

I hope that Dale sees a lot of butterflies and beautiful flowers in his new life.

Love, weddings, anniversaries and vintage photos...

Good morning friends. Love is in the air today. I feel it in this quote...



I feel it in these beautiful vintage wedding photos, which I have just begun to collect.
Don't you love this one...

Here is a closeup of the bride. I love her

head wear...

The seller of another threw this one in for free.

A nice fifties wedding...

...with a closeup of the happy couple...

I love this one, which looks like it might

be from the twenties or thirties...

A closeup of the bride and groom.

Don't you just love their expressions?

I wonder what they were thinking...

This is my favorite.

I love the bride and her two beautiful

flower girls...

...and a closeup of their faces and big bows...

I love photos showing large wedding parties.

This one was very inexpensive because there was

some damage to the photo to the ring-bearer's face,

the little boy on the bottom right.

But I love it anyway...

...and a closeup of the beautiful

bride and groom...

Most of the above were too large to fit on my scanner bed,

but the following was smaller, so I scanned it for you.

Save and use as you wish...

And the "vintage" couple below,

shown with their flower girl?

 

Why it's US!

This picture was taken four years ago today

at our home

on OUR wedding day!

The flower girl is my granddaughter, Jordyn.

We are going out to dinner and a movie this evening to continue the celebration, which had started with the Outer Banks trip. I hope that you're having a great day!


The 90th birthday party and some celebration ideas...

Greetings from The Perch! Well, we are finally back in NC, having returned on Thursday from the festivities in Florida. Below are a few pictures from the week.

Packed and ready to leave home with auto hooked up to motor home...

The party was last Saturday, and went really well. After appetizers and drinks, we served a Honey Baked Ham along with a fried turkey, cooked by my son-in-law, Shawn. Side dishes were made by various members of the family.

Before serving the cake, this is what we did. Remember the tags that I had sent out with the invitations (you can see them here)? Well, I had directed those invited to write down a few memories of time spent with my dad and return them to me. I tied them with ribbons that matched the Legacy Book (you can see it here). I took out the tags and told my dad that we were going to have a little fun with him and play a game in which he was the only contestant. The name of the game was "Just what do people REALLY think about you, and who said WHAT?!"  I read the tags one-by-one, leaving out any names and identifying information, and asked him to guess who wrote the comments on each tag. Now, you have to know my dad to appreciate this. He is as sharp as a tack and can remember every joke that he ever heard since about 1930. Would you believe that out of about 20 tags, he guessed 18!

Here are the tags...



...and here I am reading them to Dad...

The next day I put all the tags in the pockets of the Legacy Book for him.

Here is the cake, which was a delicious

Hazelnut Cream Cake made by the bakery

in Publix (a wonderful grocery store in the

South)...

And the blowing out of the candles...

This is the first time that the complete four generations of our family were together in almost forever, as my brother's whole family came out from Seattle and NY.

The oldest and youngest members of

the family, Dad and my newest grandson,

Jason...



Something that I put together the last week before we left is this little book called "Roaring Twenties". During my quest for party ideas, I came across a website called The People History, website here. The owner of this site has done a wonderful job of amassing a wealth of information on previous decades, and provides all kinds of facts on the fashions, homes, appliances, etc., of each. So, I printed out a bunch of the pages and pasted them into the little booklet shown below. If you click to enlarge you can see what kinds of things you will see on the website. Also, for $1.95 they will customize a summary of the highlights of the year of the person's birth, and personalize the top of it as you wish. They then send it to you in a PDF format for you to print out.  I used this for the first two pages of the book, also shown below.

When I was preparing for this party, I had pinned various ideas to one of my Pinterest boards. I am showing these pictures because there had been a lot of re-pins of the 90th birthday party ideas that I found. Those of you trying to plan a birthday party for a senior know how hard it is to come up with some suitable ideas. It's not like we can use a Star Wars or Miss Kitty theme now, is it? I gave this book to Dad along with the Legacy Book. (Sorry for the bad photography, but I took these in the motor home where the lighting was not great.)

For the part of the book below, I did a search on eBay

under "newspaper 1923", found headlines of the year

in old newspapers that were for sale, copied and pasted them

into a Word document, adjusted the sizes to be similar,

and pasted them into the book. (I hope this was not illegal,

as they were only for this book and I will not profit by this!)

A good time was had by all at the party! To protect the innocent (!!), I did not show photos of all who attended, but we had about 20 people.

Thanks for spending some time with me. Time to go out and do some yard clean-up...nice weather is finally here for a few days!

Legacy book finally finished!!

Hello friends! Well, I finally finished the legacy book that I will present to my dad at his 90th birthday party next month. Since I have mentioned it a few times in this blog, I thought I would share some pictures with you. There are quite a few, so I won't take it personally if you decide to bow out. You may need to click on them to see better detail. I hope he likes the book!

This is the front of the book, covered with papers, ribbon,

and a Tim Holtz plate.

After I attached the title to the plate, I filled it in with Diamond Glaze.

I don't remember where I even got the rusty corner pieces

I'd had the book for awhile, but I think it was from 7 Gypsies. All of the

pages were folded over before being bound, so they formed pocket pages.

As you can see, I added ribbons to the spiral binding.

This is the inside of the front cover...

I basically used three different paper packs.

They were "Poetic Postage" from The Paper Studio,

"Love Letters" from Recollections, and "Portobello

Road", also from Recollections...

On this page I also added an old watch piece, filled

with a tiny photo of my dad and aunt, and again,

covered it with Diamond Glaze.

The picture frame around my parents in the page below

was a dimensional sticker from Marcella by Kay. Again, I

bought it a long time ago. This project gave me an opportunity

to use up a lot of old stuff that I had stock-piled!

For the page below, I continued the timeline

of the growth of my family by creating a tag, shown

in the next few pictures, that went into the pocket...

Below is a picture of that tag, along with

a picture that shows how it sits in the pocket

page...

Since I had put a keyhole piece next to the picture

of the house I grew up in, I added

a key to the ribbon on the tag, shown in the picture

below...

The following four pages are left empty.

They will house pictures of family and friends

that will be taken at the party. The pictures

can be mounted on the prepared pages,

with extras placed inside the pockets...

With each invitation that I sent out (see my previous

post of 1/21/13 "Well I finally finished"...)

I included one of the tags shown below and asked

those invited to write down on it at least one memory

that they had of Dad. The art stamp used

was an old one that I had from Leslie Altman,

Marks of Distinction, and the tags were stippled

with dark red ink. When I receive them back, they

will be tied with ribbons and inserted into pockets of

the book...

This is the last page, which has a pocket that

houses one of the invitations...

Shown below is he invitation slid

 out of the pocket...

The inside back cover...

The back cover. My dad gets a kick out of

the name of my blog, so I couldn't resist

putting one of my little labels on the back...

 

The book covers six generations of our family, from my dad's grandparents down to his great grandchildren. Though I do not consider myself a scrapbooker, it was really fun to work on.

OK. If you fell asleep, you can wake up now! I hope that you have a wonderful weekend!!