Lady Diana Exhibit - Atlanta Civic Center

One of the highlights of our trip to Atlanta this past weekend was a visit to see the Lady Diana exhibit at the Atlanta Civic Center. It was an amazing exhibit!!! If you live nearby and can get to see it before it leaves Atlanta in June, by all means, please go see the exhibit. You will LOVE it! These banners were hanging downtown advertising the exhibit.
We couldn't resist getting our pictures taken beside the huge mural of Diana. Here are my girls (Adelaide on the left with the pink purse and Lauren on the right) posing with Diana.
I love this picture of Diana! Isn't she beautiful? And how about these beautiful women with her? My girls are certainly "Princesses" in my book!!!
This was a neat saying that Lady Di's brother wrote about her. It was on the wall as we walked into the exhibit. A very true statement, indeed!
Diana's crown was breathtaking!!!! Isn't it every little girl's dream to be a princess and wear a crown?

I took this picture myself, even though we were told not to take pictures inside. I couldn't resist. My girls just about had a fit, because as I was taking the picture, a security person walked into the room. I didn't see the person, but they didn't say anything. I guess I am a rebel in my "old age". I wanted a picture and I took it! After the girls fussed at me, I didn't try to take a picture of the wedding dress, but I later found some pictures online to upload and show you all.

These were 2 of the many outfits that were on exhibit that had been worn by Diana. I loved seeing all of her outfits and most of them had pictures of her wearing them, as well.
This blue cocktail dress was on exhibit, but this is a picture of her wearing the dress to the ballet.
This was a necklace that had been worn by Diana. The jewels hanging on the necklace could be taken off and worn as earrings. There were lots of other jewels that were on display too and they were all very beautiful.
I absolutely loved Diana's wedding shoes. These pictures don't do them justice. All the handwork and beading on them was so beautiful!!! I could just imagine her dancing the night away in these gorgeous shoes. Even the bottoms of the shoes were pretty!
Her wedding dress was amazing! And the train is 25 feet long!!! I so remember the day she got married and how I got up in the middle of the night to watch the wedding. I will always remember that day and how radiant Diana looked. She was loved by so many and was such a spectacular bride marrying her Prince! There was also one of the little flower girl's dresses too. On the screen behind the dress, they showed footage of the wedding and their carriage ride after the wedding.
I didn't get any pictures, but there was another room about her funeral. They also showed footage of the funeral and processional and it was so sad. In the background Elton John was singing the song, "Goodbye England's Rose...." It was all I could do to keep from crying. It was very emotional for me!

There was also lots of things from Lady Di's childhood, personal letters that she had written, one of her report cards, toys from her childhood, pictures, etc.

Another room had things about Lady Diana's charities that she gave her time and money to. As her brother said, she was a very compassionate person and she reached out to those who were in need and who were hurting. She held Aids children, touched lepers and had such a heart for those less fortunate.

It was a very personal exhibit and one that my girls and I truly enjoyed! I thank the family for being so generous and allowing these items to be shared with the public. What a wonderful way to share her memories with the world! It is evident that Lady Diana is stilled loved by so many. The exhibit was certainly a CELEBRATION of her life!

We Have a Winner!!!

As promised last week, I am giving away a copy of the new magazine, Flea Market Style! My sweet husband helped me pick the winner tonight. I put all the names on pieces of paper and he picked one out for me. Drum roll please......
He picked Nancy at Bacardi Mama!!!!!! Congratulations Nancy! I hope you will enjoy your new magazine. Nancy, please send me your address so I can get your magazine in the mail.
Thanks to all of you who entered!!

So Long Insecurity - Atlanta Weekend!

I can't begin to tell you how much fun my girls and I had attending the Beth Moore Conference in Atlanta this past weekend. It was AWESOME!!! 9,300 Sisters in Christ at this "ginormous" church. I have never been to a church that big. It was like a city in itself. It was HUGE!!! It was the First Baptist Church at Woodstock, Georgia. This picture doesn't even begin to show how big it is.
Here I am with my precious daughters! Lauren in blue and Adelaide in pink. We had the best Mother/daughter weekend ever!!! I have lots more pictures and I will break our trip up and post about the other parts of our trip this week. We packed so much into the weekend.
This is a view of some of the screens in our overflow seating area. We had great seats and could see Beth really well on the screens in front of us. I think we were actually in the best place, because our room (although large) seemed more intimate. Plus, Beth came to our room for 30 minutes during lunch and visited and answered questions. How cool is that?
This is what our room looked like. You can see Lauren (blue top) and Adelaide (white sweater) on the second row from the bottom. We were so excited, because lots of our blog friends sat around us. It was one big blogger friend party. Getting to meet blog friends and have pictures taken together. The girls saw lots of their blog friends, but I only meet one of mine. Kelly, from Kelly's Korner. (picture to follow)
This is just a portion of the main sanctuary where Beth was actually speaking. The room was so huge, I couldn't even get it all in.
Here is Beth with her beautiful daughter, Melissa (who lives in Atlanta). They came over to our room during lunch and answered questions up on the stage. We were able to go down and take pictures. Beth was so sweet and spent a lot of time answering questions and interacting with the ladies in the audience. She had on the cutest top and pair of jeans. She isn't any bigger than a minute! And I have never seen so much energy in any one person.

Beth is definitely on fire for the Lord and I am so pleased to report that the simulcast reached 300,000 women nationwide. Isn't that awesome! God is certainly doing great things through Beth and her Living Proof Ministry.
Isn't Beth just the cutest thing you have ever seen? I would say that she looks pretty secure in herself. Don't you? What better person to write this book! She had a wonderful message and she let us all know how important we are in God's eyes and how much he loves us!!!
Beth getting her point across. As many of you know, Beth does not stay still for long. She is up and moving all the time. If you have not read her book, So Long Insecurity, I would highly recommend it. I'm sure you will agree that we all have insecure moments in our lives. Through her book, Beth tells us how to be more secure women of God in our everyday lives.

One of the big highlights of our weekend was getting to meet Kelly of Kelly's Korner. We have all been blog friends with Kelly for a long time and have followed her infertility problems, her pregnancy and the birth of her precious daughter, Harper. I think all of blogdom knows who Kelly is and have prayed for Harper. Kelly was such a celebrity and so many people wanted to meet her. We got to sit near Kelly and a huge following of other bloggers. My girls got to meet so many of their blog friends.

Kelly was as precious, sweet and beautiful in person as she is on her blog. She was so gracious and made everyone feel so special. God blessed Harper with such an incredible Mom! It was a joy for us to get to meet Kelly in person. It meant so much to us to meet Kelly after having prayed for Harper. Our meeting Kelly was the icing on the cake to an incredible weekend of "girl time"...... talking non-stop, lots of eating, shopping, the Princess Diana exhibit, the Beth Moore conference and meeting blog friends. God blessed us with a wonderful weekend and one that we will remember forever!

More pictures to follow this week. Hope all of you had a great weekend!

Love & blessings,
Melinda

Atlanta Here We Come!!!

Adelaide, Lauren and I are leaving on Friday morning to go to Atlanta to attend Beth Moore's conference where she will be speaking on her new book, SO LONG INSECURITY! The conference will be all day on Saturday and there are 9,000+ women who will be attending.

On Friday, we are eating lunch at the famous Varsity Drive-in and then going to the Princess Diana exhibit. I can't wait to see her wedding dress. I remember getting up in the middle of the night to watch her wedding many years ago. I am so excited to see this exhibit.

Kelly (Harper's Mom) of Kelly's Korner is going to be there too and we are hoping to get to meet her at the conference. My girls and I have been blog friends with Kelly since before her baby was born. Hopefully we will get to meet up with each other.

I am so looking forward to spending the weekend with my sweet girls and hearing what the Holy Spirit has to say to us through Beth. She is an incredible speaker and I am so looking forward to hearing her message, listening to the praise and worship music of Travis Cottrell and his team and just being with all those precious Christian sisters in Christ. It will be a wonderful weekend!

Fabric Heaven!!

I am having the best time this week on my week off! Today I went with 2 of my girlfriends to fabric heaven!!! I'm not kidding. Have you ever seen so much fabric in one place? And this building is really big. These are just sections of the building.

Oh, and guess what? I haven't even told you the best part yet! All this upholstery fabric is $3.00 a yard. I still can't believe that. You heard it right....$3.00 a yard!!!!
Isn't that incredible? And the fabric is not seconds. It if perfect.

They have sheer fabric for window treatments and it is $2.00 a yard!

Believe me, we were all on overload when we walked through the door. My head was spinning from the excitement. And guess what? I didn't even buy anything. I was too overwhelmed.
I do have some furniture that needs to be re-upholstered, so I will go back another day and see if I can find some fabric that would be suitable for my needs. I have some names of men to do the upholstery work, so I will give them a call and make some price comparisons. With fabric this cheap, it makes me want to re-do all my furniture. And believe me, a lot of my things are needing some attention.
We all decided that if you could not find a fabric to suit your needs here, then it could not be found. There was every color and type of fabric you could imagine. Linens, velvets, stripes, plaids, polka dot, tweed, outdoor fabric, etc. etc. And they had a pretty good selection of trims too.

If any of you are in for a road trip to North Carolina, let me know and I can give you more information about this great fabric warehouse. It is incredible!!!

Another Giveaway!!!

Nancy, over at Bacardi Mama, is hosting a spring giveaway and if you win, you will have the most organized DVD's in blogland. You get your choice of one of these 3 items. I personally love the linen/jute box.
Be sure and check out Nancy's blog and enter her great giveaway. I really enjoy reading her blog!!!

Who knows, you just might win. After all, I have won some amazing things since I started blogging last year! A winner will be picked on April 26th. Good luck to all!!!
Thanks Nancy for an awesome giveaway!

My Lucky Month!

I can't believe it, but I won another giveaway!!! Layla at The Lettered Cottage was having an awesome giveaway. If you are not a follower of Layla, please check out her blog. She and her husband, Kevin are so talented and I just love her decorating style. They are fixing up an old house and their ideas are wonderful and so inspiring! Plus, they are such a cute couple.

Anyway, Layla was giving away a $100 gift certificate to purchase a beautiful custom art canvas from Stephanie at Geezees Canvas Art. I get to pick out my picture/pictures and a verse/saying to be printed on a canvas. The picture above shows one of a little girl. The ones that she does for weddings are so pretty. You can also do one in memory of someone. The sky is the limit!

I told Stephanie that would be my problem... trying to decide on my picture and what verse or saying I would want on it. She said to take my time and I could have it done at any time.

Be sure and go to Stephanie's website and look at her beautiful work. You might want to order one for a wedding, graduation, Mother's Day, Father's Day, new baby or birthday gift. They are very unique!!!

Thanks Stephanie and Layla for making my day!! I feel so blessed.

Look what I won!

Don't you just love winning giveaways and receiving the packages in the mail? I know I sure do!!! I recently won a giveaway and received this beautiful package from Crystal at Olive Rue. I was so excited!

On Crystal's blog, Vintage Remixed, she has directions for using her beautiful French inspired iron on transfers. She puts them on tea towels and tote bags. And she also has really pretty gift tags and photographs. I got this adorable tote bag with the angels on it, the tea towel with joy on it and 2 packs of gift tags (one has the Eiffel tower and the other has beautiful birds).

Crystal also included 2 prints of peonies and a lovely print of daffodils. I can't wait to find some pretty frames to put them in .

Be sure and check out Crystal's Etsy shop and see all the beautiful items that she has to offer. Thanks Crystal, for my wonderful gifts. I love them all!!!

Giveaway!!

Hey ladies, I was able to get an extra copy of this wonderful magazine and I thought I would share it with one of you. The magazine is called Flea Market Style and it is full of wonderful articles, pictures and inspiration.

Two of my sweet blogger friends, Rhoda from Southern Hospitality
and Layla from The Lettered Cottage are featured in one of the articles. They are both very talented ladies and if you don't follow them already, go over to their blogs and check them out.

Leave me a comment and let me know if you enjoy thrifting, yard sales, flea markets, etc. I will pick a winner next Monday, April 26th. Good luck!!!

I am on vacation this week and will be traveling to see my sister in the mountains and then on to Atlanta with my girls to hear Beth Moore on Saturday. Since I will be gone, I won't be able to pick a winner until Monday, April 26th. Plus, it will give more people a chance to win. If you don't have a blog, leave your email address in your comment, so I will know how to get in touch with you if you win.

Have a great week!!!!

Love & blessings,
Melinda

Baby Birds!

God's hand in the details of the birth of baby birds is so amazing to me! How all the details are so orchestrated and the eggs are laid, the Mother sits on the eggs, the eggs hatch and the baby birds begin their life on this earth. Isn't that such a miracle?

At the home where I work, a Mother bird built a nest in an arrangement that was placed on the wall beside the front door for Christmas. We watched her painstakingly build her nest for weeks. A lot of the nest is built out of hair. The Mother bird then laid 5 beautiful blue eggs and sat on them for about 2 weeks before they hatched. I have not wanted to disturb the babies, but I can't tell for sure if all 5 eggs hatched or not. Aren't they just so precious?

How these little birds could have grown and developed in 2 weeks and turned into these sweet little fuzzy birds is so amazing to me! How could anyone not believe in God after witnessing this miracle of birth? Maybe it is just me, but these simple everyday events in life are so incredible and bring such joy to my life. I guess it doesn't take too much to make me happy!
Here are the adorable little eggs that the Mother laid and so lovingly sat on until they hatched. And during this time, it got really cold outside at night. I just love the picture of those sweet little eggs!
This is a picture of the container with the arrangement that the bird built her nest in. The nest is in the upper right corner of the arrangement, but it is tucked down inside the leaves and you can't see it from this angle.
If you will look closely, you can see the Mother bird on the top right corner of the lamp and she is watching me real closely. I am sitting in a rocking chair on the porch waiting to get a picture of her. I'm not sure what kind of bird she is, but she has red coloring on her body. You can see that more clearly in the other pictures.
Here the Mother bird has moved onto the gutter and is really checking me out to make sure I would not harm her babies. She never did attack me, but she was real cautious as to what I was doing on the porch.
This is a better close up shot of the Mother bird and you can see her pretty red color. I wondered if she was some type of wren, but I'm not sure.
I had one more picture of the baby birds, but after uploading it, the nest looked really gross from bird droppings on it, and I decided not to post it. I didn't want to gross you all out.
The family that I work for is going to Disney World this week, so I will be off myself and will miss watching the birds leave the nest. I am not sure, but I bet they will have flown out of the nest by the time I get back to work in a week. It has sure been fun watching them so far. I have never been able to watch birds that closely before and it was so neat.

I hope you all have been able to enjoy the spring time beauty around your part of the world. I have taken a lot of really pretty outside pictures of the flowers and trees blooming here in North Carolina and I will post those for you to see another day.
Have a wonderful weekend!

PSALM 150:6 LET EVERYTHING THAT LIVES SING PRAISES TO THE LORD!!!

Love & blessings,
Melinda

Sorry!!!

I had 3 people who left me comments today and somehow I deleted them by mistake. I am so sorry to whoever it was that left the comments.
I LOVE comments, so this was not intentional. Somehow I just hit the wrong button.
If you left a comment and I don't respond back, you will know why. I'm sorry!

Two Great Giveaways & Congrats to Phil Mickelson!!!

If you can be at your computer tomorrow to take advantage of this amazing giveaway, by all means, check it out. Tip Junkie, along with several other blogs is hosting a HUGE giveaway. At last count I think there was over $10,000 worth of prizes. WOW!!!!!
You have to register every hour during the day to win the prizes for that hour. There will be 4 prizes given away each hour. Doesn't that sound awesome?
I won't go into a lot of detail here, but head on over and check it out. Who knows, you just might win.

I posted about a giveaway recently and my sweet blog friend Kathy won. Isn't that great? She was so excited.


Linda, over at Coastal Charm is celebrating her 100th post by giving away this beautiful flower vase. Head on over and check out her blog as well. I enjoy reading her blog!!!

Hope every one's week has gotten off to a great start. For those of you who watch golf, weren't you just so excited to see Phil Mickelson win the Master's on Sunday? I was thrilled!!!!! My husband got so emotional seeing Phil win that he teared up and had to leave the room. For those of you who don't know anything about Phil, his wife and Mother have had breast cancer this past year. Plus, Phil has not played much golf this past year either. It was just so touching to see him hug his wife, his 3 beautiful daughters and also his caddie. I was crying too! Phil's caddie has been with him for 18 years, so he is just like family. Phil won over a million dollars, and I am so thrilled for him. But having had cancer myself, a million dollars is nothing compared to one's life. I hope this joy is just the beginning of wonderful things to come for Phil and his family.

A Random Act of Kindess & CatchingUp!

Today after I got home from church, my cellphone rang and it was my sweet blog friend, Valerie from Oklahoma. Valerie was just calling to say hello and catch up on how things were going in my life. Don' t you just love those "Random Acts of Kindness" from friends, when they call for no reason just to say hello and let you know that you were on their mind?

For those of you who have been following my blog, you know that I went in October 2009 to meet Valerie in Virginia. She had flown there for a long weekend with her sister Pam to visit her niece, Kelli who goes to college in Virginia. Valerie and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get to meet each other. I drove 2 hours to meet Valerie, Pam and Kelli and we had such a wonderful time. It was a weird feeling meeting someone for the first time that I knew so much about, but had never met before. We immediately hit it off and never stopped talking! We had the best day being together!!!
Here is a picture of Valerie, her niece Kelli and Valerie's precious sister Pam!! I took presents for everyone and it was just like Christmas.
Here is a view of a shopping area we went to while we were there. This city has 2 J Crew clearance stores, so we had fun looking for good buys at both stores. You all know me and my thrifty shopping!

We ate at the cutest place for lunch called the Farmbasket. Since it was the fall, the garden area looked so pretty. There is also a nice gift shop inside, but I did not include pictures from there.

Isn't this the cutest little garden area outside the restaurant/gift shop?
Valerie sent me this same picture from her camera along with a beautiful frame and I have it on my computer desk to remind me of the great day we shared together.
Valerie and I had to laugh... She said that her friends/family were cautious about her meeting me (a complete stranger) and getting in the car with me to go shopping, out to lunch, etc. Like I was going to kidnap her or something. We got a real kick out of that!!! They don't know us ladies in the blog world and how much we love our blog friends and feel like they are our true friends, even though most of us have never met each other.
It was just icing on the cake for me to get to meet Valerie and spend the day with her and to meet her sister and niece.

Valerie and I want to meet up again with each other sometime. We have a mutual blog friend, Joyce, that we would love to get together with in New York City someday. Wouldn't that be fun? None of us would get a word in edgewise, would we?
Oh, the joys of the blog world!!! I so enjoy meeting new friends and getting to know all of you better as we journey through each other's blogs. You ladies are a special part of my life!
For those of you who are new to my blog, you may be wondering why I am so slow in posting these pictures. Well, you see, I lost my camera cord that I use to upload my pictures. I searched until just recently and never could find it, so I ordered a new cord. I still wanted to post about my fun day with Valerie, so after she called today, I decided that there was no better time than the present. Besides, I didn't want to clean house today after all. In fact, right now I am putting on my walking shoes and heading over to the park to take advantage of this gorgeous spring day.

Thanks Valerie for your call today! I enjoyed so much talking to you in person and catching up on the things in your life. Oh, guess what? Valerie is going to be a Grandmother for the first time in October. I told her that last October we were meeting for the first time and this October she was going to welcome her grandchild into the world. How exciting!!! Her Grandma name will be Lolly. That is so cute!

Valerie, your call was such a bright spot in my day!! To those of you reading this, why don't you pick up your phone and call someone that you love and see how they are doing. I'm sure it will brighten their day too!!!!

Love & blessings to all,
Melinda