Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Hello Blogger Friends! Today is my sweetheart's birthday! I wanted to do a blog post today in honor of him because I want the world to know what an amazing man he is. His name is James R. Neal, III and he lives in a small town about an hour away from me. He is the editor of the newspaper in his town and he is also a reserve Sheriff's Deputy. He delivers meals on wheels every Wednesday and he sits on many volunteer coalitions in his community. He is a very kind and generous man. I met James through my work in his community. I started a substance abuse prevention community coalition and James was part of that group. We were doing a special event for the coalition together during a car show in the fall of 2009 and after talking a bit we realized that we were both single and had been recently divorced. After the event James, very nervously, asked me if he could meet me for coffee some time and I said "yes" but then it was hard for us to find a time to do it because our schedules were so packed. After about two weeks we finally met for the first time and I was so nervous, but he was very easy to talk to. We agreed to meet again for dinner some time soon and we have been inseparable ever since! He has two little girls from his first wife and he loves them to pieces. We had them this weekend and we had lots of fun together. We took them out for pizza and roller skating on Saturday and we had a fun time! James is a very good father to his kids. He takes very good care of them and he is very loving, kind, and affectionate with them. He always makes sure they have everything they need to be taken care of. He reads them a story every night when they are with him before they go to bed. He is a sweet daddy to them and I am excited about the prospect of having my own children with him. I know he will be such a good father for our children.

James was in the United States Navy and he is a graduate of the Naval Academy. He is a very responsible, intelligent, motivated man. He is one of the few men I know with great character and integrity. When he tells you he will do something you know it will be done. He is very honest and trustworthy. His integrity is very important to him. He always tries to do his very best in everything he does.

James is a really fun guy too. I have never laughed and had so much fun as I do when I am with him. Since we have been together we have done so many fun things together - and a lot of those things have been the first time we had ever done them. We had decided that after our divorces that we were not going to sit on the sidelines of life anymore, we were going to go out and live . . . and live big! So we try to do as many fun things as our time and money will allow us to do and we love to do them together. We try to celebrate every season and holiday and every day in between because we know life is short and there is so much to experience. We want to experience it all, and it is so wonderful to have someone you love so much by your side to share that with! James is an avid sailor and he took me out on his sailboat for the first time last year. It was a wonderful day and we are excited to go out again this season!

I can't say enough about what a sweet, loving man James is to me. He and I are not married yet. We agreed to take it slow and really enjoy the dating experience first, but I know that if he asked me to marry him I would not have any reservations about saying "yes". He is such a loving, kind, respectful, helpful, trustworthy man and I would be honored to have him as my life partner. He is always doing sweet, thoughtful things for me. He is so patient with me. He is very supportive of my work and of my hobbies. He is always doing things to help me take care of my home and my huge yard. He is a really wonderful man and I love him with all of my heart.

Happy Birthday James! I hope this year is filled with abundant blessings and many new, exciting experiences for you. I look forward to sharing them all with you. I love you sweetheart!

Blessings to you!

Love Tammy

Happy Pink Saturday!

Happy Pink Saturday my sweet friends! Thank you so much for checking out my blog. I feel so honored that you are here!

Well, spring has sprung and we made it through the winter here in Oklahoma. This is a picture of a beautiful Bradford Pear tree I have been blessed to have in my front yard. Isn't it just gorgeous? I have one in my back yard too!

Now this little beauty is just a miracle! I planted her three years ago in a garden in my front yard and she was getting too much sun and died. I pulled the dry stick from the ground, since it was an eyesore, and was about to throw it in the trash when something spoke to me and said "give her another chance" so I dug a tiny hole and stuck the dead stick into the moist cool soil on the north side of my house. The next year at spring I was doing some weeding in that area of the yard and noticed that dead stick leafing out. I couldn't believe it. It was just like Lazarus. It was alive. What a miracle. Now she is even showing off by blooming. I love this beautiful bleeding heart and her story of second chances.

Ok, now I want to show you some of my pretty craft projects I have been up to. My minister got very sick and ended up in the hospital last weekend so after church we went to visit her. We stopped by the gift shop in the hospital to poke around and I found this sweet sign that says "Learn to Love By Loving" and I had to have it. I took it home and tied assorted pieces of ribbon and fabric on to the hanger to dress it up. I think it is so sweet.

These next pictures are the last of the ornaments I made for my spring birdie tree that is in my kitchen area. I can't wait for you to see how it turned out.

I found these little watering cans at a craft store in the "miniatures" department. They were plain metal things when I bought them.

I painted them a lovely spa blue, added an egg to the side and some ribbon and flowers on top. Aren't they so sweet?

Here are some darling wooden bird house ornaments I redid. I wish I would have taken a picture of what they looked like before their makeover. They were UGLY. They were all different shades of primary colors. Not a pretty site I tell you. I coated them with ivory paint, distressed them a bit, then added some buttons, ribbon, and flowers to dress them up.

I think these ornaments are my favorite ones I have made for this tree. They were just plain, ugly mini straw hats from a craft store and I painted them blue, green, and ivory, then added sweet embellishments to dress them up. Any spring fairy would be proud to wear one of these, don't you think?

Here is a close up of one of those darling hats. I love the blue hats the best. The next several pictures are another series of beautiful ornaments I made from scrapbook paper, chipboard, and embellishments. They were so much fun to create.

I think this green and ivory one is my personal favorite of the group. Which is your favorite?

And this, my friends, is the finished tree in my kitchen. It is a branch cut from a tree in James' yard that we spray painted white. Then I got busy making all of these beautiful decorations you see here.

I purchased some white paper roses and white glittery butterflies and added them with some colored tulle bows for more decoration. I think it turned out so sweet.

You can also see a pre-formed nest that I wedged between two branches for another sweet effect. It is some birdie's "home tweet home" and I have the honor of enjoying it in mine now!

I hope you have enjoyed my sweet spring birdie ornaments and tree. I have one more project to make for spring, a birdie pillow for a chair in my living room, and then it is on to Easter projects.

I want to thank Beverly at http://www.howsweetthesound.typepad.com/ for hosting another fabulous Pink Saturday party for us. Please visit her blog and check out the other pink lovin' bloggers sites.

Happy Spring and Happy Pink Saturday!

Love Tammy

Happy Pink Saturday!

Happy Pink Saturday my pink lovin' friends!

I want to thank Beverly at www.howsweetthesound.typepad.com for hosting another fun Pink Saturday and I want to apologize because my link to her site did not work last week. So sorry!
I also want to thank all of you sweet ladies that stopped by my blog and left me a comment. I was OVERWHELMED with the amount of sweet comments you left last week and I feel SO MUCH BETTER now cause I know you still like my blog. Thank you for your encouragement. You are all so wonderful and I am going to try really hard to personally answer and visit each one of your blogs to say thank you.

I hope you like birdies cause I have a bunch of sweet one's to show you today. I have been crafting away and I can't wait to show you what I have made.

The first pictures are a set of ornaments I have crafted from chipboard, scrapbook paper, and embellishments. I did some for Valentine's Day and now I can't stop. I am hanging these on a branch James cut from one of his trees and spray painted white for me. It is my spring birdie tree and I love it. I can't wait to show it to you when it is done.

This ornament is James' favorite. He says he likes it because the two birds remind him of him and me perched close together in love. Isn't he just wonderful? What a sweetheart.

This one is my favorite. I think I like it best because of the sweet paper and blue bow and flower embellishment. It's so sweet.

Here are some more ornaments I made. I took these cute baskets and painted them ivory. Then I filled them with "nesting material". Then I made some bird eggs from clay, painted them, and speckled them. Then I glued the eggs into the basket nests and added some ribbon and flowers to make them pretty.

I think they turned out so darling. I can't believe how real the eggs look and I made them with my own two hands. Pretty neat, huh?

These four lovelies are hanging on my spring birdie tree now along with many other ornaments I made that I will be showing you soon.

Ok, so here is another fantastic project that I made a few weeks ago. It is a set of canvases that are hanging in my living room.

This is what the canvas started out looking like. I covered a blank canvas with this lovely scrapbook paper . . .

then I gave it some color and patina. I love the spa greeny-blue color. It is so relaxing.

Then I added my images that I "aged" the edges of . . .

then I added the final touches, some ribbon, letters, and buttons. I think she turned out so cute.

I made her a sister because I needed two for my plate rack in my living room. They make a great pair.

Here they are together hanging on the wall. Aren't they lovely?

And here is my last birdie crafting project I will show you this time. I saved the best for last, I think. I started with a jar that I bought at the dollar store that had peaches in it. I washed it out and dried it, then decorated the lid . . .

with beautiful scrapbook paper, fabric flowers, and a sweet dove.

Then I tied a pretty ribbon and flower around the top. I filled the jar with the sweetest jelly beans that look like real birds eggs. I can't believe how perfectly everything coordinated.

And this my friends was a sweet gift that my lovely mom made during a special crafting day last weekend. It is a banner that says "NEST" and it is perfect for my little nest right now. She worked so hard on it and it is so beautiful. I couldn't believe when she got finished with it, she gave it to me. I was so surprised and thrilled. Please visit her at www.glitterandroses.blogspot.com and check out her beautiful blog.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog. If you visit please leave me a comment. I hope you have a Happy Pink Saturday and a happy FIRST DAY OF SPRING on Sunday.

Blessings to you!

Love Tammy

Happy Pink and Green Saturday!

Hello My Sweet Blog Friends!

I appreciate all of you that have been leaving your sweet comments for me. I have been a bit discouraged lately because I haven't had very many comments and it seems like nobody is really looking anymore. It makes me question why I am even blogging anymore? But I do enjoy it when I have the time and I really love to hear from those of you that are leaving your comments, so thank you so much for your encouragement lately. You all are truly sweet friends and I am so thankful for your friendship.

I want to thank Beverly at http://www.howsweettheshound.typepad.com/ for hosting another great Pink Saturday for us again. I was so pleased to hear that she was enouraging us to show pink and green this weekend. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but I try to decorate and celebrate every single thing I can since I absolutely love my life . . . so I had to bring out my St. Patrick's Day decorations and put them around the house. The picture above is a shelf in my dining room decorated with one of two sweet ceramic shamrocks I purchased plus ivory roses for a feminine touch.

This is a shelf in my small curio cabinet. The whole cabinet is decorated for St. Pat's Day and it is really sweet. As soon as I master the art of taking a picture of it without appearing in the photo (because of the mirrors on the back of the hutch) I will show you the whole thing.

This is my beautiful, amazing Shamrock Plant I purchased last year at a grocery store. It was a tiny thing and it cost me $3.oo. It has really taken off and it blooms all the time. I am just so proud of how healthy, happy, and beautiful it is right now. Maybe I have a green thumb like my mom and grandma after all?

The remainder of the pictures for this post are of things I have around that house that are either pink, green, or a combination of the two . . . and they are my favorite things. I hope you enjoy my favorites too. The picture above is my favorite shelf I have hanging in my home at the moment. It is in my bathroom and the bird house on top plugs in and lights up. Isn't it sweet? I'm going to spruce it up a bit soon because it seems rather plain, but I just love it and the birds sitting next to it on the shelf. So tweet.

This is my favorite basket. I painted it pink and filled it with pink and green washcloths and tied a fabric strip around it. There is some pink lotion (that is my favorite) and a pretty jar of green bath salts here too.

This is my favorite sugar bowl. I bought it at an antique store in Guthrie, OK. It is so feminine and delicate. I usually put wrapped candy in it instead of sugar because it has a lid and Mr. Stoops can't get in it and eat all the candy. He is known to eat an entire bowl of candy every now and then if he can reach it.

This is one of favorite teacups but it's for decorative use only. I just love how pretty it is and it is perfect for pink and green Saturday.

This is my favorite floral arrangement. I put it together last spring and usually I take things apart to reuse the pieces after I have decorated with them and it's time for something new, but this arrangement has stayed just the way I put her together last year. I just can't bare to take her apart. Such pretty pinks and greens.

Ok, now this is by far my favorite teacup . . . and she is useable. It is Limoges and made in France. I have two of them so when I want to have a special tea for two I bring them out. I don't think I have ever seen a prettier teacup in my life. What about you?

This is my favorite cake plate. Although it is hanging on my wall in my bedroom and not serving any cakes it is still serving a useful purpose . . . making me happy every morning when I wake up and see her hanging there, reminding me that life is sweet and beautiful!

Ok ladies, if you love your house to smell sweet and fruity or maybe fresh and floral all the time but you hate hastling with candles (I can't believe I just said that knowing what a candleoholic I am) I have the perfect solution for you. You have to get a Scentsy warmer. All you do is plug it in, put the wax chips in, turn it on and your whole house will smell divine in no time. When you are done just turn it off. There is no fire - so no soot, no pet or child knocking it over to start a fire in your home. There is no mess, just pure happiness and sweet smells all the time. When you want to change your fragrance just pour the melted wax back in to the original container to use another time. So it's economical too. Oh, how I love my Scenty and I have one in each room of the house. I still decorate with candles but I use my Scentsy a lot more than candles. You HAVE to get one. Go online to find a dealer near you.

This is a suitcase I decorated several years ago. It is pretty pinks and greens now but it used to be an ugly blue. I am so proud of how pretty it turned out.

I used a lot of wedding embellishments to give it some extra feminine details. I just love it and I use it to store all of my Victorian images for each season that I use to decorate with.

This is a (not very good) picture of my favorite sheets. They are green and they are detailed with Italian lace. I went sheet shopping not too long ago and just had to have these. There is nothing like having a nice set of sheets that feel good to sleep on at night. And as an added bonus that are absolutely beautiful too.

Here is a better picture of the lace detail. Isn't that just gorgeous! Sheets are great for crafting, sewing, and decorating too. It seems hard to find good fabric to use in my area so I just use sheets for most everything now. But you will never see a pair of scissors anywhere near these beautiful sheets any time soon.

I hope you enjoyed my pinks and greens. Please let me know you stopped by. It's always nice to get a word of encouragement and I need that right now . . . I know we all do.

Blessings to You and Happy Pink Saturday

Love Tammy