Dolly's Dreamings

Is that a flag I see before me

Oh I am really into the swing of the jubilee now.

I am such a royalist anyway and I do love a good celebration.

And this weekend is going to be fabulous.

We are celebrating tomorrow with fine dresses and jubilee activities plus a special tea party. We are off to a garden party on saturday, a Jubilee craft fair on Sunday and are having a Jubilee street party on Monday. I have the flags and the bunting and the tablecloths and the hats and the t shirt and I am so jubilee excited it is not true.

I hadn't taken a picture today but i want to use one I took a few days ago and as it is my project I figured I could allow myself that indulgence.

 

I have been jubilee themed in my scrapping too.

Dawn has the most amazing kit out - wella  whole collection and she does do collections extremely well.

It is called, appropriately enough, Great Britain.

Isn't it amazing?

Anyway - in preparation for our street party on Monday I made this page of the street party last year for the Royal Wedding.

We partied long into the night and, weather permitting, I am sure we will again.

Today I am thankful for

• Exciting things to look forward to

 

and finally my one minute devotional page today

Every summer, my wife and I visit a small Episcopal church in upstate New York, where over the years we’ve watched one particular youngster grow up. Eric was still in grade school when he developed an ambition that neither he nor his family could understand. He wanted to learn Russian.

“Where did it come from, this interest in Russian?” Eric’s mother wondered aloud over coffee in the parish house one morning. They had no Russian neighbors, no great exposure to movies or books about Russia.

Each year, as we watched Eric growing taller, we’d ask if he’d found a way to study Russian. “Not yet,” he’d answer, but always with a smile that said, I’m not worried. It will happen.

On one visit, Eric’s mother told us that he’d started asking for a teacher. “He doesn’t want language tapes. It must be a ‘real’ teacher!”

Not long afterward, a toy store opened in town, operated, to everyone’s surprise but Eric’s, by a Russian lady who said that yes, she’d enjoy teaching the boy. “If he has a good ear,” she added. She hated to hear her language pronounced badly.

The boy and the Russian grandmother hit it off instantly. After a few weeks, she was asking if Eric was certain he hadn’t been exposed to Russian before; the boy was speaking with almost no accent.

When we saw Eric last, he was in college, where he’d gone straight into the advanced class in Russian. He still doesn’t know, he admitted, where this strange attraction to a particular language may lead. But he said this with the same smile that’s teaching me so much about being open to God’s guidance. I’m not worried. I’ll find out in time.

Remind me, Father, that I don’t have to know the end of the story to recognize Your guiding hand.

The instantaneous gratification of the 21st century

I think it is very easy to take for granted the speed at which we can have things these days.

We are used to having access to the wealth of information in the world at the tip of our fingertips and we need to really appreciate it at times.

I don't know about the rest of you but if we lose internet I feel at a real loss. I use it so much for all sorts of things each and every day.  If I want to know something .... anything ... I look it up on t'internet.

Then, of course,  I bought an I phone and now I have aps that have altered so much in my life. Hear a song on the radio and want to know what it is, who it is? Shazzam it and it listens to it and tells you.

Out of the house and remember that programme I meant to record? Set record on my TiVo box from my phone!

Visiting a strange town and need a Starbucks - google it.

And so it goes on and on.

Last night I wanted to read the sequel to a book I had just finished. Five minutes later it is on my Kindle.

Oh what an instantaneous age we live in. And oh how I love it. But I also love things about the simpler times. The times when we used reference books,  the times when life was at a slower pace, the times when some things were just a mystery.

I guess there is a place for both.

Anyway, enough rambling from me today. This is a a page I made last night for the challenge this week on UKS and combined with a CT piece for Pickleberrypop. It uses two collections by Dee Bee Designs at PBP which are just such lovely colours. I cannot tell you how much I am loving lime and ,moss green at the moment. Just loving it everywhere.

 

My photo of the day today is another of rhododendrons. Todays is the most goegeous colour. It looks white and when you look at it more closely it is tinged with pink and is utterly gorgeous.

Today I am thankful for

• modern technology in all of its forms

 

Very special hugs all round

I had a lovely welcome when I came home today. Nigel had been at work too today and so the fur family had been on their own for most of the day - which doesn't happen often and they miss us when we are not there. Unusually I was also home before Nigel and so I got the greeting. Lots of chirruping and fussing and tails so high they were doubled back. It was lovely to be greeted so.

It was also very apt today as Nij sent me this video.

What a lovely way to start a day.

Enjoy this one .... I would LOVE to be that man.

 

 

It's an animal day today really. I had a bit of a surprise this morning. You may remember that a neighbour's dog had 9 puppies back in April. Well the puppies are growing fast fast fast. He has sold 4 and still has five of the cutest little black labs ever.

I have seen them before one evening last week and had fun petting them with them jumping up all over me. They had been in the ponds on the heath and were filthy but so cute. I didn't mind getting covered in mud as I just went in and changed afterwards.

However, as I left the house this morning they were just coming off the heath and I paniced. They ran and ran up the drive, into tthe garage and I was going 'no, no, not on me now' as I was all smarted up for work. It was too funny as I dodged them and their owner tried to corral them. They thought it was a huge game.  So an exciting start tot he day.

I have a pretty picture of the day - taken just before 7 am this morning as I parked my car. This is the view from my windscreen. (I actually park right up to them. ) Pretty isn't it! I love rhododendrons so much.

  
I have a new page to share today, still sticking with the animal theme. And yes, given half the chance I would love to fuss this gorgeous cat. It is Pepo, my favourite cat at the Wildlife Heritage Centre. Teddy bear face, claws that could kill you, terrific speed and 100% beauty.

I made the page for the Green Buttons fun night and it was a scraplift of Jemma's page.

Today I am thankful for

• animals of all shapes and sizes. I love them all.
• The beauty of nature and early morning sunshine
• a welcome home
• oh and the fact Starbucks have frap happy hours that mean I can get half price drinks this week.

 

 And today wouldn't be right without a LOL cat - right!

and finally my one minute calendar page today

 

“I have a bud!” I told my friend Peggy. The night-blooming cereus she had given me years ago was finally about to bloom.

“Give it some shade on your patio, ample water, and some fertilizer,” she’d instructed. “You’ll have an unforgettable flower to behold—if you can wake up to see it.” She smiled knowingly. “It only blooms in the middle of the night.”

Now my plant was about to flower. I watched it closely. Its tightly packed bud grew larger and fuller each day. A neighbor walked over to check its progress. “Tonight’s the night,” she said. “Set your alarm for about two A.M. It should be at its peak.”

Early the next morning, I shuffled sleepily into my backyard and shone my flashlight on the bud. “Oh my goodness!” I exclaimed. It was the most beautiful flower I’d ever seen. The bloom was at least six inches wide. Its large petals revealed hundreds of snowy white filaments inside. And the scent! I’d never smelled such an intense sweetness before. What a shame that it does this only at night when no one can see it! I thought.

Then I recalled a conversation I’d had with my friend Johnny. Never one to be the center of attention, he prefers, as he says, “to sit in the last chair.” I couldn’t understand why he didn’t love an audience as I do.

I flipped the flashlight back on, studying my flower. It had bloomed in the quiet of the night and without fanfare, the way God made it—to my unending delight.

Little to report

You know, there are some days when there are a whole mess of things I want to say. Maybe a place visited, an event marked, something strange happening. Then there are other days when - nada, nothing.

Today is a nothing day. Not a bad day. Not a special day. Nothing remarkable happened - just a day.

I did take a photo of my sun dresses. See I told you they were nothing special but they were just what I wanted

 

 I have been playing catch up with my pages for my project 366 and today I have week 18 to share.

I am still a little behind but hope to be caught up soon. It is coming up to half term so hopefully I will be up to date then.

Anyway - week 18.

Now I would like to share this video but I am not sure it will play on here in the format I have. Let's see.

I have uploaded it as a file so let's see if it works.
If you are not sure you want to see it it is a video of a cat with a very very very persistant pigeon or dove singing in said cat's ear. I am surprised the bird made it!

Download Rolachata

Today I am thankful for

• just a very ordinary day

and finally my one minute devotional page is

Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb? It’s a bit of a one-line joke, but in all the years I’ve lived close to Grant’s Tomb, and for all the times I’ve driven past it on its bluff overlooking the Hudson River, and even when the boys were in nursery school right next door, I’d never visited it. Neither had my wife. So on Memorial Day last year, after paying bills, doing some gardening, and feeling generally grateful to have a day to catch up, we set off on our expedition.

“Better get some gas first,” Carol said, noticing the gauge.

“Should we stop at the market on the way?”

By the time we got to Grant’s Tomb and parked the car, it was 5:00 P.M. “I wonder when it closes,” I said, worried. We marched up the wide marble steps beneath the flags and bunting, and I pushed the door. Locked. I put my hands up to the glass and peered inside. Closes at 5:00 P.M., said the sign.

All at once, I felt foolish and selfish. Here was a chance to do what Memorial Day was set aside for, and we’d missed it through our own busyness. Yes, catch-up days are a blessing, but isn’t it good to remember just what a holiday is for? I sank down on the steps, disappointed and irritated with myself.

Just then, the door opened and a park ranger stepped out.

“Would you like to come inside for a minute?” he asked.

Would we ever!

I can now tell you on full authority who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb: Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia. Next year, I’ll go back earlier, so I can tell you what else is to be found inside.

 

It's just like summer

It really is just like summer her.

Oh wait a minute - it IS summer ... well nearly.

The weather has been glorious again. Not quite as hot and cloudless as yesterday but plenty good enough for the obligatory prone time int he garden - and very nice it was too.

We headed out to Poole this afternoon as I really really wanted some sundresses for my holiday - and for home too if it is this nice.

I am not a dress sort of girl really. I ear skirts and dresses ever day to work and weekends and holidays are strictly trousers or crops or shorts. BUT - I have been hankering for some pretty sundresses as I know they will be much cooler in Florida.

But they are hard to find ... well they are for me anyway. I don't do short - I have horrible legs and especially horrible knees. The knee I damaged badly is still misshapen and I have always has very pudgy knees (well very pudgy everything really but knees especially) I also wanted sundresses I could wear without a bra which means they have to have some sort of structure (pudgy there too!)

Couldn't find what I wanted anywhere until .... well I found the perfect little sundress. It is crinkle cotton so won't crease and if it does it won't notice. It is strappy but supportive and just the right length. It was cool and pretty and pink. Oh and then there was the black and white one, the white and black one, the blue and white denim looking one, the cream and brown one and the peacock blue one. Mmmmmm

Well the chances of finding the right dress again was not looking good and it would have been a shame to come home and wish I had bought another one. So suddenly they all appeared at the checkout as there was a special offer and I now have 6 new dresses for £80.

We came home via the quay and there was one of the tall ships in and so it acted as the photo of the day.

I have a new page to share today too made with a stunning new collection I have been playing with. It is my favourite colour scheme at the moment - the cream and lilac and green. This is a collection called Serenity by Indogo Designs at Pickleberrypop.

 
She makes glorious masks whch just lend themselves so well to subtle blending. The photo is another from the bluebell woods at Pamphill which we love so much.

Today I am thankful for

• those perfect little dresses
• a husband who insists I buy stuff
• Happy hour at Starbucks - yey!

Preparations

It has been a magnificent day today - absolutely glorious.

There has been a very strong wind, but that has been a good thing as I would never have lasted as long as I did in the garden without it.

It has been hot hot hot - and fabulous.

I would hate you to think I had been working in the garden. I have just been prone ... front and back. Bliss.

Today has been all about getting ready for the Jubilee. I have downloaded a lot of stuff for the children next week for our celebrations. We did a fun Jubilee treasure hunt together whilst sat outside. I have made some Jubilee themed pages and we have begun our preparations for our street party.

Our street closure notices - yes we did it properly this time and applied for a street closure - were put up today. We had great fun tying them to lamp posts down the road and on the gates.

Our neighbours are as excited as we are and I am busy making reminder invites for everyone.

My photo of the day is our notices.

 
I have  new page to share today which I made last week. Most of my new stuff tends to be CT work as I now get to have a lot of CT kits to work with which is fabulous. However it means I post them a week after I make them as by then they have been released in store.

This was made with a kit from Pickleberrypop   Life everyday (May) element pack by deb fisher designs at Pickleberrypop

It was from our day at Minterne Gardens

 

I absolutely LOVE the colours - those greens and lilacs. It is a combo I am going to be using over and over and over again.

LOVE IT!

I have a video clip to share today. Nigel is very into motorsports - always has been - and loves Speedway. This clip is NOT speedway but you can't fail to be impressed with this guy and what he can do on a bike.

If you are board do spin through and see the end though!

 

Today I am thankful for

• The sunshine
• chance to relax
• GREAT new digi kits to play with
• News that my Joann order has arrived!

and my one minute devotional is

“Greg, I think I might have finally found a hutch for those china dishes,” I said to my husband, calling him over to see a picture I’d found online. I’d been searching for weeks for just the right cabinet for my great-grandmother’s dishes, to no avail.

Grandma Mary had brought boxes full of the dishes when she paid us a visit last spring. “I want you to have these,” she said. Opening up the boxes, I found the most beautiful dishes I’d ever laid eyes on. I reached in, running my fingers gently over the dainty roses painted on each piece. “They were your great-grandmother’s wedding present from your great-grandfather,” she went on. “Take good care of them.”

“I will,” I promised.

That was harder than I thought. We had no space for them. Weeks passed, and the dishes stayed carefully wrapped while we tried to find a cabinet that would fit them and our décor. Lord, please help me find the right cabinet for Great-grandmother’s dishes, I prayed.

Finally I found one that fit the bill, I hoped. The website was for a small antiques store in Ashland, about a half hour from our house. “Great-grandmother Zadora owned a coffee shop here over 50 years ago,” I told Greg. “Maybe it’s a sign.”

“Let’s check it out,” Greg said. We made our way to the antiques store. To our delight, we spotted the china hutch I’d seen online. Not only was it our style, but it was on sale, too! We bought it and took it home.

“The cabinet was made for these,” I cried, placing the precious dishes into the hutch. Closing the cabinet door, my fingers brushed against some rough grooves inside. Oh, no. Damage? I slipped my glasses on for closer inspection.

Great-grandmother’s dishes belonged in there all right. It was her name carved in the wood.

Absolutely glorious

It has been an absolutely glorious day today.

The sun has blazed all day - too hot really to do anything at all other than just slump and enjoy it.

Give me half the chance and I'm your girl for just that. Tomorrow, weather permitting, I am planning on doing just that for most of the day.

I was on a trip this morning to a local church - it is one of the prettiest churches I have ever seen with a stunning rood screen which is aparently one of only two in the country like it - the other being in Norwich.

The photo doesn't do it justice really as it is very bright and prettty pretty.

The numbers are for a church quiz we were doing with the children.

I chose the stunning reredos as my photo of the day.

 

I have a page to share today which is another made with Dawn Inskip's awesome new template collection. They are all so fabulous and I am doing a happy happy dance that I have so many of them

So - when the temperature is 28 degrees - and very humid - what better way to cool off than memories of snow.

Snow far snow good then LOL

Today I am thankful

laughter - had some good laughs today

sunshine - loads of that

FRIDAY

 

I slumped at the breakfast table, in my robe, still bleary-eyed and fuzzy-headed from waking up, when I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to be at the doctor’s office for an appointment in 45 minutes. I quickly got dressed, drove across town, and arrived there 10 minutes late.

That was the beginning of a day during which everything went wrong. I stopped to shop for groceries and didn’t have my checkbook. When I got back home, I took off my glasses and then couldn’t find them. I burned the lunch. I spilled ketchup on my slacks. By the time the piano tuner arrived (I’d forgotten he was coming), my nerves were a wreck.

I got the tuner settled at the piano, and then I sank into a chair. The tuner ran his fingers up and down the keys, producing jangled sounds. I hadn’t realized until then how badly out of tune my piano had become. Just like my day, I thought.

The tuner began working on the strings, tapping the keys and testing the tone as he adjusted the pins. One by one, the strings slid into place, producing warm, rich tones.

“I need to retune my day,” I said.

Usually, I spend a little quiet time each morning, focusing on God and asking for His help through the coming hours. Well, it’s never too late, I told myself. Relaxing, I closed my eyes, centered down, and prayed.

Dear Lord, I feel out of tune with You today. Please touch me with Your peace.

—MADGE HARRAH

 

An early Jubilee Party

I am loving everything leading up to the Jubilee. I am loving the red white and blue, I am loving the union jacks sprouting everywhere, I am loving that we have a street party planned, just loving it all.

I went to an early street party today - well kind of.

Marks and Spencer have special cardholder events and there was one today so after work I headed off to castle Point. Beautiful warm sunshine (though way way too hot in store ... when will this country learn about air conditioning) clothes to try on and buy, free Cava and cheese nibbles and cupcakes and 20% off plus a free £5 voucher. What's not to like!

And of course, it would have been rude to resist wouldn't it. I bought a pretty navy and white top and another top that was a real bargain. The second top was Indigo (I love that range) and was so pretty but it had no label of any description on. I asked at the checkout if they could tell me how much it was and she said yes and checked the bar code. She said 'Oh it is a deleted line and was in the sale. It was £8'. Now bearing in mind similar tops are £26 I was pretty keen to buy it, but then she said it had been reduced again but it was a non returnable item. It was now £4!

Well it would have been rude not to wouldn't it.

 

Dawn Inskip has a brand new collection out and Oh Boy - it is one you are not going to want to miss.

If you are a fan of her templates - and how can you possibly not be - then this is a must.

It is an amazing colelction of 24 new detailed awesome templates - and a free bonus alphabet too.  You can find them here

It's incredible. I am a lucky lucky girl to get to play with all of them.  This is one of the pages I made with them

The lion was one of the wire sculptures at the Tower of London taken earlier this month.

Today I am thankful for

• early street parties
• bargains
• getting my shoes off!

and my one minute calendar page is

A friend had died and I’d gone to the funeral home to pay my respects. In a corner, I noticed a boy sitting all alone. “That’s the son of the man who died,” I heard someone say. “He’s deaf. He’s taking his daddy’s death harder than anyone.”

My heart broke for the boy, all lost in a world of his own. I walked over to him and took his hand, hoping he could read my lips as I tried to tell him how very sorry I was. He nodded politely, but I knew I hadn’t really reached him.

Then, as I was leaving, an elderly gentleman entered the room, and as he walked toward him, the boy’s face lit up in recognition. Immediately, the two began communicating in sign language. The boy’s hands flew, unable to get the words out fast enough, as if he were tripping over them at the joy of having someone who at long last truly understood him.

Thinking back, I recalled seeing the gentleman at a church I once visited where he heads a ministry for the deaf. I had observed him translating a sermon, but I’d never had the chance to watch him one-on-one, speaking the very language of a grieving boy’s heart and turning isolation and pain into love and belonging.

Jesus, help me to speak Your language of love.

—ROBERTA MESSNER

Good and hot

Today has been both good and hot. It has been a really good day - but then I guess everyday we have should be viewed as a good day one way or another. It is just that some days you have to look a little harder to find the good. Today it was right there in black and white.

It has also been hot. Fabulously hot. Now I am a winter girl. I like the cold frosty weather but it has been so chilled and dank and dreary I am really loving the sun and the heat at the moment. Long may that continue.

My photo of the day is my car display when I set off home tonight.

29 degrees. WOW - awesome.

My feet, however, haven't cottoned on to summer yet and I now have a splendid collection of blisters where my namby pamby winter feet, used to have=ing socks or tights on, have softened up over the winter and the first rub of a shoe blisters them. It's quite funny really. I had a rub on the top of my toe when I came home. It was a blister that broke pretty much instantly. Last night we went for a wlk and I didn't want it to rub so I put a plaster on it.

The plaster rubbed undeneath qorse than the top was to begin with so now the middle toe on one foot has a raw patch on the top and the bottom. And I have a new one on the other foot tonight.  No doubt they will harden up soon!

I also had a drama today on the way to work as I had another massive nose bleed - this time a real gusher and I was driving so it was all very dramatic. I wish I knew what was causing them as I could perhaps be a little prepared.

I have a page to share today which is another made with one of the Pickleberrypop Pickle Barrel sets, this time one from Dee Bee Creations

 

The photo is of us at Pamphill in the Bluebell woods.

Today I am thankful for

• kindness
• recognition
• praise
• warmth

 

“There are two kinds of people,” a friend of mine told me a few years ago as I was approaching my 40th birthday. “People under the age of 40 and people over it.”

After 40 arrived, I couldn’t help but notice that the age really was the milestone it’s always made out to be. Almost as if on cue, my knees started bothering me if I jogged for too long, and my hair, graying around the temples for some time, started changing color a little faster. Long taken largely for granted, my body was beginning to assert itself as what, in truth, it always had been: a fragile and temperamental piece of machinery destined ultimately to break down.

This year, I turn 45. Over the past couple of years, as I’ve gotten used to being a member of the second of those two kinds of people, I’ve started to notice that people over 40 can also be divided into two general classes: There are those who are clearly worried about age and all it brings with it, and those who, though perhaps not delighted with the gradual failings of the body, aren’t undone by them, either. With faith, with the belief that life’s end is not really an end at all but only the beginning of another infinitely larger life as yet unknown, gray hair and achy knees are not weighty and terrible events, but markers on a journey far from over—indeed, hardly begun.

Lord, keep me ever mindful of the larger life that lies beyond this one.

 

Topless!

OK so yesterday I was topless in a bit of a hurry as it was imperative to get the beetle off me quickly

 

Today I have been topless in a whole other way. It has been glorious and sunny and warm and for the first time in ages I haven't been cold and so on the way home ... well it had to be done.

I went topless for the first time in 2012.

Photo of the day ... me arriving home.

I feel summer is a coming! And boy do we all need a bit of sun. It was sunny at the end of March and the start of April but I was poorly I didn't really appreciate it. This I am ready for!

I have a new page to share today which is another made from the Pickle Barrel and this time it is using a lovely collection of papers, scatters and word art from Jumpstart Designs called Uniquely You

It has the same gorgeous colour palette of the soft pinks, greens and lilacs and it wonderful.

The little girl is pretty cute too - as ever. It was fab to have face time with her the other day - well with all of them. We all have I Phones and so can speak for free and see each other. Did I mention I love my I phone!

Today I am thankful for

• sunshine
• owning a convertible
• a new dvd to watch. Nigel has finally downloaded our holiday footage from 2010. What is it they say ... the cobblers children are always the poorest shod!

 

 And my page a day calendar today is

One steamy summer day, I hurried down to our neighborhood pool in a tizzy. Things seemed to be going the wrong way in our family. “God, why won’t You change things?” I prayed. “I’m tired of all these problems. Nothing I do seems to matter, and I’m working so hard. Where are You?”

I pushed through the metal gate at the pool and ran over to thank my neighbor Mary Ann for watching Thomas, my nine-year-old son. Mary Ann is Megan’s mom, and Megan is very special to me because she’s my four-year-old goddaughter. Born with a heart problem, Megan has gone through three heart surgeries and had her gall bladder removed, but she has amazed everyone with her determination and spunk.

Thomas and Megan were sitting cross-legged on a striped beach towel at the edge of the pool, drinking juice boxes and sharing some Goldfish crackers. Mary Ann called me aside to whisper, “I’ve got to tell you what Thomas did. All the big kids were hurrying to the other side of the pool to eat a snack. Megan didn’t have her flip-flops, and the pavement was burning her feet. Thomas gave her his flip-flops. He dipped his feet into the water to cool them off while he waited for her to walk. Megan was thrilled to be wearing big-boy shoes, but she couldn’t walk very fast, and she kept tripping. So Thomas took off his towel and wrapped her up. Then he picked her up and carried her, letting her wear his shoes the whole way. He walked barefoot. Julie, you should have seen him.”

Lord, You want to pick me up and carry me, but I try to run alone, burning my feet and stumbling along. Help me trust You to carry me.

—JULIE GARMON