Let's Play Dress Up

Playing dress up was a lot more fun when I was a little girl and dressing up in my mother's clothes and clomping around the house in her shoes! It's so difficult to find the right dress. It has to be dressy enough for the occasion, the right shape and length, the right color, not too low cut and in a price range I can afford!

Thank you for your suggestions on websites for dresses. I hope you'll all keep helping me look and give me lots of advice in choosing a dress for my son's wedding.

Dress Barn's dresses are a good price, but I find most of them were prints instead of solids and those that I liked and felt would be appropriate don't come in the color I need.

Old Pueblo Traders has some lovely pieces in their special occasion dress section, but not a single one in the color I need.

Cato's dresses were mostly too casual for what I need and again, the few that would work did not come in the right color.

I prefer something in a chiffon, it should be a dark purple, preferably a plum or eggplant, lace is ok and since it will be fall, I was thinking a jacket dress would be nice, but all the ones I see look too matronly. I know, I know, I'm the mother-of-the-groom and therefore "matronly", but I also don't want to look like I'm lost in a bunch of drapey fabric. Maybe I'm asking too much?  I have found two possibilities:

Picture the last one with the plunging neckline with a black lace cami to fill in the 'V'. The first one is on ebay, it is the last in that color and my size available. If I go somewhere to go shopping and don't find anything I might lose the jacket dress, but if I don't go shopping I don't know if I might find something better. If I buy one online there is no guarantee that it will fit properly without trying it on. 

Oh my, I don't like making these decisions. 

Seeing Red

No, I'm not angry or upset in any way, as a matter of fact the Lord seems to be giving me an extra measure of joy for which I am grateful. This time of year is difficult for me as this past Sunday was the anniversary of my Mother's passing. Usually this time of year brings a heaviness and the year she died was also a Sunday so it seemed especially real again, but God has been showing me my blessings and giving me a joy I didn't expect which has helped me tremendously in getting me through this week.

Anyway, back to the "red"...

Saturday was a busy day. We didn't get to go out to breakfast as I had hoped, Hubby had to meet a team out on the trails for a work session. I decided to practice early, only to go over to the church and find Women's Aglow having a meeting in the basement (directly under the organ). I didn't want to "tip-toe" around, so I decided to go home, take care of some other projects and practice later in the day. One of my summer projects is painting a chair and a side table to match my new bistro set we purchased for the back deck. I had wanted to get it ready for the 4th, but didn't make it. You may remember the chair from a previous photo I've used here:

 I only got my painting started when I ran out of paint, so a trip to the hardware store on my way back to the church was in order, then after my 4 hour practice time I tried to finish it up, but I didn't get to finish before it got too late in the day. I like the red color against the turquoise of the house.

For offertory this Sunday I chose one of Gordon Page's organ arrangements to play. I did it as close to perfect as is humanly possible during my practice time on Saturday, but when it came time to do it publicly, I messed up and it took me a couple of measures to get it back to something recognizable. GRRR. Ok, maybe this did have me seeing some red. I was truly upset with myself for that one.

This week Hubby brought home some freshly picked strawberries that he purchased from a customer. Eight quarts which needed to be washed, sliced and frozen. I took care of a couple of quarts on Saturday in between painting and practicing, but last night (Monday) we knew we needed to get them put away or they'd spoil so after another 3 1/2 hour practice session, and a weeding of the entire garden after cooking and cleaning up supper, we washed and sliced the rest. Our reward was fresh strawberries over ice-cream for dessert! Needless to say, I was one tired pup last night!

Our rose bush bloomed again, but it looks like these are the last for the season. I liked how they draped so nicely over the driftwood. 

We have been seeing lots of wildlife in the neighborhood the last couple of weeks. This young lady has been a frequent visitor and we enjoyed watching her until she made herself at home in the garden and nibbled a swath through the kale and beet greens!

Hubby now has hung what he calls his "scare deer" on the line outside in hopes of keeping her away. I have caught it out of the corner of my eye a couple of times and wondered who was in my backyard!

We also seem to have a large skunk that has made a couple of attempts to get under the garden fence. I'm not sure what to do about that one, of course we're forever scaring off the bunnies...cute as they are!

Yesterday during my organ lesson I started another new piece. This one is for Advent and will take that much time to get comfortable, I'm sure. I've heard my mentor play it every year for the last 20 years, but it wasn't until this year when I heard him play it that something came over me and I knew I just had to learn it. My mentor said, "you mean you realized you had to allow it to go into your system and become part of you so you can then let it flow out of you. I know, if you're not a musician, especially an organist you may think that sounds pretty flaky, but I'm here to tell you, it's true. He also said "you can call the guys in the little white coats to come get me any time...hardy har har". :D

Sometime during the night last night I had an awful nightmare. I have no idea why, but I woke up gasping in the middle of the night because I had dreamed I witnessed the church where I have my lessons being bombed! The "good" thing was, I somehow knew there was no one inside. The weird thing was I didn't "hear" anything happen in my dream. I was standing out front, looked away for a moment, then looked back and the towers were both gone, only smoke "towers" were left...like ghosts. The rose window was broken (the organ frames it on the inside) and smoke was pouring out, I knew the organ was gone and I wept as though I had just lost a family member. I shared this with my mentor and this was his reply: This world, as we know it, is passing on...it is so interesting about the destruction. I dreamed once (25 years ago??) that the church was packed with people, but it had nothing to do with the worship of God. It was all about us worshipping ourselves, because there was no mention of anything regarding Christ and His Sacrifice or even acknowledging God...The organ was gone and the console was used to put guitar cases, etc. upon. People were singing and carrying on, but it was all about ourselves. Black and white and tragic. Yikes. You have to wonder about imaginations. God help us all.

I don't know what it means, but it has left me a bit shaken. It was awful.

In the midst of all my business, I found time to make another set of cards:

and lose 2 inches off my hips and abs and 1 1/2 inches off my waist!! Onward and downward...FINALLY!!

Today our high temperature was a cool 52* and it's been breezy so I haven't been out to finish my painting project. I'm hoping for tomorrow.

A Project Day

My summer is consisting of moving from one project to the next - most of them are organizing projects and projects that prepare the house, yard or other projects for the coming winter. One of the things on my list was organizing my computer files. I always wait until they are a mess and it takes forever to get them in order. It's also very confusing as I have 2 backup hard drives and somehow or another the folders are labeled slightly different and it's so hard to tell if I have everything on one that I have on the other. What a mess! Then of course I have my Google Drive which is cloud storage. One would probably wonder why I need external backups if I have cloud storage...well...I don't trust technology, especially when I have no control over it. What is the cloud anyway...I mean, really? Besides, I don't know how much free cloud storage I have on this thing and so I back up...twice. All that to say, I finally finished...it only took all day!

I did take a little time to visit Retreat Design today - the store that opens only once a month, but I didn't find anything that interested me.

The wedding plans are coming along. I have secured a friend to make the cake and another friend to play the organ and I have arranged to meet with the woman representing the venue in order to give her the deposit check. The next thing for me will be to locate a dress. If any of you have any favorite online dress shops...please share.

Hubby is out working on the trails tonight - I'm kinda tired of being home alone. I hope I can talk him into going out for breakfast in the morning. Tomorrow will be a practice day and I'll have to find another small project to complete. I have some organ music that needs to be put in a notebook, so I might be able to get that accomplished.

I feel as though summer is going by much too quickly. I truly don't want it to end. I dread the coming snow and cold with every fiber of my being.

No pictures today...I think I shared them all yesterday. I do have some very good news to share! If you all will remember my college piano professor, Gordon...well here:

New News...and Its' All Good !

Regular Dr. appointments today.
My oncologist is VERY pleased with what she sees. Blood work indicates all systems are working correctly and well, AND the indicators show that there is NO cancer growing a this point !! Will see her again in a month after another PT Scan.
There is no change between the last two chest x-rays, indicating that there is NOT any fluid building up around the lungs !!
The Dr. caring for the foot/leg infection is also VERY pleased with the progress. She has totally released me - no further visits necessary.

How's that for Good News !!
God is sooo good. Your prayers are working and are so appreciated !
(please continue praying for my back pain - discs I think - and my spirits as I continue to recover from the 7 months of chemo)

All I can say is "YAY GOD"!! 

Well, it's been a long, drawn out kind of day. I'm feeling the need to unplug and maybe have a big bowl of popcorn and watch a movie. 

Goodnight friends! 

Summer Happenings

Well, once again, it's been a while since I've blogged. I'm here attempting to catch you up a bit on the goings-on in The Little Turquoise House. I actually had to go back to my last post to see what I wrote! 

Hubby's business has been doing fairly well with the new machine. We are just praying that it continues and is steady. 

All our kids were here for the 4th weekend. Daughter #1 and Hubby arrived from Chicago late Thursday night, 

Daughter #2 came in from her internship in Detroit Friday morning 

and Son and Fiance pulled in Saturday morning. Yes, you read that right...fiance! They are now officially engaged! I'm trying to give it all to the Lord. Her family is not very involved in her life and probably won't do much, if anything for the wedding, so since they are planning to get married here in town, I will be acting as both mother of the groom and mother of the bride. It is set for October 18th so we have a lot to do in a short amount of time. 

Our church gave a baby shower for a couple of sisters who are expecting their babies a week a part. My kids grew up with them so I felt strongly that I should go. I made a couple of cards: 

Did I tell you the scrapbook store is closing? I'm so sad about that. I can't remember if I shared with you all about the bookmarks I made. I'm planning to teach a class on how to make them before the store closes. If it actually happens, it will be a "last hurrah" for the store...probably the last class ever.

Hubby has been doing trail work, cutting wood for winter and gardening. He drove the tractor in the Pasty Parade a couple of weeks ago to advertise the trails and the Deer Chase. 

The garden is getting a slow start due to our cool weather and isn't doing very well, then to add insult to injury, a deer came through last night and ate some of our kale and beet greens! GRRRR!! 

One pleasant surprise: our roses bloomed! These are special because my mother-in-law moved this bush whenever they moved and then she gave us a start when we moved into The Little Turquoise House. Hubby says he only remembers it blooming twice in his lifetime. This makes three! It's called a Black Prince...why, I don't know. It is beautiful though and we are enjoying the lovely blooms and the scent is amazing! I've been having fun taking photos of it. I sure hope it blooms again next year. 

I had so many things I wanted to get accomplished by the 4th this year, I have completed about half of them. I did get my studio completely reorganized and I'm so thrilled about that! 

This week I have had to put the house back in order after everyone left...it's amazing what a disaster is left behind after 6 dogs and 7 people share a small space and only one bathroom!! 

Organ Recital plans are beginning to come together. I had a meeting with the other organists this week and they all "met" the new organ for the first time. It was neat to watch them enjoy the different sounds and have so much fun, especially considering they all play on pipe organs regularly and our is "only electronic". 

My mind jumps from recital plans to wedding plans and back again. 

Suki got a haircut right before her "cousins" arrived. She doesn't like sharing her home with so many...I really should have taken pictures while they were here. 

Because of something someone dear said to me this week, I leave you with this final thought as it is the highlight of my week: 

I will try to catch up with all of you in between students tomorrow. God bless you all.