Lovely Day in the Gardens = Lotsa Photos!

We have a membership to the Gardens in the heart of the city. It was such a georgous day, Marvy suggested we take advantage of it there. I used to think the only time to go there was during tulip season in early spring, but you know everytime I go I love it. Today was a perfect day. We were able to take some great photos, I just had to share.

Apology #1 - There are a bunch of belly pics... (it's kind of getting inevitable at this point) I'm sorry if this is sensitive to you. I'll understand if you wish to skip.

Apology #2 - There's a freaking ton of photos here. I'm too tired to censor myself, and too exhausted to remember how to get them to a photoshow. Sorry!

Apology #3 - Dang...these uploaded in totally a different order than I intended. It mostly should have been bottom up. Again, too tired to fix it. And by the way does anybody know how to move photos now in blo.gger? I used to click on them and drag them around, and it would automatically scroll but now it doesn't. If the photos were smaller I could have leap frogged them around...but the photo is the same size as the posting window and they aren't budging! So aggravating.

Oh, well. Enjoy the photos!



I know what you're thinking...these butterflies are so realistic looking! What kind of species of butterfly includes threaded rebar and ball bearings!

This was the entrance to the Bamboo Garden, it's pretty magical looking huh?

You know we should all have days where we feel beautiful, but we are human, we are women, and it just doesn't always happen that way. But today...I felt very beautiful.

This time next year, I'll try to take the photo again in the same spot...but with an eight month old!

Did I already mention it was a fantastical, magical, beautiful kind of day? This butterfly just says that all, doesn't it?

Show and Tell: Grandma's China Hutch

Welcome to Show & Tell. Don't forget to check out the rest of the class!

When Grandma passed away my family gave me permission to take back with me her china hutch and buffet table. Seeing as how as I am a modern woman, utilizing this cabinet for china is not really so practical. And knowing my grandmother as a very practical woman, I figured it would still be appropriate to utilize it to hold her some of her photos and momentos.

The small wooden box on top of the hutch holds her silverware. It is engraved with the monogram letter of my maiden name. I remember when I lived with grandma for a couple months in 1998 she told me that she wanted me to have the silverware, but then remembered that my last name will change one day, so perhaps she should give it to my brother instead.

What??? I was not too pleased with that! So, needless to say I was armed with even more reason to drop my middle name and replace it with my maiden name when I married. Ha! Brother can't take it now huh? :o)

Here is the repurposed cabinet now.

The boxes on the top row contain regular 35 mm film photos from 1980's - 1990's. The black and white boxes contain momentos of letters, post cards, a hymnal, doilies, most of which are from the early 1900's.

The metal boxes on the lower left row are 35 mm slides.

This is not a complete representation of my inherited photo collection, as I have boxes full in one of the spare bedroom closets. The project of scanning is a big one but, when you run into some of the lovely treasures as I have it makes it all worth it. Here is an example of one of the 35 mm slides, scanned and with very minor touch ups. Guess who!