Remembering Daddy

Father's Day is a little bittersweet now. It's been 10 years since he left us. Way too soon. He had just turned 70. I am the oldest of 3 siblings. Mom and Dad were young when they had me... 20 and 23. My Dad had been in the Navy in the Korean War. Then stayed in the Reserve for around 20 years. I will never forget how handsome he was in his "dress whites". It would make you swoon. One time the highlight of his tour was when he met Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis in an officer's lounge. He was a great Dad, always ready for something fun and we had a lot of it.

Here we are together on my wedding day December 28, 1972. I was 19 and he was putting a penny in my shoe for good luck. This photo has been setting on my bookcase for many years. It makes me feel young again.






Here we are in a family photo in 1995. Mom and Dad, my brother who passed away 5 years ago, and my sister who is a great sister and friend. She lives here in town and really helps out my mom. They live a block apart.

This photo is of myself, my husband, our daughter Erin, and her then fiance Keith, and our younger daughter, Alyson. Remember, this is 1995. That explains the "do".

My husband and I being chauffeured to Rolla, MO. for our annual Easter Lunch, by our younger daughter Alyson, and her husband, Chris. He isn't in any of these photos so I'll have to post their picture later, maybe on their Birthdays or their Anniversary. Anyway, Chris is a great son-in-law, so I don't want to leave him out. He helps us so much take care of things from moving furniture for my booth space, to landscape work, to pool opening. He and Keith are for sure our boys. I can truly say that my husband is my best friend. Six years ago I had 3 major heart attacks and then open heart surgery. This was the same thing that took my Dad and brother. It made us rethink and make our relationships a priority. It changed us for the better, but I can't say I'd want to do it all again.

This was taken last Christmas at our house. Erin is no longer a blond, she went dark red. These girls are the best! Erin and her husband live in St. Louis, and Aly and Chris live here in town. They are Daddy's girls for sure. Next month we are heading to St. Louis. E&K bought a house last October that is incredible, can't wait to show you pictures. It was built in 1903 or so and was right across from the St. Louis World's Fair.

Thanks for letting me share some of these family photos. I'm one of those crazy people that really likes to see other peoples family photos.

David's dad and mom are still living. They are in their mid-eighties and his dad suffers from advanced Alzheimers. It's hard, he doesn't recognize us.

I just want to mention a book, for anyone out there that didn't have a lasting or good relationship with their father. It's called "Knowing God as Father" by James Robison. I highly recommend it. Sometimes it's hard to know our Heavenly Father, if we didn't have a model of fatherly parenthood.

Have a wonderful Father's Day weekend!

Be Blessed, Debra

Hello Kitty(s)

I'd like you to meet my little fur girls.

I've been reading blogs long enough to know that I'm not alone out there when it comes to our pets. They are more "family" than "animals".(Don't tell them I said that, they think they are my kids). You love them to pieces, then your heart can get broken when they go. Been there done that, many times.


I've had a cat, or 2, or 4, since I was about 3 or 4years old. I grew up in an old farmhouse just outside of town, so we had room for the everchanging menagerie of critters...mostly of the outdoors variety.
My Daddy was a softie, and would feed anything that wandered by...cats, dogs, wild chickens, and because of that, opposums, racoons, and the occasional skunk family would take up residence under our big front porch.

(Hi Handsome, how about a date?)

(please no negative comments about this mountain lion hide, it is very old and my husband found it at an antique mall.)

(assuming the position for dinner)

(don't look at the fur all over the curtain lining)

The old house has been torn down for a new insurance company complex, and my sweet Daddy is in Heaven, but I still love kitties. These cuties are twins, the only two of a litter: Miss Jenkins, who has short hair, and Miss Wrigley, who is Maine Coon. They are 4 years old. They answer to many names, such as Tubbers, Biggley, Poodles, Sweetie, Hair Ball...you know, the list goes on and on.
I'm sure you'll be seeing more random shots of them. They're my little buds.

Blessings,

Debra

p.s. Because I am new to this and don't know what the hecky darn I'm doing, my last post on the "Second Helpings" of my sunroom was timed wrong on the timer so I messed it up. Please take a look because I was up till 2:00am working on it.

Have a great day, y'all, I need another cup of coffee.

A Second Helping

Here are a few more photos of my sunroom. Hope you enjoy.

A closer view of my tabletop conservatory containing vintage wire egg baskets

and wire topiary forms.

...inspired by "Carolyn Westbrook Home"

When a friend shared this book with me I immediately fell in love.

I poured over every page.

Baker's rack with my English Cottage collection and vintage framed Audubon prints.

Old French grain sack with initials casing two old ticking feather pillows.

Wicker chair with antique "Double Wedding Ring" quilt hand pieced and stitched by my husband's grandmother in the 1930's, a primitive patriotic pillow, with an antique birdcage from my mother's gazebo.

Vintage gardening books, tools and small statuary in a strawberry flat, with my favorite Restoration Hardware zinc watering can which was a gift from my daughter, Erin.

Green goat cart filled with an ice cream tub and white geraniums.

Antique door and lantern with vintage mirror and twig wreath with lillies.

Thanks for joining me,

Debra

Coffee's ready!

My Favorite Spot

I know we all have our favorite hang-outs around our house. I have a few, but the one that is currently presentable is my sunroom off the kitchen. It is where the cats and I usually have our first cup of coffee, weather permitting. (They don't drink coffee, they just find a sunny spot and flop) It's sort of a three-season room, because in the winter it gets pretty fridged. This is the place some of my garden-junk-chippy-vintage stuff gets to daily delight me.

When a new season or holiday is around the corner this is the place that feels it first. I love coming into the kitchen first thing in the morning, tripping over two hungry, gray, furry babies and seeing my sunroom.

We have a great house, built in the 80's. You know how that is...not too old, but needing alot of new updates. We've lived here 6 years and I love it, but there is a list a mile long of things that could be done. Oh well, it's home, and I do love to decorate.

God Whispers

Have you ever had a thought or a phrase that seems to come "out of the blue"? One that rolls around in your mind, and that just keeps coming back up? Maybe you think of a friend, or aquaintance and then unexpectedly run in to them. Or find that a short delay, which annoying at the time, saves you from a problem? Some people would say, yeah, that's ESP or psychic. I prefer to think of these little mysteries as "God Whispers".
That's where the phrase "Common Ground" fits in my life. Many years ago I was asked to teach a ladies Bible Study at our church. I had never done this before, and I was afraid that what I had to say and teach would not be interesting or relevant to the women there, but in my heart I knew that if I was just "myself" and talked about the things I was dealing with in life and how God helped me, that we would all find something to have in common; to grab ahold of and to incorporate it into our own life...each person would find some "common ground". So when several years ago I began in this crazy existence of antiquing, junkin', collecting, buying, selling, designing, eating, breathing, sleeping old chippy "stuff", that is the name that was "whispered" to me. Common Ground.
So as I begin this new endeavor, big or small, I hope that each one of you finds something to take with you. A picture, a thought, an idea... a blessing.
May you always be quiet enough to hear God's whispers.
Debra
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